Henry Phelan - Village Magazine

2 0 June 2017

HE GARDA is in trouble, morale is low and there

are numerous investigations into alleged

incompetence and cover-ups. Village has been

to the fore in detailing these delinquencies.

The purpose of this article is something differ-

ent: to highlight through a not untypical case the extent

of the duty and the dangers of service.

Overall, 88 gardaí have been killed in service, 23 by

individuals or groups associated with the IRA/dissident

republican paramilitary and terrorist groups, this being

the most common cause of death apart from accidents.

The most recent death was that of

Garda Tony Golden, who was murdered

in October 2015, while attending a

domestic dispute, by dissident republi-

can Adrian Crevan Mackin, who also

shot and critically injured his partner

before taking his own life.

This article looks at the ﬁrst Garda

murder. In 1922.

The War of Independence was ended

by a truce on 11 July 1921 and the Anglo-

Irish Treaty was ratiﬁed by Dáil Eireann

early in 1922. Agreement was also

reached by the British and the newly

formed Provisional Government to dis-

band the Royal Irish Constabulary, and

in February 1922 a meeting was held at

the Gresham Hotel Dublin to establish a police force to

replace it.

The Civic Guard was formed on 22 February 1922 and

renamed the Garda Síochána on 8 August 1923.

The Civic Guards were initially armed and trained at

the Royal Dublin Society Showgrounds, Ballsbridge,

Dublin and transferred from there to Kildare Military Bar-

racks on 25 April 1922, and later to Collinstown before

returning to the former RIC headquarters in Dublin’s

Phoenix Park. Following a mutiny in Kildare the ﬁrst com-

missioner, Michael Staines, TD tendered his resignation

on 18 August and he was succeeded by General Eoin

O’Duffy in September. Dublin Castle and nearby Ship

Street Barracks was taken over by the Civic Guards on 17

August 1922. Following the accidental death of Charles

Eastwood the Civic Guard became unarmed. Later that

month the Gardai moved to Collinstown, County Dublin,

and then to the Phoenix Park RIC Depot.

The Civic Guard was then sent out among the people.

The bitter civil war was still raging and the deployment

of thousands of government-backed gardaí was certain

to cause unrest, particularly in areas that were still con

trolled by republicans. The assurance that the Garda

were above politics and concerning themselves only with

criminal matters failed to impress the

anti-Treaty IRA and their supporters.

Dozens of barracks were attacked in

the ﬁrst months and it seemed only a

matter of time before a garda would

ﬁnd himself on the wrong end of an IRA

bullet. Henry Phelan would be the

unfortunate victim after a tragic

encounter in Mullinahone.

Henry Phelan was born in 1899 neat

Mountrath in County Laois. He was the

youngest of a family of nine children but

his father had died, forcing his widow

and children to manage the farm alone.

As Henry grew older he became inter-

ested in nationalism, eventually

following the well-worn path of many of

his generation to serve in the IRA during the war of inde-

pendence. After the truce Phelan considered membership

of the Civic Guard. He applied and was quickly accepted

into the force, undergoing a short period of training in

the Curragh. He qualiﬁed and was amongst the ﬁrst

detachment of twenty-six gardaí sent to the old RIC bar-

racks on Parliament Street in Kilkenny City on 27

September 1922. At the end of October, along with

twelve of his colleagues and a sergeant, Phelan was

transferred to the town of Callan.

Just after 3 pm on Tuesday, 14 November 1922, Phelan,

along with two colleagues, garda Irwin and garda Flood,

were granted an afternoon’s leave from their superior

Unarmed and drinking lemonade with

colleagues in Mullinahone off-duty, the

ﬁrst garda murdered was shot in the face,

probably mistaken for his brother, in 1922

Henry Phelan

Phelan served

in the IRA during

the war of

independence

and after the

truce joined the

Garda

POLITICS

by Colm Wallace

Henry Phelan: unfortunate victim

June 2017 2 1

ofﬁcer, a Sergeant Kilroy. The men had decided

to cycle the ﬁve miles to Mullinahone. The trip

was a recreational one and the guards’ intention

was to buy a sliotar and hurleys for a new team

that garda Phelan was attempting to set up in

the Callan district. Like much of the county of

Tipperary, Mullinahone was supposedly under

the command of the government at that time but

realistically the anti-Treaty IRA held great power

in the area. Phelan and his colleagues decided

to go to the village nonetheless.

The gardaí succeeded in their mission of pur

chasing the goods, afterwards deciding to go to

Miss Mullally’s licenced premises and general

grocers on Kickham Street. The men ordered and

were given a couple of glasses of lemonade

which they ﬁnished quickly. Just then, three

armed men rushed into the premises. The ﬁrst

of the intruders produced a revolver, while the

man directly behind him held a riﬂe level with his

hip. The ﬁrst man ﬁred a shot in the direction of

the three men from a distance of about three or

four yards. It hit garda Phelan in the face and he

fell heavily onto the pub’s ﬂoor. The belated

order was then given by the second man “Hands

up”.

The remaining two gardaí were horriﬁed but

complied with the command. The shooter then

asked the shocked policemen if they had any

arms. They replied that they did not. The second

raider, who was still pointing a riﬂe at Irwin and

Flood, seemed just as surprised by the shooting

as the two gardaí and he asked his compatriot

“What are you after doing; why did you ﬁre?”.

The ﬁrst man muttered something inaudible and

placed the revolver back in its holster. The third

man was still standing at the door and said noth-

ing during the altercation. Garda Flood

begged the men to allow him to come

to the aid of the stricken Phelan,

who was still lying on his face

and hands. They replied “You

may”. They then left as garda

Irwin went for help. The local

doctor came swiftly but could

not be of any assistance as

Phelan was already dead. He had

not spoken after the shot and died

almost instantly.

Word spread quickly about the ﬁrst member

of the Civic Guard to be killed in the new State.

Phelan’s body was laid out in Miss Mullally’s but

later that night removed from Mullinahone to

Callan by motor car. The locals were already

aware of the senseless shooting and large

crowds awaited the hearse. The garda’s remains

lay in the barracks through Tuesday night and

early Wednesday and “they were visited by

throngs of people and fervent prayers were

offered up for the repose of his soul”. A large

crowd gathered to mourn at the garda’s funeral

in Callan as all the businesses and houses

closed and drew their blinds. Several gardaí

carried the cofﬁn before the cortege travelled

the forty-two miles onwards to Mountrath where

Henry Phelan man was buried in his home

parish.

The inquest into the death was held at on

Thursday, 16 November. It heard that Phelan had

died instantly after being shot in the jaw. A

deeply affected Miss Mullally appeared in the

stand and outlined the events of the day, agree-

ing to write down the name of the man she

believed had carried out the shooting. A verdict

of murder against persons unknown was

announced. It would be at this point that the gov-

ernment took the gloves off in the civil war

against the IRA. Three days after garda Phelan’s

death, four anti-Treaty IRA soldiers became the

ﬁrst people to be executed by the Irish State

after being found to have guns in their posses-

sion illegally. The executions accelerated from

then on, 81 republicans being executed in the

course of the civil war alone.

As for the actual shooting of Henry

Phelan, it would be almost two years

before anyone was detained. In

August 1924 local houses suf

fered surprise raids. Two local

republicans were finally

arrested by gardaí and Military

Police and charged with the kill-

ing. The ﬁrst was James Daly, a

labourer and ex-British soldier

from Coolagh, four miles from

Callan. The second man was named

Philip Leahy and was a farmer’s son and native

of Poulacapple, just inside the County Tipperary

border. Neither Daly nor Leahy was alleged to

have ﬁred the shot but both were described as

“aiders and abettors” to the crime.

The prisoners, described as having a respect

able appearance, appeared before the District

Court in Kilkenny three days later. Neither man

would participate in the trial, however. Both sat

facing away from the judge and refused to take

their hats off their heads or stand up, merely

stating that they refused to recognise the courts.

This was in spite of the gardaí present forcibly

removing their headgear and admonishing them

for not respecting the process. A superintendent

told the court that the men had told gardaí that

they had nothing to do with the crime when

arrested. It was also mentioned that neither man

was accused of murder and that although the

name of the man thought to have ﬁred the shot

was known, he was not before the court at that

present time as the Garda were unable to locate

him.

Garda Flood entered the witness box and reit

erated his version of events on that fateful day.

He would not conclusively identify the prisoners,

however. Garda Irwin was similarly unable to

deﬁnitively place the defendants at the scene of

the crime. No other real evidence was forthcom

ing and the men were acquitted. The perpetrator

would never be brought to justice, in spite of the

fact that Miss Mullally had been able to identify

him. It is alleged he ﬂed to the US.

It was speculated in later years that Phelan,

the only garda killed during the civil war, was

mistaken for his brother, an RIC ofﬁcer, or for

another man who had served in the police who

had the same name as his brother. Other

accounts claim that local people were unaware

that the gardaí were unarmed, due to the lack of

communication into the town in those troubled

times, and that the raiders had gone in to pro

cure arms before the gun had gone off

accidentally. Either way, the shooter had alleg-

edly been spirited away to America in the

aftermath of the crime, never to face justice for

the act. The shooting of the young garda was

extremely unpopular, locally and nationally,

however. He had been unarmed and posed no

threat to the gunmen.

Less than one month after his death, a general

order by the IRA was circulated instructing vol-

unteers not to fire on unarmed gardaí.

Nevertheless, four other gardaí would be killed

in County Tipperary within the next decade.

Colm Wallace has written a book, ‘The Fallen:

gardaí killed in service 1922-1949’, about 21

gardaí killed in the line of duty in the Irish Free

State; History Press, City Quay, Co. Dublin.

www.facebook.com/colmwallaceauthor

88 gardaí have

been killed

since 1922

Garda car, 1922