Ernest Blythe (1889–1975) was a central figure in the Irish revolution and the first decade of the Irish Free State. He was a leading republican organiser before 1916, a Dáil minister from 1919, and a controversial member of Cosgrave’s executive council, becoming vice-president after the murder of Kevin O’Higgins in 1927. He was widely regarded with interest and sometimes suspicion because of his Protestant and unionist background, a rarity in modern Irish republicanism, writes EAMONN DUGGAN.

 

We left Ernest Blythe’s witness statement to the Bureau of Military History at the point where he was about to take up his post as organiser for the Volunteers in the south of the country.

Early in 1915 he set off for Cork with instructions from his superiors in Dublin to make contact with Terence MacSwiney and Tomás MacCurtain. Blythe firstly made contact with MacCurtain finding him in Blackpool on the very day he opened a new business venture.

Though very busy, MacCurtain did spare Blythe a few minutes and advised him to go to the Volunteers Hall that evening to attend a general meeting of the members. He duly did so and met with, not only MacCurtain, but also MacSwiney.

They had a long discussion and Blythe set out his recruitment plans and took on board the views of the two most important men in the organisation’s southern leadership structure. Blythe was officially introduced to the body of the meeting as the representative of Headquarters and in his speech assured those listening that he intended to support the strategies and actions of MacCurtain and MacSwiney.
Blythe recalled how he spent a number of days in Cork city but soon realised there was a worrying lack of enthusiasm among the Volunteers who were no more than about 120 in number. He addressed a Volunteers meeting in Blarney but it was clear to him that his audience was a very dispirited one. He then went on to visit the company in Mallow which numbered around 50 men in total.

Blythe found the Mallow men did little in the way of drilling and had no rifles. He quickly realised their meeting hall was placed conveniently to a public house and the Volunteers seemed much more interested in slipping from the hall to the back door of the pub to get an after-hours drink.
However, Blythe was much more impressed with the men of the Mitchlestown company who did have rifles and constantly engaged in drilling. In fact, Blythe formed the view the Mitchlestown company was head and shoulders above every other company in Cork, outside of the city.

Blythe found the Volunteers organisation in Kinsale was at best, haphazard, and it was almost impossible to make contact with the leadership in the area. He found much more enthusiasm in Ballinadee, just outside Bandon, where Tom Hales was endeavouring to form a company. Blythe watched him supervise drilling after Mass one Sunday morning and though Hales was clearly unsure of what was required of his men at least he and his charges were enthusiastic.

Blythe also visited other places such as Kanturk, Rathmore, and Fermoy, where he met a number of individuals who were enthusiastic, but lacking in organisational skills, and consequently there were no active units in those areas.

In his statement, Blythe concluded the Volunteers situation across Cork was as bad as it could be and admitted that he was unable to achieve much that was worthwhile during his two weeks there.
Blythe, on leaving Cork, made his way into Kerry where, he maintained, he found everything to be much better in terms of Volunteers organisation.
His first stop was Dingle where he found the Volunteers company to be very active and growing in strength. He also found a very enthusiastic company in Ballyferriter which attracted many men from the surrounding areas. The company in Tralee, he found, had a good number of rifles as well as an excellent drill hall at its disposal.

The drill instructor was a Belfast man who had been dismissed from his government job in the Labour Exchange and was known to Blythe. Though he sensed a degree of hostility in the town towards republicans, Blythe held the opinion that Sinn Féin was making good progress in spreading its message.

On Austin Stack’s recommendation Blythe travelled to Castlegregory and met a local girl called Susie Dillane who sent for Tadhg Brown who undertook to do some canvasing. When Blythe returned to the area a week later a meeting was held and twenty-eight new recruits joined the ranks, all of whom enthusiastically paraded up and down the main street in a defiant show of force.

With the help of Alf Cotton, the Tralee company drill instructor, Blythe set up a training camp between Tralee and Annascaul and a very good company comprising of 30 to 40 men emerged in Annascaul itself.

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