{"id":319,"date":"2025-06-09T20:13:41","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T19:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/?p=319"},"modified":"2025-06-09T20:16:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T19:16:43","slug":"war-of-friends-1922-23-the-civil-war-story-of-padraic-o-maille-and-liam-mellows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/2025\/06\/09\/war-of-friends-1922-23-the-civil-war-story-of-padraic-o-maille-and-liam-mellows\/","title":{"rendered":"War of Friends, 1922\u201323. The Civil War story of\u00a0 P\u00e1draic \u00d3 M\u00e1ille and Liam Mellows"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Left: P\u00e1draic \u00d3 M\u00e1ille (1876\u20131946). Courtesy Emer Joyce, granddaughter of<\/em> P\u00e1draic O M\u00e1ille. Right: Liam Mellows (1892-1922). Courtesy Kilmainham<\/em> Gaol Museum OPW<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In December 1922, Liam Mellows and three other Republican leaders were executed in reprisal for an IRA attack on two politicians, P\u00e1draic \u00d3 M\u00e1ille from Connemara and Se\u00e1n Hales from Cork, in which the latter was killed. Former military comrades and political allies, in 1916, Mellows had instructed \u00d3 M\u00e1ille to go to Connemara to rally the Irish Volunteers for the Easter Rising, and both men had represented the county in the first and second D\u00e1il \u00c9ireann, 1919\u201322. A new exhibition at Galway City Museum explores the Irish Civil War, the lives of \u00d3 M\u00e1ille and Mellows, and the fateful events of December 1922.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Mellows family circa 1900. Liam Mellows is in the centre. Courtesy National Museum of Ireland<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Part 1: The Irish Civil War (From Truce to Civil War)<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

In December 1921, Irish and British delegates signed a compromise agreement, the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which granted dominion status to 26 Irish counties \u2013 the Irish Free State. Following its narrow ratification by D\u00e1il \u00c9ireann in January 1922, a provisional government, headed by Michael Collins, began the task of creating the new state. While there was broad public support for the Treaty, it caused division within the political and military wings of the republican movement. Some Republicans viewed the Treaty as a betrayal of the Irish Republic and of those who had fought and died for it, while others reluctantly accepted that it was the best available offer in the circumstances. In March 1922, the Irish Republican Army split into pro and antitreaty factions. The larger anti-treaty faction rejected the authority of D\u00e1il \u00c9ireann, elected an Army Executive, and seized the Four Courts in Dublin.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Liam<\/em> Mellows at Bodenstown, County Kildare 20 June 1922. Countess Markievicz (left) and Oscar Traynor (right). Courtesy National Museum of Ireland<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Civil War Begins: <\/strong>In the general election of 16 June 1922, almost 80 per cent of the Irish electorate voted for pro-treaty candidates, allowing the Provisional Government to claim popular support for the Treaty. Twelve days later, civil war erupted when, under pressure from Britain, the Free State Army began shelling the Republican position in the Four Courts. After three days, the Four Courts surrendered, but fighting continued in and around O\u2019Connell Street until 5 July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Dublin now effectively under its control, the Free State Army went on the offensive between July and September, with much of the fighting taking place in the \u2018Munster Republic\u2019 and in the West. Financed and equipped by the British, the Free State Army quickly took control of urban areas. Republican forces then retreated to the countryside, reverting to the guerrilla tactics successfully used against Crown forces during the war of independence (1919\u201321), and destroyed roads, bridges and railway lines to impede the advance of the Free State Army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Executions and Reprisals: <\/strong>Following the sudden death of Arthur Griffith on 12 August and the killing of Michael Collins on 22 August, the Government and Army, under W.T. Cosgrave and Richard Mulcahy, adopted a more hardline approach to the conflict. In October 1922, the Public Safety Bill established military courts that could impose death sentences for possessing arms or attacking government forces. Between November 1922 and May 1923, the government carried out 81 official executions. Following the execution of prominent Republican, Erskine Childers, on 24 November, Liam Lynch, Commander-in-Chief of the Republican forces, listed fourteen categories of people who were to be shot on sight, including all D\u00e1il deputies who had voted for the Bill, certain senators, judges and hostile journalists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part 2: P\u00e1draic \u00d3 M\u00e1ille and Liam Mellows<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

P\u00e1draic \u00d3 M\u00e1ille (1876\u20131946): <\/strong>On Easter Monday 1916, \u00d3 M\u00e1ille attended a meeting of Irish Volunteers at Athenry, Co. Galway and Commandant Mellows instructed \u00d3 M\u00e1ille to go to Connemara to mobilise local Volunteers for the Rising. The following day, while on his way to carry out his order, \u00d3 M\u00e1ille was arrested in Galway city and ultimately interned at Frongoch Camp in Wales. Released under the general amnesty at Christmas 1916, \u00d3 M\u00e1ille campaigned for Sinn F\u00e9in in the South Longford and East Clare by-elections, and afterwards took an active part in the reorganisation of the Volunteer movement in Connemara.    <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The police attempted to arrest \u00d3 M\u00e1ille at his home for alleged involvement in the fabricated \u2018German Plot\u2019 in May 1918. He opened fire, escaped and went on the run. The following December, he was elected MP for Galway-Connemara and was one of only 27 Sinn F\u00e9in MPs present at the formation of the first D\u00e1il \u00c9ireann in January 1919. In early 1921, \u00d3 M\u00e1ille was involved in the formation of the West Connemara flying column, and took part in ambushes at Clifden and Screebe. He supported the Treaty, stating that he was representing the popular view of his constituents. He was re-elected for Galway in the June 1922 election.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liam Mellows (1892\u20131922): <\/strong>Following the Easter Rising, Mellows escaped to New York. While there, he was elected Sinn F\u00e9in MP for Galway East in 1918 and became a key organiser during de Valera\u2019s American tour of 1919 to 1920. <\/p>\n\n\n

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The O’Malleys of Munterowen, Connemara, c. 1890. P\u00e1draic is in the back row, far left. Courtesy An G\u00fam<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Mellows returned to Ireland in October 1920, and was appointed IRA Director of Arms Purchases. Returned unopposed for Galway in 1921, he strongly opposed the Treaty. He argued that the Irish Republic was \u2018a living tangible thing\u2019 and that the Treaty was invalid because it was signed under threat of \u2018immediate, terrible war.\u2019 He was elected to the anti-treaty IRA\u2019s Army Executive in April 1922, and lost his Galway seat in the following June election. One of the leaders of the Republican garrison in the Four Courts, Mellows was against surrender, declaring: \u2018The Republic is being attacked here \u2026 we must stand or fall by it. If we surrender now, we have deserted it.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part 3: Ambush, Reprisal & Reaction<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

7 December 1922 Ambush: <\/strong>On 6 December 1922, the first anniversary of the signing of the Treaty, the Irish Free State formally came into existence, and \u00d3 M\u00e1ille was elected Deputy Chairperson of D\u00e1il \u00c9ireann. The following afternoon, he lunched at the Ormond Hotel in Dublin with fellow pro-treaty deputy Se\u00e1n Hales, a Brigadier-General in the Free State Army. As the pair boarded a hackney cab to go to D\u00e1il \u00c9ireann, members of the Dublin No. 1 Brigade anti-treaty IRA opened fire, killing Hales and wounding \u00d3 M\u00e1ille.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Members of D\u00e1il \u00c9ireann, January 1919. \u00d3 M\u00e1ille is in the front row, on the right. Courtesy National Museum of Ireland
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It seems that \u00d3 M\u00e1ille, and not Hales, was the principal target of the attack, with the Dublin No. 1 Brigade reporting: \u2018It was intended only to wound Hales, but he was mistaken for O\u2018Maille.\u2019 Hales was not present when the Provisional Government voted on the Public Safety Bill, known by Republicans as the \u2018Murder Bill\u2019 or \u2018Executions Act\u2019, and so was not a target for assassination by the anti-treaty IRA. \u00d3 M\u00e1ille, however, had voted in favour of the Bill and, therefore, was a target. D\u00e1il \u00c9ireann was in session when news of the attack reached Leinster House. President Cosgrave broke the news of the \u2018appalling tragedy,\u2019 but there was no hint of any immediate government response. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reprisal, 8 December 1922: <\/strong>On the evening of the ambush, the Free State cabinet met and Richard Mulcahy, both Minister for Defence and Commander in Chief of the Army, proposed the execution of four prominent Republican prisoners \u2013 Dick Barrett, Joe McKelvey, Liam Mellows and Rory O\u2019Connor \u2013 as a reprisal and a deterrent. The four men had been in prison since the fall of the Four Courts, before the passing of the Public Safety Bill. One-by-one, the cabinet consented to the executions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Woken at 3.30 am, Mellows initially thought he was being transferred. He was then presented with a typed notice stating that he was to be shot at 8 am as \u2018a reprisal\u2019 and \u2018as a solemn warning\u2019 to those \u2018engagedin aconspiracyof assassination against the representatives of the Irish People.\u2019 At 5 am, Mellows penned a last letter to his mother, distributed his personal possessions, and sent a farewell note to his imprisoned comrades. After Mass, the four men were blindfolded and lined up against a wall before a twenty-man firing squad. Mellows held a little crucifix firmly in his hand, which he had with him during the Easter Rising in Galway. His last words were \u2018Sl\u00e1n Libh Lads.\u2019  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reaction: <\/strong>The executions prompted widespread shock, anger and dismay. Republican prisoner Peadar O\u2019Donnell, who had shared a joke with Mellows the previous night, recalled: \u2018The wing that day was a grave; we were a wordless, soulless movement of lives suddenly empty.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At home, The Irish Times<\/em> opined that the executions, \u2018eclipses in sudden and tragic severity the sternest measures of the British Crown\u2019. Abroad, The Times<\/em> of London declared that \u2018The British Government never adopted such drastic measures, even in the darkest days of the fighting before the Truce,\u2019 while The Nation<\/em> of New York called the executions \u2018murder foul and despicable and nothing else\u2019. One dismayed bishop wrote to President Cosgrave: \u2018That one man should be punished for another\u2019s crime seems to me to be absolutely unjust.\u2019 The Galway diocesan secretary, Fr. James O\u2019Dea, who opposed the Treaty, wrote: \u2018a Government that murders its prisoners deserves no support \u2026 the last executions [8 December 1922] are an outrage on civilisation.\u2019 Labour deputy, Cathal O\u2019Shannon accused the cabinet of acting without authority: \u2018You murdered these men \u2026 you have smashed the Irish Free State.\u2019 Cosgrave defended the action, declaring bluntly \u2018terror meets terror.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Legacy of the Civil War: <\/strong>Known in Irish as Cogadhnag Carad<\/em> (war of friends), the civil war contradicted the old proverb n\u00ed buan cogadh na gcarad<\/em>, \u2018a war between friends doesn\u2019t last\u2019. The resulting division and bitterness led to the foundation of two parties, pro-treaty Cumann an Gaedheal (later Fine Gael) and anti-treaty Fianna F\u00e1il, that would dominate Irish politics for a century.\u00a0Although there were atrocities committed on both sides, by international standards of the time, the number of casualties (around 1,500, including 81 state executions) was relatively low. However, many leaders of the Irish revolution were lost to the civil war, and afterwards many disillusioned Republicans emigrated. Historian Michael Hopkinson wrote: \u2018In such a small country there was a horrible intimacy about the war.\u2019 This was certainly true in the case of \u00d3 M\u00e1ille and Mellows. The Galway writer Miche\u00e1l Breathnach (\u2018T\u00f3char<\/em> Mhairtin<\/em>\u2019) summed up many people\u2019s view of the conflict when he wrote: \u2018I would rather draw down a big black curtain on that period and put it out of my memory altogether if I could.\u2019\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Galway City Museum: <\/strong>War of Friends, 1922\u201323: The civil war story of P\u00e1draic \u00d3 M\u00e1ille and Liam Mellows <\/em>will run from October 2022 to May 2023, the centenary of the end of the Irish Civil War. It features rare photographs and several items connected to both men, including a revolver gifted by Michael Collins to \u00d3 M\u00e1ille on his wedding day and the last letter of Liam Mellows, written to his mother shortly before his execution. Funded by the Department of Tourism,<\/em> Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, the exhibition is produced as part of Galway City Council\u2019s Decade of Centenaries Programme 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Galway City Museum is open from Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm, and is free of charge. Call (091) 532460 or visit www.galwaycitymuseum.ie for further details.
T\u00e1 f\u00e1ilte roimh c\u00e1ch!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Some of Mellows\u2019 old comrades from the Castlegar Company pictured attending the unveiling of the statue of Liam Mellows at Eyre Square in 1957<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In December 1922, Liam Mellows and three other Republican leaders were executed in reprisal for an IRA attack on two politicians, P\u00e1draic \u00d3 M\u00e1ille from Connemara and Se\u00e1n Hales from Cork, in which the latter was killed. Former military comrades and political allies, in 1916, Mellows had instructed \u00d3 M\u00e1ille to go to Connemara to … Continue reading “War of Friends, 1922\u201323. The Civil War story of\u00a0 P\u00e1draic \u00d3 M\u00e1ille and Liam Mellows”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,12],"tags":[89,90,91],"class_list":["post-319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galway-history","category-old-galway","tag-civil-war","tag-liam-mellows","tag-padraic-o-maille"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329,"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions\/329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galwaysown.ie\/Galway%20Stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}