Cairo Gang
Encyclopedia
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
(IRA). Twelve people, including British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
officers, Royal Irish Constabulary
Royal Irish Constabulary
The armed Royal Irish Constabulary was Ireland's major police force for most of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. A separate civic police force, the unarmed Dublin Metropolitan Police controlled the capital, and the cities of Derry and Belfast, originally with their own police...
officers and a civilian informant, were assassinated on the morning of 21 November 1920 by the IRA in a planned series of simultaneous early-morning strikes engineered by Michael Collins
Michael Collins (Irish leader)
Michael "Mick" Collins was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance and Teachta Dála for Cork South in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Subsequently, he was both Chairman of the...
. The events were to form the first killings of Bloody Sunday
Bloody Sunday (1920)
Bloody Sunday was a day of violence in Dublin on 21 November 1920, during the Irish War of Independence. In total, 31 people were killed – fourteen British, fourteen Irish civilians and three republican prisoners....
.
Some Irish historians (such as Tim Pat Coogan
Tim Pat Coogan
Timothy Patrick Coogan is an Irish historical writer, broadcaster and newspaper columnist. He served as editor of the Irish Press newspaper from 1968 to 1987...
and Conor Cruise O'Brien
Conor Cruise O'Brien
Conor Cruise O'Brien often nicknamed "The Cruiser", was an Irish politician, writer, historian and academic. Although his opinion on the role of Britain in Northern Ireland changed over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, he always acknowledge values of, as he saw, the two irreconcilable traditions...
) dispute assertions of a common history of service in the Middle East as the reason for the unit's nom de guerre. It has been suggested that they received the name because they often held meetings at the Cairo Cafe at 59 Grafton Street in Dublin. Earlier books on the 1919-1923 period do not mention the Cairo gang as such and one mystery is where the name first occurs.
Background
By 1920, the success of the IRA, in particular its Intelligence Department under Michael Collins, was a cause of concern in Dublin CastleDublin Castle administration in Ireland
The Dublin Castle administration in Ireland was the government of Ireland under English and later British rule, from the twelfth century until 1922, based at Dublin Castle.-Head:...
, the then headquarters of the British administration in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. The IRA's success led to the British Government's demand that the IRA be eliminated.
In January 1920, the British Army Intelligence Centre in Ireland stood up a special plainclothes unit of 18-20 demobilized ex-army officers and some active-duty officers to conduct clandestine operations against the IRA. The officers received training at a school of instruction in London, most likely under the supervision of Special Branch, which had been part of the Directorate of Home Intelligence since February 1919. They may also have received some training from MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
officers and ex-officers working for Special Branch. Army Centre, Dublin, hoped these officers could eventually be divided up and deployed to the provinces to support its 5th and 6th Division intelligence staffs, but it decided to keep it in Dublin under the command of the Dublin District Division, General Gerald Boyd, commanding. It was known officially as the Dublin District Special Branch (DDSB) and also as "D Branch". In May 1920, Lieutenant Colonel Walter Wilson arrived in Dublin to take command of D Branch. Following the events of Bloody Sunday, November 21, 1920, when several D Branch officers were assassinated by IRA hit teams, D Branch was transferred to the command of Brigadier-General Sir Ormonde Winter
Ormonde Winter
Brigadier-General Sir Ormonde de l'Épée Winter KBE CB CMG DSO was a British Army officer and author who after service in World War I was responsible for intelligence operations in Ireland during the Anglo-Irish War...
in January 1921. Winter had been placed in charge of a new police intelligence unit, the Combined Intelligence Service, in May 1920, and his charter was to set up a central intelligence clearing house to more effectively collate and coordinate army and police intelligence. The several members of D Branch who survived Bloody Sunday were very unhappy to be transferred from army command to CIS command, and, for the next six months, until the Truce of July 1921, D Branch continued to maintain regular contact with Army Intelligence Centre while undertaking missions for Winter's CIS.
The Cairo Gang was so named by the IRA because its members congregated at several well-known Dublin pubs and restaurants, including the Cafe Cairo. The photograph lodged in the National Library photographic archive, Piaras Béaslaí
Piaras Béaslaí
Piaras Béaslaí was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a member of Dáil Éireann and also an Irish author, playwright, biographer and translator....
collection (five copies) describes the men as "the special gang F company Auxiliaries". There are no names or details on the back of the photos. Three other photos are in the collection showing Auxiliaries posing on vehicles taken in Dublin Castle. These three photos are similarly numbered. Its members lived in boarding houses and hotels across Dublin, where they lived unobtrusively while preparing a hit list of known republicans
Irish Republicanism
Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
. However, the IRA Intelligence Department (IRAID) was one step ahead of them and was receiving information from numerous well-placed sources, including Lily Merin, who was the confidential code clerk for British Army Intelligence Centre in Parkgate Street, and Sergeant Jerry Mannix, stationed in Donnybrook
Donnybrook, Dublin
Donnybrook is a district of Dublin, Ireland. It is situated on the southside of the city, in the Dublin 4 postal district, and is home to the Irish state broadcaster RTÉ. It was once part of the Pembroke Township...
. Mannix provided the IRAID with a list of names and addresses for all the members of the Cairo Gang, but Michael Collins's case officers on the intelligence staff—Liam Tobin
Liam Tobin
Major General Liam Tobin was an Irish statesman and officer in the Irish Army. During the Irish War of Independence, he served as an IRA intelligence officer for Michael Collins' Squad.-Early life:...
, Tom Cullen and Frank Thornton—were meeting with several D Branch officers nightly, pretending to be informers. Another IRA penetration source participating in the nightly repartee with the D Branch men at Cafe Cairo, Rabiatti's Saloon and Kidds Back Pub was Detective Constable David Neligan
David Neligan
David Neligan , known by his soubriquet "The Spy in the Castle", was an important figure involved in the Irish War of Independence 1919-1921, and subsequently became Director of Intelligence for the Irish Army after the Irish Civil War -Early life:David Neligan was born at Templeglantine, Limerick,...
, one of Michael Collins's penetrations of G-Division (secret police) of the Dublin Metropolitan Police. Additionally, the IRA had co-opted most of the Irish servants who worked in the rooming houses where the D Branch officers lived, and all of their comings and goings were meticulously recorded by servants and reported to Collins's staff.
From then on, all the members of the gang were kept under surveillance for several weeks, and intelligence was gathered from sympathisers (for example, concerning people who were coming home at strange hours, which would indicate that they were being allowed through the military
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
curfew
Curfew
A curfew is an order specifying a time after which certain regulations apply. Examples:# An order by a government for certain persons to return home daily before a certain time...
s). The IRA Dublin Brigade and the IRAID then pooled their resources and intelligence to draw up their own hit list of suspected gang members and set the date for the assassinations to be carried out: 21 November 1920 at 9:00 am.
Assassinations
The operation was planned by several senior IRA members, including Michael CollinsMichael Collins (Irish leader)
Michael "Mick" Collins was an Irish revolutionary leader, Minister for Finance and Teachta Dála for Cork South in the First Dáil of 1919, Director of Intelligence for the IRA, and member of the Irish delegation during the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. Subsequently, he was both Chairman of the...
, Dick McKee
Dick McKee
Richard “Dick” McKee was a prominent member of the Irish Republican Army . He was also friend to some senior members in the republican movement, including Éamon de Valera, Austin Stack and Michael Collins...
, Liam Tobin
Liam Tobin
Major General Liam Tobin was an Irish statesman and officer in the Irish Army. During the Irish War of Independence, he served as an IRA intelligence officer for Michael Collins' Squad.-Early life:...
, Peadar Clancy
Peadar Clancy
Peadar Clancy was a member of the Irish Republican Army who served in the Four Courts garrison during the 1916 Easter Rising and was second-in-command of the Dublin Brigade, IRA during the War of Independence...
, Tom Cullen, Frank Thornton and Oscar Traynor
Oscar Traynor
Oscar Traynor was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and revolutionary. He served in a number of Cabinet positions, most notably as the country's longest-serving Minister for Defence....
. The killings were planned to coincide with the Gaelic football
Gaelic football
Gaelic football , commonly referred to as "football" or "Gaelic", or "Gah" is a form of football played mainly in Ireland...
match between Dublin
Dublin GAA
Dublin County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association , or Dublin GAA, is one of the 32 county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in County Dublin. The county board is also responsible for the Dublin inter-county teams...
and Tipperary
Tipperary GAA
The Tipperary County Board of the Gaelic Athletic Association or C is one of over 30 regional executive boards throughout the world. These executive boards are known as County Boards even though some no longer correspond to the area under the jurisdiction of the counties from which their names...
, because the large crowds around Dublin would provide easier movement and less chance of detection for the members of Collins' Squad carrying out the assassinations. Clancy and McKee were picked up by Crown Forces on the evening of Saturday, 20 November. They were tortured and later shot dead allegedly while trying to escape, along with a Gaelic language student, Conor Clune, the nephew of Archbishop Clune. They did not reveal any pertinent information, and Crown Forces learned nothing of the assassination plot.
28 Pembroke Street
The operation began at 9:00 am, when members of the Squad entered 28 Pembroke Street. The first British agents to die were Major Dowling and Captain Leonard Price. Andy CooneyAndy Cooney
Andrew Cooney was an Irish Republican.From Nenagh, County Tipperary, Cooney began studying medicine at University College Dublin just as the Irish War of Independence was getting underway, and he played for a brief spell with the College's hurling club...
of the Dublin Brigade removed documents from their rooms, before three more members of the Gang were shot in the same house: Captain Keenlyside, Colonel Woodcock, and Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh Montgomery. Woodcock was not connected with intelligence and had blundered into a confrontation on the first floor of the Pembroke Street house as he was preparing to leave to command a regimental parade at army headquarters. He was dressed in his military uniform, and, when he shouted to warn the other five British officers living in the house, he was shot in the shoulder and back. Woodcock survived. As Keenlyside was about to be shot, a struggle ensued between his wife and Mick O'Hanlon. The leader of the unit, Mick Flanagan, arrived, pushed Mrs. Keenlyside out of the way and shot her husband.
117 Morehampton Road
At 117 Morehampton Road, Donnybrook, not far from the scene of the first shootings, another member of the Cairo Gang, Lieutenant Donald Lewis MacLean, along with suspected informer T. H. Smith and MacLean's brother-in-law, John Caldow, were taken into the hallway and about to be shot, when MacLean asked that they not be shot in front of his wife. The three were taken to the roof, where they were shot by Vinnie Byrne and Seán Doyle. Caldow survived his wounds and fled to his home in ScotlandScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
92 Lower Baggot Street
Next, at 92 Lower Baggot Street, another member, Captain William Frederick Newberry, and his wife heard their front door come crashing down and blockaded themselves into their bedroom. Newberry rushed for his window to try to escape but was shot while climbing out by Bill Stapleton and Joe Leonard after they finally broke the door down. Newberry's corpse hung out of a window for several hours as the Royal Irish ConstabularyRoyal Irish Constabulary
The armed Royal Irish Constabulary was Ireland's major police force for most of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. A separate civic police force, the unarmed Dublin Metropolitan Police controlled the capital, and the cities of Derry and Belfast, originally with their own police...
(RIC) waited to approach, fearing the body might have been booby-trapped.
38 Upper Mount Street
Two key members of the Gang, Lt. Peter Ashmun Ames and Captain George Bennett, were shot and killed, following a short gun battle, after a sympathetic maid let their attackers into 38 Upper Mount Street.28 Earlsfort Terrace
Sgt. John J. Fitzgerald, of the RIC, also known as "Captain Fitzgerald" or "Captain Fitzpatrick", whose father was from County TipperaryCounty Tipperary
County Tipperary is a county of Ireland. It is located in the province of Munster and is named after the town of Tipperary. The area of the county does not have a single local authority; local government is split between two authorities. In North Tipperary, part of the Mid-West Region, local...
, was shot and killed at 28 Earlsfort Terrace. He had survived a previous assassination attempt when the bullet only grazed his head. This time he was shot twice in the head. The documents found in his house detailed the movements of senior IRA members.
22 Lower Mount Street
Meanwhile, an IRA unit led by Tom Keogh entered 22 Lower Mount Street to kill Lieutenant Angliss aka McMahon, and Lieutenant Peel. The two intelligence specialists in the Gang, McMahon and Peel had been recalled from Russia to organise British Intelligence in the South Dublin area. McMahon survived a previous assassination attempt when shot at a billiard hall. He was targeted for killing Sinn FéinSinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
fundraiser John Lynch, mistaken for Liam Lynch
Liam Lynch (general)
Liam Lynch was an officer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the commanding general of the anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army during the Irish Civil War.-Early life:...
, Divisional Commandant of the 1st Southern Division. McMahon was shot as he reached for his gun.
Peel, hearing the shots, managed to block his bedroom door and survived even though more than a dozen bullets were fired into his room. When members of Fianna Éireann
Fianna Éireann
The name Fianna Éireann , also written Fianna na hÉireann and Na Fianna Éireann , has been used by various Irish republican youth movements throughout the 20th and 21st centuries...
on lookout reported that the Auxiliary Division
Auxiliary Division
The Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary , generally known as the Auxiliaries or Auxies, was a paramilitary organization within the Royal Irish Constabulary during the Irish War of Independence....
were approaching the house, the unit of eleven men split up into two groups, the first leaving by the front door, the second leaving through the laneway at the back of the house.
119 Baggot Street
At 119 Baggot Street, Captain Geoffrey Thomas Baggallay, a barrister by profession, who had been employed as a prosecutor under the Restoration of Order in Ireland Regulations, and who had been a member of military courts that sentenced IRA volunteers to death, was killed by a three-man IRA unit.Gresham Hotel
Major McCormack and Captain Wilde were in the Gresham Hotel. The IRA unit gained access to their rooms by pretending to be British soldiers with important dispatches. When the men opened their doors they were shot and killed. A Times listing for McCormack and Wilde does not list any rank for the latter, however. McCormack's killing was another IRA mistake. He was a member of the Royal Army Veterinary CorpsRoyal Army Veterinary Corps
The Royal Army Veterinary Corps is an administrative and operational branch of the British Army responsible for the provision, training and care of animals. It is a small but technically competent corps forming part of the Army Medical Services...
and was in Ireland to buy horses for the Army. He was shot in bed and Collins himself later acknowledged the error.
Fitzwilliam Square
Captain Crawford narrowly escaped death after the IRA entered a guesthouse in Fitzwilliam Square where he was staying, looking for a Major Callaghan. On not finding their target, they debated whether or not to shoot Crawford. They decided not to shoot him as he was not on the hit list; instead they gave him 24 hours to leave Ireland, which he promptly did.Eastwood Hotel
In the Eastwood Hotel the IRA failed to find their target, a Colonel Jennings. Other targets who escaped were a Major Hardy, as well as a "Major King, a colleague of Hardy [who] was missing when he [assassin Joe Dolan] burst into his [King's] room that he [Dolan] took revenge by giving his [King's] half-naked mistress 'a right scourging with a sword scabbard', and setting fire to the room afterwards."Major Carew, an intelligence officer who with Captain Price had cornered IRA gunman Sean Treacy the month before was on the hit list but when the IRA came calling for him, he had moved to an apartment across the street. He heard the gunfire at his former lodging and began firing his own revolver at an IRA sentry outside. The sentry was hit and took cover inside the house. Carew's action prompted the IRA gang to clear out.
Several IRA men carried sledgehammers with them the morning of November 21 as they expected to encounter some bolted doors. They did not find any but as Dr. T. Ryle Dwyer has noted, they still used the sledge hammers to good effect, smashing the skulls and faces of some of the officers they had shot down.
Two members of the Auxiliary Cadet Division, Temporary Cadets Frank Garniss and Cecil A. Morris were among a patrol of Auxiliaries who responded to the scene of one of the attacks, armed with .45 caliber Webley revolvers and a carbine. Garniss and Morris were shot and killed in their effort to cordon off the rear of one of the murder scenes
A Times listing of killed and wounded reports that in addition to Caldow, Captain Keenlyside, Colonel Montgomery
Hugh Montgomery (British officer)
Lieutenant Colonel Hugh Ferguson Montgomery CMG, DSO was a British first-class cricketer and Royal Marine Light Infantry officer. Montgomery was born in India and was a cousin of Field Marshal Montgomery...
, Major Woodcock, and a Lt. Murray were wounded, but not killed. Montgomery died 10 December 1920 of the wounds he received on Bloody Sunday.
Fatalities
Nineteen men were shot. Fourteen were killed on 21 November, Montgomery died later making fifteen in all. Four were wounded. Ames, Angliss, Baggallay, Bennet, Dowling, Fitzgerald, McCormack, MacLean, Montgomery, Newberry, Price, Wilde, Smith, Morris, Garniss were killed. Keenlyside, Woodcock, Murray and Caldow were wounded. Peel amongst others escaped.The dead included members of the "Cairo Gang", British Army Courts-Martial officers, the two Auxiliaries and a civilian informant.
Aftermath
Of the IRA men involved, only Frank TeelingFrank Teeling
Francis 'Frank' Teeling was a member of the Irish Republican Army and one of Michael Collins' Squad who took part in the assassinations of members of the Cairo Gang on Bloody Sunday.-Background:...
was captured during the operation. He was court-martialled and sentenced to hang, but escaped from Kilmainham Gaol
Kilmainham Gaol
Kilmainham Gaol is a former prison, located in Kilmainham in Dublin, which is now a museum. It has been run since the mid-1980s by the Office of Public Works , an Irish Government agency...
before the sentence could be carried out. Patrick Moran and Thomas Whelan
Thomas Whelan
Thomas Whelan was one of six men executed in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin on 14 March 1921. He was 22 years old at the time of his death.- Background :...
were arrested later and, despite their protestations of innocence, were both hanged for murder in connection with the killings in March 1921
The remaining Cairo Gang members, along with many other spies, fled to either Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle off Dame Street, Dublin, Ireland, was until 1922 the fortified seat of British rule in Ireland, and is now a major Irish government complex. Most of it dates from the 18th century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland...
or England, fearing they were next on the IRA's "hit list". This dealt a severe blow to British intelligence-gathering in Ireland.
Later that same day, a mixed group of RIC, Dublin Metropolitan Police, and Temporary Cadets from Depot Company, commanded by officers from the Auxiliaries, took revenge on the local population, opening fire on the crowd during the football match between Dublin and Tipperary at Croke Park. (see also Bloody Sunday (1920)
Bloody Sunday (1920)
Bloody Sunday was a day of violence in Dublin on 21 November 1920, during the Irish War of Independence. In total, 31 people were killed – fourteen British, fourteen Irish civilians and three republican prisoners....
)
Igoe Gang
Eventually another group of intelligence operatives led by Head ConstableHead Constable
Head constable was a rank used in some British and British colonial police forces, and is still used in the Indian police.-England:In the Liverpool City Police and a few very small borough police forces in the United Kingdom, the head constable was the chief officer, equivalent to the chief...
Eugene Igoe from County Mayo
County Mayo
County Mayo is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the village of Mayo, which is now generally known as Mayo Abbey. Mayo County Council is the local authority for the county. The population of the county is 130,552...
would take the fight to the IRA. Officially known as the Identification Branch of the Combined Intelligence Service (CIS), Igoe reported to Colonel Ormonde Winter.
The Igoe Gang consisted of RIC personnel drawn from different parts of Ireland, and they patrolled the streets of Dublin in plain clothes, looking for wanted men. The Igoe Gang posed a serious threat to Collins's apparatus and in fact caught a Volunteer whom Collins had brought to Dublin to identify Igoe. They were never penetrated by the IRA. Igoe later conducted secret service operations for Special Branch over many years in other countries but never returned to his farm in Mayo out of fear of reprisal. Winter appeared on Igoe's behalf to obtain an increase in his pension in view of his many services to the Crown in Ireland and elsewhere.