Ernie O'Malley
Encyclopedia
Ernie O'Malley was an Irish Republican Army
officer during the Irish War of Independence
and a commander of the anti-treaty IRA
during the Irish Civil War
. O'Malley wrote three books, On Another Man's Wound, The Singing Flame, and Raids and Rallies. The first describes his early life and role in the War of Independence. The second covers the Civil War. The literary quality of these books and O'Malley's career after the political conflicts distinguish him from other IRA men who also penned memoirs of the times.
, County Mayo
, he came from a middle class
Roman Catholic family in County Mayo
. He was the second of eleven children. His father, Luke Malley, was a clerk with the Congested Districts Board
, which organised land reform in the west of Ireland. His family's politics were conservative nationalist, supporting the Irish Parliamentary Party
. His first cousin, Gilbert Laithwaite
, would become the British ambassador to Ireland in the 1950s. The Malleys moved to Dublin when Ernie was still a child and the 1911 census lists them living at 7 Iona Drive, Glasnevin
. His older brother, Frank, joined the British Army at the outbreak of the First World War. O'Malley was studying medicine at University College Dublin
in 1916 when the Easter Rising
convulsed the city, and he was almost persuaded by some unionist friends to join them in defending Trinity College, Dublin
from the rebels
should they attempt to take it. After some thought, he decided his sympathies were with the rebels and he and a friend took some shots at British troops with a borrowed rifle during the fighting.
and also Conradh na Gaeilge
.
He left his studies and worked as a full-time organiser for the IRA from 1918 on, work that brought him to almost every corner of Ireland. On one occasion he attended a semi-public meeting of the Ulster Volunteer Force in County Tyrone
for intelligence purposes, and lamented that such able men were opposed to his ideals.
Although officially attached to IRA GHQ, O'Malley was tasked as a training officer for rural IRA units, which involved him in IRA operations throughout the country once the war got under way. In February 1920, he and Eoin O'Duffy
led an IRA attack on the Royal Irish Constabulary
barracks in Ballytrain, County Monaghan
, and were successful in taking it over. This was the first capture of an RIC barracks in the war.
In September, he and Liam Lynch
led the 2nd County Cork
Brigade in the only capture of a British army
barracks in the conflict, in Mallow
. They left with a haul of rifles, two Hotchkiss machine-guns and ammunition. The officers and soldiers later sacked the town, burning the town hall and the creamery, and ironically were only brought under control by members of the Auxiliary Division
.
He was captured by the British
in Kilkenny in December 1920, in possession of a handgun. Much to his disgust, he had failed to destroy his notes, which contained the names of all the members of the 7th West Kilkenny Brigade, all of whom were subsequently arrested. Having been badly beaten during his interrogation at Dublin Castle
and in severe danger of execution, he escaped from Kilmainham Jail on 21 February 1921 along with two other I.R.A. men, through the aid of a sympathetic British soldier. At his arrest he had identified himself as 'Bernard Stewart' and his true identity was unknown at the time of his escape. O'Malley was placed in command of the IRA's Second Southern Division in Munster
, giving him responsibility for IRA operations in Limerick, Kilkenny and Tipperary.
His writings describe the often-vicious guerilla warfare fought in the martial law
area in the south of Ireland. On one occasion, O'Malley ordered the killing of three captured British officers in reprisal for Army killings of IRA prisoners. In all his field activities he displayed substantial courage and was wounded several times.
The British were aware of his role: while in custody under the alias "Bernard Stewart", he had seen a memorandum referring to a 'notorious rebel and officer of the IRA' named "Ernie O'Malley" whom they were very anxious to capture.
that formally ended the "Tan War" (the term by which he and many other anti-Treaty Republicans preferred to refer to the War of Independence), opposing any settlement that fell short of an independent Irish Republic, particularly one backed up by British threats of restarting hostilities. He was one of the anti-Treaty IRA officers who occupied the Four Courts
in Dublin, an event that helped to spark the Irish Civil War. O'Malley was appointed assistant chief of staff in the anti-treaty forces.
O'Malley surrendered to the Free State
forces after two day's bombardment of the Four Courts but escaped captivity and travelled via the Wicklow Mountains
to Blessington
then County Wexford
and finally County Carlow
. This was probably fortunate for him, as four of the other Four Courts leaders were later executed
. Thereafter, he was appointed commander of the anti-Treaty forces in the provinces of Ulster
and Leinster
, and lived a clandestine existence in Dublin.
In October 1922, he went to Dundalk
and met with Frank Aiken
commander of Fourth Northern Division of the Irish Republican Army
and Dr. Padraig Quinn (quartermaster-general) to review plans for another attack on the Dundalk to free IRA soldiers from the Dundalk jail. While Aiken's men did manage to free the prisoners, they were unable to hold Dundalk and dispersed after the operation was over. This type of incident is reflective of O'Malley's frustration at the defensive strategy of Liam Lynch
, chief of staff of the anti-treaty forces, which allowed the "Free Staters" (Irish Free State
army) to build up their strength in preparation for a gradual take-over of areas of the country dominated by the "Irregulars". O'Malley expressed the view in his memoir, The Singing Flame, that the Anti-Treaty side needed to fight conventional warfare, as opposed to guerrilla warfare, if they were to win the civil war.
O'Malley was captured again after a shoot-out with Free State troops
in the Ballsbridge
area of Dublin city on 4 November 1922. O'Malley was severely wounded in the incident, being hit over twenty times (three bullets remained lodged in his back for the remainder of his life). A Free State soldier was also killed in the gun fight.
Fate was to intervene as the surgeon who attended to O'Malley was a former medical college classmate, and overstated the seriousness of the prisoner's wounds, saving O'Malley from execution by the Free State - whose policy by that time was to execute Anti-Treaty fighters captured in possession of weapons. It may also have been too much of a risk on the part of the Irish Free State
to put to death an undisputed hero of the recent struggle against the British although O'Malley often feared that he was only hours from execution.
for forty-one days, in protest at the continued detention of IRA prisoners after the war. While on hunger strike, he was elected as a Sinn Féin
TD
for Dublin North in the 1923 general election
. He was one of the last Republican
prisoners to be released following the end of hostilities. At his family's suggestion, he took an extended vacation in Europe to recover his health, climbing mountains in the Pyrenees and Italy.
O'Malley returned to University College Dublin to continue his medical studies in 1926 where he was heavily involved in the university hillwalking club and Literary and Historical Society, but he left Ireland in 1928 without graduating. In 1928, he toured the USA on behalf of Éamon de Valera
raising funds for the establishment of the new Irish Republican newspaper the Irish Press.
He spent the next few years travelling throughout the United States
before arriving in Taos in New Mexico
in 1930, where he lived among the native Americans for a time and began work on his account of the manuscript that would later become On Another Man's Wound. He fell in with Mabel Dodge Luhan
and her artistic circle that included such figures as D.H. Lawrence, Georgia O'Keeffe
, Paul Strand
, Ella Young
and Aaron Copland
. Later that year he travelled to Mexico where he studied at the Mexico City University of the Arts and worked as a high school teacher. His US visa having expired, he slipped across the Rio Grande and returned to Taos where he worked as a teacher again until 1932 where he travelled to Depression-era New York, where he became well-known in literary and artistic circles. At this time he met Helen Hooker, a wealthy young sculptor and tennis player, whom he would later marry.
In 1934, O'Malley was granted a pension by the Fianna Fáil
government as a combatant in the Irish War of Independence
. Now possessed of a steady income, he married Helen Hooker in London on 27 September 1935 and returned to Ireland. The O'Malleys had three children and divided their time between Dublin and Burrishoole in Mayo. Hooker and O'Malley devoted themselves to the arts, she involved in sculpture and theatre, while he made his living as a writer. In 1936, On Another Man's Wound was published to critical and commercial acclaim. O'Malley remained in neutral Ireland during The Emergency, involving himself as a member of the Local Security Force. However, during the war years the O'Malleys' marriage began to fail. Helen began to spend more and more time with her family in the United States and, in 1950, "kidnapped" two of the couple's three children and took them to live with her in Colorado. She divorced her husband in 1952. O'Malley kept their other son and sent him to boarding school in England
. Ironically, despite his Republican politics, O'Malley was great admirer of the English Public School
system of education.
He was friendly with the director John Ford
, and actor John Wayne
, whom he advised during the making of the film The Quiet Man
.
Throughout his life O'Malley endured considerable ill-health from the wounds and hardship he had suffered during his revolutionary days. As befitting a celebrated figure of the Irish War of Independence
, he was given a state funeral after his death in 1957. A sculpture of Manannán mac Lir, donated by O'Malley's family, stands in the Mall in Castlebar
, County Mayo
.
O'Malley's political ideas were somewhat vague, apart from an absolute commitment to full Irish independence. He largely eschewed politics after the Civil War, describing himself as "a soldier" who "had fought and killed the enemies of my nation". He saw it as a "soldier's job to win the war and a politician's job to win the peace".
On Another Man's Wound was published in London in 1936, although the seven pages detailing O'Malley's ill-treatment while under arrest in Dublin Castle were omitted. An unabridged version was published in America a year later under the title Army Without Banners: Adventures of an Irish Volunteer. Critical responses were enthusiastic:The New York Times
described it as "a stirring and beautiful account of a deeply felt experience" while The New York Herald Tribune called it "a tale of heroic adventure told without rancor or rhetoric." It has rarely been out of print since. The book presents an unvarnished and complex picture of revolutionary struggle. In 1928 O'Malley defined his attitude in a letter to fellow-Republican Sheila Humphreys
:
In an Irish Times article of 1996, the writer John McGahern
described On Another Man's Wound as "the one classic work to have emerged directly from the violence that led to independence", adding that it "deserves a permanent and honoured place in our literature."
Perhaps reflecting its more controversial theme in Ireland, The Singing Flame was not published until 1978, well after O'Malley's death. O'Malley also wrote another book on the revolutionary period, Raids and Rallies, describing his and other fighters' experiences. This book was based on a lengthy series of interviews he had conducted in the 1950s with former IRA men and ran as a highly popular serial in The Sunday Press from 1955 to 1956. In addition, O'Malley wrote large volumes of poetry and contributed to a literary and cultural magazine "The Bell", set up by his fellow republican Peadar O'Donnell
.
O'Malley's extensive notes, compiled while he was an active IRA officer, are one of the best primary historical sources for the revolutionary period in Ireland, 1919–1923, from the republican perspective. They are now housed in the University College Dublin archives http://www.ucd.ie/archives/html/collections/omalley-ernie.htm, to whom they were donated by O'Malley's son Cormac in 1974. Cormac O'Malley retains the bulk of the remainder of his father's personal papers, poetry, and some manuscripts in his New York residence.
His papers on the Civil War were published in 2008, under the title, No Surrenders Here!
Ernie O'Malley's autobiographical works are the main inspiration behind the Ken Loach
film The Wind That Shakes The Barley
, and the character of Damien is based partly on O'Malley.
Finally, O'Malley's legacy may have had some tangible impact on the present day as Sir Patrick Mayhew, British secretary of state for Northern Ireland during the nascent peace process is rumoured to have been inspired by O'Malley's writings to understand the depth of Irish struggle.
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...
officer during the Irish War of Independence
Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...
and a commander of the anti-treaty IRA
Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)
The original Irish Republican Army fought a guerrilla war against British rule in Ireland in the Irish War of Independence 1919–1921. Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921, the IRA in the 26 counties that were to become the Irish Free State split between supporters and...
during the Irish Civil War
Irish Civil War
The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....
. O'Malley wrote three books, On Another Man's Wound, The Singing Flame, and Raids and Rallies. The first describes his early life and role in the War of Independence. The second covers the Civil War. The literary quality of these books and O'Malley's career after the political conflicts distinguish him from other IRA men who also penned memoirs of the times.
Early life
Born Ernest Bernard Malley, in CastlebarCastlebar
Castlebar is the county town of, and at the centre of, County Mayo in Ireland. It is Mayo's largest town by population. The town's population exploded in the late 1990s, increasing by one-third in just six years, though this massive growth has slowed down greatly in recent years...
, 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...
, he came from a middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
Roman Catholic family in 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...
. He was the second of eleven children. His father, Luke Malley, was a clerk with the Congested Districts Board
Congested Districts Board
Congested Districts Board may mean or refer to:*the Congested Districts Board for Ireland*the Congested Districts Board...
, which organised land reform in the west of Ireland. His family's politics were conservative nationalist, supporting the Irish Parliamentary Party
Irish Parliamentary Party
The Irish Parliamentary Party was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons at...
. His first cousin, Gilbert Laithwaite
Gilbert Laithwaite
Sir Gilbert John Laithwaite, GCMG, KCB, KCIE, CSI was a civil servant and diplomat.-Early life:Gilbert Laithwaite was the eldest of two sons and two daughters, born in Dublin. His father was John Laithwaite of the Post Office survey. His mother was Mary Kearney whose family hailed from Castlerea,...
, would become the British ambassador to Ireland in the 1950s. The Malleys moved to Dublin when Ernie was still a child and the 1911 census lists them living at 7 Iona Drive, Glasnevin
Glasnevin
Glasnevin is a largely residential neighbourhood of Dublin, Ireland.-Geography:A mainly residential neighbourhood, it is located on the Northside of the city of Dublin . It was originally established on the northern bank of the River Tolka...
. His older brother, Frank, joined the British Army at the outbreak of the First World War. O'Malley was studying medicine at University College Dublin
University College Dublin
University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...
in 1916 when the Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...
convulsed the city, and he was almost persuaded by some unionist friends to join them in defending Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
from the rebels
Irish Volunteers
The Irish Volunteers was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland"...
should they attempt to take it. After some thought, he decided his sympathies were with the rebels and he and a friend took some shots at British troops with a borrowed rifle during the fighting.
War of Independence
After the rising, O'Malley became deeply involved in Irish republican separatist activism, a fact he had to hide from his family, who had close ties to the establishment. In 1917, he joined the Irish VolunteersIrish Volunteers
The Irish Volunteers was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists. It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland"...
and also Conradh na Gaeilge
Conradh na Gaeilge
Conradh na Gaeilge is a non-governmental organisation that promotes the Irish language in Ireland and abroad. The motto of the League is Sinn Féin, Sinn Féin amháin .-Origins:...
.
He left his studies and worked as a full-time organiser for the IRA from 1918 on, work that brought him to almost every corner of Ireland. On one occasion he attended a semi-public meeting of the Ulster Volunteer Force in County Tyrone
County Tyrone
Historically Tyrone stretched as far north as Lough Foyle, and comprised part of modern day County Londonderry east of the River Foyle. The majority of County Londonderry was carved out of Tyrone between 1610-1620 when that land went to the Guilds of London to set up profit making schemes based on...
for intelligence purposes, and lamented that such able men were opposed to his ideals.
Although officially attached to IRA GHQ, O'Malley was tasked as a training officer for rural IRA units, which involved him in IRA operations throughout the country once the war got under way. In February 1920, he and Eoin O'Duffy
Eoin O'Duffy
Eoin O'Duffy was in succession a Teachta Dála , the Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army , the second Commissioner of the Garda Síochána, leader of the Army Comrades Association and then the first leader of Fine Gael , before leading the Irish Brigade to fight for Francisco Franco during...
led an IRA attack on the 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...
barracks in Ballytrain, County Monaghan
County Monaghan
County Monaghan is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Monaghan. Monaghan County Council is the local authority for the county...
, and were successful in taking it over. This was the first capture of an RIC barracks in the war.
In September, he and 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:...
led the 2nd County Cork
County Cork
County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...
Brigade in the only capture of a 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...
barracks in the conflict, in Mallow
Mallow, County Cork
Mallow is the "Crossroads of Munster" and the administrative capital of north County Cork, in Ireland. The Northern Divisional Offices of Cork County Council are located in the town....
. They left with a haul of rifles, two Hotchkiss machine-guns and ammunition. The officers and soldiers later sacked the town, burning the town hall and the creamery, and ironically were only brought under control by members of 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....
.
He was captured by the British
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
in Kilkenny in December 1920, in possession of a handgun. Much to his disgust, he had failed to destroy his notes, which contained the names of all the members of the 7th West Kilkenny Brigade, all of whom were subsequently arrested. Having been badly beaten during his interrogation at 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...
and in severe danger of execution, he escaped from Kilmainham Jail on 21 February 1921 along with two other I.R.A. men, through the aid of a sympathetic British soldier. At his arrest he had identified himself as 'Bernard Stewart' and his true identity was unknown at the time of his escape. O'Malley was placed in command of the IRA's Second Southern Division in Munster
Munster
Munster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the south of Ireland. In Ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial purposes...
, giving him responsibility for IRA operations in Limerick, Kilkenny and Tipperary.
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
area in the south of Ireland. On one occasion, O'Malley ordered the killing of three captured British officers in reprisal for Army killings of IRA prisoners. In all his field activities he displayed substantial courage and was wounded several times.
The British were aware of his role: while in custody under the alias "Bernard Stewart", he had seen a memorandum referring to a 'notorious rebel and officer of the IRA' named "Ernie O'Malley" whom they were very anxious to capture.
Civil War
O'Malley objected to the Anglo-Irish TreatyAnglo-Irish Treaty
The Anglo-Irish Treaty , officially called the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was a treaty between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and representatives of the secessionist Irish Republic that concluded the Irish War of...
that formally ended the "Tan War" (the term by which he and many other anti-Treaty Republicans preferred to refer to the War of Independence), opposing any settlement that fell short of an independent Irish Republic, particularly one backed up by British threats of restarting hostilities. He was one of the anti-Treaty IRA officers who occupied the Four Courts
Four Courts
The Four Courts in Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's main courts building. The Four Courts are the location of the Supreme Court, the High Court and the Dublin Circuit Court. The building until 2010 also formerly was the location for the Central Criminal Court.-Gandon's Building:Work based on...
in Dublin, an event that helped to spark the Irish Civil War. O'Malley was appointed assistant chief of staff in the anti-treaty forces.
O'Malley surrendered to the Free State
Free State
The Free State is a province of South Africa. Its capital is Bloemfontein, which is also South Africa's judicial capital. Its historical origins lie in the Orange Free State Boer republic and later Orange Free State Province. The current borders of the province date from 1994 when the Bantustans...
forces after two day's bombardment of the Four Courts but escaped captivity and travelled via the Wicklow Mountains
Wicklow Mountains
The Wicklow Mountains form the largest continuous upland area in Ireland. They occupy the whole centre of County Wicklow and stretch outside its borders into Counties Carlow, Wexford and Dublin. Where the mountains extend into County Dublin, they are known locally as the Dublin Mountains...
to Blessington
Blessington
Blessington, historically known as Ballycomeen , is a town in County Wicklow, Ireland. It is located on the N81 road, which connects Dublin to Tullow.- History :...
then County Wexford
County Wexford
County Wexford is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Wexford. In pre-Norman times it was part of the Kingdom of Uí Cheinnselaig, whose capital was at Ferns. Wexford County Council is the local...
and finally County Carlow
County Carlow
County Carlow is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the town of Carlow, which lies on the River Barrow. Carlow County Council is the local authority for the county...
. This was probably fortunate for him, as four of the other Four Courts leaders were later executed
Executions during the Irish Civil War
The executions during the Irish Civil War took place during the guerrilla phase of the Irish Civil War . This phase of the war was bitter, and both sides, the government forces of the Irish Free State and the anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army insurgents, used executions and terror in what...
. Thereafter, he was appointed commander of the anti-Treaty forces in the provinces of Ulster
Ulster
Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...
and Leinster
Leinster
Leinster is one of the Provinces of Ireland situated in the east of Ireland. It comprises the ancient Kingdoms of Mide, Osraige and Leinster. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the historic fifths of Leinster and Mide gradually merged, mainly due to the impact of the Pale, which straddled...
, and lived a clandestine existence in Dublin.
In October 1922, he went to Dundalk
Dundalk
Dundalk is the county town of County Louth in Ireland. It is situated where the Castletown River flows into Dundalk Bay. The town is close to the border with Northern Ireland and equi-distant from Dublin and Belfast. The town's name, which was historically written as Dundalgan, has associations...
and met with Frank Aiken
Frank Aiken
Frank Aiken was a commander of the Irish Republican Army and later an Irish politician. A founding-member of Fianna Fáil, Aiken was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 1923 and at each subsequent election until 1973...
commander of Fourth Northern Division of the Irish Republican Army
Fourth Northern Division of the Irish Republican Army
The Fourth Northern Division of the Irish Republican Army operated in an area covering parts of counties Louth, Armagh, Monaghan, and Down. Frank Aiken was commander and Padraig Quinn was the quartermaster general. John McCoy was Adjutant General for the division; after he was shot and captured by...
and Dr. Padraig Quinn (quartermaster-general) to review plans for another attack on the Dundalk to free IRA soldiers from the Dundalk jail. While Aiken's men did manage to free the prisoners, they were unable to hold Dundalk and dispersed after the operation was over. This type of incident is reflective of O'Malley's frustration at the defensive strategy of 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:...
, chief of staff of the anti-treaty forces, which allowed the "Free Staters" (Irish Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...
army) to build up their strength in preparation for a gradual take-over of areas of the country dominated by the "Irregulars". O'Malley expressed the view in his memoir, The Singing Flame, that the Anti-Treaty side needed to fight conventional warfare, as opposed to guerrilla warfare, if they were to win the civil war.
O'Malley was captured again after a shoot-out with Free State troops
Irish Army
The Irish Army, officially named simply the Army is the main branch of the Defence Forces of Ireland. Approximately 8,500 men and women serve in the Irish Army, divided into three infantry Brigades...
in the Ballsbridge
Ballsbridge
Ballsbridge is a suburb of Dublin, Ireland, named for the bridge spanning the River Dodder on the south side of the city. The sign on the bridge still proclaims it as "Ball's Bridge" in recognition of the fact that the original bridge in this location was built and owned by a Mr...
area of Dublin city on 4 November 1922. O'Malley was severely wounded in the incident, being hit over twenty times (three bullets remained lodged in his back for the remainder of his life). A Free State soldier was also killed in the gun fight.
Fate was to intervene as the surgeon who attended to O'Malley was a former medical college classmate, and overstated the seriousness of the prisoner's wounds, saving O'Malley from execution by the Free State - whose policy by that time was to execute Anti-Treaty fighters captured in possession of weapons. It may also have been too much of a risk on the part of the Irish Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...
to put to death an undisputed hero of the recent struggle against the British although O'Malley often feared that he was only hours from execution.
Subsequent life
By the time O'Malley recovered from his wounds, the Civil War was over and he was transferred to Mountjoy prison. During this period of imprisonment, O'Malley went on hunger strikeHunger strike
A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance or pressure in which participants fast as an act of political protest, or to provoke feelings of guilt in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not...
for forty-one days, in protest at the continued detention of IRA prisoners after the war. While on hunger strike, he was elected as a Sinn Féin
Sinn 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...
TD
Teachta Dála
A Teachta Dála , usually abbreviated as TD in English, is a member of Dáil Éireann, the lower house of the Oireachtas . It is the equivalent of terms such as "Member of Parliament" or "deputy" used in other states. The official translation of the term is "Deputy to the Dáil", though a more literal...
for Dublin North in the 1923 general election
Irish general election, 1923
The Irish general election of 1923 was held on 27 August 1923. The newly elected members of the 4th Dáil assembled at Leinster House on 19 September when the new President of the Executive Council and Executive Council of the Irish Free State were appointed. The election was held just after the end...
. He was one of the last Republican
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...
prisoners to be released following the end of hostilities. At his family's suggestion, he took an extended vacation in Europe to recover his health, climbing mountains in the Pyrenees and Italy.
O'Malley returned to University College Dublin to continue his medical studies in 1926 where he was heavily involved in the university hillwalking club and Literary and Historical Society, but he left Ireland in 1928 without graduating. In 1928, he toured the USA on behalf of Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland, serving as head of government of the Irish Free State and head of government and head of state of Ireland...
raising funds for the establishment of the new Irish Republican newspaper the Irish Press.
He spent the next few years travelling throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
before arriving in Taos in New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
in 1930, where he lived among the native Americans for a time and began work on his account of the manuscript that would later become On Another Man's Wound. He fell in with Mabel Dodge Luhan
Mabel Dodge Luhan
Mabel Evans Dodge Sterne Luhan , née Ganson was a wealthy American patron of the arts. She is particularly associated with the Taos art colony.-Early life:...
and her artistic circle that included such figures as D.H. Lawrence, Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe
Georgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist.Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe first came to the attention of the New York art community in 1916, several decades before women had gained access to art training in America’s colleges and universities, and before any of its women artists...
, Paul Strand
Paul Strand
Paul Strand was an American photographer and filmmaker who, along with fellow modernist photographers like Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, helped establish photography as an art form in the 20th century...
, Ella Young
Ella Young
Ella Young was an Irish poet and Celtic mythologist active in the Gaelic and Celtic Revival literary movement of the late 19th and early 20th century. Born in Ireland, Young was an author of poetry and children's books. She emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1925 as a temporary...
and Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
. Later that year he travelled to Mexico where he studied at the Mexico City University of the Arts and worked as a high school teacher. His US visa having expired, he slipped across the Rio Grande and returned to Taos where he worked as a teacher again until 1932 where he travelled to Depression-era New York, where he became well-known in literary and artistic circles. At this time he met Helen Hooker, a wealthy young sculptor and tennis player, whom he would later marry.
In 1934, O'Malley was granted a pension by the Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party , more commonly known as Fianna Fáil is a centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland, founded on 23 March 1926. Fianna Fáil's name is traditionally translated into English as Soldiers of Destiny, although a more accurate rendition would be Warriors of Fál...
government as a combatant in the Irish War of Independence
Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...
. Now possessed of a steady income, he married Helen Hooker in London on 27 September 1935 and returned to Ireland. The O'Malleys had three children and divided their time between Dublin and Burrishoole in Mayo. Hooker and O'Malley devoted themselves to the arts, she involved in sculpture and theatre, while he made his living as a writer. In 1936, On Another Man's Wound was published to critical and commercial acclaim. O'Malley remained in neutral Ireland during The Emergency, involving himself as a member of the Local Security Force. However, during the war years the O'Malleys' marriage began to fail. Helen began to spend more and more time with her family in the United States and, in 1950, "kidnapped" two of the couple's three children and took them to live with her in Colorado. She divorced her husband in 1952. O'Malley kept their other son and sent him to boarding school in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Ironically, despite his Republican politics, O'Malley was great admirer of the English Public School
Public School (UK)
A public school, in common British usage, is a school that is neither administered nor financed by the state or from taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of endowments, tuition fees and charitable contributions, usually existing as a non profit-making charitable trust...
system of education.
He was friendly with the director John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
, and actor John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
, whom he advised during the making of the film The Quiet Man
The Quiet Man
The Quiet Man is a 1952 American Technicolor romantic comedy-drama film. It was directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara, Victor McLaglen and Barry Fitzgerald. It was based on a 1933 Saturday Evening Post short story by Maurice Walsh...
.
Throughout his life O'Malley endured considerable ill-health from the wounds and hardship he had suffered during his revolutionary days. As befitting a celebrated figure of the Irish War of Independence
Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...
, he was given a state funeral after his death in 1957. A sculpture of Manannán mac Lir, donated by O'Malley's family, stands in the Mall in Castlebar
Castlebar
Castlebar is the county town of, and at the centre of, County Mayo in Ireland. It is Mayo's largest town by population. The town's population exploded in the late 1990s, increasing by one-third in just six years, though this massive growth has slowed down greatly in recent years...
, 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...
.
O'Malley's political ideas were somewhat vague, apart from an absolute commitment to full Irish independence. He largely eschewed politics after the Civil War, describing himself as "a soldier" who "had fought and killed the enemies of my nation". He saw it as a "soldier's job to win the war and a politician's job to win the peace".
Writings
O'Malley's most celebrated writings are On Another Man's Wound, a memoir of the War of Independence, and The Singing Flame an account of his involvement in the Civil War. The two volumes were written during O'Malley's time in New York, New Mexico and Mexico City between 1929 and 1932.On Another Man's Wound was published in London in 1936, although the seven pages detailing O'Malley's ill-treatment while under arrest in Dublin Castle were omitted. An unabridged version was published in America a year later under the title Army Without Banners: Adventures of an Irish Volunteer. Critical responses were enthusiastic:The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
described it as "a stirring and beautiful account of a deeply felt experience" while The New York Herald Tribune called it "a tale of heroic adventure told without rancor or rhetoric." It has rarely been out of print since. The book presents an unvarnished and complex picture of revolutionary struggle. In 1928 O'Malley defined his attitude in a letter to fellow-Republican Sheila Humphreys
Sheila Humphreys
Sheila Humphreys, sometimes known as Sighle Humphreys, was an Irish political activist and member of Cumann na mBan.-Background:...
:
I have the bad and disagreeable habit of writing the truth as I see it, and not as other people (including yourself) realize it, in which we are a race of spiritualized idealists with a world idea of freedom, having nothing to learn for we have made no mistakes.
In an Irish Times article of 1996, the writer John McGahern
John McGahern
John McGahern was one of the most important Irish authors of the latter half of the twentieth century. Before his death in 2006 he was hailed as "the greatest living Irish novelist" by The Observer.-Life:...
described On Another Man's Wound as "the one classic work to have emerged directly from the violence that led to independence", adding that it "deserves a permanent and honoured place in our literature."
Perhaps reflecting its more controversial theme in Ireland, The Singing Flame was not published until 1978, well after O'Malley's death. O'Malley also wrote another book on the revolutionary period, Raids and Rallies, describing his and other fighters' experiences. This book was based on a lengthy series of interviews he had conducted in the 1950s with former IRA men and ran as a highly popular serial in The Sunday Press from 1955 to 1956. In addition, O'Malley wrote large volumes of poetry and contributed to a literary and cultural magazine "The Bell", set up by his fellow republican Peadar O'Donnell
Peadar O'Donnell
Peadar O'Donnell was an Irish republican and socialist activist and writer.-Early life:Peadar O'Donnell was born into an Irish speaking family in Dungloe, County Donegal in northwest Ireland, in 1893. He attended St. Patrick's College, Dublin, where he trained as a teacher...
.
O'Malley's extensive notes, compiled while he was an active IRA officer, are one of the best primary historical sources for the revolutionary period in Ireland, 1919–1923, from the republican perspective. They are now housed in the University College Dublin archives http://www.ucd.ie/archives/html/collections/omalley-ernie.htm, to whom they were donated by O'Malley's son Cormac in 1974. Cormac O'Malley retains the bulk of the remainder of his father's personal papers, poetry, and some manuscripts in his New York residence.
His papers on the Civil War were published in 2008, under the title, No Surrenders Here!
Ernie O'Malley's autobiographical works are the main inspiration behind the Ken Loach
Ken Loach
Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...
film The Wind That Shakes The Barley
The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)
The Wind That Shakes the Barley is a 2006 Irish war drama film directed by Ken Loach, set during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War...
, and the character of Damien is based partly on O'Malley.
Finally, O'Malley's legacy may have had some tangible impact on the present day as Sir Patrick Mayhew, British secretary of state for Northern Ireland during the nascent peace process is rumoured to have been inspired by O'Malley's writings to understand the depth of Irish struggle.
Further reading
- Ernie O'Malley, On Another Man's Wound. (1936)
- Ernie O'Malley, The Singing Flame. (1978, revised and expanded 2002)
- Padraic O'Farrell, The Ernie O'Malley Story. (1983)
- Ernie O'Malley, Raids and Rallies. (1985)
- Richard EnglishRichard EnglishRichard English is a historian from Northern Ireland. He was born in Belfast in 1963. His father, Donald English was a prominent Methodist preacher. He studied as an undergraduate at Keble College, Oxford, and subsequently at Keele University, where he was awarded a PhD in History...
, Ernie O'Malley, IRA Intellectual. (1998) - Ernie O'Malley, No Surrender Here!: The Civil War Papers of Ernie O'Malley 1922-1924 eds. Cormac K.H. O'Malley & Anne Dolan. (2004)
- Mary Cosgrove, Ernie O'Malley: Art and Modernism in Ireland. Éire-Ireland Fall/Winter 2005 pp85-103.