Page 2 - Kilkenny Men Interned in Ballykinlar 1920-21

Kilkenny men Interned in Ballykinlar, Co. Down 1920-21 Details of Kilkenny men Interned in Ballykinlar, Co. Down 1920-21 Hut 19 down mentally due to the conditions. Tom Treacy in his capacity
as prisoners’ Commandant smuggled out a letter to the Freeman’s
Camp No. in I was very lucky in my hut, as my fellow hutsmen were men with whom it Journal in October 1921 expressing frustration and anger at the harsh
Dates was a pleasure to live. Some of the men such as Paddy O’ Sullivan, Tom treatment dealt out to sick prisoners who were eventually allowed to
Internment = imprisonment without trial. Name Address Where Buried Ballykinlar Hut Treacy, Jim Lalor, Tom Nolan and Jack Fitzgerald- had a fairly extensive be transferred to hospital in Belfast but only at the point of a bayonet,
Occupation in 1920 Internment No. acquaintance with British prisons and had been through hunger strike. handcuffed in an open lorry during a downpour.
Camp
“The prisons became one of the most significant number of raids and arrests carried out in all taken as a slave, something that would have Thomas Treacy 1885-1975 Foulkstown, Camp 1 Hut 19 One impression was deeply marked on my mind by my experiences in Hut If disease did not get you there was the ever-present possibility that
fields in which Irish nationalists challenged the areas that autumn. resonated with the prisoners. • Kilkenny Brigade Commandant 1919-1920 Dean St. Kilkenny. Kilkenny. 19 and in the Camp and that was the high standard of civilisation and you could be shot. Tom Treacy and Jim Lalor narrowly missed death
legitimacy and durability of British authority. On the 4 December, the Kilkenny People Martial law was declared on the 10 • Last Commandant Camp 1, Ballykinlar.1921 Drapery owner in Parliament St. idealism and spirituality of our people… one morning when a sentry fired at them without warning as they
Because of this, the prisons and camps reported that Ballykinlar, a British army December in four Munster counties, Cork, James Lalor 1886-1969 Tulla Cemetery, Camp 1 Hut 19 The saving of them is of course, first their religion, and then their sense of emerged from the chapel after mass. On Monday 17 January 1921
were not just places one learned to be a training base during WW1, was being readied Limerick, Kerry, and Tipperary. By the 1 • Kilkenny Brigade Vice Commandant 19 Friary St. Kilkenny. Threecastles, patriotism. they both witnessed the shooting dead of Patrick Sloane and Joseph
revolutionary; these were places where one was for an influx of internees from across the January 1921, Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford, Construction Co. Kilkenny. Tom Treacy detailed how the prisoners organised themselves on Tormey supposedly because they were too close to the barbed wire.
a revolutionary.“ They were killed by a single bullet which struck Tormey in the head
country. During the war British soldiers had and Clare were also “proclaimed”. Thomas Nolan 1892-1953 Foulkstown, Camp 1 Hut 19 military lines with each row of ten huts making up a company. Each ,passed through him and hit Sloane in the neck. The sentry had fired
William Murphy, Political Imprisonment christened it World’s End and that One eyed Of the initial Kilkenny arrests, as recently as • Captain Outrath Company Outrath, Kilkenny. Kilkenny. hut leader was answerable to a Line Captain and they in turn were the shot without any warning and prevented the other internees from
& the Irish 1912-1921, Oxford University Godforsaken Ballykinlar, Co. Down because April 1920, all four had been arrested after Farmer answerable to the prisoners’ officer Commandant and committee. going to the aid of the dying men. Tom Treacy says in his WS 1093
Press. it was so isolated on the shores of Dundrum the successful attack on Hugginstown R.I.C. Michael Loughman 1896-1965 Foulkstown, Camp 1 Hut 11 Tom noted that the brains of the prisoners were pooled for the benefit I saw their bodies in a pool of their own blood where they fell.
Bay . New St. Kilkenny Kilkenny. of the prisoners. All kinds of classes ranging from Irish, history,
Ballykinlar Camp Co. Down was the first and Barracks which was only the 3rd surrender politics, accountancy, agriculture were organised and in some cases No disciplinary action was taken against the sentry who killed them.
the largest of the internment camps opened By the time this news broke in the local of an R.I.C. Barracks in the country and the Gas Fitter the certificates issued enabled the released prisoners to secure Patrick Sloane had only been recently married and Joseph Tormey’s
by the British authorities at the height of the newspaper arrests had already been made on first in Leinster. They had been imprisoned in Michael Joseph Tierney 1897-1982 Deansgrange Camp 1 Hut 2 employment. Henry Dixon who was a graduate of “Frongoch”, was brother, James, was killed in an encounter with Crown forces in
War of Independence in December 1920. 23 November and the first batch of Kilkenny Crumlin Rd. Gaol in Belfast and Tom Treacy, Kiltorcan, Co. Kilkenny Cemetery, the driving force in realising how important it was to combat the February 1921. During WW1 he had joined the British army as an
Several of the Kilkenny men who were men who were destined for Ballykinlar had Mick Loughman ,along with the Hugginstown 16 King St. London. Dublin. dreaded barbed wire disease, or demoralisation which could afflict underage boy, but his parents had written to the War Office to get
Glenageary
interned in Ballykinlar already had experience been transferred from Kilkenny Military prisoners, had been transferred to them. There were also sporting events and competitions , theatrical him discharged. He had later joined the I.R.A.
of internment earlier in 1920 and some like Barracks to Kilworth camp and then to Wormwood Scrubs Prison in London whilst Clerk and musical occasions. Martin Walton, later of Walton’s famous Even after the Truce in July there was still the danger of death. On the
Tom Treacy, Jim Lalor and Ned Comerford Cork Military Prison from where they on hunger strike. Edward Comerford 1880-1962 Ballygunner Camp 2 Hut 21 music shop in Dublin, organised the camp orchestra which included 15 November 1921 at the height of the Treaty negotiations, Tadgh
had experienced it in the aftermath of the were transferred on board a ship called Jim Lalor and Tom Nolan had been released • Quartermaster Kilkenny Brigade Newmarket, Cemetery, Peadar Kearney who wrote the words of Amhrán na bhFiann which Barry, from Cork who was prominent in the Labour movement was
Waterford.
6 Wellington Square, Kilkenny.
1916 Rising. Both Tom and Jim had ended up The Heather to Belfast along with 250 other due to ill health and the death of Tom Burnchurch, Kilkenny. is the National Anthem. Martin Walton also composed the Ballykinlar shot dead, again by a sentry. His funeral was the largest in Cork since
in Frongoch via Richmond Barracks, Dublin, prisoners. Nolan’s sister. By the time he arrived in March. They also managed to smuggle in a typewriter and duplicator that of Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney in 1920.
and Wakefield Prison in Yorkshire. It was in They were Tom Treacy, Brigade Commandant, Ballykinlar, Mick Loughman had also spent Irish Teacher which allowed them to publish a magazine called “Ná Bac Leis” or Food in Ballykinlar was often unpalatable. The men experienced real
“Never Mind” which kept up spirits with poems and humorous
Frongoch, “the University of Revolution”, Jim Lalor, Vice Commandant, Tom Nolan, a few months in Mountjoy and had been James Roughan/ Rowan 1884-1925 Kilbride Camp 2 Hut 21 contributions, as well as sports results. M.J. Tierney contributed two hunger and supplies of meat were sometimes tainted and condemned
which had thrown almost 1800 prisoners Outrath and Mick Loughman, New St. court-martialled but acquitted. So, they • Commandant 7th Battalion Kilkenny Brigade Ahenure, Callan, Co. Kilkenny Cemetery, articles in October and November 1921, entitled The British Empire in as inedible and unsafe. They never saw butter, only margarine which
Callan
together after the Rising, that the seeds of They endured a gruelling voyage in freezing were well-acquainted with internment even Farmer Collapse and The Psychology of Modern Dress in Ballykinlar. could be rancid at times. Rations were small and they depended a lot
the resurgent Irish Volunteers were sown. Joseph Rice 1891-1965 Foulkstown, Camp 2 Hut 21 on parcels from home which they shared with their hut mates. Since
weather and were met with a very hostile before the mass internment facilities were Outrath Kilkenny Kilkenny. The prisoners even managed to have a St. Patrick’s Day Parade in many of the internees were the main breadwinners, this put increased
The day after Bloody Sunday, 21 reception by the shipyard workers on arrival opened in December 1920. Farmer March 1921, marching in military formation, perhaps the only place pressure on families to find the wherewithal to send parcels, but
November,1920, the authorities moved in Belfast before being put on a train which The camp held about 600 prisoners when in Ireland that managed that in that troubled time. Another famous friends and neighbours often rallied round. When a canteen system
swiftly to implement a country-wide round dropped them at Ballykinlar Halt and still they arrived and soon filled up to 1000 men James Walsh 1899 - ? Camp 2 Hut 3 internee was future Taoiseach, Seán Lemass, who was interned in was set up prisoners still needed money to be able to buy necessities
Glenmore,
• Captain Glenmore Company
up of any prominent Sinn Féiners, public handcuffed they walked the three miles to necessitating the opening of a second camp. Co. Kilkenny and Adare, co. Limerick Camp 2 Ballykinlar. and some extra food with the tokens issued to them by the military
representatives and anyone suspected of the Cage, as they described it, because of the By February Spike Island was in use for We are very lucky to have a photo of the prisoners from Hut 19. All who didn’t allow them to have cash. The prisoners even formed a
being an I.R.A. officer. They were enabled thick barbed wire impeding escape. Tradition internment followed by Bere Island and the Creamery Worker photography was forbidden but they managed to smuggle in a small branch of St. Vincent de Paul to help the more destitute among them.
to do this by the Restoration of Order in has it that Ballykinlar was the site where Curragh. Thirty-three Kilkenny men were James Mernagh 1889-1959 Glasnevin Camp 2 Hut 3 camera and only photos from Camp 1 survive. Jim Lalor, looking thin, Two of the Kilkenny internees were married , Tom Treacy and Jim
Ireland Regulations which had multiplied the St. Patrick landed in Ireland when he was Glenmore, Dysert, Castlecomer. Cemetery, and Tom Nolan, sporting a beard, are included. Unfortunately, Tom Roughan/Rowan.
interned in Spike and one in the Curragh. Railway Worker Dublin Treacy is not in this photo, but he is in a photo of the prisoners’
Richard Dunphy 1885-1955 Camp 2 Hut 21 officer staff showing the effects of incarceration. They had both married in 1915 and by the time they were arrested
Crutt, Castlecomer, Kilkenny and Dublin in December 1920 had 3 and 2 children, respectively. Tom’s wife was
Shop Assistant pregnant with their fourth child, Tomás, who was born in February
Sean Dunphy 1883-? Camp 2? Hut? Life in Ballykinlar 1921 1921. His father did not get to see him until December 1921 and sadly
Crutt, Castlecomer, Kilkenny the little boy died from childhood illness in May 1922. Jim Rowan was
Possibly a brother or relative of The first Kilkenny prisoners arrived to a bitterly cold Ballykinlar on eventually released on parole in October 1921 because one of his
Richard? 9 December 1920. Tom Treacy remembered seeing a glass of water children was seriously ill. The parole system in Ballykinlar was very
uneven and many prisoners were refused parole even when they
Patrick Dempsey 1886-? Camp 2 Hut 15 in the hospital building frozen on a bedside table. The men were experienced bereavements.
Loon, Castlecomer. housed in Armstrong huts which were cold and damp and heated by
17 Little Mary St. Dublin a stove, but coal was in short supply and disputes soon arose when The Irish Republican Prisoners Dependents’ Fund organised in
Insurance Agent the prisoners were ordered to haul it to the huts whilst handcuffed each county to help families of internees. When questioned in the
Sean Ruane Address Camp 2? Hut? to the buckets. House of Commons regarding the situation of internees’ families
and whether any provision had been made for them Sir Hamar
unknown No. 1 Compound was composed of four lines of ten huts. Two were Greenwood, Chief Secretary, replied No Sir. The upheaval and
Edward Walsh Not identified punishment cells, others were used as stores, offices, a dispensary, the effect on families in a society where few women were in paid
and post office. Each hut housed 25 men and conditions were spartan. employment can only be imagined. There were no visits permitted
There was a small area boarded off as a night latrine. The men slept and all letters were censored. Resilience was a quality needed as
Tom Treacy Kilkenny People 27 November 1920 on low wooden trestles and the cold conditions meant that they much outside as inside the Camps where raids continued on homes
were prone to various respiratory diseases. We have Jim Lalor’s including that of internees up to two weeks before Elizabeth Treacy
Hut 19, Camp 1, vivid watercolour, (in Tom Nolan’s autograph book) of the interior gave birth to her fourth child.
Ballykinlar 1921. of Hut 19 which gives us a great insight into living conditions for the
prisoners. There was no privacy, and the huts could be noisy. The
military often disrupted the sleeping prisoners by night searches or
roll calls. This created friction and protests. The prisoners hid some
Louis J. Walsh, a solicitor living in Derry, was interned along with of their more wanted comrades by using other names and men went
Tom Treacy, Jim Lalor, and Tom Nolan. He later became first on the run between huts to escape attention. Mossy Donegan went by
District Justice for Donegal. They were all inmates of Hut 19 and the name Thomas Fitzpatrick while he was in Camp 1. Punishments
he mentioned them by name in his book, On My Keeping and in of solitary confinement and bread and water were issued in various
Theirs, Talbot Press 1921. He was released in May 1921 to stand in instances. (see Ó Duibhir for details).
the general election. The Kilkenny men had to wait until after the Sanitation and hygiene were primitive and inadequate for the large
Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed in December 1921 before they got numbers of men and prisoners struggled to avoid scabies and lice.
out of Ballykinlar on the 9 December 1921. Diseases like pleurisy and pneumonia were common. Five men,
aged between 17 and 41, died in Ballykinlar due to disease and the
unwillingness of the military authorities to move them to properly
Tom Nolan in Ballykinlar 1921 Mick Loughman in 1920 Jim Lalor equipped hospitals in nearby Belfast. To add insult to injury families
Photo Courtesy of Gearoid Kingston were charged for the costs of returning their deceased Some broke Jim Lalor’s Watercolour of Interior of Hut 19 Nolan
Autograph. Courtesy KAS.

KILKENNY MEN INTERNED IN BALLYKINLAR, CO. DOWN. 1920-21