Denis F. Madden Letter.

A Letter from Denis F. Madden.

Printed in the Munster Express on the 20th of January 1956.

      A  Chara, I am just looking at a photo of Tramore Police Barracks as it appeared in January 1921. The photo shows eight Policemen (including Black and Tans.) posing at the front door. Scores of bullet marks are shown on the walls and windows and fansash are broken. Evidently the attack was pro­longed.

  Colonel Paul needs no apologists for the manner ln which he and his comrade officers planned the ambush at the Railway Bridge bend of the road. He explained to me shortly after the ambush the disposition of the Volunteers. It is nonsense to say now that the roads leading into the Ballynattin Cross were not carefully considered. Even if the designers of the ambush had no military knowledge they would not make a silly mistake like that. The part of the road between said Cross and the Tramore side of the Railway Bridge was the venue in which the Devons were to be attacked. If they came as far as the bend round the Bridge the first lorry would run into a road obstruction. The Volunteers were posted along each side of the Cross and beyond the Bridge (near the part of the knock where the cottages now stand) was the column. It was a real death trap.

  Very shortly after the ambush two young soldiers of the Devons who were wounded in the ambush called at the offices of a firm of solicitors to whom I was an assistant. They were accompanied by captain V., who acted as their guardian, as they were both under 21. The solicitors are now dead.

  I asked one of them to let me take instructions from the young soldiers, who were making claims for compensation. I distinctly remember my conversation with one of them. He explained that they were proceeding towards ‘Tramore Police Barracks’ and just as they were approaching the Cross they heard a shot, which appeared to come from just in front of them.

  The Devons then got out of their lorries and deployed, firing in the direction from where the shot came. For success in an ambush silence and discipline are imperative. But “the best laid plans of mice and men Gang aft agley”. I then asked the young Devon what his officer, Captain V. thought of it. His opinion was, he said, that if they had not heard the shot, they would have been all wiped out. I carefully verified the foregoing soon afterwards and was informed by Col. Paul that the shot did go off. This would have been one of the biggest and most successful ambushes if that shot had not been heard. It is better that so many humans were not riddled to death in that trap. Same result.

  I was in a rather peculiar position. I was Brigade I/O from December 1920, to after the Truce in 1921 and here was I taking this confidential report from this youngster. Let no one tell me that the British Intelligence Service was as good as the I.R.A. For instance, all during the Black and Tan period, and until after the signing of the Treaty, I got copies of military and police code messages from agents in the G.P.O., Waterford. Every night I waited at an appointed place ’til a messenger came with copy codes. I had a certain limited number of code keys, but they did not go far, and I had to send copies on for reading to G.H.Q. I have a pile of them yet and very many memos from G.H.Q. Some of those code messages were very important. There was one which I was able to decipher which gave the word to be used if the Truce broke down and the word if hostilities were to begin again. If the British had an intelligence service in the G.P.O. it did not show itself.

  One of the great things about our movement was the would-be informers and spies were slow to face the risk of what it would cost. We had several good agents in different important spots. For instance, the Prison contained a number of prisoners 1n 1921. The British officers attended there daily. The late Dick Walsh was a clerk in the prison. Very shortly after the Tramore ambush his son ran into my house at dinner hour to say that the military were to raid the Asylum that night. I immediately got the Clearys of John Street to communicate with our agents at the Asylum (as it was then called). The Military did raid that night but Michael Wyley and Nicholas Whittle were not there when they searched.

  The late A. S. McCoy, solicitor, related that an officer of the Devons told him at the club that one of our men had been hit on the head when a grenade exploded in the air. One of our men was hit on the head.

  The late Michael Bishop was never appointed O/C of Waterford No. l Brigade.

  The late Liam Lynch offered an important appointment on the First Division Staff to Colonel Paul. He was also Deputy Liaison Officer for Waterford City and Co. during the Truce, and was entrusted with more than one difficult operation. These facts speak for themselves.

DENIS F. MADDEN.

Tramore.

16th January, 1956.