Osprey - Essential Histories 065 - The Anglo-Irish War 1913-1922

48 Essential Histories • The Anglo-Irish War
Coughlin and his 12 constables jeered at the
fleeing Volunteers calling them 'rainbow
chasers'. To add insult to injury a policeman
had provided a soundtrack to the bloodless
firefight on a melodeon!
On 17 June the occupants of the RIC
barracks in Listowel, Co. Kerry, were told
that they were being reassigned to rural
stations to assist the army. Despite the best
efforts of County Inspector Poer O'Shea, 14
of them refused to obey this instruction. On
19 June the Divisional Police Commissioner
for Munster, Lt Col Gerard Smyth DSO MID,
and the RIC IG, General Tudor, attempted to
defuse the situation. What happened next is
remembered as the Listowel mutiny, and has
passed into Nationalist legend.
policemen to shoot armed IRA men who did
not surrender 'when ordered to do so', in
other words, when challenged, not as Mee
claimed 'on sight'. In paragraph four of the
order he also specifically forbade reprisals as
'they bring discredit on the police ... I will
deal most severely with any officer or man
concerned in them.' Hardly the instructions
of a man advocating murder.
Whether it was true or not, Mee's
testimony was a death sentence for the
Listowel mutiny
The only version of events to survive is that
of Constable Jeremiah Mee, the leader of the
mutiny. His account was published in the
underground Sinn Féin newspaper Irish
Bulletin, which claimed that Smyth told
them to shoot IRA suspects on sight. Mee
was so outraged that he said to Smyth, 'By
your accent I take it you are an Englishman.
You forget you are addressing Irishmen.' He
then took off his cap, belt and bayonet, and
handed them to Smyth, saying, 'These too
are English. Take them as a present from me,
and to hell with you, you murderer.'
Ironically, Smyth was from Bainbridge,
Co. Down and like many Irishman of his
class spoke with an Anglo-Irish accent. He
certainly advocated greater cooperation
between the army and the police, and was
concerned with creating better defences for
RIC stations. It is also true that in Order No.
5, issued on 17 June 1920, he directed
RIGHT The funeral of RIC District Inspector James
Brady in Glasnevin. Dublin 1920, (Courtesy of National
Library of Ireland, Photographic Archive)
FOLLOWING PAGE An IRA volunteer runs for cover
during the fighting around the Customs House, Dublin
in 1921, (Courtesy of National Library of Ireland.
Photographic Archive)