One hundred years ago, in the final week of October 1924, Athlone and Mullingar hosted remarkable ceremonies in which the remains of those executed by the state during the Civil War were returned to their families. Those events are some of the many topics explored in the recently published Atlas of the Irish Civil War.
During the Civil War it was government policy not to hand over to relations or friends the remains of executed men: a policy that prevented funerals from becoming a focal point for those opposed to the Treaty. The government’s decision was controversial at the time and it remained a topic of public discussion after the Civil War since the bodies of those executed were still buried on state properties. The photo shows the funeral cortege of Thomas Hughes through Athlone in October 1924 (Athlone Public Library). Hughes, an officer in the anti-Treaty IRA was executed in Custume Barracks, along with four of his comrades, in January 1923.
Following the end of the war, the government ordered a sweeping reduction in the size of the National Army, a decision that led, inadvertently, to renewed public calls for the remains of the executed to be returned to their families. With thousands of soldiers being demobilised, the army had no need for many of the buildings that it had occupied during the conflict and it relinquished control of locations around the country, including Tuam Workhouse, which was the site of six executions in April 1923 and two more a month later. Before the army departed the workhouse in August 1924, it exhumed the remains of the men buried there, which were then transferred to Athlone’s Custume Barracks for reburial. Those events were subsequently reported in the press, resulting in criticism of the government by local Catholic clergy and public bodies, all of whom demanded the return of the remains to their families.
The government responded by authorising exhumations at all the execution sites across the country. There was a danger, as recognised by W.T. Cosgrave and his cabinet, that the subsequent handover ceremonies could lead to anti-government demonstrations and, in an attempt to avoid such scenes, he ordered that all the bodies were to be returned on a single day. In total, 81 bodies were handed over: 77 members of the anti-Treaty IRA and four men, often described as ‘civilians’, who were executed in 1923 after being found guilty of armed robbery.
Most of the exhumations occurred between August and October 1924. National Army work parties dug up the graves at the execution sites and encased the remains in new coffins. In some places, the remains were then transferred elsewhere: for example, those executed in Donegal were sent to Athlone. Towards the end of that process, the government issued a public notice telling relatives of the executed men to inform the army of their intention to ‘claim the remains’.
On the day selected for the return of the bodies, 28 October 1924, similar scenes were played out at numerous locations: Athlone (for more on the Athlone executions, see here), Carlow, Cork, the Curragh, Dublin, Dundalk, Ennis, Limerick, Kilkenny, Mullingar (for more on the Mullingar executions, see here), Roscrea, Tralee, Waterford and Wexford. The largest ceremony was in Athlone where remains from multiple execution sites were handed over for reburial. Later that week, during the reburials of the executed men, there were clashes between mourners and government forces. The most serious incident occurred at Dundalk’s Dowdallshill Cemetery, when soldiers and members of the funeral cortege exchanged gunfire. A civilian, Joseph Hughes, was fatally wounded, becoming another casualty of the conflict that had divided the Irish Free State.
The Atlas of the Irish Civil War (Cork University Press), edited by Hélène O’Keeffe, John Crowley, Donal Ó Drisceoil, John Borgonovo and Mike Murphy, presents new perspectives on many aspects of the conflict.
Dáil Éireann debates; University College Dublin Archives – Richard Mulcahy Papers and Ernie O’Malley Papers; Irish Independent, Freeman’s Journal, Offaly Independent, Poblacht na hÉireann, Westmeath Examiner and Westmeath Independent. For further detail, see John Burke’s, Athlone 1900-1923: politics, revolution and civil war (The History Press, 2015); Colm Campbell, Emergency Law in Ireland, 1918-1925 (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994); Michael Hopkinson, Green against Green: the Irish Civil War (Gill & Macmillan, 2004); Uinseann MacEoin, Survivors (Argenta Publications, 1987); Breen Timothy Murphy, The Government’s Executions Policy during the Irish Civil War, 1922-1923 (Unpublished PhD Thesis, NUI Maynooth, 2010); William Murphy, ‘Imprisonment during the Civil War’ in the Atlas of the Irish Revolution, edited by John Crowley, Donal Ó Drisceoil and Mike Murphy, with associate editor John Borgonovo (Cork University Press, 2017); and Eleven Galway Martyrs (Tuam Herald, 1985).
Content Last Updated/Reviewed: 31/10/2024