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Galway family called Tersse. This place
is situated about two miles and a half
east of WV
military were marching on us.
a Council of War, “and some
officers were for disbanding, but
Liam didn’t know what to do. He w
afraid that those who wanted to disband
would be-in the m .
“ ri tell you what we will do,’ he
said, “* we will kneel down and pray for
inspirat ion.
Phis as agreed to, and when the
prayer was over someone suggested that
we put it before the men and leave it to
ther Of course we had agreed by this
time that all the officers remain and fight;
t the case before the men and told
them "that any man who didn’t deem it
advisable to remain and fight could
bout 200 left us then, but no military
came, -
ext night (Thursday), about 10.30, a
messenger, who always pretended to be
a most extreme Republican and a splen-
did fighter, came to us with an awtul
Something like half of the British
army and all the ins England could
command were coming to crush the rt
in Galway, who had about two digpiice
some revolvers,
‘big gu
80 shotguns, 4o rifles,
miniature rifles, and some harmless
bomb: Liam told this fellow that we
dam said 2
monger shook his
wise fashion and said,
very entirely.””
I'am ashamed to .
anxious to disband
young,
Our commandant,
was the most
advice which the bogus despatch bearer
(on
gave); the majority of the offi
also in favour of it, Li
than agree to disbandment, handed over
command. — The commandant, who was
so anxious for Liam to disband the men,
when the command was handed over to
him, refused to disband the men. After
about an hour, Liam took over command
again and called for Volunteers to ¢o out
roads in search of the enemy.
got as many and more than he required,
»
sent that
if they were not back within two hours
that we would take it that they were cap-
tured or shot. They were all back from
the different directions inside of two
hours with word that there was no sign
of the enemy in any place
. On Friday evening we got word from
ne of our scouts that goo soldiers were
after arriving in Attymon, and Liam
announced this to the men, and asked
t_swould we do. Should we
them
retreat in order, or disband, and with one
voice they shoute
“We will stick t togethe er.??
We tetreated towards Clare. Poor
ciam! IT can picture bin getting the
party into procession First, the
of the men marching, en the
e and
e rear
as
many soldiers marching on us and would
be on in about “two hour:
Liam !_ He sat on the floor with his back
to the wall, and “fell asleep. Each of the
officers were asked what was his opinion,
and naturally everyone agreed that under
@ circumstances it would be more rash-
ness than bravery to bring our men, who
were very badly armed, to face more than
twice our number of well armed men.
But then it was “suggested to ask the
what he had
When fae woke he apologised
for going to sleep, and said he still held
the same opinion, that he brought out
the men to fight and not to run away,
It was pointed out to him by the priest
that it would be criminal to bring his
men against such odds to be slaughtered.
Liam said it would be better to die fight-
even against big odds than be shot
like rabbits running through the c
Then he said that he had had no ecleep
for three nights, and that if the men were
disbanded he would sleep in that house
till the soldiers came and then fight till
the end. Then the priest remarked that
it was all the same to him, that ‘he would
shot anyhow. The Priest then dis-
banded the men, and Oh! such a scene.
T hope I will never have to witness such
a scene again fellows rushing here and
there, and poor Liam going amongst
them bidding everyone good-bye.
I stood aside and watched the scene,
and began to think wi ithin
“Here we
other one where the would go, and no one
sinn fein
bothering about te man who hhad done
so much for decided to stay
with him in that hone ‘whatever the con-
sequences, just mention this as an
explanation of how we came
together after.
When they were all gone he came
bid me good-bye, and when I told him I
was going to stay with him—Ah, can I
ever forget it] bok my hand in both
his and looked me in the eyes, and said
from his heart out, ‘* God bless you.”?
When everyone was gone
motor which the driver was try
organiser, AIP}
ing with Liam,
getting ready to go into the house,
Liam ‘sugwested that after all it would be
better for everyone and everything,
the ¢ were out
for, not to stay o—that we
could mak the | open.
So we left it . nd pe
decided on the latter mre told v
that it the wife vind
y the time we
the motor was ready
commandeered motor
high road. There
going into the hou:
e we were in.
road we start
as only then we thought
at least twenty-four hou
since we had anything to The first
house we came to we aroused the eccus
pants and got them to make tea for us;
hi meat and were
out 2
e us some
nice to us. It
aturday.
a.m.,
We then took across the elds and
travelling about one and half hours
when we struck a road ‘within about 100
yards from a police barrac! We
rambled along the road till we came to
the hou: fa friend whom we knew:
this was in a place called
about three miles outside
was no one in the house P
brothers who occupied the only bed the
house could boast. They got t uP, had the
for us, ed us no
insisted on us going 6
went to bed and slept till 10.3
that night. We then changed to another
house, ‘and stayed there till Monday night.
three of us slept in one bed in a
small room, and on Monday morning, a
girl came to the house of cut potatoes for
setting. OF c had to be locked
in the room for the most part of the day,
but it was very amusing listening to that
id.
young | account of the Rising, and
especially about Liam's part in it. S
was actually bursting with news. — I
never knew anyone who wanted to say
much in n time. She started
off something tike th
2
6
“Oh, Mom, did ye hear about the risin’ ?
O they started lootin’ and robbin’ nd mur-
therin’ and thin they all scattered an’ thcy
all pad German goold in their pockets.
‘They ran away from the peelers and I
Mellons eshkaed dressed up like a woman,
he was a very good lookin’ feller, ye
know, but if they catch him they'll riddle
him wid bullets.
We had a jo to suppress our laughter.
That evening about 5 o’clock the peelers
ventured out the first time for a week ; went
around the village, which was about 2 miles
ss from us. col them from
open boxes, everything they could think of.
But just as this was going on a fellow (who
was an old member of the volunteers) came
up outside our window and was talking to
the woman of the house, and this is some-
thing like how he got ot
Now what do you think of the Volun,
teers? This is what they brought us, an
the peelers are below in the village and ie
breaking
bringing them off to
ruined for ever, that’s what we got th
Volunteers. Now where is Melons wid his
drilling and his brassy buttons and
uniform? Sure, there isn’t a » tinker that
comes along but is made much of here
3
5
Sure, 1 often tould them, but twas no
good, ev'll pay for it.’”? That poor
fellow wil never know how near he was to
getting what he deserved. Liam himself
told me that fellow was the first to greet
him with a shake of hands when he used
to come along.
That night we retreated further up the
mountain to a kind of hut or cattle shelter.
It was roofed with scraws, or sods which
only kept_out. the..sunshine;~it “certainly
remained
there, I think, about a week, and the man
in whose house we were before that brought
us something to eat every night a1
clock when it was da metimes. it
would be potatoes, and cabbage ; the cal
bage was served up in a jam pot—and other
times potatoes and salt, whatever the poor
man could supply. He was expecting the
peelers to come for himself, and he re-
mained hiding out in n the furze till dark and
30d bless
The man who owne
y when he found
pretended to be
He was afraid he would get
“if we were found i in his hut so
is for us.
a fact that the peclers
mountain to-morrow.
it for
were to come up th
ame with certain infor-
would come first thing in
evening he
that ue y
One
further up and that if we went uy there he
would bring us a sap of hay. He must have
thoaght we could live on I
sked us were we getting any food,
must be starved”? was always his ery,
brow:
wand water alone
during the time we were th
glad to get it, but one would req’
as hungry as we were to eat it
a small quantity of straw in
place and it was infested with mice, and
x Liam was very nervous of them. At
nig night when he used lie down to sleep we
hear them gnawing the straw under
r Liam’ would rise up and
° his
There was
a corner of. this
our heads.
you're \ but he
sooner have his head down than he would
hear the same chewi ing 8 going on, They an-
noyed him very much.
Then during the day with nothing to
read, or light to read with, he used to amuse
us with stories of his adventures and some-
stories about some fine feeds he had some-
where or other. But for Liam’s stories our
lives would be very miserable indeed.
However, on the morning we promised to
be gone, we got up early (I might mention
we were always ul with the daylight) put
we looked ou. and it was raining.
said, ‘* I don’t Tike the idea of going oat in in
that
we y
sleep in
may mean certain death to us all, and if we
stay in we have a sporting chance. What
have you, lads, to sav to that ?’? Monaghan
agreed with him, and of course I wasn’t go-
ing to run away by myself. So we agreed
to run the risk of being surrounded and shot
Lecause we would not be taken alive. We
e watch out all that day, and in
the poor wretch who
me ‘lone and saw us still
he nearly fainte:
During the time we were in this hut an
incident happened which made a great im-
vression on us all there. One morning T
awoke and it was jet day-light. I could
tell by the ¢ S the wall and the slits
in the shelter of an old window, or what
was intended for such. I looked around
and saw my two comrades lying asleep, but
elf ‘
ce!
1 said to re is the other man.
I suppose he has: gone outside. ofovtsiae
meant the tt mere the tle were:
Where we were s] was divided from
the stable by a low art ion). I waited for
a while to hear him coming in. When I
woke up properly I knew that there were
only three of us, but during the day I was
troubled with the thought wat there should
be four, and for him. I
and “ME
°
about it but
ne notic . everal | mornings ‘aft ter I
had the same 2 fee lin; ne day Liam
told me that the same thing troubled him,
but he didn’t like to say anything about it.
Then Alf told us that he had got the same
feeling about the Fourth If
told Liam
Man. He will make it alright.’’ The Fourth
Man became a kind of reality with us,
One evening we decided that we would
were awe sheep ‘logs
‘ing to venture
into the house lest there would be visitors,
Liam thought of a plan to make the dogs
as the haggard. There w
in the haggard, and not ¢:
Saturday, April 26, 1924.
bark. He walked into where they were,
and the dogs nevet stirre d. He then got up
a stone and flung it at them. Tt was no
good. They sought shelter the other side of
a sheep cock. came back to us swear-
ing he never ‘saw such a pair of fools of
dogs. “Tf T didn’t want the fo, bar rk
they would bark,” he said. He then stole
over to the corner of the house, any when
he saw he could safely do so, rept 3s
far as the front window an
There was a visitor inside. He then thought
of another plan: he got up a stone and
hopped it outside the door and fled back to
where we were ve awaited events. The
plan worked adm’ When the woman
ot the house heard “he noise she understood
e had three haversacks and got
those filed, bid good-bye to our dear, kind
friends, and went back to our hut for our
last sleep there.
We set out next morning at about 3. 39;
and just in order to have a destination in
view we said ve woul jake for Scariff, a
Tlace in Co. Clare had.a road map
d- compass Sat an woes torch. We
ked xbrough bow and mountain till about
6 o'clock, wher me across a big wood.
In’t like to venture any
We di her tl
day as the people were beginning to stir
about. We had our breakt st from the
haversack, and moved further into the
wood. soon came © a stream running
through the wood and stripped and had a
, the first for nearly a fortnigt
vasa our ollars and handkerc!
we remained in the wood till it got dark.
We had about 4ozs. of bread left after
breakfast and we devoured that in the
evening. It got dark about 8 o'clock, and
ncross a rough mountain. We
we set out
al
n't ch other after a short w' ble.
nt most of the day learning the
off the ma p so could hit the road from
ne mountain. We knew every turn from
‘a 2 this dark mountain we were
able to keep our course. We tried to
get a glinse at the compass by the torch
out it got broken. So there we were trust-
ing to The Fourth Man to “ide us aright,
and, as events turned out, trust was not in
We got out on a road but we were n
sure was it
to some houses. Alf went into one and
asked the road to Scarriff, pt he was in-
vited to stay for the night an about
6-6 high, that he could not Pacel the night.
came out
to us and, in the course ofc our conversation,
we told him what we were
“Yerra, boys,’ he says, ‘ but ye were
very lucky. There’s a peeler living next
door to me, and he’s home on lave,
you w int into his house he'd surely suspect
you.’
Alf calmly told him it was the peeler
who was lucky this ‘time.
He directed us to keep on straight till
age and then turn to the
right. We followed his directions and
turned to the right at a village, I think the
name was Kilfinane, but, just after turning
to the right, we saw a black object on the
left hand side of the road. We thought it
dark.
waited in readiness, but after a bit he carne
back to us very disappointed and told
it was only an old ass. Alf’s humot
came forth. He said that for once in his
life he may be thankful he was an ass and
not a pecler.
We kept walking up a mountain road.
till about 12.30, we could go no further,
We were weary and hungry. We looked
rest, we had to climb i on our hands
and knees, it would be about eet a
the road. We could find nowhere on this
