Director of Intelligence of the Irish Republican Army (1917–1922)
| Image | Name | Assumed position | Left position | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eamonn Duggan | August 1917 | January 1919 | [1] | |
| Michael Collins | January 1919 | 1922 | [2] |
The Director of Intelligence attempted to oversee the workings of intelligence officers in the IRA's local units across the island.
| Image | Name | Assumed position | Left position | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eamonn Duggan | August 1917 | January 1919 | [1] | |
| Michael Collins | January 1919 | 1922 | [2] |
| Image | Name | Assumed position | Left position | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Joseph Griffin [a] | 26 March 1922 | 1 August 1922 | [3] | |
| Sean Hyde [b] | October 1922 | December 1922 | [4] | |
| Michael Carolan | August 1922 | July 1925 | [5] | |
| Frank Kerlin | July 1925 | March 1927 | [6] [7] | |
| Seán MacBride | circa 1927 | cira 1929 | [8] | |
| Mick Price | circa 1929 | 1933 | [9] [10] | |
| Seán MacBride | 1933 | 1936 | [11] | |
| Sean O'Brien | 1937 | ? | [12] | |
| Willie McGuinness | 1939 | ? | [13] | |
| Gerard O'Reilly | 1942 | ? | [14] | |
| Significant gap in information | ||||
| Sean O'Bradaigh | 1966 | ? | [15] | |
| Seán Mac Stíofáin | 1966 | 1969 | [16] | |
a. ^ Griffin was Director of Intelligence of the IRA's Four Courts General Headquarters
b. ^ Hyde was Director of Intelligence of the IRA's Field Headquarters General Headquarters
| Image | Name | Assumed position | Left position | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kieran Conway | late 1974 | 1975 | [17] | |
| Seamus Twomey | January 1982 | ? | [18] | |
| Bobby Storey | late 1990s? | 2005? | [19] [20] | |
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary paramilitary organisation. The ancestor of many groups also known as the Irish Republican Army, and distinguished from them as the "Old IRA", it was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916. In 1919, the Irish Republic that had been proclaimed during the Easter Rising was formally established by an elected assembly, and the Irish Volunteers were recognised by Dáil Éireann as its legitimate army. Thereafter, the IRA waged a guerrilla campaign against the British occupation of Ireland in the 1919–1921 Irish War of Independence.
Michael Collins was an Irish revolutionary, soldier and politician who was a leading figure in the early-20th century struggle for Irish independence. During the War of Independence he was Director of Intelligence of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and a government minister of the self-declared Irish Republic. He was then Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State from January 1922 and commander-in-chief of the National Army from July until his death in an ambush in August 1922, during the Civil War.
Seán MacBride was an Irish Clann na Poblachta politician who served as Minister for External Affairs from 1948 to 1951, Leader of Clann na Poblachta from 1946 to 1965 and Chief of Staff of the IRA from 1936 to 1937. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1947 to 1957.
Seán Francis MacEntee was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Tánaiste from 1959 to 1965, Minister for Social Welfare from 1957 to 1961, Minister for Health from 1957 to 1965, Minister for Local Government and Public Health from 1941 to 1948, Minister for Industry and Commerce from 1939 to 1941, Minister for Finance from 1932 to 1939 and 1951 to 1954. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1918 to 1969. At the time of his death, he was the last surviving member of the First Dáil.
Seán Mac Eoin was an Irish Fine Gael politician and soldier who served as Minister for Defence briefly in 1951 and from 1954 to 1957, Minister for Justice from 1948 to 1951, and Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces from February 1929 to October 1929. He served as a Teachta Dála (TD) from 1921 to 1923, and from 1929 to 1965.
The Gaelic revival was the late-nineteenth-century national revival of interest in the Irish language and Irish Gaelic culture. Irish had diminished as a spoken tongue, remaining the main daily language only in isolated rural areas, with English having become the dominant language in the majority of Ireland.
Denis McCullough was a prominent Irish nationalist political activist in the early 20th century, who served as President of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) from 1915 to 1916.
Several people are reported to have served as Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army in the organisations bearing that name. Due to the clandestine nature of these organisations, this list is not definitive.
Maurice Twomey was an Irish republican and the longest serving chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
Seán Russell was an Irish republican who participated in the Easter Rising of 1916, held senior positions in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War, and was Chief of Staff of the IRA from c. 1938 to April 1939 upon the onset of World War II. It was under Russell's leadership that the IRA began the Sabotage Campaign, in which the group began bombing civil, economic and military infrastructure in the United Kingdom, primarily England, between 1939 and 1940. In the same period, Russell actively collaborated with Nazi Germany; In early 1940 he travelled to Germany, where he personally met with German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and spent 3 months training in the use of explosives. In August 1940 Russell was to return to Ireland as part of a joint IRA/German plan entitled Operation Dove, however, Russell died aboard a Kriegsmarine U-boat transporting him home following a sudden stomach illness and he was subsequently buried at sea.
The Irish Republican Army of 1922–1969, an anti-Treaty sub-group of the original Irish Republican Army (1919–1922), fought against the British-backed Irish Free State in the Irish Civil War, and its successors up to 1969, when the IRA split again into the Provisional IRA and Official IRA. The original Irish Republican Army fought a guerrilla war against British rule in Ireland in the Irish War of Independence between 1919 and 1921. Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921, the IRA in the 26 counties that were to become the Irish Free State split between supporters and opponents of the Treaty. The anti-Treatyites, sometimes referred to by Free State forces as "Irregulars", continued to use the name "Irish Republican Army" (IRA) or in Irish Óglaigh na hÉireann, as did the organisation in Northern Ireland which originally supported the pro-Treaty side. Óglaigh na hÉireann was also adopted as the name of the pro-Treaty National Army, and remains the official legal title of the Irish Defence Forces.
The IRA Quartermaster General (QMG) oversaw the acquisition, concealment and maintenance of weaponry for the Irish Republican Army since its foundation in 1919. His department worked closely with the Engineering in the development of weapons.
David Neligan, known by his soubriquet "The Spy in the Castle", was a crucial figure involved in the Irish War of Independence (1919–21) and subsequently became Director of Intelligence for the Irish Army after the Irish Civil War (1922–23).
The Northern campaign was a series of attacks by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) Northern Command between September 1942 and December 1944 against the security forces in Northern Ireland. The action taken by the Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland governments as a result of these attacks shattered the IRA and resulted in the former being free from IRA activity by the end of World War II.
Charles Hurley was Officer Commanding of the 3rd Cork Brigade of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921)
Joseph McKelvey was an Irish Republican Army officer who was executed during the Irish Civil War without trial or courts martial. He participated in the Anti-Treaty IRA's repudiation of the authority of the Dáil Éireann, the civil government of the Irish Republic declared in 1919 in March 1922, and was elected to the IRA Army Executive. In April 1922, he helped command the occupation of the Four Courts in defiance of the new Irish Free State. This action helped to spark the civil war, between pro- and anti-treaty factions. McKelvey was among the most hardline of the republican side and, briefly in June 1922, became IRA Chief of Staff.
The Dunmanway killings, also known as the Bandon Valley Killings, the Dunmanway murders or the Dunmanway massacre, refers to the killing of fourteen males in and around Dunmanway, County Cork and Bandon Valley, between 26–28 April 1922. This happened in a period of truce after the end of the Irish War of Independence and before the outbreak of the Irish Civil War in June 1922. Of the fourteen dead and missing, thirteen Protestants including one Methodist and one was Roman Catholic, which has led to the killings being described as sectarian. Six were killed as purported British informers and loyalists, while four others were relatives killed in the absence of the target. Three other men were kidnapped and executed in Bandon as revenge for the killing of an IRA officer Michael O'Neill during an armed raid. One man was shot and survived his injuries.
Con Lehane was a left-wing nationalist, a 1930s member of the IRA Army Council, solicitor, actor and politician.
Maurice O'Neill was an Irish Republican Army (IRA) Captain, captured in 1942 after a shoot out with Irish police, and promptly tried and executed, one of only two people executed in independent Ireland for a non-murder offence.
