|
. . . The key factor, it seemed
to Liam, was the unemployed, largely ex-soldiers – his kind of
people. He clashed with the leadership of the CPI over this. He advocated
supporting the workers who
were taking over factories in several parts of the country, especially at
Cork Harbour
and in Limerick. But this suggestion was
turned down on the grounds that Communists did not lead putsches.
Liam took his case onto the
streets. He was already a familiar figure, selling left-wing papers such
as The Workers’ Republic (which he edited) from a stand in O’Connell Street.
In January the Treaty was ratified, after divisive debate, in the Dáil;
and on 16 January the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State
(which many saw as a rejection of the 1916 provisional government of the Irish Republic) was constituted. Two
days later, on Wednesday January 18, Liam, with two hundred of the
city’s unemployed, seized the Rotunda Concert Hall and Pillar Room
(now the Gate Theatre). The crowd’s reaction to the red flag flying
from the building was unwelcoming. They were held back by a cordon of DMP
and Republican Police (the IRA supporting
the government). Liam became the sensation of the city, and as Chairman
of the Council of the Unemployed was interviewed by the newspapers. The
crowds grew uglier and shots were fired over their heads from the
building. On Saturday, having held out for four days, Liam and his men
left the Rotunda. He fled, with two companions, south to Cork.
This incident was merely one
symptom of the general disorder in the country, which was reflected in
countless strikes and stoppages of all kinds. In February the new
National Army was established by the government, but this soon came into
collision with the IRA which opposed the treaty. On April 14, Rory
O’Connor seized the Four Courts; other anti-Treatyites took over
other buildings in Dublin.
The standoff between the two sides continued. In June Liam returned from
the south. He was now writing for Republican papers such as The Plain
People: an article on Larkin’s imprisonment in America (a cause
close to Liam’s brother Tom) appeared on June 18. Ten days later,
following the murder of General Wilson in London, the government’s
hand was forced. The new army fired on their former comrades in the Four
Courts and the Civil War began in real earnest.
The members of the Communist
Party were also members of the Irish Citizen Army and joined several of
the garrisons in the city supporting
O’Connor. Liam was one of those occupying Vaughan’s Hotel, a
rambling set of houses on the corner of Parnell Square and Granby Row
– this had been a haunt of Collins and other Republicans during the
earlier troubles. Other Communists were in Moran’s Hotel and in the
Hammam Hotel in O’Connell Street.
On June 30, after a
tremendous explosion, the Four Courts garrison surrendered. The
government was gaining ground in the city. On July 4 Liam’s ICA
unit was disbanded, and the next day he was able to witness the final
drive by the National Army against the Republicans in the city centre
hotels. Rumours were flying around the city that he had been shot the day
before in Capel Street.
Still with his revolver, he
fled the country, taking ship – like his own assassin –
through police watches on the trains and ships. On July 9 he arrived in
Liverpool, and met up with Jim Phelan. Liam spoke alternately of going to
America and of joining the fight in the mountains of the south of
Ireland. However, he did neither. . .
|