Читать книгу Ruairí Ó Brádaigh - Robert W. White - Страница 20

7

Marriage and Ending the Border Campaign

JUNE 1959—FEBRUARY 1962

AFTER THE COMMEMORATION at Bodenstown, the IRA went back to the campaign and Sinn FCin started working on the upcoming Westminster election, which was scheduled for October. The 1955 Westminster election had given the movement a tremendous lift, but by 1959 the situation had changed markedly. During an IRA military campaign, harassment increases and electioneering is especially difficult; the ban on Sinn FCin that the northern government imposed in December 1956 made campaigning all but impossible. Candidates could run only as generic “Republicans,” for example. In the fall of 1959, according to The United Irishman, Republican organizers were “dragged into police stations and beaten up.” When they tried to canvass an area they were stopped by the police, searched, let go, and then stopped and searched again and so on, every several hundred yards.

Sinn Fdin’s best chances were in Fermanagh-South Tyrone and MidUlster, where Phil Clarke and Tom Mitchell won in 1955 and where there were still Nationalist majorities. Mitchell, who was still in Crumlin Road Prison, was again nominated for Mid-Ulster. Another prisoner, Henry Martin, was nominated for Fermanagh-South Tyrone. The highs of 1955 were not repeated; Sinn FCin’s vote fell from 152,000 to 64,000 and Unionists were elected in each constituency. The Nationalist Party, which did not put forward candidates, blamed Sinn FCin’s “disastrous intervention" for the Unionist victories. Sinn FCin blamed it on “intimidation and the operation of the North’s Special Powers Act.” Unionists described Sinn FCin’s decreased vote “as a rejection of violence by the northern minority.” The election was a harbinger of things to come for the Republican Movement.

In contrast to the disappointing election results, Ó Brádaigh’s personal life was going well. While on the run, he had continued to call on Patsy O’Connor. After the Curragh was closed, he saw her more frequently, and they were wed on October 3, 1959, in the Church of the Sacred Heart in Roscommon. Ruairí’s best man was his brother Sein. Patsy’s first cousin, Mairead O’Connor, was bridesmaid. The bride and groom’s families attended, as did a number of people from the Republican Movement, including Dhithi O’Connell. While on the run earlier in the year, Ó Brádaigh and O’Connell had arrived unannounced at the home of Ruairí’s Uncle Eugene and Aunt Margaret in Dublin, where O’Connell met Deirdre Caffrey; their first date was the Ó Brádaigh-O’Connor wedding.

Patsy knew what she was getting into. Even though he had tried to conceal his activities, by 1959 everyone in Ireland knew that Ruairí Ó Brádaigh was a prominent member of the IRA. In fact, Ruairí’s involvement did make Patsy nervous. But she agreed with his politics, they had been informally engaged since 1956, and she wanted to marry him. Unemployed as a teacher, Ruairí was essentially working full-time, at no pay, for the Republican Movement. Because there was no end in sight to the campaign, they agreed that instead of getting their own place she would continue to live in a flat she shared with other women; their life together took a back seat to his politics. The biggest issue they faced involved not Ruairí’s activism but the treatment of married women under Irish law. When Patsy married, she forfeited the right to work full-time as a teacher. She applied for a “temporary" full-time position and was allowed to continue teaching while the Roscommon Vocational Educational Committee and the minister for education considered her request. After a brief honeymoon in West Cork and Kerry, Patsy returned to her flat and work. Ruairí returned to the IRA and continued to move from place to place. He was not on the run, but the police knew who he was and the threat of arrest was real.

The IRA was strongest in the border areas, and most of its activities were there. To expand the campaign, they tried to reorganize other areas, including the area around Lough Neagh in County Tyrone. On the night of November loth, Diithi O’Connell, J. B. O’Hagan, and a local Republican, Mark Devlin, were walking along a road outside Ardboe when they passed a parked laundry van. Later, the van drove by and parked on a side road, and RUC men and B Specials set up an ambush. As O’Hagan, O’Connell, and Devlin walked by, the police shouted at them to stop. O’Hagan and Devlin did, putting up their hands. O’Connell took off running and in a hail of bullets was shot six times, twice in the lower chest and superficially in four other places. He kept running through the rough countryside and finally arrived at a farmhouse, knocked on the door, and identified himself as “the police.” The lady of the house let him in and the RUC found him, exhausted, bloody, and seated by the fire. He lost his spleen, suffered damage to a kidney, and eventually joined O’Hagan and Devlin in Crumlin Road Prison. Among his regular visitors were his mother and Deirdre Caffrey. The loss of O’Hagan and O’Connell hurt the IRA. The shooting marks the end of the IRA’S ability to operate effectively away from the border.

Ó Brádaigh met Patsy in Roscommon on the weekend of November 20–22. On the 22nd, they paid their respects to the headmaster of their school, who had passed away. After the service they were walking out of the church gounds and past the local Garda barracks when a group of police officers approached Ruairí. A detective sergeant told him that he suspected Ó Brádaigh was “in possession of information" and arrested him under Section 30 of the Offenses Against the State Act. As they entered the police station, Ruairí noticed that Patsy, who was pregnant, looked pale. He was asked twenty-four standard questions, including questions on his movements since the wedding. He remained silent and was held overnight. Patsy returned to her flat.

The next evening, with Ó Brádaigh in the Roscommon Garda station, the Roscommon Vocational Education Committee met and considered Patsy’s request for a temporary full-time job. The chief executive officer, Mr. Ó Meiscill, informed the committee that the minister for education had rejected her request but had sanctioned her for a part-time position. The committee agreed to hire her. Ó Meiscill also informed the committee that Ruairí’s salary was budgeted for the upcoming school year, indicating that his job was being held for him. Although he was being held in Roscommon Garda Station, the committee made public its support for Ó Brádaigh. Members of the committee represented a variety of political approaches, including Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and independents. The local Protestant minister was a member of the committee. Irrespective of their own politics, and the Ó Brádaighs’ politics, committee members respected Ruairí and Patsy as people and as educators.

On Friday, November 27th, Ó Brádaigh was driven from Mountjoy to Ballymahon, Longford, where he again faced charges under the Offenses Against the State Act (for failing to answer questions). A large crowd, carrying signs that read, “Release Our T.D.” and “Stop This Collaboration with England,” stood outside the courthouse. Inside, Ó Brádaigh refused to recognize the court but reserved the right to cross-examine witnesses and make a statement. A detective sergeant testified that he had arrested Ó Brádaigh “under orders.” Ó Brádaigh used this to charge that Fianna Fáil was using the Offenses Against the State Act to “to silence me as a public representative.” He asked rhetorically if he had been stopped and questioned only because the authorities knew he would refuse to answer and therefore be subject to imprisonment. The response: he was found guilty and sentenced to six months in Mountjoy.

In Mountjoy, he experienced the low point of this period of his life. In early December, a letter arrived from his mother with the news that Patsy had suffered a miscarriage. The news hit him hard; in jail, he could not comfort his wife. He had been an idealistic newlywed filled with dreams about his future family. Distressed, he cried in his cell. In and of itself, prison was not a problem. Given the times, Ó Brádaigh had expected rearrest and knew how to cope with prison life. But being unable to help Patsy was hard. It was the only thing in the course of his early career as a Republican that truly upset him. A high point of his stay was Sein Mac Eoin’s statement that while he disagreed with Ó Brádaigh’s ppolitics, his credentials as a T D representing a particular viewpoint could not be questioned. Mac Eoin added that while Ó Brádaigh had appeared publicly in several places, he had been arrested at a private funeral. Another positive was that when he was released, on May 26th, 1960, he was met by his Aunt Margaret rather than a tap on the shoulder and internment. On the way to Longford they were met by crowds in Ballinalack, Rathowen, and Mostrim and then escorted into Longford town by a band and fleet of cars for an enthusiastic public meeting.

The stay in Mountjoy had not deterred him. On Sunday, May 29th, following a Longford-Dublin football match, Ó Brádaigh addressed more than 2,000 people attending a Sinn Féin rally in Mullingar. When he was heckled by a plainclothes police officer, who kept shouting “Up Dev [de Valera]" and “Up Mac Eoin,” the chairman of the rally informed the crowd of the heckler’s occupation; the officer moved out of the crowd. Ó Brádaigh thanked those present for their support and thanked the Longford District Urban Council and the Granard Town commissioners, who had publicly protested against his arrest and imprisonment. Most important, he commented on a resolution that had been passed by Roscommon County Council while he was in Mountjoy. As an amendment to a motion “deploring the continued operation of the Offenses Against the State Act,” the resolution called for the four Sinn Féin TDs to take their seats in Leinster House. It was rejected by Sinn Féin at the time. Now out of prison, Ó Brádaigh also rejected the resolution. In his comments, he explained why he opposed participation in Leinster House and said that he would continue to uphold the policy that the electorate of Longford-Westmeath had endorsed: “I will sit only in an all-Ireland Parliament.”

Sinn Féin rally in Longford, probably the May 1960 rally welcoming Ó Brádaigh home after his release from Mountjoy Prison. Ó Brádaigh family collection.

Ruairl Ó Brádaigh is a remarkably consistent person. The position he took that day on participation in Leinster House is the position he holds today. To him, participation in Leinster House was (and is) illogical at its most fundamental level. He told the crowd, “Sinn FCin aims at abolishing both the Leinster House and Stormont Parliaments, and substituting for them an All-Ireland Republican Parliament. How could Sinn FCin contribute towards the abolition of the 26-County Parliament by sitting in it and actually consolidating it?” In electing him, his constituents had endorsed his abstentionism. Even though he was a TD, he had been accosted on the street, arrested, and sent to jail simply because he refused to compromise his principles and recognize the authority of the 26-county state. The Roscommon resolution was asking the Sinn FCin TDs to “[albandon your principles and programme and do as we do; surrender, then you may be immune from arrest and imprisonment.” Ó Brádaigh wanted no part of this kind of quid pro quo: “I refuse to become a party politician of the 26-County brand, and will continue to uphold the policy which the electorate of Longford-Westmeath have endorsed. I will sit only in an AllIreland Parliament and will continue to strive to make such an institution a living reality.” For Ó Brádaigh, participation in Leinster House would only delay the Republic of Wolfe Tone. His proof lay in the actions of Leinster House politicians, who seemed more interested in maintaining the status quo than in ending partition or helping the people of Ireland. “Your elected representative has gone to jail and he has returned. What good has his imprisonment done to this country or the people of this country?" he asked. “Has one person been placed in employment as a result; has one family been stopped from closing its house-if it had one-and emigrating to England or America? No good has been done to anyone, but the British Government has been appeased and the Border has been guaranteed.”

When he was arrested, Ó Brádaigh was replaced as adjutant general. An IRA convention had been organized for late spring, and he was released from Mountjoy in time to attend the general headquarters unit convention, which was held about ten days before the general convention. At the unit convention, he was selected as a delegate to the general convention. The general convention was held in June in County Meath and attracted more than 100 delegates. At the start, Ó Brádaigh was elected to chair the convention. As it had been for McLogan the year before, it was not an easy job. In 1959, the Curragh issue had dominated the convention. In 1960, the big issue was whether or not to continue the campaign. The Cork unit put forth a motion to end the campaign; Frank Skuse argued “that the campaign stood no chance of success, that its continuation would only further weaken the movement and prevent the early release of prisoners in English jails, that it was time to call a halt, hold on to any gains and conserve the remaining resources of the movement.” Sehn Cronin, who had spent the year reorganizing the IRA, strongly opposed the motion. Cronin believed the army was in a position to repeat the successes of December 1956 and early 1957. Ó Brádaigh also opposed the motion, but as he saw it, his job was to run the convention, not to publicly support one or another argument-to “put the facts on the table and let’s make an assessment of it.” Cronin responded to Skuse’s argument by calling it “pure vituperation" and called for continuing support for the campaign. Tony Magan then criticized the campaign, sarcastically commenting that it was never meant to be a series of incidents along the border. Cronin, upset, jumped up to respond, only to have Ó Brádaigh allow Magan to finish his point. As far as Ó Bthdaigh was concerned, everyone would receive a fair hearing or they could get a new convention chairman. In the end, the motion received two votes-from Skuse and Derry City- and failed.

Near the end of the convention there were two resolutions that Ó Brádaigh strongly opposed. The first would allow the IRA to attack British warships when they came into 26-county ports. The second would allow the IRA to attack British forces when they were found in the Twenty-Six Counties. It was understood that if British soldiers pursued the IRA across the border, IRA members could defend themselves. The second resolution would allow the IRA to ambush British forces along concession roads, which run from the Twenty-Six Counties into the Six Counties and back out to the Twenty-Six Counties and so on. British forces were using them, and some people in the IRA wanted to stage ambushes in the 26-county sections of the roads. Ó Brádaigh was opposed because he feared this would draw the IRA into open conflict with the southern security forces and the Dublin government. Public opinion would support the government, which would come down hard on the movement. It is an unusual army that takes votes on its tactics, but the IRA is a voluntary organization. Both resolutions were passed.

Skuse was elected to the IRA Executive Council and Sehn Cronin and Ruairí Ó Brádaigh were unanimously elected by the Executive to membership on the Army Council. The council then re-elected Cronin as chief of staff. Ó Brádaigh disagreed enough with the two resolutions that he declined membership on the council and did not take a headquarters staff position. He did remain in the army. However, two days after the convention, Cronin was spotted by police, refused to answer questions, and ended up back in Mountjoy. The Army Executive approached Ó Brádaigh and asked him to be chief of staff. He was interested, but he was concerned about the two resolutions. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh is a detail person; he does not play loose with facts and he does not ignore procedures. A majority of the convention delegates had voted for the two resolutions. If he was to be chief of staff, he wanted an extraordinary IRA convention that would reverse them. The Executive felt that his request was impractical and suggested that he pretend they had never been passed. He turned them down. There is a pragmatic side to his approach to detail. He knew that at some point his authority might be challenged on either resolution. If a unit proposed an ambush and cited the resolutions, he would be caught in the middle and it could result in a dispute like the one caused by the Curragh mass escape. Ultimately, a compromise was reached. Security issues precluded another general convention, but there would be four provincial conventions (Leinster, Munster, Connacht, and Ulster) for the general convention delegates. At the provincial conventions, Ó Brádaigh’s position would be explained and delegates would be asked to agree to suspend the resolutions. The delegates accepted the suspension and Ó Brádaigh went ahead as chief of staff. Although he was not a member of the Army Council, the IRA Constitution allows the chief of staff (and the adjutant general and quartermaster) to participate in meetings but without the right to vote. He attended council meetings and had an important voice in their deliberations.

Cronin, a professional journalist, was editor of The United Irishman prior to his arrest in October 1958. The paper, a monthly, had a circulation of 120,000 copies. Sein Ó Brádaigh had replaced him as editor in 1958. In 1960, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh replaced him as editor. Like Cronin, he carefully organized his movements and his time. The Offenses Against the State Act precluded easy entry and exit from the paper’s office in Dublin. Cronin had set up couriers who picked up information at the office and delivered it to a drop house or returned it from the drop house to the office. Ó Brádaigh adopted his system. The United Irishman, a monthly, was put together during two periods of intense activity that required Ó Brádaigh’s presence in Dublin or nearby twice a month. Early in the month, he and his assistants would set a framework for the next edition; later in the month they would put it together. A group of regular contributors were assigned topics. In the office, the assistants went through the daily papers, such as the Irish Press, the Irish Times, and the Belfast Telegraph, and clipped relevant articles. Their other primary source of information was Irish radio; Irish television began broadcasting on New Year’s Eve 1961.

Even before Ó Brádaigh resumed the role chief of staff and became editor of The United Irishman, the movement was facing the 26-county local elections that were scheduled for June 1960. This election, in retrospect, was especially important because it signaled the beginning of a broader politics for Sinn FCin. In 1955, seven Sinn FCiners were elected to county councils; unlike the party’s Leinster House candidates, these candidates took their seats. The party’s philosophy was that participation in local government made Republicans more aware of everyday political issues facing the Irish people. This action was complemented by discussions that addressed issues of social and economic justice in the Curragh and in Crumlin Road Prison, Belfast. The discussions were part of a more general awareness that there were serious problems with the Irish economy. Ó Brádaigh’s comments at the rally in Roscommon in May, which mentioned problems with employment, emigration, and housing, were indicative of this development. On a personal level, he was very aware of economic hardship and poverty. In his early years, when his father was a councilor, people would call at the house, seeking help. He attended a rural primary school (Melview), where he mixed with the children of small farmers and agricultural laborers. In the movement and while canvassing for Sinn Ftin, he met people from all walks of life. Sinn Ftin’s involvement in local politics, the discussions in the Curragh, and personal interest in the welfare of people raised his awareness of social and economic issues.

Over the centuries, Republicans have never viewed physical force as the only method of bringing about the Republic. The prominence of physical force has waxed and waned over time. The 1916 Easter Rising was almost exclusively a military affair. In 1919–1922, the movement combined physical force with more traditional political agitation, which led to a partial Republic. In the 1930s, socialists such as Peadar O’Donnell, George Gilmore, and Frank Ryan called for radical social and economic reform; Ryan went to Spain as part of the International Brigade. In this period of rabid anticommunism, linking socialism with Republicanism led to disagreements, splits, and factions. The people who rebuilt the movement after the 1940s-Magan, Mac Curtiin, McLogan, Larry Grogan, and others-were incredibly wary of involvement in political agitation and did not want to be smeared with any association with communism. By the late 1950s, their influence was on the wane and events had demonstrated that the movement needed a broader focus. Sinn Ftin’s success in 1955 and 1957 contributed to a push for a broader agenda. This broadening was reflected in Sinn Ftin’s manifesto for the southern local elections in 1960. It began:

The objectives of Sinn Féin are: to break the connection with England; to end the entire British Imperial system in Ireland; to end poverty and insecurity; to abolish the existing partition institutions of Government in Ireland, and to replace them by a National Government having complete and effective jurisdiction over the entire territory of the Nation.

A central issue was social welfare: “The need for the ’dole,’ home assistance, free milk schemes, children’s allowances, health services administered through dispensaries, etc., is mostly due to unemployment and low wages.” The party called for a comprehensive scheme of national health insurance. Sinn Féin did relatively well with this program in the southern local elections in 1960; sixteen people were elected to ten different county councils and fourteen people were elected to town councils. The results followed a pattern that still holds: Sinn Féin polled well along the border and in the west. Eight candidates were elected in five border counties: Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, and Sligo. John Joe McGirl was elected to the Leitrim County Council, and Seamus McElwain was elected to the Monaghan County Council. In the west, Sinn FCin elected candidates in Clare, Cork, Galway, and Kerry. Paddy Ruane was returned to the Galway County Council.

In spite of, or perhaps because of, their modest but important electoral success, Irish police harassed Republicans on a continuous basis. Soon after Ó Brádaigh was released from Mountjoy, May Brady Twohig’s home was raided. Ó Brádaigh had been a T D for more than four years and was not wanted for any crime, yet he had to watch his movements carefully. On the evening of December 8th, on a visit to prominent Republican Paddy Fitzgerald in Midleton in County Cork, he was traveling in a car with his adjutant general, Martin Shannon of Dublin. Shannon stopped at a gate, Ó Brádaigh got out to open it, and there was a shout of “Halt!” Police officers hiding in ditches on both sides of the road stood up and grabbed him and Shannon. He was pulled over to the grass margin of the road and searched from head to toe; his coat was torn in the process. Everything in his pockets-fountain pen, rosary, and comb-was removed. Personal letters fell into the mud on the roadside. His shoes were removed and searched. Shannon received the same treatment. As they searched, the police officers, who had not identified themselves, shouted questions. They were handcuffed together, frog-marched to their car, and informed that they were being detained for twenty-four hours. Although they were continually questioned, they refused to answer. At about 11:30 that night, they were placed in cold separate cells in the Bridewell in Cork City. The next afternoon, after refusing to answer more questions, they were informed that they could go free and that their car awaited them at Midleton. They got a ride to Midleton and then drove back to Dublin. When they reached Shannon’s house, in the Finglas area of Dublin, they learned it had been raided by the Special Branch.

There was not much Ó Brádaigh or any other Republican in a similar situation could do about harassment like this. It was all legal. In fact, they were aware that they could have been charged and convicted for refusing to answer questions. One night in jail was getting off easy. Ó Brádaigh did take advantage of his position as a TD and released a statement that was picked up by the Longford Leader and the Westmeath Examiner. It ends with, “I am anxious that the people of LongfordIWestmeath who elected me to an All-Ireland Parliament four years ago should know of the treatment meted out last week to their elected representative and his companion by the 26-County police. There was no explanation offered and no apology.”

The campaign, as Tony Magan complained, had been reduced to a series of incidents against the RUC. In the south, the state harassed Republicans. In the north, where the IRA was attacking them, the RUC response was more harsh. In August 1958, the RUC crossed the border with County Cavan and ambushed a Sinn Féin organizer, James Crossan. It is believed that they were going to seize him and take him across the border for arrest. Crossan was found dead on the Cavan side of the border. No one was ever prosecuted for his death. In December 1960 or January 1961, an IRA unit in Monaghan reported to the Army Council that a member of the RUC was regularly crossing the border, either dressed in civilian clothes or with a civilian coat over his uniform, his cap left behind. Local informants reported that he was involved with a 15-year-old girl who lived in County Monaghan. The constable, Norman Anderson, was also known to drive around the area in an automobile. He had been crossing the border for six months and he was being watched by the IRA. He was either very foolish or he was spying; given that it was the hottest area along the border, the local IRA suspected that he was spying and asked the Army Council for permission to assassinate him. As chief of staff, Ó Brádaigh was one of those who ruled on the request. Anderson was not a “target of opportunity"-the Army Council had time to weigh the facts and make an informed decision. But from the perspective of members of the council, the evidence strongly supported the assertion that Anderson was engaged in espionage. They sanctioned his killing. On January 27th, 1961, after leaving his girlfriend’s house, he was shot dead on the County Fermanagh side of the border. The Belfast Newsletter later referred to the attack as one of the “savage crimes" of the campaign, noting that Anderson’s coat had fifteen bullet holes. The killing was condemned by political leaders on both sides of the border.

Subsequent events supported the interpretation of Ó Brádaigh and the IRA that Anderson had been engaged in espionage. Immediately after the assassination, RUC personnel vanished from the border areas. An RUC member who was visiting a shop in Clones at the time of the assassination was phoned from the RUC’s Newtownbutler Barracks and told to stay there until they picked him up. Phones in the area were not on a dial system and the call was intercepted by an IRA sympathizer. The attack on Anderson was explained in a leaflet distributed the following week with the title “The Penalty Is Death.” With reason, and to the IRA’S benefit, RUC personnel were more careful after Anderson’s death. Anderson’s killing marked the beginning of a series of attacks that included mining bridges, cutting up roads, and blowing up customs houses. It was a shortlived resurgence in the campaign.

In August 1961, Sein Lemass, as Taoiseach, announced a general election to be held in early October. With four TDs up for re-election, it was a chance for the movement to complement the military campaign with electoral success. Lemass also announced that the state would apply for membership in the Common Market, the precursor of the European Union. In discussing the application, Irish leaders made it clear that they would follow through on the application only if the British followed through on their application; they were following the British lead. Most people in Ireland supported the application to join the Common Market. It was evident to virtually everyone that something had to be done to the Irish economy; as reported in The United Irishman, over 1,000 people a week were emigrating. Many people also believed that with Ireland and the United Kingdom in the Market the border with Northern Ireland would no longer be necessary, that membership in the Common Market would help cause the border to wither away. In the face of widespread support for joining the Market, Sinn Féin was strident in its opposition. The party position, which Ó Brádaigh supported, was that the application was driven by British politicians and the needs of the British economy rather than by Irish politicians who, they believed, should focus on creating an Irish economy that was less dependent on the British economy. Further, they believed that membership in the Common Market would not cause the border to wither away but in fact might further enmesh the border in a political bureaucracy that would make it more difficult to reunite the Republic of IrelandITwenty-Six Counties with Northern Ireland. Finally, membership in the Common Market posed a potential threat to Irish culture. Ó Brádaigh addressed the issue in August 1961 at an aeraiocht at Loch Bin on the Meath-Westmeath border.

An aeraiocht is a cultural festival; Sein Mac Eoin had used one as a cover for an IRA Brigade Council meeting the day Matt Brady was shot in 1919. At Loch Bin, the program included a champion ballad singer, a pipe band, troupes of Irish dancers in traditional costume, and traditional Irish singers. There was also a children’s choir-composed entirely of native Irish-speakers-from Athboy in the County Meath Gaeltacht. In his first public address in nearly twelve months, Ó Brádaigh commented on the “three car-loads of detectives" in the area and then focused on the importance of Irish culture. He praised the “fine turn-out to support our native language, music, dancing and singing.” It was a tribute to the crowd’s “sincerity and earnestness in the cause of Irish-Ireland.” He urged the crowd to “to cling even more tenaciously to our cultural heritage. The forces of materialism and commercialism are stronger than ever today.” And he addressed the potential impact if Ireland joined the Common Market: “Not alone is the political and economic objective our fathers fought for being lost sight of in the move to link a divided, dependent and underdeveloped Ireland with the European Common Market countries. Our Gaelic civilisation-that is, what remains of it-may be completely swamped.”

The economic situation, the application to the Common Market, and the loss of support for the IRA’S campaign all worked against Sinn FCin. In the spring of 1957, the campaign was fresh and the deaths of O’HanIon and South had generated sympathy for the cause. By 1961, much of the support had faded away. None of Sinn Ftin’s candidates was elected and the first-preference vote fell from more than 65,640 in 1957 to 36,393. In contrast, Fianna FBil received 512,000 first-preference votes; Fine Gael received 374,000, and Labour 136,000. Fianna FBil formed another government with SeAn Lemass as Taoiseach. Compared to the local elections the year before, the results were disappointing, and some people wondered if the problem was abstentionism-locally elected Sinn FCiners took their seats and represented the people, but Leinster House candidates did not. As for Ó Brádaigh, unlike 1957, he received only 2,598 first-preference votes. In his concession speech, he thanked “that gallant band of election workers in both counties who did not spare themselves in their efforts for the All-Ireland Republic.” Taking advantage of the opportunity, he also made political points. He noted that “this is my first time to speak here at the conclusion of a count. On the last occasion I was in jail under a Coercion Act. When I was elected here in 1957 one of the Fianna FAil T.D.s returned said that they could now form a government and they ’would rule with an iron hand.’ We have felt that iron hand.”

I, the newly-elected Sinn Féin T.D., was taken from jail and thrown into the Curragh Concentration Camp. I was held there without charge or trial for well over a year until I escaped from it. Had we been successful on this occasion also, there is no guarantee that the same thing would not happen again.

He finished: “We have lost support but we have lost nothing else. We have not lost our self-respect, nor have we bartered our principles or compromised the full national demand. We have gone down fighting and, please God, we’ll come back fighting.”

Although the election had not gone well, it did offer a poignant moment for the Ó Brádaigh family. In the fall of 1960, Patsy had become pregnant again. She continued teaching at Roscommon Vocational Technical School until the Christmas break and then moved to her parents’ house in Galway. Many parents would have been very concerned that their son-in-law, unemployed and harassed by the police, could not provide a home for their daughter and their future grandchild. Patsy’s family took the situation in stride. Her father was a tailor and her mother ran a guesthouse. Patsy helped her mother, and her parents “never made me feel I was in the way.” When their grandson was born on March 1 Oth, 1961, they welcomed him into the family. He was named Maitiu, the Irish form of Matthew, after Ruairí’s father. Ruairí was able to visit his wife and new son in the hospital only for a brief visit. He did manage to visit them occasionally in Galway, and they were able to visit his mother in Longford. In September 1961, in Longford during the election campaign, Ruairí, Patsy, Maitiu, and May Brady Twohig were in the town when they ran across Sein Mac Eoin, who also was a candidate. May called Mac Eoin over and introduced him to “Matt Brady.” Indeed, Ó Brádaigh encountered Mac Eoin at several points during the campaign, typically at “church gate" meetings after masses in various villages and towns. Mac Eoin was always respectful and never condemned him or the movement.