Emmet Dalton
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This is the first-ever biography of Emmet Dalton, an American-born Dubliner, Home Ruler and later Republican, whose extraordinary military career as a British officer, IRA leader and General in the Free State army brought him from Flanders to Beal na Bláth. A decorated hero of the Battle of the Somme, he returned from the war with the rank of Captain and transferred his military expertise to the now rampant IRA, serving as Director of Training, and greatly impressing Michael Collins with his extraordinary daring and nerve. Soon befriending Collins and becoming his close confidante, he accompanied him to the Treaty talks in London in 1921, and in the Civil War that followed Dalton oversaw the bombardment of the Four Courts, personally manning an 18-pounder artillery gun. He then masterminded and led the audacious seaborne landings and successful recapture of Cork City and Munster Republic from Anti-Treaty forces, but was ultimately traumatised when Collins died in his arms at Beal na Bláith. In his expansive biography, Sean Boyne vividly portrays Dalton's experiences and the vital role he played in the politics and wars that created the independent Irish state. Dalton was the first Senate Clerk and he became a pioneer of the Irish film world, founding Ardmore film studios and establishing the Irish Film industry. An attractive and high-achieving figure in Irish life in war and peace, Dalton's heroism allowed him to live his many lives to the full, and this compelling biography does justice to a figure who will captivate all those interested in modern Irish history and the birth of the state.
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EMMET DALTON
Somme Soldier, Irish General,
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After the fighting ended, Charlie went into Dublin city centre and walked amid the ruins. He later explained that in his patriotic fervor he wanted to make contact with others who felt the same as he did. He went to one of the Requiem Masses for the dead at the Church of St Mary of the Angels on Church Street, run by the Capuchin Franciscans. He found there what he was looking for. Outside the church he saw an older schoolmate from O’Connell’s, Ernie O’Malley, singing rebel songs.33 Like the Daltons, the O’Malleys had a foot in both camps – Ernie O’Malley had fought with the rebels in the Rising and would later become a prominent IRA leader, while, as previously indicated, his brother Frank was in the British Army. Charlie Dalton recalled that ‘we were horrified’ at the news of the execution of the Rising leaders.34 The shooting by firing squad of men such as Pádraig Pearse, his brother Willie and James Connolly, engendered great sympathy for the rebel cause. This accelerated the rise of the separatist Sinn Fein movement and helped to sound the death knell for John Redmond’s Irish Parliamentary Party.
Emmet Dalton said in his RTÉ interview with Cathal O’Shannon that when he heard of the Rising his reaction was the same as most of the recruits who were with him in Kilworth Camp, he was surprised, annoyed, and thought it was madness. He felt the rebels represented only a ‘tiny minority’ at that time, ‘and we were the overwhelming majority represented by our people in Parliament…’ However, he made it clear that if he had been asked to oppose the rebels in arms, that would be a ‘different situation’, implying that he would not fight against his fellow-countrymen. In Dublin, Irish troops were among the British soldiers deployed against the rebels, and a number of Dublin Fusiliers were killed. There is no record of any mutiny among them when they were were sent in to suppress the rebellion.
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