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CHAPTER FOUR

Treaty Talks

Emmet Dalton’s revolutionary star was clearly in the ascendant. At one stage in 1921 there was some indication from republican leader Harry Boland that Dalton might be sent to America as a special emissary. Visiting Boston, Massachusetts in November that year, Boland described Dalton as, ‘one of the big men in the fight for Irish freedom’, who had proven his worth both on the field of battle and in assisting in the planning of the Anglo-Irish peace treaty.1

Michael Collins thought highly enough of Emmet Dalton’s abilities to entrust him with sensitive missions. Perhaps none was more important than the Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations, held between representatives of Dáil Éireann and British government cabinet ministers. The Irish delegation was faced with the unenviable task of trying to secure Irish independence, as well as preventing partition of the island. Michael Collins was tasked as a representative, while serving as Minister of Finance in the Dáil government and IRA Director of Intelligence. He would join his fellow delegates Arthur Griffith, Eamonn Duggan, George Gavan Duffy and Robert Barton.

Later in life, Dalton said he never liked the idea of Collins travelling to London for the Treaty negotiations. The crown forces dearly wanted to get their hands on Collins during the Anglo-Irish War. Now the Big Fellow was emerging out of the shadows and into danger. Even within the IRA, many members did not know what he looked like. There was also the possibility that comrades of British personnel who had been killed on Collins’s orders might be tempted to take revenge – memories of Bloody Sunday were still raw. Dalton said fellow members of the GHQ staff were ‘gravely concerned’ over the safety of Michael Collins in England.2

Collins did not consider himself the right person to go to London as Dalton emphasized in later years. Dalton was present at a meeting of the General Headquarters Staff when Collins revealed that he had been selected. Collins was adamant that it was not his job or his place to go – he felt it would be more appropriate for Dáil President Éamon de Valera to go, and leave Collins to carry on the work he knew best.3 De Valera considered it more appropriate that he himself stay at home. Despite his misgivings, Collins ultimately agreed to go.

Dalton had his doubts as to whether there would be a successful outcome to the talks. There were also fears that should the Treaty negotiations break down while Collins was in London, ‘the entire Irish Army position would be jeopardised’. According to Dalton, he and Collins decided to place an aircraft in readiness should the talks break down and it proved necessary to fly Collins back to Ireland. Dalton set about formulating a plan.4

He contacted Waterford-born Jack McSweeney, who had been a pilot with 50 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) during the Great War. As previously mentioned, Dalton had met McSweeeney while researching the Hotchkiss machine gun in the prelude to the Sean MacEoin rescue operation. Dalton also put out feelers through the Dublin Brigade. Fourth Battalion Commandant Sean Dowling recommended another former RFC pilot, Charles Russell. The Dublin native enjoyed a remarkable flying career, and became a pioneer of Irish aviation. Russell had served with 65 Squadron of the RFC in France during the Great War and was later an instructor in aerobatics. He had flown extensively in the United States and in Canada, where he carried out an aerial survey between Toronto and Niagara for the Canadian Electric Power Commission.5 Dalton had a long talk with McSweeney and Russell and, after being satisfied of their loyalty to the republican cause, he sent them to England to buy a suitable aircraft. Russell’s time as an aviator in Canada gave him a ‘cover’ story – he would purport to be procuring an aircraft for a Canadian forestry department.

The aircraft had to be suitable for carrying passengers and freight, and with an eye to future use by Irish armed forces, it also had to be suitable for military purposes, including bombing missions. The two young men spoke to representatives of a number of aircraft manufacturers, Avro & Co., Martinsyde & Co., Short Bros., Vickers Ltd., and De Havilland & Co.6

The type of aircraft they ultimately purchased was a Martinsyde Type A, Mark 2, four-seater bi-plane. This aircraft was powered by a Rolls Royce engine, had a range of 550 miles, a cruising speed of 100 miles per hour, and cost £2,600.7 The transaction occurred during the Treaty negotiations, and it was held on stand-by at Croydon Aerodrome, the gateway for international flights to and from London. Russell and McSweeney took several practice flights to familiarize themselves with the machine. When the aerodrome people became impatient at the delay in removing the aircraft from their facilities, Russell, after each practice flight, kept complaining of ‘right wing low’ or ‘left wing low’ or ‘unsatisfactory rudder’ by way of explaining the delay.8

Dalton showed his usual meticulous attention to detail in planning how the aircraft could land safely in the greater Dublin area if Collins had to make a quick getaway. It was proposed that Russell would be the pilot for the flight to Ireland, while McSweeney would be deployed at the landing ground to prepare the runway and arrange re-fuelling. The plane would fly from London, across the Irish Sea, and ultimately land at Leopardstown racecourse.9

Collins, of course, did not have to make an emergency getaway from London, but the aircraft did serve a useful purpose. It was taken to Baldonnel, near Dublin, the airfield chosen to be the base of the air division of the new National Army, and was the first military aircraft acquired by new Irish state. Its purchase can be seen as the birth of the Irish Air Corps. Dalton later stated with pride, ‘From this beginning grew what is now known as the Irish Air Force.’10

Dalton Joins the IRB and Goes to London with Collins

Before Emmet Dalton departed for London with Michael Collins for the Treaty negotiations, he went through an important procedure. He was sworn into the secret, oath-bound organization, the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). It was decided at a meeting of the Dublin County Board of the IRB on 6 October that Dalton should be accepted as a member.11 Founded in the nineteenth century, the IRB was dedicated to the establishment of an Irish republic by any means necessary. Collins had become President of the Supreme Council of the IRB in the summer of 1920, and perhaps he wanted Dalton to join the organization before assisting with the sensitive Treaty talks. The Catholic Church did not approve of secret, oath-bound societies such as the IRB. Dalton later told of being refused Confession by a priest on the basis of his IRB membership. However, during the revolutionary period a man refused the Sacraments by one priest could often find another willing to turn a blind eye. In Dalton’s case the obliging cleric who heard his Confession and gave absolution happened to be a Jesuit.12

Most of the Irish delegation, of which Arthur Griffith was chairman, arrived in London on 8 October for the Treaty talks that would decide the future relationship between Ireland and Britain. Collins, accompanied by Dalton and a small entourage, travelled on the mail boat from Dun Laoghaire the following evening. Collins had brought some of his most trusted intelligence operatives and members of the Squad. They would act as bodyguards and couriers. Collins, full of nervous energy, found it difficult to sit still on the voyage. Dalton remembered him pacing the ship deck, full of his own thoughts, and looking gloomy. Dalton spent time with him on deck, and one of Collins’s remarks stuck in Dalton’s memory: ‘How am I expected to get people out of the strait-jackets they have themselves secured?’13 No doubt Collins recognized that he would disappoint uncompromising republicans back home.

Two senior officials from Dublin Castle, Under-Secretaries Sir John Anderson and Alfred Cope, crossed on the same mail boat. When Cope found Collins could not get a sleeping compartment on the train from Holyhead to London (the party did not book in advance), he insisted Collins take his. Dalton and Cope spent the night in the reserved compartment of a first-class carriage. Dalton said he often wondered who had learned most from the other during the long journey to London.14 Cope probably knew already about Dalton’s background as a British Army officer and holder of the Military Cross – perhaps during the night he found out more about the motivation of a young man who had fought for the British and then changed sides. They arrived in Euston, London about five o’clock on the morning of 10 October, the day before Collins was to meet British Prime Minister David Lloyd George at his residence, 10 Downing Street.

The Irish had rented two houses for the Treaty talks. Most of the delegation and the staff were based at 22 Hans Place, near the renowned Harrods department store. Collins and key members of his own circle, including Dalton, were based at Grosvenor House, 15 Cadogan Gardens, Kensington, a short walk away from Hans Place. Though he had been reluctant to attend the London talks, Collins appeared pleased to be surrounded by men who were part of his close circle. A member of the Irish delegation, Robert Barton, said that meetings of the delegation were held in Hans Place but Collins carried out his functions as Director of Intelligence in Grosvenor House. He recalled that those based with Collins at this location were Emmet Dalton, Diarmuid O’Hegarty, Tom Cullen, Ned Broy ‘and a number of others’. In his statement to the BMH, Barton said: ‘Collins took all these over himself, partly by way of protection and partly by way of keeping in touch with things at home. They were passing backwards and forwards with information all the time. Remember, you could not trust even the postman, the King’s messenger.’15

Collins availed of Dalton’s military expertise in side-talks with the British on defence matters. Dalton also acted as adviser on IRA and British compliance with the Truce, which was still in place. On the opening day of the Treaty negotiations, the Irish delegation, with their staff members, set off for 10 Downing Street, in a fleet of Rolls Royce cars. Most of the delegates were in the first car. Collins travelled in the second car with Dalton and key members of the intelligence staff – Liam Tobin, Tom Cullen, Joe Dolan and Joe Guilfoyle. When Collins and the other delegates arrived at the barricaded entrance to 10 Downing Street, they found a big crowd of Irish exiles assembled, many of them on their knees praying. Dalton received special attention from some of the press cameramen. He did not realize that they had noticed the butt of his revolver protruding from his hip pocket.16 Observing the arrival of Collins and his men was one of the Irish delegation secretaries, Kathleen Napoli McKenna, who remembered seeing ‘Emmet Dalton, handsome as a Wild West cinema star, the butt of a service rifle [sic] peeping from his hip pocket, all alert.’17

It might have been assumed that Dalton, in addition to his advisory duties, was acting as a bodyguard for Collins, in light of the fact that he was armed with a .45 service revolver. However, according to Dalton’s daughter Audrey, Dalton always insisted that he was not there as a bodyguard, but as a member of the defence committee. Nevertheless, Dalton was concerned about Collins’s security while in London, as evidenced by his role in the air escape plan. Even as an adviser, Dalton would have been useful to have around in the event of a threat to Collins. Dalton was frequently at Collins’s side. One of the photographs from the period shows Dalton and Collins, smiling shyly for the camera, sitting in the open-topped back of a motor car, looking like dashing, well-dressed young men about town.

Talks with the British

As they negotiated on the future of Ireland, the Irish delegates were up against a British side headed by Prime Minister David Lloyd George, genial, charming but ruthless. Collins had side meetings with the British on finance, defence and observance of the truce. For the defence talks, apart from Dalton, Collins’s team included other senior military men, Eoin O’Duffy and J.J. ‘Ginger’ O’Connell, and the Irish delegation secretary, Erskine Childers. The latter wrote the best-selling thriller Riddle of the Sands, had delivered the Volunteer rifles to Howth in 1914 and also had considerable expertise from his service as a Royal Navy officer. Dalton and Collins came to distrust Childers, who later took an anti-Treaty stance.

On the issue of defence, Collins spent much time arguing with Air Marshal Hugh Trenchard, head of the Royal Air Force, and Admiral David Beatty, head of the Royal Navy. He tried to convince them that controlling Ireland in a naval war was not very important. Security cooperation with Ireland, he argued, would be best achieved on the basis of Irish neutrality, rather than as a subordinate country within the British empire.18 Dalton attended his first meeting on defence on 13 October. He accompanied Collins to a meeting at the Colonial Office with the formidable and very abrasive Colonial Secretary, Winston Churchill. Erskine Childers also attended this informal meeting of the Air and Naval Defence Committee. Churchill was accompanied by the Royal Navy’s Admiral Beatty and Captain B.E. Domville.19 Dalton took advantage of the opportunity to break the ice with Churchill and to make a personal assessment of the man.

A further meeting of the committee was held on 17 October at the Offices of the Cabinet, 2 Whitehall Gardens. On this occasion Collins brought his full defence team – Dalton, O’Connell, O’Duffy and Childers, with Diarmuid O’Hegarty as secretary. Churchill was accompanied by Sir Laming Worthington Evans, Secretary of State for War. The two had a formidable array of advisers – Sir Hugh Trenchard, Vice-Admiral Sir Osmond de Beauvoir Brock, Captain F. E. Grant and Captain Domville, with Tom Jones and Lionel Curtis acting as secretaries. The two sides met again the following morning at the Colonial Office.20 In later years Dalton reflected that on facing Churchill’s team across the conference table, he reckoned his own side could have done with some reserves. Nevertheless he believed that what they lacked in numbers they made up with Collins’s ‘dominant courage and determination’.21 Dalton indicated in a letter how busy he had been in recent days, ‘looking after Mick’, and arguing with Winston Churchill and Admiral Beatty.22

In pursuing talks with the British on defence, Collins decided that he needed support from the West Cork guerrilla leader Tom Barry. Dalton recalled how one night, on the way home from a fiery encounter with the British delegation, Collins told him, ‘I wish I had Tom Barry over here.’ Dalton told the writer Meda Ryan that on his next visit to Dublin, Collins sent word to Barry to go to London, which he did. In the evenings, at Hans Place, Collins and the negotiators listened to Barry’s opinion on military aspects of the negotiations.23 Despite Collins’s reluctance to go to London for the negotiations, Dalton gained the impression that the British were more than happy to have him there, because they saw him as the militant force controlling what happened in Ireland.24 It made sense for the British to try to do a deal with the senior figure perceived to be the hardliner who wielded the real power back home.

Dalton was present when Collins had a confrontation with Churchill, who had challenged the Irish side over what he described as breaches of the Truce. Collins became increasingly irritated as Churchill outlined a seemingly endless list of incidents in which, he said, the Truce had been broken. Collins scribbled a note to Dalton, asking if they had ‘any answer’ to Churchill’s points. Dalton, never one for subterfuge or evasion, scribbled, ‘No answer’. Collins remained quiet for a while as Churchill pressed on with his tirade. Suddenly Collins thumped the table, surprising all present, including Churchill, who was stunned into silence. Collins had the ability to take the sting out of a remark or gesture by a mischievous grin and he used the technique on this occasion. Churchill looked at Collins, saw the Big Fellow grinning, and began to grin as well.25 The tension had been defused. Churchill had been tricked into ceasing his verbal tirade, even though it was clear that Collins had no answer to the accusations being made.

Collins took time off from pressing duties to write letters to his sweetheart, Kitty Kiernan back in Ireland. She seemed to like Dalton, and in one of her letters to Collins in London, dated 17 October, she inquired after Emmet and the others in Collins’s entourage.26 Even though Collins worked extremely hard, once he was ensconced with his friends at Grosvenor House there was bound to be horseplay and practical jokes, as Dalton himself would discover. Some of the beds in the house had legs that were hinged, and Collins liked to bend them back during the night so that the occupants would find themselves sleeping at an angle to the floor. In his practical way, Dalton decided on a way of dealing with the situation. Ned Broy looked into Dalton’s room one night and saw him sleeping at an angle to the floor. Dalton explained that Collins would come in and bend the legs later, so he decided to bend them himself.27

Through Collins, Dalton became friendly with Lady Lavery, the glamorous American-born high society hostess and wife of the prestigious painter Sir John Lavery. She became a great admirer of the Big Fellow, and introduced him to some members of her influential social circle. Hazel Lavery also liked to entertain Cabinet ministers such as Winston Churchill and Prime Minister Lloyd George, and other important figures at her palatial Kensington home, 5 Cromwell Place. In Dalton’s view, she was a very useful contact for Collins in his role as Director of Intelligence. Through her, he was able to get useful inside information, and also feed her items to ensure they got back to the right people.28 There has been much speculation as to whether Collins and Lady Lavery had an affair. In an interview in 1974 with the writer Meda Ryan, Dalton said that Collins ‘liked Hazel, everybody did’, but that was all there was to it. Dalton claimed Collins would never put himself in the position where he could be blackmailed, either by people from his own side or by the British.29 However, as will be explained, the actual situation may have been much more complicated.

In a draft article written in 1946 for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty, and apparently unpublished, Dalton said that he had listened over the years to ‘scurrilous and malign statements’ concerning the private lives of the delegates in London during the negotiations.30 He may have been referring to rumours about the Collins/Lady Lavery relationship. He said he always felt that such absurd remarks were unworthy of rebuttal. He went on to present a picture of Collins that contradicted any ‘scurrilous’ statements that might have been made. He referred to a particular aspect of the Big Fellow’s routine in London – the ‘daily visits by Michael Collins to a place of worship where he humbly prayed for guidance and divine inspiration…’ During the Treaty talks, Collins would often attend early morning Mass at the Church of St. Mary, Cadogan Place, or Brompton Oratory. Dalton, a religious man himself, was clearly impressed by Collins’s piety while immersed in talks on the future of Ireland.

As the negotiations dragged on, Dalton observed how the stress took its toll on Collins. He recalled that one morning Collins was in an ‘impossible’ mood and had snapped at the ever-faithful Diarmuid O’Hegarty. Dalton described O’Hegarty as a brilliant and indefatigable worker, like Collins himself, and believed there was none closer to Collins.31 The fact that Collins could turn on his friend in a moment of exasperation was an indication of the strain under which he was operating.

Sometimes the stress was relieved by horseplay. Kathleen Napoli McKenna has described how, during a banquet at Hans Place, Collins arrived with his entourage, including Dalton, Tobin, Cullen, Guilfoyle and Dolan. She recalled that they were a ‘happy, boisterous crowd’, and that they began throwing cushions at each other, then oranges, apples and nuts from the table. As a former British Army officer with a belief in military discipline, Dalton’s enthusiasm for such activities was perhaps more restrained. On another night, Collins was involved in horseplay on the top floor at the house on Cadogan Gardens in which some furniture was broken. Joe McGrath, accountant to the delegation, was not amused when he came from Hans Place to inspect the damage. 32

Part of Dalton’s role as IRA Director of Training was to contribute training material to the Volunteer publication, An t-Óglach, edited by Piaras Béaslaí. At one stage, Béaslaí was unhappy with the level of cooperation he was getting from Dalton, and in his forthright way made his displeasure known. Dalton, as a member of Collins’s entourage in London, obviously had more pressing concerns at the time. In November 1921 Béaslaí wrote to Dalton complaining he was getting ‘no help’ from the Training Department with regard to training matter for An t-Óglach. Béaslaí said he had to publish material on his own responsibility ‘with the danger of publishing unsuitable matter’. He suggested that Dalton send him some books with relevant material marked that he could use for producing training material for the newspaper. It appears that to mollify the prickly editor, Dalton immediately arranged for an article to be sent to him but this only served to further agitate Béaslaí. Dalton was normally highly efficient, but it emerged that the article he had submitted had been published a few weeks previously. Béaslaí returned the article to Dalton pointing out icily that it had already appeared in the 21 October issue.33 (The two training articles that appeared in this issue concerned the use of cover by troops advancing to the attack, and the care and use of the revolver.)

While Dalton seemed to remain in awe of Michael Collins, he could be very outspoken in voicing criticisms of shortcomings that he encountered. The historian Charles Townshend suggests that Dalton may have authored a paper written in late November 1921 that argued, in the event of the war being renewed, there should be more concerted action against the enemy civil administration. The paper was also notable for the stringent criticism it contained of the republican civil administration, claiming that no single Government Department had been of the slightest assistance to the Army and some had been a ‘serious drag’. The Publicity Department was the only one ‘pulling its weight’. The writer argued that in future ineffective officials must be sacked – after all, inadequate army officers were ‘dismissed every week’.34

Meanwhile, the Treaty negotiations were dragging on. The talks ultimately took nearly two months to conclude. Dalton travelled back and forth between London and Dublin during this period. On 20 November there was a big procession from Dublin city centre to Glasnevin Cemetery to commemorate the first anniversary of the deaths in Dublin Castle of the two IRA men, Richard McKee and Peadar Clancy. The Dublin Castle file on Dalton recorded that he, along with Richard Mulcahy and other officers of the IRA, placed wreathes on the graves of the two men.35 Towards the end of the Treaty talks, on 26 November, the Publicity Department of Dáil Éireann announced that the Acting Chief Liaison Officer will be Commandant J.E. Dalton ‘to whom all communications should be addressed at the Gresham Hotel, Dublin’.

Finally, the Treaty was signed in the early hours of the morning on 6 December 1921. It provided for the establishment, within a year, of an Irish Free State as a self-governing dominion within the British Commonwealth, a decision that would spark turmoil in Ireland as it fell short of the independent republic for which the IRA had fought. Collins and his pro-Treaty supporters saw the Treaty as a stepping stone to the republic.

The question arises as to Dalton’s location on the night the Treaty was signed. In old age, he said in an interview he was in Dublin as he had been appointed Chief Liaison Officer.36 There is another unconfirmed account of him being among those with Griffith at Hans Place on the night of the signing. According to this account, Griffith wrote a brief press statement about the momentous event that had occurred and gave the handwritten note to Dalton so he could pass on the details to the press.37 Griffith’s statement read: ‘I have signed a Treaty of Peace between Ireland and Great Britain. I believe that Treaty will lay the foundations of peace and friendship between the two nations. What I have signed I shall stand by in the belief that the end of the conflict of centuries is at hand.’ Griffith’s handwritten note survived in the possession of the Dalton family, and was deposited by Emmet’s brother Charlie with the National Museum in December 1949.38 Griffith’s statement was carried in full in the Irish Independent, as part of the newspaper’s extensive coverage of the signing of the Treaty.39 The newspaper also noted that it was stated that Mr Michael Collins is ‘in absolute agreement with Mr Griffith’s statement’.

Following the signing of the Treaty, there appears, from Dalton’s later account, to have been a sense of relief, even of euphoria, among members of the Irish delegation when they returned to Ireland. However, difficulties soon surfaced, with de Valera and two ministers, Cathal Brugha and Austin Stack, opposing the settlement terms. Dalton later wrote that when the delegates returned to Dublin in triumph, ‘their ardour was soon dampened by the unpredictable attitude adopted by Mr de Valera – he seemed to change from day to day’. Dalton described his sympathy for Collins, faced with this situation, and then having to endure the Dáil debates on the Treaty. ‘Poor Collins! How he must have suffered during the Treaty debates in University College.’40

In old age, Dalton rejected various arguments that were advanced against the Treaty, which involved an oath of faithfulness to the King. One of the arguments against the Treaty was that it had been concluded under duress, following a threat by Lloyd George to renew the war if it was not signed. In an obvious reference to this argument, Dalton said in an RTÉ interview with Pádraigh Ó Raghallaigh that he did not accept Collins had signed the Treaty under duress. He said that nothing that Collins ever did would indicate that he signed ‘for expediency or under duress or under a threat’. ‘He signed because it was the right thing to do.’ While the Treaty arrangements fell short of the Republic, he knew that Collins himself felt they had gained a great deal more than they had a right to expect. He sincerely believed the Treaty was the ‘breaking of the ice’ that could lead to complete and absolute freedom.41 After returning to Dublin, Collins was facing into a maelstrom, with elements of the republican movement mounting vehement opposition to the Treaty – these differences would ultimately explode into Civil War. Dalton, for his part, was also facing an enormous challenge as he pressed ahead with his work as the IRA’s Chief Liaison Officer with the British.