Part 1: The Pro-Treaty and Anti-Treaty Forces

By 1922, the Four Courts had been the center of legal life in Ireland for 120 years. It sat on 4.9 acres (2 hectares) of land and served the Exchequer Court, the Court of Chancery, the Court of Kings’ Bench, and the Court of Common Pleas. The Public Record Office, the Land Registry Office, and the Solicitor’s Building also sat within the courts. The entire site aws surrounded by wrought-iron railings that stood 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) high. There were four entranceways into the courts, the main entrance was the two-storied gatehouse that opened onto Chancery Street.

           

The actual Four Courts building itself is a blocky, rectangular building with a copper-dome and a west and east wing. Next to the west wing is the Four Courts Hotel. To the north of the hotel was the Record House and Record Treasury. To the east of the record house was the Land Registry Office. Below the registry office was the Solicitors’ Block which the anti-treaty IRA turned into their headquarters, and below that, we’re back at the Four Courts, which sat on the Liffey River. So, it’s a pretty strong, rectangular stronghold.

It saw severe combat during Easter Rising, was one of the few places were the Irish rebels were successful during the Rising, and sustained significant damages from the British artillery bombardment. Some of the men on both sides fought within the Four Courts during Easter Rising, meaning that they knew not only the weaknesses and strengths of the courts, but of each other.

Emmet Dalton’s Command

Dalton’s plan was a fairly sound one, based on his experiences during the First World War. However, he was commanding a large group of men with mixed military experience. Some, like Commandant-General Dermot MacManus and Commandant-General Tony Lawlor also fought during World War I, while others, like Tom Ennis and Paddy O’Daly were members of Michael Collins’ squad and served during Easter Rising. Others, like most of his gunners, had little traditional military experience and had never fired artillery pieces before. To complicate matters further some officers, like Commandant Padraig O’Connor, were undecided whether they would support the anti-treaty side or the pro-treaty side until the very last minute. After the war, O’Connor said he was undecided until he received the order to attack the Four Courts. Like many others, O’Connor was reluctant to fire upon former comrades, but it seemed that he allowed the official order to make the decision for him. He would fire upon the enemies of the new Free Irish State. Twenty men under O’Connor’s command refused to attack the Four Courts and they were arrested and imprisoned.

The National Army didn’t have artillery of their own and relied on MacCready’s command for artillery guns. The British had two guns in Ireland during the assault: the 60-pounder Quick-Firing howitzer. This gun had a 5-inch (127 millimeter) diameter barrel, fired a 57-pound (25.8 kilogram) shell, and had a range of 8 miles (12.8 kilometers). It was a mainstay in the British army, typically used as a counter-battery weapon and required ten horses to pull it. Churchill wanted the Irish to use this gun, believing it would make quick work of Rory and his anti-treaty IRA. Dalton decided to use the 18-pounder quick-firing gun.

            The 18-pounder was a mobile, versatile gun introduced in 1904 and would see service throughout WWII. This gun was normally used as an anti-personnel gun, meant to fire shrapnel shells over advancing infantry. Dalton chose this gun because of its versatility, ease of use, and the high explosive shells that had been developed during World War I. MacCready reluctantly gave them two 18-pounders with a “sufficient” amount of munitions. This wasn’t out of stinginess, although MacCready wasn’t thrilled to give weapons to his former, and potentially, future enemies, but because the British had already withdrawn most of its artillery from Ireland following the Anglo-Irish treaty.

Once Dalton secured the artillery, he and fellow WWI veteran, Commandant-General Tony Lawlor, along with a handful of British officers, needed to give a last-minute crash course on how to manage the 18-pounders to his inexperienced gunners. During the crash course, the officers forgot to mention that they needed to dig a shallow trench behind the guns to catch the guns during its recoil, affecting their ability to aim and control the guns.

            In addition to two artillery pieces, the Dublin Guard under Padraig O’Connor were issued several Lewis guns. The Lewis was a light machine gun invented in 1911 and was first used during the First World War and was still in use up to the Korean War. It weighed 28 pounds (12.7 kilograms), it was gas-operated and usually set on a bipod. It fired .303-inch bullets from a drum that contained anywhere between forty-seven to ninety-seven rounds. It fired the bullets at a rate of 500 rounds per minute. O’Connor’s men had never used the Lewis gun before and needed a crash course before the assault.

            Trusting that the bombardment would be enough to clear out the Four Courts, the National Army didn’t plan how to feed their men nor what to do with the occupants they displaced when they took the buildings around the Four Courts. They didn’t even have a field hospital set up until civilians and soldiers started being wounded. They would take the Ormond Hotel as a field hospital and hung a large Red Cross flag out of the hotel’s window. They pulled doctors and nurses from local Dublin hospitals to run the field hospital for the next few days. Citizens also brought the wounded to local hospitals, one such procession inspired writer Dr. Oliver St. John Gogarty to write to Mulcahy on June 30^th, offering to drive an armored car as a relief car.

The Anti Treaty Forces in the Four Courts

Rory O’Connor and Liam Mellows, leading a motorized force, took the Four Courts between midnight and 1 a.m. on April 15^th, 1922. Liam Lynch, who was still uncertain where his loyalties laid, wrote to his brother:

 “We have at least thrown down the gauntlet again to England through the Provisional Government…I write this from G.H.Q. Four Courts not knowing the hour we will be attacked by machine-gun or artillery, we have a well-armed garrison of about 150 men with G.H.Q. Staff & we need only call on the Dublin Brigade or any part of the country when support will come in any numbers. I am absolutely certain that the Free State was sent to its doom by our action last week…” – Michael Fewer, The Battle of the Four Courts, pg. 41

It seems that the original impetus for taking the Four Courts was to establish an anti-treaty IRA headquarters within Dublin to better resist the “anti-republican” actions of the Provisional Government. They captured the guards meant to protect the court, but eventually released them a few days later. They also captured John J. tucker, the foreman/housekeeper of the Public Record Office, but eventually released him and his family as well.

After taking the courts, some of Rory’s men entered the nearby Four Courts Hotels and brought back refreshments and others brought back bread from nearby Kennedy’s Bakery and bacon from Donnelly’s bacon-curing factory in Coombe.

Rory brought barbed wire and sandbags with him and his men laid the sandbags, wire, and, later landmines, in front of the three entranceways, turning the Chancery Street entrance as the only way in or out. Later they would place “the Mutineer” a Rolls-Royce armored car equipped with a Vickers machine-gun in a revolving turret in the entrance courtyard. They used the Public Record Office to manufacture land mines and grenades. Ernie O’Malley wrote that he saw:

“a jumble of lathes, moulds and mine cases; hand grenade bodies lay in heaps; electric detonators, electric wires and explosives were piled between the racks which held the records…In the lower rooms there were explsoives, including a large amount of TNT.” – Michael Fewer, The Battle of the Four Courts, pg. 55

Historian Michael Fewer, questions O’Malley’s memory that TNT was being stored in the same location where explosives were being manufactured. He argues that it seems more likely that the TNT and manufactured explosives were stored in the Headquarters’ Block while the actual manufacturing took place solely in the Public Record Office.

Even though the Public Records Office was isolated, it was also the most vulnerable building since it was open to assault from the direction of the Four Courts Hotel and the buildings on west side of Church Street. For some reason, defense of the Public Records Office fell onto the shoulders of Na Fianna, the Republican youth movement founded by Countess Markievicz and Bulmer Hobson. Liam Mellows helped expand it countrywide. Even though they were trained in firearms, they usually were used as messengers and non-combatant roles, not in the thick of the action. Additionally, it would be impossible to send reinforcements or food to the Public Record Office if it came under fire. No one in the courts seemed concerned that they were handling explosive materials in the records building, a building full of ancient and historical papers that could easily catch fire during a battle and destroy centuries of Irish history.

Even though the occupants of the Four Courts sent out no orders for a bigger, coordinated assault, the taking of the Courts emboldened many anti-treaty IRA forces around the country. Mulcahy received an increasing number of reports detailing several attacks instigated by the anti-treaty IRA following the taking of the courts.

Surprisingly, the people inside the courts had complete freedom of movement. It was so common, the barrack adjutant, Sean Lemass, issued stiff cards as passes for anti-treaty rebels to use to prove they had permission to come in and out of the courts. Liam Mellows often left the courts to attend the Dail until it was dissolved at the end of May 1922. Liam’s secretary, Una Daly is reported to be the first women to enter the Four Courts and she was joined by Muriel MacSwiney, Terence’s widow. Daly didn’t live in the courts, but went home at night. Todd Andrews, who helped Dalton arrange takeovers of former RIC and British army barracks, switched sides and joined O’Connor’s force in the courts as Ernie O’Malley’s clerk.  Liam Lynch stayed in the Clarence Hotel, which was only a block or two from the courts, and frequently visited the anti-treaty men. Even though he was technically chief of staff of the anti-treaty IRA he didn’t coordinate defense or supportive attacks with the other chief of staff, Joseph McKelvey, or any of the other forces surrounding Dublin.

 The lack of response from the Provisional Government and the ease in which people could slip in and out of the Four Courts allowed anti-treaty forces to slip in food stolen from neighboring businesses, taken while enforcing the Belfast Boycott, and money stolen during bank robberies. It also allowed weapons to be smuggled into the courts. However, O’Connor’s men needed to either gather enough food to survive a long siege or expand out of the court and takeover and protect supply routes before the Provisional Government surrounded the courts. The anti-treaty forces did neither.

Paddy O’Brien of the Dublin No. 1 Brigade was named commanding officer of the garrison, but he had a heard time getting his defensive suggestions implemented. Apparently, fearing that Liam Lynch’s lack of interest in defending the courts meant they would be ordered to abandon it, told O’Malley that he would rather burn or blow the courts up then hand it back to the Provisional Government. O’Malley agreed and apparently he and O’Brien had “barrels of petrol and paraffin…stored in the cellars and in dark corners, unknown to the rest of the Headquarters Staff.” (Michael Fewer, The Battle of the Four Courts, pg. 63). Sean Moylan later confirmed this plan, staying that “barrels of paraffin were brought into the courts on the Sunday before the attack, and men were sent to distribute them among the buildings.” (Michael Fewer, The Battle of the Four Courts, pg. 63)

O’Brien was able to convince Liam Lynch and Rory O’Connor to dig tunnels between the different buildings to ease travel between the different locations during a bombardment. The anti-treaty IRA forces also considered using a large brick-constructed sewers that ran under the complex as an escape route but abandoned that idea when they realized it flooded at every high tide.

Despite increasing tensions between the Provisional Government and the anti-treaty forces, the men in the Four Courts still thought Collins would honor their agreed upon assault on Northern Ireland. One June 27^th, they prepared a unit to march north even while receiving rumors that the National Army was going to finally respond to the taking of the Fourt Courts, the escalating series of attacks all over the country, and the kidnapping of J. J. “Ginger” O’Connell. That evening the Anti-treaty executive met and, despite O’Brien and others urging O’Connor that they should leave and regroup in the countryside, where they had more support, the executive elected to stay in the Courts and face the National Army. When artillery was brought up, Seoirse Plunkett, who had been in the General Post Office during Easter Rising, said, “You get used to it; it’s not bad.” (Michael Fewer, The Battle of the Four Courts, pg. 125).

That same day, Oscar Traynor, commandant of the Dublin Brigade, arrived and begged O’Connor to evacuate the complex, but left without success. Liam Lynch also arrived and mended the rift that had occurred between the different anti-treaty IRA forces. He, along with his adjutant Liam Deasy, left the courts around midnight and Liam Mellows escorted them to the Chancery Street gate. It would be the last time either man saw Liam Mellows. To add to the tragedy, Lynch’s reunion with Rory O’Connor convinced Lynch’s brigade commandants, Dick Barrett to join O’Connor in the Four Courts. This would lead to his execution.

First Day: Wednesday, June 28^th

Around the same time as Lynch and Deasy left the Four Courts, the National Army wheeled the 18-pounders towards the King’s Inns and Merchants Quay. One gun was placed at the junction of Winetavern Street and Merchants Quay. The other gun was placed at the junction of Bridge Street and Merchants Quay, facing the west wing of the Four Courts. This gun was commanded by Commandant General Tony Lawlor.

A light drizzle greeted the National Army as they positioned their infantry in the various surrounding buildings. Scouts for the anti-treaty IRA reported the fortifying of windows and movement of armored cars and lorries. An Irish Times correspondent wrote:

            “A dreary drizzle blurred the yellow lights on the tramway standards and Dublin was looking grey and careworn in the half-light of a dismal dawn. An hour or so before, the tramp of many marching men had attracted the curious from their sleeplessness, and all the windows in the vicinity were garlanded with tousled heads. Irish troops were on the move. Down the street they tramped in the misting rain, two long files of them on either side of the road, strapping men and whistling boys, equipped with all the cruel paraphernalia of modern war. One could not see where they were going; all we knew was that they were marching towards the north side of the city, and as they passed across O’Connell Brigade they were swallowed up in a blanket of steadily falling rain. Then came the ambulances, with their scarlet emblems of human mercy, to which the bare poles of empty stretchers lent an air of grim realism. More soldiers followed, and still more. Dire events were toward in the Irish capital.” – Michael Fewer, The Battle of the Four Courts, pg. 132

            Over 1,000 soldiers moved into central Dublin. 500 men of the Dublin Guard would position themselves in the inner ring around the Four Courts while 600 men of the 2^nd Eastern Division formed an outer cordon. Padraig O’Connor’s men were ordered to occupy the houses in Church Street, to the west of the Four Courts complex, opposite of the Public Record Office, as well as the Bridewell police station, to the north and opposite the Public Record Building. So basically, his men are covering the entire west side of the Four Courts, which included the Four Courts Hotel and the Public Record Office and the Record Treasury.

            At 2 a.m. the National Army took the Four Courts Hotel and established it as the brigade headquarters for the upcoming assault. The back of the hotel and the other buildings on the same block were held by Commandant Joe Leonard’s battalion. Their battalion was in position to threaten the Record Offices.

            Padraig O’Connor (not Rory), established a battalion base in Jameson’s Distillery which was situated behind Church Street. Another National Army company, led by Commandant Billy McClean occupied the Maguire & Patterson match factory, south of Padraig O’Connor’s men. Padraig also set a machine gun post in the tower of the St Michan’s Church. From there his men manning the Lewis machine gun had a bird’s-eye view of the roofs of the Public Record Office, the Land Registry Office, the Headquarter’s Block, and the western wing of the Four Courts.

            The National Army impose censorship on telegraphic communications and took control over the telephone system, reserving it for military use only.

The First Shot

            Around 3:30/4:00 am, the National Army cut the electricity to the Four Courts. The inhabitants struggled to find candles and take their battle positions. Shortly after that, Emmet Dalton opened fire with the gun position on Winetavern street. The gun on Bridge Street and under the command of Commadant Lawlor quickly joined in. Since the National Army soldiers had little to no experience using an 18-pounder, some of the shells overshot while others undershot and crashed into the river wall. After digging trenches to absorb the shock of the guns and the men learned how to properly aim, the guns fell into a steady cadence of firing one shell every fifteen to twenty minutes.

Despite the contemporary assumption that the gunners were inefficient and ineffective, their goal was to aim their shells directly at the Four Courts in order to maximize the amount of fear and stress they could evoke in the occupants. The way the guns were positioned meant that most of the shells landed into the front façade of the courts, covering every inch from the west to east wings. As the day wore on, they realized this strategy wasn’t doing much and so they changed plans. They aimed their shots specifically at the Four Court windows. The National Army also wanted to clear the Record Treasury before an infantry assault because they heard rumors that the place was being lined with mines. Better to clear it with artillery then to send in infantry and risk setting off the mines.

            The occupants of the Four Courts, seemingly relieved that the wait was over, returned fire with their rifles, pistols, and machine-guns. They forced their weapons on the 18-pounder gunners and the National Army brought up Lancia armored cars to act as a shield for the guns. Other pro-treaty soldiers unofficially joined the attack. For example, Captain Tommy Ryan, who didn’t even have a National Army uniform yet, grabbed a Thompson sub-machine-gun and positioned himself in one of the tenement houses overlooking the Four Courts. He was entertained by an old woman and a young girl who offered to make him tea and eggs on toast. At some point the old woman noticed he wasn’t wearing a soldier’s uniform and so, assuming he was anti-treaty, she smashed the teapot over Ryan’s head.

            Commandant-General Dermot MacManus, taking twenty of Padraig O’Connor, positioned them through the tenement houses on the west side of Church Street. MacManus, positioning himself in the top floor rooms, had a great view of the Record Treasury and the Record House. He claims that he fired the first shot of the attack, ducking before he was hit by the five bullets the anti-treaty forces fired in return.

The Public Record Office

The Public Record Office was surrounded by National Army forces on three fronts: the Four Courts Hotel to the south, the Bridewell police station to the north, and the row of tenements on Church Street to the west. The Public Record Office was defended by the youth group, the Na Fianna. At first, they positioned snippers on the roof, believing their sandbags would protect them, but the sandbags couldn’t protect them from the machine gun in St. Michan’s Tower. Five of the boys were wounded before they retreated downstairs into the record building itself. A few remained pinned on the roof until later in the evening, when they could escape under the cover of darkness.

Apparently, a British officer in plain clothes, potentially observing the battle, noticed a National Army soldier wasn’t aiming properly with his rifle. When he asked the soldier to hand him the rifle, the soldier replied, “Indeed I will not. You might kill the boy!” (Michael Fewer, The Battle of the Four Courts, pg. 151).

The St. Michan’s machine gun shattered the tall glasses of the Record Treasury, forcing the anti-treaty IRA members to retreat into the Public Records Building. However, most of the sandbags had been placed on the roof and the few that were used to protect the windows were filled with dry sand. This meant that when bullets pierced the sandbags, the sand poured from the bullet holes, making the sandbag useless. The occupants used desks, cupboards, books, ledgers, documents, and files to protect the windows. Ironically, these files were the only ones stored in the Treasury that survived the fire that would later destroy the rest of the files.

            Despite these setbacks, the defenders of the Record Public Office were brave and able to hold the National Army forces back. The troops under Commandant Billy McClean had no sandbags either and were making do with whatever was at hand. Additionally, shots from the Record building burst the water storage tank on the roof of McClean’s building, drenching the National Army soldiers, forcing them to retreat to the back of the building.

            The artillery bombardment lasted from 4:00am to 5:00am. The National Army called the forces in the Four Courts and asked if they were willing to surrender. Captain Paddy O’Brien replied, “we were not leaving the courts until we were beaten out of it” (Michael Fewer, the Battle of the Four Courts, pg. 154).

            The artillery bombardment resumed, intermingled with the bells for Mass. Given the difficulty in traveling between buildings in the Four Courts, the defenders of the Public Records Building couldn’t be reinforced nor could they receive supplies or ammunition. Ernie O’Malley described their situation as:

“A garrison without proper food, surrounded on all sides, bad communication between their inside posts, faulty defences.” – Michael Fewer, The Battle of the Four Courts, pg. 162

Liam Lynch Heads South

The bombardment laid bare the haphazard defenses prepared (or not prepared as the case may be), by the anti-treaty IRA. O’Brien’s and O’Malley’s suggestions were mostly ignored while Rory left the defenses to Lynch who was focused on negotiations. The anti-treaty side particularly regretted not taking hold of the Four Court Hotel, which allowed the Provisional Government an entry point into the Four Courts. At the time of the bombardment, only 180 anti-treaty members were expected to hold the entire complex, meaning they were spread very thin and had no reinforcements.

Rory was also expecting Oscar Traynor’s Dublin Brigade as well as Lynch’s Southern Divisions to march in the Four Court’s defense, but if that was the case, it’s unclear if anyone actually coordinated the effort. At the very least, no one told Lynch he was supposed to send reinforcements. When he heard the bombardment, he decided to go to Munster and organize his men there, but not to muster a relief force for the men in the Four Courts. Before Lynch left, the members of the Four Courts called a meeting of all high-ranking anti-treaty IRA officers. Attendees included Sean Moylan, Frank Barrett, Michael Kilroy, Eamon De Valera, and Cathal Brugha. During the meeting, Lynch vowed to resist the National Army and then left, heading towards Limerick. Dalton spotted Lynch and arrested him, sending him to Wellington Barracks on the South Circular Road. He was brought before General Eoin O’Duffy, future Mussolinni enthusiast, now the acting deputy chief of staff while O’Connell was still kidnapped. Now, remember, last the National Army heard, the anti-treaty IRA were split into at least two factions and Lynch was the leader of the “more moderate” rebels who was the most interested in negotiating. After an informal chat with Lynch, in which Lynch told O’Duffy, “Ye are all mad”, he called Mulcahy who confirmed that Lynch should be released. Lynch continued to Limerick and prepared for civil war. 

Irish Women During the First Day of the Assault

At 9 am on the 28^th, Geraldine O’Donel along with Dr. James Ryan and Surgeon Charlie McAuley and several nurses and members of Cumann na mBan crossed through the National Army lines and entered the Four Courts. They established a temporary hospital in the Headquarters’ Block. Interestingly McAuley operated on Tom Ennis during the attack on the Custom House in 1921 and Geraldine helped him recover from the surgery. Now they were on opposite sides.

Geraldine was a tough nurse. During the Irish War of Independence, she opened her own nursing home in Dublin and secretly treated wounded IRA members. When she arrived in the Four Courts, she found that that had been no preparations made to deal with the wounded, including a complete lack of medical equipment. She crossed the National Army line again to buy supplies and brought it back to the Four Courts, along with a fire brigade ambulance.

Maire Comerford, another member of Cumann na mBan, took a vehicle full of medical supplies to the Four Courts, but on her way, she was stopped by members of the National Army. When they served her van, they spotted cigarettes and demanded she take the van to National Army HQ at the Four Courts Hotel. From there, the National Army confiscated the van, but allowed Maire to take the supplies, including the cigarettes, into the Four Courts. Throughout the assault, women would come to and fro from the Four Courts, carrying dispatches, supplies, and sometimes even ammunition.

Of course, this seems strange to us. While allowing medical supplies through makes sense in terms of humanitarian concerns, the fact that the National Army let women pass through their lines without stopping them to ensure they weren’t carrying orders or non-medical supplies, seems counterproductive. Especially since they must have known the women were carrying orders because that’s exactly what Cumann na mBan did during the Irish War of Independence. It could be taken as a sign that, even now, neither side was truly dedicated to fighting an actual war and/or the assault on the Four Courts wasn’t deemed enough of an emergency to harass and arrest women. That mindset wouldn’t last for long.

Despite Dalton’s expectations, the bombardment didn’t seem to mentally bother any of the inhabitants of the Four Courts. In fact, Dr. Ryan wrote to his wife (the letter smuggled out by a Cumann na mBan member): “The big guns are no use and many on the opposite side are not trying to shoot to kill” After telling her to let the hospital he worked at that he would not be in for a few days, he ressaured her, “don’t mind the big guns. They are harmless to us.” (Michael Fewer, The Battle of the Four Courts, pg. 161). By the early hours, three anti-treaty members were wounded and taken to the makeshift field hospital for treatment.

Even though the anti-treaty IRA were lacking a proper defensive plan, they weren’t helpless. The Four Courts themselves were sturdy and the “The Mutineer”, the armoured car with the rotating Vickers machine-gun proved very useful. Given its mobility, it could engage with snipers and other National Army soldiers in the Four Courts Hotel, the Bridewell, and the various positions along Chancery Street and Chancery Place.

Oscar Traynor Mobilizes

While Liam went south, Oscar Traynor mobilized his anti-treaty Dublin Brigade and took the following buildings in the city center: Vaughan’s Hotel in Parnell Square, Tara Hall in Glouchester Street, and Barry’s Hotel in Great Denmark Street. Their goal was to disrupt the mobilization of National Army units and supplies. The proprietor of Barry’s Hotel, a nationalist herself, described the anti-treaty Dublin Brigade’s defensive preparations as:

            “the first thing they did was to knock all the glass out of the doors and windows. They sandbagged the windows and stuck guns out between the bags… They cleared out all the visitors – about forty – giving them barely time to pack their bags. They cleared out the staff, but I refused to go and Miss Keogh and William the porter stayed with me…the IRA brought in oceans of food but I thought it queer that they did not want to give us any of it.” – Michael Fewer, the Battle of the Four Courts, pg 166

            Oscar Traynor would set up headquarters in the Hamman Hotel and other buildings on the east side of what is now O’Connell Street. O’Malley wondered why Traynor took a place so far from the Four Courts and “the wrong side of the widest street in the capital” (Michael Fewer, The Battle of the Four Courts, pg 166). If Traynor meant to support the forces in the Four Courts, he did little to actually engage the National Army forces.  

            The day ended in a stalemate. Maire Comerford took advantage of darkness and crossed the National Army lines, negotiating a ceasefire with National Army general, O’Daly. O’Daly agreed after learning that the bombardment drove the wounded into the basement of the Headquarters’ Block. He assured Comerford that she could bring the wounded back up and they would adjust their guns to not disturb the wounded. However, it seems the order wasn’t share with the National Army forces in the Bridewell police HQ because when firing resumed, the Bridewell forces drove the wounded back into the basement.

            By 9pm, Dalton was facing an ammunition shortage. He didn’t want the anti-treaty IRA members to sleep or have a quiet night to reinforce their defenses and he believed that the bombardment would encourage his own men to keep fighting. So h78e went to British General MacCready and asked for more shells. Again, MacCready was hesitant about sharing ammunition with forces that could be his future enemies, but he finally agreed to share his last remaining 50 rounds of shrapnel to keep the anti-treaty IRA awake while sending a destroyer to the British Army Ordnance Depot at Carrickfergus to bring back 300 HE shells.

            Dalton officially ran out of ammunition after midnight but was able to resume firing at 1 a.m. after receiving MacCready’s 50 remaining shells. The gunners of the 18-pounders were told to fire a shrapnel round every fifteen minutes.

            Despite the nighttime bombardment, Maire Comerford reported that men slept “in every kind of attitude, some on top of the others” and that Madge Clifford, Ernie O’Malley’s secretary, went around sharing tea and bread she baked in the Four Courts oven.

References

The Republic by Charles Townshend

Richard Mulcahy: From the Politics of War to the Politics of Peace, 1913-1924 by Padraig O Caoimh

The Battle of the Four Courts: the First Three Days of the Irish Civil War by Michael Fewer

The Irish Civil War 1922-23 by Peter Cottrell

Cathal Brugha by Fergus O’Farrell