Charles Dalton - With the Dublin Brigade: Espionage and Assassination with Michael Collins Intelligence Unit

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With the Dublin Brigade tells the story of one mans role in the Irish War of Independence. First published in 1929, the author, Charles Dalton, was but a young man, only twenty-six years old, when he decided to write about his experiences during the conflict that resulted in Ireland winning independence, although not full independence, from Great Britain.

Dalton was born in January 1903 to James Francis Dalton, a staunch supporter and advocate of Home Rule, and his wife Katherine. He was the third of six children. The family had lived in America for some time, where Charles two older brothers Martin and Emmet were born, but then returned to Dublin where the next four children, Charles, Eileen, Brendan and Dermot (Pat) arrived. Their early family life was stable and happy, but as with so many young men and women of that generation, events far out of their control would affect them in ways that they could never imagine.

And so begin the first pages of Daltons story.

Immediately we are introduced to thirteen-year-old Charles description of the event that would have such a profound effect on him the 1916 Easter Rising. Although his older brother Emmet was fighting for the British Army in the First World War, Charles makes no mention of that conflict, a conflict that had an impact on so many people the world over. To him the men and women who made a stand during that week in April 1916 were his heroes and in that moment, like so many of his generation at that time, Charles decided that if a future opportunity arose, he, too, would play his part in helping to free Ireland.

The young men and women who had witnessed the aftermath of the Easter Rising were determined that when they would fight again it would be on their terms. Knowing that they were outnumbered both in manpower and weaponry, they used every advantage at their disposal to attack and undermine the crown forces. Countless books have been written by participants of the Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War, and these accounts give an invaluable insight into that period of our turbulent history. However, With the Dublin Brigade differs somewhat to the other publications, in that it not only describes how the War of Independence was actually fought in Dublin, but, more importantly, it also describes the methods used by the Republicans in the intelligence war against the crown forces.

The Volunteers, or Irish Republican Army (IRA) as they were to become known from 1919, fought their war on three levels 1) undermining the civil administration, 2) physical attacks and 3) intelligence. This three-pronged assault was to be very effective, and the IRA intelligence units around the country, but especially in Dublin and Cork, were vital to this new type of warfare. The authorities never expected to be attacked through their own intelligence system a system which had been used again and again to great effect against previous attempts by the Irish to obtain their freedom. And this is where Charles Daltons story is unique. Not only was it written just eight years after hostilities between Great Britain and Ireland ceased but, more importantly, it is a first-hand account of how the intelligence war was fought by young men and women who, although putting themselves in great danger, carried on regardless in order to free their country. The very nature of their work required the utmost secrecy but, through Charles story, we catch a glimpse of what it was like to participate in such activities.

His story reads like a film script, the memories of such momentous events in his life still fresh in his mind. And in those first few chapters we see him grow up very quickly.

In December 1917, aged just fourteen, Charles officially became a member of the Volunteers, joining F Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. His description of his first official job is full of excitement, even though he was only helping in the cleaning and removal of pigs carcasses to be cured by local factories. He wrote, Dramatic accounts of this incident appeared in the newspapers. It gave me a feeling of elation to receive this public recognition of what was my first job .

His descriptions of events are at times funny, for example dressing in his fathers clothes to make himself look older. We see his rise through the ranks of the IRA, firstly assisting the Squad and then as a member of Michael Collins Intelligence Unit, and we are soon introduced to those men who would become some of his closest friends. Through Dalton we hear their stories too. All of them he held in the highest regard and when telling of those who did not survive the conflict he does not shy away from expressing how their deaths affected him, especially that of Dick McKee, OC Dublin Brigade, in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday, 1920.

Surprisingly, Dalton goes into great detail about the build-up to the events of Bloody Sunday. As an active participant in the shootings he gives a first-hand account of the events, not only of the shootings themselves, but of how it felt to actually carry out the shooting of the British agents, not in battle, but in their residences. He writes: I was wrought up, thinking of what we had to do the next morning, and I could feel the other men were the same Outwardly we were calm and collected, even jesting with each other. But inwardly I felt that the others were as I was palpitating with anxiety. Of the aftermath he wrote: The sights and sounds of that morning were to be with me for many days and nights