My ancestors - Humphrys - Contents

The Free State raid on Ailesbury Rd in the Civil War, Nov 1922

References:

The society belle and the IRA shoot-out, article on drama-documentary The Struggle by Dick's grandson Joe Humphreys, Irish Times, 25th Nov 2003. Note the sub-editor got the heading wrong: Joe's "grandaunt" Anno should read "great-grandaunt".

Prisoners - the Civil War letters of Ernie O'Malley, edited by Richard English and Cormac O'Malley, Poolbeg Press, 1991.
Sources yet to be consulted:
- Papers of Ernie O'Malley, dates 1916-56, 22 boxes, [UCD Archives] IE UCDA P17.
- "No Surrender Here!" The Civil War Papers of Ernie O'Malley 1922-1924, Lilliput Press, 2007.
- Free State records of the raid.
- Irish Times report, November 6, 1922. Reprinted in Irish Times, November 6, 2009.
- Evening Mail report.
- Irish Independent, 6 Nov 1922. Official Report of raid on 36 Ailesbury Road. "shots were fired and Miss O'Flanagan was wounded. Arrested at the house were Mrs and Miss Humphreys and Madame O'Rahilly." Copy in [NAI] s 2967D.
- Green Banners, R.M. Fox, London, Secker & Warburg, 1938, p.327.
- The Childers family kept records of the raid [Ernie O'Malley letters, 1991].

Full streaming video of The Struggle, 2003.
Click on image to play. Length: 55 minutes.
Courtesy of Manchán Magan and Ruán Magan.

In the Civil War (June 1922 - May 1923), the Humphreys family - especially Sighle Humphreys, Emmet Humphreys and Anno O'Rahilly - took the Republican (anti-Treaty) side.
Dick Humphreys, who had fought the British in the 1916 Rising, did not want to fight fellow Irishmen and took no part in the Civil War.

In Sept 1922, Nell Humphreys allowed Ernie O'Malley, the IRA Assistant Chief of Staff, age 25, to use their house in Ailesbury Rd as a safe house from which to co-ordinate the Republican war against the new Free State. The house was in effect the headquarters of the IRA.
Ernie O'Malley had fought in the GPO in the 1916 Rising with Nell's son Dick Humphreys and her brother The O'Rahilly.
Ailesbury Rd had been used as a safe house in the War of Independence against the British (1919-21), and contained a secret room.
Unfortunately for the Humphreys family and O'Malley, the Irish side were aware of the existence of this room.

In the early hours of Sat 4th Nov 1922, Free State troops raided the house.
Nell, Anno and Sighle were present. Think Emmet was in prison after the Four Courts.
Ernie O'Malley was in the secret room, heard them coming, shot out through door without seeing. He accidentally shot Anno in the face. She was badly injured, but survived.
Ernie O'Malley fought his way out, ran out back door, but was gunned down and seriously injured.
A Free State soldier was shot dead. The official story was that it was Ernie O'Malley who shot him. But there have always been rumours that it was Sighle who shot out a window and killed him, (todo) see [Fox, 1938]. She always denied this.
Nell, Sighle arrested and imprisoned.
Anno taken to hospital and later imprisoned.
Evening Mail headline: "SENSATIONAL Battle in a Dublin Suburb".
"the house's cover was blown, and for the rest of the Civil War it was the most raided house in Dublin" [French Embassy].

"As Miss O'Rahilly was being carried away on a stretcher, she managed to whisper to the maid: "there is money behind the curtain in my room; give it to the first person who calls". It was a sum of thousands of pounds, and was the entire resources of the Prisoners' Dependence Fund, of which Miss O'Rahilly was treasurer. The first person to call was the bread man, and when he had handed in his bread, the maid thrust on him this large sum of money in notes. Although the bread man was not involved in the movement and his wages at the time would not have been more than £2 a week, he gave back the money without a penny missing." [French Embassy history],

Ernie O'Malley spent the rest of the Civil War in prison, deemed too ill to stand trial and thus avoiding almost certain execution. The Civil War ended May 1923. He was one of the last prisoners to be released, released 17th July 1924.

In 2003, Sighle's grandsons Manchán Magan and Ruán Magan made a 1 hour drama-documentary, The Struggle (also here), RTE TV, about the raid, re-enacting it with actors.

Actors re-creating the raid on Ailesbury Rd for drama-documentary, The Struggle, 2003.
(Left to Right): The actor playing Ernie O'Malley, the narrator Manchán Magan, the actress playing Sighle, an actor playing a Free State soldier.
Outside Ailesbury Rd.
See black and white version.
From Manchán Magan.

The raid as reported in a newspaper. See full size.