Genealogy research by Mark Humphrys.
Genealogy research by Mark Humphrys.
Domhnall O'Donoghue,
|
Jailed for most of Civil War, 1922-23:
When
Four Courts attacked June 1922,
he was involved in a week of fighting.
Arrested, jailed for long time.
[P106]
shows he was in jail as at Dec 1922.
Held in Newbridge military camp.
He was on the big hunger strike, Oct-Nov 1923. The men were on hunger strike for 41 days, wrecked his health. [Teresa O'Donnell] says released Dec 1923. |
Republican diehard after Civil War.
Member of IRA Army Council. Editor of An Phoblacht.
Domhnall
remained in
IRA
after Civil War.
Arrested Oct 1926.
Jailed in
Mountjoy.
He was director of campaign to boycott British goods, started end 1930, resumed 1932
[Ward, 1983].
When De Valera's Fianna Fail elected 1932, the IRA became legal again for a few years.
Domhnall was leading member of the
IRA in the 1930s.
Officer of 4th Battalion, Dublin Brigade IRA.
He
became a member of the
IRA Army Council.
He was editor of
An Phoblacht
1934-35
(see history
of An Phoblacht).
Occupation listed as "journalist" at marriage.
Domhnall
mar 28 Feb 1935
to Sighle Humphreys
[lifelong Irish republican revolutionary,
born 26 Feb 1899].
In 1935 De Valera made the IRA
and An Phoblacht illegal.
|
Jailed Mar 1935 to possibly Aug 1935:
Domhnall was only back from honeymoon two days when he was arrested
at the An Phoblacht office, Dublin, on 27 Mar 1935.
He was
jailed for IRA membership for 6 months from date of arrest, Mar-Sept 1935.
Jailed in Arbour Hill.
[Teresa O'Donnell] says he was arrested for making a "seditious speech, held in Bridewell prison, Dublin and in Co.Kildare, and freed 11 July 1935. Though [P106/1776] apparently shows him in jail, soon to be released, as at 6 Aug 1935. |
Domhnall and Sighle moved 1935 to 18 Eglinton Park, Donnybrook
[the former home of her brother
Dick,
who had now moved to Kingswood].
They are listed at 18 Eglinton Park in
[Thoms]
from 1936 edn on.
Domhnall was arrested 15 Nov 1935 for making a "seditious speech" in
Lurgan in Northern Ireland.
Held in Crumlin Road Prison, Belfast.
Released 6 Dec 1935.
Domhnall was Quarter-Master General to
Sean MacBride
(who was
Chief of Staff of the IRA
in 1936).
Domhnall arrested again while on holiday in Co.Kerry, 9 July 1936,
for having IRA documents.
Jailed in Arbour Hill.
Went on 48 day hunger strike.
Freed 30 Aug 1936.
[DIB]
says he was imprisoned again for sedition as at Oct 1936.
See
[P106/1914].
On 11th May 1937 [NOT 1938] there was an
Anti-coronation
meeting in Dublin,
scuffles with police.
Sighle and other Cumann na mBan brought wounded republicans
up to Parnell Square
[Mac Eoin, 1980, p.20].
Domhnall was accountant at
Solus Teoranta
(Ireland's first and largest light bulb manufacturer,
founded 1935,
factory in Bray, Co.Wicklow,
see modern site).
|
World War Two:
In World War Two,
like Sighle's cousin
Mac O'Rahilly
and
other diehard republicans,
Sighle and Domhnall supported Nazi Germany against the British.
The motivation of the republican diehards was usually not support for Hitlerism.
Rather it was the belief that if Britain lost the war, the Nazis would set up a United Ireland.
Under every Chief-of-Staff of the IRA from Sean Russell in 1938 to Charlie Kerins in 1944, the IRA supported Nazi Germany, collaborated with them, assisted Nazi spies, and even proposed a Nazi invasion of Northern Ireland. They even threatened to attack the American troops coming to liberate Europe. Ireland was neutral, and De Valera suppressed the IRA, not least to stop them dragging Ireland into the war. He interned Republicans and executed some IRA men. Sighle in radio interview says she used to worship Dev, but could never forgive him after IRA man Paddy McGrath was executed 1940.
Cumann na mBan said in
1940
that Nazi Germany was
"fighting Ireland's battle and the battle of all oppressed nations within the empire".
Contrary to earlier reports,
[Irish military files]
do not have a file on Sighle,
and their file on Domhnall only hints at possible German links.
|
|
Clann na Poblachta:
After the war, Domhnall followed Sean MacBride to the new radical Republican (but constitutional) party Clann na Poblachta. Domhnall was a founder member of this in 1946. Sighle's 1st cousin Mac O'Rahilly was a prominent member. Domhnall stood for Clann na Poblachta in Dublin South East in Feb 1948 general election, not elected. His running mate, Noël Browne, on his first election, took all the Clann na Poblachta vote in that constituency. Noël Browne said: "Though we did not know this at the time the innocents in Clann na Poblachta were to be used as political mounting blocks for others, to ease the real "republicans", the ex-IRA, into Leinster House. My function in Dublin South-East was to elect a long-standing member of the IRA, Donal O'Donoghue" [Browne, 1986]. However O'Donoghue only got 559 votes. Browne got 4,917 votes and was unexpectedly elected. "Most certainly I was not elected as a republican; Donal O'Donoghue got the miniscule republican vote". Clann na Poblachta was in government 1948-51. Domhnall was Chairman of the Standing Committee of Clann na Poblachta as at Nov 1950. See [P106/2174]. |
Domhnall is listed as "accountant" at death.
He died 6 Aug 1957, at his home 18 Eglinton Park, Donnybrook,
of stomach cancer, age 60 yrs
[GROI].
(todo) See obituary notices in
[P106/2180].
He was
bur Glasnevin Cemetery.
By
Anno's will (probate 1959),
Sighle inherited the summer house at
Muiríoch, Co.Kerry
(in the Gaeltacht).
She was a life-long supporter of the Irish language.
She remained a diehard republican all her life,
even into the modern era of the
Provisional IRA,
which she strongly supported in the 1970s and 1980s.
She wrote to and visited IRA prisoners in the
Maze Prison (Long Kesh, the H Blocks).
[P106]
has her correspondence with republican prisoners from 1940s to 1980s.
She campaigned against Irish entry to the EEC.
One of her key issues was to preserve
Irish neutrality.
Her side lost the referendum in 1972.
She corresponded in the 1980s with a young
IRA prisoner,
Donnacha Nelis
(son of
Mary Nelis),
who was serving a long sentence in the H Blocks.
See
[P106]
845-888.
She was a life-long worker for the
Society of Saint Vincent de Paul,
which she saw as in line with her socialist ideas
and concern for the poor.
She was Catholic but critical of the Catholic hierarchy
for their hostility to both socialism and republicanism.
She
lived 18 Eglinton Park, Donnybrook, until 1980-81.
Sighle's papers
were given to
[UCD Archives]
1991, indexed 1994.
She died early morning, Mon 14 Mar 1994,
Our Lady's Hospice, Harold's Cross, age 95 yrs,
funeral Sat 19th Mar,
bur Glasnevin Cemetery.
Domhnall and Sighle
had issue:
Domhnall standing for Clann na Poblachta in the 1948 election.
Irish Times,
6 Feb 1948, p.2.
Domhnall O'Donoghue when young.
See full size.
Domhnall O'Donoghue.
This is
[P106/1680(8)].
See larger
and full size.
See other scan.
(Left to Right):
Sighle, Cróine, Anno, c.1945.
Sighle,
c.1945.
See full size.
Domhnall O'Donoghue,
c.1945.
Sighle's grave, Glasnevin.
Photo 2006.
See full size
and alternative.
See close-up.
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