Now more than ever is it possible for those with an interest and an internet connection to study family history. From the online availability of 1901/1911 Census’ and the Bureau of Military History’s Pensions and Witness Statements collections, to the Newspaper archives it takes time and unfortunately at times a little money to delve into the past. In investigating my own history, I came across two interesting associates of my Great-Uncle William Murray; James and Thomas Redican.
James and Thomas were born to Sligo parents, Thomas and Annie Redican. Thomas Snr. was a gardener by trade and an Irish musician by passion, and the boys along with their siblings Dorothy, Patrick and Lawrence attended school in Donnybrook. On finishing school, James became a bookmaker and was a Volunteer in E Company, 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. He was active in Boland’s Mills during the Easter Rising and would suffer injuries to a hand, an ankle and took a bullet to a thigh which would plague him for the rest of his life; he was imprisoned in Frongoch after the surrender. His younger brother Thomas also made an appearance during the Rising, showing up at his brother’s garrison but was turned away by DeValera for being too young.
Sometime after the general release of prisoners from Frongoch, James Redican makes an appearance in Mullingar, as can be read in the witness statements of Michael Murray, Capt. Ballinacarrigy Company IRA and Michael McCoy, Capt. Mullingar Company. Murray mentions raids for arms ‘under the command of James Redican,’ and a successful raid on the Hibernian Bank in Mullingar. His statement also speaks of Redican and a party of Volunteers, including William Murray holding up a mail train just outside of Mullingar, destroying communications and removing moneys from letters. Interestingly, the statement continues
It now transpired that Redican was not a member of the Volunteers at all. He was an ex-prisoner from Mountjoy Jail. Apparently while in Mountjoy he got acquainted with some Volunteer prisoners from the Mullingar area and convinced them he was up for political reasons while in reality he was doing time for some criminal offence. On his release, he came to the Mullingar area nosing as staff officer from G.H.Q. and soon was OK with the Battalion O/C and other officers. G.H.Q. now sent down instructions that he was to be put out of the area, much to our surprise… It was really a pity he was of that type because he had plenty of guts and courage and would be an asset to the Volunteers anywhere
The Hibernian wasn’t Redican’s only experience of bank raids. By late 1920, he was leading a gang of men (including his brother Thomas and several of those involved in the Hibernian raid) on a series of sorties against banks in Dublin, ostensibly under the orders of Brigadier T.J. Burke of Mullingar (Noel Redican’s ‘Shadows of Doubt.’)
On the left, The National Bank at Baggot Street Bridge. Circa. 1905. Raided twice by Redican’s gang.
In November 1920 and February 1921, the National Bank of Upper Baggot Street was raided, with sums of £2, 789 and £1, 237 being appropriated. The day after the February raid, the brothers, along with Thomas Weymes (another of the Mullingar men,) were picked up and brought to the local police barracks where they were paraded in front of witnesses, arrested and charged. According to ‘Shadows of Doubt,’
They (the IRA) had come to the conclusion that Redican (James) had pocketed the proceeds from the robberies, which were therefore of a criminal nature, and disowned the raiders.
As a result, their arrests may not have been wholly down to sleuth like police work. Michael McCoy’s witness statement would seem to corroborate and goes further to say
… a series of bank robberies occurred around Dublin. David Burke had a suspicion that Redigan (sic) and his party might be the culprits, and so informed Michael Collins. Collins passed on the information to some friends in the D.M.P., and Redigan and a man named Weymes were arrested and sentenced to a term of imprisonment. It was suspected that Redigan then gave information to the British authorities as to the location of the arms in Mullingar. In February, 1921, after David Burke was arrested, an R.I.C. man told him that they had information that arms were stored in a disused oven in McDonnell’s bakery in Dominick St. Their information was perfectly correct. Burke got a message out to me and we had them removed shortly before the place was raided.
The three men still regarded the offences with which they were being charged as political, insisting the raids were ordered by superior officers and that the proceeds from same had been removed by another two of the Hibernian men, Tormey and Murray for return to their Brigadier for dispersal. Their trials were held separately and weren’t without controversy- witnesses seemed confused as to who they were meant to be pointing out, and Thomas Redican, though in prison in Arbour Hill for another offence at the time of the February raid, was charged with same. The three men were sentenced to penal servitude.
The Freeman’s Journal, May 23rd 1922
Their time in prison was to be cut short, with the signing of the treaty and the subsequent amnesty for republican prisoners in February 1922 only for them to be re-arrested within weeks for questioning regarding the monies raised through their bank raids and the whereabouts of same- upwards of £5, 000 was unaccounted for. They were tried by a Republican Court at the Court of Conscience on South William Street in what was widely regarded at the time by the papers ‘an amazing story.’ Several newspaper reports make the point that the money used from the raids was used to finance a bookmaking business.
In November, Tormey, James Redican and witness raided the Baggot Street branch of the National Bank. They got about £3, 000 there. They went to Tara Street after, taking the money from the bank. Tormey went away that evening. Witness handed over the stolen money to him and he took some of it with him. Witness was acting under Tormey at this time. Witness followed Tormey to Westmeath and there was a division of the money but Witness got none. Witness carried on the book in the meantime. In October, the book was making money. They called themselves the ‘Bolsheveki Bookmakers.’
(Cork County Eagle and Munster Advertiser, June 3rd 1922.)
Under the newly formed Free State, the men’s stay in prison was far from comfortable, with neither side willing to give concession to the other. Throughout the Civil War they remained guests of the State, who though petitioned, refused to sanction the release of Thomas even though it was proved could not have been present for the raid which he was serving time for. The men in turn didn’t make it easy for the prison services, and until their release in July 1924, frequently engaged in acts of disobedience, refusing to wear uniforms, attacking warders and undergoing several hunger strikes, one of which in particular almost cost James his life.
Their story does not end there. In 1928 Seán Harling, a brother-in-law to the Redican brothers (having married their sister Dorothy) shot and killed Timothy Coughlan, a 22-year-old IRA Volunteer outside the house he was sharing with the Redican family. Harling, a Republican interned during the Civil War had joined the Secret Services of the Free State in part due to economic reasons, and in part due to enormous pressure exerted by Free State agents. He alleged he was ambushed while returning home from work and retaliated in self-defence. However, medical evidence would suggest otherwise, Coughlan’s wound looking more like an execution rather than a shot fired in haste whilst fleeing. The Redican brothers would take the stand once more, this time for questioning in relation to Coughlan’s death having been present in the house during the shooting; a case that is almost as inconclusive today as it was at the time.
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
Thomas and Jim were my wife’s uncles.
It is true James Redican was indeed a rogue, a maverick, one of that breed of men who cannot abide rules and regulations and who will not accept discipline. David Nelligan, Collins’ soy in the Castle, often referred to him as a “Mendicant”. But he was a republican and very useful to the I.R.A. who used his services whenever he made himself available to them, even though he was incapacitated by his crippling war wounds. And we all know how easy it was-and is- for the republican movement to write or airbrush a volunteer out of their history who had fallen foul of them.
James Redican was born in Kesah, County Sligo, (where his mother was from) around 1896. His father was from near the Rock of Doon, in the town of Boyle, County Roscommon.
James did run a bookies shop called the ‘Bolshiviki’ at 5 Fitzwilliam Terrace, Bray, County Wicklow, using the pseudonym Thomas Casey. And he was, as I understand, well established in it before the Easter Rising 1916.
When he was released from Frongoch he did not join the newly formed Irish Republican Army because of the crippling wounds he received fighting in Bolands Mills 1916.
In August 1920, unable to find employment he left Dublin and went to Mullingar, where he was inducted into the South Westmeath Brigade of the I.R.A. by Brigadier T J Burke. According to Redican; “Burke made me Commandant-in-charge with the special assignment of raiding banks to procure funds for the brigade’s coffers and levying certain rates on farmers for Dail Eireann.” Redican selected a team of seven men for his squad. James Gaffney, Christopher Fitzsimons, James Murray, Michael Murray, William Murray, Vice Commandant Tormey and Thomas Weymes.
After each raid in Dublin they would return with the loot to a small hotel in Tara Street run by a Miss Sullivan, a republican. There Wyemes and James Murray would transfer the loot to an attaché case held by Vice Commandant Tormey who locked it before handing it over to Redican for transfer to Brigadier Burke in Mullingar. Redican said that the money was never counted by either him or any of his men before transferring it to the Brigadier.
On the afternoon of 7 February 1921 the National Bank on Upper Baggot Street was raided for the second time in three months. The folling evening James Redican was arrested masquerading as Thomas Casey in his bookies shop in Bray by Inspectors Forrester and Davison.
Thomas Redican in mid-1920 with Thomas Weymes and Wiliam Murray engaged in sporadic skirmishes with the Auxies and the Black and Tans. Thomas Redican took two hits from the Tans during one of those encounters, one in the knee and one in the hand. On the 9 December Thomas was arrested along with a comrade, Paddy Gallagher in their billet, 4 St Teresa’s Terrace Glasnevin, Dublin by the Tans when they raided the house. They ended being held without trial in Arbour Hill jail. They were released on 13 February 1921.
Six Days later Redican was arrested at his parents home in Ranelagh by Sergeant Killeen. Thomas Weymes of Mullingar was also arrested. The Redican’s and Weymes knew that someone had informed on them; but who?
Two separate trials were held on the same day, 12 May. James Redican by British field general court martial at Kilmainham court house. Thomas Redican (who was in prison when this raid took place) and Thomas Weymes were court martialled in Richmond Barracks Inchicore just up the road from Kilmainham.
Despite witnesses not being able to identify the accused and the confusion of others, the British authorities, it seemed wanted all three men in prison. James Redican was sentenced to penal servitude for life, he had opened fire on the Auxies outside the bank, and to suffer eighteen strokes of the Cat-o-nine Tails. The life sentence was later commuted to fifteen years. The flogging was not confirmed. Thomas Redican and Thomas Weymes were sentenced to twelve years and twelve strokes of the Cat. Again the flogging was not confirmed.
The three were delivered to Mountjoy Jail in May 1921 and were treated as interned prisoners and housed with other republican prisoners of war. Two months into their imprisonment on 11 July, the Truce between Sinn Fein and the British Government was signed. It was approved by a Dail majority on 7 January 1922 and ratified three days later by the provisional government in the Mansion House.
In February 1922 an amnesty was declared for all political prisoners. The Redican brothers and Thomas Weymes released unconditionally along with 150 others who had also been tried by British court martial. The three declared themselves anti-Treaty.
However, their freedom was short lived. On the evening of 16 March 1922 a group of armed I.R.A. men took them from their homes and escorted them to general head quarters Beggars Bush barracks for questioning. They refused to cooperate and James Redican demanded an investigation into what he considered a very serious accusation (pocketing the proceeds of the bank raids). They were bundled off to Mountjoy once again this time by their own kind, to finish out their sentences. They immediately went on hunger strike there.
Of course the British knew the three men to be I.R.A. activists and that the bank raids were I.R.A. sanctioned. Otherwise they would have been tried in Green Street criminal court house where all serious criminal offences were usually tried; and not by British court martial. Had they been tried in Green Street the charges against them would have been more than likely dropped for lack of evidence.
After recovering from hunger strike in Dr Stevens hospital they were granted a hearing in the Republican Court of conscience in South William Street Dublin presided over by Judges Creed Meredith and Arthur Clery. They were sent back to prison to await the court’s final conclusion. James Redican later claimed that “the inquiry never reached any conclusion because the burning of the Four Courts had come on and that Judge Clery had sided with the Irregulars and Meredith with the Free State.” He also claimed that Judge Clery “had recommend their release.”
On the 2 July 1924 they were released from prison on licence at the same time as the last batch of I.R.A. prisoners interned since the start of the Civil War. The three men were certain that they were kept in jail until the end of the Civil War because they were classed by the government as political prisoners even though they were not granted that status.
In 1934 the government introduced ‘The Military Service Pensions Act’. Only ex combatants from any of the republican military bodies, including Cumann Na mBan, were invited to appear before a panel of judges and give an account of their participation in the fight for Irish Freedom in order to receive the pension. Their evidence had to be corroborated by a senior officer of their unit Some witnesses account of their involvement, I was led to believe one time, was not always truthful and at times over exaggerated.
I had never heard of Michael McCoy or of David Burke until now. So I don’t know anything about them. But I am sure they both were upstanding volunteers.
According to McCoy’s witness statement David Burke, on a suspicion, told Michael Collins that “Redican and his party had carried out the Dublin bank raids.” (Why tell Collins this in the first place)? And that “Collins in turn told the D.M.P.” effectively the British authorities. So it appears from Michael McCoy’s witness statement that it only took Michael Collins’ word to the British authorities to have the Redican brothers and Tomas Weymes arrested and thrown into prison for many years. Why would Collins do that?
Was David Burke insinuating that Michael Collins was a British spy?
McCoy also in evidence stated that “James Redican came to Mullingar nosing about as a staff officer from G.H.Q. in Dublin and was accepted as such by the Battalion O/C and other officers.” However, it seems that it did not occur to any of these officers to contact G.H.Q. in Dublin to verify Redican’s credentials.
Then McCoy gives further evidence that in February 1921, David Burke was arrested and that an “R.I.C. man had told Burke that they had information about the whereabouts of an arms dump. “Burke got word out to me and I removed the arms just in time before the place was raided” This statement would suggest, by all accounts, that the dump was an official I.R.A. dump. He also said that “Redican” he doesn’t say which one, Thomas or James, “was suspected as being the one who gave the information about the dump to the authorities.”
Now this is interesting. If the dump was an official I.R.A. one and as stated by McCoy that “Redican had never been in the volunteers”,
how did he know where the dump was?
Remember, Michael Collins was engaged in the war of independence against British occupation at the time, and with a very limited amount of arms and ammunition at his disposal. So only the most trusted active service volunteers and units, such as the Flying Columns who would need quick access to them would know where they were stored. And the most mortal of mortal sins one could commit against the I.R.A. would be to give up one of their arms dumps to the enemy.
Michael Collins I understand was ruthless when dealing with such informers and suspected informers. And he would have expected all his army units to deal with such informers in the usual manner, as he would have done. And the Mullingar Brigade should have dealt with it if they really believed or had any evidence that Redican was guilty as suspected. I understand there were men executed for less.
It would be interesting to know how much time had elapsed between the Brits finding out about the arms dump; the R.I.C. man telling Burke they knew about it, and Burke able to get word out to McCoy in time for him to shift the arms before the Brits raided the place.
Finally, I don’t believe that Redican gave away that dump, not because he was my uncle, but for two reasons one; Collins and the Mullingar unit of the I.R.A. did not deal with him in the usual manner, even if he was in prison. Two; the British it would seem, did not act with any great urgency to raid the dump or to put any surveillance on it before McCoy had any time to rescue the arms.
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