Richard Mulcahy
"The situation was such that if a policeman was hit once, he was hit three or four times, because all our fellows could see was a black uniform and he didn't know whether he was dead or alive, so you had a lot of damage done like that."
- 1st Lieutenant Richard Mulcahy
Richard Mulcahy was born in Waterford in 1886, and was educated at Mount Sion Christian Brothers School and later in Thurles, County Tipperary, where his father was a postmaster. In 1902, he followed his father in joining the Royal Mail as part of the Post Office Engineering Department. He would go on to work in Thurles, Bantry and Wexford, before moving to Dublin in 1908, where he worked as a clerk in the office of the district engineer who was in charge of the telegraph system in Dublin.
As a young man, Mulcahy became interested in the history of the United Irishmen, which led him to seek out a similar organisation that he could become attached to in order to fight for Irish freedom. When he arrived in Dublin, Mulcahy was lodging at a house on the Clonliffe Road, and was introduced to Mick Crowe, who lived nearby, through a mutual friend. Crowe would go on to introduce the young Richard Mulcahy to the Irish Republican Brotherhood, and he was inducted into the Teeling Circle in Rutland Square soon after. He would become a prominent member of the Nationalist movement in the capital, joining the Gaelic League and eventually the Irish Volunteers on their formation in 1913.
As part of his job with the Royal Mail's Engineering Department, Mulcahy was in charge of keeping detailed records of both the underground and overhead telegraph and telephone systems in Dublin. This inside knowledge of the systems would prove to be extremely useful to the Volunteers during the 1916 Rising, and he was tasked by Seán Mac Diarmada with the job of cutting off the telegraph lines in North Dublin at the start of Easter Week, along with two other Volunteers.
Mulcahy's original orders were to then make his way into the GPO with as many men as he could muster, where he was to be part of Padraig Pearse's staff. On their way back into Dublin, the men encountered a number of British Army cordons and were cut off near Phibsboro. By a stroke of luck, they linked up with Thomas Ashe and the 5th 'Fingal' Battalion, who were encamped at Finglas Glen. Ashe knew Mulcahy well as they were both prominent members of the IRB and Gaelic League, and recognised his military prowess, which he knew would come in handy during the insurrection.
Not long after he joined the Fingal Volunteers, Mulcahy was accepted by the men as Ashe's second in command. On Tuesday the 25th, the battalion lost 20 men to the city garrisons at the request of James Connolly, and they decided to split the men into four companies, with a junior officer in charge of each. This proved to be a decisive move by the two men, allowing each company to be extremely mobile and adaptable in battle, something that would become hugely influential in the later Battle of Ashbourne.
After taking the RIC barracks at Swords, Donabate and Garristown, in North County Dublin, the 5th Battalion attacked the barrack at the Rath Crossroads near Ashbourne in County Meath. After the initial skirmish at the barracks, the RIC's motorised force arrived and Ashe favoured retreat in the face of this superior force. Mulcahy recognised the vulnerable position in which the column stopped however and urged Thomas Ashe to stand and fight, which he agreed to. Having re-organised their men, the Volunteers were able to surround their enemy and began to put down heavy fire upon them, causing huge casualties.
For the next five hours, the Fingal Volunteers fought bravely to defeat a much larger force of RIC, with the tactics employed by Mulcahy allowing them to gain an upper hand and eventually forcing the enemy to surrender. The men of the 5th Battalion were in awe of Mulcahy's military prowess, with Thomas Ashe approaching him afterwards and telling him; "Well Risteárd, the men are filled with a terrible admiration for you." The Fingal Volunteers returned to camp at Borranstown in a buoyant mood that evening before moving to Newbarn the following day. Their joy would turn to despair the following night when two RIC sergeants from North County Dublin arrived with a message of surrender from Padraig Pearse. While the Volunteers held the two men hostage, Mulcahy went to Arbour Hill to verify the order with Pearse himself before returning with the bad news. After their arrest, the 5th Battalion were taken to Richmond Barracks before being transported to various prisons on the British mainland.
Mulcahy was first interned at Knutsford in England, before being sent to Frongoch Internment Camp in Wales. Still relatively unknown to the British, he would be released from Frongoch on December 24th 1916, as part of a general Amnesty called by British Prime Minister Lloyd George. He immediately rejoined the Volunteers and was appointed Commandant of the Dublin Brigade. In 1918, he was elected to the First Dáil and was named Minister for Defense. In March 1919, he became the IRA's Chief of Staff, a position he held until January 1922. He and Michael Collins were largely responsible for directing the military campaign during the War of Independence, with tactics that were similar to those Mulcahy had employed during the Battle of Ashbourne.
During the Civil War, Mulcahy supported the Pro-Treaty stance and was appointed Minister for Defence of the Free State Army after the death of Michael Collins. He would go on to earn a huge amount of notoriety during the Civil War, when he ordered that Anti-Treaty soldiers were liable for execution if they were captured carrying arms. Under this order, 77 Anti-Treaty soldiers were executed. Mulcahy would resign from his post as Defence Minister in March 1924, in protest at the sacking of the Army Council after criticism by the Executive Council over the handling of the 'Army Mutiny'. He would go on to have a hugely successful political career and was elected as a TD numerous times, eventually becoming leader of the Fine Gael party in June 1944. Richard Mulcahy died on the 16th of December 1971, at the age of 85, from natural causes.
