Richard Barrett (
Dick Barrett) (1899 –
8 December 1922) was
a prominent
Irish Republican
Army volunteer who was executed during the
Irish Civil War in 1922.
War of Independence
Barrett
was born in Hollyhill, Cork
in
1899. He was educated at a local national school and went on
to become a teacher. He was an
IRA brigade staff officer and
occasionally acted as brigade commandmant of the West Cork Brigade
during the
War of
Independence. Dick also managed to organise fund raising
activities for comrades 'on the run'. In 1920 he was appointed
quartermaster of the West Cork Brigade: after the
Crossbarry Ambush.
Dick was arrested
March 1921 and imprisoned in Cork jail, later being sent to
Spike Island,
County Cork
. He escaped during the
truce of 1921 by row boat alongside
Moss Twomey, Tom Crofts and
Bill Quirke.
Irish Civil War
Following the Irish War of Independence, Barrett supported the
Anti-Treaty
IRA's refusal of authority to the
Dail (civil
government of the Irish Republic declared in 1919). He was opposed
to the
Anglo-Irish Treaty,
calling for the elimination of English influence in Ireland.
In April,
1922 under the command of Rory O'Connor, Barrett,
along with 200 other hardline anti-treaty men, took over the
Four
Courts
building in the centre of Dublin
in defiance
of the new Irish government. They wanted to provoke British
troops, who were still in the country, into attacking them. They
hoped this would re-start the war with Britain and re-unite the IRA
against their common enemy.
Michael Collins tried
desperately to persuade O'Connor and his men to leave the building
before fighting broke out. In June 1922, after the Four Courts
garrison had kidnapped J.J. O'Connell, a general in the new
Free State Army, Collins shelled
the Four Courts with borrowed British artillery in what became
known as the
Battle of
Dublin.
O'Connor surrendered following two days of
fighting, and Barrett with 200 or so anti treaty IRA members, was
arrested and held in Mountjoy Gaol
Prison. This incident sparked the
Irish Civil War - as fighting broke out
around the country between pro and anti treaty factions.
Execution
On 8 December 1922, Richard Barrett was executed along with three
other Republican leaders,
Rory O'Connor,
Liam Mellows and
Joe
McKelvey by the
Irish Free
State in revenge for the IRA's killing of
TD Sean Hales.
One significant member from each province was executed, Barrett
representing
Munster. Ironically, Barrett
was a member of the same IRA brigade as Hales during the
Anglo-Irish War and both were childhood friends. The executions
were ordered by Justice Minister
Kevin
O'Higgins.
In reprisal for O'Higgin's role in the
executions, the Anti-Treaty IRA murdered his father and burned his
family home in Stradbally
, County
Laois
. Anti-treaty members would later assassinate
O'Higgins as well. (See also
Executions during the
Irish Civil War). Barrett is now buried in his home county Cork
following the government's exhumation and re-interment.
A poem
about the execution was written by Galway
clergyman
Pádraig de
Brún.
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