Irish Free State Executes Four IRA Leaders 1922

#OnThisDay 1922 Four Republican prisoners were executed in Mountjoy Jail in response to the assassination of Pro-Treaty TD Sean Hales. Each prisoner represents the four Irish provinces. The four men were:

Dick Barrett

Joe McKelvey

Liam Mellows

Rory O’Connor

Rory O’Connor

Rory O’Connor from Dublin. O’Connor had served as an intelligence officer during the Easter Rising, Director of Engineering for the IRA & took over the Four Courts in 1922. He was best man at his close friend Kevin O’Higgins’s wedding, who then signed O’Connor’s execution order.

Liam Mellows

Liam Mellows, who represented Connacht after his role in organising the Easter Rising in Galway. He was Director of Supplies for the IRA & was elected as a TD to the first Dáil. While in jail, Mellows outlined a 10 point programme about how he thought the country should be run.

Dick Barrett

Richard Barrett from Cork. A teacher by trade, Barrett was a very active IRA staff officer & was appointed West Cork 3rd Brigade Quartermaster in 1920. He was captured after the Four Courts had been shelled. He wrote a last letter to his family describing his last few hours.

Joe McKelvey

Joe McKelvey from Tyrone. McKelvey was commander of the Belfast Brigade during the War of Independence & later of the the Third Northern Division. In June 1922, McKelvey briefly became IRA Chief of Staff, days before he was captured after the shelling of the Four Courts.