Dan Breen and Sean Treacy

[AZOffaly]

I caught a bit of an interesting documentary on TG4 last night about Dan Breen, and obviously Sean Treacy was mentioned quite a lot in it as an inspiration to Breen and the activities during the War of Independence in Tipperary and Dublin. I did a bit of research on Treacy afterwards, as our next door neighbour club here in Tipp are called Sean Treacys, from Rear Cross, and I came across this tradition which I was unaware of I have to say. Apparently every time Tipperary are in an All Ireland Hurling Final, there is a commemoration ceremony on Talbot Street, where Treacy was killed in a gunfight with British Security forces. This has been a tradition since the 20s, and is still faithfully observed. Apparently in 2014 there were a couple of thousand at it. It lasts for less than half an hour and involves a few short speeches, a recitation of the proclamation and renditions of Amhrán na bhFiann and Tipperary So Far Away.

I thought it was interesting that such a tradition is still going strong.

2014 crowd www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZqatXCBSSo

And a better example of what goes on,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RurjGgp6y0k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eJ-qV-6JFo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c05BKr3wajo

[OakleafCounty]

I watched that documentary myself. To be honest I had sympathy for the RIC officers they killed in that first incident. There was no reason to kill them and it's a pity they aren't remembered along with the four IRA men at the annual commemoration.  As usual from TG4, it was a brilliant watch!

[macdanger2]

Have it recorded

[AZOffaly]

I watched that documentary myself. To be honest I had sympathy for the RIC officers they killed in that first incident. There was no reason to kill them and it's a pity they aren't remembered along with the four IRA men at the annual commemoration.  As usual from TG4, it was a brilliant watch!

I think they just decided they were going to start a war, so they were going to kill someone. A pure ambush and probably unnecessary in order to steal the gelignite, but as I say I think they wanted to kick it all off. Interesting to see that Dan Breen lived until 1969. For some reason I thought he died in action with the Flying Column.

Another one I thought died back then was the Galtee Mountain Boy. 'Fairwell to Tipperary, said the Galtee Mountain Boy', but apparently his real name was Paddy Davern, and he lived to be a good age, dying in the 1990s.

[AZOffaly]

Link to the documentary. He was a hard man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM5rHgWfLs4

[Pub Bore]

Saw this.  Great programme.  There was also an interesting one on Earnan De Blaghd (Ernest Blythe) last week too.  The only Northern Protestant to be a member of a Dail cabinet.

[Applesisapples]

I watched that documentary myself. To be honest I had sympathy for the RIC officers they killed in that first incident. There was no reason to kill them and it's a pity they aren't remembered along with the four IRA men at the annual commemoration.  As usual from TG4, it was a brilliant watch!

Surely the old IRA would not stoop so low, that is only the preserve of those awful provos.

[ziggy90]

Link to the documentary. He was a hard man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM5rHgWfLs4

Great watch, he was indeed a hard man.

Thanks for posting that link AZ, I'd never usually get the chance to watch those programmes living as I do in Birminghamy. Much appreciated and if you or anyone else on here sees stuff you may think would interest those of us who can't get Irish television could you maybe post the links up on here. Cheers.

[theticklemister]

I watched that documentary myself. To be honest I had sympathy for the RIC officers they killed in that first incident. There was no reason to kill them and it's a pity they aren't remembered along with the four IRA men at the annual commemoration.  As usual from TG4, it was a brilliant watch!

Bring it up at the next AGM of the 'Let's remember the occupying forces' committee.

Record number in that committee now apparently.

[Rossfan]

Link to the documentary. He was a hard man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM5rHgWfLs4

He was the type you need standing next to you in a war.
However when peace comes around you have to sideline those kind of chaps.

[charlieTully]

Link to the documentary. He was a hard man.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM5rHgWfLs4

He was the type you need standing next to you in a war.
However when peace comes around you have to sideline those kind of chaps.

like Brendan Hughes? 

[OakleafCounty]

I watched that documentary myself. To be honest I had sympathy for the RIC officers they killed in that first incident. There was no reason to kill them and it's a pity they aren't remembered along with the four IRA men at the annual commemoration.  As usual from TG4, it was a brilliant watch!

Bring it up at the next AGM of the 'Let's remember the occupying forces' committee.

Record number in that committee now apparently.

Did you even watch the documentary before commenting ya fruitcake?

The two men that were killed were as Irish as Paddy Murphy's pig and you also need to look at the human side of things rather than just reffering to them as an 'occupying force'. One was a widower with seven children and they were posing no threat to anyone. 

[OakleafCounty]

I watched that documentary myself. To be honest I had sympathy for the RIC officers they killed in that first incident. There was no reason to kill them and it's a pity they aren't remembered along with the four IRA men at the annual commemoration.  As usual from TG4, it was a brilliant watch!

Surely the old IRA would not stoop so low, that is only the preserve of those awful provos.

Well it was no Shankill bomb!

[AZOffaly]

I watched that documentary myself. To be honest I had sympathy for the RIC officers they killed in that first incident. There was no reason to kill them and it's a pity they aren't remembered along with the four IRA men at the annual commemoration.  As usual from TG4, it was a brilliant watch!

Bring it up at the next AGM of the 'Let's remember the occupying forces' committee.

Record number in that committee now apparently.

Did you even watch the documentary before commenting ya fruitcake?

The two men that were killed were as Irish as Paddy Murphy's pig and you also need to look at the human side of things rather than just reffering to them as an 'occupying force'. One was a widower with seven children and they were posing no threat to anyone.

He (Dan Breen) said that he never took lightly the decision to kill anyone, but when it had to be done they did it with absolutely no regrets or doubt. At the end of the day, they were two armed RIC men, serving in the crown armed forces, so they were a legitimate target, if anyone was. Did they need to be shot in that way in order to steal the gelignite? No.

My difficulties with the struggle in the north has always been the civilians deliberately targeted. Soldiers or security forces, pre Good Friday Agreement, were legitimate targets just as the RIC, the Auxies and the Black and Tans were back in the 1920s. I think the old IRB carried out atrocities in shooting civilians too, but they always claimed they were either informants or supporting or enforcing British law. I would disagree with at least some of them too and those incidents are not things that would make me proud.

Attacking and shooting armed members of the British security forces was different though, and was justifiable in my opinion. In Cork, Tipperary or Dublin in the 1920s, and in Belfast or Derry in the 1970s and 1980s.

[theticklemister]

I watched that documentary myself. To be honest I had sympathy for the RIC officers they killed in that first incident. There was no reason to kill them and it's a pity they aren't remembered along with the four IRA men at the annual commemoration.  As usual from TG4, it was a brilliant watch!

Bring it up at the next AGM of the 'Let's remember the occupying forces' committee.

Record number in that committee now apparently.

Did you even watch the documentary before commenting ya fruitcake?

The two men that were killed were as Irish as Paddy Murphy's pig and you also need to look at the human side of things rather than just reffering to them as an 'occupying force'. One was a widower with seven children and they were posing no threat to anyone.

I read books mucker.