• 1 Comments by Gerald Boland, “Gerry Boland’s Story”, The Irish Times, 10 October 1968.

2This article will demonstrate that despite his participation in key events Boland detested the Civil War. To use his own words, “I was glad [when the Civil War ended] […] None of us wanted that”.1 Boland’s Civil War experiences confirmed his preference for pragmatism over idealism from a military standpoint, and at the same time, revealed a nascent politician (albeit vastly inexperienced) driven by a sense of realism. As such, the essential elements of Boland’s republicanism comprised pragmatic realism rather than doctrinaire idealism.

• 2 Ibid.

4Apart from not wishing to fight against former military comrades, the justification behind Boland’s dislike for the Civil War (and thus his determination for it to end as quickly as possible) was also driven by a ruthless pragmatism. Militarily, as he later conceded, the anti-Treaty leadership “had neither policy, nor military leadership nor provisions nor proper clothing” to maintain the campaign against the provisional government and the National Army.2

• 3 See Gerald Boland Papers, GBP-3069-10(e). The Gerald Boland Papers are in the possession of the Bol (...)

5In fact, the death of Harry Boland convinced Boland of the futility of the Irish Republican Army (IRA)’s anti-Treaty campaign. In an extraordinarily frank comment, albeit written in later life, he admitted that anti-Treaty IRA forces should have “surrendered” by the summer of 1922 following his own capture. “The only thing to do”, he surmised, “was to make the best of things and try to pull the country together”. The use of “guerrilla tactics”, he protested, had been “useless”.3

• 4 GBP-3063-4(e). See also comments by Gerald Boland, “Gerry Boland’s Story”, The Irish Times, 10 Octo (...)
• 5 GBP-3063-4(e).

6Boland’s opposition to the Civil War was further copper-fastened because of his time on hunger strike, which lasted for approximately forty days, from October to November 1923 (and thus some six months after the cessation of armed hostilities between pro and anti-Treaty forces). In principle, Boland was wholly against the proposed hunger strike. Contained within Boland’s unpublished personal papers (discussed below) is a fascinating explanation of why he opposed the hunger strike and why he eventually decided to join the campaign. “I was resolutely opposed to hunger striking”, Boland later wrote, “which I considered was not a weapon for soldiers to use”.4 In his thinking, the provisional government had deliberately enticed the anti-Treaty prisoners to undertake a hunger strike in order “to get rid of us”, as he phrased it.5

• 6 GBP-3064-5(e).

7Reluctantly, as is examined, against his better judgement Boland decided to go on hunger strike. The rationale behind his decision, as he confessed in his unpublished memoir, was thus, “If you don’t go on strike you cannot help to call it off when the time comes so you better go on it and I did so”.6

• 7 GBP-10(b).

8Boland’s Civil War experiences also played a pivotal role in his future political career, not least as a government minister in several of Fianna Fáil cabinets from 1933 to 1954. Notably, as Minister for Justice (1939-1946), Boland’s determination to safeguard Ireland’s neutrality during the Second World War, saw him take ruthless action against the “new” IRA, as he labelled them.7 Working alongside the Special Branch of the Garda Síochána and Irish Military Intelligence (G2), Boland oversaw the establishment of military courts without right of appeal, internment without trial and press censorship. In some extreme cases, Boland also authorised the use of the death penalty against IRA members.

• 8 See Stephen Kelly, “Poacher Turned Gamekeeper: Gerald Boland, the IRA and Nazi Spies, 1939-46”, Iri (...)

9As someone who had, himself, played an active part in Ireland’s pursuit for independence, including during the 1916 Easter Rising and subsequent Irish War of Independence (1919-1921), Boland naturally found it extremely difficult to deal with the IRA as Minister for Justice. This was most aptly displayed regarding Boland’s treatment of a new wave of IRA hunger-strikers, three of whom made the ultimate sacrifice and died on hunger strike during the Second World War. For many of Boland’s critics his ruthless suppression of the IRA looked like a classic example of the “poacher turned gamekeeper”, given his own revolutionary background. Boland, however, remained unapologetic.8

• 9 Below in chronological order, based on the most recent year of publication, is a selection of secon (...)
• 10 See, for example, Stephen Kelly, “Poacher Turned Gamekeeper…”.
• 11 The notable exceptions to this are the respective works by Stephen Kelly, Gerald Boland: A Life, Du (...)

10Contained within the broad and varied histories of the Irish Civil War,9 the historiography regarding Gerald Boland’s participation in this milestone event has been understudied. Unlike, for example, Boland’s influential performance as Minister for Justice during the Second World War, a period when he helped to safeguard Ireland’s neutrality and monitor the internal security of the country,10 his involvement with the Irish Civil War has almost been forgotten within the relevant secondary literature.11

• 12 Comments by Harry Boland Jr., “Boland and Harry Boland – Part 1”, in “The 1916 Rising Oral History (...)
• 13 A copy of Gerald Boland’s unpublished memoir is in the possession of this author. In 2008, this aut (...)
• 14 GBP-3036-1.

11Like so many of his generation on either side of the military and political divide, in later life Boland refused to speak publicly about his experiences during the Irish Civil War.12 However, not all is lost. Importantly, due to exclusive access to Boland’s unpublished memoir, together with some of his private letters, a fresh picture can be painted of his involvement during this traumatic period of his life.13 During the early to mid-1960s, as a serving member of Seanad Éireann, Boland decided to commit to paper a biography of his life, along with a history of his immediate ancestors. “To fill up some time”, as he explained at the time of writing, “I have decided to set down my recollections of a rather full life”.14 The availability of this unpublished material is even more important given that, to date, there has been no comprehensive biographical study published on the life and political career of Gerald Boland.

• 15 See, for example, Bureau of Military History (BMH), Kathleen O’Donovan (née Boland), witness statem (...)
• 16 See, for example, Military Service Pension Collection (MSPC), Gerald Boland, MSP34REF15471, online: (...)
• 17 See, for example, University College Dublin Archives (UCDA), Michael Hayes Papers, P53; and Maurice (...)
• 18 See, for example, National Library of Ireland (NLI), Joseph McGarrity Papers, MS 17,462/27; and Pap (...)
• 19 See University College Cork (UCC) Special Collections Archives, Kathleen Boland Collection, IE BL/P (...)

12Moreover, this article has benefited from the availability of a plethora of declassified primary sources from several archival institutions in Ireland, including the Irish Military Archives, notably the digitised Bureau of Military History witness statements15 and the Military Service Pension Collection;16 the University College Dublin Archives;17 and the National Library of Ireland.18 Most recently, the availability of the Kathleen Boland Collection (Boland’s younger sister), located at University College Cork Special Collections Archives, offers an intimate insight into the lives of Gerald Boland’s immediate family during this period under investigation.19

• 20 See, for example, Ernie O’Malley, The Singing Flame [1936], Cork, Mercier, 2012; and Dan Breen, My (...)
• 21 See, for example, author’s interview with the late Harry Boland Jr., 22 February 2008. See also com (...)
• 22 For example, in October 1968, The Irish Times published a series of articles (ten in total), entitl (...)

13The use of documentary evidence is complemented by reported evidence, primarily published memoirs,20 interviews and oral histories,21 and newspapers.22

• 23 See GBP-3037-2.

14Gerald Boland was born on 25 May 1885, in Chorlton-on-Medlock, six miles south-west of Manchester, England. Six months after Boland’s birth, the family, including his father James “Jim” Boland and his mother Catherine “Kate” Woods, moved permanently to Dublin, where James Boland took up employment as a foreman pavement-layer with Dublin Corporation. In March 1895, James Boland passed away having fought a spirited campaign against a serious brain disorder. He was thirty-eight years of age. The Boland family was left emotionally and financially devastated by his death.23

• 24 GBP-3040-5.
• 25 “Gerry Boland’s Story”, The Irish Times, 9 October 1968.

15James Boland left five children behind him ranging from Nellie to the infant Ned, together with his devastated wife Catherine. Gerald Boland was nine years old when his father passed away. In later life, he recalled just how precarious a position the Boland family found themselves. “I was not ten and the youngest was not three years old […] we had absolutely no means [of an income].”24 As Michael McInerney wrote, on the passing of James Boland, the family “knew much poverty”.25

• 26 GBP-3043-8.

16Shortly afterwards, in February 1896, following a period attending the Christian Brothers School (CBS) Clontarf, Gerald Boland became a boarder under the Christian Brothers in the O’Brien Institute for Destitute Children, Fairview, Dublin. His subsequent schooling proved to be a godsend, permitting the young Boland to receive a “sound primary education”, as he later wrote in his memoir.26 In September 1900, aged fifteen, Boland left the O’Brien Institute to enter the workforce, eventually securing employment as an apprentice fitter with the Midland Great Western Railway (MGWR) Company in Dublin City.

• 27 Quoted in Robert Fitzroy Foster, Vivid Faces…, p. xv.
• 28 GBP-3041-6 to 8.

17Significantly, in the development of Boland’s republican sympathies, his teenage years coincided with Ireland’s so-called “long gestation”, a quarter-century from 1890 to 1916, during which time Irish society “turned from political to cultural nationalism”, under the auspices of the Gaelic Revival.27 Boland was himself a product of this pivotal transition in Irish society. His initial interest in the Gaelic Revival was ignited in 1898 during the centenary celebration of the 1798 Irish Rebellion. He was very much caught up in the excitement of the “songs and stories of [17]’98”, as he recorded later in life.28 Thereafter, Boland immersed himself in the cultural, literary, music and sporting renaissance taking place in Ireland.

• 29 Comments by Harry Boland Jr., “Boland and Harry Boland – Part 2”, in “The 1916 Rising Oral History (...)
• 30 See MSPC, Gerald Boland, MSP34REF1547.

18In 1904, Boland experienced his first taste of militant Irish republicanism by joining the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). His decision to join the IRB ensured that his lifetime ambition to “fight against the British” had commenced.29 Several years later, in November 1913, Boland was one of the first batch of Irish nationalists to join the nascent Irish Volunteers, having joined the movement’s 4^th Battalion of the Dublin Brigade.30

• 31 GBP-3052-A-5.

19Identified early on as a talented leader, Boland played an active role during the 1916 Easter Rising, in his capacity as a lieutenant of B Company, 2^nd Battalion of the Dublin Brigade, based at Jacob’s biscuit factory in Dublin. However, it did not take very long for him to conclude that the Rising, in his own words, was militarily a “hopeless” exercise.31 Indeed, Boland welcomed news of Patrick Pearse’s general order of unconditional surrender, which reached his battalion on Sunday, 30 April.

• 32 See GBP-3059-A-12.

20Soon after Boland’s capture he, together with approximately 1,800 other prisoners, was transferred across the Irish Sea to Great Britain. He was initially interned at Knutsford detention barracks in Cheshire. In and around June 1916, Boland and a sizeable number of his fellow prisoners were subsequently transferred to Frongoch internment camp, in Merionethshire, Wales. Eventually, on Christmas Eve 1916, Boland, along with around 300 fellow internees, was released from Frongoch internment camp in the general amnesty.32

• 33 Lawrence William White, “Boland, Gerald”.
• 34 According to Gerald Boland’s MSPC records he held the rank of lieutenant of B Company, 2^nd Dublin B (...)
• 35 MSPC, Gerald Boland, MSP34REF1547.

21In the early months of 1917, Boland re-joined the reorganised Irish Volunteers, but, unlike his younger brother Harry Boland, refused an invitation from Michael Collins to re-join the IRB, “contending that a secret oath-bound society was redundant in the altered political climate”.33 On 1 April 1917, Gerald Boland resumed his rank as lieutenant of B Company, 2^nd Battalion of the Dublin Brigade and Kildare Brigade areas: positions he retained during the initial months of the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921).34 His main responsibilities during this period involved instructing units of the above brigades in drilling, “field operations” and instructions on the “use of arms”, as he, himself, wrote.35 By this point, Boland had gained a reputation amongst his contemporaries for his leadership and organisational abilities.

• 36 Ibid.
• 37 Ibid. See also Liam Skinner, Politicians by Accident, p. 204-205.

22In May 1921, Boland was appointed battalion commandant of the newly formed 7^th Dublin Battalion, under commanding officer Oscar Traynor, serving the areas from Tallaght to Blessington, taking in Clondalkin, which had an approximate strength of around 279 volunteers.36 In his capacity as battalion commandant he also sat on the Dublin Brigade Council of the Irish Volunteers. During this period Boland was responsible for commanding “activities” against British Crown Forces.37

• 38 Letter from Gerald Boland to Michael McInerney, 9 April 1966, UCDA, Richard Mulcahy Papers, P7/D/11 (...)
• 39 See comments by Gerald Boland, “Gerry Boland’s Story”, The Irish Times, 10 October 1968.

23Boland opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty signed on behalf of the Irish republican movement and the UK government on 6 December 1921. He was convinced that by signing this Accord the dream of a sovereign, independent and united Ireland lay in ruins. Apart from his categorical refusal to take an oath of allegiance to the British monarchy he was disgusted by the confirmation that Ireland would be partitioned between north and south. Some forty-five years after these events Boland still referred to the period from December 1921 to June 1922 as a “kind of a nightmare”.38 He was left “shocked” by the split within the republican movement.39

• 40 Liam Skinner, Politicians by Accident, p. 206.
• 41 See Gerald Boland to Michael McInerney, 9 April 1966, UCDA, Richard Mulcahy Papers, P7/D/118.

24Boland could not fathom why Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins and the remaining Irish plenipotentiaries had signed the Anglo-Irish Treaty. He was reportedly “mortified” by their decision and their subsequent performance during the Treaty debates (which took place from December 1921 to January 1922).40 It was Collins’s perceived willingness to sign away the Irish Republic which underpinned his lifelong bitterness towards the “big fella”.41

• 42 The conflict lasted for approximately one year and led to approximately 2,000 deaths (between 1922 (...)

25The events that followed, culminating with the outbreak of the Irish Civil War in June 1922 (discussed below), would witness former political allies and military comrades take up arms against one another in what remains one of the darkest and most tragic episodes in modern Irish history. Recent estimates suggest that during the Irish Civil War two thousand people died,42 including Boland’s younger brother Harry Boland.

• 43 The Collins-de Valera Pact, signed on 19 May 1922, agreed terms for the establishment of a national (...)
• 44 Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson (1864-1922), senior British Army staff officer and Irish Unionist po (...)
• 45 “Gerry Boland’s Story”, The Irish Times, 10 October 1968.
• 46 See Diarmaid Ferriter, A Nation and Not a Rabble…, p. 257-259.
• 47 Dan Breen, My Fight for Irish Freedom, p. 172.

26The conflict itself, commencing in June 1922 and eventually ending in May 1923, was a culmination of tensions that dated back to the anti-Treaty IRA occupying the Four Courts in Dublin in April 1922, the failure of the Collins-de Valera Pact43 and the assassination of Sir Henry Wilson44 on 22 June of that year. With these events, as Boland later wrote, Civil War was an inevitability;45 although this is not to say that many on both sides of the divide worked tirelessly to avoid the outbreak of armed conflict, foremost amongst them Harry Boland.46 The die, however, was cast. In the words of one of Boland’s Irish republican contemporaries, Dan Breen, “war was in the air”.47

• 48 Letter from Gerald Boland to Michael Hayes, 9 April 1966, UCDA, Michael Hayes Papers, P53/279.

27On 28 June 1922, following intensive pressure on behalf of the United Kingdom government (chiefly Winston Churchill), National Army troops, under the authority of the provisional government (established under Michael Collins’s chairmanship in January 1922), opened fire on the Four Courts. With this action the Irish Civil War had commenced. In the aftermath of Sir Henry Wilson’s murder, as Boland subsequently explained in correspondence with Michael Hayes, “Churchill ordered Collins to put us out of the Four Courts immediately. He got panicky and obeyed Churchill”.48

• 49 Ronan Fanning, Fatal Path…, p. 336.
• 50 See Gerard Shannon, Liam Lynch: To Declare a Republic, Newbridge, Merrion Press, 2023, p. 192.

28Until the last minute, the provisional government had pleaded with the anti-Treaty Four Courts garrison of approximately 180 men, led by Rory O’Connor, to vacate the Four Courts. Their request was ignored. Overall command of the National Army attack on the Four Courts, under the authority of Richard Mulcahy, as Dáil Defense Minister, was bestowed on Emmet Dalton. With the use of two 18-pounder field guns, supplied by the British Crown forces, National Army troops pounded the heavily fortified Four Courts. The huge scale of British support, in the words of Ronan Fanning, “ensured that once the war began there was no doubt who would win”.49 Following this attack, at a hastily arranged meeting in the Clarence Hotel, Dublin, a republican proclamation was issued on behalf of the anti-Treaty IRA executive “declaring war on the Provisional Government and its army”.50

• 51 Copy of “Sworn Statement Made before Advisory Committee by Oscar Traynor”, 18 January 1935, MSPC, O (...)
• 52 Quoted in Marie Coleman, “Traynor, Oscar”, in Dictionary of Irish Biography, online: https://www.di (...)

29Eventually, on 30 June, after repeated shelling (including the destruction of the Public Record Office), the anti-Treaty Four Courts garrison of 130 survivors surrendered. The order to surrender came directly from Oscar Traynor, officer commanding the Dublin Brigade, who by this stage, in his own words, was “in virtual control” of anti-Treaty IRA forces in Dublin.51 Traynor was determined to “avoid a repeat” of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, during which republican forces had “sought unsuccessfully to hold parts of the city until relief” arrived from other units across the country.52 In the days that followed National Army troops seized control of Sackville Street and adjacent roads during the concluding phase of the “Battle of Dublin” (28 June to 5 July 1922).

• 53 The contents of this paragraph are sourced from John Dorney, “The Irish Civil War – A Brief Overvie (...)

30The outbreak of armed conflict in Dublin resulted in IRA units across Ireland taking sides. The majority, especially in the south of the country, sided with the anti-Treaty forces led by Liam Lynch, chief of staff of the anti-Treaty IRA. Soon after, National Army troops secured Dublin after a week of fighting and then “proceeded to secure the other towns and cities” held by anti-Treaty IRA forces. Over the subsequent weeks and months anti-Treaty strongholds, including in Cork and Kerry, were seized by National Army troops, with the result that by August 1922, it “appeared that the pro-Treaty forces had won”.53

• 54 John Dorney, “The Irish Civil War – A Brief Overview”.
• 55 For an account of Childers’s execution see Seán Enright, The Irish Civil War…, p. 36-46.

31However, the anti-Treaty IRA refused to surrender. Instead, they mounted a guerrilla campaign against the National Army forces. On 22 August 1922, anti-Treaty IRA forces claimed their most prominent casualty when Michael Collins was killed in an ambush in his native County Cork. In retaliation and to crush the anti-Treaty IRA forces the provisional government embarked on “a policy of executions of captured guerrillas”, to quote John Dorney.54 The first executions under the Army “Special Powers” Resolution, of four anti-Treaty soldiers, on 17 November, were followed by the execution of senior anti-Treaty IRA propagandist Erskine Childers, killed by a firing squad on 24 of that month.55

• 56 See MSPC, Gerald Boland, MSP34REF1547.
• 57 See Irish Independent, 18 July 1924 and Westmeath Chronicle, 19 July 1924. According to Gerald Bola (...)

32Militarily, Gerald Boland played a minor role during the Irish Civil War. In fact, his involvement in the campaign against the provisional government and the supporting National Army lasted less than a month, following his arrest and subsequent imprisonment in early July 1922. He would spend the remainder of the Civil War in prison. Unbeknown to him at the time Boland would be interned the longest of all anti-Treaty republican prisoners.56 Even after the ceasefire order came from Frank Aiken, Liam Lynch’s successor as chief of staff of the anti-Treaty IRA, thus bringing an end to the conflict in late May 1923, Boland remained in prison until 17 July 1924.57

• 58 See MSPC, Gerald Boland, MSP34REF1547. See also Liam Skinner, Politicians by Accident, p. 214-215.

33Boland’s Military Service Pension record states that apart from his continued involvement with 7^th Dublin Battalion, during the first week of July 1922, he also served as battalion commandant, 3^rd Battalion, 2^nd Dublin Brigade, in Blessington, County Wicklow (which had an approximate strength of 328 anti-Treaty IRA volunteers).58 By this time Boland and his family were living in Crooksling, approximately seven and a half miles from Blessington village.

• 59 MSPC, Gerald Boland, MSP34REF1547.
• 60 Handwritten letter from Gerald Boland to Oscar Traynor, undated, GBP-3190-2(P).

34Boland’s central involvement during his brief stay in Blessington, a small village almost entirely comprised of one long street and situated twenty-nine miles south of Dublin city centre, was to participate, in his own words, “in warfare against troops of the Provisional Government”, including carrying “out attacks on positions and armoured cars”.59 Essentially, these tactics, as he later wrote, ensured that his “actions” during the Civil War were “just to hold up reinforcements going into Dublin”.60

• 61 Quoted in Michael Hopkinson, Green against Green…, p. 142.
• 62 David Fitzpatrick, Harry Boland’s Irish Revolution, p. 309.
• 63 John Dorney, The Civil War in Dublin…, p. 107.
• 64 Quoted in John Dorney, The Civil War in Dublin…, p. 107.

35By this stage, Blessington village was acting as the headquarters for anti-Treaty forces in Leinster. Those stationed there, in the words of Michael Hopkinson, represented the “sole practical response to Oscar Traynor’s plea for relief forces to come to the aid of Republicans in the capital”.61 Indeed, it seems that the initial plan was to use Blessington as a base to intercept National Army reinforcements and “eventually launch a counter-attack” on Dublin city.62 Anti-Treaty forces’ strength in Blessington was further increased following the arrival of the 3^rd Tipperary Brigade, with a force of 110 men.63 By 5 July 1922, Michael Collins had received a report that “there was a big concentration” in Blessington and that the anti-Treaty forces there had “control” of the town.64

• 65 Michael Hopkinson, Green against Green…, p. 142.
• 66 John Dorney, The Civil War in Dublin…, p. 107.
• 67 Jim Maher, Harry Boland, p. 305.

36Anti-Treaty forces quickly went about taking over key buildings and commandeering “transport […] provisions”65 and “food stuffs” in Blessington village.66 Everybody entering or leaving the village first had to produce a permit. A field hospital was also established in a dairy, which had a staff including a doctor and nurses.67 Several outposts were also established in the neighbouring villages of Ballymore Eustace and Brittas, which ensured that the anti-Treaty forces had command of the Blessington to Dublin steam tramway (which was closed in 1933) and the main road to Dublin city. Smaller outposts were also created, including at Poulaphouca and Kildare.

• 68 Letter from Gerald Boland to Oscar Traynor, undated, GBP-3190-2(P).
• 69 Ernie O’Malley, The Singing Flame, p. 167.
• 70 See Jim Maher, Harry Boland, p. 305. See also David Fitzpatrick, Harry Boland’s Irish Revolution, p (...)

38Their arrival in Blessington was not universally welcomed by Gerald Boland’s battalion. Indeed, in an extraordinarily candid letter to Traynor, undated but most probably written in the early 1960s, Boland protested that O’Malley, Lemass and their accomplices, whom he described as a bunch of “refugees”, had arrived in Blessington “to pester me”.68 Boland’s frustration may be partially explained by O’Malley assuming military control of Blessington on his arrival. To Boland’s irritation, O’Malley wasted little time in establishing his authority, appointing Lemass as director of operations and Boland’s brother Harry Boland as quartermaster.69 O’Malley set up his military headquarters in the “strongly fortified” Ulster Bank on Blessington village’s main street.70

• 71 Andrew McDonnell “served as Officer Commanding 2 Dublin Brigade IRA from its foundation and during (...)

39A further explanation for Boland’s frustration was because of a decision by his senior officer brigadier, Andrew (Andy) McDonnell,71 to retreat from Bray to Arklow, thus failing to secure the Nass Road and the Blessington Road. McDonnell, Boland later complained,

• 73 See John Dorney, The Civil War in Dublin…, p. 97.
• 74 MSPC, Oscar Traynor, MSP34REF236.
• 75 Michael Hopkinson, Green against Green…, p. 143.
• 76 MSPC, Oscar Traynor, MSP34REF236.
• 77 Jim Maher, Harry Boland, p. 308.

40To Boland’s frustration (to put it mildly) within a matter of days anti-Treaty forces were forced to abandon Blessington. This decision was taken by Traynor (following the departure of O’Malley), who on his arrival to Blessington village in the early hours of 6 July 1922 had been unimpressed by what he saw (Traynor allegedly managed to smuggle a consignment of guns from Dublin to Blessington in Red Cross vans).73 According to Traynor’s own account, on his arrival “everybody” was asleep, including Boland and McDonnell. While he praised Boland for “working like a hero”, he could not hide his frustration concerning McDonnell’s decision to retreat from “the whole eastern portion of his area”.74 Traynor could not fathom why McDonnell’s brigade had failed to cut off roads in the vicinity of Blessington, which would have prevented National Army troops from advancing.75 Traynor thus demanded an “immediate evacuation of the post”, believing that there was now no possibility of advancing on Dublin city form Blessington.76 On his instructions the two battalions, under the command of Boland and McDonnell, were broken into “small formations” with the intention of evacuating the anti-Treaty forces from Blessington.77

• 78 Quoted in David Fitzpatrick, Harry Boland’s Irish Revolution, p. 311.

41Unbeknown to the three Boland brothers this would be the last occasion they would be in the same company. They would never again meet. For Boland, their “farewell” in Blessington was a “moment of sacred communion”. In a letter to his mother, Catherine Boland, dated November 1923, Boland recalled with poignancy his “loving embrace” with Harry Boland as they retreated from their position in Blessington.78 As is examined below, Harry Boland was to die at the hands of National Army troops in August 1922.

• 79 Charles Townshend, The Republic…, p. 411.
• 80 Ibid.
• 81 See file marked “Copy – Blessin”, report on Blessington, Moss Twomey to Liam Lynch, 5-10 July, UCDA (...)

42The events in Blessington ensured that “no Republican leaders emerged with much credit”, including Gerald Boland, to quote Charles Townshend.79 In their hasty retreat from Blessington anti-Treaty IRA forces left behind them “trashed houses, robbed banks and ‘a terrible spirit of defeat’”.80 Anti-Treaty reports were particularly scathing of Andrew McDonnell’s leadership as commandant of the 2^nd Dublin Brigade. In a report, dated 5 July, McDonnell was described as “quite unfitted [sic] to lead more than a dozen men”. Blessington was “a hopeless fiasco”. According to the same source, for the two previous days, McDonnell had been aware of “the encircling movement” by National Army troops but “took no steps to meet it”.81

• 82 Ibid.
• 83 Ibid.
• 84 Ibid.

43By the afternoon of 6 July 1922, reports had reached Gerald Boland’s brigade that approximately 2,000 National Army troops were moving from Naas and the Curragh to “surround Blessington and wipe out the mutineers”.82 By 4 pm, a further report noted that “nine lorry-loads” of National Army troops were making their way to Blessington from Ballymore Eustace.83 Despite receiving this news McDonnell was “very slow to act”. It was not until 9 pm later that night that McDonnell finally gave the order to “trench the road” having received information that an armoured car and some 300 National Army troops planned to use this road to gain access to Blessington. Indeed, by this stage, National Army troops were reportedly only three miles from Blessington village. Just before midnight, McDonnell made one last desperate attempt to hold back the advancing “enemy troops”. He ordered the main road to be blocked using three railway wagons as a barricade. It proved to be a futile exercise.84

• 85 Jim Maher, Harry Boland, p. 310-311. According to another source, McDonnell was captured, not while (...)

44The following morning, 7 July 1922, McDonnell, together with Boland and approximately twenty others, was captured by National Army troops under the command of Hugo McNeill, not far from Blessington village. By this stage, National Army troops had encroached Blessington from three different directions. McNeill’s party had travelled from Kilteel and then next to Hempstown before taking an anti-Treaty post at a farmhouse near Crosschapel, some two miles from Blessington village. Soon afterwards, McNeill received information that three motor cars were approaching the seized farmhouse. McNeill guessed that the approaching entourage might be comprised of anti-Treaty forces. He was correct. Boland, alongside McDonnell, drove towards McNeill’s awaiting forces “confident that they were approaching friends”. They were to be left disappointed. On arriving at the farmhouse, they were greeted by the order “Hands Up”.85

• 86 “Gerry Boland’s Story”, The Irish Times, 10 October 1968. See also file marked “Copy – Blessin”, UC (...)
• 87 David Fitzpatrick, Harry Boland’s Irish Revolution, p. 312.

45Boland subsequently summed up his capture: “I was glad. After all it was Civil War. None of us wanted that”.86 Indeed, according to a report provided by anti-Treaty IRA forces to Traynor, Boland “surrendered, without firing or attempting to fire a shot”, even though he was armed.87

• 88 See Seán Enright, The Irish Civil War…, p. 24.
• 89 John Dorney, “Today in Irish History 27 September 1922, the Passing of the Public Safety Act”, 27 S (...)

46In some ways, Boland was lucky to have been captured when he was. If he had been captured bearing arms against the recently constituted Irish Free State by the winter of 1922, he could very well have faced execution at the hands of the National Army. On 28 September of that year, the Dáil passed emergency legislation, the Army “Special Powers” Resolution, which established military courts and allowed for the execution of captured (and armed) anti-Treaty fighters.88 This legislation passed to the National Army “powers of punishment for anyone ‘taking part in or aiding and abetting attacks on the National Forces’, having possession of arms or explosives ‘without the proper authority’ or disobeying an Army General Order”.89

• 90 Seán Enright, “8 December 1922: The Mountjoy Executions. Abandoning the Rule of Law: State Executio (...)

47Other anti-Treatyites were not as lucky as Boland, including Erskine Childers (cited above). Indeed, on 8 November 1922, coinciding with Boland’s time in Mountjoy prison (examined below), four of his co-prisoners, Rory O’Connor, Liam Mellows, Richard Barrett and Joe McKelvey were executed by firing squad, in reprisal for the murder of Seán Hales, TD for Cork Mid, North, South, South East and West, the previous day, 7 November 1922. The executions of the four anti-Treaty prisoners were one of the “most notorious events of the Irish civil war”, to quote one informed source.90

• 92 John Dorney, The Civil War in Dublin…, p. 108.
• 93 Ibid.

49Despite Boland’s defence, in the final analysis, the performance of his 2^nd Battalion during the early period of the Irish Civil War was markedly “poor”.92 The National Army suffered only two deaths, while managing to capture over seventy anti-Treaty IRA irregulars.93

• 94 Comments by Gerald Boland, “Gerry Boland’s Story”, The Irish Times, 19 October 1968.

50Boland was to spend the remainder of the Civil War in prison. For the time being, his brothers Harry Boland and Ned Boland evaded capture. Before the arrival of National Army troops in Blessington Harry Boland had managed to lead an advance guard of anti-Treaty IRA forces into the nearby mountains. Ned Boland managed to return to Dublin, in the company of Traynor (Traynor was eventually captured by National Army troops on 27 July 1922). Soon after the end of the Irish Civil War, Ned Boland left Ireland for adventures abroad, including spending time in Uruguay and working as a “bronco-buster” on the American prairies.94 He died in the USA, in 1928, following a short illness.

• 95 Comments by Harry Boland Jr., “Boland and Harry Boland – Part 1”, in “The 1916 Rising Oral History (...)
• 96 See a letter from Kathleen Boland to Joseph McGarrity, 17 August 1922, NLI, MS 27,578/1/29.

52Boland’s time in prison coincided with one of the most traumatic episodes in his life: the death of his younger brother Harry Boland, on 1 August 1922. He was thirty-five years of age. On receiving the news of his younger brother’s death Boland’s “heart was broken”, as his son Harry Boland Jr. later noted.95 To his dismay, Boland was not permitted to visit his dying brother in hospital and to compound his grief he was also refused permission to attend his brother’s funeral.96

• 97 GBP-3069-10(e).

53Significantly, with his younger brother’s death, Boland was convinced of the futility of the anti-Treaty IRA’s campaign. In extraordinary frank comments, albeit written in later life, Boland admitted that anti-Treaty IRA forces should have “surrendered” by the summer of 1922, following his own capture. “The only thing to do”, he surmised, “was to make the best of things and try to pull the country together”. The use of “guerrilla tactics”, he protested, had been “worse than useless” as anti-Treaty IRA forces “were fighting against a native Government that had got a majority in the 1922 [Irish General] Election”. “Of course, I never let the Free State people know I felt like that, but often in talks with other prisoners I urged this view”.97

• 98 Comments by Kathleen Boland, San Francisco Chronicle, 12 May 1923. I would like to thank Dr. Margar (...)

54It was an extremely challenging time not only for Boland personally but for his wife Annie Boland (née Keating). Their anxieties were compounded by a daily fear that Boland, like his brother Harry Boland, may face execution at the hands of the Irish Free State apparatus. In the words of his sister Kathleen Boland, “His [Gerald’s Boland’s] time may come any day for they kill four prisoners for every one of their own losses”.98

• 99 GBP-3061-2(e).
• 100 John Dorney, The Civil War in Dublin…, p. 199.
• 101 Letter from James Ryan to Máirín Cregan, 29 November 1922, NLI, Papers of Dr. James Ryan and Máirín (...)

55Of his time in Mountjoy prison Boland recalled that initially life “went fairly well”.99 Mountjoy prison at this time had just under 700 prisoners, grouped in four wings in a circle, each with three tiers of cells.100 He enjoyed spending time with likeminded inmates, which included Andy Cooney, Art O’Connor, a future cabinet colleague in successive Fianna Fáil governments from the early 1930s to late 1950s, James Ryan. In fact, Boland and Ryan were cellmates for a time at Mountjoy prison. As Ryan recorded in a letter to his partner Máirín Cregan, dated 29 November 1922, “I am very lucky in my company here”.101

• 102 See GBP-1(E).
• 103 John Dorney, The Civil War in Dublin…, p. 201.
• 104 See GBP-2(E). The two prison guards shot dead were John Gaffney and (?) Keaveney.
• 105 Private James Gallagher died of his wounds later at the Mater hospital.
• 106 See GBP-1(E). See also Houses of the Oireachtas, “Mountjoy Prison Shooting”, Dáil Éireann Debates, (...)
• 107 Comments by Gerald Boland, “Gerry Boland’s Story”, The Irish Times, 10 October 1968.
• 108 See comments by Gerald Boland, 3 April 1946, quoted in Donnacha Ó Beacháin, The Destiny of the Sold (...)

56During his final weeks at Mountjoy prison Boland recalled his involvement in an unsuccessful attempt to break out of prison. On 10 October 1922, a group of prisoners, led by Andy Cooney, tried to “rush the military police when we were getting our rations on a certain morning”, as Boland later wrote.102 The planned escape, however, quickly floundered when some of the escapees (excluding Boland) managed to get hold of some revolvers, which had apparently been smuggled into the prison with the assistance of a prison guard.103 In the ensuing melee, during which Boland narrowly escaped being shot, two military police officers,104 a soldier105 and a prisoner, Peadar Breslin, were killed.106 The escape was only halted following the arrival of military reinforcements. As punishment, those involved in the attempted breakout were forced to sleep “all night outside in the yard in sleet and terrible weather”.107 In later life, Boland was to admit that he was “ashamed” of his involvement in this attempted prison breakout.108

• 109 Charles Townshend, The Republic…, p. 447.

57Boland’s final months in Mountjoy prison, before his transfer to Kilmainham Gaol in October 1923, coincided with the ending of the Irish Civil War. On 24 May of that year, Frank Aiken, chief of staff of the anti-Treaty IRA forces, issued a formal command for anti-Treaty IRA forces to dump their arms and return home. There were no negotiations, no truce terms, no formal surrender. Instead, to quote Charles Townshend, the “Republic simply melted back into the realm of the imagination”.109 Personally, Boland welcomed this decision on behalf of the anti-Treaty IRA leadership. By this point, Boland remained incarcerated, along with an estimated 12,000 other anti-Treaty IRA supporters.

• 110 Brian Hanley, “Frank Aiken and the IRA, 1923-1933”, in Frank Aiken: Nationalist and Internationalis (...)
• 111 See Liam Skinner, Politicians by Accident, p. 206.
• 112 See broadside election message, circa August 1923, NLI, EPH E165.
• 113 Liam Skinner, Politicians by Accident, p. 206.
• 114 At the Irish general election of 1923 in the constituency of Roscommon, Gerald Boland secured 3,843 (...)

58Boland’s time in Mountjoy prison also overlapped with a defining moment in his life: his election, in August 1923, as one of forty-four Republican TDs to Dáil Éireann. This impressive general election result, to quote Brian Hanley, “demonstrated that a popular base for anti-Treaty politics existed”.110 With the death of Harry Boland, Gerald Boland was put forward as his brother’s replacement – without his apparent knowledge – to contest the Dáil Éireann constituency of Roscommon on behalf of Sinn Féin.111 Unbeknownst to him, Gerald Boland’s general election campaign in Roscommon ran with the campaign message “The Republic stands for truth, honour, justice […] down jobbery, the floggers and the executioners”.112 Although having never visited Roscommon and knowing “scarcely anyone there”,113 Boland was elected on the eleventh count to the 4^th Dáil, as Republican for Roscommon (1923-1927).114

• 115 See, for example, Westmeath Independent, 18 August 1923 and Belfast Telegraph, 1 September 1923.
• 116 Irish Independent, 19 September 1923.

59Gerald Boland was one of eighteen elected anti-Treaty Republican TDs who were incarcerated. Surveying the available newspaper coverage of Boland’s 1923 general election victory it is striking how often he was referred to as the “brother” of the late Harry Boland.115 The Boland family, together with the Sinn Féin propagandists, were aware of Harry Boland reputation as an Irish republican par excellence, even in death. Indeed, shortly after Boland’s general election victory, at a meeting in Roscommon in mid-September 1923, Countess Plunkett read a letter from Boland’s mother Catherine Boland in which the latter thanked the “electors for electing Boland to fill the place of Harry [Boland]”. She was “sure their cause would stand until the Irish nation came triumphant, united”.116

• 117 Quoted in Liam Skinner, Politicians by Accident, p. 206.
• 118 Ibid.

60If Gerald Boland’s own account is to be believed, he was initially a reluctant politician, reportedly “not overly pleased” that his name had been put forward, without his prior knowledge or consent.117 It did not take long, however, for Boland to embrace his new public role as an elected representative, making up his mind to “discharge the duties of the position to the best of his abilities”.118 In fact, Boland would continue to represent the constituency of Roscommon for almost the next forty years, through the lifetime of thirteen consecutive Dáil Éireann bodies from 1923 to 1961.

• 119 Brian Hanley, “Frank Aiken and the IRA, 1923-1933”, p. 105.
• 120 See Michael Biggs, “The Rationality of Self-Inflicted Sufferings: Hunger Strikes by Irish Republica (...)
• 121 Quoted in Seán McConville, Irish Political Prisoners, 1848-1922: Theatres of War, London, Routledge (...)

61Despite Sinn Féin’s electoral success, anti-Treaty republicans soon “faced a prison crisis”.119 In mid-October 1923, six months after the cessation of armed hostilities, there was a mass hunger strike by an estimated 7,800 republican prisoners (including fifty women).120 The republican hunger-strike campaign first erupted in Mountjoy prison and quickly spread to ten or more prisons and internment camps, including Kilmainham Gaol, Cork jail, Dundalk jail, Kilkenny jail and the Curragh interment camp. Evoking the memory of Irish republican hunger-striker and martyr Terence MacSwiney, the anti-Treaty republican hunger-strikers promised that they would continue until they had achieved “freedom or the grave”.121

• 122 Michael Hopkinson, Green against Green…, p. 268.
• 123 Quoted in James Healy, “The Civil War Hunger-Strike: October 1923”, Studies: An Irish Quarterly Rev (...)
• 124 James Healy, “The Civil War Hunger-Strike: October 1923”, p. 213.
• 125 See Michael Biggs, “Hunger Strikes by Irish Republicans, 1916-1923”, p. 4.

62The central demands of the hunger strikes’ protests focused on prison conditions, as well as the “prolongation of internment”.122 In the words of Austin Stack, himself an inmate at Mountjoy prison, what the prisoners wanted was “unconditional release”.123 In pursuit of their demands, the hunger-strikers refused to take food or drink anything except water. Most hunger-strikers ceased their hunger-strike campaign, individually or in groups, within a month. However, about 200 hunger-strikers, including Boland, continued their campaign for approximately forty days.124 Denis Barry and Andrew O’Sullivan “starved to death”, before the hunger strike was officially called off on 23 November 1923.125

• 126 Michael Hopkinson, Green against Green…, p. 269.
• 127 James Healy, “The Civil War Hunger-Strike: October 1923”, p. 215.
• 128 Quoted in Michael Biggs, “Hunger Strikes by Irish Republicans, 1916-1923”, p. 11-12.
• 129 Quoted in James Healy, “The Civil War Hunger-Strike: October 1923”, p. 217.
• 130 Quoted in Michael Biggs, “Hunger Strikes by Irish Republicans, 1916-1923”, p. 11-12.

63The decision to go on hunger strike was not universally welcomed by anti-Treaty republican prisoners. In fact, there was “considerable unease” within the prisons about the decision to go on hunger strike.126 The available figures bear this out. Of the approximately 12,000 anti-Treaty republican prisoners in custody, an estimated one-third, some 4,200, did not participate.127 For example, Pax Whelan (O’Faoláin) initially objected to the proposal to go on hunger strike, but joined “rather than let down his companions”.128 Whelan wrote that the hunger strike was launched “in despair” because a “fermentation of anger at their prolonged inaction arose in the camps and jails”.129 Austin Stack also joined to hunger strike despite his “pessimism about the prospects of success”.130

• 131 GBP-3063-4(e). See also comments by Gerald Boland, “Gerry Boland’s Story”, The Irish Times, 10 Octo (...)
• 132 Ibid.

64What of Boland’s attitude to the proposed hunger strike? Like Messrs. Whelan and Stack above, in principle, Boland was wholly against the proposed hunger strike. Contained within Boland’s personal papers is a fascinating and refreshingly honest explanation of why he opposed the hunger strike and why he eventually decided to join the campaign. “I was resolutely opposed to hunger striking”, Boland later wrote, “which I considered was not a weapon for soldiers to use”.131 In Boland’s thinking, by commencing their campaign, republican prisoners were falling into a trap set by the “Free State leaders […] to get rid of us by hunger-strike” and “we had plenty of fools ready to fall for this, amongst us”.132

• 133 GBP-3064-5(e).

65Despite Boland’s misgivings, he was part of the first batch to go on hunger strike at Mountjoy prison in mid-October 1923. He subsequently explained the rationale behind his decision. “If you don’t go on strike you cannot help to call it off when the time comes so you better go on it and I did so”.133

• 134 Ibid.
• 135 Lawrence William White, “Boland, Gerald”.
• 136 Comments by Gerald Boland, “Gerry Boland’s Story”, The Irish Times, 8 October 1968. At least one co (...)

66After the first week of their campaign several of the hunger-strikers based at Mountjoy prison, Boland included, were sent to Kilmainham Gaol where they “continued the strike”, in his own words.134 Looking back on events during the early 1960s Boland was nostalgic about his experience on hunger strike explaining that his regular practice of yoga “disciplined him to withstand the rigours”,135 that “it was hardly any trouble” to him.136 Indeed, in a letter to his wife Annie Boland, dated 11 November 1923, Boland was at pains to emphasise his general good health and high spirits. “[W]e are going to win this fight, and I feel as sure as is humanly possible that I will have the unspeakable joy of being with you and my darling babies in a very short time”. He continued:

• 138 GBP-3064-5(e).

67On the 39^th day of his hunger strike (circa 21 November 1923), convinced of the futility of the hunger-strike campaign, Boland decided to visit as many of his fellow hunger-strikers in Kilmainham Gaol. One by one Boland pleaded with his comrades to end their campaign (although Boland deliberately did not approach Frank Gallagher, the so-called “hunger strike king” because, in Boland’s own words, there was “no use talking” to him).138

• 139 Ibid.
• 140 GBP-3065-6(e).
• 141 Comments by Gerald Boland, “Gerry Boland’s Story”, The Irish Times, 10 October 1968.

68Boland remembered that in his conversations with his fellow hunger-strikers he had “to use different arguments for coming off the strike, according to who [he] was dealing with”.139 “I started off my case by confessing that I was wondering what would happen if Seán Buckley died, as he was in a very bad state”, Boland recalled.140 For the “religious men” on hunger strike, to use Boland’s own description, he also used the “unscrupulous” argument that Christ had only lasted forty days on hunger strike thus it would be “sacrilegious” to strike longer than that.141

• 142 GBP-3066-7(e).
• 143 GBP-3067-8(e).

69Boland’s intervention was not universally welcomed by all the hunger-strikers in Kilmainham Gaol. On hearing the news of Boland’s meeting with Buckley, Frank Gallagher “came over to [his] cell and asked [him] was it true that [they] were going to call off the strike”. Boland confirmed that this was the case. In a revealing comment, perhaps hinting at his newfound political ambition as an elected representative for Roscommon, Boland said that he intended to “live” in order “to put out the Free State crowd if [he] could”. If this strategy failed, and the hunger-strikers decided to instead continue their campaign and “die”, he “would take [his] family away from a country which bred such lunatics”.142 Boland’s threat had the intended result. As he later wrote, “That shook Frank and he agreed to come off [the hunger strike]”.143

• 144 See James Healy, “The Civil War Hunger-Strike: October 1923”, p. 221.

70Boland’s mediation was no doubt influenced by contemporary events. On 20 November 1923, Denis Barry died on hunger strike in the Curragh prison hospital. Two days later, on 22 November, Andrew O’Sullivan died on hunger strike in Mountjoy prison. The following day, 23 November, the hunger strike was officially called-off.144

• 145 See Irish Independent, 18 July 1927.
• 146 GBP-3068-9(e).
• 147 Ibid.
• 148 Ronan Fanning, Éamon de Valera: A Will to Power, London, Faber and Faber, 2015, p. 146.

71In the weeks following the collapse of the hunger strike, in early January 1924, Boland was transferred from Kilmainham Gaol to the Curragh interment camp. Eventually, on 17 July 1924,145 he was released from prison “with the last batch of about a dozen”, as he phrased it.146 He had spent over two years behind bars and was proud of the fact that he “was by far the longest in internment”.147 Coincidently, Eamon de Valera was released from Arbour Hill Prison the previous day, 16 July.148

• 149 GBP-3068-9(e).

72Gerald Boland’s prison experience and more broadly the events of the Irish Civil War only copper-fastened his resentment for many of the pro-Treatyites politicians, which by 1924, fell under the command of the Cumann na nGaedheal-led Free State government in Dublin. “My attitude towards the Free State crowd”, he later wrote, “was just one of complete contempt. I looked on them as a pack of careerists”.149

• 150 GBP-3070/71-1(H).
• 151 See “Irish Republican Prisoners; Fund Summary”. This ledger contains the names and addresses of ben (...)

73On his release from prison, Boland was confronted by the realities of Irish society as someone who had fought on the “wrong side” during the Irish Civil War. Unfortunately, Boland had lost his reasonably well-paid job with the Dublin Corporation and was now desperate to find employment. “When I was released in July 1924”, he recalled, “my first problem was to earn something to try an [sic] keep my family going”.150 It was a very strenuous time for the Boland family. Throughout Boland’s incarceration his wife Annie and their four children were seemingly not in receipt of financial support on behalf of the Irish Republican Prisoners’ Dependents’ Fund (IRPDF).151 It, therefore, seems likely that the Bolands had been forced to rely on personal savings and family donations.

• 152 GBP-3070/71-1(H).

74Initially, after saying “good-bye to [his] old job”, Boland, together with Séumus Robinson, established a roof-making business renting a small garage, “but it was not a success”, to quote Boland.152 Boland’s financial woes were compounded by his inability to receive a salary as Republican TD for Roscommon (1923-1927). Under Oireachtas rules abstentionist elected representatives who refused to take an oath of allegiance to the British monarchy, and thus did not take their seat in Dáil Éireann, were refused a parliamentary salary.

• 153 Ibid.
• 154 Ibid.

75Shortly after his release from prison, Boland was invited to Roscommon to meet his constituents for the first occasion, where a meeting was held in his honour at an “old ruined Castle outside the town”.153 It was a joyous occasion, Boland remembered, as a “large crowd with a pipe and drum band” greeted him on his arrival to Roscommon town.154 Included in the welcoming party were several senior Sinn Féin figures, among them Mary MacSwiney and Barney Mellows.

• 155 Ibid.
• 156 Ibid.
• 157 Lawrence William White, “Boland, Gerald”.

76Celebrations aside, Boland pinpointed this occasion as convincing him of the futility of Sinn Féin’s dogmatic abstentionist policy, in the party’s refusal to take its seats in Dáil Éireann. “There was a lot of flamboyant talk about the living Republic”, Boland later wrote, “which nearly made me ill”. “For as far as I could see the Republic was dead as it could be. In fact, it was stillborn, as it never was in a position to function properly”.155 He continued: “If I had been asked to stand on such a futile policy”, he recorded, “I would have declined”.156 In taking this pragmatic stand, Boland was one of the first senior Sinn Féin members to articulate the need to abandon abstentionism and “devise a method of utilising Free State political institutions to achieve republican aspirations”.157

• 158 GBP-3076-6(H).
• 159 Liam Skinner, Politicians by Accident, p. 207.

77This was a bold move on Boland’s behalf, demonstrating his single-mindedness and ability for brutal honesty; characteristics that would later define his political career as a Fianna Fáil government minister. In his thinking, as he later explained, it was “ridiculous to be abstaining from the Dáil”, but rather he “should be in the Dáil and making all the trouble [he] could”.158 By attacking the usefulness of abstentionism Boland was openly undermining a central plank of Sinn Féin’s political ideology. He was, however, unapologetic. In the words of Liam Skinner, Boland was “one of the first” to assert that Sinn Féin had “outlived its usefulness, and that a positive policy must be adopted, to meet the changed circumstances, if Republicanism was not to become a dead letter”.159

• 160 Quoted in “Gerry Boland’s Story”, The Irish Times, 10 October 1968.

78Despite such displays of provocation, it did not take long for Boland to rise up the ranks of Sinn Féin, initially being appointed a secretary for the organisation shortly after his release from prison in July 1924. In this role, Boland was responsible for helping to organise the movement across the country. He travelled from Castleisland to Letterkenny reorganising the movement, with the policy, “the time for fighting is over, and we were not that good at it. The time is here now for Sinn Féin to put Cosgrave out”.160 Soon afterwards, operating from Sinn Féin’s headquarters in Suffolk St., Dublin, Boland was elected to the organisation’s standing committee, which met weekly.

• 161 Comhairle na dTeachtaí: an Irish republican parliament established by opponents of the 1921 Anglo-I (...)
• 162 See comments by Gerald Boland, “Gerry Boland’s Story”, The Irish Times, 10 October 1968.
• 163 GBP-3072-2-3(H).
• 164 GBP-3073-3(H).

79As a surviving member of the 2^nd Dáil and someone who had voted against the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, Boland was also a member of the Comhairle na dTeachtaí (Council of Deputies).161 It is fair to say that Boland had little time for this rival shadow parliament to the 3^rd Dáil, believing it to be comprised of “a lot of cods”.162 In his thinking the Comhairle na dTeachtaí was a talking shop for rabid republicans, including members of the 2^nd Dáil who “had been beaten […] [and] lost their seats”, as he phrased it. “I will never forget the first meeting of this body”, Boland recalled. “We had ridiculous speeches from Miss Mac Sweeney [sic] and a few others and I could not stand for the rubbish that was spoken, so got up and made my protest”.163 Boland continued: “I told Miss Mac Sweeney [sic] to face the fact that the Republic was gone and to give up her mysticism and face the hard facts”.164

• 166 GBP-3069-10(e).
• 167 Comments by Gerald Boland, “Gerry Boland’s Story”, The Irish Times, 10 October 1968.

82In the final analysis, Gerald Boland’s Civil War experiences confirmed his conviction that militarily anti-Treaty forces had wasted their time during the conflict. Arriving at this position Boland believed that the anti-Treaty leadership, to use his own words, had been “useless”, devoid of policies and military strategy.166 He was thus more than happy to leave this event to the annals of Ireland’s recent history. To again quote Boland. “I was glad [when the Civil War ended] […] None of us wanted that”.167