Meath Brigade: Part 1
ROINN COSANTA
BUREAU OF MILITARY HISTORY, 1913-21
STATEMENT BY WITNESS: DOCUMENT NO. W.S. 858
Witness: Seamus Finn, Athboy, Co. Meath.
Identity: Adjutant, Meath Brigade, I.R.A.
Subject.
STATEMENT BY SEAMUS FINN. Athboy, County Meath.
Parts of this statement have separate articles:
The Trim RIC Barrack raid 30th September 1920 Trim RIC Barracks.
The Chandler, Robinstown Looting and Burning Raid 9th February 1921: Chandler Raid, Robinstown
When divisions were formed in the Irish Republican Army in April, 1921, Meath became the kernel of the First Eastern Division.
The following appointments were made: Divisional 0/C. Commandant General Sean Boylan, Divisional Vice O.C. and Director of Training and Special Services Colonel Commandant Seamus Finn.
Divisional Adjutant Colonel Commandant Patrick Clinton.
Divisional Quartermaster Seamus O'Higgins.
Divisional Director of Engineering Colonel Commandant E. Cullen.
Other officers on the Divisional Staff were Commandant Paddy Mooney, Assistant Training Officer, Captain Arthur Levins, Captain Martin Finn and Captain Donal Landers. The Divisional area included the following Brigades
1. Dunboyne and part of North Kildare
2. Navan which included the original Trim and Navan Battalions;
3. Kells which included the original fourth and fifth Battalions and part of East Cavan as far north as Kilbride East;
4. Athboy including part of Westmeath;
5. Mullingar and the surrounding areas;
6. Edenderry, North Offaly and part of South Meath;
7. Naas and central Kildare as far as Old Kilcullen and the Curragh,
8. Fingal,
9. Drogheda and all South Louth.
Signed: Seamus Finn
Date: June 1st 1953
Witness: Matthew Barry Comd't
....... To return to the continued occupation of Crossakiel, it was during an inspection visit by me of the 5th Battalion that the matter of attacking this barracks was first discussed. The Battalion Council meeting was held in Keogh's, Ballinlough, and was presided over by Comdt. Seamus Cogan, and it was decided that the usual preliminaries for the attack would be made. This entailed careful scouting of the barracks, noting arrivals, departures, patrols and routine work of the occupants. The personnel of our attacking party was discussed and arrangements for a course of special training was considered. Then the matter of arms for the attack was raised and it was found that other battalions would have to be asked to augment the local supply. The whole matter was left thus until after the next meeting of the Brigade Council when Comdt. Cogan would submit the plans for consideration and approval. I remained in the area for a couple of weeks and assisted in training the various companies and discussing the plans. It was obvious that the party to attack would need to be specially selected and be drawn from different companies, and during these weeks Cogan and I were spotting likely men to form this party or column. Our task was not too hard as we had plenty of good material to choose from, but it was our intention that the column would be good, tough, and close knit with no weak link. We had not formulated any definite plan when I had to leave the area but the foundation had been laid and it should not have taken us very long to complete the details. At the Brigade Council meeting the whole matter was discussed in detail but no decision was come to, as it was found that the amount of arms available was not sufficient but it was agreed that after a survey of the area and an appeal to G.H.Q. that the plan would be again discussed at the July meeting. In the meantime Cogan went ahead with the drawing up of the plan and he had it ready for this meeting.
..... The plan of attack on Crossakiel was again discussed at our July Brigade Council meeting and assistance in the matter of arms was arranged from other battalions. Seamus Cogan was very enthusiastic about it and produced a rough outline of what had been done. Eventually it was agreed that I would attend a Battalion Council at Keogh's, Ballinlough, on the following Thursday when the plans would be finally completed. The Brigade Council was held in Larry Clarke's, Navan, on Sunday and I again met Seamus in Kilskyre on that night. He was anxious that he and I should scout the barracks surroundings in the moonlight but I demurred and finally convinced him that such a move might attract the attention of the police.
....... On this note left him on Sunday, little dreaming that it was to be our last meeting and that fate was to strike us one of its hardest blows in the meantime. On the Wednesday, while in charge of a party conveying an offender against the civil code to an "Unknown", he was shot in an engagement with a party of British Military outside Oldcastle. I was around Delvin - at Ginnall's - when the news reached me and to say that I was stunned is to put it mildly. What cruel luck that we should lose, what we knew was our best Battalion Commandant, on work that could and should have been carried out by subordinate officers and Volunteers. I immediately moved into the 5th Battalion area and while keeping well out of range of enemy intelligence officers and spies, proceeded to arrange that full military honours would be paid to him when his remains were handed back to his people. He had been brought back to Kells and after the British inquiry was over he was removed to Kells R.C. Church where he lay until Sunday when he was buried in the Republican plot at Ballinlough, a plot which was procured by his fellow officers and comrades of the 5th Battalion for the occasion. The other officers forming the Battalion Council took charge of the funeral arrangements while I issued a general mobilisation order to all Battalion Commandants for a full muster of brigade strength.
......... Making Conaty's Ballyhist my Headquarters I made contact with Kells Company Captain, Bob Mullen, and he kept me informed of the movement of events. Using every available rider in the 5th Battalion I issued mobilisation orders to all battalions to assemble in Kells Park at 1 p.m. on Sunday July 21st, 1920. All other national organisations were also invited – Sinn Féin, Gaelic Athletic Association, Gaelic League etc., and with the energetic co-operation of Pat Hopkins, Seán English, Seán Brennan and some others in Kells these bodies arranged for strong representation. The Volunteers fell in at the Park in battalion formation, his own 5th leading, and after some preliminary parading they listened very attentively to the orders which I, as Brigade Adjutant, issued to them. I, by common consent, took charge of the whole proceedings; and, in full uniform, led the parade to the church. In the street facing the church all the other organisations were already drawn up, having been marshalled by the men already mentioned assisted by Comdt. Pat McDonnell. The order of the march was as follows: small advance guard of cyclists, remains with bodyguard of officers, main body of Volunteers led by me, then followed the members of the other organisations and general public. We moved off shortly after 2.30 p.m. and the order was "slow March" until we were outside Kells when 'route march' pace was set. We continued this rate until we came near Ballinlough Cemetery, six miles away, when we reverted to "slow march' order. In the rear of the procession there followed a huge line of cars and horse drawn vehicles, and when we were nearing the cemetery one of the cycling scouts which had been in the rear of the whole entourage sped up and reported that enemy police were following the funeral in lorries. I sent back orders that the cars and traps were to be used to block the roads in our rear and prevent the police from interfering with final respects being paid to our dead comrade. This was very effectively carried out and Seamus received full honours - three volleys fired by men drawn from his own battalion and company - Stonefield - and the Last Post and Reville sounded by a Volunteer from Oldcastle Company.
.... In the autumn of 1920 when on a visit to the old Athboy 3rd Battalion and while enjoying the hospitality of the Ginnell homestead, an urgent dispatch came from Castlepollard that a man who had been very seriously wounded in an engagement in Longford was about to be brought to Dublin for a major operation and that he was being conveyed by car through Meath. We were asked to arrange for protection and safe passage for this man. I called on Comdt. Fox and Company Captain J. Kiernan and arranged for them to see about this in their area. The cart came to Delvin where we had this man brought to the local Workhouse and he was looked to by the nurses there. In the meantime I had sent on dispatches to the companies along the road which he would travel and asked for a systematic cyclist patrolling and the fixing of information posts at various places. The route travelled was Delvin, Kildalkey, Rathmoylan, Summerhill, Kilmore, Kilcloon then to Dublin. This was carried out very efficiently and the patient reached the hospital in Dublin with a minimum of delay considering the circumstances. We felt very pleased with ourselves, about this as it tested our organisation and showed it was in good shape.
..... An arrangement had been made that some of our staff would call to certain places in Dublin at least once a week and receive orders from G.H.Q. verbally. This was suggested by them and as it was only a, "hen's race" from our headquarters at Dunboyne. We looked forward to this weekly run into town with keen pleasure. During these visits we came in contact with all the G.H.Q. staff and learned things that otherwise would never have come within our ken. Vaughan's Hotel was one of the haunts that we visited and there we met Mick's aide, Tom Cullen, Liam Tobin, Eamon Fleming (whom we already knew), Frank Thornton and, among others, the 0/C Dublin Brigade, Dick McKee, and his Vice O.C. Peadar Clancy. As well as handling the Dublin Brigade, these two also had charge of the engineering section of G.H.Q.
On one of our visits they informed us that they intended coming down to our area to carry out an experiment on a Stokes gun or mortar which they had manufactured in one of their Dublin factories. The date was fixed, we got our instructions about scouting and guarding the route to be taken by them, and the proposed place where the trial was to be held. We took all the precautions prescribed by them and as the enemy were active then we had a very strong ring of guards thrown out. The experiment went very well. The gun acted very well, and the gunner, Capt. Matty Furlong, was well pleased. He had fired a number of dummy shells before he was satisfied that the first live one should be tried. This was a time fuse shell and he loaded and fired it. Watches were scanned and after roughly ten seconds the ground shook with the force of the explosion. Matty and Dick danced a jig. Peadar just grunted. Another one was tried and again a good result. We were deeply impressed and began to visualise the destruction and capture of many police barracks. Then they went further and began on the percussion shells. This one differed from the others in that it should land on its nose, which contained a percussion cartridge, before it could explode. One, two, three dummies were fired. None acted as desired. Then the fourth landed as required and the small cartridge exploded. Peadar, Dick and Matty were delighted and we felt happy too. Then we heard a long rumbling noise in the distance and our scouts signalled the approach of enemy lorries. Further investigation shows us that a very large force of military was approaching from the direction of Dublin. There were sixteen lorries of them. Dick gave the order to dismantle the gun. Each man grasped a part or shell and retired. We had already decided on our line of retreat. We then waited for a further signal, which came after about ten minutes - all clear. The gun was reassembled and the experiment continued. Some technical discussion took place between the three of them and then Matty placed the shell in the gun. There was a thud and then a roar. Everything went black for a split second.
When we recovered tragedy stared at us. Matty was down, his left leg was dangling grotesquely, blood was oozing from the back of his head, but he was conscious. After a while he asked for a fag, and while we went here and there seeking doctor, nurse, blankets, coats, etc. he lay there without a murmur, just an occasional groan. It was a long time before we succeeded in getting medical aid, but eventually a nurse was located and she did all she could to make him comfortable. I regret I cannot remember her name, but should I get it before I finish these notes I shall be glad to take the opportunity to pay tribute to her for her great work then. O.C. Boylan rushed to Dunboyne and rang up Michael Staines, who, in an appreciably short space of time, sent down an ambulance which conveyed poor Matty, although curfew was long on, to one of the homes attached to the Mater. I understand that a prominent surgeon operated on him at once, amputating his leg, and he recovered from the operation, but in a particularly vicious raid on the hospital – they were seeking Dan Breen at the time after the Drumcondra scrap when he and Seán Treacy fought their way out of a house in the middle of the night and escaped, but Dan was badly wounded - Matty was roughly handled by the Tans.
..... However, all good things come to an end and we had to move. On to the 5th where we parted Higgins went to stay with Mrs. Liam Sheridan whose husband was in gaol and she was struggling to keep the farm going and attend to her young family, while I went on to Johnnie Keogh's, who was also in gaol and the place was being attended by his sisters. We spent a week there drilling, inspecting, lecturing and manoeuvring. Just before leaving to go on to Bohermeen we received a dispatch from Kildalkey reporting that the curate's house had been surrounded on the Sunday after we had been there (we left on Friday) and had been turned inside out and both he and the P.P. closely questioned. Pretty straight information no doubt. We arrived at Bohermeen. Higgins went to Pat Kane's and I went to John Newman's - another of our class 1 houses. While there we arranged for a big meeting, to which we called all Battalion Staffs, Commandants, V.C.s, Adjutants, Quartermasters and I.O.s. At this gathering we had a complete investigation on the whole organisation in the brigade which lasted all night, and after which John and Mrs. Newman entertained all there to an enormous feed that refilled us with energy. At this conference I read an order which had been issued by G.H.Q. Chief of Staff, in which it was laid down that due to the big amount of ammunition wasted in unsuccessful attacks on police barracks that no such attacks were to be undertaken until the plans and full information had been submitted to G.H.Q. and sanction received from them. There was general disappointment as two attacks were being planned then, one at Oldcastle and one at Athboy, and had been delayed waiting for arms, ammunition and explosives from the Q.M. However, we decided on another form of operation. Each battalion was asked to arrange periodic patrols or columns who would occupy good ambush positions on roads that were in most use by enemy police and keep this up until they succeeded in carrying out a job. The success of the Trim Barracks attack in September had caused the enemy forces to move with great caution and with the advent of a company of Auxiliaries to Trim our freedom of movement was, to some extent hampered.
At this time the enemy forces in the county consisted of a company of military at Dunshauglin, another at Navan, a small force at Kells and some outside Oldcastle. As well there was an augmented force of R.I.C. and Tans in Trim, as well as the Auxies, over twenty Tans and police at Athboy, about thirty of the latter at Kells and about fifteen at Oldcastle, twelve at Longwood and about the same number at Dunshaughllin. Except for continual raids on the homes of the most wanted men among us these forces did no duty, but later on they began huge enveloping movements, surrounding whole towns and slices of country and making a house to house search. These big movements were fairly frequent and gave us a great deal of trouble as our men were forced to keep on the move and had to ensure that dumps of the arms we had were carefully concealed. It meant, too, that to plan and undertake even a small operation meant considerable effort, as the arms had to be lifted from these dumps, cleaned, brought to a point convenient to the site of the planned attack and again dumped, and as we had no possibility of knowing when these envelopments were about to take place we risked the loss of our small store of arms even by attempting an operation. However, we did not suffer any heavy losses in this respect.
..... At this council meeting in Newman's we arranged for patrols to be attacked on one night in the vicinity of Trim, Athboy, Oldcastle and Longwood. It was arranged for a night about mid December and each Battalion Commandant agreed to carry out his part. I returned to a house near Athboy owned by Casserley's, and went from there to Delvin to hold a Battalion Council meeting. At this meeting, under the control of Comdt. Ml. Fox, we made our plan and each Company Captain got clear instructions. Men were specially picked from Delvin, Archerstown, Kildalkey and Athboy Companies, and they were told to assemble at Murtagh's, Castletown, Athboy, on a Saturday night. Some of the men were late arriving and this meant delay in taking up positions. However, the allotted positions were occupied and we awaited the patrol - one, incidentally, which was in the habit of passing that way almost every night. After about two hours wait we sent a couple of scouts to see to see if there were any enemy movements anywhere in the town, but their report was that all was quiet, no sign of any police. After waiting for some time longer we broke up and agreed to try again next night. On this night (Sunday) some of our men failed to come at all, which left us short of arms and ammunition, so after a wait of about two hours I dismissed them and making a detour arrived at the north end of the town where I stayed in Ward's. From enquiries made by us we learned that there was no activity of any sort on either of these nights, but on the following morning at 6 a.m. I was awakened by one of the Wards who told me that there was a very big raid on in the town and that my father's place was being turned upside down. I moved out of town and eventually reached Ginnell's, Rosmead. Rose Ginnell offered to cycle to Athboy to seek information and I sent a message to W. Doyle, Athboy Company Captain, asking for a full report. This report gave me all the news of the raids and told me that it was a very thorough one but that no arrests had been made or arms captured. I sought out Fox and discussed the position, but he did not see any point in again travelling to Athboy in view of the alertness being displayed by the enemy.
After a few days I moved down to Ballinlough, sought out the officers of the 5th Battalion and held a council meeting. I was somewhat surprised to learn from them that matters in Oldcastle had turned out similarly to Athboy. I stayed a week there, for a couple of nights at Conaty's and then moved to Bohermeen to Newman's, and heard that Trim and Navan had also been failures - Trim for lack of enemy movement and Navan had been called off through some misunderstanding. We were all very puzzled and more so when the enemy police and military carried out their biggest offensive just then and picked up some of our leading battalion and company officers. While I was at Newman's I received word from the 5th Battalion to go back there as some trouble had arisen in two company areas. I held an enquiry into their grievances and could not find any serious reason for their attitude. As far as I could discover their discontent seemed due to the effect on the men's minds of denunciation of some of our activities by certain people. After this I returned to John Newman's and heard there from some of the Bohermeen men that there was similar trouble in the 6th Battalion - that some of the battalion officers were also showing signs of discontent. As it was very near Christmas I proceeded to Dunboyne where I failed to make any contact with either Boylan or Higgins, so I travelled to Dublin and reported to the Adj. Gen., Gearóid O'Sullivan. I arranged to meet him after Xmas and make a fuller report and discuss it with the whole G.H.Q. staff. In the meantime I contacted Boylan and made him aware of the situation, telling him that I had discussed it with the Adj. Gen. This seemed to worry him but nothing could be done about it.
State of organisation at the end of 1920:
Brigade Comdt: Seán Boylan; Acting Vice Comdt. and Adjt. Seamus Finn; Quartermaster Seamus Higgins; Brigade Engineer Eamonn Cullen; Brigade I.0. Patrick Clinton, Brigade Training Officer Patrick Mooney.
Battalion Staffs:
1st - Dunboyne Bn. Act. Comdt. Barney Dunne; Vice Comdt. Frank Carolam; Adjutant - D. Hall; Q/M - M. Toole.
2nd - Trim Battn. Comdt. Michael Hynes; Vice Comdt. -Adjutant - Q/M -
3rd - Comdt. - Michael Fox, Delvin. Vice Comdt. - Patrick Corrigan Adjutant - L. Ginnell Quartermaster - Patrick Carey Engineer - Joe Martin.
4th - Kells Battn. Comdt. - Patrick Farrelly Vice Comdt. - Tommy Reilly Adjutant - M. Cahill Quartermaster - M. Govern.
5th - Oldcastle Bn. Comdt. - David Smith Vice Comdt. - Seán Farrelly Adjutant - Peter Connell Quartermaster - Phil Tevlin. Enginaer - Matty Tevlin.
6th Navan - Comdt. - Patrick Loughran (later arrested and succeeded by Pat Fitzsimons) Vice Comdt. - A. Levins Adjt. - Kiernan O'Connell Q/M - Leo McKenna Engineer - Joe Hughes.
It is now early in the year 1921 and the enemy activity in Meath has become very intense. Raid after raid, big encirclements of towns and stretches of countryside, proclamations were being posted banning fairs and markets, and the business premises of our supporters were being visited at least once a week and customers ordered out while searches were made. Three towns which suffered most by this were Oldcastle, Athboy and Delvin. But our organisation remained intact, and when this activity had eased off somewhat our men made plans to harass as much as possible. A rms were very scarce, particularly in the 3rd Battalion - Athboy-Delvin - but patrols were arranged and they travelled to points near Athboy and Kildalkey and lay in ambush on several occasions in the hope of meeting up with a likely enemy force. But luck was against them, they did not meet any. The weather was very severe just then and several of our best lads went down with colds and pneumonia. In this respect the Trim men, who were moving around Kilmessan district, were suffering badly, and we also had a few bad cases in the Athboy and Delvin area. Then many of our best houses were now being subjected to raids and it wasn't very easy to find a comfortable place to lie up while sick. But we did find them and got the food and nursing that pulled our sick men through. The nurses in the Workhouse at Delvin, Casserley's. Drewstown, Ginnell's, Rosmead, Leonard's, Ballinvalley, and others did not mind running risks to help us.
Just then G.H.Q. sent instructions that the Belfast boycott should be stringently enforced and the men in Athboy Company found plenty of scope for work. There were some business people there who insisted on continuing to trade with Belfast houses, so our lads called on them and warned them that any boycott goods found would be burned. As this did not have any effect they made several raids on the railway station and succeeded in destroying several consignments and this did stop them. Of course this activity brought more raids etc. by the enemy and we lost a couple of men by arrest, while a few others had to go 'on the run'.
... While these events had been happening big things were taking place in organisation circles. G.H.Q. were finding some difficulty in keeping close touch with brigades throughout the country, so decided on a scheme which divided the army into bigger units, namely divisions. These divisions were to consist of groups of approximately eight brigades. Meath was selected as the centre of one, which was to be known as the 1st Eastern, Longford another, called 1st Midland. The 1st Eastern was to consist of nine brigades namely: 1st - Meath - which embraced all the old 1st Battalion as well as part of North Kildare with headquarters at Dunboyne; 2nd Brigade to consist of most of the old 2nd Battalion and all the old 6th Battalion with headquarters at Navan; the 3rd to take in all the old 4th and 5th Battalions along with three battalions in East Cavan as far north as Kilbride East; 4th was a small one tucked in along the Westmeath border and taking in the old 3rd Battalion as well as part of Westmeath with headquarters at Delvin; the 5th was to have headquarters at Mullingar and took in half of Westmeath; 6th was North Offaly with headquarters at Edenderry; 7th was in Kildare with headquarters at Naas; 8th was Fingal and 9th was South Louth with headquarters Drogheda. There was some difference of opinion among us about these areas as some of us thought that it was not a suitable divide. One counter suggestion by me was that Trim should be made a Brigade Headquarters and embrace all the old 2nd, 3rd and part of the 1st Battalions, as it would help to strengthen areas that were weakly armed, but this was turned down. Then the appointing of Brigade Staffs did not meet with unanimous approval among us as some of our best officers were passed over and men who were not so well qualified were placed in charge. All this organisation took up a good deal of time that might have been better used in planning operations, but the powers that were seemed to consider it of very great importance. The new appointments meant more work in that the men appointed had to be given some idea of their work, and they in turn had to move around their brigades and get some idea of the stuff of which their subordinates were made. With enemy activity at its highest peak in the matter of raids, searches and arrests all this work was slow. One thing was obvious we could not undertake big operations with the arms at our disposal as the new areas which had come under our command were not well armed. However, at our first divisional conference great stress was laid on the importance of our engineering arm, so the brigade officers were asked to concentrate on bridge demolitions, road blocks etc. There were several big operations of this kind carried out. Among them, as far as I can remember, were: Carlanstown Bridge, completely wrecked by explosive, under Col. Comdt. Cullen; the nine-eyed bridge over the River Blackwater near Virginia Road; Rockview Bridge and McCormack's Bridge between Delvin and Mullingar, which was done by Comdt. Fox and the men of the 14th Brigade; Tandy's Bridge on the main road between Athboy and Oldcastle, done by Athboy Company. The 2nd Brigade tried to demolish the Boyne Bridge at Kilcairne and also Dillon's Bridge near Tara, but both were failures owing to lack of explosives of the right nature. Several small bridges in this area were destroyed. As a matter of fact this form of operation was extensively carried out all through the Meath Brigades and did much to hamper the enemy and slow up the tempo in the matter of raids and big surrounding movements which had become a feature of their work.
Billeting
The gratitude of the officers and men of the Meath Brigade is all the reward that has been received by the poeple who, in dark and dangerous times, gave food, clothing, shelter and other forms of assistance to us when we were in sore need. It is indeed a sad commentary that now after almost three decades of native government many of those people have not got any recognition for their charity, courage and the great risks they ran by housing us. They opened their doors to us without any thought that a reward would ever come their way. They asked for none, they scorned any suggestion that any be offered them, but they at least deserve that the Irishmen and women of the future should know that they did their part, a hard part and one that held the risk of getting their homes burned over their heads by the enemy forces. How they stood up to the continuous raids by day and night, being ill-treated by half drunken police and military, threatened with shooting, in fact being lined up against walls, looted and sometimes beaten, showed an indomitable spirit that in itself went far to defeat the enemy. This is the first opportunity that has presented itself to put on record the great work of these people, and I hope it will compensate them a little to know that most of us who partook of their hospitality cannot nor shall not ever forget them. I welcome this opportunity to place them on a roll of honour and trust that posterity will place them on as high a level as the men who paid the supreme sacrifice for this old nation of ours.
I shall list them in battalion form and hope to do full justice.
In the Dunderry area where the Ivorys, both Darcy families; Joe Slevin and Costigan's hostelry, where Mooney, Billsey Byrne from Dublin and I spent some hectic days. We also received hospitality from Jim Yore. Caffrey's, Kilmessan, and their neighbours who looked after the Trim men when things were blackest. It was while the Trim Column was around here after the capture and destruction of the barracks that Comdt. Mick Hynes developed a bad bout of pneumonia and was carefully nursed out of it.
Larry Clarke's, Brews Hill, where we began the good work in August 1916 and continued to use for meetings up to the end. The hot cocoa when leaving always braced us for a journey. Mrs. Clarke looked after this end. Sean Newman's, Bohermeen, our second important H.Q. Here we mustered big numbers of officers from all over the brigade and held lectures and conferences. There was no limit to the entertainment here and no expense spared by him and his wife. Pat Kane's was another such, and in this district we also had Gerry Reilly's, Thos. Gibney's and Foley's. To Pat Quilty who gave his bed to Mooney and slept in a chair himself.
There were others, too, but I have clearest recollections of the ones mentioned.
........Early in 1921 the leading men of the Trim Company were out. Every one of them was being sought and they became scattered for a time. They were having hard times and the constant hardship and moving around took its toll of them by sickness. Some of them were quartered about Kilmessan and Dunderry and managed to keep together fairly well. Then Comdt. Mick Hynes fell very ill and developed pneumonia. He got a bad touch and it speaks well for his toughness that he fought it under the terrible conditions in which he existed., Eventually a group of them was got together and formed a small column. Among those were Seán Higgins, P. Hynes, P. Mooney, M. McArdle and Patrick Duignan.
Source:
Cogan, John F., Tragedy in Oldcastle, The Death of Commdt. Seamus Cogan, 22 July 1920, Riocht na Midhe, 2015, p. 279