INTRODUCTION
My Fight for Irish Freedom, by Commandant General Dan Breen, of the Third Tipperary Brigade, is a story written in the plain unaffected language of one of Ireland’s bravest and most devoted sons. Many of Ireland’s great champions passed from this world without leaving any authentic record of the battles in which they took part, save that which tradition handed on from generation to generation.
As time passed, many of the most important phases of the stories thus transmitted were forgotten, and in some cases additions were made which gave certain of the tales a mythical rather than an historical character.
An authentic historical record by Cuchulainn himself, if discovered to-day, would create a greater world interest than has the discovery of the tomb of the Pharaohs.
The author and principal actor in this dramatic story was born and reared in Tipperary. He had no military knowledge whatever until he joined the Irish Volunteers. Gallant young Irishmen of the type of Dan Breen had been, for generations, drifting away from their native land. Their natural military genius and daring found outlet in the armies of France and Spain, where
“On far foreign fields, from Dunkirk to BelgradeLie the soldiers and chiefs of the Irish Brigade.”
“On far foreign fields, from Dunkirk to BelgradeLie the soldiers and chiefs of the Irish Brigade.”
“On far foreign fields, from Dunkirk to BelgradeLie the soldiers and chiefs of the Irish Brigade.”
“On far foreign fields, from Dunkirk to Belgrade
Lie the soldiers and chiefs of the Irish Brigade.”
Washington appreciated in full the valour of his Irish emigrant soldiers, as he afterwards proved by conceding to them equal status with the native-born Americans. He placed unbounded confidence in the patriotism and loyalty of his Irish generals and soldiers who comprised almost one-half of the entire Revolutionary Army.
With the outbreak of the World War in 1914 the manhood of the world was being rolled up into two opposing mighty war machines—preparing to annihilate each other. The catch-cry “to fight in defence of small nations” was broad-casted. Under this, and other specious pretexts, hundreds of Irishmen were induced to join up in England’s Imperialarmies, and they endured the horrors of France, Flanders and the Dardanelles.
While these newly-recruited Irish regiments were being drafted to the various war fronts in Europe, great minds were busy at home planning Ireland’s regeneration. For two years the Irish Volunteer movement, directed by Pearse, Connolly, Casement, Clarke and the other leaders, had been spreading like a prairie fire through the country! Alas! because they dared to put forth the claim of their own small nation to be master in its own house the firing squad and the scaffold extinguished the brave lives of sixteen noble Irish leaders.
Dan Breen and his few comrades had definitely reached the conclusion that while a foreign flag floated over public buildings in Ireland, and while a foreign army was garrisoned in the land, there was one place—and one place only—for Irishmen to fight—and that place was Ireland.
He did not wait for an army to grow up, or for some great captain to come from foreign lands to lead his countrymen to victory. As a matter of fact at one time our soldier-author was, with a few comrades, practically the only force in the field engaged in active hostilities against the enemy.
Such a stirring drama has seldom if ever been acted on the stage of Irish life. It is doubtful if any other individual in Irish history received a like number of near-fatal wounds, fighting in defence of his country—and survived to tell the story of the engagements in which the wounds were inflicted.
Fired with a burning love of country and a fixed determination to achieve her independence, Dan Breen with a handful of men declared war on England on their own account, convinced that their countrymen would follow their example. In this he was not disappointed.
The engagements described follow each other in such quick succession, and are of such a thrilling character, that from the opening of the first chapter to the close of the last, the reader is in momentary expectation of the story ending with the dramatic death of the author.
The author’s graphic descriptions of localities, his giving of accurate distances between one location and another, his recording of place-names and family names gives the story a distinct and particular historical value.
Great as was the physical suffering he endured,having been literally riddled by bullets, it was as nothing compared to the mental torture he must have endured later on seeing his former comrades turn their arms against each other after the signing of the “Treaty” in 1921.
In giving to his countrymen this authentic written record of the engagements in which he took part, Dan Breen has rendered a service to Ireland second only to the services rendered to her in the engagements he describes.
Let us hope that some competent Celtic scholar will translate the story into the language of Ireland’s ancient champions whom she had gathered to her bosom centuries before this gallant son of Tipperary was ready to render to his beloved country the splendid services he has so willingly given.
Joseph McGarrity.
Philadelphia.