Chapter 1
Jock McPeake His name was Jock McPeake. He had been the machine-gunner on the armoured car Slievenamon on the day Michael Collins was killed. A few months later, McPeake drove the Slievenamon out of the barracks and handed it over to anti-Treaty fighters. One cynical account implied that he was a good-looking young man with an eye for the ladies and had been suborned by a girl from a local Cumann. Others said that McPeake had become disillusioned with the civil war; he had taken part in some hard fighting in the summer of 1922.1 He witnessed a landmine explosion in west Cork that killed seven National Army soldiers and afterwards watched as an anti-Treaty prisoner was put to death by officers of the Dublin Guard. Although McPeake had served in the British Army, he was still only 20. He had been recruited in Glasgow and seems to have realised, too late, that he had got himself involved in a war with few rules. McPeake made contact with anti-Treaty fighters and did a deal: in exchange for getting him out of Ireland he would hand over the Slievenamon. When the time came, he drove the Slievenamon out of Bandon barracks and delivered it to anti-Treaty fighters. McPeake was forgotten while the National Army tried to recover the armoured car. The fate of the Slievenamon became tangled up in myth and legend. According to the judge advocate general (JAG) a team of officers from General Headquarters (GHQ) went down to Cork and quickly recaptured the armoured car and brought it back to
