Belfast Battalion
agitating for a northern campaign
The Battalion continued to lobby for action in the north. By early September 1939 it was being argued that the English campaign had spent itself and that the September declaration of war would finally finish it off. The feeling amongst the Battalion and others was that there should now be a switch in emphasis and direction towards a campaign in the north. It was proposed that this be discussed at the next command meeting but it wasn’t as Peadar O’Flaherty (on the Army Council), Paddy McGrath, Willie McGuinness (Director of Intelligence) and Larry Grogan (Quartermaster General) were all suddenly arrested in a Garda raid in Rathmines. The Gardaí also recovered $8,000 and letters to Sean Russell calling for him to return to Ireland (ironically, Russell by now was out of contact with G.H.Q.). Apparently, all four were strong supporters of the proposed northern campaign.1 At the time, Belfast influence at G.H.Q., through Mick Traynor (as Adjutant-General) and Dominic Adams (Director of Training) was pushing for a return to weapons training and away from explosives, in preparation for a northern campaign (and to recognise the failure of the absent Russell’s sabotage campaign). Other Army Council members like Jack McNeela and Tony D’arcy also backed the idea. In October the number of internees increased dramatically as the R.U.C. carried out a series of co-ordinated arrests in Belfast. In total, another thirty-four were arrested, including Seamus ‘Rocky’ Burns, Paddy Morrison, Jack McCluskey, Jimmy Drumm and Liam Burke. Added to the original thirty-four from December 1938 and the ten or so who had been interned since, almost eighty internment orders had been served in less than a year. That same month the Unionists allowed internees to apply for release. For various reasons, some made submissions. By late October fifteen were out on bail having
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