Bound hardback Collins Balmoral Series account book containing on pages 1-9 and 332-354 minutes of the annual general meetings of the Mid-Limerick Brigade of the National Association of Old IRA between 17 January 1965 and 5 February 1976 and on pages 11-165 minutes of their monthly, special and extraordinary meetings held between 2 March 1967 and 1 January 1976, pages 10 and 166-331 being blank. Interspersed with the monthly meetings are also intermittent minutes of the Dinner Dance Committee.
The meetings took place at the Mechanics Institute [Hartstonge Street] in the mid-1960s, in the Clare Chambers [10 O’Connell Street] from October 1969 and at the Transport Union Hall at 91 O’Connell Street from April 1973. Occasional meetings also took place at the Gaelic League Hall on Thomas Street. The primary purpose of the annual general meetings was the election of officers. At the 1970 annual general meeting a decision was made to rotate the chairmanship annually; however, just two years later, after the particularly successful chairmanship of Tom Dargan, the resolution to bar a chairman from seeking re-election was rescinded.
The general monthly meetings revolved around preparations for special events such as St Patrick’s Day parade, Easter Rising commemorations and the annual dinner dance and social. In 1965, a committee was formed between the Old IRA and Sinn Fein to organise an Easter parade. As Sinn Fein objected to carrying rifles through the streets or at the graveside, a decision was made that ‘for the sake of unity… the Rifles should be left aside for the Parade’ (AGM, 17 January 1965). In 1969, a debate began on whether members should revert to carrying their rifles. As no decision could be made on the subject, it was eventually decided that the Army should take over as a firing party at Old IRA funerals (5 October 1972).
The needs of members also played a central role. At each meeting, the names of deceased members or deceased relatives of members were read out and masses organised in their honour. Condolences were sent to grieving families and financial assistance was organised for those who struggled to carry the cost of funeral expenses. Hospital visits were made every Christmas to deliver gifts to hospitalised members. The committee also assisted with applications for pensions, service medals, free travel cards and other forms of financial assistance. In 1970, the committee complained to the Department of Defence that ‘the peak hours which prohibited [free] Travel Card holders on City Bus Services was too long’ (1 February 1970). In the same year, they unsuccessfully sought an increase in free electricity allowance (1 April and 3 June 1970).
Although the Organisation avoided becoming involved with Irish politics, it by no means remained immune. In 1971, it made a resolution to ‘ask the Government to resist completely the present attempt by American Carriers to secure landing rights in Dublin and continue to afford Shannon & the mid West the opportunity of continued development and posterity [sic]’ (4 November 1971). In 1974, two visiting members of the Anti-Internment Committee attended the monthly meeting, as a consequence of which a resolution was adopted that ‘we are opposed in principal to the internment of civilians without trial… [and] that internment in Northern Ireland now 3 years in operation is both a continuing cause of violence & a primary obstacle to the success[ful] call of the immediate release of all internees’ (7 November 1974). Advantage was also taken of the changing of the political guard. In 1970, when the committee’s petition for free travel for the wives and widows of Old IRA members was rejected by the Minister for Defence, they turned to the newly appointed Minister for Justice, Desmond O’Malley, to see if he could make it happen (1 October 1970).
Commemoration played an important part in the Organisation’s activities. They contributed to the Limerick Memorial fund, the purpose of which was to erect a monument on Sarsfield Bridge to honour those who died in the Easter Rising and attended the unveiling in great numbers. Although ‘ranks had been broken at conclusion of march’ and ‘there were complaints too regarding seating accommodation’, the unveiling was deemed a great success (AGM 3 February 1972). In 1970, the Organisation campaigned for a special stamp to be issued to commemorate the murders of Michael O’Callaghan and George Clancy, Mayors of Limerick in March 1921 (3 December 1970, 25 February 1971). The news of the death of Éamon de Valera was received with due decorum. All present stood in silent prayer as a mark of respect, the Chairman paid tribute to his memory and ‘recalled de Valera’s meeting with the Old I.R.A. in Limerick just after the Truce in 1921’ (2 October 1975).
What dominates the minute book is the steadily increasing number of condolences to bereaved families of deceased members. Already in 1966 the honorary secretary noted how ‘the ranks were getting thinner & thinner every year and that for the year that had passed a lot of our members had gone to their eternal reward’ (3 March 1966). In 1975, by which time meetings had moved to a room in the Transport Union Hall, some members ‘considered the stairs climbing a bit strenuous’ and requested ‘that the Chairman & Secretary see Union Officials with a view to getting a Room nearer the basement’ (6 February 1975). The minute book thus serves as a poignant record of the increasing frailty and gradual fading away of the generation who fought for Irish freedom.
The National Association of Old IRA