On this day in 1894, Dan Breen, IRA man and Fianna Fail TD,was born near Donohill.
He joined the Irish Volunteers soon after their establishment and was sworn into the IRB by his close friend Seán Treacy. He was not involved in the Easter rising, nor was he interned after it. He emerged as a key figure in the establishment of the IRA's South Tipperary Brigade, most of the leadership coming from his local area.
He resigned from the IRB in 1918 when approval was not granted for a proposed offensive. Breen grew critical of moderate constitutional policies. Breen's and Treacy's impatience resulted in their dramatic, independent action at Soloheadbeg. On 21 January 1919, after lying in wait for five days, a small party of Volunteers led by Breen, Treacy, andSéamus Robinson ambushed and killed two RIC men escorting gelignite to Soloheadbeg quarry. For months afterwards, Breen and his colleagues were on the run.
Breen's fame was firmly established by his association with the first headline-making events of what would become the War of Independence.A police notice offered £1,000 reward for Breen's capture, describing his‘sulky bulldog appearance; looks rather like a blacksmith coming from work’.
Later, Breen was opposed to the Anglo–Irish treaty, but with no great enthusiasm. Indeed, he was actively involved in attempts to achieve political and military reconciliation. When civil war broke out, Breen led a column, but to much less effect than in the earlier conflict. When provisional government troops landed at Waterford in July 1922, Breen's column and others in Tipperary singularly failed to take effective action.
In the August 1923 general election Breen was elected TD for Tipperary. He was the first Republican to enter the Dail in 1927, even before de Valera did so. He served multiple terms as Fianna Fail TD for Tipperary. His autobiography, ‘My fight for Irish freedom’ (1924) sold well and did much to popularise him.
In 2024, John Connors from Borrisoleigh published a book called ‘Dan Breen: The Man Behind the Myth’. Connors scoured official records and was given access to the archive of Breen’s friend Fr Colmcille Conway, with whom Breen corresponded. The result was very insightful. It showed a different side to Breen, claiming that he was a Nazi sympathizer and an embittered husband as well as a significant figure in Ireland’s fight for independence.Connors portrays Breen as a caring father, but one who presided over a dysfunctional family and a broken marriage and who suffered from gambling- and alcohol addictions.
Breen bore a lot of resentment towards his wife (“You,Brigid Malone, is the most useless wife a man ever had the misfortune to marry”), his political enemies (he said of Fine Gael’s James Dillon “he is an English agent, a cad, a lowdown mongrel. Killing is far too good for his class)and even his political colleagues in Fianna Fail (he described Oscar Traynor as‘a poor type. A cowardly selfish man. Very dull and brainless’). On the other hand, Breen was vocal in his criticism of the Vietnam war and Apartheid-era South Africa.
Dan Breen died on 27 December 1969. Despite his deep and many flaws, he remains one of the most revered Republican icons of his generation.
Sources:
https://www.dib.ie/biography/breen-daniel-dan-a0914
Liam Collins, ‘Portrait of a legend, warts and all, creates a backlash’ Sunday Independent, 21/01/2024, p20.
