From 1918 until 1923 Darrell Figgis was seldom out of the political spotlight. The first Dail met in Janruary of 1919, and in June he was elected to the Ard Chomhairle of Sinn Fein, however the Dail was decalred illegal earlier on that year.

During the election campaign he narrowly escaped death by hanging by Captain Crawford, following arrest at Dail Court at Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim.

1919 – 1921 – Irish War of Independence raged until the Truce  of July 11th 1921. During that period Darrell Figgis and his wife Millie went into hiding at their friend’s house in the Dublin Mountains close to the Hell Fire Club, a place that would feature in their lives again but under circumstances so tragic they could not possibly imagine at that time. In the early summer of 1920 they stayed in a cottage owned by the Fox family, as it was too dangerous for people with a profile to stay safely in the city. Most of the leader’s homes were under surveillance and searched as was the Figgis’.

In 1922 – Dail Eireann approves Treaty by 64 votes to 57. Arthur Griffith becomes President of Dail. The Provisional Government was under Chairmanship of Michael Collins and on January 30th a committee was set up to draft the Free State Constitution  with Darrell Figgis, Vice Chairman, and acting Chairman for Michael Collins.

Sources

http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1770%20Section%205.pdf#page=105

Thanks to

Edward King, Achill

Prison Boards of Ireland

When Darrell Figgis was released from prison in December 1916 his freedom was short lived. Two months into 1917 he along with other Sinn Fein activists were ordered under Defence of the Realm Act to leave Ireland and reside at Fairford, Gloucestershire.

Gloucestershire

It was more of an exile rather than imprisonment. Figgis and his fellow Sinn Fein  ‘detainees’ were allowed a certain amount of freedom and were at liberty to travel within the UK, even free to attend concerts in London. The only condition was they were not under any circumstance to return to Ireland.

That is exactly what they did. In the event of the north Longford Election of 1917 it was decided that some of them should return to Ireland for it. Darrell Figgis was one of three that did, managing to slip in and out of the country undetected.

In July of that year the order was rescinded and Figgis was free to return to Ireland. His political career was resumed and a month later in August 1917 he was addressing a Sinn Fein meeting in Castlebar, which Emily and Anita McMahon attended. By October Figgis was elected as joint secretary of Sinn Fein along with Austin Stack.

 Special thanks;

Edward King, Achill

Sources

http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0766.pdf#page=62-

Tuam Herald

During the Easter week 1916 Darrell Figgis had been busy with his writing. He had now idea about the events that were unfolding in Dublin over the last few days. The only idication that there was anything out of the ordinary was the post was late.

It was not till some hours after noon that, looking along the road for the post that was so unaccountably late, I saw a friend making her way toward to house on her bicycle. As she come nearer and dismounted I could see the traces of tears on her cheeks, and wondered.

“The post is very late, ” I said.

“There is no post,” she replied, “but there’s terrible news. “There has been fighting in Dublin…”

The woman was possibly Emily and the event in Dublin was the Easter Rising. Darrell grew nervous he knew that he was under scrutiny from the authorities since the Howth Gunrunning in 1914. His fears were not unfounded, a few days later the dreaded knock came to the door.

A large number of men were passing round the house. We [he and his wife Millie] leapt out of bed, and, peering through the windows, could see two peelers [policemen] at each window, with rifles at the “ready.”

he was hauled off to Castlebar Jail and then transferred to Richmond Gaol in Dublin before been sent to Stafford Gaol in England before serving further time in Reading Gaol, before he was released in December of that year. This was not the last time he would see English prisons…

Sources

Figgis, Darrell, and William Murphy. A Chronicle of Jails. Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 2010.

Thanks to;

Edward King, Achill

Besides his involvement in  the cultural life of Achill, Darrell Figgis, became entwined in the political activities there too. Like Emily Weddall and Anita McMahon he also took part in the Land Wars of 1913 taking the tenant’s side to help them gain a fair deal with the Achill Mission Estate.

In November 1913 The Irish Volunteers, was founded in Dublin. Darrell Figgis joined and was given the job of the drilling the Achill Battalion. At the time there was about fifty volunteers on the Island, quite a lot for a relatively small population. According to local legend these drill took place on the beaches of the Island and became a common sight there were also rumors that they hid weapons, at Annagh, on the north side of the Island, a place that was and still is only accessible by foot.

Rifles

Less than a year later in the summer of 1914 Rodger Casement, was appointed him to go to Hamburg to purchase arms for Sinn Fein. Along with Erskine and Molly Childers, Mary Spring Rice, Gordon Shepard and two fishermen from Donegal, he traveled to Hamburg on the yacht Asgard. They collected the 900 rifles and 29,000 rounds of ammunition, and sailed back to Howth, where they unloaded the ‘cargo’. It did not take the authorities at Dublin Castle too long to find out and send in the Dublin Metropolitan Police to disarm the Volunteers.

As a result there was a clash between the police and volunteers on Bachelor’s Walk, which resulted in fatalities. Figgis came to the attention of the authorities and was well scrutinized by them from then on. These guns were used in the 1916 Rising, an event that he did not directly take part in but was implicated anyway. 

Centenary of Howth Gun Running. July 2014

Sources

http://www.rte.ie/news/2014/0725/633075-the-extraordinary-story-of-the-asgard/

Interview with Mary Kilcoyne McNamara, Achill 1999

Thanks to

John Twin McNamara and Edward King, Achill