standing on guard outside,’ Lawless said. ‘I shut the door and told Mick it looked like a raid.’
‘I think only Mick was armed,’ she continued. ‘If any of the others were, the girls took the arms from them. I stuck Mick’s revolver down my stocking and anything else incriminating we girls took charge of. The police seemed to start the raid systematically from the bottom up thus giving us time to take these precautions. When they arrived, we had disposed of everything and they found nothing of any importance. They searched the men but not us.’
‘There was no means of escape,’ she noted, ‘as the military had occupied the narrow entrance in the back as well as the front.’ The police had locked the front door and they were not letting anyone in or out. Detective Inspector George Love was in charge of the raid.
‘We are caught like rats in a trap and there is no escape,’ Collins said. He sat at his desk, quite calm and collected until Detective Inspector Neil McFeely came in. ‘It was Inspector McFeely who came to our room, looking a little bit frightened,’ Lawless reported. ‘He went round searching the different desks, and seemed desperately anxious to finish his task and get out. Mick sat very casually on his desk with one leg swinging and told him in no measured terms what sort of work he was engaged on. He was scathing in his remarks about it.’
McFeely had only recently been promoted inspector in charge of political duty. ‘He was about the least efficient officer that could be allocated to such work, as he was a man completely without guile or ruse,’ according to Ned Broy. ‘He had been all his life a clerk, could do some “finger and thumb” typing, and frequently was given such duty as making maps of the scene of accidents, burglaries and suchlike. He was directed to take a party of detectives and raid No. 6 Harcourt St.’ He was told to arrest people like Paudeen O’Keeffe or Paddy Sheehan, but nobody suggested to arrest Michael Collins because they would not have believed he would be at such a well-known Sinn Fein address as party headquarters. The detectives accompanying McFeely recognised the people on the ground floor, but McFeely wandered upstairs alone. He did not know Collins and he apparently assumed that Collins could not be of much importance if he was upstairs working with a bunch of women.
Broy had advised Collins that McFeely was a staunch home ruler and the way to confront him would be to say that ‘by his activities against Sinn Féin he was sowing up disgrace for himself, his family and descendants for years to come.’ Thus, according to Lawless, when the detective inspector asked Collins about some documents in his hands, he was met with a torrent of abuse.
‘What have they got to do with you?’ Collins snapped. ‘A nice job you’ve got, spying on your countrymen. What sort of a legacy will you leave to your family, looking for blood money? Could you not find some honest work to do?’
‘The inspector was writhing under the attack,’ Lawless added. ‘At that stage they left the room.’ They then searched the caretaker’s quarters overhead.
In the course of the search, the DMP found Ernest Blythe hiding in a small store-room, so he was arrested along with Sinn Féin secretary Paudeen O’Keeffe. ‘It was Mick’s coolness that saved him from being recognised,’ Lawless thought. ‘From time to time the girls would take a peep out at the corridor to see if the coast was clear and, as soon as we got word that the police had left the caretaker’s room, Mick managed to slip up the stairs, which were now empty,’ she added. Some of the other police came into the room later but they just looked and did not question anybody.
‘It was only by almost a miracle I was not landed,’ Collins wrote next day. ‘It so happened the particular detective who came into the room where I was did not know me, which gave me an opportunity of eluding him.’
McFeely
‘I think only Mick was armed,’ she continued. ‘If any of the others were, the girls took the arms from them. I stuck Mick’s revolver down my stocking and anything else incriminating we girls took charge of. The police seemed to start the raid systematically from the bottom up thus giving us time to take these precautions. When they arrived, we had disposed of everything and they found nothing of any importance. They searched the men but not us.’
‘There was no means of escape,’ she noted, ‘as the military had occupied the narrow entrance in the back as well as the front.’ The police had locked the front door and they were not letting anyone in or out. Detective Inspector George Love was in charge of the raid.
‘We are caught like rats in a trap and there is no escape,’ Collins said. He sat at his desk, quite calm and collected until Detective Inspector Neil McFeely came in. ‘It was Inspector McFeely who came to our room, looking a little bit frightened,’ Lawless reported. ‘He went round searching the different desks, and seemed desperately anxious to finish his task and get out. Mick sat very casually on his desk with one leg swinging and told him in no measured terms what sort of work he was engaged on. He was scathing in his remarks about it.’
McFeely had only recently been promoted inspector in charge of political duty. ‘He was about the least efficient officer that could be allocated to such work, as he was a man completely without guile or ruse,’ according to Ned Broy. ‘He had been all his life a clerk, could do some “finger and thumb” typing, and frequently was given such duty as making maps of the scene of accidents, burglaries and suchlike. He was directed to take a party of detectives and raid No. 6 Harcourt St.’ He was told to arrest people like Paudeen O’Keeffe or Paddy Sheehan, but nobody suggested to arrest Michael Collins because they would not have believed he would be at such a well-known Sinn Fein address as party headquarters. The detectives accompanying McFeely recognised the people on the ground floor, but McFeely wandered upstairs alone. He did not know Collins and he apparently assumed that Collins could not be of much importance if he was upstairs working with a bunch of women.
Broy had advised Collins that McFeely was a staunch home ruler and the way to confront him would be to say that ‘by his activities against Sinn Féin he was sowing up disgrace for himself, his family and descendants for years to come.’ Thus, according to Lawless, when the detective inspector asked Collins about some documents in his hands, he was met with a torrent of abuse.
‘What have they got to do with you?’ Collins snapped. ‘A nice job you’ve got, spying on your countrymen. What sort of a legacy will you leave to your family, looking for blood money? Could you not find some honest work to do?’
‘The inspector was writhing under the attack,’ Lawless added. ‘At that stage they left the room.’ They then searched the caretaker’s quarters overhead.
In the course of the search, the DMP found Ernest Blythe hiding in a small store-room, so he was arrested along with Sinn Féin secretary Paudeen O’Keeffe. ‘It was Mick’s coolness that saved him from being recognised,’ Lawless thought. ‘From time to time the girls would take a peep out at the corridor to see if the coast was clear and, as soon as we got word that the police had left the caretaker’s room, Mick managed to slip up the stairs, which were now empty,’ she added. Some of the other police came into the room later but they just looked and did not question anybody.
‘It was only by almost a miracle I was not landed,’ Collins wrote next day. ‘It so happened the particular detective who came into the room where I was did not know me, which gave me an opportunity of eluding him.’
McFeely
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