Profile of Tom Barry on Famous Like Me

Thomas (Tom) Barry (July 1, 1897-July 2, 1980) was an Irish guerrilla leader and revolutionary.

Barry was born in Rosscarbery, County Cork, the son of a former RIC officer who had become a shopkeeper. He was educated for a period at Mungret College, County Limerick. In 1915, during World War I, he enlisted in the British Army and fought in Mesopotamia (then part of the Ottoman Empire, present day Iraq). It was there he first heard of the Easter Rising.

On his return to Cork he was involved with ex-servicemen's organisations. In 1920, Barry joined the Irish Republican Army (IRA) which was then engaged in the Irish War of Independence (1919-21). He was involved in brigade council meetings, was brigade-training officer, flying column commander, was consulted by IRA General Headquarters Staff (GHQ), and also participated in the formation of the IRA First Southern Division. This particular unit became famous for its discipline, efficiency and bravery and Barry garnered a reputation as the most brilliant field commander of the war.

On November 28, 1920, Barry's unit ambushed and wiped out an entire company of British Auxiliaries at Kilmichael, County Cork. In March 1921 at Crossbarry in the same county, Barry and 104 men, divded into seven sections, broke out of an encirclement of 1,200 strong British force from the Essex Regiment.

In total, the British Army stationed over 12,500 troops in County Cork during the conflict, while Barry's men numbered no more than 300. Eventually, Barry's tactics made West Cork ungovernable for the British authorities.

In 1921 he married Leslie Price, the director of organization of Cumann na mBan.

During the negotiations that preceded the Truce that ended the war, the British had demanded that Barry be handed over to them before progress could be made on other matters. Michael Collins refused, although he afterwards jokingly told his fellow Cork man that he had been sorely tempted.

Barry opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 6, 1921, which had (in his eyes) betrayed the Irish Republic and partitioned Ireland. He fought on the Republican side in the Irish Civil War (1922-23) and was imprisoned by the Irish Free State.

After the defeat of the Irregulars in the Civil War, Barry was released and served as general superintendent of Cork Harbour Commission from 1927 to 1965. In 1937, he succeeded Seán MacBride as chief of staff, but resigned in 1938 after he became embroiled in a conflict with the supporters of Seán Russell. Barry claimed that they had sabotaged a planned IRA offensive in Northern Ireland. Barry would assert in later life that he opposed both the 1930s bombing campaign in England and IRA contacts with Nazi Germany.

In 1940, Barry was made responsible for Intelligence in the Irish Army's Southern Command, a position he held for the duration of World War II (see The Emergency). In 1941 he was denounced by the IRA for writing for the Irish Army's journal. After Arthur Ernest Percival surrendered Singapore to the Japanese, Barry wrote a letter to the former commander of the Essex Regiment in Cork, commiserating with him on his defeat.

Barry was an unsuccessful candidate at the 1946 Cork Borough bye-election.

In 1949, Barry published his memoirs of the Anglo-Irish War Guerilla Days in Ireland, which became a classic account of the war and an influential guide on guerrilla warfare.

Barry was supportive of the Provisional IRA campaign but expressed reservations about many of their tactics, in particular the killing of civilians in England.

He died in a Cork hospital in 1980 and was survived by his wife.

Sources

• Brian Hanley, The IRA. 1926-1936, Dublin (Four Courts Press), 2002. ISBN 1851827218

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