Sam’s record had errors

JOHN DALY stated that Sam Maguire was dismissed from his job in the Department of Posts and Telegraphs in 1924 for “voicing anti-Treaty sentiments” (‘Sam lived life of heroism and tragedy,’

Irish Independent, September 3). This is quite a common belief which is an attempt, I believe, to sanitise Sam Maguire’s record.

In my book ‘Sam Maguire and the Cup’, I described what I believe to be the truth about his dismissal.

In March 1924, the new State faced a very serious situation known as the Army Mutiny when dissatisfied Army officers faced with the prospect of demobilisation and unemployment challenged the authority of the government. This was a vital moment for Irish democracy … would the soldiers or the politicians rule?

The leading historian of the period John M Regan wrote: “Soldiers obeyed politicians … Sam Maguire in the period after the mutiny advocated

... the assassination of members of the executive council (the free State government).”

Despite this, Sam Maguire was not dismissed until December 29, 1924. A Labour Party TD from Mr Maguire’s home town of Dunmanway, T J Murphy, raised the issue in the Dáil on May 12, 1926.

He pointed out that Mr Maguire had been treated more harshly than many of those who had actually fought against the free State, such as national teachers who had been allowed to resume their positions, and if he had been involved in the March 1924 mutiny he should have been dismissed at that point.

The justice minister, Kevin O’ Higgins, stated that Mr Maguire had been involved in another attempt to stage an Army mutiny. The difference this time was that it would involve soldiers who were not officers as had been true of the first attempt.

Then in response to a question “did the executive committee give Mr Maguire any chance of refuting these charges?” the minister replied that “it was inadvisable, impossible, in fact, to table evidence in support of that charge, because to table evidence would reveal the source, and to reveal the source, would lead to casualties”, and he was talking about a group of men who ‘were talking and thinking in terms of a coup d’etat’.

As a native of Dunmanway and his biographer, I am a great admirer of Sam Maguire.

And I do not think we need to distort the historical record to eliminate what we might now regard as blemishes or errors.

He was a committed revolutionary and remained true to what he perceived to be his cause, and that of his friend and comrade, Michael Collins. Kieran Connolly Dublin 9