In October 2002 the Northern Ireland power-sharing government collapsed following the discovery by security forces of an alleged IRA/Sinn Féin spying operation at Stormont, the so-called 'Stormontgate' affair. In return for an end to the IRA military campaign, Sinn Féin had been admitted to participation in government, and it was hoped that the era of political violence was coming to an end. The most prominent member of Sinn Féin arrested in 2002 was Denis Donaldson, the party's principal administrator at Stormont, in whose home a cache of incriminating documents was found by police. On 8 December 2005 charges against Donaldson and two co-accused were dropped on the grounds that prosecution was 'no longer in the public interest', an interesting phrase which was interpreted as meaning that an 'intelligence resource' was the actual object of protection. Just over a week later it was revealed that Donaldson had been a long-serving spy for the British, and it was clear that he had in fact been 'outed' and abandoned by his former handlers. (1) Having been debriefed by his former Republican colleagues, Donaldson apparently felt secure enough to go and live in an isolated cottage near Glenties, County Donegal. On 4 April 2006 Donaldson was found shot dead in his cottage, at a time when renewed efforts were being made to restore a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland. Republican sources indicated that Donaldson's killers were probably security agents eliminating a man who knew too much, while security sources for their part stated that he was assassinated by dissident Republicans seeking revenge for his betrayal of comrades. Whoever killed Donaldson, it is clear that he had been employed to serve a murky purpose one last time, and his secrets are now secure in the grave.
Was Molloy Childers a British Spy?
A book published in 2006 on the intelligence war 1919-21 between the British and Michael Collins's IRA, by scholar Michael T Foy, features a claim that Molly Childers, wife of the Irish Republican leader, Erskine Childers, was in fact a British spy. (3) Coming hard on the heels of the recent Donaldson revelations (see above), the claim seemed not entirely implausible, and aside from a denial from the Childers family, it has not been generally challenged. Molly Osgood Childers belonged to a leading Boston family, and married Erskine Childers before his conversion from Unionism to the cause of Irish independence. Childers took the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War which followed the Anglo-Irish agreement of 1921, and he was himself accused unjustly of being a British spy by former comrades on the pro-Treaty side. Captured in possession of a gun presented to him by Michael Collins, Childers was court martialled and executed by the new Irish government in 1922, in what was a clear case of judicial tit-for-tat killing. The claim that Childers's wife was a spy is therefore quite sensational, but of course speculative. Foy is quoted as stating that the mysterious spy had access to top Sinn Féin leaders, used 'American-sounding turns of phrase', and that throughout her life Molly 'displayed intelligence, courage, decisiveness and single-minded determination'. The question arises as to why such a woman would choose to betray all that her husband had come to hold dear. The spy refers in reports to someone called 'Bob', who Foy suggests could have been Molly's husband, his full name being Robert Erskine Childers. This again begs the question as to how someone seeking to avoid detection would risk recording a name of someone so close to her. Furthermore, Foy does not itemise any really high-grade intelligence provided by his spy, and she appears to have been one of those know-all operatives, more inclined to tell her handlers how to fight the war than to provide reliable information. Examples of the spy's style include an implausible claim that Eamon de Valera was 'a red-hot extremist' who wished to have King George V assassinated, and the plainly misinformed advice that peace negotiations with the rebels were a waste of time. (4) After her husband's death, Molly Childers remained the keeper of his memory and a supporter of the Irish national cause, and in short the claim that she was a British spy seems to be a very unlikely one.
The Hunt Museum and Nazi Connections
The Hunt Museum in Limerick holds a compact collection of artefacts and artworks donated to the Irish people by the late John and Gertrude Hunt, who were prominent dealers and collectors. In 2003 it was alleged that the provenance of some of the material in the museum was suspect and that the Hunts had links with Nazis and dealers in material looted during World War II. These allegations were taken up by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which demanded a full enquiry by the Irish government. The Hunt Museum denied the allegations, but moved to allay concerns by placing a catalogue of its holdings on its website. After a false start when one investigating group folded due to funding problems, in 2005 the Irish government funded an enquiry to be held under the auspices of the Royal Irish Academy. This group was headed by retired civil servant Seán Cromien, and its report was issued in June 2006. (5) Acknowledging gaps in provenance records, the group referred to loss of documents during World War II, and concluded that 'it is probable that most of the objects with gaps do not have problematic pasts'. (6) Because of his research on Joyce manuscripts with similar provenance problems, it seemed to the present writer that the group was being rather optimistic in its conclusion, and had not dug deeply enough. The impression of a whitewash if not a cover-up of the Hunt Museums's unpleasant associations has been confirmed by the revelation that there exists in the Irish military archives a file detailing a close personal and business relationship between John Hunt and Count Alexander von Frey, who had links with Hermann Göring, and recorded as well are Hunt's connections with two traffickers in looted art, Arthur Goldsmith and Emil Buhrle (though it is claimed that the last is a misidentification). (7) All state cultural institutions should have an obligation to check thoroughly and proactively the provenance of material they acquire through purchase or donation. An unfortunate aspect of the Hunt Museum affair is the apparent 'targeting' of the individual who first revealed the possibility of problems with the collection, and indeed the present writer is well familiar with the negative responses of officials whose judgement in such matters is called in question.
Annie Moore
Annie Moore's fame rests on the fact that as a fifteen-year old girl she was the first immigrant to enter Ellis Island in New York in January 1892. She is commemorated by statues sculpted by Jeanne Rynhart at both Ellis Island and Cobh in Ireland from where she sailed. It was obviously a matter of interest to know the details of Annie's life after her arrival in the United States, and she had hitherto confidently been identified as a person of the name who had moved west and ultimately died in an accident in Texas in the 1920s. For genealogist Megan S Smolenyak there was something not quite right about the story, and she set about examining the documentation, also seeking the assistance of other genealogists through the expedient of offering a €1,000 reward for information. The result was that in September 2006 it was revealed that the real Annie Moore had now been identified, that she had in fact stayed in New York, married there, had children and died of heart failure aged 47 in 1924. Annie was buried in an unmarked grave in Calvary Cemetery, and there are plans to erect a memorial to her. (8) As demonstrated in our piece on Molly Malone, it is probably a prudent thing to hire a competent genealogist to do background research before calling in the sculptor!
John Condon, Boy Soldier
The story of John Condon, allegedly the youngest soldier to die in WWI aged 14, has been the subject of much media attention in recent years, and there are plans to erect a statue to him in Waterford. (9) His grave is said to be the most visited in Flanders. However, there are serious questions concerning the accuracy of this tale. A webpage at http://www.cwgc.co.uk/Condonevidence.htm supplies exhaustive documentary evidence to show that John Condon was in fact aged 18 when killed in action on 24 May 1915. In particular, a copy of John Condons's birth record is included, showing that he was born on 16 October 1896 in Waterford. More than that, it is claimed that Condon is not in fact buried in the grave in Flanders, but one Patrick Fitzsimmons of Belfast. As with Molly Malone and Annie Moore, it would appear that a statue may be erected to perpetuate a myth rather than historical truth.