transferred before the escape plans could be implemented. Collins actually visited Stack in Strangeways to finalise the escape arrangements for 25 October 1919.
There were no houses on the street that ran by the back of the jail so the outside escape party decided to block this road during the escape attempt. People would be allowed to enter it from either end, but then they would be compelled to remain until the operation was over. Matthew Lawless and another volunteer were dressed as window cleaners moving about the area ready to do their part with an extended ladder when required.
‘When everything was in readiness Rory O’Connor blew a whistle which was the pre-arranged signal and this signal was answered inside by one of the prisoners,’ remembered Paddy O’Donoghue. ‘Almost immediately a rope with a weight on it was thrown over the wall. The weight fell on the inside but it only brought the rope a few feet over the wall and dangled about twenty feet above the heads of the prisoners inside. The rope was pulled back and thrown over again but with no better result. A third time it was thrown over and this time we succeeded in getting it a couple of feet further but not sufficiently far down for the prisoners to grasp it.’
With the help of Lawless and the other volunteers, Peadar Clancy put the extended ladder against the wall and succeeded in pulling the rope ladder over to within the grasp of the waiting prisoners. ‘Austin Stack was the first man to come over the wall in safety.’ O’Donoghue continued. ‘Beaslaí was next and he got stuck against the wall half way up because his other escaping comrades were trying to use the rope at the same time as he was endeavouring to make the assent. It was then realised that only one man could climb the rope at a time, and the men got safely over.’
Four other prisoners also made it over – Seán Doran from Loughinisland, County Down; D. P. Walsh from Fethard; and two Cork men, Con Connolly from Clonakilty and Paddy McCarthy from Freemount. Stack, Beaslaí, Walsh and Connolly were put into a taxi that was at the ready, while there were bicycles for the other two. O’Donoghue cycled off with Doran and McCarthy but they got separated in the heavy traffic and O’Donoghue lost them. The two were in a strange city so they sought out a Catholic church. Then, pretending to go to confession, they told a priest of their predicament. He contacted a Clare woman living in Manchester and she brought them to the house of George Lodge, an Irish friend who was living in the suburb of Prestwich, about six miles from the city centre. Lodge, a chemist with the Imperial Chemical Company, was already putting up Stack and Beaslaí. It was just a sheer coincidence that the woman took the two men there.
Following the escape Collins went to London to meet with Tobin and Fitzgerald. ‘We met him and he walked around London with us, and in the course of our walk we had a good look at Scotland Yard and the principal government offices in Whitehall,’ Fitzgerald recalled. He was already impatient to get home. ‘Our work was becoming very monotonous,’ Fitzgerald explained. ‘We were getting tired hanging round having very little to do. We were asked from time to time to get information concerning some matter that GHQ at home was interested in. For example, if a political meeting, banquet, etc., was to be held and was to be addressed by some member of the cabinet, one of us was to go there and report on the Minister who addressed the meeting and say what precautions were taken to guard him, his method of getting to the meeting and getting away from it. This procedure was followed at any political meetings held in the vicinity of London. On one occasion I travelled to Colchester and was present at an “Oyster Banquet” at which the prime minister was the principal speaker. This information would be conveyed back to Dublin through Sam Maguire.’
Collins returned to Manchester and met
There were no houses on the street that ran by the back of the jail so the outside escape party decided to block this road during the escape attempt. People would be allowed to enter it from either end, but then they would be compelled to remain until the operation was over. Matthew Lawless and another volunteer were dressed as window cleaners moving about the area ready to do their part with an extended ladder when required.
‘When everything was in readiness Rory O’Connor blew a whistle which was the pre-arranged signal and this signal was answered inside by one of the prisoners,’ remembered Paddy O’Donoghue. ‘Almost immediately a rope with a weight on it was thrown over the wall. The weight fell on the inside but it only brought the rope a few feet over the wall and dangled about twenty feet above the heads of the prisoners inside. The rope was pulled back and thrown over again but with no better result. A third time it was thrown over and this time we succeeded in getting it a couple of feet further but not sufficiently far down for the prisoners to grasp it.’
With the help of Lawless and the other volunteers, Peadar Clancy put the extended ladder against the wall and succeeded in pulling the rope ladder over to within the grasp of the waiting prisoners. ‘Austin Stack was the first man to come over the wall in safety.’ O’Donoghue continued. ‘Beaslaí was next and he got stuck against the wall half way up because his other escaping comrades were trying to use the rope at the same time as he was endeavouring to make the assent. It was then realised that only one man could climb the rope at a time, and the men got safely over.’
Four other prisoners also made it over – Seán Doran from Loughinisland, County Down; D. P. Walsh from Fethard; and two Cork men, Con Connolly from Clonakilty and Paddy McCarthy from Freemount. Stack, Beaslaí, Walsh and Connolly were put into a taxi that was at the ready, while there were bicycles for the other two. O’Donoghue cycled off with Doran and McCarthy but they got separated in the heavy traffic and O’Donoghue lost them. The two were in a strange city so they sought out a Catholic church. Then, pretending to go to confession, they told a priest of their predicament. He contacted a Clare woman living in Manchester and she brought them to the house of George Lodge, an Irish friend who was living in the suburb of Prestwich, about six miles from the city centre. Lodge, a chemist with the Imperial Chemical Company, was already putting up Stack and Beaslaí. It was just a sheer coincidence that the woman took the two men there.
Following the escape Collins went to London to meet with Tobin and Fitzgerald. ‘We met him and he walked around London with us, and in the course of our walk we had a good look at Scotland Yard and the principal government offices in Whitehall,’ Fitzgerald recalled. He was already impatient to get home. ‘Our work was becoming very monotonous,’ Fitzgerald explained. ‘We were getting tired hanging round having very little to do. We were asked from time to time to get information concerning some matter that GHQ at home was interested in. For example, if a political meeting, banquet, etc., was to be held and was to be addressed by some member of the cabinet, one of us was to go there and report on the Minister who addressed the meeting and say what precautions were taken to guard him, his method of getting to the meeting and getting away from it. This procedure was followed at any political meetings held in the vicinity of London. On one occasion I travelled to Colchester and was present at an “Oyster Banquet” at which the prime minister was the principal speaker. This information would be conveyed back to Dublin through Sam Maguire.’
Collins returned to Manchester and met
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