After the end of the war

Quinlisk says that at the end of the war 10 men volunteered for normal POW camp and were taken away. He says that the men who remained at Dirschau were "betrayed by a comrade, a Lancashire Irishman, who went to Danzig and interviewed the commander of some British gunboat and accompanied a guard in motors to Dirschau, where the irish were rounded up and transported on a battleship to England" This points to James Carr or Thomas Donoghue as the man involved - James Carr was involved in the death of Sweeney in Bavaria some time later, so the culprit would appear to be Donoghue or McCabe

Once the majority of the men got to Munich, no help coming from any of their contacts round Munich and most of the Irish Brigade drifted away from their gathering in Munich.

Kavanagh writes that he and Zerhusen went to Berlin, then on to to Munich where they met Keogh, Granaghan and Delamore.

1918 Munich Nov 30

1918 Dec Meade and O'Neill taken back as prisoners to England. They are probably among the men who stayed at Dirschau, and whom Quinlisk says were betrayed to the British by a Lancashire Irishman, whom I assume to be Donoghue or McCabe

O'Toole believes that Donoghue and W McGrath return then too, either surrendering or being captured

Quinlisk says that at the end of the war 10 men volunteered for normal POW camp and were taken away. O'Toole gives an actual list of 16 men whom he says left Danziz camp soon after the armistice, insisting on going to a POW camp in order to be transported home. The men on O'Toole's list are

1919 Jan 4. Tracey given a class Z discharge, so he must have returned to UK well before that date

1919 Jan 6 Golden back in England

1919 Feb 4. Princess Blucher records On the evening before our departure, General Sir Richard Ewart and his A.D.C. Lieut. Breen came to dine with us, and it was very interesting to hear the General's views and opinions of life in Berlin.... Sir Richard, who was busy repatriating prisoners of war, said that the men who had given him most trouble were those of the Casement Brigade, who were very unwilling to return to England, not knowing what fate might be awaiting them there, or whether they might not be tried for their part in the Casement episode. One of them, we heard to our great amusement, had been spending all his time last week shooting at the Bolshevists on the top of the Brandenburg Tor (this was Rahilly and he records it in his memoirs) , which he seemed very much to prefer to returning home to the bosom of his family.

1919 Feb. Around 30 men were repatriated under a deal beween Gen Nollet the French head of the Inter-Allied Control Commission in Berlin and Mrs Bulliet Grabisch, under which no guarantees were given by the British on the status of returning Irish Brigade men. They were held in UK prison until released around April when UK government decided to to proceed against Casement men. This would appear to be all the Irish Brigade, except for the men noted individually here.

1919 Feb 15. The Daily Mail reported that 4 Irish Brigade members, 3 Irish and 1 English, were escorted back to England buy a guard of 12 marines, having been repatriated at their own request (the obvious Englishman was Fulford, but there is no proof here)

1919 Feb 16. Daly was repatriated and posted to depot.

1919 Feb 21. Sweeney P killed in a fight with Carr

1919 Mar circa. Scanlon killed in fighting around Munich.

1919 Apr Rahilly gives a description of repartiation via Holland. It must have been around beginning of April 1919, and he was alone. He was released when the British government decision was made not to take action against Irsh Brigade members. Probably at the end of April

1919 Apr 16. Forde ceased to be a POW on this date and returned home

1919 Apr Quinlisk repatriated via Calais with 4 others. According to a newspaper story, Quinlisk and 4 others from Casement's Irish Brigade were sent to Calais in April 1919. The tale of their journey came from an Private in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers who had been in the Irish Brigade. If it were a Dublin Fusiler it had to be Burke, Mahony, Currey, Stacey or Wilson: and of these Burke is the most likely one to have had extra detention. An order came through that they were to be released without prejudice, and they were taken back to England under the escort of a Scottish officer. Quinlisk and 3 of the others were immediately given leave, and went to Dublin. The writer was detained in England for 2 months - I suspect the writer was Burke.

1919 May 10. The British Government offers a figure for 33 men repatriated by this date, and that 6 of these were living in Ireland at that time. It appears the British Army would only discharge under the grounds of misconduct, men who had accepted a release from POW camp by the Germans. And there the matter seems to have rested. One can follow the lives of some of the men after the war, but they were acting as individuals, rather than as a group. Take off Dowling, Bailey and the 4 who had died, there were therefore 17 men still in Germany on the British figure (among them M Keogh, J O'Callaghan, Kavanagh, O'Toole, Delamore, McDonagh, Mahony, J Murphy, J Carr, Sewell, M Dowling)

1919 May 28. Brandon had been repatriated before this date as he extends his British army service to 12 years on this date

1919 June 1 McDonagh and Mahony left Germany on a Hospital Ship. Mahoney lists the following as still being in Germany at this time to his knowledge. M. Keogh (in fact in German army at this time), J O'Callaghan (in fact in German army at this time) , Scanlon (who is dead), J Carr (who murdered Sweeney, and was last known under arrest), Delamore (appears to have remained in Germany), Kavanagh (eventually returned to Ireland with Keogh in 1922), Forde (already returned to Ireland Apr 1919) Sewell, and M Dowling

1919 Jul 25. Murphy D is released from arrest in Germany and ordered to report to regimental depot.

1919 Aug 8. By now the official line had softened and the "dismissed for miscounduct" order was rescined for many of the men. I can only find evidence that 14 of them lost their medals.

1919 Sep J O'Callaghan arrives back with Keogh (O'Callaghan was shot at Mallow 27 August 1922.). Keogh returns to Germany fairly soon.

1920 Aug. And a number were still serving in the British Army in August 1920 when new service numbers were issued.

1922 Apr 2 Keogh arrives back in Cork with Kavanagh

1922 Jul 11 O'Toole arrives back in Ireland

Delamore and Sewell are known to have stayed on in Germany.

Others not mentioned are

 

 

Irish Brigade