page_title: Free State Intelligence Department – Oriel House
section_title: Republican
hierarchical_section_title: Free State Intelligence Department – Oriel House / Timeline / Republican
caption_attribution_description: English: This plaque marks the spot on the Ratoath Rd, Cabra where the bodies of Section Commander Christopher Breslin, A Company, 1st Battillion and his friend J. Kiernan were dumped
context_page_description: The Irish Free State Army Intelligence Department – Oriel House Criminal Investigation Department waged a lethal-force policy, especially in Dublin, against those who opposed the newly created Irish Free State.
  At least twenty-five Irish republicans were assassinated in County Dublin in the period that the Oriel House CID was in existence, from early 1922, when under the control of the Free State Army Intelligence Department and later under the Ministry of Home Affairs, to November 1923 when it was finally abolished. Most of these deaths, or the circumstances leading to them, were not witnessed, but several witnesses were there when the two Fianna Éireann, Alf Colley and Sean Cole were killed at Whitehall, and again when three more Fianna members were arrested at Clonliffe Road and found dead the next morning at Clondalkin.
context_section_description: This is the list of Republicans that were eliminated by agents of the Provisional Government and the Free State Government in the period that the CID was in existence in Oriel House and at 88 Merrion Square.  Memorial stones at the site where the bodies were found are situated all around Dublin at what was then the city limits. Most are documented on the website Irish War Memorials.  http://www.irishwarmemorials.ie/
  Harry Boland, 1 August 1922. Harry (34) had fought in Dublin and was now in hiding with his friend Joe Griffin, of the IRA's Intelligence Department. He was tracked down, with the aid of an informer, to the Grand Hotel, Skerries. Two Free State Army officers entered his room and Harry, unarmed, was shot and mortally wounded. He died two days later in St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin. As he lay dying, he refused to give the name of his attacker to his family but confirmed that it was a former comrade who had been in prison with him in 1916. Harry also had had a premonition of his death one week earlier, when he said "I know too much about Mick, and he won't let me live".
  7 August 1922 Joe Hudson (18) lived at 3 Carrolls Cottages, Glasthule and was in command of a small group of ten IRA volunteers in the area.  They were proving to be very successful locally against the FSA. This group operated down to Bray and across to Dean's Grange, where another group was based. On 7 August 1922, a group of FSA officers left Portobello Barracks, acting on information that a meeting was in progress in Hudson's home. The FSA officers, in two cars, pulled up near Hudson's, but a Fianna member on sentry duty blew his whistle to alert those inside Hudson's house. The occupants of the house scattered through the back garden as shots were exchanged. Hudson was injured and he dropped his weapon. An FSA officer approached him as he lay on the ground and shot him at point-blank range. He died next day in Dún Laoghaire Hospital, but not before he gave a deathbed declaration that he had had his hands up when shot. The leader of the FSA group was Commandant Niall McNeill, whose father was a minister in the Provisional Government.
  25 August 1922. One of the most despicable murders of Republicans took place at Whitehall, Dublin on this date. Alfie(Leo) Colley (18), Parnell Street, and Sean Cole (17), Buckingham Street, were two of the most senior Fianna officers in the Dublin Brigade of Fianna Éireann. They were picked up at Newcomen Bridge, North Strand, on their way home from a meeting of officers at Marino. A witness stated that their abductors were wearing trench coats over Free State Army officers' uniforms. Witnesses saw them being shot dead at 'The Thatch', Puck's Lane, (now Yellow Road), Whitehall. Popular opinion at the time was that their killings were a reprisal for the death of Michael Collins earlier that week.
  25 August 1922. On the same day that Cole and Colley were killed, Bernard Daly was taken from his place of employment at Nassau Street by armed men. His body was found later that day in a ditch on the Malahide Road, Belcamp. He was a native of Old Hill, Drogheda.
  2 September 1922. Leo Murray and Rodney Murphy were in hiding from the CID, who had threatened to 'riddle them' if caught. They were in hiding at Newpark Lodge, Stillorgan, in a friend's house, when they were shot in their beds by a squad of Free State Army officers from Portobello Barracks. Their homes had been raided three times in the previous week by the CID from Oriel House.
  3 September 1922. J.J. Stephens worked for the Great Northern Railway Company in Dublin. He was a native of Beleek, Co Fermanagh and was an IRA volunteer in the city.  He was taken from his lodgings at 7 Gardiner Place by armed men at 3.30 a.m. on 3 September and his body was found on the Naas Road at Blackhorse Bridge, Inchicore.
  12 September 1922. Sean McEvoy was caught at the junction of Bride Street and Peter Street by a combination of CID men and Free State soldiers. His friend gave evidence that they were placed against a wall and fired at. His friend escaped to tell the story.
  16 
caption: This plaque marks the spot on the Ratoath Rd, Cabra where the bodies of Section Commander Christopher Breslin, A Company, 1st Battalion and his friend J. Kiernan were discovered
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