The Squad ( Irish Republican Army unit ) The Squad or the Twelve Apostles was an Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) unit founded by Michael Collins to counter the British intelligence efforts during the Irish War of Independence , mainly by means of assassination . Background . On 10 April 1919 , the First Dáil announced a policy of ostracism of Royal Irish Constabulary men . At the time Sinn Féin official policy was against acts of violence . Boycotting , persuasion and mild intimidation succeeded against many officers . However others escalated their activities against republicans and in July 1919 Collins asked Dick McKee to select a small group to form an assassination unit . Assassination . The founder members were Paddy Daly ( leader ) , Patrick Buckley , Mick McDonnell , Ben Barrett , James Conroy , Sean Doyle , Joe Leonard , Pat McCrea , Jim Slattery , and Bill Stapleton . They were employed full time and received a weekly wage . On 30 July 1919 , the first assassination authorised by Michael Collins was carried out when Detective Sergeant " the Dog " Smith was shot near Drumcondra , Dublin . The Squad would continue targeting plainclothes police , members of the G Division of the Dublin Metropolitan Police , and — occasionally — problematic civil servants . Organisationally it operated as a subsection of Collins ' Intelligence Headquarters . Two of the executions by The Squad " were the killing on January 21 , 1920 of RIC Inspector William Redmond of the DMP " G " Division and on March 2 , 1920 a British double agent John Charles Byrnes Further members included Mick Love , Gearoid O ' Sullivan , Patrick Caldwell , Charlie Dalton , Mick O ' Reilly , Vincent Byrne , Sean Healy , James Ronan , Tom Keogh , Tom Cullen , Paddy Lawson , John Dunne and Johnny Wilson . Seán Lemass and Stephen Behan ( the father of Irish writers Brendan and Dominic Behan ) have also been put forward as members of the Apostles . Understandably , there is no hard evidence to support many of these names ; however , those that subsequently served in the Irish Army have their active service recorded in their service records held in the Military Archives Department in Cathal Brugha Barracks , Rathmines . Dr . Andy Cooney is also reported to have been associated with " The Squad " . Bloody Sunday . One of the Apostles ' particular targets was the Cairo Gang , a deep cover British intelligence group , so called since it had either been largely assembled from intelligence officers serving in Cairo or from the Dublin restaurant called the Cairo , frequented by the gang . The Cairo Gang was brought in during the middle of 1920 by Sir Henry Wilson explicitly to deal with Michael Collins and his organisation . Given carte blanche in its operations by Wilson , the strategy adopted by the Cairo Gang was to assassinate members of Sinn Féin unconnected with the military struggle , assuming that this would cause the IRA to respond and bring its leaders into the open . The most well - known operation executed by the Apostles occurred on " Bloody Sunday " , November 21 , 1920 , when British MI5 officers , linked to the Cairo Gang significantly involved in spying , were shot at various locations in Dublin ( 14 were killed , six were wounded ) . In addition to the " Twelve Apostles " , a larger number of IRA personnel were involved in this operation . The only IRA man captured during the operation was Frank Teeling . In response to the killings , the Black and Tans retaliated by shooting up a Gaelic football match between Dublin and Tipperary at Croke Park , killing 14 civilians including one of the players , Michael Hogan , and wounding 68 . The Hogan stand ( a in Croke Park ) is named after him . Dublin Guard . In May 1921 , after the IRA ' s Dublin Brigade took heavy casualties during the burning of the Custom House , the Squad and the Brigade ' s " Active Service Unit " were amalgamated into the Dublin Guard , under Paddy Daly . Under the influence of Daly and Michael Collins , most of the Guard took the Free State side and joined the Irish Army in the Irish Civil War of 1922 - 23 . During this conflict some of them were attached to the Criminal Investigation Department and were accused of multiple assassination of Anti - Treaty fighters . Later years . Bill Stapleton went on to become a director in Bord na Mona , Charles Dalton and Frank Saurin became directors in the Irish Sweep Stakes . Dalton was the subject of a Kevin Myres article , Myres questioned Dalton living in Morehamton Road in 1940 , but did not research his article enough to mention that Dalton was a director in the Sweep stakes at the time . In October 1923 , Commandant James Conroy was implicated in the murder of two Jewish men , Bernard Goldberg and Emmanuel ' Ernest ' Kah [ a ] n . He avoided arrest by fleeing to Mexico , returning later to join the Blueshirts .