25 Facts About Dan Breen

Daniel Breen was a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War.

Dan Breen's father died when Breen was six, leaving the family very poor.

Dan Breen was educated locally, before becoming a plasterer and later a linesman on the Great Southern Railways.

Dan Breen quickly established himself as a leader within the Irish Republican Army.

Dan Breen, who was wounded, remembered how the battalion was "vehemently denounced as a cold-blooded assassins" and roundly condemned by the Catholic Church.

Dan Breen was shot at least four times, twice in the lung.

Dan Breen rejected the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which left him angry and embittered:.

Dan Breen was captured in a major state operation in Tipperary in April 1923.

On 11 June 1922 Dan Breen began the All-Ireland Football Championship final by throwing the ball in.

Dan Breen spent two months there before going on hunger strike for six days, followed by a thirst strike of six days.

Dan Breen was released in the autumn after signing a document to desist from attacking the Free State.

Dan Breen applied to the Irish government for a service pension under the Military Service Pensions Act, 1934 and was awarded nine years service in 1935 at Grade A for his service with the Irish Volunteers and the IRA between 1 April 1917 and 30 September 1923.

Dan Breen wrote a best-selling account of his guerrilla days, My Fight for Irish Freedom, in 1924, later republished by Rena Dardis and Anvil Press.

Thereafter Dan Breen travelled to the United States, where he opened a speakeasy.

Dan Breen returned to Ireland in 1932 following the death of his mother, and regained his seat as a member of Fianna Fail in the Dail at that year's general election.

Dan Breen represented his Tipperary constituency without a break until his retirement at the 1965 election.

Dan Breen supported the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War.

In 1946, Dan Breen became secretary of the Save the German Children Society.

Dan Breen attended the funeral of Nazi spy Hermann Gortz on 27 May 1947.

Dan Breen was co-chairman of the anti-Vietnam War organisation "Irish Voice on Vietnam" which he founded along with Peadar O'Donnell.

Dan Breen was married on 12 June 1921, during the War of Independence, to Brigid Malone, a Dublin Cumann na mBan woman and sister of Lieutenant Michael Malone who was killed in action at the Battle of Mount Street Bridge during the 1916 Rising.

Dan Breen was, at the time, one of the most wanted men in Ireland, and South Tipperary was under martial law, yet a large celebration was held.

Dan Breen died in Kilcroney House, County Wicklow in 1969, aged 75, and was buried in Donohill, near his birthplace.

Dan Breen's funeral was the largest seen in west Tipperary since that of his close friend and comrade-in-arms, Sean Treacy, at Kilfeacle in October 1920.

Dan Breen is mentioned in the Irish folk ballad "The Galtee Mountain Boy", along with Sean Moylan, Dinny Lacey, and Sean Hogan.