27 Facts About Moss Twomey

Maurice Twomey was an Irish republican and the longest serving chief of staff of the Irish Republican Army.

Moss Twomey was born in 1897 in Clondulane, near Fermoy, County Cork, Ireland and was educated by the Congregation of Christian Brothers.

The son of a labourer at Hallinan's flour mill in the town, Moss Twomey went to work there at the age of 14 where he rose to the position of works manager.

Moss Twomey was a dedicated and well respected Irish Republican who successfully dealt with factions within the Irish Republican movement.

Moss Twomey took part in an ambush of British troops in Fermoy in September 1919, one of the first attacks on British soldiers in Ireland since the 1916 Easter Rising and one of the first of the Irish War of Independence.

Moss Twomey was staff commandant of Liam Lynch's 1st Southern Division when he was captured and imprisoned on Spike Island during 1921.

Moss Twomey opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921 and was critical of the tactics adopted by the anti-Treaty forces - the occupation of the principal seat of justice in Ireland the Four Courts.

Moss Twomey was influenced by Oscar Traynor's opinion that an attack by the newly formed Irish National Army to end the occupation of the Four Courts would destroy the Republic.

Moss Twomey concurred with Liam Mellows that if a government was to be formed in the interest of labour, it must be a republic.

Moss Twomey was imprisoned that same month in Dublin along with Tom Derrig.

Moss Twomey was the editor and regular contributor to the newly established Irish republican weekly newspaper, An Phoblacht.

The pact was originally approved by Frank Aiken, who left soon after, before being succeeded by Cooney and Moss Twomey who kept up the secret espionage relationship.

Moss Twomey was not himself an ideological Marxist-Leninist, he saw the arrangement purely as a means to gain the IRA badly needed funding.

Moss Twomey was considered a Socialist, albeit one who put practicality before ideology.

Moss Twomey considered himself a moderate, had a deep sense of history, and the belief that Ireland had the resources to provide a good living for all of its people.

Moss Twomey simultaneously feared undermining support for Fianna Fail and thus handing power back to Cumann na nGaedheal; but he was apprehensive about the IRA being seen as attached to Fianna Fail.

In 1930, Moss Twomey married Kathleen MacLaughlin of Donegal and had two children in the early 1930s.

Moss Twomey had the qualities and skills of diplomacy when dealing with the various factions of the Republican movement.

In 1931 Moss Twomey tried to quell different factions within the IRA by permitting IRA members to create Saor Eire, a far-left political party.

Moss Twomey instead thought that the social programme of Saor Eire could and would gain democratic support.

On 21 May 1936 Moss Twomey was arrested in his house in Dublin under Article 2A of the Irish Constitution.

Moss Twomey was imprisoned in Arbour Hill Prison and the Curragh from 1936 to 1938.

On his release, Moss Twomey became adjutant general on Sean Russell's army council.

Moss Twomey concluded that the IRA was in no position to launch a campaign and withdrew from IRA activity.

Moss Twomey remained close to the IRA, giving assistance to republicans deported from Britain and mediating in disputes between IRA factions.

Moss Twomey never claimed an IRA pension from the Irish government or gave an account of his record to the Bureau of Military History which had been set up to record the recollections of participants involved in the struggle against British rule.

Moss Twomey was badly injured in an accident in 1971 and was deeply affected by the death of his wife Kathleen Twomey in April 1978.