RECOLLECTIONS 1917-1921.
Lieut.-Colonel James Harpur
Derbereth , Swords Road Dublin 9.

Dictated in 1950

Following the general release of the 1916 prisoners, efforts were made to reorganise the Volunteers in Dublin. Early in 1917, at the age of 15, I joined C Company of the 4th. Battalion, Dublin Brigade. At that time the Company was commanded by Garry Byrne. John V Joyce was Lieutenant. Afterwards Joyce became O/C. of the Company. For a considerable time after I joined the Volunteers our activities in the Company were mainly concerned with organisation, drilling and training. Drilling was carried out at the Sand Pits in the Crumlin area. The first occasion on which I had to use arms was on a night when the Police raided our parade ground. I was on guard duty that night and as Police approached a few of us opened fire while the remainder of the Company made their getaway.

Armistice Parade 1918:
We were told of the Armistice Parade in the City in1918 and I was mobilised for duty at 41 Camden Street. The Battalion O/C., Phil Cosgrave and the Vice O/C., Joe McGrath were there. I was given an old Spanish revolver and three rounds of ammunition by Joe McGrath and my instructions on that occasion were to patrol from the Evening Mail Office in Parliament St. down to the River Liffey. I was to prevent anyone taking photographs of the Parade, the idea being that this British Military Parade was to be denied any publicity in the local papers. I was accompanied on this occasion by another Volunteer, Jim Fulham. As the Artillery were passing I saw a camera-man with a tripod camera on the north side of Capel Street Bridge endeavouring to take photographs of the Parade. As we were making our way towards him to prevent him from doing so I observed two other Volunteers approaching him from the Quay side. I recognised these as Paddy Holohan and Pat Doyle ,who was afterwards executed. They reached the camera-man first and I heard an altercation going on between them. The next thing I saw was the camera and the Cameraman being thrown into the Liffey. We resumed our patrol.

Raid on Ship, Alexandra Basin:
Early in 1919 I was transferred to F Company of the 1st Battalion where I was appointed Section Leader. The O/C., of this Company was Paddy Holohan, (later to become my brother-in-law). At the time I was transferred activities were increasing, starting with raids for arms on private houses. The first raid of importance I remember was a raid on a ship that had anchored at Alexandra Basin which, we were informed, contained a number of arms. For this raid a number of us were specially selected from the Company and Charlie Dalton of the Intelligence Department directed the raid. My job, with Paddy Doyle was to take up position on the bridge of the ship. A number of rifles and a Lewis gun and several revolvers were taken away. I think this ship had some connection with the Naval Service at the time. Our party got safely away with their booty, A short time afterwards the whole area was taken over by British military.
The Active Service Unit Organisation:

Late in the year 1920, the Company Commander sent for me and informed me that it was the intention of the Army Council to increase the activities of the I.R.A. to counter British activities in Dublin and to this end an Active Service Unit was being formed. He asked me if I would I leave my job and go with this Unit, at the same time informing me that he had already nominated me to the Brigade Council and that my nomination had been approved. I asked him what did it imply. He informed me that active night-and-day operations were going to be carried our openly against the British Forces in Dublin .This would mean that I would be employed full-time and for this reason I could not work at my ordinary civilian employment . I told him I would be happy to join the Unit, I was then instructed by him to attend at Oriel Hall at the back of A miens Street Railway Station on a certain night, late in 1920, for the formation of the Unit. I attended at Oriel Hall on the appointed night and there I met between 40 and 50 other members from different units in the Brigade. We were addressed by Oscar Traynor. First of all he told us that Michael Collins was to have been there but was unable to make it. He then informed us that the British were becoming too cocky in the city and were being allowed too much freedom of movement to carry out their policy of subduing the population and that it had been decided to counter this activity by giving them battle on our own ground. Whilst complimenting us on our patriotism in coming forward he said that he did not hold out much hope of us surviving but then he added that there would be more men to take our places. We were then organised into four Sections, one Section to operate in each of the four Battalion areas. Our assignment to the different Sections was decided by our individual places of residence in the city. As I was residing at that time in the 4th Battalion area I was assigned to the Section in that area. On that night also, Paddy Flanagan, who came from the 3rd Battalion, was appointed O/C of the Unit. Section Commanders were appointed for each Section and Gus Murphy was appointed Section Commander of our Section with the 4th Battalion. When Gus was killed Micky Sweeney took his place. The Unit worked in the following manner:

G.H.Q. Intelligence Section collected data for jobs. The action to be carried out was an execution it was passed on by the Intelligence Section to the Squad who were a special unit to deal with such matters. If the action was an ambush it was passed on to the appropriate Active Service Unit. In addition, the ASU had its own Intelligence Section which was with the 3rd Battalion. This Section collected information which it passed on to the ASU Headquarters in Eustace Street. The 4th Section Headquarters was in the Brickworks in Dolphins Barn. The Section Commander, Gus Murphy would attend at Unit Headquarters each morning and bring whatever instructions he received back to us at Dolphins Barn. The ASU started with an approximate strength of 50 men and although a number were killed and executed it was not until after the Custom House attack, when we lost practically half of our strength, that new members were brought into the Unit. After the Custom House burning, the Squad and the ASU, who had previously worked in cooperation, were amalgamated under the leadership of Paddy Daly. As we had left our civilian employment to be engaged full time on Active Service work, it was arranged that we would receive subsistence allowances.

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