Dan Breen and his fight for freedom

One of the most celebrated figures of the War of Independence in Ireland was Tipperary’s Dan Breen. Remembered as a heroic figure in the ‘Premier’ county, Breen was present when the first shots of the war were shot in January 1919 in a place called Soloheadbeg.

The Irish Press gave this glowing tribute, one of many published at the time, when Breen died on 27 December 1969:

IN many ways Dan Breen personified what the struggle for Irish Independence from 1919 to 1921 was all about. He was in at the start of it, and from the days of Soloheadbeg he has been among the best-known of Irishmen. Not always the best loved, for in his time there were many who reviled him, but none who could not but be impressed by his exploits of daring and bravery, by his reckless audacity and his daredevil resourcefulness, by that total conviction and rugged independence which characterised everything he did and said. As a guerrilla fighter, there were few to equal him and if it was only for this alone, he would be assured an honoured mention in Irish history. But he was more than that. He was a Fenian through and through and for him independence was meaningless and empty if it did not bring with it drastic Improvements in the lives and the conditions of the people of the country. From his earliest days in the Dail, in his own frank and tough way, he supported- and urged reform. He was no respecter of wealth, rank or privilege and he remained at all times close to, and of, the people who put him in Dail Eireann. Nor did his latter years diminish in any way his innate egalitarianism, nor soothe his indignation in the face of social injustice. During the past few years the chronic ill-health, so much the result of his many earlier wounds, curtailed his active involvement in politics, but his views retained all the trenchant freshness and commonsense of old. He brought into his old age an idealism at once rooted in reality, and strongly influenced by the Fenian principles he always held.

Dan Breen was above all else a big man. Big not only in stature, in courage and in daring, but also in understanding. Thus he could understand. the motives of those who opposed him. A very real indication of his bigness, his magnanimity, was the respect and affection which he aroused on all sides. And as a fighter in his youth he renounced force as a solution of the final stage of independence. The name of Dan Breen is already a legend. To the young and those who did not know him, the name conjures up pictures of military exploits and long forgotten gallantry. To those who knew him, it means very much more. One way or the other, it is a name which will not be, and should not be, forgotten.

For more information on the life and times of Dan Breen search the pages of the Irish Newspaper Archives (www.irishnewsarchive.com )