1 See W.K. Hancock’s classic evocation of ‘Saorstát Éireann’ in his Survey of British Commonwealth affairs, i: Problems of nationality, 1918–1936 (Oxford, 1937), pp 92–165 Google Scholar.

2 A copy of the typescript report of 14 pages survives, with other papers concerning Chamberlain, in the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King’s College, London. I am grateful to the archivist for permission to reproduce this document, and to Dr Joanna Bourke of Birkbeck College, London, who discovered it and made sagacious suggestions. For leads, information and corrections, I am indebted to Kevin Myers of the Irish Times and Commandant Peter Young of Military Archives, Dublin. My greatest debt is to Jane Leonard of the Institute of Irish Studies, Belfast, who supplied arcane biographical information on several officers. Specific allusions and the careers of persons named are explored in notes appended to the report.

3 Numerals in parentheses refer to paragraphs in the report.

4 N. J. Chamberlain (1895-1970), ‘Record of service sheet’ (Chamberlain papers); typed obituary notes by George Leo Chamberlain, O.S.B. (ibid.). Unattributed biographical detail is derived from these and other papers in the same location.

5 Obituaries in Royal Army Education Corps Gazette, i, no. 7 (Apr. 1970) and Harrogate Herald, 14 Jan. 1970 (cuttings in Chamberlain papers). He had also captained his school’s rugby XV, and in 1937 was still playing ‘cricket and tennis well’ and keeping himself fit.

6 Testimonial by G.O.C. London District, 15 Aug. 1930 (Chamberlain papers). The G.O.C. chose his adjectives carefully, rejecting all of the normal options offered as multiple choice.

7 Notes by George Leo Chamberlain (Chamberlain papers). Noel had learnt bridge at Oxford.

8 His paternal grandfather had been chairman of the Liverpool Stock Exchange and the only lay president of the Ampleforth Society; but the family broking business (George Chamberlain & Co. of Moorfields) had fallen close to bankruptcy by 1913, when Noel secured an exhibition to study modern history at University College, Oxford. After a term in the university O.T.C. he left for the forces without gaining a degree. See Chamberlain, ‘Memoirs, 1906–23’ (typescript, c. 1968–70) (Chamberlain papers).

9 Draft address of welcome to Mathew, 13 Mar. 1955 (Chamberlain papers); Leeds Mercury, 27 Apr. 1957 (cutting, ibid.).

10 Gárda Review, i, no. 12 (Nov. 1926), p. 900; An t-Óglach, v, no. 13 (2 Oct. 1926), p. 18 and no. 16 (23 Oct. 1926), p. 9; Irish Independent, 26 Oct. 1926.

11 An t-Óglach and the Irish Independent cunningly obscured the outcome of the first match, though headlining the subsequent Irish victory. By contrast, the Irish Times and its sporting affiliate the Irish Field highlighted the British victory, while commending the jaded and battered British for their ‘plucky show’ against a fresh Irish team at the Curragh.

12 Irish Field, 30 Oct. 1926.

13 An t-Óglach, v, no. 18 (6 Nov. 1926), p. 1.

14 Hopkinson, Michael, Green against green: the Irish Civil War (Dublin, 1988), pp 246–7 Google Scholar; The Times, 19 Mar. 1923. Despite breaking a thumb in the fourth of twenty rounds, McTigue defeated his heavyweight opponent on points.

15 An t-Óglach, i, no. 6 (5 May 1923), p. 8. The National Sporting Club administered British professional boxing, under the Queensberry Rules, between 1891 and 1929.

16 Chief Superintendent [Mathias] McCarthy, ‘Boxing’ in Gárda Review, i, no. 8 (July 1926), p. 568.

17 Maloney, Thomas, The value of boxing for police (Dublin, 1928), p. 9 Google Scholar. Maloney’s régime involved skipping, shadow-boxing, ball-punching and exercising, followed by a warm bath, shower, massage and Turkish bath (p. 16).

18 P.O.P., ‘The force’ in Verse or worse (Dublin, 1928), p. 41 Google ScholarPubMed.

19 As a senior officer of the Gaelic Athletic Association (1912-34), Irish Amateur Handball Association (1926-34) and National Athletic and Cycling Association (1931-7, 1942–4), O’Duffy wrote on such subjects as ‘Our national pastimes’ and ‘Ethics of hurling’. He also pressed for Irish representation at the Amsterdam Olympics in 1928, where Ireland secured a gold medal. Like many sporting ideologists, O’Duffy did not play games. As his hagiographer remarked, ‘General O’Duffy was not an athlete, and he neither hurled or [sic] kicked football; yet it was his connection with the national games which did so much to fashion the whole course of his life’. A characteristic team photograph of Monaghan hurlers in 1915 shows O’Duffy holding a hurley, but in suit and wing collar, surrounded by more appropriately dressed colleagues. See Liam Walsh, ‘General Eoin O’Duffy: his life and battles’ (typescript, 1946) (N.L.I., mic. p6539), esp. pp 11, 155, 213; entry in Thom’s Irish Who’s Who (Dublin, 1923), pp 187–8; Livingstone, Peadar, The Monaghan story (Enniskillen, 1980), p. 414 Google Scholar; Sean Ó Murchadha (ed.), Cuimhneachán Mhuineacháin, 1916–66 (n.p., n.d.), p. 35; Brady, Conor, Guardians of the peace (Dublin, 1974), pp 117–18 Google Scholar.

20 Gárda Review, i, no. 9 (Aug. 1926), p. 614; iv, no. 1 (Dec. 1928), p. 52. The Paris police again visited Dublin in 1929, receiving ‘a truly triumphant welcome, such as one would believe given only to a sovereign. A band, a guard of honour, a lining of the approaches, banquets, receptions, balls! — nothing was wanting in the festivities, which had for their cause a simple boxing engagement’ (acccount of Divisional Commissioner Gaston Faralicq, in >Gárda Review, v, no. 9 (Aug. 1930), p. 875 Gárda+Review,+v,+no.+9+(Aug.+1930),+p.+875>Google Scholar).

21 See Mangan, J.A., The games ethic and imperialism: aspects of the diffusion of an ideal (London, 1986)Google Scholar; idem (ed.), The cultural bond: sport, empire, society (London, 1992).

22 Commandant Austin Brennan, brother of the adjutant-general of whom Chamberlain thought so highly, alone abstained from voting on the latter resolution, which was defeated by 18 votes to none. Barry O’Brien and Dominick Doyle, whose sporting enthusiasms were documented by Chamberlain, both supported admission of golf. Team games such as rugby and soccer remained out of bounds (An t-Óglach, i, no. 6 (5 May 1923), p. 9).

23 Irish Field, 25 Jan. 1924, 20 June 1925, 16 Jan., 4 Sept. 1926.

24 In the Collins championship for 1927 Doyle and Murphy scored 72 and 73 from handicaps of 11 and 18 respectively. Cronin won the cup in both 1929 and 1930. In 1927 the National Army Golf Society (now over a hundred strong) encountered some resistance to its application for affiliation as a club to the Golfing Union of Ireland, partly out of suspicion that its players benefited from ‘fictitious handicaps’. It seems to have gained acceptance through effective absorption into the Newlands Club in County Dublin (Irish Field, 23 Apr. 1927; Norton, Billy, ‘Army Sports Stars of the Past’ in An Cosantóir, xxxvi, no. 4 (Apr. 1976), p. 103 Google Scholar).

25 Who’s Who (London, 1939 ed.), p. 2006; Duggan, John P., A history of the Irish army (Dublin, 1992 ed.), p. 128 Google Scholar.

26 Hughes was something of an advocate of ‘national games’, having sought a token reduction in the vote for secondary schools on the ground that ‘Irish games are altogether banned’ in many colleges. Having failed to elicit support from President Cosgrave, he lamely protested that he had ‘only asked for as good a show’ for the national as for the ‘foreign game’ (Dáil Éireann deb., i, 2142, 2147 (16 Nov. 1922)).

27 David Neligan, Garda Detective Branch, to Col. Séamus O’Higgins, A.G., 10 Dec. 1931 (N.L.I., O’Connell papers, MS 22148). The ‘recruiting agent’ was Lady Greer, wife of Capt. Sir Joseph Henry Greer of Curragh Grange, senator (1922-8).

28 Duggan, Irish army, pp 119, 130–32, 147, 155.

29 The chief of staff was, however, touchingly grateful for intercession from the ‘very courteous’ 1st marquis of Crewe, British ambassador in Paris and a former viceroy of Ireland (1892-5) (report by Gen. Seán MacMahon, 14 Aug. 1923 (N.A.I., Executive Council files, S 587)).

30 This request was passed on to the Governor-General by the Dominions Secretary, eliciting the response that any such request should be addressed direct to the chief of staff (Amery to Healy, 24 Mar. 1926, and reply, 8 Apr. 1926 (N.A.I., Executive Council files, S 4929)).

31 This mission, which lasted until October 1927, was encouraged by O’Duffy’s well-publicised visit in 1925 to the International Police Congress in New York. Despite the strong American influence, Duggan reports a ministerial directive in July 1928 ‘that Staff and Service Schools should be set up on the lines of British War Establishments with suitable modifications’ (Duggan, Irish army, pp 146–54; see also O’Brien, Barry, ‘The origins and development of the Cadet School’ in An Cosantóir, xxxix, no. 9 (Sept. 1979), pp 260–62 Google Scholar; An t-Óglach, v, no. 19 (13 Nov. 1926), p. 5; Gárda Review, i, no. 6 (May 1926), pp 378–9).

32 The basic annual salary of a medical colonel, such as Higgins, was £1,400, and that of a medical major, such as Doyle, was £1,000 — £200 more than the salaries of major-generals like Brennan, Cronin or Hogan. The Minister for Defence (Peter Hughes) received £1,700 in salary, including allowances (see Brennan-Whitmore, W.J., Defence Forces, Saorstát Éireann: 1926 Army List and Directory (Dublin, 1926), p. 135 Google Scholar).

33 Chamberlain maintained an amiable correspondence with Brennan over the following year, receiving plaudits for his ‘kind and generous thoughtfulness’ in contributing to a relief fund, and in offering advice on army education (see Brennan to Chamberlain, 5 Nov. 1926, 8 Nov. 1927 (Chamberlain papers)).

34 An t-Óglach, i, no. 8 (2 June 1923), p. 2.

35 Michael Brennan’s quotation from Lord Fisher in a Frongoch album, cited in O’Mahony, Seán, Frongoch: university of revolution (Dublin, 1987), p. 80 Google Scholar; Cronin, Felix, ‘Christmas in the “Tan” days’ in An t-Óglach, v, no. 24 (18 Dec. 1926), p. 5 Google Scholar.

36 Dáil Éireann private sessions, 1921–2, pp 225–6 (17 Dec. 1921); Dáil Éireann rep., 1921–2, p. 368 (3 May 1922). The journalist John Boyle, observing the public debate on the treaty, depicted Mac Eoin as a ‘man of action’ and a halting speaker, his hands ‘sunk in the pockets of his plain tweed suit’ and his ‘pure, rich voice’ sounding ‘like a whiff of fresh country air’ ( Búrca, Pádraig de and Boyle, John F., Free State or Republic? Pen pictures of the historic treaty session of Dáil Éireann (Dublin, 1922), p. 11 Google Scholar).

37 Dáil Éireann private sessions, 1921–2, pp 240–42 (17 Dec. 1921); Dáil Éireann treaty deb., pp 223–7 (4 Jan. 1922). O’Duffy maintained that the treaty ‘brings the ball inside the fourteen yards’ line’. Boyle reported that in the latter speech he ‘spoke without any attempt at eloquence whatever, but his words, clear, lucid, distinct and sincere, reached every corner of the assembly’ (de Búrea and Boyle, Free State or Republic?, p. 44).

39 Such retellings of Irish mythology appeared in most issues of the Christian Brothers’ monthly miscellany, Our Boys, first published in 1914.

39 The pilgrims had been coached by the Gárda Review in a song, to be performed while the pope followed the sense in Latin translation: ‘A Song for the Pope, for the Royal Pope/Who rules from seas to sea,/Whose kingdom or sceptre can never fail —/What a grand old king is he’. O’Duffy subsequently waited upon Mussolini with almost equal veneration, offering the fascist salute and passing on good news of the health of His Holiness to the concerned Duce (see Gárda Review, iii, no. 8 (July 1928), p. 764; iv, no. 1 (Dec. 1928), p. 24; Brady, Guardians, p. 165; Walsh, ‘Eoin O’Duffy’, pp 124–5).

40 Ó Murchadha, Cuimhneachán, p. 60.

41 Mageean, John, Man of the people: the intimate story of the hero of Ballinalee (Dublin, 1945), pp 1, 4Google Scholar. Mac Eoin himself was less flowery in characterising his style as a revolutionary, reminding the Dáil that ‘whatever we did, and whatever has been done, was done by bluff — pure bluff (Dáil Éireann private sessions, 1921–2, p. 225 (17 Dec. 1921)).

42 For analysis of republican mentality, but not that of the ruling élite under Cosgrave, see Garvin, Tom, Nationalist revolutionaries in Ireland, 1858–1928 (Oxford, 1987), esp. chs 6, 7Google Scholar.

43 Dáil Éireann deb., i, 946–7 (28 Sept. 1922).

44 In September 1918 both O’Duffy and Hogan had been arrested for holding a G.A.A. match without an official permit. Hogan’s brother Michael, as captain of the Tipperary football team, was killed in the notorious ‘reprisal’ at Croke Park, Dublin, on 21 November 1921 (Walsh, ‘Eoin O’Duffy’, pp 21, 37; Coogan, Tim Pat, Michael Collins: a biography (London, 1990), p. 343 Google Scholar; Duggan, Irish army, p. 140).

45 See O’Beirne-Ranelagh, John, ‘The I.R.B. from the treaty to 1924’ in I.H.S., xx, no. 77 (Mar. 1976), pp 26–39 Google Scholar.

46 For their I.R.B. activities see ibid.; O’Donoghue, Florence, No other law (Dublin, 1954), esp. ch. 18Google Scholar. O’Duffy and Mac Eoin were involved in negotiations with republican members in April 1922, while O’Duffy was likewise active in January, June, and even after the outbreak of the Civil War. Brennan’s handling of the Limerick command in 1922, culminating in his truce with Liam Lynch between 7 and 11 July, raised doubts about his commitment to the treaty (Hopkinson, Green against green, pp 148–9).

47 O’Duffy, Dáil Éireann treaty deb., p. 269 (5 Jan. 1922).

48 See O’Beirne-Ranelagh, ‘The I.R.B.’; Valiulis, Maryann Gialanella, Almost a rebellion: the Irish army mutiny of 1924 (Cork, 1985)Google Scholar; idem, Portrait of a revolutionary: General Richard Mulcahy and the foundation of the Irish Free State (Dublin, 1992). A major theme of protest by the I.R.A. Organisation, echoed in other periods by I.R.B. men such as O’Duffy, was the continued employment of British ex-servicemen in important posts (see Hopkinson, Green against green, pp 225–6).

49 The dinner, held at the Beresford Barracks on 12 Nov. 1924, included anchovies, consommé, fillet of sole, veal cutlets, boiled turkey, Limerick ham, chocolate pudding, cream trifle and dessert, provided by a hotel manageress from Naas (J. J. O’Connell’s menu card (N.L.I., O’Connell papers, MS 22132)). O’Duffy’s command (which did not entail his relinquishing control of the Garda) continued for some months, in name only.

50 Cosgrave, Dáil Éireann deb., vii, 3148 (26 June 1924).

51 Retrenchment continued, and the number of other ranks was reduced from 44,576 in 1923 to 14,469 in 1926, 10,661 in 1927, and only 4,706 by 1930 (statistics refer to 31 March) (Duggan, Irish army, pp 155–6).

52 Manning, Maurice, The Blueshirts (Dublin, 1970), esp. pp 23–6 Google Scholar.

53 Duggan, Irish army, pp 156–7; Brady, Guardians, pp 167–9.

54 See Mac Eoin’s question to Seán Lemass in April 1932, which elicited the unwelcome response that the principle of equal opportunity would henceforth prevail (Manning, Blueshirts, p. 37).

55 Duggan, Irish army, pp 150–51; Canning, Paul, British policy towards Ireland, 1921–1941 (Oxford, 1985), pp 112, 180–84Google Scholar.

56 The commandant, Maj.-Gen. Charles William Gwynn, was a grandson of William Smith O’Brien and a native of Donegal. Montgomery’s student antagonist was the maverick Eric Dorman-Smith, in later life an I.R.A. supporter. See Greacen, Lavinia, Chink: a biography (London, 1989), p. 101 Google Scholar; Young, F.W., The story of the Staff College, 1858–1958 (Camberley, 1958), p. 57 Google Scholar; Who’s Who (London, 1918 ed.), p. 1019. Greacen’s account of the boycott, to which I was kindly alerted by Jane Leonard, has not been corroborated.

57 List in N.A.I., Executive Council files, S 5701, in response to a question in the Dáil (22 Apr. 1931).

58 See correspondence on courses at Chatham and Netheravon, 1928–9 (ibid.).

59 Baldwin to Imperial Conference, 26 Oct. 1926 (Imperial Conference, 1926: appendices to the summary of proceedings, p. 164 [Cmd 2769], H.C. 1926, xi, 607).

60 Dáil Éireann deb., xviii, 132 (26 Jan. 1927); xxvii, 411 (21 Nov. 1928).

61 Files and extracts from minutes of Committee of Imperial Defence (P.R.O.,WO 32/3704).