From Tipperary
Present at Gresham Hotel murders of MacCormack and Wilde
Paddy Kennedy’s widow did not want her husband’s name mentioned in Ernie O’Malley’s notes of that day. Kennedy had been involved in the shooting of Captain McCormack, whom most now believe was not a spy. Captain McCormack’s mother wrote to Richard Mulcahy in 1922 asking if someone would admit that the shooting of her son was a mistake. She did not want people thinking he was a traitor
IRA men present in this group of 12 to 14 men according to the IRA, include, from a list by James Foley who became Coy Capt when Moran was executed. They all came from the same IRA company, D Company, 2nd Battalion, of which Moran was the Captain, and they did not have a Squad man with them. Paddy Kennedy was the Intelligence Officer in the group.
W.S. 499 by Patrick Kennedy D Co.2nd Batt. Dublin Brigade- -Bloody Sunday
On the Saturday before Bloody Sunday I was instructed to report to 100 Seville Place that night where, I was told, I would receive specific instructions regarding an operation to be carried out the following morning. When I arrived at Seville Place that night, I discovered that a number of specially selected men from my Company were present and that Paddy Moran, my Company O.C.was in charge of them .
Sean Russell took charge for that night, and he gave us his instructions for the following morning. He explained that a big swoop was to be made simultaneously on all British agents residing in private houses throughout the city and that the operation was to be carried out at 9 0,clock sharp. He detailed Paddy Moran to take his party to the Gresham Hotel and eliminate three British Intelligence Officers who were stopping there. Lieutenant- Colonel Wilde and Captain McCormack were two of the British agents, I cannot remember the name of the third..
I arranged with Paddy Moran to meet him in North Earl Street. I met him as arranged and we proceeded to the Gresham Hotel. As we entered the hotel the other members of of our party, who were in the vicinity, came in after us. Our first job was to disconnect the telephone. As we knew the rooms in which the Intelligence agents were located, our party split up, as pre-arranged, and proceeded to the rooms allotted to them by Paddy Moran. There were people in the dining room and we took up position at the door and held them there. Two British agents were eliminated that morning, the third man escaped. He was a Catholic, I believe, and had gone out to early mass. The whole operation lasted less than ten minutes.-
W.S. 499 Patrick Kennedy, member of D Coy. 2nd Batt. Dublin Brigade. He was present at the shooting of Ryan
"A man named John Ryan, who was residing in the vicinity of Gloucester Street, was a military policeman in Dublin Castle and was also, I believe, at one time employed as a batman to a British Military officer in the Castle, under whom he served in the British Army in India. Information reached our Intelligence that Ryan was spying on wanted men at night time. Curfew made no difference as far as he was concerned, he could be out at any time during the night. It was established that he was the man who tracked Dick McKee to a house in Gloucester Street and that he chalked, by arrangement, the door of the house in which McKee was stopping on the night he was arrested there. The idea of the chalk mark was to guide the Auxiliaries to the house in question. A couple of months after the murder of Dick McKee, instructions were given by the Director of Intelligence that the informer, John Ryan, was to be shot. This order was duly carried out. We knew that Ryan frequented a public-house adjacent to where he resided, and on a morning in February, 1921, I took two squad men there, Bill Stapleton and Jimmy Conroy.Two of us entered the house in question and shot him, the third man remained outside. "