Irish intelligence officer
David Neligan
(14 October 1899 ? 1983), known by his soubriquet "The Spy in the Castle", was a crucial figure involved in the
Irish War of Independence
(1919?21) and subsequently became Director of Intelligence for the
Irish Army
after the
Irish Civil War
(1922?23).
Early life
[
edit
]
David Neligan was born 14 October 1899 at
Templeglantine
,
Limerick
where his parents, David and Elizabeth Neligan (nee Mullan), were primary school teachers.
[1]
He was an accomplished hurler with his local Templeglantine GAA Club. In 1917 Neligan joined the military organisation established in 1913 by
Irish nationalists
- the
Irish Volunteers
.
[2]
Dublin Metropolitan Police & MI5
[
edit
]
Against his father's wishes, Neligan joined the
Dublin Metropolitan Police
(DMP) - also in 1917. Picking up travel documentation from the local
Royal Irish Constabulary
barracks he declined a suggestion that he enlist in this armed rural force. After service as a uniformed constable with the DMP, Neligan was promoted to Detective and transferred into the Department's widely hated
counterintelligence
and anti-political-subversion unit, the
G Division
, in 1919. In May 1920 Neligan's elder brother Maurice (1895?1920), an
Irish Republican Army
(IRA) member and friend of
Michael Collins
, persuaded him to resign from the DMP.
[3]
After his resignation, Neligan returned to his native
County Limerick
with the intention of doing the Limerick IRA. Shortly afterward his brother Maurice was killed in a motorcycle accident, near their home in Templeglantine. In the meantime, Neligan also received word from a family friend that Michael Collins wished to meet with him in
Dublin
. Collins had been outraged that Neligan had been allowed to resign and persuaded Neligan to rejoin the DMP as a
mole
for the intelligence wing of the IRA.
[4]
Along with Detectives
Eamon Broy
and James McNamara, Neligan acted as a highly valuable agent for Collins and passed on reams of vital information.
[5]
Neligan leaked documents about the relative importance of police and military personnel and also warned insurgents of upcoming raids and ambushes. Unconfirmed rumors were that Neligan might have been a double agent working for British interests,
[6]
can now be dismissed as smear campaign owing to his subsequent service on behalf of the
Irish Free State
.
In 1921 Collins ordered Neligan to let himself be recruited into
MI5
and he used the opportunity to memorise their passwords and the identities of their agents. All of this was passed on to Collins. After Broy and McNamara were dismissed in 1921, Neligan became Collins' most important mole inside
Dublin Castle
.
Irish Civil War
[
edit
]
On the outbreak of the
Civil War
in June 1922, Neligan joined the
Irish Army
in
Islandbridge Barracks
with the rank of Commandant, and was attached to the
Dublin Guard
. He was involved in the seaborne assault on
Fenit
and spent the remainder of the war serving as a
military intelligence
officer operating between
Ballymullen Barracks
,
Tralee
&
Killarney
. He has been accused of involvement in several
atrocities
including the
Ballyseedy massacre
and has been referred to as the "Butcher of Kerry".
[7]
However,
Ernie O'Malley
expressed doubts as to the evidence of this.
[
citation needed
]
In 1923 Neligan was posted to Dublin, where he was promoted to Colonel and succeeded
Diarmuid O'Hegarty
as the Irish Army's
Director of Intelligence
.
Later life
[
edit
]
In 1924 Neligan handed over his post to the youthful Colonel
Michael Joe Costello
and took command of the DMP (which still continued as a force separate from the newly established
Garda Siochana
) with the rank of Chief Superintendent. The next year he transferred to the Garda when the two police forces were amalgamated, and was instrumental in the foundation of Garda
Special Branch
. When
Eamon de Valera
became
head of government
in 1932, his Republican followers demanded Neligan's dismissal. Instead, Neligan was transferred to an equivalent post in the
Irish Civil Service
.
In June 1935 Neligan was married to fellow civil servant Sheila Maeve Rogan.
Neligan drew pensions from the
DMP
, the British
MI5
, the
Garda Siochana
and the
Irish Civil Service
. He also received an '
Old IRA
' pension through the
Department of Defence
.
[8]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
White, Lawrence (October 2009).
"Neligan, David"
.
DICTIONARY OF IRISH BIOGRAPHY
. Retrieved
7 June
2022
.
- ^
Neligan, David (1968),
The Spy in the Castle
, MacGibbon & Kee, London, pg 29, SBN 261.62060.6
- ^
Neligan, pg 68
- ^
Neligan, pg 75
- ^
White, Lawrence (October 2009).
"Neligan, David"
.
DICTIONARY OF IRISH BIOGRAPHY
. Royal Irish Academy
. Retrieved
29 November
2023
.
- ^
MacEoin, Uinseann (1997),
The IRA in the twilight years 1923-1948
, Argenta Publications, Dublin, pg 35 ISBN 0951117246
- ^
MacEoin, pg 7
- ^
Coogan, Tim Pat (2002).
Michael Collins: The Man Who Made Ireland
. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 76.
ISBN
978-0-312-29511-0
. Retrieved
7 July
2010
.
Sources
[
edit
]
- The Spy in the Castle by David Neligan.
- Who's Who in the Irish War of Independence 1916?1921.
Padraic O'Farrell
, Mercier Press 1980.
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