With the Dublin Brigade: Espionage and Assassination with Michael Collins’ Intelligence Unit

Charles Dalton was only fourteen years old when he joined the Irish Volunteers in 1917. By 1920 he had been appointed to Michael Collins' elite intelligence unit. In this book he describes his role in the assassination of the 'Cairo Gang', a team of undercover British agents working and living in Dublin, on Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920. He also details his involvement in the seizure of arms from Messrs Guinness's boat the 'Clarecastle', the filling of home-made hand grenades with gelignite, the attempted shooting of hangmen on their arrival at Dublin to carry out executions, attempted rescues of prisoners in military custody (including Dan Breen from the Mater Hospital, after he had been wounded) and the encirclement of Grafton St. shortly before the Truce. His duties also involved tracing the activities of enemy agents and spies, keeping records of enemy personnel, contact with friendly associates in government and Crown service and organising and developing intelligence in the Dublin Brigade. This account, originally published in 1929, when he was only 26 years of age, is complemented by the inclusion of his statement to the Military History Bureau made 20 years later, which, though not significantly different in terms of fact, is remarkably different in tone.