MY FIGHT FOR IRISH FREEDOM [Illustration: DAN BREEN.] MY FIGHT FOR IRISH FREEDOM _By_ DAN BREEN _With an Introduction by_ JOSEPH McGARRITY (_Philadelphia_) [Illustration] DUBLIN THE TALBOT PRESS LIMITED 85 TALBOT STREET 1924 First Published, August, 1924. Second Edition, September, 1924. Third Edition, October, 1924. Printed in Ireland at THE TALBOT PRESS, Dublin. TO SEAN TREACY J. J. HOGAN AND SEUMAS ROBINSON INTRODUCTION _My Fight for Irish Freedom_, by Commandant General Dan Breen, of the Third Tipperary Brigade, is a story written in the plain unaffected language of one of Ireland’s bravest and most devoted sons. Many of Ireland’s great champions passed from this world without leaving any authentic record of the battles in which they took part, save that which tradition handed on from generation to generation. As time passed, many of the most important phases of the stories thus transmitted were forgotten, and in some cases additions were made which gave certain of the tales a mythical rather than an historical character. An authentic historical record by Cuchulainn himself, if discovered to-day, would create a greater world interest than has the discovery of the tomb of the Pharaohs. The author and principal actor in this dramatic story was born and reared in Tipperary. He had no military knowledge whatever until he joined the Irish Volunteers. Gallant young Irishmen of the type of Dan Breen had been, for generations, drifting away from their native land. Their natural military genius and daring found outlet in the armies of France and Spain, where “On far foreign fields, from Dunkirk to Belgrade Lie the soldiers and chiefs of the Irish Brigade.” Washington appreciated in full the valour of his Irish emigrant soldiers, as he afterwards proved by conceding to them equal status with the native-born Americans. He placed unbounded confidence in the patriotism and loyalty of his Irish generals and soldiers who comprised almost one-half of the entire Revolutionary Army.