Ireland -- History -- 1910-1921; Ireland. Royal Irish Constabulary
O’Hara, who a second before had been confident of escape, was in
despair, and collapsed on the bed. After a few minutes he pulled himself
together, and on looking at Devine was at once struck by the sinister
expression on the man’s face.
Remembering that there was a price of £1000 on his head, and from
Devine’s expression there was no doubt that he also was thinking of this
reward, without a second’s hesitation O’Hara covered him with a big Colt
automatic, and told him that if a way was not found to get him on to the
steamer he would shoot him. Devine, knowing O’Hara’s reputation, and
preferring his life to £1000, at once suggested a plan.
The town of Ballybor lies about five miles up a river, and all
outward-bound steamers drop the pilot in the bay at the mouth of the
river, where he is rowed to the little fishing village of Dooncarra. The
steamer was due to sail at high tide that afternoon, and Devine
suggested that they should bicycle to Dooncarra, where there ought to be
no difficulty in getting O’Hara aboard by the pilot-boat, as both the
police barracks and coastguard station there had been burnt some time
ago.
After some breakfast they started off, bicycled boldly past the picket
on the quay, and reached Dooncarra without any mishap, where Devine
arranged for O’Hara to stay in a fisherman’s house until the pilot-boat
left at dusk.
O’Hara had never been to sea before, and was ill before he ever reached
the steamer. As soon as he got aboard, a stoker, who had been warned by
Devine to expect O’Hara on the pilot’s boat, took charge of him, and at
once put him into a bunk.
That night the steamer ran into an Atlantic storm, and by the time they
had made the north coast of Ireland, O’Hara was beyond caring whether he
lived or died.
Blake reported O’Hara’s escape to the authorities in Dublin, who were
most anxious to secure the man, knowing he had been the ringleader in
the worst atrocities committed in the south recently. They at once came
to the conclusion that O’Hara was trying to get away by boat from
Ballybor to Liverpool and then on to America, hence the picket of Cadets
on the quay; but to make doubly sure they ordered an ocean-going
destroyer to search the steamer from Ballybor at sea.
After rounding the north of Ireland the steamer ran into smooth water,
and O’Hara came on deck for a breath of fresh air. After a time he
became interested in a queer-looking long grey steamer which was
approaching them from the south, and very soon the queer boat came
within hailing distance, and orders were megaphoned for the steamer to
heave to.
O’Hara was greatly interested in watching the progress of the destroyer
boat, and it was not until a sergeant of the R.I.C. in plain clothes,
who had known O’Hara in the south, covered him with a Webley and
commanded him to put up his hands, that he realised that this
interesting show was all for his benefit.
III.
THE LANDING OF ARMS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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