Ireland -- History -- 1910-1921; Ireland. Royal Irish Constabulary
Fee knew that many of these murders were “executions” of men who had
given information to the police, and the thought that one morning at
breakfast he or his wife might open an Irish paper to read an account of
the finding of their son’s body riddled with bullets, caused him to
break out into a cold sweat. Being a good business man, Fee made up his
mind at once, and that evening found him in New York making arrangements
with the Sinn Fein agent for the immediate shipment of the arms to
Ireland.
It’s one thing to talk of smuggling arms into Ireland, but quite another
story to accomplish it. To the Irish peasant, who has never been outside
his own country, it looks as easy as falling off a log; but then he has
no idea of the power of the British Navy, and the British Government
does not take the trouble to inform an Irish peasant that it has the
finest navy in the world—he is supposed to know this, or to find it out
for himself.
When Fee asked the agent for his suggestions, the agent trotted out the
usual stock dodges—packing rifles in piano-frames, S.A.A. in bags of
flour, and more equally futile plans, and he quickly realised that the
man was a fool, so left him and retired to his room in the hotel to
think out a plan for himself.
For a long time he could think of nothing but the picture of his son’s
body lying in a vivid green field in his native land: he could even see
the clothes Micky was wearing, and the dirty white handkerchief (he was
quite sure it would be dirty) over his eyes. For hours his mind dwelt on
this picture, but in the end he gained control over himself, and before
he turned in his brain had evolved a sound plan of action, and with an
Irishman’s sanguine temperament he fell asleep, thinking that his boy
was as good as at home already.
The following morning Fee went to a big yacht agent, but found that he
had only a steam yacht for charter. He explained that he wanted a motor
yacht big enough to cross the Atlantic, and the man referred him to a
firm of builders who had a yacht of this description, which he believed
was on the verge of completion.
Fee next made his way to the yard of these builders, where he found the
yacht he was looking for, which had been built for a rich American who
had recently died. He soon came to terms, and arranged with the builders
for the addition of large extra oil-tanks, in order that the yacht would
be able to make the double journey to Ireland and back without having to
take in oil there.
As soon as the yacht was ready for sea, Fee had large man-holes fitted
to the extra oil-tanks, packed the arms inside them, and then filled up
with oil. Within four weeks of the receipt of Larry O’Halloran’s letter,
Mr and Mrs Fee sailed on their new motor yacht, the _Colleen_, for a
pleasure trip to their native land of Ireland.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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