James Emmet Dalton
MC (4 March 1898 – 4 March 1978) was an Irish soldier and film producer. He served in the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...
in the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, reaching the rank of captain. However, on his return to Ireland he became one of the senior figures in the Dublin Brigade of the guerrilla
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief th ...
which fought against
British rule in Ireland
British rule in Ireland spanned several centuries and involved British control of parts, or entirety, of the island of Ireland. British involvement in Ireland began with the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in 1169. Most of Ireland gained indepe ...
.
He was a close associate of
Michael Collins Michael Collins or Mike Collins most commonly refers to:
* Michael Collins (Irish leader) (1890–1922), Irish revolutionary leader, soldier, and politician
* Michael Collins (astronaut) (1930–2021), American astronaut, member of Apollo 11 and ...
and travelled with Collins to London separately from the Irish treaty negotiating team. He was military liaison officer for the treaty talks. During the
Irish Civil War
The Irish Civil War ( ga, Cogadh Cathartha na hÉireann; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United ...
, he held one of the highest ranks, as major general, in the pro-Treaty
National Army but resigned his command following the death of Collins. Dalton later founded a film production company in London and founded Ardmore Studios in Wicklow together with
Louis Elliman
Louis Elliman (28 February 1903 – 15 November 1965) was an Irish impresario and theatre manager.
Elliman was born in Dublin, one of 12 children of Jewish parents: Maurice Elliman, who had fled Tsarist persecution in Russia, and his wife, Lea ...
in 1958, producing a number of notable pictures in the 1950s and 1960s.
Early life
Dalton was born in
Fall River, Massachusetts
Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state.
Located along the eastern shore of Mount H ...
, to Irish-American parents James F. and Katharine L. Dalton. The family moved back to Ireland when he was two. He grew up in a middle-class Catholic background in
Drumcondra in
North Dublin and lived at No. 8 Upper St. Columba's Road. He was educated by the
Christian Brothers at
O'Connell School
The O’Connell School is a secondary and primary school for boys located on North Richmond Street in Dublin, Ireland. The school, named in honour of the leader of Catholic Emancipation, Daniel O’Connell, has the distinction of being the oldes ...
in North Richmond Street.
[Emmet Dalton Remembers. RTE Television, 1978] He joined the nationalist militia, the
Irish Volunteers
The Irish Volunteers ( ga, Óglaigh na hÉireann), sometimes called the Irish Volunteer Force or Irish Volunteer Army, was a military organisation established in 1913 by Irish nationalists and republicans. It was ostensibly formed in respon ...
in 1913 and the following year, though only fifteen, was involved in the smuggling of arms into Ireland.
Military career
First World War
Dalton joined the British Army in 1915 for the duration of the Great War. His decision was not that unusual among Irish Volunteers, as over 20,000 of the
National Volunteers joined the British
New Army
The New Armies ( Traditional Chinese: 新軍, Simplified Chinese: 新军; Pinyin: Xīnjūn, Manchu: ''Ice cooha''), more fully called the Newly Created Army ( ''Xinjian Lujun''Also translated as "Newly Established Army" ()), was the modernised ...
on the urgings of Nationalist leader
John Redmond
John Edward Redmond (1 September 1856 – 6 March 1918) was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, and MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. He was best known as leader of the moderate Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) from ...
. Dalton's father, however, disagreed with his son's decision. Emmet Dalton initially joined the 7th battalion of the
Royal Dublin Fusiliers
The Royal Dublin Fusiliers was an Irish infantry Regiment of the British Army created in 1881, one of eight Irish regiments raised and garrisoned in Ireland, with its home depot in Naas. The Regiment was created by the amalgamation of two Brit ...
(RDF) as a temporary 2nd Lieutenant.
By 1916 he was attached to the 9th Battalion, RDF,
16th (Irish) Division
The 16th (Irish) Division was an infantry division of the British Army, raised for service during World War I. The division was a voluntary 'Service' formation of Lord Kitchener's New Armies, created in Ireland from the ' National Volunteers' ...
under Major-General
William Hickie, which contained many Irish nationalist recruits.
During the
Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme (French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place be ...
in September 1916, Dalton was involved in bloody fighting during the
Battle of Ginchy
The Battle of Ginchy took place on 9 September 1916 during the Battle of the Somme, when the 16th (Irish) Division captured the German-held village. Ginchy is north-east of Guillemont, at the junction of six roads, on a rise overlooking Com ...
, in which over 4,000 Irishmen were killed or wounded.
Among the casualties was
Tom Kettle, a former nationalist Member of Parliament and personal friend of Dalton's father and of Emmet. Dalton was awarded the
Military Cross
The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries.
The MC ...
for his conduct in the battle. Afterwards he was transferred to the
6th Battalion, Leinster Regiment, and sent to
Salonika
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
then
Palestine, where he commanded a company and then supervised a sniper school in
El Arish
ʻArish or el-ʻArīsh ( ar, العريش ' , ''Hrinokorura'') is the capital and largest city (with 164,830 inhabitants ) of the North Sinai Governorate of Egypt, as well as the largest city on the entire Sinai Peninsula, lying on the Medit ...
.
In 1918 Dalton was re-deployed again to France, and in July promoted to captain, serving as an instructor.
Irish War of Independence
On demobilisation in April 1919, Dalton returned to Ireland.
There, finding that his
younger brother Charlie had joined the IRA, Dalton himself followed suit. Dalton later commented on the apparent contradiction of fighting both with and against the British Army by saying that he had fought for Ireland with the British and fought for Ireland against them.
He became close to Michael Collins and rose swiftly to become IRA Director of Intelligence – and was involved in the
Squad
In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army d ...
, the Dublin-based assassination unit. On 14 May 1921, Dalton led an operation with Paddy Daly that Dalton and Collins had devised. It was designed to rescue Gen.
Sean McEoin from Mountjoy Prison using a hijacked British armoured car and two of Dalton's old British Army uniforms.
Irish Civil War
Dalton followed Collins in accepting the
Anglo-Irish Treaty
The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty ( ga , An Conradh Angla-Éireannach), commonly known in Ireland as The Treaty and officially the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was an agreement between the government of the ...
in 1922 and was one of the first officers – a
Major General
Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...
– in the new National Army established by the Irish Provisional Government of the
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State ( ga, Saorstát Éireann, , ; 6 December 192229 December 1937) was a state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-year Irish War of Independence between ...
. The Treaty was opposed by much of the IRA and Civil War between pro and anti-treaty factions eventually resulted.
Dalton was in command of troops assaulting the
Four Courts
The Four Courts ( ga, Na Ceithre Cúirteanna) is Ireland's most prominent courts building, located on Inns Quay in Dublin. The Four Courts is the principal seat of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Court and the Dublin Circui ...
in the
Battle of Dublin
The Battle of Dublin was a week of street battles in Dublin from 28 June to 5 July 1922 that marked the beginning of the Irish Civil War. Six months after the Anglo-Irish Treaty ended the recent Irish War of Independence, it was fought betw ...
which marked the start of the war in June 1922. At Collins' instigation Dalton, as Military liaison officer with the British during the truce, took control of the two 18-pounder guns from the British that were trained on the buildings. He became commander of the Free State Army under Mulcahy's direction. He was behind the
Irish Free State offensive
The Irish Free State offensive of July–September 1922 was the decisive military stroke of the Irish Civil War. It was carried out by the National Army of the newly created Irish Free State against anti-treaty strongholds in the south and so ...
of July–August 1922 that dislodged the Anti-Treaty fighters from the towns of
Munster
Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following t ...
. Dalton proposed seaborne landings to take the Anti-Treaty positions from the rear and he commanded one such naval landing that took
Cork city
Cork ( , from , meaning 'marsh') is the second largest city in Ireland and third largest city by population on the island of Ireland. It is located in the south-west of Ireland, in the province of Munster. Following an extension to the city's ...
in early August.
In spite of firm loyalty to the National Army, he was critical of the Free State's failure to follow up its victory, allowing the Anti-Treaty IRA to regroup resuming the guerrilla warfare started in 1919.
On 22 August 1922, he accompanied Michael Collins in convoy, touring rural west Cork. The convoy was ambushed near
Béal na Bláth and Collins was killed in the firefight. Dalton had advised him to drive on, but Collins, who was not an experienced combat veteran, insisted on stopping to fight.
[Charles Townshend, "The Republic: The Fight For Independence" (Dublin 2013/14)]
Dalton was married shortly afterwards (on 9 October 1922) to Alice Shannon in Cork's Imperial Hotel.
By December 1922 he had resigned his command in the Army. He did not agree with the
execution of republican prisoners that marked the latter stages of the Civil War. After briefly working as clerk of the
Irish Senate
Irish may refer to:
Common meanings
* Someone or something of, from, or related to:
** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe
***Éire, Irish language name for the isle
** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
, he left this job to work in the movie industry.
Film industry
Over the following forty years, he worked in Ireland and the US in film production. In 1958 he founded Irish
Ardmore Studios
Ardmore Studios, in Bray, County Wicklow, is Irelands's only four wall studio.
It opened in 1958 under the management of Emmet Dalton and Louis Elliman. Since then, it has evolved through many managements and owners. It has been the base for ...
in Bray. His company helped produce films such as ''
The Blue Max
''The Blue Max'' is a 1966 British war film directed by John Guillermin and starring George Peppard, James Mason, Ursula Andress, Karl Michael Vogler, and Jeremy Kemp. The film was made in DeLuxe Color and filmed in CinemaScope. The plot i ...
'', ''
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'' and ''
The Lion in Winter'', all of which were filmed in Ireland. His daughter is Irish actress
Audrey Dalton
Audrey Dalton (born 21 January 1934) is an Irish-born former film and television actress who mostly worked in the United States during the Golden Age of Hollywood, when she arrived at Paramount Pictures, columnist Erkstine Johnson, stated she st ...
.
Death
Emmet Dalton died in his daughter Nuala's house in Dublin in 1978 on his 80th birthday, never having seen the film that
Cathal O'Shannon
Cathal O'Shannon (9 June 1890 – 4 October 1969) was an Irish politician, trade unionist and journalist.
Early years
Charles Francis Shannon was born in Randalstown, County Antrim, he was the third child of Charles and Alice Shannon. As a chi ...
of
RTÉ
(RTÉ) (; Irish for "Radio & Television of Ireland") is the national broadcaster of Ireland headquartered in Dublin. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, whil ...
had made on his life. During the making of the film they visited the battlefields in France (including Ginchy and Guillemont on the Somme), Kilworth Camp in Cork, Béal Na Bláth, and other places that Dalton had not visited since his earlier years. He wished to be buried as near as possible to his friend Michael Collins in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin and was buried there in March 1978 after a military funeral.
None of the ruling Fianna Fail government ministers or TDs attended.
References
Reading references
*
Turtle Bunbury ''The Glorious Madness, Tales of The Irish and The Great War''
* Kettle, Tom & Dalton, Emmet, ''Mad Guns and Invisible Wands'' (Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 2014), pp. 99–115,
*
* Townshend, Charles, ''Easter 1916: The Irish Rebellion'' (London 2006)
* Townshend, Charles, ''The Republic: The Fight For Independence'' (London 2013)
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dalton, Emmet
1873 births
1978 deaths
Burials in the Republic of Ireland
American people of Irish descent
Royal Dublin Fusiliers officers
Recipients of the Military Cross
Irish officers in the British Army
Irish people of World War I
Irish Republican Army (1919–1922) members
People of the Irish Civil War (Pro-Treaty side)
British Army personnel of World War I
Irish film producers
Place of birth missing
People from Drumcondra, Dublin
National Army (Ireland) generals
Military personnel from Massachusetts