Stephen Hayes (26 December 1902 – 28 December 1974) was a member and leader of the
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 ...
from April 1939 to June 1941.
Early life
Hayes was born in
Enniscorthy
Enniscorthy () is the second-largest town in County Wexford, Ireland. At the 2016 census, the population of the town and environs was 11,381. The town is located on the picturesque River Slaney and in close proximity to the Blackstairs Mountain ...
,
County Wexford.
["Stephen Hayes dies at 71", ''Irish Independent'', 30 December 1974.] During the
Irish War of Independence, he was commandant of the Wexford Brigade of
Fianna Éireann
Na Fianna Éireann (The Fianna of Ireland), known as the Fianna, is an Irish nationalist youth organisation founded by Constance Markievicz in 1909, with later help from Bulmer Hobson. Fianna members were involved in setting up the Irish Volun ...
. He took the Anti-Treaty side during the
Irish Civil War, during which he was interned.
During the 1936 legislative period of the
8th Dáil
8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9.
In mathematics
8 is:
* a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2.
* a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...
Hayes was one of two candidates representing the Irish republican political party
Cumann Poblachta na hÉireann
Cumann Poblachta na hÉireann (; en, "Republican Society of Ireland") was a political party established by the Irish Republican Army in 1936. It existed until 1937.
It was founded in Barry's Hotel, Dublin, on 7 March 1936, and decided to adopt ...
. In the Wexford by-election and polled a 2.85 percent share of the vote.
Hayes was active in
Gaelic Athletic Association
The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA; ga, Cumann Lúthchleas Gael ; CLG) is an Irish international amateur sports, amateur sporting and cultural organisation, focused primarily on promoting indigenous Gaelic games and pastimes, which include t ...
circles in
Wexford
Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 ...
. In 1925, he helped
Wexford
Wexford () is the county town of County Wexford, Ireland. Wexford lies on the south side of Wexford Harbour, the estuary of the River Slaney near the southeastern corner of the island of Ireland. The town is linked to Dublin by the M11/N11 ...
win the
Leinster Senior Football title. He also served as secretary to the county board for ten years, from the 1920s to 1930s.
IRA activities
Hayes joined the IRA and was on the
IRA Army Council
The IRA Army Council was the decision-making body of the Provisional Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary group dedicated to bringing about independence to the whole island of Ireland and the end of the Union between Northern Ireland and Grea ...
in January 1939 when it declared war on the
British government.
When
IRA chief of staff
Several people are reported to have served as Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army () in the organisations bearing that name. Due to the clandestine nature of these organisations, this list is not definitive.
Chiefs of Staff of the Irish ...
Seán Russell
Seán Russell (13 October 1893 – 14 August 1940) was an Irish republican who participated in the Easter Rising of 1916, held senior positions in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and Irish Civil War, and was Ch ...
departed on IRA business to the United States (and subsequently to
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
), Hayes became IRA Chief of Staff. His time in office was marred by controversy and it is widely believed that he served as an informer to the Irish Police - the
Garda Síochána.
Hayes had sent a plan for the invasion of
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
by German troops to Germany in April 1940. This plan later became known as
Plan Kathleen. He is also known to have met with German agent
Hermann Görtz
Hermann Görtz (also anglicised as Goertz; 15 November 1890 in Lübeck – 23 May 1947 in Dublin) was a German spy in Britain and Ireland before and during World War II, liaising with the Irish Republican Army (IRA). After the war, he commi ...
on 21 May 1940 in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
shortly after the latter's parachuting into Ireland on 5 May 1940 as part of
Operation Mainau
Operation Mainau (German: Unternehmen „Mainau“) was a German espionage mission during the Second World War. It was sanctioned and planned by the German secret service ('' Abwehr'') and executed successfully in May 1940. The mission plan involv ...
. Hayes is known to have asked Görtz for money and arms to wage a campaign in Northern Ireland, although shortly after this meeting the original Plan Kathleen was discovered. The discovery of the plan led to the acceleration of joint British and Irish military planning for a German invasion known as
Plan W
Plan W, during World War II, was a plan of joint military operations between the governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom devised between 1940 and 1942, to be executed in the event of an invasion of Ireland by Nazi Germany.
Although Ire ...
.
On 15 August 1940 Hayes organized meeting of senior IRA men at an address on Rathgar Road, Dublin (Hayes was not in attendance). The meeting was raided by police and resulted in a gun battle in which two Detectives were killed and one wounded. Senior IRA men
Paddy McGrath
Paddy McGrath (born 2 February 1989) is an Irish Gaelic footballer who plays for Ard an Rátha and also, formerly, for the Donegal county team.
Though not from a footballing family, McGrath would equal his club's most famous player Anthony M ...
and
Tom Harte were arrested, charged with the murders and tried by Military Tribunal, established under the
Emergency Powers Act 1939
The Emergency Powers Act 1939 (EPA) was an Act of the Oireachtas (Irish parliament) enacted on 3 September 1939, after an official state of emergency had been declared on 2 September 1939 in response to the outbreak of the Second World War. The ...
. They challenged the legislation in the
High Court, seeking a writ of
habeas corpus
''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...
, and ultimately appealed to the
Supreme Court. They were represented in the courts by
Seán MacBride
Seán MacBride (26 January 1904 – 15 January 1988) was an Irish Clann na Poblachta politician who served as Minister for External Affairs from 1948 to 1951, Leader of Clann na Poblachta from 1946 to 1965 and Chief of Staff of the IRA from 19 ...
. The appeal was unsuccessful, and they were executed by
firing squad
Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French ''fusil'', rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are ...
at Dublin's
Mountjoy Prison
Mountjoy Prison ( ga, Príosún Mhuinseo), founded as Mountjoy Gaol and nicknamed ''The Joy'', is a medium security men's prison located in Phibsborough in the centre of Dublin, Ireland.
The current prison Governor is Edward Mullins.
History
...
on 6 September 1940. At the time of these arrests Hayes was the IRA Chief of Staff. In his written confession Hayes admits to providing the address of the meeting to government officials which resulted in the capture of Harte and McGrath.
On 30 June 1941, Northern-based IRA men kidnapped Hayes, accusing him of being a spy for the Irish Free State government. Hayes was
court-martialed
A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...
by senior IRA men - Charlie McCarthy from
Cork
Cork or CORK may refer to:
Materials
* Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product
** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container
***Wine cork
Places Ireland
* Cork (city)
** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...
, Tom Farrell from
Connemara
Connemara (; )( ga, Conamara ) is a region on the Atlantic coast of western County Galway, in the west of Ireland. The area has a strong association with traditional Irish culture and contains much of the Connacht Irish-speaking Gaeltacht, ...
and
Pearse Kelly from
Tyrone. By his own account, he was tortured and court-martialed for treason by his comrades, and would have been executed, but he bought himself time composing an enormously long confession. He managed to escape on 8 September 1941 and handed himself in to the Garda for protection. The Officer Commanding (O/C) of the IRA's
Northern Command,
Seán McCaughey
Seán McCaughey (Irish: Seán Mac Eóchaidh) (1915 – 11 May 1946) was an Irish Republican Army leader in the 1930s and 1940s and hunger striker.
Background
McCaughey was born in Aughnacloy, County Tyrone in 1915 and in 1921 his family move ...
(who was the prosecutor at Hayes court-martial), was arrested and later convicted (18 September 1941) for the Hayes kidnapping. After a long
hunger and thirst strike in
Portlaoise prison, McCaughey died on 11 May 1946.
Hayes was later sentenced to five years' imprisonment by the
Special Criminal Court
The Special Criminal Court (SCC; ga, Cúirt Choiriúil Speisialta) is a juryless criminal court in Ireland which tries terrorism and serious organised crime cases.
Legal basis
Article 38 of the Constitution of Ireland empowers the Dáil to ...
on account of his IRA activities.
Upon his release and until his death Hayes held that his confession was fiction, made under duress and torture. The controversy surrounding the confession of Hayes was never authoritatively settled.
Within IRA circles, Hayes is still considered a traitor and an informer. One of the main allegations against him was that he informed the Garda Síochána about IRA arms dumps in Wexford. However, this was later blamed on a Wexford man named Michael Deveraux, an officer of the Wexford Battalion of the IRA who was subsequently abducted and executed by an IRA squad in
County Tipperary
County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after t ...
on Hayes’ orders.
George Plant
George Plant (5 January 1904 – 5 March 1942) was a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) who was executed by the Irish Government in 1942.
Early life, IRA service, arrest and prison
George Plant was born into a Church of Ireland farming ...
, a
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
IRA veteran, was later executed in
Portlaoise for Devereux's murder.
Later life
After his release, Hayes resumed his clerical position at
Wexford County Council
Wexford County Council ( ga, Comhairle Contae Loch Garman) is the authority responsible for local government in County Wexford, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for hous ...
.
He died in
Enniscorthy
Enniscorthy () is the second-largest town in County Wexford, Ireland. At the 2016 census, the population of the town and environs was 11,381. The town is located on the picturesque River Slaney and in close proximity to the Blackstairs Mountain ...
on 28 December 1974.
See also
*
IRA Abwehr World War II
Ira or IRA may refer to:
*Ira (name), a Hebrew, Sanskrit, Russian or Finnish language personal name
*Ira (surname), a rare Estonian and some other language family name
*Iran, UNDP code IRA
Law
*Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, US, on status of ...
- Main article on IRA Abwehr links
References
External links
Time Magazine article on the abduction of Stephen Hayes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hayes, Stephen
1902 births
1974 deaths
Gaelic football people
Irish Republican Army (1922–1969) members
People of the Irish Civil War (Anti-Treaty side)
People from County Wexford
Wexford GAA
IRA collaborators with Nazi Germany