‘My son fell in the first hail of bullets... the only support I had’

The plight of the family of Joseph Leavy, the member of the anti-Treaty IRA who was gunned down in the violent incidents in Mullingar in April 1922, is laid bare in a tranche of the Military Archives’ Military Service Pensions Collection files released in 2017.

The family, specifically Leavy’s mother, Sarah, were denied gratuities by the Irish Free State after the Army Pensions Board found that none of them were dependent on their late son and brother.

On April 27, 1922, in the midst of tensions in Mullingar, Leavy was arrested by the National Army while moving military stores between the anti-Treaty IRA’s 1st Eastern Division HQ at the old RIC barracks (now Mullingar Garda Station) and their outpost at Mullingar Garda Station. Pro-Treaty soldier Patrick Columb lost his life in a related incident.

“[They were] marched out on the street [Mary Street, on to Dominick Street], their hands up and ordered to run. With machine guns blazing into them, they dashed for shelter. But my son fell in the first hail of bullets. He was the only support I had,” Mrs Leavy stated in her dependants’ gratuity application.

Mrs Leavy, who was later widowed, remarried and was then known as Mrs Conlon, applied for a pension in 1933, a year after the ascent of the first Fianna Fáil government, which was led by former anti-Treatyites. Her son John and daughter Mary also sought gratuities. The latter claimed that her brother Joseph “always helped us to plant crops, cut turf etc from January 1919 right up to his death in April 1922”, and that he had often provided her with a “cash allowance from his wages”.

Joe Leavy, who was 36 when he died, was originally from Belfield, Gaybrook, Mullingar. He was a member of 3rd Battalion of the IRA’s Mullingar Brigade during the War of Independence, which had its headquarters in Kinnegad. He was attached to the Milltownpass Company as a lieutenant at the time of the Truce in July 1921. He was laid to rest at Enniscoffey graveyard, Gaybrook on April 30, 1922 after a showpiece IRA funeral.

Despite continued claims by members of the Leavy family well into the 1950s, no dependants’ gratuity was ever awarded.

In recent years, a monument was erected in memory of Leavy at Enniscoffey graveyard by the Spirit of Irish Freedom 1916 Society, who are holding a commemoration in Mullingar this Sunday.

The commemoration will assemble at the Fairgreen car park at 2.30pm and will march the short distance led by a Republican colour party and piper go to the roundabout at the Bank of Ireland.