22/24 Lower Mount St today
Tom Keogh, Jim Slattery, Frank Teeling, Denis Begley, and Andy Monaghan went into 22 Lower Mount Street They were 2nd battalion, E company. It was not a salubrious place in 1920, when General Crozier went into the house after the shootings he remarked "the dingy, dirty house resembled a bad billet in France, shot up by French mutineers". It transpires that Crozier's daughter and the woman who would soon become his second wife were also apparently staying at 22 Lower Mount Street, in an upstairs flat, at the time of Bloody Sunday.
The following IRA men appear to have been involved, and were from E Company, 2nd Battalion. The group appears to have numbered 11 on IRA data. It appears that 5 entered the house and the others were on guard outside. Angliss was on top floor, Peel on floor below
Letter from Denis Begley in support of Terence Farrell’s military service pension application
They knocked on the door and a maid let them in. 2 men were left on guard at the door, the rest headed for 2 rooms upstairs. Keogh and some men went to Peels room, the rest went to Angliss room on the top floor
A maid, her name was Nellie Stapleton, called for help from a group of passing Auxilliaries - these ADRIC men were under the command of T Mitchell, who was awarded the Constabulary Medal for his bravery here. They rushed the front door, and one of the IRA guarding it, Billy McLean put his hand round the door and fiired his pistol. Return fire hit McLean on the hand, but he was not badly hurt. Two of the group of 17 T/Cadets in plain clothes, Garniss and Morris, ,went on an unauthorised return to Beggars Bush to get reinforcements. They were apprehended at 16 Northumberland Rd, where another raid was taking place, and summerally shot in the garden of that house
When Slattery went downstairs he found the British at the front of the house, so went out the back with Dempsey and Teeling. They climbed over a wall, but were shot aby Auxiliaries from number 21's garden. Teeling was hit, and they had to leave him. Teeling was identified as one of the asassins by the man who had been in bed with Angliss, Lt J J Connolly the Mr C in the trial.
W.S.445 Col. J.J.Slattery On the evening of 20th November, 1920, the Squad, the Active Service Unit, and a lot of other Volunteers from individual units were ordered to parade at a house in Gardiner Street, I believe. We were addressed there by Dick Mckee, who told us that an operation had been planned for the following morning, Sunday at nine a,m, to eliminate a number of British Intelligence Agents and spies who were residing in houses throughout the city. He had the names and addresses of the men who were to be executed there were members of the Intelligence Section present.
I was assigned to 22 Lower Mount Street, where 2 enemy agents were located. One was Lieutenant McMahon, but I cannot remember the other mans name.
Tom Keogh and myself from the Squad, with six others from "E" Company of the 2nd Battalion, proceeded to Lower Mount Street, at the appointed hour on the following morning,21st November. We knocked at the door and a maid admitted us. We left two men inside the door to see that nobody would enter or leave the house, and the remainder of us proceeded upstairs to two rooms, the numbers of which we had already ascertained. We had only just gone upstairs when heard shooting downstairs. The housekeeper or some other lady in the house had seen a patrol of Tans passing by outside, and had started to scream. The Tans immediately surrounded the house and tried to gain admission.One of our young men, Billy McClean, fired at them through the door and eased the situation for us for a little while, although he got wounded in the hand himself. I think the Tans fired first.
We succeeded in shooting Lieutenant McMahon, but could not gain admission into the room where the other agent was sleeping. There was a second man in McMahon's bed, but we did not shoot him as we had no instructions to do so. We discovered afterwards that he was an undesirable character as far as we were concerned, and that we should have shot him.
We went downstairs and tried to get out but found the British Forces at the front of the house. We went to the back of the house, and a member of "E" Co, Jim Dempsey, and myself got through by getting over a wall. We understood that the rest of our party were following us, but after going a little distance we found we were alone. What actually happened was that Teeling was the third man to scale the wall, and as he got up he was fired on from the house. We were all fired on, but Teeling was the only man who was hit. Teeling took cover in the garden.The other members of our party retired and got safely through the front door in the confusion. It was only hours afterwards that we discovered Teeling was wounded. Dempsey and myself went round by the South Circular Road, and got a wash - up in Goldens house, Victoria Street. We got home safely. Some time before the football match most of us met again, and it transpired that Teeling was on the missing list.
1921 Jan 25. Teeling was tried and condemned to death for the murder of Angliss. He was sentenced to hang and held at Kilmainham Gaol. On the night of the 21 February he escaped from Kilmainham along with Ernie O'Malley and Simon Donnelly. William Conway and Edward Potter also stood trial.
Mr C was Lt J J Connolly and Mr B was Lt C R Peel .