Dail Eireann (the Irish Parliament) sprang from the December 1918 Westminster general election, which took place in both Britain and all of Ireland. The result in Ireland was sensational. Of the 105 seats there, Sinn Fein, standing on an abstentionist policy, won 73. The Unionists took 26 seats and the Irish Parliamentary Party, which previously held 63, won only six. No fewer than 34 of the victorious Sinn Fein MPs were in prison.

INDEPENDENCE
On the afternoon of January 21, 1919, Dail Eireann assembled in Dublin's mansion house. It was truly an historic occasion - not just for Ireland but for all colonised nations.
It was the first instance of one such nation democratically declaring its independence. Nonetheless, the first Dail managed to achieve an immense amount - not least the establishment of the modern Irish nation.

PRESIDENT
Eamon de Valera was president of Sinn Fein and the country's leading political figure when the Dail first met. But he wasn’t present - for the reason that he was one of the imprisoned Sinn Fein MPs. He was in Lincoln Jail. Freeing him became a top priority.

Michael Collins also missed the inaugural meeting of the first Dail. His absence is explained by the fact that he was planning Dev's rescue. To bring this about, the help of Manchester's Irish community, and particularly that of a remarkable young Kerry man, was required. He was 31-year-old Paddy O'Donoghue, a native of Barraduff, Killarney.

O'DONOGHUE
The Manchester Irish community had at that stage a well-established network of parishes, clubs and pubs in the central area of the city. O'Donoghue had a grocer's shop in Lloyd Street. However, he was best known as the organiser of the annual Irish concert at Manchester's Free Trade Hall. Less well known was that he was the head of the Republican movement in the city.

O'Donoghue was a close friend of Michael Collins. Indeed, Collins was the best man at his wedding - when Paddy married Dublin woman Violet Gore.

CHRISTMAS
Imprisoned in Lincoln with Dev were two other prominent Republicans, Sean McGarry and Sean Milroy. They had been planning an escape for some time. Dev, who served Mass for the prison chaplain, managed to take a wax impression of what he thought was the chaplain's master key. Sean Milroy then drew a Christmas card in which the exact shape of the key was conveyed. The card was sent to a contact in Ireland, who failed to recognise its significance.

It was at this point that Paddy O'Donoghue entered the story. The prisoners wrote to him in Irish and conveyed what they were about. O'Donoghue informed Collins at once and, before long, that Christmas card was retrieved and a key made which was smuggled into Lincoln Jail. But the key didn't fit. Undeterred, Milroy tried again. This time he drew a postcard with an intricate Celtic design and the words: Eochair na Saoirse (Key to Freedom). The card was sent direct to O'Donoghue and he had a Manchester locksmith cut a matching key. It was smuggled into Dev. But again it did not fit.

Collins himself then came to England to take charge. Materials were smuggled into the prison. A prisoner managed to dismantle a lock and soon a master key was produced.

COLLINS
Collins set the escape for 7.30pm on February 3, 1919. He and Harry Boland lay in wet grass outside Lincoln Jail. This time everything went right. Soon de Valera, McGarry and Milroy were hurrying across a field with Collins and Boland to a point where Paddy O'Donoghue was waiting with transport.

On arrival in Lincoln city centre, Collins and Boland took a London-bound train, while the others headed for Manchester.

Back home, O'Donoghue returned to his normal shop keeping duties, while the prisoners hid in safe houses. Milroy and McGarry managed to return to Ireland within a few days, but Dev had to be more careful. He stayed a week in the house of Fr. Charles O'Mahoney and another week in a house in the suburb of Fallowfield. On February 18, dressed as a priest and escorted by two Irish girls, Dev was taken to Liverpool.

The next night, he boarded the boat to Dublin. Soon he took over as president of Dail Eireann - before departing soon afterwards to the US to rally support for the fledgling parliament and the independence it had declared.

To this day, memories of Dev's stay in Manchester are alive in the city. Apparently, his whereabouts whilst there was known to many. But such was the solidarity of the community that nobody gave him away.

FREE TRADE HALL
As the conflict in Ireland intensified, so too did the commitment of the Irish in Manchester. This was demonstrated by the response to a Sinn Fein rally held in the Free Trade Hall on Sunday, October 19, 1919. The Manchester Guardian provided the following description of the scenes:

"It was intended that yesterday's demonstration in Manchester in support of the principle of Irish self-determination should be confined to a meeting in the Free Trade Hall. As the Free Trade Hall was filled long before 2.30, the time fixed for the opening of the meeting, the Palladium Picture House was engaged for an overflow gathering. Even so, a thousand or more people were unable to get into either building and so an impromptu meeting was held in the narrow street running between the Free Trade Hall and the Theatre Royal. There were about seven thousand people distributed over the three assemblies."

To the great amusement of the crowd, one speaker observed that there was only one thing easier than getting a Sinn Fein leader into prison - and that was getting him out!
Within a week, the truth of this proposition was further borne out with the escape of six Republicans from Manchester's Strangeways Jail.

STRANGEWAYS
The previous April, a number of Republican prisoners were transferred to Strangeways from Belfast - following hunger strikes and riots there over the issue of political status. The leader of those prisoners was Austin Stack, Kerry's most senior Republican, the MP for West Kerry and subsequently a Minister in the Dail. Stack was a legend in his native country. He helped Kerry win its first all-Ireland football title in 1903 and captained the team which retained the title in 1904. He was commandant of the Kerry brigade of the IRA in 1916 and was arrested and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life, but he was released, as were many others, in June 1917 - only to be arrested again.

HUNGER STRIKE
Stack opposed the Treaty, participated in the Civil War and, when captured in 1923, went on a hunger strike, which lasted 41 days - before he was released. His health never recovered. But he did live long enough to oppose de Valera in founding Fianna Fail. He died in a Dublin hospital in April 1929.

But back to 1919. Also held in Strangeways was Piaras Beaslai, who happened to be the MP for Kerry East. He too was a most interesting figure in Irish history. He was born in Liverpool and grew up in Britain to become a journalist and editor of The Catholic Times.

In March 1919, he escaped from Dublin's Mountjoy Jail, but three months later was recaptured - eventually to finish up with Austin Stack in Strangeways.

Beaslai subsequently supported the Treaty, survived the Civil War in which he was a Major-General in the Free State army and went on to become a distinguished author in both Irish and English. His works include a biography of Michael Collins.

The other four prisoners to be 'sprung' were Sean Doran, D P Walsh, Paddy McCarthy and Con Connolly.

ESCAPE PLAN
The escape plan began to take shape in August 1919 when Fionan Lynch, the MP for South Kerry, was released from Strangeways. He wasted no time in contacting Paddy O'Donoghue who told him "I have an order for you from Mick Collins. You have to stay the night with me. We have a job to do."

The date was set for October 25. The prisoners inside overpowered a warder, handcuffed and gagged him before locking him into a cell.

Outside the prison there were 20 men who, in broad daylight commandeered the street. Paddy O'Donoghue was there, of course, and the others were Manchester and Liverpool Irish - plus two sent over from Dublin by Collins.

One of the latter had posed as a window cleaner who had a set of ladders on a cart. A rope was thrown over the wall and the ladders used to have the six escapees clamber down. They all got away.

There was an interesting aside in The Manchester Guardian's report of the escape:

"The statement is now made - and those who know the man accept it as quite credible - that Mr Austin Stack, one of the two members of parliament who escaped, left a letter behind acquitting the prison officials of any collusion in the affair."

CHIVALROUS
Mr Stack is described by an acquaintance as a man of chivalrous disposition who has written more than once to his friends that he had no complaint of his treatment at Strangeways. This present letter confesses that the escape was planned by men who had been earlier imprisoned at Strangeways and were able to devise the best means of flight.

The warder Stack was concerned to protect was an Englishman named John Henry Lilley.

The War of Independence had, of course, now begun and soon the Black and Tans were carrying out their atrocities - including the burning of homes. In 1920, crown forces set fire to the centre of Cork city.

OPERATIONS
Not surprisingly, passions among the Lancashire Irish began to run high with retaliatory action being taken. There were farm fires in Crosby, near Liverpool, and buildings elsewhere were attacked.

In the early hours of Saturday, April 2, 1921, Manchester Republicans undertook a number of operations around the city. They tried to burn down the Blackfriars, Victoria and Albion Hotels, as well as the Popular Cafe and two warehouses. In an attack on Bridgewater House, in Whitworth Street, they were disturbed by PC Boucher who was shot and seriously wounded. The four men involved got away.

As part of their response police raided the Irish Club in Erskine Street, Hulme, and 21-year-old Sean Morgan was shot dead. The police later claimed they fired in self-defence. But the people in the club insisted it was a gratuitous killing.

CHARGES
In any event, charges were brought against 17 other people who were in the club, which was the base for Sinn Fein operations in Manchester. The police found a large quantity of ammunition and explosives on the premises. That night Paddy O'Donoghue was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of PC Boucher.

PENAL SERVITUDE
O'Donoghue, then 34, was sentenced to penal servitude for life. At the close of that year, however, the Treaty was signed and O'Donoghue, among others, was released.

He returned to Ireland and became a prominent member of the licensed trade in Dublin as well as founder and manager of Shelbourne Park Greyhound Stadium.

UNSUNG HERO
He enjoyed a long life and in the Fifties and Sixties was one of the best-known figures in Ireland's greyhound industry. Few who knew him in that context were aware of his eventful early years - nor did he bother to tell them.

So it was that Paddy O'Donoghue remained an unsung hero - a key figure in Manchester's contribution to the fight for Irish freedom.