O’CONNOR, Batt. With Michael Collins in the fight for Irish Independence.

London: Davies, 1929. Crown octavo. pp. 195. Green cloth, titled in gilt. A very good copy. Bartholomew ‘Batt’ O’Connor was born in Brosna on July 4th 1870, and was educated at the local national school. He worked with his father and brother as a stonemason and in 1893, emigrated to the USA. He returned in 1898 and moved to Dublin and in 1904 he branched out as a sub-contractor and began building houses.
He joined the Gaelic League in Dublin and later the Irish Volunteers and was sworn into the IRB.
During Easter 1916 he was sent to Kerry to await instructions about the Rising planned in the county.
However upon hearing of the arrest of Sir Roger Casement and the loss of the German guns he returned
to Dublin and was arrested by the police. He was taken to Kilmainham Jail where he was sentenced to
be shot but was deported to Wandsworth Jail and later Frongoch prison camp in Wales.
He formed a close friendship with Michael Collins after their release and helped him in re-organising
the IRB network and the Sinn Féin organisation. O’Connor was entrusted with the gold collected from
the Dáil loan and buried it under the concrete floor of his house. This was never found despite frequent
raids during the War of Independence. O’Connor purchased 76 Harcourt Street for Michael Collins,
following a raid on the Sinn Féin Office at No. 6. There he installed a secret recess for private papers
and means of escape through the skylight. When the recess escaped discovery following a raid, he went
on to construct hiding places in many of the other houses used by the movement. In 5 Mespil Road,
Collins’ headquarters for over 15 months during the Irish War of Independence, O’Connor fitted a
small cupboard in the woodwork beneath the kitchen stairs on the ground floor. Before leaving each
evening, Collins would hide his papers here. When it was finally raided in April 1921, it escaped
detection.
This work is the factual personal record of an active participant in the Irish Revolution. The author is
recognized as having been one of Collins’ closest associates and his narrative covers the whole history
of the movement from its earliest inception.