The Kidnapping of Gilbert Potter: A District Inspector’s Fatal Sense of Duty

00:00:03:03 – 00:00:24:00
Announcer
The Póilíní Podcast, hosted by writer Helen Moorhouse and Doctor John Reynolds. Stories of duty and danger. Life and the law. Police and perpetrators.

00:00:24:02 – 00:00:48:23
Helen
In 1921, Ireland was in the grip of the War of Independence. For two years, the Irish Republican Army had waged guerrilla warfare against British forces to secure an end to British rule and establish an independent Irish state. The police force at the time, the Royal Irish Constabulary, was the face of British rule for many people in Ireland, even though most of its rank and file were Irish.

00:00:48:23 – 00:01:16:06
Helen
Born. In April of that year, Lillias Potter, the wife of the Tipperary RIC District Inspector, received a letter from her husband. In it he asked for items like clean long drawers, big boots with insoles, a waterproof coat if possible to send. Don’t be troubled, he wrote. The people I meet are really kind and could supply everything except a safety razor.

00:01:16:08 – 00:01:44:21
Helen
He sent his love to their four children and signed off, saying, now darling wife, God will help us. It’s the sort of request for essential supplies that a serving soldier might send from an overseas campaign somewhere, like India or Egypt. But her husband isn’t away fighting for king and country. Instead, he’s no more than an hour away. He is, in fact, a captive being held by the IRA.

00:01:44:23 – 00:01:49:23
Helen
This is the remarkable story of the kidnapping of Gilbert Potter.

00:01:50:00 – 00:02:11:20
Helen
So we’re going to start overall with an opening story, which is, you told me this story sitting in this studio a couple of months ago, and I was blown away with it, and I wanted to talk about this first. And it’s an incredible story of duty and decency, I think, are the hallmarks of it. And I suppose the best place to start, back in 1921.

00:02:11:22 – 00:02:23:11
Helen
Yeah. And so maybe let’s start with some historical context. What’s the backdrop of this story? Historically, I suppose a good indicator would be anyone who’s seen the film The Wind That Shakes the Barley, directed by Ken Loach.

00:02:23:12 – 00:02:50:12
John
Really, normal law and order broke down all over the country. Over the centuries there had been dozens of rebellions and revolutions attempted, but none of them really succeeded. But it all changed after the 1916 Rising. You know, the public mood changed when the leaders were executed. So in 1919, the young men of the IRA decided, particularly in Tipperary, which had always been one of the most rebellious counties in Ireland.

00:02:50:14 – 00:03:10:01
John
The IRA attacked a convoy of policemen. They were escorting explosives to a quarry at a place called Soloheadbeg, and two of them were shot dead by Dan Breen and other members of the Third Tipperary Brigade of the IRA. So in Tipperary, those two men were shot dead, two constables. And it really sparked off what’s called the War of Independence.

00:03:10:01 – 00:03:30:16
John
So over the next year then, really, you could say law and order broke down. And really, the RIC bore the brunt of the campaign of the IRA against the state, the British state we’ll say, because they were the very visible symbol of British law, and it was the uniforms of the RIC. So police stations were attacked and blown up or burnt down.

00:03:30:18 – 00:03:53:11
John
People stopped cooperating with the courts. Munster was particularly bad. It was by far and away the most violent province in Ireland. And then into the middle of this mix, the British government decided to introduce reinforcements, because Irishmen were no longer joining the RIC in numbers because of intimidation and fear. And actually, hundreds of policemen were resigning every week because of fear.

00:03:53:15 – 00:04:20:00
John
You can imagine, as a native Irishman, your family telling you, begging you to quit the police because, you know, you might get killed, you know, and these were men with maybe 20, 30 years service with big families, no other job, no other profession. But a lot of them did resign, to get away from the violence. So to try and fill the gap, and rather than sending over military reinforcements, the British government recruited ex-servicemen in England, now colloquially known as the Black and Tans.

00:04:20:00 – 00:04:37:07
John
But there were two distinct groups. There was the Special Reserve of the Royal Irish Constabulary, which became known as the Black and Tans because they wore this hybrid police and military uniform, but only when they arrived here. After a few weeks they were in normal uniform and you wouldn’t know the difference. And then you had your Auxiliary Division of the RIC.

00:04:37:07 – 00:04:58:06
John
They were exclusively former officers who operated in groups of 100 independent of the police. And they were the real, real characters who carried out atrocities. They were feared and loathed in equal measure. They were tough men. They’d survived for years in the trenches. I mean, three of them had the Victoria Cross, almost every one of them had military decorations to beat the band.

00:04:58:11 – 00:05:16:14
John
But the thing is, they weren’t policemen. They came over here and their attitude was, well, everybody is an IRA man, or Shinners as they would have called them. They’d round up people, they’d torture them, they’d execute them, they’d beat them up. They’d burn down farms and villages and left just terror everywhere that they went. So it’s a really, really hostile environment.

00:05:16:14 – 00:05:30:04
John
Tipperary, South Tipperary is the most violent place in the country. The IRA killing policemen left, right and centre and carrying out atrocities. And in the middle of this, the Irish people are trying to just survive and go about their daily business.

00:05:30:06 – 00:05:46:19
Helen
So looking at the situation. So we had our old RIC, as it were, who would have just lived quite peaceably in the countryside. What were relationships between civilians and the RIC pre the introduction of the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries?

00:05:46:21 – 00:06:04:03
John
Well, it varied of course. It really depends on what was going on in society. I mean, in times of peace they were generally popular and accepted, and it was considered a good job for a young Irishman to get into the police because it gave you prospects of promotion, it gave you a secure salary, gave you a pension at the end of your service.

00:06:04:05 – 00:06:21:02
John
These men came from modest backgrounds, like farmers, labourers, maybe shop assistants. And of course, for a lot of those men, they were sending money home to their families to pay the rent on the farms or whatever, stop them from being evicted. So when times were good, they were generally popular and well regarded. When times were bad, they were viewed as the enemy.

00:06:21:04 – 00:06:41:15
John
Particularly the introduction of the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries really changed everything. Once they arrived in Ireland and started carrying out atrocities, then really, anyone in the police was fair game at that stage for the IRA. And once the War of Independence began, it was absolutely vital to just take them out of the equation. And that’s why in the two years of the War of Independence, over 500 policemen were killed in Ireland.

00:06:41:17 – 00:06:54:18
Helen
That is, that’s a very little known statistic. So in South Tipperary, where our story is set today, around this time, things were very lawless. You’ve mentioned that it was one of the most lawless places in the country. What sort of stuff was going on?

00:06:54:20 – 00:07:16:22
John
Well, really the police stations, which were generally small buildings out in boreens and crossroads, they couldn’t be fortified properly, so the IRA would attack them, burn them down, try and take the weapons, and kill or intimidate the policemen. So eventually you had a situation where large areas of the country were unpoliced, that the police were withdrawn from barracks into larger barracks in the towns that could be fortified.

00:07:16:23 – 00:07:37:11
John
And as soon as they left the barracks, it was burnt down by the IRA. And the courts ceased operating as well, because the IRA wanted to undermine the state effectively, that nobody would have anything to do with the state. So they set up an alternative system of justice, that if you had a problem with a neighbour or an issue that you would normally go to court or the police for, you went to the IRA instead.

00:07:37:12 – 00:07:57:20
John
And they had what they called the Dáil courts, where, you know, people from Sinn Féin would adjudicate on cases and issue sentences. And of course, it was a very easy thing back then to say that, you know, John Murphy there, I saw him talking to a policeman and, you know, he must be an informer. And it was very common for a man to be just taken and executed and left at the side of the road.

00:07:57:22 – 00:08:26:03
John
And there was a tradition, a traditional placard put around the neck. It said, informer, informers beware, executed by the IRA. [unclear] informers for no other reason than somebody said, I saw him talking to a policeman or soldier. Or maybe he did. There was also a big element of that, and it caused also funny situations, where in [unclear] in North Tipperary they were being criticised for not being active enough against the police, and the police were being criticised for not being active enough against the IRA.

00:08:26:04 – 00:08:42:09
John
So the local sergeant and the local IRA commander, who knew each other for 20 years, went for a pint one night and said, you know, this is what we’re going to do, you come up and fire forty shots at the barracks, make some noise. Now, make sure nobody gets hurt and we’ll fire some shots back. Then we’ll send off flares and look for rescue.

00:08:42:09 – 00:08:57:18
John
But you disappear in the meantime. And that happened. And then both sides got commendations for their activity and for kind of their trying to fight back. But it was a local arrangement with the two men who had been friends for years. Neither wanted any trouble, but they had to be seen to be taking action against the enemy.

00:08:57:23 – 00:09:21:15
Helen
That’s quite Pythonesque, probably in a couple of places. Yeah. I mean, I guess when we learn history, we learn about the blocks of, you know, Black and Tans, IRA, etc. and we don’t really think about it permeating down through the lives of every single man, woman and child who lived at the time. So into this, the absolute chaos, I suppose the man we’re going to talk about today, Gilbert Norman Potter, he is, at the time of our story, 42 years of age.

00:09:21:21 – 00:09:44:23
Helen
He is the son of a Church of Ireland clergyman from County Leitrim. Dromahair, here in County Leitrim. He’s married to Lillias. He’s the father of four children and he’s by all accounts a decent, upstanding man. He was the district inspector in Cahir, County Tipperary. So tell us a little bit about Gilbert Potter and what his job would have entailed, both in peace times and in this turbulent era.

00:09:45:00 – 00:10:12:10
John
Well, Gilbert had joined the RIC as a cadet, which was the lowest rank of officer, district inspector third class, in 1901. And he was commissioned at the age of 23. He was sent initially to Castlepollard in Westmeath, but like most RIC men, he was transferred regularly all over the country. He served in Antrim, Cork, in the Phoenix Park Depot, and finally then he was assigned to Cahir in South Tipperary in 1912, which was a very, very different place than it was in 1921, and his job was to supervise the district, really.

00:10:12:13 – 00:10:34:17
John
But he’s a crucial, important character. Because Cahir was in South Tipperary, it was only 30km from Soloheadbeg. He would have known the men that died in [unclear] and the men that died since down in Tipperary, and because he’d been there since 1912, he knew everything about everybody and the IRA volunteers. The demographic was, there were generally young men in their late teens and early 20s.

00:10:34:18 – 00:10:52:16
John
So Potter would have known these lads growing up, probably as children even, or teenagers. And, you know, back in 1914, 1916, they would have been drilling with hurleys and walking around the place, joining the Volunteers and doing military drill, probably nearly being laughed at by people. These young lads like, what? What do they think they’re at?

00:10:52:16 – 00:11:03:06
John
But after 1916, things got serious. And so he would have known everybody that was a player in the IRA, a volunteer movement in South Tipperary. And of course they would have known him very well.

00:11:03:08 – 00:11:33:17
Helen
Near the village of Clogheen in County Tipperary, there’s a beautiful valley between the Knockmealdowns and the Galtees, the perfect spot for an IRA ambush. On April 23rd, 1921, a skirmish broke out between the retreating IRA flying column and a small party of British soldiers. A car driving toward the scene was stopped by a group of IRA scouts on high alert, even though the driver, in civilian clothes, identified himself as a doctor visiting patients.

00:11:33:19 – 00:11:46:18
Helen
It didn’t take long for one volunteer to recognise him. He knew him well, in fact, and also knew that this man couldn’t possibly be allowed to go free.

00:11:46:20 – 00:11:50:13
Helen
The flying columns, John, just explain, just talk to us briefly about those.

00:11:50:15 – 00:12:06:02
John
The idea was that you would go full time on the run and you’d basically be paid for by headquarters. The idea was that they would arrive at a scene, set up an ambush, and then disappear back into the mountains and back into the woods. And it was very, very effective, as you can imagine.

00:12:06:04 – 00:12:26:02
Helen
And of course, these guys, they’ve got the passion of revolution that gives them an enormous sense of duty versus the sense of duty that people like Gilbert Potter would have had, you know, serving in the RIC. And it was one of these attacks that had taken place there near Clogheen. There was a flying column. There was a guerrilla attack due to take place.

00:12:26:02 – 00:12:36:03
Helen
It didn’t. There was a skirmish. A car comes driving along. The IRA stopped the car, and at the end of this scene, Gilbert Potter is taken captive.

00:12:36:05 – 00:12:36:17
John
Yes.

00:12:36:20 – 00:12:43:08
Helen
At first, is it a case of the wrong time, wrong place for Gilbert Potter? Was he just about doing his business and just came across it, or how? What happened?

00:12:43:09 – 00:12:56:17
John
Yeah, he was very unfortunate. I mean, he was moving around obviously in plain clothes, which made sense. But he did have a firearm in the car, and the IRA would have been suspicious because you couldn’t drive a car at the time without having a permit from the British Army, because it was a military area.

00:12:56:17 – 00:13:12:11
John
It was kind of nearly under martial law at that stage. So when he got stopped, they would have known, well, this guy’s out in a car, he must be somebody that’s quite important. So they would have demanded documents or papers off him, and he was recognised by them. He was just unfortunate that he came into the tail end of an ambush.

00:13:12:14 – 00:13:16:11
John
And he was recognised and then he was taken prisoner.

00:13:16:13 – 00:13:33:04
Helen
But the guys there, the local IRA, and as we’ve said, they grew up, he knew them when they were teenagers with their hurleys. And he knew their parents and they know him and everything. You know, it’s all been good natured and friendly up until now. There’s, you know, I mean, what’s the worst that could happen?

00:13:33:04 – 00:13:34:08
Helen
Really?

00:13:34:10 – 00:13:51:16
John
Well, they decided to take him prisoner. I suppose they felt he was probably a very, very valuable guy to have in here as a bargaining chip, perhaps, or to maybe try and get some information off him, and what was going on in the bigger picture for the purpose of intelligence, you know, and it was a very, very rare thing.

00:13:51:21 – 00:14:04:19
John
Normally policemen wouldn’t go anywhere on their own, you know, especially a guy of that rank. So he was very, very much a prize. And then of course, it was a case of, now that we have him, what are we going to do with him? That was the big issue for them.

00:14:04:21 – 00:14:07:06
Helen
There was an element of opportunism. Yeah, to the whole thing.

00:14:07:07 – 00:14:24:17
John
There was. And then once he was captured, the local IRA would have let GHQ in Dublin know that they were after capturing this guy Potter, and they awaited instructions really as to what to do with him. They wouldn’t have made that decision on their own locally because he was too valuable a prisoner. So, you know, there had to be a decision, like, was he going to be sent to Dublin?

00:14:24:17 – 00:14:30:10
John
What was going to happen to him? Or what were the IRA to do with him? So they awaited instructions.

00:14:30:14 – 00:14:34:01
Helen
And would these kidnappings have been commonplace, or were they, you know, part of the moment?

00:14:34:04 – 00:14:50:09
John
It’s very, it’s very rare because that’s up close and personal. I mean, normally policemen were being killed at a distance. And even if a policeman was wounded, they generally wouldn’t take him prisoner, because, like, really having a prisoner is a bit of a pain when you’re in a flying column, because you have to bring him with you. And of course, once you bring him with you, then he’s looking at everybody.

00:14:50:10 – 00:15:07:09
John
I mean, I’m speaking from my police experience. He’s gathering intelligence and, well, I know him, I don’t know him, who’s that guy, what’s his name? And Potter’s thinking that when I get out of here, I’m now going to know everybody in that flying column. And I can report back to the Castle on what I learned when I was in captivity.

00:15:07:10 – 00:15:25:17
John
So he would have been very much thinking with his policeman’s hat on about his opportunities. Did he have an opportunity to escape? Did he have an opportunity to maybe disarm somebody, you know, and leg it? Or would he pick up snippets of conversation that would provide very good intelligence for him, should he get free of them?

00:15:25:19 – 00:15:41:00
Helen
And of course, for the IRA, there’s a lot of problems developing for them as well. First of all, there’s the logistics. They’ve got to feed him, they’ve got to take care of him. But also the price on their head is higher now. There’s going to be even more of a hunt for them, because obviously they’re looking for Potter as well.

00:15:41:04 – 00:15:47:17
Helen
So they started to move around the countryside. And so tell us what happened. Where did they take him that day on the 23rd of April?

00:15:47:20 – 00:16:07:20
John
Well, once the car was found abandoned at the ambush scene, the police would have realised suddenly that Potter was gone. And then there would have been a huge effort made to find him. And at this stage of the war, the British had started to use aircraft as well, which was a game changer, because obviously the effectiveness of a flying column up a mountain is negated by air cover.

00:16:07:23 – 00:16:24:07
John
And also, even though cavalry had died out during the First World War, the British had brought it back. It was very suitable for operations in places like this, sending out a troop of cavalry on horseback all over the country to try and search for people like this. So I think they felt that the best thing to do is get him as far away as possible.

00:16:24:11 – 00:16:42:18
John
So basically they started trekking over the mountains. They brought him overnight over the Knockmealdowns into County Waterford and linked up with the Waterford IRA, because, of course, the South Tipperary men wouldn’t have known the geography of Waterford, the topography, that well. So they linked up with the IRA in Waterford, who escorted him through various safe houses that they had.

00:16:42:20 – 00:16:49:19
John
They went as far away as possible from South Tipperary, hoping that the British wouldn’t find them where they were in Waterford with their IRA colleagues.

00:16:49:21 – 00:17:01:06
Helen
Because Potter had known these guys all along. You know, what would it have been? Sort of violent or aggressive or, you know, was everything. Look, what would the mood have been like on this journey over the mountains? It must have been bizarre.

00:17:01:10 – 00:17:18:01
John
It must have been quite tense. And of course, he did know some of them. And he was walking along with them. And now, they did stop overnight in one place, and he managed to escape for about an hour, but he was recaptured. So I think they probably put more scrutiny on him after that. And of course he did have an obligation to try and escape.

00:17:18:02 – 00:17:34:09
John
You know, like anybody that’s been captured in the military or the police, that’s your first duty, trying to get out of there. But unfortunately, Potter didn’t know where he was himself, so he got recaptured after an hour. So they kept a closer watch on him then, I’ve no doubt. He would have been bound, perhaps by his hands at least, as he was being brought along.

00:17:34:13 – 00:17:47:19
John
But I think, generally speaking, it was kind of, what it was said afterwards — it seems hard to say that, or bizarre — that he seems to have got along quite well, you know, despite the circumstances.

00:17:47:21 – 00:17:56:19
Helen
And give us an idea of the time frame of how long is this? How many days and nights are we into this? They’ve hit Mount Melleray. So how far on the road are they there?

00:17:56:21 – 00:18:13:02
John
Well, by the time they finally stop, it’s been four days that they’ve been on the march with Potter, and they said they’re over 50km away from where he was kidnapped. A lot of the time they would stay, you know, out in the fields overnight, and they were on the run because they had to be able to move at short notice.

00:18:13:02 – 00:18:30:06
John
And obviously they would have to have guards posted during the night as well, should they be ambushed by the British, you know, and then local sympathisers would provide food and water, even though they had very little of their own to begin with, you know, so the conditions were pretty rudimentary, probably washing yourself in a stream in the morning.

00:18:30:07 – 00:18:32:05
John
Right. If you’re lucky, you know.

00:18:32:07 – 00:18:35:13
Helen
And you say the relationship was quite good.

00:18:35:15 – 00:18:54:01
John
Yeah. I mean, I’m not going to say it’s Stockholm syndrome or anything like that, but I mean, I think, like, and these are accounts from the IRA men that captured him. They were made to the Bureau of Military History in the 1950s. So these are firsthand accounts from the men that actually minded him. And so one volunteer called him undoubtedly a gentleman, a gentlemanly sort of fellow.

00:18:54:03 – 00:19:17:23
John
One volunteer said that he was a very nice kind of man, and although he was attached to his duty, he admired our adherence to our duty. So the men respected each other. Look, I don’t agree with you, but I respect what you’re doing. And it also shows you about the difference between firing shots at somebody from hundreds of feet away wearing a uniform, as opposed to being up close and personal with a man that you actually grow to like.

00:19:18:00 – 00:19:37:06
John
And you have a lot in common with, you know, like you grew up in Cahir. He’s been your district inspector. He might have been down watching a match you were involved in a few years ago. He probably knew your parents. You know, the dynamic is completely different when you have somebody in captivity than the enemy, the faceless policeman that you’re firing shots at from across the road.

00:19:37:08 – 00:20:09:06
Helen
For almost a week, Potter’s kidnappers marched him through the rugged mountains of Tipperary and Waterford, evading British patrols through biting wind and driving rain. With his hands bound, Potter stumbled across exposed ridges, treacherous, and through dark mountain valleys. Cold, exhausted and hungry, Potter had no idea where he was being taken or why. At the same time, in Mountjoy Prison, another captive anxiously awaited his fate.

00:20:09:08 – 00:20:28:17
Helen
So during the course of the captivity, they’ve been rambling along going through the mountains, going from safe house to safe house. At one point things took a more serious turn, however, and it stopped being opportunistic. It stopped being wrong place, wrong time for Potter. And it stopped being, what are we going to do with this guy for the IRA?

00:20:28:19 – 00:20:38:12
Helen
And they finally figured out what they were going to do with him. And things gained a much higher purpose and much higher stakes. So tell us what happened when things took a turn.

00:20:38:14 – 00:21:01:22
John
Yeah. The IRA locally informed headquarters in Dublin — that would have been, you know, Michael Collins and his fellow headquarters officers — that Potter was being held by them in South Tipperary, and they awaited instructions from headquarters, because the local volunteers wouldn’t have been aware of the national picture. Right. So headquarters were aware that there was a volunteer called Thomas Traynor, who was a father of ten.

00:21:01:24 – 00:21:22:06
John
Traynor was in Mountjoy awaiting execution. He was involved in an ambush on members of the Auxiliary Division at Brunswick Street in Dublin in March ’21, and one volunteer and two policemen were killed. So basically Traynor was awaiting execution, was going to be hanged. So headquarters put a proposal to Dublin Castle that we’ll exchange Potter for Traynor.

00:21:22:08 – 00:21:29:00
Helen
So suddenly this story, this sort of aimless kidnap, suddenly has a focus. And it’s a very, very high stakes focus.

00:21:29:02 – 00:21:51:00
John
And it gets even more complicated because Potter had escaped once, one night, and he was recaptured very quickly. But at one night when he was being guarded by volunteers, they really decided that they didn’t want to have to kill him, if it came to it, that when the ante had been upped by the Traynor issue, that they decided, I don’t want to be involved in killing this man.

00:21:51:00 – 00:22:07:12
John
I quite like him, you know. So what are we going to do? And so what they said to Potter was — and they had no permission to do this — but they said to Potter, look, we’ll let you escape, but you have to give us your word that you won’t take any action against us and maybe resign from the RIC.

00:22:07:12 – 00:22:29:14
John
And leave the country, but we’ll let you go, and we’ll be able to convince our commanders that you managed to escape from us or whatever, and we’ll kind of take the heat for that. But it’s quite incredible. Potter, you know, he gave his appreciation for the gesture, but he said he couldn’t give his word, and one of them quoted Potter saying he must do his duty as he saw it.

00:22:29:17 – 00:22:46:02
John
So he turned down an opportunity to escape with his life, because he said he couldn’t give them a guarantee, [unclear], and that as soon as he got back to Cahir, he was going to tell everybody everything and go back out and try and find these men, because that was his duty as a policeman.

00:22:46:06 – 00:23:02:18
John
It’s an extraordinary level of, you know, diligence and devotion. Some people might argue it seems crazy. What the hell is he thinking of? He had a wife and four kids. But this is the kind of, when we talked about duty earlier on, that’s the level that Potter took it to. And, I mean, there’s no guarantee he would have got away with it.

00:23:02:19 – 00:23:22:12
John
I mean, even if they’d let him escape, he might have been recaptured. I mean, he was 50km from home. He didn’t know where he was. Who could he go to? Like, you’d have to try and find a police patrol or an army patrol. And funny enough, Waterford wasn’t anything like as violent as Tipperary was. So there would have been less British soldiers and less police in Waterford, even if he managed to escape from where he was.

00:23:22:15 – 00:23:29:20
John
So there’s no guarantee he would have got away with being released by them. But the fact that it was offered and rejected by him was quite extraordinary.

00:23:29:20 – 00:23:32:04
Helen
That’s it. A lot of other men would have taken their shot regardless.

00:23:32:04 – 00:23:32:11
John
They would.

00:23:32:11 – 00:23:33:02
Helen
[unclear]

00:23:33:03 – 00:23:39:05
John
They would have said, yeah, of course, and let on. They would have been back the next day with the Black and Tans and killed them all.

00:23:39:10 – 00:23:54:01
Helen
He’s a man, really, of enormous integrity. Yeah. And so he’s refused to escape. They’re waiting for word of Traynor’s fate. Yeah. And this is what everything hangs on? Yeah. What happens?

00:23:54:03 – 00:24:13:21
John
Well, it all boils down to the Evening Herald. Would you believe, you know, the IRA battalion intelligence officer called Thomas Carew. He came to where Potter was being held captive on the farm and said, I’m going to wait with you until the Evening Herald arrives, because it was going to carry news about Traynor. So they were waiting to see — they were waiting on a back channel from the Castle.

00:24:13:24 – 00:24:29:03
John
Yeah, would they do a deal or not? Or the Herald would carry news. And the newspaper arrived at about 7:00 on the evening of the 27th of April, and the headline read, Thomas Traynor hanged this morning.

00:24:29:05 – 00:24:58:08
Helen
The news delivered in the Evening Herald sealed Gilbert Potter’s fate. In the darkness, he was taken to face his final moments, his own open grave waiting for him on an isolated mountainside. His captors ordered him into it, took aim, prepared to fire, these men who had come to know and like Potter over the previous days. The story then took an extraordinary twist.

00:24:58:10 – 00:25:28:22
Helen
Upset by what he was being asked to do, one of the IRA men somehow accidentally shot himself in the leg. Potter, who knew he was to die at their hands, then did something none of them expected. He climbed out of his grave and applied a tourniquet to the injured man, saving his life. Then Potter climbed back in and waited.

00:25:28:24 – 00:25:38:24
John
Then he cries out, I’m not dead! After which then Commandant Lacey stepped forward and shot him once in the head. And that was Gilbert Potter, you know, dead.

00:25:39:03 – 00:25:59:02
Helen
So every opportunity, the chance for escape, that bizarre, surreal scene in the grave where he gets out of his own grave to administer life saving first aid to one of the guys who was about to shoot him. Yeah, and then he’s still shot. And he could have been saved, as you know, as those letters say, people could have interceded on his behalf.

00:25:59:04 – 00:26:03:00
Helen
But in times of war, people aren’t people, they’re representing.

00:26:03:02 – 00:26:20:05
John
The British were never going to spare Traynor. You know, that would have gone against — that would have only opened up kidnapping as a tactic for the IRA. Kidnap every policeman we can find, and we use them as bargaining chips, because obviously there were hundreds and hundreds of IRA prisoners in jails all over the country that had been arrested.

00:26:20:05 – 00:26:23:20
John
So there was no way that that was ever going to be entertained by Dublin Castle.

00:26:23:22 – 00:26:34:03
Helen
So really, from the time that they found that revolver in Potter’s car, from the time they saw Potter’s car on the day of the ambush, his fate was sealed, really. There was no — it was just a question of how it was going to play out.

00:26:34:04 – 00:26:52:05
John
Yeah. I don’t think he was ever going to be released because he would have known too much, you know. So he probably knew that himself based on previous instances. I mean, you know, he’s an experienced policeman. The war had been going on for two years at that stage. And he must have known, like, once he’s captured and somebody knows who he is, the chances of surviving were very, very small, you know.

00:26:52:06 – 00:27:06:14
John
So he probably knew that himself based on previous instances. I mean, you know, he’s an experienced policeman. The war had been going on for two years at that stage. And he must have known, like, once he’s captured and somebody knows who he is, the chances of surviving were very, very small.

00:27:06:16 – 00:27:33:21
Helen
On May 8th, 1921, Lily Potter once again receives the post at Apsley House in Cahir. The package handed to her has a Cahir postmark and contains a signet ring, a watch, a diary and a last will and testament. It also contains another letter from Gilbert. I leave to my darling and devoted wife, Lily, everything I possess. I wish her to give my wristwatch to our sweet little son, Charles.

00:27:33:23 – 00:27:59:00
Helen
He has worn it often. I have little to leave, Lily. We had everything in common, and I had nothing to bring you. You gave all. You did what no one ever did for me before. You gave me a pure and devoted love, a home and our children. You tried in every way to help me and save me. But we know there is only one who can do that perfectly.

00:27:59:02 – 00:28:12:15
Helen
He will let us meet again. Lily Potter collapses on receiving the news. Now a widow with four children, she will never see her husband again.

00:28:12:17 – 00:28:16:00
Helen
So, John, in conclusion, Potter’s execution had serious consequences.

00:28:16:00 – 00:28:16:20
Helen
Didn’t it?

00:28:16:22 – 00:28:34:12
John
It did. Yeah. One thing about this period is that a lot of the reprisals carried out by the British forces were actually officially sanctioned. There is a perception that there were kind of wild men running around the country burning things down. Well, that wasn’t the case. So it was actually put in the local newspapers that official reprisals have taken place.

00:28:34:12 – 00:28:52:01
John
In South Tipperary, 14 homes have been destroyed. This was ordered by the colonel commanding the 16th Brigade, on the grounds that the persons concerned are active supporters of armed rebels and that they reside in the area. So this was exacting a punishment on the local community for being seen to support what was going on with the IRA in that area.

00:28:52:02 – 00:28:55:19
John
So there were official reprisals sanctioned by Dublin Castle.

00:28:55:21 – 00:29:05:20
Helen
And on a personal front, it was a huge tragedy for Gilbert Potter’s family. His last thoughts and his words in his will, they were all for Lily and the children, weren’t they? What happened to them?

00:29:05:22 – 00:29:28:03
John
So obviously, the hostile climate in Ireland meant that Lily Potter and her four children left the country almost immediately after the funeral. They went to England, where they settled in Kent. Now, Lillias died in Kent in 1926, only a few years later, as a young woman, and then within a short period, two of her children also died. The two surviving children, [unclear] and Gilbert, lived for some time with their uncle in Liverpool.

00:29:28:05 – 00:29:45:02
John
Young Gilbert joined the Royal Navy and survived when his ship was sunk during the Second World War, but during that sinking, the watch that had been left to him by his father was lost in the sinking. Oh dear. There was another extraordinary situation as well here. When he was in the Navy, Gilbert Junior met an Irish sailor called Traynor.

00:29:45:04 – 00:29:54:17
John
His father, according to his service record, had been executed by the British during the War of Independence. So Gilbert believed that this was a son of Thomas Traynor, who was one of his shipmates.

00:29:54:19 – 00:29:57:01
Helen
That’s a very tragic and poignant story.

00:29:57:02 – 00:29:59:08
John
It’s only one of the many tragic stories in this period in.

00:29:59:08 – 00:30:24:13
Helen
Our history. Absolutely. So that’s it from another episode of the Póilíní Podcast. Thank you, John, and thank you for listening. And remember to check out our newsletter for additional and background information. All of the contact information, our socials, our email, our Substack, etc., it’s all in the podcast description. We’d love to hear from you. If you’ve got any additional information, insights, or stories that you might like to see covered on the podcast in the future, drop us a line.

00:30:24:15 – 00:30:33:07
Helen
Give us a like. Follow us. Leave us a nice comment. Thank you very much for listening. We appreciate your support and we’ll see you next week.

00:30:33:09 – 00:30:49:10
Announcer
The Póilíní Podcast, hosted by writer Helen Moorhouse and Doctor John Reynolds. Stories of duty and danger. Life and the law. Police and perpetrators.