Eric Dorman-Smith - Involvement With Ireland

Involvement With Ireland

Four years after he was forcibly retired from the British Army, he changed his name from Dorman-Smith to O'Gowan, having long been aware that his father was descended from the O'Gowans, once one of the ruling families of Ulster. In 1945, as a Liberal, he had contested the safe Tory seat of The Wirral in Cheshire. He won 14,302 votes and retained his deposit but Selwyn Lloyd held on to the seat for the Conservatives. "Chink" retired to Dublin. Eve joined him in November 1945 and gave birth to Christopher on 10 May 1946 and Rionagh in December 1947. He began to study in the library at University College, Dublin, after his application to read for a degree was rejected.

Throughout his military career, Dorman-Smith had retained contacts with Ireland. He did not inherit Bellamont Forest until his father died in March 1948 and his parents had long ceased to reside there, leading to the estate becoming very run-down by the time he took it over, but he paid regular visits during the 1920s and 30s. The estate was situated 11 miles from the Ulster border and so, at times, it became a place of interest to the Republicans. During one of Dorman-Smith's stays, Eamonn de Valera who seems to have been interested in learning of "Chink's" views on the state of the Irish army made an informal and unannounced visit. During his time at the Staff College in 1927-8, two Irish Army officers paid an official visit - after rebukes from the UK for visiting Fort Leavenworth in the USA. Montgomery, the senior lecturer, ordered a boycott so the welcoming party consisted only of the Commandant and Dorman-Smith. This was, perhaps, another fateful disagreement with Montgomery.

In 1950, he joined Clann na Poblachta, a new party led by Sean MacBride, who had been an IRA officer in Carlow during Chink's posting there. His ties and allegiance to the UK were fading fast. In May 1951 he stood for election to the Dail as an independent candidate, since Clann were already supporting another candidate, but received very few votes. He later became an IRA advisor to the IRA Executive during the 1950s Border Campaign.

His first contact with the IRA seems to have been in the aftermath of their raid on the Gough Barracks in Armagh on 12 June 1954. Chief of Staff Tony Magan and the Adjutant-General Charlie Murphy visited him for discussions at Bellamont Forest. In July 1954, he spoke at a reunification rally in Manchester, making it clear that he was distancing himself from the policies of the UK. He began, however, to grow frustrated at not being made part of the decision-making process of the IRA and when a raid on Omagh went wrong, he began to realise that the IRA did not meet his ideals of efficiency.

During 1955 and 1956, his estate was used as a training-ground by the IRA twice a year at weekends but he was excluded from playing any active role despite his eagerness to assist. There were probably general discussions about tactics but the IRA held him at arms-length. Ironically, he was probably more eager to wage war than they were, but he took no account of the fact that the IRA was not a national army and could not operate on the same scale, with the same inattention to casualties.

He does not appear to have kept these contacts secret. Daphne du Maurier, wife of his former Sandhurst adjutant "Boy" Browning, even wrote a story about this side of his life - A Border-Line Case. The British establishment, however, seems to have dismissed him as a harmless crank. On 15 December 1956, after the failure of Operation Harvest and the introduction of the Special Powers Act, Murphy and Sean Cronin visited to convey the message that his usefulness to the IRA cause was over.