Mayo history: Captain MacManus, author and military expert from Kiltimagh

By Tom Gillespie

CAPTAIN Dermot Arthur MacManus, who was born in Killedan, near Kiltimagh, was a well-known author in the Irish literary revival. He served in World War I where he reached the rank of captain. He was seriously wounded and was later invalided out of the army.

Thanks to Noelene Beckett-Crowe of the Mayo Genealogy Group and Tourism Kiltimagh we can get an insight into life and times of MacManus.

He was a son of Julia and Leonard MacManus. Julia Boyd married Leonard MacManus, second son of James MacManus Esq. of Killeaden House, and Charlotte, daughter of Rev. Leonard Strong of Brampton, Torquay. Their children were Emily, Charlotte, Desmonde and Diarmid.

Dermot’s ancestor Rev. Leonard Strong held Killedan townland at the time of Griffith’s Valuation while James McManus occupied the house.

Dermot MacManus had lived during his early years at the family home in Kiltimagh. As a boy on his father’s estate he had sought out the tenants to hear tales of local ‘happenings’, parts of which he later penned in ‘The Middle Kingdom’ as he was a staunch believer in the ancient and continuing spirit life of the countryside.

Born into a well-to-do family in Mayo, he had been educated at Westminster and Sandhurst.

He entered Trinity College, Dublin, following discharge from the army.

Commissioned into the Royal Inniskillin Fusiliers, MacManus served in India during World War 1. He fought in the Dardanelles, was seriously wounded, and later invalided out of the army.

According to Calton Younger, author of ‘Ireland’s Civil War’, MacManus had a brilliant record in the British Army like many others.

While he lived at Woodville in Co. Longford, he abandoned his studies in his determination to help Ireland in her fight for freedom.

Disgusted with the British, he wrote to Michael Collins after which he was arrested and incarnated in the Od Tower in the Dublin Castle. In the absence of incriminating evidence, he was released.

Later he was introduced into the IRA by his friend Cathal Brugha. Soon he was on the Auxiliaries Murder List in Dublin and had to go on the run.

He served under the name of Diarmuid Burke with Michael Brennan and Ernie O’Malley in Counties Clare and Tipperary.

Following the Treaty ‘split’ MacManus sided with the Free Staters. He agreed with Collins’s dictum of ‘Freedom to achieve freedom’.

MacManus was appointed director of training in succession to Major General Dalton. He commended two ships from Limerick to take Kenmare from the sea. Captain MacManus was appointed director of training Dublin Guards, IRA and GOC in Limerick, later Provost Marshall (Southern Command) during 1922/23.

During 1922, due to his military experience, he was promoted to Commandant-General. He was Commander at Portobello Barracks where he suppressed a mutiny of irregular officers.

When the Four Courts was shelled, he opened fire with small arms from the Phoenix Park. He took over from wounded Joe Leonard and then stormed the breach to take the area.

He disabled the IRA armoured car ‘The Mutineer’ by shooting its tyres with a Lewis machine gun.

He married Martina Clarkin, his first wife. His second wife was Millicent. He had a son Christopher together with two daughters, Margaret and Muriel.

Dermot MacManus, during 1959, penned ‘The Middle Kingdom: The Faerie World of Ireland’, ‘Between Two Worlds: True Irish Ghost Stories’ and ‘Irish Earth Folk.’

Captain MacManus published ‘The Irish Literary Revival 1890-1935’ and ‘Killeaden & Anthony Raftery 1784-1835’.

Both have been archived by Roy Johnson.

He was associated with The Abbey Theatre in Dublin and the Irish literary revival.

He was involved with Yeats, Singe and Lady Gregory. He also studied astronomy at Dublin’s Trinity College.

He moved to England where he spent his later years and held a voluminous correspondence with his many friends.

He was devotedly attended to during his illness by his second wife Millicent. Previously he had paid annual visits to Killeaden.

During the autumn of 1971, in a letter, he wrote that ‘Alas, alas, I will not be over in Ireland at all this year. This is the first time such a thing has happened since I left India 57 years ago.

It nearly breaks my heart. Think of me as an exile - above all I wish to keep in touch Ireland for it is my Life.’

In 1973 when the BBC produced a documentary on W.B. Yeats they interviewed and filmed Captain MacManus with regard to his copious notes.

An obituary of Captain Dermot MacManus in The Irish Times in 1990 stated that the death had taken place at his home in Harrogate in Yorkshire of Captain Dermot MacManus, aged 83, who had been ill for some time and that it was entirely fitting that he should be buried in his beloved Mayo, close to his ancestral home at Killeadan.

A colleague once said of the Captain that ‘He was a very brilliant man, a very modest man and certainly hid his light under a bushel.’

Dermot A. MacManus’ papers are held at the Manuscripts Reading Room in the National Library of Ireland.

The collection comprises of diaries, letters, typescripts, etcetera, pertaining to MacManus family members.

The MacManus family achieved fame in the early 20th century. Emily MacManus was Matron of Guys Hospital in London from 1927 to 1946 and brought her experience of World War I to bear throughout the underground surgery and casualties of World War II.

She lived for a number of years of her retirement in a summer residence the family had near Pontoon.

She died in the Sacred Heart Hospital, Castlebar, after all her fame and dedicated work as a nurse.

Her sister Lottie was a key figure in the Irish literary revival.