Daniel Breen (10 October 1894 – 27 December 1969) was an Irish republican. He was a member of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War and was wounded a number of times. In later years he was a Fianna Fáil politician.
Background Breen was born on 10 October 1894 in Grange, Donohill parish, County Tipperary, to Daniel Breen senior and Honora Moore.Birth certificate, 1894, Tipperary district, County Tipperary, irishgenealogy.ie He was the second-youngest of eight siblings. His father died in May 1901 when Breen was six, leaving the family very poor. He was educated locally, before becoming a plasterer and later a linesman on the Great Southern Railways.
Irish Revolutionary period
War of Independence
Breen was sworn into the Irish Republican Brotherhood in 1912 and the Irish Volunteers in 1914. On 21 January 1919, the day the First Dáil met in Dublin, Breen – who described himself as "a soldier first and foremost" – took part in the Soloheadbeg ambush. The ambush party of eight men, led by Séumas Robinson, attacked two Royal Irish Constabulary men who were escorting explosives to a quarry. The two policemen, James McDonnell and Patrick O'Connell, were fatally shot during the incident. The ambush is considered to be the first incident of the Irish War of Independence and was carried out with the help of intelligence supplied by Breen's younger brother and fellow Volunteer Laurence (1900–1940); "Lar" Breen, then aged 18, was imprisoned for "seditious" activities."The Soloheadbeg ambush - Remembering the Past". An Phoblacht, 20 January 2005. Retrieved 27 March 2026"Prosecution of Laurence Breen", National Archives, 1920 (WO 35/104/28)
Breen later recalled:
However, Robinson, wrote:
In the same statement, Robinson described the two policemen as he and Paddy Dwyer jumped out and seized the reins of the horse: "The RIC seemed to be at first amused at the sight of Dan Breen's burly figure with nose and mouth covered with a handkerchief; but with a sweeping glance they saw his revolver and Dwyer and me they could see only three of us. In a flash their rifles were brought up, the bolts worked and triggers pressed two shots rang out, but not from the carbines: the cut-off had been overlooked: The two shots came from Treacy and Tim Crowe. Those shots were the signal for general firing. At the inquest the fatal wounds were 'caused by small-calibre bullets'."
During the conflict, the British put a £1,000 price on Breen's head, which was later raised to £10,000. He quickly established himself as a leader within the Irish Republican Army (IRA). He was known for his courage. On 13 May 1919, he helped rescue his comrade Seán Hogan at gunpoint from a heavily guarded train at Knocklong station in County Limerick. Breen, who was wounded, remembered how the battalion was "vehemently denounced as a cold-blooded assassins" and roundly condemned by the Catholic Church.Townshend, pp. 80-81. After the fight, Seán Treacy, Séumas Robinson and Breen met Michael Collins in Dublin, where they were told to escape from the area. They agreed they would "fight it out, of course".Séumas Robinson, National Library of Ireland (NLI) MS 21265.; "Irish Independent" (newspaper), 21 May 1919. Breen and Treacy shot their way out through a British military cordon in the northern suburb of Drumcondra (Fernside). They escaped, only for Treacy to be killed the next day in a shootout with British forces. Breen was shot at least four times, twice in the lung.
The British reaction was to make Tipperary a special military area, with curfews and travel permits. Volunteer GHQ authorised enterprising attacks on barracks. Richard Mulcahy noted that British policy had "pushed rather turbulent spirits such as Breen and Treacy into the Dublin area".Valiulis, Maryann, "Portrait of a Revolutionary: General Richard Mulcahy and the founding of the Irish Free State" (Dublin 1992), p. 39. The inculcation of the principles of guerrilla warfare was to become an essential part of all training. Breen and Treacy were original members of Collins' The Squad of assassins, later known as the Dublin Guard, when Tipperary became "too hot for them".Richard Mulcahy, "Commentary upon Piaras Beaslai's Michael Collins", UCDA (University College Dublin Archive) P7/D/I/67, as cited by Townshend, p. 106Neligan, David (1968), The Spy in the Castle, MacGibbon & Kee, London, pg 102, SBN 261.62060.6 and Dublin was the centre of the war.
Breen was present in December 1919 at the ambush in Ashtown beside Phoenix Park in Dublin where Martin Savage was killed while trying to assassinate the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Viscount French. The IRA men hid behind hedges and a dungheap as the convoy of vehicles came past. They had been instructed to ignore the first car, but this contained their target. Their roadblock failed when a policeman removed the horse-and-cart intended to stop the car.Breen, Dan (1955). "Lord French Was Not Destined to Die by an Irish Bullet", in With the IRA in the Fight for Freedom (Tralee: The Kerryman Ltd.), pp. 45–46 Breen was also part of the IRA team that supported the attack on Rearcross Barracks in north Tipperary on 12 July 1920 by securing the main road from Newport.O'Malley, Ernie (1999). On Another Man's Wound (Colorado: Roberts Reinhard Publishers), pp. 199, 348, 354
Breen was to the fore in the IRA moving to establish "flying columns", full-time mobile units of at least 20 men. Columns used guerrilla warfare to strike at often a long way apart in a short period of time. Sometimes they could sleep in underground dug-outs where arms and ammunition could be held. He became an active member of the 3rd Tipperary Brigade flying column.'Dan Breen'. Third Tipperary Brigade, 20 August 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2026
Ernie O'Malley later appointed Breen quartermaster of the 2nd Southern Division in May 1921, although he still accompanied his column in the field.
Civil War Breen rejected the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which left him angry and embittered:
After returning home from America in early 1922, he tried hard to avoid a conflict with comrades who were in favour of the treaty. O'Malley disapproved of Breen's efforts, "a breach of discipline", to find a compromise with the opposing side that spring.O'Malley, Ernie (1978). The Singing Flame (Dublin: Anvil Books), p. 76 Breen eventually joined the Anti-Treaty IRA in its fight against the Provisional Government of Ireland. He was captured in a major state operation in Tipperary in April 1923.
Regarding the continued existence of Northern Ireland from 1922, and an inevitable further war to create a united Ireland, Breen commented:
In the June 1922 general election, Breen was nominated as a candidate by both the pro- and anti-Treaty sides, in the Waterford–Tipperary East constituency, but was not elected. On 11 June 1922, Breen began the All-Ireland Football Championship final by throwing the ball in.
Post-Civil War In August 1923, while still in custody in Limerick Prison, Breen was elected to Dáil Éireann at the 1923 general election as a republican anti-treaty Teachta Dála (TD) for the Tipperary constituency. He spent two months there before going on hunger strike for six days, followed by a thirst strike of six days. While in prison in September 1923 Breen was knocked unconscious by a blow from a prison guard's baton. Breen was released in the autumn after signing a document to desist from attacking the Free State.
Breen, then living in Lower Leeson Street, Dublin, sought a wound pension from the Free State in December 1923 under the Army Pensions Act, 1923, and was awarded £150 a year (75% disability from wounds).'Wound Pension or Gratuity'. Army Pensions Board, 10 December 1923. Retrieved 8 April 2026Irish Military Archives, Military Service (1916–1923) Pension Collection, Daniel Breen, MSP34REF171. Available online at http://mspcsearch.militaryarchives.ie/search.aspx?formtype=advanced. He later applied for a service pension under the Military Service Pensions Act, 1934. He was awarded nine years' service in 1935 at Grade A for his service with the Irish Volunteers and the IRA between 1 April 1917 and 30 September 1923.
Breen wrote a best-selling account of his guerrilla days, My Fight for Irish Freedom, in 1924.
Politics Fianna Fáil TD In January 1927, he became the first anti-treaty TD to take the Oath of Allegiance and sit in the Dáil Éireann after the establishment of the Irish Free State.
Standing as an Independent Republican he was defeated in the June 1927 general election. Thereafter Breen travelled to the United States, where he opened a speakeasy. He returned to Ireland in 1932 following the death of his mother, and regained his seat as a member of Fianna Fáil in the Dáil at that year's general election. He represented his Tipperary constituency without a break until his retirement at the 1965 election.
Foreign policy views Breen supported the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War.
During World War II, he was said to hold largely pro-Axis views, with admiration for Erwin Rommel.Britain, Ireland and the Second World War Ian S. Wood, Edinburgh University Press, 2010 When the fascist political party Ailtirí na hAiséirghe failed to win any seats in the 1944 Irish general election, he remarked that he was sorry that the party had not done better as he had studied their programme and found a lot to commend.Architects of the Resurrection: Ailtirí na hAiséirghe and the fascist 'New Order' in Ireland, R.M Douglas, page 205 In 1946, Breen became secretary of the Save the German Children Society. He attended the funeral of Nazi spy Hermann Gortz on 27 May 1947. Irish-American John S. Monagan visited Breen in 1948 and was surprised to see two pictures of Adolf Hitler, a medallion of Napoleon and a Telefunken radio. Breen told him "the revolution didn't work out," and "to get the government they have now, I wouldn't have lost a night's sleep." He also said that he fought for freedom, but not for democracy. In 1943, Breen sent his "congratulations to the Führer. May he live long to lead Europe on the road to peace, security and happiness".Douglas 2009, page 205 After the end of World War II in Europe, the German Legation in Dublin was taken over by diplomats from the US in May 1945: ".. they found a recent letter from Breen asking the German minister to forward his birthday wishes to the Führer, just days before Hitler committed suicide."Irish Examiner , 2 April 2016
Breen was co-chairman of the anti-Vietnam War organisation "Irish Voice on Vietnam", which he founded along with Peadar O'Donnell. From 1964 until his death five years later, Breen became a patron of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement, which opposed apartheid in South Africa. A few years prior, in 1960, he took part in a march from Trinity College to the Mansion House in protest of South African apartheid. Trinity News reported that he made a speech wherein he declared that "the white man has no right to be in Africa, and every means to get rid of him was legal".
Personal life
Breen was married on 12 June 1921 to Brigid Malone, a Dublin Cumann na mBan woman and sister of Lieutenant Michael Malone who was killed in action at the Battle of Mount Street Bridge during the 1916 Rising. They had met in Dublin when she helped to nurse him while he was recovering from a bullet wound.