James Joseph Baskerville was active with the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Republican (IRA) from late 1916 until May 1923. His attempts to source guns for the IRA in the 1919-22 period brought him to a minimum of seven different cities across four countries and three continents. It is these fascinating three years abroad that form the focus of this blog article. Luckily for future researchers and historians, Baskerville provided rich detail in the people he met, the places he visited and difficulties he faced trying to get an international gun-smuggling ring off the ground.

Family Background

At the time of the 1901 Census, the Baskerville family was living at 37.5 Wentworth Place South in Dublin. James’ birthplace was listed as Enniskillen, County Fermanagh as was an older sister. His mother was born in Ennis, County Clare as was his second older sister. His father was from Dublin and was employed as a ‘Fireman (Electric)’. In the box to note whether an individual could read and write, the parents wrote “a little” for James’ sisters aged 5 and 6. By the time of the 1911 census, the Baskerville family was living at 73 Pembroke Cottages, Dublin. His father was then employed as a stoker at an electric station while his mother was an apprentice typist.

USA

From late 1916 until 1919, Baskerville was attached to G Company, 3 Battalion, Dublin Brigade, Irish Volunteers and helped to train and organise units in “military engineering and filed operations” around South County Dublin and County Wicklow.

Baskerville states that he volunteered for services abroad in 1919 and in March of that year, reference Donal O’Hannigan (MSP34REF16541) states that the applicant travelled to Liverpool, England to meet Nell Kerr Sr. (24SP1206) with a letter of introduction from Michael Collins (DP23755). Baskerville was given the false identity of a fireman named James Byrne from Enniskillen, County Fermanagh and a job on the SS Aquitania which sailed to New York City, United States of America with fellow IRA members Louis Marie (24SP11758) and Nell Kerr Jr. (DP7713).

Reference Laurence Byrne claims that the applicant was known to him as ‘Seamus Bastable’ and that they were both in attendance at a meeting of IRA men in New York City in 1919 along with Patrick Keegan (MSP34REF1548), Patrick Wafer (MSP34REF25297), Cyril Kehoe, Louise Marie and Nell Kerr [presumably Nell Kerr Junior].

Baskerville claims that money was collected by the Citizens of the Irish Republic organisation and that he would then travel to New Jersey City twice a week to purchase two or three revolvers and some hundreds of rounds of ammunition on each trip. It is claimed by reference Patrick Keegan (MSP34REF1548) that the applicant also “received arms from different sympathizers in the New York Police [Department]”. These arms and ammunition would be handed over to Louis Marie, Edward ‘Ed’ Boland, a man known as ‘Curren’, Neill Kerr Junior (DP7713), Patrick Keegan and L. Kiernan for transportation to Ireland.

The applicant states that around this time he became employed as an assistant to Diarmuid Fawcett, the First Dáil’s Consul-General in the United States of America. He later worked for the Irish Bond [Dáil Loans] office at 411, Fifth Avenue, New York City.

Baskerville also claims that he obtained a license from the American ‘Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association’ and “coached” brothers Henry and John Simpson to obtain similar licenses so that the IRA could have friendly Irish/Irish-American contacts on American vessels. He further states that he was the one who first introduced James ‘Jim’ McGee, organiser for the American ‘Marine Engineers’ Beneficial Association’ and a delegate for Local 33, to Harry Boland and Irish nationalist issues in general.

Canada

The applicant claims that following a discussion with Cyril Keogh and ‘Captain Whelan’, he obtained Harry Boland’s consent to travel to Canada “to investigate the possibility of establishing contacts with Irishmen sailing from Canadian ports”. The applicant states that he first called on Captain Robert Monteith (MSP34REF56789), an Irish Republican organiser in Albany, New York who told him that it would be a difficult job but worth trying. Baskerville spent a number of months in Toronto, Canada but claimed that while he could obtain arms easily he was unable to make “trustworthy contacts” on ships trading from Canadian ports.

Australia

In the summer of 1921, the applicant states that he travelled to Australia to form “gun-running organisations” in Sydney and Melbourne. Before leaving, reference Laurence Byrne claims that Baskerville “deposited a consignment of small arms and ammunition with Patrick Keegan who kept the dump in Brooklyn, [New York] independent of GHQ”. Keegan states that he and James Corley later shipped these arms to Ireland. Keegan further claims that Baskerville also passed on a consignment of .38 Long [Colt] revolvers to Larry Ryan who stored them in a dump at Boerum Place, Brooklyn, New York.

The applicant states that he was given the names of two individuals in Sydney and two in Melbourne to make contact with on his arrival. In Sydney, they were Albert Thomas Dryer (84 Station House, Rawson Place and c/o O’Regan, 79 Elizabeth Street) and William McGuinness (c/o Moynihan’s Boot Stores, 301 Pitt Street). In Melbourne, his contacts were AA Caldwell (533 Collins Street) and James O’Donnell (34 Prince’s Street, Fitzroy).

Baskerville found that while there were plenty of people in Australia sympathetic to the cause of Irish freedom and were willing to donate money, they “looked on coldly” to the idea of procuring and transporting arms to Ireland.

Baskerville returned to Ireland in late 1921. An engineer and draughtsman by profession, he began work with 3 Company, 5 Battalion (Engineers), Dublin Brigade, IRA. It would go onto play an active role with the anti-Treaty IRA in Dublin throughout the Civil War and right up to the Cease Fire and Dump Arms order in May 1923.

Conclusion

James Joseph Baskerville’s travels across England, USA, Canada and Australia to organise IRA gun-running channels was dangerous work but critically important to the organisation. Simply put, an army cannot fight a war without weapons.

False identities, crooked cops, secret arms dumps, sailors, dockworkers, union men and (more than likely) criminal outfits, his account of the 1919-22 period would not feel out of place in a big budget period crime drama.

Baskerville had seven years service with the Irish Volunteers and the IRA during the Revolutionary Period but his application for a military service pension was unsuccessful. It is fair to assume that if he had fired a gun in Ireland during the pre-Truce years instead of trying to source them from afar, he might have had a better chance to be awarded a pension. However, he was in receipt of a Disability Pension for a gun-shot wound that he received from a National Army sniper during fighting in June 1922 in Dublin at the outbreak of the Civil War.

Baskerville married but had no children and this must have played a part in his story being almost forgotten entirely until now. He does not appear in as much as a footnote in any Irish history books available to hand. Google searches for his name yield no results. He lived until his mid 80s but sometimes an individual’s story can be lost in just one generation if there are no descendants to pass it down to the next.