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86. De Valera's Prison Break · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

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Speaker 1: You're listening to an airwave media podcast. Hi everybody, and
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Speaker 1: welcome to Who Died What Now? The history podcast That's
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Speaker 1: not your history class with me, your host Katie Charlewood,
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Speaker 1: history Harlotte and reader of books. If you are new here,
0:31
Speaker 1: if you have stumbled this way via Instagram or TikTok, hello,
0:36
Speaker 1: I tend to tell history and information in a way
0:41
Speaker 1: that I try to be conversational, so it's generally just
0:45
Speaker 1: how I talk. Now. My language has been referred to
0:49
Speaker 1: as colorful on occasion, downright blasphemiths on others. But if
0:56
Speaker 1: you have an issue with you know, cuss words, swear words,
0:59
Speaker 1: anything like that, you're gonna want to exit stage left. Okay, cool.
1:06
Speaker 1: Now that the rest of you are here, and obviously
1:09
Speaker 1: people who have been listening for a long time, Hi,
1:12
Speaker 1: Hi Tara, I welcome, Welcome, I am back. I have
1:19
Speaker 1: a voice again, kind of I lost it a little
1:22
Speaker 1: from talking so much, so if this sound is a
1:25
Speaker 1: bit funny, I am recording from a hotel room in Dublin.
1:30
Speaker 1: I'm staying in the Morrison Curio on the Morrison Curial
1:35
Speaker 1: by Hilton and yeah, I got in and I was
1:39
Speaker 1: just planning to drop my bag, but I got heard
1:45
Speaker 1: up at this They were just like, oh, yeah, you know,
1:48
Speaker 1: you can just check in now, there's an early check
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Speaker 1: in fee, but we're gonna upgrade you to a better room.
1:53
Speaker 1: And I was like cool, Yeah, no worries, that's wonderful.
1:56
Speaker 1: I was just going to drop in my luggage but
1:58
Speaker 1: they just let me in. Now why am I in Dublin?
2:00
Speaker 1: You ask? Well, I was flying down because I love
2:04
Speaker 1: twenty minutes I'm done, I go airport and the price
2:07
Speaker 1: of the flight was actually cheaper than the price of
2:10
Speaker 1: a bus. So why travel uncomfortably for five hours when
2:15
Speaker 1: I can do it for one? So I flew down,
2:19
Speaker 1: dropped in my bag, and then went to be a
2:23
Speaker 1: guest on the Shite Talk History podcast, which I think
2:26
Speaker 1: is out this week maybe next week, but I'm on
2:28
Speaker 1: that talking about George Thomas, or interjecting about George Thomas,
2:34
Speaker 1: the man from Tipperary who became a rajah. Why do
2:38
Speaker 1: I roll my arts like that? I don't know? So yeah,
2:42
Speaker 1: why am I in Dublin? Also? So yeah, tonight is
2:45
Speaker 1: the Irish Podcast Awards, so I was in for the
2:49
Speaker 1: Listener's Choice. So I got to the top ten, but
2:52
Speaker 1: I didn't make the top five. But that's fine, you
2:55
Speaker 1: know it was it was all right, it's double the
2:58
Speaker 1: two Johnnys. They didn't make the top ten. Yeah, one
3:05
Speaker 1: of those things. But yeah, and it was my birthday
3:08
Speaker 1: Monday yesterday, so that was fun. I got to eat
3:12
Speaker 1: a Cuthbert No, it's a lie. It was a key
3:14
Speaker 1: rather caterpillar cake. And my aunt's like, it doesn't have
3:19
Speaker 1: any legs on it, because like the call on the
3:21
Speaker 1: caterpillar cake has legs, and I'm like, that's good. It
3:24
Speaker 1: does enough legs means it won't run away when I'm
3:25
Speaker 1: trying to eat it. So yeah, being the birthday girl,
3:29
Speaker 1: I got the option of eating the face, which if
3:33
Speaker 1: you don't know, is a delicacy. So yeah. They put
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Speaker 1: sparklers in the top of the cake, like little lintenna,
3:40
Speaker 1: and I'm like braced against the wall because there's just
3:44
Speaker 1: flames and flyer everywhere, and I'm like, let's let's not
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Speaker 1: send my eyebers. I've got the awards tomorrow, let's not.
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Speaker 1: So yeah, flew down, dropped in the case. Did the podcast?
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Speaker 1: Now back in the hotel and I have several hours
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Speaker 1: before the awards, which is just like downstairs and the
4:00
Speaker 1: right way bit. So yeah, it's gonna be it's gonna
4:02
Speaker 1: be a fun night. I know a few of the
4:05
Speaker 1: podcasts that are going to be there. I know like
4:08
Speaker 1: the Paranormal Life Boys, Kit and Rory, and I know
4:13
Speaker 1: Emma from Real Life ghost Stories, who is fabulous, and
4:16
Speaker 1: I'm going to try and Billy into a collab at
4:18
Speaker 1: some point. But yeah, that's been today. It's been wild.
4:23
Speaker 1: And I've got the most ridiculous red dress to wear
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Speaker 1: and I'm very excited about it. And I've got a
4:30
Speaker 1: bit of a problem though, because I noticed it's not
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Speaker 1: as tight as it was because I lost weight from
4:36
Speaker 1: being sick, so it doesn't quite fit the same way.
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Speaker 1: But hopefully, hopefully it'll be fine. I'm sure it'll be fine.
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Speaker 1: And my friend Kormick is coming. Imynome is Patty Shelby
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Speaker 1: on TikTok or Accormick on Instagram, and he does a
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Speaker 1: lot of Irish history and he's going to be guesting
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Speaker 1: on one of my episodes. I'm gonna say early next year,
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Speaker 1: just by the time we actually managed to sync up watches,
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Speaker 1: you know, just to get that going. But yeah, my
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Speaker 1: voice is kind of going, I think just from all
5:05
Speaker 1: the talking. But Yeah, it's been a it's been a
5:08
Speaker 1: good time. But I know what you're thinking. You're thinking quite,
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Speaker 1: you're jebber jabber in fact me, in fact you I will.
5:14
Speaker 1: But first we've got to get our source on. Our
5:19
Speaker 1: sources are jailbreak devil Erra's Daring prison escape by David McCullough,
5:26
Speaker 1: Amon Devlaer's Escape from Lincoln Prison by Joel Murray, Prisoners
5:32
Speaker 1: of Conscience by Eric Gregg Big Fellow Longfellow, A joint
5:37
Speaker 1: biography of Irish politicians Michael Collins and Amon de Valera
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Speaker 1: by t wild Wire, Peter's Key Peter de Locery and
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Speaker 1: the Fight for Irish Independence by Declun Dunn. How a
5:49
Speaker 1: Fruitcake helped Amon de Vallera escape prison by Oliver Wright.
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Speaker 1: We also have Historic co Kenny, the National Museum of Ireland,
6:00
Speaker 1: and of course our old favorites Biography dot com and
6:03
Speaker 1: History dot Com. I also did them comfortably good. Then
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Speaker 1: let's begin. So one of the reasons why I wanted
6:11
Speaker 1: to do this story specifically is because I love jail breaks.
6:16
Speaker 1: I think they're interesting, especially old timey jail breaks, and
6:20
Speaker 1: this one is so objectively tropy and funny that I
6:25
Speaker 1: if I was ever to write a jail break in
6:27
Speaker 1: a book, I would just fucking plagiarize it from history,
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Speaker 1: just steal it straight out the page, maybe adds ad
6:34
Speaker 1: lib some like comedy moments in their book. That is
6:36
Speaker 1: definitely what I would do. It's too good now. Devil
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Speaker 1: Era by all accounts a bit of a bastard, but
6:41
Speaker 1: he does become the t Shoch, which is the leader
6:43
Speaker 1: of Ireland. So some countries would have a president or
6:46
Speaker 1: a prime minister. This is Tasha, That's what he is,
6:51
Speaker 1: t shach. I should say, some people pronounce it t shock,
6:55
Speaker 1: but I don't do that because that's not how my
6:59
Speaker 1: dialect bounce it, because I'm from Donneye Goal. Also, in addition,
7:03
Speaker 1: further more, words sound weird coming out this mouth, Like
7:07
Speaker 1: I know I have an accent in some phrases will
7:11
Speaker 1: sound differently just because I'm saying them, like I say
7:14
Speaker 1: some English words wrong. So the way that I pronounce
7:17
Speaker 1: things is just from my accent. Like I was like,
7:23
Speaker 1: I was telling somebody the name of my podcast the
7:25
Speaker 1: other day and I'm like, who did what now? And
7:27
Speaker 1: they're going who dead? As in somebody died? And I
7:31
Speaker 1: was like, no, who did as in somebody did something.
7:33
Speaker 1: It's it's you know, but my accent pronounces my eyes
7:37
Speaker 1: like ease to other people, and that's just something I
7:41
Speaker 1: have to like knowingly correct a lot of the time
7:44
Speaker 1: because I can't do it without changing my accent. And
7:47
Speaker 1: I'm not going to do that because my accent is
7:50
Speaker 1: part of my identity and it's a lovely accent. So
7:53
Speaker 1: if you don't like it, you can fuck off. So
7:56
Speaker 1: Devil there, a bit of a bastard, fucked up a
7:59
Speaker 1: bunch of stuff and let a bunch of religious people
8:02
Speaker 1: get away with a bunch of dodgy shit, which we
8:03
Speaker 1: will talk about another time, but not today, because I
8:07
Speaker 1: want to talk about Devalera's jail break. So he ends
8:11
Speaker 1: up in prison in nineteen eighteen, which is not the
8:15
Speaker 1: first time he has ended up in prison by the
8:17
Speaker 1: British government. Now, at this time, Ireland was still under
8:23
Speaker 1: British rule, but they were advocating for home rule. They
8:26
Speaker 1: wanted to rule themselves because they didn't want to be
8:29
Speaker 1: oppressed by a colonial force who you know, instigated a
8:35
Speaker 1: genocide by creating a famine, and not the only country.
8:39
Speaker 1: They did it too at all. But anyway, ha ha
8:43
Speaker 1: ha oh. One day, I'm going to talk about the famine,
8:45
Speaker 1: and that's going to be a day of no jokes
8:47
Speaker 1: because it's just so fucking depressing and I am full
8:51
Speaker 1: of so much rage about it. So again, not a
8:55
Speaker 1: second prison sentence, because he was in prison in nineteen sixteen.
9:00
Speaker 1: He was part of the nineteen sixteen rising, and unlike
9:04
Speaker 1: fifteen other comrades, he didn't get executed. And people say
9:11
Speaker 1: it's because he was American, because he was born in America,
9:13
Speaker 1: and because he has the surnamed Daval Laius, so it's
9:15
Speaker 1: kind of an interest in name and people think it's
9:18
Speaker 1: because of that that he was spared. But here's the thing.
9:24
Speaker 1: He was spared because he was really fucking lucky because
9:29
Speaker 1: he was in the mcpetty's factory, you know, the biscuits.
9:32
Speaker 1: He was there, so he was sort of one of
9:34
Speaker 1: the last people to be dealt with, to be caught.
9:38
Speaker 1: And when they first looked at his name, they were like,
9:41
Speaker 1: is he somebody important, because you know, Davia Laius sounds
9:45
Speaker 1: important and the response was no, he's just a school
9:49
Speaker 1: teacher or a school principal from like wherever. Yeah, So
9:53
Speaker 1: they were like, it's not that important. He's just a
9:55
Speaker 1: teacher like. And when the other rebel from the Easter
10:02
Speaker 1: Rising where executed, which I will go into great detail,
10:07
Speaker 1: one day, public opinion turned because one of the people
10:15
Speaker 1: that they executed they brought out in a wheelchair. And
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Speaker 1: I've talked about this on TikTok many many years ago,
10:23
Speaker 1: and I was shaking doing it because I was so
10:25
Speaker 1: worried about the backlash because I get a lot of stuff.
10:29
Speaker 1: People go, you're an Anglo, You're an Anglo, just because
10:32
Speaker 1: mainly the accent. But it's one of those things I
10:36
Speaker 1: think needs to be talked about more. But yeah, after
10:39
Speaker 1: these executions, the the whole public had just sort of
10:47
Speaker 1: turned against it, Like a lot of people in Ireland
10:49
Speaker 1: were just kind of dealing with it, like this is
10:51
Speaker 1: just how it is, you know. But when they started
10:54
Speaker 1: killing all these people for fighting for independence, people started
10:59
Speaker 1: again really fucking mad. And because of this, and because
11:06
Speaker 1: of Dev being one of the last people to be
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Speaker 1: to be caught effectively, he ended up just getting a
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Speaker 1: prison sentence just to kind of appease people. And then
11:17
Speaker 1: he got off. Like his half brother and stuff like
11:20
Speaker 1: tried to try to petition on his behalf and Dev
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Speaker 1: was like, no, that's fine man to why about it,
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Speaker 1: you know, But again, just lucky. He was just really
11:30
Speaker 1: fucking lucky that everything happened the way it did so
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Speaker 1: that he did not get shot effectively because it was
11:36
Speaker 1: a firing squad. But yeah, two years later, nineteen eighteen,
11:43
Speaker 1: and dev Is back in prison under Trump to up
11:49
Speaker 1: charges of conspiring with the Germans during the Great War.
11:55
Speaker 1: It was the Great War this time because it was
11:58
Speaker 1: not yet known as World War One because they weren't
12:00
Speaker 1: expecting a fucking second one. But there we go. Ireland
12:05
Speaker 1: is fighting for home rule and a bunch of prominent
12:10
Speaker 1: figures in order to try and quash this continued rebellion
12:14
Speaker 1: because Britain didn't want Ireland having independence. They didn't want
12:18
Speaker 1: to rule itself. They wanted to still have access to
12:21
Speaker 1: the land and the resources and the funds and the power.
12:25
Speaker 1: But Ireland, yeah, not too keen on that now, kind
12:29
Speaker 1: of wanted its freedom. Yeah, And so basically the leaders
12:35
Speaker 1: get these trumped up charges of conspiring with the Germans,
12:39
Speaker 1: which is webbly wobbly ae bit. So they did buy guns.
12:47
Speaker 1: They were trying to buy weapons from Germany, not to
12:50
Speaker 1: aid Germany in war, but to free themselves like it
12:56
Speaker 1: was not the same thing. And really, I don't think
13:01
Speaker 1: Britain has a leg to stand on when it's you know,
13:06
Speaker 1: where it sends its arms and sells that too, and
13:09
Speaker 1: it doesn't think that's an issue. You know, all of
13:13
Speaker 1: the places that sold weapons and arms to that then
13:17
Speaker 1: ended up fighting them specifically. It's almost as if this
13:23
Speaker 1: is the pop calling the kettle black. I'm just saying,
13:26
Speaker 1: but yeah, they a bunch of them just end up imprisoned.
13:32
Speaker 1: It's just because they could. They really want to discredit
13:38
Speaker 1: de Villier's party. And of course, at the time, the
13:41
Speaker 1: Irish Republican Army, which was just the army at the time,
13:46
Speaker 1: it was the military arm of the Irish Rebellion. You know,
13:51
Speaker 1: that's just what it was. It wasn't you know, a
13:53
Speaker 1: terrorist group at the time, it had not yet evolved
13:56
Speaker 1: into that. So in May nineteen eighty daval Era and
14:02
Speaker 1: seventy two other leading Irish nationalists, right seventy three, So
14:08
Speaker 1: that's seventy three people they've arrested, basically on allegations of
14:13
Speaker 1: conspiring with Germany. Right. Some of them were carted off
14:16
Speaker 1: to Momouthshire and others including deav Here and others like
14:21
Speaker 1: dead here ended in Lincoln Prison. So they're in prison
14:24
Speaker 1: in Britain. That's where there are just far away. It's
14:28
Speaker 1: well not that far away, they're just across the sea,
14:31
Speaker 1: so they're there. But because a lot of them hadn't
14:35
Speaker 1: actually been sentenced, they were just rounded up and jailed.
14:39
Speaker 1: I was pretty relaxed for a lot of them in
14:42
Speaker 1: Lincoln Prison. So yeah, they are arrested in May nineteen eighteen,
14:48
Speaker 1: and there he stayed even after you know, the war
14:52
Speaker 1: was over. Germany had surrendered, so the very people he
14:56
Speaker 1: was supposed to be conspiring with had been dealt with,
14:59
Speaker 1: and yet there he stayed in prison on well drop
15:03
Speaker 1: top charges. But like he kind of had a pretty
15:07
Speaker 1: sweet deal in prison because like he had like a
15:09
Speaker 1: typewriter and a gramophone, Like you had comforts, like comforts
15:14
Speaker 1: over the era in comforts are all well and good, Noll.
15:17
Speaker 1: But sometimes you don't want a gramophone. You just want
15:20
Speaker 1: your fucking freedom and maybe to be a petty little
15:23
Speaker 1: bitch of it in the face of you know, the
15:26
Speaker 1: very people who in prison. Do you know maybe that
15:28
Speaker 1: maybe so while dev is in the clink, two major
15:32
Speaker 1: things happen in nineteen eighteen in November eleventh, the Great
15:39
Speaker 1: War ends. It is over. And one month later there's
15:44
Speaker 1: a general election. Sweat's in the UK and it's in Ireland.
15:48
Speaker 1: So Shinfein the political party, it just fucking sweeps the
15:55
Speaker 1: board because the Irish people go out and they're pissed
15:58
Speaker 1: at this point and they just vote on mass and
16:04
Speaker 1: I think Shinvein gets like seventy three, seventy four, seventy three,
16:09
Speaker 1: seventy three out of one hundred and five Irish seats.
16:13
Speaker 1: So they are just knocking it out. And this is
16:15
Speaker 1: the party that's advocating for Home and dev misses it.
16:22
Speaker 1: He's not directly involved, but he does, you know, just
16:25
Speaker 1: hear about it, like they do have newspapers and things
16:28
Speaker 1: like he gets the info and you know, even though
16:31
Speaker 1: things are pretty chill in prison, you know, he doesn't
16:34
Speaker 1: want to stay there. He wants to go out and
16:37
Speaker 1: being he's smart. He might be a bastard, but he
16:41
Speaker 1: is smart. And what he wants to do is, you know,
16:44
Speaker 1: you know, just humiliate Britain. That's kind of the plan.
16:49
Speaker 1: So he's thinking, you know, of escape in prison as
16:51
Speaker 1: one does. I feel like most inmates are you know,
16:55
Speaker 1: at least considering getting the heck at a dodge, you
16:59
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So he's in prison in England
17:02
Speaker 1: and wants to get out, you know, one because he
17:04
Speaker 1: wants his freedom ish and two because it's pretty much
17:09
Speaker 1: a coup on his part because can you imagine the
17:12
Speaker 1: embarrassment of one of the leaders of you know, the
17:15
Speaker 1: nineteen sixteen risings, one of the main rebels, escaping your prison,
17:23
Speaker 1: like that's it's I mean, it's clever, but yeah, but
17:28
Speaker 1: also embarrassing for Britain. And so a plan is hatched
17:34
Speaker 1: in December nineteen eighteen. So one day Dev is out
17:38
Speaker 1: in the exercise yard exercising one musium and he spots
17:44
Speaker 1: a door. The door on the exercise yard leads to freedom.
17:50
Speaker 1: And this is where his brain starts ticking because that door,
17:56
Speaker 1: that slice of wood or you know, pieces of wood
17:59
Speaker 1: put together, are you know, the one barrier I say,
18:03
Speaker 1: one one of a few, but the main barrier between
18:06
Speaker 1: him and getting out. But in Lincoln, President Dev didn't
18:10
Speaker 1: just hang about the exercise yard. Oh no, he was
18:14
Speaker 1: an altar boy. So you could volunteer to be an
18:18
Speaker 1: altar boy in the present. I don't know, Maybe you've
18:21
Speaker 1: got good behavior stuff maybe it was just so you
18:23
Speaker 1: had something to do, or maybe you're just very religious.
18:26
Speaker 1: Whom's to say, But Dev, being a good Catholic Irish fellow,
18:31
Speaker 1: volunteers to be an older boy. He also notices as
18:34
Speaker 1: an older boy that the priest in the prison, the
18:38
Speaker 1: present priest, he is not exactly great with his keys.
18:45
Speaker 1: He's gonna have it of just like leaving them down,
18:48
Speaker 1: misplacing them. I feel like, though, if you're in any
18:52
Speaker 1: sort of position of power and a prison and you
18:56
Speaker 1: have a set of keys, I feel like in general,
18:59
Speaker 1: you should you know, have a better grip on them
19:03
Speaker 1: in more ways than one, like, you should try to
19:07
Speaker 1: keep them on you. It just feels a little la
19:10
Speaker 1: what's the word irresponsible? But I don't know. Part of
19:13
Speaker 1: me is thinking, what if the priest like just kept
19:17
Speaker 1: deliberately leaving his keys around. Maybe he was just forgetful.
19:22
Speaker 1: Maybe the priest had adhd. We don't know, Maybe he
19:25
Speaker 1: just left things places, you know, it could be it
19:28
Speaker 1: could be anything, but yeah, the priest has a habit
19:31
Speaker 1: of leaving his keys around, and because Dev is an
19:34
Speaker 1: altar boy, he has access to those keys. And this
19:41
Speaker 1: is the sneaky heistay escape plan stuff happens. This is glorious.
19:46
Speaker 1: So he takes a church candle. Devallera finds an old
19:50
Speaker 1: wax candle and it's nice and soft, it's malleable, and
19:54
Speaker 1: when the priest isn't looking, he makes an impression of
19:59
Speaker 1: the key in the wax and then takes the you know,
20:02
Speaker 1: the candles stump with him. I don't know if you're
20:05
Speaker 1: used to sort of Catholic churches, but there are a
20:09
Speaker 1: lot of candles, something to do with the light of
20:12
Speaker 1: God and the light of Jesus, the Holy Spirit or
20:14
Speaker 1: one of the holy things. I know we light candles
20:18
Speaker 1: like on behalf of people. I don't know what the
20:20
Speaker 1: candle itself is supposed to represent, or why we're burning
20:25
Speaker 1: things to represent care, because I feel like burning things
20:29
Speaker 1: is sort of the opposite. It kind of feels a
20:31
Speaker 1: way that pagan, doesn't it. No, I'm not going to
20:34
Speaker 1: get into that today, but it does though, I'll eat it. Yeah. So,
20:39
Speaker 1: lots of candles and churches, so a couple going missing,
20:42
Speaker 1: especially the stumps. Nobody's really going to notice, especially this
20:46
Speaker 1: priest because clearly he is forgetful as fuck. So dev
20:49
Speaker 1: he brings this waxy stump this way impression of the key,
20:54
Speaker 1: and he needs somebody to make a copy of it,
20:57
Speaker 1: because they have to try and get this impression out
21:01
Speaker 1: to someone so that, you know, they can get out
21:03
Speaker 1: the fucking door. And of course they couldn't just like
21:06
Speaker 1: write it in a letter and be like, hey, can
21:08
Speaker 1: you copy this key? Mmm, because although the prison itself
21:13
Speaker 1: was pretty relaxed for them, the guards were reading their mail.
21:16
Speaker 1: They were going to their letters just to make sure
21:18
Speaker 1: there wasn't any sort of you know, mischief afoot. But
21:23
Speaker 1: lucky for them, fellow prisoner Sean Milroy was a cartoonist
21:30
Speaker 1: and using his artistic skills, they come up with a
21:33
Speaker 1: fantastic idea of drawing the key or the dimensions of
21:37
Speaker 1: the key on like a postcard. But what they do,
21:42
Speaker 1: because it's before Christmas, is they make it a Christmas card.
21:46
Speaker 1: And yeah, so they draw this Christmas card and there's
21:49
Speaker 1: like a big picture and then like a little picture
21:51
Speaker 1: inside it. So the big picture is a drunk man
21:54
Speaker 1: holding a key trying to get into his house and
21:57
Speaker 1: it says xmus nineteen seventeen, can't get And then there's
22:02
Speaker 1: like a little picture of a man in a prison
22:03
Speaker 1: cell going nineteen eighteen can't get out. So it's like
22:09
Speaker 1: it's very hinty, but like, hey, eh, wink wink nuts nuds,
22:13
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And luckily for them, the
22:16
Speaker 1: guards are not sort of thrown off by this. They
22:21
Speaker 1: think this is a perfectly reasonable Irish humor postcard for Christmas. Clearly,
22:28
Speaker 1: this is definitely something they do not There is like
22:32
Speaker 1: a giant fucking key on the front of it. Not
22:34
Speaker 1: be suspicious, don't be suspicious, like that's that's fine, I guess.
22:41
Speaker 1: So the Christmas card is sent and it reaches Dublin.
22:44
Speaker 1: So their allies are looking at this and they decipher
22:47
Speaker 1: what it means and they realize that they want a
22:49
Speaker 1: key cut, and so that's exactly what they do. So
22:54
Speaker 1: they get a key cut. It gets baked into a fruitcake.
22:59
Speaker 1: That's right, that's right, an actual trope. They put it
23:04
Speaker 1: in a cake, and people are like, why a fruitcake? Not?
23:08
Speaker 1: Why is sponge cake. It's nineteen eighteen, we're still coming
23:13
Speaker 1: off of sugar rations, right, and it's Christmas time, So
23:18
Speaker 1: if fruitcake is a traditional Christmas cake, you wouldn't be
23:22
Speaker 1: surprised to be seeing it, you know, around this time
23:25
Speaker 1: of year. And we have a weird sort of assumption
23:31
Speaker 1: that fruitcakes aren't nice. But because a lot of the
23:33
Speaker 1: cakes we have now are so full of like extra
23:36
Speaker 1: sugars and sweeteners and everything else, and this would have
23:41
Speaker 1: been one of the you know, sweeter options for cakes
23:43
Speaker 1: back in the day. It's also full of booze, which
23:46
Speaker 1: is quite nice for some people now. Carrot cake also
23:50
Speaker 1: was one of those sort of sweeter vegetables, and so
23:53
Speaker 1: that's an option for cakes. But yeah, this fruitcake may
23:56
Speaker 1: have a wee bit of carrot. And I don't know
23:58
Speaker 1: the exact recipe, but I'm going to find a nineteen
24:01
Speaker 1: eighteen recipe for fruitcake and I'll bake it for next
24:05
Speaker 1: Christmas and I'll picky in it. Don't know what kind
24:09
Speaker 1: of key, I will find one and figure it out.
24:13
Speaker 1: But yeah, a fella named Finton Murphy takes the cake
24:18
Speaker 1: to a prison, and so he goes there. He tells
24:21
Speaker 1: them he's a commercial traveler, not the best of a like,
24:29
Speaker 1: I'm a commercial traveler. Don't be surprised by the accent
24:32
Speaker 1: and the fact that my name is Finton like. But yeah,
24:37
Speaker 1: he goes in and the warden's there, and it gets
24:40
Speaker 1: the cake and he starts poking it with a knife.
24:49
Speaker 1: It's like this really fine thin knife and he's just
24:53
Speaker 1: like poking this cake. And for finton terror is gripping
24:59
Speaker 1: his soul because he's like, shit, what if they hit
25:03
Speaker 1: the key and he is standing there quietly panicking inside
25:08
Speaker 1: his head and his heart. But luckily the knife never
25:16
Speaker 1: comes in contact with the key, and uh no one
25:20
Speaker 1: noticed just how much Fintain Murphy was sweating. So the
25:28
Speaker 1: key goes in. See the Greek goes in. No, that's wrong.
25:30
Speaker 1: The cake goes in. They get the cake and they're like, yay,
25:33
Speaker 1: thanks for the lovely cake. And luckily enough none of
25:37
Speaker 1: the guards wanted some of the incredibly delicious fruitcake. So
25:42
Speaker 1: they get the key and they plan their escape and
25:49
Speaker 1: they get the key in the lock. But the key
25:53
Speaker 1: is too small. It's too small, and Sean Milroy, he's like,
25:58
Speaker 1: I made it the exact amounts of that wax impression,
26:01
Speaker 1: Like I did it exact, I did my bit. You know,
26:04
Speaker 1: I don't know why it's so small. But then they
26:07
Speaker 1: realize that between making the impression and bringing sort of
26:12
Speaker 1: the wax stump in, like it had contracted so because
26:16
Speaker 1: it expanded with the heat, but as it cooled, it
26:20
Speaker 1: contracted and it just it just didn't fit, so it shrunk,
26:25
Speaker 1: so he was drawing a smaller keye. So they basically
26:30
Speaker 1: do something similar. They basically try it again, so they
26:35
Speaker 1: make the wax impression and they try and get the
26:37
Speaker 1: sketch done quicker the second time, but obviously they can't
26:41
Speaker 1: draw another Christmas card, so they just draw another pattern.
26:46
Speaker 1: So it's effectively this ornate Celtic design with the key
26:51
Speaker 1: sort of hidden in it, like Where's Wally, but with
26:55
Speaker 1: a key, so it's sort of hidden in the design
26:58
Speaker 1: or you know, like one of those tattoo covers ups
27:00
Speaker 1: you do, so it's sort of in it because they're like, oh,
27:03
Speaker 1: like we're Irish. It's a thing. And so it gets
27:08
Speaker 1: sent out and another key comes in in a fruitcake
27:12
Speaker 1: to gain stabby stab stab doesn't get discovered, thank goodness.
27:18
Speaker 1: So the cake comes in and of course they eat
27:21
Speaker 1: more fruitcake because the delicious and I don't even eat fruitcakes.
27:27
Speaker 1: I don't eat cooked fruits. So like I'm like trying
27:29
Speaker 1: to promote fruitcake, fruitcake and barn brack and other delicious
27:33
Speaker 1: things that I don't eat because cooked fruit makes megal
27:37
Speaker 1: h I have food sensitivity issues because of very h D,
27:42
Speaker 1: which is like really sweet. Because I got offered blueberry
27:44
Speaker 1: muffins by the Shout Talk History podcast yesterday because the girlfriend,
27:50
Speaker 1: Kevin's girlfriend baking, loves baking, and she'd made these blueberry muffins.
27:56
Speaker 1: But I was like, I'm really sorry. I don't eat
27:58
Speaker 1: cooked fruit. And it's like I have cookie and I
28:00
Speaker 1: think they're whoopi whippies. I think they're called like there's
28:04
Speaker 1: these chocolate sort of domey cookies and they were, oh,
28:09
Speaker 1: they were delicious. They were absolutely delicious. I was like,
28:13
Speaker 1: Kevin was making me a coffee as well, and he's
28:15
Speaker 1: like holding these two bags of sugar because I asked
28:17
Speaker 1: for sugar and one of them is like granulated sugar
28:20
Speaker 1: and caster sugar, and he's pausing and I can tell
28:23
Speaker 1: that this is a look of a man who does
28:25
Speaker 1: not know they appropriate sugar. And I'm like, Caster sugar
28:28
Speaker 1: is more refined, it's for baking, and then the granulated
28:30
Speaker 1: sugar is for the coffee. And he was like, oh, okay,
28:33
Speaker 1: Like it's nice because I got coffee and cookies, so like,
28:38
Speaker 1: I can't complain. It was very lovely, but yeah, I'm
28:43
Speaker 1: your promoting food I don't eat just because I can't
28:45
Speaker 1: eat it, but my kids like it, so it's gonna
28:48
Speaker 1: be wee bit good. I'm a mum, So you know what,
28:50
Speaker 1: bring back fruitcake? Fuck it? We should. So yeah, they
28:56
Speaker 1: try it again. They go through the whole lava and
28:58
Speaker 1: they try the key in the law, but yet again
29:04
Speaker 1: the key is too small. They've fucked it up again.
29:10
Speaker 1: And now they're like, okay, we need a new plan, because,
29:17
Speaker 1: as we know, there are four rules to making a plan.
29:21
Speaker 1: Make the plan, execute the plan, expect the plan to
29:24
Speaker 1: go off the rails, throw away the plan. And that
29:28
Speaker 1: is exactly what happened here. So clearly these guys fucking
29:34
Speaker 1: love fruitcake. And the prison guards are like, clearly, nothing's
29:37
Speaker 1: going on with this fruitcake because they're having a lot
29:40
Speaker 1: of it, and no shit has started, right, no issues,
29:44
Speaker 1: everybody's fine, everybody's chilling. But that's about to change. So
29:52
Speaker 1: end of January, beginning of February, roughly about this time,
29:57
Speaker 1: the Fellas receive another cake, another fruitcake, which is described
30:03
Speaker 1: as oblong, peculiar and oblong. That is the two main
30:08
Speaker 1: sort of descriptors for this cake that I have seen everywhere.
30:12
Speaker 1: Peculiar and oblong. Now I've never I mean I've probably
30:17
Speaker 1: seen an oblong cake, but I've rarely heard a cake
30:20
Speaker 1: described specifically as oblong. So this oblong cake comes in
30:26
Speaker 1: and they don't check it. Why because it's a fucking fruitcake.
30:32
Speaker 1: And these boys are just mad for it, apparently, and
30:39
Speaker 1: they check it and nobody thinks it's a bit heavy.
30:42
Speaker 1: See the thing about fruitcakes is they're pretty dense. It's
30:45
Speaker 1: a dense cake. They're kind of heavy. You would not
30:46
Speaker 1: want to be smacked with one. I'm not speaking from experience.
30:51
Speaker 1: And these cakes again, pretty dense, pretty heavy. So if
30:56
Speaker 1: there's a blank cake and a bunch of fucking files
31:00
Speaker 1: in them, files and a cake. Now, remember when I
31:03
Speaker 1: talked about tropes, I was talking about all the tropes
31:05
Speaker 1: of things. Files and a cake. So they've got a
31:10
Speaker 1: blank key or some blank keys and this just files.
31:17
Speaker 1: And there's this other prisoner, Peter de Lochray, who I
31:22
Speaker 1: think is from kill Kenny originally, and so he had
31:27
Speaker 1: somehow been allowed to examine a prison lock. I say allowed.
31:33
Speaker 1: He somehow managed to examine a prison lock because he
31:36
Speaker 1: took it apart with a screwdriver that he somehow acquired.
31:41
Speaker 1: We don't question it. We just accept. And so he
31:45
Speaker 1: gets this key. He's a wee locksmith. By the way, Also,
31:50
Speaker 1: who are we going to lock up in the prison
31:51
Speaker 1: a fucking locksmith. Oh that's not going to be an
31:53
Speaker 1: issue for any of us, is it not a cause
31:55
Speaker 1: for concern? Apparently not. So he's there and he makes
32:03
Speaker 1: this skill in key. So he fashioned a skill in
32:06
Speaker 1: key effectively to open any door in the prison. And
32:13
Speaker 1: he's just it's just he's the reason. Really, like without
32:17
Speaker 1: his skill, the rest wouldn't have happened. And now third
32:25
Speaker 1: of February shit goes down at about twenty to eight,
32:32
Speaker 1: So seven forty pm on the third of February nineteen nineteen,
32:38
Speaker 1: Aimon de Valera, Sean Milroy, and Sean McGarry take the
32:43
Speaker 1: lockery's key and they open their cell doors. Now they're
32:51
Speaker 1: not fills, so they do lock them behind them, and
32:56
Speaker 1: so they sneak through the prison under the cover of
33:01
Speaker 1: night until they get to the exercise yard. So clearly
33:09
Speaker 1: these fellows have been writing to each other in code,
33:12
Speaker 1: you know, because fellow Republicans, high ranking Republicans, are waiting
33:17
Speaker 1: for them on the other side of that door in
33:21
Speaker 1: the exercise yard. So Harry Boland and Michael Collins are
33:29
Speaker 1: on the other side of that door. The three prisoners
33:32
Speaker 1: had made it this far. There was one door between
33:37
Speaker 1: them and freedom, and so they get to the door
33:41
Speaker 1: and they put the lockerway's master key in it and
33:43
Speaker 1: they turn it in the lock and it fucking snaps.
33:49
Speaker 1: All of this work, all of this time winter in Lincoln,
33:54
Speaker 1: and they are just stuck. Luckily for them, though Michael
34:01
Speaker 1: Collins also had a key cut. He had the wherewithal
34:04
Speaker 1: to do that, and so he slots his key into
34:07
Speaker 1: the lock, knocking the broken key out of the door,
34:10
Speaker 1: because you know all timy doors you could have done that,
34:14
Speaker 1: turns the key and the three men are free. And
34:21
Speaker 1: this is my favorite part of the story. So they've
34:23
Speaker 1: gone through this. They have tried to get a key made.
34:27
Speaker 1: Key was too small, They smuggled stuff in in a cake,
34:31
Speaker 1: They drew another picture, sent it out again. The fucking
34:34
Speaker 1: kick comes back. Key's too small again, and so they
34:37
Speaker 1: send a black key in some files and they do
34:40
Speaker 1: it again and it finally fucking works right, and they're
34:43
Speaker 1: about to get out. The door key breaks. Luckily, there's
34:48
Speaker 1: another key because the other fellow was smart enough to
34:50
Speaker 1: have one unlocks it gets them out and then puts
34:57
Speaker 1: dave Lea in a big for courte Because it's winter,
35:05
Speaker 1: you know, it wouldn't be surprising to see a woman
35:08
Speaker 1: in a fur coat, and so they taught her away.
35:11
Speaker 1: They go past some drunk sort of soldiers with their
35:14
Speaker 1: gals and so they're kind of walking trying to make
35:17
Speaker 1: it seem like they're just a gang a couple just
35:19
Speaker 1: having fun on a night out, and so off they go,
35:25
Speaker 1: but you know, they're still in fucking England. So that's
35:27
Speaker 1: a bit of an issue when you don't want a
35:28
Speaker 1: man hunt, you know, because you're able to go prisoner
35:32
Speaker 1: who is embarrassing the country by escaping. And so they
35:36
Speaker 1: taught her around and they get to the Adam and
35:38
Speaker 1: Eve pub and there was a taxi waiting for them,
35:42
Speaker 1: so they jump in the taxi and it gets them
35:44
Speaker 1: up to Works up in nottingham Shire and so by
35:48
Speaker 1: the time like Lincoln Prison realizes they've escaped, like two
35:54
Speaker 1: hours later, but half nine, nine thirty pm, the fellas
35:58
Speaker 1: have gone an another taxi from Walks up to Sheffield.
36:03
Speaker 1: So basically they've just gone boot boom boom boom boom,
36:06
Speaker 1: jumping in one taxi to the other to kind of
36:09
Speaker 1: evade sort of any specific trail because there's a car
36:17
Speaker 1: waiting for them in Sheffield to take them to a
36:20
Speaker 1: safe house in Manchester. But yeah, the three prisoners have escaped,
36:24
Speaker 1: so a manhunt begins. And the reason that they actually
36:27
Speaker 1: noticed they were gone is because as they were just
36:30
Speaker 1: sort of rushing to leave, they didn't lock the door,
36:34
Speaker 1: so they locked their selves, but they didn't lock the
36:37
Speaker 1: door in the exercise yard, so if they'd done that,
36:41
Speaker 1: they would have had a bit more time before having
36:43
Speaker 1: to get to the safe house. I like, sorry, but
36:47
Speaker 1: this is like the most ballsy thing ever because you've
36:50
Speaker 1: got three massive leaders of the rebellion. You've got Michael Collins,
36:55
Speaker 1: You've got Amon de Vallera, and you've got High Boland.
36:58
Speaker 1: So if the three of them are caught, like it's
37:03
Speaker 1: a shit hits the fan situation for Ireland, Like these
37:05
Speaker 1: are the three main players, it's big ballocks if they
37:09
Speaker 1: get stuck. But of course they said fuck this for
37:13
Speaker 1: a game of soldiers. They're getting out of there. And
37:16
Speaker 1: after this he manages to get on a boat. But
37:19
Speaker 1: after the safe house anyway, they manage to get on
37:22
Speaker 1: a boat and Dev goes across the Irish Sea, so Shinfain.
37:28
Speaker 1: They have swept the boards. They are winning at politics,
37:32
Speaker 1: one could say. And so they're supposed to go to
37:35
Speaker 1: Westminster to take their seats in Parliament, but they refuse
37:39
Speaker 1: to go. So instead of heading to the UK, they
37:42
Speaker 1: decide they're going to set up their own government in Ireland,
37:45
Speaker 1: which is in dull Erin, and I think in April
37:49
Speaker 1: of that year. I think in April that year the
37:51
Speaker 1: dev shows up. Unless I'm mixing up to them packs anyway,
37:55
Speaker 1: they set up their own government and that is well,
37:58
Speaker 1: that's really that last push for home rule. But yeah,
38:03
Speaker 1: that is the story of Devil Eira's deal break. And
38:08
Speaker 1: it's just one of those things. It's one of those
38:10
Speaker 1: pieces of history which I just found just so much fun.
38:14
Speaker 1: It really is. And if you liked my retelling of
38:19
Speaker 1: this tale from a hotel room in Dublin as I
38:23
Speaker 1: get ready to go to an award show, please field
38:25
Speaker 1: a rate and review of five stars. I would greatly
38:27
Speaker 1: appreciate it and I very much, very much love it.
38:33
Speaker 1: Stuff is going on the Patreon god soon because I've
38:38
Speaker 1: got the first who done it. What I recorded, I
38:40
Speaker 1: just have to put up, but I want to get
38:43
Speaker 1: like a couple of chapters done before I start putting
38:45
Speaker 1: it up in case, you know, I miss something, And
38:47
Speaker 1: I'm going to have things scheduled for when I'm in
38:49
Speaker 1: Disneyland with the kids because the last payment was made
38:52
Speaker 1: and we're going to Disney. I'm very excited. So if, yeah,
38:58
Speaker 1: if you liked it, rate and review five stars, don't
39:00
Speaker 1: get you can follow me on the socials. I'm on Instagram, Instagram,
39:04
Speaker 1: Instagram from Constein, I'm on Instagram TikTok x formerly known
39:10
Speaker 1: as Twitter. Apparently, I don't know. I feel like I
39:13
Speaker 1: should just like shout into the void. In that point,
39:17
Speaker 1: it's just me screaming into the abyss on Twitter. And
39:21
Speaker 1: then of course I'm on Facebook. I'm trying to get
39:26
Speaker 1: better at posting on Facebook, but I'm just the absolute worst.
39:31
Speaker 1: This is why I need a team. I needed, like
39:33
Speaker 1: an actual team, because it's just me and I. As
39:37
Speaker 1: you can tell, I'm struggling. But at least I can
39:39
Speaker 1: talk again, which is, you know, as someone who podcasts,
39:43
Speaker 1: very handy and greatly appreciated, and so it is recommendation time.
39:51
Speaker 1: I'm excited for this, so I'm going to recommend a
39:55
Speaker 1: fiction book. Can you believe it? For reading a fiction
39:59
Speaker 1: book me actually reading fiction. I had some time, I
40:02
Speaker 1: had some opportunities, and so I read Lessons in Chemistry
40:06
Speaker 1: by Bonnie Garmis and it is so good. It is
40:10
Speaker 1: absolutely so good. Definitely read it. And for listening, I'm
40:16
Speaker 1: gonna suggest and recommend the Lovely Real Life Ghost Stories
40:21
Speaker 1: podcast with Emma Who's fucking five list and I can't
40:24
Speaker 1: wait to see you tonight because I know she's going
40:26
Speaker 1: to be here, so we need to go listen to that.
40:28
Speaker 1: I feel like anything sort of spooky stuff like that.
40:30
Speaker 1: She is. She's just fab So go listen to that.
40:34
Speaker 1: And for watching, you know what, goes see the Marvels.
40:38
Speaker 1: It's fun. I think I may have recommended that last week,
40:40
Speaker 1: but go see the Marvels. It is fun. Everybody should
40:44
Speaker 1: go see it. I don't care doesn't have this or not.
40:48
Speaker 1: Every superhero movie need layers of trauma. Sometimes you can
40:52
Speaker 1: just go see a comic book movie like up until recently,
40:56
Speaker 1: up until recent years, like the highest selling comic boo
41:00
Speaker 1: books where like Archie because like the romance comics were
41:04
Speaker 1: like the big sellers, and not every comic has fucking
41:07
Speaker 1: typious but that's not the point. The point is it's great.
41:09
Speaker 1: You should go watch it. It's fun. Is it the
41:11
Speaker 1: best maybe ever ever seen in my life? No, it
41:14
Speaker 1: doesn't fucking have to be get over anyway. Anyway, Anyway,
41:20
Speaker 1: with that, I shall bid you farewell, and I already
41:23
Speaker 1: have a really good plan for next week's episode. I'm
41:25
Speaker 1: really excited, but I shall bid you farewell, my absolute
41:31
Speaker 1: wonderful listeners. You're just amazing, you really are, and I
41:37
Speaker 1: want to just really before I go, say how much
41:40
Speaker 1: I appreciate all of you have stayed with me, even
41:43
Speaker 1: with me not being great the last few weeks. My
41:47
Speaker 1: scan got delayed, so now I'm looking for another time
41:52
Speaker 1: from a scan. I'm trying to get it done sooner,
41:54
Speaker 1: but you hopefully that'll be fine. Anyway, point being, you're
41:57
Speaker 1: all amazing. I appreciate you, and I shall see you
42:01
Speaker 1: next time. Adeous au revoir or will live with my friends.
42:06
Speaker 1: Bye bye,