Emmet Dalton | |
|---|---|
 Dalton photographed inlieutenant's uniform,Royal Dublin Fusiliers | |
| Born | (1898-03-04)4 March 1898 Fall River, Massachusetts, United States |
| Died | 4 March 1978(1978-03-04) (aged 80) Dublin, Ireland |
| Buried | Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom Irish Republic Irish Free State |
| Service | British Army Irish Republican Army National Army |
| Rank | Major general |
| Conflicts | |
| Awards | Military Cross |
| Spouse | |
James Emmet Dalton,MC (4 March 1898 – 4 March 1978) was an Irish army officer and film producer. He served in theBritish Army in theFirst World War, reaching the rank of captain. However, on his return to Ireland he became one of the senior figures in the Dublin Brigade of the guerrillaIrish Republican Army which fought againstBritish rule in Ireland.
He was a close associate ofMichael Collins and travelled with Collins to London separately from the Irish treaty negotiating team. He was military liaison officer for the treaty talks. During theIrish Civil War, he held one of the highest ranks, as major general, in the pro-TreatyNational Army but resigned his command following the death of Collins. Dalton later founded a film production company in London and founded Ardmore Studios in Wicklow together withLouis Elliman in 1958, producing a number of notable pictures in the 1950s and 1960s.
Dalton was born inFall River, Massachusetts, to Irish-American parents James F. and Katharine L. Dalton (née Riley). The family moved back to Ireland when he was two. He grew up in a middle-class Catholic background inDrumcondra inNorth Dublin and lived at No. 8 Upper St. Columba's Road. He was educated by theChristian Brothers atO'Connell School in North Richmond Street.[1] He joined the nationalist militia, theIrish Volunteers in 1913 and the following year, though only fifteen, was involved in the smuggling of arms into Ireland.[2][3]
Dalton joined the British Army in 1915 for the duration of the Great War. His decision was not that unusual among Irish Volunteers, as over 20,000 of theNational Volunteers joined the BritishNew Army on the urgings of Nationalist leaderJohn Redmond. Dalton's father, however, disagreed with his son's decision. Emmet Dalton initially joined the 7th Battalion of theRoyal Dublin Fusiliers (RDF) as a temporary 2nd Lieutenant.[1][4][5] By 1916, he was attached to the 9th Battalion, RDF,16th (Irish) Division under Major-GeneralWilliam Hickie, which contained many Irish nationalist recruits.
During theBattle of the Somme in September 1916, Dalton was involved in bloody fighting during theBattle of Ginchy, in which over 4,000 Irishmen were killed or wounded.[4] Among the casualties wasTom Kettle, a former nationalist Member of Parliament and personal friend of Dalton's father and of Emmet. Dalton was awarded theMilitary Cross for his conduct in the battle.[6][7] Afterwards he was transferred to the6th Battalion, Leinster Regiment, and sent toSalonika thenPalestine, where he commanded a company and then supervised a sniper school inEl Arish.[4] In 1918 Dalton was re-deployed again to France, and in July promoted to captain, serving as an instructor.[8][4]
On demobilisation in April 1919, Dalton returned to Ireland.[4] There, finding that hisyounger brother Charlie had joined the IRA, Dalton himself followed suit. Dalton later commented on the apparent contradiction of fighting both with and against the British Army by saying that he had fought for Ireland with the British and fought for Ireland against them.[8]
As assistant director of training,[9] he became close to Michael Collins and was involved in theSquad, the Dublin-based assassination unit. On 14 May 1921, Dalton led an operation withPaddy Daly that Dalton and Collins had devised. It was designed to rescue Gen.Sean McEoin from Mountjoy Prison using a hijacked British armoured car and two of Dalton's old British Army uniforms.[4]
Dalton followed Collins in accepting theAnglo-Irish Treaty in 1922 and was one of the first officers – aMajor General – in the new National Army established by the Irish Provisional Government of theIrish Free State. The Treaty was opposed by much of the IRA and the Irish Civil War between pro and anti-treaty factions eventually resulted.
Dalton was in command of troops assaulting theFour Courts in theBattle of Dublin which marked the start of the war in June 1922. At Collins' instigation Dalton, as military liaison officer with the British during the truce, took control of the two 18-pounder guns from the British that were trained on the buildings. He became commander of the Free State Army under Mulcahy's direction. He was behind theIrish Free State offensive of July–August 1922 that dislodged the anti-treaty fighters from the towns ofMunster. Dalton proposed seaborne landings to take the anti-treaty positions from the rear, and he commanded one such naval landing that tookCork city in early August.[2] In spite of firm loyalty to the National Army, he was critical of the Free State's failure to follow up its victory, allowing the anti-treaty IRA to regroup resuming the guerrilla warfare started in 1919.[10]
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On 22 August 1922, he accompanied Michael Collins in convoy, touring rural west Cork. The convoy was ambushed nearBéal na Bláth and Collins was killed in the firefight. Dalton had advised him to drive on, but Collins, who was not an experienced combat veteran, insisted on stopping to fight.[11][7]
Dalton was married shortly afterwards (on 9 October 1922) to Alice Shannon in Cork's Imperial Hotel.[4] By December 1922 he had resigned his command in the Army. He did not agree with theexecution of republican prisoners that marked the latter stages of the Civil War. After briefly working as clerk of theIrish Senate, he left this job to work in the movie industry.
Over the following forty years, he worked in Ireland and the US in film production. In 1958, he founded IrishArdmore Studios in Bray. His company helped produce films such asThe Blue Max,The Spy Who Came in from the Cold andThe Lion in Winter, all of which were filmed in Ireland.[10] His daughter is Irish actressAudrey Dalton.[12]
Emmet Dalton died in his daughter Nuala's house in Dublin in 1978 on his 80th birthday, never having seen the film thatCathal O'Shannon ofRTÉ had made on his life. During the making of the film they visited the battlefields in France (including Ginchy and Guillemont on the Somme),Kilworth Camp in Cork, Béal Na Bláth, and other places that Dalton had not visited since his earlier years. He wished to be buried as near as possible to his friend Michael Collins inGlasnevin Cemetery in Dublin, and was buried there in March 1978 after a military funeral.[12] None of the rulingFianna Fáil government ministers or TDs attended.[4]
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