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Francis Thomas Aiken (13 February 1898 – 18 May 1983) was an Irish revolutionary and politician. He was chief of staff of the Anti-Treaty IRA at the end of the Irish Civil War. Aiken later served as Tánaiste from 1965 to 1969 and Minister for External Affairs from 1951 to 1954 and 1957 to 1969. He was also Minister for Finance from 1945 to 1948, Minister for the Co-ordination of Defensive Measures 1939 to 1945, and Minister for Defence from 1932 to 1939.
He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Louth constituency from 1923 to 1973, making him the second longest-serving member of Dáil Éireann and the longest-serving cabinet minister. Originally a member of Sinn Féin, he was later a founding member of Fianna Fáil.
Frank Aiken was educated at the Camlough National School and in Newry by Irish Christian Brothers at Abbey Christian Brothers Grammar School, although he had only a 'vague' recollection of school.
He first met Éamon de Valera at the East Clare election in June 1917, riding despatches for Austin Stack.M. Laffan, Resurrection of Ireland: The Sinn Fein Party, 1916-1923 (Cambridge: CUP, 1999), p. 94 During a rowdy by-election at Bessbrook in February 1918, Aiken was elected a captain of Volunteers, stewarding electioneering. As secretary and chairman of the South Armagh district executive (comhairle ceanntair) it was his job to be chief fund-raiser for the Dublin Executive, responsible for the Dáil loan masterminded by Michael Collins.
In 1917, making an outward display of defiance, Aiken raised the republican Irish tricolour, opposite Camlough Barracks in Armagh, a move designed as deliberate provocation.University College of Dublin Archive p. 104/1309, cited by Townshend in "The Republic", p. 32
In March 1918 he was arrested by the RIC for illegal drilling — an act of open defiance that provoked a sentence of imprisonment for one month. On release that summer he joined the secretive Irish Republican Brotherhood fighting Hibernianism in the area. By 1919 Aiken's clandestine activities mainly consisted of arms raids on dumps of the Ulster Volunteers who had imported weapons to resist Home Rule in 1913–14. As well as UVF dumps, Aiken and the Newry Brigade also raided prominent local unionist barracks at Dromilly, Ballyedmond Castle and Loughall Manor. Although they failed to capture many weapons the raids gave experience to newly recruited Volunteers.Lewis, pp. 64-65 Aiken was also responsible for setting up GAA Club, Gaelic League branch, a Cumann na mBan Camogie League.C. Townshend, "The Republic: The Fight For Irish Independence" (London 2014), p. 23. Within a few years he was Chairman of Sinn Féin in Armagh, and was also elected to Armagh County Council. During the First Dáil Election he headed a team from South Armagh who went to Carlingford to assist the Sinn Fein candidacy of J.J. Kelly in Louth where they were attacked by members of the local Ancient Order of Hibernians.Hall, Donal (2019) "County Louth and the Irish Revolution." Irish Academic Press, Ch3.
In May 1920, he led 200 IRA men in an assault on the RIC barracks in Newtownhamilton, attacking the building and then burning it with paraffin sprayed from a potato sprayer; however, the garrison did not surrender.Matthew Lewis, Frank Aiken's War, pp. 67-72 Aiken himself led a squad which blasted a hole in the wall of the barracks with gelignite and entered through it, exchanging shots with the policemen inside.Lewis, pp. 90-91
At a sports event in Cullyhanna in June 1920, Aiken led a group of three men that demanded that three RIC men hand over their weapons. Shooting broke out and one man on each side was killed.
In July, he was almost killed at Banbridge. While riding a motorcycle to Lurgan he was chased by an angry mob. Newry Reporter, 23, 27 July 1920; Eoin Magennis, Frank Aiken: Earl Life, p. 11
In December 1920, he led another assault, this time abortive, on the RIC station in his home village of Camlough. In reprisal, the newly formed Ulster Special Constabulary burned Aiken's home and those of ten of his relatives in the Camlough area. They also arrested and killed two local republicans. From this point onward, the conflict in the area took on an increasingly bitter and sectarian quality. Aiken tried on a number of occasions to ambush USC patrols from the ruins of his family home.Lewis, pp. 71-72
In April 1921, Aiken's men mounted an operation in Creggan, County Armagh to ambush the police and Special Constabulary. One Special constable was killed in the ensuing firefight. Some accounts have reported that Aiken took the Protestant Church congregation in the village hostage to lure the Specials out onto the road.Toby Harnden, Bandit Country, The IRA and South Armagh (1999), pp. 127-128 However, Mathew Lewis states that both Catholic and Protestant churchgoers were held in a pub to prevent their getting caught in the crossfire.Lewis, pp. 78-79 Nevertheless, sectarian bitterness deepened in the area. The following month, the Special Constabulary started shooting Catholic civilians in revenge for IRA attacks.
In June 1921, Aiken organised his most successful attack yet on the British military, when his men derailed a British troop train heading from Belfast to Dublin, killing the train guard, three cavalry soldiers and 63 horses. Shortly afterwards, the Specials took four Catholics from their homes in Bessbrook and Altnaveigh, shooting them dead.
After an IRA reorganisation in April 1921, Aiken was put in command of the Fourth Northern Division of the IRA.C. Townshend, The Republic: The Fight For Irish Independence (2014), p. 457 The cycle of violence in south-east Ulster area continued the following year, despite a formal truce with the British from 11 July 1921 (see The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922)). Michael Collins organised a clandestine guerrilla offensive (Northern Offensive) against the newly created Northern Ireland State. In May 1922, for reasons that have never been properly determined, Aiken and his Fourth Northern Division never took part in the operation, although it was planned that they would.
He was quickly promoted through the ranks, rising to commandant of Newry Brigade and eventually commander of 4th Northern Division from spring 1921. The IRA units he would eventually command extended from County Louth, southern and western County Down, and from March 1921 the whole of County Armagh. Aiken was named by (the IRA Chief of Staff) Eoin O'Duffy as head of the newly formed IRA Ulster Council Command which was tasked with coordination of attacks and preventing the new northern government from functioning effectively.
Nonetheless, the local IRA's inaction at this time did not end the bloodshed in County Armagh. Aiken has been accused by unionists of ethnic cleansing of Protestants from parts of South Armagh, Newry and other areas of the north. In particular, Aiken's critics cite the killing of six Protestant civilians, on an incident called the Altnaveigh Massacre, on 17 June 1922. The attack was in reprisal for the Special Constabulary's killing of two nationalists near Camlough on 13 June and a sexual assault on Una McGuill, the wife of one of Aiken's friends, James McGuill.Lewis Frank Aiken's War, p.15-151. Cites killing of Patrick Greggan and Thomas Crawley and rape or 'attempted rape' of Mrs McGuill and her maid. Linda Connolly, Writing women back into the history of the Irish revolution, Irish Times Feb 18, 2021 Cites the rape of two women at Dromintee Co. Armagh As well as the six civilians, two Special Constables were killed in an ambush, and two weeks later a unionist politician, William Frazer, was abducted, killed and his body secretly buried. It was not found until 1924.Pearse Lawlor, The Outrages, pp. 298-300 Aiken himself led an ambush against some of those who partook in the assault on McGuill's public house on the night of the Altnaveigh ambush. However, it appears that the Specials were alerted to their arrival and this attack did not end in success as the patrol escaped unharmed. At the same time the attack on Altnaveigh and Lisdrumniska was carried out. Robert Lynch, in published research, has documented the deaths of several single Catholic youths whose bodies were dumped on roads approaching these areas on the weeks prior to this assault killings that were attributed to B-Specials who operated from the area. Aiken was quoted on his Divisions retaliatory attacks: "They never hit a nationalist but we hit back twice as hard. We had them cowed in our area." Aiken claimed that at least 60 Specials were killed by his 4th Northern Division in the period from Christmas to June 1922.
Despite his neutrality and pleas for a negotiated end to the Civil War, Aiken was arrested by pro-Treaty troops on 16 July 1922, under Dan Hogan, on the orders of Mulcahy and Collins, and imprisoned at Dundalk Gaol along with about 200 to 300 of his men. After just ten days imprisonment, he was freed in a mass escape of 100 men from Dundalk prison on 28 July. Then, on 14 August, he led a surprise attack of between 300 and 400 anti-treaty IRA men on Dundalk. They blew holes in the army barracks there and rapidly took control of the town at a cost of just two of his men killed. The operation freed 240 republican prisoners seizing 400 rifles. While in possession of the town, Aiken publicly called for an end to the Civil War. However, knowing he could not hope to retain Dundalk militarily he retreated north of the town. In Man of No Property Todd Andrews who accompanied him on the assault stated that: "Had it been carried out against a British garrison under arms it would have been the most successful amphibious assault carried out ever by an IRA Commander." While celebrated in the Anti-Treaty IRA publications it was clear Aiken was not interested in an offensive campaign just taking back what had been his before. For the remainder of the conflict he remained at large with his unit, carrying out no major attacks on Free State forces.Aiken, p. 197 Aiken was to remain unenthusiastic about the internecine struggle.
His son Frank Jr. recalls "I did ask him about the Civil War a little bit, but he wouldn't answer. He'd give me an answer like terrible things happen in wars and worse in civil wars."
Department of the Chief of Staff, General Headquarters, Dublin, April 27th, 1923.Special Army Orders. To OCs, Commanders and Independent Brigades.
Suspension of Offensive
1. I order to give effect to the decision of the government and Army Council embodied in attached Proclamation of this date. You will arrange the suspension of all offensive operations in your area as from now, Monday April 30th.
2. You will ensure that while remaining on the offensive all units take adequate measures to protect themselves and their munitions.
Chief of Staff.Aiken, pp. 205–206
Aiken had remained close to Éamon de Valera, who had long wanted to end the Civil War, and together the two came up with a compromise that would save the anti-Treaty side from a formal surrender. Instead of giving up their weapons, their fighters would receive a further order to 'dump arms' and simply return home as honourable republicans. Aiken wrote: "We took up arms to free our country and we'll keep them until we see an honourable way of reaching our objective without arms".Lewis, Frank Aiken's War, p. 197
The ceasefire and dump-arms order, issued on 24 May 1923, effectively ended the Irish Civil War, though the Free State government did not issue a general amnesty until the following year. Aiken remained IRA Chief of Staff until 12 November 1925. That summer the IRA sent a delegation led by Pa Murray to the Soviet Union for a personal meeting with Joseph Stalin, in the hope of gaining Soviet finance and weaponry assistance. A secret pact was agreed whereby the IRA would spy on the United States and the United Kingdom, and pass information to Red Army military intelligence in New York City and London in return for £500 a month. The pact was originally approved by Aiken, who left his position as chief of staff soon after. He was succeeded by Andrew Cooney and Moss Twomey, who kept up the secret espionage relationship.
He entered the first Fianna Fáil government in 1932 as Minister for Defence.
Aiken was given a vice-presidency, 'Agriculture', by James Ryan at the Ottawa Conference. He advised on the usage of cutting peat bogs in County Meath and visited the Curragh Camp in County Kildare to accelerate land distribution to poor tenantry. Land was released in the 'Midlands' for development. C.S. Andrews credits Aiken for the Turf Development Board in his second autobiography, Man of No Property. The Turf Development Board would later become Bord na Móna. According to Andrews, Lemass said to him "I want you to head this organisation to get Aiken off my back". Aiken remained interested in the development of Ireland's natural resources throughout his political life.
Aiken was not involved in the Anglo-Irish Trade Agreement negotiations which took place on 25 April 1938. According to some sources this was because of his associations with the IRA, while other sources suggest that he was tactically left at home by de Valera – as Aiken was perceived in the UK as a vexed Anglophobe who the Irish would have to convince of their support for the agreement in Dublin.
He gained notoriety in Dublin media circles for overseeing censorship: his clashes with R. M. Smyllie, editor of The Irish Times, ensured this censorious attitude was resented by many. Aiken not only corrected war coverage by The Irish Times, whose editorial line was largely pro-British, but also banned pro-allied war films and even forbade the reporting of parliamentarians' speeches that went against the government line of strict neutrality.Robert Fisk, In Time of War, Ireland, Ulster and the Price of Neutrality, 1939-1945 (Paladin, London, 1985) pp. 165-68 Aiken justified these measures, citing the 'terrible and all prevailing force of modern warfare' and the importance therein of morale and propaganda.Bryce Evans, 'The Iron Man with the Wooden Head'. Frank Aiken and the Second World War, in Bryce Evans and Stephen Kelly, (eds), Frank Aiken: Nationalist and Internationalist (Dublin, IAP, 2014) However, it was the former government minister, Joseph Connolly, and fellow Ulster founder member of Fianna Fáil, who was appointed to the office of censor.
Aiken remained opposed to a British role and partition in Ireland, and was therefore a strong supporter of de Valera's policy of Irish neutrality that denied Britain use of Irish ports during the Battle of the Atlantic. Aiken considered that Ireland had to stand ready to resist invasion by both Germany and Britain, and the Irish Army was expanded under Aiken's ministry. It increased to a strength of 41,000 regulars and 180,000 in auxiliary units – the Local Defence Force and Local Security Force – by 1941, although these formations were relatively poorly equipped.Evans, Frank Aiken, Nationalist and Internationalist, pp. 134-35
Aiken wanted to incorporate the IRA into the Army and offered the former an amnesty in the spring of 1940, which the underground organisation turned down.Evans, Frank Aiken, p. 135. Nevertheless, during wartime as the IRA cooperated with German intelligence and pressed for a German landing in Northern Ireland, the government, with Aiken's approval, interned several hundred of its members and executed six for the shooting of Irish police officers. Even so, Aiken remained somewhat sympathetic to them in private and visited their prisoners in Arbour Hill prison in Dublin. However, he did not appeal for clemency for those condemned to death.Evans, Frank Aiken, p. 137
Thinking that Britain would lose the war in 1940, he refused to back senior British civil servant Malcolm MacDonald's plan for the unification of Ireland in return for the Irish state joining the British effort. In diplomatic negotiations Aiken told him that a united Ireland, if it was conceded, would still stay neutral to safeguard its security and that further talks were 'a sheer waste of time'. Furthermore, the Irish people 'would not support their government taking them into the war without some actual provocation from Germany'.Robert Fisk, In Time of War, Ireland, Ulster and the Price of Neutrality, 1939-1945 (Paladin, London, 1985) pp. 204-206 When asked on American radio about the offer of unity in return for entering the war, he replied, 'most certainly not. We want union and sovereignty, not union and slavery'.Evans, Frank Aiken, p. 140
In March 1941, Aiken was sent to America to secure US supplies, both military and economic, that DeValera claimed Britain was withholding owing to Irish neutrality. Aiken had a bad-tempered meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt in Washington DC. Roosevelt urged Aiken and Ireland to join the war on the allied side asking if it was true that he had said that 'Ireland had nothing to fear from a German victory'. Aiken denied saying this but cited the British 'supply squeeze' as an act of aggression and asked the US to help. Roosevelt agreed to send supplies, but only if Britain consented. At the close Aiken asked the President to 'support us in our stand against aggression'. 'German aggression, yes' Roosevelt replied, to which Aiken retorted 'British aggression too'. This infuriated Roosevelt, who shouted 'nonsense' and 'pulled the tablecloth from sending cutlery flying around the room'.Evans, Frank Aiken, p.141-142 Ultimately, Aiken was not able to secure a promise of American arms, but was able to get a shipment of grain, two merchant ships and coal. Roosevelt also gave 'his personal guarantee' that Britain would not invade Ireland.Evans, Frank Aiken, p.142
Aiken also supported the right of countries such as Algeria to self-determination and spoke out against apartheid in South Africa. Under Ireland's policy of promoting the primacy of international law and reducing global tension at the height of the Cold War, Aiken promoted the idea of "areas of law", which he believed would free the most tense regions around the world from the threat of nuclear war.
The 'Aiken Plan' was introduced at the United Nations in an effort to combine disarmament and peace in the Middle East, Ireland a country being on good terms with both Israel and many Arab countries. In the UN the Irish delegation sat between Iraq and Israel forming a kind of physical 'buffer': in Aiken's time (who as a minister spent a lot of time with the UN delegation) both the Italians (who on their turn sat in the vicinity of the Iraqi delegation), the Irish and the Israelis claimed to be the one and only UN delegation of New York, a city inhabited by many Irish, Jewish and Italians. Aiken was also a champion of nuclear non-proliferation, for which he received the honour of being the first minister to sign the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1968 at Moscow. Aiken's impact as Minister for External Affairs was such that he is sometimes referred to as the father of Irish foreign policy.MacEoin, pg 914 His performance was praised in particular by a later Minister for Foreign Affairs, Fine Gael's Garret FitzGerald.
His wife died in a road accident in 1978. Having been denied the right, through an exclusion order, to attend his family home the former IRA Commander's dying wish was respected by local Fianna Fáil organisation, the Dundalk & District Old IRA and by the 27 Infantry Battalion of the barracks that now bears his name who followed his funeral cortege through Dundalk to the border out of respect to their fallen comrade. His former ministerial colleague, Seán MacEntee, gave the graveside oration.
Aiken Barracks in Dundalk, County Louth, now the headquarters of the 27 Infantry Battalion is named in his honour.
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