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Patrick Daly (5 June 1888 – 16 January 1957), sometimes referred to as O'Daly, served in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence Michael Collins: A Life by James Mackay, p. 132 and subsequently held the rank of major-general in the Irish National Army from 1922 to 1924. During the Irish Civil War, he was implicated in the murder and cover-up of a number of Anti-Treaty IRA prisoners in County Kerry.
On 19 December 1919, Daly along with Dan Breen led an abortive ambush, at Ashtown railway station near the Phoenix Park, on the British Viceroy, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Supreme Commander of the British Army in Ireland, Lord French, as he returned from a private party which he had hosted the previous evening at his country residence in Frenchpark, County Roscommon. Lord French escaped the ambush but Martin Savage was shot dead. Michael Collins: A Life by James Mackay, p. 139
Daly and the men under his command were responsible for the killing of many British intelligence officers, in particular District Inspector Redmond, who had been putting increasing pressure on the squad. Daly himself personally killed several people, including Frank Brooke, director of Great Southern and Eastern Railway, who served on an advisory council to the British military, in June 1920. He did not directly lead any of the attacks on Bloody Sunday but was on standby in one of the Squad's safe houses. In the aftermath, 23 November 1920, he was arrested and interned in Ballykinlar Camp in County Down.
He was released on parole from Ballykinlar in March 1921 – the British apparently being unaware of his senior position within the Dublin Brigade of the IRA. After his release, Daly, along with Emmet Dalton, was also involved in the attempt to free Sean Mac Eoin from Mountjoy Prison on 14 May 1921. He and his men hijacked a British Army Peerless armoured car in Clontarf at the corporation abattoir, while it was escorting a consignment of meat to a barracks and shot dead two soldiers in the process. The plan involved Dalton and Joe Leonard impersonating two British army officers (wearing Dalton's uniforms from his days as a soldier during World War I) and using forged documents to "transfer" MacEoin to Dublin Castle. They gained entry to Mountjoy, but were discovered before they could free MacEoin and had to shoot their way out. They later abandoned the armoured car after removing the Hotchkiss machine guns and setting fire to what they could. Towards the end of the war, in May 1921, the two principal fighting units of the IRA's Dublin Brigade, the "Squad" and the "Active Service Unit" were amalgamated after losses suffered in the Burning of the Custom House. Daly was put named Officer commanding (OC) of this new unit, which was named the Dublin Guard.Neligan, David (1968), The Spy in the Castle, MacGibbon & Kee, London, pg 126, SBN 261.62060.6
Daly's own account of his activities during the War of Independence is held at the Bureau of Military History in Cathal Brugha Barracks.
In August 1922, during the Irish Free State offensive that re-took most of the major towns in Ireland, Daly commanded a landing of 450 troops of the Dublin Guard at Fenit, County Kerry which went on to capture Tralee from the anti-treaty forces. Acting with severe brutality in Kerry, Daly commented: "Nobody had asked me to take kid-gloves to Kerry, so I didn't".Cottrell, Peter, The Irish Civil War 1922–23 (London 2008), p.24. As the Civil War developed into a vicious guerrilla conflict, Daly and his men were implicated in series of atrocities against anti-treaty prisoners (see Executions during the Irish Civil War), culminating in a series of killings with landmines in March 1923. Daly, and others under his command, claimed that those killed were accidentally blown up by their own mines. Statements by the Garda Síochána (stymied from procuring evidence), two Free State lieutenants on duty – W. McCarthy and Niall Harrington – and one survivor, Stephen Fuller, maintained the claims were fabricated. Daly was "always close at hand" when inquests were held, twisting the circumstances of prisoner deaths in "the most brazen way".Seán Enright (2022). ‘’The Irish Civil War. Law Execution and Atrocity’’ (Newbridge, Merrion Press), pp. 124–126, 162–163
He volunteered his services for the Irish Army again in 1940 and was appointed as a Captain to the non-combatant Construction Corps.
On his death in 16 January 1957 Daly profile he was buried with full military honours in Mount Jerome cemetery. He was survived by his brothers, Comdt Seamus O'Daly and Capt Frank O'Daly, his sons Patrick and Colbert, and his daughters Brede and Philomena.
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