Some Nasty Close Shaves in Galway

by Tom Kenny 

Baker’s Hotel and Billiard Rooms on Eyre Street was run by Captain Baker who had served with the British Army during the war. It was much frequented by the Black and Tans, some of whom (including Edward Crumm) stayed there.

Baker’s daughter Eileen, who had recently saved a little boy named Hennessy from drowning in the canal, gave evidence at the military enquiry into the death of Constable Crumm. The local volunteers suspected her of being too friendly with the Tans and because of that she had a startling experience on the morning of September 18th, 1920.

“I came down about half-past seven and the first thing I did was to open the door to admit the postman. He had just gone to the opposite side of the street on the footpath and I had turned my back when the folding doors were flung open. I heard the bang and as I turned around, six tall men came in. They wore black cloths all over their heads and faces. One man walked up to me with a revolver. I thought at first that they wanted me to go upstairs to the police, but one of them pulled me into the middle of the hall, the other man holding the revolver to me while the man behind caught my plait – I had my hair in plaits at the time – near my head. I was too terrified to cry out and there was no one about except myself. They cut the plait with a single clip. The whole thing came on me quite suddenly and was over in five minutes. They said very little but they searched all the police coats and caps before they walked out. The man with the revolver had a razor as if they intended to shave my head. I was in a state of collapse”. Her head had been cropped very close.

Later that evening, during curfew hours, parties of men carrying revolvers and torches, wearing black and white masks, slouch hats and uniforms called upon Mr. James Lally, postman St. Nicholas’ Street and subsequently upon Mr. Patrick Lally, his brother at Abbeygate Street. They gave the latter five minutes to tell them the names of the men who entered Baker’s Hotel to cut Miss Baker’s hair and not receiving any satisfaction, `they left him.

Subsequently the houses of Mrs. Madden, St. Brendan’s Terrace, Mrs. Broderick, Prospect Hill and Mr. Turke were visited and admission demanded “In the name of the Irish Republican Army”. Miss Gertie Madden, Miss Peggy Broderick and Miss Margaret Turke were taken outside the doors and their hair cropped close with three pairs of scissors wielded by three men whilst a fourth held an electric torch. The Irish Times reported that the party visited a fourth lady who was engaged in a drapery establishment in the city, and not finding her, were said to have proceeded to her residence some distance out in the country, and there cropped her hair. The way they chopped the girl’s hair was very crude, Peggy Broderick had to go to her hairdresser the following morning to have what was left of her hair trimmed so that it would grow back in an even way.
Eileen Baker became the national billiards champion in 1925.