George Plant

George Plant (5 January 1904 – 5 March 1942) was a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) who was executed by the Irish Government in 1942.

George Plant was born into a Church of Ireland farming family in Fethard County Tipperary on 5 January 1904, the second eldest child and son in a family of six children.

His parents were John William Albert Plant, a farmer, and Catherine Hayden.

One Sunday in 1916 George and his older brother Jimmy were arrested by the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) after being seen speaking to two well known Republicans, Seán Hayes and Dan Breen.

In custody the two brothers were beaten and mistreated; they both developed a hatred of the RIC.

George Plant served with the Third Tipperary Brigade of the IRA during the Irish War of Independence and with the Anti-Treaty IRA in the Irish civil war.

In 1923 George Plant and his brother Jimmy left Ireland for Canada and the United States but continued as active IRA members.

In 1929 they returned to Ireland and carried out a bank raid in Tipperary town on behalf of the IRA (17 April 1929).

They were arrested two days later at the family farm and subsequently sentenced to 7 years in prison.

In 1932 they were released in a general amnesty after the election victory of the Fianna Fáil party and Éamon de Valera as Taoiseach (Prime Minister and head of government of Ireland).

In 1939, following the outbreak of World War II, (known in Ireland as The Emergency), de Valera was determined to maintain Irish neutrality and would not allow the IRA to jeopardise this policy.

The IRA links with Germany and the IRA's 1939-40 sabotage/bombing campaign in Britain (the S-Plan) severely strained Anglo-Irish relations and emergency legislation was introduced in both Ireland and The United Kingdom.

The Military Tribunal system was established under the Emergency Powers Act 1939 and has been referred to as: "...draconian legislation re-introducing internment, flogging and the death penalty for subversive activity."

The Offences against the State Acts 1939–1998 allowed for the detention of persons deemed dangerous to state security and was used during the Border campaign (Irish Republican Army) 1956-1962.

In addition to Plant, Joseph O'Connor, Paddy Davern and Michael Walsh were also now charged with Devereux's murder.

Sean Russell, the IRA Chief of Staff, died in August 1940 after taking ill on board a U-boat and Stephen Hayes from County Wexford became IRA chief of staff (Plant was a strong supporter of Seán Russell).

On 22 August 1940 an address on Lansdowne Road Dublin was raided by the Garda Síochána.

Among the men arrested was Michael Devereux, a 24-year-old married truck driver from County Wexford who was also Quartermaster of the IRAs Wexford Brigade of the IRA.

He was released after three days without charge.

Shortly afterwards Gardaí in County Wexford found an IRA arms dump.

Many in the IRA suspected that Devereux had turned informer, so Stephen Hayes ordered Devereux's execution.

One of the main allegations made against Hayes was that he informed the Garda Síochána about IRA arms dumps in Wexford and set up Devereux as the informer.

Within IRA circles, Hayes is still considered a traitor and an informer.

A week later, on 27 September 1940, Devereux was invited to go for a walk with George Plant and Paddy Davern, the owner of the safe house.

Somewhere along the walk Plant accused Devereux of being an informer and shot him dead.

George Plant was arrested nine weeks later on suspicion of IRA membership and brought before the Special Criminal Court in Dublin.

In June 1941 (while being held captive) Hayes wrote a four page confession to the charges of providing information to the Irish Government.

George Plant and another man, Michael Walsh from County Kilkenny, were ordered to carry out the execution of Devereux.

Michael Devereux met Plant and Walsh who told Devereux that Tom Cullimore, the Wexford Brigade's OC was blamed for the discovery of the arms dump and that Plant and Walsh had shot him.

They ordered Devereux to drive them to an IRA Safe house at Grangemockler in South County Tipperary.

Devereux, believing he was a suspect in a murder, stayed willingly at the safe house.

In September 1941 Stephen Hayes was himself taken prisoner and accused of being an informer by a group of Northern IRA members led by Seán McCaughey.

Hayes managed to escape his guards and fled to a Garda station.

Shortly afterwards a large force of Garda Síochána and Irish Army descended on the area around the Davern farmhouse where they found Devereux's car buried under an onion bed and eventually discovered Devereux's body on Slievenamon mountain, a year to the day after his death.

Two weeks later, George Plant, already in prison on IRA membership charges, was charged with Devereux's murder.

A trial was held with a senior IRA officer Joseph O'Connor also charged with Devereux's murder.

The first trial collapsed after two days when Paddy Davern and Micheal Walsh, two of the prosecution witnesses, refused to give evidence.

This result led to the court issuing a nolle prosequi order which should have meant the end of the affair, however both men were rearrested and recharged with the same offence, under Emergency Order 41f.

Justice minister Gerald Boland transferred the case to a Special Military Court with army officers acting as judges.

The men were represented by Seán MacBride who argued (unsuccessfully) that it was a fundamental rule of law that a person could not be put in jeopardy twice for the same offence.