Phoenix Park

Magazine Fort, Dublin

Documenting our Heritage

The Christmas Raid

Reasons for raid:

The IRA was still involved with the Sabotage Campaign at the time of the raid, with a lot of units either interned, on the run, in Britain, or recently deported from Britain. A number of members of the Army Council were also on the run- trying to evade capture by the Gardai. The stated reason for a raid on the Fort being ordered was that although the IRA had copious amounts of Thompson submachine guns, the .45 ACP ammunition used in these guns was not in plentiful supply in Europe. By coincidence the Irish Army also used the Thompson and therefore had large supplies of ammunition. Permission was sought to steal ammunition, either from the Magazine Fort, or nearby Islandbridge Barracks. Acting Chief of Staff,  Stephen Hayes, gave the order.

A raid on the Fort was not a new idea- it had been floated by the IRA initially in 1937, but Chief of Staff at the time- Mick Fitzpatrick had dismissed the idea as unworkable, because there would be nowhere to store the stolen ammunition. Hayes, on hearing that the raid was possible, felt he should take the risk. The Christmas season was chosen as the perfect time for the operation, as security was expected to be even more lax than usual. However, the people operating the arms dumps had not been told to expect the sheer amount of weapons eventually amassed during the raid.

On the evening of the Raid the officer responsible for the defence of the fort, the same man who had filled the post for twenty-four years, had the following at his disposal for guard duty:

one Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO),

six men armed with rifles and one Lewis gun,

one Military Policeman (MP)

a fire picket (one NCO and four men also equipped with rifles).

The guard party were warned for duty on the evening of 22 December and given precise instructions as to their duties for the next morning. The Magazine Fort did not have its own troops, these were supplied from infantry units stationed in the Command area. That particular night the 7th (Dublin) Infantry Battalion, a reserve battalion stationed at Portobello Barracks (now Cathal Brugha Barracks), was responsible for supplying the guard whilst the fire picket was supplied by a unit stationed in Islandbridge Barracks (now Clancy Barracks).

Around 2000 hrs that night, according to the statements of the guards, the officer commanding left his post to go into the city. To do this the MP guarding the gates had to switch on the outer lights illuminating the entrance, open the inner gate, then open the outer gate. This was all against standard operating procedure but seemed to be a regular occurrence for visitors arriving and people leaving the fort. Once the officer had cleared the gate the MP closed both gates and went back to his post. A little later the son of the officer-in-charge appeared at the gate and he was let in. Around 2030 the gate bell rang again and the MP saw a civilian who said he had a parcel to deliver to the officer-in-charge. At his court martial, the MP said he would take the parcel and claims he bent down to unbolt the gate, and when he stood up straight again he saw the muzzle of a revolver pointed in his face. The unidentified man told the MP to open the gate fully and put his hands up. At this point the IRA team appeared from both inside and outside the fort, confiscating the weapons of the sentry and MP.

The IRA's 2 prisoners were then forced to act as a protective screen walking in front of the 2 intruders to the guardroom where the remaining soldiers (caught unawares), surrendered also. Whilst this was happening a second IRA team had overcome and disarmed the fire picket troops. At this point all the troops attached to the fort and even the gatekeeper were held prisoner until around 2210 hrs that evening and made no attempt to resist their captors. 

During this time the captives heard 'many' heavy lorries coming and going from the depot. At 2210 hrs the IRA locked the prisoners in the so called 'C' Magazine area which the raiders had completely emptied of weaponry. They were warned not to give away details to the authorities that could identify them.

By this time, an alarm had been raised at Islandbridge Barracks after a lorry failed to stop when driving through the gate. It was 2250 by the time a party of soldiers was dispatched from Portobello Barracks to investigate what was happening at the fort. They got there in time to arrest two out of four suspects who were spied hiding near the entrance to the fort. In the meantime the duty officer at Portobello had raised the general alarm. Around midnight a new guard was ordered posted at the Magazine Fort and orders were issued for the arrest of the old guard.

Over the next three to four days a massive nationwide hunt was launched to find the stolen items. A total of 1,084,000 rounds of ammunition had been taken and removed in thirteen lorries with no casualties or hindrance.

The ammunition didn't remain at large long, however. On 1 January 1940 it was reported that almost three quarters of the ammunition had been recovered- a total of 850,000 rounds;

Two and a half tons were seized in Dundalk, County Louth,

Eight tons in Swords, County Dublin,

Sixty-six cases of Thompsons and ammunition in South Armagh (2 and a half tons captured by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC)),

One hundred crates containing 120,000 rounds in Straffan, County Kildare.

The raid had turned into another disaster for the IRA to contend with. The volume of material stolen, and the massive hunt to recover it that followed turned up all the stolen ammunition and weapons plus more, along with the IRA volunteers attempting to store it. The positive effect on morale that the raid had made evaporated. The day after the raid the Irish Minister for Justice, Gerald Boland, at an emergency session of the Dail introduced the Emergency Powers bill to reinstate internment, Military Tribunal, and executions for IRA members. It was rushed through and given its third reading the next day creating the Emergency Powers Act.