Charlie Daly

Charlie Daly (10 August 1896 – 14 March 1923), born in Castlemaine, County Kerry, was the second son of Con. W. Daly, of Knockanescoulten, Firies, County Kerry. He went to school, first to Balyfinane National School, and later to the Christian Brothers at Tralee.

Daly had been an active member of the Irish Volunteers from 1913 (before the Easter Rising). Under the Defence of the Realm Act 1914 he was incarcerated at Cork Male Prison 1918–1919 for unlawful assembly; specifically for "throwing stones at the police". In his wound pension application of 1937 IRA leader George Lennon noted Daly as the Officer Commanding (O/C) the prisons No. 10 Wing. A "smash up strike" in the jail resulted in solitary confinement and ill treatment for the men. Charlie Daly rose to the rank of Commandant General in the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Daly was the O/C the IRA's Second Northern Division during the critical time period before the Partition of Ireland (see The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922)).

Accompanied by IRA leaders Liam Lynch and George Lennon he was at the Mansion House on 7 January 1922 when a majority voted to accept the Treaty. Daly subsequently took the anti-treaty side in the Irish Civil War and was executed (in retaliation) on orders from the newly formed Irish Free State government (see Executions during the Irish Civil War).