Inspector Mallon: Buying Irish patriotism for a five-pound note

Description

This is the biography of the famous Irish detective and security policeman, John Mallon (1839- 1915). Son of a small Catholic farmer in republican south Armagh, Mallon rose to be assistant commissioner of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, and for 30 years used the G men (the Detective Division) to subvert revolutionary activity in Dublin. He was remarkably successful: his greatest triumph was bringing to the gallows the Invincibles, who had carried out the Phoenix Park murders. Mallon became a legend in Dublin, and was mentioned in Joyce’s Ulysses. He was very popular with his detectives, always courteous, and never resorted to violence in dealing with suspects, even though he was a master of interrogation. He personally controlled an army of paid informers – the Lord Lieutenant once remarking, “Without Mallon, we would have no one worth a row of beans.”

Table of Contents

Part One: The Making of Ireland’s Policeman

• Under Slieve Gullion
• A Pup in the Dublin Metropolitan Police
• The Testing Years
• Arresting Moments

Part Two: The Phoenix Park Murders

• Murder in the Park
• The White Terror: Catching the Killers
• The Gallows Loom

Part Three: The Great Detective

• Surviving in the Aftershock
• The Great Detective
• The Final Strain
• Back to Slieve Gullion

About the Author

Donal P. McCracken was born and educated in Ireland and is Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Development and Social Science and a Senior Professor of History at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.