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    â€˜Our scouts gave warning of the approach of the military. Dan immediately gave the order to march and we proceeded down St Michael’s Road for some distance and halted. The RIC laughed as they thought we had taken to flight, but they were soon to find out otherwise; instead we held a council of war.
    â€˜The military, armed with rifles, had by now arrived and took up positions in Maguire’s (stonecutters) Yard opposite the courthouse, some in the courthouse yard, others above and below the courthouse in St Michael’s Street. We had by this time divided our whole party into four sections and, at a blast of the whistle from Dan Breen, we came back on the double.
    â€˜Dinny Lacey took charge of one of the new sections. Lacey got round to the back of the courthouse. Paddy Deere, who took charge of the other, took up a position above the courthouse, near the Convent Cross. My party went to the back of Maguire’s Yard and Dan Breen took up his old position, thereby surrounding the RIC and the military.’
    Crowe recalled that the officer in charge had a sense of humour and laughed at being cornered. The Volunteers went into the courthouse and made ‘a laughing stock’ of proceedings. When the case was over they marched away from the courthouse to the local market yard where they were dismissed by Breen.
    The British army and the RIC may have been mildly amused by this exercise in toy soldiers but the more sober amongst them would have noted the fact that what confronted them that day was, assuredly, some kind of organised opposition which was being carried out along military lines.
    A few local people were forced to support the rebels whether they wanted to or not. One volunteer claimed, ‘It was decided by the battalion or by the brigade headquarters to place a levy on each farmer of five shillings per cow for every cow he owned. The farmers were notified beforehand of the amount of their levy. When we called to collect some paid up at once, saying we were great boys and deserving of support. With others it was not quite so easy and in some cases it was necessary to seize and sell cattle for the amount due. In the latter cases only the amount of the levy was retained and the balance of the money was returned to the former owners of the cattle … A portion of it was handed over to the local branch of the White Cross organisation and the balance of it was forwarded to brigade headquarters.’
    Around October 1918, people began to call the Volunteers ‘the IRA’. At a meeting overseen by Richard Mulcahy from GHQ, the Third Tipperary Brigade of the IRA took shape. Eamon O’Duibhir became assistant quartermaster under Dan Breen. ‘There was some opposition to Dan Breen as quartermaster,’ O’Duibhir said. ‘It came from the southern end of the county and those delegates said that I was doing the work and why not I be appointed quartermaster. I thanked them for their attitude but said that Dan Breen was the man and I agreed to be assistant brigade quartermaster.’
    Séamus Robinson was appointed commandant in a manoeuvre masterminded by Séan Treacy in cahoots with Breen. Treacy was appointed vice-commandant.
    â€˜Treacy had arranged that Robinson should be appointed brigade commander to suit his own purpose,’ Breen later claimed. ‘He wanted a sort of yes-man or a stooge as we would call it now, in the position and we thought that Robinson would serve this purpose.’
    Breen said that Treacy reckoned the two of them were ‘too unknown and unproved to carry any weight in Tipperary and it must be remembered that a man who had the label of being one of the Volunteers who fought in 1916 was still a hero to us all in 1918.’
    Breen and Treacy – having discussed things between themselves – had, prior to the meeting, travelled to Kilshenane to check Robinson out. They liked what they saw and on a subsequent visit