Charlie Daly


Charlie Daly, born in Castlemaine, Co. 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 and had risen to the rank of Commandant General and was the Officer Commanding the Second Northern Division of the Irish Republican Army. Under the Defence of the Realm Act he
was incarcerated at Cork Male Prison 1918-1919 for unlawful assembly; specifically "throwing stones at the police". In his wound pension application of 1937 George Lennon noted him as Officer Commanding No. 10 Wing. A "smash up strike" resulted in solitary confinement
and ill treatment for the men.
Accompanied by Liam Lynch and George Lennon he was at the Mansion House on 7 January 1922 when a majority voted to accept the Treaty. He subsequently took the anti-treaty side in the Civil War.
On 2 November 1922, Charlie Daly was captured and imprisoned at Drumboe Castle in Donegal, where he was held until 16 January 1923, when he was court-martialled and sentenced to death and executed on 14 March 1923. Daniel Enright, Sean Larkin, and Timothy O'Sullivan were executed with him. Enright and O'Sullivan were also from Kerry. Daly was shot in retaliation for an act he did not commit - the shooting of Captain Bernard Cannon a pro-treaty National Army officer.
His sister May Daly was a significant figure in Sinn Féin in Kerry up to the 1970s; she stood in the 1957 general election in Kerry North, polling 3,171 votes.
One of his descendants, Mark Daly, was elected senator in 2007 for Fianna Fáil. Another one of his Descendants, Lorraine Clifford-Lee, was elected as a Fianna Fáil senator in 2016. While another one of his descedents, Pa Daly was elected as a Sinn Féin TD in 2020.