Extensive checks to back up Creek document on British gunners action in Four Courts attack

With reference to Dr T. Ryle Dwyer’s article (Irish Examiner, Nov 1) concerning the (Percy) Creek memoir, as the advising historian on the BBC Radio 4 show, I can confirm that the Creek document was not used in isolation: to the contrary, his army records and his unit records were checked, and British Cabinet documents were employed extensively in the making of the programme.

Dr Dwyer states that Collins “insisted the only help he would accept was arms and artillery.”

However, this position is flatly contradicted in British cabinet minutes in which Collins is clearly noted as telling them that he is “willing to employ British gunners and to utilise 60 pdr guns” (CAB/23/39). In fact, prior to the arrival of Creek’s battery, a British artillery officer was already present at the Battle of the Four Courts with the four 18-pounder field guns, to assist in their use.