Dillon, Luke

by Desmond McCabe and Owen McGee

Dillon, Luke (1848–1930), revolutionary, was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, son of Patrick Dillon and Bridget Dillon (née McDonagh), recent emigrants from Co. Sligo. In 1854 the family left for the USA, settling first in Trenton, New Jersey, and then permanently in Philadelphia. Following in his father's footsteps, Luke enlisted in the US army (27 August 1867) and was assigned to an infantry regiment in Montana. He saw active service in frontier campaigns against Native American tribes, during which he became friendly with members of certain tribes and learned their languages. While in the army, he was sworn into the Fenian Brotherhood. Discharged from the army on 27 August 1870, he returned to Philadelphia, joined Clan na Gael, and became a leading figure in the movement in that city. During the mid 1870s he established a small credit union in Philadelphia that prospered and remained in operation for many years. Although a close friend and political associate of John Devoy (qv), he opposed Devoy's ‘new departure’ proposals (October 1878), believing that Irish revolutionaries should focus purely on insurrection in Ireland. During the early 1880s, acting against Devoy's wishes, he sided with an extreme wing of the Clan that decided to mount terrorist attacks in London as a reprisal for the British government's suppression of the Land League.

In May 1884 Dillon arrived in London with a dynamite team that detonated explosives at the Junior Carlton Club and underneath the offices of the Special Irish Branch, in the process destroying many British intelligence records. Evading arrest, he escaped to the USA before returning to London again later that year. On 2 January 1885, posing as a tourist, he entered the house of commons during a parliamentary recess and detonated a bomb in one of its rooms, in the process causing significant damage to the main parliamentary chamber nearby. During his absence, the Clan split because its dictatorial executive, the ‘Triangle’, had expelled many Clan camps and severed its link with the IRB because of its opposition to the ‘dynamite war’ policy. On returning to America, together with Devoy, Dillon formed a temporary Clan directory to provide leadership to the expelled camps. This body called for the existing Clan executive to be dismissed and replaced with a more accountable one, and its alliance with the IRB to be restored. By early 1887 this rival Clan organisation had been formally established with the support of the IRB and with Dillon as president; the assassination (May 1889) of Dr P. H. Cronin (qv), a leading figure in the Dillon–Devoy wing of the Clan, cemented the split. Dillon was a witness in the trial that followed, which achieved national publicity in the USA because it was revealed that the assassination was carried out by Clansmen who were also members of the Chicago police force. In June 1889 Dillon issued a public circular denying the accusations of the press that the Clan na Gael was a corruptive influence on American society.

Over the next decade, Dillon was the key figure on the executive of the Croninite wing of the Clan, although Devoy (acting under Dillon's orders) effectively carried out all its important organisational work. In early 1900, dismayed that the reunited Clan decided it was ill-equipped to aid the Boers, Dillon decided on his own initiative to blow up the Welland canal in Ontario, Canada, to prevent Canadian ships bringing supplies and reinforcements to British forces in South Africa. The explosion (21 April 1900) caused considerable damage but failed to destroy the canal. The three men involved were spotted on their retreat from the scene and were arrested soon after. On 25 May Dillon, known only to the court as ‘Karl Dullman’, was sentenced to life imprisonment in Kingston penitentiary. A persistent campaign by Irish-American politicians to secure his release followed, and eventually he was released on 12 July 1914 and deported to the USA.

He returned to Philadelphia and renewed his activity in revolutionary politics, becoming the right-hand man of Joseph McGarrity (qv), the Clan chairman. Primarily as a result of his association with McGarrity, during their American tours of 1919–20 he became a confidant of Éamon de Valera (qv) and especially Harry Boland (qv). Owing to Devoy's bitter opposition to de Valera, McGarrity dismissed him as Clan secretary on 7 November 1920 and put Dillon in his place. Dillon opposed the Anglo–Irish treaty of December 1921 and thereafter, as Clan secretary, supported Boland's efforts to keep Sinn Féin united and committed to the republican programme. On the outbreak of the civil war in June 1922, however, he expressed total support for the anti-treaty IRA and thereafter allied the Clan to that organisation. This caused another split in the Clan, with the larger wing (under Devoy) supporting the Free State, and the minority wing (under McGarrity and Dillon) supporting the IRA. Dillon remained the secretary of the McGarrity wing of the Clan until his death, opposed the creation of Fianna Fáil in 1926, and succeeded in persuading McGarrity to place his total trust in the IRA and disown de Valera. He died 7 January 1930 at his home, 5436 Catherine St., Philadelphia, and was survived by his wife, Mary (m. c.1870), four sons, and one daughter.