Tom Hales

Thomas Hales (5 March 1892 – 29 April 1966) was an Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer and politician from West Cork.

Early years and childhood Thomas Hales was born at Knocknacurra, Ballinadee, near Bandon on a family farm owned by his father, Robert Hales, an activist in the Irish Land War and a reputed member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and his wife, Margaret ( Fitzgerald), Hales was the sixth of nine children (five sons and four daughters). He was educated at Ballinadee national school and Warner's Lane school, Bandon. After leaving school he worked at Harte's timber yard, Bandon. He was elected Battalion Commandant of the 1st (Bandon) Battalion (1917–19), and Brigade Commandant of Cork 3rd Brigade, IRA, in January 1919.

The pair were taken to a nearby military barracks, where they were severely beaten while being interrogated by officers of the regiment. Hales had his fingernails pulled out, this event later inspired a scene in the film The Wind That Shakes the Barley. However, neither Hales nor Harte gave up any information, and were eventually sent to a military hospital to recuperate. Hales was tried and was eventually sentenced to two years' penal servitude, which he served in Pentonville and Dartmoor prisons in England. He was commander of the Irish prisoners at Pentonville, but was released following a general amnesty after the Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921.

A fifth Hales brother, Donal, settled in Genoa from 1913, was appointed Irish Consular and Commercial Agent for Italy in February 1919. In this capacity he played a leading propaganda role; several letters from Michael Collins to Donal Hales still exist which were used by Hales to promote international awareness of the Irish conflict in Italian publications. Donal oversaw a failed attempt to import a substantial amount of weapons and ammunition (captured Austrian stock from the World War I) from Genoa in the spring of 1921, through the person of Gabriele D'Annunzio.

Irish Civil War, against brother Tom and his brother Seán, pictured here, fought together in the Irish War of Independence but on opposite sides of the Irish Civil War. Seán would be assassinated during the Civil war. During the Irish Civil War, Tom and Seán Hales fought on opposite sides, with Tom fighting against the Anglo-Irish Treaty with the Anti-Treaty IRA while Seán joined the newly formed National Army of the Irish Free State. Hales was later awarded a pension by the Irish government under the Military Service Pensions Act, 1934 for his service with the Irish Volunteers and the IRA between 1917 and 1923.

Fianna Fáil and later politics Hales was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for the Cork West constituency at the 1933 general election. Hales resigned from Fianna Fáil in June 1936 stated he could not support their policy on interning IRA members.

He also unsuccessfully contested the 1944 general election as an independent candidate and the 1948 general election as a candidate for Clann na Poblachta, he got 2,287 (7.93%) votes. Hales made his living as farmer. A member of the Mallow area board of the beet growers' association from 1934 to 1942, he was also connected with other farming organisations. He married Ann Lehane from Tirelton, Macroom, on 30 April 1927; they had five children, Hales died in 1966, aged 74.