Dan Hogan
Dan Hogan, the eldest son of a wealthy farmer from Grangemockler in County Tipperary, was born in 1895. In 1917, he came to Clones, County Monaghan, as a clerk with the Great Northern Railway. There, through his involvement in the Clones GAA club, Hogan met Eoin O’Duffy. They became firm friends and Hogan soon became O’Duffy’s right hand man in both the GAA and Volunteers. Hogan commanded huge respect from his men, one of them remembered that he was ‘A natural leader amongst men and to me second only to Michael Collins.’
Hogan was ruthless when necessary, it seems more so after his brother Michael’s death in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday 1920 when playing for Tipperary against Dublin. Dr Conn Ward, Intelligence Officer, claimed that ‘Bloody Sunday affected Hogan and he wanted to get using the gun at all opportunities.’ Perhaps it was no coincidence that the eight months after Bloody Sunday were the most violent period of the conflict in Monaghan.