Assassination
The founder members were Paddy Daly (leader), Patrick Buckley, Mick McDonnell, Ben Barrett, James Conroy, Sean Doyle, Joe Leonard, Pat McCrea, Jim Slattery, and Bill Stapleton. They were employed full time and received a weekly wage.
On 30 July 1919, the first assassination authorised by Michael Collins was carried out when Detective Sergeant "the Dog" Smith was shot near Drumcondra, Dublin. The Squad would continue targeting plainclothes police, members of the G Division of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, and—occasionally—problematic civil servants. Organisationally it operated as a subsection of Collins' Intelligence Headquarters. Two of the executions by The Squad" were the killing on January 21, 1920 of RIC Inspector William Redmond of the DMP "G" Division and on March 2, 1920 a British double agent John Charles Byrnes
Further members included Mick Love, Gearoid O'Sullivan, Patrick Caldwell, Charlie Dalton, Mick O'Reilly, Vincent Byrne, Sean Healy, James Ronan, Tom Keogh, Tom Cullen, Paddy Lawson, John Dunne and Johnny Wilson. Seán Lemass and Stephen Behan (the father of Irish writers Brendan and Dominic Behan) have also been put forward as members of the Apostles. Understandably, there is no hard evidence to support many of these names; however, those that subsequently served in the Irish Army have their active service recorded in their service records held in the Military Archives Department in Cathal Brugha Barracks, Rathmines. Dr. Andy Cooney is also reported to have been associated with "The Squad".
Read more about this topic: The Squad (Irish Republican Army Unit)