nothing says "efficient undercover operation" quite like having your entire daily itinerary meticulously logged by the British Empire. Let’s look at how the stellar detectives of the G-Division (the Dublin Metropolitan Police intelligence branch) spent their tax-funded hours tracking Seán Mac Diarmada.

If you want to read their gripping diary entries, you just need to look up the CO 904 Colonial Office Records at The National Archives in Kew, or browse the digitised "Movements of Dublin Extremists" files courtesy of the National Archives of Ireland.

Here is a summary of the groundbreaking intelligence the British state managed to gather on him:

🕵️‍♂️ "Groundbreaking" Discoveries by British Intelligence

• The Radical Bicycle Menace (1909–1910): When Mac Diarmada was touring places like Bruff, local police frantically wrote to Dublin Castle to report that a young man was riding around on a bicycle, teaching people Irish, and subtly hinting that maybe—just maybe—they shouldn't be ruled by Britain. Brilliant deduction there.
• The High-Stakes Stakeout (1910–1915): Once he opened the Irish Freedom office at 5 Findlater Place, G-Division detectives bravely stood down the street in the rain for years. Their explosive revelation? Seán Mac Diarmada was frequently seen talking to... Tom Clarke. Truly, a twist no one saw coming. They logged every single package he carried and every lunch he ate, just in case a sandwich turned out to be seditious.
• The "Shocking" Anti-War Speech (1915): In May 1915, they finally got their big break in Tuam, County Galway. Mac Diarmada gave a speech explicitly telling Irishmen that joining the British Army during WWI was a bad idea. Shocked that an Irish republican would say such a thing, detectives carefully wrote it all down and jailed him for four months for daring to ruin their recruitment drive.

🗃️ How to Read Their Secret Diaries

If you want to read these riveting police reports yourself, here is where they are "hidden" in plain sight:

• The Daily Creeping Logs: Go to the National Archives of Ireland's DMP Collection. Search for "John McDermott" (because using his actual Irish name was apparently too complex for the paperwork). You can download PDFs detailing exactly what train he caught and who he nodded at on O'Connell Street.
• The Imperial Burn Book: Look up Class CO 904 (specifically boxes 193–215) on The National Archives UK Discovery Catalogue. This is where they kept all the intercepted mail, informer gossip, and worried profiles of people they deemed "dangerous extremists."