MB Civic

Irish inspiration for Bond character M
By Tom Peterkin, Ireland Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:58am BST 02/07/2007

An exhibition commemorating the extraordinary career of an Irish spymaster, who was a founder of the British Secret Service, has reawakened age-old Anglo-Irish tensions.

The first attempt to remember William Melville, the inspiration for the ‘M’ character in the James Bond films and books, in the land of his birth has led to adverse comment from ardent Irish republicans.

For decades Melville’s key role as head of Scotland Yard’s Special Branch has been overlooked, particularly in the village of Sneem, Co Kerry, where he was born in 1850.

advertisementIn a part of Ireland known for its republican sympathies, many locals would have been reluctant to acknowledge a man who worked for the British state to foil the Fenian bombing plots of the 1880s.

But in a sign that modern Ireland is prepared to recognise all the traditions that make up its past, his life has been outlined at Kerry County Museum in a major exhibition that tells of his friendship with Harry Houdini, his involvement in the Jack the Ripper case and a story that resonates today as Britain faces a new terrorism threat.

“Here is an Irish Catholic, who was proud of his Irish identity, defending Britain from terrorist threats that included Irish terrorism,” said Helen O’Carroll, the museum curator.

“As a Kerryman born and bred, Melville is part of our story and to fit him in we must acknowledge that Irish identity encompassed a broader spectrum in the past as indeed we are beginning to recognise that it does in the present.”

Robert Beasley, a local Sinn Fein councillor, was less enthusiastic, however.

“I don’t think local people would want to commemorate anything to do with the British Secret Service, whether it is in the past or today. I don’t see any reason to have him honoured,” Cllr Beasley said.

While many of his contemporaries became involved in Ireland’s violent struggle against the British, Melville came to London where he joined the Metropolitan Police.

There he joined the Special Irish Branch set up to combat the Fenian dynamite campaign of the 1880s, which targeted Westminster, the Tower of London and Scotland Yard.

He played an important role in preventing the Jubilee Plot, an Irish attempt to ruin Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee celebrations. Around that time, he also unsuccessfully pursued an American Francis Tumblety, who was one of the main suspects in the Jack the Ripper case.

Two disarmed bomb casings thought to have been part of an anarchist bomb plot uncovered by Melville have been sent to Ireland from Walsall for the exhibition.

Melville established a rapport with Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, who he guided around the criminal haunts of London.Houdini was another acquaintance, who taught him how to pick locks. It has also been suggested that Melville recruited the great escapologist for espionage work.

In 1903, Melville was head hunted by the War Office’s new Directorate of Military Operations. Later his work was dominated by the threat of Germany. He was part of the Secret Service Bureau, the forerunner of MI5 and MI6 set up in 1909. Three years later he discovered a network of German agents.

The SSB left the network in place, intercepting correspondence until 1914 when they rounded them up, an action that crippled German secret operations in Britain.

The James Bond connection comes through Sidney Reilly, aka Sigmund Rosenblum, an agent recruited by Melville in the 1890s. Reilly, an international man of mystery, is said to be one of the spies that Ian Fleming based his Bond character on. As Reilly’s boss, Melville was known as ‘M’.

“Up to two years ago I had never heard of William Melville and I’m pretty confident I’m not alone in that,” said Ms O’Carroll. “There are two reasons for this.

In the first place there is the fact that he spent all of his adult career in the service of the ‘ancient oppressor’, Britain. The second reason is because of his work in secret service. After all, the best spies are the ones we don’t know about.”

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