Eamon de Valera pictured at the funeral of Tom Hales in April 1966. Hales (b. March 1892 d. 29 April 1966) was an IRA volunteer and politician from West Cork. Born at Knocknacurra, Ballinadee, near Bandon, he and his brothers, Sean, Bob and William, fought with the IRA during the Anglo-Irish War. During the Irish Civil War the Hales brothers fought on opposite sides. Tom Hales commanded the Flying Column which attacked the Free State Army convoy at Beal na Blath which resulted in the death of his friend, Michael Collins. He was elected to Dail Eireann in 1933 as a member of Fianna Fail. old black and white