Irish War of Independence centenary

[45x45]

We should respect the will of the Irish people and give them full independence. Stop the privileges they enjoy now and treat them like the foreigners they want to be. Same treatment as a Frog, Nip, Dago or Septic!

What you going to do when Scotland goes indy. Full English perhaps. 17,000 Yes Cymru members now. After next month that's going to rocket. Johnson is doing a sterling job for us. He's a top bloke!

 

[Auld-Yin]

What you going to do when Scotland goes indy. Full English perhaps. 17,000 Yes Cymru members now. After next month that's going to rocket. Johnson is doing a sterling job for us. He's a top bloke!

After Scottish independence the movement will transfer to Yorkshire obvs!

 

[Mike Barton]

The Gods smiled on Tipperary today as the footballers beat Cork to win their first Munster Title since 1935. To mark the occasion the team wore replicas of the jerseys worn on Bloody Sunday instead of their usual blue and yellow strip. If they win the All Ireland we'll never hear the end of it.

Edited to add that the Ulster Final yesterday threw up surprise winners in the shape of Cavan. So by coincidence this year's All Ireland semi-finalists will be the same teams as that of the 1920 competition- Dublin v Cavan and Tipperary v Mayo. Due to the ongoing violence though, the 1920 final won't be played until June 1922.

I presume the fact that they are playing so late in the year is due to COVID-19. Have sports restarted in Ireland? Are the fans allowed in the grounds?

At this rate the final will be held some time around Christmas, no?

 

[Gary Cooper]

I presume the fact that they are playing so late in the year is due to COVID-19. Have sports restarted in Ireland? Are the fans allowed in the grounds?

At this rate the final will be held some time around Christmas, no?

Normally the All Ireland competitions end in late August/ early September. The provincial deciders would be played in the early summer. Thanks to Covid 19 inter county games only resumed last month and the All Ireland finals will be played on 13 December (hurling) and 19 December (football). All matches are behind closed doors as far as I know.

 

[par avion]

especially as @Gary Cooper rattles us through this busy week,

Gary is going to become a lot busier in the coming weeks and months. Especially from the 28th November. Its been pretty much a stroll in the park up to this month. Just taking out the odd local RIC man at church or in front of his familly.

 

[Mike Barton]

Gary is going to become a lot busier in the coming weeks and months. Especially from the 28th November. Its been pretty much a stroll in the park up to this month. Just taking out the odd local RIC man at church or in front of his familly.

And like Chamberlain confidently stating that Hitler had missed the bus a week before the invasion of Norway, so Lloyd-George's confident claim that the British government had "murder by the throat" on Nov. 10 is going to come back and bite him on the ass big time.

The British administration in Ireland will not survive this current couple of weeks, the writing is now on the wall. The government has run out of cards to play, they can flood Ireland with all the Auxies they can scrape together and impose martial law on ever more counties but Lloyd-George knows the time is up, as does Griffith who is trying to get peace feelers out before Ireland is wrecked for two or more bitter generations.

It is going to take them almost another year and the final settlement will be worse for both sides than it could have been a year earlier, as is so often the case.

 

[par avion]

And like Chamberlain confidently stating that Hitler had missed the bus a week before the invasion of Norway, so Lloyd-George's confident claim that the British government had "murder by the throat" on Nov. 10 is going to come back and bite him on the ass big time.

The British administration in Ireland will not survive this current couple of weeks, the writing is now on the wall. The government has run out of cards to play, they can flood Ireland with all the Auxies they can scrape together and impose martial law on ever more counties but Lloyd-George knows the time is up, as does Griffith who is trying to get peace feelers out before Ireland is wrecked for two or more bitter generations.

It is going to take them almost another year and the final settlement will be worse for both sides than it could have been a year earlier, as is so often the case.

Well as in everything there are always a lot of 'what if's'. What if the 1916 Easter uprising hadn't have happened? You would have had two Divisions of Irish troops - the 10th and 16th Divisions who would have had just as much the moral high ground as the 36th Ulster Division. Home rule and partition would have still happened but the Protestant population in the South wouldn't have been ethnically cleansed from 10% to 3% which Paisley always liked to quote in his opposition to a united Ireland.

Ireland wouldn't have been ruled by a priest ridden catholic dictatorship and a third of the population of the south wouldn't have needed to emigrate (mainly to England). If they hadn't tried to kill off the Northern state by violence despite Collins signing a Treaty maybe by 1969 they might have been looking towards a united Ireland. But the IRA campaign from 1969 achieved nothing but death and destruction. Even some of their leaders admit this. It probably put the unification of Ireland back another 100 years.

The IRA has been a curse on Irish history for the last 100 years. Even de Valera had a number of IRA men shot in the Irish Emergency (what the rest of the world called World War Two). Still they wouldn't have all those rebel songs like 'Come out ye Black and Tans,' 'My little Armalite,' and 'Kevin Barry' ( who would probably have moved to Kilburn and died at the age of 100 after receiving a card from the Queen), all the while knocking back pints of guinness unaware that the founder of the firm - Arthur Guinness was a Protestant Irishman from Dublin and a pro British Unionist.

 

[Mike Barton]

Well as in everything there are always a lot of 'what if's'. What if the 1916 Easter uprising hadn't have happened? You would have had two Divisions of Irish troops - the 10th and 16th Divisions who would have had just as much the moral high ground as the 36th Ulster Division. Home rule and partition would have still happened but the Protestant population in the South wouldn't have been ethnically cleansed from 10% to 3% which Paisley always liked to quote in his opposition to a united Ireland.

Ireland wouldn't have been ruled by a priest ridden catholic dictatorship and a third of the population of the south wouldn't have needed to emigrate (mainly to England). If they hadn't tried to kill off the Northern state by violence despite Collins signing a Treaty maybe by 1969 they might have been looking towards a united Ireland. But the IRA campaign from 1969 achieved nothing but death and destruction. Even some of their leaders admit this. It probably put the unification of Ireland back another 100 years.

The IRA has been a curse on Irish history for the last 100 years. Even de Valera had a number of IRA men shot in the Irish Emergency (what the rest of the world called World War Two). Still they wouldn't have all those rebel songs like 'Come out ye Black and Tans,' 'My little Armalite,' and 'Kevin Barry' ( who would probably have moved to Kilburn and died at the age of 100 after receiving a card from the Queen), all the while knocking back pints of guinness unaware that the founder of the firm - Arthur Guinness was a Protestant Irishman from Dublin and a pro British Unionist.

Sure a lot of what-ifs, certainly. But I am intrigued that your what-ifs start with Easter 1916. Almost every historian would say that the problem did not come out of a clear blue Easter Monday morning in Sackville Street. It started four years earlier when the "loyalists" of Ulster in cahoots with reactionary throwbacks in the Tory establishment and Army high command assisted and egged on an armed rebellion against the Crown and Parliament.

Irish nationalism for the previous century had pursued a doggedly constitutional line, they had to all intents and purposes given up "the pike in the thatch". When legitimate grievances about land ownership were resolved through constitutional means Ireland achieved a state of peace and stability hitherto undreamed of.

The Irish Parliamentary Party (big clue in the name there) sought legitimate and constitutional reform in the shape of a milk-and-water Home Rule parliament (the sort of Home Rule Scotland and Wales currently enjoy). And they got it, fair and square through electoral means, there was a solid majority in the House of Commons, the Irish had gained what they wanted through peaceful campaigning and democratic politics, the sort of thing they were always told to do. A self-evidently decent and honourable man like John Redmond had proven to the Irish people what working through the constitutional process, rather than resorting to violence, could achieve.

And the "law-abiding", "loyal" people of Ulster erupted in armed rebellion, conspiracy, gun running and mutiny.

Padraig Pearse openly stated he was inspired by the UVF, he said the sight of rifles in the hands of Orangemen was a good thing, now all that was needed for the Nationalists in the rest of Ireland to follow suit.

The Ulstermen brought the gun back into Irish politics, they reaped what they sowed.

 

[Gary Cooper]

24 November 1920​

On the corner of Infirmary Road and North Circular Road, Dublin, a patrol of the 15th Hussars and an RIC man named Thomas Dillon waited for a tram to come to a stop and then ordered the alighting passengers to put their hands on their heads for a search. Shots were fired and when the smoke cleared, Constable Dillon and Lance Corporal William Turner lay dead on the ground.

Constable Thomas Dillon was a regular RIC man from February 1917 to March 1920 when he joined the RIC Reserve. Transferred to the Black and Tans for the extra money presumably. The subsequent Court of Enquiry found that Dillon was shot by a member of the military. Dillon was from Roscommon. It was a bad day to be from Roscommon apparently, see below.

537303 Lance Corporal William Turner, 15th (The King's) Hussars. Turner was 18 and from Stoke-on-Trent. His death was laid at the feet of persons unknown. The newspapers at the time implied that members of the patrol panicked for some reason and Dillon and Turner died in the crossfire.

The cairogang website suggests that A/Cpl Herbert Williams was court-martialled for one of the deaths and served 52 days for manslaughter.

Constable Michael Dennehy, RIC, from Caheciveen, Co. Kerry. There is some confusion about how and when Michael Dennehy died. Dennehy left the RIC Barracks in Rooskey, County Roscommon and went to Knockhall where he met with a woman named Mary Horton. At about 8.30pm he was kidnapped by the IRA, court martialled for espionage and executed. Some people claim he was drowned in the River Shannon and his body never recovered. Others claim his body floated ashore in Co.Longford and yet more say Dennehy wasn’t executed at all but fled to America. This may have happened on 24 November 1920 or 21 May 1921, again sources vary.

Even more confusingly Bernard Ward, also of County Roscommon, was lifted by the IRA and also drowned for being a spy on this date. Possibly confusion over who was who in these two events.

Michael Moran, O/C Tuam Bn, IRA was arrested and brought to Galway. While under escort from Eglinton Street Barrcks to Earl’s Island, Moran was “shot while trying to escape”. Earl’s Island was home to the 7th Lancers and some Black and Tans during the WOI. It’s now the O’Donoghue Drama Centre, part of Galway University.

 

[Mike Barton]

24 November 1920​

On the corner of Infirmary Road and North Circular Road, Dublin, a patrol of the 15th Hussars and an RIC man named Thomas Dillon waited for a tram to come to a stop and then ordered the alighting passengers to put their hands on their heads for a search. Shots were fired and when the smoke cleared, Constable Dillon and Lance Corporal William Turner lay dead on the ground.

Constable Thomas Dillon was a regular RIC man from February 1917 to March 1920 when he joined the RIC Reserve. Transferred to the Black and Tans for the extra money presumably. The subsequent Court of Enquiry found that Dillon was shot by a member of the military. Dillon was from Roscommon. It was a bad day to be from Roscommon apparently, see below.

537303 Lance Corporal William Turner, 15th (The King's) Hussars. Turner was 18 and from Stoke-on-Trent. His death was laid at the feet of persons unknown. The newspapers at the time implied that members of the patrol panicked for some reason and Dillon and Turner died in the crossfire.

The cairogang website suggests that A/Cpl Herbert Williams was court-martialled for one of the deaths and served 52 days for manslaughter.

Constable Michael Dennehy, RIC, from Caheciveen, Co. Kerry. There is some confusion about how and when Michael Dennehy died. Dennehy left the RIC Barracks in Rooskey, County Roscommon and went to Knockhall where he met with a woman named Mary Horton. At about 8.30pm he was kidnapped by the IRA, court martialled for espionage and executed. Some people claim he was drowned in the River Shannon and his body never recovered. Others claim his body floated ashore in Co.Longford and yet more say Dennehy wasn’t executed at all but fled to America. This may have happened on 24 November 1920 or 21 May 1921, again sources vary.

Even more confusingly Bernard Ward, also of County Roscommon, was lifted by the IRA and also drowned for being a spy on this date. Possibly confusion over who was who in these two events.

Michael Moran, O/C Tuam Bn, IRA was arrested and brought to Galway. While under escort from Eglinton Street Barrcks to Earl’s Island, Moran was “shot while trying to escape”. Earl’s Island was home to the 7th Lancers and some Black and Tans during the WOI. It’s now the O’Donoghue Drama Centre, part of Galway University.

I mentioned a few pages back that among the victims the IRA often chose to shoot as spies were disproportionately ex-soldiers and what we now call Travellers but who were referred to as Tinkers back in the day.

Judging by his name I suspect Bernard Ward may have fallen into the latter category.

 

[Gary Cooper]

25 November 1920​

Thomas Doyle from Dolphin’s Barn, Dublin was shot dead by a military patrol at about 6 pm. It was claimed that he failed to halt when challenged.

Arthur Griffith, Eamonn Duggan and Eoin MacNeil were arrested, three of 500 arrests made countrywide in the week after Bloody Sunday. Michael Collins took over as Acting President of the Republic.

Frank Carty, Vice O/C Sligo Brigade IRA, was recaptured at his home near Tubbercurry where he had been recuperating from illness. Carty had been broken out of Sligo Jail in June. He was taken to Sligo barracks and then transferred to Derry Jail, from where he escaped again in February 1921. He was arrested again, in Glasgow, in April 1921 and sentenced to 10 years in prison but was released after the signing of the Treaty in December.

Constable Witherdon, who had survived an ambush in Dundalk on 21 August, was left in a critical condition after accidently shooting himself in the head with a gun he was showing to a friend.

 

[Gary Cooper]

26 November 1920​

The IRA ambushed a lorry of 1st Bn, The Buffs near Glanworth in Co. Cork. The soldiers were returning from the inquiry into the death of Denis O'Donnell in Kildorrey (see 24 November) when they were attacked with grenades and rifle fire in the townland of Labbacallee. Two soldiers were killed and four wounded.

Wounded were Lt. Millow and Ptes Mathews, Miller and Young.
KIA were;

6278145 Corporal Ernest Hall DCM, 1st Bn. The Buffs (East Kent Regiment). Hall was aged 27, a married man from Stalybridge, Lancashire with over 12 years’ service. He had served in France from September 1914, earning his DCM in 1916. He is interred in Wandsworth (Streatham) Cemetery, London.

Corporal E Hall DCM, 6278145, 1st Bn. The Buffs (East Kent Regiment)

6278154 Bandsman Walter Gammon, 1st Bn. The Buffs (East Kent Regiment). Like Hall, Gammon served in France from September 1914. He was 29 with 11 years’ service. Gammon was from Ramsgate, Kent where he is interred.

Bandsman Walter Spencer Gammon 6278154, 1st bn. The Buffs (East Kent Regiment)

Glanworth Ambush

Two IRA men were killed in an accidental explosion in Cork. The explosion occurred in a coachbuilders workshop on Watercourse Road, where the two were presumably trying to make an IED. William Mulcahy and Denis Morrissey, both in 1st Bn, Cork No 1 Bde, died at the scene.

Lieutenant Denis Carey, 1st Bn, Tipperary No 1 Bde, from Nenagh, Co. Tipperary was killed by four men believed to be members of the RIC. A man arrested with him managed to escape.

Volunteer Mortimer Duggan, a teacher and member of the IRA, was shot dead while running from a raid on a pub in Broadford, Co. Limerick.

Patrick Moran, a 33-year-old IRA volunteer and veteran of the 1916 Rebellion from Crossna, Co. Roscommon was arrested in Dublin. He will be executed on 14 March 1921.

 

[Gary Cooper]

​

Two Sinn Féin types apparently caught dissing the Union Flag get to parade around Dungarvan for British Pathé News. Must have been nerve wracking to be followed down a country lane by an Auxie holding a revolver. Also the flag's upside down.

 

[CutLunchCommando]

Also the flag's upside down.​

Quite apt really.

 

[Mike Barton]

​

Two Sinn Féin types apparently caught dissing the Union Flag get to parade around Dungarvan for British Pathé News. Must have been nerve wracking to be followed down a country lane by an Auxie holding a revolver. Also the flag's upside down.

Indeed, given the number of men shot while trying to escape recently the Shinners must have been grateful the Pathe crew was there.

 

[Gary Cooper]

27 November 1920​

Two brothers from Ardrahan, Co. Galway – Patrick and Henry Loughnane were arrested by the Auxiliaries. After interrogation in Gort RIC Barrack the two were taken to a wood and shot in the head. An attempt was made to burn the bodies before they were dumped in a pond. The bodies were discovered on 4 December and interred in Shanaglish cemetery. Both men were members of the IRA and had [participated in the ambush in which Constable Timothy Horan was killed at Castledaly (see 30 October).

In Castlemartyr, Co. Cork a negotiation between three IRA men and two RIC men went awry. The IRA men were trying to get access to the police barracks in the village. During the negotiations Constable Timothy Quinn from Co. Tipperary and the IRA driver, Liam Heffernan from Conna, Co. Cork were fatally wounded. Heffernan, shot by Sergeant Curley, drove out of the village before dying. Quinn was shot by Joseph Aherne and died of wounds on 28th.

Constable Maurice Quirke was shot leaving his lodgings in Cappoquin, Co. Waterford and died two days later. Constable Quirke was popular in the area and his killing caused some resentment against local IRA men.

There were riots in Derry.

 

[twentyfirstoffoot]

Two brothers from Ardrahan, Co. Galway – Patrick and Henry Loughnane were arrested by the Auxiliaries. After interrogation in Gort RIC Barrack the two were taken to a wood and shot in the head. An attempt was made to burn the bodies before they were dumped in a pond. The bodies were discovered on 4 December and interred in Shanaglish cemetery

A lot nastier than you make it sound. Relatives of mine.

"They were first interrogated in Gort RIC barracks, then tied to the tailgate of a lorry and dragged to Drumharsna Castle near Ardrahan where they were eventually killed. (For interrogated read beaten in shifts all night by the RIC before being given over to the Auxillaries)

Their bodies were taken to a spot near where they were killed and burned, but the Auxiliaries neglected to bury the bodies and instead threw them into a muddy pond where they were discovered 10 days later.

Evidently the brothers had been savagely beaten and tortured. Two of Harry’s fingers were cut off. Patrick’s legs and wrists were broken. Both their skulls were so fractured that a doctor speculated that hand grenades were blown up in their mouths."

One of most powerful images of War of Independence

 

[Gary Cooper]

A lot nastier than you make it sound. Relatives of mine.

"They were first interrogated in Gort RIC barracks, then tied to the tailgate of a lorry and dragged to Drumharsna Castle near Ardrahan where they were eventually killed. (For interrogated read beaten in shifts all night by the RIC before being given over to the Auxillaries)

Their bodies were taken to a spot near where they were killed and burned, but the Auxiliaries neglected to bury the bodies and instead threw them into a muddy pond where they were discovered 10 days later.

Evidently the brothers had been savagely beaten and tortured. Two of Harry’s fingers were cut off. Patrick’s legs and wrists were broken. Both their skulls were so fractured that a doctor speculated that hand grenades were blown up in their mouths."

One of most powerful images of War of Independence

View attachment 524085

Some accounts from both sides can go completely overboard, The doctor's comment that the bodies were in such a state that it appeared as if hand grenades were detonated in their mouths is often cited as the literal way in which the men were killed. I try not to repeat anything I think is just propaganda.

 

[Gary Cooper]

28 November 1920 ​

In Co. Cork the Kilmichael Ambush took place. After Bloody Sunday, Kilmichael may be the war’s second best known event. The IRA were led by Tom Barry, who seemed to be out to make himself famous. The event is still somewhat controversial, with historians sniping at each other in the letter pages of newspapers, allegations being made made that the Auxiliaries surrendered and then resumed firing, that writers made up interviews with participants and that the IRA killed their prisoners after the battle.

The IRA Flying Column was mobilised on the day if Bloody Sunday and spent the week preparing for the ambush. Barry’s flying column numbered between 36 and 40 men armed with an assortment of weapons; Lee Enfield rifles, Ross rifles, revolvers, shotguns and some grenades. They had about 35 rounds of ammunition per man. Most of the IRA Volunteers wore civilian clothes, but some, like Barry himself, wore an Irish Volunteer tunic.

C Company Auxiliary Division RIC had been based at Macroom Castle since early September. As Auxiliaries went, they don’t seem to have been all that bad and had only killed the one man in that length of time. Their patrol commanders had fallen into the fatal flaw of using the set routes and times for their patrols.

Map of the Kilmichael Ambush​

Barry had chosen an ambush site on the Macroom to Dunmanway road about 1.5 miles south of the village of Kilmichael, anticipating three lorries in the convoy. In fact two turned up and the site that was chosen was on a bend in the road so that the first lorry would be out of site of the following vehicles when the attack began. The ambushers moved into position before dawn on Sunday 28th November. It was a long cold wait until the Auxiliaries turned up at 4.30 in the evening. Barry deployed his men as shown in the map above.

Barry was standing by the side of the road. Some accounts said that he was wearing British army uniform, Barry himself said a Volunteer tunic. In the dusk the two were probably indistinguishable anyway. He presumably flagged down the lorry and ten initiated the ambush by throwing a grenade into the cab, killing the driver. The riflemen in the command post and in 1 Section opened fire at point blank range and all nine Auxiliaries in the first lorry were killed within minutes.

Photograph of part of the ambush site taken in the 1920s
​

The area where 2 Section was located at the rocky outcrop beside the road. The Auxiliaries second lorry stopped here and this is where the IRA’s three fatalities occurred. 3 Section was located near the camera’s position.

At 2 Section’s position the firing was again at close range. One IRA man was probably killed and at least one wounded here during the initial firefight. It is usually claimed that Mick McCarthy was killed after the "false surrender" Jack Hennessy who received a scalp wound but survived left a witness statement in which he recalled McCarthy being killed early on. After the occupants of the first lorry were dealt with, Barry had moved up from the Command Post with the three riflemen he had there to engage the second lorry. Here he later claimed to have witnessed the false surrender. The story was that an Auxiliary on the road threw down his rifle and called out that he was surrendering. Some men broke cover to take the surrender whereupon the Auxiliary either took back up his rifle or drew his revolver and resumed firing. Three men were hit in this burst of firing- John Lordan, Jim Sullivan and Pat Deasy. Sullivan's and Deasy’s wounds proved fatal. According to Barry he gave the order to continue firing until all the Auxiliaries were dead. The wounded, according to Hennessy’s witness statement, were finished off with bayonets and rifle butts.

A the end of the ambush 16 Auxiliaries were dead, along with three IRA men. One Auxiliary, Cadet HF Forde, was wounded, left for dead but survived. It is frequently said that Forde was left with permanent brain damage but this appears to be untrue. He appears to have married and had a couple of children. Forde lived until 1941 and died in Rhodesia.

Frederick Henry Forde MC

Cadet Cecil Guthrie had escaped and was captured by an IRA unit while travelling on foot cross country back to Macroom. Guthrie was executed two days later and his body buried in a bog. In 1926 locals had him exhumed and he is interred in Inchegeela Churchyard not far from Kilmichael. Guthrie joined the RIC on 19th August 1920, Auxiliary no. 294. He had been a Lieutenant in the RAF, and was a native of Fyfe. He was the only one of the Kilmichael Auxiliaries to have been married and his wife was living in Macroom at the time of his death.

The Auxiliaries KIA were;

District Inspector Francis Crake MC, 27. joined the RIC 14th August 1920, Auxiliary No. 205. Ex Captain, Hampshire Regiment, and a native of Northumberland. Home address: 22 Westgate Road, Newcastle on Tyne. Buried at Elswick, Newcastle on Tyne.

T/Cadet William Barnes DFC, 26. joined the RIC 18th August 1920, Auxiliary No. 269. Ex Lieut. RAF, and a native of Surrey. Home address: 47 Glebe Road, Sutton, Surrey. Buried at Bexhill Churchyard, Sutton

T/Cadet Cyril Bayley, 22. joined the RIC 18th August 1920, Auxiliary No. 328. Ex Lieut. RAF, and a native of Lancashire. Home address: 24, Reynard Road, Chorlton-Cum-Hardy, Manchester.

T/Cadet Leonard Bradshaw, 22. joined the RIC 18th August 1920, Auxiliary No. 297. Ex Lieut. Royal Field Artillery, and a native of Lancashire. Home address: 24 , Larkhill Terrace, Blackburn.

T/Cadet James Gleave DFC, 21. joined the RIC 18th August 1920, Auxiliary No. 266. Ex Lieut. RAF, and a native of Worcester. Home address: Crundale near Canterbury.

T/Cadet Philip Graham, 31. joined the RIC 18th August 1920, Auxiliary No. 274. Ex Captain, Northumberland Fusiliers. Home address: 14 Wooton Road, Abingdon, Berkshire. Buried at Abingdon.

T/Cadet William Hooper-Jones, 24. Auxiliary No. 413. Ex Lieut. Northumberland Fusiliers, and a native of Hampshire. Buried at Holcombe near Bury.

T/Cadet Frederick Hugo OBE MC, 40. joined the RIC on 16 November 1920, Auxiliary No. 820. Ex Major Royal Engineers & Indian Army, and a native of London. Home address: Grove House, Southgate. Buried at Southgate.

T/Cadet Albert Jones, 33. joined the RIC on 18th August 1920, Auxiliary No. 268. Ex 2nd Lieut Shropshire Regiment, and a native of Northamptonshire. Home address: 56 Swindon Road, Wroughton, Wiltshire.

T/Cadet Ernest Lucas, 31. joined the RIC on 18th August 1920, Auxiliary No. 292. Ex 2nd Lieut Royal Sussex Regiment, and a native of Sussex. Home address: 42 Fox Street, Shaldon, Tidworth

T/Cadet William Andre Pallister, 25. joined the RIC 22 October 1920, Auxiliary No. 822. Ex Captain, West Yorkshire Regiment, and a native of Yorkshire. Home address: 71 Primrose Avenue, Sheffield. Buried at Burngreave Cemetery, Sheffield.

T/Cadet Henry Oliver Pearson, 21. joined the RIC 31st May 1920 as a Defence of Barracks Sergeant, Auxiliary No. 835. Ex Lieut. Yorkshire Regiment, and a native of Co Armagh.

T/Cadet Frank Taylor, 22. joined the RIC 18th August 1920, Auxiliary No. 331; Ex Lieut. RAF, and was a native of Kent. Home address: 21 Seaview Road, Gillingham, Kent.

T/Cadet Christopher Herbert Wainwright, 36. joined the RIC 18th August 1920, Auxiliary No. 330. Ex Capt Royal Dublin Fusiliers and Royal Irish Rifles. He had 10 years army service, and was a native of Lancashire. Home address: 13 Brunswick Road, Gravesend.

T/Cadet Benjamin Webster, 30. joined the RIC 16th November 1920, Auxiliary No. 832. Ex Lieut. Black Watch, and was a native of Lanark. Home address: 300 Langside Road, Crosshill, Glasgow.

Constable Arthur Poole, 21. joined the RIC 24th September 1920, ex Motor Fitter RAF, and was a native of London. Home address: Muriel Street, Kings Cross, London. Buried on 06.12.1920 at Kensal Rise Cemetery, London. He and four brothers came through the war unscathed. You’ll notice from his rank that Poole wasn’t an Auxiliary but a Black and Tan.

IRA Casualties

Commandant Michael McCarthy Vice OC 3rd Bn, Cork No 3 Bde. McCarthy was from Dunmanway, aged 25. He had been released from Wormwood Scrubs earlier in the year while on hunger strike.

Lieutenant James O’Sullivan, 23, a farmer from Kilmichael and a member of Kilmeen Coy, Cork No 3 Bde

Volunteer Patrick Deasy, aged 16, from Bandon. 1st Bn, Cork No 3 Bde.

All three are buried in Castletownkinneigh Cemetery, Co. Cork.

C Company ADRIC

Kilmichael Ambush

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[Gary Cooper]

More reading on Kilmichael

Guerilla Days in Ireland by Tom Barry

The IRA and Its Enemies by Peter Hart

Tom Barry, IRA Freedom Fighter by Meda Ryan

There seems to be no objective books on Kilmichael. Barry wanted to make Tom Barry look good, Hart seemed to want to make the IRA look as bad as possible while Ryan thinks membership of the IRA is just a small step under actual sainthood. It's been many years since I read Barry's account, about 20 since reading Hart and I avoid Meda Ryan at all costs.

Witness Statements in the Bureau of Military History of men who took part in the ambush. A reminder that the statements were taken almost 40 years after the event and may be subject to false memories or people adding in details they heard from others.

Jack Hennessy’s Witness Statement

https://www.militaryarchives.ie/col...ory-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1234.pdf#page=5

Tim Keohane’s Witness Statement

https://www.militaryarchives.ie/col...ory-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1295.pdf#page=6

James Murphy’s Witness Statement

https://www.militaryarchives.ie/col...ory-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1684.pdf#page=6

Edward Young’s Witness Statement

https://www.militaryarchives.ie/col...ry-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1402.pdf#page=14

Cornelius Kelleher’s Witness Statement (Not a participant but describes events directly after the ambush from around page 10)

https://www.militaryarchives.ie/collections/online-collections/bureau-of-military-history-1913-1921/reels/bmh/BMH.WS1654.pdf