irlsgt
LE
The “father of the US Navy” and it’s first commissioned officer, John Barry, was from Wexford.
The founder of the Argentine Navy and its first Admiral, William Brown, was from Mayo
Irish War of Independence centenary
- Thread starter bohs_man
- Start date
LE
The founder of the Argentine Navy and its first Admiral, William Brown, was from Mayo
AULD_SWEAT
LE
Thomas Francis Meagher. Transported to Tasmania. Escaped, General in the Union Army in the American Civil War. Ended up as Governor of Montana. Apologies for thread drift.
Gary Cooper
LE
3 March 1921
Constable Joseph Duddy was killed in an ambush in Co. Waterford. From Co. Armagh, Duddy was stationed in Ballyduff, having joined the RIC in November 1920. He had served in the RASC and RE during the war.
An online chronology mentions two ambushes, the one in which Duddy died at Scartnacrooks and another at Mocollop in which an unnamed policeman died. They appear to be the same ambush.
Francis Elliott was shot and killed by the IRA as a spy. Elliott answered the door at night to two men dressed like policemen, looking for the road to Athlone. Elliott went with them and his body was found the following morning with the usual note attached. He was probably shot simply for being an ex-serviceman.
Gary Cooper
LE
Lieutenant General Sir William Butler was another. His wife was the military artist.
William Butler (British Army officer) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Onetap
LE
Good point. This could deviate into an entirely separate thread.
Irish Brigade (France) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Battle of Fontenoy - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
This man had a particularly colourful CV.
Myles Keogh - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
And there are innumerable descendants of Irish emigrants.
Patrice de MacMahon - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
J'y suis. J'y reste.
Typhoid is a terrible illness. It leaves you dead or it leaves you an idiot. And I know what I'm talking about, I've had it.
Patrick O'Rorke - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
Immortalised on the big screen in 1948 by Ward Bond, directed by the master of westerns mr john Ford who also made a interesting film called the Informer
bohs_man
MIA
A very interesting film with an unfortunate choice of name for the lead character (played by Victor McLaglen):Patrick O'Rorke - Wikipedia
Immortalised on the big screen in 1948 by Ward Bond, directed by the master of westerns mr john Ford who also made a interesting film called the Informer
The Informer (1935 film) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Winner of 4 Oscars.
bohs_man
MIA
The RIC barracks where Constable Duddy was based is still there and latterly became a Garda station before closing:
Ballyduff Upper R.I.C. Station, Co. Waterford
Ballyduff Upper R.I.C. Station, Co. Waterford Niall C.E.J. O’Brien Ballyduff Garda Station is noted for its unusual architecture for a police station which is enhanced by its dramatic locati…
niallbrn.wordpress.com
Looks a fine old building. The story of it being out of place and that it should have been builit in India is not unusual, I heard the same thing said about Mckee Barracks in Dublin (formerly Marlborough Barracks)
Gary Cooper
LE
4 March 1921
Constable James Beasant was shot dead in Cantwell’s Pub in Cashel, Co. Tipperary. The killing was carried out by four men; Bill O'Donnell, Tom Nagle, Patrick Keane (above) and Paddy Hogan. Nagle and Hogan fired the shots that killed Beasant while Keane and O’Donnell stood guard in the street. The barmaid, Josie Cantwell was hit, officially by a ricochet, but Keane’s story in later years was that she was sitting on Beasant’s knee at the time. Keane’s account of the killing starts on Page 5 of his witness statement. An interesting character, he had served in the Royal Irish Regiment in WW1, fought with them in the 1916 Rising, was captured during the March Offensive in 1918 and deserted the army when home on leave after the war.
Beasant was from Wiltshire, aged 25 and an ex-serviceman of course. He is interred in Swindon.
Edited to add
The Cashel Company of the IRA in 1921. Paddy Keane is the lad with the Lewis Gun.
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Gary Cooper
LE
5 March 1921
The Clonbanin Ambush in Co. Cork resulted in the deaths of four soldiers. The ambushing party consisted of about 100 men from Newmarket Battalion Column, under Sean Moylan, a section of the Kerry No. 2 Brigade Column, under Tom McEllistrim, a section of the Charleville Battalion Column, under Paddy O'Brien and the Millstreet Battalion Column under Con Meany. The military convoy consisted of three lorries, an armoured car and a touring car escorting Brigadier-General Hanway Cumming DSO.
In the initial firing the drivers of one of the lorries and the armoured car were wounded with both vehicles crashing. The MG of the armoured car could not be trained on the attackers. When the armoured car was taken out of the ditch after some time, it was sent for reinforcements and the IRA withdrew. Major Charles Congreve was awarded the OBE for his actions during the ambush.
The dead were;
Brigadier-General Hanway Cumming DSO, age 53 from London. Cumming began his career in the Durham Light Infantry.
Lieutenant Harold de Maligny, RASC, age 33 from Croydon.
3378394 Private Harold Turner, East Lancashire Regiment. Age 22 and from Manchester.
3379257 Private William Walker, East Lancashire Regiment. Age 18 and from Lewisham, Kent.
In Tipperary, IRA men Tom Lee and Patrick Ryan were sleeping in a barn at Coffey’s farm near Fethard. The farm was raided by the police, with the two men escaping. They split up but Lee was shot and fatally wounded as he crossed a road making his way towards Cashel.
Second Lieutenant Eric Wilson, 1st Bn, Bedfordshire Regiment. A patrol led by Wilson was ambushed in Roscommon on 3rd March. Wilson was wounded and died on the 5th. He was 24 years old and from Bedford. He had been wounded twice during the war.
Jeremiah O’Mahony was accidentally shot dead by a comrade while trenching a road near Dunmanway, Co. Cork.
Mike Barton
LE
I had never heard of a brigadier-general being killed in the Irish War of Independence.
Gary Cooper
LE
Nor had I.
Mike Barton
LE
Throw in Henry Wilson and that's two British generals killed in such a small (in the scale of world conflicts) campaign.
Gary Cooper
LE
6 March 1921
Following the shooting of Constable Beasant in Cashel on 4th March, the men who carried it out stayed one night near New Inn, a village about 5 miles from the town. On the night of the 5th, they moved to other houses in the area with Patrick Keane and Patrick Hogan staying in a farmhouse belonging to the Dagg family. The house was raided by the military early in the morning of 6th March with Paddy Hogan being killed in the subsequent shoot out. Patrick Keane was taken prisoner and held in Cahir Military Barracks for a couple of weeks before escaping. Captain C F K Marshall RFA, commanding the search party, was wounded. Patrick Hogan was OC 2nd Bn, 3rd Tipperary Bde. Aged 23 and from Dualla, Co. Tipperary.
Elsewhere in Tipperary, a patrol of the Lincolnshire Regiment under Lieutenant Ormond surprised a meeting of the local battalion officers in a stable near Drangan. The ensuing firefight left three IRA men dead.
Martin Clancy, Adjutant Drangan Company was hit and killed about 150 yards from the stable while escaping. A man named Denis Croke who was with him was wounded and captured. Clancy's brother Patrick had been killed in November 1920.
Dick Fleming, Captain Moyglass Company, was killed by a grenade in the stable.
Patrick Hackett, Lieutenant Drangan Company, was hit by Lewis Gun fire and died in Tipperary Military Hospital the following day.
The IRA attempted an ambush on a car carrying Army officers to Portmarnock Golf Course in Co. Dublin. They fired on the wrong car and killed the driver, John O’Neill, a baker from Great Brunswick Street. O’Neill had served in the Australian Army in the war.
Henry Guy, also an ex-serviceman, was killed by the Auxiliaries in Dublin.
James Hayden a 35 year old farmer from Rathanna, Co. Carlow was shot dead when he failed to halt for a patrol of the North Staffordshire Regiment.
Cornelius Foley was part of an IRA group surprised by an Auxiliary patrol near Macroom, Co. Cork. Foley was hit as he fled and died later in the day. The Auxiliaries took about 20 prisoners.
Sergeant James Maguire, RIC, was shot by the IRA as he left Kilmallock Post Office. A married man with eight children, Maguire was 50 years old with 20 years service.
Bridget Walpole, a 57 year old widow, was taken from her home and shot dead near Tralee, Co. Kerry. The IRA denied any involvement and the RIC agreed. Suspicion fell on her late husband’s relatives who wanted to make sure they inherited the family farm.
Edited to add
In fact, two separate attacks were planned on the oil refinery – one on the oil store, and one on the works itself. In the latter case Gilbert Barrington and Tommy Durham, a Jarrow man, gained entry to the premises, but the volunteers who were assigned to start the fire did not turn up. These were Joseph and John Connolly, the Adjutant and O/C of Jarrow Company. Following an investigation they were replaced by David Fitzgerald and John Philbin respectively. They must have given an adequate explanation as they continued in membership of the Jarrow ISDL and were regular attenders at subsequent meetings of the branch. Only one volunteer was convicted in the courts – Owen Salmon, who received a sentence of seven years for his part in the operation. Another member of the unit, Anthony Dunleavy, was arrested on April 6th, but was able to provide an alibi in court and was acquitted.
Tyneside’s forgotten fight for Irish freedom
The IRA in Tyneside was almost 500 strong and played a useful role in the War of Independence
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Gary Cooper
LE
7 March 1921
During the night of 6th/7th March 1921, George Clancy, Lord Mayor of Limerick and Michael O'Callaghan, ex-Lord Mayor of Limerick were shot dead in their homes.
Both men had been receiving threatening letters for a couple of years and did not often stay at their homes. O’Callaghan had risked returning to the family home after his term as Mayor ended on 31st January. He answered a knock at the door on the night in question to be confronted by armed men. Both he and his wife, Cáit, struggled with the men and O’Callaghan was shot dead in the fray. While a Republican, O’Callaghan wasn’t actually in the IRA.
George Clancy was at home for the funeral of his father in law. Like O’Callaghan the Clancys were woken at 1.30 am by a knock at the door. When he answered it, Clancy was shot dead and his wife Máire was wounded. As well as being Mayor, Clancy was Vice O/C of the Limerick City Battalion.
The group that killed O’Callaghan and Clancy were believed to have been led by an Auxiliary named George Nathan. Nathan was killed fighting in the Spanish Civil War in July 1937.
Elsewhere in Limerick, Joseph O’Donoghue was arrested by RIC men led by Detective William Leech at his home in Janesboro Avenue at about 11.30pm. He was found shot dead in the street the next day. Originally from Co. Westmeath, O’Donoghue was the manager of the River Plate Meat Company. He was also a member of the IRA.
The South Mayo Brigade broke their cherry with an ambush on a patrol of 18 men from the Border Regiment at Kilfaul between Castlebar and Ballinrobe. After several men were wounded, the soldiers jacked it in and were disarmed. One man, Corporal Charles Bell, died of his wounds the following day.
Thomas Horan from Srah, Co. Mayo was shot dead in his home about 6pm that evening. A 55 year old farmer, Horan was possibly killed in retaliation for the ambush although it is possible he was killed because he had lodged a claim against the military for looting six weeks earlier.
Sean MacEoin, O/C of the Longford Flying Column, was arrested at Mullingar railway station on his way back from Dublin. He had attended meeting with Cathal Brugha, who wanted him to participate in a plan to assassinate members of the British cabinet. MacEoin made a break for it on his way to the RIC barracks and was shot and wounded. He was charged with the murder of DI McGrath in January and sentenced to death. Like many another he was saved by the Truce.
The East Waterford Brigade attempted a three-pronged attack in Waterford City but it turned into a bit of a failure. Bde O/C Paddy Paul relieved Vice O/C, William Keane of his position afterwards.
Mufulira42
Old-Salt
Thought Daddy of USN was John Paul Jones of Scotland
Mike Barton
LE
I remember reading that the Irish members of the International Brigade in Spain refused to serve as part of the British battalion preferring instead to join the American Abraham Lincoln battalion. This was not merely a case of non-fraternal bigotry but because they didn't wish to serve with former "Black and Tans", I see from the link that this is confirmed and that Nathan was one of the "Tans" in question (yeah I know he was an Auxie).
Nathan said he was a Jew so he was a natural anti-fascist, which I am sure must have been a great comfort (had they known) to the O'Callaghan and Clancy families.
The only other member of the ADRIC to serve in the Spanish civil war in the British battalion of the International Brigade was Wilfred Maccartney. Both served alongside Frank Ryan.
WFR Maccartney
Frank Ryan.
From Wiki:
As well as sympathy for the Spanish Republic, many Irish Republican volunteers were also motivated by enmity towards the Irish Brigade, an 800 strong force that volunteered in late 1936 to fight on the Spanish Nationalist side. This antagonism dated back to the Irish Civil War of 1922–23, when some of the predecessors of the two factions had fought on opposing sides. In 1932–33 small groups of IRA men and Blueshirts had fought each other in the streets with fists, bats and occasionally guns; the Blueshirts were outlawed in 1933.
Some of these men on both sides saw the Spanish conflict as a continuation of Ireland's own civil war. Neither group had a candidate elected in any Irish elections, despite the hardships of the Great Depression. Already a small group, some left-leaning IRA or ex-IRA men had formed the breakaway Republican Congress in 1934, which also divided later that year.
Not all the volunteers were Irish Republicans, however, as the Irish International Brigaders included many other strains of socialist and left wing ideology. They even included a communist ex-clergyman, Robert Hilliard.
Bill Gannon, former IRA member who had been among the assassins of Justice Minister Kevin O'Higgins in 1927, and who later joined the Irish Communist Party, had a major role in the recruitment and organising.
Conolly Column
Gary Cooper
LE
8 March 1921
3590739 Corporal Charles Bell, died of wounds after an ambush in Co. Mayo the day before. Bell was a member of the Border Regiment, aged 20 and from London.
Near Thurles, Co. Tipperary the IRA killed two local ex-servicemen as spies. Whether they were informers or not is open to question. They were;
Patrick “Swordy” Meara, aged 43. Meara was from Thurles and had served in the Leinster Regiment and in the Somerset Light Infantry in the war, receiving a gunshot wound in the arm and suffering shell shock.
James “Rockham” Maher, aged 30 from Thurles.
Special Constable William Graham was shot and fatally wounded by a fellow Special near Grogey Cross in Co. Fermanagh. He survived until 3rd April.
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