153-479: The Clonmult ambush took place on 20 February 1921, during the Irish War of Independence . Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers occupying a remote, disused farmhouse near Clonmult , County Cork were surrounded by a force of British Army , Royal Irish Constabulary and Auxiliaries . In the action that followed, twelve IRA volunteers were killed, four wounded and four captured. A total of 22 people died in
306-471: A Labour Party delegation from traveling to Ireland to ascertain the reality of the ongoing conflict. The bodies of the killed Auxiliaries were sent to England after a lavish funeral procession through Cork on 2 December, which was provided with a military and police escort and attended by numerous prominent dignitaries from the British Army, Roman Catholic Church and Royal Irish Constabulary. After
459-472: A "superfical examination" on the bodies. He found that one of the dead, an Auxiliary named William Pallister, had a "wound ... inflicted after death by an axe or some similar heavy weapon". He stated that three suffered shotgun wounds at close range. The subsequently publicised term "butchered" was derived from a military witness, Lieutenant H.G. Hampshire, who said, "From my experience as a soldier I should imagine that about four had been killed instantaneously and
612-462: A BMH account). In 2014 Irish Historical Studies published an 'Apology' to Morrison, for John Borgonovo's assertion, in a 2012 review of Terror in Ireland , that Morrison "provides little evidence for her assertion that Barry invented the false surrender story and then convinced his colleagues to maintain a fifty-year conspiracy of silence about it". Morrison's 2022 book on the ambush, Kilmichael:
765-471: A December 1947 Kerryman newspaper account of the ambush by West Cork local historian Flor Crowley does not support Barry's Guerilla Days version of events. In November 2022 Niall Meehan's 'Rehabilitating Peter Hart' discussed Morrison's claims. He pointed out that Willie Chambers was not, by his own admission, at the Kilmichael Ambush on 20 November 1920. Chambers reported to his son that, at
918-579: A Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) policeman and the burning of an RIC barracks in Kerry. The attacks brought a British military presence from the summer of 1918, which only briefly quelled the violence, and an increase in police raids. However, there was as yet no co-ordinated armed campaign against British forces or RIC. In County Cork , four rifles were seized from the Eyeries barracks in March 1918 and men from
1071-663: A Special Military Area under the Defence of the Realm Act two days later. The war was not formally declared by the Dáil, and it ran its course parallel to the Dáil's political life. On 10 April 1919 the Dáil was told: As regards the Republican prisoners, we must always remember that this country is at war with England and so we must in a sense regard them as necessary casualties in the great fight. In January 1921, two years after
1224-522: A choice by Prime Minister David Lloyd George to put down the rebellion in Ireland rather than negotiate with the republican leadership. As a result, violence escalated steadily from that summer and sharply after November 1920 until July 1921. It was in this period that a mutiny broke out among the Connaught Rangers , stationed in India . Two were killed whilst trying to storm an armoury and one
1377-443: A critique of Hart's research. It reproduced on its cover a Southern Star report on the death of "Ned Young – last of the boys of Kilmichael", dated 18 November 1989. In 2011, Meehan reported on the deaths of the last surviving Kilmichael veterans as follows: The 3rd December 1983 Southern Star report of that year's Kilmichael Ambush Commemoration noted three surviving veterans, Tim O'Connell, Jack O'Sullivan and Ned Young. The event
1530-470: A farmhouse in Clonmult British troops (a party of the 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment under the command of Lieutenant A. R. Koe) surrounded the house. Two IRA volunteers noticed the advancing troops and opened fire. Both were killed, but the shooting had warned those sheltering inside the house, and a siege began. A sortie from the house was attempted in the hope of gaining reinforcements from
1683-399: A first participant account of an Auxiliary false surrender, though without using that actual term. O'Neil wrote: "The O/C Tom Barry , with three of the section responsible for the destruction of the first [Auxiliary] lorry, came to our assistance, with the result that the attack was intensified. On being called on to surrender, they signified their intention of doing so, but when we ceased at
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#17327727763061836-485: A football match, shooting into the crowd. Fourteen civilians were killed, including one of the players, Michael Hogan , and a further 65 people were wounded. Later that day two republican prisoners, Dick McKee , Peadar Clancy and an unassociated friend, Conor Clune who had been arrested with them, were killed in Dublin Castle. The official account was that the three men were shot "while trying to escape", which
1989-491: A halt close to the intended ambush position. At that point Barry blew a whistle and threw a Mills bomb that exploded in the open cab of the first lorry. Both occupants, the driver and Macroom Auxiliary commander District Inspector Francis Crake , were killed. The whistle was the signal to open fire. A savage close-quarters fight ensued, between surviving Auxiliaries and a combination of IRA Section One and Barry's three person Command Post group. According to Barry's account, some of
2142-501: A new government by its side. The IRA's main target throughout the conflict was the mainly Irish Catholic Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), the British government's armed police force in Ireland, outside Dublin. Its members and barracks (especially the more isolated ones) were vulnerable, and they were a source of much-needed arms. The RIC numbered 9,700 men stationed in 1,500 barracks throughout Ireland. A policy of ostracism of RIC men
2295-474: A range of ten yards (8 m) or less, until he believed all of the Auxiliaries were dead. Barry said of the Auxiliaries who tried to surrender a second time, "soldiers who had cheated in war deserved to die." Barry referred to this episode as the Auxiliaries' " false surrender ". Barry's account in 1949 can be compared with other IRA veteran testimony. In 1937 Section Three commander Stephen O'Neill published
2448-526: A reputation just as bad as the Tans for their mistreatment of the civilian population but tended to be more effective and more willing to take on the IRA. The policy of reprisals, which involved public denunciation or denial and private approval, was famously satirised by Lord Hugh Cecil when he said: "It seems to be agreed that there is no such thing as reprisals but they are having a good effect." On 9 August 1920,
2601-638: A rifleman and a scout. Ryan stated that just one ambush veteran, Ned young, was alive then. Young died on 13 November 1989, aged 97. The second last reported surviving veteran of the Kilmichael Ambush, Jack O'Sullivan, died in December 1986. Ned Young's son, John Young, stated in 2007 that his father was not capable of giving Hart an interview in 1988, as Ned Young suffered a debilitating stroke in late 1986. John Young swore an affidavit to this effect in December 2007, published in 2008 in Troubled History
2754-566: A sectarian conflict raged in which almost 500 were killed, most of them Catholics. In May 1921, Ireland was partitioned under British law by the Government of Ireland Act , which created Northern Ireland . A ceasefire began on 11 July 1921. The post-ceasefire talks led to the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on 6 December 1921. This ended British rule in most of Ireland and, after a ten-month transitional period overseen by
2907-862: A series of violent incidents between trade unionists and the Dublin police in the Dublin lock-out . In June 1914, Nationalist leader John Redmond forced the Volunteers to give his nominees a majority on the ruling committee. When, in September 1914, Redmond encouraged the Volunteers to enlist in the British Army, a faction led by Eoin MacNeill broke with the Redmondites, who became known as the National Volunteers, rather than fight for Britain in
3060-595: A small minority. The demand for home rule was eventually granted by the British government in 1912, immediately prompting a prolonged crisis within the United Kingdom as Ulster unionists formed an armed organisation – the Ulster Volunteers (UVF) – to resist this measure of devolution , at least in territory they could control. In turn, nationalists formed their own paramilitary organisation,
3213-422: A surrender and that some dropped their rifles. They then reportedly opened fire again with revolvers when three IRA men emerged from cover, killing one volunteer instantly, Jim O'Sullivan, and mortally wounding Pat Deasy. Barry then said he ordered, "Rapid fire and do not stop until I tell you!". Barry stated that he ignored a subsequent attempt by remaining Auxiliaries to surrender, ordering his men to keep firing at
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#17327727763063366-481: A war was to kill someone, and we wanted to start a war, so we intended to kill some of the police whom we looked upon as the foremost and most important branch of the enemy forces. The only regret that we had following the ambush was that there were only two policemen in it, instead of the six we had expected. This is widely regarded as the beginning of the War of Independence. The British government declared South Tipperary
3519-422: A witness to my signature on my Affidavit, that refuted Peter Hart's claim: (a) to have interviewed my father; (b) to have interviewed a Kilmichael Ambush participant six days after my father, the last survivor, died. If Jim had felt so strongly about Hart's "scholarship", why did he associate himself, in any way, with a document critical of it? Why did he go out of his way freely to do so, having personally researched
3672-575: The 1918 general election Irish voters showed their disapproval of British policy by giving Sinn Féin 70% (73 seats out of 105,) of Irish seats, 25 of those being uncontested. Sinn Féin won 91% of the seats outside of Ulster on 46.9% of votes cast but was in a minority in Ulster, where unionists were in a majority. Sinn Féin pledged not to sit in the UK Parliament at Westminster , but rather to set up an Irish parliament. This parliament, known as
3825-845: The Allied war effort in Irish regiments of the New British Army , the intention being to ensure the commencement of home rule after the war. However, a significant minority of the Irish Volunteers opposed Ireland's involvement in the war. The Volunteer movement split, a majority leaving to form the National Volunteers under Redmond. The remaining Irish Volunteers, under Eoin MacNeill , held that they would maintain their organisation until home rule had been granted. Within this Volunteer movement, another faction, led by
3978-518: The British media , "had a chilling effect on all members of the crown forces"; British claims of killing disarmed or surrendered Auxiliaries portrayed the IRA as having "descended to a new level of brutality." One day after the ambush, IRA volunteers from the Cork No. 1 Brigade abducted and killed civilians James and Frederick Blemens, believing them to be British spies. Four days later on 2 December, 3 volunteers were ambushed and killed by soldiers from
4131-649: The Chief Secretary for Ireland Hamar Greenwood reported that 556 Constables and 313 Magistrates had resigned within two-month period. The Irish Republican Police (IRP) was founded between April and June 1920, under the authority of Dáil Éireann and the former IRA Chief of Staff Cathal Brugha to replace the RIC and to enforce the ruling of the Dáil Courts , set up under the Irish Republic. By 1920,
4284-508: The Cork military barracks on 28 April. Patrick Higgins was sentenced to death but was reprieved due to the truce that ended the war on 11 July. Hampshire Regiment historian Scott Daniell noted on the action that "like all the Irish operations, it was hateful to the British troops". The IRA suspected that an informer had led the British to the billet of the column wiped out at Clonmult, and over
4437-638: The Easter Rising against British rule and proclaimed an Irish Republic . Although it was defeated after a week of fighting, the Rising and the British response led to greater popular support for Irish independence. In the December 1918 election , republican party Sinn Féin won a landslide victory in Ireland. On 21 January 1919 they formed a breakaway government ( Dáil Éireann ) and declared Irish independence . That day, two RIC officers were killed in
4590-639: The Essex Regiment after contacting a British deserter. In response to news of the ambush and Bloody Sunday on successive Sundays, barriers were installed on both ends of Downing Street in London to protect 10 Downing Street from IRA attacks. The Chief Secretary of Ireland , Sir Hamar Greenwood , reported the ambush to the British Parliament ; historians Gerry White and Brendan O'Shea noted that Greenwood's denunciation failed to prevent
4743-772: The First Dáil , and its ministry, called the Aireacht , consisting only of Sinn Féin members, met at the Mansion House on 21 January 1919. The Dáil reaffirmed the 1916 proclamation with the Irish Declaration of Independence , and issued a Message to the Free Nations of the World , which stated that there was an "existing state of war, between Ireland and England". The Irish Volunteers were reconstituted as
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4896-670: The House of Commons in June 1921, Attorney-General for Ireland Denis Henry stated that he was informed by Commander-in-Chief Nevil Macready that 191 houses were destroyed in official reprisals in the area under martial law since January of that year. In December 1920 Macready informed the Cabinet of the British Government that Military Governors in the martial law areas had been authorized to conduct reprisals. On 11 December,
5049-747: The Irish Volunteers . The British parliament passed the Government of Ireland Act 1914 , known as the Home Rule Act, on 18 September 1914 with an amending bill for the partition of Ireland introduced by Ulster Unionist MPs, but the act's implementation was immediately postponed by the Suspensory Act 1914 due to the outbreak of the First World War in the previous month. The majority of nationalists followed their IPP leaders and John Redmond 's call to support Britain and
5202-520: The Kilmichael ambush on 28 November 1920, suggesting that Clonmult could be described as "Kilmichael in reverse", the IRA members intending to surrender but the security forces not realising it. In his book The Battle of Clonmult: The IRA's Worst Defeat , Tom O'Neill suggests the shooting of IRA members may have been the result of a misunderstanding. Before the Volunteers gave up and came out, their commander had ordered them to throw their rifles into
5355-728: The Provisional Government , the Irish Free State was created as a self-governing Dominion on 6 December 1922. Northern Ireland remained within the United Kingdom. After the ceasefire, violence in Belfast and fighting in border areas of Northern Ireland continued, and the IRA launched the failed Northern Offensive in May 1922. In June 1922, disagreement among republicans over the Anglo-Irish Treaty led to
5508-679: The Soloheadbeg ambush by IRA volunteers acting on their own initiative. The conflict developed gradually. For most of 1919, IRA activity involved capturing weaponry and freeing republican prisoners, while the Dáil set about building a state. In September, the British government outlawed the Dáil throughout Ireland, Sinn Féin was proclaimed (outlawed) in County Cork and the conflict intensified. The IRA began ambushing RIC and British Army patrols, attacking their barracks and forcing isolated barracks to be abandoned. The British government bolstered
5661-644: The province of Munster—were put under martial law on 10 December under the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act; this was followed on 5 January in the rest of Munster and in counties Kilkenny and Wexford in the province of Leinster. Shortly afterwards, in January 1921, "official reprisals" were sanctioned by the British and they began with the burning of seven houses in Midleton, County Cork . Questioned in
5814-429: The thatched roof of the farmhouse alight. With the farmhouse burning around them, an attempt was then made by the IRA to surrender. What happened next is disputed. In his after-action report, Lieutenant Koe wrote: (14) At 18.20 hours the rebels signified that they wished to surrender and they were ordered to put up their hands and come out one by one. At 18.30 hours, six or seven rebels came out with their hands up and
5967-572: The " Black and Tans ") and the Temporary Cadets or Auxiliary Division (known as the "Auxies"). On 25 November 1913, the Irish Volunteers were formed by Eoin MacNeill in response to the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) that had been founded earlier in the year to fight against home rule. Also in 1913, the Irish Citizen Army was founded by the trade unionists and socialists James Larkin and James Connolly following
6120-540: The " Irish Republican Army " or IRA. The IRA was perceived by some members of Dáil Éireann to have a mandate to wage war on the British Dublin Castle administration . The heart of British power in Ireland was the Dublin Castle administration, often known to the Irish as "the Castle". The head of the Castle administration was the lord lieutenant , to whom a chief secretary was responsible, leading—in
6273-592: The " Squad "—gunmen responsible to himself who were assigned special duties such as the assassination of policemen and suspected informers within the IRA. The years between the Easter Rising of 1916 and the beginning of the War of Independence in 1919 were not bloodless. Thomas Ashe , one of the Volunteer leaders imprisoned for his role in the 1916 rebellion, died on hunger strike, after attempted force-feeding in 1917. In 1918, during disturbances arising out of
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6426-509: The 1969 Chisholm interview and a 1988–9 claimed Hart interview. Hart gave readers an impression that he was citing two distinct veterans of the ambush. In addition to his anonymous interviews, Hart cited a captured unsigned typed "rebel commandant's report" of the ambush from the Imperial War Museum , which does not mention a false surrender, as Barry's after-action report to his superiors. Meda Ryan and Brian Murphy challenged
6579-591: The Army was to back up the police. In the course of the war, about a quarter of Ireland was put under martial law, mostly in Munster; in the rest of the country British authority was not deemed sufficiently threatened to warrant it. The British created two paramilitary police forces to supplement the work of the RIC, recruited mostly from World War I veterans, namely the Temporary Constables (better known as
6732-601: The British Army had historically been heavily dependent on Irish recruitment, concern over divided loyalties led to the redeployment from 1919 of all regular Irish regiments to garrisons outside Ireland itself. The two main police forces in Ireland were the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and the Dublin Metropolitan Police . Of the 17,000 policemen in Ireland, 513 were killed by the IRA between 1919 and 1921 while 682 were wounded. Of
6885-498: The British Empire journal Round Table by Lionel Curtis , citing a "trustworthy" source in the area. Curtis was British Prime Minister Lloyd George's secretary during Anglo-Irish Treaty negotiations. A second British account, in former Auxiliary commander F.P. Crozier 's Ireland Forever (1932), also gave a brief account of the same false surrender event. Piaras Beaslaí noted a false surrender in his Michael Collins and
7038-821: The British Parliament passed the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act . It replaced the trial by jury by courts-martial by regulation for those areas where IRA activity was prevalent. On 10 December 1920, martial law was proclaimed in Counties Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Tipperary in Munster; in January 1921 martial law was extended to the rest of Munster in Counties Clare and Waterford, as well as counties Kilkenny and Wexford in Leinster . It also suspended all coroners' courts because of
7191-506: The British administration. The first was Resident Magistrate John C. Milling, who was shot dead in Westport, County Mayo , for having sent Volunteers to prison for unlawful assembly and drilling. They mimicked the successful tactics of the Boers ' fast violent raids without uniform. Although some republican leaders, notably Éamon de Valera, favoured classic conventional warfare to legitimise
7344-412: The British cabinet, in the face of the crisis caused by the German spring offensive , attempted with a dual policy to simultaneously link the enactment of conscription into Ireland with the implementation of home rule, as outlined in the report of the Irish Convention of 8 April 1918. This further alienated Irish nationalists and produced mass demonstrations during the Conscription Crisis of 1918 . In
7497-425: The British forces behind them. Barry managed to avert their detection by directing the car up a side road and out of the way. The first Auxiliary lorry was persuaded to slow down by Barry standing on the road in plain sight in front of a concealed Command Post (with three riflemen). He was wearing an IRA officer's tunic given to him by IRA Volunteer and ambush participant Paddy O'Brien. The British later claimed Barry
7650-411: The British government. By mid-1920, the Irish Republic was a reality in the lives of many people, enforcing its own law, maintaining its own armed forces and collecting its own taxes. The British Liberal journal, The Nation , wrote in August 1920 that "the central fact of the present situation in Ireland is that the Irish Republic exists". The British forces, in trying to re-assert their control over
7803-433: The British were killed using rifle butts and bayonets in a brutal and bloody encounter. This close-quarters part of the engagement was over relatively quickly, with all nine Auxiliaries dead or dying. The British claimed that the bodies of the dead "suffered terrible mutilation as though hacked with hatchets", although Barry dismissed this report as atrocity propaganda. Fire was opened simultaneously at nine Auxiliaries in
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#17327727763067956-425: The Dublin Metropolitan Police's G Division and other important branches of the British administration. The G Division men were a relatively small political division active in subverting the republican movement. They were detested by the IRA as often they were used to identify volunteers, who would have been unknown to British soldiers or the later Black and Tans. Collins set up the "Squad", a group of men whose sole duty
8109-464: The Easter Rising. The British execution of the Rising's leaders also increased support in Ireland for both a violent uprising to achieve independence from British rule and an independent Irish republic. This support was further bolstered by the British government's decision to maintain martial law in Ireland until November 1916, the arrest of Irish critics of government policies and the possibility of conscription being extended to Ireland. In April 1918,
8262-551: The Guthrie family, Kevin O'Higgins , Irish Free State Minister for Home Affairs , interceded with the local IRA , after which Guthrie's remains were disinterred and buried in the Church of Ireland graveyard at Macroom. Many IRA volunteers were deeply shaken by the severity of the action, referred to by Barry as "the bloodiest in Ireland", and some were physically sick. Barry attempted to restore discipline by making them form up and perform drill before marching away. Barry himself collapsed with severe chest pains on 3 December and
8415-422: The IRA Volunteers "came running out of the house, with their hands up, while others continued to fire on the Crown Forces as they went to accept the surrender." But in his monthly confidential report, the local county inspector of the Royal Irish Constabulary accused the Volunteers of treachery, saying that some "had tried to escape by a ruse. Some came from the building while those that remained inside opened fire on
8568-439: The IRA claimed to have a total strength of 70,000, but only about 3,000 were actively engaged in fighting against the Crown. The IRA distrusted those Irishmen who had fought in the British Army during the First World War, but there were exceptions, such as Emmet Dalton , Tom Barry and Martin Doyle . The basic structure of the IRA was the flying column which could number between 20 and 100 men. Finally, Michael Collins created
8721-405: The IRA desist from the ambushes and assassinations, which were allowing the British to portray it as a terrorist group and to take on the British forces with conventional military methods. The proposal was immediately dismissed. The British increased the use of force; reluctant to deploy the regular British Army into the country in greater numbers, they set up two auxiliary police units to reinforce
8874-559: The IRA hardly fired a shot at the Auxiliaries, which "had a very serious effect on the morale of the whole people as well as on the IRA". Barry's assessment was that the West Cork IRA needed a successful action against the Auxiliaries in order to be effective. On 21 November, Barry assembled a flying column of 36 riflemen at Clogher. The column had 35 rounds for each rifle as well as a handful of revolvers and two Mills bombs (hand grenades). Barry scouted possible ambush sites with Volunteer Michael McCarthy on horseback and selected one on
9027-517: The IRA killed seventeen Auxiliaries in the Kilmichael Ambush in County Cork . In December, the British authorities declared martial law in much of southern Ireland, and the centre of Cork city was burnt out by British forces in reprisal for an ambush. Violence continued to escalate over the next seven months; 1,000 people were killed and 4,500 republicans were interned . Much of the fighting took place in Munster (particularly County Cork), Dublin and Belfast , which together saw over 75 percent of
9180-427: The IRA through fear or sympathy, supplying the organisation with valuable information. By contrast with the effectiveness of the widespread public boycott of the police, the military actions carried out by the IRA against the RIC at this time were relatively limited. In 1919, 11 RIC men and 4 Dublin Metropolitan Police G Division detectives were killed and another 20 RIC wounded. Other aspects of mass participation in
9333-455: The IRA's campaign. The Auxiliaries were recruited from former commissioned officers in the British Army. The force was raised in July 1920 and were promoted as a highly trained elite force by the British media. In common with most of their colleagues, the Auxiliaries engaged at Kilmichael were World War I veterans. The Auxiliaries and the previously introduced Black and Tans rapidly became highly unpopular in Ireland due to intimidation of
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#17327727763069486-429: The IRP had a presence in 21 of Ireland's 32 counties . The Dáil Courts were generally socially conservative, despite their revolutionary origins, and halted the attempts of some landless farmers at redistribution of land from wealthier landowners to poorer farmers. The Inland Revenue ceased to operate in most of Ireland. People were instead encouraged to subscribe to Collins' "National Loan", set up to raise funds for
9639-429: The Kilmichael Ambush Jack O'Sullivan". The 26th November 1988 Southern Star subsequently referred to "The sole Survivor of the volunteers who performed so well under the leadership of general Tom Barry, namely Ned Young". Hart stated that he interviewed an unarmed scout, his second ambush participant, on 19 November 1989, six days after Ned Young died, one after his death was reported (see above). This claim intensified
9792-427: The Life and Afterlife of an Ambush , also addressed the debate. She consulted Hart's original interview notes (in Memorial University Newfoundland) as well as notes made listening to Chisholm's recorded interviews. Hart's notes identified his Kilmichael interviewees as Ned Young and a Willie Chambers. Morrison said Chambers was the controversial anonymous unarmed scout interviewed on 19 November 1989. She also stated that
9945-412: The Macroom–Dunmanway road, on the section between Kilmichael and Gleann, which the Auxiliaries coming out of Macroom used every day. The flying column marched there on foot and reached the ambush site on the night of 27 November. The IRA volunteers took up positions in the low rocky hills on either side of the road. Unlike most IRA ambush positions, there was no obvious escape route for the guerrillas should
10098-539: The Making of a New Ireland in 1926, published also in two daily newspapers. Ernie O'Malley 's 1936 memoir, On Another Man's Wound , noted the incident also. A 1924 letter to Free State Army headquarters concerning IRA casualty Michael McCarthy, released in 2021 by the Bureau of Military History, confirmed the contemporary perception of a false surrender. In The IRA And Its Enemies, Newfoundland historian Professor Peter Hart took issue with Tom Barry's false surrender account. He mistakenly claimed that Crozier's in 1932
10251-532: The O/C's command, fire was again opened by the Auxiliaries, with fatal results to two of our comrades who exposed themselves believing the surrender was genuine. We renewed the attack vigorously and never desisted until the enemy was annihilated." Some Bureau of Military History (BMH) accounts do not mention a false surrender, for example Section Three volunteer Ned Young's 1955 Witness Statement, published in 2003 (WS 1,402). However, Young stated he had left his position to individually pursue an escaping Auxiliary when
10404-519: The RIC with recruits from Britain—the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries—who became notorious for ill-discipline and reprisal attacks on civilians, some of which were authorised by the British government. Thus the conflict is sometimes called the "Black and Tan War". The conflict also involved civil disobedience , notably the refusal of Irish railwaymen to transport British forces or military supplies. In mid-1920, republicans won control of most county councils, and British authority collapsed in most of
10557-421: The RIC's senior officers, 60% were Irish Protestants and the rest Catholic, while 70% of the rank and file of the RIC were Irish Catholic with the rest Protestant. The RIC was trained for police work, not war, and was woefully ill-prepared to take on counter-insurgency duties. Until March 1920, London regarded the unrest in Ireland as primarily an issue for the police and did not regard it as a war. The purpose of
10710-595: The RIC, would now be required to enter the city. The Trades Council's special Strike Committee controlled the city for fourteen days in an episode that is known as the Limerick Soviet . Similarly, in May 1920, Dublin dockers refused to handle any war matériel and were soon joined by the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union , who banned railway drivers from carrying members of the British forces. Blackleg train drivers were brought over from England, after drivers refused to carry British troops. The strike badly hampered British troop movements until December 1920, when it
10863-642: The RIC. The first of these, quickly nicknamed as the Black and Tans, were seven thousand strong and mainly ex-British soldiers demobilised after World War I. Deployed to Ireland in March 1920, most came from English and Scottish cities. While officially they were part of the RIC, in reality they were a paramilitary force. After their deployment in March 1920, they rapidly gained a reputation for drunkenness and poor discipline. The wartime experience of most Black and Tans did not suit them for police duties and their violent behavior antagonised many previously neutral civilians. In response to and retaliation for IRA actions, in
11016-691: The Young interview contains at least two references to a false surrender event, that Hart did not mention in his 1998 report of Young's (then anonymous) Chisholm tape utterances. Meehan noted no specific refutation of a false surrender event at Kilmichael in Morrison's book, apart from by Hart, Chisholm and by Morrison herself. In other words, it was an assertion by interpreters of the event, not by those who participated in it. Ambush participants named in Hart's separate unpublished 2004 draft response, bar Ned Young and
11169-547: The alleged "scout", were all dead when Hart was researching in the late 1980s. Six were named: Paddy O'Brien, Jim "Spud" Murphy, Jack Hennessy, Ned Young, Michael O'Driscoll and Jack O'Sullivan. Significantly, Hart did not name the seventh in his 2004 draft, the "scout" allegedly interviewed six days after Ned Young died. As noted, Morrison claimed in 2017 and 2022 this man to be Willie Chambers. She stated that Hart had heard or read ten accounts in total by these seven veterans (five witness statements and five other interviews). But this
11322-633: The ambush, subsequent execution of two of the IRA volunteers and the executions of alleged informers – 14 IRA members, 2 Black and Tans and 6 suspected informers. The 4th battalion of the IRA First Cork Brigade, under Diarmuid O'Hurley and based around Midleton , Youghal and Cobh , had been a successful unit up until the Clonmult ambush. They had captured three RIC barracks and carried out an ambush in Midleton itself. In January 1921,
11475-414: The ambush? We are left with three possibilities. Either, incredibly, Hart did not ask Young about the ambush, Young refused to discuss it, or he was incapable of doing so. Take your pick". In 1929, an iron cross commemorating the engagement was erected on the site by Barry and some others who had taken part in the ambush. In 1966, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Easter Rising , it was decided that
11628-444: The anti-conscription campaign, six civilians died in confrontations with the police and British Army and more than 1,000 people were arrested. There were raids for arms by the Volunteers, and two Kerry Volunteers (John Brown and Robert Laide) were shot and killed on 16 April 1918 during a raid on the police barracks at Gortalea. Those men were the first Volunteers to be killed during a raid for arms. At this time at least one shooting of
11781-458: The authenticity of the document. They suggest that it contains factual errors Barry would not have made and also accurate information unknown to Barry. Examples of factual errors: stating falsely that the ambush was unplanned and a chance encounter; that two IRA volunteers had been mortally wounded and one killed outright, when the reverse was the case. Example of British knowledge unknown to Barry: getting British losses right, attesting to "sixteen of
11934-557: The author a tour of the ambush site, a claim the book withdrew. Eve Morrison argued in a 2012 essay on Kilmichael that Hart did not deliberately falsify evidence. She stated that one quote ascribed by Hart to the scout were actually uttered by ambush participant Jack O'Sullivan (who was not an unarmed scout), in a 1969 audiotape Hart listened to. Meehan and Eve Morrison debated the significance of these points in 2012, 2017, 2020 and 2022. Hart's 1998 book cited three further ambush participant accounts, again anonymously. His claimed source
12087-575: The barracks were beaten that August. In early July 1918, Volunteers ambushed two RIC men who had been stationed to stop a feis being held on the road between Ballingeary and Ballyvourney in the first armed attack on the RIC since the Easter Rising—one was shot in the neck, the other beaten, and police carbines and ammunition were seized. Patrols in Bantry and Ballyvourney were badly beaten in September and October. In November 1918, Armistice Day
12240-525: The centre of Cork City was burnt out by the Black and Tans, who then shot at firefighters trying to tackle the blaze, in reprisal for an IRA ambush in the city on 11 December 1920 which killed one Auxiliary and wounded eleven. In May of that year, the IRA began a campaign of big house burnings which totaled 26 in Cork alone. Kilmichael Ambush The Kilmichael ambush ( Irish : Luíochán Chill Mhichíl )
12393-588: The civilian population and arbitrary reprisals after IRA actions – including burnings of businesses and homes, beatings and killings. A week before the Kilmichael ambush, after IRA assassinations of British intelligence operatives in Dublin on Bloody Sunday , Auxiliaries fired on players and spectators at a Gaelic football match in Croke Park Dublin, killing fourteen civilians (thirteen spectators and one player). The Auxiliaries in Cork were based in
12546-529: The claim that Hart interviewed his then 96-year-old father in 1988. In April 2013, in a cosigned letter with Eve Morrison to History Ireland , Marion O'Driscoll took issue with John Young. She reported that her late husband Jim O'Driscoll had introduced Hart to Ned Young in the late 1980s and had "no doubt whatsoever that Hart had interviewed Ned Young". In 2007 Jim O'Driscoll witnessed John Young's signature to an earlier mentioned affidavit refuting Hart's claim to have interviewed his father. John Young responded, "It
12699-536: The conflict deaths. The conflict in north-east Ulster had a sectarian aspect (see The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922) ). While the Catholic minority there mostly backed Irish independence, the Protestant majority were mostly unionist / loyalist . A mainly Protestant special constabulary was formed, and loyalist paramilitaries were active. They attacked Catholics in reprisal for IRA actions, and in Belfast
12852-572: The conflict included strikes by organised workers, in opposition to the British presence in Ireland. In Limerick in April 1919, a general strike was called by the Limerick Trades and Labour Council, as a protest against the declaration of a "Special Military Area" under the Defence of the Realm Act, which covered most of Limerick city and a part of the county. Special permits, to be issued by
13005-773: The conflict, IRA activity was concentrated in Munster and Dublin, with only isolated active IRA units elsewhere, such as in County Roscommon , north County Longford and western County Mayo . While the paper membership of the IRA, carried over from the Irish Volunteers, was over 100,000 men, Collins estimated that only 15,000 were active in the IRA during the war, with about 3,000 on active service at any time. There were also support organisations Cumann na mBan (the IRA women's group) and Fianna Éireann (youth movement), who carried weapons and intelligence for IRA men and secured food and lodgings for them. The IRA benefitted from
13158-812: The controversy surrounding his claims, dated 2004. The essay's defence of Hart was reviewed by John Borgonovo, Niall Meehan, Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc and John Regan (in Irish Historical Studies , Reviews in History , History Ireland and Dublin Review of Books ). Morrison cited six participant statements to the Bureau of Military History (including the controversial Timothy Keohane ) that were published in 2003. She listened to Father John Chisholm's two veteran interviews for Liam Deasy's Toward Ireland Free , with Jack O'Sullivan and Ned Young (who also contributed
13311-503: The country, often resorted to arbitrary reprisals against republican activists and the civilian population. An unofficial government policy of reprisals began in 1919 in Fermoy , County Cork, when 200 soldiers of the King's Shropshire Light Infantry looted and burned the main businesses of the town on 8 September, after a member of their regiment—who was the first British Army soldier to die in
13464-629: The crown forces went to meet them. On this fire was again opened by the remaining rebels in the house. (15) Fire was at once re-opened on the house by the Crown Forces, and, in the cross fire which resulted, it was inevitable that casualties should be inflicted on the rebels outside the house by both sides. The Crown Forces, having re-opened fire, rushed to the house. When the house was captured, there were eight men in it, four wounded and four unwounded. These were taken prisoner. In its official communique, General Headquarters merely stated that some of
13617-509: The debate, as the last ambush and dispatch scouts reportedly died in 1967 and 1971. In a 2010 television interview (broadcast 2011, 2022), Hart considered whether he had been the victim of "some sort of hoax" and of a "fantasist", but concluded "that seems extremely unlikely". D.R. O'Connor Lysaght wondered whether "it is possible that Dr Hart was the victim of one or more aged chancer". Niall Meehan suggested in Troubled History (2008) and subsequently that Hart may have based his interview with
13770-517: The early morning, Collins' Squad attempted to wipe out leading British intelligence operatives in the capital, in particular the Cairo Gang , killing 16 men (including two cadets, one alleged informer, and one possible case of mistaken identity) and wounding five others. The attacks took place at different places (hotels and lodgings) in Dublin. In response, RIC men drove in trucks into Croke Park (Dublin's GAA football and hurling ground) during
13923-440: The editor, that he protested the omission in writing. Hart asserted that surviving Auxiliary officers were killed after surrendering. The controversy Hart's claims generated has resulted in the ambush being discussed alongside them. Hart's use of anonymous interviews with ambush veterans was regarded as particularly controversial. Meda Ryan disputed his claim to have personally interviewed two Kilmichael Ambush veterans in 1988–89,
14076-612: The eleven-month Irish Civil War . The Irish Free State awarded 62,868 medals for service during the War of Independence, of which 15,224 were issued to IRA fighters of the flying columns . Since the 1870s, Irish nationalists in the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) had been demanding home rule , or self-government, from Britain, while not ruling out eventual complete independence. Fringe organisations, such as Arthur Griffith 's Sinn Féin , instead argued for some form of immediate Irish independence, but they were in
14229-544: The enemy ... being killed", when Barry thought 17 (including H.F. Forde) were dead after the ambush. The document stated that IRA fighters had 100 rounds each when the correct figure reportedly was 35. Barry did not know that Guthrie, the Auxiliary who escaped, was, as the "report" put it, "now missing", or even that he had escaped. In other words, the document contained correct information known only to British authorities but unknown by Barry, and also incorrect information as to
14382-422: The enemy to surrender and some of them put up their hands, but when our party were moving onto the road, the Auxiliaries again opened fire. Two of our men were wounded". Barry stated that two of the IRA dead, Pat Deasy and Jim O'Sullivan, were shot during the false surrender episode, but Keohane reported that O'Sullivan had been hit earlier, and that Jack Hennessy and John Lordan were wounded after they stood to take
14535-489: The false surrender incident took place. Nevertheless, in a 1970 audio interview Young reported that other veterans told him afterwards of an Auxiliary false surrender. Tim Keohane, who claimed controversially in his BMH statement (WS 1,295) to have participated in the ambush, described a false surrender event. He recalled that when Section Two and the Command Post group engaged the second lorry that: "Tom Barry called on
14688-426: The fighting go against them. As dusk fell between 4:05 and 4:20 pm on 28 November, the ambush took place on a road at Dus a' Bharraigh in the townland of Shanacashel , Kilmichael Parish, near Macroom. Just before the Auxiliaries in two lorries came into view, two armed IRA volunteers, responding late to Barry's mobilisation order, drove unwittingly into the ambush position in a horse and side-car, almost shielding
14841-401: The finish after the false surrender attempt, refusing further surrender attempts. After fighting ceased it was observed that two IRA volunteers – Michael McCarthy and Jim O'Sullivan – were dead and that Pat Deasy (brother of Liam Deasy ) was mortally wounded. The IRA fighters thought they had killed all of the Auxiliaries. In fact two survived, one very badly injured, while another who escaped
14994-455: The fire: and what the police mistook for treachery may have been ammunition cooking off in the heat of the flames. "The other possibility," as O'Neill notes, "is that the British were just attempting to cover up their tracks with falsehoods." A total of twelve IRA Volunteers were killed in the action, with four more wounded and only four taken prisoner unscathed. Two of the IRA prisoners ( Maurice Moore and Paddy O'Sullivan) were later executed in
15147-467: The firefight, were killed with close range shots, blows from rifle butts and bayonet thrusts. Ambush participant Jack O'Sullivan told historian Meda Ryan that, after he disarmed an Auxiliary, "He was walking him up the road as a prisoner when a shot dropped him at his feet". Barry did not engage in this level of detail in his account of the first lorry confrontation, or after the false surrender event. They are consistent with his order to continue fighting to
15300-417: The fires for a period of time. Two IRA volunteers were shot dead while asleep, their killers most likely being Auxiliaries. Accounts from the British press alleged that the search party that found the Auxiliary casualties the following morning believed that many of them had been "butchered". Local Coroner Dr Jeremiah Kelleher told the military Court of Inquiry at Macroom on 30 November 1920 that he carried out
15453-506: The following week, six alleged spies were executed by the IRA in the surrounding area. Mick Leahy, a local IRA officer, stated that "things went to hell in the battalion" after Clonmult. Diarmuid O'Hurley, the commander of the battalion, was not at Clonmult but was later killed on 28 May 1921. Irish War of Independence Inconclusive Creation of the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland 491 dead The Irish War of Independence ( Irish : Cogadh na Saoirse ) or Anglo-Irish War
15606-427: The ground to prevent them being used again, along with almost one hundred income tax offices. The RIC withdrew from much of the countryside, leaving it in the hands of the IRA. In June–July 1920, assizes failed all across the south and west of Ireland; trials by jury could not be held because jurors would not attend. The collapse of the court system demoralised the RIC and many police resigned or retired. In August 1920
15759-485: The issue? Readers may draw their own conclusions." In Rehabilitating Peter Hart , Meehan noted Morrison's admission that Hart's notes of his encounter with Ned Young do not include discussion of the Kilmichael Ambush. He remarked, "despite claims in The IRA and its Enemies , Ned Young said nothing to Peter Hart about the Kilmichael Ambush. Why argue over whether Young was capable of speaking to Hart if he did not talk about
15912-501: The jury were targeted in the reprisal. Arthur Griffith estimated that in the first 18 months of the conflict, British forces carried out 38,720 raids on private homes, arrested 4,982 suspects, committed 1,604 armed assaults, carried out 102 indiscriminate shootings and burnings in towns and villages, and killed 77 people including women and children. In March 1920, Tomás Mac Curtain , the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Cork ,
16065-462: The large number of warrants served on members of the British forces and replaced them with "military courts of enquiry". The powers of military courts-martial were extended to cover the whole population and were empowered to use the death penalty and internment without trial; Government payments to local governments in Sinn Féin hands were suspended. This act has been interpreted by historians as
16218-522: The local IRA company. The acting IRA commander, Jack O'Connell (Captain, Cobh Company), managed to get away but three other volunteers were killed in the attempt. O'Connell was unable to bring help in time. The Volunteers trapped inside made a desperate but unsuccessful attempt to escape through a narrow opening in the gable . Their hopes were dashed when British reinforcements arrived instead—regular RIC police, Black and Tans and Auxiliaries. The police had also brought petrol, which an Army officer used to set
16371-582: The nationalist campaign involved popular mobilisation and the creation of a republican "state within a state" in opposition to British rule. British journalist Robert Lynd wrote in The Daily News in July 1920 that: So far as the mass of people are concerned, the policy of the day is not active but a passive policy. Their policy is not so much to attack the Government as to ignore it and to build up
16524-433: The new republic in the eyes of the world, the more practically experienced Collins and the broader IRA leadership opposed these tactics as they had led to the military débacle of 1916. Others, notably Arthur Griffith, preferred a campaign of civil disobedience rather than armed struggle. During the early part of the conflict, roughly from 1919 to the middle of 1920, there was a relatively limited amount of violence. Much of
16677-589: The next boat out of Dublin. The Chief of Staff of the IRA was Richard Mulcahy , who was responsible for organising and directing IRA units around the country. In theory, both Collins and Mulcahy were responsible to Cathal Brugha, the Dáil's Minister of Defence, but, in practice, Brugha had only a supervisory role, recommending or objecting to specific actions. A great deal also depended on IRA leaders in local areas (such as Liam Lynch, Tom Barry, Seán Moylan , Seán Mac Eoin and Ernie O'Malley ) who organised guerrilla activity, largely on their own initiative. For most of
16830-466: The officer in charge of the military party. A Tan put his revolver to my mouth and fired [he was wounded in the jaw]...Only for the military officer coming along, I would be gone. Opinion is divided amongst historians as to which version of the story to believe: Peter Hart, for example, wrote that, "The Irish survivors testified convincingly that there had been no treachery on their part." However, he also compared what happened at Clonmult to what happened at
16983-502: The others butchered". The principal published source for what happened at the Kilmichael Ambush is Tom Barry's Guerrilla Days in Ireland , which derided British accounts as atrocity propaganda. The first by a participant, Stephen O'Neill (reported above), appeared in 1937 (republished in Rebel Cork's Fighting Story , 1947, 2009). The first account of a false surrender event at Kilmichael appeared in June 1921, seven months later, in
17136-510: The planned nature of the engagement, the disposition of the IRA and the sequence of casualties, that Barry would not have misreported to his superiors. In her book Tom Barry: IRA Freedom Fighter , Ryan suggests that the "rebel commandant's report" was forged by Castle officials and Auxiliaries during the Truce in order to help ensure that the families of those Auxiliaries who were killed at Kilmichael received compensation payments. Ryan's argument
17289-423: The police and military." By contrast, the surviving Volunteers claimed that their men had surrendered in good faith, and had come out with their hands up, only to be shot by the police without any provocation. Patrick Higgins, an IRA man who survived the killings, recalled: We were lined up alongside an outhouse with our hands up. The Tans came along and shot every man with the exception of three...who were saved by
17442-503: The procession, the Auxiliary Division increased their mistreatment of the County Cork population, to the extent that "no person was safe from their molestations." On 10 December, martial law was declared in response to the ambush in the counties of Cork , Kerry , Limerick and Tipperary . The next day, angered British forces burned sections of the city centre of Cork, preventing the city's fire brigade from putting out
17595-476: The scout partly on Jack Hennessy's BMH testimony (reported above). Though Hennessy died in 1970, Hart had a copy of his BMH statement. In his book, Hart paraphrased the anonymous scout reporting "a sort of false surrender". Hennessy was not unarmed or a scout. However, in Hart's 1992 TCD PhD thesis, this particular interviewee was not described as either a scout or as unarmed. Further anomalies surround this individual. For instance, Hart's PhD thesis reported him giving
17748-486: The second Auxiliary lorry, in the ambush position close to IRA Section Two. This lorry's occupants were in a more advantageous position than Auxiliaries in the first lorry, being further away from the ambushing group. Reportedly, they dismounted to the road and exchanged fire with the IRA, killing Michael McCarthy. Barry then brought the Command Post soldiers who had completed the attack on the first lorry to bear on this group. Barry reported that surviving Auxiliaries called out
17901-586: The second half of 1920 and in 1921. Collins was a driving force behind the independence movement. Nominally the Minister of Finance in the Republic's government and IRA Director of Intelligence, he was involved in providing funds and arms to the IRA units and in the selection of officers. Collins' charisma and organisational capability galvanised many who came in contact with him. He established what proved an effective network of spies among sympathetic members of
18054-617: The second lorry. In addition, Meehan pointed to a 2012 Father John Chisholm interview available online, not cited by Morrison. In it Chisholm asserted that Liam Deasy did not write Towards Ireland Free . Fr Chisholm stated that he wrote 'every line'. Chisholm also noted that he doubted the false surrender account before researching it. He then admitted that he failed to put his view to Tom Barry when they met. Chisholm wrote to Ned Young's son in 2008, stating that he had no audio-tape interview with Ned Young. He re-discovered it, he said, three years later, claiming he had forgotten its existence. Notably,
18207-492: The separatist Irish Republican Brotherhood , began to prepare for a revolt against British rule in Ireland . The plan for revolt was realised in the Easter Rising of 1916, in which the Volunteers launched an insurrection whose aim was to end British rule. The insurgents issued the Proclamation of the Irish Republic , proclaiming Ireland's independence as a republic. The Rising, in which over four hundred people died,
18360-462: The south and west, forcing the British government to introduce emergency powers . About 300 people had been killed by late 1920, but the conflict escalated in November. On Bloody Sunday in Dublin , 21 November 1920, fourteen British intelligence operatives were assassinated; then the RIC fired on the crowd at a Gaelic football match, killing fourteen civilians and wounding sixty-five. A week later,
18513-446: The summer of 1920, the Tans burned and sacked numerous small towns throughout Ireland, including Balbriggan , Trim , Templemore and others. In other acts of reprisal, between April and August 1920 over 100 mills, creameries and other economic targets were destroyed or burned. In July 1920, another quasi-military police body, the Auxiliaries, consisting of 2,215 former British army officers, arrived in Ireland. The Auxiliaries had
18666-521: The surrender. Ambush veteran Ned Young reported (see above) being told afterwards that Lordon bayoneted an Auxiliary he believed had surrendered falsely. Hennessy described in his BMH statement (WS 1,234) an incident in which, after Michael McCarthy was shot dead, he stood and shouted "hands up" to an auxiliary who had "thrown down his rifle". Hennessy reported the auxiliary then "drew his revolver", causing Hennessy to "shoot him dead". IRA veterans reported variously that wounded Auxiliaries, finished off after
18819-479: The time, he guarded a bridge some 15 kilometers away. Meehan noted Morrison's admission that Ned Young, who was there, reportedly said nothing at his alleged interview (aged 96) to Peter Hart about the ambush. Yet Hart claimed Young's anonymous interview as a source of information on the ambush. Flor Crowley's initial, 1947, view of a false surrender at the first auxiliary lorry was soon afterwards changed to placing it (like Barry and Section Commander Stephen O'Neill) at
18972-424: The town of Macroom , and in November 1920 they carried out a number of raids on the villages in the surrounding area, including Dunmanway , Coppeen and Castletown-Kinneigh , to intimidate the local population away from supporting the IRA. They shot dead one civilian James Lehane (Séamus Ó Liatháin) at Ballymakeera on 17 October 1920. In his memoir, Guerilla Days in Ireland , Tom Barry noted that before Kilmichael
19125-548: The unit took possession of a disused farmhouse overlooking the village of Clonmult. O'Hurley planned to ambush a military train at Cobh Junction on Tuesday 22 February 1921 and at the time of the Clonmult action was scouting a suitable ambush site. However, according to historian Peter Hart , they "had become over-confident and fallen into a traceable routine". An intelligence officer of the British Army Hampshire Regiment traced them to their billet at
19278-530: The war had started, the Dáil debated "whether it was feasible to accept formally a state of war that was being thrust on them, or not", and decided not to declare war. Then on 11 March, Dáil Éireann President Éamon de Valera called for acceptance of a "state of war with England". The Dail voted unanimously to empower him to declare war whenever he saw fit, but he did not formally do so. Volunteers began to attack British government property, carry out raids for arms and funds and target and kill prominent members of
19431-487: The war. Many of the National Volunteers did enlist, and the majority of the men in the 16th (Irish) Division of the British Army had formerly served in the National Volunteers. The Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army launched the Easter Rising against British rule in 1916, when an Irish Republic was proclaimed. Thereafter they became known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Between 1919 and 1921
19584-463: The war—was killed in an armed raid by local IRA volunteers on a church parade the day before (7 September). The ambushers were members of a unit of the No. 2 Cork Brigade under the command of Liam Lynch , who also wounded four British soldiers and disarmed the rest before fleeing in their cars. The local coroner's inquest refused to return a murder verdict over the soldier and local businessmen who had sat on
19737-475: The widespread help given to them by the general Irish population, who generally refused to pass information to the RIC and the British military and who often provided " safe houses " and provisions to IRA units "on the run". Much of the IRA's popularity arose from the excessive reaction of the British forces to IRA activity. When Éamon de Valera returned from the United States, he demanded in the Dáil that
19890-529: The words of the British historian Peter Cottrell —to an "administration renowned for its incompetence and inefficiency". Ireland was divided into three military districts. During the war, two British Army divisions, the 5th and the 6th divisions, were based in Ireland with their respective headquarters in the Curragh and Cork . By July 1921 there were 50,000 British troops based in Ireland; by contrast there were 14,000 soldiers in metropolitan Britain. While
20043-418: The young government and its army. By the end of the year the loan had reached £358,000. It eventually reached £380,000. An even larger amount, totalling over $ 5 million, was raised in the United States by Irish Americans and sent to Ireland to finance the Republic. Rates were still paid to local councils but nine out of eleven of these were controlled by Sinn Féin, who naturally refused to pass them on to
20196-674: Was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic ) and British forces: the British Army , along with the quasi-military Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) and its paramilitary forces the Auxiliaries and Ulster Special Constabulary (USC). It was part of the Irish revolutionary period . In April 1916, Irish republicans launched
20349-494: Was almost exclusively confined to Dublin and was put down within a week, but the British response, executing the leaders of the insurrection and arresting thousands of nationalist activists, galvanised support for the separatist Sinn Féin – the party which the republicans first adopted and then took over as well as followers from Countess Markievicz , who was second-in-command of the Irish Citizen Army during
20502-454: Was an attack carried out on 28 November 1920 by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) near the village of Kilmichael , County Cork , during the Irish War of Independence . Thirty-six local IRA volunteers commanded by Tom Barry killed sixteen members of the Royal Irish Constabulary 's Auxiliary Division . The Kilmichael ambush was politically as well as militarily significant. It occurred one week after Bloody Sunday and marked an escalation in
20655-460: Was announced by the Dáil on 11 April 1919. This proved successful in demoralising the force as the war went on, as people turned their faces from a force increasingly compromised by association with British government repression. The rate of resignation went up and recruitment in Ireland dropped off dramatically. Often, the RIC were reduced to buying food at gunpoint, as shops and other businesses refused to deal with them. Some RIC men co-operated with
20808-503: Was audio taped interviews conducted by a Father John Chisholm in 1969, for Liam Deasy's memoir Toward Ireland Free (1973). However, Morrison stated in her 2012 Kilmichael essay that Chisholm's tape recorded two (not three) Kilmichael participants speaking on Kilmichael. One was Ned Young the other being Jack O'Sullivan, reportedly the last and second last ambush veterans to die, in 1986 and 1989. In other words, without informing his readers, Hart counted an anonymous Ned Young interview twice,
20961-478: Was called off. The British government managed to bring the situation to an end, when they threatened to withhold grants from the railway companies, which would have meant that workers would no longer have been paid. Attacks by the IRA also steadily increased, and by early 1920, they were attacking isolated RIC stations in rural areas, causing them to be abandoned as the police retreated to the larger towns. In early April 1920, 400 abandoned RIC barracks were burned to
21114-454: Was in 2004, six years after publication of The IRA and its Enemies . Morrison identified in Hart's book, Chisholm interview utterances in all but two of Hart's anonymous quotes (though without identifying these two). Confirming Meehan's 2008 observation, Morrison noted that a quote Hart ascribed to the 'scout' was in fact uttered by Jack O'Sullivan, another interviewee, to Fr Chisholm. Ned Young's son, John Young, afterwards continued to dispute
21267-474: Was later captured and shot dead. Among the 16 British dead on the road at Kilmichael was Francis Crake, commander of the Auxiliaries in Macroom, probably killed at the start of the action by Barry's Mills bomb. The severity of his injuries probably saved Frederick Henry Forde (also referred to as H.F. Forde ). He was left for dead at the ambush site with, amongst other injuries, a bullet wound to his head. Forde
21420-712: Was later executed. A number of events dramatically escalated the conflict in late 1920. First the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney , died on hunger strike in Brixton Prison in London in October, while two other IRA prisoners on hunger strike, Joe Murphy and Michael Fitzgerald , died in Cork Jail. Sunday, 21 November 1920, was a day of dramatic bloodshed in Dublin that became known as Bloody Sunday . In
21573-407: Was led by Seán Treacy , Séumas Robinson , Seán Hogan and Dan Breen acting on their own initiative. The IRA attacked and shot two RIC officers, Constables James McDonnell and Patrick O'Connell, who were escorting explosives. Breen later recalled: ...we took the action deliberately, having thought over the matter and talked it over between us. Treacy had stated to me that the only way of starting
21726-529: Was marked by severe rioting in Dublin that left over 100 British soldiers injured. While it was not clear in the beginning of 1919 that the Dáil ever intended to gain independence by military means, and war was not explicitly threatened in Sinn Féin's 1918 manifesto , an incident occurred on 21 January 1919, the same day as the First Dáil convened. The Soloheadbeg Ambush , in County Tipperary,
21879-488: Was picked up by British forces the following day and taken to hospital in Cork. He was later awarded £10,000 in compensation. The other surviving Auxiliary, Cecil Guthrie (ex Royal Air Force), was badly wounded but escaped from the ambush site. He asked for help at a nearby house. However, unknown to him, two IRA men were staying there. They killed him with his own gun and dumped his body in Annahala bog. In 1926, on behalf of
22032-435: Was positioned before the ambush position as an insurance group, should a third Auxiliary lorry appear. The British later alleged that over 100 IRA fighters were present wearing British uniforms and steel trench helmets. Barry, however, insisted that, excepting himself, the ambush party were in civilian attire, though they used captured British weapons and equipment. The first lorry, containing nine Auxiliaries, slowed almost to
22185-649: Was queried by American historian W. H. Kautt, who discovered that the report had been included in a collection of captured IRA documents that was published by the British Army's Irish Command in June 1921 before the Truce. In Ambushes and Armour: The Irish Rebellion 1919-1921 , Kautt suggested that the report could be authentic. Hart continued to stand by his account until his death in 2010. In 2012 Eve Morrison published 'Kilmichael Revisited' in Terror in Ireland (David Fitzpatrick, ed.), an essay based partly on IRA veteran testimony. She cited Hart's unpublished draft response to
22338-487: Was rejected by Irish nationalists, who were certain the men had been tortured and then murdered. On 28 November 1920, one week later, the West Cork unit of the IRA, under Tom Barry, ambushed a patrol of Auxiliaries at Kilmichael, County Cork , killing all but one of the 18-man patrol. These actions marked a significant escalation of the conflict. In response, the counties of Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Tipperary—all in
22491-479: Was secretly hospitalized in Cork City. It is possible that the ongoing stress of being on the run and commander of the flying column, along with a poor diet as well as the intense combat at Kilmichael, contributed to his illness, diagnosed as heart displacement. Soon after the ambush, The Times of London described the engagement as a "brutal massacre" of the Auxiliary Division. This, along with other reports in
22644-562: Was shot dead in front of his wife at his home, by men with blackened faces who were seen returning to the local police barracks. The jury at the inquest into his death returned a verdict of wilful murder against David Lloyd George (the British Prime Minister) and District Inspector Swanzy, among others. Swanzy was later tracked down and killed in Lisburn , County Antrim . This pattern of killings and reprisals escalated in
22797-465: Was the first published account and also a concoction, allegedly later used by Barry for his own purposes. Hart stated that a November 1932 account by Barry in the Irish Press , without a false surrender narrative, demonstrated that Barry made up the story later. In response, Irish historian Media Ryan said that Barry's false surrender narrative was edited out and, citing Barry's contemporary letter to
22950-409: Was to seek out and kill "G-men" and other British spies and agents. Collins' Squad began killing RIC intelligence officers in July 1919. Many G-men were offered a chance to resign or leave Ireland by the IRA. One spy who escaped with his life was F. Digby Hardy , who was exposed by Arthur Griffith before an "IRA" meeting, which in fact consisted of Irish and foreign journalists, and then advised to take
23103-491: Was wearing a British uniform. This confusion was part of a ruse by Barry to ensure that his adversaries in both lorries halted beside two separated IRA ambush positions on the north side of the road, where Sections One (10 riflemen) and Two (10 riflemen) lay concealed. Hidden on the opposite (south) side of the road was half of Section Three (six riflemen), whose instructions were to prevent the enemy from taking up positions on that side. The other half of Section Three (six riflemen)
23256-420: Was widely reported ... The following 24th December 1983 Southern Star reported, "One of the three surviving members of the famous KiImichael Ambush has died. He was lieutenant Timothy O'Connell". The newspaper referred, as did the 7th December 1985 Southern Star, to "two survivors, Ned Young and Jack O'Sullivan". One year later, the 20th December 1986 edition reported the death of "one of the last two Survivors of
23409-541: Was wrong of Dr Morrison to imply [...] that the late Jim O'Driscoll did not read my Affidavit before witnessing my signature. He did just that when we met in Ballydehob in August 2007, as any sensible person would. [...] Before his untimely death, Jim O'Driscoll's name appeared twice publicly in relation to Peter Hart. First, in Hart's 1998 book that acknowledged Jim's kind assistance. Second, in Troubled History (2008) as
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