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The Battle of Deputy’s Pass

The Battle of Deputy’s Pass is fought in County Wicklow on May 29, 1599, during the Nine Years’ War in Ireland. A Gaelic Irish force under Felim McFiach O’Byrne ambushes an English army of about 500, under Sir Henry Harington, which is marching from Rathdrum to Wicklow. The English army is routed and loses about 250 men.

The O’Byrnes had been allied to Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone, since the outbreak of the Nine Years’ War in 1593. Fiach McHugh O’Byrne had worked together with O’Neill, so much that he is described as the earl’s “right arm in Leinster.” However, when Fiach is killed in 1597, the power of the O’Byrnes seems to wane. When Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, is appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1599, he orders Harrington into County Wicklow to deal with the O’Byrnes and their allies, the O’Tooles.

Harrington’s force consists of five foot companies, but four of them are inexperienced levies recently raised in England. The only experienced foot company is that of Captain Loftus, whose men are mostly Irish. The companies are organised into a regiment under the command of Sir Alexander Radcliffe. To this is added fifty horsemen commanded by Captain Charles Montague. Harrington wants to take his troops out to scout the Irish fortifications on the ford of the Avonmore River at Rathdrum, and possibly to give his raw troops some experience in fieldcraft. His first attempt to view the Irish position on May 28 fails. Harrington returns to his camp about a mile from the ford. A second effort to view the Irish fortifications is made on May 28, but this is turned back due to poor weather. Harrington orders the men to march back to Wicklow town.

The English army stretches out in a column. In the lead is the van, then the baggage, followed by the battle and then the rear. Captain Atherton, the Sergeant Major of the army, has little doubt that the weight of any Irish attack will fall on the rear of the column. Thus, the horse (cavalry) is placed at the rear. The army has marched little over a mile before the Irish shot (musketeers and caliver-men) begin skirmishing with the rear of Harrington’s force. The Irish try to take a ford to block the advance, but the English secure the crossing, with the shot of the English rear skirmishing with the Irish, allowing the rest of the army to pass unhindered.

The march continues two miles to another ford, with the rear continuing to hold O’Byrne’s Irish shot at bay. Again, the English shot secures the crossing, as Irish fire slackens, possibly due to a shortage of gunpowder. Harrington places 40–50 shot behind an earthen bank on the left flank of the column on the far side of the ford. The Irish bring up a stand of pikemen, but their attack is limited to the English left, as the right of the column is shielded by thick gorse bushes. Atherton gathers 60–80 men to counter-attack the Irish pike. The English shot behind the bank is to hold their fire until Atherton attacks, but instead prematurely fires a single volley at the Irish pike then abandons their position. Without the support from their shot, Atherton’s men refuse to charge the Irish, then withdraw to the main body of the English column.

Atherton finds that the English shot have fled the column, abandoning the main stand of English pike. Now exposed to Irish gunfire, the English pike become disordered as they press to make the river crossing. Exploiting the English confusion, the Irish pike charges into the English rear, killing many without resistance. Montague’s English cavalry charges to support the panicking infantry, but the Irish pike square opens, allowing the horse to pass through. The Irish pike spear the English horse as they pass, including Montague who is wounded by a pike thrust into his side. Despite their officer’s best efforts, the English soldiers’ resistance collapses. The rout continues with the Irish slaughtering Harrington’s men to within one and a half miles of Wicklow town. All the English companies lose their colours, except for Captain Loftus, but they are later recovered by the English horse. After the battle, Radcliffe estimates the English army has lost 250 men killed, missing or deserted.

The first English reports suggest that they lost the battle due to the inexperience of most of their troops. Harrington at first blames the English pikemen for refusing to fight, but at the court-martial in July, Harrington, supported by two of his officers (Captains Linley and Mallory) blames Captain Loftus and his Lieutenant Walsh. This is convenient, as Loftus had died from his wounds and could not refute their accusations. Their version is supported by a map drawn of the battle, possibly by Montague (Harrington’s nephew). Loftus and Walsh are found guilty by the court-martial. Loftus is already dead, but Walsh is executed by firing squad. Mallory and Linley are not found guilty, but they are cashiered, losing command of their foot companies. The men in Loftus’ company are sentenced to death but this is commuted to decimation by drawing lots. Even by Elizabethan standards this is deemed overly harsh. Though Harrington is not charged with misconduct, he is never given command of a force this size again.


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The Scramoge Ambush

The Scramoge ambush is an ambush carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) on March 23, 1921, during the Irish War of Independence (1919-21). The IRA ambush a lorry carrying British Army troops and Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) officers at Scramoge (also spelled Scramogue), near Strokestown in County Roscommon. Three British soldiers and an RIC officer are killed, while two RIC “Black and Tans” are captured and shot dead shortly thereafter.

Following the ambush, the British carry out a sweep in which they capture three of the IRA volunteers involved and kill another who had not taken part.

County Roscommon is not one of the more violent areas of Ireland during the conflict. The local IRA argues to their GHQ that it is very difficult to conduct guerrilla warfare in the flat open countryside there. Prior to the action at Scramogue, the biggest previous incident had been in October 1920, when four RIC officers were killed in an ambush near Ballinderry.

Sean Connolly is sent by IRA GHQ from Longford to re-organise the Roscommon IRA and chooses the ambush site at Scramoge. However, he is killed twelve days before the action, at the Selton Hill ambush in neighbouring County Leitrim.

Both the North and South Roscommon brigades of the IRA take part and are commanded by Patrick Madden. There are 39 volunteers in the flying column, but only 14 take part in the actual attack. The remainder are tasked with blocking roads to keep the IRA’s line of retreat open. The IRA party is armed with thirteen rifles (eleven Lee–Enfields, one Winchester and one sporting rifle), twenty shotguns (though some are in bad condition) and two or three Webley revolvers. This is the largest collection of arms that the IRA assembles in Roscommon during the war and some of them have been borrowed from IRA units in Longford.

Among the volunteers who take part are Martin Fallon, ‘Cushy’ Hughes, Frank Simons, Luke Duffy, Peter Casey, Peter Collins, Patrick Gallagher and Tom Compton. Several of the IRA men, including Hughes, had served in the Irish Guards (IG) in World War I, but had been persuaded by Pat Madden to join the IRA upon their return.

The ambush site is carefully prepared. It is located at a sharp bend on the Strokestown–Longford road. A farmhouse and barn at the bend have been taken over and loopholed, and a trench is dug behind a hedge alongside the road. Only a mile from the IRA’s position, the British 9th Queen’s Royal Lancers regiment is garrisoned in Strokestown House.

The IRA waits in their position all day for British forces to come from Strokestown. Just as a troop lorry finally appears, two civilians came up the road in a pony and trap and have to be frantically waved out of the way.

The lorry carries a nine-man British Army and Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) patrol traveling on the Strokestown–Longford road. The British inquiry into the incident is to question why the lorry is unescorted, as their practice is not to travel in lone vehicles.

The IRA opens fire from very close range, killing the driver and halting the lorry in its tracks. Several of the soldiers and policemen are hit and they scrambled for cover behind a wall along the road. The lorry has a Hotchkiss machine gun bolted onto it, but its gunner gets off only one burst before being badly wounded and the gun is put out of action. The commander of the patrol, Captain Roger Grenville Peek, is hit in the lorry but tries to run to safety, only to be hit again and killed 400 yards down the road. The other officer with the party, Lieutenant Tennant, is also killed by a shotgun blast. After the death of the two officers, the surviving British, several of whom are wounded, surrender.

Just as the firing is dying down, another lorry, an RIC/Black and Tan patrol, approaches the ambush site but turns back after coming under fire.

Four of the British force are killed – this includes two British Army officers (Roger Grenville Peek and John Harold Anthony Tennant), a Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) driver, and one RIC man (Constable Edward Leslie).

Two men in civilian clothes are also found in the lorry. They turn out to be Black and Tans, Constable Buchanan and Constable Evans, who had been placed under arrest by the soldiers. They are made prisoners by the IRA. The ambush party takes the British arms, including the Hotchkiss gun, burn the lorry and make their escape over the hill of Slieve Bawn.

The IRA leaders, Pat Madden, Luke Duffy and Frank Simons, decide to murder the two Black and Tans, despite their offering to show the IRA how to use the captured machine gun. The IRA officers’ reason that if the prisoners identify the IRA men who had taken part in the ambush, the volunteers will be at risk of being executed if captured. The two are taken to remote locations and shot over the next two days.

The British garrison in Roscommon town mounts a sweep directly after the ambush with eight lorries and one Whippet tank. Three volunteers who had taken part are arrested afterward. Pat Mullooly and Brian Nagle of the North Roscommon Brigade are arrested as they try to get away from the scene of the ambush, as is “Cushy” Hughes, who is picked up when he is drawing his soldier’s pension in Roscommon. Mullooly and Nagle are badly beaten by their captors on the road to Roscommon. The next day, another volunteer, Michael Mullooly, brother of Pat Mullooly, is shot dead in his home by the RIC.


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The Tooreen Ambush

The Tooreen ambush (also known as the Toureen ambush or Ballinhassig ambush) is an ambush carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) on October 22, 1920, during the Irish War of Independence. It takes place near Roberts Farm, Tooreen, near Ballinhassig in County Cork. The IRA ambushes two lorries of British soldiers, killing three and wounding four others. The British surrender and their weapons and ammunition are seized by the IRA. Later that night, British soldiers go on a rampage in nearby Bandon.

Up until the Tooreen ambush, the 3rd Cork Brigade had finished its training, but had not previously engaged in battle with British troops stationed in County Cork. The Tooreen ambush is one of the first major ambushes carried out by the West Cork Brigade under Tom Barry.

The Essex Regiment of the British Army is deployed to West Cork and has a reputation for violently raiding houses throughout the countryside and arresting people believed to be IRA volunteers. They are also alleged to torture their prisoners in order to get information on the whereabouts of the flying columns, so this makes them a despised enemy to the West Cork IRA.

The Essex Regiment is known to travel on the road from Bandon to Cork City every morning and return in the evenings. The road goes through the hamlet of Toureen which the Third West Cork Brigade is stationed at nearby and it is decided to ambush this column of the Essex Regiment as it makes its way to Cork city.

Thirty-two ambushers, twenty-one being riflemen of the Third West Cork Brigade, occupy ambush positions outside Toureen and lay in wait for the approaching Essex Regiment. The Regiment normally goes in two or three lorries to Cork City so the IRA places a homemade mine on the road for use against them.

Scouts signal the approach of two lorries which are coming down the road toward the ambush site. As the first lorry passes, the order to fire is given and a homemade three-pound bomb is thrown. The bomb lands inside the lorry but does not explode. The mine that is placed on the road also fails to detonate. As the volunteers open fire, the second lorry stops and the soldiers inside leap out and return fire, but the volunteers are hidden behind a large timber gate which gives them cover. The first lorry continues on to Cork Barracks. As the fight goes on, the officer in command of the British troops, Captain Dixon, is shot in the head and killed as is one of his men.

The remaining British soldiers surrender soon after, and the IRA men cease firing. The British soldiers are relieved of their weapons and ammunition, but otherwise unharmed. Fourteen rifles, bayonets, equipment, several Mills bombs, around 1,400 rounds of ammunition and a couple of revolvers are taken from them.

Two British soldiers, Lt. Dixon MC of the Suffolk Regiment and Pte. Charles William Reid of the Essex Regiment, are killed in the ambush. Five are wounded, including Sergeant Thomas Bennett RASC who dies in Cork on the following day. Six are unhurt except for shock. None of the IRA volunteers are killed or wounded during the ambush and aid is given to the wounded soldiers, while the dead are pulled away from the lorry and it is then set on fire by the volunteers. The two soldiers who are not hurt during the ambush are released along with their wounded and they return to their barracks.

Later that night, members of the Essex Regiment go on a violent rampage through Bandon, destroying property and seeking out anyone they believe to be connected to the ambush. It is believed that at least some of the rampaging soldiers are those released unharmed by the IRA earlier in the day. The reprisal attacks are indiscriminate and include attacks on homes and properties of business owners with “establishment” connections – including the Brennan family of Kilbrogan House.

A Military Court of Inquiry into the soldiers killed, is conducted on October 28, 1920. There are mixed references to these proceedings in The Irish Times and the Irish Independent, both of which contain errors.

Lt. Dixon is buried with full military honours in St. Paul’s Church in Dover, Kent, England. Sergeant Bennett is buried in St. Peter & St. Paul Church in his home village of Shorne, near Gravesend in Kent.

(Pictured: Plaque on a farm wall marking the location of the Tooreen ambush)


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The Sheemore Ambush

The Sheemore ambush is an ambush carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) on March 4, 1921, during the Irish War of Independence. It takes place at Sheemore near Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim.

The ambush is carried out by the IRA’s South Leitrim Brigade on a British Army and Auxiliary Division convoy. The British force suffers casualties and admits one fatality, a captain in the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, although some local sources claim several more are killed.

On Friday morning, March 4, 1921, as the congregation makes their way out of the ‘First Friday Mass’ in the Roman Catholic parish church in Gowel, they are met by three lorries carrying 30–40 Auxiliaries, Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), and British Army members. The men are lined up for searching on one side while a ‘female searcher’ attends to the women. There is no panic and as nothing is found and there are no arrests. The church had been identified as a likely place for volunteers of the IRA’s South Leitrim Brigade to attend. Father Edward O’Reilly, the church’s curate, is openly friendly towards the volunteers. After they search the church interior, the police and soldiers remount their lorries and continue back to Carrick-on-Shannon.

About 2 kilometres down the road, on the slopes of Sheemore, volunteers of the South Leitrim Brigade await them. The day before, the Brigade had received word from Joe Nangle from Drumshanbo of the British operation. They take up position behind a low wall which runs on the brink of an eighty-foot-high rock face on the side of Sheemore. It is four hundred yards from the road. There are seven volunteers – Brigadier Seán Mitchel (who was in command), Charles E. McGoohan (from Ballinamore), Michael Geoghegan (from Aughacashel), Mattie Boylan (from Carrick-on-Shannon), Michael Martin (from Ballinamore), Joe Nangle and Harry McKeon.

At the command from Mitchell, the IRA opens fire on the convoy. The members of the convoy jump from their lorries, and take cover behind a wall which runs along the road. The police run despite the shouts from the soldiers to stand their ground. The officer in command tries to use field glasses to spot the positions of the IRA. After a forty-five-minute gunfight the IRA withdraws, and the British make no attempt to follow them. Instead they gather up their casualties and return to Carrick-on-Shannon, where Black and Tans later undertake reprisals, burning and looting, and burn both the premises of the Leitrim Observer newspaper and the local rowing club to the ground. They also burn the Temperance Hall in Gowel.

Nurse Alice Grey (or Gray), the ‘female searcher,’ who is a member of the ambushed convoy, is recognised by the British authorities for her role in the incident.

Contemporary newspaper reports indicate that one officer and four men of the Bedfordshire Regiment were wounded, as were two members of the RIC. The British officer died the following day, and some people reportedly left the area for fear of reprisals.

(Pictured: Monument in memory of the Volunteers who took part in the Sheemore Ambush)


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Founding of the Irish National Army

irish-national-army-cap-badge

The first regiment of the Irish National Army, sometimes unofficially referred to as the Free State army or the Regulars, is set up in Dublin on January 31, 1922.

The National Army is the army of the Irish Free State from January 1922 until October 1924. Its role in this period is defined by its service in the Irish Civil War, in defence of the institutions established by the Anglo-Irish Treaty. Michael Collins is the army’s first chief of staff from its establishment until his death in an ambush at Béal na mBláth on August 22, 1922.

The National Army is constituted from the revolutionary Irish Republican Army (IRA), which emerges from the successful Irish War of Independence fought as a guerrilla campaign against the British Army and Royal Irish Constabulary. Its first troops are those IRA volunteers who support the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the Provisional Government of Ireland formed there under. The army makes its first public appearance on January 31, 1922, when command of Beggars Bush Barracks is handed over from the British Army.

Conflict arises between the National Army and the anti-Treaty components of the IRA, which does not support the government of the Irish Free State. On June 28, 1922, the National Army commences an artillery bombardment of anti-Treaty IRA forces who are occupying the Four Courts in Dublin, thus beginning the Irish Civil War.

The National Army is greatly expanded in size to fight the civil war against the anti-Treaty IRA, in a mostly counter-insurgency campaign that is brought to a successful conclusion in May 1923. From October 1, 1924, the Army is reorganised into a smaller, better regulated force. The term “National Army” is superseded by the legal establishment of the Defence Forces as the Irish Free State’s military force.


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The Battle of Carlow

battle-of-carlow-monument

The Battle of Carlow takes place in Carlow, County Carlow on May 25, 1798, when Carlow rebels rise in support of the Irish Rebellion of 1798 which had begun the day before in County Kildare.

The Society of United Irishmen organisation in Carlow, led by a young brogue-maker named Mick Heydon who had taken over the leadership following the arrest of the previous leader, Peter Ivers, who was arrested with several other leading United Irishmen at Oliver Bond‘s house in March of that year, assemble on the night of May 24 and set off at dawn to attack the county town. Picking up more volunteers along the way, their numbers swell to around 1,200 and they march completely unopposed.

The attack on the town is planned to take place simultaneously from four different directions, through the four main streets. All are to converge on Potato Market.

As the various contingents advance, they are unaware that Colonel Mahon of the Ninth Dragoons has the military in the barracks and the town on the highest alert. Their every move is known to him. A strong party of military is stationed in the courthouse, which is now known as the Deighton Hall, situated immediately to the north of the bridge across the River Burren. Another party with two small cannon is stationed on the bridge. On Graigue bridge, there is an officer’s guard of yeomen. In Dublin Street and to the north, well-armed loyalists fill some large strong houses, but without military support, as the attack is known to be weak from that quarter. Tullow Street is left open and to all appearances undefended against what is expected to be the strongest attack of all. The trap is laid.

When the Rebels enter the town of Carlow, they are joined not only by the Catholic inhabitants but also by people who have secretly arrived there during the previous day and night. A crowd of approximately two hundred people break away and march through Tullow Street but when they reach Potato Market their fortunes change.

The forewarned garrison had prepared a deadly ambush, posting men at every window and rooftop. As the rebels relax after their apparently easy victory, the concealed soldiers pour volley after volley of gunfire into the masses of exposed rebels. Taken completely by surprise, the shocked and poorly armed rebels break and flee only to run into another army ambush. The survivors try to escape by breaking through adjoining houses and cabins which are set afire by the pursuing soldiers causing the deaths of 200 of the inhabitants.

In the meantime, the County Laois Rebels, on their way to aid the Carlow rebels having heard mixed reports of the battle and hearing the fate of their comrades, decide it is too late to help and change their plans. They are led by men called Redmond and Brennan. They proceed to Ballickmoyler instead, some miles outside Carlow in County Laois and there they set fire to many loyalist houses and attack the home of John Whitty, a Protestant clergyman. Twenty-one of the Rebels are killed in the fray but despite this they eventually overcome the loyalist inhabitants.

An estimated 500 rebels and civilians are killed in the streets of the town with no reported losses to the military. Another 150 are executed in the repression over the following ten days. A local man who becomes known as “Paddy the Pointer” is reported to have helped to identify escaped rebels to the military by riding around the town and pointing them out.

A memorial, pictured above, is located at Carlow-Graigue, or Graigue-Cullen as it is now known, where remains of many of those who perished that day were flung into a mass grave.


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The Clonbanin Ambush

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The Irish Republican Army (IRA) ambush a British Army convoy near the townland of Clonbanin, County Cork on March 5, 1921, during the Irish War of Independence.

The IRA force is comprised of almost 100 volunteers from counties Cork and Kerry, armed with rifles, hand grenades and a machine gun. Their target is a British Army convoy of three lorries, an armoured car and a touring car carrying Brigadier General Hanway Robert Cumming. The convoy is travelling from Killarney to Buttevant and comprises almost 40 soldiers of the East Lancashire Regiment.

When the convoy enters the ambush position, IRA volunteers open fire from elevated positions on both sides of the road. The three lorries and touring car are disabled, and the armoured car becomes stuck in the roadside ditch, although those inside continue to fire its machine guns. As Cumming jumps from his car, he is shot in the head and dies instantly. He is one of the highest ranked British officers to die in the Irish War of Independence.

The battle lasts slightly over an hour. As the IRA forces withdraw from one side of the road, a British officer and six soldiers attempted to flank the IRA on the other side. After a brief exchange of fire, they retreat.

The IRA are not believed to have sustained any casualties.

(Pictured: Two British officers surnamed Lawson and Adams with Brigadier General H. R. Cumming in Kenmare County Kerry shortly before their deaths at the hands of the IRA in 1921)


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Murder of Frank Shawe-Taylor

castle-taylor-ardrahan

Frank Shawe-Taylor, Irish land agent and ex-High Sheriff of County Galway, is shot and killed in an Irish Republican Army (IRA) ambush on March 3, 1920, during the Irish War of Independence. Shawe-Taylor is a member of the Taylor family of Castle Taylor, Ardrahan, County Galway. He is related to Lady Gregory and Captain John Shawe-Taylor. He serves as High Sheriff of County Galway in 1915.

Land disputes in Ireland had been a contentious issue for much of the 19th century, with tenants of landlords insisting on fixity of tenure, which later grows into a demand to own their own land. In addition, The Wyndham Land Act of 1903 enables the transfer of about 9 million acres, up to 1914, from landlords to tenants. However, tenure and ownership of land is still a live issue on the eve of the Irish War of Independence.

Shawe-Taylor is a land agent to a local landlord and is himself a tenant. Early in January 1920, a group of local IRA soldiers, including Mick Kelly, Bill Freaney and Larry Lardner, approach Shawe-Taylor on behalf of some local people who are requesting a road to travel to Mass. While Shawe-Taylor himself is amenable to their demands, his landlord refuses them outright and makes this known via Shawe-Taylor.

On March 3, 1920, Shawe-Taylor and his driver, Barrett, are making their way to Galway to attend the fair. At 6:00 AM the coach reaches Egan’s Pub, Coshla, where they find the road blocked. The donkey cart of a local, Johnny Kelly, has been stolen and placed across the road. From behind the wall, at least two shooters fire at Barrett and Shawe-Taylor, wounding Barrett and killing Shawe-Taylor. This results in a huge security presence in the area, which in turn leads to more unrest with the locals. This increases with the arrival of the Black and Tans, whose irregular methods result in shootings, assaults, rapes and deaths. Moorpark House is placed under Royal Irish Constabulary protection out of fear of further killings.

Other people who subsequently die as a result of the unrest in Galway include Ellen Quinn, a pregnant mother of six and a tenant of Lady Gregory, Fr. Michael Griffin, Tom Egan and brothers Patrick and Harry Loughnane. In addition, there are numerous incidents of violence, many of which are recorded with horror by Lady Gregory in her journal, who remarks that “the country has gone wild since the killing of Frank Shawe-Taylor.”

No one is ever tried for Frank Shawe-Taylor’s killing, though the identities of those involved are known to some locals at the time. His widow eventually sells their property and, with her young children, moves to England.

Shawe-Taylor is buried in St. Mary’s graveyard, Athenry. The music critic, Desmond Shawe-Taylor (1907–1995) and British racing driver Brian Shawe-Taylor (1915–1999) are his sons. His grandson is Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures since 2005.

(Pictured: Castle Taylor, near to Ardrahan and Caranavoodaun, Galway, Ireland | Photo © Mike Searle (cc-by-sa/2.0))