1919 - July 1921 War of Independence
Just over four years earlier in 1919 Séamus’s active service
in the fight for freedom began with the 4th Battalion of the Mid Clare
Brigade I.R.A. The Irish Volunteers were now more commonly known as the
Irish Republican Army. The Clare Brigade had been reorganised and divided
by I.R.A. GHQ, the Mid Clare Brigade being established early in 1919 along
with the East and West Clare Brigades. The Mid Clare Brigade consisted
of initially five battalions and, later in the war, six.[10]
Each battalion was then broken down into smaller local companies. Under
instructions from Michael Collins, Director of Organisation, Cathal Brugha
the I.R.A. Chief of Staff and his assistant chief Richard Mulcahy, Ernie
O’Malley a GHQ Staff Captain was sent to Clare to organise the new
Brigades. O’Malley, a veteran of Easter Week was an ideal choice
by Collins:
‘…committed to discipline, efficiency,
and to the meticulous regularisation of his forces; preoccupied with questions
of duty, order, leadership, and rank…an almost obsessively professional
I.R.A. officer.’ [11]
In March O’Malley came to the Mid Clare area to train the men and
officers of the Brigade which Séamus attended, usually for night
manoeuvres. ‘On Sundays we manoeuvred one battalion against
another, companies marched eight or nine miles to the mobilisation centre.
Officers and men wore what uniforms and kit they had. Police and military
followed us; we carried out tactical exercises whilst both our parties
watched for and avoided the real enemy. The numbers gave the men more
solidarity and confidence. During a practice attack I once watched another
officer from Miltown Malbay, who had been in the Irish Guards, train his
men to advance under cover. He carried a haversack full of clay balls
and from behind belaboured his men when they did not keep close to earth.
I gave military books to the officers and typewritten notes, lectured
to them and endeavoured to make field work and study interesting. It was
a difficult task. All day they worked hard at their farms or in the towns;
when evening came there was an added task. It “put years on them,”
it was cruel and hard to study.’[12]
Séamus related an incident when a Volunteer was reluctant to go
to ground when ordered by O’Malley as he had a new suit of clothes.
O’Malley said “God blast you...get down!” The
Volunteer got down into the mud and then the heavens opened.[13]
It was shortly after this period of training -10th May - that the Hennessy
home in Moy was first raided by the R.I.C. Séamus now had to go
‘on the run’. Aside from short visits he was not to live at
home for the next five years. Sleeping in safe houses, cabins, hay barns,
dug outs or in the open, relying on the goodwill of the people both in
the countryside and towns to feed, clothe and shelter him and many other
Volunteers on the move. Primary care was given by members of Cumann na
mBan, the women’s auxiliary of the I.R.A. Ellie Maloney of Islandbawn
was one member who provided care and support for the battalion. In a reference
letter Séamus outlined her work which was typical of Cumman na
mBan: ‘This is to certify that I the undersigned have known
Miss E. Maloney for many years particularly since her service with Cumman
na mBan organisation, and as an active participant in the fight for Irish
freedom. I have known her to have been an active, energetic, reliable
and trusted member who undoubtedly risked serious dangers, lost much sleep,
and endured continued hardships during the Anglo-Irish and Civil War periods.
Her occupation at farming and dairying industry was continually interrupted;
her work and business often neglected owing to her military activities.
I have known her to have been associated and to have taken part in the
following military operations, raising funds by way of organised dances
for army purposes, cooking, sewing, attending to wounded I.R.A. officer
Comdt. I. O’Neill and other members of the Active Service Unit who
were continually billeted at her home immediately after Rineen ambush
Sept. 1920. Had charge and care of despatches, firearms and important
documents for members of Brigade Staff Lex O’Neill and Battn. Staff
Séamus Hennessy who were practically whole time billeted in her
house. Had continual charge and care of firearms and ammunition. Ran important
despatches at great personal risk to Miltown Malbay. Assisted in the equipping
of members of Battalion A.S.U. on the way to Miltown Malbay ambush on
March 31st 1921. Continually cooking, catering, washing, knitting, and
sewing for A.S.U. who were on the run and practically whole time calling
to her house which was situated in a backward district.’[14]
Miltown Malbay since early 1919 was now a ‘Military area’
as the R.I.C. in the town was reinforced by the British army: ‘The
district was subjected to all the objectionable restrictions associated
with military rule. Fairs and meetings were banned, movements of persons
into and outside the area was allowed only on the production of a permit
from the sergeants of the R.I.C., barricades were erected on the roads
at different points in the area at which sentries were posted who questioned
and searched pedestrians and passengers in carts and motor cars.’[15]
Despite this the Volunteer’s continued to drill, train and meet
in remote locations.
After a number of 4th Battalion council meetings at Lehane’s house
in Lahinch, the Battalion HQ, it was decided to attack Connolly R.I.C.
barracks. This was to be one of the first I.R.A. raids upon a Police Barracks.
On the night of 21st July 1919 with Commandant Martin Devitt[16]
and Ignatius O’Neill[17] ,
the former Irish Guardsman, O’Malley had earlier observed Séamus
with Steve Gallagher[18] and Anthony
Malone[19] were in a party of Volunteers
who took part in the attack. The barracks was a single storey stone building
housing a sergeant and four constables. John Joe Neylon[20]
was transporting homemade grenades from Ennistymon to Cloonagh when he
fell off his bicycle and was injured. Hence no grenades arrived to the
attacking party. Devitt decided to attack regardless. Ignatius O’Neill
and Frank McKenna had rifles, the first time the battalion rifles were
brought into use, the other members of the party had shotguns. Devitt
called on the sergeant to surrender: ‘Sergeant O’Shea
surrender the hut and spare the lives of your men’, while Paddy
Gallagher under fire attempted to force the door in with a sledgehammer.
A chain gate inside the door which only opened a few inches for identification
purposes was found to make entry impossible. The barrack door was also
metal-plated making it bullet proof. O’Neill and McKenna opened
fire but the R.I.C. returned fire from a position of safety within the
barracks. The attack was called off as Devitt considered they were wasting
ammunition. Despite the I.R.A. not capturing the barracks, with the windows
blown by shotgun fire and the destruction caused by the attack, it still
resulted in the withdrawal of the R.I.C. to Ennis.[21]
Steve Gallagher, the Moy Company Captain, was promoted to the Officer
Staff of the 4th Battalion Mid Clare Brigade on 15th September 1919, serving
as Battalion Quartermaster and later as the fearless and daring Commandant
of the Battalion’s ‘Flying Column’ which was formed
in early 1920. Séamus, his close neighbour and friend, succeeded
him as Captain.[22] A constant severe
lack of useful firearms and ammunition was the first issue the new Captain
had to deal with, a common problem throughout the Volunteers. To address
this, on 21st November 1919, Séamus led Moy Company on the 4th
Battalion’s raid for arms on Mount Callan House the centre of landlord
Colonel Frederick St. Leger Tottenham’s estate.[23]
Tottenham was continually the target of agrarian attacks as a leading
diehard in the Clare Unionist movement and his vehement opposition to
Irish Land Bills and the prospect of Home Rule. Bridges on his lands were
‘smashed’ up, trees felled and roads to and from his estate
blocked. Cattle were driven off his grazing and, when returned or replaced,
his livestock would again, sometimes the following morning, be cleared
from the fields by large groups of men. Tenant farmers, many of them Volunteers
wanted to make life uncomfortable and difficult for their landlord in
order to get better terms when purchasing their tenancy under the Wyndham
Land Act. They dug up fields, threw stones in meadows, damaged machinery
and knocked stone walls.
Tottenham did not seem to heed the advice of his friend and fellow landlord
Colonel George O’Callaghan-Westropp who advised in his ‘Notes
on the Defence of Irish Country Houses’ that Protestants should
prepare for raids by gangs of perhaps fifty land-hungry Nationalists.
‘Shotguns, rifles and a telescope were taken from Mount Callan
after Volunteers had knocked down and knelt on the elder Colonel Tottenham,
who is said by one raider to have ‘put up a fierce resistance’.
A maid fainted, giving another raider a ‘terrible job to raise her’.[24]
Pako Kerin, Glendine Company was in the raiding party: ‘The
Colonel was a bitter imperialist and we expected plenty of opposition.
We were armed for that job. After making entry into the house through
the kitchen in the basement, we found the Colonel in his bedroom who,
on seeing us, lifted a table-lamp and hit Stephen Gallagher with it on
top of the head. My brother, Joe, and Gallagher rushed him. He grabbed
Gallagher’s revolver and had almost secured possession of it when
my brother wrenched it from both of them. He handed the revolver back
to Stephen Gallagher who hit the Colonel over the eye with it. The Colonel
was then overpowered. He refused to disclose where the guns were kept
in his house. In view of his obstinacy and of our determination not to
leave without getting the guns, we tried a bit of bluff. His legs were
bound and we laid him on a sofa. After dressing the wound we tried to
entice him to tell us where the guns were hidden. It was of no avail until
eventually we threatened to shoot him and forced open locked presses in
the room, destroying the furniture in the process. At this stage he asked
for one of the maids and requested her to give us the keys and show where
the guns were. In this raid we secured altogether six shotguns, one .45
revolver and one .32 revolver, with ammunition for these guns.’[25]
‘Over the next fifteen months the house was twice further raided
when the Tottenham’s were at church, though the booty was of less
military value, in the second case a watch, two daggers, a compass, £5
and a pair of gaiters.’[26]
The following week in Westminster the raid on Colonel Tottenham’s
house was raised in the House of Commons. Mr. Donald M.P. asked the Chief
Secretary for Ireland ‘if his attention has been called to a
raid by Sinn Féiners on the house of Colonel Tottenham, at Mount
Callan, West Clare; whether this gentleman was knocked down and received
serious injuries, whilst two shot guns and two revolvers were taken from
his house; what is the present condition of Colonel Tottenham; and if
any arrests were made?’ Mr. MacPherson M.P. replied ‘I
regret to say the facts are substantially as stated in the question. The
condition of Colonel Tottenham, who showed great courage, is I am glad
to say, improving. So far no arrests have been made.’[27]
In December the question was followed up in the Commons by Colonel Newman
M.P. who asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland ‘whether he has
received information of an outrage committed on the 21st November on Colonel
Tottenham, Mount Callan, County Clare, a gentleman advanced in years;
whether his house was entered by a party of twenty-two men of the Irish
Republican party who knocked him down, tied his hands, and compelled him
to give up all he had in his house, and, in an attempt at resistance,
Colonel Tottenham was repeatedly struck in the face with bludgeons and
severely injured; and if the authorities have been able to ascertain the
names of his assailants?’ Mr. Henry M.P. replied ‘I
would refer my hon. and gallant Friend to the reply given to the question
asked on this subject by my hon. Friend the Member for the Victoria Division
of Belfast on Thursday last, and to which I have nothing at present to
add.’ He later confirmed that Tottenham’s condition had
improved further.[28] After the
raid Colonel Tottenham was so shaken that he had to employ a young Scot
to help with the farm and home, where he had acted as his own steward
since the 1890s.[29] In mid 1923
as the Civil War ended, after thirty one years at Mount Callan, Colonel
Tottenham moved out. ‘Many of the old neighbours came to wish
me ‘farewell’ – one said ‘Sure! You came among
us, and we made you our own’, and another said, ‘Sure! You
were our father’. I like to leave it at that, hoping there may even
be a grain of truth in it.[30]
Previous to the Mount Callan raid Séamus led a raid on the 1st
October in his own Company area in Moy and Lackamore which resulted in
one revolver and one shotgun being captured. Later in December 1919 in
a raid on a ‘hostile’ house in Curragh O’Dea the company
also procured firearms.[31]
As I.R.A. assaults continued upon outlying barracks the R.I.C. withdrew
their men to larger barracks in the main towns. To discourage their return
the I.R.A. systematically destroyed the evacuated posts. On Easter Saturday
3rd April 1920 as the war escalated there had been a directive from I.R.A.
GHQ to commemorate the anniversary of the Easter Rising by burning abandoned
barracks. In response that night Séamus led members of Moy Company
in burning Lahinch R.I.C. Barracks. The Sergeant had been previously transferred
to Ennistymon, though his wife Mrs Roleston was still resident in the
barracks. She was asked by the Volunteers to leave with her family and
possessions to a nearby house. The Moy I.R.A. Volunteers spread hay on
the floor of the barracks and after a sprinkling of petrol it was set
alight. Slow to ignite Pat Murtagh and John Garrahy applied further torches.
After a few seconds Seán Burke[32]
recalled ‘all hell was let loose’ as slate, windows and doors
blew out after a massive explosion. Murtagh and Garrahy, still inside,
were rescued unconscious and seriously burnt. Séamus along with
his brother William, Steve Gallagher and members of the Company carried
the men the two mile journey to the Company area to Seán Burke’s
house, where Dr Michael Hillery, the Miltown Malbay practitioner was called
for medical assistance. Séamus placed armed guards and scouts to
protect them from R.I.C. search parties while they recovered. Hillery
later drove Murtagh to Dublin for treatment.[33]
The following September it was agreed at a Battalion meeting that an attack
would take place, based on intelligence received, that a patrol of regular
R.I.C. and Black and Tans travelled in a Crossley Tender lorry from Ennistymon
to Miltown Malbay every Wednesday morning. As well as avenging Martin
Devitt who had been killed earlier in 1920 in an engagement at Crowe’s
Bridge, near Inagh. The objective of the ambush was
to secure arms and ammunition for the poorly equipped Battalion. Ernie
O’Malley recounts in Raids and Rallies: ‘...As
there had been no previous engagement in this Moy Company area the commandant
decided to get as many men as he could into action. This would give a
wider sense of participation and it might encourage Volunteers to be eager
for another attack on the British. There were nine companies in the battalion,
and as the area was thickly populated there was ample manpower to draw
from. It was arranged that each company, except Lavereen, would furnish
Volunteers[34] Séamus
Hennessy was the company commander of Moy, and as the operation was to
take place in his area he was responsible for guides to direct the incoming
companies to their mobilisation centres. At two o’clock on the morning
of September 22, 1920, three companies, Inagh, Ennistymon and Lahinch,
were at Moy chapel. They had brought rations with them and they lay on
trams of hay to rest while the Moy Volunteers acted as a protective screen
in the darkness. At four o’clock the commandant moved the companies
off towards the Carrig at Ballyvaskin where they met more men from three
other companies.’[35]
Drummin Hill, Rineen with an elevation of 80-90 metres above sea level
was selected as the ambush site because of its strategic location on the
southern side of the main road between Lahinch and Miltown Malbay. A curve
in the road would force vehicles travelling to Miltown Malbay to slow
down as they reached the ambush site. Drummin Hill also had good natural
cover of furze and bracken to provide camouflage for the Volunteers. Ernie
O’Malley continues: ‘...They had a mixture of rifles and
shotguns and they would have the cover of low walls and banks to lie behind.
They were placed in position first, and were given instructions to withhold
fire until they saw the constabulary leave the road to get cover on their
side, otherwise cross fire might hit the men in the laneway. Further to
their west was the sea, but these men below the road and the riflemen
on high ground could fire over land in that direction for about five hundred
yards. O’Neill picked riflemen and took charge of them. Higher up,
Séamus Hennessy was responsible for the first small group of shotgun
men.’[36]
O’Neill wasn’t to know that his plans for the ambush were
to be thrown into disarray by two events that were to have a major bearing
on activities at Rineen. An unrelated incident that day was the shooting
of Acting Resident Magistrate Captain Alan Lendrum at a level crossing
at Caherfeenick near Doonbeg by members of the West Clare Brigade I.R.A.
He was on his way from Kilkee to attend the Petty Sessions (Court) at
Ennistymon Courthouse. The search for Lendrum who had been earlier reported
missing after his non arrival had led to an increase of Crown Forces activity
in the Mid Clare area. The second event concerned the Crossley Tender.
As the lorry was on its way a wrong signal was given by the scouts, ‘Police
car coming’ was taken up as ‘three cars coming’.
An order by O’Neill was issued to hold fire and the tender was allowed
to pass on its way to Miltown Malbay. O’Neill dispatched John Clune[37],
a Volunteer from Inagh, to cycle to Miltown Malbay to watch the tender
and report on its activities. Clune returned two hours later as the Battalion
lay in position. He informed O’Neill that the Crossley Tender was
outside the R.I.C. barrack facing for Ennistymon and was about to return.
Shortly before 3.00pm the lorry began its final journey to Drummin Hill.
In his witness statement to the Bureau of Military History John Joe (Tosser)
Neylon, Captain Ennistymon Company recounts what happened: ‘The
scout, whose name I am not able to remember, came back about 2 o’clock
in the evening and reported that the lorry was outside the R.I.C. Barracks
in Miltown, that it was facing in the direction of Ennistymon, that he
did not think that we had been noticed, and that it looked as if it would
be soon returning. In the space of 5 minutes or so we heard the noise
of the lorry coming towards us. In the meantime, O’Neill made a
few positional changes, bringing myself and the riflemen who were detailed
to get the driver to more suitable positions. When the lorry reached the
chosen spot I fired the warning shot and immediately all the party opened
up. The attack was over in a matter of seconds. There was no reply from
the lorry and our fellows rushed towards it to find five dead policemen
lying inside. One of the police managed to get off the lorry and had gone
about 300 yards towards Miltown when he was seen and shot by Donal Lehane
of Lahinch in a field near O’Connor’s house and at a spot
about 100 yards from the main road.[38]All
the guns and ammunition carried by the police were collected: - 6 Lee
Enfield service rifles, one .45 revolver and about 3000 rounds of .303
ammunition. The lorry was also burned... Some of the party were still
on the road around the lorry and others were making their way up the side
of Drummin hill when word was received that lorries of British troops
were coming towards us from Ennistymon.’[39]
Ernie O’Malley describes in Raids and Rallies: ‘As IRA
went up the rising ground Séamus Hennessy waited behind for a comrade
of his, Steve Gallagher, who had gone down to collect the rifle belonging
to the constabulary man who had rushed towards the sea. Séamus
shouted to him to hurry up toward the road, as he heard the noise of what
seemed to be a lorry approaching from the Lahinch direction. Some of the
men had halted below the first hill, but he shouted at them to push upwards
as he indicated the direction of the noise.’ O’Malley
recounts the intensity of gun fire the Battalion was under from the advancing
Crown Forces: ‘…Séamus Hennessy and some of his
shotgun men were making for a gap in a bank when Vaughan shouted at them,
‘Don’t go out that gap, for they’re like to set the
gun on it. Roll over the bank when I shout.’ Sure enough, the gunner
had his sights trained on the gap, and when the men simultaneously leaped
up and tumbled over the brow, the gun, in a long roll of fire, cut the
edges off the gap and the top of the bank on either side of it.’[40]
During the I.R.A. withdrawal from Rineen Séamus, along with Paddy
McGough, Captain Inagh Company, alternated use of one of the captured
RIC rifles. Pako Kerin, a rifleman during the ambush, recalled the withdrawal
from the ambush scene: ‘...On returning again to the hill top
I met Séamus Hennessy of Cloneyogan, Lahinch, afterwards O/C of
the Battalion, and he informed me that the military were coming from the
Ennistymon direction. Others with him were Pat Frawley, Liscahane, Miltown,
Michael Nester (Miko) Ennistymon, Francis Mee, Clooncoul, Anthony Malone,
Battalion Adjutant, and John Joe Neylon. We decided to make for Ballyvaskin
nearly a mile as the crow flies from Drummin Hill. The intervening country
was shaped something like a saucer and provided little cover as the fields
were very big. We went in extended formation and had gone a hundred yards
or so when we came under heavy machine gun fire from the North east. The
Military had reached the top of Drummin Hill and placed a machine gun
in position four hundred yards away from us. Our party at this stage were
in the middle of a ten acre field through which ran a stream in the direction
of Ballyvaskin. Pat Frawley and myself made for the stream. On the way
I was stunned by a bullet which passed between my ear and head. Recovering
after a few seconds, I got into a shallow drain where I remained for ten
minutes or so, and then dashed twenty or thirty yards further onto a cock
of hay. There I found Pat McCough, O/C of the Inagh Company. With him
I got as far as a low stone wall. The firing was still fierce and was
mostly coming from a machine gunner. Here we began to time the machine
gun burst and reckoned that a pan was being changed. We dashed across
another fifty or sixty yards of open ground behind another stone fence
where we met two more of our crowd, Dave Kennelly and John Crawford. Kennelly,
who had a rifle, was in an exhausted state and enquired if any of us were
in a condition to return the fire. Crawford had a carbine which he captured
from the tender, but the cut off had jammed. This I put right by forcing
it open with my teeth, and we both opened fire. I exhausted all the ammunition
I had, a total of fifty two rounds. Our fire enabled the other men in
our vicinity to retreat in more safety and, when my ammunition was finished,
we went after them. I overtook Mick Curtin of Cloneyogan, Moy, and we
travelled together for a distance, thinking we were safe from the enemy
fire. We were approaching a garden wall close to the houses in Ballyvaskin
when Curtin was wounded in the thigh. Somehow we managed to get into the
garden and relative safety.’[41]
Though the Volunteers were surprised when a large British army patrol
accidentally stumbled upon the scene as they searched for Lendrum, Seán
Burke recalls: ‘Strange as it may seem, they were more surprised
than we were. Consequently we had the drop on them and made full use of
it…the fighting continued for over three hours. By that time a vast
quantity of the captured ammunition had been expended but not without
results.’ [42] Due to
O’Neill’s leadership, the strength and resolve of the Battalion
and a thorough knowledge of the terrain the Volunteers were able to withdraw
from Rineen without loss of life. Ignatius O’Neill and Micklo Curtin
from Moy Company were wounded. Both were attended to by Dr Michael Hillery
and within a few weeks they were fully recovered.
The resultant aftermath of the ambush led to immediate brutal reprisals
and indiscriminate atrocities by the British Army, R.I.C. and Black and
Tans. As the 4th Battalion had escaped them they were determined to make
people suffer. They terrorized the local population in Miltown Malbay,
Lahinch, Ennistymon and the surrounding countryside with the murder of
civilians and the destruction, burning and looting of private and public
houses and shops. The long night of rampage and violence left six civilians[43]
and one I.R.A. Volunteer dead.[44]
In the Irish Independent of 27th September 1920 the total damages to property
were estimated at more than £100,000.[45]
Historian Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc discusses the significance
of the ambush: ‘Although its significance was later overshadowed
by larger ambushes in Cork and Limerick, the Rineen ambush...was at that
time the largest and most successful military action against the Royal
Irish Constabulary & Black and Tans that had then taken place in the
Irish War for Independence. Before this the I.R.A.'s military campaign
had mainly consisted of small scale ambushes on individual R.I.C. constables
on duty in towns, assassination attempts on higher ranking R.I.C. officers,
& small scale ambushes on police 'escorts'. These included the 'hold
up 'of the R.I.C. escort for the explosives being delivered to Soloheadbeg
quarry on 21 January 1919, during which 2 members R.I.C. were killed and
the rescue of Seán Hogan at Knocklong station which also resulted
in 2 R.I.C. fatalities.
Before Rineen the largest and most successful ambush on an R.I.C.
patrol had been carried out at Timoleague, County Cork on the 10th May
1920 during which the R.I.C. suffered 3 fatalities. The Rineen ambush
was the first time that a large I.R.A. unit had waited in an ambush position
for a lengthy period of time, and it was the first time that the I.R.A.
had wiped out an entire R.I.C. & Black and Tan patrol in a single
ambush inflicting 6 fatalities. The success of the 4th Battalion Mid Clare
Brigade at Rineen was not eclipsed by any other I.R.A. ambush until two
months later when the West Cork Brigade attacked and destroyed a patrol
of R.I.C. Auxiliaries at Kilmichael resulting in 17 R.I.C fatalities and
the deaths of 3 I.R.A. Volunteers.’[46]
According to Anthony Malone the success of the Rineen ambush and the British
forces reprisals had a strong effect on local people and the I.R.A. Volunteers:
‘The ambush had as far as our battalion area was concerned two
very direct results. The enemy became more hostile and active, but he
used large convoys when travelling. The people became very much embittered
against him and adopted a more defiant attitude towards the military and
Black and Tans. The women and the older people did not hesitate to show
their feelings when they encountered these forces in the course of raids
and searches. As far as the I.R.A. organisation itself went, the men became
keener at their drill and showed more enthusiasm in the different duties
which they were called upon to perform e.g.; road cutting, scouting and
dispatch carrying.’[47]
Dr W.H. Kautt concludes: ‘Although the Rebels claimed a greater
victory than occurred, and although their successes were due more to luck
than skill, there is no denying that this attack was a victory for the
I..R..A. Mid Clare Brigade.’[48]
Seán Burke in his recollection to Ernie O’Malley describes
how, the night before the next major engagement in the battalion area
- the Monreal Ambush of 18th December 1920 - members of the 5th Battalion
came to Moy to collect arms: ‘...we met the Moy men that night
close to the Moy School. Steve Gallagher, Séamus Hennessy and Ignatius
were there.’[49]
The Monreal ambush was carried out by the Mid Clare Brigade’s newly
formed active service unit or ‘Flying Column’ whose objective
was to destroy and disarm two lorries of Crown Forces which made daily
trips between Ennistymon and Ennis each morning. With the unexpected appearance
of a third lorry for which they were not prepared, a long exchange of
fire ensued with both sides inflicting causalities though none were reported
as fatal. Crown forces attempted to encircle the Flying Column as reinforcements
arrived from Ennistymon but the I.R.A. managed to safely withdraw under
intense pressure.
Though Séamus did not take part in the Monreal attack he had just
assumed greater responsibility in the 4th Battalion. At a Brigade meeting
at Hegarty’s in Kilnamona on 27th November 1920 there was a reshuffle
of Officers following the resignations of Commandant Ignatius O’Neill
and Vice Commandant John Joe Neylon.[50]
Séamus, though continually on the run as his home in Cloneyogan
was regularly raided by Crown Forces, was promoted to Officer Commanding
4th Battalion Mid Clare Brigade. Anthony Malone the 4th Battalion’s
newly promoted Vice Commandant recalled the Battalion changes: ‘…The
Battalion O/C. (Ignatius O’Neill) himself was incapacitated for
several months after Rineen and this fact did not improve matters. In
December 1920 he resigned from the post due to some differences with the
brigade staff. He was replaced by Séamus Hennessy, Cloneyogan,
Lahinch.’[51] In
his 1973 Connacht Tribune series of articles on the history of the war
in north and west Clare Seán Burke describes the meeting: ‘Commdt.
Ignatius O’Neill, who was generally quiet spoken and business like
in the disposal of the agenda, seemed drawn and haggard. He made one of
his longest speeches. He paid tribute to the display of the Column at
Rineen and tendered sympathy to all who had suffered as a result of the
reprisals of the Crown forces...Then he dropped the bomb on the party,
when he said that he and Vice Commdt. John Joe Neylon wished to be relieved
of their commands...Up to then changes in the Battn. Staff had been brought
about only as a result of the promotion to the Brigade staff of Martin
Devitt, and later by his untimely death...After some discussion, the meeting
came to an end, the ultimate decision was: Commandant – Séamus
Hennessy; Vice-Commdt. – Anthony Malone; Adj. – Seán
Burke; Q.M. Steve Gallagher; Capt Moy Coy. – Paddy Clancy; 1st.
Lieut. Lahinch Coy. Tom Burke.’[52]
Malone continues: ‘On the night of our appointments the Battalion
O/C. (Séamus Hennessy) and myself came into Miltown Malbay and
seized the Co. Council Rate Books from the local rate collector (James
McClancy).’[53] Co. Councils
across the country no longer recognised the British Local Government Department.
British civil administration had collapsed across Clare and the country.
Sinn Féin District and County Councils were established, as were
Parish and District Courts, supported by the Volunteers and recognised
by the civilian population. Rates were to be collected by trusted appointed
Volunteers who often, if they did not take the anti-Treaty side during
the Civil War, kept the position under the new Free State administration.
Séamus oversaw the collection of rates and monies for the Dáil
loan by selected Company Officers. He also organised the courts in the
area and appointed Volunteer Police who replaced the departed R.I.C. who
had wholly abandoned rural areas. The Volunteer Police carried out all
the normal duties of the R.I.C. as well as enforcing the law more stringently
in the Republican courts than their predecessors. Séamus had to
impose both military and civilian discipline on his men. On one occasion
he court-martialled and arranged the deportation of two prominent Volunteers
who in May 1921 had been convicted in the Republican courts of armed robbery.
With the loss of British civilian control Martial law was extended to
the whole of Co. Clare on 1st January 1921. [54]
Intelligence was a fundamental part of the war against the Crown Forces.
Séamus organised a special intelligence department in the Battalion
drawn from sympathetic Post Office officials, hotel employees, publicans
and shopkeepers in Miltown Malbay, Ennistymon and Lahinch. Anyone who
was in routine contact with R.I.C., Black and Tans and Auxiliaries. During
the Truce in December 1921 he received information that a raid was to
take place on the Munster and Leinster Bank in Ennistymon. In response
Séamus immediately placed armed guards at the Bank day and night
as well as guarding the manager and his staff from attack on their normal
business around the town and at their homes. [55]
In mid March 1921 at a brigade meeting in Hegarty’s house, Kilnamona,
presided over by Frank Barrett O/C a GHQ order was read out to officers
of the brigade’s six battalions. Representing the 4th Battalion
was Adjutant Seán Burke. Attacks were to be planned and mounted
by all active service units on RIC patrols or Crown Forces outside barracks
on the night of 31st March to mark the fifth anniversary of the Easter
Rising. It was also pay night. Many R.I.C or Black and Tans would be in
local pubs and vulnerable to attack. It was agreed that as there was no
Barrack in the 5th Battalion area they could operate in the 4th Battalion’s
area and attack Ennistymon while the 4th would concentrate on Miltown
Malbay.[56]
A meeting of the 4th Battalion was arranged for Lehane’s house,
Lahinch a week or so later. ‘There was a full attendance as
usual, with Commandant Séamus Hennessy presiding. There was unanimous
agreement that the column which consisted of specially selected men should
participate… Rockmount School, in the Glendine Company was decided
on as the place to meet, prior to entering the town. All the “old
reliables” turned up. A notable absentee was John Joe Neylon, who
was surprisingly captured early in the month…Final instructions
were given after the party had been paraded and inspected. An accidental
shot was fired and a few harsh words were uttered. Apologies were tendered
and the party moved off. The entrance to the town was gained from three
points.’[57]
John Jones the battalion’s intelligence officer arranged the plan
of attack: ‘...I met the attacking party on the Ballard road
just outside the town about nine o’clock and led them into the town
through Hill’s Lane into the ruins of the O’Neill’s
old home which had been burned about six months earlier as a reprisal
for the Rineen ambush. In these ruins the party took up positions waiting
for the Tans to leave Wilsons’ pub, and I had arranged with the
party to withhold their fire until the Tans had left Wilsons’ and
were passing a demolished house formerly owned by a family named Roche.
At half past nine the Tans came to the door accompanied by Mr Wilson,
where they remained in conversation for a few minutes and they moved off.
No sooner had they done so than someone in our party fired. This started
a fusillade from the guns of the others. Both Tans fell and were presumed
dead, but it later transpired that only one, Constable Moore, was killed
and that the other, Constable Hersey, was wounded.’[58]
Seán Burke describes the shooting: ‘A volley of shots
was fired. The two men fell and a rush was made towards them. They were
turned over and relieved of their revolvers and a dozen rounds of ammunition
and searched for any papers or documents that might be in their possession.
At that stage they were both presumed dead.’[59]
When those in the barrack heard the shots, flares were sent up in the
hope that reinforcements might arrive, but the I.R.A. had made provisions
and all roads in the Lahinch Company area had been thoroughly blocked
to prevent the arrival of reinforcements. Further precaution was taken
on the night of 1st April when the I.R.A. posted observers on the hilltops
at Moy, Glendine, and Letterkenny to watch out for any help that may be
coming to get reprisals for the attack.[60]The
Clare Champion on Saturday 9th April reported the death of Constable
Stanley Moore and the serious wounding of his comrade ‘who made
a very good pretence of being dead… he thought that discretion was
the better part of valour, and so he lived to tell the tale’[61]
of this attack on the Crown Forces in Miltown Malbay. All shops were closed
next day and many inhabitants left the town fearing reprisals but, with
the exception of the burning of a store-house, no other reprisals took
place that night. RIC Constable Moore was a thirty year old single man
from Glamorgan, Wales. He had seven months service having been a dentist
and soldier before joining the Constabulary.[62]
Addressing the congregation at Sunday Mass in Miltown Malbay, Very Rev.
Canon Hannon, P.P. condemning the shooting of Constable Moore said: ‘I
hardly know what to say to the congregation this morning in reference
to the terrible tragedy that stunned our little town on Thursday night
and that has cast a gloom over the whole Community. I wish I could spare
you and spare myself the distress of speaking of Thursday night’s
awful occurrence when a young police constable – I am told a most
inoffensive man – was shot dead in the street and sent into eternity
without a moment’s preparation to meet his creator. The shocking
occurrence has horrified me beyond expression. I have not met anyone in
the town or district who have not spoken of it with horror and loathing...Whatever
complexion may be put upon it, I could never view it as anything but a
cruel murder. How can such a deed bring a blessing on any cause no matter
how right or good? Those responsible for the preparation of this deed
have small concern for Miltown. This little town has suffered more than
any other little town in Ireland, in the past twelve months. If suffering
be the price of national freedom, then Miltown has paid more than its
share…..The distress and anxiety that old men and old women, not
to mention others, have endured since Thursday night’s terrible
deed, God alone knows. Each night, most of them fly from the town to seek
shelter and refuge elsewhere…For the past two or three years, I
have been giving my advice in public and in private to certain matters
but it has not been of much avail. This morning, I again beseech you to
give no countenance to anyone who would violate God’s law and bring
fresh trouble on this town that has already suffered heavily indeed.’[63]
Under Séamus the West Clare Railway was often the focus of attacks
as it was the main artery for moving large numbers of Crown Forces, military
supplies and post from Ennis to West Clare. Throughout the period the
Battalion harassed the railway line including on 6th March 1921 demolishing
Hanrahan’s Bridge in Moy.[64]
Anthony Malone in his witness statement details other attacks: ‘On
Ascension Thursday, 1921, I had charge of eight men armed with rifles
at Toor Hill, near Lahinch, while another party, under the Battalion O/C.,
went on to the Railway line about half a mile closer to the coast to raid
the mails coming on the morning train to Miltown. Hennessy’s party
were armed with revolvers and shotguns. The main road from Lahinch to
Miltown runs between Toor Hill and the Railway line and my party were
keeping eye on a back road which was also connected Lahinch and Miltown.
Just as the train was approaching the British military passed along the
main road. Thinking he was surrounded, the O/C. allowed the train to pass
unmolested and the military, who were unaware that anything was afoot,
continued on the journey. ...In June 1921, under the Battalion O/C., I
was one of a party of 16 men who met at Vaughan’s Hill, Moughna,
Lahinch, to ambush a party of police who were expected to come to Tom
Tuttle’s, Moughna, to serve him with a juror’s summons. After
waiting from 10.00 a.m. to 4 p.m. the police did not come along... A week
or so later in June 1921, the train to Miltown Malbay was held up at Moy
Bridge by a party of 25 men under Séamus Hennessy and two horse
loads of mails were removed from it, along with a quantity of suspected
“Belfast goods”. The seizures were brought to Marrinan’s
in Curraghadea, Lahinch. There the mails were censored. Nothing of importance
was found, but all correspondence addressed to members of the British
forces was destroyed. The remainder of the mail was brought to Dunsallagh
Post Office by some members of the Moy and Letterkelly companies and it
was delivered in due course to the addressees.[65]
A member of the attacking party was Pako Kerin, now Captain of the 4th
Battalion’s Glendine Company: ‘In June, 1921, under the
command of the Battalion O/C, Séamus Hennessy, I and about thirty
others held up the train outside Lahinch and seized a number of bales
of cloth, boxes of boots and rolls of tobacco that had been sent from
firms in Belfast to merchants on the west coast of Clare. The goods were
confiscated and divided around among our own supporters.’[66]
On many occasions the Battalion’s Active Service Unit lay in ambush
for many hours but either the enemy did not show or another factor determined
the calling off of the attack. On 12th May the Column was in position
at Inagh to ambush a convoy of Crown forces but had to withdraw as reports
came to Séamus that Fr McKenna and Fr Gaynor, both from Mullagh
Parish in west Clare, were prisoners in the lorries being transferred
to Ennis and onto Limerick for court martial. Two days later Séamus
with the brigades Flying Column O/C Joe Barrett went to Mullagh in the
West Clare Brigade area to meet Séan Liddy, the brigade’s
O/C, to examine locations for an ambush on the same lorries and Black
and Tans who had also attacked the church in Mullagh, but nowhere suitable
could be found.
Séamus, as a member of the Mid Clare Brigades Flying Column, on
19th May was in the planned attack on Auxiliaries based in Corofin at
Toonagh, on the road between Ennis and Corofin. This was the largest mobilisation
of the Brigade’s Column during the war. In the Column was Andy O’Donoghue
Commandant of the 5th Battalion. In
his memoirs he related what happened ‘In March or April,
1921, the Auxiliaries came to Corofin. They had a big reputation as seasoned
and ruthless soldiers. Our brigade staff was anxious to emulate the feat
performed by the Corkmen at Kilmichael, and eagerly sought an opportunity
to do so. The Auxiliaries soon provided the chance, by travelling in lorries
between Corofin and Ennis. About the middle of May, 1921, the brigade
O/C, Frank Barrett, assembled upwards of seventy or eighty men, nearly
all armed with rifles, at Kilnamona where they billeted for the night.
Next morning, after having breakfast and getting conditional absolution
from Father Hamilton, later Canon Hamilton, then on the staff of St. Flannan’s
College and one of the leading lights in the Sinn Féin movement
in Clare, the party marched to Toonagh, about four miles away and roughly
midway on the main road between Ennis and Corofin, which are nine miles
apart. Positions were taken at about seven o’clock in the morning,
and one or two lorries were expected to come from Corofin some time before
noon. It was the intention to attack them on their way to Ennis. Around
four o’clock in the evening, the enemy was still without coming.
A shot suddenly rang out which could be heard for miles throughout the
country. This happened accidentally, but it caused the O/C to withdraw
from the position. He had come to the conclusion that, owing to the lateness
of the hour, the Auxiliaries were not going to travel to Ennis that day,
and furthermore, he had a feeling that the shot, which had been discharged
by one of the men, might have been heard either by the enemy or by someone
who might warn them. Placed as we were between Ennis and Corofin, the
party could be quickly surrounded by troops moving from these two points.
On our withdrawal from Toonagh, the men were instructed to disperse to
their home areas.’[67]
Later the following month the Battalion received information that Crown
forces were due to serve a court summons on Tom Tuttle who lived at Moughna,
Lahinch. A group of sixteen Volunteers led by Séamus lay in ambush
for them on the appointed date of the summons but the R.I.C. failed to
turn up. Anthony Malone recalled: ‘In June 1921, under the Battalion
O/C., I was one of a party of 16 men who met at Vaughan’s Hill,
Moughna, Lahinch, to ambush a party of police who were expected to come
to Tom Tuttle’s , Moughna, to serve him with a juror’s summons.
After waiting from 10am to 4pm the police did not come along.’[68]
The summons was eventually served on the 11th June 1921 by a party of
British soldiers from the Royal Scots who had travelled to Moughna in
a convoy of four lorries. As they made their return journey one of the
soldiers, Private George Duff Chalmers dismounted from one of the lorries.
The main party continued on without him. Private Chalmers was courting
a local woman, and left the convoy to pay her a visit. A short time after
leaving the lorry Chalmers was captured by two members of Moy Company.
Chalmers was brought before Séamus and Steve Gallagher and taken
to Moy National School. During his interrogation Chalmers refused to give
his name or any other information. The officers subsequently tried him
by court-martial. Found guilty, Chalmers was sentenced to death and summarily
executed. He was buried in a nearby bog in Islandbawn. According to the
I.R.A. report of the incident Chalmers was executed on the suspicion of
having being a spy on an intelligence-gathering mission: ‘A
Private of the Royal Scots who dropped off one of four lorries passing
through C. Coy area was captured by two riflemen after a chase. The Bn.
Staff being satisfied that his object in leaving the lorry was to seek
information had him executed on the same date, after getting all the information
they could from him. He did not give information of importance.’
During the Civil War the Duke of Devonshire began correspondence with
Richard Mulcahy O/C of The Free State Army in an effort to locate the
remains of Chalmers and other missing British soldiers. The Free State
was able to confirm that Chalmers had been executed, and could give the
approximate date but not the exact burial location to the Duke.[69]
The Moananagh Ambush 6th July 1921 was the final major engagement with
Crown forces by the 4th Battalion Mid Clare Brigade before the Truce ending
the War of Independence was called the following week 11th July. The previous
month on two occasions -June 20th and June 28th - the Volunteers had sniped
Miltown Malbay R.I.C. barracks with no response from the occupants. The
only way to still engage with the enemy was in the open. The site chosen
was Conneally’s Hill, three and a half miles from Ennistymon just
off the main Ennis to Ennistymon Road. The site, though at a distance,
had a clear view in both directions of Crown Forces movements along the
road.
This was the second time the Flying Column of the 4th Battalion had been
in position at this location. Anthony Malone, the 4th Battalion’s
Vice Commandant, recalls the first occasion: ‘The last time
in which I was concerned in an attempt to attack the enemy prior to the
truce was at Moananagh about the beginning of July 1921. This was to be
a sniping operation and our party comprised eight or nine riflemen again
under the control of the Battalion O/C. Moananagh is three or four miles
from Ennistymon on the main road to Ennis. At this time a convoy of from
12 to 20 Lorries accompanied by an armed car was going between these places
a couple of times a week. Owing to its strength and the absence of any
ground along the route which would be large enough to enable the I.R.A.
to occupy positions favourable for attacking purposes, the Brigade O/C.,
with the approval of an officer from G.H.Q. who had come in person to
the Mid Clare area to see things for himself, gave orders to snipe this
convoy as often as possible. On the day in question our party took up
positions about 4 o’clock in the morning and we remained until around
1 o’clock in the evening.’[70]
Pako Kerin was also in position on the first visit: ‘Under Séamus
Hennessy the unit occupied positions in Moananagh to attack Tans and military
who travelled in Lorries from Ennis to Ennistymon...I was lying in a meadow
all night in which the grass was very wet. From this I contracted lumbago
which prevented me from taking part in the big attack in the same position,
which occurred a week or so later. The enemy did not put in an appearance
on the first occasion.’[71]
Seán Burke recounts: ‘Our intelligence service had come
to the conclusion, after a long and careful study, that the British Military
system worked on definite set patterns, and come what may it seldom changed...Communications
were disrupted to such an extent that two or three lorry loads of fully
armed men were deemed necessary to deliver a confidential, complicated
or simple message from one barracks to another...Something out of the
ordinary must have happened to put our column to the inconvenience of
a second journey.’[72]
Anthony Malone describes the drudgery of waiting for an ambush that does
not materialise: ‘The rain came down in torrents and when we
withdrew it was a question of absolute necessity as the entire party was
exhausted from the long spell of waiting under the heavy downpour. In
any event, the enemy always passed before noon and on that occasion did
not actually travel. Our party marched back to Tuttle’s of Moughna
where a good meal put us all in better form. As the day dried up and the
sun came out we decided to warm ourselves by having some drill.’[73]
Commandant General Michael Brennan 1ST Western Division I.R.A. in his
memoir perceptively highlights the attitude of most Volunteers with regard
to the weather: ‘I found most men were willing to risk death for
their country, but most unwilling to face getting wet for it.’[74]
Once again the Flying Column under the command of Séamus with Commandant
Steve Gallagher moved into the same position in the early morning of Wednesday
6th July. Some of the attacking party were directed to police the main
road and divert locals to use a side road so they wouldn’t get caught
in any crossfire. The column was not long in position when Maria Conneally
arrived with welcomed tea and bread for the men to sustain them as they
waited.
Seán Burke recalls all was going well ‘...until a well
dressed, middle sized man wearing spectacles appeared on a bicycle. He
was coming from the Ennis direction, and wore long stockings and plus
fours. This was something out of the ordinary. He needed looking into
– who or what was he? He was mannerly and spoke with a refined accent,
definitely not Irish. He had no objection to being searched. There was
a medium sized suitcase on the carrier of the bicycle, into which was
inserted a smaller case with some instruments. He said he was going to
Ennistymon on business, stated what it was and gave an address. Later
this was checked and proved correct. Any thoughts of his being a spy were
dispelled, but the precautions were necessary. A short while later, he
took up permanent residence in Parliament St., in the name of George B.
Stradling, Dentist!’ [75]
As noon approached final orders were given by Séamus. From three
different positions, approximately three hundred yards away, sights were
set by the riflemen. The positions held were a long distance to have any
degree of accuracy on a moving target. Séamus McMahon, Captain
of Ennistymon Company, was in the ambush party: I was one of a party
of about twenty men armed with rifles and accompanied by ten or twelve
unarmed Volunteers acting as scouts, who, under the Battalion O/C, Séamus
Hennessy, took up position behind a stone wall in Tom Conneally’s
land in Moananagh to snipe lorries of military coming from Ennis to Ennistymon.
This wall ran more or less parallel to the road and was about 250 yards
from it. At 3pm ten lorries came the way. The first three or four were
allowed to pass before we opened fire. As soon as we did so the military
got off the lorries and engaged us, taking positions behind the road fence.
We kept up the fire for 10 or 12 minutes, when the O/C ordered us to retire
and off we went towards Mount Callan without being interfered with. We
had no causalities and I am not able to say if the British had any or
not.’[76] For the next
few days until the truce the Column continued to snipe at Military along
the Ennis to Ennistymon Road.
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