Perhaps one of the most daring attacks on the RIC and military occurred near Athlone in county Westmeath and involved a gun battle which was played out on the River Shannon.   Major Adams DSO was seriously wounded in the attack and was removed to a local hospital and for a time it looked as if he would die. Other injured men were taken to Dublin for treatment. The patrol had gone to some islands on Lough Ree in a ...

  Reports of the IRA’s attacks on constabulary barracks in October 1920 prompted the Irish Bulletin newspaper to compile and publish a list of all known attacks on police barracks from October 1919 to the end of September 1920.   According to the Kerry People the total number stood at fifty-eight, of which twelve were captured; two were destroyed and forty four resisted efforts to storm them. The total number of c...

Constable William Stanley was shot dead and Sergeant Doherty was severely wounded during an attack on Feakle barracks in county Clare. Commencing at 11.30am, this was attack was different from most in that it was carried out in daylight. A ‘fierce’ exchange of rifle fire was exchanged between the IRA and the police. In the aftermath, a large force of military, with armoured cars, left Ennis for Feakle but there was no t...

[caption id="attachment_3269" align="alignnone" width="625"] Influenza Flue 1892 Russian Flue[/caption] The Plague of 1889 - View this excellent production by Bailey & Blake . The video provides background on the global impact of the Influenza epidemic 1889. The so-called Russian flue claimed the lives of 15,000 Irish people and over a period of 3 years killed 110,000 in the United Kingdom. By 1894 it was estimated to ha...

The new wave of IRA activity included attacks once again targeted the RIC and their barracks. A daring attack on the barrack in the village of Arva, county Cavan once again showed the ingenuity of the IRA. Commandeering a house in the village, the IRA unit cut through the roof and commenced the attack by throwing home made bombs at the barracks which caused ‘terrific explosions’. The barracks, manned by eight constables...

  What followed a month of reprisal and intimidation in September 1920 was an upsurge in attacks on the RIC and the military. Aided by the cover of darkness that the autumn evenings provided, the IRA once more upped the ante on the military and met them head on. October 1920 was a month of ambush and shooting recorded in the pages of the Irish Newspaper Archive & the Radical Newspaper Archive.   Some crimes comm...

As already highlighted in this month’s posts civilians became a target as the War of Independence dragged on. In September a man named Patrick Gill was murdered by the military as he walked along a public road near Drumsna, county Leitrim. Accompanied by his sister and woman named Netley, Gill was bayonetted after he had fallen to the ground. A coroners jury subsequently found that Gill had been murdered without provocati...

In the midst of the political turmoil and ongoing war being fought in every town and village in the country, the cause of labour continued to dominate Ireland in September 1920 as people looked for both security in their employment but also better wages. The radical newspaper, The Watchword of Labour, continued to be at the forefront of publicizing union activity across the country. In Dublin, in September 1920, those emplo...

One hundred years ago this month the ITGWU and other unions publicised the fact that their numbers were swelling and across nearly every sector of Irish industry they could claim members.   In fact, reports from September 1920 suggested that the their membership was well in excess of 100,000 people. Newspapers such as The Watchword of Labour (available through the Irish Newspaper Archive) reveal this growing interes...

  There were a number of outrages perpetrated against civilians during the month of September 1920. In county Sligo, an attempt was made to burn the protestant church in Tubbercurry.   The Volunteers subsequently arrested three men who pleaded guilty of the attack and who were forced to pay fines of £5 and £1 each. The money was handed to the rector of the church. In the same month, an attempt was made to bu...