Ashtown Ambush
Introduction from Chronology
At Ashtown, Dublin the IRA ambushes
the Lord Lieutenant, John French. One IRA man is killed (Martin Savage)
and escapes.
More Detail
The IRA had been trying to
assassinate French for about three months.
The IRA ambush party consisted
of: Mick McDonnell, Tom Kehoe, Martin Savage, Sean Tracey, Seamus
Robinson, Sean Hogan, Paddy [O’]Daly (Leader), Vincent Byrne, Tom
Kilkoyne, Joe Leonard, and Dan Breen.
There were two cars in Lord
French's convoy taking him from the Ashtown railway station to the Vice-Regal
Lodge in the Phoenix Park. The ambushers thought he would be in the
second car but he was in the first and drove through their blockade.
Along with Savage being killed, two DMP men (D/Sgt Halley and Constable
O'Loughlin), the driver of the second car (McEvoy) and one of the attackers
(Breen) were wounded. Martin Savage was from Ballisodare, Co. Sligo.
Leeson says that the Irish insurgency did not
begin in earnest until this attack on French. Similarly, Boyce says “the war,
with which Ireland had been threatened since the beginning of 1919, could be
fairly said to have begun”.
But Townshend disagrees saying that other actions like the killing of DI
Hunt in Thurles (see Jun-23-19/1) were more prophetic. However, Leeson and Boyce are correct in
the sense that it was easier to get GHQ approval for attacks after this date.
Fanning notes that, on hearing of the attack,
Llyod George said “They are bad shots” (Fanning (2013), pg
215). O’Halpin
notes that it was Macpherson who is recorded as making this comment
(O’Halpin (1987), pg 200).