Ambush at Upton Station
Introduction from Chronology
An IRA ambush of a train carrying
British troops at Upton Station (between
Cork and Bantry) goes badly wrong due to bad intelligence. Eight civilian
passengers are killed and ten wounded. Three IRA men are also killed and
three badly wounded.
More Detail
This
was an attempt to repeat the successful (from an IRA point of view) train
ambush carried out at Drishanbeg – see Feb-11-21/1.
The
IRA ambush party of 14, led by Charlie Hurley (O/C, 3rd Cork
Brigade) were expecting 12 to 15 BA soldiers on the train but they had been
joined by nearly 50 more at Kinsale Junction. Also, unlike Drishanbeg,
the BA soldiers were dispersed throughout the train.
When
the train drew into the station, the ambushers opened fire but were met with a
large fusillade of fire from the BA soldiers on the train. The IRA fatalities were Pat O'Sullivan,
Sean Phelan and Bartholomew ‘Batt’ Falvey. Dan O'Mahony is
also wounded (and dies a few years later from his wounds). Charlie Hurley
is also badly wounded as is John (Sean) Hartnett.
There
are eight civilian fatalities. They are James Byrne, John Spiers, Thomas
Perrott and Charles Johnston who all die on the day. William Finn, Mary Hall, John Sisk and
Richard Arthur all die in the following days.
O’Halpin and Ó
Corráin comment “In terms of civilian casualties
inflicted, combined with their own losses, this was one of the most disastrous
IRA ambushes of the conflict”.
Memorial at Upton Junction to the three IRA
men who were killed at the ambush - as can be seen from the inscription (below)
no mention is made on the memorial of the civilian casualties.
Deasy (who was a senior
officer in the Cork No. 3 Brigade at the time) laments the loss of civilian
lives. However, he gets the number
of civilian deaths wrong (he says that “Six lost their lives and five
others were wounded”) and, unlike the IRA dead and injured, he does not
name the civilian casualties.