The Dromkeen Ambush
Introduction from Chronology
The IRA ambush two RIC lorries at Dromkeen, near Pallas, Co Limerick resulting in the deaths of 11 RIC men. A number of the RIC men were killed after surrendering.
More Detail
The
ambush was a joint operation of the flying Columns of the East and Mid
Limerick Brigades IRA (some forty riflemen) under the command of Donnchadh
O'Hannigan O/C of East Limerick Brigade Flying Column. Dick
(Richard) O'Connell, O/C of the Mid-Limerick Flying Column was also present and
a section leader. (Sometime earlier the RIC had discovered the arms dump
of the Mid-Limerick Brigade.) There was only one
IRA man (Liam Hayes) wounded.
The
I/O of the
Mid-Limerick Brigade, John Purcell, had sussed out
the travel pattern of the RIC patrol. Regan, who was a serving RIC officer at
the time, itemises a number of errors the patrol made
– regularly using the same route, driving too close together, etc.
The
11 RIC men killed were Con Samuel Adams, Con George Bell, Con John Bourke, Con
Michael Doyle, Con Patrick Foody, Con William Hayton, Con William Kingston, Con
Sidney Millin, Con Bernard Mollaghan, Con Arthur Pearce and Con Henry
Smith. Only two RIC men (DI Adam Sanson and his driver) survived by
escaping the scene of the ambush.
According
to Abbott, the final two constables to be killed in the ambush were Constables
Smith and Pearse. They had taken
cover under their vehicle but were killed after a Mid-Limerick IRA man, Johnny
Vaughan, was able to get into a position to shoot them at close range.
However,
according to O’Halpin and Ó Corráin, they were
captured and taken to a local farmhouse where they were court
martialed and sentenced to death.
The sentence was carried out by IRA man Maurice Meade (a British Army
and German Army veteran).
O’Callaghan (2018) says that Meade may have killed up to seven RIC
men “two of whom he shot in cold-blooded execution style
killings”. O’Callaghan
(2018) adds that one Volunteer (Thomas Moynihan) said that he heard one RIC man
plead for his life and O’Hannigan replied “Dead men tell no
tales” – see Nov-23-20/4. Lesson says that a witness at the
subsequent Military Court of Inquiry said that he found a wounded RIC man who
told him before he died that “the Shinners shot me with my hands
up”.
After
Kilmichael (see Nov-28-20/1), this was the largest number of
fatalities suffered by Crown Forces in a single ambush.
Crown
Forces burned eight houses in the locality in retaliation.
Five of the RIC men killed
were from England, four were Irish and two were from Scotland.
Lesson notes that, in the
wake of this ambush, Macready wrote to Anderson saying that the RIC were not
properly trained to cope with big ambushes.