The Clonbanin Ambush
Introduction from Chronology
The IRA, under Sean Moylan, carry
out a major ambush at Clonbanin, Co
Cork. This ambush results in the
deaths of four members of the BA.
More Detail
The
ambushing party consisted of up to 100 men from Newmarket Battalion Column
(under Sean Moylan), a section of the Kerry No. 2 Brigade Column (under Tom
McEllistrim), a section of the Charleville Battalion Column (under Paddy
O'Brien) and the Millstreet Battalion Column (under Con J Meany). (The
Newmarket, Charville and Millstreet battalions were part of the Cork No. 2
Brigade.) They ambushed a mixed convoy of BA and RIC consisting of three
lorries, an armoured car and a touring car at Clonbanin, Co Cork (on the road
between Rathmore and Mallow).
According
to O'Donoghue, during the battle (which lasted a number of hours), 13 British
soldiers were killed (including Brigadier-General Hanway Cumming, head of the
Kerry Brigade of the British Army) with none of the attackers killed.
Lynch says it lasted an hour to an hour and a half and that 13 British Army soldiers
were killed and 15 wounded.
However, Hopkinson says that only four were killed (including
Cumming). This is confirmed by O’Halpin and Ó Corráin who give the names of
the four BA soldiers killed as Cumming; Harold de Maligny, Private Harold
Turner and Private William Walker.
IRA
land mines failed to explode. The IRA had a Hotchkiss machine gun but it
jammed. The armoured car ran into
the touring car and then sank in the soft margin of the road. However, the machine gun on the ditched
armoured car proved decisive in not allowing the IRA capture the British arms.
Sheehan notes that the BA casualties would have been far worse “without
the fire power of the Rolls Royce [armoured car] and the armoured plating on
the lorries”.
(O'Donnoghue
gives March 3rd as date of ambush but March 5th is on the
memorial.)
