Selton Hill, Co. Leitrim
Introduction from Chronology
Ten IRA volunteers from the ASU of the South Leitrim Brigade, staying
at the Flynn and McCullagh homes at Selton Hill, Glasdrumman between Ballinamore and Mohill
in Co Leitrim, are surrounded by 27 men from the BA’s Bedfordshire and
Hertfordshire Regiment and RIC.
Six IRA men are killed.
They are Seamus Wrynne V/C (from Tarmon, Ballinamore); Joseph O’Beirne
or Beirne (from Rooskynamona,
Mohill); John Joseph O’Reilly (from Miskawn or Miskuan, Ballinamore);
John Joseph O’Reilly (from Derrinkeher, Ballinamore)
and Michael E. Baxter (from Bawnboy, Cavan) . Their
leader, Sean Connolly (from Ballinalee, Longford)
dies that night or the next day in or on his way to the Carrick-on-Shannon BA
military barracks.
More Detail
The
British had placed two Lewis machine guns on the gate piers overlooking both
houses before approaching.
Among
those who escaped were Paddy Guckian, Pee McDermott,
Andy McPartland and Bernie Sweeney (who was badly injured). O'Malley says that "Men from
Bedfordshire Regiment were seen by a badly wounded IRA officer, who survived,
to use rifle butts on the skulls of two wounded men." This
badly wounded officer was Bernie Sweeney.
Along with Sean Connolly, another IRA man, John or Jack Hunt, was
wounded and captured. There were no
casualties among the Crown Forces. O’Halpin and Ó Corráin
note that “The ASU South Leitrim Brigade did not fight again”.
The
location of the column was given to the local RIC D/I Gore-Hickman by a local
doctor, Dr Charles J. Pentland who had been in the British Army. The
doctor had been given the information by a Protestant (Methodist) man called
William Latimer who had been told of the location of the IRA men by his
son. (William Latimer’s mother had died
earlier in the day and he had sent his son to the McCullagh’s to tell them of
her demise – the McCullaghs were Protestant. When the son came back, he told his father
about the men with guns at McCullagh’s and Flynn’s.) William Latimer was later killed by the IRA
(see Mar-30-21/8) but
the doctor escaped to England (where he was killed in a motor traffic accident
on December 21st 1924).
Selton Hill
Memorial
Inscription on Selton
Hill Memorial
