December 1920

Dec-01-20/1

In response to the Kilmichael ambush, British Cabinet decide that the Chief Secretary (Greenwood) should apply martial law in such particular areas that he might consider it necessary.

Llyod George notes that Kilmichael was “of a different character” from previous IRA operations.  The others were assassinations, Kilmichael ‘was a military operation’.  Fanning notes that “There was no more talk of having murder by the throat”.

Greenwood meets General Jeudwine and other BA officers at the BA GHQ in Ireland.  (Jeudwine was O/C 5th Division but was Acting Commander in Chief in the absence of Macready.) Greenwood asks for their opinion on imposing martial law. 

Jeudwine says that he would consult with his divisional commanders and get back to Greenwood.  See Dec-05-20/2.

(The British military want martial law over the whole country but Greenwood and Llyod George only want it in the ‘distant provinces’ (‘leaving the seat of Government, Dublin, free for them as wants to negotiate’). The Lord Lieutenant (French), who had been an early supporter of martial law, said that it would be foolish to exclude Dublin.)

 

Townshend (1975), pg 133; Townshend (2014), pgs 217 -218; Fanning (2013), pg 242; Kautt (2014), pg 213

Dec-01-20/2

Writing to his BA commanders in Ireland, the BA’s CIGS Wilson says, with regard to anyone found carrying arms or involved in the killing of soldiers or civilians, that “Both these offenses, in my judgement should be dealt with by putting the men up against the wall and shooting them”.

 

Sheehan (2017), pg 107

Dec-01-20/3

At a meeting arranged by Joe Devlin, Archbishop Clune of Perth tells Lloyd George of the reprisals in Lahinch.  Lloyd George expresses shock and denounces all reprisals.  He asks Archbishop Clune to interview Sinn Féin leaders in Dublin. 

Gallagher says that Lloyd George asked Clune to go Dublin as “his emissary for peace” and to seek out the Sinn Féin leaders and arrange a truce, as a preliminary to discussion.  (Gallagher also says that Lloyd George initiated these peace moves under pressure from representatives in the States.) 

Over the next few weeks, Clune engages in intensive negotiations and there seemed to some potential of success until Lloyd George insisted on the surrender of IRA arms before a truce could be agreed. 

See Dec-03-20/3.

 

Hopkinson (2002), pgs 182-185; Coogan (1990), pg 194; Macardle (1999), pg 413; Gallagher (1953), pg 262

Dec-01-20/4

The Cork Constitution and the Cork Examiner publish a notice from the Secretary of the “Anti-Sinn Féin Society Cork and District Circle” saying that anyone sheltering rebels or assisting in any way the “murderous gang of assassins known as Sinn Féin, has better increase his or her FIRE AND LIFE INSURANCE as it will be needed… Remember 1641 Remember 1798.”

 

Borgonovo (2007), pg 10

Dec-01-20/5

RIC Sergeant Thomas Keighary or Keighery is shot dead by the British Army on a bridge over the River Boyne at Kilcarne outside Navan, Co. Meath.

 

Abbott (2019), pg 408; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 247

Dec-01-20/6

An ex-BA officer and Christian Brother, Nicholas Prendergast, gets into an argument with members of the Auxiliary Division of the RIC in the Blackwater Vale Hotel in Fermoy, Co. Cork.

They take him outside, beat him up and throw him in the Blackwater River.  His decomposed body is was recovered on January 5th 1921 at Clondulane.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 247; Pakenham (1967), pg 51

Dec-01-20/7

A seaman, Carl Johannsen, is found shot at the Custom House Dock in Cork City.  He dies later in hospital. Groups of masked men had been setting fire to premises in the centre of Cork and Johannsen may have encountered them.

These masked men were probably members of the Crown Forces – See Nov-27 to 28-20/1 and Dec-11-20/1.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 247

Dec-01-21/8

Private W. Parsons of the BA’s Devonshire Regiment falls into the River Suir in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary and drowns.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 248

Dec-02-20/1

A planned ambush on two lorries at Clasinimuid, Co. Cork (on Crossbarry-Bandon road) by the column of the Bandon Battalion of the Cork No. 3 Brigade is aborted when it becomes clear that lorries have civilians on board.

 

Deasy (1973), pgs 175-176

Dec-02-20/2

Three officers of the Bandon Company of the Cork No. 3 (West) Brigade IRA are shot dead by the British Army (Essex Regiment) after they were seized on Laurel Walk, Bandon.  The three officers were Capt John Galvin (South Main St, Bandon), Lt Jim O'Donoghue (Shannon St, Bandon) and Section Commander Joe Begley (Castle St, Bandon). 

They had gone to meet an Essex Regiment Sergeant called Taylor who they thought would let the IRA into the BA’s Bandon military barracks.  The IRA were holding Sgt Taylor’s brother, Percy.  Percy Taylor would appear to deserted from the BA and captured by the IRA.  They had got him to write to his brother and set up a meeting.  Percy Taylor and a fellow deserter, Thomas Watling, were shot by the IRA on December 31st – See Dec-31-20/6.

(Tom Barry was supposed to be with them but he got a heart attack as he set out.  On a previous occasion, when he was on his way to meet the Sgt Taylor, it is said that he got drunk and had to postpone the meeting.  These killings are quite controversial in West Cork.)

 

Deasy (1973), pgs 177-178; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 248-249 & 267

Dec-02-20/3

Florrie O’Donoghue, I/O Cork No. 1 Brigade, IRA and Volunteer Jack Cody kidnap Reggie Brown from the home of his grandparents in Cardiff in Wales. 

Reggie’s mother is Josephine Brown who works as a senior clerk in the British Army’s Victoria Barracks in Cork.  Reggie is brought to Ireland and lodged with Josephine Brown’s sister in Youghal, Co. Cork.  Josephine Brown forwarded information to the IRA throughout the conflict.  (She and Florrie O’Donoghue got married in April 1921.)

 

Borgonovo (2007), pg 147

Dec-02-20/4

Three-year-old Mark Scally somehow managed to discharge the gun belonging to RIC Constable Michael Finnan, who was a lodger in his father’s house in Collooney, Co. Sligo.  The bullet hit him in the head and he dies a few hours later.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 248

Dec-02-20/5

Standing in for Macready, Jeudwine issues a Special Order of the Day praising “the discipline and self-restraint with which all ranks of the [British] Army … are imbued”.

 

Kautt (2014), pgs 208-209

Dec-02 to 03-20/1

Two Catholics, William Bell and William Mullan, die from injuries they received in earlier disturbances in Belfast.

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 249 & 250

Dec-03-20/1

Hopkinson says that Galway County Council pass peace resolution which calls on the Dáil to negotiate a truce.  However, Coogan says that only six of the 32 members of Galway County Council (the remainder being on the run) meet and discuss a resolution but do not pass it.  Six members is not a quorum. 

(Macardle and Mitchell agree with Coogan’s version of events while Gallagher also questions whether the resolution was passed.) 

This resolution is bitterly criticised by Irish republicans, including Michael Collins.  However, the British take it as a sign that Irish resolve is weakening.

See Dec-05-20/1.

 

Hopkinson (2002), pg xv; Coogan (1990), pg 199; Macardle (1999), pg 413; Gallagher (1953), pg 262; Leeson (2012), pgs 53-54; Mitchell (1995), pg 220

Dec-03-20/2

IRA GHQ issues General Order No. 15 (New Series) which authorised brigade commanders to collect a levy, at local company level, to support the IRA.  It was intended that money collected would, in particular, support the buying of arms. 

This General Order stated that collection for the arms fund “should be made thoroughly” and “None but declared enemies should be left unapproached”.

 

Hughes (2016), pgs 92 & 94

Dec-03-20/3

Archbishop Clune meets with Arthur Griffith in Mountjoy Jail.  Clune subsequently meets Collins – truce terms are agreed.  See Dec-07-20/1.

(Mark Sturgis subsequently wonders in his diary how Clune could have got easy access to Collins while “our own intelligence fails to find him after weeks of search”.)

 

Macardle (1999), pg 413; Mitchell (1995), pg 205

Dec-03-20/4

A large group of Church of England clergymen form a group called the Church of England Peace League. They appeal for support in condemning reprisals which they say undermines “the very foundations of justice and order”.

 

Boyce (1972), pg 75

Dec-03-20/5

A three or four man RIC patrol is crossing the Blackwater Bridge near Youghal, Co. Cork when it is ambushed by men from the 3rd Battalion, West Waterford Brigade led by James Mansfield.  RIC Constable Maurice Prendiville is shot and subsequently dies from his wounds.

 

Abbott (2000), pg 163; McCarthy (2015), pg 71; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 249-250

Dec-03-20/6

The Spectator magazine in London claims that the British government’s failure to enlist the support of Britsh public opinion for its policies in Ireland was the result of its failure to use its propaganda resources to the fullest.

 

Boyce (1972), pg 90

Dec-04-20/1

Terence McNulty dies after he is hit by a BA vehicle at King’s Bridge in Dublin.

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 250

Dec-04-20/2

A young domestic servant, Ellen Kennedy, is standing at a door in Main St., Killaloe, Co. Clare when three lorries containing Crown Forces pass by.  The Crown Forces suddenly start shooting wildly.  Kennedy went into shock and died shortly afterwards.

 

Mac Conmara (2021), pgs 185-185

Dec-04-20/3

Thomas Rooney is shot by a British Army soldier in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal for failing to stop.  He dies shortly afterwards.  He was an ex-BA soldier

Ó Duibhir (2009), pg 192; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 250

Dec-05-20/1

Father O'Flanagan (Sinn Féin Vice-President) sends a telegram to Lloyd George reminding him that he stated that he was willing to make peace and said that "Ireland is also willing to make peace.  What first steps do you propose?"  This initiative had not been approved by the senior members of Sinn Féin or its Executive.

According to Mitchell, along with the Galway County Council ‘resolution’ (see Dec-03-20/1) and the Sweetman letter (see Nov-30-20/2), this move by O’Flanagan “convinced Llyod George that he had seen the tip of the white flag. He decided to toughen his requirements for a truce”.

De Valera issues a statement saying that O’Flanagan’s telegram was unofficial and the Dáil cabinet issue a similar statement. 

On February 1st 1921, An t-Óglach refers to “the action of erratic individuals representing nobody but themselves”.

See Dec-08-20/1.

 

Hopkinson (2002), pg xv; Coogan (1990), pg 196; Mitchell (1995), pgs 221-222

Dec-05-20/2

Following his meeting with Greenwood on December 1st (see Dec-01-20/1), Jeudwine consulted with the other three BA divisional commanders in Ireland (Bainbridge, Strickland and Boyd) and replies to Greenwood on this date saying that the army was prepared to enforce martial law in Ireland, that it should be proclaimed throughout Ireland and that four extra BA battalions would be required (and three more held in readiness).  See Dec-09-20/3.

For extracts from letters between Jeudwine, Wilson, Macready and Greenwood and for Jeudwine’s memo of December 5th to Greenwood – See Kautt (2024).

 

Kautt (2014), pgs 109-110 & 213-215 & 231-232

Dec-05-20/3

An Auxiliary (Cadet Hedley Balls) is shot dead during the search of a house in Sallymount Av., Lesson Park, Dublin.

Cadet Balls was from Suffolk in England. 

 

Abbott (2000), pg 164; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 250

Dec-05-20/4

Two senior IRA men, Jim Dawson and James McMonagle are arrested in Letterkenny, Co Donegal.  (Their names had been found in the capture of the Mulcahy papers – See Nov-19-20/3.)

In similar raids in south Donegal other IRA men are arrested.  They are all sent to Ballykinlar internment camp in Co. Down.

 

Ó Duibhir (2009), pg 193-194

Dec-05-20/5

IRA Volunteer Thomas Hand is taken from his mother’s house in Baltrasna, Skerries, Co Dublin by RIC men and shot dead.

 

O’Farrell (1997), pg 109; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 250; Molyneux and Kelly (2020), pg 95

Dec-06-20/1

Black and Tans looking for William Shanahan (see Sep-22-20/1) burst into a republican court, being held at Craggaknock near Kilkee, Co. Clare, looking for him.

When they discover that he had managed to escape, they open fire on the unarmed civilians present, killing Thomas Curtin from Kilrush. 

See Dec-13-20/4.

 

O’Farrell (1997), pg 105; Ó Ruairc (2009), pg 213; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 251

Dec-06-20/2

In a raid by Auxiliaries, led by Captain William King, on City Hall in Dublin during a meeting of the Corporation, two prominent councillors (Michael Staines and Joe Clarke) are arrested.

 

O’Sullivan Greene (2020), pg 158

Dec-06-20/3

Tudor issues a memorandum to the RIC saying that “I appeal to the police of all ranks to suppress all destruction of property even of notorious Sinn Féiners”. 

From this memo (given in full in Abbott), it would seem that Tudor’s main reason for issuing this memo was that the incendiarism of the RIC was embarrassing the British Government. 

It would also seem that the members of the Auxiliary Division of the RIC in Cork did not get this memo or, if they did, they choose to ignore it – See Dec-11-20/1.

 

Abbott (2019), pg 226

Dec-07-20/1

Archbishop Clune meets with Michael Collins in the house of Dr Farnan in Merrion Sq., Dublin.  Clune, along with Bishop Fogarty of Killaloe, have subsequent meetings in Mountjoy Jail with Griffith, MacNeil and Staines. 

See Dec-08-20/3.

 

Coogan (1990), pg 195

Dec-07-20/2

The Irish Independent publish a letter from Michael Collins saying “At the present moment there is a very grave danger that the country may be stampeded on false promises and foolish ill-timed actions. We must stand against that danger.  My advice to the people is ‘Hold Fast’.”

 

Mitchell (1995), pg 222

Dec-07-20/3

John Fleming was walking along Lower Glanmire Road in Cork along with his brother when three RIC lorries speed past them.  Shots are fired and Fleming is hit.  He died some hours later.  It is not clear who fired the shots.

 

O'Farrell P (1997), pg 107; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 251

Dec-07-20/4

After being arrested by members of the British Army, Denis Regan’s body is found on the Timoleague to Clonakilty road with a bullet wound to his head.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 251

Dec-08-20/1

Speaking at a British cabinet meeting, in response to the Galway County Council resolution (See Dec-03-20/1) and O’Flanagan telegram (see Dec-03-20/1), Lloyd George says “The first necessary preliminary to the re-establishment of normal conditions is that murder and crimes of violence shall cease”.  It would seem that Lloyd George thinks that the Irish insurrection is almost defeated.

See Dec-08-20/3.

 

Leeson (2012), pg 54

Dec-08-20/2

At a British cabinet meeting (and another on January 4th), the situation in Persia is discussed and a decision is finally made to withdraw British troops from this country.  According to Jeffrey, this decision was made when “financial considerations force the issue”.

Evacuation begins in Spring 1921.

 

Jeffrey (2006), pg 249

Dec-08-20/3

Archbishop Clune meets with Lloyd George again but finds his attitude to a truce changed.  

Macardle says that this change was due to the Galway County Council and Fr O’Flannagan’s telegram which were not supported by the Dáil Cabinet.  Clune continues his efforts.

See Dec-11-20/2.

 

Macardle (1999), pg 413; Gallagher (1953), pg 262

Dec-08-20/4

The Flying Column of the Cork No. 3 Brigade, under Sean Lehane (Schull), attempts to ambush a lorry containing soldiers from the Essex regiment at Gaggin, Co. Cork but the lorry escapes from the ambush site and doubles back. 

According to Deasy, the BA capture, torture and kill one IRA man (Michael McLeane, Lowertown, near Schull) but withdraw when they see the size of the column. 

O’Farrell says that Column was under command of Charlie Hurley but Deasy says that Hurley had placed Lehane in charge of the column after Tom Barry got ill on December 3rd. O’Farrell says that the man killed was called McLean.  O’Halpin and Ó Corráin say that his name was Michael John McLean. 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin quote one source saying that the BA captured and killed McLean but they also quote the BA as saying that they found him dead near the ambush site.

 

Deasy (1973), pg 183; O'Farrell P (1997), pg 47; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 251-252

Dec-08-20/5

Bernard Reilly, who was O/C of the 1st (Dunboyne) Company of the Meath Brigade IRA, is accidently shot dead by a fellow IRA man at an ambush site in Dunboyne, Co. Meath. 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 251

Dec-08-20/6

A civilian, Michael J. Murphy, is shot dead by the Auxiliary Division of the RIC when exiting St Peter’s and St Paul’s Church in Cork City.

Also, seventy-five-year-old, Harriet Meara, is knocked over by a lorry carrying members of the Auxiliary Division of the RIC on Grand Parade in Cork City.  She dies shortly afterwards – possibly from shock.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 251-252

Dec-08-20/7

Bandsman William Hayes of the BA’s West Riding Regiment is shot by a BA sentry at Collinstown Camp in Co. Dublin.  Hayes dies on December 10th.

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 252

Dec-08-20/8

BA soldier, David Hamilton, commits suicide in Ennis, Co. Clare.

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 554

Dec-09-20/1

Ernie O'Malley is captured by British forces in Inistioge, Co Kilkenny.  A notebook found on him has the names of all the members of the 7th Battalion (Callan) of the West Kilkenny brigade - many of who are subsequently arrested.  He is taken to Dublin Castle where he is interrogated and tortured by the Auxiliaries.  However, they do not find out who he is (he had given them the name of Bernard Stewart). 

Gallagher puts the failure to identify O’Malley down to the split in the intelligence sections of the RIC, Auxiliaries and military who did not share their information. 

A detailed description of his interrogation is given by O’Malley in his memoir (but he does not mention that his notebooks led to the arrest of a number of men).

Walsh says that the information found on O’Malley had a detrimental effect on the local IRA “the Auxiliaries obtained from O’Malley diary the full list of names of all Kilkenny captains along with the number of weapons and ammunition in each area”. 

The house in which O’Malley was found was burnt by the Auxiliaries.

 

Hopkinson (2002), pg 123; Macardle (1999), pgs 394-395; Gallagher (1953), pg 155; O’Malley (1990), pgs 241-246; Walsh (2018), pgs 73-76

Dec-09-20/2

An ex-BA soldier, George Horgan, is abducted by the IRA from his home in Cork City.  The next day a notice appears in the Cork Examiner stating “If G. Horgan is not returned by 4 o’clock on Today (Friday), 10th December, Rebels of Cork, Beware, as one man and one shop will disappear for each hour after the given time.  (Signed) ‘B’s and T’s’ “ – the CFR therefore says “Thus in Horgan’s case connections with the police seem likely”.

As was the case with Dowling (see Nov-24-20/8) and the Blemens (see Nov-29-20/1), the Cork IRA later confirmed that he was shot as a spy.  Date of execution was given as December 12th.

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin  say that Horgan was RC but CFR say that his family were “were adherents of the Church of Ireland”.

 

Borgonovo (2007), pgs 28-29; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 253; Cork Fatality Register

Dec-09-20/3

At a British cabinet meeting, attended by Macready, the cabinet agrees to placing four Irish counties under martial law – See Dec-10-20/1.

Kautt (2014), pg

Dec-09-20/4

According to Hankey (British Cabinet Secretary), the British Government’s response to the tentative Sinn Féin peace feelers is that “we would allow Dail Eireann to meet but not [grant] an amnesty to serious law breakers, nor desist from seeking them out”. 

(Hankey also notes that he was “not completely in the P.M.’s confidence about Ireland … Neither is any member of the Cabinet except Bonar Law”.  Roskill notes that Tom Jones (Assistant Cabinet Secretary) was “rapidly achieving that special status”.)

 

Roskill (1972), pg 198

Dec-09-20/5

Killing of Joseph Howley and the Igoe Gang

IRA leader Joseph Howley from Oranmore, Co. Galway (See Aug-21-20/3) is shot as he alights from a train in Broadstone Station in Dublin.

More Detail

 

O’Farrell (1997), pg 109; McNamara (2018), pg 124 and 149; Henry (2012), pgs 173-178; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 250; Molyneux and Kelly (2021), pgs 94-95; 100-101; 127-128; McMahon (2008), pg 42

Dec-09-20/6

Sgt Major Arthur Atkins of the BA’s 17th Lancers accidently drowns near Earls Island in Galway.

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 252

Dec-10-20/1

Following sanction from the British cabinet, the Lord Lieutenant (French) issues a proclamation imposing Martial Law on Cork, Kerry, Limerick and Tipperary.

Later martial law was extended to Kilkenny, Clare, Wexford and Waterford in other to make the martial law area the same as the area covered by General Strickland’s British Army 6th Division. 

More Detail and Comment on the Counties under Martial Law

 

 

Curran J M (1980), pgs 43-44; Townshend (1975), pgs 133-135; Macardle (1999), pg 416; Townshend (2014), pgs 217-219; Borgonovo (2007), pg 37; Kautt (2014), pgs 110-113

Dec -10-20/2

Lloyd George says in the House of Commons that his government was prepared to discuss with anyone who could claim to represent Irish opinion on the following basis: (1) The Six Counties to be treated separately; (2) No secession of Ireland or any part of Ireland from the UK and (3) No distraction from the security of these islands or their safety in times of war. 

According to Mitchell, coming at this time (after a number of ‘peace feelers’), it represented a toughening of Llyod George’s requirements for negotiations.

 

Macardle (1999), pg 415; Mitchell (1995), pg 221

Dec-10-20/3

An attack is carried out by the recently formed Fermoy Battalion Column of the Cork No. 2 Brigade (led by Capt Patrick Egan, O/C Bartlemy Company) on a lorry containing British soldiers at Leary's Cross near Castlelyons. 

One soldier is killed (Gunner Robert Cambridge). Eight or nine soldiers surrender. They are disarmed and released.

 

O’Donoghue (1986), pg 110; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 252

Dec-10-20/4

Auxiliaries discover an IRA munitions workshop in the basement of 198 Parnell St., Dublin.  It was making grenade shells (which were packed with gelignite and primed in another workshop in Dominick St). 

See Dec-11-20/5.

 

Hopkinson (2002), pg 99; Townshend (2014), pgs 199-201

Dec-10-20/5

The Times of London urges Llyod George to drive a wedge between the assassins and the great mass of the Irish people. However, by the following April, it has altered its position – see Apr-20-21/1.

The Times also reports the British Labour Party leader, Arthur Anderson, as saying that the British government “had made the forces of the Crown, which existed only to maintain law and order, the instrument of blind and ruthless revenge”.

 

Boyce (1972), pg 92 & 98

Dec-10-20/6

De Valera leaves the U.S. (There is quite a bit on his voyage back to Ireland in Gallagher.)

Hopkinson (2002), pg 173; Gallagher (1953), pgs 261-265

Dec-10-20/7

When a BA raiding party suddenly appears in the bedroom of Sarah Medalie in 23 Tuckey St in Cork City, she exclaims “We are Jews … and have nothing to do with the political movement”. 

Then she exclaimed “Oh my heart” – she died soon after probably from shock.  Her husband said later “they came up the stairs in the dark and gave us all a fright”.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 252

Dec-10-20/8

During a raid by soldiers from the BA’s Cheshire Regiment on the Sinn Féin club in Shankill in Co. Dublin, William Owens is killed by a bullet inadvertently fired from a soldier’s gun. 

Owens was a section leader in A Company, 1st Battalion, South Wexford Brigade, IRA.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 252

Dec-10-20/9

By this point, the British claim that over 800 internment orders had been applied to officers or prominent members of the IRA. 

The authors of the history of the 5th Division of the BA in Ireland complained that any arrests made under ROIR had to be tried by court martial and “The result of this procedure was to involve all concerned in a mass of correspondence”. 

It goes on to say “In partisan warfare none but very important cases and capital offences should be tried. All other cases should be classified for internment.” 

Later, when reflecting on the mass arrests, the BA authors of this history noted “The question of the accommodation of prisoners in the first stage, when numbers are being taken, as in Dublin, requires careful aforethought. Otherwise, congestion soon occurs and operations are hampered.”

They go on to recommend divisional cages where 1,000 men can be held.  “It is here that the Intelligence personnel function, and from their knowledge can decide where an arrest can be placed” i.e. either interned or court martialled.

(The British Army were to implement such a strategy during the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya in the 1950s – See Elkins (2014).  It is not known if this strategy was learnt directly from their experience in Ireland.)

 

Kautt (2014), pg 106; Sheehan (2007), pgs 41-42 & 67

Dec-10-20/10

The ASU of the East Limerick Brigade, led by Donnchadh O’Hanningan, lay in ambush at the Cross of the Tree on the Garryspillane to Knocklong road in Co. Limerick. 

A premature shot from an IRA man alerts the Crown Forces and led to a gun battle between the two sides while the outnumbered ASU tried to retreat. 

An IRA Volunteer, John Riordan, who was an ex-BA Sergeant-Major, covers the ASU’s retreat but was himself wounded.  He dies four days later in the Union Hospital in Kilmallock.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 255

Dec-10-20/11

BA soldier, Henry Philpott, dies as a result of an accidental shooting in Baltinglass, Co. Wicklow.

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 554

Dec-11-20/1

The Burning of Cork City Centre

In retaliation for an IRA attack on a lorry load of Auxiliaries at Dillion's Cross in Cork City (which resulted in the death of Auxiliary Cadet Spencer Chapman and the wounding of eleven more), Black and Tans and Auxiliaries burn substantial parts of Cork city centre – over 60 shops are burned and looted including two department stores.  The City Hall and Carnegie Public Library are also destroyed. 

The Auxiliaries also kill two IRA men who were brothers (Cornelius & Jeremiah Delaney) in their beds and shoot five other people, including two firefighters.  The Delaney brothers were members of the 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade.

 

More Detail 

 

Hart (1998), pg 99; Abbott (2000), pg 164 & pg 179; O’Donoghue in The Kerryman (1955), pgs 129-137; Macardle (1999), pgs 416-418; Townshend (2014), pgs 218-219; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 253; Borgonovo (2007), pgs 31-32 & 112; Pakenham (1967), pg 56; Kraut (2014), pg 234

Dec-11-20/2

Lloyd George sends Archbishop Clune back to Dublin with message that Dáil could meet openly to discuss peace terms but arms have to be given up and neither Mulcahy or Collins could attend.

See Dec-13-20/2.

 

Coogan (1990), pg 197

Dec-11-20/3

A train driver, James Lawlor, is shot by a British sentry in Lismore, Co. Waterford for allegedly refusing to stop when told to do so.

McCarthy (2015), pg 71; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 253; O’Farrell (1997), pg 111

Dec-11-20/4

After his arrest on November 25th, Griffith had continued to maintain his position as Acting President from jail.  At meetings of the Dáil cabinet on November 27th and December 4th, he was asked to nominate a successor.  (These two meetings were presided over by JJ O’Kelly as Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil.)  On December 9th, Griffith nominated Collins as his successor and this was ratified at a cabinet meeting on December 11th.

(Collins’s tenure as Acting President was to be short as it only lasted until de Valera returned to Ireland on December 23rd.)

 

Mitchell (1995), pgs 222-223

Dec-11-20/5

Crown Forces raid an IRA bomb factory in the basement of 198 Great Britain St in Dublin.  They capture a lot of material but make no arrests. 

Soon afterwards, the IRA establish another factory at 1-2 Luke St, Dublin.

 

Molyneux and Kelly (2020), pgs 108-109

Dec-12-20/1

Dr Daniel Colahan [or Cohalan], Bishop of Cork, issues a decree saying that anyone, within the diocese of Cork who organises or takes part in ambushes or murder or attempted murder shall be excommunicated.  (He also says that the crimes of the Government of Ireland [Dublin Castle] are infinitely greater than the crimes of a private military organisation.) 

It may seem odd that he should issue this statement on the day after the burning of Cork city centre by the Auxilaries but it was probably in preparation since Kilmichael.

When the Cork Examiner endorses Cohalan’s views, their presses are smashed by the IRA.

Mitchell notes that “No other member of the hierarchy followed [Cohalan’s] example” but see Dec-17-20/3.

 

Coogan (1990), pg 201; Townshend (2014), pgs 270-272; Borgonovo (2007), pgs 38-39 & 93; Mitchell (1995), pgs 174 & 223

Dec-12-20/2

On this night, a large IRA force led by Frank Aiken, attacks the RIC barracks in Camlough, Co. Armagh but fail to take the barracks. 

At the railway bridge (called the ‘Egyptian Arch’) between Camlough and Newry, a group of IRA men try to impede the progress of a convey of 29 British soldiers traveling to Camlough after being summoned by the RIC.  In the ensuing gunfight, 19-year old IRA Volunteer William Canning is killed.  Volunteer Peter Shields is wounded and dies on December 25th.  In addition, Volunteer John O’Hare is injured and ten months later dies of his wounds.  Four men are subsequently arrested and given fifteen years’ penal servitude. 

A few nights later a number of houses and businesses in Camlough were burnt by members of the Crown Forces, including the Ulster Special Constabulary.

See Jun-06-21/5.

 

Lawlor (2011), pgs 78-81; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 254 & 262 & 532; Kautt (2014), pg 203; O’Farrell (1997), pg 103

Dec-12-20/3

According to O’Farrell, P. Breen from Tempo, Co. Fermanagh dies on this day. (But see Oct-25-20/2).

 

O’Farrell (1997), pg 103

Dec-12-20/4

Michael McAuliffe is shot in the thigh when attending a funeral in Lixnaw, Co. Kerry and dies on December 26th.  Apparently, he was shot by the RIC in an ‘accident’.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 263

Dec-12-20/5

Ordinary Seaman Vivian Raddecliffe of the RN accidently drowns in Castletownbere, Co. Cork.

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 254

Dec-12-20/6

In an engagement between the IRA and three lorries of BA soldiers from the Queens’ Own Cameron Highlanders on the road between Cloyne and Midleton in Co. Cork, one IRA man, John O’Brien, is killed and two others captured.  A BA soldier is also severely wounded.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 253

Dec-12-20/7

RAF man, John Davison, dies as a result of a motor accident at Baldonnell, Dublin

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 554

Dec-13-20/1

Sixty-year-old shopkeeper, Mary Maher, is found lying with a fractured skull on the kitchen floor of her home in Main St, Templemore, Co. Tipperary.  She dies three days later. 

Private A. O’Brien of the BA’s Northamptonshire Regiment later admits to killing her, also implicating his wife.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 256

Dec-13-20/2

Griffith writes to Clune saying that Lloyd George's terms amounted to a call for surrender and that "there would be no surrender, no matter what frightfulness was used". 

See Dec-18-20/1.

 

Coogan (1990), pg 198

Dec-13-20/2

In an attack on RIC Ballinalee Barracks, Co. Longford by the IRA, one RIC man (Constable Frederick Taylor) is killed. 

After the Crown Forces had re-occupied Ballinalee following the Battle of Ballinalee (see Nov-03-20/3), the RIC again took over their barracks.  The barracks was attacked on this day using two mines which blew in part of one wall.  The second resulted in the death of Constable Taylor. 

There are major reprisals by the RIC after this attack with half the houses in the village burnt down.

Constable Taylor was from Surrey in England.

 

Abbott (2000), pg 164; Coleman (2003), pg 125; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 254

Dec-13-20/3

In the British House of Commons, Liberal MP T McKinnon Wood asks Greenwood if the Anti-Sinn Féin notice published in the Cork Examiner (see Dec-01-20/4) was published at gunpoint by British forces.

Greenwood replies that “So far as can be ascertained, no members of the Crown Forces were responsible for the drawing up or the sending of the notices in question”.

 

Borgonovo (2007), pgs 14-15

Dec-13-20/4

John Hickey is shot at Elm Park in Dublin.  He was accosted by two strangers who asked him why he had his hands in his pockets.  He was shot before he could answer.  He died later in hospital.   Probably shot by Crown Forces.

 

O’Farrell (1997), pg 109; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 254

Dec-13-20/6

BA soldier, Alfred Alport, dies due to misadventure in Athlone, Co. Westmeath.

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 554

Dec-14-20/1

The British Army issue a proclamation that after December 27th anyone found guilty by a military court of carrying arms or “aiding and abetting” rebels in the martial law area would be liable to be shot.

 

Macardle (1999), pg 418

Dec-14-20/2

Matthew Kavanagh, O/C Wicklow Brigade, IRA is captured in Rathdrum along with two other IRA men. 

 

Hart (2002), pg 80

Dec-14-20/3

IRA man Thomas O’Loughlin is playing cards in Michael Leahy’s house in Mullaunbrack near Thurles in Co. Tipperary.  There’s a knock at the door and a man enters who opens fire wounding O’Loughlin who dies later in the Union Infirmary in Thurles. 

James Leahy, O/C Tipperary No. 2 Brigade, IRA claims that this killing was the work of an RIC murder gang led by Sgt Eugene Igoe.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 254-255

Dec-14-20/4

Following the burning of Cork, Tudor issues an Order to the RIC depreciating reprisals by burning.  This is described by General Hubert Gough (of Curragh mutiny ‘fame’) as not an order but an appeal.

 

Townshend (2014), pg 218

Dec-14-20/5

A civilian, John O’Connor, is one of a number of men arrested by a joint RIC/BA patrol and taken to Currow, between Tralee and Killarney in Co. Kerry.  All except O’Connor are released. 

A little while later, O’Connor is found by the side of the road – he had been thrown from a lorry and shot – he also had a severely broken leg.  He is brought to a nearby house.  While lying in this house, an RIC man and a man in civilian clothing enter the house and shoot O’Connor dead.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 254

Dec-14-20/6

IRA men from 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade under William O’Brien and Leo Fitzgerald capture a number of bags of mail destined for the nearby Auxiliary HQ at Beggar’s Bush. 

A detail of about eight Auxiliaries had been sent to the post office on Shelbourne Road in Ballsbridge.  After the Auxiliaries loaded their touring car with the mail, the IRA attacked and managed to steal the car.  There were no casualties on either side.

The mail was brought to the IRA’s Intelligence section based in Crow St.  The objective was to find the home addresses of Auxiliaries in England so that they could be sent ‘Christmas cards’.

 

Molyneux and Kelly (2020), pgs 109-110

Dec-15-20/1

Auxiliary Cadet Vernon Harte kills a young man with special needs, Timothy Crowley, and a seventy-three-year-old priest, Canon Magner, near Dunmanway, Co Cork.  Harte was brought to trial and found guilty but insane.

Reflecting on the fact that in a similar incident during the 1916 Rising where a British soldier had been found guilty but insane of murdering three unarmed civilians, Mark Sturgis (Joint Assistant Under Secretary in Dublin Castle), comments in his diary on December 19th, that if Harte was insane then those who let him loose “on the world … armed to the teeth should take his place in the dock”.

 

Townshend (1975), pg 139; Breen (1989), pgs 74-75; Leeson (2012), pg 204; Townshend (2014), pg 219; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 255

Dec-15-20/2

James Kennedy is killed when he is hit at Rathkeale, Co. Limerick by a car carrying Captain John Mackintosh of B Company, Auxiliary Division of the RIC.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 255

Dec-15-20/3

Three men are attacked by civilians on Corporation St in Dublin.  One of the men attacked, Robert Keeley of the BA’s RASC, is hit on the head with a bottle and dies the following day in hospital.

Keely was from Summerhill in Dublin. (Corporation St was part to Dublin’s red light district.)

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 256

Dec-15-20/4

Johnnie McGowan from Porthard, Frenchpark, Co. Roscommon, was captain of the Tibohine company, East Mayo Brigade of the IRA. 

He is killed by the RIC in the home of Pat Dwyer of Rarthkeary, Co Roscommon.  It would seem that he was dragged from his bed and identified by a local RIC man and then shot dead. 

According to Lesson “The death squad spoke with Irish accents” but O’Halpin and Ó Corráin say that “IRA sources said that the killers were Auxiliaries from Boyle”.    Afterwards the Dwyer home is wrecked by the RIC. 

Leeson and O’Halpin & Ó Corráin say December 15th, O’Callaghan says night of December 20th to 21st and O’Farrell says December 23rd.

 

O’Farrell (1997), pg 112; O’Callaghan (2012), pgs 66-68; Leeson (2012), pg 166; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 255

Dec-16-20/1

Four RIC men (Constable Patrick Halford, Constable Ernest Halden, Constable Albert Palmer and Constable Arthur Smith) are killed and three wounded in an ambush by the ASU of the Tipperary No. 1 (North) Brigade of the IRA at Kilcommon Cross between Nenagh and Thurles. 

(Most of the members of the ASU were from Nenagh.  After this ambush, the O/C of the 5th (Thurles) Battalion, Paddy Doherty, told the ASU O/C, Ned O’Leary to “Fuck off back to Nenagh and have your ambushes there”.)

Constable Halford was from Co. Meath.  The other three constables killed were from England.

 

Hopkinson (2002), pg 121; Abbott (2000), pg 165 ; Dooley (2015), pg 61; Abbott (2019), pgs 208-209; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 256

Dec-16-20/2

Michael Edmonds, who lived at 30 O’Connell Road, Tipperary Town is dragged from his bed and his body is found later – he had been shot in the head with signs of torture on his body.  Probably killed by Auxiliaries.

O’Farrell (1997), pg 32; Gallagher (1953), pg 218; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 256

Dec-16-20/3

At a meeting initiated by Edward Doheny in the Bankers’ Club in New York, the American Organisation for Relief in Ireland is founded.  It provides substantial aid to Ireland over the coming period.

 

Macardle (1999), pg 409

Dec-16-20/4

Reflecting on the less than hoped for recruitment to the Special Constabulary in NI, Fred Crawford writes to R H Wallace, the County Grand Master of the Belfast Orange Order, telling him that Orangemen “must come out now or be very sorry later … when they see Nationalists filling the ranks of an armed force where they might have been”.

 

Parksinson (2020), pg 66

Dec-16-20/5

The amendments to the Government of Ireland Bill 1920 by the House of Lords are taken by the House of Commons in London and the Bill is passed.

See Dec-23-20/4.

 

Boyce (1972), pg 111

Dec-17-20/1

RIC District Inspector Philip O'Sullivan is shot and killed as he walks along Henry St., Dublin with his fiancée.  Killing carried out by the Squad led by Ned Kelliher. 

This shooting becomes a significant part of the propaganda war being waged by both sides.

 

Abbott (2000), pg 165; Gallagher (1953), pg 108; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 257; Molyneux and Kelly (2020), pgs 112-113

Dec-17-20/2

A three-man RIC patrol is ambushed outside Swanlinbar, Co. Cavan resulting in the death of one RIC man (Constable Peter Shannon).  Cavan is a relatively quiet part of the country but, as is normal elsewhere, there are reprisals by the RIC in the area.

 

Abbott (2000), pg 166; Lawlor (2011), pgs 83-84; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 257

Dec-17-20/3

RC Bishop of Kilmore, Dr Finnegan says that "Any war … to be just and lawful must be backed by a well-grounded hope of success … What hope of success have you against the mighty forces of the British Empire?  None … none whatever and if it unlawful as it is, every life taken in pursuance of it is murder."

 

O'Malley (2001), pg 96

Dec-18-20/1

Archbishop Clune has a lengthy meeting with Griffith at which a draft peace proposal was formulated.  This proposal is very similar to the one that is accepted in July 1921. 

Clune brings it to Lloyd George in London – See Dec-21-20/1.

 

Coogan (1990), pg 198

Dec-18-20/2

Meeting in Barry's Hotel, Gardiner Row, Dublin between Cathal Brugha, Michael Collins, Liam Mellows, Sean McMahon, Joe Vize (IRA GHQ) and representatives of two of the Cork brigades - Florrie O'Donoghue (Adj Cork No. 1) and Liam Deasy (Adj Cork No. 3) - to discuss possible landing of arms from Italy on Squince Strand near Myross, Co. Cork. 

Donal Hayes, brother of Tom and Sean, who was based in Genoa was to act as go-between.   (Deasy says 18th, O'Donoghue says 13th-14th and Molyneux and Kelly say 13th.)

 

Deasy (1973), pgs 178-180; O’Donoghue (1986), pg 153; Molyneux and Kelly (2020), pgs 107-108

Dec-18-20/3

The Flying Column of the Mid-Clare Brigade IRA led by Joe Barrett (consisting of 56 men) ambushes three lorries of a joint British Army and RIC patrol at Monreal (between Ennis and Ennistymon), Co. Clare. 

It was claimed by Barrett that 16 British were killed and 14 wounded but it would seem that there were no fatalities on either side.  Ó Ruairc says six British soldiers and one RIC man were wounded.

Five IRA men were wounded (Paddy O'Loughlin, Bill McNamara, Bill Carroll, Jack Hasnett and Jim Kierse). 

Among the IRA men present were Ignatius O'Neill, John Joe Neylon, Martin Slattery, Frank Barrett, Sean Casey, Peadar O’Loughlin, Andrew O’Donoghue and John Minihan,

 

Barrett in The Kerryman (1955), pgs 137-142; Ó Ruairc (2009), pgs 205-211; Townshend (2014), pg 237

Dec-18-20/4

The BA’s Brigadier-General Higginson (Cork) issues a notice saying that captured rebel officers will in future be carried on British lorries in the martial law area as protection.

According to Kautt, this policy seems to have prevented attacks in some cases and not in others.

 

Macardle (1999), pg 418; Kautt (2014), pg 116

Dec-18-20/5

Two IRA men from the West Clare Brigade (William Shanahan, Brigade Police Officer and Michael McNamara, Captain of Doonbeg company) are captured in Doonbeg by Crown Forces - both men are shot dead while in custody.  Shanahan was subjected to brutal torture while in custody. 

According to Ó Ruairc, both men were killed on December 22nd.  He says that, when McNamara was being taken from Kilrush to Ennis under armed guard, the lorry stopped on the way and McNamara was shot dead after being told that he was free to go home.  Then his body was dragged by Crown Forces behind a Crossley tender into Ennis. 

Ó Ruairc says that Shanahan was shot by Provost Sergeant David Finlay.  When the family retrieved his body almost every bone in his body was broken and a number of his finger and toe nails had been torn out.

According to O’Halpin and Ó Corráin, both men were captured on December 21st and killed on December 22nd.  They say that McNamara was killed in “disputed circumstances: the military [i.e. the BA] said that he died when one of his escort accidently discharged his rifle when their vehicle went over a bump”.  They also say that, according to the BA, Shanahan was killed by a British Army Company Sergeant Major called W. Strath after Shanahan attacked him during a toilet break.  According to the BA, a struggle ensued and Strath shot Shanahan in the head.

Patrick Darcy was alleged to have informed the Crown Forces on the whereabouts of Shanahan and McNamara – see Jun-21-21/5.

See Jan-13-22/4 for the fate of Sgt Finlay.

 

Ó Ruairc (2009), pgs 212-213; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 260

Dec-19-20/1

Ambush by East Limerick Brigade Column (led by Donnchadh O'Hannigan) with help from Castletownroche Battalion Column (Cork No. 2 Brigade) and Mitchelstown Company (Cork No.2 Brigade) at Glencurrane (in Co Limerick but just north of Mitchelstown). 

Two British soldiers, Sgt Leonard Ellis and Private Joseph Minchin of the Lincolnshire Regiment, are killed.  The ambushers capture 18 rifles.

(O’Donoghue says December 19th. O’Farrell says 17th as does O’Halpin & Ó Corráin.)

 

O’Donoghue (1986), pg 109-110; O’Farrell (1997), pg 80; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 256-257

Dec-19-20/2

On this day, The Nation Committee of One Hundred begins hearings Washington. It was subsequently addressed by Muriel and Mary MacSwiney (wife and sister respectively of Terence MacSwiney) and the new Lord Major of Cork, Donal O'Callaghan.

 

Hopkinson (2002), pg 173-4

Dec-19-20/3

Following an IRA ambush on about twenty members of the Auxiliary Division of the RIC at Clonbealy, Newport, Co. Tipperary, two young civilians Patrick O’Connor and Michael Walton (17 and 19 years old respectively) are shot dead by the Auxiliaries for ‘ignoring an order to halt’.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 258

Dec-20-20/1

The 7th and 8th Battalions, Kilkenny Brigade of the IRA carry out an ambush on a joint RIC/BA patrol at Nine-Mile-House near the Kilkenny-Tipperary border (between Callan and Glenbower). 

Abbott says that eight soldiers and an RIC sergeant (Sgt Thomas Walsh) are killed.  He also says that the IRA had several men killed and 30 others captured.

On the other hand, Walsh says that the IRA planned an attack on a joint RIC-Auxiliary patrol but, due to premature gunfire, the IRA did not cause any casualties.  What happened was that, in the dark bleak December night, soldiers of the Devonshire regiment fired on the RIC (killing Sgt Walsh) and only one BA soldier was killed.  He also says that no IRA men were killed. 

However, the official report on ‘important episodes’ from the 6th Division of the British Army (held in the Strickland papers in the Imperial War Museum) states that only one member of the Crown Forces was killed “chiefly owing to patrols meeting in the dark” so it would seem that Sgt Walsh was the only fatality.  This is supported by O’Halpin and Ó Corráin.  

See Dec-21-20/3. 

 

Hopkinson (2002), pg 123; Abbott (2000), pg 166; Walsh (2018); pg 76; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 258-259

Dec-20-20/2

Two IRA men (Capt James Lobby and Vol William Delaney) are arrested by Auxiliaries in Dulla, Co. Tipperary and taken towards Cashel. They are shot dead near Kilfeacle cemetery allegedly trying to escape. 

The following night, Crown Forces arrest Laurence Lobby (James’s brother) in a house that he was visiting.  They take him outside and shoot him dead.

Ryan says December 20th for James Lobby and Delaney; O’Farrell says 18th for Delaney and 19th for Laurence Lobby and 20th for James Lobby. O’Halpin and Ó Corráin say 18th for James Lobby and Delaney and 19th for Laurence Lobby.

 

Ryan (1945), pg 189; O’Farrell (1997), pg 55 & pg 26; Gallagher (1953), pg 111; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 257-258

Dec-20-20/3

During a search by Royal Navy personnel of Inishmore (largest of the Aran Islands), local man Laurence McDonagh is shot dead ‘while trying to escape’.  The Connacht Tribune reports that McDonagh may have failed to understand the BA order to halt (presumably as it was given in English).

Henry says that along with McDonagh, another man, Michael Mannister, was also killed by the Crown Forces and eleven men were arrested and taken back to Galway.

(Leeson says it was Inishmaan which was searched by a force of 250 RIC men and BA soldiers.  O’Halpin and Ó Corráin say that it was Inishmore but they do not mention Mannister.)

The official history of the 5th Division of the BA in Ireland says that the raid was on Inishmore and carried out by a joint force of BA and RIC (numbering 100). They said that 10 of the 11 men arrested were IRA officers.

 

McNamara (2018), pg 147; Henry (2012), pgs 182-183; Leeson (2012), pg 55; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 261; Sheehan (2009), pg 67

Dec-20-20/4

Two masked men enter Patrick McDonnell’s public house in Ballyroan, Co. Laois and demand money.  A scuffle breaks out and McDonnell’s son in law, James Whelan, is killed and McDonnell is wounded. 

Two Auxiliaries – J. H. Cockburn and John Rieve (or Reeves) – are subsequently arrested.  They escape but are re-arrested. 

On June 18th 1921, they are sentenced to death for murder by a general court martial but their sentences are commuted to penal servitude for life.  They are released on May 8th 1922.

 

Leeson (2012), pgs 200-202; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 258

Dec-20-20/5

The IRA try to blow up James Walsh’s shop on Danecastle, Carrig-on-Bannow, Co. Wexford.

Walsh had been renting out rooms above his shop to RIC men stationed in Carrig-on-Bannow Barracks. However, a scuffle develops between Walsh and Davy Sears (who was leading the IRA operation) and Sears shoots Walsh dead.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 259

Dec-21-20/1

Archbishop Clune meets with Lloyd George in London and gives him Griffith's truce proposals. 

Lloyd George rejects these proposals as they do not include the handing in of arms and he tells Clune that his military are confident of mopping up the IRA. 

See Dec-24-20/1.

 

Coogan (1990), pg 198

Dec-21-20/2

The National Executive of the Irish Labour Party/Trade Union Council meet in the Mansion House in Dublin and vote to end the railwaymen’s embargo on carrying military supplies and return to normal work.

At this stage, 15,000 railwaymen are out of work for taking part in the embargo. The men go back to work after the British Minister of Transport, Eric Geddes gives an assurance that the railwaymen would not be penalised for taking part in the embargo

(Boyce says December 14th).

 

Townshend (2014), pgs 144-148; Boyce (1972), pg 68; Molyneux and Kelly (2020), pg 111

Dec-21-20/3

A cortege of a number of Crossley tenders and other vehicles passes through the village of Callan, Co. Kilkenny carrying the body of Sgt Thomas Walsh (see Dec-20-20/1). 

The Auxiliaries had ordered all businesses to shut and civilians to stay in-doors during the procession.  As the cortege moved through the village, a shot rang out from one of the Crossley tenders (with probably members of J Company Auxiliaries on board) and hit a pregnant 36-year old woman called Margaret Ryan who was in a front room of her home next to her shop. She dies two days later.  Despite three inquiries, nobody was ever charged with this killing.

 

Walsh (2018), pgs 97-100; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 261

Dec-21-20/4

Patrick Tarrant, possibly an IRA Volunteer, is shot dead in the GPO in Oliver Plunkett St in Cork City in a shoot out with two RIC Constables.  Three other armed masked men got away.  This could have been a robbery.

A few hours later, Timothy O’Donovan, is found lying wounded in a tobacconist shop near the GPO.  He dies early the following morning. It is unclear if O’Donovan was an innocent bystander or was one of the three masked men who got away from the GPO.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 259-260

Dec-21-20/5

Kevin O’Higgins, as the Dáil’s Deputy Minister for Local Government, issues a circular to all rate collectors. 

After Dublin Castle’s Local Government Board (LGB) withdrew support from any local authority which recognised Dáil Éireann (see Jul-29-20/1), rate collectors had been instructed by their local authorities to no longer lodge rates with the LBG-sanctioned treasurer (normally a local bank) but instead with secret trustees (‘men of standing in the community’). 

However, many rate collectors were reluctant to do this fearing that they would remain liable for the rates collected. In early December, all local authorities were instructed by the Ministry of Local Government to indemnify their rate collectors against any loss sustained by them in following instructions from the Dáil’s Department of Local Government.

In this circular, O’Higgins points out to the rate collectors that they are indemnified and that they are in a strong position legally, even in English law, as it was the local councils which paid their salaries and pension. 

However, he goes on to say “Any rate collector who throws in his lot with the enemy and endeavours to force his Council to conform to enemy regulations by a refusal to resign or to collect rates is warned that in doing so he is acting as a public enemy and will be appropriately dealt with”.

 

Hughes (2016), pgs 55 & 63

Dec-21-20/6

Kate Maher was drinking with soldiers from the BA’s Lincolnshire Regiment in Norah Hennessy’s pub in Dundrum, Co. Tipperary.

Afterwards, the RIC find her barely alive behind the premises.  Her body bore the marks “of considerable violence” and her skull had been smashed.  Also, she had “a lacerated wound in the vagina from which she was bleeding profusely”.  Near her lay BA soldier Private Thomas Bennett “drunk and insensible”.  Maher died a few hours later.

A Military Court of Inquiry in Dundrum on December 23rd returned an open verdict.  Bennett was court martialled in Cork on July 16th 1921 for the murder of Kate Maher.  He was acquitted.

Molyneux and Kelly say that Maher had been raped.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 259-260; Molyneux and Kelly (2021), pg 114

Dec-22-20/1

John Hyman or Hynan from Emly, Co. Limerick is shot dead by RIC Constable Andrew McKinlay.

It would seem that Hynan attacked the constable with a stick.  According to O’Halpin and Ó Corráin, “The circumstances suggest that Hynan’s assault was attributable to drunkenness or mental instability”.

 

O’Farrell (1997), pg 110; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 259

Dec-22-20/2

RIC Constable William Jones is in a public house (Kelly's) in Newtownbarry, Co. Wexford when he shot dead by Ned Murphy from the North Wexford Brigade ASU.

 

Abbott (2000), pg 167; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 260

Dec-23-20/1

Three RIC men stationed in Longford – Constables William Gibson, Edwin Hollins and Harvey Skinner – are arrested for robbing the Northern Bank in Strokestown, Co. Roscommon.

They, and another RIC man (Thomas Chester), are convicted to five years’ penal servitude and dismissed from the RIC on February 16th 1921.  The four men had the remainder of the sentences remitted on February 18th, 1922.

 

Leeson (2012), pgs 83-84 & 89 & 250

Dec-23-20/2

De Valera returns to Ireland. 

He is met on Custom House dock by Tom Cullen and (possibly) Batt O'Connor.  He is brought to Dr Farnan's house where he meets Cathal Brugha.  (Macardle says Christmas day and Gallagher says Christmas Eve.)

Mitchell says that the British cabinet had initially decided that de Valera was to be kept out of Ireland but then decided that he should “be allowed to slip in”.  This would seem to be in the hope that he would bolster the ‘moderate’ side of Sinn Féin but this move was opposed by the BA - see Jan-11-21/3.

Commenting on de Valera’s time in the United States, Townshend says that it was successful in mobilising public support and in raising money but “the deed the republicans desired above all, formal US recognition, remained elusive”. 

Townshend goes on to make the following comment on de Valera’s mission to the United States:  “De Valera lacked one big advantage that the original ‘Chief’, Charles Stewart Parnell, had possessed … he was not a Protestant. American Protestant sentiment was worryingly vulnerable to the anti-Catholicism of a well-organized unionist mission demanding self-determination for Ulster”.

   

Curran J M (1980), pg 45, Macardle (1999), pg 420;  Townshend (2014), pg 72; Molyneux and Kelly (2021), pgs 116-117; Mitchell (1995), pg 226

Dec-23-20/3

Government of Ireland Act receives royal assent. 

In its final passage through the British parliament, southern unionists managed to get selective second chambers to both Belfast and Dublin parliaments.  (However, Craig subsequently  manages to have the senate of the Belfast parliament elected by the lower house - thus reducing even this safeguard for northern Catholics). 

On December 22nd, the Belfast Telegraph expressed “thankfulness that the right of Ulster to separate treatment and to be arbiters of her political testimony is now recognised in fact and by Act of Parliament”.  However, on December 24th the Irish News, in an editorial, says that “a more ghastly ‘Christmas gift’ was never thrust on our Nation” and on January 1st goes on to say, with reference to the Act of Union, that “The undoing of the crime of 1800 has been accomplished by the commissioning of a still more odious deed”.

Typical reaction in southern Ireland came from the moderate Sligo Champion. On January 1st, it noted “the English government gives a Christmas Box to Ireland … No one wants it and no one is bothered about its provisions”.

McMahon comments “One of the more entertaining paradoxes in Irish history is that north-east of Ireland, which had fought so strenuously against Home Rule for half a century, was the only part of the country to get it”.

 

Note on the Financial Provisions of the Government of Ireland Act

 

O'Farrell P (1997), pg xvii; Macardle (1999), pg 420; Phoenix (1994), pg 100-101; Parkinson (2004), pgs 101-102; McCluskey (2014), pg 96; Matthews (2004), pgs 25-26; McGarty (2020), pg 72; Parksinson (2020), pgs 74-80; McMahon (2008), pg 125

Dec-23-20/4

RIC Constable William Gaffney is killed in a motor accident near Carrickmore, Co. Tyrone.  He was the passenger in a car which overturned.

Abbott (2019), pg 406; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 261

Dec-23-20/5

Andrew Moynihan (43) is arrested by Auxiliaries in Co. Kerry.  He is subsequently shot dead ‘when trying to escape’.  However, the medical witness to the Military Court of Inquiry gives evidence of wounds which are inconsistent with being shot when trying to escape.

 

Leeson (2012), pg 184; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 261

Dec-23-20/6

A civilian, Michael Considine from Co. Clare is killed by Crown Forces.

 

Ó Ruairc (2009), pg 328

Dec-23-20/7

BA soldier, Arthur Gaskin, dies in George V Hospital in Dublin as a result of an accidental shooting.

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 554

Dec-24-20/1

British cabinet briefed by Lloyd George on Clune negotiations but decide on postponing “any future approach to Sinn Féin until the Government of Ireland Act was brought into operation”, specifically until a parliament was established in Belfast.  (Fanning notes that “Ulster, as always, took priority”.) 

See Dec-29 to 30-20/1

The British cabinet was also informed that arms were being surrendered in some quantities.

 

Coogan (1990), pg 198-199; Fanning (2013), pg 245

 

Dec-24-20/2

Two deserters from the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of the British Army, who give their names as Peter Monahan and Tommy Clarke, offer their services to the IRA in Kilbrittain, Co. Cork. 

Despite initial scepticism, they are accepted and Monahan proves very useful to them due to his engineering skills. 

Monahan was to die at the Crossbarry ambush – see Mar-19-21/1.

 

Deasy (1973), pg 184; Barry (1974), pgs 24-25

Dec-24-20/3

Black and Tans go on a rampage in Castleblayney, Co. Monaghan.

 

Dooley (2017a), pg 85

Dec-24-20/4

On this day, 15-year old John Rowlette was on a milk cart on Eden Quay in Dublin when it is struck by a British Army armoured car.  Rowlette dies from his injuries on January 29th 1921.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 284

Dec-24-20/5

An ex-soldier in the British and American armies, Charles Glesson, goes missing.  On January 31st 1921, his body is found in a pond near Kilmoganny, Co. Kilkenny.  His legs and wrists were bound. 

O’Halpin & Ó Corráin note that no IRA sources have been traced for this killing.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 285

Dec-24-20/6

Joseph Mullan is shot dead by the IRA near his home at Dunamore or Killucan, Cookstown, Co. Tyrone. 

Apparently, he had fired a shotgun at IRA men who were carrying out raids against poteen makers.  (O’Farrell gives his name as J. Mulan from Killucan, Co. Westmeath.)

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 261-262; McCluskey (2014), pg 82; O'Farrell P (1997), pg 114

Dec-24-20/7

Thomas Walsh of the BA’s East Lancashire Regiment is accidently shot dead while on duty at Kilquane, Headfort, Killarney, Co. Kerry.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 262

Dec-24-20/8

Michael Collins, Rory O’Connor, Liam Tobin, Gearóid O’Sullivan and Tom Cullen are having a Christmas Eve meal and drinks in the dining room of the Gresham Hotel on O’Connell St in Dublin when it is raided by Auxiliaries. Using false identifications, they manage not to be captured.

 

Molyneux and Kelly (2021), pgs 119-120

Dec-24-20/9

Private Jack Evans of the BA’s 1st South Lancashire regiment is shot dead by a BA sentry near the Tower Gate of the Royal Hospital in Kilmainhan, Dublin for failing an order to stop.  Evans was in civilian clothing.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 262

Dec-25-20/1

An Auxiliary patrol led by Major John MacKinnon in Ballymacelligott, Co. Kerry kills two men and burns their homes. 

One is John Leen or Lean and the other is Maurice Reid or Reidy – it would seem that MacKinnon killed both. 

According to a witness, he killed Leen on entering the house they were in and then gave Reidy time to say his prayers before shooting him in the head.

Despite unbelievable evidence from MacKinnon (O/C, H Company of the Auxiliaries), the Military Court of Inquiry found that the two men were to blame for their own deaths.

See Apr-09-21/6 and Apr-15-21/1.

 

Hopkinson (2002), pg 126; Abbott (2000), pg 221-222; O’Farrell (1997), pg 111 & ; Lesson (2012), pgs 217-218; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 262

Dec-25-20/2

Two creameries in the Athea area of Co. Limerick are destroyed by Crown Forces.

 

Breathnach (2017), pg 557

Dec-25-20/3

RIC Constable Edward King is arrested for committing burglary in Co. Clare and dismissed from the RIC on February 6th 1921.

 

Leeson (2012), pg 83

Dec-25-20/4

Rifleman Benjamin Swain of the BA’s King’s Royal Rifle Corps is accidently killed by a fellow BA soldier in Ballykinlar, Co. Down.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 262

Dec-25-20/5

Leading Signalman Alfred Glazebrook of the Royal Navy choked on his food and died in Cobh, Co. Cork.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 262

Dec-25-20/6

BA soldier, Herbert Naylor, dies as a result of a self-inflicted wound in Tallaght, Dublin.

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 554

Dec-26-20/1

IRA Capt. James Hickey from Knocknagashel, Co. Kerry dies in Tipperary Barracks after being bayoneted by Sgt Frederick Woods of the Lincolnshire Regiment who alleged that Hickey had tried to grab his rifle.

 

O’Farrell (1997), pg 109; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 263

Dec-26-20/2

RIC Constable Patrick McCann is accidently shot dead by a fellow RIC constable in Cappamore barracks, Co. Limerick.

 

Abbott (2000), pg 318; O’Callaghan (2018), pg 79; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 264

Dec-26-20/3

John ‘Flyer’ Nathan, one of the Kilmichael ambushers, is captured at Shannonvale, Co. Cork and imprisoned in Ballykinlar.

 

O’Farrell (1997), pg 74

Dec-26-20/4

Elizabeth or Isabella Scales tries to intervene to stop the shooting of RIC man George Richardson in St Alphonsus St in Limerick City.  However, she is shot in the breast and dies shortly afterwards. 

Sheehan says that Scales was romantically involved with an Auxiliary.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 262-263; Sheehan (2017), pg 33

Dec-26-20/5

The Dublin Brigade of the IRA set up a full-time Active Service Unit (ASU). 

More Detail

 

O’Connor and Connolly (2011), pgs 33-34; Molyneux and Kelly (2021), pgs 103 & 122-123; Sheehan (2007), pg 47

Dec-27-20/1

Patrick O’Brien was shot in the back by a sentry from the BA’s Green Howards at Clonbeg, Glen of Aherlow, Co. Tipperary for ‘failing to stop when challenged’.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 264

Dec-27-20/2

A mixed British Army and RIC party, led (according to Abbott) by Colonel Wilkinson, raid a dance being held by the 3rd Battalion of the East Limerick Brigade to raise funds in Caherguillamore House near Bruff, Co. Limerick. 

Shooting breaks out leading to the deaths of five IRA men. They are Martin Conway, V-C of the 3rd Battalion from Holycross, Bruff, Co. Limerick; Edward (Ned) Moloney; John Quinlan; Daniel Sheehan and Henry Wade. Also, one RIC man, Constable Alfred Hodgsden is killed and possibly a second, Constable John Reid.  (Abbott says that Constable Reid was killed but Regan and O’Halpin & Ó Corráin do not mention him. O’Halpin and Ó Corráin says that only one RIC man was killed (Hogsden) and that it was Moloney who killed him and that Moloney was killed immediately thereafter.)

Between 128 and 138 men were taken prisoner and many of them were given long penal sentences after being court martialled. 

In his memoir, Regan (who was the CI or DI in the RIC at the time) says that it was a solo RIC operation which he led. He says that he thought of getting the BA involved but decided against it because he wanted it to be a surprise raid and “military routine makes surprise raids very difficult”.  However, Abbot and O’Halpin & Ó Corráin say that it was a joint BA/RIC operation. Reagan says five or six IRA men were killed but that only one RIC man was killed.

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin that say this operation “broke the back of the Bruff Battalion” of the IRA.

Constable Hodgsen was from London and had under two months’ service with the RIC.

 

Abbott (2000), pg 167-168; O’Farrell (1997), pgs 104 & 113; O’Malley (1990), pg 310; Regan (2007), pgs 158-160; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 263-264

 

Dec-27-20/3

Writing to the RC Archbishop of Tuam, Churchill says “You must not undervalue the present Home Rule Act now on the Statute Book.  Action will follow on this measure. You say ‘It does not represent the just demands of the great majority of the Irish people’.  No one has ever said that it is the last word in the relations between the two islands.  On the contrary, it is the first word”.

 

Boyce (1972), pgs 128-129

Dec-27-20/4

Joseph Morrison, who was a Protestant, dies in Belfast from injuries sustained in earlier disturbances.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 264

Dec-27-20/6

In an attempt to unify Crown Forces intelligence operations, the Intelligence branch of the BA’s Dublin District is transferred to be under the control of Ormond Winter. He renames it D Branch.

Winter was in the process of setting up ‘Local Centres’ for the collection of intelligence around the country. D Branch essentially becomes the Local Centre for Dublin. Subsequently Local Centres are set up in Belfast, Dundalk, Athlone, Cork, Galway, Kildare, Limerick and Clonmel.  

The growth of Winter’s intelligence department can be seen from the fact its expenditure grew from £655 in January 1921 to £10,000 by June 1921 along with additional funds from the RIC.  By June, he had 150 staff, not including the undercover agents of D Branch and the many informers they employed.

 

Colonel Wilson, head of the BA’s Special Branch, resigns in protest at this move and is replaced by David Boyle.

The BA’s official record says that “For several months, offensive operations were hampered as a result of this unfortunate change”. The volume of the official BA Record of the Rebellion dealing with intelligence says that “The transfer of what was in fact the military intelligence system was a grave mistake.”

 

Sheehan (2007), pg 40; Hart (2002), pg 27 & 36; McMahon (2008), pg 42

Dec-28-20/1

Following shooting on an RIC patrol in Boleran, near Garvagh, Co. Londonderry, the RIC fire back and shoot dead a young man called Joseph Doherty.

O’Farrell (1997), pg 106; Grant (2018), pg 109; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 265

Dec-28-20/2

IRA Captain Tim Madigan is shot dead by Crown Forces near Shanagolden, Co Limerick ‘while trying to escape’.  This killing was apparently further revenge for the indignities heaped on the notorious Constable Huckerby and another Black and Tan in August – see Aug-26-20/2.

O’Callaghan (2018), pg 83; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 264-265

Dec-28-20/3

A Justice of the Peace, George Frend from Silverhill, Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary is shot when returning from Moneygall, Co. Offally.  He dies on January 4th 1921.

It is said that he refused to resign his Commission of the Peace. A land dispute may also have been involved in this killing.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 269-270; Hughes (2016), pg 41

Dec-28-20/4

Men in uniform enter the house of 18-year old Peter Mackin in Aughanduff, Co. Armagh and drag him outside where he is shot in the leg and head. Despite severe injuries, he manages to survive but only just. 

The following day, Michael Smyth or Smith from Belleeks, Newtownhamilton, Co. Armagh is shot “while trying to escape” from Specials.

 

Lawlor (2011), pgs 82-83; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 265

Dec-29-20/1

The British Labour Party Commission on Ireland presents its report to a special conference in Caxton Hall in London.

It states that the Auxiliaries and Black and Tans are “compelling the whole Irish people … to live in an atmosphere of sheer terrorism”. It claims that British reprisals were “a confession of bankruptcy of statesmanship and the desperate expedient of men who had lost all sense of humanity”.

It continues “things are being done in the name of Britain which must make her name stink in the nostrils of the whole world.  The honour of our people has been gravely compromised.”   However, according to Macready the report “openly advocated the imposition of martial law as the most humane method of coercion”.

The report concludes that only negotiation could end the conflict. 

See Jan-17-21/1.

 

Macardle (1999), pg 419; Townshend (2014), pg 219; Boyce (1972), pgs 62 & 98-99; Molyneux and Kelly (2020), pg 114

Dec-29-21/2

The British cabinet engages in a full-scale debate on Milner’s proposals to grant Egypt limited self-government (see Aug-25-20/2). 

The cabinet was split along (what was to become with regard to Ireland) familiar lines.  The likes of (Liberals) Montagu, Addison, Munro, Fisher as well as Chamberlain and Milner himself were for the proposals.  However, Curzon, Churchill, Geddes, Worthington-Evans and Llyod George were against.  The proposals were defeated.  However, see Feb-17-22/5.

They then go on to have a conference on Ireland – See Dec-29 to 30-20/1.

 

Morgan (1979), pgs 120-121

Dec-29-21/3

The column of 4th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade under Diarmuid O’Hurley attack a RIC patrol on the Main St, Midleton, Co. Cork.  This results in the deaths of two RIC men (Constable Ernst Dray and Constable Arthur Thorp). 

According to Abbott, another RIC man (Constable Martin Mullen or Mullin) was killed when reinforcements on their way to Midleton are ambushed near the village of Ballyrichard.  However, O’Halpin and Ó Corráin say that Constable Mullin was the first to be killed in the attack on the Main St. in Midleton.

In the wake of this attack there were the first ‘official’ reprisals – see Jan-01-21/1.    

Constable Dray was from Kent in England and Constable Thorp was from Middlesex in England.  They had six months’ and 23 days’ RIC service respectively. Constable Mullin was from Co. Roscommon.

 

Abbott (2000), pgs 168-169;  Townshend (1975), pg 149; O’Neill (2006), pg 19; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 265-267;

Dec-29 to 30-20/1

British Conference on Ireland

British leaders (Lloyd George, Bonar Law, Churchill, Greenwood, Anderson, Wilson, Macready, Tudor, Boyd & Strickland) meet in conference.

This is the first full-scale British cabinet conference on Ireland since July 23rd (see Jul-23-20/3).

 

More Detail

 

 

Curran J M (1980), pg 43; Macardle (1999), pg 415; Leeson (2012), pg 55; Townshend (2014), pg  224; Fanning (2013), pg 246; Jeffrey (2006), pgs 268-269; Boyce (1972), pg 130; Kautt (2014), pgs 232-236

Dec-30-20/1

William Slattery, a captain in the 3rd Battalion, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, IRA, is arrested by the RIC in Emly.  Apparently, he tried to jump out of the RIC tender at Roseborough and was ‘shot trying to escape’.   

See also Mar-25-21/2.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 265

cDec-30-20/1

James Blagriff is abducted by the IRA from his employer’s farm in Glasson, Athlone, Co. Westmeath.  His execution is sanctioned by Seamus O’Meara, O/C Athlone Brigade.  He is shot as an alleged spy at Ballykeeran.

On December 31st, an ex-BA soldier called Maher from Irishtown is executed as a spy by the Athlone Brigade.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pgs 266-267; O’Farrell (1997), pg 102 & 111

Dec-31-20/1

Collins papers are found by British forces in raid on Eileen McGrane's flat at 21 Dawson St, Dublin. 

Personal details of IRA men were found along with copies of Ned Broy’s police notes and secret reports belonging to the DMP’s G Division.  The brought suspicion on Broy and Jim McNamara.  Subsequently, all responsibility for political offenses was removed from Brunswick St to Dublin Castle.

McGrane was arrested, rigorously interrogated and sentenced to a long term in jail.

 

Hopkinson (2002), pgs 57 and 225; O'Farrell P (1997), pg 62; Molyneux and Kelly (2021), pgs 125-126

Dec-31-20/2

An attack on Kilbrittain RIC Barracks by the IRA is aborted after their mine fails to explode.

 

Deasy (1973), pgs 186-188

Dec-31-20/3

Richard Leonard is shot dead by the British Army at Caherconlish, Co. Limerick. 

Three BA soldiers – Major Gray, Captain W. Davis and Lieutenant Loup – are charged with his murder but the military court found that he was shot to prevent his escape. 

The British Army’s senior officer in Limerick, Brigadier R P Cameron, subsequently writes to 6th Division HQ in Cork saying: “There seems to be no reason why, under normal circumstances Leonard should have made a dash for liberty, knowing what the risks would be.”  According to O’Halpin and Ó Corráin, “The three officers involved had apparently been on a drunken ramble” and their “cock and bull story disturbed even the [British] military authorities”.

O’Callaghan says that Leonard was a civilian but O’Halpin and Ó Corráin say that he was a member of the IRA.

 

O’Callaghan (2018), pg 85; Toomey (2008), pg 65; O’Farrell (1997), pg 111; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 266

 

Dec-31-20/4

A group of three young men are stopped by the RIC in Limerick City.  They try to run away but one, John Lawlor (17 or 18), is caught up with and hit on the back of the head with a rifle butt.  He got home but dies a few hours later from his head injury. 

A court of inquiry exonerated the RIC but did not explain his head injury.

 

Leeson (2012), pg 182; O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), 269

Dec-31-20/5

Private Reuben Lockyer of the BA’s King’s Liverpool Regiment accidently kills himself during a night search at Mohana, Skibereen, Co. Cork.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 267

Dec-31-20/6

Two soldiers from the BA’s Essex Regiment, Percy Taylor and Thomas Watling, based in Bandon, Co. Cork decide to desert.  However, they are captured and executed as alleged spies by the IRA. 

See Dec-02-20/2.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 267;

Dec-31-20/7

An ex-BA soldier called O’Neill is arrested by the IRA in Killusty, Co. Tipperary.  He is held for a number of weeks while inquiries are made into who he said he was. 

He is sentenced to death and is executed near Rosgreen, Cashel, Co. Tipperary by men from 3rd Tipperary Brigade, IRA.

 

O’Halpin and Ó Corráin (2020), pg 267

Dec-1920/1

The Flying Column of the West Limerick Brigade stop a train containing RIC men at Barrygone between Foynes and Askeaton.  The RIC are scattered through-out train and no civilian, RIC or IRA casualties result.

 

Harnett (2002), pgs 73-74

Dec-1920/2

Stephen Gwynn tells Mark Sturgis that “Dáil Éireann no more controls the gunman than you control the police.”

 

Mitchell (1995), pg 209

Dec-1920/3

After being appointed O/C of the 2nd Donegal Brigade of the IRA (which includes Derry City), Peadar O’Donnell convened a meeting of the IRA in the Shamrock Hall in the Bogside on December 29th.

He announced that he wanted to take Derry City volunteers to join an active service unit (ASU) in Donegal where they would take the fight to the British.  Nine (or eleven) IRA men volunteer and on this day, they leave the city and join up with other members of the ASU in Donegal.  The column sets out for west Donegal on December 31st. Referred to as the No. 1 Column.

 

Ó Duibhir (2009), pg 202; Grant (2018), pg 110

Dec-1920/4

As 1920 comes to a close, there are increasing voices in Britain saying that Ireland should be given Dominion status.

 

Curran J M (1980), pgs 50-51

Dec-1920/5

The Dáil cabinet agrees to make £100,000 available to its Department of Local Government so that it could make loans to “hard-hit councils” who had declared allegiance to the Dáil. 

£16,800 was dispersed in loans in 1921 but this was very small in comparison to what was needed.  (Dublin Corporation alone had a deficit of £200,000 in September 1920 and only kept afloat by an extended loan from the Bank of Ireland.)

 

O’Sullivan Greene (2020), pg 182

Dec-1920/5

Audited accounts were prepared for the receipts and expenditure of the Dáil for the eight months up to December 31st.  They show total receipts of £359,686 (made up of £220,278 from the Dáil Loan; £127,566 sent from America and £11,842 from the Self Determination Fund).  Total expenditure was £292,500.

O’Sullivan Greene puts these figures together with previous accounts and shows that, for the twenty months up to 31st December 1920, total Dáil government expenditure was £374,026 and total government receipts were £618,325.

 

O’Sullivan Greene (2020), pgs 184-185

1920

Macardle claims that 203 unarmed persons were killed by Crown Forces during 1920 (including 6 women, 12 children and 36 men killed in custody). She also says that 184 Crown Forces were killed in action and another 65 killed while unarmed as “Secret Service agents”.

 

Macardle (1999), pg 419

 

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