In December 1918, they received information that there were plans to move a consignment of gelignite from Tipperary British Army barracks to the Soloheadbeg quarry. They began plans to intercept the consignment and Dan Breen's brother Lars, who worked at the quarry, received information that the consignment was to be moved around 16 January 1919. They anticipated that there would be between two and six armed escorts, and they discussed different plans. If the escort was small, they believed they could overpower the RIC officers without firing a shot. Gags and ropes were hidden in the quarry, so that if the officers surrendered they could be bound and gagged.[5] The planning for the ambush took place in the 'Tin Hut', a deserted semi-derelict house at Greenane.[3]
Robinson, who had returned to the Brigade area after his release from jail, was briefed by Treacy about the plans to seize the gelignite. Robinson supported the plan and confirmed with Treacy that they would not request permission from the Irish Volunteer leadership. If they did, they would have to wait for a response, and even if the response was affirmative, it might not come until after the gelignite was moved.[6]
Ambush
Each day from 16 to 21 January, the men chosen for the ambush took up their positions from early in the morning to late afternoon and then spent the night at the deserted house. Seven of the Volunteers were armed with revolvers while Treacy was armed with a small automatic rifle.[3] On 21 January, around noon, Patrick O'Dwyer saw the transport leaving the barracks. The consignment of 160 lb of gelignite[5] was on a horse-drawn cart, led by two council men and guarded by two RIC officers armed with carbine rifles.[3][7] O'Dwyer cycled quickly to where the ambush party was waiting and informed them.[4] Robinson and O'Dwyer hid about 20 yards in front of the main ambush party of six, in case they rushed through the main ambush position.[8]
When the transport reached the position where the main ambush party was hiding, masked Volunteers stepped out in front of them with their guns drawn and called on the RIC to surrender, shouting "Hands up!" more than once.[3][7] It was raining.[5] The officers could see at least three of the ambushers; one officer got down behind the cart and the other apparently fumbled with his rifle.[5] According to the Volunteers, the officers raised their rifles to fire at them.[3][7] Séumas Robinson said the officers attempted to shoot but that the rifles did not fire because "the cut-off had been overlooked".[9] The Volunteers immediately fired at the officers, and it is believed that Treacy fired the first shot.[5] Both officers were killed: James McDonnell and Patrick O'Connell, native Roman Catholics.[8][10] McDonnell was shot in the left side of the head and through the left arm; O’Connell was shot through the left side, and was likely in a stooping position.[5] McDonnell was born in Belmullet, County Mayo. He was aged 50 at the time of his death and was a widower with five children. O'Connell was unmarried and a native of Coachford, County Cork.[11]
As planned, Hogan, Breen and Treacy took the horse and cart with the explosives and sped off.[3] They hid the explosives in a field in Greenane. The explosives were moved several times and later divided up between the battalions of the brigade.[12] Tadhg Crowe and Patrick O'Dwyer took the guns and ammunition from the dead officers,[3] while Robinson, McCormack and Ryan guarded the two council workers, Ned Godfrey and Patrick Flynn, before releasing them once the gelignite was far enough away.[8]
Breen gave apparently conflicting accounts of their intentions that day. One account implies that the purpose of the confrontation was merely to capture explosives and detonators being escorted to a nearby quarry.[13] However, almost thirty years later he told the Bureau of Military History that he and Treacy intended killing the police escort to provoke a military response.
"Treacy had stated to me that the only way of starting a war was to kill someone, and we wanted to start a war, so we intended to kill some of the police whom we looked upon as the foremost and most important branch of the enemy forces [...] The only regret we had following the ambush was that there were only two policemen in it, instead of the six we had expected".[3][7]
Séumas Robinson said that they would not have "shot down men in cold blood, although certainly we had no intention of being intimidated by the armed guard".[3] Patrick O'Dwyer said the plan had been to "disarm them and seize the gelignite without bloodshed if possible",[8] and Tadhg Crowe said they did not believe the ambush would end in violence.[14]
The ambush would later be seen as the beginning of the Irish War of Independence.[15][16][17][18] The British government declared South Tipperary a Special Military Area under the Defence of the Realm Act two days later.[19][20] There was strong condemnation from the Catholic Church in Ireland. The parish priest of Tipperary Town called the dead officers "martyrs to duty".[21]
A meeting of the Executive of the Irish Volunteers took place shortly thereafter. On 31 January, An t-Óglach (the official publication of the Irish Volunteers) stated that the formation of Dáil Éireann "justifies Irish Volunteers in treating the armed forces of the enemy – whether soldiers or policemen – exactly as a National Army would treat the members of an invading army".[22]
In February 1919 at a Brigade meeting in Nodstown Tipperary, Brigade officers drafted a proclamation (signed by Seamus Robinson as O/C) ordering all British military and police forces out of South Tipperary and, if they stayed they would be held to have "forfeited their lives". GHQ refused to sanction the proclamation and demanded it not be publicly displayed. Despite this it was still posted in several places in Tipperary.[23][6]
In order to avoid capture, Breen, Treacy, Hogan and the other participants were forced to stay on the move for the following months, often hiding in the barns and attics of sympathisers.[24]
Commemoration
A monument was erected at the site of the ambush, and each year, a ceremony of remembrance is held there.[25]
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary paramilitary organisation. The ancestor of many groups also known as the Irish Republican Army, and distinguished from them as the "Old IRA", it was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916. In 1919, the Irish Republic that had been proclaimed during the Easter Rising was formally established by an elected assembly, and the Irish Volunteers were recognised by Dáil Éireann as its legitimate army. Thereafter, the IRA waged a guerrilla campaign against the British occupation of Ireland in the 1919–1921 Irish War of Independence.
Events from the year 1919 in Ireland.
Daniel Breen was a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. In later years he was a Fianna Fáil politician.
The Squad, nicknamed the Twelve Apostles, was an Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit founded by Michael Collins to counter British intelligence efforts during the Irish War of Independence, mainly by means of assassination. The Squad engaged in executing informants, police active in harassment of IRA personnel, enemy agents and worked in counterespionage.
This is a timeline of the Irish War of Independence of 1919–21. The Irish War of Independence was a guerrilla conflict and most of the fighting was conducted on a small scale by the standards of conventional warfare.
Séumas Robinson was an Irish republican and politician.
Seán Allis Treacy was one of the leaders of the Third Tipperary Brigade of the IRA during the Irish War of Independence and one of a small group whose actions initiated that conflict in 1919. He was killed in October 1920, on Talbot Street in Dublin in a shootout with British troops during an aborted British Secret Service surveillance operation.
Martin Savage was an Officer in the Dublin Brigade of the Irish Republican Army, from Ballisodare, County Sligo. On 19 December 1919 he was killed in a gun battle during an ambush at Ashtown, then on the outskirts of Dublin city, during the early stages of the Irish War of Independence.
Seán Hogan was one of the leaders of the 3rd Tipperary Brigade of the Irish Republican Army during the War of Independence.
Sologheadbeg or Soloheadbeg is a townland and civil parish in County Tipperary, Ireland, lying northwest of Tipperary town.
Seán Hayes was an Irish revolutionary and politician. He was a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) for 10 years, and later a senator for 22 years.
Gilbert Norman Potter was a District Inspector of the Royal Irish Constabulary. He was born in Dromahair, County Leitrim, a son of Rev. Joseph Potter, Church of Ireland Rector of Drumlease Parish, and Mrs. Jane Potter. He was stationed at Cahir, County Tipperary, during the Irish War of Independence. In April 1921 he was captured and executed by the Irish Republican Army in reprisal for the British execution of Thomas Traynor, an Irish republican.
Edmond Foley, sometimes known as Edmund or Edward, was a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) who was hanged in Mountjoy Prison on 7 June 1921. Together with nine other men executed by hanging during the War of Independence, he was one of The Forgotten Ten.
The 3rd Tipperary Brigade was one of the most active of approximately 80 such units that constituted the IRA during the Irish War of Independence. The brigade was based in southern Tipperary and conducted its activities mainly in mid-Munster.
Denis Lacey was an Irish Republican Army officer during the Irish War of Independence and anti-Treaty IRA officer during the Irish Civil War.
Knocklong is a small village in County Limerick, Ireland. It is 29 km south-east of Limerick city, on the main Limerick to Mitchelstown to Cork road. The population was 256 at the 2016 census. The village is in a civil parish of the same name.
Sean C. Finn was a commander of multiple units in the IRA's Irish War of Independence in the early 20th century. He led many attacks on the Black and Tans and the heavily armed RIC patrols, with his brigade usually armed only with shotguns.
On 13 May 1919, a captured Irish Republican Army (IRA) member, Seán Hogan, was rescued from a train by his comrades while being guarded by four armed Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) officers. Two of the RIC officers were killed and several IRA volunteers were wounded. The rescue took place on Hogan's 18th birthday, while the Cork-bound train stopped at Knocklong station in County Limerick. It was undertaken by three of Hogan's comrades from the 3rd Tipperary Brigade of the IRA and five members of the Galtee Battalion of the East Limerick Brigade. Hogan was one of the most wanted men in Ireland at the time of his rescue, due to his role in the Soloheadbeg ambush and would almost certainly have been executed.
Marian Tobin ran a safe house in Ireland during the Irish War of Independence and was known particularly for sheltering Dan Breen and Seán Treacy after the Soloheadbeg ambush, the incident which sparked the war.
References
↑ English, Richard (1998), Ernie O'Malley: IRA Intellectual, Oxford: Oxford University Press
1 2 3 4 Tomkins, Phil. Twice A Hero: From the Trenches of the Great War to the Ditches of the Irish Midlands 1915-1922. Memoirs Publishing, 2013. pp.96-97
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Irish Volunteers/Irish Republican Army 
James McDonnell † 
