20 February 1921 – The Clonmult Ambush
The attack marked the IRA’s greatest loss of life in the War of Independence.
On 20 February 1921, the IRA lost more men in a single day than at any other time in the period which came to be known as the ‘War of Independence’. Twelve IRA members were shot dead in an ambush on a disused farmhouse in Clonmult, Co Cork, carried out by the 2nd Battalion of the Hampshire Regiment, reinforced by Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) Auxiliaries. The attack, and the subsequent execution of two of its survivors, led to reprisals against suspected informers in the surrounding area.
The 4th Battalion of the 1st Cork Brigade of the IRA was an active service unit, or flying column, which had been holed up in a small farmhouse in the village of Clonmult, around seven miles north-east of Midleton, since 06 January 1921. Its members had carried out various operations in previous months, notably an offensive against an RIC foot patrol on 29 December 1920, in which Constable Martin Mullin, originally from Roscommon, and Constables Arthur Thorpe, from Middlesex, and Ernest Dray, from Kent, were killed.
The unit was preparing to ambush a military train at Cobh Junction on 22 February, on the orders of Commandant Diarmuid Hurley, who had instructed the men to march to Dooneen at dusk on 20 February. At around 4:15pm that day, two of the IRA men – Michael Desmond and John Joe Joyce – were filling their water bottles around 20 yards away, when they noticed a company of the Hampshire Regiment surrounding the farmhouse. Desmond and Joyce drew their weapons and attempted to make it back to the house. They began shooting at the Hampshire Regiment, and were mortally wounded in the returning fire, though they were able to warn their comrades of the encroaching soldiers.
Inside, the unit decided to send out a small number of men, some of whom it was hoped would make it past the soldiers to seek assistance from IRA volunteers elsewhere. Captain Jack O’Connell, who had been appointed acting O/C of the unit by Hurley, and four others – Michael Hallinan, Richard Hegarty, James Aherne, and Jeremiah O’Leary – left the cottage, covered by the men inside. Hallinan, Hegarty and Aherne were all killed, while O’Leary, unable to break through, rejoined the others inside. O’Connell managed to escape, and sought help.
About an hour after the shooting began, RIC Auxiliaries arrived to reinforce the soldiers of the Hampshire Regiment. The thatched roof of the cottage was set alight. Once again, O’Leary tried to escape, this time with Volunteer James Glavin, but they were wounded and forced to fall back. Realising that escape was impossible, the men surrendered.
Seven of the IRA members were lined up and executed by the Auxiliaries – Liam Aherne, Jeremiah Aherne, David Desmond, Christopher O’Sullivan, Dónal Dennehy, Joseph Morrisey, and James Glavin. Glavin was the youngest, aged 17, while O’Sullivan was the oldest at 27. Two wounded IRA men, Captain Patrick Higgins, who passed out after being shot in the face, and Volunteer Jeremiah O’Leary, were taken prisoner, as were six others – Volunteers Patrick O’Sullivan, Maurice Moore, Diarmuid O’Leary, Robert Walsh, John Harty and William Garde.
When the soldiers had left, local people in the area came in to clean and lay out the bodies of those killed. Among them was Lena Allen, a schoolteacher who taught at Dungourney National School, and lived in the nearby townland of Ballydonaghmore. Her great-nephew, Alan Dukes, would one day become Leader of the Opposition in Dáil Éireann, from 1987 to 1990, when he led Fine Gael.
The IRA prisoners were tried and sentenced to death, though the sentences of O’Leary, Walsh, Garde and Harty were later commuted. Patrick O’Sullivan and Maurice Moore were executed at Cork military barracks on 5 May 1951. Captain Patrick Higgins was set to be executed, but was saved because of the truce of July 1921.
The Hampshire Regiment are believed to have been tipped off of the location of the IRA unit the day before by an informer, though the identity of the informer has never been confirmed. An ex-serviceman, David Walsh, from Shanagarry, Co Cork, was apprehended by the IRA on 14 May 1921, and executed, after signing a confession which stated he had passed on the whereabouts of the Volunteers in Clonmult. The IRA told Walsh – who reportedly was suffering from shell shock from his time in the British Army – that he would be allowed to emigrate to Australia if he admitted to being an informer, but he was shot dead regardless. Historians such as Gerard Murphy, Eunan O'Halpin and Daithí Ó Corráin dispute the claim that Walsh was responsible for giving away the IRA’s location. In their compendium of those killed in the War of Independence, O’Halpin and Ó Corráin wrote, “Clonmult was a disaster… it is not surprising that the IRA scapegoated an alleged informer, even though he was plainly an unstable and probably an innocent man.”
Others killed in reprisals after Clonmult include George Bernard O’Connor, an ex-serviceman and member of the Church of Ireland, who was kidnapped from his home in Rochestown, Co Cork by armed men, and found the morning of 10 July 1921, shot in the head and body, with an label attached that read ‘Convicted Spy’. Joseph E. Coleman, an RIC policeman and father-of-four stationed in Midleton, was shot through the window of Buckley’s pub on 14 May 1921. Two RIC Constables, Thomas Cornyn and Harold Thompson, were fatally wounded when they went to fetch a priest for him. On Cornyn’s clothing, a note was left, “Revenge for Clonmult and we will have more.”
Sources
‘Ex-FG leader explores family link to Cork ambush site’, The Corkman, 23 February 2019.
Harris, Eoghan, ‘Time we brought innocent victims of murderous IRA in from the cold’, Sunday Independent, 06 November 2016, p. 23.
Hart, Peter, The IRA and its Enemies: Violence and Community in Cork, 1916 – 1923 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998).
O’C, P, ‘The East Cork Brigade in Action’, in Ó Conchubhair, B. (ed.), Rebel Cork's Fighting Story 1916–21: Told by the Men Who Made it (Cork: Mercier Press, 2009).
O'Halpin, Eunan and Daithí Ó Corráin, The Dead of the Irish Revolution (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2020).
O’Riordan, Sean, ‘Battle of Clonmult marks IRA’s biggest loss of life in bloody chapter of War of Independence’, Irish Examiner, 20 February 2021.