ROINN COSANTA. BUREAU OF MILITARY HISTORY, 1913-21 ...

13.of the barrack. Moss Donegan i/c., 3 riflemen andabout 6 or 7 shotgun men;(b) covering party at rere of barracks under DanO'Mahoney 3 riflemen and 5 or 6 shotguns;(c) covering party on the street under John O'Sullivan(Baurgorm), l rifleman and if or 5 shotguns;(d) storming party to enter house next door, get onto roof of barrack and, having broken in same,set barrack on fire. This party consisted ofJohn J. O'Sullivan, Tom Ward, Sean Lehane andTed O'Sullivan (witness).There were, in addition, several men engaged on scouting,road-blocking and outpost activities. Our plan of attackenvisaged the seizure of a house adjoining the barrack,breaking through the roof, and then climbing on to the roofof the barrack. We had prepared two mines from 6" metal pipesabout 18" long.. These were filled with broken metal andcharged with gelignite which was detonated and fused. We alsohad made about a dozen canister bombs by filling cocoa andpaint tins with scrap metal arid inserting a stick of gelignitewith fuse anddetonator. The fuse protruded through a hole inthelid.When the sections at (a), (b) and (c) above were inposition, the group at (d) approached the house selected forseizure. It was occupied by three sisters who, when they sawus, created a bit of a racket. This must have helped to putthe garrison of the barracks on the alert. However, weproceeded to make a hole in the roof of the house andsucceeded without undue trouble.I then got on to the roof of the barrack which I.smashed in with a hammer. I immediately lighted the fuse ofone of the mines and dropped it through the hole in the roofof the barrack. There was a deafening explosion andconsider-able damage was done to the interior of the building. I thendropped in a second one, but the fuse got caught in a nail onone of the rnfters and the mine fell into the barrack, but did