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

26.the feeding of the men would be attended to by the generouspeople amongst whom they were operating. It was, howeve,decided to impose a levy on the business and farming communityof the area. The amount of the levywasfixed on the P.L.V.of business premises and on the number of stock carried onfarms. The amounts varied from £1 to £50. The responsibilityfor collection was placed on the battalion 0/Cs who, in turn,held the company commanders responsible for the collection intheir areas. The total amount collected was in theneighbour-hood of £10,000. The first instalment of this levy was handedin at the Brigade Council meeting held at Kelly's, Gloun,Dunmanway, on 21st November 1920. This levy was called theArms Fund Levy. It was used to provide the men of the columnand those on wholetime duty with waterproof clothing,cigarettes, tobacco and other necessities. I was allocatedthe duty of organising and arranging fat eo1lection of thisfund..The column representative of the 6th (Castletownbere,)arid 7th (Schull) Battalions assembled as arranged at Farrell'sClogher, Dunmanway, on 21st November 1920. There was somedifficulty with regard to the food supply and it moved aftertwo days to Kenneigh Company area. By Saturday, November 27th,the column was at O'Sullivan's, Ahilina. The strength of thiscolumn was,I think, 36. All were armed with rifles and about40 rounds. On Sunday morning, 28th November 1920, the columnmoved into an ambush position at Kilmichael and remained therewithout incident until about 4 p.m. About this time twolorries of Auxiliaries travelling from Macroom moved into theposition. They were ambushed by the column. All, with theexception of one, were killed and the column captured 15 rifles.a number of revolvers and a considerable Quantity of' ammunitionI was not present on this occasion, being engaged on duties