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

40.arrangements for the activities in connection With thegeneral shoot-up were discussed. While the meeting wasin progress, a report was received that the force ofAuxiliaries stationed at the Eccles Hotel, Glengarriff,were to evacuate the post next day. They were to travelby train from Bantry. It was decided to attack thistrain at Inchingeragh next day.Towards the end of May 1921, a strong column ofBritish military under Major Percival of the Essex Regimentmoved out from Kinsale on foot. it travelled acrosscountry searching houses and fields as it progressed.The activities of this column made the maintenance o#lines of communication more difficult. Increased scoutinand intelligence services, were necessary in order to keepBrigade H.Q.. in touch with the enemy movements;. Manycivilian prisoners were taken in this operation, and, insome cases, the houses of supporters of ours weredestroyed. This action led to counter-reprisals by uson the homes. of British supporters. in the area. Amongstthe. houses burned by the. I.R.A. as reprisals were.Castle Bernard, the home of the Earl of Bandon. Theactivities, of this column were only the forerunner of abig encircling movement undertaken by troops operatingfrom Bandon, Kinsale, Cork and Killarney in an endeavourto surround] our column which, at the time, was in thevicinity of the. Skibbereen area. The column withdrew toBantry area, but here information was received that theBritish were preparing to land troops on the coast.This; appeared to be borne out by the presence of a numberof enemy naval vessels in Bantry Bay. As a. result, thecolumn moved on to Coomhola. and from there to Gougane Barin Cork 1 Brigade area. At this stage, all intelligence