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

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10.at the Caherconhish Barracks because, if anything went wrong,it would be said that I did not, want to burn our own property.We burned: it down.On the night Caherconlish Barracks. was burned theSergeant's wife, Mrs. Mealy, was in the Barracks. She wasafter having a baby about a week before. As luck should haveit, on the night of the burning, the Sergeant was there aswell. When we got into the Barrack, the wife was in a roomand she had the baby in her arms. I think it was three otherchildren she had, and they were all. in a cluster around her.When I went in, I saw her looking up and I thought there wassomeone up in the roof. She was looking up towards the trapdoor in the ceiling leading to the roof. I looked up andI saw the trap door. I said to her, "Is the Sergeant upthere?". She said nothing. I said, "I will give you aguarantee that nothing will happen to him if he comes down".She called him, lie went to put down his legs and I said, tohim, "Pull them up, and hand down first whatever arms youhave". He handed down a Colt automatic revolver and,I think, four bombs. He came down then and I put threelads in charge of him. When taking him out, one of the ladsin charge of him, John Power, turned back. and said to me,Ithink Stephen Lynch will do in the Sergeant". Lynch wasone of the men who had been arrested and convictedinconnection with the incident already related where thesefellows had beaten up the Sergeant and constable who had triedto arrest me. Sergeant Mealy, whom we were now concernedwith, was the same Sergeant who had. been responsible for thearrest. and conviction of Lynch and the others. I had notnoticed that Stephen Lynch had a drop of drink taken thatnight. It; was when they had taken the Sergeant out I heardthat Stephen wanted to plug him, so when John Power came backand told me this I rushed out and brought in the Sergeant
11.again. I took. the child that the wife had, and I put thechild into the Sergeant's arms. I said to John Power,"Now, you can take him out. So that saved his life.We got the children out then and put them into the housenext door, that of a man by the name of Greagh. We thenset fire to the Barrack.Al1 the rest of the Barracks in the area except Groomand Fedamore were burned the same night. Groom Barracks wasoccupied, and the Croom Volunteers., instead of burning theBarrack that night, burned the courthouse. Two Volunteerswere trapped in the burning of the courthouse and wereburned to death. That was the only incident that happenedat that time. That would be up to the beginning of 1920.Major General Lucas had been captured by the CorkVolunteers in June, 1920, and they had passed him on for safekeeping to the fellows in Glare. It was some time laterstill that the Glare men Mick Brennan, Paddy Brennan andMick Hehir handed him over to us. I put them up atDr. Corboy's house in Caherconlish. Dr. Corboy was at thetime on holidays in Kilkee but he allowed us the use of hishouse for this purpose. We remained there for, I think,three days. Then it was rumoured that the Britishauthorities knew of Lucas' presence there. We were afraidof a raid, so we arranged to have him moved to another place.An amusing incident happened while he was there. Weused take him f or a walk each day. This day Mick Brennanand I took him out. We went out to the back ofDr. Corboy's and got into a field belonging to a man by thename of Ryan. en we were in the middle of the field, abig three-year-old bull attacked us, and we had to run forthe ditch, the three of us. Lucas, who was a very livelyman, got up on the ditch first. and we followed. While we
Page 1 and 2: ROINNCOSANTA.BUREAU OF MILITARY HIS
Page 3 and 4: -2-Page.22. Escape plan carried out
Page 5 and 6: STATEMENT OF MR. RICHARD O'CONNELL,
Page 7 and 8: 3.ten would be the number that turn
Page 9: 5.Battalion. There were then only t
Page 12 and 13: 8.After my release I started re-org
Page 16 and 17: 12.were on the ditch, Mick Brennan
Page 18 and 19: 14.An ambush was brought off then.
Page 20 and 21: 16.dome other people concerned, 10t
Page 22 and 23: 18.and all the Tans and police were
Page 24 and 25: 20.in the evening, that we would th
Page 26 and 27: 22.Then we got out on the road and
Page 28 and 29: 24.myself. They said they were very
Page 30 and 31: 26.cell, locked me up arid, kept th
Page 32 and 33: 28.got through that wire, it. would
Page 34 and 35: 30.been used by the military for ri
Page 36 and 37: 32.on pass". just as we stood up to
Page 38: 34.in Limerick. Most of its members

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

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