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

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16.dome other people concerned, 10th November, 1920. it wasabout midday when the lorries came or when the action began.When we arrived, Hannigan gave us the positions wewere to occupy, which were as I have shown on the map,running from O'Neill's house northwards towards Limerick,along that east side of the road, while they, the EastLimerick men, would man the other side.There was a very high wail at Mr. O'Neill's houseand there was ivy on the wall. Some of my lads got on that.we had bombs there and, when the first lorry came, therewere three grenades thrown into the lorry.Only two lorries came around the bend into thebeginning of the ambush position. The remainder pulled upat the other side of the bend, not coming into our viewwhen the firing began. It was just when these two lorrieswere coming around the bend that a single shot was fired bysomebody, and this shot served to alarm the others, sothatthey stopped where they were. immediately the two lorrieswere attacked, fire was opened on all sides by our ownfellows on to the lorries and from the military in theother Lorries around the bend, which we could not see.Hannigan, realising that we were outnumbered, decided toretire and blew his whistle as a signal for this. Weretreated and, when we had gone back a bit, it just dawnedon me that I had five men in a cottage down the road and thatthey would not have known about the retreat. That wouldbe on the Limerick side of me. I went down, got them outof the cottage and we retreated out eastwards. Thiscottage that I speak of was almost opposite the lodge-gateon the other side of the road. It was known as; Sheahan'scottage. We retreated to Longford Bridge.
17.On Hannigan's blast, sounding the retreat; the Mid-Limerick Column retired on its: own and did not again makecontact with the East Limerick Column that day. We wentback to our own area in Mid Limerick, while the EastLimerick fellows remained in East Limerick. We sent backthe Volunteers, who were not "on the run" or not belongingto the Column and who had been with us that day, back totheirown homes.The Column went on to a place called Bohermore, wherewe had a house belonging to the Bennett's, that is, the lateSenator Westropp Bennett. We had beds and things there.we always kept the Column there. Bennett knew all aboutthis and allowed us the free use of the place. Then wefound that we had all the East Limerick ammunition with us,which we had got at O'Neill's house. I got in contact withHannigan again. He sent a girl by the name ofMaggie Maloney to recover it, and she took the ammunitionback to him. This bag of ammunition had been leftbyHannigan or some of his Column in O'Neill's house, whichadjoined the position we had occupied during the fight.When we began to retire, this O'Neill girl Bishop O'Neill'ssister ran after us, asking us to remove this ammunitionwhich had been left there and apparently forgotten in theexcitement. We took it with us. it was all .303 stuff.We had no contact for a good while with East Limerickuntil the Drumkeen ambush. Drumkeen was in February 19<strong>21</strong>.I had an Intelligence Officer by the name of John Purcellat, Caherconlish. He was a creamery manager's son. ThisI.O. sent me word that on the first Thursday of every monthtwo lorry loads of Black and Tans and R.I.C.left PallasBarrack for Fedamore to pay the Tans and police in FedamoreBarracks. Pallas Barrack was a big station where the D.I.
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 14 and 15: 10.at the Caherconhish Barracks bec
Page 16 and 17: 12.were on the ditch, Mick Brennan
Page 18 and 19: 14.An ambush was brought off then.
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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