Osprey - Essential Histories 065 - The Anglo-Irish War 1913-1922

The fighting
Dying for Ireland
If it is difficult to identify exactly when the
Anglo-Irish War began, there is little dispute
that the final and most violent phase of it
began in Soloheadbeg Quarry, outside
Tipperary, on the morning of 21 January
1919. It was the same day that the 1st Dáil
met in the Mansion House in Dublin,
although the two events were utterly
unrelated. So far the IRA's operations had
resembled a crime wave rather than an act of
war, and as a result the British had relegated
its response to a police matter.
Soloheadbeg Quarry
Some hard-liners feared that the IRA would
fall apart if it did not begin to act more
aggressively. One such man, the Vice Brigadier
of the IRA's South Tipperary Brigade, Sean
Treacy, believed that if his men were able to
forcibly take gelignite from an armed police
escort it would boost their arsenal, prestige
and confidence. It is difficult to know
whether Treacy intended to kill the escort as
well, although it is likely that the prospect did
not disturb him. He planned to ambush a
consignment of gelignite being moved from
the military barracks in Tipperary town to
Soloheadbeg Quarry on 16 January. Despite
them laying-up in an ambush position for
several hours, the consignment did not show
up until five days later. Over those five days
the ambush party had shrunk to nine men
from the local South Tipperary Brigade -
Seamus Robinson (Brigade OC), Treacy (Vice
Brigadier), Dan Breen (Quartermaster), Sean
Hogan, Tim Crowe, Patrick McCormack,
Patrick O'Dwyer, Michael Ryan and Jack
O'Meara. Two Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC)
constables accompanied by two County
Council employees (Edward Godfrey and
Patrick Flynn) guarded the gelignite. Godfrey
was driving a cart containing 1681bs of
gelignite whilst Flynn had 38 detonators in
his pockets.
Masked and armed with a .22 automatic
rifle, Treacy stepped into the path of the
oncoming policemen and issued a challenge.
As the constables fumbled with their rifles he
shot them with a .22 automatic rifle. As they
fell the remainder of his men opened fire,
killing the two policemen. Both James
McDonnell, a 57-year-old married father of
five from Co. Mayo, and 36-year-old Patrick
O'Connell from Co. Cork were Irish
Catholics, who were apparently typical
village bobbies who happened to be in the
wrong place at the wrong time. It is perhaps
symptomatic of the RIC ethos that despite
being surprised and outnumbered they had
attempted to resist what they probably
believed to be an armed robbery rather than
an act of revolutionary violence.
With the exceptions of McDonnell and
O'Connell, all of the participants in
Soloheadbeg were local men, so when
Breen's mask slipped either Flynn or Godfrey
recognized him, and by 29 January the
Government was offering a reward of £1,000
- no mean sum in 1919. Soloheadbeg sent a
clear message to the British that the IRA was
willing and able to and kill His Majesty's
forces to achieve its ends. This message was
further reinforced when the IRA's newspaper,
An tÓglach (The Volunteer), told its readers
that it was their duty 'morally and legally' to
kill soldiers and policemen. It was nothing
less than a declaration of war by the IRA.
The IRA's decision to target the police was
not universally welcomed and both the press
and the Catholic Church condemned their
actions and rather naively believed that the
Dáil would not sanction such violence. De
Valera, however, was less circumspect, and
claimed in 1921 that the IRA in their