The Headford Ambush 100 Years Ago Gerry OShea
The Irish
War of Independence started with an ambush in Tipperary in January 1919. There
were some attacks on the Crown forces in Kerry during that year and in 1920,
but the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), aided by the two English military
groups introduced to subdue the revolt, the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries,
believed that they had re-established law-and-order in the county.
In a written report in January, 1921, the RIC
chief in Kerry declared that the campaign of round-ups and reprisals had
defanged the Irish Republican Army (IRA) which he said would “never again
regain the hold they had on the popular imagination.” He boasted that police
could again move freely throughout the county.
The lack of
action in Kerry compared poorly with neighboring “rebel” Cork where there were
some major ambushes against the British forces. Michael Collins, while serving
as a minister in the provisional Republican government appointed after the huge
Sinn Fein victory in the 1918 Westminster election, would taunt his cabinet
colleague from Tralee, Austin Stack, about Kerry’s failure to meet expectations
in the military conflict.
Tom Barry,
the legendary leader of the West Cork IRA flying column, complained that Cork
was being forced to carry too much of the war and that other neighboring
counties needed to step up their revolutionary activities. He dismissed the
efforts in Kerry by proclaiming that all they had accomplished was shooting a
police inspector at the Listowel Races.
The IRA headquarters in Dublin sent Andy
Cooney, a distinguished volunteer from Nenagh in County Tipperary, to shake up
the organization of the Kerry Number 2 Brigade which operated out of the
southern part of the county.
Cooney, a
medical student in Dublin, was a member of “The Squad,” Michael Collins’ elite
strike force that killed eleven British agents in Dublin on “Bloody Sunday” in
November 1920. He changed the leadership of the Kerry Number 2 Brigade by
appointing Humphrey Murphy from Castleisland as the top officer and John Joe
Rice from Kenmare as number two in command. Further, he formed a flying column,
comprising a group of elite fighters, the top marksmen from the various local
IRA battalions.
The leaders
of this flying column, consisting of thirty volunteers, were Dan Allman from
Rockfield, near Tralee and his number two was Tom McEllistrim from
Ballymacelligot.
Cooney
managed to provide enough arms for the new flying column which assembled in
early March 1921. They gathered in various safe places ending up billeted in
the beautiful Gap of Dunloe where training exercises were led by John Flynn
from Bonane, near Kenmare, a British army veteran.
During the
winter of 1920 a party of British soldiers brought provisions regularly from
Killarney to the barracks in Kenmare and returned to home barracks by train the
following day. On the evening of Sunday March 20th, 1921 Nora
“Petty” Tangney, the local leader of Cumann na mBan, a sister organization of
the IRA, brought word to leaders of the insurgency in Kenmare that a contingent
of thirty British soldiers would be returning from Kenmare to Tralee the
following day, the 21st, the Monday of Holy Week, on the 1.30 train.
The local
leaders in the Kenmare-Kilgarvan area met in the Quill family home in
Gortluchra, close to Kilgarvan, - yes, the home of the great New York trade
union leader, Michael J Quill, - to discuss how they should deal with the
information which they knew came from a reliable source. They decided to send a
message with their news to Dan Allman, the leader of the Flying Column, who got
the missive at 1.00pm on Monday.
They decided to attack the train with the
special purpose of capturing their arms and in particular a highly-prized Vickers
machine gun because they were very low in their supply of military equipment.
The train
was scheduled to arrive in Headford at 3.15pm but it was a fair day in Kenmare,
resulting in full carriages, so they didn’t make their usual stops at
sub-stations along the way – a very unusual occurrence. Consequently, the train
pulled into Headford Junction about thirteen minutes early, creating some
consternation among the rebels who had allowed themselves that time to pick up
their assigned positions.
Dan Allman,
Dave Healy and James Coffey had not found their planned places when the train arrived,
and they took refuge in the toilet in the middle of the platform. One of the
soldiers made for the lavatory and was flabbergasted when he saw the armed
Irishmen but greeted them with “Hello Paddy.” They tried unsuccessfully to
disarm him, so Allman shot him dead and the rest of his men immediately opened
fire.
A short time later Allman tried to move into a
position where he could fire on the soldiers who had taken cover under the
train, but he was picked off by a sniper’s bullet. Before he expired he called
for water, pointing to his coat pocket where he had a small bottle of holy
water which he always carried for protection, a clear sign of his religious
devotion, although the Catholic Church opposed the guerilla war being conducted
by the IRA.
Earlier, James Bailey from Ballymacelligot was
shot in the head while throwing a hand grenade and he died immediately.
Tom McEllistrim took over the leadership and
as the fusiliers had lost many soldiers in the early barrage of firing, he
called on the remaining ones to surrender. Their reply was an emphatic “Never.”
Meanwhile the Cork train was waiting for the signal to enter the station. It
included a group of soldiers who, strangely enough, came from the same regiment
as the men under attack, The First Royal Fusiliers. This was the 4.00 train
that their comrades coming from Kenmare were supposed to take back to their
base.
The Irish
leader called for his men to retreat although Tom O’Connor Scarteen wanted to
fight on but he was overruled. Their ammunition was greatly depleted so they
would not be able to sustain another engagement.
Instead, Johnny O’Connor, Jack Brosnan, Peter
Browne and McEllistrim covered the retreat of the others who headed for the
cover of the Paps Mountains nearby and from there to relative safety in the
Muckross area of Killarney.
The IRA lost
Bailey and Allman and three civilians were killed. The official British report
named seven soldiers dead with two subsequent deaths from injuries received,
but the IRA claimed that at least twelve were shot, based on the number of
coffins that were observed leaving Killarney.
The Headford
Ambush, which took place a hundred years ago on Monday March 21st,
was by far the biggest engagement in Kerry during the War of Independence and
is also noted as one of the most important battles during the fight for freedom
throughout the island. Andy Cooney said later that the Chief of staff, Richard
Mulcahy, took some time to believe that the newly-formed flying column in South
Kerry planned and successfully executed such a major battle with Crown forces.
The Irish
Times a few days later described this ambush as “one of the fiercest that took
place between Crown forces and rebels in the South of Ireland.”
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