Clonoulty 1920 and 1921: Rebellion and Reprisal

On May 10, 1920, as Ireland was in the grips of war with the British Empire, an ambush took place in the village of Clonoulty in South Tipperary, resulting in the death of a Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) officer.

Shortly over a year later, three-family homes in the Rossmore side of the parish would be ‘blown to atoms’ by Crown forces. Below is the story of the events that unfolded.

Patrick McDonnell, a native of Dromore, County Tyrone, joined the RIC (police force in Ireland, 1836 - 1922) on March 15th 1892. He was promoted to sergeant in 1918 and stationed in Cootehill, Cavan. Noted as an experienced and diligent police officer, he was temporarily redeployed to South Tipperary and specifically to the village of Clonoulty in early 1920 - as tensions amidst the War of Independence were rising.

On April 1, 1920, Sgt McDonnell would justify this redeployment – leading a successful defence of an IRA ambush attack on the RIC hut in the village. This ambush started at 2am and lasted for 3 hours under the disguise of darkness. The local IRA unit had an exuberant plan; as a party of six volunteers attacked the hut in Clonoulty – some 26 IRA volunteers had a trench dug out in the road at Rathcannon (townland between Clonoulty and Thurles) and were armed with revolvers, grenades and shotguns. Anticipating that ‘Black & Tan’ reinforcements from nearby Thurles would travel towards Clonoulty to aid the RIC officers under fire - the IRA lay in wait to ambush the supporting party.

However, as dawn fell and to the volunteers' disappointment, none was forthcoming. It later transpired the ‘Black & Tans’ in Thurles had been drinking and failed to recognise the alarm. Local volunteer Phil Fitzgerald (Glenough) noted, “..the Tans in Thurles slept their drunken sleep throughout the whole performance and, as day dawned, we removed from the trench and dispersed.”

Despite the lack of reinforcements – and with no fatalities – it was a successful defence of the RIC hut in Clonoulty, led by Sgt McDonnell.

The fatal attack
With their elaborate plans for an ambush thwarted in early April, the local IRA unit planned another attack on Monday, May 10. This time little would be left to chance - and would be conducted by a much smaller unit of four. Led by John Ryan (Turraheen) – locally known as ‘Jack the Master’ – and one, Ned Reilly of Coolanga, Rossmore. Crown forces routinely raided the homes of both in the preceding weeks. Rody Hanly, Rossmore and Tadgh O’Dwyer from nearby Clonkelly would complete the ambush party. O’Dwyer was the Commandant of the local battalion.

Ned Reilly

May 10 was business as usual for Sgt McDonnell and Constable Michael Hayes, who was also stationed in Clonoulty. They left the RIC hut at 10am and walked to the train station in Goold's Cross to see the 10.35 train out, before proceeding to Longfield cross and returning for tea in Goold's Cross hotel around midday. Following this, the two men started their journey back to the RIC hut – and it would prove to be the last they would take together.

When they came to the boreen leading to Mr Con Ryan Con’s place - between the village of Clonoulty and Goold's Cross - the ambush party was ready to strike. “The next thing I heard”, Constable Hayes stated at the inquest, “was shouts of ‘hands up’, I looked toward the boreen and saw four men with two rifles and two revolvers.” Hayes recognised two of the men – “the man who had the rifle was John Ryan from Turraheen, son of the schoolmaster. The man with the revolver was Ned Reilly, from Coolanga. Ryan said to me, ‘why don’t you put your hands up?’ I ran down the road, and there was a fusillade of shots, drawing my revolver as I was going. McDonnell behind me, also running. I turned around, and McDonnell was falling. He had been shot through the head. I discharged my revolver at both men but without any luck.”

McDonnell lay lifeless on the road, and in line with guerrilla warfare tactics, the IRA bolted back down the boreen and headed for the hills, taking McDonnell’s revolver on their way. The coroner’s inquest noted that Patrick McDonnell died from “haemorrhage and laceration of the brain caused by gunshot wounds.”

Schoolboy remembers
Jack Carew (Shrahavalla), who was 9 years old at the time, recalled the event in remarkable detail many years later. “It was led by local freedom fighter, Jack the Master, and it began during lunchtime in school… the local Sergeant was killed, and the Constable escaped,” Carew explained. “I was playing handball at the Gable end of Goold's house with Pak Mahony when the shooting started.” The headmaster, Mr Brian Butler (Ballymore), who heard the nearby commotion, and fearing the children’s safety, herded the pupils into the school. Carew added: “I remember him (Constable Hayes) running with a rifle through the school (after the ambush), and we shouted ‘up the IRA’.”

Patrick McDonnell was 44 when he was shot dead in Clonoulty. Initially, his stint in the village was supposed to end on May 5, five days before he was killed. However, his duty in Clonoulty was extended due to Sgt Hamilton's hospitalisation from the previous ambush in April.

His remains were returned to his wife, Mary, and their three children who lived in Cootehill, Cavan. He was then removed to his native Tyrone for burial in Dromore RC cemetery on May 13, 1920 (see picture above) . His family received £2,600 in compensation. Notably, Patrick McDonnell’s brother-in-law, Mick Gallagher, was Commandant of the Tyrone 2nd Brigade IRA – ironically, Patrick was killed by members of the 3rd Tipp Brigade IRA in Clonoulty. Nothing is straight forward in Irish history.

For the rebels, the RIC represented the eyes and ears of British occupation in Ireland. An occupation predicated on the installation of fear to any voice of separatism. Dan Breen noted: “They (the RIC) knew what you had for breakfast, supper and dinner if you had it.” Refusing to dignify Ireland’s resistance as a “war”, David Lloyd George stated that combatting the rebels “was policeman’s job, supported by the military and not vice-versa.” Over 300 Irish-born RIC officers would be killed in the course of the war, including Patrick McDonnell, fatally wounded in Clonoulty on May 10, 1920.

Reprisal
Just over a year later, on May 14 1921, three-family homes in the Rossmore side of the parish would meet the brute force of British reprisals. The Reilly home in Coolanga, the Ryan Masters of Turaheen and the O’Keeffe’s in Glenough were burned to ‘atoms’ by Crown forces- Ned Reilly and Jack the Master led the ambush in Clonoulty the previous May.

A generation of O’Keeffe siblings, at the time, were entrenched in the revolutionary movement. Most notably, Nora O’Keeffe, lifelong partner of famed Margaret Skinnider and lead figure of Cuman na mBan (women’s republican organisation). Nora’s brothers - Joe, Con and Dan - were very active Brigade members. Patrick, another brother, was arrested years previously “for giving his name in Irish to a police officer”. He was later deported to America for “engaging in Sinn Fein propaganda”.

In total, 14 houses were blown up in the South and West Tipperary area on the grounds “that the persons concerned are active supporters of armed rebels, especially of the 3rd Tipperary Brigade of the Irish Republican Army.” These were official state reprisals and were, ironically, not only targeted at IRA individuals, but their families.

Three of those 14 homes were in Clonoulty/Rossmore; O’Dwyers in nearby Clonkelly was also targeted. Maggie O’Keeffe (Sr Margaret Mary), in a letter to her uncle in Australia, details the horrific events that unfolded for the O’Keeffe family.
“Alas, we have no home now, for in May last, several lorries filled with machine guns and armed men arrived here and announced their intention of blowing up the house… One of the girls ran for father, the other ran for fear of the brutal soldiery… They read a proclamation and then gave an hour to clear out food-stuffs and clothes but not a single article of furniture or bedding… Mother was ill in bed. At the end of the hour they forced mother to leave her bed. And there, before Father and Mother's eyes, the dear old home, where you and all my dear uncles and aunts and my revered father and fifteen of us saw the light, was blown to atoms.”

Denis O’Keeffe (Fr Benedict) poignantly noted in a family letter that “patriotism was the only charge against them. The enemy believed they loved their country too much”.

Young ‘Jack the Master’
Finally, young Jack the Master (Turaheen), who was 20 years old during the ambush in Clonoulty in May 1920, would not live to see the fulfilment of his aspirations. After much hardship endured during Ireland’s struggle for independence, Jack contracted pneumonia in mid-1921 and died the following October. He was 21 years old.

His closest comrade, Ned Reilly, felt the devastation of his passing. “Jack the Master died from exposure….I never saw a man (Ned Reilly) cry so bitterly as did Reilly that evening”, wrote volunteer Brian Ryan in 1969. Jack the Master’s remains rest in the ancient cemetery of Kilvalure in Drombane. The inscription on his headstone offers an eloquent testimony to the story of his short life, “with courage and generosity he gave his young life for the cause of his countries freedom.”

The Irish War of Independence 1919 - 21 was fought and played out in complex ways in villages and towns up and down the country – and its main actors were everyday men and women – such was the times they lived in. Hence, the importance of local historiography in fully understanding this period of Irish history – and by extension, appreciating the path that led us to who and where we are today.

Jack the Masters headstone

The parish of Clonoulty Rossmore rebelled and grieved in equal measure in Ireland’s pursuit of independence - as did many others - a pursuit that would shape the future for generations to come.

Special thanks to Niamh Hassett and Robert O’Keeffe for their assistance in researching this piece.