Martin Devitt memorial event

A wreath-laying ceremony will be held on Sunday week, February 28, at 10.15am in Clouna graveyard, Ennistymon, to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the death of Martin Devitt.
He was a 25-year-old draper apprentice and vice officer commanding of the Mid-Clare brigade who was fatally wounded after a failed IRA ambush on an RIC patrol on February 24, 1920.
Mary Crawford, who lives in the house outside which Devitt was killed and is one of the organisers of the ceremony, says that he was a native of Cahersherkin, Ennistymon.
According to the Clare library website, plans had been made to deprive Sergeant Giles and Constables O’Donnell, Hughes and Glynn from Maurices Mills Barrack of their rifles and consequently, their movements had been closely watched for some time. 
“They were lying in wait here,” Mary Crawford explained with reference to the IRA brigade. “There was a wall running down through our field. What happened was there was a civilian travelling either with or close to the RIC. That interfered with the ambush. So it went on for a lot longer than they had anticipated. Apparently Martin Devitt stood up and when he stood up he was shot in the head,” she added.
The IRA brigade then attempted to hide his body from the British authorities.
“His body was brought by the other people in the ambush into a house at the other side of the hill. He was buried in Russa bog under a reek of turf for about a week. The reasoning behind it was they didn’t want the British authorities to know where he was because he was such a significant figure in the IRA,” Mary Crawford explained.
The body was eventually located and removed for an inquest.
“It was then brought to what is now Ennistymon hospital, which was the workhouse at the time,” Ms Crawford said. The dead man was then buried in Clouna.
Michael Devitt’s colleague, Ignatius O’Neill, was also badly wounded but recuperated in Miltown Malbay and finally in Doolin, where he was taken by Dr Michael Hillery.