Tag Archives: Rineen ambush

A fighter, a musician, a businesswoman, a lovable rogue, a leader of the late-night sessions, Lahinch woman Susan O’Sullivan was a one of a kind. Born in Bartrá, just outside Lahinch, in 1892, Susan took up the fiddle when she was eight years old. As well as being a talented player in her own right, her house became the main Sunday evening venue for some of the greats of the Clare trad scene, including Willie Clancy, Seamus Ennis and Junior Crehan. Later in life, she was also a great advocate of passing on the tradition to the young, and served as president of Clare Comhaltas in the 1960s. But in her younger days, in the heat of the War of Independence, Susan lent her considerable intelligence and skill to the Republican cause, and it was this involvement that led to her family home in Lahinch being burned by the Black and Tans in the wake of the Rineen Ambush in …

THERE was great cause for celebration at the Rineen Ambush centenary events on Sunday as Joseph O’Neill, the great-grandson of Comdt. Ignatius O’Neill of the Mid Clare Brigade, proposed to his partner, Megan Roots at Spanish Point. A large crowd had gathered that morning at Miltown Malbay for the unveiling of a plaque to his great-grandfather, and Joseph’s father, John delivered an address at the remembrance ceremony. Asked where the proposal happened, Joseph said: “It was when we got back to the Armada Hotel and everybody was getting settled and chatting… it was pretty bad weather and I could see there was a break in the clouds so I took Megan outside on a three-minute walk along the coast. “I had the engagement ring for three months now and I kept it with me pretty much at any given point for a month and a half and I was waiting for the right moment.” Ahead of the special moment the …

A PLAY focusing on one of the most intense and dramatic incidents in the War of Independence in Clare comes to Miltown Malbay, on Saturday night (October 8). The drama, entitled Two Days in September, secured prestigious funding support from Clare County Council through the Decade of Centenaries Arts Project Awards. The drama, which has great local interest, premiered in North Clare in June.  Written by Doolin-based playwright Dermott Petty, Two Days in September tells the story of the Rineen Ambush. The drama unfolds, in film and theatre form, and traces the events of autumn, 1920, when a British Army convoy was ambushed by the Mid-Clare Brigade of the IRA. It follows the aftermath of revenge and the sacking, looting and burning of the villages of Ennistymon, Lahinch and Miltown Malbay by the Black and Tans on September 22 and 23, 1920.  “West Clare in 1920 was recovering from a land war, famines, World War 1 and Spanish influenza,” said …

THE world premiere of a play focusing on one of the most intense incidents in the War of Independence in Clare will be staged in Doolin next Thursday, June 30. The drama, entitled Two Days in September, secured funding support from the Decade of Centenary Arts Project Awards, 2021, and will premiere at The Attic at Hotel Doolin, with curtain up at 8pm. Written by Doolin-based playwright Dermott Petty, the play tells the story of the Rineen Ambush. It traces, in film and theatre form, the events of autumn, 1920, when a British Army convoy was ambushed by the Mid-Clare Brigade of the IRA. It also follows the aftermath of revenge and the sacking, looting and burning of the villages of Ennistymon, Lahinch and Miltown Malbay by the Black and Tans on September 22 and 23. “West Clare in 1920 was recovering from a land war, famines, World War 1 and Spanish influenza,” said Dermott. “While a beautiful part of …

TUESDAY was exactly 100 years on from the Rineen ambush and the atrocities that followed, and the events of that day were marked at the site of the ambush and in Lahinch. Due to Covid-19, relatively few people were able to attend the commemorations of what was one of the most notable events in Clare during the War of Independence. Mary Crawford is part of the commemoration committee, which met in Rineen and raised the Irish flag at the site where the IRA engaged with the enemy, killing six RIC men. She said they had decided at a very early stage that holding a mass ceremony wasn’t a possibility. “Last March, when it started to look like we’d have a lockdown we guessed we wouldn’t be proceeding with commemorations really, so we were ready for it. Obviously we’d have something else planned in other circumstances, but we did all we could,” she said. Mary’s grand-uncle was involved in the ambush, …

WHILE events to mark the centenary of the Rineen ambush and the subsequent reprisals have had to be scaled back due to Covid-19, a plaque in memory of those who died on that day will be unveiled at Flanagan’s bar in Lahinch on September 22. On September 22, 1920, following the killing of six RIC men at Rineen, the military arrived in Lahinch around 2.30pm, setting fire to businesses and homes, with the blaze at Flanagan’s bar claiming the life of Pakie Lehane. Brian J O’Higgin’s is the grandson of the Flanagan couple who operated the pub in 1920.“That pub was burned, the 19th pub was burned, it was O’Dwyers then. Vaughan’s Hotel, which is now the Atlantic Hotel was burned on that night. It would have been owned by Michael Vaughan’s grandfather,” he says. “They all lost their homes and they all had to go down to the golf sandhills as they were called, and live there for a …

A FRONT page report of the Clare Champion described the transport of the coffins containing the six dead policeman through the town of Ennis. It claimed that local businesses were told to close. “Early in the morning police went through the town, requiring the townspeople to close their housing during the passing of the funerals. As a result all places of business in the town were closed, and in the main thoroughfares nearly all the houses had their blinds drawn.” It said that the bodies were carried in three vehicles, while all of the coffins were wrapped in Union Jacks. The dead men were Constable Hodnett of Cork, Constable Hardman of London, Constable Keely of Roscommon, Constable Maguire of Mayo, Constable Harte of Sligo and Sergeant Hynes of Athlone.

THE first Clare Champion of the month of October 1920 contains fascinating reports of the Rineeen ambush and the actions of the State forces in the aftermath, as they caused devastation in the local area. A lengthy report opens stating that, “A special representative of The Clare Champion visited Ennistymon and Lahinch on Saturday to ascertain as far as possible the nature and extent of the reprisals carried out there, following the tragic and fatal attack on the police on Black Hill, in which six policemen were shot dead.” Describing the recent events as a “painful chapter in history”, it dealt with the ambush first. “All the police in the wagon were shot dead,and the body of one policeman was, it is stated riddled with bullets.” While it said that obtaining all the correct information about the reprisals was not easy, “what is known is quite sufficient to bring home to all concerned the terrible realities of the present situation …