Reprisals in County Cork
By Edward O’Mahony
This article is the first in a series of monthly articles looking at the history of County Cork, and it examines the British policy of official reprisals during the Anglo-Irish war of 1919-1921. The Irish War of Independence is generally considered to have begun on January 21, 1919, when Dan Breen and a unit of Irish Volunteers ambushed and killed two officers of the Royal Irish Constabulary who were escorting a consignment of gelignite. Although this was not the first action carried out by the Irish Volunteers, soon to be known as the Irish Republican Army, it did mark the beginning of a rapid escalation in the conflict. Throughout the rest of 1919, the IRA carried out a systematic campaign of attacks against the RIC in an attempt to destroy the British government’s principal instrument of control in Ireland. The British Army was brought in to support the RIC, and British soldiers subsequently found themselves under attack as well.
The IRA tactic of attacking members of the Crown forces and merging back into the local population was not only extremely effective; it also caused enormous frustration for the government forces. They responded by adopting an unofficial policy of reprisals. On September 8, 1919, about 200 soldiers of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry rioted in Fermoy, following an IRA attack that had left one soldier dead. With the implicit permission of their officers, the soldiers smashed windows in the town and caused over 3,000 pounds worth of damage, an enormous sum at the time. Following this first reprisal, the soldiers involved were transferred to Cork City, but they were not chastised in any way. On November 10th, the same regiment sacked and looted almost every shop on Patrick Street, again without any repercussions. A few weeks earlier, soldiers from the soon to become notorious Essex Regiment rampaged through Kinsale, causing similar destruction. The colonel of the Essex Regiment reluctantly apologized for his men’s behavior, but he defended his troops by saying they had been provoked. Such official permissiveness and appeals to the logic of reprisal would be heard repeatedly over the next two years.
By the end of 1919, it was becoming obvious that the demoralized and depleted RIC were no longer capable of withstanding the IRA’s guerrilla campaign. The British government responded by hiring former soldiers to fill the ranks of the police service. These new recruits, better known as the Black and Tans, started arriving in Ireland in January 1920. They were followed in July by the introduction of the RIC Auxiliary Divisions, generally referred to as the Auxiliaries, a commando unit made up of former officers. These two bodies rapidly gained a reputation for hard drinking, vicious reprisals, and promiscuous brutality.
On January 20, 1920, the town of Thurles in County Tipperary was the scene of violent police reprisals after an RIC man was killed in the locality. The town was shot up again on March 1st and on March 7th, while a few days later, soldiers wrecked a number of houses in Cork City. Later that month, soldiers in Dublin smashed shop windows in the city. During this period, elements of the RIC were also engaging in reprisals of a less indiscriminate kind. On March 19, RIC men murdered Tomas MacCurtain, the Commandant of the Cork Brigade of the IRA and the elected Lord Mayor of Cork, in his own home. This policy of state-sanctioned terrorism was supported at the highest levels, up to and including the British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, and the Secretary of State for War, Winston Churchill. The British felt that a policy of coercion would turn the people of Ireland against the IRA. Moreover, for the government, the creation of paramilitary forces to carry out its dirty work was an appealing strategy, in that it allowed the government to ignore, or gently deplore, the “excesses” of temporary police officers than to tolerate criminal indiscipline among regular soldiers.
The reprisals continued throughout 1920. On April 17th, Bouladuff, Co. Tipperary, was shot up by police, while on April 26th, the RIC partially wrecked Kilcommon in the same county. On April 27th, the police shot up a number of houses in Limerick City. Four days later, the police shot up the city again. On May 13th, a number of houses in Bantry were wrecked by the RIC, while on May 18th, the police once again shot up Limerick City. The following day, Kilcommon, Co. Tipperary, was again shot up by police, and a week later, the town was completely sacked by the Black and Tans.
During this period, a concerted attack was also being made on Ireland’s industrial life. During April, a number of creameries were wrecked, while in July, several more were destroyed. By August, the destruction of bacon factories, mills, and cooperative creameries had become more systematized. On August 6th, two creameries were burnt down, another creamery was destroyed on August 10th, while others were burnt down on August 16th and 17th. On August 22nd, the creamery at Knocklong, Co. Limerick, one of the biggest in Ireland, was destroyed when RIC personnel threw hand grenades into the building’s engine room.
Ordinary reprisals appear to have become more focused as well. On September 20th, members of the RIC, military, and Black and Tans wrecked houses in Tuam and Carrick-on-Shannon. On the same night, the terrible sack of Balbriggan took place. The following day, Galway City and Drumshambo suffered attacks, while Tuam was sacked again. On September 22nd, the County Clare towns of Miltown-Malbay, Ennistymon, and Lahinch suffered reprisals, and three young men were murdered.
Despite the reprisals and other operations by the government forces, support among the general population for the IRA did not waver. On December 10th, the government issued a proclamation that placed the whole of the counties of Limerick, Tipperary, Kerry, and Cork under Martial Law. The following night, fires were set by Auxiliaries and Black and Tans in Cork City, causing damage that has been estimated at between two and three million pounds.
Partly because the unofficial reprisals were eliciting worldwide condemnation, the government now decided to implement a policy of official reprisals, which were carried out by the British Army. On New Year’s Day, 1921, the first official reprisal was carried out when seven houses in the town of Midleton, Co. Cork were destroyed. An ambush had been carried out in the locality, and according to an official government statement, the inhabitants of the town were punished because they had: “neglected to give information to the military and police.” In the first week of January 1921, the counties of Clare, Kilkenny, Waterford, and Wexford were also placed under Martial Law.
On March 6, 1921, an RIC man was shot dead in Kilmallock. The following day, all the townspeople were assembled and addressed by Col. Hope, the local GOC (General Officer Commanding). According to Hope, as a murder had been carried out in the locality, and as some of the residents should have known a shooting was to take place but did not inform the authorities, there were going to be official reprisals. With that, all the contents of a grocery store in the town were publicly burned on the streets, and the building itself was blown up. In addition, all business premises in the town were closed down for two days. A private house was also subsequently destroyed.
The implementation of a policy of official reprisals did not stop the use of “unofficial” reprisals. On March 16, two RIC men were killed in Clifden, Co. Galway. In response, sixteen houses in the town were burned down. On March 20, a party of eight RIC men was traveling between Passage West and Rochestown in County Cork when they were ambushed. Two RIC men were injured, and as a reprisal, two houses near the scene were burned down. On March 22, an RIC patrol from Cullmore Station, Co. Mayo, was ambushed near Carrowkennedy. One officer was killed and two others injured. As a reprisal, a drapery shop and a public house in the locality were burned down. A few days later, members of the RIC rampaged through Westport, Co. Mayo for four hours, as a reprisal for the incident at Carrowkennedy. Numerous houses in the town were burned and destroyed.
On March 28, the Freeman’s Journal complained bitterly that: “The logic of reprisals is as elusive as ever. We were told that unofficial reprisals were a thing of the past. It is true that the Government never admitted the existence of unofficial reprisals. But Greenwood [Chief Secretary for Ireland], while denying that they had taken place, graciously promised that they should not recur.” The newspaper went on to add that: “Reprisals are now part and parcel of the regular machinery of government in Ireland…Our rulers, official and unofficial, apparently believe that the more varied their methods the better the results.”
From the very beginning, the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries had been notorious for stealing and looting during raids. The Auxiliaries now raised their criminal behavior to a new level. On March 24, two Auxiliary policemen were shot dead during an ambush in Dungarven, Co. Waterford. A levy of 100 pounds was placed on five houses as a reprisal. One man paid the fine, but the others refused. British forces subsequently wrecked the homes of the recusants and destroyed their furniture.
As the government forces intensified their pressure on the IRA, the fight waged by the rebels became more drastic in character, particularly in those areas under Martial Law. As a counter-reprisal for the destruction of Irish homes, buildings used by government forces and houses belonging to active supporters of the British regime were burnt down.
On March 6, for example, Vickery’s Hotel in Bantry was burned down, reportedly to prevent the Auxiliaries from using it. The following day, the Carnegie Hall in Listowel was also burned down. According to the Freeman’s Journal, notices were posted in the area that said: “No more meetings would be held there by the Army of Occupation.” They were signed the IRA. On April 6, for example, it was reported that 30 armed men had entered the home of Col. W. F. Spaight in Skibbereen and forced the colonel and his wife outside. The men then proceeded to burn the house down. According to reports of the incident, the house was destroyed because Mrs. Spaight had suggested that the Black and Tans should be posted to the Skibbereen area. On June 4, it was reported that the country house of Major Newman MP in Mallow, Co. Cork, was similarly destroyed.
During this period, reprisals had become such a regular feature of British operations that people often fled their homes when IRA attacks occurred in the locality. On March 31, for example, many of the inhabitants of Miltown-Malbay in Co. Clare, fled into the surrounding countryside after a policeman was shot dead in the town. The Crown forces waited a week, until all the town’s residents had returned, before they carried out reprisals. On April 6, the RIC rampaged through the town and burned down several houses.
During May, the British government had started to put out peace feelers in Ireland. Reprisals continued unabated, however. On May 17, the Freeman’s Journal reported in despair that: “Summary executions and reprisals [by the British] have been followed by fresh outbursts of violence, and the atmosphere of peace into which we seemed to be entering is dispelled and dissipated by an ever-increasing series of attacks and counter attacks. Peace seems more remote than ever. The word government has lost its meaning.” Two days earlier, a District Inspector of the RIC, his wife, and two officers of the 17th Lancers were shot dead in the Gort district of Co. Galway. The local inhabitants were panic stricken when they learned of the attack and had fled their homes. They subsequently returned to find that many houses in the Gort district had been burned down. Another ambush on the same day in the Spiddal district of Co. Galway once again led to the destruction of several houses in the area.
By this time, the British authorities had started to realize that the policy of official and unofficial reprisals had failed to turn people against the IRA. Moreover, they realized that once houses and other buildings were destroyed, they no longer possessed any leverage over people. For that reason, they began a policy of temporarily closing down businesses in areas where attacks took place. On June 3, two auxiliary creameries in Co. Tipperary were closed down, because of IRA interference with roads and bridges. Three weeks later, the creameries at Mitchelstown, Co. Cork, were closed for a fortnight. The reason given for the action was that the IRA in the locality had destroyed loyalist homes, carried out raids on the postal service, and committed other outrages.
While official and unofficial reprisals did not cease during this period, the British did start to focus more on punishing Republican supporters, rather than the population as a whole. On June 6, it was reported that the houses of two IRA supporters in Drimoleague had been destroyed in an official reprisal. Whether these new tactics would have worked is difficult to say, but by then the issue had become moot. On July 11, a truce between the two sides went into effect, and the reprisals ended.
The first official reprisal by British forces during the War of Independence took place in Midleton, Co. Cork, 81 years ago this month.
For Further Reading: Dorothy McArdle’s “The Irish Republic” remains the best survey of the period. Charles Townshend provides an extremely good examination of the war from the British perspective in his book “The British Campaign in Ireland, 1919-1921.” For the war in County Cork, I would recommend “Guerilla Days in Ireland,” by Tom Barry. A recent book by Peter Hart, “The IRA and Its Enemies: Violence and Community in Cork, 1916-1923,” is overly critical of the IRA but does provide a fresh perspective.