The following account of the activities of the Cortoon Company is taken
from Michael Cleary 1st Lieutenant, Cortoon Company, Tuam Battalion of
the Irish Volunteers.
Michael Cleary joined the Cortoon Company of the Irish Volunteers when
it was first formed in 1917. The Cortoon company had a strength of about
40.Its captain was A.B. O'Connor and Thomas Wilson was 1st Lieutenant.
Meetings were held late in the evenings and were held in a barn lighted
by a few candles. There they did foot-drill taught mainly by Lieutenant
Wilson and had lessons in the loading and unloading of a lee-enfield
rifle.
In the winter of 1919-20 Cortoon Cortoon Company commenced raiding for
arms. Some members of the company were armed with their own private
sporting guns, but many had no weapons of any kind. The principal raid
was carried out in Clonberne company area and it was arranged by the
battalion officers. The houses to be raided were pointed out to them by
members of the Clonberne company. They went into the houses and took
the arms while the local company remained in the background. They got
about a dozen shotguns and one German rifle in the raid. The rifle
belonged to an ex-British soldier. About 12 men of Cortoon company
were engaged in the raid with Thomas Dunlevy, Captain of Barnaderg
company in charge.
In January 1920, Castlehackett R.I.C. Barracks was attacked by the
I.R.A. Cortoon company was not engaged in the attack. It was carried
out by the Barnaderg and Sylane companies.
A few members of Cortoon company took part in the attack on Castlegrove
R.I.C. barracks then situated on the main Tuam/ Ballinrobe road about
six miles from Tuam. Sylane company blocked the main road on each side
of the barracks by felling trees. The Sylane and Barnaderg companies
providing the majority of the men engaged in the attack, Cortoon, Tuam
and Milltown companies providing a few men each. All companies belonged
to the Tuam Battalion. Those who took part from Cortoon company were
Thomas Wilson (Company captain) Thomas Ryan (1st Lieutenant) Michael
Gannon (Company Adjutant) and Michael Cleary. The attack took place in
the spring of 1920. The total number of men engaged in the attack was
between 40 and 50 with Brigadier "con" Fogarty or Battalion o/c.
Michael Moran in charge. The attackers were lined along the wall of the
main road facing the front of the barracks at a range of from 20 to 30
yards. Six or seven of the men had rifles and the remainder were armed
with shotguns. The attack lasted for about two hours. The I.R.A.
suffered no casualty and, as far as is known none of the garrison was
killed or wounded. Castlegrove R.I.C. barracks was evacuted the
following day and was burned down by the I.R.A. a few days later.
During the time between the attack on Castlegrove R.I.C. Barricks and
the Gallagh ambush, which took place in July 1920, raids on the mail-
car running the mails between Tuam and Dunmore were carried out. All
offical-looking letters were examined, keeping a special watch for
letters addressed to the R.I.C. Barrack in Dunmore. Nothing of any
military value was found in the raids. The letters were always given
back to the mail-car man after examination. The letters were marked
"Opened by the I.R.A.". During this period parades were held regularly
in fields well removed from roads.
While at home Michael was visited by Captain Thomas Wilson who informed
him that a party of R.I.C. returning from Galway to their barrack in
Dunmore were to be attacked at Gallagh, Three miles from Tuam on the
main Tuam/Dunmore road. He was told to hurry and get all the members of
the company living near him and have them at Gallagh as quickley as
possible. They were told to get there quietly and to go across the
fields singly or in pairs so as to not attract attention. About five or
six Volunteers were collected and armed with shotguns. When Volunteer
O'Connor and Michael arrived the firing had started. They took up
positions beside the others just inside the fence of the road on the
right hand side as you go from Tuam to Dunmore. The attack was over in
from 10 to 15 minutes when the R.I.C. surrendered. Two R.I.C. men died
in the attack, they were killed almost immediately they left the van in
which they had travelled. One member of the R.I.C. party had managed to
get accross to a fence at the far side of the road when two of his
party were killed. He put up a good fight, people who lived in the area
had seen him firing very rapidly and changing position after every few
shots. There were four R.I.C. in the party attacked, three of them were
armed with carbines and the fourth with a revolver. The guns were taken
along with a small amount of ammunition. The two surviving members of
the R.I.C. were released and the van burned. Brigade O/C Con Fogarty
and Battalion O/C. Michael Moran were in charge of the 20 or so men
from Tuam, Barnaderg and Cortoon Companies engaged in the attack.
The following Officers and Volunteers took part:-
Tuam Company area:- Con Fogarty, O/C. Tuam Brigade.
Joseph Cooney, Adjt. Tuam Battalion.
Volunteers Peter Barrett & Henry Burke.
Barnaderg do. Michael Moran, o/c. Tuam Battalion.
Thomas Dunleavy, Q.M. do. (Afterwards O/C. Tuam Battalion).
Timothy Dunleavy, Captain, Barnaderg Coy.
Peter Burke, 1st Lieut.
Volunteers Michael Joseph Ryan (Afterwards Brigade Engineer),
James Courtney, Patrick Kelly and Thomas Kelly.
Cortoon do. Captain Thomas Wilson.
1st Lt. Thomas Ryan (afterwards Bn. Q.M.)
Michael Gannon, Company Adjutant.
Volunteers Patrick O'Connor, Roddy Slattery, Mark Ryan,
Thomas Hynes and Michael Cleary (afterwards 1st Lieutenant).
There were no I.R.A. Casualties. This attack took place in July 1920. No
member of Cortoon company was arrested after the attack. Nobody was arrested
after the Gallagh ambush except Brigade O/C. Con Fogarty.
It was rumoured after the Gallagh ambush that the home of Michael Moran,
Commandant of the Battalion - Tuam - was to be burned by the R.I.C. The house,
situated about two miles south east of Tuam, was guarded for a week by relays of
Volunteers. Michael Moran was arrested a cuple of months after this. He was
released and rearrested. Shortly after his re-arrest he was murdered in Galway
city by British Crown Forces. His remains were brought home to Tuam and he got a
very big public funeral, in which the Volunteers marched unarmed. The British
military did their best to break the Volunteer ranks but, after each attempt,
they reformed and continued the funeral march. All the Volunteers of the Tuam
Battalion mourned the loss of Michael Moran, the Battalion Commandant. They had
great confidance in his leadership and felt that they had lost a very brave and
capable leader.
Thomas Dunleavy, captain of Barnaderg Company, became Battalion O/C. some time
after the death of Michael Moran. Timothy Dunleavy succeeded his brother Thomas as
captain of Barnaderg Company while another of the Dunlevy brothers, Patrick, became
O/C. of the brigade early in 1921. He had been operating in South Mayo Brigade area
up to the time of his appointment as o/c. Thomas Ryan, 1st Lieutant Cortoon Company,
became Battalion Q.M. in place of Thomas Dunlevy, and Michael was promoted to 1st
Lieutenant in place of Thomas Ryan.
In the Spring of 1921, two ambushes were laid at Carrarea about midway between
Tuam and Dunmore on the main Tuam/Dunmore road. On the first occasion nothing
happened for the reason that the lorry load or two of R.I.C. that were expected to
come from Dunmore to Tuam did not turn up. Men drawn from Barnaderg, Cortoon and
Gardenfield companies and some men from Dunmore Battalion numbering about 40 in all
assembled in the vicinity of a house at Carrarea about 5a.m. and remained all day
until 8p.m. Each man was alloted his own position when they arrived in the early
morning. They could see the R.I.C. if they came the way two miles off. The position
occupied covered about 100 yards and commanded a 300 yard stretch of the road. The
men were armed with hand grenades which they could drop into the lorry or lorries
from a very advantages position. Of the 40 or so men, about 16 were armed with Lee
Enfield rifles and the remainder had shotguns. In addition, a few had grenades.
On the second occasion the same men assembled at the same place about a fortnight
later. A lorry load or two of R.I.C. were expected to pass from Dunmore to Tuam as
before. Officers of Dunmore Battalion, however, had information that British military
had arrived in Dunmore. In view of the possibilty of the R.I.C. being strengthened
by British military, it was decided to take up positions further away from the road
and about a mile nearer to Tuam. They waited there from daybreak to dusk. Towards
evening, one lorry load of R.I.C. and Black and Tans passed in the direction of
Tuam from the Dunmore direction. The riflemen opened fire from a range of, roughly,
200 yards. It was rumoured that two or three members of the R.I.C. were hit. When
fire was opened on them they increased their speed and did not stop within view.
They did not make any attempt to fight it out.
About a quarter of an hour after, two more lorries of R.I.C. and Tans came from
the direction of Dunmore. After having withdrawn some distance further from the road
after the attack on the first lorry the riflemen were too far away for effective fire
on the second party. They were let pass and did not pull up. The three lorries
contained about 15 or 16 men. There was no further attack on enemy forces in the
Battalion area nor any further attempted attack between then and the Truce.
The following is a list of the companies of Tuam Battalion and the names of the
company captains:
Cortoon Captain Thomas Wilson
Barnaderg Captain Thomas Dunleavy and
Captain Timothy Dunleavy
Corofin Captain Bill Feeney (emigrated to U.S.A.)
Gardenfield Captain Martin Higgins
Kilconly Captain Frank Cunningham
Sylane Captain Patrick MacHugh (brother of the Vice-Commandant)
Milltown Captain Thomas Feerick
Bellmount Captain T. Hannon
Tuam Captain Patrick Colleran
Abbeyknockmoy Captain John Fleming
The Civil War
The following information about after the treaty was got from a relation of
michael's who wrote a letter to his son:
"It appears he joined the I.R.B. about 1914 - he must have been very young. He
was never captured by the British or in jail under them. When the Free States captured
him he was first taken to Galway jail. There they were almost eaten alive by lice. After
some time he was moved to the Curragh. There he was interned for thirteen months and
spent thirteen days on hunger strike. He was released probably in July 1924 when the
bulk of the prisoners were released. After the treaty was signed in 1922 everyone went
home awaiting the outcome. Michael was approached by a group of old comrades telling him
they had decided to join the Free State army and asking him to join them. He would have
automatically have had rank of Commandant. He refused. Therefore his decision to go
against the treaty was deliberate i.e. he did not just drift."
