On This Day / April 13, 1921
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19210413
Reference Date
19210413
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 13th April 1921, two Protestants were killed in Monaghan and homes were burned in Armagh in reprisals, reflecting the escalating sectarian violence in rural Ulster. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Monaghan Protestants Slain | On This Day – 13th April 1921
DUBLIN Castle issues an account of the evidence given at a Court of Inquiry by two children, Sarah Fleming, aged eight, and Samuel Fleming, aged eleven, who described the murder of their father and brother and the destruction of their house.
The inquiry concerned the death of William John Fleming, a farmer aged 65, and Robert Fleming, his son, aged 24, both of Castleblayney [Co Monaghan] on March 29.
Little Sarah said she remembered waking up on Easter Monday night.
There was cheering outside the house. Her father opened the window and asked: ‘What do you want?’
Someone said they wanted him to surrender a gun and ammunition.
She smelt petrol and heard a window broken at the back of the house.
At the command of the men, who were carrying guns with bayonets and who had flash-lamps, she and her brother stood by a ditch at the side of the road.
One of the men fired and she felt a burning pain in her left arm. After a while her father came, crippled. The house was burning and her brother, Bob was shot dead.
Samuel Fleming corroborated the evidence of his sister, adding that the men demanded that his father should surrender ‘all arms and ammunition to the IRA’.
His father said that he would never surrender. Before his brother and father were killed he heard two whistles and about twelve shots fired.
William John Fleming, who made a statement before he died, said he was told, unless he surrendered, he would be burnt out of his home. His son was shot dead and he was wounded at the same time.
The police said that when Fleming had finished speaking he cried out: ‘Oh, Constable, I am done. It is a pity we surrendered and did not fight it out.’
County Armagh ‘Reprisals’
AT AN early hour yesterday morning a number of armed raiders set fire to the house of James Mallon, thatcher, near Killylea.
A number of shots were fired into the house and Mallon was wounded.
About the same time the house of Hugh Smyth of Tamlet was also set fire to.
It is freely rumoured that these outrages were reprisals for the shooting of Special Constable Fluke and the wounding of other Specials in Sunday’s Crossmaglen ambush.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: These reports bear out the brutal sectarian nature of much of the violence in rural Ulster.
In Co. Monaghan the IRA targeted isolated Protestant farmers with UVF associations, murdering a number of them.
In Armagh, south Down and Tyrone the Specials perpetrated reprisal burnings and sectarian murders such as those at Dromore.)
On This Day – 13th April 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19210413
Reference Date
19210413
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 13th April 1921, two Protestants were killed in Monaghan and homes were burned in Armagh in reprisals, reflecting the escalating sectarian violence in rural Ulster. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Monaghan Protestants Slain | On This Day – 13th April 1921
DUBLIN Castle issues an account of the evidence given at a Court of Inquiry by two children, Sarah Fleming, aged eight, and Samuel Fleming, aged eleven, who described the murder of their father and brother and the destruction of their house.
The inquiry concerned the death of William John Fleming, a farmer aged 65, and Robert Fleming, his son, aged 24, both of Castleblayney [Co Monaghan] on March 29.
Little Sarah said she remembered waking up on Easter Monday night.
There was cheering outside the house. Her father opened the window and asked: ‘What do you want?’
Someone said they wanted him to surrender a gun and ammunition.
She smelt petrol and heard a window broken at the back of the house.
At the command of the men, who were carrying guns with bayonets and who had flash-lamps, she and her brother stood by a ditch at the side of the road.
One of the men fired and she felt a burning pain in her left arm. After a while her father came, crippled. The house was burning and her brother, Bob was shot dead.
Samuel Fleming corroborated the evidence of his sister, adding that the men demanded that his father should surrender ‘all arms and ammunition to the IRA’.
His father said that he would never surrender. Before his brother and father were killed he heard two whistles and about twelve shots fired.
William John Fleming, who made a statement before he died, said he was told, unless he surrendered, he would be burnt out of his home. His son was shot dead and he was wounded at the same time.
The police said that when Fleming had finished speaking he cried out: ‘Oh, Constable, I am done. It is a pity we surrendered and did not fight it out.’
County Armagh ‘Reprisals’
AT AN early hour yesterday morning a number of armed raiders set fire to the house of James Mallon, thatcher, near Killylea.
A number of shots were fired into the house and Mallon was wounded.
About the same time the house of Hugh Smyth of Tamlet was also set fire to.
It is freely rumoured that these outrages were reprisals for the shooting of Special Constable Fluke and the wounding of other Specials in Sunday’s Crossmaglen ambush.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: These reports bear out the brutal sectarian nature of much of the violence in rural Ulster.
In Co. Monaghan the IRA targeted isolated Protestant farmers with UVF associations, murdering a number of them.
In Armagh, south Down and Tyrone the Specials perpetrated reprisal burnings and sectarian murders such as those at Dromore.)
On This Day – 13th April 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19210413
Reference Date
April 13, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 13th April 1921, two Protestants were killed in Monaghan and homes were burned in Armagh in reprisals, reflecting the escalating sectarian violence in rural Ulster. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Monaghan Protestants Slain | On This Day – 13th April 1921
DUBLIN Castle issues an account of the evidence given at a Court of Inquiry by two children, Sarah Fleming, aged eight, and Samuel Fleming, aged eleven, who described the murder of their father and brother and the destruction of their house.
The inquiry concerned the death of William John Fleming, a farmer aged 65, and Robert Fleming, his son, aged 24, both of Castleblayney [Co Monaghan] on March 29.
Little Sarah said she remembered waking up on Easter Monday night.
There was cheering outside the house. Her father opened the window and asked: ‘What do you want?’
Someone said they wanted him to surrender a gun and ammunition.
She smelt petrol and heard a window broken at the back of the house.
At the command of the men, who were carrying guns with bayonets and who had flash-lamps, she and her brother stood by a ditch at the side of the road.
One of the men fired and she felt a burning pain in her left arm. After a while her father came, crippled. The house was burning and her brother, Bob was shot dead.
Samuel Fleming corroborated the evidence of his sister, adding that the men demanded that his father should surrender ‘all arms and ammunition to the IRA’.
His father said that he would never surrender. Before his brother and father were killed he heard two whistles and about twelve shots fired.
William John Fleming, who made a statement before he died, said he was told, unless he surrendered, he would be burnt out of his home. His son was shot dead and he was wounded at the same time.
The police said that when Fleming had finished speaking he cried out: ‘Oh, Constable, I am done. It is a pity we surrendered and did not fight it out.’
County Armagh ‘Reprisals’
AT AN early hour yesterday morning a number of armed raiders set fire to the house of James Mallon, thatcher, near Killylea.
A number of shots were fired into the house and Mallon was wounded.
About the same time the house of Hugh Smyth of Tamlet was also set fire to.
It is freely rumoured that these outrages were reprisals for the shooting of Special Constable Fluke and the wounding of other Specials in Sunday’s Crossmaglen ambush.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: These reports bear out the brutal sectarian nature of much of the violence in rural Ulster.
In Co. Monaghan the IRA targeted isolated Protestant farmers with UVF associations, murdering a number of them.
In Armagh, south Down and Tyrone the Specials perpetrated reprisal burnings and sectarian murders such as those at Dromore.)
On This Day – 13th April 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
On This Day is a daily column in the Irish News looking back either 50 or 100 years. The column was compiled by Dr Éamon Phoenix from the mid 1980s until autumn, 2022. The Foundation is very grateful to the Irish News for giving permission to reproduce Eamon’s columns. Funding gratefully received from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Magill Trust.
* The Foundation has worked hard to recreate Eamon’s distinctive voice through AI. Since this is an emerging technology, occasional imperfections may be audible.