On This Day / December 1, 1920
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19201201
Reference Date
19201201
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 1st December 1920, Tom Barry’s Kilmichael ambush wiped out an Auxiliary unit in West Cork, while reprisals followed and two men were shot dead in Ardee under disputed circumstances. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Auxiliaries Annihilated | On This Day – 1st December 1920
A MACROOM [County Cork] message says 17 Auxiliary Cadets under District Inspector Craik, went in two lorries on patrol at 3.30 on Sunday afternoon. They were ambushed near Kilmichael by 70 or 100 men.
Fifteen of the Auxiliary force were killed, one is missing and one is wounded and dying. Their ammunition and arms were taken and the lorries burnt.
The ambush is supposed to have taken place at ten o’clock on Sunday night. The bodies were conveyed to Macroom.
It is reported that reprisals took place yesterday. Shops in the district were set on fire and scarcely a house was left undamaged.
The people were clearing out of the locality in terror. Large parties of Auxiliary police arrived in Macroom with rifles and revolvers and patrolled the town.
Our Cork correspondent wires: By far the biggest and most sensational ambush that has yet occurred in Ireland took place on Sunday night in West Cork.
It was conceived on a colossal scale and resulted in complete disaster to two lorries of Auxiliary Cadets, fifteen being killed.
Trenches had been cut across the road and this brought the two lorries to a standstill.
The whole party were either killed or wounded and the lorries the burned.
Belfast Irish Teacher Shot Dead
A SENSATION was caused in Ardee [County Louth] yesterday when it became known that two young men had been fatally shot.
The victims are Patrick Tierney, butcher, Ardee and John [Sean] O’Carroll of Belfast, an Irish teacher (25) who was living in lodgings in the town.
It is stated that uniformed men called at the houses of the two men about one o’clock in the morning. Later the men’s bodies were found shot dead close to their homes.
Motor lorries containing armed men are reported to have arrived in the town during the morning.
John O’Carroll was a native of County Dublin whence the family came to Banbridge where they resided before coming to Belfast.
He was a pupil of the School of Irish, College Square [North] and was well known in Gaelic circles in the city. He went to Ardee about two years ago as an Irish teacher. He was a member of the Fianna.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Controversy still enshrouds the annihilation of an élite Auxiliary unit of the RIC (ex-British officers) by Tom Barry’s flying column at Kilmichael in one of the darkest weeks in the War.
Barry (1897-1980) claimed that following a ‘false surrender’ in which three of his men were killed, he ordered the complete extermination of the enemy.
The son of an RIC man, Barry had served in the Great War.)
On This Day – 1st December 1920
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19201201
Reference Date
19201201
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 1st December 1920, Tom Barry’s Kilmichael ambush wiped out an Auxiliary unit in West Cork, while reprisals followed and two men were shot dead in Ardee under disputed circumstances. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Auxiliaries Annihilated | On This Day – 1st December 1920
A MACROOM [County Cork] message says 17 Auxiliary Cadets under District Inspector Craik, went in two lorries on patrol at 3.30 on Sunday afternoon. They were ambushed near Kilmichael by 70 or 100 men.
Fifteen of the Auxiliary force were killed, one is missing and one is wounded and dying. Their ammunition and arms were taken and the lorries burnt.
The ambush is supposed to have taken place at ten o’clock on Sunday night. The bodies were conveyed to Macroom.
It is reported that reprisals took place yesterday. Shops in the district were set on fire and scarcely a house was left undamaged.
The people were clearing out of the locality in terror. Large parties of Auxiliary police arrived in Macroom with rifles and revolvers and patrolled the town.
Our Cork correspondent wires: By far the biggest and most sensational ambush that has yet occurred in Ireland took place on Sunday night in West Cork.
It was conceived on a colossal scale and resulted in complete disaster to two lorries of Auxiliary Cadets, fifteen being killed.
Trenches had been cut across the road and this brought the two lorries to a standstill.
The whole party were either killed or wounded and the lorries the burned.
Belfast Irish Teacher Shot Dead
A SENSATION was caused in Ardee [County Louth] yesterday when it became known that two young men had been fatally shot.
The victims are Patrick Tierney, butcher, Ardee and John [Sean] O’Carroll of Belfast, an Irish teacher (25) who was living in lodgings in the town.
It is stated that uniformed men called at the houses of the two men about one o’clock in the morning. Later the men’s bodies were found shot dead close to their homes.
Motor lorries containing armed men are reported to have arrived in the town during the morning.
John O’Carroll was a native of County Dublin whence the family came to Banbridge where they resided before coming to Belfast.
He was a pupil of the School of Irish, College Square [North] and was well known in Gaelic circles in the city. He went to Ardee about two years ago as an Irish teacher. He was a member of the Fianna.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Controversy still enshrouds the annihilation of an élite Auxiliary unit of the RIC (ex-British officers) by Tom Barry’s flying column at Kilmichael in one of the darkest weeks in the War.
Barry (1897-1980) claimed that following a ‘false surrender’ in which three of his men were killed, he ordered the complete extermination of the enemy.
The son of an RIC man, Barry had served in the Great War.)
On This Day – 1st December 1920
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19201201
Reference Date
December 1, 2020
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 1st December 1920, Tom Barry’s Kilmichael ambush wiped out an Auxiliary unit in West Cork, while reprisals followed and two men were shot dead in Ardee under disputed circumstances. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Auxiliaries Annihilated | On This Day – 1st December 1920
A MACROOM [County Cork] message says 17 Auxiliary Cadets under District Inspector Craik, went in two lorries on patrol at 3.30 on Sunday afternoon. They were ambushed near Kilmichael by 70 or 100 men.
Fifteen of the Auxiliary force were killed, one is missing and one is wounded and dying. Their ammunition and arms were taken and the lorries burnt.
The ambush is supposed to have taken place at ten o’clock on Sunday night. The bodies were conveyed to Macroom.
It is reported that reprisals took place yesterday. Shops in the district were set on fire and scarcely a house was left undamaged.
The people were clearing out of the locality in terror. Large parties of Auxiliary police arrived in Macroom with rifles and revolvers and patrolled the town.
Our Cork correspondent wires: By far the biggest and most sensational ambush that has yet occurred in Ireland took place on Sunday night in West Cork.
It was conceived on a colossal scale and resulted in complete disaster to two lorries of Auxiliary Cadets, fifteen being killed.
Trenches had been cut across the road and this brought the two lorries to a standstill.
The whole party were either killed or wounded and the lorries the burned.
Belfast Irish Teacher Shot Dead
A SENSATION was caused in Ardee [County Louth] yesterday when it became known that two young men had been fatally shot.
The victims are Patrick Tierney, butcher, Ardee and John [Sean] O’Carroll of Belfast, an Irish teacher (25) who was living in lodgings in the town.
It is stated that uniformed men called at the houses of the two men about one o’clock in the morning. Later the men’s bodies were found shot dead close to their homes.
Motor lorries containing armed men are reported to have arrived in the town during the morning.
John O’Carroll was a native of County Dublin whence the family came to Banbridge where they resided before coming to Belfast.
He was a pupil of the School of Irish, College Square [North] and was well known in Gaelic circles in the city. He went to Ardee about two years ago as an Irish teacher. He was a member of the Fianna.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: Controversy still enshrouds the annihilation of an élite Auxiliary unit of the RIC (ex-British officers) by Tom Barry’s flying column at Kilmichael in one of the darkest weeks in the War.
Barry (1897-1980) claimed that following a ‘false surrender’ in which three of his men were killed, he ordered the complete extermination of the enemy.
The son of an RIC man, Barry had served in the Great War.)
On This Day – 1st December 1920
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.