On This Day / April 24, 1921
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
19210424
Reference Date
19210424
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 24th April 1921 raids intensified in South Armagh, a man was shot during a police operation and a Belfast–Cavan goods train was destroyed near Glaslough. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
South Armagh Raids | On This Day – 24th April 1921
OUR Newry correspondent wires: From ten o’clock on Saturday night until late last night a wide converging movement of Crown forces was carried out in South Down, South Armagh and North Louth. Several arrests were made.
An exciting incident occurred at Mullaghbawn where John McCoy, auctioneer, reported to be a prominent Sinn Feiner, was shot.
He now lies in a precarious condition in the Newry General Hospital.
It is alleged that when Crown forces approached the house in which Mr McCoy was stopping he attempted to evade arrest and was shot through the right jaw.
Camlough experienced another sensation on Saturday night. A number of shots were fired from a disused Protestant graveyard at the RIC barracks.
The police returned the fire but no casualties are reported.
Police Wound Man in Raid
A MAN named Lagan, residing at Drumshambo, six miles from Cookstown, near to where a Protestant farmer was shot by raiders last week, was shot on Sunday morning and is not expected to live.
His sister states that about 3 a.m. the dogs began to bark and she got up, thinking someone was after the fowl.
She saw about twenty men with policemen’s caps round the house and shouted to her brother to get up and escape. He ran out and the men fired.
He fell at the corner of the house and she went out to see him and was slightly wounded also.
Belfast-Cavan Train Destroyed
A GOODS train, wagons and their contents was set on fire in a scene of destruction probably never before seen in the North.
It happened at the little wayside district of Glaslough, outside Monaghan, on Saturday morning. The train crew were taken from the train at this point.
The wagons were uncoupled to facilitate the burning and the countryside was lit up by the dramatic and terrible spectacle.
The 11.30 p.m. ordinary goods train from Belfast to Cavan left at the usual time on Friday night.
It proceeded alright on its way until a couple of miles or so beyond Glaslough Station.
The goods train consisted of 35 wagons with goods and merchandise of all kinds, consigned from Belfast houses to merchants in Cavan and Fermanagh.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: These reports highlight raids by both the IRA and Specials across the North on the eve of the enactment of the partition arrangements, scheduled for May 3 1921.
The destruction of the Belfast-Cavan goods train at the idyllic border village of Glaslough showed the intensification of the ‘Belfast Boycott’ by the local IRA.
This was controversially imposed by the Dail in retaliation for anti-Catholic violence in Belfast.)
On This Day – 24th April 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19210424
Reference Date
19210424
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Listen Along in Éamons Voice
Summary: On This Day – 24th April 1921 raids intensified in South Armagh, a man was shot during a police operation and a Belfast–Cavan goods train was destroyed near Glaslough. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
South Armagh Raids | On This Day – 24th April 1921
OUR Newry correspondent wires: From ten o’clock on Saturday night until late last night a wide converging movement of Crown forces was carried out in South Down, South Armagh and North Louth. Several arrests were made.
An exciting incident occurred at Mullaghbawn where John McCoy, auctioneer, reported to be a prominent Sinn Feiner, was shot.
He now lies in a precarious condition in the Newry General Hospital.
It is alleged that when Crown forces approached the house in which Mr McCoy was stopping he attempted to evade arrest and was shot through the right jaw.
Camlough experienced another sensation on Saturday night. A number of shots were fired from a disused Protestant graveyard at the RIC barracks.
The police returned the fire but no casualties are reported.
Police Wound Man in Raid
A MAN named Lagan, residing at Drumshambo, six miles from Cookstown, near to where a Protestant farmer was shot by raiders last week, was shot on Sunday morning and is not expected to live.
His sister states that about 3 a.m. the dogs began to bark and she got up, thinking someone was after the fowl.
She saw about twenty men with policemen’s caps round the house and shouted to her brother to get up and escape. He ran out and the men fired.
He fell at the corner of the house and she went out to see him and was slightly wounded also.
Belfast-Cavan Train Destroyed
A GOODS train, wagons and their contents was set on fire in a scene of destruction probably never before seen in the North.
It happened at the little wayside district of Glaslough, outside Monaghan, on Saturday morning. The train crew were taken from the train at this point.
The wagons were uncoupled to facilitate the burning and the countryside was lit up by the dramatic and terrible spectacle.
The 11.30 p.m. ordinary goods train from Belfast to Cavan left at the usual time on Friday night.
It proceeded alright on its way until a couple of miles or so beyond Glaslough Station.
The goods train consisted of 35 wagons with goods and merchandise of all kinds, consigned from Belfast houses to merchants in Cavan and Fermanagh.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: These reports highlight raids by both the IRA and Specials across the North on the eve of the enactment of the partition arrangements, scheduled for May 3 1921.
The destruction of the Belfast-Cavan goods train at the idyllic border village of Glaslough showed the intensification of the ‘Belfast Boycott’ by the local IRA.
This was controversially imposed by the Dail in retaliation for anti-Catholic violence in Belfast.)
On This Day – 24th April 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
19210424
Reference Date
April 24, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 24th April 1921 raids intensified in South Armagh, a man was shot during a police operation and a Belfast–Cavan goods train was destroyed near Glaslough. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
South Armagh Raids | On This Day – 24th April 1921
OUR Newry correspondent wires: From ten o’clock on Saturday night until late last night a wide converging movement of Crown forces was carried out in South Down, South Armagh and North Louth. Several arrests were made.
An exciting incident occurred at Mullaghbawn where John McCoy, auctioneer, reported to be a prominent Sinn Feiner, was shot.
He now lies in a precarious condition in the Newry General Hospital.
It is alleged that when Crown forces approached the house in which Mr McCoy was stopping he attempted to evade arrest and was shot through the right jaw.
Camlough experienced another sensation on Saturday night. A number of shots were fired from a disused Protestant graveyard at the RIC barracks.
The police returned the fire but no casualties are reported.
Police Wound Man in Raid
A MAN named Lagan, residing at Drumshambo, six miles from Cookstown, near to where a Protestant farmer was shot by raiders last week, was shot on Sunday morning and is not expected to live.
His sister states that about 3 a.m. the dogs began to bark and she got up, thinking someone was after the fowl.
She saw about twenty men with policemen’s caps round the house and shouted to her brother to get up and escape. He ran out and the men fired.
He fell at the corner of the house and she went out to see him and was slightly wounded also.
Belfast-Cavan Train Destroyed
A GOODS train, wagons and their contents was set on fire in a scene of destruction probably never before seen in the North.
It happened at the little wayside district of Glaslough, outside Monaghan, on Saturday morning. The train crew were taken from the train at this point.
The wagons were uncoupled to facilitate the burning and the countryside was lit up by the dramatic and terrible spectacle.
The 11.30 p.m. ordinary goods train from Belfast to Cavan left at the usual time on Friday night.
It proceeded alright on its way until a couple of miles or so beyond Glaslough Station.
The goods train consisted of 35 wagons with goods and merchandise of all kinds, consigned from Belfast houses to merchants in Cavan and Fermanagh.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: These reports highlight raids by both the IRA and Specials across the North on the eve of the enactment of the partition arrangements, scheduled for May 3 1921.
The destruction of the Belfast-Cavan goods train at the idyllic border village of Glaslough showed the intensification of the ‘Belfast Boycott’ by the local IRA.
This was controversially imposed by the Dail in retaliation for anti-Catholic violence in Belfast.)
On This Day – 24th 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.