On This Day / June 29, 1921
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
June 29, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 29th June 1921, Patrick McAteer died after being shot in the aftermath of the Adavoyle troop train attack, while Auxiliaries were shot in Dublin. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Train Attack Death | On This Day – 29th June 1921
OUR Dundalk correspondent writes: The repair of the railway line at Adavoyle [South Armagh] continued on Saturday and is now practically completed.
A number of horses have also been buried by labour commandeered in the district.
Another death has taken place as a result of the disaster.
Patrick McAteer of Flurry Bridge died from a bullet wound at eleven o’clock on Friday night in Louth Infirmary.
He stated before death that he was walking in the fields near his home when he felt a sting in his side and then a soldier called on him to halt.
The official story is that deceased ran away when called upon to halt and that he was fired on.
It is alleged that in his possession there was found a pair of rubber gloves. Deceased was aged about thirty.
James Boyle, who also received a bullet wound, is progressing favourably.
Following the derailment, Dundalk presented the appearance of an invested town.
Troops poured in by the hundred from all parts and there were endless lines of motor wagons, armoured cars, ambulances, field kitchens, etc.
On Friday night the wounded and dead soldiers were taken by ambulance train to Belfast.
Auxiliaries Shot in Dublin
AT SEVEN o’clock last evening, Section Leader White and Temporary Cadet Hunt of the Auxiliaries, while having tea with their wives at the Mayfair Hotel, Lower Baggot Street, Dublin, were shot by armed men.
Hunt was killed outright and White seriously wounded.
20 Years for Tyrone Man
SENTENCE of twenty years’ penal servitude have been promulgated in the case of Patrick Cassidy of Killavney, County Tyrone.
He was tried by Field General Court Martial in Derry on the charges of shooting with intent to murder and attempting to set fire to a dwelling-house. Cassidy refused to recognise the Court.
Francis Donnelly of Durless, who was charged with the same offence, pleaded not guilty and was acquitted.
The case arose out of an attack by armed men on the residence of a B Special Constable at Fymore, County Tyrone in May.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: DESPITE moves towards a ceasefire following King George Vs ‘grandiloquent’ speech at the opening of the new Belfast Parliament, violence continued, north and south.
Pathe ensured that the IRA attack on the royal troop train made world headlines with the king condemning the ‘brutal outrage’ by Frank Aiken’s 4th Northern IRA division.
The IRA had allowed two earlier troop trains to pass before derailing the third. This contained mainly horses.
Had Aiken targeted either of the earlier trains containing hundreds of soldiers, the death toll might well have been have been catastrophic.)
On This Day – 29th June 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.