First Attack on RIC In Ireland Since 1916

(Irish War of Independence - First Cork Brigade area)

Site of the attack at Beal a Ghleanna in 1918. The policemen's sidecar was pushed into the glen on the left.

The first armed attack on the Royal Irish Constabulary to occur in Ireland since the 1916 rising took place on Sunday, July 8, 1918 at Beal a Ghleanna (The Mouth of the Glen), on a mountain road linking Ballingeary and Ballyvourney.

That day Constables Butler and Bennett of Ballingeary station had traveled to Ballyvourney to help prevent a Feis being held at nearby Coolea.

As they returned to Ballingeary on a horse-drawn sidecar at about 8 p.m., they were held up near Renaree by a party of seven volunteers in search of arms. A short struggle ensued in which Constable Butler received a non-fatal bullet wound through the neck. The police were deprived of their Lee-Metford carbines, ammunition and equipment and their sidecar was pushed off the road into the glen below.

The volunteers involved that day were Sean Lynch, Tadhg Twomey, Liam Twomey, James Moynihan, Jeremiah O'Shea, Dan Tady Sweeney and Cornelius O'Reilly.