| Barrack
Street, Cork where the ambush took place. The lorry
was halted as it emerged from Cobh Street (left
centre of picture). The attack was launched from old
buildings on the right, since demolished.
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At 8.40 on the morning of Friday, October 9, 1920, a military lorry drove
through Cobh Street on its way to Elizabeth Fort, headquarters of the Auxiliaries in Cork. The immediate area was thronged with workers and school-going children at the time. As it stopped at the junction of Cobh Street and Barrack Street the lorry came under attack from a company of
IRA volunteers, under the command of Commandant Mick Murphy and Captain Tadhg O'Sullivan. It was raked with gunfire and four
bombs were thrown from ruined buildings overlooking the ambush site.
As one of the bombs landed in the back of the lorry a 17-year-old soldier, John Gordon Squibbs
from the Isle of Wight,
attempted to throw it out. It exploded in his
hand before he could do so and he later
died from shock and loss of
blood
after his arm was blown off.
Three other soldiers were injured as well as one of the attackers. Four civilians were also injured in the attack and. After
the ambush the 15-20 attackers escaped up Cobh
Street and surrounding laneways.
Following the ambush, the local Sullivan's Quay school
was closed for the day and many local people left their homes for safer parts of the city, fearing retaliation
from British forces after the inscription "revenge
tonight" was cut into the parapet
of the nearby South Gate Bridge.
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