Blarney RIC Barracks

THE attack on Blarney R.I.C. barracks took place on the evening of June 1, 1920. In the nine months prior to the assault a number of other R.I.C. posts had been captured in County Cork and many others evacuated. The attacks had two objectives: first, the capture the capture of badly needed arms and ammunition to enable larger operations to be undertaken. A second major objective was the clearing of these small outposts which were potential sources of information for the enemy, manned as they were, in many cases, by men with considerable local knowledge.

The continued occupation of these barracks by enemy forces acted as a restriction on the movements and activities of local I.R.A. units, and was a constant danger to their lines of communication. Forcing the evacuation of these posts had the effect of clearing large areas of country of all hostile forces; and, in conjunction with the destruction of bridges and the trenching of roads, created a position in which the enemy could enter certain areas only in considerable force, and even then had his movements handicapped and slowed down by transport difficulties and the ever-present danger of unexpected attack. The evacuation of Blarney barrack was crucial to Cork No. 1 Brigade, because the barrack menaced one of the main lines of communication between Brigade Headquarters and the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Battalions, with Headquarters at Donoughmore, Macroom and Kilnamartyra, respectively. The capture of arms was secondary in this attack, the main purpose of which was the destruction of the post. who took part were Donnchada McNeilus, Dan ‘Sandow’ Donovan and Martin Donovan, Tom Crofts and Paddy Healy. The haul included over 50 Lee Enfield and Martini Henri rifles, a similar number of revolvers and also at least 30 swords. No arrests were ever made by the authorities in direct connection with the incident.

Blarney village in which the barrack stood is about six miles from Cork and four from Ballincollig. In both places there were stationed some thousands of British troops and, in addition, there was at Ballincollig a large concentration of R.I.C. who had been brought in from evacuated or captured barracks. No transport difficulties in the way of broken bridges or trenched roads intervened between either point and Blarney village. Consequently, it was necessary to have a very large protective force for the attacking party, to fell trees and raise obstructions on the many roads leading to the village both from Cork and Ballincollig, and to engage the reinforcements which were certain to set out for Blarney the moment the Verey lights of the garrison signalled that an attack on their post was in progress. Thus, the number of men engaged was much larger than in the case of barrack attacks generally. The actual attacking party did not exceed 30-35 men, but in the various protective duties associated with the attack many men were drawn from the First and Sixth Battalions. The barracks was not an isolated position; it stood between the Courthouse on one side and Smith's Hotel on the other. It was a large building, with loop-holed walls and the usual steel shutter, sandbag and barbed wire defences. There were in occupation at the time a sergeant and eight men. There was no possibility of approach to the building from the rear. As an attack upon it from the front was regarded as a waste of valuable ammunition, it was decided that the attack would be made by blowing a breach with explosives through the wall between the public bar in the hotel and the barrack, and then rushing the breach and capturing the building. It was realised that, owing to the close proximity of strong enemy forces, probably not more than an hour would be available for sustained attack, and that the only hope of complete success lay in making a breach large enough for the attacking party to get through into the barracks.

The men of the First Battalion from Cork city, who had been selected for the attacking party, assembled at Killeens, outside the city. They took cover so as not to attract attention from the many who were walking in the neighbourhood on that lovely summer evening. There they waited for the cars from Cork to pick them up and take them to Blarney. The explosive, consisting of a prepared wooden frame enclosing slabs of gun cotton, was brought out there also. About 9 o'clock a party of I.R.A. men, under the command of Jim Grey, the Brigade Transport Officer, entered the garage of a motor company at Cornmarket Street, and prepared five vans and a large private car for the road. These vehicles were sent out singly at short intervals (the premises were within a hundred yards, of the Bridewell barrack), and timed so that the last one would reach Killeens at 9.40 p.m.

Meanwhile, on every one of the maze of roads leading into Blarney, with the exception of the Waterloo Road, which was kept open as a line of retreat for their own motor vehicles, armed parties of the First and Sixth Battalions began to take up positions and make preparations for the effective blockading of these roads. Trees were partly cut ready for felling, and inquisitive passers-by were detained. At 9.40, the last of the motor vehicles having arrived at Killeens, the waiting men climbed in and the cars set out for Blarney. Outside the village the men in the vans dismounted and the vans were taken round the back of the village to the Waterloo Road. The private car, driven by Jim Grey, dropped its occupants at the hotel door. The group included Dan O'Donovan (Sandow), Des Dowling, Eugene O'Neill, Pa Murray and F. O'Donoghue. They took the wooden case containing the explosive into the hotel. Already inside were two Volunteers, Martin Donovan and Corney Sullivan, who had walked out from the city earlier. Ten o'clock was closing time, and it was a matter of a few minutes to get the remaining customers outside and the occupants of the hotel into a place of comparative safety. The doors were then closed and the explosive placed in a position against the wall dividing the public room of the hotel from the barrack. A few men took up positions covering the front of the building; the remainder of the attacking party, other than the eight men already inside, advanced to a position from which they could rush quickly into the hotel as soon as the charge was blown.

At 10 o'clock the charge was touched off and a violent explosion, which was heard clearly in Cork city, shook the barrack and the hotel. The ground rocked with the force of the explosion, bricks, broken glass and plaster fell in all directions, and the hotel was filled with an impenetrable cloud of dust and smoke. For the party outside, the explosion was the signal for their rush into the hotel; they were in before the debris ceased to fall, but so thick was the atmosphere that it was impossible to to see what effect the explosion had upon the barrack wall. Firing started outside, both at the barrack and from within it as the dust settled.

After a while it was possible to see the effects of the explosion. A large area of the wall had been blown down, yet the breach was still blocked by solid masonry, so there still was no opening into the barrack. Dusk began to set in and in the gathering darkness inside the hotel a thorough investigation was made to find if there was any possible means of effecting an entrance into the barrack. When it became obvious that the building could not captured within the time at the disposal of the attacking party, and when it was clear that the post had been so badly damaged that its evacuation was a certainty, it was decided to withdraw. There was the problem of getting almost 400 men on protective duty out of the net which the enemy was already drawing around the area. Many of these men were poorly armed and could not be expected to hold off well equipped enemy forces for more than a short period. The first contact between the men on protective duty and the enemy took place on the road from Carrigrohane Cross to Ballincollig, where a lorry of military ran into an I.R.A. party preparing to cut trees. The exchange of fire delayed the military, and the small I.R.A. party retired without casualties.

Another encounter which further delayed one of the military parties from Ballincollig took place on the Leemount-Healy's Bridge road. Sections of Volunteers from Berrings, Courtbrack, Donoughmore and Grenagh companies held a number of positions covering the approaches to Blarney from the Ballincollig direction. These Sixth Battalion units were under the command of Jack O'Leary, the Battalion Commandant. At a point on the Leemount-Healy's Bridge road, about 10.20 p.m., one of these sections engaged a party of military advancing on foot along the road from the Leemount direction. This party of military, about fifty strong, had been forced to leave their lorries further down the road, where trees had been felled. After an engagement lasting nearly half-an-hour the military retired towards Leemount and awaited reinforcements. Afterwards they advanced with great caution, and it was midnight before their advance party arrived in Blarney. Meanwhile, the withdrawal of the whole of the I.R.A. forces was taking place. The party engaged in the barrack attack used the motor transport to return to the outskirts of the city, via the Waterloo Road, and disposed of their arms safely. All those engaged in the operation returned to their own areas and there were no casualties. The barrack was evacuated by the R.I.C. on the following day, and later that evening was completely destroyed by members of the Blarney Company of the I.R.A.