Four IRA Volunteers Shot Dead Near Kilbrittain

Four young IRA men were cutting a trench in the road at Crois na Leanbh, in the Kilbrittain Company area, when they were taken unawares by a force of the Essex Regiment. All four were executed, shot through the back of the head.
The four men to die were Volunteer Con McCarthy. Kilanetig, Ballinalee; Volunteer John McGrath, Rathclarin, Kilbrittain; Volunteer Timothy Connolly, Fearnagerk, Kilbrittain and Volunteer Jeremiah O'Neill, Knockpogue, Kilbrittain.Their bodies were found on the morning of February 16, 1921, beside the unfinished cutting. Two had been armed with rifles, as there had been strict orders that in such cutting operations two should stand guard while the other two worked on the road.

It has never been established how they were taken by surprise or how the two riflemen were apparently at the site of the cutting also when they were surprised. Tom Barry later speculated that "perhaps the two riflemen came in to help the other two with the digging, but that is only conjecture."
The killings were all the more regrettable because they took place during a relatively simple operation and compounded the sense shock felt at the losses sustained at the Upton ambush the previous day