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Kevin Barry & Dublin IRA Raid King’s Inn 1920

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#OnThisDay 1920 Dublin IRA raid King’s Inn, holding up the British soldiers garrisoned there. In the 8 minute raid the IRA took 25 rifles, boxes of hand grenades & 1000s of rounds of ammo. The main prize was 2 Lewis machine guns, one carried off by Kevin Barry.

“At 3.50pm on Tuesday June 1st, the operation began, and by 3.58pm it was all over. The squads entering from Constitution Hill came in and locked the front gates, while the Henrietta Street squad entered the side door of the building, with Jerry Golden, well known to the British soldiers as a striking law clerk, ostensibly playing the role of a prisoner held at gunpoint by the IRA. They entered the guardroom, catching the occupants by surprise, and held them against the wall at gunpoint, while they made off with 25 rifles, several thousand rounds of ammunition, and some boxes of hand grenades. The main prize, however, was two large Lewis machine guns, one of which was carried out of the building by an ecstatic 18-year-old Kevin Barry.”

Five months later, Barry was executed for his role in the King Street ambush. He was the first Republican to be executed since the Easter Rising.

Kevin_Barry

Drogheda man Capt. William Jameson Cairnes shot down by German Ace 1918

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#OnThisDay 1918 Fighter Ace pilot Capt. William Jameson Cairnes from Drogheda, Louth was shot down & killed over France by German ace pilot Paul Billik. Cairnes, who was commissioned in the Leinster Regiment before attending pilot training, had 6 victories when his wing was shot off during the dogfight, a week before his 20th birthday. Both his brothers served in and survived WW1.
Capt. William Jameson Cairnes 1918

The Fenian Invasion of Canada 1866

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#OnThisDay 1866 Over 1,000 Fenians invade Canada led by Ex-Union officer John O’Neill. By invading Canada, the Fenians hope to force Britain to withdraw from Ireland. The raiding party were battle hardened Civil-War veterans from both the Union & Confederacy. They entered via Niagara into Ontario and while the US President Jackson, did not disagree with the plan, they were eventually cut off from their supply of men and munitions by US Navy on the river. This plan was hindered by Fenians in the navy who after 14 hours, let enough cross the border before they followed orders. This raid would be the most successful of all the Fenian raids over the next five years.
John-ONeill Fenian

Battle of Bunclody 1798

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#OnThisDay 1798 United Irishmen take Bunclody in Wexford with artillery from Three Rocks ambush, forcing the garrison to retreat. However, in the taking of the town, the rebels do not secure the road that the garrison left by. When the United Irishmen assembled in the town square, they were fired upon from barricaded loyalists in several houses. The garrison, now reinforced from Offaly Militia , returned & killed 400 of the rebels. They fired ball and grapeshot into the huddled masses at first and then a cavalry charge killed the fleeing persons. 
1798

The North Strand Bombing, Dublin 1941

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#OnThisDay 1941 The Luftwaffe dropped four high explosive bombs on Dublin, the North Strand being worst hit. 28 people died, 90 injured & 300 houses ruined. Reasons for the bombing range from revenge for De Valera sending Dublin Fire Brigade to help put out fires in the Belfast Blitz, navigational error, pilot error thinking they were in Belfast, forcing Ireland to end neutrality but most likely it was pilots who had missed their target (probably Liverpool) and were returning home, came under fire from Dublin’s paltry air defence and dropped bombs to save fuel to get home.

The Browne family from Edenderry, Co. Offaly made up for a quarter of the deaths that night when seven of them were killed by the blast.

North Strand