#OnThisDay 1745 Count Daniel O’Connell, uncle to The Liberator, was born in Derrynane, Kerry. O’Connell served as a colonel in Clare’s Regiment in France’s Irish Brigade. He joined the British Army in 1793 when the French Revolution became more anti-Catholic. In Britain he led the Irish Brigade in the British Army. O’Connell returned to France in 1802 & imprisoned until 1814.
#OnThisDay 1921 Thomas McEver was killed & left on the roadside in Dunmore, Galway with a cardboard sign around his neck saying “Convicted Spy. Traitors beware. Executed by order of the IRA.”
But the problem with this was that McEver, a pharmacist’s assistant from Kinsale, was a member of the Volunteers, an Irish language enthusiast and an ardent supporter of the IRA.
It turns out that the Black and Tans had singled McEver out after he shouted at them to leave his country. The Black and Tans took him out of the house he was boarding in, dragged him face down on the road behind a truck before shooting him ten times and dumping his body with the false note attached.
This sign was part of the psychological warfare that they played with the locals. They wanted to let everyone know that nobody as safe from their wrath. The locals were abhorred by this act but knew McEver was not a spy. The local IRA commander confirmed this, even had a mass said for McEver and the priest confirmed it too.
Another sad chapter in this heartbreaking tale was that McEver had recently proposed to his girlfriend Tess Murray after a whirlwind romance. Tess lost her hearing when she was told the devastating news.
#OnThisDay 1917 2nd Lt Cyril Somers, from Mountshannon, Clare was killed in action. He attended Sandhurst and was gazetted with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He fought at the Somme in October 1916, got blood poisoning and was invalided home for some time. Somers returned to his unit & died from wounds in battle. He was 20.
#OnThisDay 1311 The Battle of Bunratty was fought between Dermot O’Brien supported by de Clares & Donough O’Brien supported by De Burghs. This was one of the first times that the Anglo-Normans supported opposing sides in a war & fought against each other.
Although a tactical victory for the De Burgh and Donough, despite losing 630 galloglaswarriors, the head of the De Burgh family, William de Burgh was captured during the rout & then Donough fled the field.
#OnThisDay 1921 IRA ambushed an RIC patrol of a Ford touring car & two trucks at Kilmeena, Mayo, killing one RIC man & wounding another. The two RIC trucks stopped before the ambush site & fifty Black and Tans under the cover of suppressive machine gun fire snuck up & attacked the IRA from the rear & killed five. Of the 41 ambushers, only half of them had rifles, the rest mostly armed with shotguns. Cmdt Michael Kilroy managed to pull the rest of his column out of the danger zone.
The bodies of those killed at Kilmeena were dumped on the street outside the RIC barracks in Westport. The locals were disgusted, as was the Earl of Sligo from Westport House, who was no friend to the republicans, who complained that their remains should be treated with respect.
Kilroy and the Mayo IRA would get their revenge a fortnight later at Carrowkennedy.
The Irish at War 