#OnThisDay 1921 The IRA ambush RIC District Inspector C.A.M. Blake at Ballyturin House, Galway killing him, his wife & two other British officers. There was one survivor, Mrs. Gregory, the widowed daughter-in-law of folklorist Lady Gregory of Coole Park.
It is said that this ambush was in retaliation for the brutal killing of Fr. Griffin by the Auxiliaries the previous November.
#OnThisDay 1867 Eoin MacNeill was born in Glenarm, Co. Antrim. MacNeill was an Irish History professor in @ucddublin, an Irish language enthusiast, co-founded the Gaelic League with Douglas Hyde, was a politician & was Chief of Staff of the Irish Volunteers. Probably his most famous moment of his life (aside from the Boundary Commission) was his countermanding order preventing more Volunteers from mobilizing on Easter Monday for the Easter Rising.
#OnThisDay 1921 Three soldiers from the King’s Own Scottish Borderers were shot dead by the IRA on Bere Island. They had been lured out for a walk by young women who disappeared just before the IRA showed up. The British Army burned 5 homes in reprisal.
#OnThisDay 1921 Paddy Daly & Emmet Dalton captured an armoured car & disguised as British officers attempt a rescue of Seán MacEoin in Mountjoy Jail. They are discovered and had to shoot their way out & later abandoned the armoured car in Clontarf.
#OnThisDay 1893 George “McIrish” McElroy was born in Dublin. McElroy was a RFC/RAF fighter ace accredited with 47 kills putting him as one of the top aces in the RAF at the time. In Dublin during the Rising serving with the Royal Irish Regiment, he refused to fire on his own countrymen.
The Irish at War 