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Tourmakeady Ambush 3rd of May 1921

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  • 03-05-2013 12:38am
    #1
    Jim2007
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 10,286 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    As we approach the anniversary of the Tourmakeady ambush, I'm taking this opportunity to provide the correct list of names of the men who served in the South Mayo ASU. This picture was published in "Dilseacht, the story of Comdt. General TOM MAGUIRE and the Second (All-Ireland) Dáil" By Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, but he failed to correctly identify the men in the picture:

    252094.jpg

    01. Mattie Flannery (Ballinrobe)
    02. Tommy Fahy (Ballinrobe)
    03. Jack Collins (Cong)
    04. Mick Collins (Cong)
    05. John Butler (Ballinrobe)
    06. Terry O'Brien (Ballinrobe)
    07. Martin Conroy (Ballinrobe)
    08. Comdt. Tom Lally (Ballinrobe)
    09. Capt. Paddy Maye (Ballinrobe)
    10. Brigadier Tom Maguire
    11. Paddy King (Tourmakeady)
    12. Tommy Cavanagh (Cong)
    13. Seamus Burke (The Neale)
    14. Michael Shaughessy (Cross)
    15. Michael Corless (Cross)
    16. Lt. Seamus O'Brien (Kilmaine)
    17. Tommy Carney (Cong)
    18. Paddy Gibbons (Tourmakeady)
    19. Tom Murphy (Cong)
    20. Michael Costello (Tourmakeady - known as "Soldier" due to his service in WWI)
    21. Jack Ferguson (Ballinrobe - originally from Leitrim)

    The picture was taken in the grounds of Moorehall in the summer of 1921, where the ASU was stationed during the treaty negotiations. The picture (original) and the list of names has been taken from the papers of Lt. Seamus O'Brien. The list is signed and dated - 30th of December 1964.

    The space between No. 1 and No. 10 in the picture is deliberate and was done as a tribute to their fallen adjutant Comdt. Michael O'Brien (Kildun, The Neale) who was killed in action as the ASU retreated from Tourmakeady. This was done at the suggestion of Tom Maguire.

    I would love to hear from anyone that can shed light on the lives of those men, provide additional pictures etc... as I'm trying to get a little project going for the 3rd of May 2021!


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    #2
    disco biscuit
    Registered Users Posts: 167 ✭✭disco biscuit


    I read a book recently called "the flame and the candle" by Dominic Price.It is about the war of independence and civil war in Mayo.I think there is a photo in it identical to the one you have posted.By the way I presume there is a monument in Tourmakeady in memory of the ambush.


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    #3
    Jim2007
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 10,286 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    disco biscuit wrote: »
    I read a book recently called "the flame and the candle" by Dominic Price.It is about the war of independence and civil war in Mayo.I think there is a photo in it identical to the one you have posted.By the way I presume there is a monument in Tourmakeady in memory of the ambush.

    I finished this book some time back, but as far as I recall you are thinking of the West Mayo ASU under Michael Kilroy of Newport. Certainly Dominic Price made no attempt to contact us during the preparation of his book nor to the best of my knowledge with Mike Lally either. He fell for the British propaganda when he states that the column left their weapons behind them on the mountain, no doubt they may have left some weapons behind, but this picture take after the operation is of a well armed column, note the absence of shotguns and the existence of thompson submachine gun, given the lack of war material at the time, it is hard to believe that they would have had the ability rearm themselves to the teeth in such a short period!

    It has been over 20 years since I was last in Tourmakeady and I can't recall if there is a monument there or not. The Tourmakeady ambush is unusual in that it required the column to take over the village and hold it for most of the morning before engaging Crown forces. But there was a good reason - it was very much a loyalist village and by carrying out the ambush there the column was hoping to minimise the inevitable reprisals that would follow.

    During his lifetime Brigadier Tom Maguire provided several different version of the events of that day, as suited his purpose. However the other officers always stated that the version published in An t-Oglach on the 21st of August 1921 was the most accurate (this was subsequently republished in the Kerryman on the 2nd of October 1954).

    Rather than contradict a senior officer, these men still live and still in Ireland at the time, choose not to make statements to the Bureau of Military History and so what we are left with are reports partially peppered with propaganda on both sides. The only two statements I have found so far are:

    Major Geoffery Ibberson (note the correct spelling of his family name!)

    Mr. J.R.W Goulden (Son of an RIC Sgt. stationed in Ballinrobe on the day)

    I think Goulden offers a good description of what Tourmakeady was like at that time and for the most part his description of the ambush and subsequent events is reasonably accurate, although we will never really know how Patrick Feeney RIP, came to be shot - escaping or as a reprisal...


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    #4
    disco biscuit
    Registered Users Posts: 167 ✭✭disco biscuit


    It was in Michael Lally's book that I saw the photo.I got the 2 books mixed up.By the way did you read Survivors by Uinseann McEoin?Tom Maguire is interviewed in that book.


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    #5
    Jim2007
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 10,286 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    disco biscuit wrote: »
    It was in Michael Lally's book that I saw the photo.I got the 2 books mixed up.By the way did you read Survivors by Uinseann McEoin?Tom Maguire is interviewed in that book.

    Yes, Mick's father was a regular visitor to our house when I was a boy and MicK was a good friend of my mother (RIP).

    The problem with Tom Maguire is that he has told so may different versions of the story that it is hard to tell fact from fiction with him. And of course his position down the years required a lot of propaganda! It is also significant that the officers of the ASU supported his position on the treaty and Tom Lally even joined the Guards.

    Another interesting bit o of trivia, is that both Lt. Seamus O'Brien's uncles were RIC men, in fact one of them was a head constable, while both his brothers were very active in SF - one being a court judge and the other an republican policeman!


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    #6
    disco biscuit
    Registered Users Posts: 167 ✭✭disco biscuit


    Was Seamus O'Brien related to Michael O'Brien who was killed at Tourmakeady?


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    #7
    Jim2007
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators Posts: 10,286 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jim2007


    disco biscuit wrote: »
    Was Seamus O'Brien related to Michael O'Brien who was killed at Tourmakeady?

    No they were best friends and Michael's sister married Seamus's brother after the war...


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    #8
    nice_guy80
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,722 ✭✭✭nice_guy80


    Jim2007 wrote: »
    As we approach the anniversary of the Tourmakeady ambush, I'm taking this opportunity to provide the correct list of names of the men who served in the South Mayo ASU. This picture was published in "Dilseacht, the story of Comdt. General TOM MAGUIRE and the Second (All-Ireland) Dáil" By Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, but he failed to correctly identify the men in the picture:

    252094.jpg

    01. Mattie Flannery (Ballinrobe)
    02. Tommy Fahy (Ballinrobe)
    03. Jack Collins (Cong)
    04. Mick Collins (Cong)
    05. John Butler (Ballinrobe)
    06. Terry O'Brien (Ballinrobe)
    07. Martin Conroy (Ballinrobe)
    08. Comdt. Tom Lally (Ballinrobe)
    09. Capt. Paddy Maye (Ballinrobe)
    10. Brigadier Tom Maguire
    11. Paddy King (Tourmakeady)
    12. Tommy Cavanagh (Cong)
    13. Seamus Burke (The Neale)
    14. Michael Shaughessy (Cross)
    15. Michael Corless (Cross)
    16. Lt. Seamus O'Brien (Kilmaine)
    17. Tommy Carney (Cong)
    18. Paddy Gibbons (Tourmakeady)
    19. Tom Murphy (Cong)
    20. Michael Costello (Tourmakeady - known as "Soldier" due to his service in WWI)
    21. Jack Ferguson (Ballinrobe - originally from Leitrim)

    The picture was taken in the grounds of Moorehall in the summer of 1921, where the ASU was stationed during the treaty negotiations. The picture (original) and the list of names has been taken from the papers of Lt. Seamus O'Brien. The list is signed and dated - 30th of December 1964.

    The space between No. 1 and No. 10 in the picture is deliberate and was done as a tribute to their fallen adjutant Comdt. Michael O'Brien (Kildun, The Neale) who was killed in action as the ASU retreated from Tourmakeady. This was done at the suggestion of Tom Maguire.

    I would love to hear from anyone that can shed light on the lives of those men, provide additional pictures etc... as I'm trying to get a little project going for the 3rd of May 2021!
    The wife's family are related to one if them in the picture - great grandfather.

    Her grandfather said his father always kept guns around the land in case a former IRA colleague came by to settle old scores. Her own father says there was bad blood between many of them, and how the Brits knew they were coming.

    The army had to be asked in to remove weapons after he died.


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