‘War heroes of Derrygallon’ remembered 96 years later
AN oration at Derrygallon on Sunday marked “two brave men who exactly 96 years ago gave their lives for Ireland.”
That was the view of historian Tom Toomey as he spoke at length about Jack O’Connell, a 25 year-old Derrygallon native, and Patrick Clancy, who was 29 years-old from Cush, near Kilfinnane in Limerick. Mr Clancy at the time worked as an assistant creamery manager at Allen’s bridge.
“Although both men were relatively young they had already reached senior rank in the IRA. Jack O’Connell was O/C of the Kanturk Battalion of the North Cork Brigade and very well regarded by both his superiors and the men of his battalion.
“When a British aeroplane crash landed near Clonbanin in August 1920 a military guard was placed on the plane until she could be dismantled or removed. When O’Connell got word of this he decided to mount an attack on the soldiers guarding the plane with a view to seizing the plane’s armaments and also those of the soldiers guarding the machine,” said Mr Toomey at the monument honouring the two men.
“At very short notice he managed to organise a force of about 20 men to mount an attack. One of the volunteers opened fire prematurely and killed one of the sentries before O’Connell and the rest of his men were properly in place. With the element of surprise gone the volunteers were now at a great disadvantage because of the better equipment of their opponents. O’Connell had no choice but to withdraw his ill-equipped force. This he managed to do successfully,” he said.
However, he outlined how the British military were not finished with Jack O’Connell and two nights later, on a tip off from one of their agents, they raided the O’Connell homestead at Derrygallon. Patrick Clancy, who had not been at Clonbanin, had just arrived back in the area and was staying the night at O’Connell’s house.
“Soldiers from the Machine Gun Corps, based at Kanturk surrounded the house and on a given signal they moved in. Both Clancy and O’Connell tried to escape from the house but their case was hopeless. O’Connell was shot through the head a number of times and Clancy was essentially bayoneted to death. There does not appear to have been any attempt to arrest the men. The Machine Gun Corps were exacting full and brutal revenge for the sentry killed guarding the plane at Clonbanin. Jack O’Connell’s sister Mary, had the melancholy task of identifying the remains of her only brother and his friend and comrade, Paddy Clancy,” he said.
He said: “When historians review the Irish War of Independence they speak very often of the savagery and indiscipline of the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries. This is a viewpoint often accepted and acceded to by British politicians and Military apologists.
“They do not mind that the ‘ Tans and the Auxies’ bear the odium for what happened in Ireland in the period from 1919 to 1921. However the Tans and Auxies were not responsible for all the atrocities carried out in Ireland at the time.
“God knows they carried out more than their fair share but certain British Military units were also guilty of some dastardly deeds and none more so than the Machine Gun Corps who were based largely in east Limerick and north Cork.”
It was his view that Patrick Clancy to a large extent has been “overlooked and forgotten” in terms of the War of Independence, yet his record is “one of outstanding achievement.”
Following the rescue of Sean Hogan at Knocklong Railway Station, in May 1919, it was Patrick Clancy who took charge of the situation after the rescue. He put Hogan and his rescuers, many of whom were wounded, up for the night in his family’s own farmhouse and he then arranged for transport to take them to safety in West Limerick on the following evening.
At the time Clancy was working as a creamery manager at Allen’s Bridge and as a consequence he was involved in actions both in North Cork and East Limerick.
In May 1920 he was involved in the attack on Kilmallock RIC Barracks. Following the attack he went on a trip through County Limerick, with Donnchadha O’Hannigan.
Their journey took them across into Clare where they were to assist Michael Brennan in an attack on the RIC Barracks at Sixmilebridge.
When this attack did not materialise they came back across the Shannon to the Glin area of West Limerick and from there they travelled across country to Bruree. From these meanderings Clancy and O’Hannigan realised that if two individuals could move so freely through the countryside why not a larger group of men?. From this venture the concept of the Flying Column was born. At the end of June 1920 the first Flying Column was formed in east Limerick.
Patrick Clancy did not manage to take part in any of the activities of the unit because at that stage he was back in North Cork.
On Saturday 26 June 1920 he was involved with Liam Lynch, Sean Moylan and George Power in the capture of General Henry Tyndall Lucas near Fermoy. He was very close to Liam Lynch and shortly before his death Lynch had designated Clancy to take command of the first Flying Column to be set up in Cork. Clancy’s death set back the formation of this unit by a number of weeks.