The Nadd roundup 10/3/1921 – centenary remembrance
THE centenary of this episode in the War of Independence is approaching and it is important that our freedom fighters, who gave their lives for the freedom of our country that day, are not forgotten
In early March 1921 Gen. Liam Lynch was conducting a training camp near Nadd for elite soldiers of the Irish Volunteers that were part of the Flying Columns of the Mallow and Kanturk Battalions. Each battalion was made up of a number of local Volunteer Companies that were established in almost every parish in the country. Battalions were asked to mobilise a more professional body of soldiers to form a Column who would get extra training, would be better armed and would be available for the more dangerous missions. Such units became known as Active Service Units (ASU’S).
The British authorities found out about the training camp through a spy who had infiltrated the volunteer movement and had arranged a massive round-up, with thousands of troops forming an encircling pincer movement around the entire countryside, west of Nadd. They approached the area in the middle of the night, turned off the lorry lights and crawled into position.
Luckily, Lynch had got word the day before that unusual activity was observed in Buttevant and Ballyvonaire British Army Barracks and surmised they could be planning a raid so had ordered local companies to block approach roads from these barracks. This action saved a complete wipeout of both columns and also the brigade staff. What Liam Lynch did not know was that a massive round-up involving many army barracks was planned on an unprecedented scale that night that took the volunteers by surprise.
British forces from Cork, Ballincollig, Fermoy, Macroom and Tralee barracks had almost closed in the circle when the home of Dave Herlihy of Inchamay, about 2 miles west of Nadd village, was surrounded and the five volunteers, sleeping inside, arrested. At this stage the enemy were observed approaching from other directions but the volunteers were able to escape out the gap in the cordon left by the absence of the Buttevant and Ballyvonaire troops.
The five arrested were not so lucky, they were ordered outside and two, John Moloney and Joseph Morgan made a dash for freedom as they feared what was coming. They managed to get over a ditch, were shot and seriously injured in the process but escaped in the fog to meet up with other volunteers.
The three remaining at Herlihy’s were lined up outside the dwelling and executed on the spot. The fact that the troops found some guns in the house that had been captured in the raid on Mallow Army Barracks cemented their fate.
The bodies were removed to the Central Military Hospital in Cork where a Military Court of Enquiry was conducted and this avoided the need for an inquest into their deaths which would have been problematic for the British.
Written witness statements were made by some of the attacking British forces where they indicated the three murdered volunteers were shot while running away and refusing to halt when ordered to do so.
The medical doctor who examined the bodies to establish cause of death also made a written statement, however, his statement seemed to have contradicted the soldiers evidence. His statement indicated that two of the volunteers were shot in the chest and the third one in the head and that they also suffered lacerations that would indicate the use of bayonets.
If the men were shot while running away they should have been shot in the back but the findings of the court ware that they were shot for ”not halting when challenged”, effectively they were butchered and murdered.
The military authorities established the identities of Kiely and Herlihy at an early stage but not that of Ned Waters and when they eventually did so they sent for his father to formally identify him and he had to make a sworn statement of identification.
A fourth volunteer, Edward Twomey, was also shot dead that day who was not in the camp but conducting his lawful business as a cow testing inspector in nearby Glen South.
Dave Herlihy was aged 41, a widower with no family, a committed Volunteer and his house was frequently used by the Volunteers and had become known as “The Barracks”.
The circumstances surrounding this roundup were similar to what happened in the Mourne Abbey ambush disaster and Liam Lynch became suspicious that a spy had infiltrated the Volunteer movement and his suspicions were later confirmed but the spy had fled. Various reports suggest he may have been traced to Canada but also to London and in each case he is supposed to be part of the foundations of buildings.