Attacks on police barracks extend to Ulster
Ballytrain, 24 February 1920 - 100 armed men attacked the Ballytrain Royal Irish Constabulary barracks in Co. Monaghan on the morning of 15 February, which was defended by six policemen. This was the first incident of its kind in Ulster.
The attack began at 2am; the raiders occupied a grocery shop opposite and a lock-up shop next door to the barracks, before throwing hand grenades towards the building. Once the walls were breached, about 50 masked men, armed with rifles and revolvers, entered the building to clear it of the garrison’s arms, ammunitions and bombs.
Despite the fact that approximately 100 shots were fired by the raiding party, nobody was killed, although one policeman was wounded in both legs and three others received minor injuries.
Sergeant Lawton, who was injured in the shoulder, arms and elbows, said that he and his colleagues ‘fought till we could fight no more. We fought till the barrack was taken over.’
The raiding party was led by a tall individual who delivered his orders through a megaphone, addressing four different companies. The roads leading to the barracks were blocked with trees and other obstacles and telephone wires in the neighbourhood were cut.
An attack, on the police barracks in Ballynahinch, Co. Down, yesterday, was not as successful. When one of the guards on duty heard a mysterious sound at 3 o’clock yesterday morning, the five policemen present at the time took up defensive positions inside the barracks. When nothing else happened, they went outside to investigate and discovered four holes were found in the gable wall of the barracks, all of them filled with explosives.
It is believed that either fear of detection or ignorance of explosives led to the aborting of the attack, although it is clear that had they gone off as intended, the blast would have caused extensive damage to the property and risked the lives of its occupants, as well as those in an adjoining house, where a bicycle repairman Samuel Anderson lived with his wife and two daughters.
In Allihies, Co. Cork, a similar attack had fatal consequences. The barracks – situated in the Berehaven copper mining district – had its gable ends completely blown away by an explosion on 12 February, which was followed by a fusillade of bullets, one of which hit and killed Constable Neenan, a native of Co. Clare.
Allihies barracks in Co. Cork after it was attacked (Images: Cork Examiner, 21 February 1920)
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
