Two policemen killed in Soloheadbeg attack

Soloheadbeg, 28 January 1919 - Two policemen have been shot dead in an attack by masked men in Soloheadbeg, Co. Tipperary.

The constables, who have been named as James McDonnell and Patrick O'Connell, were escorting a quantity of gelignite from Tipperary to Soloheadbeg quarry, a distance of three miles, where it was intended for use in blasting rock. Constables McDonnell and O’Connell were walking with loaded rifles either side of a cart carrying the gelignite when the attack occurred. Alongside them was a County Council employee, Patrick Flynn and the driver of the cart, James Godfrey, both of whom survived.

It was mid-afternoon, between 12.30 and 1 pm, when, according to an account offered by Mr Flynn, about a dozen masked men jumped over a roadside fence near Soloheadbeg quarry and shouted ‘Hands up’. ‘Almost at the same moment’, he continued, ‘I heard a report, and the two constables fell on the road. One of the men got into the cart and drove it away in the direction of the quarry with the gelignite. The others took the policemen’s rifles and ammunition and went away in the direction of Coffey’s forge.’ The whole episode was over within just a minute or two.

The government immediately proclaimed the district a military area and therefore subject to martial law.

The day after the incident, police arrested two men in connection with the killings. One of the men has been named as Patrick Gorman, a labourer from Churchfield, Donohill, Co. Tipperary. The other man, as yet unnamed, was arrested in Dundrum, Co. Tipperary.

The dead policemen have been described as ‘very popular’ and their deaths have been a source of much local outrage. Constable McDonnell, aged 50 and a native of Belmullet, Co. Mayo, was a widower and the father of five young children. Constable O’Connell, 30, is a native of  Coachford, Co. Cork, and it was here his remains have been taken for burial.

In an editorial condemning the attacks, the Irish Independent has described the two policemen as ‘inoffensive’ and their killings a ‘crime’ that is ‘revolting to every Christian mind’.

The paper believes the killing of the policemen to have been a deliberate but ‘isolated crime’ and hopes that ‘it will be the only one of so terrible a nature for many years to come’.

Nevertheless, the editorial has drawn attention to evidence of minor acts of violence from various parts of the country and states unambiguously that they bring only discredit upon Ireland and the upon Irish nationalists in particular.

[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.]