By Conor Carley
WHY I PICKED THIS TOPIC
I picked this topic because I love reading about the War of Independence. Even more interesting to me is the fact that a relative, James O’Donoghue, fought and died in that war. The O’Neill side of my family have always lived in Bandon. My grandfather, Brendan, owned a very popular newsagents on Kilbrogan Hill for many years. His wife Eibhlín, my grandmother, is an O’Donoghue. James was her uncle.
Until I undertook this project, I didn’t really know much about him or how he died. I was very fortunate that my great-granduncle’s brother, Liam Ó Donnchadha, was a well-known historian in the Bandon area. He kept detailed notes on his brother’s IRA involvement and his terrible death. There is not much information about the ambush on-line, so these notes were a great help in filling in the gaps. My great-uncle Diarmuid also has a great interest in this story and minds all the historic memorabilia that had originally belonged to my great-grandfather.
INTRODUCTION
On 2 December 1920, the Essex Regiment of the British Army ambushed three members of the IRA at Coolfadda, Bandon, Co. Cork. The location is on the right-hand side of the road as you leave Bandon heading for Dunmanway. One of those men killed was my great-granduncle, who was just eighteen at the time. The two others killed in the ambush were Section Commander Joseph Begley (24) and Captain John Galvin (18). My relation James—or Jimmy, as he was better known—had the rank of Lieutenant. Every time I visit my grandparents’ house in Bandon I pass the spot where the killings occurred. There is a small cross on the side of the road to commemorate the tragedy.
AMBUSH OVERVIEW
The IRA members were heading to the location in question in the belief that they would be providing protection for their leader, Tom Barry. This famous IRA commander was due to meet the brother of Percy Taylor, an Essex Regiment deserter, at Laurel Walk outside the town. Taylor, along with another deserter called Thomas Watling, had been captured by the IRA in November 1920. Taylor told his captors that he had a brother, a sergeant, in Bandon Barracks who could give them very useful information to help Barry plan an attack on the barracks. Instead of arriving at a meeting, however, the Volunteers arrived at an ambush. All three were ruthlessly killed. Barry, who had fallen ill, didn’t make the meeting, which saved his life.
WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
The War of Independence in Ireland occurred between 1919 and 1921. It was a brutal conflict between British forces and the IRA. The IRA, through the use of armed force, wanted Ireland to be its own country and for Britain to remove its army from this island. Cork saw some of the worst fighting of the war, with each side constantly trying to get the upper hand. The Volunteers from Bandon certainly played their part in the fight for Irish freedom. My great-granduncle paid the ultimate price for his involvement in the struggle.
THE ESSEX REGIMENT
The Essex Regiment served in Ireland, mostly in Cork, during the War of Independence and were a constant thorn in the side of the Third Cork Brigade. This regiment had arrived at Kinsale in January 1919. While the Black and Tans were seen as a force that reacted to IRA activity, the Essex Regiment regularly took the fight to the IRA. From 1920 their intelligence officer was Major Arthur Percival. He and his fellow Essex men were regarded by the IRA as enemies to be feared.
THIRD CORK BRIGADE
Jimmy O’Donoghue joined the IRA in 1917. He was a member of the First Battalion of the Third Cork Brigade, a unit of the Irish Republican Army that operated in the western areas of the county. Tom Barry was their commander. They were one of the most active anywhere in Ireland during the war. One of their units—or ‘flying columns’, as they were often called—carried out the well-known Kilmichael ambush in November 1920 and the Crossbarry ambush of March 1921.
James O’Donoghue was born on 4 April 1902. The family lived at 31 Oliver Plunkett Street, Bandon. James attended Murphy’s school up to eighth class. When he was sixteen he went to work in the local hosiery factory. It seems that he joined the Volunteers in 1918. By August 1919 he was Brigade Assistant Adjutant, meaning that he was a Deputy Captain. During these dangerous times Volunteers couldn’t remain in any one location for very long. When he was at home, James always slept in the first bedroom on the second floor. (This was also my Nanny’s bedroom when she was young.)
He also often stayed with his friend Dave Crowley. They ate in Crowley’s but slept in a disused house. Old Mrs Crowley was very fond of Jim. She often recalled how he arrived up to them one night, even though the military were on the new road, holding up and searching everyone. ‘Jim,’ she said, ‘I never thought you’d come tonight. I was sure you’d be caught on the new road.’ Proud as punch, he replied, ‘Ah, you know you can’t catch an old bird with chaff!’ She added sorrowfully, ‘The poor divil was caught only three or four nights later’.
COUNTDOWN TO THE AMBUSH
There had been an attempted ambush by the IRA of an RIC county inspector and three lorries of police near Bandon in December 1920. No one was killed in the attack, but the result was that there were a lot more soldiers in the area afterwards. Volunteers in the area therefore really needed to be extra careful at this time.
The date set for the meeting between Commander Barry and Sergeant Taylor was the night of 2 December 1920. After tea on the evening in question, my great-granduncle seemed reluctant to leave his mother’s house on Oliver Plunkett Street. According to my great-grandfather, his younger brother Tommy, who had a weak heart, was sitting near the fire. Jim suddenly rushed up to him, hugged him and said, ‘Goodbye, Tom’. He then hurried out without another word.
He met up with Volunteers Galvin and Begley and all three went to Confession for the First Friday. They left their revolvers in Jerome McCarthy’s timber workshop at the rear of 77 Main Street. Joe Begley bought two shillings’ worth of sweets from his girlfriend, who worked in a sweetshop on Bridge Street. None of the three knew that they were headed for a meeting at which Tom Barry would not even be present, owing to a suspected heart attack.
AMBUSHED!
They headed up past the convent into fields near the old reservoir and worked their way south-westwards towards Laurel Walk, along the main Bandon to Dunmanway road. Their big mistake was not to take the precaution of scouting the area of the meeting in case enemy soldiers might be waiting for them, but the meeting had been called at short notice and they probably didn’t have time to do so.
As they approached the northern fence of the new road, Joe Begley was the first over, with the other two just behind him. He pulled out his gun when he realised that the military were right next to them. Unfortunately, his revolver jammed. He was shot immediately.
The other two Volunteers were also taken by surprise. Jimmy was the second to be shot, the first bullet hitting his hip. John Galvin was uninjured at this point and appears to have bravely come to O’Donoghue’s aid. Both Volunteers were immediately surrounded by the enemy and were badly mistreated before being shot. John Galvin did not die immediately. We know this because he managed to crawl onto the main road, tearing his face and hands while doing so.
AFTERMATH
The next day the bodies of all three were discovered by a passing lorry driver. My great-grandfather was in school at the time, in St Fintan’s in Bandon town. At around eleven o’clock on 3 December he was called out of class along with his brother Tommy. Liam Ó Donnchadha wrote in his notes:
‘The principal wished to know if our brother Michael had slept at home the previous night. We replied that he had, which didn’t make sense to him. He seemed to be puzzled as we added that Michael always slept at home, but that Jimmy didn’t. It was only then that he realised that it was Jimmy and not Michael who had been shot. He then told us to get our bags and go home; that we were wanted at home. The teachers feared that reprisals might follow quickly and the whole school got a half-day.’
While in town, buying meat, Jimmy’s mother Ellie heard that three Volunteers had been shot. Immediately worried, she rushed to the barracks with some friends. The bodies of the three were lying naked on a wet floor. The clothes had been cut off them and the bodies had been hosed down. ‘There was no need to wash them,’ his mother said, ‘their bodies were as clean as their souls.’ She brought home her son’s clothes and buried them in the back garden under a big stone. ‘My mother never shed a tear then or afterwards,’ my great-grandfather recalled. A number of coins had been found in Jimmy’s pocket and Ellie had a pin added to one of these, which she would wear for the rest of her life. Their bodies were brought to Bandon parish church. They were buried on Sunday 5 December in the new Republican plot. The funeral for the three Volunteers was huge.
CONFUSION
To this day there is still confusion regarding their deaths and how the ambush came about. Some believe that their killings were part of a deliberate plot by the Essex Regiment. In this version of events, the two British soldiers, Taylor and Watson, were not deserters at all. They were really two British agents whose job it was to bring about the capture, dead or alive, of their arch-enemy Tom Barry.
The other version states that the ambush by the Essex Regiment came about through an unfortunate series of events. One of the pair captured, Taylor, supposedly sent a letter to his brother, the sergeant, who was also with the Essexes, giving the time and place for a meeting with Tom Barry. The letter addressed to him was somehow delivered by mistake to another Taylor (no relation) who was serving in the same barracks. If this version of events is to be believed—and many well-informed people in Bandon believe it to be true—this other Taylor then handed the letter over to his superiors, who were no doubt thrilled to get this priceless piece of intelligence delivered right into their hands.
Regardless of which version of events is true, the fact remains that the three Volunteers lost their lives on that awful night. The two Essex deserters would be executed by the IRA soon after.
CONCLUSION
I recently had the opportunity to visit the Republican plot in St Patrick’s graveyard, Bandon, with my great-aunt, Íde O’Donoghue. The three graves lie side by side, in the same order as in the photograph taken of them lying in their coffins. Jimmy O’Donoghue was very young when he lost his life for Ireland—just eight years older than I am now. The Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed on 6 December 1921, a year after he died. The freedom for which my great-granduncle fought had finally been achieved. Unfortunately, he was not around to experience it. It would be future generations such as my own who would have that privilege.
Conor Carley is a pupil in St Oliver Plunkett National School, Blackcastle, Navan, Co. Meath.
Acknowledgements
There are a number of people I wish to thank for helping me with my research: my great-uncle Diarmuid, who spent time going through his father’s (Liam Ó Donnchadha’s) archive on the War of Independence with me; my grandparents, Brendan and Eibhlín, who brought me to the site of the ambush, very close to where they live; my great-aunt, Íde Meagher (née O’Donoghue), who brought me to the Republican plot in Bandon graveyard and showed me the graves of the Volunteers; and my parents, Ronan and Emer, who helped me to look for some of the books, pictures and resources on-line, which assisted with this project.
Further reading
‘100th anniversary of the murder of three Bandon Volunteers, Begley, O’Donoghue and Galvin’, in Bandon Opinion, December 2020.
A.Bielenberg & J. Donnelly, ‘The death of three Bandon Volunteers’, in ‘The Irish Revolution Project 1920’ (https://www.ucc.ie/en/theirishrevolution/collections/cork-fatality-register/register-index/1920-156/).
K. Doyle & A. O’Rourke, ‘Understanding commemoration and the revolutionary period in Cork 1914–1923’ (www.cairogang.com (2023)).
B. Keane, Cork’s revolutionary dead (Cork, 2017).