Captain Patrick May

Ballinrobe (A) Company

It was Volunteers from Ballinrobe Company, led by twenty-year-old Captain Paddy May that were selected by Brigadier Tom Maguire to position themselves at Drimbawn Gate in Tourmakeady to ambush RIC/Black & Tans travelling in the vehicle leading the British Forces convoy going to Derrypark Village.

One of the participants described the ambush “The driver and most of the passengers were probably killed in the first volley. The car crashed into the wall almost opposite Michael Shaughnessy, the man with the rifle. There was some return fire from the car, but it was quickly silenced. The driver, a black & tan and the other three or four police were dead. Six rifles and ammunition were taken from the car and the volunteers withdrew.”

Capt. Paddy May said that after the shooting was finished, a number of RIC men had been killed. One of the RIC men lay seriously injured from gun wounds. Paddy, seeing the man was close to death, whispered an act of contrition into his ear. The RIC man passed away shortly afterwards where he lay. It was a compassionate gesture for a 20-year-old volunteer to make, to pray over the enemy you had just encountered in battle.