Drimbawn Gate

  It would appear that the IRA/Volunteers were expecting two lorries and a touring car, spread out at intervals of about three hundred yards. As the intervening ground was wooded in places and the road wound quickly out of view, Maguire planned for each section in the attack to be self-contained. The men were divided into three sections, one unit of sixteen men for each of the expected vehicles, and spaced apart at the distance to be expected between the lorries and the car. Maguire wished to divide the available force fairly with the officers who would take command of the other two units so he allowed them in turn to select their pick of the men. The first pick of sixteen men went to Paddy May, the youngest of the three senior officers. Michael O'Brien got second choice and the Maguire took the remaining men to the centre position at the Post Office. The men under Paddy May's command went two hundred yards further along the road, near the entrance to Drimbawn House and placed themselves in the shrubbery there. They were on the east or lake side of the road, behind a double wall, and with a wood at their backs. From this position they had a good view of anything approaching from the north or Srah side. As they waited, any passersby were put in with the other prisoners.

The group under Michael O'Brien, the Brigade Adjutant, was placed at the Fair Green, to the north of the village. They were on the west side of the road, behind a fence on the south side of the Fair Green. Across the road towards the lake was a double wall and the chances of a policeman escaping over this within range of the unit's guns were poor. Tom Lally and two men were placed inside the wall at the road junction opposite Hewitt's Hotel, as it then was (now O’Tooles). A few contact men were placed between the groups, flanks were protected by the units themselves and the total number of Volunteers amounted to approximately sixty men. (In his account Tom Lally of Srah says that Maguire divided the column in four. However he lists the four sites as the Fair Green site, the junction at Hewitts, Drimbawn gate and the Post Office. Essentially the same.) Arms consisted of six rifles only, so that shotguns of varying degrees of usefulness had to pad out the Columns striking power. The account of Pat Kennedy states that there was only one rifle available, while Ernie O'Malley's account states that there were six. Perhaps the confusion has to do with the fact that Kennedy's account is largely referring to the action at Drimbawn gate, where there was only one rifle and O'Malley's account refers to the number of rifles available to the whole force involved in the attack. The wooded ground, however, suited shorter-range weapons; success would depend upon their initial use.

The plan for the ambush was to let the car through till it reached the most southerly group of men under May's command at Drimbawn gate and by then it was hoped that each of the other two groups would have a lorry in their sights and be in a position to attack it.

 The guests in Hewitt's Hotel, among them the local doctor, Dr Murphy and his wife, and some policemen's wives, were taken to a safer place, and put under guard in Robinsons house, which was empty. (Pat Kennedy’s account says it was Moloneys House).  Dr. Edward Murphy and his wife Josephine, were in Tourmakeady as they were holding their local clinic on May 3rd and May 4th.  Dr. Murphy and his wife regularly stayed in Hewitts. The  accounts also differ on how the locals and those in Hewitt's were dealt with. O'Malley says 'The people in the scattered homes which formed the two Tourmakeady villages were brought away from the danger zone and placed in an end house under guard. This ensured that the villagers would be sheltered from possible danger which the attack might occasion them, but it also meant that their movements and their talk would be restricted through this security. Among the temporary prisoners were an RIC pensioner and his wife. The woman attempted to escape at about the time she expected the convoy would arrive, but before she was able to warn them of the hidden groups of men she had been recaptured'. It was essential to the success of the ambush that none should escape, especially any of the policemen's wives, and the guard was ordered in their presence to shoot anyone who tried to get out before the fight started. Others who happened to come to the Post Office or who saw any of the volunteers along the road joined these prisoners. The local curate came along in his horse and trap, was not stopped, and noticed nothing unusual.

The Volunteers who occupied the Post Office examined the recently posted letters as they waited for the enemy. Intercepting the Royal Mail was an important part of Intelligence work and Michael Collins had paid particular attention to developing an intelligence unit inside the sorting office in Dublin. When the letters had been read through they were sealed up again, but across the envelopes was a new notice 'Censored by IRA'. Often it had been found that real, or supposed information, from people friendly to the enemy, about the activities of the IRA or of members of the Sinn Féin clubs, could be found in the post bags. O'Malley relates the anecdote that the volunteers discovered that 'amongst the Tourmakeady post office mail was a letter from England from the wife of a Black and Tan. Her husband, who was serving in the massy isolation of Derrypark, had not been sending home what she regarded as her due of his good pay. Tans were usually heavy drinkers and the local porter helped to soothe outpost uncertainty and remoteness. The wife's furious letter of protest wound up with the intriguing question: "How do you expect me to go out to my friends' houses when I have no blasted shoes?". The Post Master was kept in the Post Office throughout the morning. Pat Kennedy tells the story  of one of the men placed inside the Post Office was Jack Ferguson, on the run from his home in Leitrim. Seeing Tom Maguire going about among his men outside, the postmistress, a Mrs. Billington, asked Ferguson who was the man outside. 'Michael Collins' he replied. 'Do you think Mr Collins would like a cup of tea?' she asked and it is reported that 'Mr Collins' did have a cup of tea.

 Meanwhile at the same time in Ballinrobe, scouts watched both the RIC and the military barracks. According to RIC accounts, it was purely by chance that there was a delivery on that day to Derrypark. The transport available to the RIC in Ballinrobe were a Ford car and a Crossley tender. The RIC account goes on to say that the reason the delivery to Derrypark took place that day, Tuesday 3rd May, was due to the fact that an order had been received for forty gallons of petrol to be sent to Swinford RIC. As this would mean that the Crossley tender would not be back in Ballinrobe until the weekend, it was decided to firstly, supply Derrypark and then send the Crossley on to Swinford with the petrol. The reasons for the delay with the Crossley returning from Swinford to Ballinrobe remain unexplained. However, the result was that one Ford car and one Crossley formed the convoy.

When the RIC in a car and a Crossley tender had drawn up at Birmingham's to buy provisions for the Derrypark garrison, in keeping with the recently established routine, Padhraic Feeney set out by bicycle to bring this information to Tourmakeady, but he did not reach Maguire or the Column in time. Another volunteer who worked in Birmingham's, Patrick Vahey, was able to get through and take a despatch to the IRA in the village just ahead of the enemy convoy. Vahey who was serving a two year apprenticeship in Bermingham’s as a shop assistant, was a Volunteer in the Hollymount Company of the Ballinrobe Battalion. Neither Kennedy nor O'Malley mention Patrick Vahey, although they do relate Padhraic Feeney's experience of being passed out by the relief party, and that another volunteer managed to get the word through. Other accounts name Vahey and also relate that he was an uncle of Frank Stagg. Vahey became seriously ill shortly after this and died on Februray 22nd 1922. His funeral was one of the first military funerals organised by the IRA after the Truce. Padhraic Feeney's sister, Christina, was later to marry Tom Maguire, in December 1924, while he was still on the run from Irish Free State forces.

The expected car came about noon, according to some accounts, while others suggest 1 pm. It was allowed to pass as far as Drimbawn, when the attack was launched and firing commenced. The driver and most of the passengers were probably killed in the first volley fired from Drimbawn gate. The car crashed into the wall almost opposite Michael Shaughnessy of Cross, the only man with a rifle. There was some return fire from the car, but it was quickly silenced. Sources differ on who was driving the car, a Black and Tan, or an RIC constable.  What is clear is that as a result of the attack a Black and Tan named Constable Oakes, and an RIC man, Constable O’Regan were dead. The other two RIC men, Sergeant  John Regan and Constable Flynn were wounded, with Sergeant Regan later dying from his wounds. Six rifles and ammunition were taken from the car and the volunteers withdrew. However, it was now clear that instead of the usual two lorries only one lorry was with the car that day.

At the sound of the firing the Crossley halted between the first and second IRA positions, the Fair Green and Hewitts junction,  and was fired on by the unit led by Michael O' Brien to whose assistance Maguire sent half of his own men. Then, with the remainder of his section, Maguire advanced down the road, toward Drimbawn, to join in the fight against the first police car. He found this group of RIC was out of action. However, with the noise of rifle fire coming from the village, Maguire was anxious to move in that direction to find out exactly what was happening.

 O’Brien’s unit had fired the first volley at the Crossley and had killed RIC Constable Power and wounded RIC Constable Morrow in the arm, which was later amputated. Power rolled over on the driver of the Crossley, but the driver managed to keep the Crossley going as far as the Hotel. The remaining RIC men in the Crossley were under the charge of  Head Constable Frawley. He directed them while they carried their wounded and held off their attackers, behind the lorry and whatever cover they could get, until they all reached Hewitt's Hotel (now O’Tooles) a little in from the roadside, beside a crossroads.  Some of the men jumped in the window, without going in through the door. They were then secure enough in a well-built house and they knew that if they were able to maintain their position the RIC in Derrypark, who had probably heard the firing, would be able to get a message through to Ballinrobe for reinforcements. The RIC in the hotel came under fire from the three men posted behind the wall at the road junction. There was a small plantation nearby from which the two rifles in O'Brien's command were being used. As soon as the RIC located the sound they used rifle grenades against their hidden attackers, and the bursting metal splinters made the shelter of the young trees relatively useless. O'Brien felt he could not achieve anything from his position and withdrew his men and the police slipped into the hotel.

Tom Maguire came up with help from the centre position, but the police were now safe in the hotel. He had no immediate plan for attacking the hotel, and to organise even an impromptu attempt on the building would take some time.

There had been no preparations made to cut roads, fell trees or destroy culverts so as to delay reinforcements, as it had been thought that the police would be forced to surrender soon after the action had begun. It was essential to move the men away into the mountains and to disband the local Volunteers, the Srah and Loughmask companies in particular. After examining the Drimbawn gate position Maguire withdrew his men up the mountain, making northwards along the upper slopes towards Srah.

In the heat of the moment the telephone in the Post Office was either forgotten or not properly put out of action. RIC accounts say that the alarm was raised at 1.30 pm when a phone call was received by Mrs. Fitzptrick in Ballinrobe Post Office, who passed the information of dead and wounded, to the RIC, whose Barracks was adjacent to Ballinrobe Post Offie. As a  result the police and military in Ballinrobe and the other towns in the area were on the road for Tourmakeady within the hour.