Hewitt’s Hotel

 In the Officers' Mess of the Military Barracks in Ballinrobe, where 'C' Company, 2nd Battalion of the Border Regiment was quartered, mention was made of some firing during that morning from the direction of Lough Mask. At 13.45 hours a message arrived telling of the ambush. The O.C. of 'C' Company was Lieutenant Geofferey Ibberson, and after consultation with a superior, it was agreed that he should take action with his personnel.

As he had a good general knowledge of the area and the ground, Ibberson drew up a plan. He figured the Sinn Feiners were most likely to make their getaway from Tourmakeady in a westerly direction into the Partry mountains, thus avoiding Derrypark police station and Srah. The transport available consisted of two Crossley Tenders and a three-ton lorry. There were two officers, Lieutenants Smith and Craig, available for duty. Ibberson directed that the two Crossleys, the first commanded by Smith and the second commanded by himself, were to move via Srah and to halt a half-mile beyond Tourmakeady. These two patrols were then to move, at 300 yard intervals, west up the Partry mountains. Upon reaching, the summit they were to wheel right in a northerly direction and inwards toward the party from the three-ton lorry. All ranks were issued with rifles and bandoliers.

Lieutenant Craig was to lead the three-ton directly to Srah. This party consisted of approximately twenty soldiers and they were armed with two Lewis guns. The plan was for them to move in a westerly direction up to the Gortbunacullin area and then to wheel south and try to contact the patrols from the Crossleys in a limited pincer movement in the area of most likely retreat for the Sinn Feiners. As Smith and Craig mustered the troops, Ibberson hurried to Ballinrobe Post Office to dispatch telegrams. He dispatched telegrams to O.C., Military Barracks, Castlebar and Westport. At 14.30 the patrols set off for Tourmakeady. Near Srah bridge Ibberson's Crossley had a puncture, which was speedily changed. He mentions the heat of the day, and that the scent of the gorse at the site of the breakdown was intoxicating.

A lorry-load of soldiers came and stopped at Srah, on the road below the men, and the soldiers began to climb the mountain. A man in shirt and trousers was in front of them as they climbed, past the volunteers up the mountain. The volunteers, who had fought at Drimbawn gate, had taken cover in the bed of a stream and moved up the gully and crossed the ridge to the west side of the mountain. Michael Costelloe brought them to a police barracks called Kinury in which there were eight policemen. The volunteers lay in cover round the barracks till dusk.

After dark, they made their way along the mountain till they came out on the Ballinrobe-Westport road near the Goats Hotel. About one or two a.m. they called to a farmhouse that had light showing. The woman of the house gave them an unforgettable meal of bacon and eggs according to an account by Pat Kennedy. From there they went across the bogs and fields to Ballintubber, and went on north of Lough Carra until they came to Ballyglass. Two of the group, Pat Kennedy and Éamonn Jennings went on to Newbrook Cross through Robeen and across the Robe river at Robeen Bridge, and on to Cloonacastle and the house of a friend.

 Maguire had already advised some of his men to make their escape by way of the western cliff surround of Buckaun above the south western shores of the Lake. They could then skirt the narrower out-thrust above Skeltach, and on the heights of Maamtrasna, over seven miles away, they could follow the slopes down towards Lough Nafooey and along by the Finny river to Finny. The men did not know the sheer cliff edges of this journey and they were accompanied  by no guides to help them. However their sense of direction and the real danger of being captured if  they were detected served to bring them safely across country to Finny, and safety.

It was the Ballinrobe Volunteers who were in most danger as the RIC from Ballinrobe would be visiting houses searching for young men and any absence would be taken as guilt. Some of this group left the way they came, by boat, while the others made their way cross country. The men from the Flying Column who had been on the run for sometime would not be  missed by the RIC. Maguire tells in his account how he, and his  men on the mountains, could see the lorries passing Keel Bridge, and the clouds of dust rising from the then untarred roads as the British soldiers headed their way.Some of the lorries passed on to Tourmakeady and Maguire guessed that they would cross by the mountain road to Westport thus encircling his Column. The Column now moved northwards. With it were some Srah men who knew the lines of the hills as they knew the creases in the palms of their hands, but the Column itself consisted mostly of men from the Ballinrobe battalion and they were not so limber as the Srah men. The Srah Company men also needed to get to their homes, but they were relied upon by Maguire to bring his Column safely over the mountains, and get the Flying Column moving towards Ballinrobe. The Srah Company were also charged with removing all the guns and ammunition from the ambush to the townland of Seanguirt, where the Srah Company arms dump was. As they moved on the direction of the Column was changed again, further to the north, for that point would bring it across the hills which were about 1,200 feet high and topped by a plateau. However, as soon as the men commenced to climb, the British followed them up. The Column men scattered out along the hillside and used their few rifles, but the British picked out the direction in which they were moving by the sound of their rifle shots and closed in on them. The Column hurried up the hills towards the road from Westport to Ballinrobe but, as the men climbed, their scouts found that Army and RIC, were now stretched across the eastern slopes, barring their way to safety. These fresh reinforcements were still at a distance but they used their machine-guns at long range, prior to moving close.