| In May 1919, an IRA prisoner - Seán Hogan - was rescued from an armed RIC escort at Knocklong railway station, County Limerick, while being taken to Cork for further interrogation. |
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The following account describes the second major incident in the Irish War of Independence. The action takes place while soldiers were still returning from the Great War and before the hardening of attitudes on both sides led to the introduction of the brutal 'Black-and-Tans' and 'Auxhiliaries' to assist the RIC and British Army. |
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The ?Big Four? among active IRA volunteers came to my brother Ned O?Brien to ask his help in the dangerous task of rescuing a prisoner from an armed escort. On the 12th May, 1919, an event occurred at the little wayside railway station of Knocklong, County Limerick, that was to have a profound effect on the Irish struggle for national independence. Its genesis lay in the capture of a cart load of gelignite and detonators and the killing of the two escorting police constables at County Tipperary, on the 31st January 1919 ? the action that began the War of Independence. Following it, four volunteers, Séamus Robinson, Seán Treacy, Seán Hogan and Dan Breen went on the run. On the 11th May, Hogan was captured and taken to Thurles. From there he would be moved to Cork, the usual destination for persons detained under the Defence of the Realm Act, in Munster. His three comrades decided to rescue him! They cycled through the night to Maloney's of Lackelly, intending to intercept the Cork bound train at either Emly or Knocklong Mai Maloney cycled to Thurles.There she arranged with Michael O'Connell and Joe McLoughney, to have the railway station placed under surveillance, Tom Shanahan at Knocklong, was to be informed by telegram if Hogan was moved.In the meantime, fearful of missing their chance, they decided to intercept the mid-day train at Emly. A request for help was sent to the Tipperary town volunteers. The fate, even the existence of this message, has been questioned! There is no doubt that it was sent but whether it reached its destination or not, remains a matter of conjecture. When no help came the three made a. dash for Emly station to attempt the rescue by themselves but Hogan was not on the train. They now had a breathing space. Bill Fitzpatrick went to see David Burke. He told him to warn Tom Shanahan to expect a telegram from Michael 0 ' Connell. On her return from Thurles, Mai Maloney was dispatched to Galbally to ask the Galbally company Captain, Ned 0'Brien, for assistance. |
| Five Galbally men - Ned O'Brien, John Joe O'Brien, Jimmy Scanlan, Seán Lynch and Ned Foley - reached Lackelly at around four o'clock in the afternoon of Tuesday May 13th. It was decided that four should join the train at Emly to check if Hogan was on board, while the others would cycle directly to Knocklong. Jimmy Scanlan, Seán Lynch, Ned Foley and John Joe O'Brien, boarded the train at Emly. It was Seán Lynch who spotted Hogan on board. Séamus Robinson and Dan Breen, Ned O'Brien and Seán Treacy, split up at the Cross o' the Tree and met again outside Knocklong, Treacy and O'Brien went into the village, Treacy waited near the station while O'Brien went in search of Tom Shanahan. Shanahan had received a telegram from Michael O'Connell but was mystified as to its meaning. Bill Fitzpatrick had delivered his message to David Burke, but the latter had failed to contact Shanahan. |
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The telegram read:
"Greyhound in Thurles still" Michael O'Connell
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It was decided that Breen and Robinson should move away from the village while Treacy and 0'Brien awaited the arrival of the other Galbally men. The Dublin bound train came in at five minutes past eight, as it left the Cork train was pulling in. John Joe O'Brien was waving a white handkerchief, the signal that Hogan was on board. Simultaneously, but unknown to him, a Thurles volunteer, James 'Goorty' McCarthy, was signalling from another window. The volunteers boarded the train, Treacy was in the lead, followed by Ned O'Brien, Jimmy Scanlan, Seán Lynch, John Joe O'Brien and Ned Foley, in that order; Lynch, Scanlan and Foley, were un-armed. Hogan was seated, with his back towards the engine, flanked by Sergeant Peter Wallace and Constable Enright. Facing them were Constables O'Reilly and Gerry Ring. Enright pressed his gun against. Hogan's head and was shot dead by Treacy and Ned O'Brien. A fierce hand-to-hand fight followed, Ring escaped through the offside door; O'Reilly was knocked down by a blow to the head from Jimmy Scanlan but it was only when the heroic giant, Sergeant Peter Wallace, was fatally wounded that the struggle ended. By then Seán Treacy had been seriously wounded in the throat. |
| Then O'Reilly, who had crawled out of the carriage carrying Ring's carbine with him, intervened. Shooting into the train from the platform he wounded Ned O'Brien and Jimmy Scanlan. The day was saved for the rescuers by the arrival of Séamus Robinson and Dan Breen. Breen was hit in the arm and chest, his gun dropped from his right hand but he picked it up with his left to open fire again. O'Reilly, either unnerved or out of ammunition, turned and fled. Hogan was hustled to a local butcher's shop where, with a single blow from a cleaver, Seán Lynch chopped off his handcuffs - an action witnessed by Ned Foley and John Joe O'Brien. |
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| The rescuers and Hogan made their way across the fields to Tom Shanahan's home at Glenlara, a house to become famous in song and known to every volunteer on the run or serving with the East Limerick Active Service Unit, as 'Shanahan's on the Hill', Treacy and Breen were taken into the house. Jimmy Scanlan and Ned O'Brien, were driven, first to Ned Tobin's of Glenbronane, where their wounds were dressed, and then to Paddy Maguire's at Ballylanders. Dr. William Hennessy attended to the four wounded men. |
| On the following morning O'Brien and Scanlan moved to Quan's of Anglesboro, where they were again seen by Dr. Hennessy. From there they went to Bailey's near Mitchelstown and then to Ned 0'Brien's first cousins, the O'Farrell's of Ballypooreen. Here they evaded capture only through a warning from the Mitchelstown volunteers and the action, of Liam Lynch, who drove them through Fermoy to County Waterford. |
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Robinson, Hogan, Breen and Treacy, were moved to Clancy's of Cush where they were treated by Dr. Hennessy's nephew, Dr. Fitzgerald, who had recently returned from India having served there with the British Army. From there they were driven in two cars - one with its headlights ?on? acting as a decoy, the other following with its lights down. They went through Kilmallock, past the barracks to which the bodies of Sergeant Wallace and Constable Enright had been taken, and on to west Limerick where they came under the protection of Seán Finn. They remained there until a huge military roundup forced them to cross the Shannon to County Clare. Here Michael Brennan and the East Clare Brigade cared for them. The wounded men recovered gradually and once they had done so, the 'Big Four' returned to County Tipperary. |
| Seán Lynch, Ned Foley and John Joe O'Brien, returned to Galbally on the night of the rescue, The three were taken in for questioning on several occasions as were many others from the district, in the course of the huge police and military operations that followed, On the 9th June, Tom Shanahan was arrested. Patrick Maher, Ned Foley, Michael Murphy, Mick Shanahan, and Michael O'Connell of Thurles, were taken into custody on September 23rd. Following this, Seán Lynch and John Joe O'Brien, went on the run. They were to remain on active service throughout the duration of the Black and Tan War, serving with the East Limerick Flying Column commanded by Donncha Hannigan and the South Tipperary Active Service Unit under Dinny Lacey. |
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| Mick and Tom Shanahan, Michael O'Connell and Michael Murphy, were acquitted. Patrick Maher and Ned Foley's ordeal lasted until June 1921. It moved from Limerick to Belfast, from Belfast to Armagh, and finally - trial by military Court Martial having superceded trial by Jury - to Dublin. |
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Ned O'Brien and Jimmy Scanlan escaped to America and there they joined the Irish Mission to the United States of America, headed by Harry Boland, at 411-5th Avenue, New York. They became involved in, propaganda work, in helping to raise the Dáil Loan in America, and in organising the smuggling of arms and ammunition to the I.R.A. in Ireland. They watched with growing alarm the progress of the various trials of Maher and Foley. Ned suggested to Harry Boland that he would issue a public statement taking full responsibility for the rescue. Boland rejected the idea! Following the sentencing of Maher and Foley to death, Ned, then in Chicago, put the suggestion to Boland again and this time he agreed. Ned made the deposition in the Chicago offices of the 'Hearst' newspaper group. The statement was widely publicised throughout the United States. Copies were delivered to prominent people in Britain and Ireland and to Dublin Castle but its receipt was not publicly acknowledged until the executions had taken place - an indication of the administration's determination to exact retribution for the loss of the two policemen's lives. |
| Having been in custody for two years, Ned Foley and Patrick Maher were executed on the 7th June 1921. These were the last executions to take place before the truce came into effect and preceded it by just one month. Patrick Maher was an innocent man. He was a member of the Irish Volunteers but had no knowledge of or connection whatever with the rescue at Knocklong. |
