Community website for Millstreet, Co. Cork, Ireland
The Clonbanin Ambush Centenary Monument (at Derrinagree Church) was completed today with the erection of two information boards. The board on the left tells the story of the Ambush and the board on the right contains the relevant maps outlining the routes the Volunteers travelled and the Ambush site. The committee would like to thank the following for the design and fabrication of the boards:
The Centenary of the Clonbanin Ambush is on the 5th March 2021 and the Clonbanin Ambush Commemoration committee has launched a book to mark the event. It tells the story of the Ambush and events surrounding it. The book is for sale at local outlets throughout Duhallow and is priced at €10. We would like to thank all the businesses who facilitated us in the sale of the book.
The Tricolour is raised at the Clonbanin Monument in honour of the Irish Volunteers who took part in the Rathcoole Ambush on 16th June 1921 during the War of Independence. Let Erin Remember.
Great artistry on the wall at Clonbanin Cross expertly done by the Curtin family and friends.
A meeting of the Luíochán Cluainbainin 5~3~1921 Clonbanin Ambush Commemoration Committee was held in Dromtariffe Parish Hall recently. The following officers were elected: ~
Chairman~ Tom Meaney
Vice chairman~ Corney Vaughan.
Hon Joint Secretaries~ Noreen Meaney/Donal Cashman.
Finance Committee~ Marie O Shaughnessy/Noreen Clery/Billy Murphy/Áine Collins.
PROs~ David Crowley/Charlie Drake.
Military History Research~ Pat O Brien/Michael Kelly/Donal Kelleher/Noel Keating.
Researcher~ Tony Shine.
The next meeting will be held on Wednesday February 12th at 8pm.
[about Clonbanin Ambush]
A meeting will be held in Dromtariffe Parish Hall on Tuesday the 14th of January at 8pm, to commemorate the centenary anniversary of the Clonbanin Ambush. All welcome.
Ciara sent us the below message, can anyone help her in her search?
Hi, I’m trying to find anyone who might have a photo of the 1971 commemoration of the Clonbanin Ambush. My grandfather took part and my Dad remembers a photo was taken of the surviving IRA men including my grandfather. I’ve searched online newspaper archives but haven’t found anything.
Thank you. Ciara
Steven O’ Riordan is fundraising to help him complete a newly discovered but unfinished play on the Clonbanin Ambush that has been found in an attic twenty five years after the writer’s death.
The Clonbanin Ambush was written by Cork native Bill Cody, also known as Patrick Vaughan contributor to the Corkman and the initial seeds for this play were sown almost 70 years ago through his encounter with an IRA veteran. It examines the circumstances surrounding a famous IRA ambush of the War of Independence where a large party of Volunteers from Cork and Kerry ambushed a party of British army soldiers in 1921 resulting in the death of the decorated British Brigadier-General Hanway Robert Cumming.
Discovered among Bill’s papers were two copybooks of fascinating historical, dramatic and poetic material dealing with the ambush that lay incomplete at the time of Bill’s death. In this time of seismic Irish revolutionary centenaries the play deserves and demands to be finished to do justice not just to the playwright but to the men who fought and died that day at Clonbanin. [read more …] “The Clonbanin Ambush Play”
Today March 5th marks the anniverasary of The Clombanin Ambush of 1921, so friends Tom and John P Kelleher went over to the ambush site and flew the flags and paid their respects. Photo’s below by Tom of TMC Photography Cork
Details of Clonbanin Ambush are in a previous article on millstreet.ie from 2014 here.
On this day March 5th 1921, the IRA ambushed a British army convoy near Clonbanin, near Derinagree, killing Brigadier General H. R. Cumming, one of the highest ranked British officers to die in the Irish War of Independence. After two hours fighting, 13 (apparently) British were dead, and 15 wounded, while the republicans suffered no casualties.
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In early March, 1921 Sean Moylan, Commandant of the Newmarket Column, made the decision to ambush a British party of senior officers and their military guard returning from an inspection tour in Kerry. The position he selected was at Clonbanin, near Derinagree, which was about five miles from Kanturk, where there was a strong military post and five miles north of Millstreet, then garrisoned by a force of Black and Tans and RIC.
At 3 a.m. on the morning of the 3rd. March, Moylan’s column moved out for Clonbanin and was in position by 6 a.m. They were joined by a section of [read more …] “Clonbanin Ambush”
