Qualla: Rineen Ambush

Rineen Ambush: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Eddylandzaat, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl. Six Royal Irish Constabulary officers died at a curve of road near Drummin Hill on the afternoon of 22 September 1920. The ambush that killed them was over in seconds. Five fell where the lorry was hit by a grenade and raked with rifle and shotgun fire; the sixth ran about 300 yards before he was shot dead. By the same night, five civilians were also dead - including a 15-year-old boy and a man burned alive in his attic - killed by British forces in reprisal across three Clare villages. Sixteen houses and shops had been burned. The names on both sides are now carved on monuments. The road still bends through the same hill.

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Image: Eddylandzaat | CC BY-SA 3.0 nl

Rineen Ambush: The Road Between Ennistymon and Milltown Malbay

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The Banner, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Irish Volunteers in County Clare had been active since 1917. By late 1920, after months of attacks on isolated Royal Irish Constabulary barracks, the RIC had abandoned most of its small rural posts in the county. The British government's answer was to flood Clare with Black a...

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Image: The Banner | CC BY-SA 3.0

Rineen Ambush: An Unrelated Killing

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NearEMPTiness, CC BY-SA 4.0. While the Mid Clare Brigade lay in wait, something happened twenty miles away that would shape what followed. Alan Lendrum, the local resident magistrate, was driving toward Doonbeg when he came to a railway crossing at Caherfeenick. The West Clare Brigade - a separate IRA unit -...

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Image: NearEMPTiness | CC BY-SA 4.0

Rineen Ambush: Twenty Seconds

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit psyberartist, CC BY 2.0. The single RIC lorry passed safely through the ambush position on its way from Ennistymon to Milltown Malbay - confusion in the IRA party about whether more vehicles were behind. When they understood it was only the one, they prepared for its return. The lorry was hit by a grenad...

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Image: psyberartist | CC BY 2.0

Rineen Ambush: The Night of Reprisals

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dougsim, CC BY-SA 4.0. Within hours, British forces went looking for revenge. They burned the O'Gorman family's house and farm. They shot a local farmer, Sean Keane, who died of his wounds. That same night, a mixed force of police and soldiers raided the home of Dan Lehane in Lahinch - his two sons had...

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Image: Dougsim | CC BY-SA 4.0

Rineen Ambush: Stones at Drummin Hill

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. On 22 September 1957, thirty-seven years to the day after the ambush, a cut-stone monument depicting an IRA soldier was unveiled at Drummin Hill by the Bishop of Killaloe. The cost - just over 1,200 pounds - was raised by veterans, public subscription, and Irish-Americans in the ...

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Image: Public domain