Ruan Barracks Attack October 1920
Ruan Barracks October 1920
As the East Clare Brigade was busy trying to break the British spy network in Feakle the Mid Clare Brigade of the I.R.A. had found a republican sympathiser inside the R.I.C. garrison at Ruan who was willing to defect. Sean Casey, the Adjutant of the Mid Clare Brigade’s 2nd Battalion, had been approached by R.I.C. Constable Bill Carroll from Roscommon who was stationed at Ruan R.I.C barracks. Carroll claimed that he wanted to defect to the I.R.A. and could get the I.R.A. inside the barracks. The I.R.A. had to be careful in their dealings with Carroll as the possibility remained that his approach was part of a planned British ambush to trap the I.R.A.
Sean O Keefe and a number of other I.R.A. officers were detailed to interview
Carroll and assess if he was a genuine defector: “Early in October, 1920, I
went to Ennis to meet Joe Barrett by appointment. Sean Casey, a national
teacher in Ruan, then Adjutant of 2nd Battalion, was also present. Casey had
come to report that he was in touch with one of the R.I.C. stationed in Ruan
Constable Bill Carroll who appeared to be very much in sympathy with the I.R.A
and willing to cooperate with us in the capture of the R.I.C. station to which
he was attached. After a long discussion it was agreed that Casey should again
sound Carroll and ascertain definitely from him if he would be agreeable to
assist us in case we decided to try and capture the station. A week or so later
a further meeting took place in the Clare Hotel, Ennis, and this time Constable
Carroll, in plain clothes was present, as were Frank and Joe Barrett, Sean
Casey and Myself. Carroll impressed us as being a sincere type of young man who
was sorry for having found himself in the R.I.C. at that stage. He declared
himself in sympathy and said he attempted to resign from the police force. He
was then asked to describe the internal lay out of the Ruan R.I.C. station, how
the garrison at night time and give details of the military equipment of the
station. He also mentioned that he would be on night duty on the third week of
October along with an elderly R.I.C. man named Wilmot, and that Wilmot would be
leaving the station every morning about half past seven to get milk from a
neighbouring house owned by people named Callanan. There was a general
discussion at the meeting on the information supplied by Constable Carroll and
it was decided there to attempt the capture of the barracks. …Constable Carroll
was most anxious that none of the police would be shot during the course of the
raid. He was assured on this point and special instructions were given to the
men chosen to enter the barracks that shooting should only be resorted to only
when it was absolutely unavoidable. No definite date was settled on at the
meeting for the attack. Carroll was told that he would be notified of this date
later on.”
Following the meeting with Constable Carroll, Frank Barrett carried out a night
time examination of the Ruan R.I.C. barracks and the surrounding area with Sean
Casey. Though they moved cautiously around the outside of the barracks their
presence disturbed the Callanan’s dogs which barked incessantly. The dogs would
certainly make a much louder din if a large force of I.R.A. Volunteers moved
into their positions to attack the barracks and this might alert the R.I.C.
Barrett decided to poison the Callan’s dogs a few nights before the attack, as
an added precaution the I.R.A.’s raiding party would remove their boots and
approach the rear of the barracks in their stockings. On the 15th of October
Frank Barrett had completed his arrangements for the attack and sent word to
Constable Carroll, through Sean Casey, that the attack would take place three
nights later.
The R.I.C. barracks at Ruan had been a thorn in the Mid Clare Brigade’s side
for some time. It was an important part of the British forces system of
defences, situated six miles from Ennis; it controlled one of the main
approaches to the town and was a great hindrance to the movement of the I.R.A.
arms, ammunition and supplies through the area. The barracks also served as a
clearing house, for gathering and processing intelligence information. Ruan
barracks was a two storey solid stone building stationed by an R.I.C. sergeant
and thirteen R.I.C. constables. The building was surrounded by a stone wall and
an almost impenetrable barrier of barbed wire entanglements which reaching
seven feet high in some places. Barbed wire screens also sloped down from the
upper storey of the building and all the barrack windows were covered by bullet
proof steel shutters and were sandbagged as an extra precaution.
Constable Carroll had told Frank Barrett at the meeting in the Clare Hotel that
every morning when Constable Wilmot left the rear of the barracks to collect
milk from Callanan’s home a hundred yards behind the barracks, he pushed aside
part of the barbed wire entanglements which stretched from the outer barbed
wire defences to the block of our offices containing a fuel shed and toilet.
This section of barbed wire was left open until Constable Wilmot returned a few
moments later. The I.R.A.’s plan was to capture Constable Wilmot when he left
the barracks at half past seven and enter the barracks compound through the gap
he had left open behind him. Once inside the barbed wire defences Constable Carroll
would open the barracks door and thirty I.R.A. Volunteers armed with revolvers
would enter the barracks and capture the sleeping R.I.C. men and destroy the
building. The Sergeant slept downstairs while the remaining eleven R.I.C.
constables slept upstairs in two rooms. The village of Ruan is about four miles
from Corofin which was garrisoned by a force of R.I.C. and Black and Tans.
Ennis had a very large garrison of British military and R.I.C. these forces had
motor transport and could be in Ruan within the hour if they were alerted.
Members of the 1st and 5th Battalions of the Mid Clare Brigade were responsible
for blocking the roads leading to Ruan. A large force would be needed to
capture Ruan Barracks and Frank Barrett mobilised selected I.R.A. Volunteers
from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Battalions would form the main force which would
carry out the raid on the barracks.
The I.R.A. Volunteers selected for the attack assembled at ten o clock on the
night of the 17th of October four miles from the R.I.C. Barracks at a disused
house near Barefield owned by the Costello family. The 5th and 6th Battalions
had mobilised their Volunteers for the attack at O Brien’s house in Kilfenora
on the previous night so many of their men had mobilised that Sean Mc Namara
had to select a number of them to go to Ruan the next night and ordered the
rest to mobilise on the 18th in Kilfenora and hold themselves in readiness to
act as a reserve force in an emergency. At Costello’s over fifty men had
mobilised, including Sean Moroney and Mick Tuohy from the Mid Clare Brigade who
had been told about the planned operation by Laurence Allen. Barrett assembled
all the I.R.A. Volunteers present and explained to them the exact details of
the planned action. At four that morning they moved off towards Ruan led by an
advance party of ten Volunteers and five scouts. The I.R.A. Volunteers from the
1st and 5th Battalions were already at work blocking the roads leading to Ruan.
To prevent British forces rushing to Ruan or attempting to encircle the I.R.A.
a widespread system of roadblocks was put in place. The outer line of defence
was a far-flung ring of twenty stone barricades built across all the roads
leading to Ruan, some of them as far as ten miles from the village. Inside
these barricades the I.R.A. constructed a second series of roadblocks by
building more stone barricades and felling trees across the roads leading
directly to Ruan. Each of these road blocks was guarded by a section leader and
I.R.A.Volunteers
armed with shotguns.
Half a mile from the Barracks the I.R.A. stopped at a wood on the Dromore
estate, took their boots off, and marched silently into Ruan in stocking feet.
It was still dark at six o clock when the different I.R.A. sections took up
their positions behind the outer wall of the barracks. Hidden from the view of
the barracks windows, the I.R.A. waited for over an hour in a tense silence for
Constable Wilmot to leave the barracks on his morning errand to fetch the milk.
Just before half seven they heard the sounds of movement inside the barracks
yard. In the still morning air Frank Barrett could clearly hear the noise of
the back door of the barracks being shut and the barbed wire entanglement behind
the barracks being pulled open. A moment later Constable Wilmot appeared
carrying a bucket, he had gone about thirty yards towards Callanan’s house when
he was held up by Peter O Loughlin and two other I.R.A. Volunteers Jim Quin and
Frank Keane:
“We were there half an hour or so when the policeman emerged from the barracks
for the milk. He was taken completely by surprise and surrendered without
fuss.”
Within seconds of Constable Wilmot’s capture the first sections of the raiding
party rushed down the concrete passage and through the gap in the barbed wire
entanglements to the back door of the barracks. Constable Carroll had watched
the capture of Constable Wilmot from the barracks and immediately opened the
door and led the republicans inside. William Mc Namara led his section up the
stairs with his revolver drawn and entered the first of two dormitory rooms
which housed the eleven R.I.C. constables: “In less time than it takes to tell,
we were in the upstairs rooms where the police were fast asleep. In the room in
which I was one of the police, Constable Longhead jumped out of bed on being
awakened and appeared to be making an attempt to get his rifle from the rack
over his bed when a shot rang out which mortally wounded him. Another policeman
was slightly wounded in the leg. In the other room Sergeant Mc McCarthy, who
was in charge of the garrison, also made an effort to fight, but he was
deprived of his revolver before being able to use it.”
Sean O Keefe’s section which entered the other upstairs room also met
resistance from the R.I.C. but this was subdued without any further killing:
“In the room where I entered with my section the occupants were all asleep and
were roused by shouts of ‘hands up’. One constable named Ruddy did not comply
and threw himself out of bed. He was fired at and wounded, but this bullet also
wounded another constable named Farrelly. … We took possession of all the
rifles and revolvers we found lying in racks on the bedroom walls.”
Constable John Longhead was carried downstairs into the barracks yard but died
from his wound within minutes. He was a native of Sligo. The eleven other
R.I.C. men were ordered to dress, taken down stairs at gunpoint and led to a
nearby house where they were made as comfortable as possible given the
circumstances. In their search of the barracks the I.R.A. captured fourteen Lee
Enfield rifles, fourteen .45 Webley and Scott revolvers, two shotguns, one
automatic pistol, two Verey light flare pistols, twenty four Mill’s Bomb
grenades, a thousand rounds of .303 ammunition, and seven hundred rounds of .45
ammunition. Fourteen police bicycles and a large amount of official R.I.C.
documents and intelligence papers were also taken. and brought to the brigade’s
arms dump in Crusheen.
When the barracks had been thoroughly searched the building was set on fire
using a supply of petrol taken from Murty Kelly’s shop. As the first flames of
the fire took hold, Ignatius O Neill arrived at Ruan by car with three other
I.R.A. Volunteers from the 4th Battalion of the Mid Clare Brigade. They had
intended to take part in the operation but had to take a wide detour on their
journey from Lahinch to avoid British patrols and roads trenched by the I.R.A.
One of these volunteers, Frank Molyneaux, a chemist from Ennistymon was taken
to the three R.I.C. constables injured when the barracks was captured and he
dressed their wounds. The remaining R.I.C. men were being held as prisoners in
front of the barracks when O Neill arrived. William Mc Namara from Ennis was
one of their guards “Most of the R.I.C did not appear to be unduly upset over
the fate that had befallen them, but Sergeant Mc McCarthy was very annoyed and
refused to give an undertaking that there would be no reprisals.” On hearing
this O Neill couldn’t resist the temptation to give them ‘a small dose of their
own medicine.’ Frank Barrett watched as O Neill gave the R.I.C. men the order to
‘fall in’ for foot drill: “All complied with alacrity, with the exception of
the senior sergeant who obstinately refused to be drilled by an I.R.A. officer.
O Neill a former Irish Guardsman … was not the type who would readily tolerate
disobedience to a military command that he might utter. The recalcitrant
sergeant was possessed of some rudiment of wisdom however, for he did not
persist in his attitude and sulkily ‘fell in’ with the others before it became
necessary for O Neill to apply some persuasion. Up and down the narrow road
marched the bewildered police, their nailed boots on the road re-echoing in the
crisp October air. Half the village watched in astonishment as the peelers
‘jumped two in response to orders bawled out by O'Neill in a parade ground voice
that would have been the envy of any sergeant major who could have heard it. …
It was an occasion that will be long remembered in Ruan.”
When O Neill had finished drilling the R.I.C., Constable Wilmot and Constable Carroll
were separated from the group who were told that the pair were being kept as
hostages to prevent reprisals by the British forces. The R.I.C. was told that
Wilmot and Carroll would be shot and the houses of local unionists burned if
the R.I.C. engaged in reprisals for the burning of the barracks. The real
reason for taking them hostage was to deceive the British as to Carroll’s part
in the attack and provide cover for his defection to the I.R.A.
With the demolition of the barracks completed by the fire the R.I.C. Sergeant
and his men were again warned about the consequences of reprisals and then
taken to houses in the village and given breakfast. They were warned not to
leave these houses for an hour. The I.R.A. force was dismissed by Barrett and
broke up into different sections which departed for safe houses in their own
areas. As a group of I.R.A. volunteers from the 4th Battalion narrowly avoided
entering an ambush that the British Army had laid at Shallee on the Ennistymon
road.
Bill Carroll was to be posted as an I.R.A. Volunteer in the Ballyvaughan area
of the Mid Clare Brigades 6th Battalion. Sean Mc Namara and the other members
of the 6th Battalion withdrew from Ruan taking Carroll and Constable Wilmot
with them as ‘hostages’ to Diffley’s house at Carron in north Clare: “At Carron
we held a mock Court martial for Constable Wilmot’s benefit. The ‘court,
decided to release him and to ‘detain’ Constable carol as a hostage. Constable
Wilmot was told he was to convey word to his authorities that if there were any
reprisals by the British troops as a result of the Ruan attack that Constable Carroll
would be executed. We not had the problem of ensuring that Constable Wilmot
would get back safely to some R.I.C. station so we decided that it would be
best that he should be taken to Gort in county Galway. This task was left to
myself to arrange. One of the most reliable men in the Battalion, Mick O
Loughlin of Ballyvaughan, had a motor car and I got him to drive myself and
constable Wilmot from Carron to Tirneevin Cross about three miles from Gort.
Before parting from his guard at Carron, Constable Wilmot insisted on shaking
hands with all his captors and was most profuse in his thanks for the good
treatment he had received. On the way towards Gort I kept reminding him of the
decision given at his courts martial, and told him a bit of a colourful story
of how the I.R.A. had compiled a list of the most prominent unionists in county
Clare who, as well as who, as well as ‘Constable’ Carroll, would all be shot if
there were any reprisals by British troops for the capture of Ruan Barracks,
and that the counter reprisals by us would also include the burning of the
houses of these Unionists. Constable Wilmot promised to convey all I had said
to him, and he seemed to have done so, too, with good effect because there were
no reprisals.
(Padraig Og O Ruairc ©War of Independence.info)
https://web.archive.org/web/20110430113545/http://www.warofindependence.info/?page_id=141