Local history books round-up: The Ballycotton Job and more

The term “dramatic reconstruction” is sometimes overused but in the story of the piratical hijacking by the IRA of a royal navy ship off the coast of Cork in spring 1922 it is an accurate description of a gripping event. The background details about that night are meticulously recounted through impressive research in The Ballycotton Job (Mercier Press, €14.99) by Tom Mahon.

Early chapters chart specific incidents in Cork city and countryside, providing snapshots of the main players, but the focal point is the night of March 29th when Ireland was on the brink of civil war. A cavalcade of 80 vehicles made its slow journey along potholed roads from Cork through villages to Ballycotton. Flabbergasted bystanders looked on in wonder at this lumbering procession of flatbed trucks, lorries, vans, cars, motorcycles and even a steam roller. Their task was to fell trees and block roads to prevent pursuit by the crown forces in Cork.

The navy ship, the Upnor, carrying 120 tons of arms and ammunition, was on its way back to Plymouth. The plan involved seizing it at sea more than 30 miles off the coast using the tugboat Warrior to smuggle in the haul. In a spectacular coup the boat reached Ballycotton where unloading began at the pier early next morning. Lorries were standing by to spirit away the deadly cargo of up to 1,000 rifles, hundreds of revolvers, 40 machine-guns, 200,000 rounds of ammunition and high explosive, which ultimately resulted in a terrible loss of life with dire consequences for the course of the war. It is not known whether one of the Lee-Enfield rifles used in the ambush that killed Michael Collins at Beál na Bláth came from the Upnor, but the author believes it is highly likely.

In neighbouring Kerry, Owen O’Shea looks back at the violence and division caused by the civil war in No Middle Path: The Civil War in Kerry (Merrion Press, €19.95). Fresh insights are offered into atrocities such as the landmine executions at Ballyseedy and Knocknagoshel and their cover-ups. For the first time the shocking legacy of ill health and psychological scars left on civilians and families is explored and the author confronts difficult questions such as the veil of silence which prevailed afterwards.

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Many of those who fought to defend the new State, and their survivors, were angry about how they were treated by successive governments. O’Shea suggests that if the civil war and the tragedies in Kerry were notable by their absence from electioneering rhetoric and Dáil debates in the decades after the conflict, then “the politics of compensating and supporting the surviving combatants and the relatives of those who died screamed loudly from the archives of the Department of Defence and filing cabinets of constituency TDs”.

The book’s title comes from a handwritten note by Dan Mulvihill, an IRA commander from Castlemaine, who wrote that there was no middle path in the civil war in Kerry; the author concludes that most historians agree that the divisions in the county were the most bitter, violent and atavistic of the whole country.

The formation of the Garda Síochána in Donegal 100 years ago is one of 20 features in English and Irish in the County Donegal Historical Society Annual, No 74, (€25). The society is celebrating 75 years since its founding in 1947, and its new annual is edited by Seán Beattie who has also authored the essay on the Garda. He states that some historians have described the new recruits as hardened guerrilla fighters, but in many cases this was far removed from reality. For example, the Carrowmena unit of the Volunteers in Inishowen had 36 members but they did not engage in active service as their ammunition was inadequate. Their duties were confined to drill training and policing the area.

Other topics include Painting Life in the Rosses; The Burt Reclamation Scheme; and Archaeological Evidence for Viking Activity in Medieval Donegal. A fascinating article, In Search of Fahan Mura by LS McLaughlin, considers an old disused graveyard with protected church ruins, the site of the ancient abbey at Fahan Mura, four miles from Buncrana. When the scholar John O’Donovan visited the area in 1835 he was appalled at the neglect of its ancient traditions. Succeeding generations of antiquaries have puzzled over the enigmatic monastery and artefacts, and a programme of conservation is being undertaken. One item that has been preserved is the bronze Bell of St Mura, now part of the Wallace Collection in London.

With a much younger pedigree, the publication of Dúchas: The Duhallow Historical Journal, Volume 1 (€15) marks the birth of a new journal, edited by Aogán Ó'hIarlaithe. In the best informative and scholarly tradition showing the strength of local history, the journal carries a collection of 15 essays in English and Irish on aspects of life in northwest Co Cork. Subjects include Kanturk Castle, a biographical sketch of Hanna Sheehy Skeffington, and language shift in Knocknagree at the turn of the 20th century.

In his history of Cullen Pipe Band, Con Houlihan looks back on memorable events since 1941 when it was formed after a young boy developed a love of bagpipes. Over the years the band has played at carnivals, festivals, Puck Fair, Munster finals, Easter commemorations and accompanied de Valera during his successful campaign for the presidency. To improve North-South relations, McNeillstown Pipe Band, from Portglenone, Co Antrim, visited Cullen in April 1997. In Margaret Houlihan the Cullen band produced an A-grade major in solo piping and it has won world championships, while in 2019 the band joined Rod Stewart on stage in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

The Journal of the Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society (Series 2, Vol 22, 2023, ed. Tony Bergin, €20) includes features on the ringfort at Lissaniska, the Blueshirts in Kerry in the 1930s, and Early to Late Bronze Age fulachtaí fia in Tarbert. An absorbing study by Dr Connie Kelleher considers Daniel O’Connell’s cultural links to the sea at Derrynane through coastal trade and shipwrecks when piracy and smuggling were a way of life. Interpretation is provided about the ships as well as scribbles and doodles on the original plasterwork which has survived on the walls of the rooms of the two-storey Summer House. This was built by O’Connell behind the main house for private and secluded contemplation, but was where he also carried on business deals out of sight of officialdom. Masts, rigging, sails and a fishing scene are visible and the iconography etched in detail represents a wealth of graffiti in one location. The building remains closed while the OPW engages with conservation specialists to assess environmental conditions and analyse the preservation of the plaster.