IRA boycott notice of Co Clare shop up for auction

A notice issued by the IRA during the War of Independence in 1920, calling for a public boycott of a grocery shop in Tulla, Co Clare, has come to light after 96 years and is to be sold at auction.

The notice, issued by “Oglaigh na hEireann – West Clare Brigade IRA” was hand-written on a sheet of the shop’s own headed notepaper.

The shop was owned by the Pepper family and was a traditional small town “general merchant” that also sold tea, wine and spirits, ran a “posting establishment” and also operated “flour, meal and bran stores”.

Tulla, a small town 15km from Ennis, is best known for its famous Céilí band.

The document has been consigned to Newcastle West, Co Limerick, antiques auctioneer Pat O’Donovan who said it would go under the hammer in his auction on Holy Saturday, March 25th, with a presale estimate of €300-€400.

Mr O’Donovan, who is also a noted local historian, said such notices were very rare – and he knows of none other that has survived – because “most businesses supplying the British army in Clare heeded verbal warnings and so, presumably, the IRA didn’t need to issue written boycott notices”.

Supply

He said the shop founded by John Pepper in the 19th century had been long-established in Tulla by 1920 and “used to supply the Workhouse located about a mile outside the town”. Mr Pepper had died in 1909 and by 1920, the shop was being run by his daughter, Mary Pepper.

The IRA notice, which would have been posted in a public place in Tulla, warned the shop to cease to “import and distribute goods for crown forces” which the IRA considered to be “an act of war”.

The public was told to boycott the shop unless the owners complied by April 20th, 1920. Both the shop and its customers were threatened with “appropriate action” if they did not comply.

The document was stamped by the IRA with a logo of a harp and shamrock and the words “Erin go Brath” .

Mr O’Donovan said the document had survived in excellent condition because it had been in safe storage for many years.

Legal dispute

Mr O’Donovan said the boycott appeared to have worked because the shop closed down soon afterwards.

He said the “family died out” and the shop later became the subject of a bitter legal dispute over Ms Pepper’s last will and testament.

The background to the boycott may be linked to a series of highly controversial incidents in west Clare during the War of Independence which caused considerable tension including the assassination in August 1919, by the IRA, of two Royal Irish Constabulary officers – Sgt John O’Riordan, aged 43 and a native of Macroom, Co Cork and Constable Michael Murphy, aged 19, and a native of Co Leitrim.

In an apparent reprisal, a 15-year-old boy, Francis Murphy was shot by the Black and Tans 10 days later.