The Battle of Kilmallock was the most protracted and large-scale battle of the Civil War. In the 12 days between July 25th and August 5th, Irishmen fought other Irishmen in Irish towns and across fields.
Limerick city and county would be the chief crucible of the war in July 1922. The city of Limerick had presaged the violence of the Civil War when clashes broke out in March, some of the most prominent guerrilla leaders of the War of Independence, pro- and anti-Treaty, facing off over the takeover of barracks the British were vacating.
The republicans occupied the four barracks in the town, which became a stronghold of the republican movement. At the start of the Civil War, the anti-Treaty side enjoyed numerical superiority in the city with its 700 men against the Provisional Government’s 400, but old comrades were reluctant to turn their guns on each other.
A ruthless commander might have sought to exploit the numerical advantage of the anti-Treaty side but Liam Lynch, the chief of staff of the anti-Treaty IRA, and the pro-Treaty Lieut-Gen Michael Brennan and Commandant General Donnchadh O’Hannigan agreed a truce on July 7th “in the interests of a united Ireland and to save our country from utter destruction”. The pact was reportedly made over the Blessed Sacrament.
The truce lasted only four days, much to the detriment of the republican side, who lost both their materiel and tactical advantage. The Provisional Government told Brennan and O’Hannigan that under no circumstances should the accommodation be allowed to stand. The hiatus worked in favour of the government, which brought in reinforcements and artillery. Street fighting started on July 11th and lasted 10 days. A convoy of Free State reinforcements finally made its way into the city on July 18th.
Once again, as had happened at the start of the Civil War with the shelling of the Four Courts, an 18-pounder gun was brought into the fight and eventually made a breach in the walls of the Strand Barracks, with at least 23 people being killed. The republicans fled the city, retreating south and west. On the same day as the republicans left Limerick, the Free State government captured Waterford city without much of a struggle.
Liam Lynch’s mythical “Munster Republic”, the area south of an imaginary line between Waterford and Limerick, was breached with comparative ease.
Republicans made their most determined stand against the National Army in the villages of Kilmallock, Bruff and Bruree in the east of the county to block the way to the counties of Cork and Kerry. The fighting pitting committed but indecisive republicans against better-equipped National Army soldiers.
Free State commander Gen Eoin O’Duffy described his own troops as a “disgruntled, undisciplined and cowardly crowd”. They were saved by Gen William Richard English (W.R.E) Murphy, a veteran of the Battle of the Somme who understand the importance of trenches and incremental gains. On August 2nd, Republicans took the National Army headquarters in Bruree, but were driven out when Free State reinforcements arrived.
The slow pace of the National Army advance was criticised at the time, but eventually the defenders were worn down. On August 3rd, Kilmallock was surrounded by almost 3,000 Free State soldiers, but the defenders had made good their escape.
Casualties were relative light given the numbers involved in the battle – approximately 29 dead and many more wounded.
By that time another front had opened up. The National Army landed troops in Westport, Co Mayo, on July 24th and then at Fenit near Tralee in Co Kerry on August 2nd. The latter landing by men from the Dublin Guard led by Brig-Gen Paddy O’Daly later turned Kerry into a savage crucible of the Civil War, with republican forces barring the main roads and sabotaging the railways on the pretext that they carried National Army forces.
In early August the large major town not in Free State hands was Cork. The National Army landed troops on August 8th at Passage West aboard the SS Arvonia and SS Lady Wicklow.
Two days of heavy fighting followed in Rochestown and Douglas, leaving 16 men (nine Free State and seven republicans) dead. The republicans had the aid of nine Lewis guns and it took considerable courage by National Army forces to drive the republicans out of Rochestown and then out of Douglas.
Many of the National Army soldiers were exhausted and wanted to rest, but their commanding officer Emmet Dalton insisted they push on through to Cork city. On August 10th, Treaty forces entered the city.
The anti-Treaty forces fled leaving a trail of destruction behind them. It did nothing to enamour them to a war-weary public unconvinced of the rightness of their cause. The fleeing soldiers burned an army barracks, a technical school, the offices of the city’s two newspapers, the Cork Examiner and Cork Constitution, and attempted to destroy three bridges across the river Lee, without success.
With the fall of Cork, the Treaty side had effectively won the Civil War. Rather than quit, the anti-Treaty side resorted to the same guerilla tactics as employed by the IRA in the War of Independence. Liam Lynch and his band of rebels retreated to the countryside and resorted to ambushes and material destruction. Both sides brought out the worst in each other. The horrors of the war were just beginning.