The Battle for Kilmallock

John O'Callaghan

• Editorial: Mercier Press
• Año: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781856359764
• Categoría: History
• Categoría: Military & Maritime History

When the Free State army captured Limerick city in mid-July 1922, Republican forces retreated south towards Cork and made their next determined stand around Kilmallock. This area barred the way to the heartland of the 'Munster Republic'. In one of the largest and most intense battles of the Irish Civil War, Free State and Republican troops fought for possession of Kilmallock, Bruree and Bruff, with the latter two towns repeatedly changing hands. The eventual Free State occupation of Kilmallock was a vital turning point in the war. In The Battle for Kilmallock John O'Callaghan outlines the goals of the opposing forces, assesses their respective strengths, charts the course of the combat over two weeks in late July and early August, examines key strategies, and evaluates the role of leading personalities. The book challenges inherited wisdom about the engagement and offers sobering insights into the conduct of the belligerents.

ENDNOTES

Introduction

1 Liam Deasy, Brother against Brother (Cork, 1998), p. 66.

2 Joe Lee, ‘The Background: Anglo-Irish relations, 1898–1921’, in Cormac O’Malley and Anne Dolan (eds), ‘No Surrender Here!’: The Civil War Papers of Ernie O’Malley (Dublin, 2007).

3 ‘East Limerick’ refers to an IRA brigade, or the territory encompassed by that brigade, or to an electoral constituency, whereas ‘east Limerick’ is simply a geographical area.

4 Liam Manahan (University College Dublin Archives [UCDA], Ernie O’Malley Notebooks [EOMN], P17b/117, p. 35).

5 Limerick Leader, 2 January 1922.

6 Brian Murphy, ‘The Civil War 1922–23: An anti-Treaty perspective’, The Irish Sword – The Civil War, 1922–23, vol. xx, no. 82 (winter 1997), p. 298.

7 UCDA, Ernie O’Malley Papers [EOMP], P80/312.

8 Quoted in Mainchín Seoighe, The Story of Kilmallock (Kilmallock, 1987), p. 290.

9 John Pinkman [Francis E. Maguire (ed.)], In the Legion of the Vanguard (Cork, 1998), p. 148.

10 Ibid., p. 152.

11 Murphy, ‘The Civil War 1922–23’, p. 297.

12 Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc, The Battle for Limerick city (Cork, 2010).

13 Quoted in Michael Hopkinson, Green against Green: The Irish Civil War (Dublin, 2004), p. 146.

14 Karl Murphy, ‘General W.R.E. Murphy and the Irish Civil War’ (MA Thesis, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, 1994).

15 Ó Ruairc, The Battle for Limerick city, pp. 43, 54, 66.

16 Murphy, ‘General W.R.E. Murphy’, pp. 5–7.

17 Hopkinson, Green against Green, p. 151.

18 Calton Younger, Ireland’s Civil War (London, 1968), pp. 396–7.

19 Ó Ruairc, The Battle for Limerick city, p. 138.

20 Hopkinson, Green against Green, pp. 272–3.

21 Pinkman, In the Legion of the Vanguard, p. 148.

22 Eoin Neeson, The Civil War in Ireland (Cork, 1966).

23 Michael Hopkinson, ‘The Civil War from the pro-Treaty perspective’, The Irish Sword – The Civil War, 1922–23, vol. xx, no. 82 (winter 1997), p. 289.

24 John Regan, The Irish Counter-Revolution, 1921–36 (Dublin, 1999), p. 80.

25 Hopkinson, Green against Green, p. 290.

26 Pinkman, In the Legion of the Vanguard, p. 155.

27 Limerick Chronicle, 1 August 1922.

Chapter 1

1 Strickland, HQ British Army 6th Division, Cork, to GHQ British Army Ireland, 22 August 1921 (Imperial War Museum, Strickland Papers).

2 Hopkinson, Green against Green, p. 15.

3 ‘Breaches of the Truce’ (National Archiv...