blackandtans

There's something about that downpipe that make me think that this might be the building. Streetview 25"OSI That could well have been the highest Lewis machine gun in Ireland on that day.

THE MEELIN AFFRAY. An authoritative account of the Meelin affray, superseding the earlier official message, says the Sinn Fein attackers opened fire on the military patrol. using a machine gun mounted on a crest of a hill dominating the road. The range was 300 yards. The police and military took cover and replied. The fight continued for two hours, until reinforcements appeared, when the Sinn Feiners fled. The soldiers, when subsequently occupying the hilltop, found blood there, indicating that some of the Sinn Feiners had been wounded. The military arrested six men at Meelin, including a youth, who ran away when challenged and was shot in the stomach. Gen. Strickland has given orders that five houses near the Meelin road, from which premises shots were fired at the military and police party, are to be destroyed.

From trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/55151458 (7/1/1921), which implies the reprisals happened a month later ?

I've a feelin' that the photos of Meelin in the NLI catalogue are not too reliable with the dates - catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000218124 - 7/12/1921 (!) catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000218266 - 20/1/1921 catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000279878 - n.d. 1921 (amazing photo)

beachcomber australia I think you're right about the dates. The attrocities happened soon after the IRA attacks on the 4th January. The woman in your last photo may be the daughter of the widow, Mrs M Browne..... see page 2 of this Bureau of Military History Witness Statement. www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/reels/bmh/BMH.WS0785.pdf "The place was such after these reprisals that Madam Gonne McBride and several other members of the White Cross arrived on the scene a few days after and photos of the burning appeared on the Press later " I wonder are these the same photographs Maud Gonne saw in the press? .

In the modern age of internet and social media suppression like this can't be carried out without the world getting to know about it almost instantaneously.

Who's who in this photo?
Th officer (I'm going by the cut of his uniform) has Flying Corps wings above his campaign ribbons. campaign ribbons are also worn my the man to his right.
By the look of cap badges (a harp surmounted by a crown) and the dark uniforms they might be members of the RIC . The presence of a khaki clad officer also makes me think of RIC Auxiliaries, aka Black and Tans.

I'm assuming he's Auxiliary - those men were recruited from ex-WWI officers including the Royal Flying Corps. Most of the others seem to be Black and Tans. So many men (mostly WWI veterans) responded to British Government appeals for recruits to bolster R.I.C. (Royal Irish Constabulary) numbers, that there was a severe shortage of uniforms. Hence the Tans mostly ended up with khaki trousers and dark tops, either R.I.C. (dark green) or British police tunics (dark blue) - and hence the nickname...

For more on this attack, and some fascinating details on participants from both sides, see this link - irishconstabulary.com/topic/755/Q-Company

Peter Mc Thank you! Absolutely fascinating, and allowed me to tag with Q Company...
With regard to the "liquid fire" spoken of on irishconstabulary.com, the Irish Times reported that:
"... A sinister feature of the attack was the use of gas bombs and of bottles containing a thick red-brown corrosive liquid, which gave off nauseous fumes and partially choked the police occupants of the hotel..."

Peter Mc Very interesting, I read the account of the attack, fascinating!

Hogan was in Templemore on 22nd August to photograph the "bleeding statues", so this may have been taken at the same time. There's a history of the "Templemore Miracles" at History Ireland. Including the following: According to an eye-witness, [Michael] Collins ‘. . . took hold of the statue and banged it off the side of the desk, and of course out fell the works of the alarm clock. “I knew it”, he says. So that was the end of the bleeding statue.’ Also here: www.flickr.com/photos/nlireland/6068653601/in/photolist-a...

Sharon Corbet Sharon, a fascinating read.

OSI down for maintenance!? How will I find this house?

derangedlemur It's working for me. (But isn't really helping me to identify the house...)

"On the night of 16 August 1920 ‘wild scenes were witnessed’ in Temple-more as the North-amptonshire Regiment carried out reprisals following the killing of RIC District Inspector Wilson by the IRA. According to a local press report, ‘soldiers joined in the outbreak . . . volleys were fired, houses attacked, shops looted, the town hall was burned down, and three creameries destroyed’. (Ironically, two members of the regiment, Captain S. H. Beattie MC and Lance Corporal H. J. Fuggle, were to lose their lives in the fire.)" Templemore was a hotbed of insurrection around that time and there were several killings, numerous burnings and raids by RIC, Black and Tans and the military aplenty! This could have been after one of those but I agree with Sharon, Hogan was virtually embedded with Collins and Co. and probably went there with him. Templemore has changed dramatically in the meantime and this house is unlikely to still be there. I love the line "Child with a small ball" What would whoever wrote the title call a sliothar then???