During Ireland’s revolutionary period, the demand for freedom, post 1918, saw an escalation in tension which led to direct warfare against the enemy. The War of Independence ran from January 1919 to July 1921. The IRA’s use of full-on guerilla tactics against British forces proved to be a strategy that worked. In 1920, the ‘Black and Tans’, a bunch of ruffians, were introduced by the British to support the R.I.C. The so-called ‘Black and Tans’ meted out terror on the civilian population. ‘Blood for blood’ became the new norm. In 1921, Lappanduff mountain, became the centre of a gun battle. The area, although more hilly than mountainous, has a number of ‘rocky outcrops.’ Mr. Patrick Smith TD, was one of the young men who fought that day. Lappanduff mountain is in the Electoral Division of Larah North, just a few miles from Cootehill.
Col. Tom Fox
Col. Tom Fox’s witness statement for the Bureau of Military History, provides a first-hand account of the Lappanduff episode. He believed, that the IRA in Cavan were under-resourced and lacked the necessary arms to mount an attack. According to Fox, ‘the county was almost completely devoid of arms, the only weapons in the hands of the Volunteers being shot guns, and the only weapons to be used by them up to this time were stones with which on one occasion the police were bombarded.’ For organisational purposes, General Head Quarters divided the County in to the East and West Cavan Volunteers. Peadar McMahon was the first East Cavan organiser. Unfortunately, he was arrested before he could put a plan together. He was succeeded by Sean Gallagher. Col. Fox disliked Gallagher, calling him ‘ an entirely different type.’ Adding that, ‘he was by no means a politician and in such a politically saturated atmosphere his work did not fructify. In addition, his carelessness in regard to detail and his personal safety led eventually to his arrest. He really left the area in a worse condition than he found it. No arms had been obtained and dissatisfaction was rife in many of the units.’ Consequently, Col. Seamus McGoran, was appointed organiser for East Cavan. He was determined to ‘the revive the militant spirit in the area.’ McGoran drew-up a strategy, organising the East in to four battalions. They were, Carrickallen, Madabawn, Knockbride East and Knockbride West.
Cumann na mBan
McGoran spoke at a Brigade Council meeting about the gun shortage. He gave orders to the Battalion Commanders of ‘Knockbride East and Madabawn’ to take-on an RIC outfit who regularly used a bank in Cootehill. The Battalion Commanders told McGoran that they had never used revolvers and therefore could not mount an attack. McGoran needed proper weapons and contacted GHQ to explain his plight. He was told, yes you can get arms, but you must accept also a contingent of Belfast men to make-up the column. The deal went through when GHQ agreed to McGoran’s terms; when enough arms and ammunition were sourced, McGoran intended to replace the Belfast men with local Cavan men. Matters were arranged. Col. Fox recalled, ‘the rifles and ammunition were smuggled in to Redhills by train in travelling rugs carried by Cumann na mBan from Belfast. No praise is too high for these ladies. When carrying the first consignment they were stopped in Belfast and questioned by the military and at every stopping place the carriages were inspected by detectives and police. Three journeys were made to complete the consignment.’
Battle
Lappanduff was chosen as the assembly point where training was to take place. At Redhills, the Belfast men arrived by train in the days leading up to the battle. They then, marched across the countryside to Lappanduff. On 8 May 1921, Fox remembered that, ‘at daybreak a shot was heard and a sentry came into the house to say that British Military had us surrounded. I asked the column commander to keep the column under cover in the house until I could go out and make a reconnaissance, because I knew the ground better than they. This was agreed to and I started off only to be recalled before I had gone a hundred yards to find the column commander giving orders which resulted in his losing complete control of his men and whose object I could not follow. However, I did as I was told which was to take up a position, which eventually proved to be on the extreme right flank. Another Volunteer, Sean McDermott, accompanied me.’ Members of the column began to run down a hill towards ‘a house from which British soldiers and police were firing.’ Volunteer Sean McCartney from Belfast was shot as he approached the house. He died from his wounds. Pearse Lawlor’s, ‘The Outrages’, tells a story about Mary Eliza Brady, a twenty-two year old who was woken that morning by the gun-fire. She jumped out of bed, dressed, and went in the direction of the shooting. When she got there, the shooting had ceased. But, she saw the body of Sean McCartney lying on the ground. Lawlor writes, ‘Mary was a devout Catholic, and on seeing the body of Sean McCartney prostrate on the ground she opened his collar and shirt to see whether he was wearing a scapular. When she saw he was a Catholic she whispered a prayer into his ear for the happy repose of his soul.’
According to some records, Lappanduff had been surrounded by an estimated 300 to 400 members of the British Army and Auxiliaries. Fighting ended, when the column’s ammunition supplies ran out and the men had to surrender. Eleven men were arrested and charged with high treason by a court martial at the Victoria Barracks, Belfast. Their names were: Joseph McGlinchey, James McKenna, Peter Callaghan, Thomas Fox, S. McCann, John McDermott, Patrick Smith, Patrick Clarke, Patrick Magill, James Finn and Patrick Dougan. The terms of the truce in July 1921 would save them from the death penalty.
In November 1921, the Anglo-Celt reported on an interesting compensation claim by a soldier in the 2nd Battalion King’s Royal Rifles. The soldier was shot in the lung at Lappanduff and faced the prospect of being invalided. The injured man was awarded £1,500. Later, the Lappanduff fight was commemorated in a song. Brendan Behan famously said, that he’d first heard it sung in a Bar on the Falls Road, Belfast:
‘… on Cavan’s mountain, Lappanduff,
One fought with bravery,
Until the English soldiers shot
Brave Sean McCartney’
