L Coy.(Aghada) 4th Battalion, 1st Brigade Cork. MA/MSPC/A/1(10) Part Two

The problem with the Bureau of Military History (BMH) documents is the diverseness within the claimed incidents that occurred and has been misread to a large degree by many, including a recent publication of the Republican movement which included L Company in East Cork. The picture to the right is a rough diagram of the 4th Battalion, Cork No.1 Brigade area of operations during the War of Independence in Cork taken from the document  MA/MSPC/RO/31.

“Witness statements were collected decades after the events described in them took place. Retrospective testimony of any kind –including other recorded interviews, Ernie O’Malley notebook interviews, or MSP testimony– has to be consulted in conjunction with contemporary sources and, where available, other interviews. Concordances with and deviations from both contemporary records and other accounts in witness statements are often deliberate and highly significant. Memories also have what oral historian Luisa Passerini describes as a ‘multiplicity of layers’, and part of the process of interpreting them is identifying and considering the influence of these various contexts in the texts. In short, the greater the reader’s knowledge of the surviving documentary record, and the factors influencing and informing the witness’s attitude and experience, the better able the reader will be to accurately interpret the full significant of the information Bureau interviewees impart.”

Bureau of Military History witness statements as sources for the Irish Revolution

 Eve Morrison

An example of Eve Morrison’s statement can be found in Patrick J. Higgins Witness Statement Number 1467 dated 25 July 1956, where he stated the following incident involving L company from Aghada on the attack of Cloyne R.I.C. Barracks,

"The first, what might be termed, major operation in which our company took part occurred in connection with an attack by the Cobh and Midleton Companies on the R.I.C. barracks at Cloyne. This attack took place on 8th May, 1920 and the job assigned to the Aghada Company was the blocking of roads leading from Fort Carlisle to Cloyne to prevent any assistance coming to the British garrison at Cloyne while the attack was on. About fifteen of the Aghada Company were engaged on the night in question, felling trees across the roads and erecting road blocks of stones in the district of Whitewell, situated about two miles from the village of Cloyne and four miles from Fort Carlisle. No British relief party attempted to get through to Cloyne from Fort Carlisle that night. 

Patrick J. Higgins Witness Statement 1467

Capt., Aghada Company, 4^th Batt. Cork 1 Brigade.

In the Brigade Activity Report MA/MSPC/A/1(10) it states that the whole company from Aghada (eighty plus) were involved in the attack on Cloyne R.I.C. Barracks. Higgins Witness Statement states there were only “about” fifteen from Aghada. On closer inspection of the document MA/MSPC/A/1 (10), Cloyne’s K Company, which was formed in 1918 during the anti-conscription campaign were attached to the Aghada and Shanagarry companies. Cloyne’s K Company also state they were involved in the attack on the R.I.C. Barracks in Cloyne but under who? It was after the attack on the R.I.C. Barracks in Cloyne that K Company elected its own officers and was officially recognized as its own unit.

As this is a work in progress the list of names in L Company Aghada has become complex with many anomalies. The list of names signed off by John O’Shea (2^nd Lt. from Saleen), who appeared to play a major role in L Company’s activities during the period of the first critical date July 1921, War of Independence.  The numbers varied from eighty four to eighty seven to a substantial drop to thirty five during the second critical date, Civil War July 1922.

I have used the documents to put the names to actions carried out by L Company Aghada during the War of Independence. The documents seem to have duplicated two names, James Higgins from the Ballinrostig Section and Michael Barry from the Saleen Section. Joseph Cosgrove is on the MA/MSPC/A/1 (10) list twice, first entry as 1^st Lt. and further down the list as a volunteer with the same incident indicators. The list also shows twenty seven men involved in no actions and could possibly be ‘truceleers’ which would question the high figure of the mid eighty’s. Prior to the War of Independence in 1920, in 1918 Aghada had over three hundred sailors in the Royal Navy alone, not including the Army, Air Force or Merchant Navy. Over seventy men from Aghada were killed during the Great War. One of the men on the list is John Bolton from Farsid. He was living at an address in London, Edgeware Road, Paddington. John Bolton was recalled into the Royal Air Force during the Miners’ Strike in 1921 which could only happen if he had an English address at the time as no Irish reservist with an Irish address could be re-enlisted. He is on the list of names in L Company. The youngest volunteer in L Company in 1920 was fourteen year old Joseph Buckmaster and the oldest was Patrick O’Callaghan aged 57 from Trabolgan, making the average age thirty five.

L Coy. 4^th Battalion, 1^st Brigade Cork. Officers and Men as on the 11^th July 1921              (MA/MSPC/RO/31 23 Sept. 1935)

List of officers of L Company up to and on 11^th July 1921

Letters indicate engagements MA/MSPC/A/1(10)

Total Strength of Company on 11 July 1921, First Critical Date 

 Ambush of D.I July 1920 – marked A

Raids on Military Stores – marked B

Raids on ships in harbour for shells September 1920 – marked C

Raids on ships in harbour for shells October 1920 – marked D

Relief of column at Cloyne December 1920 – marked E 

Collectors of arms fund – marked F

Seizure and care of horses – marked G 

Ambush at Aghada in March (April) 1921 – marked H

Ambush of Military at Saleen March 1921 – marked I

 Nil, No records of any incident official or unofficial

Men attach to a special column under John O’Shea from April 1921 to end of Period – marked X 

Non Active – Possible ‘truceleers’

Volunteers under the age of eighteen