Piltown Cross ambush
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The Piltown Cross ambush, an action of the Irish War of Independence, took place near Kinsalebeg, County Waterford on the night of 1 November 1920.
Involved was the IRA West Waterford Brigade, specifically the newly formed Deise Flying Column under O/C George Lennon of Dungarvan, as well as Volunteers from the local Ardmore battalion. Returned Great War veteran John Riordan planned the successful engagement involving a feint attack on the RIC barracks in Ardmore. The British garrison in Youghal subsequently dispatched nearly twenty troops from the 2nd Hampshires under Lieutenant Griffin in a single lorry.[1] They were ambushed at Kinsalebeg and suffered two dead and six wounded. The ambush resulted in the capture of several rifles and a large quantity of ammunition which were used to equip the flying column. Captured were R.I.C. constables O'Neill and Prendiville who gave their word that they would resign. Prendiville was subsequently killed, fired from a shot from the Waterford side of the Youghal Bridge.
In 2008 a commemorative memorial was erected to the Piltown ambushes. “Here at Piltown Cross on the night of the 1st of November 1920, Volunteers of the West Waterford I.R.A. Brigade took on the might of the British Crown Forces fatally wounded 2 of them, captured and injured many more".
The I.R.A. captured a substantial amount of much needed arms and ammunition. And destroyed enemy vehicles, in what was one of the biggest ambushes of that era in this area.
The ambush is commemorated in a memorial erected at the site of the ambush:[2]
This monument is erected in memory of those Volunteers who fought here and assisted in the West Waterford area on that night, and to all of those brave Irish men and women who fought in every generation up to the present day in the struggle for Irish freedom.
References[edit]
- ^ "Private A. Leigh 5485478. 2nd Bn. Hampshire Regiment". www.cairogang.com.
- ^ John. Commemoration, the Piltown Ambush and Ireland 2016 (Report). The Memory Trail. Retrieved 13 August 2022.
Sources[edit]
- Gunfire and Civil War Sean and Sile Murphy Clonmel 2005
- Rebel Heart: George Lennon: Flying Column Commander Mercier 2009, ISBN 1-85635-649-3
- "The Struggle For Freedom In West Waterford" at Waterford County Museum
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- Articles lacking in-text citations from January 2021
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- 1920 in Ireland
- History of County Waterford
- Military actions and engagements during the Irish War of Independence
- British Army in the Irish War of Independence
- Ambushes in Europe