The Battle of Ballinalee took place during the Irish War of Independence on 4 November 1920. Members of the

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief th ...

(IRA), led by

Seán Mac Eoin Seán Mac Eoin (30 September 1893 – 7 July 1973) was an Irish Fine Gael politician and soldier who served as Minister for Defence briefly in 1951 and from 1954 to 1957, Minister for Justice from 1948 to 1951, and Chief of Staff of the Def ...

, drove a mixed group of Crown forces consisting of

Black and Tans Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have ...

and Auxiliary Division personnel from the village of

Ballinalee Ballinalee (), sometimes known as Saint Johnstown, is a village in north County Longford, Ireland. It is situated on the River Camlin, and falls within the civil parish of Clonbroney. As of the 2016 census, the village had a population of 347 ...

in County Longford. Crown forces hoped to burn the town as a

reprisal A reprisal is a limited and deliberate violation of international law to punish another sovereign state that has already broken them. Since the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions (AP 1), reprisals in the laws of war are extreme ...

for the deaths of several RIC personnel in the preceding days. This included the killing of an RIC inspector, Philip St Johnstone Howlett Kelleher, the previous week and an RIC Constable, Peter Cooney, the previous day. Cooney had been suspected of being a spy and his execution was reputedly ordered by

Michael Collins Michael Collins or Mike Collins most commonly refers to: * Michael Collins (Irish leader) (1890–1922), Irish revolutionary leader, soldier, and politician * Michael Collins (astronaut) (1930–2021), American astronaut, member of Apollo 11 and Ge ...

. At the time of his killing, Cooney was allegedly carrying coded dispatches with the names of Longford IRA men. The Crown forces (numbering 100 men in 11 trucks) were defeated by about 25 IRA members, of which 4 were involved in the main battle. Mac Eoin had placed several groups at the roads leading into the village, including one at a house, Rose Cottage, on the approach to the village centre. This group, referred to in some sources as the "Rose Cottage Four", engaged the much larger RIC force using rifle fire and grenades, and forced their retreat. The battle was the only one of its kind during the entire conflict.

References

Conflicts in 1920 Military actions and engagements during the Irish War of Independence Battles involving Ireland History of County Longford November 1920 events {{Ireland-hist-stub

See also

References