Hi Doddie, I'm not sure I can help in collobrating whether your grandmother was at the Shannon Hotel at the time of the incident but from what you say there is a very good chance. Well I can now tell my story about my grandfather who was directly involved in the incident. Leslie Shiner (LG) was a member of G company of the Auxiliaries who were based nearby at the Lakeside Hotel in Killaloe. LG was part of the auxie group who came over to the hotel after a tip off that the IRA were in the hotel. LG was one of the first into the bar and we believe he shot Sergeant Hughes dead. When I was a boy of around 9 he told me that when he was in Ireland he went into a bar and shot a IRA man. What he didn't tell me was that he actually shot someone from his own side! I have recently written a book about my grandfather and through my research found his witness statement detailing his involvement in the incident. This was presented at the inquiry into the incident. He was clearly involved in the firefight and if if he told me he killed someone when he was around 80, then I believe he did. I remember him telling me not long before he died aged 87 that he was fearful of not what he did on the Western Front but his time in Ireland. As we know the Auxies wreaked havoc in Ireland and the Irish still remember their atrocities. Mind you the IRA were also guilty of the same.
I am very interested in the history of G company and the auxies and visited Killaloe and the Shannon Inn in June. When I went into the bar a local took me out the back and showed me the bullet holes in the back door. The bar looked like nothing had changed since 1921. The incident is actually very significant in Irish history because due to the outrage it caused in England, Lloyd George started serious negotiations with the IRA which 6 weeks later resulted in a truce and a settlement on the 6th December, 1921 which created the Irish Free state. If you would like to see LG's witness statement then go to my blog on the site about my book about LG.
www.shinerandco.comThe book is a true story about LG and details his time on the Western Front, in Russia fighting the Bolsheviks, his stint with G company and a loving but treacherous relationship with his brother (he was also in the auxies) which ended in acrimonious terms with them never talking again.
Interestingly LG joined the auxies on 10th Oct 1920 and stayed right through until Jan 1922 when they left for England. I have the auxies records and many of them left as they could at anytime but LG went the distance.
As part of my ongoing research I am trying to find a relative of Sergeant William John Hughes who came from Newport. As my grandfather killed him I would like to meet a relative if possible. I might try and contact the local Newport paper and see if they can run an article. Does anyone know the name of the local paper or any other information about the incident?
I noticed someone put a reply in there about Briggs. Evidently the auxies thought the proprietor, O'Donovan, was a IRA informer and this was why he was shot. Briggs then wanted to silence any possible witnesses. From a report I have from a newspaper article from 1964 and which I was given when in the Shannon Inn, Briggs was killed by the IRA at Newport not long after the incident.
Mark Custance, Adelaide, South Australia
I will be in Ireland next year so look forward to finding out more about my grandfather and meeting a Hughes relative
