Mc'Donnell's Hotel, Clifden, Galway - burnt 1921

[corisande]

I would be grateful for those clips

The clip I have for Mar 19 in Connaught Tribune says W A Clancy, butcher Main St was one of the properties burned.

And Freeman's Journal report of 19 Mar where they interview Peter Clancy, says "the shop owned by another brother [of Peter Clancy] Wm A Clancy was burned"

[Pastmagic]

Have sent you the various press cuttings. Here is an extract from another I have just got, which gives a sightly different slant on timing of events that night. William was the brother, as you say.
I suppose there is no family connection between John Joseph McDonald and Peter Joe McDonald who is the then  Comdt of the Sinn Fein, and supposed instigator of the attack.

[corisande]

I have not been able to find a connection between John Joe McDonnell and Peter Joe McDonnell.

A connection may exist, but if it does it is not a close connection

A more likely scenario would be that John J McDonnell was in fact a member of the local IRA in some way

After a death like his it is always difficult to establish such information. Take the case of Paddy Moran who was hanged for a Bloody Sunday murder that he did not commit - but he did murder two men at another location that night, and it took decades for that to be established. If John Joe had been a member, then it certainly would have been hidden from the news at the time.

I am not saying that John J McDonnell was a member, just saying that it would appear that the police that night appear to believe that he was. I tend to believe that his father's account is the most accurate, and if that is so, then the police specifically asked for John Joe.

The other "gray" area is how many Auxiliaries were present that night. The only reference I have seen is in the inquiry where it would appear from the evidence given that the man in command was an Auxiliary officer.

[Pastmagic]

That does seem likely. For what its worth the New York Tribune took a view that it was a reprisal, as part of a larger pattern following the execution of Whelan. As you say, research of this kind can take years!

March 24, 1921

[corisande]

That is a good article, and shows well how the cycle of violence gets ratcheted up and continued with each incident.

I have started to put on the links to Whelan. Would you think this is fair

The ambush appears to have been part of a cycle of violence, common to many such incidents in Ireland at that time. Thomas Whelan from Clifden had been executed on 14 Mar 1921 for the murder of Captain G. T. Baggally on Bloody Sunday (and Baggally was shot because...). The ambush of the RIC patrol and the death of the 2 RIC men appears to have been reprisal for Whelan's death. The death of the 2 constables in Clifden on 16th March then led to Crown Forces reprisals and the death of 2 more men, and the burning of 16 houses in Clifden (and no doubt these events led to further retaliation against the Crown Forces)


I have not found though, a contemporary account of the ambush being a reprisal for Whelan's death - though it has to be more than a co-incidence!

[Pastmagic]

Fair enough!
PM

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88078751/1921-03-15/ed-1/seq-1/

For a long account of the execution of Whelan.

[Pastmagic]

Whelan's mother outside Mounjoy with Maud Gonne McBride.
 http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045211/1921-03-29/ed-1/seq-26/

This one is positively gross:
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042345/1921-03-14/ed-1/seq-1/


Know this is rambling a bit from the Hotel, but maybe  it is valid background, for anyone who might come across this thread.

[corisande]

I would agree with you that it is important to establish the events surrounding these incidents, as they do tend to be inter-related

That Lib of Congress site is very good- I had not come across it before

[Pastmagic]

I have been using it a while - it is the best organised of the free ones, I think. It does have a few peculiar spellings, like "Mount Joy" for Mounjoy which means searching can be an experement! And some papers cary more Irish content than others.
PM