Upton train ambush was start of IRA's darkest days in War of Independence

Historian Kieran McCarthy looks back at the Upton train ambush

Upton Station on the old West Cork railway line around 1920. The station was the scene of an ambush during the Irish War of Independence in early 1921 during which three IRA volunteers and six civilians were killed.

IRA manoeuvres across the Bandon area of County Cork in late 1920 and early 1921 were intense.

They attempted the almost impossible – to have their presence felt across the wide geographical space.