Dripsey Ambush: One of the bloodiest days of the conflict

Dripsey ambushers were shot in pairs at 15-minute intervals and the response of the Cork IRA was swift and ruthless

Maria Georgina (Mary) Lindsay informed the military about IRA movements and was taken hostage by the IRA. She was executed as a reprisal for the executions of the Volunteers.  Picture: Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc

By 7.30am on February 28, 1921, crowds had begun to gather on the wide expanse of the Old Youghal Road outside then Victoria Barracks, now Collins Barracks. They came to keep vigil and they came to pray for the six men who were to be executed there at 8am.

Exactly one month previously, on January 28, five of the six had been captured at the ill-fated ambush by the 6th Battalion of the 1st Cork Brigade of the IRA at Dripsey. The five men were Thomas O’Brien and Daniel O’Callaghan from Dripsey, John Lyons of Aghabulloge, Timothy McCarthy of Fornaught, and Patrick O’Mahony of Berrings.