Battle of Ballinalee

Battle of Ballinalee
	Part of the Irish War of Independence
Date	4 November 1920
Location	Ballinalee, County Longford
Result	IRA victory
Belligerents
Irish Republican Army	United Kingdom
Commanders and leaders
Seán Mac Eoin	?
Strength
~4	~100
Casualties and losses
None	Unknown (perhaps 20)

The Battle of Ballinalee took place during the Irish War of Independence on 4 November 1920. Members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), led by Seán Mac Eoin,^[3] drove a mixed group of Crown forces consisting of Black and Tans and Auxiliary Division personnel from the village of Ballinalee in County Longford.^[4]

Crown forces hoped to burn the town as a reprisal for the deaths of several RIC personnel in the preceding days.^[5] 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.^[1] Cooney had been suspected of being a spy and his execution was reputedly ordered by Michael Collins. At the time of his killing, Cooney was allegedly carrying coded dispatches with the names of Longford IRA men.^[6]

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.^[1] 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.^[1] 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.^[1]

Museum

Rose Cottage, the building from which Mac Eoin coordinated the defence of the village, was developed into an exhibition centre and opened to the public in November 2023.^[7]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Ó Súilleabháin, Seán (2 November 2020). "The Burning of Granard by the Tans and Lancers and legendary defence of Ballinalee by the IRA". longfordleader.ie. Longford Leader. Retrieved 14 November 2022.
^ Coogan, Tim Pat (2002). Michael Collins: The Man Who Made Ireland. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 179. ISBN 978-0-312-29511-0. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
^ "History of Ballinalee". longford.ie. Longford County Council. Archived from the original on 24 November 2010.
^ White, Robert William; Moloney, Ed (2006). Ruairí Ó Brádaigh: the life and politics of an Irish revolutionary. Indiana University Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-253-34708-4.
^ Lawlor, Pearse (2011). "The Battle of Ballinalee". The Outrages 1920–1922: The IRA and the Ulster Special Constabulary in the Border Campaign. Mercier Press Ltd. ISBN 9781856359665.
^ O'Halpin, Eunan; Ó Corráin, Daithí (2020). The Dead of the Irish Revolution. Yale University Press. p. 211. ISBN 9780300123821.
^ "Historic MacEoin cottage in Longford to open to public". rte.ie. RTÉ News. 12 November 2023. Retrieved 12 November 2023.