Below arranged alphabetically are those men known to have served in 4th Battalion Command, Cork No. 1 Brigade as of 11 July 1921. The information is transcribed from original scans of the IRA Nominal Rolls at the Military Service Pensions Collection (MA/MSPC/RO/31) which can be accessed online via The Military Archives website here. The addresses…
Cork No. 1 Brigade, 4th Battalion Companies & Strengths
The Company designations and strengths of the 4th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade as of July 1921. The information is transcribed from original scans of the IRA Nominal Rolls at the Military Service Pensions Collection (MA/MSPC/RO/31) which can be accessed online via The Military Archives website here. COMPANY LOCATION STRENGTH JULY 1921 A Cobh 201…
A Virtual Tour of the 1920 Midleton Ambush for the Centenary
The 29 December 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the Midleton Main Street Ambush, one of the most significant and consequential actions during the War of Independence in East Cork. To mark that occasion, we produced a virtual video tour of the battlefield site, recouting the story of the engagement, its people, and its landscape.…
Thomas Kent Memorial Park Remarks
Remarks delivered for the occasion of the 2020 Thomas Kent Memorial Park Remembrance Day in Rostellan, Co. Cork. As part of this virtual talk the opportunity was taken to explore some of the local archaeology relating to the War of Independence and Civil War in this area, and incorporate them into the resultant video, which…
New Maps of Midleton’s Main Street Ambush & Revolutionary Landscapes
Demonstrating how surviving elements of Ireland’s landscapes of revolution can be identified is the central aim of this project. There has never been a nationwide effort to undertake this work, which is vital if we are to appropriately manage our Revolutionary-era heritage. Following on from projects such as the one undertaken at Knockraha, we began…
Picturing the IRA in Midleton: Then & Now
Recently the images we shared back in 2017 of IRA volunteers in Midleton photographed c. 1922 went viral online. Part of the Dick Cashman/John Fenton Collection, a number of people asked where in the town they were taken. The images were exposed in the Constabulary Barracks, presumably at some point during 1922, as the Civil…
Resources: A Brief Guide to Researching the Archaeology of Ireland’s Threatened Landscapes of Revolution
For many years I have worked to highlight both our lack of knowledge and the lack of protection for archaeological landscapes that date to our recent past, particularly those from the Revolutionary Period and First World War. Unfortunately, as yet no major initiatives have been undertaken in the Republic of Ireland to address these major…
In Search of Safe Houses
The past couple of posts have updated you on our progress in Midleton, dealing with the ambush and consequent reprisals. This post is an appeal, and it moves further afield then Midleton. As shown with the work so far, community involvement is absolutely vital in identifying these War of Independence sites. In Midleton, it was…
Uncovering Midleton’s Main Street Buildings Burned in the War of Independence’s First Official Reprisal
One of the major aims of this project is to identify surviving sites that played a role in the War of Independence. Michael Fletcher, the Middle Tennessee State University PhD student who has been working on the project over recent months, has been attempting to confirm the locations of the buildings burned on Midleton’s Main…
Project Update- And Appeal!
We have recently been trying to fill out the narrative of the Midleton ambush that took place on December 29, 1920. Valuable contributions from members of the community have helped to verify several locations associated with the ambush and consequent reprisals that took place on January 1, 1921. These include the sawmill, located on Free…
Picturing Midleton’s War of Independence
The Landscapes of Revolution team were delighted recently to take delivery of a large number of historic Midleton photographs. The photographs were graciously loaned by local resident John Fenton. Many of the pictures were collected by John’s uncle, noted bandleader and local historian, the late Dick Cashman, and they include Cashman’s valuable annotations concerning Midleton’s…
Project Update
We recently completed our first workshop for those interested in volunteering to assist with the Landscapes of Revolution survey. On Saturday, December 17, 14 people joined us at the Midleton Public Library where we discussed a variety of topics from the project’s importance to the need for proper citation for locations. In addition, we discussed…
Landscapes of Revolution 