IRISH TRAIN AMBUSH.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 May 1921, Page 8

IRISH TRAIN AMBUSH.

ATTACKS ON CROWN FORCES. SIX CIVILIANS KILLED IN HOT FIGHT. A DARING RUSE. The war on forces of the Crown is becoming every day more desperate. Attackers are being launched on passenger trains carrying troops, without any regard to the lives of non-com-batants. One such attack took place a few miles from Cork on the Cork and Bandon bne. As a result si.v passengers were shot dead, including one woman, and several were wounded. The military party on the train suffered six casualties, and of the attackers two at least were shot dead.

The 9.30 train from Cork had just leached Upton Station, and before the engine-driver had shut off his valves, a shower of bulleis was rained on the train.

Civilians threw, themselves on th© floors of the compartments, and between the crack-erack of rifles could be heard the cries of women and panicstricken children, as well as the moans of the dying and the shrieks of those who had been wounded. CORN “SAND BAGS.” The military, who occupied compartments at both the front and rear of the train, opened fire, but they were greatly handicapped by the fact that the attackers had, prior to the arrival of the train, taken possession of the station and had entrenched themselves behind sacks of corn, flour, etc., which had been removed from the goods store and used as sand bags.

Tl|ere were 40 or 59 military on the train, and of t)iose six were wounded, three being rather serious cases. The officer in charge of the military was very positive after the firing had ceased that he had shot at least one of the attacking party, and this was borne out by the finding of two bodies near the scene of the occurrence. The dead included two commercial travellers, Mr. John Spiers, Clarence terrace, St. Luke's, Cork, who represented Messrs. Warden and Co., tea merchants, Dublin, and Air. Burn, of Dublin, representative of a Dublin drapery firm. OFFICIALS WOUNDED. Early in the attack two railway officials were wounded, and they,* with others, were subsequently brought back to Cork on a relief train which had been sent out for the purpose Shortly after this affair particulars of another attack on a military party filtered through. This attack took place nea_- Mourne Abbey, the next station to Mallow. o?i the main line to Dublin.

It is a quiet, scattered village, and on the main road. There are only a few isolated farmsteads, a/id the movements of Crown forces in motor-lorries make up nearly all the traffic. One of these lorries, journo/ing from Cork apparently, was ambushed from behind high fences.

A fierce but' short fight ensued, and’ the ambuahers were able to make good their retreat under running fire. One man was shot dead, several wounded, some seriously, and several taken prisoner.

OFFICIAL REPORT.

SIX PASSENGERS KILLED. The following communique was issued by Military General Headquarters, Dublin:— “The 9.30 train from Cork to Bantry, containing a small party of troops and a number of civilians, was heavily fired upon as it arrived at Upton station. “The troops left, the carriage and fired on the attackers, who immediately £ed ; leaving three of their number dead.

The fire of the assailants resulted in the deaths of one fernals and five male passengers and the wounding of two women, one male civilian, and six of the soldiers who wore travelling by the train.” PRISONERS RESCUED. MAN TRIED FOR MURDER ESCAPES THROUGH RI SE. Dublin, Feb. 20. Frank Tooling, one of the prisoners tried for the murder or manslaughter of Lieutenant AleMahon at Lower Mount street on “Bloody Sunday.” escaped with x two other prisoners, from Kilinainham Gaol. The story is that about 8 -o’cjock at night a military lorry containing ]6 soldiers, equipped with fixed bayonets and steel helmets, in charge of an officer drove up to the prison. The leader produced what was ajiparently an official warrant bearing the signature of a high Castle functionary authorising them to remove Francis Teeling, Simon Donnelly, and a man named Stewhrt to another place of detention, and directing the governoi* to place the men in his custody. In a few minutes th** men were marched under guard to the lorry, which then drove away. Later the absence of the prisoners aroused comment, and on inquiries being made it was discovered that the military had been hoaxed. The party of men was net a military contingent, and the document presented was a forgery. The’ alarm was raised, and although Crown forces with, searchlights scoured the streets round Kilnjainham, no traces of the troops or the prisoners could be found. The bodies of two murdered gnen have been found in the Cork district, each bearing a card headed by the words. “A Convicted Spy.” Dublin Castle reports that Constable John Carroll, stationed at Cork, has been found murdered in a field at Nenagh, Tipperary, with his eyes bandaged and his hands tied behind his back.! A Castle report also states that the house' of James Coffey, a farmer, of Breaghna, in the Bandon district, was raided yesterday morning by masked armed men. Coffey’s two sons, Janies, aged 22. and Timothy, aged 25, an exsailor, were taken out and shot dead.