A commemoration to mark the centenary of the deaths of four Volunteers killed in the Battle of Bantry 1922, took place on this day Sunday 28th August at 1pm at the Volunteers memorial in Bantry Town.
Brigadier General Gibbs Ross, Captain Patrick Cooney, Quartermaster Donal McCarthy, and Lieut. Michael Crowley, all members of Cork No. 5 Brigade IRA, were killed in an attempt to rout a force of Free State soldiers who had set up garrison in the Post Office in Bantry.
One Free State soldier who had previously been a Volunteer in Cork No. 5 Brigade IRA, Captain John Hourihane was also killed in the battle.
With the outbreak of the Civil War in Dublin on the 28th June 1922, a Brigade Council of Cork No. 5 Brigade IRA met the following evening and made a decision to remove any Provisional Government forces from the brigade area. A
t the time the only Free State garrison was in Skibbereen and on the evening of 1st July 1922 a force of 80 IRA Volunteers drawn from all 5th Brigade battalions took up billet in a number of houses surrounding the Free State barracks.
The Provisional troops were asked to surrender their position but the soldiers declined. At 8pm the following evening, the IRA opened fire on the barracks until the Free State garrison surrendered and the barracks was vacated.
One IRA Volunteer, Captain Patrick McCarthy from Ballydehob, who was a veteran of the Kilmichael Ambush was killed in the incident.
At the start of August, seeking to establish authority in the rebel stronghold of Cork, a troop of Free State soldiers landed in Union Hall and set up a number of garrisons, including one in Bantry town in the Old Post Office.
At a Brigade meeting of Cork No. 5 Brigade, a decision was made to recapture the town and put it back under the control of anti-treaty forces.
To that end, a strong force of IRA entered Bantry on the 29th of August and a number of skirmishes took place. One unit reached the centre of the town and tunnelled from an adjacent building to the garrison, where a number of explosives were placed before the Free State forces were ordered to surrender.
The IRA column had succeeded in forcing a second outpost on the eastern end of the town to retreat to the Post Office but lacking suitable armaments had been unable to push the attack further.
Having given the garrison an ultimatum to surrender before the explosives were ignited, just prior to the deadline a shot from a fanlight in the Post Office was fired by a sniper striking IRA Brigade General Gibbs Ross in the head. He died shortly afterwards from his wounds.
An intense battle commenced where a further three IRA Volunteers and one Free State Soldier were killed, before the IRA decided to withdraw from the town before civilians casualties would incur, in what had been a 17-hour engagement.
Gibbs Ross was a member of a well respected West Cork family and was also a member of Bantry Rural District Council and the Bantry Board of Guardians.
He had previously been Commandant of the Schull Battalion, and Adjutant of Cork No. 3 Brigade, as well as being Head-Centre of the Irish Republican Brotherhood in the area. He was buried in Caheragh cemetery.
Captain Patrick Cooney and Quartermaster Donal McCarthy were buried in Kilmocomoge cemetery, while Lieut. Michael Crowley was buried in Glandore. Captain John Hourihane was buried in Drimoleague.
The commemoration is being organised by the Cork Fenian Society, and they are inviting relatives and local groups to participate in the events and lay wreaths at the commemoration.
The four Volunteers were part of nearly a 100 Volunteers from the five Cork IRA Brigades who died in battle against pro-Treaty forces in 1922 and 1923 before an order to dump arms was given.
The oration will be given by historian Tomás MacCormaic, who runs the “History of the Cork IRA 1913 – 1923” group.