The Mullaghfad Ambush - Fermanagh/Monaghan Border - 29th May 1921

A short video from Fermanagh 1916 with it's Chairperson, and local historian, Oliver McCaffrey speaking on the 100th Anniversary of the Mullaghfad Ambush.

29th May 1921 - 29th May 2021
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Additional information and background leading up to the Ambush.

By May 1921 the nationalist people of Fermanagh and Tyrone living along the Co Monaghan boundary were starting to realise what Partition was going to mean for them.

In the early days of the newly created northern statelet the Nationalist population were already suffering at the hands of the Orange State.

The Ulster Volunteer Force had evolved into the Ulster Special Constabulary. The USC had became a state sanctioned militia harassing and regularly ill treating people they viewed as Nationalist.

Reports of these incidents were reaching the officers of the local IRA Battalion and they decided they had to respond.

The local Battalion area covered parts of Fermanagh and Tyrone along with part of north Monaghan.

The officers selected Volunteers from IRA companies in Scotstown, Knockatallon and Donagh Co Monaghan and Derrygannon and Roslea Co Fermanagh and detailed them to an ambush position at Mullaghfad, Co Fermanagh.

Mullaghfad is a townland close to the county boundaries of Fermanagh and Monaghan.

In the early hours of 29th May 1921 a twelve man USC patrol entered the ambush site. The IRA allowed the front part of the patrol to pass towards the border thus cutting them off from the possibility of reinforcements. As the rear section drew closer they opened fire.

Two members of the patrol were killed(Constables Hall and Coulter) and one was seriously injured(Constable Montgomery). A number of weapons and a quantity of ammunition was captured.

A number of IRA volunteers were wounded, but none seriously.

Later that day the British forces, including the USC, swamped the area. Over 300 local people were rounded up with fifteen of these being arrested.

Two local Nationalist houses were burned out. One belonging to a local school teacher named Monahan and the other belonged to a local farmer named Lowry

Several of those rounded up were severely assaulted. One young man, Felix Connolly, was so badly beaten that he never recovered. He died two years later from a combination of his injuries and TB.