On Monday 13 December 1920 ‘crown forces’ wrecked and sacked in full daylight the town of Ballinalee, county Longford following an attack on the police barracks by the IRA.
The destruction of the house of Mr Heraty, partially destroyed on 10 December during the IRA attack was finally flattened. The farmhouses, stables and crops of J Hannigan and P Bracken were destroyed, while P Earley and Miss Hannigan’s shop were burned down. Nine other houses in the village were also seriously damaged. JJ Connolly’s house which stood a mile from the village was destroyed, while three of his cows were shot dead. Other houses were damaged outside the village while a pony belonging to Mr Hughes was shot dead. When a Mr Keogh’s house would not burn, the military carried the furniture out and burned it in the yard. The
Bulletin’s account of the ‘Sack of Ballinalee’ does not mention the fact that RIC Constable Frederick Taylor had been shot dead earlier in the day when the IRA opened fire on the barracks. Three other constables were injured in the attack. The police managed to hold the building which had been commandeered a few days previously to act as a temporary barracks. Having blown the wall in, it was claimed that the IRA called on the garrison to surrender but they replied by signing ‘God Save the King’. The garrison of twenty-seven men defended their position and although the house belonging to Patrick Farrell was badly damaged, it did not fall to the IRA.
Source: The Irish Bulletin, 18 December 1920, page 4