The Canadian Ross rifles angle is an interesting dimension to Kilmichael that doesn't get addressed very often. They were terribly designed bolt action rifles commissioned by the Canadian government. They were designed by the Baronet Charles Ross of Scotland. They were quickly ditched once the war started in Western Europe and they performed terribly in combat. The rifles were subsequently distributed across the commonwealth, mostly to non -combat services like the Coast Guard. Which is how they ended up in the hands of the Cork volunteers. One of the defects the rifle had was in the bolt itself. The rifle would fire without the bolt being fully locked, which would send it flying backwards at sufficient speed to kill someone looking down the sights. By most accounts Ross rifles were used at Kilmichael. And Barry later stated that Jim O'Sullivan was killed (post surrender) by a fluke shot that glanced off the bolt of his rifle. It may well be the case that it was a backfiring bolt was the real culprit, and not a shot fired by the Auxiliaries. We will never know of course. But amazing think that the false surrender at Kilmichael night actually have had its roots in a crackpot Scottish aristocrat conning the Canadian government into believing he could design a rifle.

Very good piece. There are mentions of the false surrender in the military archives, they may not have used the words false surrender but just described differently

Fantastic video thank you ! , and I have also read Tom Barry's book ...The criticism of Tom Barry by certain quarters mentioned at the time and years later, was in my opinion petty He put together that unit in such a short time , trained them as quickly as possible and organised the whole ambush and suceeded , All the know all's years and years later trying to besemerch him ..Very sad really in my opinion . May you rest in peace General Tom Barry .. Forever grateful for what you achieved .❤

My school is only five minutes down the road and my school has something from a British engineer that showed were all the British men died

The criticism of Barry's own positioning as well as the disposition of the column always seems foolish in light of the details mentioned here. Barry was furious at the outcome of the Toureen ambush due to the failure to stop the first lorry. Thus he regarded halting the Auxiliaries in the ambush zone as being the most critical aspect of the ambush at Kilmichael. And given that the actual task itself was pretty dangerous, he did it himself. The other criticism sometimes raised is that the sections were positioned too close to the road itself. Again this doesn't make sense in the context of the column's inexperience. An engagement at longer range would require more ammunition and better marksmanship than was at the column's disposal. Furthermore a prolonged engagement would allow the Auxiliaries to capitalise on their better training and greater experience. Probably the most important point is that plenty of 'textbook' ambushes were laid that had nothing close to the success of the ambush at Kilmichael. I still find it quite amazing that Barry was only in command of the column for a couple of months at that time. And in that time he had both perfectly diagnosed its shortcomings and identified precisely the type of engagement that would bring them success. And what's more he actually made it happen. It is a really remarkable episode of Irish history, and probably only surpassed in the guerilla warfare of this period by what happened at Crossbarry.

@TheIrishNationLives

3 жыл бұрын

That's a very good point, I believe Barry said something like You don't need to be a good shot at 10 yards.

@tinnedtuna8242

3 жыл бұрын

@@TheIrishNationLives "There are no bad shots at ten yards" or something similar. For me the most interesting aspect of the ambush is Barry's approach to psychologically preparing the column. It's not exactly obvious that thing to do with untrained, untested combatants is to tell them they will be in a fight to the death. And then put them in a position where no line of retreat was prepared. It worked, but it was completely out of the ordinary, even for the more aggressive column leaders that rose to Brigade leadership the latter half of the war. Maybe it was something unique to Tom Barry, or maybe it was his war experiences. Hard to say.

@beyondnatural9155

3 жыл бұрын

@@tinnedtuna8242 in his interview on film and sound he said he was prepared for 10 dead. He always struck me as being modest and straightforward. If I get to heaven, he’s the first one I want to meet after family.

@billycaspersghost7528

3 жыл бұрын

@@beyondnatural9155 You should never meet your heroes they say. Particularly if they are dead.

I cannot hold back my tears when I watch these videos. Its always been so unfair on us... never a fair fight We have God on our side and the best is yet to come. "1st January 1919, Declaration of Independence and our Sovereign Republic of Eire Constitution was born. Hallelujah

James, I'm a recent subscriber to your channel. You were listed in the recommendations of The Irish Revolution Channel so naturally I had to check you out. I've gone back through and checked up on a lot of your videos. They're all excellent. Detailed, informative, entertaining, you name it. I'm very happy to subscribe. I do have one question. I've taken(online) lessons in Irish here and there throughout the years, never getting quite advanced enough for my liking. I'm able to hear a few recognizable words "a chara" I think, and "leir", but your greeting at the beginning of every video--what is that, and how is it spelled? Go raibh maith agat for the videos!

@TheIrishNationLives

3 жыл бұрын

Hi John, thanks for checking out the series, really glad to hear you find it entertaining. At the start I say "Dia daoibh a chairde go léir" which is pretty much "Hello to you all my friends". I don't have a lot of Irish myself but thought it appropriate to put some bit in the videos.

Excellent , very concise. However ,could you explain the dates (1922 - 1914) attributed to Fr John Chisholm @ 11:13

Excellent video. I also cannot understand the point of the false surrender. I'm not even sure it was IRA policy at the time to take Auxies prisoners. What would they have done with them stuck out in the middle of nowhere? The Toureen ambush however mentions a surrender by the remaining Essex after the engagement. What happened to them I wonder? After all It was well known that Barry hated the Essex.

@georgel74

3 жыл бұрын

The false surrender is Troublesome, was he trying to further vilify the Essex, who he hated, or was he trying to honour the names of his dead colleagues ?, in the circumstances of a dark cold November evening and shooting from several locations I fail to see how it would have transpired.

these guys were tough as all hell my dad was in the od ira r i p usa