RIC Sergeant Patrick Perry 56270: Killed in the Cliffoney Ambush, 25 Oct 1920 (By Michael Farry

Rescue’: Workers’ International Relief in Ireland, 1925 in History Ireland, (Jan/Feb 2011) vol. 19, no. 1, pp 38-41. 14. Meath Chronicle 20 August 1924. 15. Fin Dwyer, ‘1925 – Ireland’s Forgotten Famine and another government coverup?’ in thejournal.ie, 27 Oct. 2014 (http://www.thejournal.ie/1925-famine1740003-Oct2014/) (10 Dec. 2019). 16.J.J. Lee, Ireland 1912-1985 (Cambridge, 1989), pp 108-9. 17. Sydney Evening News, 12 Feb. 1925 18. Irish Times, 14 Feb. 1925. 19. Fin Dwyer, ‘1925 – Ireland’s Forgotten Famine and another government coverup?’ in thejournal.ie, 27 Oct. 2014 (http://www.thejournal.ie/1925-famine1740003-Oct2014/) (10 Dec. 2019). 20. Ibid. 21. ‘The Rossmore Fires’ by Patrick Higgins, Millview Archive, Sligo Folk Park, Riverstown. 22. Adrian Kelly, ‘Social Security in Independent Ireland, 1922-52’, Ph.D. thesis, NUI Maynooth August 1995, p. 79. 23. ‘The Rossmore Road’ by Patrick Higgins, Millview Archive, Sligo Folk Park, Riverstown. 24. Fearghal McGarry, ‘Ireland and the Spanish Civil War’, in History Ireland, (Autumn, 2001), vol. 9, no. 3, pp 35-6. 25. Ibid., p. 39. 26. Ibid., p. 36. 27. Ibid., p. 38. 28. Ibid., p. 36. 29. ‘The Spanish Civil War’ by Patrick Higgins, Millview Archive, Sligo Folk Park, Riverstown. 30. Fearghal McGarry, ‘Ireland and the Spanish Civil War’, in History Ireland, (Autumn, 2001), vol. 9, no. 3, p. 37. 31. Ibid., p. 36. 32. Ibid. 33. ‘The Spanish Civil War’ by Patrick Higgins, Millview Archive, Sligo Folk Park, Riverstown.

By Michael Farry

I am cornered between the mountains and the ocean on this bare strip, exposed, far from the flat security of Coolronan, hanging on for the pension.

Gradually we have become outcasts, the local enemy, caught between careless government and wide-eyed idealists. So we keep quiet here, make no ripples.

I suspect that this reported vandalism is a trap, but remind my men of duty, lead a patrol, nine cyclists. For a sawn off cart-shaft I will lay down my life.

We tuck up our great coats, sling rifles, face the merciless October wind, pedal south towards forty fellow-countrymen behind ditches intent on making headlines challenging an empire with shotgun, rifle and revolver. Just before the angelus bell we will reach their position and they will open fire, killing fathers, sons, husbands,

four Irishmen about their daily business, earning the king’s shillings, pushovers, peace keepers in this new age when peace-keeping has gone out of fashion.

Sgt. Patrick Perry was one of four RIC men killed in an IRA ambush at Moneygold, Cliffoney, Co Sligo on 25 October 1920. The IRA ambushing party, whose leaders included William Pilkington and Seamus Devins, numbered just less than 40 and there were nine in the ambushed RIC cycling patrol. Soon afterwards a large force of Auxiliaries arrived in that area of north Sligo, burned houses, shops, a local hall and a creamery as a reprisal. There was no opposition by the local IRA.

Fifty one year old Patrick Perry was a native of Coolronan, Ballivor, Co Meath, a Catholic. He had twenty six years’ police service and had served in the RIC at Ballintogher and Bunninadden before transfer to Cliffoney in 1913. He was married with ten children. His wife, Margaret Sharkey from the Boyle area of Co Roscommon, was pregnant at the time of his death. He was buried in his inlaws’ plot in Killaraght Cemetery in south Sligo. It’s interesting that there is no hint of the cause of his death or mention of his membership of the RIC on the grave inscription.

This poem is included in “Troubles”, a book of poetry by Michael Farry dealing with the events of and our commemoration of the period 19121923. It is published by Revival Press, Limerick Writers Centre.