ARKLOW
ARKLOW
– Jim Rees
'Whole time engaged': July to December 1920
Arklow RIC barracks, directly opposite the Catholic Church . Photo: Courtesy of Jim Rees
By mid-1920, there were about eighty RIC men in the barracks on Parade Ground and ‘half a company’ of the Sussex Regiment in a temporary military barracks.1 Despite this presence, the IRA companies in the Arklow area continued to be active, destroying abandoned barracks at Aughrim and Redcross and burning huts used by British soldiers in and around the Kynoch complex. In July, five such huts were heavily doused in petrol and set alight. They had been used by members of the Cheshire Regiment, which had been transferred out a few days before. Now, only one of the huts was available for use by the incoming Royal Engineers. Bray man David Frame had bought the complex from Kynoch’s in November 1919 and he brought a claim for malicious damage for the amount of £5,000. He was awarded £3,000.2 Andrew Kavanagh from Ferrybank joined the Arklow company in 1917, while still only sixteen.3 He left Arklow a few months later to work in Newbridge, County Kildare and later in Nenagh. He returned in 1919, more mature and eager to take on greater responsibility. In late autumn 1920, Tom Quigley ceased to be Brigade Adjutant and Andrew Kavanagh was appointed as his replacement.
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