Galway In Days Gone By

1921

Clifden shooting

Constable Cornelius Reynolds was shot dead while on patrol duty in Clifden at ten p.m. on Wednesday night, and Constable Thomas Sweeney was seriously wounded. Subsequently, a young man named John J. MacDonnell was shot dead, as alleged, attempting to escape from the custody of Crown forces which were rushed to the district by special train.

Houses from which it was asserted shots were discharged at the police were set on fire and are still burning. The full story of the shooting has not yet been received, but it would appear that four members of the R.I.C. were on town duty as usual on Wednesday night.

Notwithstanding that feeling had been aroused by the execution of Thomas Whelan, there was no anticipation of any trouble, and the little town was as peaceable as usual.

At ten p.m. fire was suddenly opened on the town patrol. Constable Reynolds fell dead, and Constable Sweeney fell severely wounded. Constable Reynolds was thirty years of age and leaves a wife and family. He came to County Galway on transfer from Longford about a year-and-a-half ago, and had been in the City from Clifden two days ago on escort duty. He was a fine specimen of manhood, and was very popular amongst his comrades.

Immediately after the news of the fatal affray had reached Galway, a force of thirty constabulary was rushed to Clifden by a special train from Galway which left at 12.30 a.m. Dr. Sandys and Dr. O’ Malley were taken on the train to attend Const. Sweeney, whose life, it is thought, can be saved.

Military reinforcements, which travelled by road, arrived in Clifden before the police. It was in the early hours of this morning that the tragedy by which McDonnell lost his life took place. There was considerable activity of Crown forces throughout the district following the shooting, and early this morning houses from which the police allege they were fired at were found ablaze.

Following the shooting of Constable Reynolds and the wounding of Constable Sweeney at Clifden last night, panic reigned in the town and nine of the principal houses were burned. Mr. John J. McDonnell, whose dead body was found in an archway near the principal street in the early hours of this morning, was an ex-army man who had served as a sergeant-major during the war. He is described as a quiet, inoffensive young man.

The hotel owned by his father, Mr. Alex McDonnell, has been burned. It is thought that young MacDonnell may have come across the street during the burning to aid in putting out the fire when he was shot.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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