Newry Republican Youth

On Sunday12th December 1920 at about10pm a number of IRA Volunteers moved slowly along the railway line at Ravensdale. The night was particularly dark and foggy by the time the Volunteers reached their target, a small hut owned by the Great Northern Railway. The Volunteers opened the door and inside were the watchman and eight other workmen who were playing cards at the time. The Volunteers ordered the workmen to put their hands up and one kept them covered with a revolver while the others removed and took away a cross-cut saw and several axes.

Within an hour of the raid at Ravensdale Volunteers from Camlough and Newry had started to cut down trees and block all the roads around Camlough, including the Armagh Road and the road leading from Bessbrook. Then they cut the telegraph wires.

Because of the proximity of the Egyptian Arch to the main garrison town of Newry it presented some difficulty to the Newry Volunteers from the IRA's 2nd Battalion - to block the road too early would arouse the enemy's attention. So just as the attack on the RIC Barrack in Camlough was about to begin the Newry Volunteers quickly cut down the fir trees on either side of the railway embankment and made a roadblock under the arch, cutting the main road that the crown forces from the Newry garrison would need if they were to reach Camlough quickly. When the Volunteers had^- finished blocking the road thev moved into firing position on top of the arch and waited.

One other problem that the Newry Volunteers had to contend with was that most of their rifles and other equipment were still in dumps on the South Down side of the town. Because of the heavy British and RIC searches on all the bridges over the river and canal in the town centre the IRA Volunteers had to make do with a few revolvers and hand grenades.

The RIC barracks in Camlough stood in its own grounds about 20 yards from the main Newry road at the North Eastern side of the village. It was a two storey Georgian house which had a garrison of about forty RIC and "specials". The barracks had barbed wire entanglements on all sides and had just recently been heavily fortified after an earlier attack by the IRA in the area.

At 11.30pm on Sunday 12^th December 1920 a large number of IRA Volunteers, estimated at about 200 men from the Camlough and South Armagh area, moved in to firing positions around the Barracks. The Volunteers had commandeered three of the four small houses opposite the barracks and had quickly taken up positions at the upstairs windows. About eight Volunteers armed with rifles and hand grenades moved into position behind a low wall about eight feet from the barracks on the southern side. On the northern side the Volunteers had the most dangerous part of the operation. They had to insert a long gas pipe through an upstairs window in the barracks. The Volunteers at this position were Frank Aiken, the officer in charge of the attack, Tommy O'Neill, Camlough Battalion OC and Jack McIlhaw. At the western side of the barracks it was not necessary to have any Volunteers as there were no windows.

When all the IRA Volunteers had taken up their positions at about midnight the attack was started with the noise of the pipe breaking the window. This alerted the garrison who immediately opened fire on the Volunteers and sent up verey lights (flares) which lit up the whole area. A fierce volley of rifle fire was directed at the windows of the barrack to pin down any RIC men.

The IRA had planned the attack well and had brought a 40 gallon barrel of paraffin oil and a long length of metal gas piping with a hose connected to one end. The pipe had a right angle bend forming an inverted -L" shape. Around the small leg of the "L" a number of holes were drilled and over this part of the pipe tow (the coarse part of flax) was wrapped The plan was to saturate the tow with paraffin oil and ignite it, then push the pipe through an upstairs window (all the downstairs windows had steel shutters). The other end of the hose was put into the barrel of paraffin and paraffin pumped with a force pump into the building.

After a few attempts the Volunteers had succeeded in getting the pipe in through the upstairs window and when the room apparently went on fire the Volunteers withdrew about twenty yards and took cover under a culvert running underneath the road opposite the barracks. But just as the room was beginning to catch-fire, a grenade was thrown from inside the barracks and blew the hose apart so that the fire that had been started in one of the upstairs rooms of the barracks could not be kept going. Sergeant Beatty of the RIC was badly burned on both hands while trying to extinguish the fire. During the course of the attack one of the steel shutters was blown off when a grenade exploded beside it but the RIC garrison succeeded in pushing it back into place and strengthened it by throwing beds and tables against it.

Frank Aiken knew that without the fire they could not force the RIC garrison to surrender so after a heavy exchange of rifle fire and a large number of hand grenades were thrown by both sides he called off the attack.

One of the Volunteers, Tommy O'Neill, was wounded in the leg and had to be taken to safety on a commandeered donkey as the Volunteers withdrew.

The military garrison in Newry had seen the verey lights and a large force of 39 military and RIC personnel in Crossley Tenders and cars were sent to reinforce the Camlough garrison. When the military lorries reached the roadblock under the Egyptian Arch the Volunteers on top of the arch who had taken up their positions earlier dropped grenades on the Crossley Tenders - two or three found their target but were thrown out before they could explode. Others exploded on the road.

As the military and RIC made for cover in the fields on either side of the arch, the Volunteers opened up with a fusillade of revolver fire. A soldier from one of the tenders at once opened fire with a machine gun raking the top of the arch. Volunteer William Canning from Ballymaclare, Magilligan's Point, Co Derry, who was employed by Cahill Brothers in Hill Street, Newry was hit in the throat and head and died instantly. It was later admitted by the RIC that his body was thrown from the top of the arch as "it was the quickest way to get it down".

As the Volunteers were withdrawing Volunteer John Francis O'Hare from Needham Street, Newry, employed as a bookkeeper in Quinn's the Milestone, Hill Street, was badly wounded in the body and was captured by the military.  He was taken to a military hospital and kept there until 15th July 1921. He died from his wounds on 5 October 1921.

Also badly wounded in the withdrawal was Volunteer Peter Shields from John Martin Street, but his comrades managed to help him to safety. He was taken to a shepherd's hut outside Omeath for a while and then moved on to the Alexian Brothers. Volunteer Peter Shields died from his wounds on Christmas Day 1920 and was buried in an unmarked grave in Omeath. Two other Volunteers were also badly wounded, but both, however, eventually recovered. The Volunteers had a hazardous time evacuating the position under heavy rifle and machinegun fire. Some of those wounded had to be carried at least eight to ten miles before reaching safety at the priory of the Charity Fathers, Omeath..

After the IRA Volunteers had withdrawn from their positions on top of the arch the military and RIC cleared the roadblock and went on to Camlough where they started raids and reprisals. Over half the village was burned that night. They began by burning down the small houses facing the barracks, then they burned down the Sinn Fein hall, McIlhaw's pub, a house that was occupied by a Mr Smith, Joseph Collins's pub, houses occupied by O'Hare's and Conlon's and then Frank Aiken's home about ¹/2 mile from the barracks. The RIC in Newry burned down the Sinn F ein hall in William Street and numerous houses were raided. Within an hour of the Egyptian Arch ambush an RIC patrol stopped and searched four men near the scene of the attack: Joseph Patrick Mulkean, 3 Bishopsgate Street, Mullingar, a shop assistant employed by Cahill Brothers, Hill Street-, Newry, Joseph F Hughes, 11 Corn Market, Newry-, James Keenan, 48 Castle Street, Newry; and James Laing, 13 St. Mary's Road, Dundalk, an insurance agent. When searched Hughes had two detonators and Keenan had a rifle pull-through in his possession.

Patrick Toner, 27 Charlmount Square, Bessbrook, a motor driver, was also arrested from his home on suspicion. At a court-martial in Belfast on 18th May 1921 all except Patrick Toner were found guilty and sentenced to five years' penal servitude.