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A Sligo-based group have accomplished the excavation of a cave used throughout the Civil Warfare as an anti-Treaty IRA hideout. The venture, funded by Atlantic Technological College (ATU), reveals a forgotten story in
ligo’s current historical past, in what’s the first analysis excavation of a
Civil Warfare website in Eire.
The group of three archaeologists – Dr Marion Dowd (ATU), Robert Mulraney (Unbiased Researcher) and Dr James Bonsall (Fourth Dimension Prospection Ltd.) – spent over per week excavating a small cave excessive within the Dartry Mountains overlooking Glencar Lake in north County Sligo.
The cave was used as a hideout throughout the Warfare of Independence and was the principal hideout of the North Sligo anti-Treaty IRA throughout the Civil Warfare.
In September 1922, the Nationwide Military closed in on the anti-treaty IRA
headquarters at Rahelly Home north of Sligo city. After an intense
firefight, roughly 60 males evacuated the home, making for
Benbulben, with the intention of crossing the mountains to succeed in the
security of Tormore Cave – higher often called the ‘Glencar hideout’. A number of IRA males have been captured on the mountains and imprisoned by the Nationwide Military.
Six males have been shot and killed at two totally different areas within the uplands. These males – Brigadier Seamus Devins, Divisional Adjutant Brian MacNeill, Lieutenant Patrick Carroll, Volunteer Joseph Banks, Captain Harry Benson and Volunteer Thomas Langan – grew to become often called Sligo’s Noble Six.
An extra 34 males efficiently reached Tormore Cave and lived there for the next six weeks. The boys have been by no means found, making this one of the crucial profitable hideouts of the whole revolutionary interval in Eire.
Following the Civil Warfare, the situation of Tormore Cave was misplaced Within the mid Nineteen Thirties, nevertheless, Normal Officer Commanding William Pilkington, one of many males who had hid there in 1922, returned to Sligo and revealed its location. Throughout his time within the cave, he had nursed an damage to his shoulder which had he damaged throughout current combating. Anecdotal accounts recollect that whereas within the cave, Pilkington vowed to grow to be a priest if he survived the warfare. This he did, and went on to be ordained as a Redemptorist priest serving in Cape City, South Africa and England.
The archaeological excavations sought to doc the hideout and study extra about the way it was utilised as a part of guerrilla ways. The
excavations revealed that the cave had been modified and ready for utilization, most likely throughout the Warfare of Independence.
A big boulder was strategically positioned on the entrance. On both aspect
of this, stones have been piled towards the cave partitions and glued with mortar.
This served to hide the cave entrance making the hideout extraordinarily tough to seek out. It’s possible {that a} sentry was positioned contained in the cave behind the boulder, from the place he commanded expansive views over the encircling panorama.
Inside, excavations by way of soil layers revealed a collection of constructed steps main from the doorway into the cave. With additional excavation it was discovered that the boys had additionally ready a mortar-surfaced flooring, layered over with flagstones, in an analogous option to conventional Irish cottages of the Nineteen Twenties. A mortared wall was additionally constructed to surround the house. This development would have served to maintain the dwelling house clear and created a hotter and drier floor for males sleeping there. But it surely was removed from luxurious: The 34 males endured harsh circumstances within the cave.
They may not gentle fires because the smoke would appeal to consideration. They
needed to survive with little meals, cramped right into a small, damp and darkish
cave for a lot of weeks.
The excavations produced virtually 200 artefacts. ‘That is the primary
archaeological excavation of a Civil Warfare website in Eire’, Dr Marion
Dowd of Atlantic Technological College commented.
“Many individuals knew {that a} mountain cave had been used as a hideout for six weeks, however virtually nobody knew the place it was positioned. As a result of so few individuals have visited the cave over the previous 100 years, the location was basically a Civil Warfare time capsule. The constructions and artefacts we found have been as that they had been left when the boys deserted the collapse October 1922.”
Sherds of pottery and glass have been recovered that associated to meals introduced by native households to feed the boys. ‘A lot of the pottery most likely got here fromSarah Branley’s kitchen’,
Dr James Bonsall defined: “The Branleys lived a brief stroll from the cave and two of Sarah’s sons, Paddy and Dominick, have been hiding within the cave. One of many major issues the boys encountered was Trenchfoot, brought on by extended publicity in damp circumstances. Apparently Sarah tended to the boys’s toes on not less than one event when a few of them left the cave throughout a nasty storm and got here to her home.
“We additionally discovered a number of private objects that give us an perception into the boys,” stated caver and archaeologist Robert Mulraney. “We discovered a boot lace, a belt buckle and a clay pipe. As a part of the venture, we are attempting to establish the boys who sought refuge within the cave, who survived the ordeal and who then grew to become largely forgotten. To date we’ve recognized seven males and have been talking with their relations.”
The group hope that individuals who had relations that stayed within the cave will contact them. “This isn’t only a Sligo story. Now we have had contact from individuals in Boston (USA), London, and Counties Galway, Down and Dublin whose father, grandfather, uncle or granduncle stayed within the cave throughout the Civil Warfare. We hope to listen to from others,” stated Dr Dowd. The general public are reminded the cave is on personal property. You probably have any details about the cave, the group may be contacted at: dowd.marion@itsligo.ie
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