Rineen Ambush

Rineen ambush
Part of the Irish War of Independence
Date 22 September 1920 Location Drummin Hill, County Clare 52°52′48″N 9°23′53″W / 52.880°N 9.398°W / 52.880; -9.398 Result Successful IRA ambush and getaway; RIC reprisals on local civilians
Belligerents
Irish Republican Army (Mid Clare Brigade)	Royal Irish Constabulary British Army
Commanders and leaders
Ignatius O'Neill	Michael Hynes †
Strength
50 volunteers	6 officers 10 lorries of British troops (c. 100 men) arrived later
Casualties and losses
2 wounded	6 RIC dead, several British soldiers wounded
1 magistrate killed by IRA (in fact unrelated), 5 civilians killed by RIC in reprisal, 16 houses/shops destroyed by RIC in reprisal
Location within island of Ireland

The Rineen ambush was an ambush carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 22 September 1920, during the Irish War of Independence. It took place at Drummin Hill in the townland of Drummin, near the hamlet of Rineen (or Rinneen), County Clare.

The IRA's Mid-Clare Brigade attacked a Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) lorry, killing six officers. Shortly after, the IRA volunteers were attacked by ten lorry-loads of British Army soldiers, who had been sent as reinforcements. However, they held off this attack long enough to flee the scene and sustained only two wounded.

In reprisal for the ambush, the RIC Auxiliaries and British military raided three local villages, killed five civilians and burnt 16 houses and shops in the surrounding area.

The Volunteers in County Clare had been active since 1917 and by late 1920 had forced the RIC to abandon most of its small rural barracks in the county. This gave the IRA greater freedom to move in the countryside. In August 1920, the RIC were reinforced by the British deployment of Black and Tans and Auxiliaries to the county. Five RIC men, eleven IRA volunteers and four civilians had been killed in County Clare during the two years before the ambush.

The Rineen Ambush was ordered by the leadership of the IRA's Mid Clare Brigade, who had noticed that an RIC lorry travelled every week on the Ennistymon to Milltown Malbay road. John Joe Neylon (the leader of the local IRA battalion) was put in charge, although the actual attack was led by Ignatius O'Neill, the Officer Commanding. He was a veteran of World War I who had formerly fought with the Irish Guards. The ambush party had only nine rifles and some grenades, the remainder being armed with shotguns or handguns. They prepared to attack the lorry from a railway bridge that overlooked the road at Rineen.

As the IRA party was lying in wait, Alan Lendrum, the local resident magistrate, drove unwittingly into a roadblock of IRA's West Clare Brigade, in an unrelated action. He was stopped at a railway crossing at Caherfeenick near Doonbeg. When the IRA demanded he surrender his car, he drew an automatic pistol and the IRA men shot him twice in the head, fatally wounding him. The IRA weighted his body with stones and dumped it in a nearby lake. Even though the British Military inquest had established that Lendrum had died of gunshot wounds members of the RIC. in Clare spread a false version of events and claimed that Lendrum had died of drowning.