Scramogue Ambush

Scramoge Ambush
Part of the Irish War of Independence
Date 23 March 1921 Location Scramogue, County Roscommon 53°45′54″N 8°03′50″W / 53.765°N 8.064°W / 53.765; -8.064 Result successful IRA ambush and getaway
Belligerents
Irish Republican Army	British Army Royal Irish Constabulary
Commanders and leaders
Patrick Madden	Roger Greenville Peeke
Strength
39	9
Casualties and losses
1 killed and 3 captured in sweeps after the ambush	4 killed in action, 2 captured and later killed
Location within island of Ireland

The Scramogue ambush was an ambush carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 23 March 1921, during the Irish War of Independence. It took place in the Village of Scramoge County Roscommon.

County Roscommon was not one of the more violent areas of Ireland during the conflict. The local IRA argued to their GHQ that it was very difficult to conduct guerrilla warfare in the flat open countryside there. Prior to the action at Scramogue, the biggest previous incident had been in October 1920, when four RIC policemen were killed in an ambush near Ballinderry.

Sean Connolly had been sent by IRA GHQ from Longford to re-organise the Roscommon Volunteers and had selected the ambush site at Scramogue. However he was killed twelve days before the action at the Selton Hill ambush in neighbouring County Leitrim.

Both the North and South Roscommon IRA Brigades took part, and were commanded by Patrick Madden. There were 39 volunteers in the column, but only 14 took part in the actual attack, the remainder were tasked with blocking roads to keep the IRA's line of retreat open. The IRA party was armed with 13 rifles (11 Lee–Enfields, 1 Winchester and 1 sporting rifle), 20 shotguns (though some of them in bad condition) and 2 or 3 Webley revolvers. This was the largest collection of arms that was assembled in Roscommon during the war and some of them had been borrowed from IRA units Longford.

Among the volunteers who took part were Martin Fallon, 'Cushy' Hughes, Frank Simons, Luke Duffy, Peter Casey, Peter Collins and Tom Compton. Several of the IRA men, including Hughes, had served in the Irish Guards in the First World War, but had been persuaded by Pat Madden to join the IRA on their return.

The ambush site was carefully prepared. It was located at a sharp bend on the Longford–Strokestown road. A farmhouse and barn at the bend had been taken over and loopholed, and a trench was dug behind a hedge alongside the road. Only a mile from the IRA's position, the Ninth Lancers regiment was garrisoned in Strokestown House.