Soloheadbeg Ambush

The Soloheadbeg ambush was the ambush of a gelignite transport at Soloheadbeg, County Tipperary, Ireland, on 21 January 1919 in which two policemen were killed. It is considered to be the first engagement of the Irish War of Independence.

In the Irish general election of December 1918, Sinn Féin won a landslide victory, gaining 73 out of 105 seats (25 of these unopposed) in the British Parliament. However, in its election manifesto, the party had vowed to set up a separate government in Ireland rather than sit in the British Parliament. At a meeting in Dublin on 21 January 1919, Sinn Féin established an independent parliament called Dáil Éireann and declared independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

On that same day, an ambush was carried out by Irish Volunteers from the Third Tipperary Brigade: Seán Treacy, Dan Breen, Seán Hogan, Séamus Robinson, Tadhg Crowe, Patrick McCormack, Patrick O'Dwyer, Michael Ryan and Seán O'Meara (the latter two being cycle scouts). Robinson (who had participated in the Easter Rising) was the commander of the group that carried out the attack and Treacy (a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood since 1911) coordinated the planning of the attack. The action had not been authorised by the Dáil. The unit involved acted on its own initiative.

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