Upton Train Ambush

Upton Train Ambush
Part of the Irish War of Independence
Date 15 February 1921 Location Upton, County Cork Result Ambush abandoned, heavy civilian casualties
Belligerents
British Army (Essex Regiment)	Irish Republican Army (3rd Cork Brigade)
Commanders and leaders
	Charlie Hurley
Strength
50 soldiers	13 volunteers
Casualties and losses
6 wounded	3 killed, 2 wounded (8 other 3rd Cork Bgd IRA killed in same week in separate incidents)
6 civilians killed in crossfire, 10 wounded
Location within island of Ireland

3 killed, 2 wounded

The Upton train ambush took place on 15 February 1921, during the Irish War of Independence. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) mounted an attack on a train carrying British soldiers at Upton, County Cork. The action was a disaster for the IRA; three of its volunteers were killed and two wounded. Six British soldiers were wounded, three seriously. Six civilian passengers were killed and ten wounded in the crossfire.

According to a study of the region, Cork was "by far the most violent county in Ireland" during the War of Independence and had several active guerrilla brigades. Of these, the Third (west Cork) was one of the most effective and it was a unit from this Brigade that carried out the Upton ambush.

Up until the end of 1920, the British had been unable to move troops by train, due to a nationwide boycott by railway workers of trains carrying the British military. However, this strike was lifted in December 1920. While this helped the British military's mobility, it also gave the IRA a new target: trains carrying soldiers. A week before the Upton ambush, the local IRA had made a successful attack on a train travelling from Killarney to Millstreet near Drishanbeg, killing one sergeant and wounding five more soldiers.

Five days after the Drishanbeg ambush, plans were made for an attack at Upton and Innishannon railway station on a train travelling between Cork city and Bandon. The ambushers, led by Charlie Hurley, were 13 strong but had only 7 rifles, the remainder being equipped only with revolvers or semi-automatic pistols. They took up position at the station ten minutes before the train pulled in, imprisoning the station master, clearing the station and taking cover behind sacks of grain and flour taken from a store.

The train was carrying around 50 British soldiers of the Essex Regiment, who were mingled with civilian passengers throughout the train's carriages. The IRA party was therefore quite heavily outnumbered and out-gunned. However they were not warned of this, as two IRA scouts, who were supposed to have been on the train and signalled to them of British numbers, never turned up. They also wrongly believed that the British troops were all in the central carriage. As a result, when the IRA opened fire on the train, there were heavy civilian casualties. The New York Times reported that "a shower of bullets was rained on the train, practically every compartment being swept".