THE BIG READ: Young soldier killed in Civil War ambush in Offaly

THE Lieutenant featured in this article was my granduncle Matthew Cullen and Monday the 29th of August 2022 marked the 100th anniversary of his death, when he, along with a small party of National Troops [Free State army] from Tullamore Barracks were attacked by about fifty Irregulars [Republican IRA) at Bonaterrin [Bunaterin] Hill, near Blueball, Tullamore.
Lieutenant Matthew Cullen, (3rd  Southern Division ﾓglaigh na hﾉireann) was only 21 years old. Born 25th May 1901 in Ballymorris, Portarlington, County Laois, he was one of five boys born to Timothy and Mary Cullen. Matthew joined the Free State Army on 16th of March 1922 as did his two brothers Thomas and James (my grandfather) and by August 1922 were all stationed at Tullamore barracks. Matthew was also an ex-internee of the Rath Camp in the Curragh of Kildare and was there in Hut 9 on the 9th of September 1921 when the great escape happened.
Before he was stationed in Tullamore Barracks [the barracks was at High Street �now Donal Farrelly痴 house/ and Charleville Castle] Matthew spent over five months in the Nenagh Barracks, and since the opening of the Civil War was involved in almost every engagement in the Nenagh area. He was only a week in Tullamore when the fatal ambush happened.

The following extract is taken from The Midland Tribune, Saturday 2nd September 1922

TROOPS AMBUSHED NEAR TULLAMORE

LIEUT CULLEN KILLED AND LIEUT LEAHY SERIOUSLY WOUNDED

News reached Tullamore on Tuesday evening about 7.30 p. m, of a very painful and distressing character, which cast a gloom of sorrow and depression over the town and district. It was that a party of National troops had been ambushed at Bonaterrin, some four miles from Tullamore, and about a mile from Blueball, and that Lieut Cullen, a native of Portarlington, an ex-internee had been killed, and that Lieut Leahy, a native of Listowel, Co. Kerry, had been seriously wounded. Both were officers in the Tullamore garrison headquarters, were very well known, and much esteemed by the townspeople. Particulars to hand state that three cars carrying a party of about 20 officers and men from Tullamore, had been out in the neighbourhood of Kilcormac and Mountbolus engaged in clearing road obstructions.

When the work of clearing obstructions was finished they proceeded to return homewards about 6 p.m. The first car �they were all open cars �was driven by Capt. Donnelly, O C of the local garrison, with Lieut Cullen on his left, there also being in the car  Capt. Wm Egan, son of Mr John Egan, Croghan, Rhode, with Lieutenants Lawlor, Leahy, and Volunteer Dunne. The second car, which was driven by Mick O誰eill, was in charge of Sergeant Reilly, a native of Tullamore who had with him a party of five men.

The third car was driven by  Driver Ennis  and contained a party of five men, in charge of  Corporal Collins. Everything went well with the party until Bonaterrin was reached, when fire was suddenly poured on the first car, which was a considerable distance ahead of the other, by attackers who were in places concealment and who fired at close range. It is stated that they must not have been more than 80 or 100 yards distant. It was enfiladed fire of a very deadly character, and maintained with great fierceness. Lieut Cullen was struck with a bullet which pierced his heart, and he died immediately. It rent his uniform in the region of the heart,   and appears to have been one of an explosive kind. Lieut Leahy was hit on the back and the bullet passed through his stomach, his spine being seriously injured. He lies in a critical condition, and at the time of writing, 11p. (Tuesday) is still unconscious.

The attackers appeared to have fired from both sides of the road at the point indicated, one crowd of them being evidently concealed in a wood and the other near a farmyard adjacent, at the opposite side of the road. The remaining occupants of the first car now replied vigorously to the attacker痴 fire. Lieut Cullen had been killed and Lieut Leahy wounded, but the survivors  Capt. Donnelly, O C, Capt William Egan, Lieut Lawlor, and Volunteer Dunne  gallantly fought against great odds, until the other cars came along to their assistance. When the other two cars came on, a general engagement developed which lasted over half an hour but the National troops eventually, with the aid of a withering fire, scattered the attackers, who fled. Lieut Leahy was removed to Tullamore while the fight proceeded in the third car driven by  driver Ennis  passing under a hail of bullets. It was seen that he was bleeding profusely from the wounds he received in the attacks, and therefore little time was lost in bringing him away for treatment. He was promptly treated by  Dr Moorhead  on arrival at Tullamore Garrison headquarters. The doctor pronounced his injuries to be of a very grave character. Subsequently he was taken in a Tullamore Co Hospital ambulance to the Co Hospital, accompanied by Dr Meagher, who further treated him, and where he lies in an unconscious and critical state, under the care of the Nuns and nursing staff. The body of Lieut Cullen was removed to the morgue of the Co Hospital where it lies. His clothes were saturated with blood, and there are evidences of a terrible wound. The body was viewed by  Rev Fathers Daly, Lynam, and O狸eeffe C C痴. The last rites of the church were administered to Lieut Leahy by Father O狸eeffe CC, before he had been removed from the garrison headquarters. Captain Donnelly received a slight wound in the course of the engagement.

Capt. Egan had a providential escape a bullet having swept the pince-nez he was wearing, without however doing him any injury. Lieut. Matt Cullen, killed, was a First Lieutenant and a native of Portarlington and was an ex-internee.  Lieut. Leahy, wounded, was a native of Listowel, Co. Kerry, and was up to the time he joined the National Forces a chemist in the employment of  Mr. Shiels at his pharmacy in Tullamore. He had been in town for a year or two and was well known to the townspeople, both in his professional and military capacity, and his kindly and gentle qualities rendered him a general favourite. Lieut. Cullen was about 28 years of age, and Lieut. Leahy about 32 years. When the news of the attack reached Tullamore, the local troops were mobilised, and proceeded to the scene immediately, but the attackers had fled before they arrived, as a result of the searching and with suing fire of Captain Donnelly, his officers, and men. It is stated that even though well protected by cover, the attackers must have suffered casualties. A visit to the scene of the irregular痴 position disclosed to the troops the fact that the attack had been carefully planned. There was many evidence of the conflict around in the shape of empty cartridge cases etc.

SEMI-OFFICIAL REPORT.

A semi-official account of the fighting states:-“We left Tullamore on Tuesday about 3 o’clock in three Ford cars, containing five officers and ten men, and we went to Mountbolus, and from there went to clear some trees off the main road to Kilcormac. We were joined at Blueball by troops stationed there and proceeded afterwards to Kilcormac. We entered Kilcormac, and saw the Officer there in charge, and we left Kilcormac about 6.30 p.m, returning to Tullamore via Blueball.

The first car was the Brigade car which was about 40 yards ahead of the others at the time. In the car were Captain Donnelly, O C; Lieut. Cullen, Lieut. Leahy, Lieut. Lawlor, Staff CaptainEgan, and Private Dunne. When we came to the face of Bonaterrin Hill, about a mile from Blueball on the Tullamore side, fire was opened on us from two points, one on our right and partly in front, and on the other side from concealed positions in a shrubbery on the hill, about 60 yards from the road-that was on the left, or Rahan side. When the firing of the attackers opened Captain Donnelly turned the car into the ditch towards the left hand side, to give the occupants a chance of getting out without being exposed to fire or caught in the fall of the car, which turned over. There were four of us in the lower side of the car which had turned over when it was run into the ditch. We managed to get clear before the car turned. The car was then across the road. Lieuts Cullen and Leahy were on the upper or Tullamore side of the car: they had got off it, and were taking cover under a wall from the fire directed on them from the flank. That fire was coming from the scrub. There were only about two or three attackers on the other side of the road, but it was they who did all the damage. They held a position in a little grove near  Bradley痴 house, and we subsequently examined the position there. Just after we got out of the car and had taken up positions facing the flank fire, Lieut. Cullen was shot dead while in the act of ramming a cartridge into the breach of his rifle. He still held the bolt of the rifle in his hand when we got him. Immediately after Lieut. Cullen was shot Lieut. Leahy was struck on the side by a bullet fired from the same point-the grove near Bradley痴 house- as he was crouching under a wall watching the flank fire from the other side.

The four remaining occupants of the car continued to fire in the directions from which theshots came – on the flank towards the scrub-and also in the other direction. We knew that there was fire coming up the road from the other direction, but we could not locate it exactly at the time. When the second car arrived its occupants dismounted and took cover, and we then poured a steady fire on both positions of the attackers-the scrub on the flank and the grove near Bradley’s on the other side of the road, from which the fatal shots came. When the third car came the soldiers it contained got out and took up positions about 120 yards away from the first car, and joined vigorously in the attack.In the meantime, while firing was still hot, Lieut. Leahy, who was bleeding profusely from the wound on his side, was taken into Driver’s Ennis’s car; and Driver Ennis drove with thewounded officer through a heavy hail of lead from the attackers, to Tullamore. Lieut. Cullen’s death was practically instantaneous.

When the second and third cars came along and poured fire into the attacker’s positions the fire of the latter died out. Just before it ceased one of the attackers was heard to moan and shout on the left hand side of the road in the scrub, where his cap was afterwards found. The place was searched subsequently, and a large quantity of empty cartridge cases were found there – about 50 or 60 of them with some live cartridges. In the attack from Bradley’s grove side dum-dum bullets were used by the attackers. They cut holes the size of half-a-crown in the metal work of the car. Capt. Donnelly who was in charge of the party, had a narrow escape at the outset. A bullet went through the glass screen of the car he was driving, and if he had remained in his original position he would have got it straight; it came the moment he was swerving the car, and this movement saved him. All the occupants of this, the first car or Brigade car, had miraculous escapes, and the mystery is how any of them survived the terrible hail of lead concentrated on the car and its occupants.

When reinforcements arrived from Tullamore the attackers had disappeared, and no trace of them could be found. They had three miles of wood cover under which they were enabled to retreat. Lieut. Cullen was struck on the chest with two bullets, which made a terrible gash. The military are communicating with Lieut. Cullen’s family conveying the sad news, and with a view to arrangements for his interment.

They are also trying to get in touch with Lieut. Leahy’s people (who live on or near Listowel, Co. Kerry). Lieut. Leahy was Brigade Chemistry Officer to the Offaly No.1 Brigade. Lieut. Cullen took part in recent fighting in Tipperary, and was only a week in Tullamore.

THE SCENE OF THE SHOOTING.

The scene of the attack, Bonaterrin is on rising ground, a short distance from Blueball �about a mile or a mile and a half. There is a grove near Bradley痴 house, and almost directly opposite, but more on the Blueball side �the scrub, with extensive wood tract behind it. The grove portion commands the road, and that of the scrub overlooks it; the situation of the place favoured the operations of the attackers. From the scrub on the left, the troops as they were coming along to Tullamore, there was flanking fire, but the fire ftom the grove on their right, was partly frontal; from this point the most deadly and destructive fire came. Considering the advantages the attackers had in position and numbers, the fight put on by the troops, who had no time for selecting or preparing positions was a wonderfully plucky one. The small party, under capable leadership, handled the situation with great skill and bravery and rendered the positions of the attackers untenable, even before the Tullamore garrison reinforcements arrived.

EVIDENCES OF THE CONFLICT

A gentleman who passed from Kilcormac to Tullamore about an hour after the fighting, informed our Tullamore reporter that there were various evidence of the conflict at the scene of the battle. A number of cars from Kilcormac and Kinnitty side were held up on the road for a pretty long interval. The National troops have drawn a kind of cordon about the place. The point at which the attack took place is on one side a wooded eminence overlooking the road on the right hand side going from Tullamore to Kilcormac and on the left it also raised country, but with a few houses. The place is about half a mile from Tullamore Golf Links, [ the old links at Screggan] and is on the main road from Tullamore to Birr, four and a half miles from Tullamore and eight and a half miles from Kilcormac. The point from which the shots were fired was according to an account, only about forty yards from the main road along which the troops were proceeding. It was dusk and the conditions were favourable to the attackers, who were of course in a position to select their own ground. It is a fairly populated part of the country. Two cars riddled with bullets were seen after the fight on the roadside.

Prayers were offered  up by the celebrant of the morning Mass in the Church of the Assumption, Tullamore on Wednesday morning, for the repose of the soul of Lieut. Cullen, who, he said, was murdered the previous evening.

REMOVAL OF REMAINS.

The remains of the late Lieut. Cullen were removed from the Co. Hospital, Tullamore, on Wednesday evening at 7 p. m, and were conveyed to the Church of the Assumption, where they lay overnight. At the church door they were received by the  Very Rev. Father Callary, PP V G and  Rev. Father Lynam, C C  and placed on a catafalque in front of the high altar. The transference of the remains to the church was marked by a remarkable demonstration of public sorrow and sympathy. They were accompanied by an immense gathering of the people of all classes and creeds, blinds were drawn, and business places closed as a mark of respect to the memory of the gallant officer. A guard of honour composed of troops of the local garrison, with rifles reversed, marched beside the hearse, in which the remains were carried enclosed in a beautiful coffin, which was wrapped in the tri-colour. Rev. Father Lynam C C, accompanied them the Co. Hospital. Deceased痴 brother, with officer comrades of the deceased, followed immediately behind the hearse.

At the Church Rev. Father Callary announced that Requiem Mass would be celebrated for the repose of the soul of the deceased at 7.30 the following morning (Thursday) in the Church of the Assumption, and that the remains would be conveyed to the morning train for Portarlington afterwards.

REQUIEM MASS

The Requiem Mass on Thursday morning was celebrated by Rev. Father Lynam C C, a large congregation assisting, including a number of officers and men of the National Army. The coffin was removed from catafalque in church, where it rested overnight, and when the cortege proceeded to the station business in shops was again suspended, and the employees, as well as the general public of all classes, accompanied the remains to the station. The guard of honour, as on the previous evening, when the remains were removed to the church, consisted of the men who were in the fatal ambush with the deceased officer. This body of men also proceeded with the remains to Portarlington today (Thursday) and were the firing party at the graveside. The Pipers Band led the cortege from the Church of the Assumption to Tullamore railway station, playing 擢lowers of the Forest�and Lord Lovatt痴 Lament.

FROM LEIX AND KERRY.

Lieut. Leahy is a native of Lisselion Cross a place between Ballybunion and Listowel, Co. Kerry, and belongs to the farming class, his people been extensive farmers. He is a young man of fine- physique.

Lieut. Cullen was a native of Portarlington, and was well over six feet – a tall, athletic young man and during the short time he had been in Tullamore a conspicuous figure, because of his size and fine soldierly bearing