'The Four Who Fell’

This time every year we remember is a special way the four brave East Clare men who were brutally murdered on the Killaloe-Ballina Bridge. On Sunday night, East Clare Memorial Committee continued to honour these four heroes with a wreath-laying ceremony by two young Killaloe men, Óllan O’Connell and Dallán Mac Conmara.

On November 16, 1920, one of the most notorious incidents in the Irish War of Independence occurred on the bridge in Killaloe. After an earlier attack on Scariff RIC Barracks, the Auxiliaries began to search for IRA suspects but met with little success. Then on November 16 a Board of Works steamer, The Shannon, sailed into Williamstown Harbour, with a force of auxiliaries hidden below deck. They quickly surrounded Williamstown House where they arrested four men Alfie Rogers, Brud McMahon, Martin Gildea, and Micheal Egan. At midnight, the four prisoners were marched across Killaloe Bridge to the nearby RIC station. What happened next remains unclear but the four prisoners were shot on the bridge, supposedly while trying to escape and not halting when called upon to do so. There was no medical report at the military inquest, but it was reported that the RIC had fired only 10 bullets hitting as follows: Gildea - one bullet to the head; Egan - one bullet to the head; Rogers - two bullets to abdomen and one bullet to the head and McMahon –one bullet to the abdomen.

Many people in Killaloe and Ballina heard 15 or 20 rifle shots that night, followed by moans and a pathetic cry for the priest. No priest was summoned, although the presbytery was only about 100 yards from the scene of the tragedy.

‘To Killaloe, they were brought to die;

In Scariff Churchyard, their bodies lie,

Let you who owe them your liberty;

Pray that their souls may rest peacefully.’