This Sunday (30th April) the Mid Clare Brigade Commemoration Committee with the Hillery family will unveil the second in a series of commemorative blue plaques.
The first plaque in remembrance of the events surrounding the Miltown Malbay, Canada Cross shootings in 1920 was unveiled earlier this month by the families of the victims.
This plaque marks the life at his birthplace on the main street in Miltown Malbay of Dr Michael Hillery, who assisted the dying and injured that day as well as serving the Mid Clare Brigade, in particular the 4th Battalion, throughout the War of Independence and both sides during the Civil War period.
Michael Hillery was born on the 30th of March 1889, the eldest of three brothers. He completed secondary education at Rockwell College in Cashel and secured a scholarship to the Royal College of Surgeons to study medicine in 1906.
Michael married Ellen MacMahon, on 3rd July 1919 and he moved to her house on Miltown Malbay’s main street, where he established a surgery and nursing home. Both deeply involved in the struggle for independence. Michael served as the Medical Officer in the Mid Clare Brigade, Irish Republican Army, while Nellie often acted as a nurse for the wounded Volunteers, who were often sheltered in her home. Michael was a constant presence attending wounded or dying Volunteers following ambushes or other engagements with Crown Forces. Sometimes under the most difficult and dangerous travelling conditions, often to isolated areas on foot.
Ignatius O’Neill, also from the main street in Miltown Malbay, was a prominent figure in the 4th Battalion, Mid Clare Brigade. On the 20th of February 1920, O’Neill narrowly escaped death following an ambush that went wrong at Crowe’s Bridge, near Inagh. O’Neill was among a small force of Volunteers led by Brigade Vice Comdt. Martin Devitt, who attacked an RIC patrol. The Police repelled the attack and Devitt was killed. O’Neill was seriously wounded but managed to escape and was sheltered by a local family sympathetic to the Volunteers.
Michael was called out to treat his injuries and determined that he needed medical care in a nursing home, as it was impossible to bring a wounded IRA officer to a hospital, instead O’Neill was taken to Hillery’s own home. They hid him in an upstairs room, where the doctor treated his wounds. O’Neill required surgery but he could not be moved immediately, so he was kept in the house on the same street as the police barracks. Eventually Michael smuggled him out under the cover of darkness, and he was taken to Dublin for surgery. The treatment was successful, and O’Neill soon resumed his command.
The most significant IRA engagement with Crown Forces where Michael provided medical support was the Rineen Ambush. The 4th Battalion, Mid Clare Brigade led by Ignatius O’Neill, ambushed an RIC lorry, midway on the road between Miltown Malbay and Lahinch, on 22nd September 1920. All six RIC, including a Black and Tan were killed.
A larger force of military arrived on the scene, exchanging fire with the Volunteers and pursed them across the hills, but the 4th Battalion managed to escape, but suffered casualties of their own; O’Neill along with Michael Curtin was wounded. Michael treated the men. O’Neill was taken to a remote farmhouse owned by the Moloney family in the townland of Illaunbawn, on the side of a hilltop which gave a wide view of the surrounding area. Michael made an arduous and dangerous trek through the night to reach O’Neill, but on this occasion Hillery did not move O’Neill to Miltown Malbay as the dangers with searching Crown Forces was too great. Despite this O’Neill again recovered from his wounds and was leading attacks within a few weeks.
Michael and his family were fortunate to escape the reprisals that followed the Rineen Ambush as Crown Forces took their revenge on the local population. Military descended on Miltown Malbay, Lahinch and Ennistymon, looting and burning property in the towns. Several houses in Miltown Malbay were burned to the ground and most of the others were damaged. Crown Forces raided Hillery’s Pub and shots were fired through the windows of the house, although the building escaped the worst excesses of the attack. Michael was treating the wounded Volunteers when the attack occurred, his car was burned out, as a warning to break his links with the Republicans.
Michael’s role in supporting the Mid Clare Brigade was well known in the area and he was constantly under suspicion and watch by Crown Forces.
His son Paddy Hillery, former President of Ireland, remembered that “My mother often spoke of the strain when the police called on my father to halt on his return from a sick call and he had to put his medical bag on the ground. She feared they would shoot as he was obviously under suspicion.”
Dr Michael Hillery died on the 16th of October 1957 and is buried in Ballard Road Cemetery in Miltown Malbay.
Dr Michael Hillery and his life will be remembered on Sunday 30th April 2023 with a blue plaque unveiling at 1:15pm at his birthplace Hillery’s Pub, Main Street, Miltown Malbay. All are welcome.
This event is supported by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Clare County Council under the Community Strand of the Decade of Centenaries programme.
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