New essays by Kildare historians
The summer 2013 issue of the The Irish Sword. The Journal of the Military History Society of Ireland (Vol. XXIX, No. 115) has two essays by Co. Kildare historians: ‘Attempted ambush and escape from Stacumny, 2 July 1921,’ by Seamus Cullen and ‘The killing of Lieutenant J. H. Wogan–Browne at Kildare on 10 February 1922: a test of Anglo-Irish relations,’ by Mark McLoughlin.
The first essay, ‘Attempted ambush and escape from Stacumny, 2 July 1921,’ is an account by Seamus Cullen, a Research Student at Trinity College Dublin, of an unsuccessful ambush of a British troop train at Stacumny near Celbridge by a IRA volunteers from North Kildare, Meath and Dublin. The attack occurred against the backdrop of a campaign promoted by the IRA leadership to hamper British transportation of British troops with Co. Kildare chosen because of it’s low level of republican activity. The second essay, ‘The killing of Lieutenant J. H. Wogan–Browne at Kildare on 10 February 1922: a test of Anglo-Irish relations,’ is an account by Mark McLoughlin, a Trinity graduate, of the fatal shooting of Lt. John Wogan-Browne in a payroll robbery by Suncroft IRA men. The killing was a shocking crime and caused considerable outrage at the time, just two months before the departure of British troops from Kildare. The essay gives details of the murder, the aftermath and the participants.