Seán Hogan
Encyclopedia
3rd Tipperary Brigade
The 3rd Tipperary Brigade was one of approximately 80 such units that constituted the Irish Republican Army since the time of their formation from the Irish Volunteers, until after the Civil War...
of the Irish Republican Army
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
during the War of Independence
Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...
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Soloheadbeg
On 21 January 1919, Hogan and Dan BreenDan Breen
Daniel "Dan" Breen was a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. In later years, he was a Fianna Fáil politician.-Background:...
, together with Seán Treacy
Seán Treacy (Irish Republican)
Seán Treacy was one of the leaders of the Third Tipperary Brigade of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence. He helped to start the conflict in 1919 and was killed in a shootout with British troops in Talbot Street, Dublin during an aborted British Secret Service...
, Séamus Robinson and five other IRA members helped to ignite the conflict that was to become the Irish War of Independence. They shot dead two members of the Royal Irish Constabulary
Royal Irish Constabulary
The armed Royal Irish Constabulary was Ireland's major police force for most of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. A separate civic police force, the unarmed Dublin Metropolitan Police controlled the capital, and the cities of Derry and Belfast, originally with their own police...
(RIC) - Constables McDonell and O’Connell - at Soloheadbeg
Soloheadbeg
Soloheadbeg is a small townland, some two miles outside Tipperary Town, near Limerick Junction railway station.The place is steeped in Irish history, for it was here that King Mahon of Thomond and his brother Brian Ború defeated the Vikings at the Battle of Solohead in 968...
in County Tipperary
County Tipperary
County Tipperary is a county of Ireland. It is located in the province of Munster and is named after the town of Tipperary. The area of the county does not have a single local authority; local government is split between two authorities. In North Tipperary, part of the Mid-West Region, local...
. The RIC men were transporting gelignite
Gelignite
Gelignite, also known as blasting gelatin or simply jelly, is an explosive material consisting of collodion-cotton dissolved in either nitroglycerine or nitroglycol and mixed with wood pulp and saltpetre .It was invented in 1875 by Alfred Nobel, who had earlier invented dynamite...
explosives, when they refused to surrender them, the IRA shot them dead. Robinson was the organiser of the action, while Treacy was the logistics expert.
"On the eventful day Dwyer saw the explosives, 160 pounds of gelignite, being loaded on a cart and heading off with a guard of two policemen. He cycled ahead and watched as they took the long route to the Soloheadbeg quarry. He took the short route and informed the anxious Volunteers of the convoy's size and movements. The horse was being led by two workmen, Edward Godfrey and Patrick Flynn, while the two policemen, Constables Patrick McDonnell and James O'Connell, walked behind with their rifles slung over their shoulders. As they passed Cranitch's Field near the quarry the policemen were called on to surrender by masked men. When they took up firing positions Seán Treacy, followed by Breen and Robinson, opened fire."
As a result of the action, South Tipperary
South Tipperary
South Tipperary is a county in Ireland. It is part of the South-East Region and is also located in the province of Munster. It is named after the town of Tipperary and consists of 52% of the land area of the traditional county of Tipperary. The county was established in 1898 and has had a county...
was placed under martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
and declared a Special Military Area under the Defence of the Realm Act.
Knocklong
After Hogan was arrested on 12 May 1919 three of the other men who were part of the Soloheadbeg ambush ( Dan BreenDan Breen
Daniel "Dan" Breen was a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. In later years, he was a Fianna Fáil politician.-Background:...
, Seán Treacy
Seán Treacy (Irish Republican)
Seán Treacy was one of the leaders of the Third Tipperary Brigade of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence. He helped to start the conflict in 1919 and was killed in a shootout with British troops in Talbot Street, Dublin during an aborted British Secret Service...
and Séamus Robinson) were joined by five men from IRA East Limerick Brigade in order to organise Hogan's rescue. Hogan was being transported by train to Cork on 13 May 1919, and the men, led by Treacy, boarded the train in Knocklong
Knocklong
Knocklong is a small village situated in County Limerick, Ireland, located on the main Limerick to Mitchelstown to Cork road.-History:Knocklong was originally known as Druim Damhghaire, the Ridge of the Oxen, but takes its present title from Cnoc Luinge, the Hill of the Encampment. According to...
. A close-range shoot-out followed on the train. Treacy and Breen were seriously wounded in the gun fight, two policemen died, but Hogan was rescued. He was spirited away to Knocklong village where his handcuffs were cleaved by Séan Lynch, one of the rescuers, in the local butcher's shop.
Peace Time
Hogan took no part in the Civil War. He went back to farming in Donohill but sold the farm some time afterwards, he then bought a vegetable farm in County Dublin but this venture did not succeed. He married Christina Butler and had three sons; Hugh, Thomas and Sean. In later years he was in poor circumstances, he lived on his own in North Great George's Street, Dublin. Due to illness in his later years his memory was not quite so clear and his handwriting was almost illegible. He was also very disillusioned with the way the Irish people had developed their country from the time the Republic of Ireland gained freedom. Hogan stayed with Seamus Robinson and his family in their house on highfield road close to his death.He died aged sixty eight on Christmas Eve 1968. There was a brief reference to his death on RTE
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
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He is buried in the family grave in Tipperary town.