B Company ADRIC

Templemore Abbey

B Company ADRIC were housed variously at

1920 Jul 27 B Coy formed. They appear to have been moved to Newcastle West.

Men and positions in B Coy

1920 Aug 6. William Frederick Hunt joined with RIC no 72296, ADRIC no 104. He became a 3rd Class District Inspector with B Coy. He appears to have been condemned by the IRA for being "aggressive" as an Intelligence Officer and sentenced to death. There is an unsubstantiated report that he was shot by Jim Stapleon and James Murphy.

1920 Sep 19. A detachment from the Green Howards and Auxiliaries were brought into the town from Newcastle West. The Auxiliaries were under the command of Col  Latimer. He was still in the town on the 20th when a Black and Tan murdered two local civilians. Col Latimer was called on to give evidence at the inquiry held 22 Sep 1920 by Major John T Eastwood.

1920 Oct 7 . A Group of 27 Auxiliaries - that is one Platoon - write to the Daily Mail from Newcastle West.

1920 Nov 23. A Platoon of 23 men transferred en-bloc to J Coy

1920 Nov 26 SH Dean involved in the shooting of Mortimer Duggan at Riordans Pub, Broadford

1920 Nov 29 . Strength of B Coy fell from 98 to 72 as 1 Platoon was transferred

1920 Dec 25.  James D Leahy (County Engineer) of Ballygowen House. Newcastle West. Co Limerick. had members B Company billeted in their house. They appear to have been there over Christmas 1920

B Coy 1920 Christmas Card

1921 Jan 1. An advertisement in the Tipperary Star, described an advertised sale of the contents of the Abbey, by auction on the 4, 5, & 6th of January 1921. As the sale was to take place at the Abbey, starting each day at noon, this must have taken place before the Auxiliaries took over the house.

1921 B Coy move to The Abbey, Templemore

1921 Jan 29. A raid at Summerhill, Borrisoleigh, Co Tipp needed an entry made to a house. T/Cadet JOR Evans of B Coy hit the door with his rifle butt, the gun went off, and a policeman, Const Sweeney was killed

1921 Feb 3. 2 Platoon commanders, Whur and Hunt revert to T/Cadet and move to Depot

1921 Feb 22 Patrol under EE Barrows shot J Stapleton

1921 Apr 9. T/Cadet J S Hastie married in London, and gave his address as The Abbey, Templemore

Believed to be B Coy on a raid from the town Drombane, Co. Tipperary. The building in 2012 was much the same.

The Auxiliaries are from left to right. S/L W ECopley, LFM Blake, D Frost, ?, ?, A Broomfield ? A very distinctive man but he does not seem to have been in B Coy

1921 May 22 A patrol from B Coy shot Con Gleeson at Moher, Drombane, Tipperary

1921 May The Auxiliaries left Templemore Abbey for Castle Saunderson, Co Cavan

1921 May 30. Announcement in Anglo-Celt warning local tradesmen that the ADRIC is not responsible for individual debts in Belturbet, Clones, Cavan. It is signed Commanding officer of B Coy at Castle Saunderson.

Castle Saunderson, Belturbet. This is a complete platoon plus the Company HQ group (Coy Commander, 2nd in Command , the Intelligence officer and probably Transport Officer and Quartermaster)

1921 Jun. B Company take over Castle Saunderson, Belturbet.

1921 Jun 19. Templemore Abbey burnt by IRA - compensation was later awarded to the owners of £35,000. A Witness Statement gives Commandant Séan Scott of the local IRA received a message from Michael Collins informing him that B company were about to vacate the mansion of Sir John Carden at Templemore Abbey, which they had commandeered in 1920. Collins directed that Templemore Abbey should be destroyed at all costs, ‘even at the loss of men’. Scott was surprised to learn that the Abbey was to be vacated as he had received no local intelligence to that effect. However, because of the implicit confidence which he had in Collins preparations were made to burn the mansion. The Abbey had been turned into a formidable HQ by ADRIC and was also an important symbolic target for the local IRA. as it was the former residence of the Carden family, notoriously unpopular landlords in the Templemore area. Scott was correct to have faith in the information supplied by Collins as shortly after the intelligence was received, and much to the relief of the I.R.A the Auxies were observed loading their lorries and leaving the Abbey. That night a party of fifteen IRA men collected thirty gallons of petrol from various premises in the area and broke into the mansion. The premises were set ablaze with some Volunteers receiving injuries in the process. Within a few hours the entire premises had been razed to the ground’. All that remains today of the Abbey are some of the outbuildings and the gate lodge.

1921 Jun 1. A report in Independent gives that B Company moved to Castle Saunderson, Belturbet, County Cavan when they left Templemore Abbey. MIC for JW Johnson shows them in Beturbet by 22 Aug.

The Sandersons. They were a Lincolnshire family who came to Ireland in the 17th century. The house was built by Colonel Alexander Sanderson, a landed gentleman with 12,000 acres. As Whig MP for Cavan, he supported Catholic Emancipation in the 1820s. He was also a keen yachtsman, designing several fast-sailing boats for use on Lough Erne, including the "Bluestocking", named for the pioneering women's social and educational movement of which his mother and sister were a part. Conversely, while the colonel's devoutly Anglican son Edward started as a Liberal, he ended up co-founding the Irish Unionist Party which he led from 1891 until his death in 1906.

1922 Jan. 23. B Coy leave Castle Saunderson, and via Dublin and Holyhead are disbanded.

1977 The castle was sold by Captain Alexander Sanderson and later opened as a hotel, until damaged by fire. An International Scout Centre has been built in the grounds, well away from the house, and the big house was an abandond ruin when we saw it in 2019

The only trace of the ADRIC was this photo in the grounds

 

 

Auxiliary Companies