The Moon Car & Its Connection With Kilshannig

Introduction

This is an extraordinary story of a 1919 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost car that was used in an attempt to bring down the Free State Government in 1924. The genesis of this coup was orchestrated by a group of dissident army officers in cahoots with some anti treaty politicians who planned to take control of the Free State army and overthrow the Free State government.

This car was central to the coup and was in storage and hidden in a barn in West Cork by the No 1 Cork Brigade of the IRA. It was used in a machine gun attach on British soldiers disembarking at Cobh from Spike Island military barracks in 1924 and was immediately buried in a field in Glashabe near Bweeng village. This is why the incident is relevant to Kilshannig parish and is included on this website as part of our history.

Political Situation 1924

After the narrow votes in the Dail and in a referendum to endorse the treaty and the subsequent civil war, there existed an undercurrent of resentment to the terms of the truce even after the end of the Civil War. There was also unease at the way senior posts in the new Free State army were allocated.

It appears that a cohort of about 50 IRA men , who were senior officers in the new Free State Army planned a mutiny when told they were being decommissioned so they planned a mutiny which could have led to the overthrow of the pro treaty, Free State Government. The mutiny was led by two high ranking officers in the Free State Army, head of Intelligence Liam Tobin and Charles Dalton. Part of their plan was to undermine the authority of the Free State Government and the Moon Car was part of that plan.

The government got wind of the proposed mutiny before hand and with the arrest of the leaders the mutiny proper never materialised but dissidents decided to proceed with the part of the plan which was to use the Moon Car to discredit the free state in the eyes of the public and the British authorities.

The Moon Car

The most reliable motor cars of the day were Rolls Royce models and the Silver Ghost was top of the range so, as a get away car, it was much sought after. The problem was there were only two such cars in Ireland and the IRA succeeded in commandeering one during the War of Independence. This was used extensively around Mid and West Cork on night time excursions and got the name ‘The Moon Car’ as a result. After the ceasefire with the British on 11/7/1921 it was hidden in a barn in West Cork where it lay until early in 1924 when it was got ready, once more, for action.

Two machine guns were mounted inside the back of the car, armour plating was added and also storage for the machine guns. It was now ready for its mission and it proceeded to Cobh to be used to attack British troops disembarking from Spike Island military barracks. The British retained a number of coastal military fortifications as part of the truce and Spike was one of these.

The Plan

Five dissident IRA volunteers travelled in the car dressed up in Free State uniforms, drove it to Cobh and parked up beside the jetty with a full view to the disembarking soldiers. Once a number had disembarked the dissidents open fire, killing one, wounding over 20 others and also five civilians. It then sped off towards Cork, opening fire on a Royal Navy war ship parked in the estuary which was out of range, before disappearing into the countryside. The incident left utter devastation in Cobh, in the political scene both in Ireland and England and in the Irish army and police forces.

The purpose of the attack would appear to undermine the authority of the Free State Government especially in the eyes of the British government, to lay the blame on the Irish Free State army and force the British to cancel the truce and revert to military conflict. Luckily the plan did not achieve its objective. One British MP declared they needed another Cromwell to put manners on the Irish.

The Aftermath of the Attack

One significant precaution taken by the dissidents was to obliterate any tracks left by the tyres of the car as they were unique to that Rolls Royce model. Tracks could be traced on dirt, grass, and especially in dust on untarred roads so the roads travelled were brushed to remove all traces of the car on its journey to Bweeng. On the Waters farm in Glashabee a field had been ploughed to get ready to sow corn and this was to be the location to bury the car as no stone would be left unturned to find it and bring the perpetrators to justice so it had to disappear. In fact the government offered a £10,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the perpetrators and this was an enormous sum in those days.

The Moon Car’s Demise

The Waters family of Glashabee were deeply involved in the War of Independence and young Ned Waters was gunned down by the British after capture in the Nadd Roundup of 10/3/1921. See separate article on this website on this event.

A huge hole was dug in the middle of the ploughed field to bury the car but beforehand the valuable engine was removed and this ended up powering a corn crusher in a farm near Newberry. The car was burned and the shell was buried in the hole, the site was levelled, harrowed and the field was sown with corn, thus obliterating any trace of the car, but that was not the end of the story.

The Restoration

The car lay buried for the next 57 years when it was dug up to be sold for scrap and ended up in a scrapyard where it lay for a number of years before it was recognised as a significant item with great historical value. It was badly corroded and rusted but it was salvaged by a James Black from Tyrone and taken to a renowned restorer in Antrim where it was immaculately restored over a three year period using original Rolls Royce parts. Two decommissioned machine guns were installed as part of the authentic restoration project.

The restored car was purchased by Patrick McSweeney from Ballinacarriga in West Cork who has donated it to the National Museum of Ireland and it is now valued at about €2,000,000.

It has returned to Cobh and thanks to the Irish Examiner a photo of it parked exactly where it was in 1924 was taken and thanks also to Flicker for the use of the photo

It also made an appearance at Laharn Cross at one of the crossroad dances there.

This entire episode in our history seems to have been well hidden and practically ignored in the 100 years since then.

The Moon Car parked in Cobh exactly where it was in 1924. Photo courtesy of Flickr Commons.