MACHINE-GUNS TURNED ON BRITISH TROOPS AT COBH
One Soldier Dead
Twenty-Nine Wounded Landing from Spike Island

‘(From Our Own Correspondent) Friday Night.

About 7 o’clock tonight a powerful Rolls Royce motor car*dashed into Cobh, coming from the Rushbrook direction and continued at high speed until it had passed Aherne’s corner, the Beach.

In the car were four men dressed in the uniform of Free State officers. They were observed to train two Lewis [machine] guns in the direction of the pier-head, immediately opposite.

At that time a number of British soldiers had just landed from a military launch, which had brought them from Spike Island, where they are quartered. Accompanying the soldiers were some women and children, all coming over to Cobh for recreation.

DEADLY FIRE
Suddenly, four outbursts of fire were heard by persons in the vicinity and numbers of the soldiers on the pier head were observed to fall. One of them fell into the sea, but he was fortunately rescued. Later it was found that as a result of the deadly fusillades no fewer than 29 persons were wounded, including two of the women in the party.

Almost as soon as the firing had ended the attackers set their car quickly in motion again …and drove past the Scot’s Church, towards Rushbrooke, and at a point on the road slowed down their motor car.

DESTROYER FIRED ON
At this moment the destroyer, Scythe, was observed to be lying in Monkstown Bay, in mid-stream, and when the car got opposite the vessel the occupants trained their machine guns in her direction, and some further bursts of firing were heard.

After this firing the car again regained speed, and disappeared in the direction of Rushbrooke. The crew of the destroyer stood to arms, but no exchange of shots took place.

…It has now been ascertained that one of the wounded British soldiers, Private Aspinall, of the Army Service Corps, succumbed to his injuries, and that four of the other men who are seriously wounded are not expected to recover. The two injured women are among the less serious cases. …The terrible affair caused a painful sensation in Cobh.

(Source The Freeman’s Journal, 22 March 1924, p7)

*What came to be known as the ‘Moon Car’ hit-and-run machine gun attack by Anti-Treaty IRA on British servicemen and local civilians in An Cóbh was one of the last violent events of the Irish Civil War. Dubbed ‘Moon Car’, the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost was commandeered by the Cork No. 1 Brigade of the IRA during the War of Independence and got its nickname due to its use on nighttime patrols along the country roads of Cork.

In January 2020, the McSweeney family donated the 1919 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost to the National Museum of Ireland.