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2. Irish Revolutionary Period
3. 1921-1922: Truce

Title:	A 1919 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, nicknamed the 'moon car' because of its use at night in Cork by an IRA unit
Authors:	Power, David Curragh Military Museum
Keywords:	IRA Civil War Cork
Issue Date:	30-Dec-1921
Description:	A 1919 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, nicknamed the 'moon car' because of its use at night in Cork by an IRA unit. The car had been formerly owned by poet Oliver St. John Gogarty. In 1924, a group of IRA volunteers commandeered the car and decided to attack a party of British troops based at Spike Island where Britain had retained a base as part of the Anglo Irish Treaty of 1922. They opened fire with two Lewis machine guns (mounted by the passenger doors) injuring 18 soldiers and killing one, 18-year-old Pte Herbert Aspinall from Rochdale. The attack was described by William T Cosgrave, as “a dastardly outrage” without parallel “in its deliberation and its savagery” The IRA hoped that the attack would force the British to retaliate and thus lead to a resumption of hostilities. The car was later burnt out and lay in a farmyard ever since, before being rediscovered and restored.
URI:	https://hdl.handle.net/10599/12020
Copyright:	If you wish to reproduce this image please contact South Dublin Libraries Local Studies, County Library, Tallaght, or e-mail localstudies@sdublincoco.ie.
Appears in Collections:	1921-1922: Truce Published Items

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