Dan Breen and the IRA by Joe Ambrose

Both men carried revolvers. Opposite Hogan there were two other constables, Ring and Reilly, both bearing shotguns. Sergeant Wallace was an important political officer, his pre-eminence shown by the fact that he was in charge of a key prisoner like Hogan.
    Treacy and Eamonn O’Brien walked down to Knocklong station, while Breen and Robinson entered the town on bikes. Breen and Robinson were to linger around the station entrance, acting as lookouts, while O’Brien and Treacy went in to free Hogan.
    When the train pulled into the station, two of the Galbally men jumped out before it ground to a halt. One of them pointed to the compartment where Hogan sat under guard. Treacy and O’Brien strode onto the train, revolvers drawn.
    They made their way to Hogan’s compartment, thrust open its sliding door and shouted, ‘Hands up! Come on, Seán, out!’ Constable Enright placed a revolver against Hogan’s neck and crouched in behind him for cover. Treacy and O’Brien opened fire, killing Enright. ‘We certainly would never have fired if Enright had not made a move to attack Hogan,’ O’Brien later maintained.
    Hogan jumped up and crashed his handcuffed hands right into the face of Constable Ring, seated opposite him. Treacy and Wallace wrestled viciously with one another, while Eamonn O’Brien and Constable Reilly fell into a similar struggle. Then the Galbally contingent stormed onto the train virtually unarmed and wrenched Reilly’s shotgun away from him. One of them smashed him across the head with his own weapon and he collapsed onto the floor, apparently knocked out. Constable Ring either jumped out a window or was thrown out through it. This was the last that was seen or heard of him for some time.
    Treacy, still wrestling with Wallace, told Hogan to leave the train. The teenager withdrew, with difficulty, as far as the corridor. There were now so many people in the small compartment that chaos reigned. While the tenacious Wallace and the resolute Treacy remained locked in combat, Treacy repeatedly appealed to the powerfully built sergeant to give it up but one man was as stubborn as the other.
    Wallace was now getting the upper hand in his struggle with Treacy. The two were grappling desperately for control of Wallace’s Webley revolver, whose barrel was remorselessly turning in the direction of Treacy’s head. Eamonn O’Brien fired at Wallace just as the policeman put a bullet through Treacy’s neck.
    Wallace fell back, mortally wounded. The rescue party was now in a position to get off the train. Treacy had little fight left in him. He later told a friend: ‘I thought I was a dead man. I had to hold my head up with both hands, but I knew I could walk.’
    As they made to leave they heard a shotgun going off. Constable Reilly had either feigned unconsciousness or was rapidly coming round. According to the Tipperary Star : ‘when he recovered from the staggering jab he had received in the affray, he dashed out firing shots like a man entirely out of his senses. The stationmaster, amongst others, had a narrow shave from random bullets.’
    Breen and Robinson rushed onto the platform. Breen fired fiercely at O’Reilly with an accuracy that forced him to withdraw, thereby taking pressure off the retreating rescuers. O’Reilly hit Breen twice during their fight, one bullet going through Breen’s lung, the other injuring his arm.
    While all this was going on, Robinson seems to have kept his distance. He may not have been a coward, but neither does it seem that he was much use in the heat of battle. Desmond Ryan, in his hagiographic account of the adventure, Daring Rescue of Seán Hogan at Knocklong Station is soothingly discreet about Robinson’s input: ‘Panic still reigned and it was some minutes before Robinson could discover the actual position. He saw, however, that the worst had not happened. He prepared to intervene as