The Crossbarry ambush restored IRA morale in March 1921, but could so easily have been a disaster.
The Parish of Clogagh had never seen a funeral like it. No parish in Ireland would ever see its like again.
In the pre-dawn darkness, down the rain-slicked road from the church to the cemetery, the cortege came. The coffin was borne by six men, and behind the coffin, six mourners walked.
Six mourners. At an Irish country funeral. It was as many as they dared bring.
Carried on the wind: the creak of leather, the soft shiiing-shiiing of metal upon metal, the murmur of boots on damp, hard-packed road – the unmistakable sound of heavily armed men on the move.