Burgery ambush

The Burgery Ambush was an ambush carried out by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 18–19 March 1921, during the Irish War of Independence. It took place near the town of Dungarvan, County Waterford.

Ambush
On the night of 18–19 March 1921, IRA volunteers of the West Waterford flying column ambushed a British military convoy at the Burgery,  about a mile and a half  northeast of Dungarvan. The convoy included Black and Tans and Royal Irish Constabulary Sergeant Michael Hickey. In overall command of the IRA unit was IRA GHQ Officer George Plunkett, brother of Easter Rising martyr Joseph Mary Plunkett. Also present were West Waterford Brigade Commandant Pax Whelan, ASU leader George Lennon and Mick Mansfield of Old Parish. A British Crossley tender was set on fire and prisoners taken by the IRA, including Sergeant Hickey. Hickey was later executed by an IRA firing squad with a sign reading "police spy" affixed to his tunic. The other prisoners including Captain DV Thomas, the commander of the British garrison, were released.

After the ambush, a group of volunteers under Plunkett returned to search for any armaments left behind by the British forces. Crown forces who were now searching the area engaged the IRA party, and Volunteers Sean Fitzgerald and Pat Keating were shot dead. A Black and Tan, Constable Sydney R. Redman was shot dead in the return fire.

Aftermath
British forces carried out reprisals in the area. Hickey's body was eventually interred at Saint Mary's Church in Dungarvan. Gravediggers initially refused to dig the grave. It was only at the instigation of the parish priest that the unmarked grave was dug. In 2008 it was revealed that his body lies in a plot belonging to his fiancee's family. Both IRA volunteers are interred at the Republican burial plot in nearby Kilrossanty. Subsequent to the clandestine burial of Volunteer Pat Keating, members of the burial party, including the Cullinane sisters, George Lennon and Mick Mansfield, were ambushed near Faha Bridge in Grawn.