Sack of Balbriggan

On Monday 21 September 1920 during the night the Black and Tans sacked the town of Balbriggan in North Dublin Ireland. The sacking was revenge for the killing of District Inspector Burke and his brother Sergeant Burke, who were shot dead by the IRA while in Smyth’s pub, Balbriggan earlier in the day.

Sacking
The sack started around 11pm when lorries carrying around 100 to 150 Tans arrived in the town from Gormanston military barracks and proceeded to loot the town.

On Clonard Street, 20 houses were destroyed. Several pubs were looted and burned including Derham’s Pub and McGowan’s Pub on George’s Hill. Overall a factory, 49 houses and four pubs were burnt down.

Two men, John Gibbons and James Lawless, were taken to Quay Street and beaten to death.

Aftermath
The event caused debate in the British Parliament and H. H. Asquith, the former Prime Minister and then leader of the opposition compared Balbriggan to a Belgian town on the frontier during World War I.

Historian Tim Pat Coogan states that it was probably unauthorised.