Battle of Kilmallock The Battle of Kilmallock took place between 25 July and 5 August 1922 in County Limerick . It was one of the largest engagements of the Irish Civil War . It consisted of ten days of fighting in the countryside round Kilmallock in County Limerick , in which the Irish Free State forces , advancing south from Limerick city , found their path blocked by anti - Treaty IRA troops , dug into a number of villages at Bruff , Bruree and Patrickswell . The fighting ended with the retreat of the anti - Treaty fighters and the occupation of Kilmallock by Free State forces . Preparations . The prelude to the battle was the fall of Limerick city to Free State forces . The Republican forces in the city under Liam Deasy , withdrew from their positions after a week ' s fighting and concentrated in Kilmallock and the nearby towns of Bruff and Bruree . The Free State forces , advancing south from the city , found their path blocked by the Republicans dug in in the three hilltop towns . The National Army ' s attempt to break through this position produced the only ' line battle ' of the war with the two sides facing each other along clear front - lines . The Kilmallock - Bruff - Bruree triangle would see some of the war ' s most intense fighting . Whereas in the fighting in Dublin , Limerick and Waterford , Free State troops equipped with artillery overcame Anti - Treaty resistance relatively easily , at Kilmallock they had a much harder time . The main reason for this was that the Free State troops , most of whom were new recruits , were facing some of the best of the IRA forces without an advantage in numbers or firepower . General Eoin O ' Duffy complained of shortage of arms and ammunition . He estimated that while his forces had about 1 , 300 rifles , the Republicans could muster over 2 , 000 . He was also scathingly critical of the quality of the troops at his disposal , whom he described as , " a disgruntled , undisciplined and cowardly crowd " . The Republicans knew this and were confident of success . Nevertheless , the Republican commanders had their own problems . Logistical support and co - operation between forces from different counties was poor and unreliable . Deasy ' s command included Volunteers from Limerick itself , Cork and Kerry , all of whom had their own commanders . They had three improvised armoured cars , some mortars and heavy machine guns but no artillery . O ' Duffy drew up plans for the advance on Kilmallock with the assistance of his second - in - command Major General W . R . E . Murphy who had been a Brigadier General in World War I . His experience in the trenches had a major effect on his approach – pre - disposing him to cautious advances and use of trenches for cover . Battle . The Republicans had the better of this first clashes . On Sunday 23 July , Free State forces took Bruff and began their advance on Kilmallock , but were twice beaten back by determined Republican resistance . The following day , the Republicans managed to retake Bruff in a counter - attack , taking 76 prisoners . As a result of this setback , O ' Duffy called off the advance for the time being and waited for reinforcements . Free State forces quickly retook Bruff after reinforcements arrived . However , things got worse for the National Army as the week went on . They made slow progress in taking the Republican strongpoints , and their casualties also mounted . On Tuesday , 25 July , a unit of the Dublin Guard under Tom Flood was ambushed on a narrow road . They fought their way clear , but only after losing four men killed . Three more Free State soldiers were killed two days later . On 30 July , Major General Murphy launched an attack to take Bruree . The Dublin Guards attacked the town from the southeast , supported by armoured cars and an 18 - pound field gun . The Republicans held out for five hours until Free State artillery was brought into action . At least 13 Free State soldiers and nine Anti - Treaty fighters were killed in the action and more were wounded before the Free State troops secured Bruree . The Republican commander Deany knew how important Bruree was to the defence of Kilmallock and drew up plans to recapture the town using three armoured car s , trench mortars and machine guns . On 2 August , Republicans captured Patrickswell south of Limerick . The armoured cars then attacked Bruree , taking Free State forces by complete surprise . One car attacked Commandant Flood ' s headquarters at the Railway Hotel . The Commandant and his men managed to escape out the back of the building under the cover of Lewis gun fire . The second armoured car rammed the front door of another post in the school house , which persuaded the twenty - five troops inside to surrender . However when Free State reinforcements , along with armoured cars arrived , the republican counter - attack stalled . The Free State reinforcements were led by Comdt . Gen . Seamus Hogan , who personally led his forces , riding in the armoured car nicknamed ' The Customs House . ' Having failed to secure the surrender of the town , Republican forces retreated . The tide turns . Having held Bruree against a Republican counterattack , Free State forces prepared to capture Kilmallock itself , but anticipated there would be heavy fighting . Republican Adjutant Con Moloney commented on 2 August , " Up to yesterday we have had the best of the operations there [ the Kilmallock area ] . There will , I fear , be a big change there now as the enemy have been reinforced very considerably . " On Thursday , 3 August , 2 , 000 men strong Free State forces backed up by armoured cars and artillery advanced on Kilmallock from Bruree , Dromin and Bulgaden . Seven hundred troops arrived the next day with an armoured car and a field gun . By Saturday the town was surrounded by Free State forces . The Dublin Guard were also on hand to prevent Republican forces from escaping . Three miles away Free State artillery was deployed and shelled Republican forces on Kilmallock Hill and Quarry Hill . The two hills were soon controlled by Free State forces . The National Army had , therefore , assembled overwhelming force to smother resistance at Kilmallock . They were still , however , expecting hard fighting before they took the town . To their surprise , when the Free State troops entered town , they encountered only light resistance from a Republican rearguard ( volunteers from Cork ) . Most of the Republican troops had already abandoned their positions and retreated to Charleville . They had departed not because the Free State troops were much stronger , but because they had been outflanked by Free State seaborne landings on the coasts of County Kerry and County Cork on 2 and 8 August respectively . The landings in Cork and Kerry forced Comdt . Gen . Deasy to release units from this area to return home to their own areas . Although the landings in Cork occurred after the retreat from Kilmallock , the subsequent loss of brigades from Cork added to Commandant General Deasy ' s problems . The final phase of the fighting in County Limerick came when the Free State advance south was held up at Newcastlewest . Another day of heavy fighting ensued in which the Government troops had to bring up armoured cars and artillery to dislodge the Republicans , who were reported to have lost up to 12 men before they retreated in the direction of Cork .