and the Irish Bandon Foot reoccupied the town. Lord Forbes left two companies from Lord Forbes' Regiment and one company from the Bandon Foot to garrison Clonakilty before leaving the town to relieve Rathbarry Castle, which was under siege by rebel forces. However, almost immediately after Lord Forbes left Clonakilty, a large force of Catholic rebels attacked the town; the two Scottish companies refused to retreat and were killed to a man, while the Irish company fought their way out of the town to an abandoned ringfort near Rosscarbery, where they were relieved by Lord Forbes who had returned from Rathbarry. The reunified force returned to Clonakilty and drove out the rebels, who fled towards the island of Inchydoney, where roughly six hundred of them drowned at high tide. Lord Forbes' men returned to the town and freed a large number of men, women and children imprisoned in Clonakilty's market house who the rebels had planned on burning on a bonfire. The town was also the site of a battle in 1691 during the Williamite War in Ireland. During the Irish Rebellion of 1798, Shannonvale near Clonakilty was the site of the Battle of the Big Cross. It was described as "the only place in all Munster where a blow of some sort had been struck during the Rising of '98". There is a commemorative statue celebrating the Battle of the Big Cross in Astna Square in the centre of Clonakilty. Michael Collins, who was the Director of Intelligence for the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the Irish War of Independence, lived in Clonakilty and attended the local boys' national school. Collins later served as Chairman of the Provisional Government of Ireland and was instrumental in the founding of the Irish Free State. Collins was killed in an ambush by the Anti-Treaty IRA during the Irish Civil War. He gave several orations from O'Donovan's Hotel on the Main Street of Clonakilty. On Emmet Square, where Collins lived for a period, is a statue of Michael Collins (erected and dedicated in 2002) and a museum (opened in 2016). In April 1943, a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was travelling from Morocco to England when it was forced to land at a marsh just outside Clonakilty. The crew (who were uninjured) thought they had been flying over German-occupied Norway. Kennedy Gardens at Emmet Square (formerly Shannon Square) in the centre of town is