On 28 November 1921 , during the Irish War of Independence ( 1919 &ndash; 1921 ) , seventeen British Auxiliary Division troops were killed by the Irish Republican Army at the Kilmichael Ambush ( near Dunmanway ) . The subsequent sacking and burning of the city of Cork by the British forces is thought to be linked to the Kilmichael Ambush . On 15 December 1920 , an Auxiliary shot dead the local priest , Canon Magner , for refusing to toll his church 's bells on Armistice Day ; a local boy , Tadhg Crowley , was also killed in an apparently random incident . There were numerous other actions in and around Dunmanway during the war ( see Chronology of the Irish War of Independence ) . In addition , after a truce was declared in July 1921 , the local IRA killed a number of alleged informers . Controversy continues in particular over the killing of ten men ( including three residents of Dunmanway ) in the spring of 1922 , all of whom were Protestants ( see Dunmanway killings )
Dunmanway killings
Dunmanway killings
Dunmanway