The 3rd Tipperary Brigade,based in South Tipperary was one of the most active of all such units that constituted the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence.
Between December 1918 and January 1919, in a tin hut on a dairy farm in Greenane, Tipperary members of the Brigade planned what was to be the first act of the Irish War of Independence, the Soloheadbeg Ambush.
In the early part of the war, four members of the Brigade were the most wanted men in Ireland. The ‘Big Four‘, as they were referred to in Ireland in 1919, were Seán Treacy, Dan Breen, Séamus Robinson and Seán Hogan.
Raids, ambushes and ongoing military activities by the Brigade Battalions and Flying Columns made South Tipperary ungovernable for the British in 1920 and 1921. The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) were confined to what barracks remained with the British Army only venturing out in large convoys.
The Newcastle Company were very active during the War of Independence and the Civil War. See list of its members including James McGrath (Photo no 2) pictured at the Houlihan family plot in the old graveyard in Newcastle.
James, father of Mattie McGrath TD who along with many others, including members of Cumann na mBan, were very active in the Newcastle Company of the Third Tipperary Brigade in the period 1919-1923.
