RIC handcuffs, Seán Hogan, 1919

RIC handcuffs, Seán Hogan, 1919

This pair of police handcuffs were on 18 year old Seán Hogan when he was rescued from police custody on 14^th May 1919 by Dan Breen and Séan Treacy of the 3^rd Tipperary Brigade, and members of the East Limerick Brigade
Hogan had been part of the group who carried out the ambush at Soloheadbeg in which two RIC policemen were killed, and he was captured some time afterwards. As he was being transferred by train from Limerick to Cork the rescue party boarded the train at Knocklong Station. A shoot out followed, in which Breen and Treacy were injured – Treacy being shot in the neck – and two policemen died. Hogan was taken to Knocklong village where they found a safe house in a butcher shop. The butcher broke these manacles off Hogan’s wrists with a meat cleaver.