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Landships II -> Landships WW1 Forum -> Armoured Cars & other AFV's -> Looking for information on the Improvised Irish A.C. "Queen of the West"
Post Info TOPIC: Looking for information on the Improvised Irish A.C. "Queen of the West"
Tim R


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Looking for information on the Improvised Irish A.C. "Queen of the West"
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Gentleman Hello, I ran across this the other day, and I am very interested in knowing if anyone has any further information and especially any other photo's. The Queen of the west was an improvised armoured car, built by the irregular IRA on the chassis of a Crossley tender. She is probably the most well known of the improvised vehicles that the irregulars built during the Irish civil war. Constructed with a boiler which had been taking from the Mulranny hotel in Co Mayo and mounted on the chassis of a Crosley, the boiler been reinforced by fitting extra metal plates with concrete in-between, loopholes been added for weapons to fire through, with metal plates fitted to protect the engine. The work been carried out at the garage of a Thomas Moran which was next to the Mulranny hotel in Co Mayo. A small slit for the driver to see through can be seen as well as the door to the rear of the vehicle which has several spare tyres droop over it. Taking part in the fighting in and around Clifden Co Galway in October of 1922 the Queen of the west fell into the hands of the Irish national army after a successful attack on positions held by the irregulars at Clifden. Her new owners renamed her The girl I left behind me and used her temporarily before been abandoned in a bog in north Mayo where she lay partly submerges until 1934 at which time an attempt was made to retrieve her with the intention of placing her in a motor museum. After the civil war Thomas Moran attempted and failed to claim from the Irish state £1,156 in damages caused to his public house and his garage which was next to the Mulranny hotel. Moran claimed that national army troops arrested him, broke up everything in his premises and fired their rifles through the roof and windows, three motor cars and a lorry were smashed, gallons of oil were spilled and his premises looted. All the Best Tim R On my iPad, will post only photo I have soon.

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PDA


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Found this:

 

here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vintary/5803180745/in/photostream

You could ask "Vintary" where and when the newspaper clipping is from (unless, of course, you are Vintary smile)

HTH



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Tim R


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Yes, that's the photo I was going to post. It's pretty bad and you can not tell much detail..

All The Best

Tim R.



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Tim R


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By the way thanks for looking and posting the photo.

All the Best

Tim R.



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vintary


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Hello Tim R

I see by your post that you visited my Facebook page your welcome please call again

That newspaper photo (posted by PDA) and the caption under the photo are from two different dates and two different newspapers and Im sorry to say the articles contained very little information on the Queen. 

Whats on the Facebook page is about all the information I could find on the Queen.  One bit of info that did come about since I put that post up and would suggest that the axels from the Queen were removed a long time ago and are now on a Crossley that attends the Gordon Bennett vintage car really in Ireland.

I have attempted to do some scale plans on the Queen but its very difficult as the photo is not of good quality and the front and rear are almost totally unseen, but hopefully something mite turned up in the future and if it does I will let you know.      

 



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  • 22nd October 2012, 21:28 #4
    Eric Nolan
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    I only recently came across, purely by chance, the site Irish Military Online, and was extremely interested in the mention of the "Queen of the West" armoured car. My Gr. Uncle Tom Nolan was a great friend of "Number 9", as Thomas Moran was known, both "fighting for freedom" at the time of the Irish Civil War. I believe at one time they both were imprisoned in Castlebar for attending subversive meetings, and my Tom (then about 70 yrs.old !) was wounded in the leg at some skirmish. Tom Nolan bought and restored the RIC Garrison in Mulranny having, I suspect, being involved in helping to burn it down in the first place ! He named it New York House (he had worked in Brooklyn, N.Y., after first emigrating to Preston, England with my Gr. Grandfather, Patrick) and lived there till his death in 1938, aged 90.
    There is a fabulous photo of ""Fag a' beallach", an Irish term I'm told for "leave the way", in Vol.1, No.2 of " Back the Road" (Pg.17 ) showing the car's capture by Freestate soldiers after the batttle of Clifden.
    I visit Mulranny & Cushlecka (where my Nolans originated) as often as I can, and there is great local "craic" of the 2 Toms, Moran & Nolan. Indeed I have challenged garage owner James Grealis to build a replica Queen of the West if we fail to find the original old girl ! Incidentally, it was James' family who took over the Nolan land & homestead, still remembered today by James' old mother, Annie.
    Do we know what eventually happened to the car, or is is still in the bog somewhere ?
    I look forward to hearing from you,
    Best regards,
    Eric Nolan
    Wilpshire
    Nr. Blackburn
    UK
     
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  • 23rd October 2012, 20:03 #5
    vintary
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    Eric, I also posted on the Historic military vehicle forums (post 127) and got an interesting reply, (post 131) on the Crossley RFC tender thread. Apart from that and what I have posted here I have nothing more to add.
    There is great interest in the Queen of the west, in particular from scale model makers as I had several Emails regarding more info on its construction.
    Maybe your post will bring it to the forefront again and hopefully more info or photos may turn up.

    http://hmvf.co.uk/forumvb/showthread...522#post265522
    Last edited by vintary; 23rd October 2012 at 20:05.
     
    ...............................................................................................  
     
    * *  PS:  I'M HAPPY TO POST COPY OF MY PHOTO SHOULD ANYONE LIKE TO GET IN TOUCH.     ERIC NOLAN  17/2/13
 
 


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