On January 4th, 1921, the Newmarket Battalion of the IRA, under Sean Moylan, ambushed the British military at Meelin, Co Cork. While there were no casualties on either side, on January 5th in retaliation for previous day's ambush, the Black and Tans burned six houses in Meelin, destroyed many others and killed teenager Morgan Sweeney.

The woman featured in the photograph is one of the three Browne sisters of Meelin Hill, Newmarket, Co.Cork. Information supplied in email correspondence, 27th November 2011.

This photograph appeared in the Irish Independent on 8th January 1921. The caption stated: "Miss Brown looking on the ruins of her mother's home". An article in the same edition stated: "A party of Crown forces marched to the farmhouse of Mrs. Mary Brown, a widow, with 2 sons and 2 daughters. They were ordered to clear out the furniture. Mrs. Brown, aged about 70, and one daughter were the only members at home. Miss Brown told an "Irish Independent" representative that, with the assistance of 2 members of the Crown forces, she got out most of the articles before the wreckage began. The other men merely looked on and laughed. When the house had been wrecked the cattle-houses and piggery were emptied of their livestock and also wrecked. "My mother and I are now trying to live in a stable", said Miss Brown "and she is ill suffering from shock and fright. We have nowhere to house the cattle and pigs, and God knows what will become of them".

Exhibited as part of ‘From Turmoil to Truce, photographs of the War of Independence’, 19 November 2019-May 2020 at the National Photographic Archive

Physical description: 1 photograph : gelatin silver print ; 13.9 x 19.1 cm.