The IRA ambushed a lorry carrying British troops and Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) officers at Scramoge, near Strokestown in County Roscommon.

[1] Following the ambush, the British carried out a sweep in which they captured three of the IRA volunteers involved, and killed another who had not taken part.

The local IRA argued to their GHQ that it was very difficult to conduct guerrilla warfare in the flat open countryside there.

Prior to the action at Scramogue, the biggest previous incident had been in October 1920, when four RIC officers were killed in an ambush near Ballinderry.

There were 39 volunteers in the flying column, but only 14 took part in the actual attack; the remainder were tasked with blocking roads to keep the IRA's line of retreat open.

[7] The lorry carried a nine-man British Army and Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) patrol travelling on the Strokestown–Longford road.

The ambush party took the British arms (including the Hotchkiss gun), burned the lorry and made their escape over the hill of Slieve Bawn.

[15][16] The British garrison in Roscommon town mounted a sweep directly after the ambush with eight lorries and one Whippet tank.