On 21 January 1919 Treacy and Dan Breen, together with Seán Hogan, Séumas Robinson (known as the 'big four’) and five other volunteers, helped to ignite the conflict that was to become the Irish War of Independence.

The only regret that we had following the ambush was that there were only two policemen in it, instead of the six we had expected...[10]As a result of the action, South Tipperary was placed under martial law and declared a Special Military Area under the Defence of the Realm Act.

His rescuers rushed him into the village of Knocklong, where a butcher's wife slammed down the shutters to hide them and her husband cut off Hogan's handcuffs using a cleaver.

[12] In the summer of 1920, Treacy returned to Tipperary and organised several attacks on RIC barracks, notably at Hollyford, Kilmallock and Drangan, before again moving his base of operations to Dublin.

The British thoroughly reorganised their administration at Dublin Castle, including the appointment of Colonel Ormonde Winter as chief of a new Combined Intelligence Service (CIS) for Ireland.

[citation needed] On 11 October 1920, Treacy and Breen were holed up in a safe house owned by a professor and IRA sympathiser named John Carolan – Fernside – in Drumcondra on the north side of Dublin city when it was raided by a police unit, led there by a tout, Robert Pike.

[citation needed] The British began to search for the two and Collins ordered the Squad to guard them while plans were laid for Treacy to be exfiltrated from the Dublin metropolitan area.

Several members of the Squad assembled at a Dublin safe house, the Republican Outfitters shop at 94 Talbot Street early on 14 October in preparation for this operation.

Breen had managed to get away, his feet cut to ribbons by the glass of Professor Carolan's greenhouse, and was now being hidden by the medical staff in a nearby hospital.

But he had been followed by an informer, and a British Secret Service surveillance team led by Major Carew and Lt Gilbert Price was stalking him in the hope that he would lead them to Collins or to other high-value IRA targets.

Treacy drew his parabellum automatic pistol and shot Price and another British agent before he was hit in the head, dying instantly.

[citation needed] The entire confrontation had been witnessed by a 15-year-old Dublin trainee photographer, John J. Horgan, who captured the scene moments after the shooting, showing Treacy lying dead on the pavement and Price propped up against a doorway a few feet away.

His coffin arrived by train at Limerick Junction station and was accompanied to St Nicholas Church, Solohead, by a crowd of Tipperary people.

The most recent ceremonies were held on Sunday 4 September 2016 and 18 August 2019, each attracting Tipperary folk en route to Croke Park.

The town of Tipperary is home to the Seán Treacy Memorial Swimming Pool, which contains many historic items related to the Easter Rising and the War of Independence and a copy of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic.

The Seán Treacy GAA Club takes his name in honour and represents the parishes of Hollyford, Kilcommon and Rearcross in the Slieve Felim Hills, which straddle the borderland between the historical North and South Ridings of Tipperary.

When he saw them in their Crossley trucks, like the fox inside his lair, Seán waited for to size them up before he did emerge, With blazing guns he met the Huns, and forced them to retreat, He shot them in pairs coming down the stairs, in that house in Talbot Street.