The Dead of the Irish Revolution 0300123825, 9780300123821

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THE DEAD OF THE IRISH REVOLUTION

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THE DEAD OF THE IRISH REVOLUTION

Eunan O’Halpin and Daithí Ó Corráin

YALE UNIVERSIT Y PRESS NEW HAVEN AND LONDON iii

Copyright © 2020 Eunan O’Halpin and Daithí Ó Corráin Introduction © 2020 Eunan O’Halpin Original charts by Peter Connell All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press) without written permission from the publishers. For information about this and other Yale University Press publications, please contact: U.S. Office: [email protected]   yalebooks.com Europe Office: [email protected]   yalebooks.co.uk Set in Minion Pro by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall Library of Congress Control Number: 2020943257 ISBN 978-0-300-12382-1 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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EO’H In memory of Keith Jeffery (1952–2016) DÓC In memory of Donnchadh Ó Corráin (1942–2017) Clare Frances Murphy (1947–2018)

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgements  viii List of Abbreviations  xii List of Tables and Charts  xvi Map of Ireland  xvii Introduction by Eunan O’Halpin  1 1916 25 1917 102 1918 104 1919 107 1920 119 1921 268 Tables and Charts  543 Appendix: 1919–21 British Military Deaths Through Misadventure Not Individually Discussed in Text  549 Notes  557 Bibliography  660 Index of Fatalities  675 General Index  696

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This study has been a long time in the making.

EUNAN O’HALPIN That it has finally come to completion is due to the following people: Dr Eve Morrison, who continually pressed me to develop an unwieldy first draft, who re-engineered the database on which the text is based, and who has encouraged me at every turn; Robert Towers, Yale University Press’s Irish representative, who has exercised extraordinary patience, and who has read through the final manuscript, identifying countless points which needed attention; Dr Daithí Ó Corráin, who did the lion’s share of the initial research and drafting as a postdoctoral fellow from 2003 to 2007, and who read the recast entries at very short notice over Christmas 2019; my friend Mark Seaman in London, who has provided much hospitality, encouragement and counsel over many years; and the successive Yale managing editors Robert Baldock and Heather McCallum, who have put up with long delays. A meeting with Heather in May 2019 was crucial in spurring me finally to reduce the text by about 35 per cent, bringing it to a manageable size and the project to completion. I must also particularly thank Trinity colleagues Dr Ciaran Wallace, who devised the invaluable fatality referencing system, and Dr Peter Connell, who created the charts and graphs. The study originated in a proposal to the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences, covering the years 2003 to 2006. This is gratefully acknowledged. But the sum I had sought was, it transpired, insufficient to meet all the research costs involved, particularly in terms of research posts; the amount granted was even less adequate. The consequence was that money had to be found from other sources to pay for research travel and equipment and for part-time research assistance, and also that much of the research completed since 2006 has been carried out on the margins of other funded projects, including that supported in 2006/7 by the TCD Association and Trust, which covered a salary for an additional year, and which is gratefully acknowledged here. I must record special thanks to professors Peter Daly and John Kennedy and their surgical, nursing and support colleagues in St James’s Hospital for looking after me so well since December 2002. I had no idea then that I would still be here to bring this exercise to completion.

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Acknowledgements

DAITHÍ Ó CORRÁIN While some of those who died during the Irish Revolution are well known, most are not even recalled in historical footnotes. Yet they too have a story just as compelling or harrowing. Recovering those individual stories became, for me, a great quest that continued after funding for the project ceased. I am very grateful to the following close friends and family who supported me in this endeavour over many years: Dr Sinéad Boyce, Dr Patricia Burke, Seán Casey, Bernadette Fagan, Paul Griffin, Dr Gerard Hanley, Paul Hawkins, Belinda Lynch, Johnny Lynch, Clare Murphy, Kevin Murphy, Máire and Lisa Ní Iarlaithe, Professor Donnchadh Ó Corráin and Joseph Sheehy. The indefatigable Dr Tadhg-Iarla Curran, Dr Aogán Ó hIarlaithe and Chris Farrell deserve special mention for helping me comb newspapers with enthusiasm and good humour. As always, my largest debts are to those at home in Kerry and in Dublin: to my sister Aoife; my brothers Éanna and Tadhg-Iarla; my parents Esther and Teddy; and the cherished Ailís, Brían and Íde for supporting me in countless ways. Buíochas ó chroí libh. We owe thanks to a host of librarians, archivists, support staff and volunteer workers in the various Irish, British and American institutions listed in the bibliography, without whose help this project could not have been completed. For reasons of space we cannot acknowledge them all individually here, but we must especially thank Seamus Helferty, Kate Manning and Orna Somerville of the UCD Archives, successive officers commanding the Military Archives of Ireland – commandants Victor Laing, Stephen Mac Eoin and Daniel Ayotis – and Pat Brennan and Cécile Chemin of the Military Service Pensions project. Many other people, including some who have since passed away, merit thanks for help given in myriad ways to the project since 2003. What follows is an extensive though inevitably incomplete list: Richard Abbott, Dr Gearóid Barry, Kevin Barry, Seán and Ann Barry, Professor Terry Barry, Professor Ruth Barton, Dr Charles Benson, Hubert Bermingham, Dr Andy Bielenberg, Tom Brace, Dr Ciara Breathnach, Colm Brennan, Dr Niamh Brennan, Pat Brennan (of Cootehill), Regina Brereton, Bridget Brew, Damien Burke, Gerald and Mary Burke, Fr Patrick Burke, Dr Patrick Callan, Jim Carr, Bríd Clancy, Dr Joseph Clarke, Dr Marie Coleman, Dr Peter Collins, Mervyn Colville, Mary Conefrey, Seán Crean, Peter Crocker, Professor Mike Cronin, Dr Catriona Crowe, Geoffrey Crump, Dr Seamus Cullen, John Curran, Jean Cusack, C. D. Darroch, Pat Dawson, Liam Deasy, Colin Delaney, Eilín de Paor, Aoife Doherty, Eimear Doherty, Professor Anne Dolan, Dr Alison Donnelly, Colonel E. D. Doyle, Peter Druckers, Malachaí Duddy, Most Reverend Joseph Duffy, Laura Dunican, Con Dunne, Martin Dwan, Major T. J. D. Farrington, Brian Feeney, Jim Fitzgerald, Dr Thomas Earls Fitzgerald, Brian Fitzpatrick, Professor David Fitzpatrick, Professor Roy Foster, Seamus Fox, Dr Louise Fuller, Nicholas Furlong, Ronan Gallagher, Frank Gallon, Fr Anthony Gaughan, Áine Gleeson, Brendan Griffin TD, John, Mary and Sinéad Griffin, Professor Thomas Hachey, Dr Donal Hall, Dr Tim Hands, Dr Brian Hanley, Ken Hannigan, Dr Peter Harbison, Jim Harkins, Professor Peter Hart, Dr Gianna Hegarty, Tom Hennigan, James Herlihy, Paul Hickey, Mary Higgins, Seán Hogan, C.G.O. Hogg, Dr Susan Hood, Ian Hook, Cliff Housley, Dr Brian Hughes, Dr Leah Hunnewell, Dharragh Hunt, Dr Liam Irwin, Professor Keith Jeffery, Robert Jenkins, Dr Katherine Johnson, Sinéad Joy, Christopher Jupp, Peter Keane, Michael Keane, J. P. Kelliher, Professor James Kelly, Dr Michael Kennedy, Cora Killeen, Kathryn Knutson, Dr Georgina Laragy, Séamus Leahy, Dr David Lloyd, Seán Looney, Billy Loughman, Professor

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Acknowledgements

Mary Anne Lyons, Michael Lynch, Dr Patrick McCarthy, Dr Tomás Mac Conmara, Dr Philip McConway, George McCullough, Ultan McDonagh, Dr Tony McElligott, Michael McEvilly, Professor Fearghal McGarry, Dr Deirdre McMahon, Professor Ciarán Mac Murchaidh, Marcus Mac Ruairí, Dr Martin Maguire, Dr Eoin Magennis, Jim Maher, Inspector Paul Maher, David Maley, Dr Denis G. Marnane, Dr Jane Maxwell, Gareth Mears, Jacqueline Minchinton, Madeline Molyneaux, Janis Morrissey, Eamonn and Helen Moynihan, John Moynihan, Caroline Mullan, Dr Gerald Murphy, Imelda Murphy, Oliver Murphy, Pat and Lar Murphy, Monsignor Raymond Murray, Dr Samantha Newberry, Treasa Ní Uiginn, Professor Kevin B. Nowlan, Dr Gillian O’Brien, Robert O’Brien, Lorcan Ó Broin, Dr John O’Callaghan, Daithí Ó Ceallaigh, Gregory O’Connor, Cormac Ó Corcoráin, Donnchadh Ó Donncha, Julie O’Donoghue, Dr Micheál Ó Fathartaigh, Michael O’Gorman, Anthony and May O’Halpin, Fr Aodh O’Halpin, Barry O’Halpin, Conn O’Halpin, Dr Margaret Ó hÓgartaigh, Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, Stephen O’Kane, Dr Pádraig Ó Liatháin, Dr Kate O’Malley, Joseph O’Neill, Colonel Terry O’Neill, Michael O’Rahilly, Ruth O’Rahilly, John O’Riordan, Ted O’Riordan, Dr Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc, Seán Ó Súilleabháin, Dr Kevin O’Sullivan, Dr Alan Power, Tom Prendeville, Dr Niamh Puirséil, Dermot Quinn, Mike Rafter, Dr Peter Rigney, Maryalice Ryan, Lia Santry, Dr Brendan Scott, Albert Siggins, Cathy Smart, Mark Smith, David Stanley, Brian Stewart, Roger Sweetman SC, Anne-Marie Tarpey, Kelly Thompson, Tom Toomey, Professor Charles ‘CMG’ Townshend, Jesse Tumblin, Michael Twomey, Dr Úna Uí Bheirn, Dr W.E. Vaughan, Fr Kieran Waldron, Anne Walsh, Mary Walsh, Dr Fionnuala Walsh and Dr Simon Workman. We thank the following institutions and holders of copyright for access to and permission to quote from collections of papers: Amgueddfa, The Royal Welch Fusiliers Regimental Museum, Gwynedd; Bedfordshire County Council Archives and Records Service, Luton; Blackrock College Archives, Dublin; the Bodleian Library; the British Library; the Church of England Record Centre, Lambeth Palace Library; CIÉ Archives, Dublin; Columbia University Library, New York; the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office; Cork City and County Archives (formerly the Cork Archives Institute); the Director of the National Archives of Ireland; the Director of the National Archives of Scotland; the Director of the National Library of Ireland; the Director of the National Library of Scotland; Dublin City Library; the Essex Regiment Museum, Chelmsford; the Glasgow Police Museum; the Glasnevin Trust; the Highlands Regiments Museum, Fort George; the Irish Railway Records Society Archives; the Keeper of the National Archives, London; the Keeper of the Public Records of Northern Ireland; Kerry County Library; the Kings Own Scottish Borderers, Home Headquarters, Berwick-upon-Tweed; Leitrim County Library; the Librarian, NUI Galway; the Librarian, Trinity College Dublin; the Librarian, University College Dublin; Lincolnshire County Council; Louth County Council Archives; the Master, Fellows and Scholars of Churchill College in the University of Cambridge; the Military Archives of Ireland; the Monaghan County Museum; the Museum of the Queen’s Lancashire Regiment, Preston; Northampton Museum and Art Gallery; Oxford & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Regimental Archives, Oxford; the Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment Museum, Kent; the Regimental Museum of the Border Regiment, Cumbria; Representative Church Body Library, Dublin; the Royal Artillery Historical Trust, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich; the Royal College of Physicians, Dublin; the Royal Engineers Museum, Kent; the Royal Hampshire Regiment Trust, Winchester; the Royal Logistics Corps Museum, Camberley; the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, London; the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (Royal Warwickshire) Museum, Warwick; St Luke’s, Cork; the

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Acknowledgements

South Wales Borderers’ Museum, Powys; the Tameside Local Studies & Archives Centre, Ashton-under-Lyne; the Trustees of the Imperial War Museum, London; the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College London; the Trustees of the National Army Museum, London; Westminster Diocesan Archives, London; and the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters’ Regimental Museum, Nottingham. We thank Dr Matthew Stout of the School of History and Geography at DCU for producing a map of Ireland. Finally, we want especially to thank Charley Chapman for her patient and meticulous work on a complicated typescript, and our editor Rachael Lonsdale and her Yale University Press colleagues for seeing the book into print. June 2020

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ABBREVIATIONS

ADRIC AOH ASU BMH BNL Cadet CAC CB CC CCCA CCON Cd CE CFR CI CMG CMHC CoE CoI CSORP CT CWGC DCCR 1916–27 DCLA DCLI DCM DD DEM DGC DI DJ DMP

Auxiliary Division Royal Irish Constabulary Ancient Order of Hibernians Active Service Unit Bureau of Military History Belfast News Letter Temporary Cadet Churchill Archives Centre Catholic Bulletin Clare Champion Cork City and County Archives Cork Constitution Command Paper Cork Examiner Cork Fatalities Register County Inspector, RIC Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Central Military Hospital Cork Church of England Church of Ireland Chief Secretary’s Office Registered Papers Connaught Telegraph Commonwealth War Graves Commission Dublin City Coroner’s Register, 1916–27 Dublin City Library and Archive Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry Distinguished Conduct Medal Dundalk Democrat Dublin Evening Mail Dean’s Grange Cemetery, Dublin District Inspector Derry Journal Dublin Metropolitan Police

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Abbreviations

DÓC DSC DSO EH EOH FJ FT GAA GC GHQ GMC GNR GOC GOC in C GPO GS&WR ICA ICD II IN IRA IRB IRFU IRRSA IT ITGWU IV IWM JP JSH KCL KFS KGVH KN KOYLI KP LFS LL LP MAI MC MCM Mercer’s MGC MGWR

Daithí Ó Corráin Distinguished Service Cross Distinguished Service Order Evening Herald Eunan O’Halpin Freeman’s Journal Fermanagh Times Gaelic Athletic Association Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin General Headquarters (IRA) Grangegorman Military Cemetery Great Northern Railway General Officer Commanding General Officer Commanding in Chief (Ireland) General Post Office Great Southern and Western Railway Irish Citizen Army Irish Catholic Directory Irish Independent Irish News Irish Republican Army Irish Republican Brotherhood Irish Rugby Football Union Irish Railway Records Society Archives Irish Times Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union Irish Volunteers Imperial War Museum Justice of the Peace Jervis Street Hospital, Dublin King’s College London Kerry’s Fighting Story King George V [military] Hospital, Dublin Kerry News King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Kilkenny People Limerick’s Fighting Story Limerick Leader Last Post Military Archives of Ireland Military Cross Monaghan County Museum Mercer’s Hospital, Dublin Machine-Gun Corps Midland & Great Western Railway

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Abbreviations

MHD MIHB MJC MM MMH MP MSPC MTP NAI NEP NLI NMHD NUI NW O/C PRONI RAF RAMC RASC RC RCBL RCDH RCFS RCPI RD RDC RDF RDFA RE RFA RFC RGA RH RHCK RIC RIF RIR Rising RM RMA RMLI RRF RVC RVHB SA

Meath Hospital, Dublin Mater Infirmorum Hospital, Belfast Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin Military Medal Mater Misericordia Hospital, Dublin Mulcahy Papers Military Service Pensions Collection Moss [Maurice] Twomey Papers National Archives of Ireland Nottingham Evening Post National Library of Ireland National Maternity Hospital, Dublin National University of Ireland Northern Whig Officer Commanding Public Record Office of Northern Ireland Royal Air Force Royal Army Medical Corps Royal Army Service Corps Roman Catholic Representative Church Body Library, Dublin Royal City of Dublin Hospital Rebel Cork’s Fighting Story Royal College of Physicians of Ireland Related deaths Rural District Council Royal Dublin Fusiliers Royal Dublin Fusiliers Association Royal Engineers Royal Field Artillery Royal Flying Corps Royal Garrison Artillery Roscommon Herald Royal Hospital Cemetery Kilmainham Royal Irish Constabulary Royal Irish Fusiliers Royal Irish Regiment 1916 Rising Resident Magistrate Royal Marine Artillery Royal Marine Light Infantry Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Rebellion (Victims’) Committee Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast See also

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Abbreviations

SDU South Dublin Union SFC St Finbarr’s Cemetery, Cork SFRH Sinn Féin Rebellion Handbook SFTH Shot for failing to halt when ordered SJ Society of Jesus SPDH Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital, Dublin SVH St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin SWATE Shot while attempting to escape SWB South Wales Borderers TCD Trinity College Dublin TD Teacha Dála TNA The National Archives, London TS Tipperary Star UCC University College Cork UCD University College Dublin UCDAD University College Dublin Archives Department USC Ulster Special Constabulary UVF Ulster Volunteer Force WFM Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regimental Museum WIT Weekly Irish Times WP Western People YMCA Young Men’s Christian Association † Denotes people who died as a result of political violence after 31 December 1921

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TABLES AND CHARTS

TABLES

Table 1. Table 2. Table 3. Table 4. Table 5. Table 6. Table 7.

1916 Fatalities by Category 1917–21 Fatalities by County 1917–21 Fatalities by Category of Person Killed 1917–21 Responsibility for Fatalities 1917–21 Overall Fatalities by Cause 1917–21 Shot by Crown Forces While Attempting to Escape 1917–21 Shot by Crown Forces for Failing to Halt When Challenged

543 543 544 544 544 544 544

CHARTS

Chart 1. Chart 2. Chart 3. Chart 4a. Chart 4b. Chart 4c. Chart 4d.

1916–21 Fatalities per 10,000 Population (1911) 1917–21 Fatalities per 10,000 Population (1911) 1917–21 Total Fatalities, Combatants and Civilians 1917–21 Antrim Fatalities 1917–21 Cork Fatalities 1917–21 Dublin Fatalities 1917–21 Tipperary Fatalities

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545 546 547 548 548 548 548

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INTRODUCTION BY EUNAN O’HALPIN

The object of this book is to determine, as accurately as possible, how many people died as a consequence of Irish political violence between April 1916 and 31 December 1921. The work also seeks to identify their backgrounds, why they died and who was directly responsible for their deaths. In addition, it should facilitate the study of trends in fatal violence across Ireland and within counties. I say fatal violence because many more people received wounds or injuries – physical, psychological, or both – which impaired them for the rest of their lives. These are not recorded here. The cut-off date means that the study does not include people who died after 31 December 1921 of wounds, injuries or illness received on or before that day. In ambition, approach and organisation, the book reflects the influence of the extraordinary Lost Lives study covering deaths arising during the more recent Northern Ireland Troubles from 1968 onwards.1 I conceived of this exercise in 2002 partly on the basis that it was high time to bring certainty to an elementary question: how many people died as a result of Irish-related political violence between 1916 and 1921? The book builds on the work of others. In turn, future researchers will add material, contest interpretations, and note omissions and errors. This is part and parcel both of academic and what might be termed communal histories. Every effort has been made to be accurate and complete, although pressure of space in this study has meant that detail and contextualisation has had to be cut to a minimum. Preliminary findings were published in 2012, with a total of 2,141 fatalities for the years 1917 to 1921. Since then, further research drawing on an increasing range of resources, and on the ongoing work of other researchers, has produced an additional 205 fatalities. Decisions to exclude certain individual deaths may have been wrong. It is clear, for example, that there was an arguable case for putting in twenty-five-year-old civilian George Shannon, shot by a friend handling someone else’s gun at a party in Belfast on Christmas Eve 1921, although the circumstances were accepted by an inquest jury as accidental, non-political and non-sectarian, just as Mary Jane Garland, whose heart attack her family attributed to her shock at seeing IRA men near her Monaghan home in 1921, might have been included although her death was recorded as natural.2

DEATH AS A MEASURE OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE Death is not an accurate index of the level of political turmoil or its impact on people and society across the island of Ireland between April 1916 and December 1921. The number who died as a result of Irish political violence is less than 10 per cent of those Irish who died serving

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in the Great War. The influenza epidemics that ravaged Ireland in 1918–19 killed between six and eight times as many people as are accounted for in this study.3 The 504 deaths we estimate were caused by the 1916 Rising is exceeded by those that occurred in a single act of war in Irish waters: I recently viewed a plaque in Winchester College commemorating the death of fifteenyear-old Alfred King (of the Harmsworth publishing family) when travelling back to school on the Leinster, torpedoed on 10 October 1918 off Kingstown (from 1920, Dún Laoghaire), one of the 568 people who reportedly perished that day. All those who died in those calamities left relatives and friends who grieved for them and remembered them. This study focuses solely on fatalities in a conflict which involved four main sets of protagonists – civilians, rebels collectively termed ‘Irish military’, police and the British army – but other forces were also involved in nine-county Ulster, where some of the violence was attributable to the partisan Ulster Special Constabulary (USC) formed in November 1920, to loyalist paramilitaries and civilians, and to nationalists who were not republicans. In counties such as Wicklow, Fermanagh, Kildare, Tyrone and Queen’s County (hereafter Laois) where there were very few fatalities directly attributable to political violence, there was, nevertheless, plenty of disruption, destruction and terror: two of the eleven Laois deaths were the responsibility of off-duty Black and Tans breaking into homes, as were two of the eleven Wicklow deaths. Three of the more notorious ‘sacks’ of towns by police, at Balbriggan, Trim and Tubbercurry, happened in areas where relatively speaking there had been little separatist violence and few fatalities. Notwithstanding the rueful observation of one Cavan battalion O/C – ‘He feels we did very little in the fight for freedom and would not agree to have our efforts published’ – within that county, where there were only twelve fatalities and where the IRA killed not a single British soldier, the IRA, Crown forces, the AOH and armed loyalist groups were all active, and all intimidated sections of the general population.4 In Carlow, where four of the thirteen fatalities were alleged civilian spies, it was much the same. The conduct of the belligerents clearly affected relatively peaceable as well as relatively violent areas, and in a range of ways. The British government, which had made such justified propaganda against Hunnish barbarism when German forces destroyed the great library of Leuven in 1914, sat unperturbed while its forces burned a succession of municipal libraries along with local creameries, town halls, shops and private dwellings across Ireland in 1920 and 1921. Nor did the government at Westminster worry about killings by Crown forces: in September 1920 Sir Henry Wilson, chief of the imperial general staff and diehard Ulster unionist, wrote of his discomfort after a conversation with Secretary of State for War Winston Churchill and General Hugh Tudor, the ‘police adviser’ sent to Dublin in May 1920. Tudor ‘made it very clear that the Police and Black and Tans and the 100 Intelligence Officers are all carrying out reprisal murders’. Wilson was ‘glad that I am in no way responsible for Tudor and that I have protested for months against this method of out-terrorizing the terrorists’.5 But terror continued to form one prong of Prime Minister David Lloyd George’s Irish policy until the summer of 1921, the others being to consolidate six-county Ulster, and to strike an acceptable deal on dominion home rule lines with Sinn Féin covering the rest of Ireland.6 One Cork unionist in November 1920 relayed as fact the story that in London’s Carlton Club, a bastion of reactionary opinion, ‘there is a little coterie the members of which have formed themselves into an Anti-Sinn Fein Society, and they are paying huge rewards for the murder of leading Sinn Feiners’.7 Whatever the reliability of such vague talk, it is abundantly clear that both Prime Minister Lloyd George and Winston Churchill, successively secretary of state for war (January 1919 to February 1921) and for the colonies (February 1921 to October 1922), endorsed the

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gratuitous terrorising of nationalist Ireland throughout 1920 as a suitable means of bringing the rebels to heel. The government’s condonation of ‘reprisals’, and implicit support for unlawful killing by Crown forces, appalled Randall Davidson, who as archbishop of Canterbury was a pillar of the British constitution. In May 1920 he noted privately that ‘the worst sore in our body politic is Ireland. That is a mere platitude, but the sore grows worse every day.’ On 2 November he launched a public attack in the House of Lords on the policy of reprisals, and was surprised at the support he received. In February 1921 he returned to the charge, with the implicit support of Buckingham Palace: the king’s private secretary and closest counsellor Lord Stamfordham was ‘at first distinctly averse to my raising the question . . . But as we talked, he came around to my view.’8 British public opinion, fuelled by courageous reporting from Ireland rather than duplicitous rebel propaganda, as was sometimes claimed, was a significant factor. It may not have influenced the conduct of Crown forces in Ireland, but it certainly increased pressure for a settlement with nationalist Ireland once the new Ulster’s interests had been secured.9 An accurate picture of who died where, why and by whose hand is a necessary starting point for holistic research on and analysis of Irish society in those years and in the following decades, focusing on the general population and on the Irish question in British politics and shifting away from preoccupation with armed conflict, its practitioners and its victims. The chronology and pattern of fatalities remains significant, not only at national level but between and within counties. Escalation and reduction of violence varied from one place to another in ways which local sources and local memory can be particularly important in explaining. Inevitably in a study such as this, local context and local interpretations of particular acts are sometimes absent: what is recorded as a single killing may have an intricate local back story or, often, competing stories, rationalisations and explanations. Contrasting explanations for the death of Tipperary farm labourer John Buckley (29Jun1921/2), a killing linked to that of my great-uncle Paddy Moloney (1May1921/9), illustrate this. Fatalities are significant not only for where and when they happened, but for whom they affected. Just as the Great War wrought bereavement across Ireland, so the struggle for independence hit families everywhere – in particular, many policeman from quiet counties from which only a handful of politically related deaths came in these years. The three combatant groups responsible for most deaths – police of all kinds, British military, and Irish Volunteers/IRA – adopted somewhat different approaches in different areas at different times. For example, it is clear that in Cork and in Tipperary, the RIC – not newly recruited ‘Black and Tans’, but regular policemen using their local knowledge – resorted quite early to what were termed ‘murder gang’ tactics, carrying out targeted killings anonymously in the spring of 1920. In other counties such as Antrim, Roscommon, Galway and Louth, where ‘murder gangs’ emerged, they did so rather later in the conflict. Why was that?

SOURCES FOR THIS STUDY Writing about the Irish Revolution, particularly from the perspectives of those who fought for independence, has become much better informed in the last two decades. This is largely because of the release of two major collections of state records: the Bureau of Military History (BMH) collection made available in 2003, and from 2014 the first tranches of the Military Service Pensions Collection (MSPC). These provide an astonishing wealth of new material, casting much fresh light on individuals, particular incidents, and on the conflict as a whole. The BMH initiative, and pensions legislation, undoubtedly encouraged even reticent veterans

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to record their memories. The BMH provided a safe repository for recollections, since the statements would not be released during the donor’s lifetime.10 The labyrinthine workings of the military service pensions legislation necessitated the provision of very detailed confidential individual accounts of revolutionary activity supported by referees and, where necessary, by medical evidence, which no one expected would ever be open to scrutiny. Both have been superbly curated by the Military Archives of Ireland (MAI). The MAI and National Archives of Ireland (NAI) also hold significant material in various series of administrative records which are augmented by annual releases, and the National Library of Ireland (NLI) has important collections such as the Liam Deasy and Piaras Béaslaí papers. The NAI’s 1901 and 1911 census databases are extremely useful. Important material is also held in The National Archives (TNA) in London and in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) in Belfast, the latter including not only documents relating specifically to the northern counties, but internees’ records. These also carry a lot of evidence pertaining to violence in what became independent Ireland. UCD Archives (UCDAD) hold an unsurpassed collection of private records relating to the Irish Revolution, and other institutions such as the Cork City and County Archives (CCCA) have much relevant material. In addition, private collections of papers and other records continue to come to light around the country. For example, the Con Casey papers in Kerry County Library, the Marron and Thomas Brennan papers in Monaghan County Museum, the Joseph Murray papers in Donegal County Library, the Father Louis O’Kane papers and recorded interviews in Armagh, the Leitrim County Library’s oral history collection in Ballinamore, and the Carty and Loughnane papers in NUI Galway have the particular merit of local resonance; very often they also complement collections held elsewhere. For the British military, in addition to public archives, regimental museums, seldom consulted by Irish historians, are very useful. Local and county histories such as those by Hogan and Marnane on Tipperary, Toomey on Limerick, McCarthy on Waterford and McDermott and Parkinson on Belfast are particularly valuable, reflecting considerable non-partisan research and scholarship in addition to contributing vital local and regional contextual insights. Two particularly useful and reliable web resources have also been developed: the Cork Fatalities Register (CFR) by University College Cork, and the Cairo Gang website by an individual researcher in Britain. The growing mass of Irish material has rebalanced research on the era. Hitherto, the availability in TNA of many of the records of the last decade of British rule in Ireland, and of the Crown forces in Ireland, naturally led researchers to London. This resulted in classic studies such as Townshend’s The British Campaign in Ireland (1975), which remains, more than forty years after publication, by far the best work on British security strategy, and Hart’s groundbreaking The IRA and its Enemies (1998), which combined records from British and Irish archives with, controversially, material from interviews he conducted and excerpts from interview recordings to which he listened. In more recent times, Kautt, Leeson and Sheehan have produced significant analyses of military and police organisation and tactics in Ireland using both British and Irish-held records, while Hughes has written an important study of how communities in some areas experienced and attempted to resist IRA pressure. The Atlas of the Irish Revolution (2017) provides an invaluable interdisciplinary overview. Because a lot of the BMH and MSPC records have been placed online, they facilitate research on localities and incidents by people not only in Ireland but across the world. But they have also had an unintended consequence. The natural growth of interest in the history of the independence era which occurred as Ireland entered the ‘decade of commemorations’

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in 2013 has resulted in an increased focus on the small minority of Irish people directly involved in political violence, and an overshadowing neglect of other important lines of inquiry and reflection. It has also strengthened the study of the county as the unit of reference. The ongoing Lyons–Ó Corráin The Irish Revolution, 1912–23 series of county histories offers comprehensive studies of politics, economics and society during the revolutionary era, but some other local-focused studies which make use of recently released sources are underpinned by a kind of defensive county patriotism, and a neurosis about ‘revisionism’ as an incipient pro-British virus infecting and distorting Irish historical writing. Of the three main cohorts of armed actors – British military, Irish military, and police of all kinds – the latter are the best served in terms of detailed authoritative research on their composition and their fate. Jim Herlihy’s volumes on the RIC and the DMP provide an invaluable point of reference for this study, as does Richard Abbott’s painstaking analysis of police fatalities between 1919 and 1921. There is a range of published memoirs, some celebrated and some obscure, some bombastic and self-promoting, such as Dan Breen’s My Fight for Irish Freedom and Tom Barry’s Guerilla Days in Ireland, others including Ernie O’Malley’s outstanding On Another Man’s Wound and Todd Andrews’s Dublin Made Me more reflective and analytical, and some such as Jeremiah Murphy’s fascinating When Youth Was Mine focusing on individual experience of conflict in the wider context of the author’s community and heartland.11 Whatever the issues, and there are many, with sources such as the BMH and MSPC, and GHQ records (to be found in the Mulcahy Papers in UCD), memoirs, news coverage, oral histories and local stories, they provide a rich basis for research. British military records in TNA and elsewhere, by contrast, are terse at official level. Nevertheless, unit histories, the surviving papers of military courts of inquiry and courts martial, and some private collections of papers of soldiers who served in Ireland are important. The Foulkes papers in King’s College London provide a tantalizing glimpse of the sophisticated use for intelligence purposes of a huge tranche of GHQ records seized in Dublin in October 1920, although that captured cache and the thousands of cross-referenced epitomes drawn from it seem to have disappeared. But there are very few British personal accounts of action in Ireland, and still fewer in which individual military combatants reflect on what they experienced, and on where, why and in what circumstances they inflicted death or saw it visited upon their comrades. The same is true for the police. The only significant DMP memoir is The Spy in the Castle by David Neligan, a key IRA informant. The regular RIC were in the front line from 1916 onwards, but accounts of their personal experiences are hard to come by. John M. Regan’s memoirs, Brewer’s The Royal Irish Constabulary: An Oral History and, from a different perspective, Constable Jeremiah Mee’s recollections are probably the most useful. Douglas V. Duff ’s Sword for Hire is, mainly by default, of some interest as a colourful though unreliable account of a Black and Tan’s time in Ireland.12 Available TNA records such as monthly RIC County Inspector (CI) reports are limited in what they convey about the actualities of the conflict. This is also the case for the ‘Black and Tans’ and Auxiliaries thrown into the struggle in 1920, who earned and deserved particular collective notoriety. If many of them reflected on their experiences, and on the rights and wrongs of the killings, destruction and looting in which they were involved, I have yet to find anything substantial. Whereas many Volunteers described their experiences of killing, some enthusiastically, some cautiously and some whose pride was balanced by regret, with few exceptions the

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Crown’s servants kept their memories to themselves. This is also the case for Ulster loyalists, including members of the USC. There is simply no accessible vein of individual reflection on violence performed, whether within the law or not. In contrast to ambushes, abductions and killings by the rebels, for which generally a range of accounts ranging from the boastful to the unapologetic to the reflective to the remorseful can be found, no one in a police ‘murder gang’ who dragged a youth from his bed and shot him, or who gunned down men who had surrendered, appears to have left any personal accounts, self-justifying or otherwise. This may be a reflection of the phenomenon noted among Great War veterans of ‘a reluctance, a moral fastidiousness’ about describing ‘close-range’ killing.13 Even if we set aside the BMH and the MSPC archives – in each of which veterans could be more frank because they believed their accounts of killing would not appear during their lifetimes, or, in the case of the pensions records, at all – there does not appear to be comparable traditions of telling and retelling, remembering and explaining encounters and actions within unionism generally as there are within nationalist/republican communities. Witness contrasting accounts of the fate of Constable Joseph Plumb, mortally wounded on the Fermanagh border on 6 April 1922. The USC’s sympathetic historian Sir Arthur Hezlet simply states that ‘he was killed’, whereas a republican narrative claimed that, after his comrades abandoned him to die, it was left to his IRA killers to comfort him: He said ‘he had nothing against them’, that he had a wife and family in London and couldn’t get much work of any good and he came over to see would he earn a couple of pound [sic]. Wouldn’t you have pity for him? He was a Sergeant Plumb, and the only decent man [there] was among them, but he shook hands with them all in their turn before he died. Poor man, I see his name on a plaque of all who died for the King in the courthouse in Enniskillen.14

THE CHALLENGE OF NEW EVIDENCE There are often competing local narratives about individual incidents and deaths. Readers may be offended by accounts of killings given here in which ancestors were in some way involved. If that happens it is unfortunate but understandable. New evidence constantly comes to light which may qualify or contradict family or communal narratives. While drafting this introduction in October 2019, I saw for the first time the pension records of my grandfather Hugh Halpenny (1890–1943). A son of an RIC man and nephew of two others, he had a chequered career in Down between 1916 and 1922, being at one time O/C of the East Down portion of the Belfast Brigade, in jail from January to December 1921, and later a divisional officer. Séamus Woods, O/C Belfast Brigade, described him as ‘the pioneer of the Sinn Féin and Vol[unteer] movement in Co Down’. Like many northern IRA officers, he came south in 1922 and never returned, joining An Garda Síochána. His pension file cast an uncomfortable light on one incident in his IRA career, of which I had heard only a diluted version. This was the wounding in Downpatrick in 1920 of a Church of Ireland clergyman, the Revd T. G. Wilkinson, mistaken for a policeman and shot on Halpenny’s orders during a raid to burn the income tax office. The account I heard decades ago from my father and uncles indicated only an unintended wounding, whereas in his interview with the pension board Halpenny correctly stated that Wilkinson never recovered, and died in 1922.15 As it happens, all my grandparents were active republicans, three of them becoming senior in their roles (the exception, my grandmother Annie Rice, was only born in 1905). My maternal

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grandfather James Moloney (1896–1981) was an officer of the 4th Battalion, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, from 1920 to 1922, and later director of communications on Liam Lynch’s GHQ staff. Ernie O’Malley described him as ‘always eager to fight’ and ‘the best officer’ in the battalion other than the O/C.16 A quiet, undemonstrative man, he only ever spoke to me about his brother Paddy (1May1921/9), killed in 1921, when I asked him directly towards the end of his life. By contrast, his wife – my dynamic grandmother Kathy (Kitby), eldest sister of Kevin Barry (1Nov1920/5) – seldom spoke to her grandchildren about any person or event other than her dead brother.17 Jim Moloney’s pension records indicate that as battalion intelligence officer he assembled the information upon which various fatal attacks on military and police were based, and presumably he also oversaw the investigation of alleged spies who may then have been killed. IRA accounts of his brother’s death explain that when Paddy died he was, most unusually for an IRA man in combat, wearing ‘an IRA’ officer’s uniform. This was because the previous day he had been involved in a court martial which had sentenced a local labourer, a father of ten children living in a two-roomed cottage, to death as a spy. In seeking the truth, be careful what you wish for.18

DEATHS WITHIN IRELAND: THE COUNTY AS THE UNIT OF RECORD This study uses the historic county as the geographical unit for counting the dead. In comparative and analytical terms it is not an ideal measure: counties vary widely in size, in population, in degree of urbanisation, in topography, in denominational composition and in history. Furthermore, many Crown, rebel and loyalist activities crossed county boundaries. In a few cases, furthermore, larger centres such as Dublin or Cork attracted a slight premium of fatalities in that people wounded elsewhere died in their hospitals: examples are Volunteer Thomas Brett (18Jun1920/1) and RIC Constable Albert Moore (19Jun1921/5), fatally wounded in Tipperary and Cavan respectively but who died in Dublin. But the county was the primary unit by which administration was exercised by both the state, including the courts system and policing, and its separatist enemies. Furthermore, by the early twentieth century it had, partly through the growth of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), become a recognised focus of identity and loyalty for Irish people. Recent research exercises, notably the invaluable Cork Fatalities Register (CFR), use the county, and I take the same approach. For convenience I use the modern names Laois and Offaly for what were then Queen’s County and King’s County respectively. Chart 2 (p. 546) compares the extent of fatalities by reference to county population. Measurement by county obscures the concentration of violence within urban centres: in Antrim, Dublin and Derry fatalities were overwhelmingly in the respective cities of Belfast, Dublin and Derry. Rural areas of those counties were barely touched by fatal violence. Explaining marked disparities in the level of fatalities between counties is not straightforward. Charts 4 a–d (p. 548) provide a breakdown of fatalities between 1917 and 1921 in the four counties which experienced the highest number: Cork (557), Dublin (360), Antrim (232) and Tipperary (158). The variable performance of the IRA in a range of counties was rigorously explored many years ago by Joost Augusteijn, and this study has nothing to add to his findings except more questions.19 Some counties with a recent history of rural violence linked to land issues, such as Clare, were again markedly violent during the 1917–21 era. Others such as Laois (Queen’s County), a hotbed during the Land War of the 1880s, were, as measured by fatalities, extremely quiet between 1917 and 1921, even when allowance is made for population size as reported in the 1911 census. The neighbouring predominantly rural counties of Galway and Roscommon had almost the same number of fatalities – sixty-five

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versus sixty-two – yet in 1911 Galway’s population was almost twice the size (183,000 against 94,000). Adjusted for size of population (Chart 2), Roscommon had 6.6 deaths per 10,000 of population, Galway only 3.6. Outside Antrim (overwhelmingly in Belfast city) and Londonderry (overwhelmingly in Derry city), the counties which in 1921 became the bitterly divided Northern Ireland saw very few deaths. Why was that?

EXPLAINING CROWN VIOLENCE Explaining Crown violence is not straightforward. It would be wrong to regard it simply as an inevitable response to terrible provocation: The Times in September 1919 portentously forgave the ‘not unnatural’ response of soldiers who looted shops and homes in Fermoy following the ‘brutal attack upon a party of soldiers at the church door’, the so-called ‘Wesleyan Raid’ (7Sep1919/1), in which the IRA killed a soldier.20 What is striking about recourse to targeted killings by Crown forces is how early and how widespread it was, even in areas which were relatively quiet. Insufficient attention has been paid to the development of British secur­ity policy in 1919–20, even where the evidence has long been available, particularly in Townshend’s work. In terms of this study, the licence accorded to Crown forces to fire in effect without warning was extraordinary, and was responsible for about 14 per cent of all civilian deaths. In addition, many of the 209 people killed in riots were shot by Crown forces, although in individual instances it is often difficult to assign responsibility.

DEATHS IN 1916, AND FROM 1917 TO 1921 We have enumerated 2,850 deaths in total between April 1916 and December 1921. There are compelling reasons for separating consideration of deaths which occurred during or immediately after the 1916 Rising, and those which followed over the next five years to December 1921. These include the relative intensity of the two phases, and the fact that the fighting during the Rising was confined almost entirely to inner-city Dublin. The overall impact of the two phases of conflict are reflected in Chart 1 (fatalities 1916–21) and Chart 2 (fatalities 1917– 21) (pp. 545–6). In Chart 1, the county that carried by far the most fatalities per 10,000 population is Dublin; in Chart 2, which excludes 1916 deaths, the county that suffered most is Cork. This study records 504 people who died as a result of Irish political violence in 1916, almost all of them (95 per cent) in Dublin and almost all during Easter Week itself, a daily average of seventy over seven days of concentrated and sustained violence. In the remainder of that year there were just twenty-three fatalities, including sixteen executions (one, Roger Casement’s, in Britain) (Table 1, p. 543). The very different patterns of fatality in 1916 from those seen during the War of Independence can be explained partly by the nature of the fighting, which was mainly within the two canals encircling inner-city Dublin. As compared with the fatal violence experienced between 1919 and 1921, there are four marked differences: a) there is no evidence of any policy of targeted killing by the rebels of individual policemen, officials or judicial figures, and there is no evidence that Crown forces sought to kill persons whom they regarded as key rebels, other than through judicial processes; b) there is no evidence, either during or in the aftermath of the Rising, of a hunt for and execution of possible informers, although as was clear even from the quickly published evidence of the royal commission on the rebellion, a good deal of information had reached Dublin Castle about aspects of the rebels’ organisation, tactics and plans before the outbreak; c) there was no

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hint of any sectarian background to any deaths; and d) there was a much higher proportion of female fatalities (11 per cent) in 1916 than in later years (4 per cent), due to the concentration of conflict in densely populated areas where combatants and civilians intermingled. We should note one further contrast: whereas 1920 and 1921 were to witness ferocious sectarian violence in parts of Ulster, nothing happened there during and immediately after the Rising. This is rather extraordinary. Denis McCullough recalled that Pearse and Connolly emphasised that his orders were, ‘You will fire no shot in Ulster. We will deal with Ulster subsequently.’21 But neither Pearse, nor Connolly, nor McCullough had any control over Northern loyalist opinion. The Belfast Irish Volunteers may have kept their powder dry, dumping their arms and sheepishly taking the train back from Cookstown to Belfast, but that does not explain why, confronted with the news of a German-backed rebellion in Dublin and the sight of would-be rebels returning to the city, Belfast loyalists did not attack nationalist areas as they had done before and were to do with such ferocity in the future. With the exception of Duffy’s Children of the Rising, there has been little discussion of the majority of the 276 civilian deaths of 1916. These were, clearly, largely attributable to the military in consequence of their vastly greater firepower, particularly machine guns and artillery. But it was the rebels who chose a densely populated area as their battleground, who turned the South Dublin Union, the city’s largest hospital and care facility, into a bastion, and who evicted homeless men from the Mendicity Institute. They share responsibility for the civilian deaths that ensued. Pearse explicitly rooted the eventual decision to surrender in the desire to prevent further civilian deaths. If the perils of crossfire and bombardment for civilians were so obvious by 30 April, why had the rebel leadership not anticipated them beforehand when choosing their battleground?22 The rebels of 1916 won accolades for a clean fight even from British prime minister Asquith, but this requires qualification. So too does Roy Foster’s observation that ‘the actual fighting, particularly in the latter stages of the Anglo-Irish War . . . was often undertaken by people from a somewhat different background, owing allegiance to more straightforwardly Fenian and rural-agitation traditions’.23 The big differences between 1916 and 1919–21 arose not within the separatist camp, but among their opponents. First, as noted above, in 1916 there was a complete absence of loyalist mobilisation and violence; it was to be otherwise in 1920–21. Second, from early in 1920, when the first temporary police were introduced, the British government embarked on a policy of indiscriminate brutalisation of nationalist Ireland. Within the revolutionary leadership, what changed significantly was not so much the people in charge, but the strategy and tactics adopted, particularly by Richard Mulcahy, Cathal Brugha and Michael Collins, all of whom were 1916 men. It was they who oversaw the wave of assassinations on Bloody Sunday 1920, that exercise in systematic ruthlessness against officers and gentlemen which so shocked the British elite (it is hard to believe that the killing of a dozen hapless corporals and privates in their beds would have had remotely the same impact). The adapted methods of fighting in 1919–21 were as heartily embraced by university students such as Ernie O’Malley, Bobby Bonfield, Seán Dowling, George Plunkett, Jim O’Donovan and Hugo MacNeill as they were by successful leaders who emerged in rural Ireland such as Mick Brennan in Clare, Jim Leahy in Tipperary, Eoin O’Duffy in Monaghan, Donnchadh O’Hannigan in Limerick and Liam Deasy, Seán Hegarty and Tom Barry in Cork. The first three killings by the ICA were deliberate cold-blooded shootings of two unarmed policemen (24Apr1916/1 and 2) and of a harmless civilian (24Apr1916/3). Such brutality, of course, paled by comparison with what was later done by Crown forces. Four captured

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civilians (25Apr1916/11) were, notoriously, killed by or on the orders of Corkman Captain John Bowen-Colthurst, actions for which he was ultimately convicted of murder; the North King Street shootings of thirteen civilian men and youths, after hours in captivity, were, by contrast, excused by the GOC in Ireland, General Sir John Maxwell, as arising from the soldiers’ experience of bloody street-fighting against rebels indistinguishable from civilians. While some soldiers undoubtedly ‘saw red’, he wrote, it was difficult to determine who among those found in the buildings ‘were or had been firing on the troops’ (29Apr1916/26), although that should not have mattered once they had been captured unarmed. A young officer stationed near Capel Street Bridge claimed that most rebels ‘were in civilian clothes, established in a network of narrow streets’: ‘several of my men’ said that ‘the front . . . was bliss compared with Dublin, simply because you knew out there where the enemy were’.24 The military’s default assumption that all civilian males were suspect and liable to be shot on the spot presumably explains the acquittal by a court martial of a nervy sergeant responsible for the killing after arrest in the Guinness Brewery of two conscientious workmen and two officers dressed in civilian clothes (29Apr1916/3), and the lack of fuss about the unilateral killing of a Volunteer not involved in the Rising in whose house a weapon was found (28Apr1916/32). Outside Dublin, the circumstances in which fatalities arose were more akin to those to come between 1919 and 1921: attacks on police barracks and on convoys at Ashbourne and Athenry; the shooting of three RIC officers, two of them unarmed, by men resisting arrest in Cork and in Tipperary; and, in the first instance of what was to become a marked and disturbing aspect of killings by Crown forces, the shooting of one Volunteer in Cork as he attempted to evade arrest (4May1916/5). In ending our discussion of 1916, we should note that that outbreak was, proportionately, rather more damaging to civilians than was the violence of the 1919–21 era. Of the 504 fatalities linked to the Rising identified in Table 1, 276 (55 per cent) were civilians. Between 1919 and 1921, the corresponding figure was 918 (39 per cent). In both phases, Crown forces were responsible for considerably more civilian deaths than were the rebels, but for some specific fatalities it is difficult to attribute responsibility. When overall deaths are calculated from 1916 to 1921, Dublin experienced by far the greatest number (835) (Chart 1, p. 545). Between 1917 and 1921, Cork saw by far the most fatalities (557), followed by Dublin (360), Antrim (232) and Tipperary (158) (Table 2, p. 543). As Charts 4 a–d show (p. 548), Antrim stands out for the extrarordinarily high proportion of civilian fatalities (85 per cent), reflecting a pattern of intense intercommunal violence not seen elsewhere. We have enumerated 2,346 deaths between January 1917 and December 1921 (Table 2). Fatalities occurred in every county, although the distribution of death was very uneven between counties and over time. There were also a handful of deaths in Britain and India. Note that we provide individual accounts for only 2,253 deaths between 1917 and 1921. An additional ninety-three British military deaths occurring between 1919 and 1921, accidental or self-inflicted, have recently been identified by David Grant’s remarkable Cairo Gang website using ‘Soldiers’ Effects’ records opened to research in 2018. These figures have been included in the overall analysis and a list is provided in Appendix 1 (pp. 549–56).

CLASSIFICATION OF AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR FATALITIES, 1917–21 It is relatively easy to classify fatalities by cohort; it is very difficult to be precise in allocating responsibility for all violent deaths (Table 4, p. 544). This problem is particularly acute regarding

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intercommunal violence in Belfast, but it also arises where mixed parties of police and military were involved in killing. The overall breakdown of fatalities by county is enumerated in Table 2 (p. 543), and in Chart 3 by combatants versus civilians (p. 547). We provide a narrative of each of these deaths, save (as mentioned above) for the British military fatalities recently reported by the Cairo Gang website. As enumerated in Table 4 (p. 544), ‘Undetermined’ (176, or 8 per cent) is a rather unsatisfactory catch-all category: 104 of these killings across Ireland were the responsibility either of Crown forces or of the IRA, but we cannot be sure of which; and the balance of 72 fatalities were probably not the work of any of the recognised combatants, but of civilians. Most such killings by civilians arose in Belfast and Derry, mainly through gunfire. It is tempting, but methodologically dubious, to assign likely responsibility by the religion of the victim or by the direction from which a fatal shot was reportedly fired: bullets often missed their intended targets or ricocheted randomly. Loyalist civilians in Belfast and Derry were definitely responsible for thirty-two of these seventy-two killings, and probably for more. Nationalist civilians in those cities were responsible for a considerable but undetermined number of these deaths. As enumerated in Table 5 (p. 544), the most striking aspects of this analysis are, perhaps, that ambushes – the classic motif of the War of Independence – account for just over a fifth (22 per cent) of fatalities; that assassinations/executions count for a slightly higher proportion (23 per cent); that, between them, shot for failing to halt and shot while attempting to escape, which are categories of killing carried out exclusively by Crown forces, account for 9 per cent of all deaths, including 14 per cent of all civilian deaths; and that deaths by misadventure account for 16 per cent of all fatalities, including an extraordinary 44 per cent of all British military deaths. Almost all Volunteers killed between 1917 and 1921 were Irish-born. By contrast, 188 police of all kinds (36 per cent) were born elsewhere, most of these being Black and Tans or Auxiliaries recruited in 1920 or 1921.

MISADVENTURE AND SUICIDE Deaths under these headings are reported for all four cohorts of fatalities. This has had a huge impact upon the military figure. Put together with the deaths listed in the narrative, the figures show that half of all military deaths in Ireland between 1919 and 1921 which may be related to the conflict were through misadventure (44 per cent) and suicide. We have to be careful in interpreting these figures: most such deaths arose from accidental shootings, mainly due to sloppiness in handling weapons. Most of the twenty-four military suicides reported, mainly among Great War veterans, appear not to relate to specifically Irish issues or experience. The simplest explanation for the proliferation of accidental shootings is that, although in theory a battle-hardened, professional army, most soldiers in Ireland were inexperienced youths who, unlike their Irish opponents, always had loaded weapons with them: early in 1920 the chief of the imperial general staff privately described the majority of troops then in Ireland as ‘wholly untrained raw children’.25 The British army’s Record of the Rebellion in Ireland noted the poor quality of new recruits, compounded by a shortage of NCOs: ‘The greatest difficulty was found in selecting suitable individuals for promotion to the ranks of corporal or sergeant.’ Things were no better in the commissioned ranks: ‘The standard of efficiency of officers generally was not a high one’ by the spring of 1920. While the rebels ‘grew in power during the spring and summer of 1920’, the ‘general military efficiency of the units in Ireland was diminishing’.26 11

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Fifty-two police fatalities (10 per cent) were attributable to misadventure – mainly accidental shootings – and eighteen (4 per cent) to suicide, of whom some were Great War veterans. Of Irish military deaths, sixty-seven (14 per cent) were attributable to misadventure. Until the Truce, the IRA very seldom had access to motor transport, and so lost no Volunteers in traffic accidents. The main causes of Volunteer deaths through misadventure were shootings (5 per cent), followed by accidental explosions (3 per cent), the greatest such disaster occurring in Wexford, where five Volunteers died in a single incident while preparing bombs (12Oct1920/7). Seventy-nine civilian deaths (9 per cent) arose from misadventure, and three through the suicide of men in mortal fear of the IRA. Forty-one arose from accidents involving Crown forces’ vehicles. It could be argued that such data should be excluded from the overall figures, yet recklessly driven police and military vehicles were part and parcel of the terror experienced by the civilian population, on roads where mechanical transport was still something of a novelty both for people and for horses and ponies drawing carts and traps.

FEMALE FATALITIES, 1917–21 Almost none of the ninety-eight females (4 per cent) killed were deliberately targeted. The most notorious killing by Crown forces, the shooting of Mrs Ellen Quinn in Galway (1Nov1920/6), resulted from reckless firing from a moving vehicle, to which Black and Tans were much prone, rather than from an aimed shot. The IRA killed at least three women as spies – Mary Lindsay (11Mar1921/9), Bridget Noble (15Mar1921/8) and Kate Carroll (17Apr1921/7) – in each case accompanied by a welter of contradictory statements, recollections and evasions. A wellinformed Cork parish history describes the killing of another woman near Carrigtwohill, but, even if this was so, her identity and the circumstances cannot be ascertained and so she is not included.27 The IRA were responsible for twenty-one female deaths through misadventure, mainly during attacks on Crown forces, or, as Dorothy Macardle carefully put it in her classic apologia The Irish Republic, because foolishly they were in the company of police or military.28 In the case of Eliza Blake (15May1921/10), it is hard to believe that the attacking Volunteers did not notice that a woman sitting in an open-top motor car stopped at a closed gate was heavily pregnant. Winifred Barrington (14May1921/16) also died in a vehicle alongside her RIC companion – IRA explanations vary, though when berated by a woman survivor one Volunteer riposted that ‘only for the bitch being in bad company’ she would not have died. Josephine McGowan of Cumann na mBan died some days after being struck during a police baton charge (29Sep1918/1). Margaret Keogh of Cumann na mBan (12Jul1921/2) was fatally wounded late at night by a bullet which may have accidentally exploded while she was moving a cache of ammunition. Other women died defending their homes or their male companions: mother of thirteen Ellen Morris when Volunteers attempted to rob her house of cash (14Feb1920/2); Elizabeth Scales when Volunteers attacked her policeman companion (26Dec1920/1); Englishwoman Emily Freeman when she and her soldier husband mistook an Auxiliary raiding party for the IRA (1Feb1921/5); and fifteen-year-old Bridget Dillon after she emptied a pot from an upstairs window upon IRA raiders the night before the Truce (10Jul1921/2). In three instances where young women died while in the company of policemen – Sarah Fitzpatrick (3Feb1921/18), Anne Dixon (24May1921/3) and Kathleen Kelleher (3Jul1921/1) – there was strong official suspicion that their companions had deliberately killed them and, at 12

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least by comparison with how killings of male civilians by Crown forces were handled, some efforts were made to investigate. In the case of the elderly Mary Maher (16Dec1920/5), killed by a hammer blow to the head, a soldier was tried for murder; in two others, those of Kate Maher (21Dec1920/2), who was also subjected to an appalling sexual assault, and Bessy Carberry (27Oct1920/1), strangled in a Dublin alleyway, prosecutions failed to identify the soldiers responsible. It was much the same in the case of the pregnant single woman Mary Fahey, last seen arguing with a young male neighbour (19May1921/9): the RIC maintained they could not build a case because the obvious suspect and putative father of her unborn child was a Sinn Féiner. There were very few female fatalities outside Belfast (Antrim), where intercommunal violence resulted in twenty-six female deaths (27 per cent of all female deaths). Crown forces were responsible for killing some women and girls, for example eight-year-old Annie O’Neill (13Nov1920/4), as well as for the deaths of female pedestrians as already discussed. The IRA’s use of grenades, or ‘bombs’, in street attacks resulted in a handful of female deaths, as did firing at police, soldiers or targeted civilians on crowded streets: such an attack in Dublin killed twelve-year-old Hannah Keegan, a silk weaver’s daughter, as she walked home carrying ‘a parcel containing sugar and green peas’ (24Mar1921/5). The following day one of her killers, ‘Gus’ Murphy, was himself shot not a mile away by a drunken soldier who was attempting to rob him (25Mar1921/4). Murphy’s case illustrates another point: some Volunteers died at the hands of Crown forces who were unaware that they were IRA men. In general, females were not regarded as legitimate targets for any of the contending forces. The deliberate killing of women even as spies aroused criticism within the revolutionary movement and caused particular unease in GHQ.

SECTARIAN KILLINGS Other than in intercommunal violence in Derry in 1920 and in Belfast in 1920 and 1921, it is impossible to assign sectarian or ethnic motives as the primary reason for individual killings between 1916 and 1921 in most areas. Killings were, nevertheless, often interpreted as sectarian by the community that suffered the loss. IRA attacks on USC could be presented simply as assaults on Crown forces: this was how the Monaghan IRA justified its killing of two USC sergeants and the burning of their homes in Rosslea, County Fermanagh (22Mar1921/2), an event also explained as retaliation for the burning of nationalist homes in the area by USC and loyalists, which in turn was prompted by the IRA’s earlier wounding of a prominent USC man. It is important not to jump to conclusions: a killing by unidentified men that at first glance appeared ethnic if not directly sectarian – that of Catholic shopkeeper Francis Donnelly, shot by the YMCA in Tyrone (9May1921/8) – turned out to be the IRA’s doing. The shooting and robbery of a well-to-do Protestant, Freemason and Orangeman in Dublin was almost certainly the work of ill-disciplined Crown forces while supposedly enforcing a night-time curfew (21Nov1920/29). The murder by raiders of a prominent farmer, JP and synodsman of the Church of Ireland in Wicklow, known to be particularly friendly with the local police, bore all the hallmarks of a sectarian/agrarian IRA attack, yet the killers were two newly arrived Black and Tans (2Feb1921/1). Outside Dublin, some Protestant civilians were the victims of IRA attacks and killings. Some killings done under IRA cover seem to have been rooted largely in agrarian grievances, such as that of Shawe-Taylor (3Mar1920/1) in Galway and those of George Frend (4Jan1921/1), Robert Stone (16Apr1921/1) and Crossley Boyle (14Jun1921/1) in Tipperary. It is notable that 13

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a civilian ‘anti-Sinn Fein society’ spy ring in Cork, several of whose presumed members were killed in 1920/1, was believed to be organised through the Protestant YMCA (29Nov1920/5). Elsewhere in County Cork a number of Protestant men were killed as spies, including two essentially for refusing to be intimidated by IRA demands for contributions towards an arms levy (19Feb1921/3). The question of the motivation for killings of Protestant civilians by the IRA, particularly in Cork, has become caught up in the wider war of words and innuendo about ‘revisionism’, by which is meant in Irish discourse the alleged distortion of evidence and analysis relating to the independence struggle undertaken to discredit contemporary Irish republicanism. The key point is that a community suffering such killings and disappearances may naturally have interpreted them through a denominational and ethnic prism, whatever the local IRA’s stated rationale at the time or subsequently. Most interdenominational killings of civilians by combatants had multiple roots. Refusal to contribute to an arms levy and subsequent failed negotiations eventually cost the Protestant farmer John Harrison of Leitrim his life (21Apr1921/1); the only other alleged spy killed in that county was also a Protestant farmer (30Mar1921/6). These deaths not unnaturally terrified Leitrim’s Protestant community. In Ulster counties, interdenominational killings often begot retaliation on sectarian lines. The early-morning abduction and shooting of four young Catholic men outside Newry (6Jul1921/1) was probably a reprisal for IRA attacks on the RIC and USC, although those killed were most likely not active Volunteers. It resulted in one immediate reprisal killing of a Protestant civilian (9Jul1921/2), whom the IRA claimed they had only wished to hold prisoner lest he alert the USC patrol they had planned to attack, and led indirectly to the notori­ous Altnaveigh massacre of 17 June 1922. The Monaghan IRA’s disastrously mismanaged ‘general raid for arms’ on Protestant and AOH farms (1Sep1920/1) inflamed intra-nationalist and sectarian feeling in that county, and led six months later to the reprisal shooting of father and son William and Robert Fleming, an act widely accepted even among Monaghan republicans as unjustified and sectarian in character and impact (29Mar1921/1). In Offaly, the killing of two men of the Pearson family (30Jun1921/5) remains controversial: they had defied the local IRA by firing on Volunteers cutting trees on their land, and were held to be friendly with Crown forces. The IRA maintained there was no sectarian (or agrarian) factor in their deaths, but the rest of the Pearson family left Ireland. The same happened in Longford after the killing of the Protestant farmer William Charters (22Jan1921/1) and a Protestant neighbour, despite a grandiloquent assurance by the local IRA commander that the killings were not sectarian. Only three clergymen were deliberately killed in 1920 and 1921. Two Catholic priests were shot, Canon Magner in broad daylight by an Auxiliary afterwards deemed insane (15Dec1920/3), and Father Griffin abducted and secretly buried, again by Auxiliaries (15Nov1920/2). One retired Protestant minister, Canon Finlay, was killed during an arson attack on his Cavan home in what appeared to be an act of personal spite by a Volunteer who was all but disowned by his comrades and excoriated by his parish priest (12Jun1921/4). In Cork, Father James O’Callaghan (15May1921/7), killed by a ‘murder gang’, was clearly not the intended target of the raid on the home of a prominent Sinn Féin political figure.

THE KILLING OF ‘SPIES’, ‘INFORMERS’, EX-SERVICEMEN AND OFFICIALS One of the most controversial aspects of the separatist campaign was the treatment of alleged civilian spies and informers. This remains a difficult topic, and one shrouded in confusion. 14

INTRODUCTION BY EUNAN O’HALPIN

The term ‘spy’ is applied here exclusively to civilians, rather than, for example, to military officers operating in plainclothes or under civilian cover, or to soldiers who were believed to be posing as deserters to collect information, who fell into IRA hands and were killed, or to policemen whether on or off duty. Thus, all but one of those killed on the morning of Bloody Sunday 1920 are categorised as military or police deaths, rather than as ‘spies’. Such distinctions were often blurred in accounts of the detection and liquidation of people attempting to secure information on the separatist movement. It was not until February 1920 that the first alleged civilian ‘spy’, Harry Quinlisk (18Feb1920/1), was captured and killed. Quinlisk, like J. C. Byrne (2Mar1920/1), appears to have been a British penetration agent, of whom we know that at least 100 were deployed in Ireland in 1920–21. As argued in detail elsewhere, many of the 184 civilians whom the IRA definitely killed as spies – 20 per cent of all civilian fatalities – may not have been involved in intentional passing of information to Crown forces. This is scarcely a tendentious finding: as early as 1947 the state’s Bureau of Military History came to broadly the same conclusion.29 In total at least 661 ex-servicemen were killed, 29 per cent of all male fatalities (2,248). These include 484 combatants (19 Volunteers, 243 police, and 222 Great War veterans who had re-enlisted in the British army) and 177 civilians. Of the latter, eighty-four (47 per cent) were killed as spies by the IRA (sixty-eight Catholics, nine Protestants, and seven whose religion is unknown). The remaining ninety-three (53 per cent) were killed, mainly by Crown forces, for a variety of reasons, including alleged rioting and failure to halt. The IRA seldom targeted the judiciary or officials concerned with the administration of the law. The assassination of Resident Magistrate (RM) Millings in Westport in Mayo in March 1919 (30Mar1919/1), an unsanctioned local initiative akin to the Soloheadbeg ambush (21Jan1919/1), did not presage a concerted campaign against the paid judiciary. Only one other RM, Alan Lendrum in Clare, was killed, most likely after an exchange of fire as the IRA attempted to kidnap him (22Sep1920/2). A third RM killed an attacker outside Tralee (11May1920/1), and retired RM Alan Bell was assassinated in March 1920 (26Mar1920/1). But no senior judicial figures were successfully attacked, and nor were any of the key Dublin Castle officials concerned with security policy. This provides an interesting contrast with GHQ’s clinical campaign against the DMP’s handful of political crime specialists in Dublin in 1919–20. A few part-time officials such as servers of civil bills and fisheries inspectors were victims of targeted killing as spies in rural Ireland. Their deaths were probably linked to the unpopularity of their roles locally, and suspicion of their contacts with the police and courts. Comparable minor functionaries such as rate collectors were not singled out for attack in the larger towns and cities.

KILLING OF PRISONERS AFTER SURRENDER OR CAPTURE The killing of prisoners where fighting resumed after an apparent surrender was an acknowledged phenomenon: to give an Irish example, the war diary of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers (RDF) 6th Battalion in France recorded how, as the Great War drew to a close, an enemy surrender was broken by machine-gun fire: ‘Needless to say the prisoners in [our] possession were promptly dispatched to another world.’30 On occasion in 1920 and 1921 in Ireland, similar killings undoubtedly occurred in the heat of the moment, or in fear that an apparent surrender was a ruse de guerre; this is sometimes offered as an explanation for what happened 15

THE DEAD OF THE IRISH REVOLUTION

in the Kilmichael ambush (28Nov1920/1).31 The killing of surrendered soldiers ‘at the moment of capture’, whether in anger, for expediency or even to dispose of the wounded, was a recognised feature of the Great War, a practice which all belligerents condemned when inflicted upon their troops, and routinely denied when their men were responsible.32 There are well-documented and credible instances, such as at Clonmult (20Feb1921/6), Kerry Pike (23Mar1921/1) and Clonturk Park, Dublin (9Feb1921/6), where Crown forces killed IRA and civilian prisoners after surrender or in cold blood. In his memoirs the head of police intelligence General Winter effectively applauded such action in the case of the IRA’s Louis Darcy (24Mar1921/3), shot while supposedly trying to escape at the precise spot where an RIC constable had been killed. The same Auxiliary company was responsible for the especially brutal killing and concealment after death of the Loughnane brothers (27Nov1920/1) and of Michael Tolan (14Apr1921/5), all of whom supposedly had escaped from custody and disappeared. Other prisoners were also killed in highly suspicious circumstances while in secure custody, such as in Tipperary (30May1921/2). Most notoriously, the senior Dublin Brigade officers Dick McKee and Peadar Clancy were killed by Auxiliaries while prisoners in Dublin Castle (22Nov1920/7). Of all IRA fatalities, forty-one (8 per cent) were shot while allegedly attempting to escape, an explanatory category which had already achieved notoriety internationally, and thirty-four (7 per cent) for failing to halt.33 Adding to that fifty-two (11 per cent) who were probably killed in cold blood, this indicates that at least 26 per cent of all IRA deaths inflicted by Crown forces transgressed the generally accepted rules for combatants at that time. Sir Henry Wilson deplored such indiscipline and as early as April 1920 argued that the best way to put an end to such unauthorised murders by Crown forces was to prepare public lists of prominent Sinn Féiners ‘and shoot by roster’ in districts where the IRA mounted attacks.34 The IRA also killed prisoners after capture. Broadly speaking, these occurrences can be broken down into six categories as follows. First there was the killing of alleged civilian spies, sometimes, though not always, after a ‘court martial’ at which the accused almost never had representation – if indeed he or she even knew of proceedings – and where the judges were usually the captors or their immediate superiors. Second was the killing of police (26Apr1921/3), military (19Jun1921/1) or civilian (11Mar1921/9) prisoners treated as hostages in reprisal for the legal execution of Volunteers. Third was the killing of soldiers presenting themselves as deserters, who were suspected of gathering information; these sometimes had the formality of an impromptu court martial, sometimes not.35 Fourth was the killing of police captured by chance, sometimes while off-duty as were two constables near Nenagh (15May1921/14 and 15) and one in Roscommon (23May1921/7). In those three cases the fatalities, all young Irishmen, had been out courting local girls, which may have been an additional unspoken determining factor. The fifth category is that of the killing of policemen who had surrendered in good faith after a confrontation. This is what happened in Limerick in the aftermath of the East Limerick IRA’s remarkably successful Dromkeen operation (3Feb1921/5), a seldom discussed incident which stands comparison with the Kilmichael ambush; other examples occurred in Waterford (19Mar1921/3), in Mayo (23Mar1921/7) and in Sligo (19Apr1921/7). Three captured policemen escaped that fate in Kerry only because the IRA commander, Seán Moylan, according to the prosecutor in his court martial, told his men that ‘if you shoot them I will shoot you’ (28Jan1921/1). The IRA killed 128 policemen, accounting for 24 per cent of all police deaths after capture or when unarmed. The sixth category of IRA killings was where wounded enemies were ‘finished off ’ while helpless

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INTRODUCTION BY EUNAN O’HALPIN

(e.g. 13Apr1921/4 and 3May1921/2), a type of killing also attributed to Crown forces (e.g. 6Mar1921/5). There is controversy about the killings of wounded Auxiliaries at Kilmichael (28Nov1920/1), although such instances pale by comparison with the IRA’s removal from hospital and killing of wounded civilians recovering from attempted assassinations in Cork and in Dublin (20Feb1921/3 and 21May1921/3). We have identified seventy-four soldiers (18 per cent) killed by the IRA after surrender, or while off-duty and unarmed. There were probably more. The military authorities assumed that any deserters in Ireland not tracked down had succeeded in escaping: the reality was that a number fell into IRA hands, of whom some were killed and their remains disposed of. This problem is discussed further below.

MISSING BODIES? The problem of unidentified fatalities in Ireland is not comparable in scale with those of other conflicts where the remains of many of the fallen were never identified. During the 1916 Rising, even where artillery and fire destroyed remains – see, e.g., Thomas Weafer (26Apr1916/63) – almost every person killed or missing could be accounted for. The police forces and the military had robust procedures for recording information about their own fatalities (with the exception of deserters). At the height of the campaign, furthermore, GHQ’s ‘General Order No. 21’ enjoined battalion and brigade commanders to compile and forward precise records of ‘Volunteers killed in action or otherwise’, together with notes on any ‘special services’ performed and family details. During the Truce, systematic efforts were made to catalogue the rebel dead, and in subsequent decades the implementation of service pensions legislation stimulated further efforts to list all deaths.36 But what Drew Gilpin Faust, writing of the American Civil War, terms ‘Naming’ – the systematic reporting of fatalities and the location of their remains, in the interests both of their relatives and of the cause for which they had fought – remains problematic in the cases of at least 100 dead between 1920 and 1921.37 This study has definitely identified 101 IRA killings of civilians, police and British military where long-term concealment was attempted, 56 of these occurring in Cork. Only rarely were concealed remains discovered or handed over before the close of 1921. Various confidential statements by Cork IRA veterans in the decades following the conflict identify a number of locations used repeatedly for incarceration, execution and secret burial. Martin Corry TD claimed that ‘some 27 ennemy [sic] spies & Intelligence Officers were captured . . . and duly executed’ before the Truce by his E (Knockraha) Company alone, and it is likely that an unascertainable additional number of people – alleged civilian spies, British soldiers and at least two policemen or former policemen – were killed and their remains concealed by the Cork IRA up to the summer of 1922.38 We can be sure about Private Anderson (26Oct1921/1) and ex-RIC man Thomas Williams,† and there is strong reason to believe that there were others.39 The so-called ‘Governor’ of ‘Sing Sing’, the graveyard crypt at Kilquane near the village of Knockraha where Corry’s men held prisoners serving sentence or awaiting execution, claimed to the pensions board that over 150 people passed through his hands between 1919 and 1921, including 23 British soldiers ‘and about 50 spies’. A senior Cork IRA figure told Ernie O’Malley he believed that about ninety people were secretly buried in that area.40 The Cork No. 1 Brigade killed and hid more alleged civilian spies, as well as captured military and police, than did any other IRA formation within or beyond the county in 1920–21, 17

THE DEAD OF THE IRISH REVOLUTION

and in that county as a whole about 14 per cent of all known deaths were of civilian spies (in Dublin, the equivalent figure for civilian spies was 5 per cent, and in Antrim, the third most violent county, not a single alleged civilian spy was killed or ‘disappeared’). We must ask why. There were sometimes sound reasons for concealing a killing by secretly disposing of the remains. It reduced the possibility of reprisals in a district, destroyed evidence, and in many cases – particularly those of civilians and of soldiers captured in the act of deserting – left open the question of what had happened to people who had disappeared. In some cases, no great efforts were made to conceal killing indefinitely; in many others, concealment was plainly intended to be permanent. To take one key example, the 2nd Battalion, Cameron Highlanders based in Queenstown (now Cobh) was an aggressive unit responsible for indiscriminate firing at civilians and for some assassinations by night – see 9May1921/2 – and its men adopted an abrasive and contemptuous attitude towards the general public: its monthly journal for October 1920 noted how all Camerons involved in ‘searches remark on the dirt in which the Irish, even those of a comparatively affluent class, live. The insect life in their houses is particularly vigorous and a second and intimate search is required on return to quarters.’41 The unit recorded twenty-two deserters while based in Cork in 1920–1. It is likely that, while some of these managed to slip away back into civilian life in Britain undetected, others were captured and killed. Cormac Ó Cuilleanáin, by then a lecturer in Irish in University College Cork, wrote in 1942 of his involvement in the ‘capture and execution of [two] Cameron buckos’ at the Cork No. 1 Brigade’s secret burial ground at the Ray, near Knockraha, in the early summer of 1921, a credible claim supported by his senior officers.42 Ó Cuilleanáin’s two Camerons have not been included in this study due to lack of corroborating archival evidence, but there are better-documented instances where soldiers whom the army recorded as deserters at large had in fact been captured, killed and secretly buried, such as Watt (30Sep1920/3), Mullett and two companions (22Feb1921/7) in Clare, and Unknown (23May1921/9) and Carson and two companions (5Jun1921/5) in Cork. The Cork No. 1 Brigade continued to intercept and to imprison deserters after the Truce, such as Welshman Sydney Smith. Whether he managed to rejoin his wife and three children in Bridgend is not known.43 The army’s presumption that many soldiers who went missing while off-duty were deserters who got clean away led to difficulties in the identification of soldiers whose remains were later uncovered: see, e.g., Mottley (4Jun1921/9), and Unknown Smith or Smyth (30Jun1921/8). Crown forces very seldom attempted to conceal the remains of people whom they had killed illicitly. They had no need, however dubious the circumstances, because the chances of investigation and prosecution were so remote. Notable exceptions were Griffin (15Nov1920/2), the Loughnane brothers (27Nov1920/1) and Tolan (14Apr1921/5), all the work of a single Auxiliary company. Crown forces also occasionally attempted to conceal responsibility by attaching notes indicating the dead person was an IRA victim, or, as in the case of Cork Lord Mayor Tomás MacCurtain (20Mar1920/1), in one Cork unionist’s eyes ‘a remarkable & very upright man’, by spreading the rumour that he had been killed by his IRA subordinates for being insufficiently aggressive.44

DEATHS DURING INTERCOMMUNAL AND OTHER RIOTS One hundred and ninety-five civilians (21 per cent) died in intercommunal violence, the great majority in Belfast in 1920 and 1921. In many of these cases it is impossible to be certain of responsibility for individual fatalities, because up to six discrete armed groups – loyalist 18

INTRODUCTION BY EUNAN O’HALPIN

paramilitaries and civilians, nationalist civilians, the IRA, military and police (including USC) – were involved. It is clear that in Belfast the military did not generally distinguish between contending groups of rioters or curfew breakers on political lines: they would fire impartially on crowds failing to disperse, or on curfew breakers or on anyone who failed to halt when ordered to do so, or in response to fire aimed at them. The USC, loyalists, IRA and other armed nationalists, all groups with greater local knowledge, were more selective in their targeting. While it can reasonably be argued that the majority of these civilian deaths arose from intercommunal sectarian violence, in many instances it is uncertain whether a fatality was specifically targeted on grounds of religion, or was even the intended target of the bullet or bomb that killed her or him. In Lisburn in 1920, and in Belfast in 1920 and 1921, loyalists responded ferociously to isolated IRA assassinations of police – just eighteen policemen, including USC and Harbour Police, died in Belfast in 1920 and 1921, and no soldiers perished at rebel hands. This begs questions, not least about how anti-nationalist violence was planned, led and contained from 1919 to 1923, and was later recalled, explained and commemorated within loyalist communities. It is an important historiographical gap.

SHOT WHILE ATTEMPTING TO ESCAPE (SWATE) AND SHOT FOR FAILING TO HALT WHEN ORDERED (SFTH) These categories are based on the conclusions of inquests and of military courts of inquiry into fatalities attributable to Crown forces. SWATE was offered as an explanation in fifty-four (5 per cent) of all killings by Crown forces (Table 6, p. 544). SFTH was the official explanation in 155 (14 per cent) of all killings by Crown Forces (Table 7, p. 544). Taken together, these two categories of killing demonstrate that Crown forces were operating with extraordinarily lax rules of engagement. The consequence was not only that at least seventy-five IRA Volunteers were killed in these highly questionable circumstances, along with seven soldiers and two police mistakenly shot by sentries, but that 124 civilians (14 per cent of total civilian fatalities) also died. Of these a dozen were believed to have simply been deaf or unable to hear or to comprehend repeated orders to halt (if indeed these had been given). More broadly, a breakdown of the 1,096 killings for which Crown forces were responsible shows that 32 per cent were self-inflicted Crown forces fatalities (misadventure and suicide). Of the remaining killings by Crown forces, analysis indicates that 52 per cent could be categorised as dubious, i.e. on a spectrum running from a clear possibility of recklessness on the part of Crown forces, such as the forty-one civilian deaths in traffic accidents, to intentional cold-blooded killing of individuals. POST-TRUCE REVENGE AND OTHER KILLING Two trends predominate in fatalities between the Truce of 11 July 1921 and the end of that year. The most significant is that most deaths occurred in Belfast as the result of intercommunal conflict and of Crown forces’ interventions against rioters. We should also note a number of what appear to be revenge killings by Volunteers of former opponents, and one killing of a Volunteer (16Dec1921/2). The RIC man believed responsible was himself killed a few days later (14Dec1921/2). But, outside Belfast, the country was surprisingly quiet between the Truce and the end of 1921. The early months of 1922, a different story, are not covered in this study. 19

THE DEAD OF THE IRISH REVOLUTION

THE IMPACT OF LOSS AND OF KILLING A striking feature of the rebel and British military dead, and of their killers, is their youth. Most soldiers, and most Volunteers, were in their late teens or early twenties when they died or when they killed. The regular police dead were older, though many of the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries brought in to bolster the RIC from early 1920 onwards were, although ex-servicemen, only in their early twenties. This study provides only passing glimpses of the impact of personal loss arising from political violence on family, friends and communities; equally, it touches only indirectly on the question of how killing people affected those who did it. The MSPC records in particular have increased awareness of the mental health difficulties of some rebel veterans responsible for deaths, including well-known figures such as Ernie O’Malley and Charles Dalton, both of whom wrote accounts of the conflict.45 But so far as we know most revolutionary killers did not need, or at any rate did not seek, medical help for psychological or psychiatric conditions arising from their experiences: an eminent instance is Seán Lemass (1900–71), who, as emerged during research for this study, accidentally shot his two-year-old brother Herbert in January 1916, and later took part in the killing of an unarmed British officer on Bloody Sunday (21Nov1920/11). Lemass appeared to cope with his memories both of killing and of loss – his brother Noel was abducted, murdered and buried by government agents just weeks after the Civil War ended in 1923 – partly by simply refusing to speak about them.46 It may be that police and military involved in violence in Ireland took much the same approach. I know of no indications of particular recorded stress among Crown forces who served in Ireland, as distinct from the psychological and emotional difficulties which many Great War veterans were known to encounter. RIC men received relatively generous pension terms on the disbandment of the force. Police veterans therefore had no particular incentive to chronicle their activities while serving or to list their post-service difficulties, although some police families did apply for support from British funds provided for Irish loyalists who experienced difficulties after the Truce.47 Very few policemen or soldiers afterwards spoke or wrote about violence they had seen or in which they had been participants. For the rebels, it was different. For many surviving veterans, and the families of those who had died in the fight, there were practical reasons – pensions for service and for wounds and disabilities, medals, the importance for election candidates of having a ‘fighting record’ – to make something of their experiences during the succeeding decades. Joanna Bourke rightly warns of the limitations of all fighters’ stories of inflicting death and of seeing death inflicted: ‘Inevitably, fantasy pervades all the narratives.’48 But the many IRA personal accounts of fatal political violence, however flawed, partial, partisan, self-justifying and self-glorifying some may be, are of far greater value than the eerie personal silence that generally surrounds killing not only by the military and the regular police forces, but by the USC and loyalist civilians between 1916 and 1921.

CONCLUSION Finding out precisely who died, how, and at whose hands between 1916 and 1921 has been a mammoth task. It has also uncovered surprising patterns of fatal violence. What most distinguishes 1916 from later years are the high proportion of civilian casualties and, within that

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INTRODUCTION BY EUNAN O’HALPIN

category, of female deaths; the absence of any sectarian element in killings; and the absence of targeted killings – other than by execution following courts martial of the leaders of the rebellion – by either Crown forces or the rebels. What also distinguishes 1916 from 1919–21 is the absence of Ulster loyalist action against the Catholic minority during and after the Rising, in contrast to the considerable violence from 1920 onwards of which the Catholic civilian population were the main targets and the community which lost most people. In the years from 1917 to 1921, a striking feature of rebel violence is that civilians involved in the administration of justice and of local affairs were so seldom targeted: no judges, only a handful of magistrates, no senior local government officials. This sets the Irish case apart from comparable nationalist revolutions, where government functionaries were singled out for attack as elements of campaigns to destroy the administrative capacity and practical authority of the state. Hare-brained plans to mount a campaign of political assassinations in RIC did not come to fruition up to December 1921, while the IRA’s ambitious programme of sabotage in Britain and of retribution against the families of Black and Tans and Auxiliaries was largely ineffective and served to expose some of their important support and supply chains for the war in Ireland.49 In Ireland, the IRA’s primary targets between 1919 and 1921 were the RIC, the British army and, to a lesser extent, alleged spies and informers among the civilian population. Protestants and loyalists were never nominated as targets for attack by GHQ or by the underground Dáil government. With the exceptions of Monaghan, Armagh, Cork and, to a lesser extent, Tipperary, where there were also agrarian subtexts, there is almost no evidence of any explicit sectarian or communal intent in fatal attacks involving Protestant civilians up to December 1921. In Antrim (Belfast) and Londonderry, furthermore, the IRA’s acts of sectarian violence were largely a reaction to sectarian attacks on nationalist communities. It does not follow that an absence of sectarian intent was perceived as such by the communities whose members were killed. The Crown’s exercise of fatal violence also throws up interesting questions. Ireland was not a far-flung colonial holding but a part of the United Kingdom. Despite London’s nod and wink at ‘reprisal’ killings, a well-organised Dáil government press campaign, courageous coverage by British and American newspapers and reasonable discipline within the military were significant factors which weighed against thoroughgoing slaughter both of rebels and of civilians. Yet we must note the astonishing absence of due process regarding Crown forces’ killings, not just those in the heat of battle or its immediate aftermath, but also those which occurred when prisoners were in custody. It raises the question of how colonial subjects in distant parts of the empire, where rules of engagement were even more lax and where independent press scrutiny was almost non-existent, fared in the unsettled years after the Great War. The Amritsar massacre in the Punjab on 13 April 1919 offers some parallels with the Croke Park shootings on 21 November 1920 (21Nov1920/16), not in scale but in character and in the manner in which London initially attempted to brush aside criticism of the murderous conduct of British forces firing without warning upon a mass of helpless, unarmed civilians. It is equally important to recognise how different the scale, nature and consequence of revolt in Ireland was to that in the colonies. The contemporaneous Malabar rebellion (in British parlance ‘Moplah revolt’) in south-western India, which ran from August 1921 to the early weeks of 1922, provides one useful comparator: in his classic study of Imperial Policing, the Irish general Sir Charles Gwynn carefully calculated British and Indian military fatalities, including at least two Irish-born soldiers of the Leinster

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Regiment, as 137; his ‘approximate’ estimate of rebel fatalities was 2,300. He offered no figures for civilian deaths. In Ireland for 1917–21 the comparable figures are 491 rebels (21 per cent), 936 Crown forces (40 per cent) and 919 civilians (39 per cent). For even the most ardent separatists, proximity to the imperial metropole had its benefits.50

HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANISED The Dead of the Irish Revolution is organised chronologically, and within days by the time when death occurred. Narratives of individual actions and fatalities vary greatly in depth. The entries are a mixture of the bald and the extensive. We have avoided replication of biographical and other information easily available elsewhere, but details such as place of birth, religion, places of service and so on are reported to an extent. The level of information available varies between individuals. Civilian deaths are the least well served: in Dublin in 1916, and in Belfast in 1920 and 1921, there is often little more to go on than cursory newspaper reports, together with the painstaking work of other researchers such as Duffy, Parkinson and McDermott. For all categories of death, there is a marked imbalance between the breadth and depth of accounts of deaths from rebel and from Crown sources. The figures are analysed without reference to the wider populations of combatants and civilians to which their subjects belonged. While we can use the 1911 census as a baseline for populations by county, the absolute numbers involved are very small. For example, in Cavan the 1911 census reports 91,173, and we have identified just twelve deaths between 1917 and 1921, or 1.3 deaths per 10,000. It is not practical to compare any two categories of death – say, military and IRA – save as absolute numbers because the actual size of each cohort at the time is unknown. IRA numbers grew considerably after the Truce in July 1921, and it would be unwise to treat the membership rolls produced in the 1930s as an accurate representation of its order of battle during the years of active conflict. In 1941 Dan Breen and General Liam Tobin, notable figures in the War of Independence and one-time Civil War enemies but with a shared sense of grievance about aspects of the new Ireland, concluded that a maximum of 500–1,000 Volunteers were ‘on active service’ between 1916 and 1921.51 To save space we have generally excluded accounts of funerals of fatalities, which, while often formulaic – ‘the largest seen in the district for many years’ is a staple of press reports – were important. Republicans and Crown forces naturally used funerals of their fallen for wider political purposes, but note that such proceedings also carry traces of other sentiments: an illustration arises in Monaghan where in 2010 a gravedigger told me that his father would describe how ‘thousands’ of AOH men had travelled ‘from all over Ireland’ in 1921 to mourn a young member killed by the IRA (9Mar1921/3). We have included place of burial where we have that information. Where possible we have included compensation accorded to relatives of fatalities, whether awarded by courts or by the British or Irish states. The question of dependents’ awards rumbled on in independent Ireland for decades, to an extent inadvertently monetizing memory of the fallen: as late as 1953, the law was extended to allow close relatives, mainly siblings, of those killed fighting for independence between 1916 and 1923 to claim dependency, a measure which while compassionate in intent begged the question of how such dependents had coped in the intervening three decades. It also, perhaps, had the consequence of keeping the memory of the fallen fresh in the minds of the bereaved.

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INTRODUCTION BY EUNAN O’HALPIN

The following describes the arrangement and composition of the individual entries in the book.

ARRANGEMENT OF CHAPTERS Chapters are organised by year, from 1916 to 1921. CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, DATING AND TIME, AND REFERENCE NUMBERS The presentation of entries is determined by year, month, date and time of death (in so far as that can be determined). Where no definite time of death is known for an entry, that entry is placed following those on that day for which the times of death are known. Time of death is given by reference to the twenty-four-hour clock using Greenwich Mean Time. No allowance is made for local time, although this varied significantly across Ireland. Entries are listed by the day on which death took place, rather than on the day when a fatal wound or injury or illness was incurred. Furthermore, deaths are assigned to the county in which they occurred, even if the fatal wound, injury or illness was incurred elsewhere. Each fatality has been assigned a unique reference number in brackets after the name, as follows: day/month/year/ordering of that death within that day, with the highest number being the latest. This facilitates easy cross-referencing of linked fatalities. Each entry carries the name of the fatality, followed by their unique identifier. Where a death is in some way linked to another, a cross-reference is given. Cross-references are of two kinds: the prefix RD (related death) is used to reference a related death, e.g. that of another individual or individuals arising from the same incident, or a tit-for-tat killing; the prefix SA (see also) is used to reference an associated but not directly linked fatality. THE STRUCTURE OF THE FATALITY ENTRY At the top of each entry the full name of each fatality appears in bold, followed by the reference number. Discrepancies in spellings of names often arise. The authors have chosen those which seem appropriate by reference to relevant official documentation. Where the symbol † follows a name in an entry, it indicates that the person concerned subsequently died as a result of Irish political violence in 1922 or 1923. The first italicised line of each entry gives the assignation to the force to which the person belonged, if a combatant (see below). If a civilian, no assignation is given. Where known, and in the following order, the age, occupation, marital status if married or widowed, number of children and religion of each fatality are given. In many cases of non-Catholic fatalities, it has not been possible to distinguish between denominations and so Protestant is the default category. The second italicised line of each entry records place of actual death by county. In the interests of saving space, abbreviations are used extensively in entries and footnotes. These are listed alphabetically under Abbreviations at pp. xii–xv above. Some are in common usage, others have been created for this study. Fatality Classification The first italicised line denotes the category of fatality as follows: British military fatalities are listed by the regiment or corps in which they served where known Police fatalities are listed by the relevant force

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THE DEAD OF THE IRISH REVOLUTION

Irish military fatalities are listed by the relevant organisation All other fatalities are civilian by default. Occupation This is a somewhat hit-and-miss category. Individuals may have had a number of occupations during their lifetimes. Very often, furthermore, different authorities use different terms to describe the same occupation. For someone living in rural Ireland, ‘labourer’ was generally – though not invariably – conterminous with ‘agricultural labourer’, but most such labourers also worked as general labourers. Where a fatality had served in the armed forces, this is noted as ‘ex-serviceman’. This also appears in the headers for serving soldiers who had re-enlisted in the military following the cessation of their initial service. For RIC fatalities, which form the great majority of police entries, the previous occupation recorded is that entered in the RIC General Register. Place Names and Spellings For historical accuracy, the place names in use in the 1916–21 period have generally been cited throughout. In some cases, the official names have since changed. In rural Ireland, it was often the case that a locality was known colloquially by a different name than its official designation. This was so even at the level of townland. Difficulties also arise in the spelling of localities, even in official documents. Queenstown (Cobh) and Maryborough (Portlaoise) have been retained in the entries, whereas in deference to contemporary usage, King’s County and Queen’s County have been replaced by Offaly and Laois respectively. Kingstown is used until 1920 when it became Dún Laoghaire. Spellings of Surnames and Given Names These present considerable difficulties. Some arise from the anglicisation of Gaelic names over time, and some from the reverse process. Names are as presented in official documentation where available – although this in itself can be problematic. As an example, official records relating to Eunan O’Halpin’s grandfather Hugh Halpenny carry five different iterations of his family name: Halfpenny (as in the 1911 census), Hugh Halpenny, Hugh Halpin, Hugh O’Halpin and Aodh Ó hAilpín. In the military service pensions records most applicants defaulted to an English-language version of their names. This is the case for both given names and surnames. Notes and Referencing Primary sources precede newspaper sources, which are arranged by date rather than title. For secondary sources, author surnames and short titles have generally been used throughout the text. To save space, a number of standard works which are extensively cited are represented in footnotes by author name in bold, e.g. Marnane is used for Denis G. Marnane, The 3rd Brigade: A History of the Volunteers/IRA in South Tipperary, 1913–1921 (Thurles, 2018). The author’s surname is in bold in the corresponding alphabetical entry in the bibliography. Where more than one work by the author appears in the bibliography, the work to which the bold author name refers is also given in bold.

24

1916 21 APRIL 1916

Keating and Sheehan were recovered by fishermen the following day. Monaghan’s corpse was only found on a nearby island on 30 October. After the Rising, McInerney was arrested and interned in Frongoch. An inquest jury returned a verdict of ‘death by drowning’, recommending that a chain be placed across the entrance to the quay. Buried Keelavarnogue Cemetery, Cahirciveen, Kerry. In 1925 his widowed mother Nora received a gratuity of £75. In 1957 an unmarried sister failed in a claim for a dependent’s allowance. A monument was erected at Ballykissane, and a second was unveiled in 2016.1 RD: Monaghan (21Apr1916/2), Sheehan (21Apr1916/3). SA: Casement (3Aug1916/1), Mac Diarmada (12May1916/1)

Cornelius Keating (21Apr1916/1) IV, 22, Wireless operator, RC Ballykissane, Killorglin, Kerry ‘Con’ Keating, a farmer’s son from Renard, Cahirciveen, Kerry, studied agriculture at the Glasnevin Model Farm, then trained as a wireless operator in the Atlantic College in Cahirciveen. Denis Daly recalled that about mid-April 1916 he and Keating discussed with Seán Mac Diarmada and Michael Collins† setting up a radio transmitter at Ballyard, Tralee, using equipment stolen from the Atlantic College. Men would seize the equipment and give it to Tralee Volunteers. The intention apparently was to contact the German arms ship Aud, although in fact it did not have a radio. Alternatively, the plan may have been to radio the German submarine U-19, expected with Roger Casement and two others. Daly led a party consisting of Keating, Dan Sheehan, Charlie Monaghan and Colm Ó Lochlainn. They took a train to Killarney, and were collected by two motor cars sent from Limerick on ‘a very wet bad night’. Tom McInerney drove Sheehan, Monaghan and Keating, with the others in Sam Windrim’s car. Only Windrim’s car made it to Cahirciveen; as Keating was the only wireless expert, the mission was abandoned. Daly returned to Dublin and only found out what had happened from the Sunday Independent. He fought in the GPO. McInerney’s car was stopped by an RIC man outside Killorglin, but Keating scared him off with a revolver. Crossing the bridge over the River Laune, the car drove on towards Ballykissane Pier instead of veering left at the church. McInerney asked if they were on the right road: perhaps shaken by the encounter with the police, Keating said yes. The car drove straight off the pier at about 21:45, overturning in the water. McInerney managed to escape. His three passengers were drowned. The bodies of

Charles Monaghan2 (21Apr1916/2) IV, 37, Mechanic, RC Ballykissane, Killorglin, Kerry See Keating (21Apr1916/1). ‘Charlie’ Monaghan from Ballymacarett attended the CBS on Oxford Street, Belfast. At eighteen, he went to Dublin, later spending a year in the US. A machinist, Monaghan also had a motor car business. A member of the GAA and the Gaelic League, he lived in Fairview, Dublin. Buried Dromavalla Cemetery, Killorglin, Kerry.3 Daniel (Dómhnall) Sheehan (21Apr1916/3) IV, 30, Bookkeeper, RC Ballykissane, Killorglin, Kerry See Keating (21Apr1916/1). Sheehan, from Ballintubrid, Newcastle West, Limerick, was a bookkeeper in the Savoy Hotel in London until the outbreak of war. Cis Sheehan (Mrs Michael Cremen), a Cumann na mBan organiser, recalled ‘a very quiet, reserved man with fiery red hair’ attending Irish classes. The last time she saw him he passed her a note during a class stating, ‘I am off to Dublin.’ There he worked in the post office. He joined

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1916

the Kimmage Garrison, consisting of men from Liverpool, London, Manchester and Glasgow who had returned to Ireland to avoid conscription. Buried Dromavalla Cemetery, Killorglin, Kerry. In 1927 his father Martin secured a gratuity of £150.4

Michael Lahiff (24Apr1916/2) DMP (11047), 28, RC MHD From Kilmurry, Clare, Lahiff had been a constable in B Division (125B) for five years, stationed in Great Brunswick Street. Michael Mallin of the ICA led thirty-six men to occupy St Stephen’s Green. Many people were enjoying the fine weather when Mallin’s unit ordered everyone to leave and secured the gates. Lahiff, unarmed, was on duty at St Stephen’s Green West. When he refused to leave his post he was shot three times. Max Caulfield wrote that one of the killers was Mallin’s second-in-command, Constance Markievicz, who supposedly ‘shouted . . . delightedly: “I shot him!”’. This is disputed by other writers. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: A. h. 177). His father Michael secured a gratuity of £75.8s.0d.6 SA: Mallin (8May1916/4)

24 APRIL 1916 James O’Brien (24Apr1916/1) DMP (9862), 45, RC Upper Yard, Dublin Castle From Kilfergus, Glin, Limerick, O’Brien was a constable with twenty-one years of service. Unarmed, he was on duty at the Cork Hill entrance to the upper yard of Dublin Castle. William Oman of the ICA recalled marching from Liberty Hall to City Hall under the command of Seán Connolly. At about midday, they approached the Castle. A watching journalist saw O’Brien ‘confront them with his hand up and thought he was telling them: “Now, boys, you shouldn’t be here at all.”’ Oman said O’Brien ‘made towards the main gate to close it. Seán Connolly brought his rifle to the “present” and fired. The policeman fell.’ Hit in the head, O’Brien was the first fatality shot in the Rising. Six ICA men rushed the guardroom and captured and tied up a party of soldiers. The Castle had not been reconnoitred beforehand, and Connolly was probably unaware that it was virtually undefended. Hearing the commotion, Major Price, the Irish Command intelligence officer, came down into the Castle yard and opened fire with his pistol. He was joined by a handful of troops. His action, which evidently deterred the rebels from pressing home their attack, won him the DSO. One ICA veteran, William Halpin, afterwards told a relative that the men were initially stupefied when Connolly shot O’Brien without warning, and later confronted him. Halpin maintained that, in order to reassert his authority, Connolly acted with reckless bravado, needlessly exposing himself to the gunfire which killed him. Buried Ballybeg, Glin, Limerick. His sister Johanna secured a gratuity of £85.16s.0d.5 SA: Connolly (24Apr1916/39)

John Herbert Armstrong (24Apr1916/3) 42, Range-setter, Married with three children, RC SVH Armstrong and his wife Annie of 2 Great Longford Street were walking along Earlsfort Terrace when ordered to halt by ICA insurgents under Captain Richard McCormick, who were attempting to occupy Harcourt Street Railway Station and to barricade both ends of Hatch Street. Frank Robbins, in charge of building the barricades, recalled that ‘a civilian was, unfortunately, shot for refusing to aid in the work’. Douglas Hyde, future president of Ireland, recalled that a Miss Boland telephoned for an ambulance. Armstrong later died. Buried GC. His widow and children secured £300 compensation from the RVC.7 Arthur James Scarlett (24Apr1916/4) 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers (6297), 31, Married, CoE Upper Ormond Quay, Dublin Private Scarlett enlisted in his home city of London. Volunteers occupied the Four Courts and erected barricades in the surrounding area running up to North King Street. Private H. C.

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24 April 1916

Hannant (12th Lancers) described how his squadron were detailed to escort ammunition wagons from the North Wall to the Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park. They passed Liberty Hall and O’Connell Bridge and on to Bachelor’s Walk unmolested. Hannant recalled that Private Scarlett was shot dead from a barricade near the Four Courts; other Lancers were wounded. Some of the startled Lancers galloped up Church Street firing volleys. At the corner of North Brunswick Street, one Lancer was killed and a child fatally wounded. A tailor was also shot and later died. The main body of Lancers went into Charles Street, a narrow thoroughfare parallel to Chancery Place, and took cover in the Collier Dispensary. There they remained until rescued on 27 April by soldiers using an improvised armoured car. Lieutenant Hunter died in the Collier Dispensary on 26 April. Buried GMC (CE. 627).8 RD: Foster (24Apr1916/6), Harris (24Apr 1916/7), Hunter (26Apr1916/53), Shepherd (24Apr1916/5)

Quay. Professor George O’Neill SJ recalled ‘a respectable Jew tailor from Ormond Quay, shot through the entrails’ when he ignored an order to halt on Capel Street Bridge. Buried Jewish cemetery, Dolphin’s Barn, Dublin.11 Oscar Bentley (24Apr1916/8) 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers (7022) Sackville Street, Dublin From Welshpool, Montgomeryshire, Private Bentley lived in Blackpool. At about 13:00 a party of Lancers from Marlborough Barracks moved along Sackville Street. Samuel B. Reede, a law clerk, recalled: ‘the 5th Lancers passed down towards the city as if they thought it was an ordinary street riot, and just as the foremost got to Nelson’s Pillar one was wounded and another killed outright and two horses [were] killed.’ In fact, three Lancers were killed and a fourth fatally wounded by firing from the GPO. The toll might have been higher had the rebels obeyed orders to hold fire until the Lancers had passed the building. As a second volley was fired, the remaining Lancers retreated to the Parnell Monument. Dr J. C. O’Carroll, then a medical student in Jervis Street Hospital, recalled that the first casualties received were the Lancers shot opposite the GPO. W. J. Brennan-Whitmore, who later commanded the Volunteer position in North Earl Street, said the encounter ‘put great heart into all the men and a great deal of the tension of waiting was eased’. Buried RHKC (Coll. Grave).12 RD: Cordwell (24Apr1916/11), Headland (24Apr1916/9), Hughes (24Apr1916/10)

H. Shepherd (24Apr1916/5) Reserve Cavalry Regiment (16125), RC Church Street, Dublin See Scarlett (24Apr1916/4). Sergeant Shepherd was from Bristol. Buried GMC (RC. 486).9 Seán (John) Francis Foster (24Apr1916/6) 3, Child, RC Church Street, Dublin See Scarlett (24Apr1916/4). Seán was son of John and Catherine Foster of 18 Manor Place. On Easter Monday Mrs Foster was out for a walk with her two children in a pram. As they passed Father Matthew Hall, Seán was shot in the side of the head. He was probably the ‘fine little boy’ carried ‘apparently dead, blood coming out his ear’ by Father George O’Neill into the Richmond Hospital. Buried GC (Garden Section: Z. f. 95.5). Mrs Foster received £10 burial expenses from the RVC.10

James David Arthur Headland (24Apr1916/9) 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers (5165), 20, CoE Sackville Street, Dublin See Bentley (24Apr1916/8). Corporal Headland lived in Tollington Park, Islington, London. Buried GMC (CE. 624).13 Frederick John Hughes (24Apr1916/10) 12th (Prince of Wales’s Royal) Lancers (8227), 20, CoE Sackville Street, Dublin See Bentley (24Apr1916/8). Private Hughes was from Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey. Buried GMC (CE. 812).14

Abraham Harris (24Apr1916/7) 48, Tailor, Married with four children, Jewish Richmond Hospital, Dublin Harris, also known as Aaron Abrahamson, of Portobello, had a business on Lower Ormond

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1916

the Ship Street gate at about 14:00. For the next two days, the Mendicity Institute was subjected to intense fire. The Dublin Fusiliers suffered a number of fatalities as they attempted to cross the Liffey. Some civilians died in the crossfire. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: S. h. 20.5–21).17 RD: Brennan (24Apr1916/14), Connolly (26Apr1916/45), Fahey (25Apr1916/20), Kearns (25Apr1916/23), Thompson (24Apr 1916/15). SA: Ceannt (8May1916/1), Connolly (12May1916/2), Heuston (8May 1916/3)

Herbert John Cordwell (24Apr1916/11) 2nd Reserve Cavalry Regiment (24522), CoE Sackville Street, Dublin See Bentley (24Apr1916/8). Private Cordwell, from Northall, Buckinghamshire, lived in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire. Buried GMC (CE. 635).15 Florence Shiels (24Apr1916/12) 27, Charwoman, Married, Protestant JSH Shiels, living at 45.3 Jervis Street with her labourer husband Walter, was fatally wounded on North King Street. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: R. a. 38).16

Francis A. Brennan (24Apr1916/14) RDF (25244), 18, Clerk, RC Adelaide Hospital, Dublin See Neilan (24Apr1916/13). Private Brennan was one of seven children of Charles and Eliza Brennan of 24 Usher’s Island. He had been a Land Commission clerk before enlisting in the 10th Battalion. Buried GMC (RC. 468).18

Gerald Aloysius Neilan (24Apr1916/13) RDF, 34, RC Arran Quay, Dublin Neilan, son of the late John Neilan, JP, of Mount Harold Terrace, Dublin, was educated at Clongowes Wood College. Severely wounded during the Boer War while serving with the Sherwood Foresters, he also served in China before retiring. In December 1914, he joined the Northumberland Fusiliers as a captain, later becoming a musketry instructor. In February 1916, he transferred to the RDF as a bombing instructor. A low turnout of Volunteers on Easter Monday meant that the rebels had to improvise. Because Éamonn Ceannt’s 4th Battalion was unable to occupy Kingsbridge Station, James Connolly ordered Seán Heuston to seize the Mendicity Institute at Usher’s Island instead, to disrupt troop movements from the Royal Barracks on the opposite quay. At midday, Heuston and some sixteen Volunteers fortified the Mendicity Institute and placed marksmen at the windows, which commanded a view of the quays and the Royal Barracks. A short time later, 130 men of the RDF marched along Albert Quay and Ellis Quay in fours en route to Dublin Castle. The Volunteers opened fire when the soldiers were midway between Ellis Street and Blackhall Place. Neilan was killed. The soldiers sought cover behind an abandoned tram, the quay wall and in side streets. They reached Queen Street, rushed across Queen Street Bridge, and entered Dublin Castle by

John A. Thompson (24Apr1916/15) RDF (24923), 19, Student, CoI Dublin Castle See Neilan (24Apr1916/13). Private Thompson, from Drumany, Fermanagh, was a student at Trinity College Dublin before enlisting in the 10th Battalion.19 He was killed by a shot to the chest. Buried Derrylin, Fermanagh.20 Seán (John) Owens (24Apr1916/16) IV, 24, Artificial limb maker, RC Mount Brown, Dublin Owens was one of eight children of Jeremiah and Margaret Owens of 1 Coombe. Comprising fifty-two acres, the South Dublin Union was the largest site occupied by the Volunteers on 24 April and an important link in the chain of insurgent positions. It was held by a small party of the 4th Battalion, under Éamonn Ceannt, with outposts at Watkins Brewery on Ardee Street, Jameson’s Distillery on Marrowbone Lane and Roe’s Distillery in Mount Brown. Ceannt was greatly handicapped by a shortage of men. The main Volunteer stronghold was in the

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24 April 1916

James’s Street block of buildings. A detachment at the Rialto entrance and another section of five men in McCaffrey’s Estate, an area of open fields at the junction of Mount Brown and Brookfield Road, were to prevent a possible military advance from Richmond Barracks via Old Kilmainham and Mount Brown. Other detachments covered the canal wall at the rear of the Union, the eastern boundary wall facing the city, and various strategically placed buildings within the complex such as Hospitals 2–3. At about 12:40, a hundred men of the RIR in Richmond Barracks, commanded by Major Holmes, were dispatched to Dublin Castle via Kilmainham. A twenty-man section on Brookfield Road came under fire, suffering three casualties. When reinforcements arrived, two companies were sent along Brookfield Road to outflank the rebels. One attacked the rear of the complex, while the other assaulted the James’s Street entrance. A machine gun in the nearby Royal Hospital, Kilmainham (the headquarters of the British command) provided supporting fire. Joseph Doolan recalled that ‘some sniping occurred, causing our first casualty, Seán Owens being killed . . . where the Corporation houses now stand in Mount Brown’. There followed an unremitting fight over several hours with fatalities on both sides. The Volunteers at the Rialto Gate occupied a long corrugated iron shed, the walls of which were easily perforated by British fire. John Traynor was killed by a bullet which came through the wall during a heavy volley. A small gate was forced open, and some soldiers scaled the 9-foot walls. Lieutenant Alan Ramsay was shot in the head as he led an assault on the Rialto gate. Captain Alfred Warmington was shot in the head as he led a second charge through the gate. The handful of Volunteers opposing the attack were soon obliged to surrender and the southern portion of the Union complex was overrun by 15:30. Volunteers in the fields at Mount Brown came under machine-gun fire from the Royal Hospital. As they tried to retreat to Hospitals 2–3, Richard O’Reilly, Brendan Donnellan and James Quinn were killed. James

Coughlan recalled that Lieutenant W. T. Cosgrave wanted two men for special duty. McDowell and Coughlan volunteered and were ordered to report to Cathal Brugha,† vice-O/C, who instructed them to help bring in wounded from the field to the west of the Nurses’ Home. Assisted by two inmates, McDowell and Coughlan came under heavy fire. McDowell was shot dead. Nurse Margaret Kehoe was killed at about 13:30 at the bottom of the stone staircase in Hospital 2, whether by military or rebels is unclear. By dusk the military had driven the insurgents from the women’s hospital to Ceannt’s headquarters in the night nurses’ home. The RIR history records two officers and five men killed, and one officer and six men wounded. Owens’s body ‘remained in the field until Tuesday evening’. Widowed in 1922, his mother Margaret secured a £150 gratuity in 1926 after an intervention by President Cosgrave, who ‘knew the case to be one of particular hardship’.21 RD: Brennan (24Apr1916/19), Carr (24Apr 1916/20), Donnellan (24Apr1916/22), Duffy (24Apr1916/21), Kehoe (24Apr1916/26), McDowell (24Apr1916/25), O’Reilly (24Apr 1916/23), Phillips (25Apr1916/28), Quinn (24Apr1916/24), Ramsay (24Apr1916/27), Traynor (24Apr1916/17), Treacy (24Apr1916 /28), Warmington (24Apr1916/18), Young (25Apr1916/30). SA: Ceannt (8May1916/1) John Joseph Traynor (24Apr1916/17) IV, 18, Messenger, RC Rialto Gate, SDU See Owens (24Apr1916/16). Traynor, of 3 Shannon Terrace, was a ‘very active member’ of the Volunteers. A Guinness employee, he was a crack shot. Buried GC (Dublin Section: V. §. 22.5). His mother Sarah received about £70 from the National Aid Fund up to 1918, and in 1926 secured a gratuity of £26.22 Alfred Ernest Warmington (24Apr1916/18) RIR, 38, Railway clerk, CoI Rialto Gate, SDU See Owens (24Apr1916/16). Warmington, only son of Alfred Warmington, manager of

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1916

the Munster and Leinster Bank in Naas, Kildare, he served during the Boer War with the Cape Mounted Rifles and Thornycroft’s Mounted Infantry, fighting in the Battle of Spion Kop and at the relief of Ladysmith. In September 1911, Warmington was appointed as a strike-breaking GS&WR porter at Kingsbridge Station, Dublin. In May 1913 he moved to Maryborough as an office messenger at 20s. a week. In 1914 Warmington was gazetted captain to the RIR and served in France. In March 1916, he returned from Flanders, and was stationed in Richmond Barracks. Buried GMC (CE. Officers. 45).23

Richard O’Reilly (24Apr1916/23) IV, 20, RC SDU See Owens (24Apr1916/16). O’Reilly was one of five children of Mary O’Reilly of Newmarket, Dublin. Two brothers served in the British army, one dying in France. His brother John also fought in the South Dublin Union. Buried GC.29 James Quinn30 (24Apr1916/24) IV, 42, House painter, Married with four children, RC SDU See Owens (24Apr1916/16). Quinn, of 2 Hammond Street, was a member of the Columcille Hurling Club. His widow Marcella, an office cleaner in ‘straitened circumstances’, received £1 a week from the National Aid Fund before a final payment of £400. She later secured a yearly pension of £90 ‘during widowhood’. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: E. a. 38).31

John Brennan (24Apr1916/19) RIR (9952), RC SDU See Owens (24Apr1916/16). Corporal Brennan, son of Mary Maddock of Ballinaboola, Kilkenny, enlisted in Kilkenny. Albert Desborough recalled that a party making their way into the city realised that a corporal was missing. This was probably Brennan. Buried GMC (RC. 722).24

William McDowell (24Apr1916/25) IV, 49, House painter, Married with seven children, RC SDU See Owens (24Apr1916/16). McDowell lived at 10 Merchant’s Quay. His wife Charlotte received limited support from the National Aid Fund, before receiving a yearly pension of £90, and £24 for each of her two youngest children, in 1924. Buried GC (St Patrick’s Section: C. o. 130).32

Michael Carr (24Apr1916/20) RIR (9852), RC SDU See Owens (24Apr1916/16). Private Carr, from Mulhuddart, enlisted in Dublin. Buried RHKC (Coll. Grave).25 James Duffy (24Apr1916/21) RIR (9947), RC SDU See Owens (24Apr1916/16). Private Duffy, from Kildare, enlisted at Limerick. Buried RHCK (Coll. Grave).26

Margaret Kehoe33 (24Apr1916/26) 49, Nurse, RC SDU See Owens (24Apr1916/16). Nurse Kehoe, from Leighlinbridge, Carlow, lived in house 10, South Dublin Union. Buried Ballinabrannagh, Carlow.34

Brendan Donnellan27 (24Apr1916/22) IV, 18, Draper’s assistant, RC SDU See Owens (24Apr1916/16). Donnellan, from Athenry Road, Loughrea, Galway, worked for Gorevan Brothers, Camden Street, where he lived. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: P. o. 26.5). His sisters ultimately secured dependents’ allowances.28

Alan Livingstone Ramsay (24Apr1916/27) RIR, c. 25, Nurseryman, CoI SDU See Owens (24Apr1916/16). From Ballsbridge, Ramsay attended St Andrew’s College from 1900 until 1908 and then Trinity College Dublin. At Christmas 1914 he went to Flanders with the RIR. When wounded a few months

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24 April 1916

later, he held the rank of temporary captain. Buried MJC (C 2/3). He is commemorated on memorials in the grounds of St Mary’s Church, Donnybrook and St Andrew’s Church, Booterstown.35

Laurence Kelly (24Apr1916/30) c. 50, Labourer, Married with four children, RC MHD See Warbrook (24Apr1916/29). Kelly and his wife Catherine lived at 1.1 Lower Clanbrassil Street. According to a DMP report, a man named Kelly from Clanbrassil Street was shot by a rebel on New Street. This may be the person whom Vinnie Byrne recalled among a group of ‘soldiers wives and . . . imperialistic people’ who was ‘very aggressive. He tried to take the rifle off one of our party’, and was shot. Buried GC (Dublin Section: U. §. 42.5). His widow and children secured £300 compensation from the RVC.38

Thomas Treacy (24Apr1916/28) RIR (11162) SDU See Owens (24Apr1916/16). Private Treacy, from Tipperary, enlisted in Clonmel. Buried RHCK (Coll. Grave).36 Eleanor Warbrook (24Apr1916/29) 15, Shop assistant, CoI MHD Eleanor was one of eight children of Thomas and Bridget Warbrook of 7 Fumbally Lane. Her father was an iron merchant and van driver. The 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, under Thomas MacDonagh, occupied Jacob’s biscuit factory on Bishop Street. Situated in a warren of narrow streets, this building was about halfway between Dublin Castle to the north and Portobello Barracks to the south. It was probably occupied to disrupt troop movements from the south and west of the city. Outposts were established and barricades erected in Blackpitts, Kevin Street and Fumbally Lane. The expected major assault on Jacob’s never came. Instead the area around Bishop Street was the focus of low-intensity sniping throughout Easter Week which resulted in a number of civilian fatalities. Eleanor was shot in the neck when she went to fetch a younger sister between 18:00 and 19:00 on 24 April and later died. The account in WO 35/69 claimed that three women witnessed the girl being shot by a rebel in uniform on Fumbally Lane. No BMH references to this shooting were found. Residents threw missiles, attacked the barricades and verbally abused the Volunteers. Michael Walker recalled that ‘a man ran from a hostile crowd with the intention of disarming the Volunteer. This man was shot and bayoneted, I believe fatally.’ This may have been Laurence Kelly. Buried MJC (A. 276. 68). The RVC awarded Eleanor’s parents £50.37 RD: Kelly (24Apr1916/30), Pierce (29Apr 1916/64). SA: MacDonagh (3May1916/3)

Christopher Cathcart (24Apr1916/31) 10, Schoolboy, RC Portobello Barracks, Rathmines, Dublin Christopher was one of nine children of coachbuilder Patrick and Julia Cathcart of 28.3 Charlemont Street. At around 13:50, one hundred members of the RIR under Captain Rodwell left Portobello Barracks to reach Dublin Castle via Camden Street. They were fired on by members of the ICA from Davy’s public house, overlooking Portobello Bridge. Christopher was killed near Portobello Barracks. The rebels abandoned their position in Davy’s and the military picket continued until held up at the junction of Wexford Street and Cuffe Street by an ambush party from Jacob’s Factory. Lieutenant James Calvert was shot in the head and killed.39 Buried GC (Dublin Section: C. §. 40.5). The RVC awarded Christopher’s parents £50.40 RD: Calvert (24Apr1916/32), Wilson (24Apr 1916/33) James Howard Calvert (24Apr1916/32) RIR, 20, Methodist Junction of Cuffe Street and Wexford Street, Dublin See Cathcart (24Apr1916/31). Lieutenant Calvert was from Lurgan, Armagh. Temporarily buried in the grounds of the Meath Hospital on 26 April, his father ‘discovered . . . the coffin was covered by only a few inches of earth with some thorn bushes thrown on top. . . . Had he been interred in a

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proper place where we could have erected a stone to his memory we would not have brought his remains to Lurgan.’ Buried Seagoe Cemetery, Armagh. His father sought £19.4.6 burial costs. The army paid £2.3.6, the estimated cost of reburial in a Dublin cemetery.41

command area and Volunteers were posted to defend it, the stone archways providing excellent cover. Ennis, on leave over Easter, had been visiting his mother at 23 Queen’s Square. At about 15:00, he was hit while walking along Grand Canal Street and cried: ‘Oh, I am shot.’ Joseph Travers ‘was warned to leave him and go away or else I would get the same’. Ultimately, ‘a man called Joseph Doran picked up the body, under fire, and ran up to the [Sir Patrick Dun’s] Hospital with it over his shoulder’. Buried DGC (W. U2. 25).45

David Wilson (24Apr1916/33) RIR (5852), Protestant Adelaide Hospital, Dublin See Cathcart (24Apr1916/31). Rifleman Wilson, from Armagh, enlisted in Glasgow. Buried MJC (A. 275. 12). His remains were, reportedly, not positively identified.42

Reginald Francis Clery (24Apr1916/36) Irish Association of Volunteer Training Corps, 23, Solicitor’s apprentice, RC Northumberland Road, Dublin Corporal ‘Reggie’ Clery, from Dublin, was an outstanding student at Belvedere College, where he played on the 1910 senior cup rugby team. He was within a few weeks of qualification as a solicitor. The Volunteer Training Corps, composed of part-time reservists, mostly professional men and those above military age, was about 120-strong. The 1st (Dublin) Battalion companies included the IRFU Corps, the St Andrew’s Corps, the Dublin Veterans’ Corps, the Glasnevin Corps and the City and Railway Corps, based at Beggars Bush Barracks. Its members were nicknamed ‘The Gorgeous Wrecks’ because their armbands carried the initials G. R. (Georgius Rex). Michael Malone commanded a section of C Company at Mount Street Bridge. His men occupied Clanwilliam House, on the city side of the Grand Canal, which dominated Mount Street Bridge and Northumberland Road, as well as St Stephen’s Hall and a primary school on Northumberland Road, and No. 25 at the corner of Northumberland Road and Haddington Road. At about 15:00, Major George Harris, adjutant of the Dublin University OTC and O/C 1st (Dublin) Battalion Volunteer Training Corps, received orders to return from manoeuvres in the Dublin mountains to Beggars Bush Barracks due to the Rising. Harris set off with one group, and his secondin-command Francis Browning with another. Learning that Ballsbridge was not held by

John Kiely (24Apr1916/34) IV, 30, Printer, Married, RC GPO, Sackville Street, Dublin43 ‘Jack’ Kiely lived in Ballyboden. Fergus de Búrca, of E Company, 4th Battalion, of which Patrick Pearse was captain, recalled how Volunteers climbed in through a side window on the Prince’s Street side of the GPO, two comrades helping each man on to the window ledge. Kiely fell mortally wounded. He died around midnight, the company’s first fatality: ‘It has never been ascertained whether the shot that killed him came from . . . one of our own men.’ Charles Donnelly, his brother-in-law, claimed Kiely was shot by a British officer firing from a window in the Metropole Hotel. His widow Susanna later received a yearly pension of £90. Buried DGC (Z3. 70. N).44 SA: Pearse (3May1916/1) Peter Ennis (24Apr1916/35) Scots Guards (10404), 33 Grand Canal Street, Dublin Guardsman Ennis, from Dublin, enlisted in Glasgow and was stationed in Wellington Barracks, London. The Evening Herald reported that he had been wounded at Loos. The 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, Irish Volunteers, under Éamon de Valera, seized Boland’s Bakery on Grand Canal Street, with outlying outposts covering a large area. These included Boland’s Mill on Ringsend Road, Westland Row Railway Station, Ringsend Distillery and Grand Canal Street Bridge. The railway line ran through de Valera’s

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rebels, he led his men back via Shelbourne Road. As they turned on to Haddington Road, they came under fire from the railway embankment on Bath Avenue. Clery was the only fatality. The corps carried unserviceable rifles and wore uniform.46 About eighty men scaled the walls of Beggars Bush Barracks. The smaller section under Browning attempted to reach the barracks via Northumberland Road. At about 17:00, this group came under heavy fire from No. 25 Northumberland Road. Two were killed outright, Browning was mortally wounded, and seven others hit.47 Only a few reached the barracks. The majority took shelter in nearby houses and, after obtaining civilian clothing, made their way home that night. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: B. i. 240). Clery’s family later received compensation under a Treasury scheme for the relatives and dependents of civilians killed and wounded.48 RD: Browning (26Apr1916/41), Gibbs (24Apr1916/37), Harborne (24Apr1916/38). SA: Malone (26Apr1916/24)

the adjoining buildings overlooking the Castle gate but not the complex itself, although it was only garrisoned by a skeleton force. This miscalculation formed, in Charles Townshend’s words, ‘one of the central . . . mysteries’ of the Rising. After Connolly killed the unarmed Constable James O’Brien, an act which apparently shocked some of his men, small ICA detachments took over the Daily Express office at 38–40 Parliament Street and Henry & James outfitters at 1–3 Parliament Street. Connolly entered City Hall from Exchange Court with ten men and kept up fire on Dublin Castle. The military took steps to secure and reinforce Dublin Castle. About 130 members of the RDF reached the Castle at around 14:00. They were joined by fifty RIR from Portobello Barracks. Almost ninety men of the RIR from Richmond Barracks arrived shortly after 21:30. That night Colonel Kennard, Dublin garrison commander, had approximately 300 troops at his disposal. His counterattack was swift and successful. By the early hours of Easter Wednesday, the ICA’s positions in City Hall and Parliament Street were retaken. The first target for troops in Dublin Castle was Connolly’s position in City Hall, which was subjected to continuous machine-gun and sniper fire. Connolly and two comrades were killed, as were a number of soldiers and some civilians in the vicinity. Matthew Connolly recalled that his brother Seán refused to let him dress a minor arm wound during the evening. Some time later Seán was shot, apparently as he hoisted a tricolour. Dr Kathleen Lynn, ICA medical officer, and Helena Molony ‘noticed Seán Connolly coming towards us, walking upright, although we had been advised to crouch and take cover as much as possible. We suddenly saw him fall mortally wounded. . . . He died almost immediately.’ Jane Shanahan of the ICA described how ‘a sniper . . . got Seán in the shoulder. He was so badly wounded he only lived about 5 minutes.’ Jack O’Reilly, Connolly’s second-in-command, was killed soon afterwards. As fire grew more intense, Matthew Connolly watched fellow insurgents on the

John Henry Gibbs (24Apr1916/37) Irish Association of Volunteer Training Corps, 55, Civil servant, Married, CoI Northumberland Road, Dublin See Clery (24Apr1916/36). Private Gibbs lived at 58 Belgrave Square, Rathmines. Buried MJC (C. 104).49 Thomas Harborne (24Apr1916/38) Irish Association of Volunteer Training Corps, 47, Clerk, Married with four children, RC Northumberland Road, Dublin See Clery (24Apr1916/36). Private Harborne lived at 6 Ignatius Avenue, Drumcondra.50 Seán (John) Connolly (24Apr1916/39) ICA, 33, Local government official, Married with three children, RC City Hall, Dame Street, Dublin Connolly, of 108 Philipsburgh Avenue, joined the ICA on its formation. He appeared in productions with the Abbey Theatre and the National Players. His brothers Joe and Matthew and his sister Katie also took part in the Rising. Captain Connolly led an ICA party to Dublin Castle to seize the guardroom and

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roof of the Henry & James building directing civilians on the street to go home. While so engaged, his friend Charles Darcy was hit by fire from the clock tower of Dublin Castle. Buried GC (South Section: G. b. 67). In 1923 Connolly’s widow wrote that ‘I took instantly the full brunt and risk of the consequences in asserting in the public press on behalf of those women who put patriotism first, their adhesion . . . to the Treaty.’ This had ‘deprived me of the regular source of income from the Concert platform on which, in part, I depended to bring up my children’, augmenting ‘the slender salary which I earn as a school attendance officer’. In 1924 she secured a pension of £162, to fall to £90 once all her children came of age, together with educational fees.51 RD: Byrne (24Apr1916/40), Darcy (24Apr 1916/41), Doyle (24Apr1916/42), Mulhern (24Apr1916/43), Mulvey (24Apr1916/44), Nolan (24Apr1916/45), O’Reilly (24Apr 1916/46). SA: O’Brien (24Apr1916/1)

Moses Doyle (24Apr1916/42) 14,54 Schoolboy, RC Little Ship Street, Dublin See Connolly (24Apr1916/39). Doyle, one of five children of Patrick and Mary Doyle of 7 Whitefriar Street, was shot while on an errand. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: K. a. 37.5). The RVC awarded the boy’s father £25.55 John Mulhern (24Apr1916/43) RIR (5797), 40, Married with children, RC Dublin Castle See Connolly (24Apr1916/39). Rifleman Mulhern, from Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim, enlisted in Dublin. His wife Annie lived at 3 Stephen’s Place, Lower Mount Street. Buried DGC (W. L. 49).56 James Arthur Mulvey57 (24Apr1916/44) Army Service Corps (M2/050797), Protestant Dublin Castle See Connolly (24Apr1916/39). Private Mulvey, from Leeds, lived at Wealdstone, Middlesex. Buried GMC (CE. 636).58

Louis James Byrne (24Apr1916/40) ICA, 46, Cabinet-maker, Married with five children, RC City Hall, Dame Street, Dublin See Connolly (24Apr1916/39). Byrne, of 23 Summerhill, joined the ICA in June 1915 and was ‘a good reliable soldier’. His widow Kathleen received £387 from the National Aid Fund up to 1921, and £1 monthly thereafter from the White Cross. She eventually secured a yearly pension of £90, with £24 for each of her five children. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: 1916 Plot).52

John Nolan (24Apr1916/45) RIR (8692), 20, RC Dublin Castle See Connolly (24Apr1916/39). Rifleman Nolan, a son of Mrs M. Nolan of 48 Power’s Court, Lower Mount Street, enlisted in Dublin. Father James Burke identified him because his nose still bore the marks of a bite received from a horse while on leave a short time before. Buried GMC (RC. 485).59 John (Seán) O’Reilly (24Apr1916/46) ICA, 28, Carrier, RC City Hall, Dame Street, Dublin See Connolly (24Apr1916/39). ‘Jack’ O’Reilly, of 12 Lower Gardiner Street, renowned as a man of great physique, was second-incommand of the City Hall garrison. When Connolly was killed, he assumed command but was himself killed by machine-gun fire at around 19:00 ‘when attempting to get down from the roof . . . through a skylight’. A dependent sister received a gratuity of £100 in 1924. She and two unemployed brothers had ‘a bitter struggle’ to make ends meet: in 1940 she wrote that ‘we have received desperate

Charles Darcy (24Apr1916/41) ICA, 15, Porter, RC Henry & James Building, Parliament Street, Dublin See Connolly (24Apr1916/39). Darcy, one of six children of James and Elizabeth Darcy of 4 Kane’s Court, earned 10s.1d. weekly with Pims of George’s Street. Joining the ICA on its formation, he was a ‘very efficient young soldier’. His mother Elizabeth, widowed in 1922, eventually secured a dependent’s pension. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: 1916 Plot).53

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treatement’. In 1942 Richard Mulcahy TD asked an official to ‘find a loop-hole’ and, ‘if nothing can be done . . . to exorcise the spirit of expectancy that possesses her’. In 1953 an incapacitated brother secured a yearly dependent’s allowance of £125. Buried GC (St Patrick’s Section: W. j. 121).60

leaving the village was shot through the lung by a .303 bullet.

McHugh believed that McGee’s death was accidental: ‘His death . . . was regretted sincerely by all in charge of the Volunteers. It was not our policy to shoot defenceless prisoners without good or sufficient reasons. Every night from this on, whilst we were together that man was prayed for by the whole company.’ Similarly, Donal O’Hannigan suggested that Dunville moved as if to draw a revolver and so was shot, McGee coming into the line of fire. MacEntee told the pensions board in 1945:

William Edgar Moy James (24Apr1916/47) Glamorgan Yeomanry (2424), 17, Protestant Richmond Hospital, Dublin Private James enlisted at Bridgend. He was fatally wounded on the first day of the Rising in unknown circumstances. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: Q. a. 37.5).61

as I turned . . . the officer of the Irish Guards . . . who was up to that keeping his hands up, dropped his hand towards his pocket and as he did so a shot rang out which wounded him and killed [McGee] . . . I could not see, it was not my business to establish who fired the shot, but certainly I gathered from what I heard at my own trial that the police mentioned that they were in a position to produce good witnesses who would testify that Paddy McHugh was the man who fired the shot.

Charles McGee (24Apr1916/48) RIC (66908), 23, Fisherman, RC Louth Infirmary, Dundalk, Louth McGee, from Donegal, joined the RIC on 1 November 1912, stationed in Castlebellingham. He was shot in confused circumstances. An inquest heard that at around 19:30 eight cars carrying Volunteers, travelling from the Dundalk direction, stopped in Castlebellingham. Acting Sergeant Patrick Kiernan and Constable Patrick Donovan were captured and held near their barracks. When McGee, recalled by Irish Volunteer Seán MacEntee, a future government minister, as ‘a tall, fine looking fellow, of rather a tougher spirit than his comrades’, arrived on his bicycle, he too was captured and dispatches taken from him. A motor car containing Second Lieutenant Robert Dunville of the Grenadier Guards and his driver was also stopped and the occupants placed with the captured policemen. A Volunteer shot out the tyres. Patrick McHugh was guarding Dunville, whom he thought was reaching for a gun. McHugh warned him, then:

Warrants were issued for Paddy Hughes and Paddy McHugh, but neither was captured. MacEntee, Frank Martin, Denis Leahy and James Sally were tried by court martial in Richmond Barracks on charges of murdering McGee, attempting to murder Dunville, and engaging in armed rebellion. All four pleaded not guilty. MacEntee, Martin and Leahy were sentenced to death, commuted to penal servitude for life for MacEntee and ten years for Martin and Leahy. Sally was sentenced to penal servitude for ten years with five years remitted. Hugh Quinn of Loughinisland, Down later claimed involvement in the shooting.62 John Murray (24Apr1916/49) 40, Coachman, Married with six children, RC Bow Street, Dublin Murray, of 28 Empress Terrace, North Circular Road, was shot while returning from Fairyhouse races. Buried GC (Dublin Section: I. §. 32.5). His widow Mary secured £275 compensation from the RVC.63

I called no more but fired, and, to my amazement, the RIC man at the other end of the line of prisoners fell. Another shot then rang out and I called for a ceasefire. What happened has never been fully explained. The RIC man . . . was killed by a charge of buckshot fired from a shotgun and the staff officer who fell to the ground as we were

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Windows were sandbagged and a guard placed on the roof. Patrick Pearse sent Keogh from the GPO to Kimmage to summon reinforcements and extra ammunition. On his return journey by bicycle at around 00:30, Keogh was shot on Grafton Street, opposite the house of the Provost of Trinity College. Two companions were wounded but escaped to Suffolk Street. At about 04:15, his body, ‘a small black hole in its temple’, was brought into the Provost’s house where, according to Elsie Mahaffy, the provost’s daughter, it remained for three days. Joly recalled: ‘He looked quite young; one might almost call him a boy. The handsome waxen face was on one side concealed in blood.’ Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: 1916 Plot). Keogh’s mother and two sisters were later awarded limited support as dependents.68 SA: Pearse (3May1916/1)

Charles O’Gorman (24Apr1916/50) Reserve Cavalry Regiment (13057), Protestant Mercer’s O’Gorman, from Limerick, lived in London. He enlisted in Dublin and was a shoeing smith. Buried GMC (CE. 641).64 Guy Vickery Pinfield (24Apr1916/51) 8th (King’s Royal Irish) Hussars, 21, Protestant Dublin Castle Lieutenant Pinfield was fatally wounded outside the gates of Dublin Castle. Hannah Sheehy Skeffington recalled that her husband Francis and a chemist went to his aid despite heavy crossfire. Soldiers eventually dragged the lieutenant inside the gate. Buried GMC (Grave 67).65 SA: Sheehy Skeffington (26Apr1916/7) Alexander Kean (24Apr1916/52) 30, Clerk, Married with three children, CoI St Stephen’s Green, Dublin Employed by Clery & Co., Kean lived at 28 George’s Place. He was shot dead while passing through St Stephen’s Green. His widow Catherine and children secured £269 from the RVC.66

John Francis Adams (25Apr1916/2) ICA, 38, Warehouseman, Married with one child, RC St Stephen’s Green, Dublin Adams and his wife Mary lived at 109 Cork Street. He joined the ICA on its formation. The ICA’s inability to secure the Shelbourne Hotel on the northern side of St Stephen’s Green proved costly. Michael Mallin’s order to dig and occupy trenches at the entrances to the Green compounded problems. In the early hours of 25 April, forty soldiers made their way unchallenged from Dublin Castle along Kildare Street, establishing themselves on the roof of the Shelbourne Hotel and the United Services Club. From about 04:00, they maintained sustained machine-gun and rifle fire on the insurgents’ positions. Adams was hit in the liver and killed. Three comrades also died. James Stephens recalled seeing four bodies inside the railings of the Green. At around 07:00, most of the rebels abandoned the Green and occupied the Royal College of Surgeons. Buried GC (St Patrick’s Section: P. l. 281). In 1924 Adams’s widow Margaret secured a yearly allowances of £90, with £24 for her daughter Sheila.69

Unknown O’Toole (24Apr1916/53) 14, Schoolboy, Dublin A youth was dead from gunshot wounds on arrival at the Adelaide Hospital. Other than his surname, he was never identified. His reported age and status are taken from his death certificate. Buried GC.67

25 APRIL 1916 Gerald Keogh (25Apr1916/1) IV, 21, Shoe salesman, RC Upper Grafton Street, Dublin Keogh, educated at Synge Street CBS and St Enda’s College, Rathfarnham, served in the Fianna before joining the Volunteers. Two of his brothers also fought. When the Rising began, Joseph Marshall, the chief steward of Trinity College, had the front gates locked. He also invited soldiers on leave in Dublin to reinforce the Dublin University OTC. A total of forty-four men, including New Zealanders, Australians and South Africans, garrisoned Trinity College.

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RD: Clarke (25Apr1916/3), Corcoran (25Apr 1916/4), Fox (25Apr1916/5). SA: Mallin (8May1916/4)

Frank Robbins recalled Patrick Fox saying to him outside Liberty Hall on 24 April: ‘Here is my lad. Take him with you for the ICA. I am too old for the job.’ According to the Republican Soldiers’ Casualty Committee, James had just ‘got a cup of tea and brought it into the shrubbery to drink when fire was opened from two directions’. Caulfield stated that Fox was hit as he made a dash for the railings. In 1923 Fox’s father wrote to ‘Dear Joe’ [McGrath, minister for industry and commerce], seeking assistance. Army intelligence reported that James had been an Irish Volunteer, but had fought with the ICA after his father ‘went home’. On appeal he received a gratuity, but told President Cosgrave in 1926 that ‘the £50 awarded was poor compensation for the loss of my poor boy. . . . When I was going out with my boy in 1916 I little thought that it would come to poverty, if we escaped the bullets.’ He sought Cosgrave’s help in securing work for his surviving son, though after de Valera’s election in 1932 he wrote that ‘I gave my services & money to help the cause from the early days of the Parnell movement’, and ‘could not & would not accept employment from the Cosgrave people’. Despite supporting representations, no further award was made. Buried Knockmark Cemetery, Drumree, Meath.74

Philip Clarke (25Apr1916/3) ICA, 40, Carter, Married with nine children, RC St Stephen’s Green, Dublin See Adams (25Apr1916/2). ‘Phil’ Clarke, from Meath, lived on Cork Street. Employed by Parkes & Sons ‘for 24 years’, he ‘bore an excellent character’. A founder member of the ICA, he was a labour activist and a friend of James Connolly. T. O’Donoghue recalled that at dawn his party were attempting to remove the chains on the Kildare Street gate of St Stephen’s Green to reinforce the barricade beside the Shelbourne Hotel. Seeing movement at a hotel window, he ordered his men to retreat. Clarke was shot. His brother James also described his death.70 Clarke’s eldest son Thomas, a boy of fifteen, had gone out with his father on Easter Monday but was sent home. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: B. i. 284). In 1924 Monica Clarke received a yearly allowance of £90, together with £24 each for five of her children.71 SA: Connolly (12May1916/2) James Corcoran (25Apr1916/4) ICA, 33, Labourer, Married with three children, RC St Stephen’s Green, Dublin See Adams (25Apr1916/2). Corcoran, from Wexford,72 joined the ICA in 1915. Although ‘very quiet and reticent . . . Captain Mallin had a very good opinion of him’. Corcoran was hit in a trench on the eastern side of St Stephen’s Green by machine-gun fire. Buried GC (South Section: Q. 40.5). In 1924 his widow secured a yearly allowance of £90, with £24 for each of three children.73

William Francis Burke (25Apr1916/6) IV, 19, RC SDU Frank ‘Gobben’ Burke, the son of Thomas and Brigid Burke of 174 James’s Street, was a halfbrother of W. T. Cosgrave, then adjutant in the South Dublin Union garrison and future president of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State. Peadar Doyle recalled how Burke was shot through the throat while on lookout. Decades later, Cosgrave told the BMH of the loss of ‘one of the best Volunteers in the battalion, energetic, untiring and devoted to his comrades . . . my recollection is that I did not post sentries’. He did not mention their family link. Throughout the day, the military attempted to capture the remaining buildings in the South Dublin Union. Buried Golden Bridge Cemetery, Inchicore.75

James Fox (25Apr1916/5) ICA, 18, Grocer’s assistant, RC St Stephen’s Green North, Dublin See Adams (25Apr1916/2). Fox, from Drumree, Meath, lived at 74 Thomas Street in Dublin, and attended Marino CBS. He worked for the Maypole Dairy.

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military doctor decided not to move the wounded man, who died next morning. Buried St Mary’s Hospital, Phoenix Park.78

Richard Waters (25Apr1916/7) 49, Bank manager, CoI Mount Street Bridge, Dublin Waters, of ‘The Recess’, Monkstown, worked in the Bank of Ireland on College Green. He was a passenger in a car driven by Captain Scovell RAMC near Mount Street Bridge, ‘not challenged or asked to stop’ before coming under fire from Volunteers. Buried DGC (O. 75. SW). The RVC awarded £252 to Waters’s sister.76

Ernest Cavanagh79 (25Apr1916/9) 32, Commercial clerk, RC Liberty Hall, Beresford Place, Dublin Cavanagh, of 30 Oxford Road, was the cartoonist for the Workers’ Republic. Maeve Cavanagh-McDowell, of the ICA, stated that her brother was not in either the Volunteers or the ICA:

George Playfair77 (25Apr1916/8) 23, Civil servant, CoE Park Place, Islandbridge, Dublin Playfair, one of six children of George Robert and Georgina Playfair, was an Inland Revenue clerk. The family lived in the Magazine Fort in the Phoenix Park, where his father had been commander before going to France. The IRB’s Military Council had ordered Paddy Daly, who had made a study of the fort’s layout and routine while working there as a tradesman, to blow it up. His group assembled at Liberty Hall at 11:00. They pretended to be a football team, passing a ball among themselves as they approached the sentry at about 12:15. He was rushed and disarmed, while Daly and two others held up the occupants of the guardroom, together with Mrs Playfair, two sons and daughter. But the explosives store was locked and the key could not be found. The Volunteers seized rifles and ammunition, and placed explosives in the small arms store and other rooms. Daly released his captives and warned them to leave the premises immediately. A number of small explosions took place, but the raid had failed in its primary aim of destroying the fort. Garry Holohan recalled that as the Volunteers left towards the Chapelizod Road in a hackney car, one of the Playfair sons was seen speaking to a policeman directing traffic. He then ran towards Islandbridge Barracks. Holohan pursued him on a bicycle. Playfair had just reached the house of Mrs E. Higgins at Park Place, where he asked to use the telephone, when Holohan ‘shot him from the gate’. Mrs Higgins later deposed that a ‘rough looking man’ fired three shots. A

Ernest went down town and went up the steps of Liberty Hall thinking some of the ICA might be there . . . as he went up the steps he was killed – riddled with bullets fired by soldiers in the Custom House. He had told my sister . . . at breakfast that he could not sleep all night.

Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: Q. a. 38).80 Patrick Brosnan (25Apr1916/10) RIF (15231), 51, RIC pensioner, Married with children, RC Dublin Castle From Dunmanway, Cork, Brosnan joined the RIC (51727) on 28 April 1886, allocated to Westmeath. He subsequently served in Kerry, Limerick and Meath. Promoted to sergeant in 1896 and to head constable in 1908, Brosnan was pensioned on 1 September 1911. On the outbreak of war, he enlisted in the RIF, serving as a sergeant-major and musketry instructor in Donegal. Brosnan took leave to see his wife Lucy and children in Dublin. He was due to return to Buncrana on 25 April but offered his services to the military in Dublin Castle. It appears that during the afternoon, Brosnan saw a rebel taking aim at a soldier. He disarmed the man, saving the soldier’s life. Dressed in plain clothes, Brosnan was shot by another soldier who mistook him for a rebel. Buried GMC (RC. 477).81 Margaret Nolan (25Apr1916/11) 29, Confectioner, RC MMH ‘Maggie’ Nolan, daughter of Anne Nolan of 6.2 Lower Wellington Street, was a forewoman in Jacob’s Factory on Bishop Street.

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Shot in Phibsborough, she died at 18:00. Buried GC (Dublin Section: D. c. 24.5). The RVC awarded her mother £50.82

Buried GC (Dublin Section: I. §. 48.5). His widow Agnes secured £234 from the RVC.87 Edward Cosgrave (25Apr1916/16) 45, Porter, Married with seven children, RC Sackville Street, Dublin Cosgrave, of 65 Lower Dominick Street, was shot while looking for his brother. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: D. c. 30). His widow Mary and dependent children were awarded £156 by the RVC.88

James Joseph Coade (25Apr1916/12) 19, Cycle mechanic, RC Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin Coade was one of nine children of John Joseph and Mary Jane Coade of 28 Upper Mount Pleasant Avenue. After leaving a sodality meeting in Mary Immaculate Church, he and Laurence Byrne encountered a patrol on Rathmines Road led by Captain J. C. Bowen-Colthurst of the RIR. He questioned them, warning that martial law had been declared. Witnesses at the commission into the deaths of Francis Sheehy Skeffington, Thomas Dickson and Patrick McIntyre stated that Bowen-Colthurst shot Coade without provocation at about 22:30. His body was taken to the Portobello Barracks mortuary. Father Francis O’Loughlin, curate in Rathmines and chaplain in Portobello Barracks, informed Coade’s father, who identified his son’s body on 28 April. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: C. h. 214).83 SA: Dickson (26Apr1916/8), McIntyre (26Apr 1916/9), Sheehy Skeffington (26Apr1916/7)

Edward Joseph Costello (25Apr1916/17) IV, 27, Married with one child, RC JSH Costello received head wounds in the Church Street area. His widow Anne wrote from Lurgan, Armagh, ‘that as unhappy relations had arisen between us he had been living apart from me’ and had not contributed anything: ‘I never took proceedings against him’ and ‘always looked forward to the day to his returning to live with me’. She secured yearly compensation of £90, and £24 yearly for her daughter. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: Q. a. 38).89 Joseph Cullen (25Apr1916/18) RIF (G/1015), Protestant Dublin Private Cullen, from Belfast, enlisted in the RIR (4550) before joining the RIF. He died in unknown circumstances. Buried GMC (CE. 610).90

Alice Bambrick84 (25Apr1916/13) 44, Housewife, Married with three children, RC Rotunda Hospital, Dublin A labourer’s wife, Alice Bambrick lived at 8 Willet Place, Lower Rutland Street. Shot in the liver on Cavendish Row, she later died. Buried GC (Dublin Section: O. §. 20.5). Her husband was awarded £25 by the RVC.85

Moses Dunne (25Apr1916/19) 37, Plasterer, Married with one child, RC South King Street, Dublin Dunne, of 36 Wexford Street, was shot on South King Street. Buried GC (Dublin Section: B. §. 47.5). His widow Bridget received £293 from the RVC.91

Henry Hildebrand Bond (25Apr1916/14) 33, Clockmaker, CoI JSH Originally from Dundalk, Louth, Bond was believed to have been shot on Dame Lane. Buried MJC (A. 405. 85). The RVC awarded Bond’s mother £300.86

Peter Fahey (25Apr1916/20) 23, Tailor, Married with one child, RC Usher’s Island, Dublin See Neilan (24Apr1916/13). Fahey, of 18 Usher’s Island, was killed when a bullet came through a window. Buried GC (Dublin Section: Q. §. 45.5). His widow Catherine and child secured £250 compensation from the RVC.92

Joseph Casey (25Apr1916/15) 32, Carter, Married, RC Beresford Place, Dublin Casey, living at 65A Townsend Street, was shot while returning home from Fairyhouse races.

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Green and was sniped. Buried GC (St Patrick’s Section: H. l. 20). His dependents secured £300 compensation from the RVC.98

Patrick Harris (25Apr1916/21) 40, Labourer, Married with four children, RC MMH Harris, of 23 Marlborough Place, was shot in the head on Eden Quay. Buried GC. His widow Teresa and children secured £300 compensation from the RVC.93

Joseph O’Flaherty (25Apr1916/26) RIC pensioner, RC Pembroke Road, Dublin O’Flaherty, living on Northumberland Road, had been head constable in charge of Antrim Road RIC Barracks, Belfast from 1893 until he retired in 1912. He was reportedly shot through the eye by a sniper while at the door of a house on Pembroke Road. Buried DGC.99

Johanna Kearns (25Apr1916/22) 49, Married, RC Merchant’s Quay, Dublin See Neilan (24Apr1916/13). Johanna, wife of Michael Kearns of 3 Gray Street, was probably killed in crossfire near the Mendicity Institute. Buried DGC (G. 2. 25 W).94

Harry Phillips (25Apr1916/27) RIR (8379), 20 Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin See Owens (24Apr1916/17). Private Phillips, from Whitminster, Gloucestershire, stationed at Richmond Barracks, died from wounds sustained the previous day at the South Dublin Union. Buried RHKC (O. R. Grd).100

Denis Kelly (25Apr1916/23) 43, Ticket checker, Married with three children, RC JSH Kelly, from Kildare, lived at 13 South Dock Street. He joined the GS&WR on 25 July 1895, working at the North Wall, where he was wounded. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: Q. a. 37.5). His widow Esther and one child secured £201 compensation from the RVC.95

Prudence Vantree101 (25Apr1916/28) 68, Caretaker’s wife, Married with one child, CoI Werburgh Street, Dublin Prudence, wife of Abraham Vantree, was shot upstairs at her home, 22.1 Werburgh Street. Buried MJC (A. 276. 80).102

James J. Kelly (25Apr1916/24) Fianna Éireann, 15, Fitter’s apprentice, RC MMH Kelly was one of six children of Francis, a brass-finisher, and Teresa Kelly of 205 Phibsborough Road. A newspaper reported that Kelly, shot in the head at Blacquiere Bridge, died soon afterwards. A DMP report said that his brother claimed he was ‘shot for refusing to join the rebels’. He is commemorated by a plaque set into the pavement at Doyle’s Corner, Phibsborough. Buried GC (Dublin Section: B. §. 10.5).96

Edward Walsh (25Apr1916/29) Hibernian Rifles, 43, Carter, Married with two children, RC Exchange Hotel, Parliament Street, Dublin103 ‘Ned’ Walsh lived at 8 Lower Dominick Street with his wife Ellen and children. Edward Kelly recalled how the Hibernian Rifles were formed in Skipper’s Alley as a military wing of the AOH, armed with rifles taken from the National Volunteers. The force numbered about fifty. About a month before the Rising, they joined forces with the Volunteers. Walsh was the only Hibernian Rifles member to be killed. Thomas F. Byrne told the BMH that he and a number of Volunteers and Hibernian Rifles were ordered to go from the GPO to occupy a house in Parliament Street across from City Hall, which was held by the military. Byrne led his men across the Liffey and up an alleyway

Edward Murphy (25Apr1916/25) 42, Court crier, Married with five children, RC Mercer’s Murphy, from Kildare, lived at 19 Upper Pembroke Street.97 A DMP report stated he was ‘shot by rebels who were in possession of Stephens Green’ on 24 April, and died next day. It was reported that Murphy, crier for Judge Lenihan, raised his hand to salute a friend near the Unionist Club on St Stephen’s

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behind the Exchange Hotel. They entered a wallpaper and paint premises, then broke through into the Exchange Hotel. With a clear view of City Hall, Byrne’s party were able to pin down soldiers from the rooftop of the hotel, shielding themselves with large rolls of wallpaper. Walsh was killed.104 John Hanratty of the ICA recalled that in 1945 Walsh’s son told him that he was with his father when this happened and was afterwards sent home. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: R. a. 37.5). His widow Ellen, who bore a third child, Edward Pearse, seven months after her husband’s death, died in 1929. She secured a £24 yearly allowance for each child.105

John Kirwan (25Apr1916/34) 15, Labourer, RC Sackville Street, Dublin The youngest of thirteen children of John, a stoker, and Anne Kirwan, living at 3 Lower Erne Place, Great Brunswick Street. John junior worked with McNeill’s Saw Mills, Great Brunswick Street. According to family descendants, Kirwan was shot dead on Sackville Street while on an errand to buy a toy elephant in Elverys for his infant sister. His death certificate recorded that he had been shot in the throat. Mrs Kirwan placed a newspaper advert seeking information on her missing son. The RVC made a compassionate grant of £50 as his father had joined the Royal Navy during the war.111

Sidney Leonard Young (25Apr1916/30) RIR (8419), 23, Protestant RHK, Dublin See Owens (24Apr1916/16). Private Young, from Small Heath, Birmingham, died from wounds sustained the previous day at the South Dublin Union. Buried GMC (CE: 806).106

Myles White (25Apr1916/35) 35, Shop assistant, RC St Stephen’s Green, Dublin White left his home at 7 Lennox Street during the morning and was not seen alive again. The DMP believed he was one of three unidentified men killed in St Stephen’s Green North who were removed by Corporation ambulance to Mercer’s Hospital. His father James secured £156 from the RVC.112

William Fox (25Apr1916/31) 13, Draper’s assistant, RC JSH Fox, of 6 Holy Cross Avenue, was fatally wounded after leaving 11:00 Mass at Marlborough Street en route to work. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: Q. a. 38). His mother Alice secured £50 from the RVC.107

Mary Lawlor (25Apr1916/36) 53, Caretaker, RC Dame Street, Dublin Mary Lawlor, caretaker at 1 Dame Street, was killed in her bedroom when a bullet came through the window. Her niece Mary Josephine Lawlor secured a compassionate grant of £50 from the RVC.113

Philip Walsh (25Apr1916/32) 11, Schoolboy Mercer’s Philip, of 10 Hacketts Court, was wounded in the vicinity of St Stephen’s Green while seeking bread. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: P. a. 37.5). His mother Ellen secured £50 from the RVC.108

26 APRIL 1916 Henry Hare (26Apr1916/1) RDF (6745), 40, Married with two children, RC Parliament Street, Dublin Sergeant Hare enlisted in his home town of Dublin. His wife Rosanna lived at 109 Cupar Street, Belfast. An RDF detachment, under the command of Second Lieutenant F. O’Neill, attacked the Daily Express office at 38–40 Parliament Street, under covering fire from City Hall. Journalist F. A. McKenzie wrote that ‘the battle was

Christopher Connor109 (25Apr1916/33) 20, Engineer’s apprentice, RC 40 Merrion Square, Dublin Connor, of 31 Strandville Avenue, shot when he went to help a wounded civilian on Lower Mount Street, died in an emergency hospital. Buried GC (Dublin Section: M. §. 42.5). His father Christopher secured £25 from the RVC.110

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neither short nor easy’. The RDF lost some men in fighting which continued overnight until the building was captured. Hare was shot dead. Buried GMC (Grave 482).114 RD: Coxon (26Apr1916/2), Geoghegan (26Apr 1916/3), Lucas (26Apr1916/4), Watchorn (26Apr1916/5)

and marched to Carnmore, about three miles from Galway. Liam Mellows† ordered them to join Larry Lardner and his company in Athenry. At about 05:00, a convoy of thirteen cars approached from the Galway direction. These were RIC and military under the command of Colonel Bodkin and DI Heard. The Volunteers opened fire on the convoy, which halted about 100 yards away. The Crown forces replied, tried to rush the Volunteer position, and were beaten back. Constable Whelan was shot in the head and killed outright. The engagement lasted about thirty minutes, after which the Volunteers withdrew. Buried Bohermore Cemetery, Galway.119

Richard Coxon (26Apr1916/2) RDF (22164), RC Parliament Street, Dublin See Hare (26Apr1916/1). Private Coxon, from Murton, Durham, enlisted at Sunderland in the RFA (66612) before transferring to the RDF. Buried GMC (RC. 479).115 George Geoghegan (26Apr1916/3) ICA, 35, Railway employee, Married with three children, RC Parliament Street, Dublin See Hare (26Apr1916/1). Geoghegan, from Kildare, lived on Cork Street, worked at Inchicore Railway Works, and played the clarinet in the St James’s Band and the Transport Union band. Joining the ICA on its formation, ‘a good steady man’, he was shot through the head during heavy crossfire in the early hours. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: 1916 Plot).116

Francis Joseph Christopher Sheehy Skeffington (26Apr1916/7) 37, Journalist, Married with one child120 Portobello Barracks, Rathmines, Dublin Sheehy Skeffington, from Bailieborough, Cavan, was son of Dr Joseph Bartholomew and Rose Skeffington. In 1902 he graduated from the Royal University with an MA. The following year he married his classmate Hannah Sheehy and added her surname to his own. They lived at 11 Grosvenor Place. Sheehy Skeffington became a well-known journalist, pacifist and supporter of women’s emancipation. In 1912, Sheehy Skeffington became editor of the Irish Citizen with James Cousins, and was also a regular contributor to the Manchester Guardian and L’Humanité. In May 1915, Sheehy Skeffington delivered a lecture denouncing the mooted introduction of conscription in Ireland, for which he was arrested and charged under DORA. Tried and sentenced to six months’ hard labour plus a £50 fine or a further six months in prison, he went on hunger strike on 7 June 1915 and was released a week later under the ‘Cat and Mouse’ Act.121 Julia Hughes recalled that on the night of 25 April she saw Sheehy Skeffington distributing leaflets near Portobello Bridge: ‘There was nothing on the leaflet of a political nature that could justify his arrest. It was advising the people against looting.’ As he walked home at around 20:00, he was arrested near Portobello Bridge and taken to Portobello

Francis Lucas (26Apr1916/4) RDF (17687), 41, RC Parliament Street, Dublin See Hare (26Apr1916/1). Private Lucas was from Leeds. Buried GMC (RC. 480).117 Abraham Watchorn (26Apr1916/5) RDF (25026), 21, CoI Parliament Street, Dublin See Hare (26Apr1916/1). Private Watchorn, son of Abraham Watchorn of Williamstown, Rathvilly, Carlow, lived in Wicklow. Buried GMC (CE. 625).118 Patrick Whelan (26Apr1916/6) RIC (63409), 34, Farmer, RC Carnmore, Claregalway, Galway From Kilkenny, Whelan joined the RIC in 1907, allocated to Galway. Brian Molloy recalled that during Easter Week his Irish Volunteer company mobilised

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Barracks, where he was questioned by the 3rd Battalion adjutant, RIR. It appears that orders were received to detain him. Sometime between 22:00 and 23:00, Captain J. C. Bowen-Colthurst, in command of a party of twenty-five men of the RIR detailed to occupy Alderman James J. Kelly’s tobacco shop at the corner of Camden Street and Harrington Street, took Sheehy Skeffington along as a hostage. Sheehy Skeffington witnessed BowenColthurst shoot James Coade. BowenColthurst then led a section to Kelly’s shop, where Thomas Dickson, Patrick McIntyre and two other men were arrested. Dickson and McIntyre were taken to Portobello Barracks, where Sheehy Skeffington was returned to his cell. Shortly after 10:00 on 26 April, BowenColthurst told Sergeant John Aldridge that he wished to speak to McIntyre, Dickson and Sheehy Skeffington in the yard. When the prisoners were assembled, Bowen-Colthurst had them shot without warning by seven members of the guard. Death was instantaneous in the case of Dickson and McIntyre but Sheehy Skeffington needed a second shot to finish him off. In a written statement later that day, Bowen-Colthurst maintained: ‘As I considered that there was a reasonable chance of the prisoners making their escape and knowing the three prisoners (from the correspondence captured on them the previous evening) to be dangerous characters, I called upon the Guard to fire upon them which they did with effect.’ Bowen-Colthurst remained at large until 6 May when, thanks to pressure by a fellow officer, Sir Francis Vane, he was placed under arrest. He was found guilty but insane by a court martial in Richmond Barracks on 6 and 7 June. Detained in Broadmoor Lunatic Asylum for two years, he secured conditional release and later immigrated to Canada, where he died in 1965. A royal commission into the circumstances of the three murders sat between 23 and 31 August 1916. It took evidence from thirty-eight witnesses, though not Bowen-Colthurst. The commission found that Sheehy Skeffington was not involved in the Rising and that ‘the shooting of unarmed and unresisting civilians without trial

constitutes the offence of murder, whether martial law had been proclaimed or not’. Buried GC (South Section: Z. 2. 18). Hannah Sheehy Skeffington refused to accept compensation.122 RD: Dickson (26Apr1916/8), McIntyre (26Apr1916/9). SA: Coade (25Apr1916/12) Thomas Dickson (26Apr1916/8) 31, Journalist, RC Portobello Barracks, Rathmines, Dublin See Sheehy Skeffington (26Apr1916/7). Dickson, from Scotland, lived at 12 Harrington Street. Editor of a small newspaper, the Eye-Opener, he had no subversive connections. According to Hannah Sheehy Skeffington, he was disabled. Buried GC (Garden Section: V. §. 78).123 Patrick James McIntyre (26Apr1916/9) 36, Journalist, RC Portobello Barracks, Rathmines, Dublin See Sheehy Skeffington (26Apr1916/7). McIntyre, of 21 Fownes Street, was editor of The Searchlight, a loyalist paper, and an opponent of James Larkin. Hannah Sheehy Skeffington suggested that the military confused McIntyre’s paper with The Spark, a Volunteer organ. Buried DGC (K2. 18. W).124 John Donnelly (26Apr1916/10) 44, Labourer, RC Cavendish Row, Dublin Donnelly, of 8 Lower Gloucester Street, was shot at 11:20. His father Edward received £75 from the RVC. Buried GC (Dublin Section: N. §. 41.5).125 Peter Wilson (26Apr1916/11) IV, 40 (c. 37), Labourer, RC Mendicity Institute, Usher’s Island, Dublin ‘Cooty’ Wilson from Swords, Dublin, was a member of 5th (Fingal) Battalion, Dublin Brigade. Thomas Peppard recalled that on 25 April twenty members of the battalion were ordered to reinforce units fighting in the city. They reported to the GPO. Some were sent to the garrison at Kelly’s on Bachelor’s Walk. Another party, which included Peppard and Wilson, reinforced

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Seán Heuston’s overwhelmingly outnumbered garrison in the Mendicity Institute. James Crenigan recalled the fight in the Mendicity Institute, which by midday on 26 April was ‘just plastered with machine-gun and rifle fire, and we seemed to be surrounded as we were being fired on from all sides’. Trapped and practically overrun, Heuston opted to surrender. One Volunteer went into the yard with a white flag. James Brennan recorded that Wilson was shot dead from the tower of the old Anchor Brewery as they made for the back gate in Island Street. Wilson is commemorated on a plaque at Bridge Street, Swords.126 SA: Heuston (8May1916/3)

The original plan for the Rising had envisaged that Volunteers at Kingstown and Blackrock would attack military reinforcements arriving by sea. But these units did not mobilise. Consequently, troops landing at Kingstown met no opposition until they reached Northumberland Road, where a section of C Company had taken up positions covering the approaches to Mount Street Bridge. George Reynolds, Richard Murphy, Jimmy Doyle, Patrick Doyle, Willie Ronan and Tom and James Walsh occupied the three-storey Clanwilliam House, on the city side of the Grand Canal, which dominated Mount Street Bridge and Northumberland Road. Three men occupied St Stephen’s Hall on Northumberland Road and three others the school opposite. Michael Malone and Jim (Séamus) Grace held 25 Northumberland Road, the corner house on Haddington Road which commanded the front gate of Beggars Bush Barracks as well as offering the first sight of soldiers arriving from Kingstown. The engagement at Mount Street Bridge occasioned the largest number of British casualties of the Rising. Twenty-eight members of the 2/7th and 2/8th were killed or subsequently died of their wounds, and about 135 were wounded.127 Four Volunteers died, and a number of civilians were killed by crossfire or sniper fire. Colonel Maconchy set up headquarters in Pembroke Town Hall. Lieutenant-Colonel Cecil Fane’s 2/7th Battalion came under fire shortly after midday at the junction of Northumberland Road and Pembroke Road. Without any machine guns, Fane advanced with C Company, taking Dietrichsen with him. They came under heavy and accurate fire from Malone and Grace. Dietrichsen was mortally wounded and Fane was hit in the arm. Lieutenant Hawken was killed as C Company attempted to reach Baggot Street Bridge along Haddington Road. An attempt to rush No. 25 was driven back with considerable losses. Captain A. A. Dickson, a friend and comrade of Hawken, recalled that they ‘advanced by rushes with some cover from trees . . . with bullets of all sorts chipping pavements and gate-posts’. Dickson’s own life was saved when a bullet lodged in his field

Frederick Christian Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment), 33, Barrister, Married with two children Northumberland Road, Dublin Dietrichsen, from Essex, was a successful barrister on the Midland circuit, living at 5 Weston Terrace, Nottingham. Commissioned in November 1914, he was a captain and adjutant of the 2/7th Battalion. His wife Beatrice Mitchell, from Blackrock, Dublin, had returned to Ireland with their children for fear of Zeppelin raids. Only hours before his death, she briefly saw her husband after he landed with his battalion. On the night of 25 April, four battalions of the Sherwood Foresters, under the command of Colonel E. W. S. K. Maconchy, left Liverpool and reached Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire) early the following morning. These were second line battalions, largely composed of raw recruits with little more than three months’ service and no combat experience. Critically, as it would prove, their Lewis guns were delayed in Liverpool. The brigade was divided into two columns. The 2/5th and 2/6th were to march by the inland route, via Dolphin’s Barn, to the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, while the 2/7th supported by the 2/8th was to take the coastal route via Ballsbridge and proceed via Northumberland Road to Trinity College. Fierce opposition was encountered at Mount Street Bridge.

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service pocket book. Other troops attempted to work around Beggars Bush Barracks to the right but came under fire from the railway embankment, where Volunteers from Boland’s Bakery had taken up position. Quartermaster Sergeant Gamble was shot dead. The 2/7th was caught in a devastating crossfire from No. 25 and Clanwilliam House, and sniper fire from the railway embankment and Grand Canal Street Bridge. The Sherwood Foresters spent some hours trying to capture No. 25. Snipers fired from the belfry of Haddington Road Church which overlooked Malone’s post. Despite being dazed from the constant explosions, Malone and Grace held out until about 17:00 when they prepared for a last stand on the stairs by fixing bayonets. When a storming party broke into the house on the middle floor, the two Volunteers were separated. Malone was killed. Grace hid in the kitchen, which was barricaded, and after some hours escaped into the back garden but was arrested the following evening. The Volunteers in the parochial hall surrendered at about 18:00. The losses sustained by the beleaguered 2/7th were such that it had to be relieved by the 2/8th Battalion, with orders to storm the schoolhouse at all costs. When the schoolhouse was taken, it proved to be empty. At around 18:00, B Company advanced, coming under intense fire. Its commander, Lieutenant Harold Daffen and Second Lieutenant Montague Browne got across the bridge but were then killed. Thomas and James Walsh recalled that after successfully repelling two efforts by soldiers to rush the bridge, neither Dick Murphy nor Paddy Doyle said anything. Both had been killed while firing from a middle window. Led by Captain Arthur Quibell, troops finally crossed the bridge and stormed Clanwilliam House. Company Sergeant-Major Dixey was killed. The Volunteers had fought for nine hours until their ammunition was almost exhausted and the building was on fire. Reynolds issued an order to retreat, but was fatally wounded as he left. At about 21:00, Willie Ronan, the Walsh brothers and Jimmy Doyle broke through the back door and crossed several other gardens until they reached safety. Only

a portion of one body was ever found in the ruins of Clanwilliam House. The Sherwood Foresters halted about 200 yards along Mount Street and consolidated their position. On 27 April, relieved by the South Staffordshire Regiment, the Sherwood Foresters marched to the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham. They lost four more men in the vicinity of the South Dublin Union. Buried DGC (K2. 66 S.). In January 1917 Dietrichsen was mentioned in dispatches for distinguished service.128 RD: Andrews (27Apr1916/49), Barks (26Apr 1916/31), Blissett (26Apr1916/14), Bradford (5May1916/2), Browne (30Apr1916/1), Daffen (26Apr1916/32), Davenport (28May 1916/1), Dixey (27Apr1916/12), Dixon (26Apr 1916/15), Doyle (26Apr1916/37), Elliott (26Apr1916/16), Farnsworth (26Apr1916/ 17), Forth (27Apr1916/16), Gamble (26Apr 1916/18), Goss (26Apr1916/19), Hawken (26Apr1916/13), Hayter (28Apr1916/41), Holbrook (26Apr1916/20), Holland (26Apr 1916/33), Hosford (26Apr1916/34), Hoyle (26Apr1916/21), Jeffs (26Apr1916/22), Kitchen (26Apr1916/35), Lang (26Apr1916 /23), Malone (26Apr1916/24), Miller (26Apr 1916/25), Murphy (26Apr1916/36), Perry (26Apr1916/26), Reynolds (26Apr1916/38), Rodgers (27Apr1916/42), Sibley (26Apr 1916/27), Tunnicliffe (26Apr1916/29), Wood (17May1916/1), Wyld (26Apr1916/30) William Victor Hawken (26Apr1916/13) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment), 31, Protestant Northumberland Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Hawken, of 12 Chichester Street, Westminster, London, was commissioned into the Sherwood Foresters in January 1916 in the 2/7th Battalion. Buried St George’s (Hanover Square) Anglican Cemetery, Hanwell, Middlesex (H 4365).129 J. S. Blissett130 (26Apr1916/14) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (5592), 22 Northumberland Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Blissett was from Kirton Lindsey, Lincolnshire. Buried DGC (T1. 85. SW).131

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Sneinton, Nottingham. Buried GMC (CE. 631).137

C. T. Dixon (26Apr1916/15) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (5532), CoE Northumberland Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Dixon of the 2/7th Battalion was from Beeston, Nottingham. Buried GMC (CE. 630).132

Charles Hoyle (26Apr1916/21) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (6081), 33, Married, CoE Northumberland Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Corporal Hoyle of the 2/7th Battalion was from Huddersfield. His wife Sarah lived at Beeston Hill, Leeds. He served with the West Yorkshire Regiment (2406) before enlisting in the Sherwood Foresters. Buried GMC (CE. 632).138

Alfred Goddard Elliott (26Apr1916/16) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (5480), 23 Northumberland Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Elliott of the 2/7th Battalion was from Sneinton Oak, Nottingham. Buried Nottingham Church Cemetery (Oak. 3010).133

Percival Jeffs (26Apr1916/22) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (4709), 19 Northumberland Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Jeffs of the 2/7th Battalion was from Bulwell, Nottingham. Buried Nottingham General Cemetery (8387 C).139

Ernest Farnsworth (26Apr1916/17) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (2961) Northumberland Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Farnsworth of the 2/7th Battalion was from Nottingham. Buried Nottingham General Cemetery (4/3772).134

William Lang (26Apr1916/23) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (3290) Northumberland Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Lang of the 2/7th Battalion was from Nottingham. Buried DGC.140

Robert Gamble (26Apr1916/18) RIR (8833), 28, Married, CoI Shelbourne Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Company quartermaster sergeant Gamble, from Dublin, was twice wounded in France. Stationed in Beggars Bush Barracks, he ‘was shot dead, under the right eye’. Buried Bungay Anglican Cemetery, Suffolk (S. 39).135

Michael Malone (26Apr1916/24) IV, 28, Carpenter, RC 25 Northumberland Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Malone was a lieutenant in C Company, and reportedly de Valera’s aide-de-camp. He had a reputation as a crack shot. Malone was under no illusions. At a battalion council meeting on 21 April, he said to Joe O’Connor: ‘Well, Joe, it’s pretty close to hand. I know you’ll come through, but I won’t.’ Buried GC (South Section: R. 40.5).141

Joseph Goss (26Apr1916/19) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (3080), 25 Northumberland Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Goss of the 2/7th Battalion was from Nottingham. Buried New Basford Cemetery, Nottingham (S. I. 2).136

Thomas H. Miller (26Apr1916/25) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (5664), 21, CoE Northumberland Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Miller of the 2/7th Battalion, was from Chatham, Kent. Buried GMC (CE. 618).142

Arthur Holbrook (26Apr1916/20) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (5605), 22, CoE Northumberland Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Holbrook of the 2/7th Battalion was from

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Percy Claude Perry (26Apr1916/26) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment), 33, Lace Manufacturer, Married Northumberland Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Lieutenant Perry, from Nottingham, married Hilda Baxter six weeks before his death. A noted sportsman, he worked in the family lacemaking business prior to enlisting as a private. He was commissioned in March 1915 in the 7th Battalion. Buried Nottingham General Cemetery (1231).143

Walter Astle Tunnicliffe (26Apr1916/29) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (5555), 22 RCDH See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Tunnicliffe of the 2/7th Battalion was from Long Eaton, Nottinghamshire. Tunnicliffe, hit in the back of the head, had been recommended for a commission. The NEP carried an account of events by J. F. Cronin, president of Preston Irish Literary Society, who was in Dublin during the Rising. Cronin observed a girl venturing into the fire-swept streets to assist wounded soldiers. In one instance, she used her apron to staunch a young soldier’s wounds, whom the Long Eaton Advertiser suggested was Tunnicliffe. Buried Long Eaton Cemetery, Nottinghamshire (B. 1448).147

A. Sibley144 (26Apr1916/27) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (3308), CoE Northumberland Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Sibley of the 2/7th Battalion was from Beeston, Nottingham. Buried GMC (CE. 633).145

George Wyld (26Apr1916/30) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (5430),148 20, CoE Northumberland Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Wyld of the 2/7th Battalion was from Ripley, Derbyshire. Buried GMC (CE 619).149

Holden Stodart (26Apr1916/28) 33, Clerk, Married with one child, Presbyterian Northumberland Road, Dublin The youngest son of Dr Thomas A. and Melissa Stodart of Northumberland Road, Stodart, educated at the High School, Dublin, held a ‘responsible position’ in the Guinness Brewery, and lived at ‘Winona’, Victoria Villas, Blackrock. He was corps superintendent of the St John Ambulance Brigade for Dublin. As senior ambulance officer in Dublin he contacted the military authorities to organise medical centres throughout the city. H. W. G. Smith recalled being informed that at about 15:15, Stodart had left the RCDH with a stretcher party. Shortly afterwards, two men stated that Stodart ‘had been killed by a volley fired from a house by the rebels whilst trying to get to a wounded man’ on Northumberland Road. Buried MJC (B. 182. 18). A ward in the Duke of Connaught Hospital, Bray, Wicklow, was named the Holden Stodart Memorial Ward. His widow and child were granted a pension by the War Office equivalent to that of a lieutenant killed in action.146

George William Barks (26Apr1916/31) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (2793), 19, Protestant Northumberland Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). LanceCorporal Barks, of the 2/8th Battalion, was from Balderton, Nottinghamshire. Buried St Giles Churchyard, Balderton, Nottinghamshire (P. 19).150 Harold Charles Daffen (26Apr1916/32) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment), 23, CoE Mount Street Bridge, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Lieutenant Daffen, from Worksop, Nottinghamshire, served in the 2/8th Battalion. He was mentioned in dispatches (London Gazette 25 January 1917). Buried GMC (CE. Officers. 4). He is commemorated on a memorial plate in King Edward School, Nottinghamshire.151

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Dublin Laundry Company. He was a member of the Gaelic League. Doyle joined the Volunteers on their inception and was musketry instructor. His body was believed burnt. He is commemorated with a plaque in Milltown.157

Luke Holland (26Apr1916/33) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (4136), 22, CoE Northumberland Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Holland of the 2/8th Battalion was from Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. Buried GMC (CE. 629).152

George Reynolds (26Apr1916/38) IV, Silversmith, RC Clanwilliam House, Lower Mount Street, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). From Ringsend, Reynolds was an ecclesiastical and general silversmith. Joining the Volunteers in 1915, he was a section commander. His body was believed burnt. A block of flats in Irishtown was named in his memory.158

Joseph C. Hosford (26Apr1916/34) Irish Association of Volunteer Training Corps, 51, Mercantile clerk, Married with one child, Presbyterian Beggars Bush Barracks, Haddington Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Hosford lived in Belgrave Square with his wife Georgina Barbara. He had worked for Brooks, Thomas & Co. Ltd for thirty-six years and was in charge of the colour department. He was killed in the barrack room of Beggars Bush when a bullet shattered the window glass, mortally wounding him. Buried GMC. Unlike ‘Gorgeous Wrecks’ killed on 24 April, Hosford’s compensation case was straightforward because he died while under military orders.153

William Barter (26Apr1916/39) 23, Carter, Married with two children, RC MMH Barter lived at 14 Elliott Place and worked for Messrs McFerran & Guildford, builders merchants. From early morning on 26 April, BrigadierGeneral W. H. M. Lowe, who had assumed operational command the previous day, concentrated on cordoning the main rebel positions, in particular the GPO and the Four Courts. Liberty Hall, mistakenly believed to be occupied, was shelled by HMS Helga, supported by two eighteen-pounder guns positioned near Butt Bridge. Members of Trinity College’s OTC in civilian clothes had helped to dig up the street for the trails of the guns that morning. Machine-guns were also mounted on the roof of Trinity College, on the tower of Tara Street Fire Station, on the Customs House and on the roof of Jervis Street Hospital. They swept Westmoreland Street and Sackville Street with a barrage of fire. Unsurprisingly, there were several civilian fatalities during the day, including Barter, mortally wounded as he passed Brookes Lane. Buried GC (Dublin Section: J. §. 45.5). His dependents received £150 compensation from the RVC.159 RD: Blayney (26Apr1916/40), Byrne (26Apr1916/42), Costello (26Apr1916/46), Cunningham (26Apr1916/49), Heeney (26Apr 1916/51), McCormack (26Apr1916/56)

Alfred James Kitchen (26Apr1916/35) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (2855), 23, Protestant Northumberland Road, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Kitchen of the 2/8th Battalion was from Muzaffarpur, India, the son of Alfred James senior of 19 Smith Street, Balderton, Newark. Buried St Giles Churchyard, Balderton, Nottinghamshire (P. 17).154 Richard Murphy155 (26Apr1916/36) IV, 24, Tailor, Engaged, RC Clanwilliam House, Lower Mount Street, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). ‘Dick’ Murphy from South William Street was to have been married during Easter Week 1916. His body was believed burnt.156 Patrick Doyle (26Apr1916/37) IV, 36, Manager, Married with five children, RC Clanwilliam House, Lower Mount Street, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Doyle lived in Milltown, where he was manager of the

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James Blayney (26Apr1916/40) 63, Nightwatchman, Married with four children, RC Store Street, Dublin See Barter (26Apr1916/39). Originally from Meath, Blayney lived with his wife Julia at 18 Seville Place Cottages. He was shot crossing O’Connell Bridge between 19:00 and 20:00 as he went towards work on Poolbeg Street. Buried GC (Dublin Section: U. §. 37.5).160

James Cavanagh (26Apr1916/44) RIR (213) Dublin Castle164 From Monaghan, Private Cavanagh enlisted in Glasgow in the Royal Irish Rifles (8357) before joining the RIR. He died in unknown circumstances. Buried GMC (CE. 811).165 William Connolly (26Apr1916/45) 37, Van driver, RC Usher’s Quay, Dublin See Neilan (24Apr1916/13). Connolly was shot at his hall door at 27.9 Usher’s Quay. His widowed mother Alice received £195 from the RVC. Buried GC (Garden Section: I. f. 675).166

Francis Henry Browning (26Apr1916/41) Irish Association of Volunteer Training Corps, 47, Barrister, Married with one child, CoI RCDH See Clery (24Apr1916/36). ‘Chicken’ Browning attended Trinity College, was called to the bar in 1891, and a year later joined the Land Commission. He and his wife lived at 17 Herbert Park, Donnybrook, with their only child, Jeffrey. Browning was an accomplished cricketer and rugby player. In 1914, when president of the IRFU, he established ‘The Pals’, a company of rugby enthusiasts attached to the 7th Battalion, RDF, and also the IRFU Volunteer Corps, with headquarters at Lansdowne Road. He was sub-commandant 1st (Dublin) Battalion, Volunteer Training Corps (the ‘Gorgeous Wrecks’). He died from wounds sustained on 24 April. Buried DGC (V. 27. S).161

John Costello (26Apr1916/46) 32, Labourer, Married with two children, RC Parnell Street, Dublin See Barter (26Apr1916/39). Costello, of 9 Wall’s Square,167 was shot while going for bread. Buried GC (Dublin Section: W. §. 26.5). His widow Margaret and children received £300 from the RVC.168 John (Seán) Costello (26Apr1916/47) IV, 22, RC SPDH Lieutenant Costello, from Athlone, Westmeath, joined the Volunteers in 1914. He was wounded on Grand Canal Street while carrying dispatches to Boland’s Bakery. Buried DGC.169

Edward Byrne (26Apr1916/42) 22, Labourer, Married with one child, RC Moore Street, Dublin See Barter (26Apr1916/39). Byrne, of 30 C Corporation Buildings, Foley Street, was killed in the vicinity of Moore Street. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: J. a. 38). His widow Elizabeth and child received £234 compensation from the RVC.162

John Cromien (26Apr1916/48) IV, 23, Brewery worker, RC Prussia Street, Dublin ‘Jack’ Cromien lived with his mother at 13 Fingal Place, working in the Guinness Brewery. Cromien was at Punchestown races on Easter Monday, returning to Dublin the following day. He was on his way to join his Volunteer company on North Brunswick Street. His death was described by his girlfriend Margaret Morris, who wrote that a disabled man named Bob Archer said a kneeling soldier had fired at him as he looked around a corner, but instead hit Jack: ‘He had his brown scapulars around his neck, some loose small money, a photo [of Margaret] in

Patrick Byrne (26Apr1916/43) 42, Carpenter, Married with one son, RC South Lotts Road, Dublin Byrne, his wife Teresa, and son lived at 1 O’Brien’s Place. He was shot in the chest while going to his mother’s home at 12 South Lotts Road. Buried GC (Garden Section: Y. §. 167.5). His widow and child received £234 compensation from the RVC.163

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his breast pocket, and an automatic gun. He wore a fawn dust-coat, collar turned up, and soft hat.’ Eleven years later she married his brother Thomas. Another brother, Paddy, an RDF private, died at Ypres on 23 October 1918, aged twenty. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: N. i. 298.5).170

he asked O’Callaghan to identify himself. O’Callaghan then said: ‘I’ll give you my card’, drew a revolver and fired, wounding Rourke in the abdomen. O’Callaghan told the pensions board that ‘the other fellow made for the door and he stood in the doorway and he was fumbling with his tunic and I ran after him and he still kept going. He was about 25 or 30 yards from the door and I shot him through the head.’ Rourke died in Tipperary Union Hospital at 01:15 on 27 April.174 O’Callaghan eventually escaped to the US, becoming involved in IRA arms procurement. Dan Breen wrote that ‘O’Callaghan saved the name of Tipp[erary] by his actions during that famous week’. Buried Castletownbere.175 RD: Rourke (27Apr1916/1)

James Cunningham (26Apr1916/49) 42, Labourer, RC City Quay, Dublin See Barter (26Apr1916/39). Cunningham, of 61 Townsend Street, was shot. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: N. a. 38).171 John Doyle (26Apr1916/50) Fianna Éireann, 16, Labourer, RC MMH Doyle, of 25 Summerhill, was shot in the lung. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: R. a. 38).172

Godfrey Jackson Hunter (26Apr1916/53) 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers, 26, Protestant Church Street, Dublin See Scarlett (24Apr1916/4). Lieutenant Hunter was attached to the 6th Reserve Regiment of Cavalry. Buried GMC (Grave 65).176

Robert Patrick Heeney (26Apr1916/51) 32, Cattle dealer, RC MMH See Barter (26Apr1916/39). Heeney, from Meath, lived at 15 North Great George’s Street. He was shot on Sackville Street while helping a wounded man. Buried GC. His father received £300 from the RVC.173

Henry Knowles (26Apr1916/54) 40, Tailor, Married with two children, RC Little Mary Street, Dublin Knowles, of 6.6 Essex Street West, was shot. Buried GC (Dublin Section: I. §. 47.5). His widow Arabella secured £273 compensation from the RVC.177

John Hurley (26Apr1916/52) RIC (67150), 23, Gardener, RC Monour, Kilross, Galbally, Tipperary From Castletownbere, Cork, Hurley joined the RIC on 3 March 1913, allocated to Tipperary. He had recently transferred to Lisvernane. The RIC sought Michael O’Callaghan, a creamery manager and Volunteer who lived on Henry Street, Tipperary town, who ‘under the influence of drink’ had fired a shot at 23:00 on 25 April at a group of youths harassing him, wounding one. O’Callaghan barricaded himself in his house, but then slipped away to Peter Hennessy’s farm in Monour. Sergeant Thomas Rourke and Constable Hurley from Lisvernane Barracks went, unarmed, to Hennessy’s house on the afternoon of 26 April. The sergeant entered the house while Hurley remained at the door. In his dying declaration Rourke recorded that he got no response when

Patrick Martin (26Apr1916/55) 42, Labourer, Married with four children, RC Marlborough Street, Dublin Martin, of 22 Lower Gardiner Street, was shot nearby. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: L. a. 38). His wife Emily and children secured £150 compensation from the RVC.178 James McCormack (26Apr1916/56) ICA, c. 38, Racecourse clerk, Married with four children, RC Beresford Place, Dublin See Barter (26Apr1916/39). From Gormanston, Meath, McCormack lived at 14 Millmount Avenue with his wife Teresa. He was killed at Beresford Place. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: 1916 Plot).179

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26 April 1916

Edward McGaley (26Apr1916/57) 57, Labourer, Married with five children, RC Corporation Markets, Mary’s Lane, Dublin McGaley, of 4 Lower Bridge Street, was shot while seeking food. Buried GC (Dublin Section: J. §. 33.5). His widow Sarah received £195 from the RVC.180

Patrick Ryan (26Apr1916/61) 14, Schoolboy, RC Richmond Hospital, Dublin Patrick, one of three children of James Ryan, a soldier, and Frances Ryan of 2 Sitric Place, was fatally wounded on Queen Street while fetching bread. His mother received £10 burial expenses from the RVC. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: V. f. 54).184

Christopher Moore (26Apr1916/58) Prince of Wales’s Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) (2496), 28, RC Great Brunswick Street, Dublin From Dublin, Private Moore was apparently killed while in a detachment which relieved the Trinity College OTC during the afternoon. Buried GMC (RC. 723).181

Vincent Paul Simpson (26Apr1916/62) 23, Compositor, RC MMH A printer’s son, Simpson, of Enniskerry Road, was shot in the liver on Berkeley Road. Being deaf, he had not understood a soldier’s order to halt. Buried GC (Dublin Section: F. §. 30.5). His parents received £150 from the RVC.185

M. C. O’Connor (26Apr1916/59) 29, Schoolteacher, RC Phoenix Park, Dublin From Ballyhahill, Limerick, O’Connor taught in St Kieran’s College, Kilkenny. Visiting Dublin over Easter, he died when he and two friends were fired on in the People’s Park. Buried Kilfergus Churchyard, Glin, Limerick.182

Thomas Joseph Weafer (26Apr1916/63) IV, 35, Upholsterer, Married with one child, RC Hibernian Bank, Sackville Street, Dublin Captain ‘Tom’ Weafer from Enniscorthy, Wexford, lived on the North Circular Road. He joined the Volunteers on their foundation. Volunteers under Weafer occupied the Hibernian Bank at the corner of Abbey Street and Sackville Street. Fearing an attack from Amiens Street Railway Station, Weafer organised a barricade using large rolls of newsprint from the Irish Times paper store opposite Wynn’s Hotel. Áine Heron described how Weafer ‘had all the manager’s furniture carried down to the basement so that it would not be damaged’. William Daly, responsible for a wireless station rigged nearby to broadcast news of the Rising, said, ‘I saw a shadow pass a window in the Hibernian Bank, heard a thud and the words “My Jesus mercy” – it was Capt Weafer.’ The Volunteers had to evacuate the building under artillery bombardment. On 27 April, fire destroyed most of the street. Weafer’s remains were never recovered. Immediately after the Rising, Margaret English met Weafer’s widow Margaret while distributing emergency aid: ‘I did not tell her he was dead.’ Margaret received ‘in or about £350’ from the National Aid Fund in 1917. In 1924 a Garda described her ‘in very poor circumstances’, depending on her brother, a

Frederick Ryan (26Apr1916/60) ICA, 23, Sawyer, RC Harcourt Street, Dublin ‘Fred’ Ryan, one of five children of Theresa Ryan of 4 High Street, served in Fianna Éireann before joining the ICA. Michael Mallin permitted Margaret Skinnider, a Glasgow schoolteacher of Irish descent, and Joe Connolly, a brother of Seán Connolly, to throw hand bombs into the Shelbourne Hotel. A preliminary attack was mounted on houses in Harcourt Street, in hopes of starting a fire that would spread to the Russell Hotel, occupied by the military. The party came under fired as they left the Royal College of Surgeons, fatally wounding Ryan and seriously wounding Skinnider in the back. William Partridge carried her to safety in the College of Surgeons. Ryan’s body was recovered next day by the fire brigade. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: N. a. 38).183 SA: Connolly (24Apr1916/39), Mallin (8May 1916/4)

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‘herd on a farm’ in Galway. She secured £90 yearly, and her daughter Mary Elizabeth £24. Weafer’s father Patrick, also in hard circumstances, failed in an application for a dependent’s allowance in 1936. In 1937 a plaque was unveiled in Weafer’s memory.186

James Hogan (26Apr1916/68) 27, Carter, Married with three children, RC Earl Street, Dublin Hogan, of 31 Upper Rutland Street, was shot while seeking milk. Buried GC (Dublin Section C. §. 47.5). His dependents secured £215 compensation from the RVC.191

Patrick Whelan (26Apr1916/64) IV, 23, Carpenter, RC Boland’s Bakery, Grand Canal Street, Dublin Joseph O’Byrne, O/C Boland’s Bakery Garrison, described firing from an upperfloor window. Whelan ‘was fatally wounded beside me, being shot . . . just below the eye. He expired in about a minute.’ His comrades buried him ‘in a rough coffin . . . under a large heap of clinkers in the yard . . . I read some prayers, we said the Rosary and performed our sad task about mid-day on Friday, taking cover as well as possible from the showers of splinters and ricocheting bullets.’ Buried GC (South Section: C. b. 103). A block of flats in Ringsend carries his name.187

Denis Dorgan (26Apr1916/69) 58, Hotel porter, Married with five children, RC Sackville Street, Dublin From Cork, Dorgan, of 12 Henrietta Street, was shot dead near Nelson’s Pillar. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: Y. §. 38). His dependents received £150 from the RVC.192 Julia Condron (26Apr1916/70) 44, Married with two children, RC Summerhill, Dublin Julia Condron, from Offaly, lived at 56 Summerhill. She was hit in the face by a bullet which came through a window. Buried GC (St Patrick’s Section: R. k. 176). Her husband Robert secured £150 from the RVC.193

Richard Butler (26Apr1916/65) 45, Insurance agent, Married, RC People’s Gardens, Phoenix Park, Dublin Butler, of 10 Woodgate Street, London, was spending Easter with his brother Roderick, of 79 Iveagh Buildings. He was killed in the People’s Gardens in the Phoenix Park during an engagement between military and Volunteers. Buried GC (Dublin Section: V. §. 41.5).188

Clement Courtney (26Apr1916/71) 58, Fitter, Married, Methodist Marlborough Street, Dublin From Armagh, Courtney, of 24 York Street, was shot en route to work. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: D. b. 64.5). His widow Mary secured £254 compensation from the RVC.194

John Byrne (26Apr1916/66) 60, Watchmaker, Married with children, RC JSH Byrne had a shop on Fownes Street, and lived at 68 Shelbourne Road. His widow Catherine received £300 from the RVC. Buried GC (Garden Section: T. e. 188).189

James Frazer (26Apr1916/72) 41, Lithographer, Married with three children, Presbyterian Gardiner Street, Dublin From Belfast, Frazer, of Caledon Road, was shot dead on his way to work. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: Q. a. 37.5). His widow Bridget and children secured £293 compensation from the RVC.195

John William Humphreys (26Apr1916/67) RDF (19222), 29, RC Mercer’s Corporal Humphreys, from Dublin, was returning unarmed from leave about noon on 25 April when he was shot in the head on Westmoreland Street, dying next day. Buried GMC (RC. 484).190

James Jessop (26Apr1916/73) 17, Porter, CoI Marlborough Street, Dublin At his father’s behest James, of 3 Upper Gloucester Street, went for coal on Waterford Street. He was shot in the head. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: P. a. 37.5). His father Joseph secured £50 from the RVC.196

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Park, where he was shot. She secured £50 from the RVC.202

Andrew McDonnell (26Apr1916/74) Ex-serviceman, 31, Married with two children, RC SPDH McDonnell, of 10 Denzille Street, was wounded at Mount Street Bridge en route to Beggars Bush Barracks to inquire about his brother, an RDF soldier. His widow Mary Anne and children secured £218 compensation from the RVC.197

John Mooney (26Apr1916/80) 47, Butcher, ex-serviceman, Married with two children, RC Ryder’s Row, Dublin Mooney, of 6 Little Ship Street, worked for Christopher Mooney of 7 Redmond’s Hill. At about 16:30 he was shot dead at the corner of Ryder’s Row and Parnell Street. His widow Margaret secured £300 from the RVC.203

Thomas Meleady (26Apr1916/75) 45, Watchman, RC JSH Meleady, of 5 Dominick Place, was shot near the Parnell monument while en route to feed animals in Fairview. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: P. a. 38). His widow Sarah secured £187 from the RVC.198

Harriet McCabe (26Apr1916/81) 48, Domestic servant, Widowed with three children, RC Upper Gloucester Street, Dublin A labourer’s widow of 34 Marlborough Street, she was shot while returning with bread and milk. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: N. a. 37.5). Each of her two teenage daughters received £25 from the RVC.204

Patrick O’Grady (26Apr1916/76) 35, Handyman, Married with six children, RC Charles Street, Dublin O’Grady, of 28 East Arran Street, was shot dead while seeking food for his family. His widow Anne secured £265 compensation from the RVC.199

Elizabeth Quirke (26Apr1916/82) 22, Married, Clothes dealer, RC Abbey Street Upper, Dublin Elizabeth Quirke died from wounds received near her home, 116 Upper Abbey Street. Buried GC (Dublin Section: G. §. 30.5). Her husband Peter, a butcher’s porter, secured £117 from the RVC.205

Absalom Scherzinger (26Apr1916/77) 68, Clockmaker, Married with one child, RC RCDH Scherzinger was shot in the neck by soldiers on Lower Mount Street as he returned to his home at 84 Haddington Road with potatoes. His wife Kate secured £234 from the RVC.200

Robert Johnston (26Apr1916/83) 73, Carpenter, Widowed, CoI Butt Bridge, Dublin Johnston, of 18 Denzille Lane, was shot dead while going to work in Summerhill. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: Q. a. 37.5). His daughter secured £31 from the RVC.206

John Doyle (26Apr1916/78) 20, Shop assistant MMH One of eight children of Joseph, a plasterer, and Elizabeth, of 25 Summerhill, Doyle worked for Bardini ice cream manufacturer on Talbot Street. Shot while going to work, he died some hours later. His mother secured £140 from the RVC.201

27 APRIL 1916 Thomas F. Rourke (27Apr1916/1) RIC (56214), 42, Railway clerk, Married with one child, CoI Union Hospital, Tipperary, Tipperary See Hurley (26Apr1916/52). From Cork, Rourke joined the RIC on 2 January 1894, serving in Kerry, Cork and the RIC Reserve before transfer to Tipperary in 1913. Promoted to sergeant in 1914, he was in charge of Lisvernane RIC Barracks. He died at 01:15. Buried Clonbeg Cemetery, Aherlow, Tipperary.

Thomas Green (26Apr1916/79) 50, Labourer, RC Phoenix Park, Dublin Green’s sister Katherine Plunkett described how he left 2 Lisburn Street to visit a friend in Kilmainham. He went via the Phoenix

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His widow secured a yearly pension of £50, with £6.5s.0d. annually for his child.207

skull’. Buried Kill o’ the Grange Cemetery, Dublin.210

Harold Barratt (27Apr1916/2) South Staffordshire Regiment (4821), 19, Shop assistant, CoE Northumberland Road, Dublin Private Barratt, of 2/6th Battalion, was from Wolverhampton. The 2/5th and 2/6th Battalions, South Staffordshire Regiment, arrived in Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire) after daybreak. At 20:30 orders were received to move towards Dublin. At 02:15 on 27 April they were detailed to take over from the Sherwood Foresters on Mount Street, Percy Place, Northumberland Road, Warrington Place and Herbert Place. The area remained hazardous as Volunteers, under Captain Joseph O’Connor, sniped constantly from the railway workshops close to Grand Canal Quay Bridge. Barratt was one of the regiment’s first fatalities.208 Private H. J. Davies recalled that at about 07:00, ‘the bullet entered his head in his eye and it made a terrible hole’. Later on Charles Hyland, a dentist, was shot as he looked out of his back door. The previous day he had donned his surgeon’s coat and rendered assistance to the wounded at Mount Street Bridge. Throughout the day, the regiment returned fire. In the afternoon, a light gun borrowed from the Helga was used to shell Boland’s Bakery. The Volunteers in the railway works held out until the surrender order was received. Their only fatality was Joseph Byrne. Towards evening, Sergeant Fletcher was shot while visiting a South Staffordshire post on a roof. The 2/6th were eventually relieved by 2/6th Battalion, North Staffordshire Regiment on 28 April. Buried GMC (CE. 614). He is commemorated on the Wolverhampton war memorial.209 RD: Byrne (27Apr1916/3), Fletcher (27Apr 1916/47), Hyland (27Apr1916/4), Stillman (27Apr1916/5)

Charles James Hyland (27Apr1916/4) 29, Dentist, Married with one child, RC Percy Place, Dublin See Barratt (27Apr1916/2). Hyland, son of Charles Hyland, manager of the Gaiety Theatre, lived at 3 Percy Place. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: A. h. 149.5). His widow Kathleen received a pension of £97.16s.5d. from the RVC.211 John J. Stillman (27Apr1916/5) 35, Clerk, Married with four children, RC Grand Canal Street, Dublin See Barratt (27Apr1916/2). Stillman and his wife Anne lived at 9 High Street. Superintendent of the Independent Newspapers branch office on High Street, he was shot near Mount Street Bridge just after leaving his mother’s house seeking food. Buried GC (St Patrick’s Section: A. l. 195). His dependents received £300 from the RVC.212 George William Barnett213 (27Apr1916/6) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (4628), 23 Rialto, Dublin Private Barnett, from Loughborough, Leicestershire, was in the 2/8th Battalion. On the morning of 27 April, the 2/7th and 2/8th Battalions, Sherwood Foresters received orders to regroup and proceed to the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, via Dolphin’s Barn and Rialto Bridge. Little opposition was expected as other battalions had crossed Rialto Bridge without difficulty. Lieutenant W. C. Oates described how his men came under fire at Rialto Street at the rear of the South Dublin Union at about 14:15 from rebels in the South Dublin Union and an outpost in Jameson’s Distillery on Marrowbone Lane. Two privates were killed rushing a well-defended barricade. At least three patients also died in fierce exchanges. Rialto Bridge was finally crossed at about 21:45 and the battalion reached the Royal Hospital at 22:15. Cathal Brugha† was seriously wounded during the fighting. This was the last significant action at the South Dublin Union before the surrender on 30 April.

Joseph Byrne (27Apr1916/3) IV, 32, Married with two children, RC Railway Works, Grand Canal Street, Dublin See Barratt (27Apr1916/2). From Wicklow, Byrne ‘got a bullet wound in the base of the

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Buried RHKC (Coll. Grave).214 RD: Brown (28Apr1916/23), Chapman (27Apr 1916/7), Fennell (27Apr1916/54), Reilly (28Apr1916/51), Warner (27Apr1916/8)

Newark, Nottinghamshire, was a Sunday school teacher and a member of the United Works’ Band before enlisting in September 1914. Buried Newark-Upon-Trent Cemetery, Nottinghamshire (C. B. ‘U’ 252). In January 1917, he was posthumously mentioned in dispatches.221

Thomas Henry Chapman (27Apr1916/7) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (3493), Gamekeeper Rialto, Dublin See Barnett (27Apr1916/6). Lance-Corporal Chapman of 2/8th Battalion was from Southwell, Nottinghamshire. Buried RHKC.215

Joseph Donohoe (27Apr1916/13) 19, Grocer’s assistant, RC Marlborough Street, Dublin Donohoe was shot at his home, 97 Marlborough Street. Buried GC (Dublin Section: N. §. 24.5). His father received £25 from the RVC.222

Arthur Warner216 (27Apr1916/8) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (4643), 20 Rialto, Dublin See Barnett (27Apr1916/6). Private Warner of the 2/8th Battalion was from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. Buried RHKC (O.R. Grd).217

Jeremiah Farrell (27Apr1916/14) 48, Labourer, RC George’s Quay, Dublin Farrell, of 20 City Quay, was shot. His nephew Joseph Cashell reported his death. Buried GC (Dublin Section: C. §. 12.5).223

Bridget Allen (27Apr1916/9) 16, Factory hand, RC Arran Quay, Dublin Bridget Allen, of 27 Arran Quay, was shot through the window of her home. Buried GC (Dublin Section: A. §. 48.5). Her mother received £50 from the RVC.218

Patrick Fetherstone (27Apr1916/15) 12, Schoolboy, RC JSH Patrick, son of Anne and Patrick Fetherstone of 1 Long Lane, Dorset Street, died from leg wounds. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: I. a. 38). His father received £25 from the RVC.224

James Byrne (27Apr1916/10) IV, 19, RC Mercer’s Lieutenant Byrne was shot through a window while on a hurried visit to his widowed mother. Buried DGC.219

John Robert Forth (27Apr1916/16) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (3434), Methodist RCDH See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Forth of the 2/8th Battalion was from Worksop, Nottinghamshire. Buried GMC (Wes. 45).225

Jane Costello (27Apr1916/11) 23, Typist, RC Seville Place, Dublin Jane Costello, from Glenfield, Kilmallock, Limerick, lived at 113 Seville Place, and was a shorthand writer and typist. During a lull in the firing, she reportedly went to her bedroom window and was shot through the lungs. Buried GC (Dublin Section: M. §. 14.5).220

William James Halliday (27Apr1916/17) 23, Painter, Protestant Dolphin’s Barn, Dublin Halliday was visiting from Belfast when shot dead in Dolphin’s Barn while walking along the canal. His father was awarded £150 by the RVC. Buried MJC (A. 267. 5).226

Henry Charles Dixey (27Apr1916/12) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (2454), 22, Pattern maker, Methodist RCDH See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Dixey, a company sergeant in the 2/8th Battalion from

William Frith (27Apr1916/18) DMP (10175), 38, Protestant DMP Station, Store Street, Dublin From Clara, Offaly, Frith was a constable in C Division, DMP (174 C) with seventeen years’

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service. He was hit in the head in his bedroom at Store Street Station by a stray bullet. Buried MJC (A. 411. 48). His mother Frances secured a gratuity of £30 and a yearly pension of £15.227

John Reynolds recalled that at about 09:00 Volunteers under Peadar Clancy observed ‘about 20 soldiers in Indian file along the south side of the river by Usher’s Quay. The first . . . was allowed to reach the corner of Bridge Street when the Volunteers opened fire. Several . . . were shot dead.’ Buried GMC (CE. 648). He was posthumously mentioned in dispatches in January 1917.231 SA: Clancy (22Nov1920/7)

Patrick Joseph Geraghty (27Apr1916/19) 39, Slater, Married with four children, RC North Dublin Union Geraghty lived at 64 Lower Dominick Street. He and Dominic Donohue were killed in the belfry of the North Dublin Union’s Bedford Asylum. Father Aloysius recalled that after nightfall the two ‘had gone to the top of the clock tower to see the fires . . . and both were killed by military snipers from Broadstone’. Buried GC (St Patrick’s Section: Z. l. 289). His widow Esther and dependents secured £300 compensation from the RVC.228 RD: Donohue (27Apr1916/38)

Jane Kane (27Apr1916/22) 40, Cook, Married, RC MMH Jane Kane, of 109 Amiens Street, was fatally wounded nearby. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: I. a. 37.5).232 Mary Kenny (27Apr1916/23) 63, Widowed, RC Upper Buckingham Street, Dublin Mary Kenny, a labourer’s widow, was killed in her bedroom at 18 Upper Buckingham Street by machine-gun fire. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: J. a. 37.5). Her daughter was awarded £34 by the RVC.233

Seán (John) Healy (27Apr1916/20) Fianna Éireann, 15, Plumber’s apprentice, RC MMH Seán, one of ten children of Christopher and Helena Healy of 188 Phibsborough Road, was apprenticed to his father. Healy went to Jacob’s Factory on Bishop Street on 25 April, and was given a message to carry to Volunteers at Phibsborough Bridge. He was hit during heavy fire. A nurse recalled treating him ‘with his brain hanging all over his forehead’. He died two days later, one of the youngest insurgent fatalities. He is commemorated on a plaque inset into the pavement at Doyle’s Corner, Phibsborough. Buried GC (Garden Section: V. b. 100). His family received £20 towards funeral costs from the National Aid Association. In 1924 his father, ‘in straitened circumstances’ due to illness, received a gratuity of £100.229

Francis William White Knox (27Apr1916/24) Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (27861), 37, Clerk, CoI Gardiner Street, Dublin Private Knox, from Delgany, Wicklow, of the 12th (Reserve) Battalion, died when a grenade he was holding exploded prematurely. His body was brought to Enniskillen, Fermanagh. The authorities were initially unable to locate next of kin. Buried Breandrum Cemetery, Enniskillen (5. 172). The following week, the Fermanagh Times reported that, by chance, a 12th Battalion officer met Knox’s sister Isabella on Gardiner Street after the area was cleared of rebels and disclosed her brother’s fate.234

Henry Meyrick Hewitt (27Apr1916/21) King Edward’s Horse (1474), 42, Protestant Usher’s Quay, Dublin Corporal Hewitt of the 2nd King Edward’s Horse, son of Lieutenant-General E. O. Hewitt, lived in Devonport. He was reportedly wounded several times while involved in clearing the neighbourhood of Thomas Street, Cork Hill, Dame Street, South Great George’s Street, Parliament Street and the quays.230

Mary Lennon (27Apr1916/25) 64, Domestic servant, Widowed with two children, RC Foley Street, Dublin Mary Lennon of 43.2 Corporation Buildings was shot on a third-floor balcony. Buried GC (Dublin Section: W. §. 30.5).235

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(St Paul’s Section: K. a. 38). His widow Catherine and dependents secured £191 compensation from the RVC.240

Peadar (Peter) Macken (27Apr1916/26) IV, c. 42, Baker, Married with four children, RC Boland’s Bakery, Grand Canal Street, Dublin Macken, from Drogheda, Louth, lived at 13 Nassau Place. He was active in the Gaelic League and in Labour circles, and for a time was a Dublin Corporation alderman. An unnamed Volunteer whom he reprimanded for talking incessantly, most likely Edward Ennis, shot him and was in turn shot by a sentry. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: I. §. 32.5). Clarence Street was renamed Macken Street. His sister Teresa secured a dependent’s allowance of £1 per week.236 SA: Ennis (29Apr1916/49)

John McElveny (27Apr1916/31) 56, Carpenter, Married, Protestant City Quay, Dublin McElveny, of 15 Verschoyle Place, was shot while visiting his employer. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: K. a. 37.5).241 Robert MacKenzie (27Apr1916/32) 41, Provisions merchant, Married with three children, CoI MMH MacKenzie, a survivor from the torpedoed liner Lusitania in 1915, was mortally wounded during the evening by machine-gun bullets which came through the window of his Cavendish Row provisions store. His widow Bertha and children secured £500 from the RVC.242

William Maguire (27Apr1916/27) 37, Baker, Married with two children, RC Talbot Street, Dublin Maguire worked in O’Rourke’s Bakery on Store Street and lived at 92 Marlborough Street. He was killed while engaged in ambulance work. Buried GC (Dublin Section: V. §. 37.5). His widow Mary and family received £300 from the RVC.237

Michael McKillop (27Apr1916/33) 34, Labourer, Married, RC Waterford Street, Dublin McKillop, of 22 Lower Gardiner Street, was shot nearby. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: I. a. 37.5). His widow Margaret secured £234 compensation from the RVC.243

John Mallon (27Apr1916/28) 29, House painter, Married with three children, RC Mary Street, Dublin Mallon lived at 96 Upper Dorset Street. He was shot. Buried GC (Dublin Section: W. §. 40.5). His widow Jane and children received £298 from the RVC.238

James McLoughlin (27Apr1916/34) 52, Builder, Married, RC Railway Street, Dublin McLoughlin, of 113 Lower Gardiner Street, was killed while repairing a house. Buried MJC (A. 276. 77). His widow Charlotte secured £300 compensation from the RVC.244

Alexander McClelland (27Apr1916/29) RIR (7610), 18, Soldier, CoI St Stephen’s Green, Dublin Rifleman McClelland, of Balligan, Down, served in a machine-gun section. Caulfield recounted how a sniper in the Shelbourne Hotel, disguised in a maid’s uniform, enjoyed considerable success until shot. This may have been McClelland. Buried Grey Abbey Cemetery, Down.239

John Megan (27Apr1916/35) 68, Labourer, Married, RC Lower Gardiner Street, Dublin Megan, of 90 Gardiner Street, was killed while going to work. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: I. a. 38). His widow Kate secured £150 from the RVC.245

James McCormack (27Apr1916/30) 40, Labourer, Married with three children, RC Corporation Street, Dublin McCormack, of 44B Corporation Buildings, was killed when a bullet came through a back room between 14:00 and 15:00. Buried GC

William Mulraney (27Apr1916/36) 8th (King’s Royal Irish) Hussars (5422), RC Dublin Private Mulraney, from Dublin, died in unknown circumstances. Buried GMC (RC. 481).246

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Annie Myers (27Apr1916/37) 57, Boarding house keeper, Protestant North Earl Street, Dublin A Scotswoman, Annie Myers, living with her sister Agnes at 13 North Earl Street, was killed during heavy bombardment of Sackville Street and adjoining streets. Buried MJC (B. 369. 53).247

Mary Redmond (27Apr1916/41) 16, Dealer, RC Mary’s Abbey, Dublin Mary, of 8 Mary’s Alley, was in the hallway when a bullet pierced her lung and heart. Buried GC (Dublin Section: O. §. 26.5). Her mother Alice secured £50 from the RVC.251

Dominic Thomas Donohue (27Apr1916/38) 22, Clerk, RC North Dublin Union See Geraghty (27Apr1916/19). Donohue lived at 4 North Brunswick Street. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: U. h. 314.5).248

Harold Rodgers (27Apr1916/42) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (3814), CoE RCDH See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Rodgers of the 2/8th Battalion was from Whitwell, Derbyshire. Buried GMC (CE. 617).252

Thomas Joseph O’Reilly (27Apr1916/39) ICA, 21, Electrician, RC GPO, Sackville Street, Dublin O’Reilly, an apprentice with Dublin Corporation, of 43 Geraldine Street, was president of the Paviors’ Society and trustee of the John Dillon branch of the Irish National Foresters. He died of abdominal wounds received on 25 April – his mother’s compensation claim stated he was shot in the GPO, whereas in 1924 army intelligence said he was hit while carrying a dispatch from ‘City Hall to Liberty Hall . . . for James Connolly’. Two of his brothers also fought, and the family ‘during the Tan times done [sic] some very good work for us’. His mother Mary received £104 from the National Aid Fund, and a gratuity of £75 in 1924. In 1960 his brother Patrick, also in receipt of a military service pension, was refused a dependent relative’s award: he had earlier observed that ‘had I thought that you had to be an advanced pauper, I would not have made application, this stigma seems to be a ritual’. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: V. b. 22).249

George Percy Sainsbury (27Apr1916/43) 9, Schoolboy, CoI South Circular Road, Dublin George, of 54 Haroldville Terrace, was shot through the window by military. His brother was wounded but survived. Buried MJC (C. 130). His father Arthur secured £25 from the RVC.253 Alfred Tyler (27Apr1916/44) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (4905), 22, CoE Dublin Castle Private Tyler of the 2/6th Battalion was from Exton, Rutland, Leicestershire. Archie Bennett recorded that the 2/6th spent the night of 26 April in the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham. At 12:30 next day, the battalion proceeded towards Dublin Castle. Improvised armoured vehicles ferried troops towards Capel Street and Parnell Street. Three soldiers were wounded, probably including Tyler. He was the battalion’s only fatality. Buried GMC (CE. 645).254

Clarence Osborne (27Apr1916/40) 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers (4130), CoE North King Street, Dublin Lance-Corporal Osborne of the 5th Battalion, from Brighton, Sussex, had previously been wounded in France. Buried GMC (CE. 808).250

William Walker (27Apr1916/45) 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers (2743), CoE North King Street, Dublin Private Walker, who enlisted in his home town of Glasgow, was fatally wounded. Buried GMC (CE. 622).255

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front door at night. His widow’s appeal for assistance to the GS&WR Traffic and Works Committee was declined on 2 June 1916. She later received £300 from the RVC.261

Austin Joseph Walton (27Apr1916/46) Reserve Cavalry Regiment (18506), 35, Married, CoE Usher’s Quay, Dublin Lance-Corporal Walton, from Maidenhead, Berkshire, died in unknown circumstances. Buried GMC (CE. 623).256

John Joseph Fennell (27Apr1916/51) 39, Van driver, RC SDU See Barnett (27Apr1916/6). Fennell, a patient, died when a grenade was thrown through a window. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: M. a. 38).262

John Henry Fletcher (27Apr1916/47) South Staffordshire Regiment (3608), 23, Married with one child, CoE Northumberland Road, Dublin See Barratt (27Apr1916/2). Sergeant Fletcher of 2/6th Battalion lived with his wife Hannah at 6 Dean Street, Wolverhampton. Buried GMC (CE. 616).257

Joseph Geraghty (27Apr1916/52) 31, Ex-soldier, RC Cole’s Lane, Dublin Geraghty, invalided in action, of 16 Middle Gardiner Street, was shot when he left his home. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: N. a. 38). His father Joseph secured £150 from the RVC.263

Martin O’Leary (27Apr1916/48) 60, Labourer, Married with eight children, RC Mary’s Lane, Dublin From Wexford, O’Leary, of 13 Dorset Row, was shot while returning home from work in the Guinness Brewery. His son-in-law and three of his sons were soldiers, one of whom, George, was killed in 1914. His widow Marcella received £203 from the RVC.258

Charles Kavanagh (27Apr1916/53) 15, Messenger, RC Children’s Hospital, Temple Street, Dublin Kavanagh, son of a labourer of 4 North King Street, was shot in the abdomen on 26 April while doing an errand. He died next day following an operation. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: T. a. 37.5). His father Denis secured £50 from the RVC.264

Christopher Andrews259 (27Apr1916/49) 14, Messenger, RC SPDH See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). A labourer’s son living at 8 Stephen’s Place, Christopher was wounded while giving water to a wounded soldier, and died next day. His mother Maria received £150 from the RVC. Buried GC (Dublin Section: W. §. 14.5).260

Michael Leahy (27Apr1916/54) 62, Bank porter, Married with one child, RC George’s Hill, Dublin Leahy, from Limerick, was shot. Working at the Provincial Bank in College Green, he ‘insisted on returning to his home’ at 3 King’s Inn’s Quay nightly ‘as he had an invalid wife’. Buried GC (Dublin Section: U. §. 20.5).265

William Moore (27Apr1916/50) 45, Railway official, Married with one child JSH Moore, from Cavan, lived in Limerick as district auditor of the GS&WR. He had twenty-five years’ service. Arriving in Dublin on Easter Monday evening with his family en route to Limerick after a holiday in Belfast, they stayed with a friend in Fairview due to the disturbances. Moore was struck in the chest by a bullet which came through the

George Cahill (27Apr1916/55) 38, Nightwatchman, RC Railway Street, Dublin Cahill, of 26 Upper Gloucester Street was shot between 10:00 and 11:00 while going to his sister’s house. The DMP reported that his body lay in the street for several days. His sister secured £39 from the RVC.266

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John Dunphy (27Apr1916/56) 28, Joiner, RC Aungier Street, Dublin Dunphy, of 1 Charlemont Villas, was shot as he went to obtain a pass from the military. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: P. a. 37.5). His father received an annuity of £30 from the RVC.267

Roseanne Heffernan (27Apr1916/62) 55, Boarding house owner, Widowed with four children, RC Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin Mrs Heffernan, struck in the head by a bullet that came through her window on 25 April, died two days later. Her daughters Roseanne and Julia secured a compassionate award of £78 from the RVC.273

Paul Feeney (27Apr1916/57) 42, Labourer, RC Parnell Street, Dublin Feeney was on his way home when shot, dying next day. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: P. a. 37.5). His brother received £25 from the RVC.268

Owen Donnelly (27Apr1916/63) 53, Labourer, ex-serviceman, Married with six children, RC Kilmainham, Dublin Originally from Tyrone, Donnelly, of 15 Allingham Buildings, South Summer Street, was employed in the Army Ordinance Depot at Islandbridge Barracks. He was shot near the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, as he returned from work. His dependents secured £264 from the RVC.274

William Lionel Sweny (27Apr1916/58) 13, Schoolboy, CoI Dublin William, the son of Frederick William Sweny, a pharmacist of 1 Lincoln Place immortalised by James Joyce, was killed near Mount Street Bridge.269

Bridget Mulvaney (27Apr1916/64) 19, Domestic servant Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin Employed by Harry Dumbleton of 45 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, where she also lived. She was killed at about 08:30 when a bullet came through a front room window. Her mother Margaret secured a compassionate grant of £25 from the RVC.275

Patrick Travers (27Apr1916/59) 43, Fish dealer, RC Chancery Place Travers left his home at 23 Railway Street with bread for his sister Mrs Mary Gaynor, a widow who lived at 56 Cook Street. He was shot dead near Chancery Place. His two sisters secured £78 between them from the RVC.270

Francis Salmon (27Apr1916/65) 17, Sales assistant, RC Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin From Straffan, Kildare, son of Maurice and Margaret Salmon, Francis worked for Austin M. Smyth, 50 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, a wine and spirit merchant. He was shot dead while knocking on the door of his employer’s house. His father secured a compassionate grant of £50 from the RVC.276

Philip Dolan (27Apr1916/60) 30, Porter, RC St Michan’s Street, Dublin He was shot dead as he returned home to 18 Chancery Street, having visited the Anglesea fruit market to see if there was work. His sister Esther Farrell secured £150 from the RVC.271

William Finnegan (27Apr1916/66) 43, Labourer, Married, RC Foley Street, Dublin Finnegan, of 48 Marlborough Street, was fatally wounded while going to see his father. His body lay in the street for several days. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: P. a. 38). His widow Elizabeth secured £202 compensation from the RVC.277

Patrick Green (27Apr1916/61) 52, Carter, Married with children Grattan Street, Dublin Green, employed by Bolands of Ringsend, died when a bullet was fired into his home, killing him instantly. His widow Bridget secured £164 from the RVC.272

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28 APRIL 1916

divided into four sections. They left Finglas at about midday on 25 April and camped at Killeek. On 26 April, they made for Swords, where the RIC barracks surrendered without a fight. The post office telephone was put out of commission. Donabate RIC Barracks was the next to surrender, with one policeman slightly wounded. The next morning the Volunteers arrived at Garristown to find that the police had withdrawn to the safety of Balbriggan. The post office telephone was destroyed. On the morning of 28 April, orders were received to cut the railway line at Batterstown and to take Ashbourne RIC Barracks nearby. At about 12:00, as the RIC at Ashbourne were about to surrender, a motorised police patrol – fifty-five-strong in seventeen cars – approached from the Slane direction, under CI Gray. RIC constable Eugene Bratton recalled that he drove DI Harry Smyth. At Kilmoon, a man told Smyth that the rebels were ‘all along the road’. Bratton was unable to get his car to the front to inform Gray, who occupied the lead vehicle. At Ashbourne, the police cavalcade halted about 150 yards from the crossroads: ‘The police took cover on both sides of the road. Dr [Richard] Hayes ordered rapid fire. A very heavy fire was returned on us.’ Mulcahy ordered an attack and led a flanking manoeuvre. Bernard McAllister remembered him shouting: ‘ “Drive them out of it.”: the police were acting like rabbits being driven from a ditch before a shooting party. We . . . decimated them with our fire. Some took cover under the cars but were visible to us there.’ The first fatality was Sergeant Shanagher, shot through the heart. Gray, severely wounded, died on 10 May. His second-in-command, DI Smyth, was killed, probably by Frank Lawless. The RIC in the barracks surrendered when they saw their comrades on the road capitulate. The Volunteers captured about ninety-six weapons. A man asked to collect the dead policemen counted eight loaded on to his cart. The wounded were tended to by Dr Hayes. Civilians Gerald Hogan and James O’Carroll, returning to Dublin from a holiday, drove into

Christopher Miller (28Apr1916/1) RIC (63620), 29, Farmer SDU Miller, from Limerick, joined the RIC on 15 January 1908, allocated to Kerry. He later served in Armagh before transfer to Belfast. At Easter 1916, Constable Miller was attending a school of instruction in Portobello Barracks, Dublin. He participated in the attack on the South Dublin Union. The RIC General Register notes he was ‘killed on duty during [the] “Sinn Féin” Rising’. James Kenny told the BMH that ‘one of the military tried to force the door [of the Nurses Quarters] and was shot by Ceannt. The man wore khaki pants but the rest of his uniform, including his peak cap was of the RIC pattern’. This was probably Miller.278 SA: Ceannt (8May1916/1) John Shanagher (28Apr1916/2) RIC (54677),279 48, RC Ashbourne, Meath From Strokestown, Shanagher joined the RIC in 1891, allocated to Meath, where he spent most of his career apart from periodic service in the RIC Reserve and at the RIC Depot. Promoted to sergeant in 1907, he was stationed in Navan. The 5th (Fingal) Battalion, Dublin Brigade Irish Volunteers, mobilised at Knocksedan in north Dublin, under Thomas Ashe. On 24 April, Volunteers attempted to destroy the Rogerstown railway bridge, an important link between Dublin and Belfast. The main body received orders to move to Finglas to hold the main road and to engage any British military officers returning from the Fairyhouse races. None appeared. On orders from James Connolly, twenty men were sent as reinforcements into the city on 25 April. Ashe now had about forty men and a few stragglers from the city. These included Richard Mulcahy, who had been sent on an abortive sabotage mission to Howth Junction. Despite its numerical weakness, as Charles Townshend observed, the Fingal Battalion had the priceless attribute of mobility, as all who turned out had bicycles. They were

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the ambush: McAllister claimed that ‘the police . . . shot both of them’. Dublin Castle maintained that they were killed by rebels who thought they were ‘police reinforcements’. Albert Keep, whose vehicle had been commandeered by the police, was shot by Volunteers. His leg was later amputated, and he died on 5 May. Volunteer John Crenigan was shot through the heart at Hamilton Hill, and Tommy Rafferty, hit when he stood up to see where the police were, died that night. Buried Strokestown. Shanagher’s brother and sister applied for compensation but could not prove financial dependency.280 RD: Carroll (28Apr1916/3), Cleary (28Apr 1916/4), Crenigan (28Apr1916/5), Gormley (28Apr1916/6), Gray (10May1916/1), Hickey (28Apr1916/7), Hogan (28Apr1916/8), Keep (5May1916/3), McHale (28Apr1916/9), Rafferty (29Apr1916/2), Smyth (28Apr1916 /10), Young (28Apr1916/11). SA: Ashe (25Sep1917/1), Connolly (12May1916/2)

that John, ‘being my eldest boy . . . was next help to his father in helping to support family’, contributing his entire weekly wage of 30/-. She disputed a once-off dependent’s award of £40 in 1924: ‘No one will blame me in getting a TD to ask a question in the Dáil as I am seeking to get fair play for my family.’ In 1931 she told General Mulcahy that ‘myself and my husband are old and unable to work, and my boys are on the scatter’. A year later she secured an additional £60. Buried Killossory, Kilsallaghan, Dublin. In 1959 Crenigan was commemorated on a memorial in Ashbourne.283 James Gormley (28Apr1916/6) RIC (66800), 25, Farmer, RC Ashbourne, Meath See Shanagher (28Apr1916/2). From Sligo, Constable Gormley joined the RIC on 2 September 1912, stationed in Longwood.284 James Hickey (28Apr1916/7) RIC (54582), 49, Fisherman, RC Ashbourne, Meath See Shanagher (28Apr1916/2). From Kilkenny, Hickey joined the RIC on 17 September 1890, serving in Armagh till transfer to Meath in December 1905. Promoted to sergeant in 1907, he was demoted to constable in 1911, stationed in Kells. Buried Navan, Meath.285

James Joseph Carroll (28Apr1916/3) 24, Plumber, RC Ashbourne, Meath See Shanagher (28Apr1916/2). Carroll’s father Patrick was chief of the Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire) fire brigade. Buried DGC (A. 7. W). His widowed sister Bridget Kelly secured £179 for herself and her two children from the RVC.281

Gerald St John Hogan (28Apr1916/8) 26, Munitions worker, RC Ashbourne, Meath See Shanagher (28Apr1916/2). Hogan, of 9 Summerhill, Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire), Dublin, was working in Birkenhead. Buried DGC (A. 6. W). His mother secured £192 from the RVC.286

James Cleary (28Apr1916/4) RIC (64900), 28, Farmer, RC Ashbourne, Meath See Shanagher (28Apr1916/2). From Tuam, Galway, Constable Cleary joined the RIC on 28 July 1909, stationed in Moynalty. Buried Tuam.282

Richard McHale (28Apr1916/9) RIC (67072), 22, No prior employment, RC Ashbourne, Meath See Shanagher (28Apr1916/2). From Galway, Constable McHale joined the RIC on 3 February 1913, stationed in Crossakiel. Buried Navan, Meath. His father Michael, an RIC pensioner, secured £30 government compensation and £20 from the Irish Police and Constabulary Recognition Fund.287

John Crenigan (28Apr1916/5) IV, 21, Tram worker, RC Ashbourne, Meath See Shanagher (28Apr1916/2). From Roganstown, Swords, Dublin, Crenigan and his brother James were members of the 5th (Fingal) Battalion, Dublin Brigade. James learned of his brother’s death while in Mountjoy Prison. His mother Annie wrote

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yearly pension of £90, with £24 for each of her four children and £35 for educational expenses.290

Henry Smyth (28Apr1916/10) RIC (59040), 41, Ex-serviceman, Married with four children, Protestant Ashbourne, Meath See Shanagher (28Apr1916/2). ‘Harry’ Smyth from Hertfordshire became a DI on 2 October 1899. He was posted to Navan in 1911. Buried Ardbracken Cemetery, Navan, Meath. His widow secured a pension of £100 and £25 annually for each child.288

Malachy Brennan (28Apr1916/13) 44, Labourer, Married with seven children, RC Capel Street, Dublin Brennan, of 85 Capel Street, worked for Cartons poultry agents of 17 Halston Street. He was shot at the door of his wife’s shop. Buried GC (Dublin Section: V. §. 13.5). His widow and five younger children secured £250 compensation from the RVC.291

John Young (28Apr1916/11) RIC (58036), 42, Farmer, Married with two children, RC Ashbourne, Meath See Shanagher (28Apr1916/2). From Cavan, Young joined the RIC on 16 November 1896, serving in Down, Armagh, Belfast and Galway before transfer to Meath in 1909. Stationed in Killyon, he was promoted to sergeant in 1913. Buried Navan, Meath. His widow secured a pension of £50 and each of his children £6.5s.0d. annually.289

Frederick William Robert Burke (28Apr1916/14) RDF (25692), 21, CoE Henry Street, Dublin Lance-Sergeant Burke, born in Quetta, Baluchistan, the son of Major John Burke of Twickenham, served in the 10th Battalion. Lieutenant Chalmers of the RDF stated that, during the evacuation of the GPO on 28 April, he and about sixteen other prisoners were taken outside at about 18:00, lined up two deep and told to run or be shot: the Volunteers ‘used us as a screen from the troops’ fire’. He was wounded in the thigh and recalled that an RDF private ‘was also shot dead beside me’. This was probably Burke. Buried GMC (CE. 642). In January 1917, he was posthumously mentioned in dispatches for distinguished service.292

Thomas Allen (28Apr1916/12) IV, 30, Shoemaker, Married with four children, RC Richmond Hospital, Dublin Allen, from Hill of Down, Kilglass, Meath, lived at 19½ Monck Place, Dublin. He earned £3 weekly in Winstanley shoe factory. Promoted to lieutenant on 24 April, Allen commanded a post in the Four Courts overlooking Hammond Lane. On 27 April the military shelled the Chancery Street end of the Four Courts. A frontal assault was expected. Seán Kennedy recalled that, by midday, the British had got the range of their position on the roof, making it untenable. They retreated to the first-floor landing overlooking Hammond Lane. Kennedy, Allen and Volunteer Seán O’Carroll remained there until midday on Friday when a bullet came through the window of the Public Record Office, grazing O’Carroll’s elbow and striking Allen in the chest. Buried GC. In January 1917 his body was exhumed and reinterred at Kilglass Cemetery, Longwood, Moyvalley, Meath. In 1924, when she was receiving just £6 a month in support from the White Cross Society, his widow secured a

Bridget McKane (28Apr1916/15) 15, Boxmaker, RC Henry Place, Dublin Bridget McKane lived at 10 Henry Place. Séamus Scully, whose father owned a shop at No. 31 Moore Street, described how, following the evacuation of the GPO, a group of Volunteers and their wounded reached Henry Place and moved into a yard fronting McKane’s cottage. Bridget’s father, who was holding a baby, was shot several times through the door. One bullet passed through his shoulder and hit Bridget in the head. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: R. a. 37.5). Her father secured £25 compassionate award from the RVC.293

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Moore Street when fire was opened. . . . Men were falling everywhere but we still continued at the double. When I was about 30 or 40 yards from the barricade there was no one left standing in front of me.’ Patrick Rankin recalled that, as Macken passed him:

Robert Glaister (28Apr1916/16) Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (1907EA), 44, Married with one child Amiens Street, Dublin Glaister is listed by the CWGC as an artificer on HMS Colleen. His wife Harriet lived at Skinburness, Silloth. Private Henry Joseph Wyatt of the 6th Battalion, Royal Irish Lancers, was convicted by a court martial in Richmond Barracks on 14 June 1916 of the manslaughter of Glaister, who was staying at the Northern Hotel, Amiens Street, en route to England. When he and the hotel proprietor W. F. Gray went for a walk, Private Wyatt, on sentry duty near Amiens Street Station, challenged them to halt. Wyatt pressed a rifle against Glaister’s chest. Thinking that the soldier was joking, Glaister tried to push the weapon away and was shot in the arm. As Gray and Glaister ran back to the hotel, Wyatt fired a second shot, which missed, and then a third, killing Glaister. Wyatt received a fiveyear sentence. Buried GC (Dublin Section: L. §. 41.5).294

he shouted ‘Oh my God’ and fell in my path. I caught him in my arms, but he was dead in a minute, shot in the centre of the forehead. I . . . said a short prayer. The enemy . . . could just as easily have got me, as they took the man in uniform to be an officer so they picked him off.

Volunteers Coyle, O’Connor and Shortis were likewise killed. The O’Rahilly, wounded, managed to cross Moore Street to a shop doorway at the entry to Moore Lane, where he was hit again. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: 1916 Plot). In 1925 his father John secured a dependent’s gratuity of £75. Despite strong representations by Senator Margaret Pearse in 1932 and 1934 – ‘the man is now ill, & very old . . . his son went out with our little band from Rathfarnham . . . on Easter Monday 1916’, and ‘even a little help . . . would give him some comfort in his last days’ – John Macken was found ineligible for further support. Francis Macken’s sister Margaret, a Cumann na mBan veteran, eventually secured a dependent’s allowance of £125.295 RD: Coyle (28Apr1916/18), O’Connor (28Apr1916/19), The O’Rahilly (29Apr 1916/1), Shortis (28Apr1916/20). SA: Pearse (3May1916/1)

Francis Macken (28Apr1916/17) IV, 28, Barber, RC Moore Street, Dublin ‘Frank’ Macken, from York Street, had a hairdressing business in Rathfarnham and came regularly to St Enda’s College. According to Feargus de Búrca, ‘He was a great little soldier and, as section commander . . . always gave the commands in Irish.’ By the afternoon of 28 April, direct artillery hits on the GPO had caused several fires. By evening the upper floors were collapsing, forcing the insurgents to abandon their position. Patrick Pearse sent out groups of men to try to reach Messrs Williams & Woods’ soap factory at 204 Parnell Street where they were to make a last stand and, if possible, escape. The O’Rahilly volunteered to lead the first party. Slipping out the side door of the GPO, they moved along Henry Street. The O’Rahilly divided the party in two at the junction with Moore Street. Denis Daly described how ‘the north end of Moore Street was strongly barricaded and manned with machine-guns and rifles’ by Sherwood Foresters: ‘We hadn’t advanced very far along

Henry Coyle (28Apr1916/18) IV, 27, Slater, Married with one child, RC Moore Street, Dublin See Macken (28Apr1916/17). ‘Harry’ Coyle, of 32 Leinster Avenue, North Strand, was described as an ‘active Volunteer for a good period before Rising’. Thomas Leahy of the ICA recalled that Coyle was shot by a sniper while trying to open a shop door. He reputedly died in the arms of The O’Rahilly. Coyle’s son, born after his death, was named Henry O’Rahilly Coyle. Buried GC (Dublin Section: D. §. 45.5). His family secured support from the National Aid Fund, and

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from 1918 received the interest on £250 capital. In 1924 his widow Alice (Coughlin), who remarried in 1920, received a remarriage gratuity of £120 and £24 yearly for her son.296

Rosealie Venn made an unsuccessful application for a dependent’s allowance. He is commemorated on a plaque in Ballybunion.298 John Brennan (28Apr1916/21) 45, Van driver, Married with two children, RC Adelaide Hospital, Dublin Brennan, of Great Longford Street, was fatally wounded on Aungier Street while feeding horses. Buried GC (Dublin Section: I. §. 40.5). His widow Mary secured £150 compensation from the RVC.299

Patrick O’Connor (28Apr1916/19) IV, 33, Civil servant, RC Moore Street, Dublin See Macken (28Apr1916/17). O’Connor, from Rathmore, Kerry, was appointed to the GPO in London after taking first place in a civil service clerical examination. While there he became involved in the GAA and the Gaelic League. He also joined the Volunteers, becoming a captain. He was transferred to Dublin after twelve years. At Easter 1916, O’Connor was in Rathmore attending the funeral of his brother Denis when he heard that a Rising had commenced. O’Connor’s niece recalled that he told his father: ‘I’ll never again see my little grey home in the west.’ He first went to Cork to meet Florrie O’Donoghue, his first cousin, and then to Dublin where he joined the GPO garrison. Throughout Easter Week, he was involved in tunnelling through buildings to make lines of communication. One source suggests O’Connor died while reconnoitring Cathedral Place. Other accounts indicate that he was killed in the party which The O’Rahilly led from the GPO. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: 1916 Plot). He is commemorated on a monument in the Square in Rathmore.297

Harold Brindley (28Apr1916/22) North Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s) (5628), CoE Lower Mount Street, Dublin Private Brindley of the 2/5th Battalion enlisted in his home town of Burslem, Staffordshire. On the night of 26–7 April, his unit was on Lower Mount Street en route to Dublin Castle. It is unclear whether Brindley was killed outright or died from wounds on 28 April, one of only two fatalities suffered by his regiment. Buried GMC (CE. 620).300 George Brown (28Apr1916/23) 58, Tinsmith, RC SDU See Barnett (27Apr1916/6). Brown, living in the South Dublin Union, died from gunshot wounds. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: I. a. 37.5).301 Mary Anne Brunswick (28Apr1916/24) 15, Schoolgirl, RC MMH Mary Anne, one of six children of John and Mary Anne Brunswick of 58.3 Lower Wellington Street, died from wounds received while doing an errand. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: R. a. 38). Her father secured £50 from the RVC.302

Patrick Shortis (28Apr1916/20) IV, 22, Wireless operator, RC Moore Street, Dublin See Macken (28Apr1916/17). Lieutenant ‘Paddy’ Shortis, from Ballybunion, Kerry, attended St Brendan’s Seminary, Killarney and later All Hallows College, Dublin. Foreswearing his clerical studies, he enrolled in the Atlantic wireless college in Cahirciveen, securing first place in the Marconi Institute examinations. He worked in London before coming to Dublin in January 1916, probably to avoid conscription, using the alias ‘Patrick Browne’. He lived in O’Connell Villas, Ballybough Road. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: 1916 Plot). His widowed sister

Christina Caffrey (28Apr1916/25) 2, RC North Dublin Union Christina, the daughter of Sarah and Joseph Caffrey of 27 Corporation Buildings, was shot in the spine while in her mother’s arms in her home. She was the youngest confirmed

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victim of the Rising. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: O. a. 38). Her mother was awarded £25 by the RVC.303

U. §. 26.5). Her husband John secured £50 from the RVC.309 Charles Love Crockett (28Apr1916/31) Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, 19, Presbyterian Dublin Crockett, from Templemore Park, Londonderry, had been a member of the Queen’s University Belfast OTC. Enlisting in the 10th Battalion, he was subsequently commissioned in the 12th (Reserve) Battalion. Lieutenant Crockett was reportedly challenged by a sentry who, failing to identify him as an officer, shot him when he failed to answer. Buried Derry City Cemetery (I. A. 34). At his family’s request there was no military funeral.310

James Cashman (28Apr1916/26) 34, Chauffeur, RC Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin Cashman, living at Rosemount, Dundrum, with his brother John, was killed on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: J. a. 37.5).304 Thomas Coghlan (28Apr1916/27) 49, Labourer, Widowed, RC Dublin Coghlan, of 155 North Strand, was shot in unknown circumstances. Buried GC (Dublin Section: C. §. 24.5).305

Patrick Derrick (28Apr1916/32) IV, 24, Bootmaker, RC 22 Eustace Street, Dublin Derrick, a Volunteer since 1914, obeyed MacNeill’s countermanding order. A military search party arrested his family in their home, took him out the back and shot him. The army’s version was that soldiers engaged in house-clearing operations found Derrick armed with a rifle and bayonet. They had orders that any ‘Sinn Féiners caught red-handed were to be shot’. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: B. j. 331). His married sister Elizabeth failed to secure a dependent’s allowance as Patrick ‘was not engaged in military service’ when murdered.311

Charles Carrigan306 (28Apr1916/28) IV, 34, Tailor, RC JSH Carrigan, of 65 Eglinton Street, Glasgow, eldest of six children of Belfast parents, moved to Dublin in 1915, living at 28 North Frederick Street. He was in the Kimmage Garrison, comprised of men from Liverpool, London, Manchester and Glasgow who had returned to Ireland to avoid conscription and/or to fight in the Rising. Seriously wounded on Henry Street, he soon died. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: Q. a. 37.5). His mother and sister later secured dependent’s allowances.307 Thomas Kearse Cowley (28Apr1916/29) 66, Accountant, Widowed with one daughter, Plymouth Brethren Abbey Street, Dublin Cowley, from Surrey, lived at 93 Haddington Road, and was secretary of the Christian Union on Abbey Street, where he was shot by soldiers. Buried MJC (C. 159. 2). His daughter secured £195 from the RVC.308

Thomas Donnelly (28Apr1916/33) 52, Cabinet maker, Married, RC North Cumberland Street, Dublin Donnelly, of 35 North Cumberland Street, died when a bullet came through the window. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: K. a. 38). His widow Elizabeth secured £203 compensation from the RVC.312

Julia Crawford (28Apr1916/30) 20, Riveter’s wife, Married, RC Irvine Crescent, Dublin Julia Crawford was reportedly shot dead while sitting by the fire in her home, 7 Irvine Crescent. Buried GC (Dublin Section:

John Doyle (28Apr1916/34) 37, Van driver, Married with three children, RC Moore Lane, Dublin Doyle was shot while feeding his employer’s horses in Moore Lane across from his home at 16 Moore Street. Buried GC (St Paul’s

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Section: N. a. 38). His dependents secured £195 compensation from the RVC.313

Elizabeth Hanratty (28Apr1916/40) 28, Butcher’s wife, Married, RC Moore Street, Dublin Elizabeth Hanratty, from Meath, was shot through the window of her mother-in-law’s home at 39 Moore Street, one of many females to die during the Rising. John Lowe, later a well-known actor [John Loder], was visiting his father General Lowe, commanding British forces in Dublin, for Easter. He recalled that, although orders stipulated that ‘on no account was anyone under any circumstances . . . to shoot at a woman . . . I’m afraid a lot of them did get shot and that was the most awful sight I ever saw during the whole war, a woman lying shot in the street with her skirts bunched up around her shoulders. It was a terrible sight.’ Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: Y. §. 35). Her husband Robert secured £25 from the RVC.320

Richard Dunlea (28Apr1916/35) 48, Commercial clerk, RC Marlborough Street, Dublin From Cork, Dunlea, lodging at 88 Marlborough Street, died from wounds inflicted in unknown circumstances. Buried GC (Dublin Section: H § 40.5).314 Arthur Ferris (28Apr1916/36) 33, Labourer, Married with one child, RC Lower Kevin Street, Dublin Ferris, from Laois, living at 22 Lower Kevin Street, was shot at his sister’s door while bringing her bread. Buried GC (Dublin Section: O. §. 39.5). His widow Lizzie and child secured £215 compensation from the RVC.315 Patrick Friel (28Apr1916/37) 58, Nightwatchman, Married with five children, RC Capel Street, Dublin From Donegal, Friel, of 17 St Joseph’s Villas, was shot going to work. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: I. a. 37.5). His widow Margaret secured £193 compensation from the RVC.316

Charles Hayter (28Apr1916/41) 78, Retired grocer, Married with five children, CoI SPDH See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Hayter, from Scotland, living at 1.2 Canal House, Northumberland Road, died from wounds received while feeding animals nearby. Buried MJC (A. 275. 7). His widow Mary Ann secured £150 from the RVC.321

George Gray (28Apr1916/38) RDF, 22, Student, CoE Broadstone Railway Station, Dublin Gray, from Newcastle upon Tyne, studied dentistry before being commissioned as a lieutenant. On the afternoon of 25 April, the 4th Battalion, his unit, arrived in Dublin from Templemore and occupied Broadstone Railway Station. He was shot by Volunteers firing from houses near the corner of North Brunswick Street. Buried GMC (CE. 46).317

Morgan Hayes (28Apr1916/42) 45, Cooper, Married, RC Mary’s Lane, Dublin Hayes, from Limerick, living at 8 Christchurch Place, was shot while returning from work. Buried GC (Dublin Section: O. §. 30.5). His widow Catherine secured £300 from the RVC.322 Thomas Moran Jozé (28Apr1916/43) 62, Chemist, CoI Arran Quay, Dublin From Mayo, Jozé was a well-known pharmacist with shops on Dame Street and at 38 Arran Quay, where he lived. He was shot dead by insurgents while returning home. Reportedly deaf, he may not have heard a challenge to halt. Buried MJC (C. 113/134).323

John Hanna (28Apr1916/39) RIR (6774), RC Dublin Rifleman Hanna, from Downpatrick, Down, enlisted at Newtownards.318 He died in unknown circumstances. Buried GMC (RC. 711).319

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(Dublin Section: I. §. 40.5). His widow Mary secured £172 compensation from the RVC.328

John Meagher (28Apr1916/44) 57, Commercial clerk, Widowed, RC JSH From Tipperary, the 1911 census lists Meagher as a boarder at 12.2 Langrishe Place. He died of wounds. Buried GC (Dublin Section: O. §. 43.5).324

Thomas Reilly (28Apr1916/49) 63, Labourer, RC SDU See Barnett (27Apr1916/6). Reilly, a patient, died from gunshot wounds. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: M. a. 38).329

Julia Frances Merna (28Apr1916/45) 75, Widowed, RC Great Charles Street, Dublin Julia Merna was fatally wounded near her home, 32 Great Charles Street. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: R. a. 38).325

Bridget Stewart (28Apr1916/50) 11, Schoolgirl, RC RCDH Bridget, one of six children of labourer Charles and his wife Maria of 3 Pembroke Place, died from wounds. Buried DGC (N3. 25. W).330

William Mullen (28Apr1916/46) 9, Schoolboy, RC Moore Street, Dublin William, son of Richard and Eliza Mullen of 8 Moore Place, was shot when the family were compelled by fire to leave their home. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: O. a. 37.5). His father secured £25 from the RVC.326

William West (28Apr1916/51) 52, Labourer, ex-soldier, Married with three children, RC MMH West, of 16 Belvedere Place, was shot on Dorset Street while looking for bread and tobacco. Buried GC (Dublin Section: R. §. 33.5). His widow Jane secured £187 from the RVC.331

Michael Mulvihill (28Apr1916/47) IV, 37, Civil servant, RC Moore Street, Dublin Mulvihill, from Ballyduff, Kerry, joined the Volunteers while a civil service clerk in London. Among his comrades were Michael Collins,† Denis Daly (later a Kerry TD), Austin Kennan (Mulvihill’s brother-in-law) and Patrick O’Connor. Shortly before Easter 1916, Mulvihill was called up for military service. He instead travelled to Dublin, joining members of the Kimmage Garrison in the GPO on 24 April. They were stationed on the roof, remaining together until 27 April when their position became untenable. Kennan followed The O’Rahilly into Moore Street and survived. Nothing is known of Mulvihill’s final movements. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: 1916 Plot). His mother and a sister subsequently secured dependents’ awards.327 SA: O’Connor (28Apr1916/19)

Christopher Whelan (28Apr1916/52) 15, Messenger, RC North Great George’s Street, Dublin Whelan, son of Lawrence and Mary Whelan of 30.1 North Great George’s Street, was shot when a bullet came through the window. Buried GC (Garden Section: F. 72.5). His father secured £50 from the RVC.332 William Thomas Percy Wright (28Apr1916/53) South Staffordshire Regiment (4985), Protestant North King Street, Dublin Private Wright, from Cradley Heath, Staffordshire, served in the 2/6th Battalion. The 2/6th Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment, suffered the most fatalities of any army unit in Dublin other than the Sherwood Foresters. Most occurred in fierce fighting, much of it in darkness, along North King Street from the evening of 28 April until the following afternoon. Their commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Taylor, on

John O’Reilly (28Apr1916/48) 51, Labourer, Married, RC Capel Street, Dublin O’Reilly lived at 75 Capel Street, where he was shot through a window. Buried GC

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10 May gave a problematic account of these operations to a court of inquiry into the deaths of Peter Lawless, Patrick Hoey, James Finegan and James McCartney. At 16:50 on 28 April, Taylor received orders to bring his battalion from Trinity College to Capel Street to hold a line extending from the junction of Parnell Street and Capel Street to North King Street as far as Queen Street, where he was to link up with the 2/5th Battalion. Assisted by an armoured car, an advance party of the 2/6th overcame limited opposition to reach the junction of North King Street and Capel Street at about 18:30. Taylor occupied Bolton Street Technical School as his command post. Barricades and effective sniper fire from Volunteers in Moore’s Coach Factory on North Brunswick Street impeded progress. By 22:00, the 2/6th had only reached Halston Street, where opposition became stiffer still. Private Wright was one of the first fatalities. In an effort to outflank the barricades, soldiers broke into houses along the street and tunnelled through their walls. This led to the cold-blooded killing of thirteen civilians, discussed under the entry for Michael Hughes (29Apr1916/26) below. It took the military some hours to reach Linenhall Street, where they were held up by heavy fire from a stout barricade at No. 27 North King Street. There was a second barricade on Coleraine Street. Volunteer Patrick Kelly described how, in the early hours of 29 April, ‘a sudden rush by the enemy across King Street was met by fierce fire from us. About seven men made the dash up the street; only two minus rifles returned and they were shot as they tried to get across our barricade.’ This was one of several unsuccessful assaults. Liam O’Doherty recalled hearing a British officer giving:

and Church Street. As the soldiers advanced . . . they had a rifle in one hand and held their equipment on their backs with the other. Immediately we started to fire on them they turned everywhere and ran down the side street . . . right into the barricade on this street. I do not know if any . . . escaped, but when the British authorities afterwards stated that their casualties in this area were particularly heavy it is quite understandable. It would be difficult to find a similar example of such downright stupidity.

The centre of Volunteer resistance was a public house called ‘Reilly’s Fort’ at the corner of North King Street and Church Street. Michael O’Flanagan recalled that at about 04:00 Lieutenant Collins called a conference. He pointed out that if the British made a frontal assault the Volunteers would be unable to resist owing to scarcity of ammunition. O’Flanagan suggested that additional supplies and grenades be taken from Father Matthew Hall on Church Street. Volunteers Delamere and Patrick O’Flanagan (Michael’s brother) put themselves forward for this dangerous task. They reached Church Street under covering fire. At about 05:00, they returned under heavy fire. Delamere managed to enter ‘Reilly’s Fort’, but O’Flanagan was caught by machine-gun fire. His body was dragged into ‘Reilly’s Fort’, still bearing a number of slings of ammunition and two home-made grenades. There were other Volunteer fatalities. John Dwan, hit in the head at a barricade, died the following day. Patrick Kelly recalled that a hail of bullets came through Moore’s Coach Factory, mortally wounding Patrick Farrell and Peter Manning. Phil Walsh was killed in action in North Brunswick Street. At about 08:00, C Company, 2/6th Battalion, under Captain R. M. Sheppard, captured the North King Street barricades for the loss of thirteen men killed or wounded. By about 11:00 the military held the lower portion of the street. By 16:00, most Volunteers had fallen back to the Four Courts, where Ned Daly obeyed the surrender order. One unit under Paddy Holahan had lost contact with the Four Courts, and held out until 30 April.

instructions . . . in such a loud voice that we could hear everything that was said and prepared accordingly. We also passed the information to the men who were at our barricades further down Church Street who passed it on to a further barricade in a narrow street between North King Street Post Office (where the British section was)

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Buried GMC (CE. 644).333 RD: Banks (29Apr1916/7), Banting (29Apr 1916/8), Barratt (29Apr1916/9), Bourne (29Apr1916/11), Bowcott (29Apr1916/12), Chick (29Apr1916/13), Cobbold (29Apr 1916/14), Collins (29Apr1916/15), Dwan (30Apr1916/6), Farrell (29Apr1916/16), Fox (29Apr1916/17), Humphries (29Apr1916/18), Jobber (29Apr1916/19), Manning (29Apr 1916/20), O’Flanagan (29Apr1916/21), Speed (29Apr1916/23), Tempest (29Apr1916/24), Walsh (29Apr1916/25). SA: Daly (4May 1916/1), Finegan (29Apr1916/33), Hoey (29Apr1916/34), Lawless (29Apr1916/35), McCartney (29Apr1916/36)

his grandson, died next day. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: P. k. 296). His daughter secured £300 from the RVC.337 Francis Curley (28Apr1916/58) 52, Watchman, Married, RC JSH Curley lived at 16 Green Street. Shot on Nelson Lane on his way to work, he died next day. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: N. a. 38). His widow Margaret secured £162 compensation from the RVC.338 Patrick Stephenson (28Apr1916/59) 49, Undertaker, Married with five children, RC Marlborough Street, Dublin Stephenson, of 76.3 Lower Gloucester Street, manager of an undertaker’s, was shot in the head at the door of his employer’s premises at 66 Marlborough Street. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: K. h. 166). His widow Alice and children secured £300 compensation from the RVC.339

William Watson (28Apr1916/54) 61, Caretaker, Married, CoI JSH Watson, from Laois, lived on Swift’s Row and was caretaker of No. 55 Middle Abbey Street. Struck by a bullet which came through the window as he descended the stairs, he died that night. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: P. a. 37.5). His widow Elizabeth secured £273 compensation from the RVC.334

Patrick Kelly (28Apr1916/60) 13, Schoolboy Lower Rutland Street, Dublin Kelly, of 24 B Block, Buckingham Buildings, was shot in the mouth while looking for bread. His father Patrick secured £50 from the RVC.340

Michael Glynn (28Apr1916/55) 57, Nightwatchman, Married, RC Mercer’s Shot near his home, 24C Corporation Buildings, while going to work on 27 April, Glynn died next day. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: N. a. 38). His widow Mary received £150 from the RVC.335

Michael McCabe (28Apr1916/61) 67, Casual labourer, Widowed Richmond Hospital, Dublin McCabe, of 62 B Block, Corporation Buildings, Corporation Place, wounded on Bow Street on 27 April while returning home, died next day. His daughter Teresa secured £150 compensation from the RVC.341

Patrick Ivers (28Apr1916/56) 14, Newsboy MMH Ivers, of 14 Cumberland Street, sent out for milk, was shot scaling a wall trying to reach home on 27 April. He died next day. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: P. a. 38). His father Michael received £50 from the RVC.336

John H. McNamara (28Apr1916/62) 12, Schoolboy, RC Mercer’s McNamara, of 45 York Street, died from head wounds as he looked for his younger brother on Grafton Street. Buried MJC. His mother Lucy secured £25 from the RVC.342

Richard Clarke (28Apr1916/57) 70, Shoemaker, Widowed with two children, RC JSH Clarke, of 61 Beresford Road, shot on Abbey Street on 27 April while searching for

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29 APRIL 1916

Thomas Reilly (28Apr1916/63) 24, Storeman, Married with one child Cole’s Lane, Dublin Reilly, of Cole’s Lane, was shot on his return from the Rotunda hospital, where he sought a doctor for his wife. His widow Mary Ann secured £203 from the RVC.343

Michael Joseph Rahilly (The O’Rahilly) (29Apr1916/1) IV, 41, Merchant, Married with five children, RC Moore Lane, Dublin See Macken (28Apr1916/17). Rahilly was born in Ballylongford, Kerry, only son of Richard Rahilly, a prosperous merchant, and Ellen Mangan. Rahilly attended Clongowes Wood College, and briefly studied medicine at the Royal University. His father died while convalescing after tuberculosis in 1896, and the family business fell to Rahilly. From about 1899, Rahilly became an enthusiastic separatist, associating with Arthur Griffith† and contributing to the United Irishman and its successor Sinn Féin. He married Nancy (‘Nannie’) Browne of Philadelphia. They had five children, and lived at 40 Herbert Park. He began to style himself ‘The O’Rahilly’ from about 1909. He took part in the meeting in Wynn’s Hotel on 11 November 1913 which planned the inaugural Irish Volunteers Rotunda rally of 25 November. He became director of arms. Within the Volunteer executive, The O’Rahilly opposed the Rising. He was one of those dispatched by MacNeill on 22 April to countermand the manoeuvres outside Dublin, driving through the night to Limerick bearing the message ‘Volunteers completely deceived. All orders for special action are hereby cancelled and on no account will action be taken. [signed] Eoin MacNeill.’ He returned to Dublin the following evening. On the morning of 24 April, Desmond FitzGerald told him that fresh manoeuvres had been ordered. Realising that insurrection was unavoidable, The O’Rahilly decided to fight: ‘I have helped to wind up the clock, and must be there to hear it strike.’ He drove to Liberty Hall with his sister Anna. His car was used to carry arms to the GPO via the rear entrance on Prince’s Street, where it would later become part of a barricade. Throughout the following days, The O’Rahilly fought in the GPO, before leading Volunteers in a fatal dash along Moore Street, hoping to

Margaret Carrick (28Apr1916/64) 36, Housekeeper, RC SPDH Margaret Carrick lived at 45 Eblana Villas with her engine driver father James. Shot at the corner of Great Clarence Street and Hogan Avenue while out for provisions, she died on admission to Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital. Her brother John secured a compassionate grant of £25 from the RVC.344 Eugene Lynch (28Apr1916/65) 8, Schoolboy, RC Inchicore, Dublin Son of Anna Maria Lynch of 28 St Vincent St, Goldenbridge, Inchicore, Eugene was shot in the back while playing with other children near Richmond Barracks on the evening of 27 April, dying next day. His mother secured a compassionate grant of £25.345 Charles William Morgan (28Apr1916/66) 21, Clerk, CoI Great Charles Street, Dublin From Donegal, the son of George Morgan, a civil bills officer, and Elizabeth, he lived at 27 Great Charles Street. On the afternoon of 28 April he was sitting at the table in the front room reading a book when a bullet came through the window and killed him instantly. His father was awarded £75 by the RVC.346 Joseph Murray (28Apr1916/67) 14, Schoolboy, RC Upper Bridge Street, Dublin Son of John Murray, a labourer of 14 St Augustine Street, he was shot dead at around 13:00 while on an errand. His father secured a compassionate grant of £25 from the RVC.347

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reach the Williams & Woods soap factory. Hit, he crawled over to Moore Lane, and was hit again. Tom Crimmins heard him ‘say a few prayers and then . . . “God help you, Poor Ireland”’. Crimmins crawled over to him, but The O’Rahilly ordered him to look after himself. The O’Rahilly managed to scribble a final note to his wife:

where he married. Invalided home from France, he joined the 2nd King Edward’s Horse (Cavalry Special Reserve) in December 1915. Lieutenant Lucas had been offered the adjutancy of his regiment just before his death. Two soldiers and two Guinness Brewery employees were shot on the night of 28–9 April in circumstances which showed an NCO at best panic-stricken, at worst a callous killer. Captain Charles McNamara was ordered to occupy the malthouse on Robert Street on 28 April, with instructions not to return fire unless actually attacked. At 23:00, another officer was detailed to take Lucas and seven men to relieve McNamara. The latter later deposed that he handed over command to Lucas and explained the orders. There was no one else in the building except three watchmen who carried lights when on their rounds. Company Quartermaster Sergeant Robert Flood, 5th Battalion, RDF, led a security detail within the brewery. McNamara said later that he believed it possible that, in the dark, Flood may not have seen Lucas’s rank, and mistook him and Guinness employee William Rice for rebels – because Flood arrested the men, and decided to kill them. Lucas asked permission to say his prayers. Flood ordered his men to fire first at Lucas and then at Rice. Captain A. R. Rotheram of the 10th Reserve Cavalry stated that at about 02:00 Lieutenant Worsley-Worswick and Guinness employee Cecil Dockeray, who were elsewhere in the brewery, told him that a telephone message from the malthouse had come through saying William Rice was being held prisoner. Rotheram instructed Worsley-Worswick to do nothing until morning. However, he and Dockeray evidently went to investigate. At around 03:30, Sergeant Flood reported to Rotheram that he had shot two men in the malthouse, and that he thought the malthouse was full of insurgents. Rotheram found the bodies of Worsley-Worthwick and Dockeray on the third floor of the malthouse. On 12 June, Flood faced a court martial at Richmond Barracks on a charge of murdering Lucas and Rice. He was acquitted. Buried GMC (Grave 66).350

Written after I was shot – Darling Nancy I was shot leading a rush up Moore St & took refuge in a doorway.    While I was there I heard the men pointing out where I was & made a bolt for the laneway I am in now.    I got more than one bullet I think. Tons and tons of love dear to you & the boys & to Nell and Anna [sisters]. It was a good fight anyhow. Please deliver this to Nannie O Rahilly, 40 Herbert Park, Dublin. Goodbye Darling.

Marcus Bourke suggested he possibly survived until the next morning, whereas O’Rahilly’s son Aodogán maintained he died within hours. He was the only member of the Provisional Committee of the Irish Volunteers to be killed in action. Buried GC republican plot (South Section: T. d. 35). In 1937, a plaque was unveiled on Moore Street. Moore Lane was renamed O’Rahilly Parade.348 Thomas Rafferty (29Apr1916/2) IV, 22, RC Ashbourne, Meath See Shanagher (28Apr1916/2). ‘Tommy’ Rafferty, a son of James Rafferty of Lusk, Dublin, a well-known piper and hurler, was a member of the 5th (Fingal) Battalion, Dublin Brigade. Buried Lusk Cemetery. In 1959, he was commemorated on a memorial in Ashbourne. His mother later secured a dependent’s award.349 Algernon Lucas (29Apr1916/3) King Edward’s Horse, 37, Married with children, Protestant Guinness Malthouse, Robert Street, Dublin Lucas, a Cambridge graduate, immigrated to Canada as a schoolmaster but made his fortune in the stock exchange in Montreal,

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RD: Dockeray (29Apr1916/4), Rice (29Apr 1916/5), Worsley-Worswick (29Apr1916/6)

John S. Barratt356 (29Apr1916/9) South Staffordshire Regiment (4276), 48, Married, CoE North King Street, Dublin See Wright (28Apr1916/53). Barratt, a corporal in the 2/6th Battalion, enlisted in his home town of Wolverhampton, where his wife Selina lived at 29 Art Street. Buried GMC (CE. 638). He is commemorated on the Wolverhampton war memorial. In January 1917, he was posthumously mentioned in dispatches for distinguished service during the Rising.357

Cecil Eustace Dockeray (29Apr1916/4) 43, Clerk, Married with two children, CoI Guinness Malthouse, Robert Street, Dublin See Lucas (29Apr1916/3). Dockeray lived at 4 Warwick Terrace, Leeson Park. He had worked in the Guinness Brewery for twentyfour years. Buried MJC (B. 182. 27). His widow Violet secured a yearly pension of £78 and a lump sum of £750.351 William John Rice (29Apr1916/5) 35, Clerk, Married, Protestant Guinness Malthouse, Robert Street, Dublin See Lucas (29Apr1916/3). Rice, of Sandford Terrace, had worked at the Guinness Brewery for sixteen years, and was on duty as night clerk. Buried in the family vault, MJC (C. 62). His widow secured a yearly pension of £68.6s.8d. and a lump sum of £500.352

John Beirnes (29Apr1916/10) 50, Drayman, Married with five children, RC Coleraine Street, Dublin Beirnes, of 80 Church Street, had been a drayman for many years in Monks’ Bakery. His wife Elizabeth Beirnes stated that during Easter Week she was warned of the dangers of remaining in Church Street and on 28 April sought shelter in the North Dublin Union. Her husband remained behind. However, after his house was occupied by Volunteers he went to Coleraine Street and stayed with Larry Fox, the bakery yardman. At about 07:30, as the two men set out to tend to the bakery horses, Beirnes was shot in the head. Ellen Walsh and Elizabeth Beirnes believed he was shot by soldiers from the window of Dunne’s butcher shop, the only house covering the street. Buried GC (South Section: R 40.5). His dependents secured £199 compensation from the RVC.358 RD: O’Neill (29Apr1916/22)

Basil Henry Worsley-Worswick (29Apr1916/6) King Edward’s Horse, 35, RC Guinness Malthouse, Robert Street, Dublin See Lucas (29Apr1916/3). Lieutenant Worsley-Worswick, the son of Major William Worsley-Worswick of Normanton Hall, Leicestershire, enlisted in August 1914, serving in France before being commissioned in September 1915. He was stationed in the Curragh. Buried GMC (Grave 5).353 Arthur Banks (29Apr1916/7) South Staffordshire Regiment (5082), 24, CoE 172 North King Street, Dublin See Wright (28Apr1916/53). Private Banks of the 2/6th Battalion, son of Isaac and Sarah Jane Banks of 21 Victoria Road, Wednesfield, Staffordshire, enlisted at Wolverhampton. Buried GMC (CE. 628). He is commemorated on the Wednesfield war memorial.354

Harold Bourne (29Apr1916/11) South Staffordshire Regiment (5024), 24, CoE North King Street, Dublin See Wright (28Apr1916/53). Private Bourne of the 2/6th Battalion, the son of John and Alice Bourne of the post office, Sedgley, Staffordshire, enlisted at Wolverhampton. Buried GMC (CE. 612).359

Frederick Charles Banting (29Apr1916/8) South Staffordshire Regiment (3736), CoE North King Street, Dublin See Wright (28Apr1916/53). Banting was from Wolverhampton, where he enlisted as a private in the 2/6th Battalion. Buried GMC (CE. 612).355

John Reginald Bowcott (29Apr1916/12) South Staffordshire Regiment (4804), 19, CoE North King Street, Dublin See Wright (28Apr1916/53). Private Bowcott of the 2/6th Battalion was son of Mrs Louise

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Bowcott of Wolverhampton, where he enlisted. Buried GMC (CE. 612). He is named on the Wolverhampton war memorial.360

William Henry Humphries (29Apr1916/18) South Staffordshire Regiment (5154), 19, CoE North King Street, Dublin366 See Wright (28Apr1916/53). Private Humphries of the 2/6th Battalion was the son of Benjamin and Martha Humphries of Mansfield, Staffordshire. Buried GMC (CE. 650).367

James Chick (29Apr1916/13) South Staffordshire Regiment (5035), CoE North King Street, Dublin See Wright (28Apr1916/53). Private Chick of the 2/6th Battalion, from Wombourne, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, enlisted at Wolverhampton. Buried GMC (CE. 639). He is commemorated on the Wombourne war memorial.361

Francis Jobber (29Apr1916/19) South Staffordshire Regiment (5076), 26, Married, Protestant North King Street, Dublin See Wright (28Apr1916/53). Private ‘Frank’ Jobber of the 2/6th Battalion was youngest son of Harry Barton and Florence Jobber of Willenhall, Staffordshire, where he enlisted. His wife Florence Maria lived at 428 Wolverhampton Road, Walsall. Buried GMC (CE. 612), he is commemorated on the Willenhall war memorial.368

Arthur Elias Cobbold (29Apr1916/14) Army Service Corps (M/2148822), 23, CoE North King Street, Dublin See Wright (28Apr1916/53). Private Cobbold of the 615th Mechanised Transport Company enlisted in his home town of Blandford, Dorset. Buried GMC (CE. 613).362 Thomas Albert Collins (29Apr1916/15) South Staffordshire Regiment, CoE North King Street, Dublin See Wright (28Apr1916/53). Private Collins of the 2nd/6th Battalion enlisted in Wolverhampton. Buried GMC (CE. 647).363

Peter Paul Manning (29Apr1916/20) IV, c. 25, Paper ruler, RC Moore’s Coach Factory, North Brunswick Street, Dublin See Wright (28Apr1916/53). Manning lived with his widowed mother and sisters at 4 Broadstone Avenue. He was fatally wounded in the shop above Moore’s Coach Factory on North Brunswick Street. Buried GC (St Patrick’s Section: K. j. 243). One sister later received a dependent’s allowance.369

Patrick Farrell (29Apr1916/16) IV, 19, Plasterer, RC North King Street, Dublin See Wright (28Apr1916/53). Farrell, of 169 Parnell Street, had reportedly been inactive since the Volunteer movement split in 1914, but joined the fighting during Easter Week. Michael O’Flanagan said Farrell was killed by a British sniper. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: 1916 Plot). His mother and a sister subsequently secured dependents’ allowances.364

Patrick Joseph O’Flanagan (29Apr1916/21) IV, 24, Married with three children, RC ‘Reilly’s Fort’, North King Street, Dublin See Wright (28Apr1916/53). O’Flanagan, whose parents Christopher and Eliza Flanagan owned a poultry shop at 30½ Moore Street, was one of four brothers who fought during the Rising. He was shot through the neck. His widow Mary O’Hanlon, who remarried in 1918, received £150 from the National Aid Association, with £320 being held in trust for her children, before securing a dependent’s award of £72 yearly in 1924. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: 1916 Plot).370

Ernest Fox (29Apr1916/17) South Staffordshire Regiment (5073), CoE North King Street, Dublin See Wright (28Apr1916/53). Private Fox of the 2/6th Battalion, from Willenhall, Staffordshire, enlisted at Wolverhampton. Buried GMC (CE. 649). He is commemorated on the Willenhall war memorial.365

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Thirteen civilians were killed in cold blood as the military tightened its cordon around North King Street. Nine men died on the south side of the street in houses which formed a block between Ann Street and Beresford Street, and four on the northern side of North King Street in No. 27. General Sir John Maxwell later admitted that some soldiers ‘saw red’ but defended their actions:

William O’Neill (29Apr1916/22) 17, Van man, RC Constitution Hill, Dublin William was the son of John, a labourer, and Alice O’Neill of 93 Upper Church Street. His sister Ellen was married to John Walsh, killed on 29 April. According to Ellen Walsh, William was shot in the early morning on Constitution Hill, by soldiers firing from the window of Dunne’s butcher shop. He and another man had gone to look at the body of John Beirnes, fearing this might be that of his father. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: I. h. 146). His father received £50 from the RCV.371 SA: Beirnes (29Apr1916/10), Walsh (29Apr 1916/27)

The struggle was in many cases of a houseto-house character . . . sniping was continuous and very persistent . . . it was often extremely difficult to distinguish between those who were or had been firing upon the troops and those who had for various reasons chosen to remain on the scene of the fighting.

Bert Speed (29Apr1916/23) South Staffordshire Regiment (3946), CoE North King Street, Dublin See Wright (28Apr1916/53). Private Speed of the 2/6th Battalion enlisted in his home town of Wolverhampton, Staffordshire. Buried GMC (CE. 637).372

In a letter to the chief secretary on 19 July 1916, Sarah Hughes described how during Easter Week she gave shelter to eighteen people, including John Walsh, his wife and three children. At about 05:00 on 29 April, a party of eleven members of 2/6th Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment, under Corporal Bullock, broke into No. 172. Sarah told them that there were no rebels in the house. The soldiers ordered everyone to put their hands up, and searched the occupants and then the rooms. When John Walsh and Michael Hughes were searched, one soldier allegedly said, ‘Give those Irish pigs an ounce of lead.’ The women and children were herded into a cellar. Walsh and Hughes were taken upstairs. Ellen Walsh could make out someone begging for mercy. However, the noise of firing outside made it impossible to determine when the men upstairs were shot. The military then tunnelled through the walls into the adjoining houses. In the afternoon, Sarah Hughes found Sergeant Banks lying wounded, and summoned his comrades to help him. She later saw Patrick Walsh’s body by the fireplace in the drawing room. When she asked where her husband was, she was told that he had been taken to a detention barracks, but at about 22:00 she found him dead upstairs, shot in the head. Jewellery which he was safeguarding for her was missing. On 27 May, a court

David Percival Tempest (29Apr1916/24) South Staffordshire Regiment (889), CoE North King Street, Dublin See Wright (28Apr1916/53). Company Quartermaster Sergeant Tempest of the 2/6th Battalion, from Liverpool, enlisted at Wolverhampton. Buried GMC (CE. 626).373 Philip Walsh (29Apr1916/25) IV, 28, Gilder, RC North Brunswick Street, Dublin See Wright (28Apr1916/53). ‘Phil’ Walsh of 43 Manor Street, a member of the Croke Football Club, was a signalling sergeant. Patrick J. Kelly recalled that Volunteers on North King Street wondered why their comrades in ‘Reilly’s Fort’ had ceased firing. Three men, commanded by Walsh, went to reconnoitre. Walsh was shot in the yard of a chemist’s shop. Buried GC (Dublin Section: F. §. 24.5).374 Michael Hughes (29Apr1916/26) 34, Shopkeeper, Married with three children, RC 172 North King Street, Dublin Hughes and his wife Sarah, of 172 North King Street, had opened a small provisions shop only two days before the Rising.

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of inquiry found there was no evidence to show that Hughes and Walsh were killed by soldiers. Kate Ennis explained that she and her husband occupied rooms on the top floor of the three-storey house, No. 174. Michael Smith had two rooms on the first floor and Michael Nunan’s sister kept a newsagent’s and tobacconist shop on the ground floor. On the morning of 29 April, all the residents, with the exception of Smith and Nunan’s sister, were in a parlour at the back of the shop. At about 06:00, soldiers burst in and demanded to know how many men were in the building. They searched the house, thrusting bayonets through beds. Nunan and Ennis were ordered upstairs. Kate Ennis and Anne Fennell were locked into the parlour. As her husband was led away, Kate Ennis clung to him. According to Anne Fennell, one of the soldiers pushed her aside, put a bayonet to her head and shouted, ‘Keep quiet, you bloody bitch.’ At about 08:00, George Ennis staggered downstairs and fell through the parlour door, shot in the chest. He told his wife that he did not know why the soldiers shot him. He asked for a priest and, just before he died at 08:20, said that he forgave his killers. The military left and did not return until 18:00, when Anne Fennell and Kate Ennis were released. They found Nunan lying upstairs, shot in the head. Anne Fennell described him as ‘a very quiet, inoffensive young man’. Thomas Hickey, his son Christy and Peter Connolly were taken from Hickey’s shop at 168 North King Street, led through No. 169, which was a tenement, and killed in No. 170, a disused house. Kate Kelly, Mrs Hickey’s maid, stated that as soldiers arrived at about 18:45 on 28 April, Hickey and Connolly were chatting. The latter had come to move two mirrors. Unable to return home due to heavy firing, Connolly stayed for the night. At about 06:00 on 29 April, they heard the noise of drilling at the wall. Several soldiers came through a breach from No. 169 and held the occupants prisoner. At around 10:00, they were escorted into No. 170. Kate Kelly was kept in a front room from where she heard Christy Hickey plead for his father’s life

before shots rang out. When Mrs Connolly saw her husband’s body the following day it bore several gashes to the neck and head, which, she believed, were bayonet wounds. It is unclear if Connolly had been involved in the Rising. At a secret court of inquiry, two police witnesses claimed that he had been seen on the roofs of houses in North King Street, allegedly directing rebels towards Anne Street. The final set of killings took place in the Louth Dairy, 27 North King Street. Peter Lawless, his mother and her two tenants were present along with James McCartney, his wife and child, who were family friends. At about 08:30, Lawless opened the door to a party of troops. A sergeant apparently refused to believe assurances that there were no insurgents in the building and took the men prisoner. The women were taken to a house in Linenhall Street. Returning that evening, Mrs Lawless found her son dead on an upstairs landing where she had last seen him. James Finegan and Patrick Hoey were also dead, as was James McCartney, found in a sitting position against a wall. Mrs McCartney claimed that her husband’s watch and other valuables had been stolen. A court of inquiry into these deaths was held on 10 May, but none of the witnesses were able to recognise any of the soldiers. Police witnesses deposed that Lawless, McCartney, Finegan and Hoey were not Volunteers. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: W. e. 41).375 RD: Connolly (29Apr1916/30), Ennis (29Apr 1916/28), Finegan (29Apr1916/33), Hickey (29Apr1916/31), Hickey (29Apr1916/32), Hoey (29Apr1916/34), Lawless (29Apr1916 /35), McCartney (29Apr1916/36), Nunan (29Apr1916/29), Walsh (29Apr1916/27). SA: Banks (29Apr1916/7) John Walsh (29Apr1916/27) 34, Cattle drover, ex-serviceman, Married with three children, RC 172 North King Street, Dublin See Hughes (29Apr1916/26). Walsh, a Boer War veteran, lived with his wife Ellen at 93 Upper Church Street. Buried GC (Dublin Section: G. §. 47.5).376

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George Ennis (29Apr1916/28) 49, Coachbuilder, Married, RC 174 North King Street, Dublin See Hughes (29Apr1916/26). Ennis worked in Moore’s Coach Factory. He lived with his wife Kate at 174 North King Street. Buried GC (Dublin Section: K. §. 49.5).377

Patrick Hoey (29Apr1916/34) 28, Van driver, RC 27 North King Street, Dublin See Hughes (29Apr1916/26). Hoey lived at 27 North King Street. Buried GC (Dublin Section: Q. §. 40.5).383 Peter (Peadar) Joseph Lawless (29Apr1916/35) 21, Motor mechanic, RC 27 North King Street, Dublin See Hughes (29Apr1916/26). Lawless, from New York, lived with his mother Brigid, who owned the Louth Dairy at 27 North King Street. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: F. h. 104.5).384

Michael Nunan (29Apr1916/29) 34, Tobacconist, RC 174 North King Street, Dublin See Hughes (29Apr1916/26). Nunan, formerly a Corporation messenger, helped his Limerick-born mother Elizabeth run her shop at 174 North King Street. Buried GC (South Section: P. a. 64.5).378

James McCartney (29Apr1916/36) 36, Manager, Married with one child, RC 27 North King Street, Dublin See Hughes (29Apr1916/26). McCartney was manager of Gallagher’s tobacco store at 24 Dame Street, and lived at 16 Exchange Place with his wife Mary and their three-week-old child. Buried GC (Dublin Section: V. §. 49.5).385

Peter Connolly (29Apr1916/30) IV, 39, Carrier, General dealer, Married with seven children, RC 170 North King Street, Dublin See Hughes (29Apr1916/26). Connolly, of 164 North King Street, was a Volunteer but reportedly took no part in the Rising. He worked for Fenlon’s in Mary’s Lane, and owned a small hardware shop at 164 North King Street.379

Patrick Bealin (29Apr1916/37) 24, Vintner, RC 177 North King Street, Dublin From Castlecomer, Kilkenny, Bealin moved to Dublin in August 1915 and worked in Mary O’Rourke’s licensed premises at 177 North King Street. Bealin allegedly acted as a dispatch carrier for the Volunteers. On 29 April, soldiers shot and buried him in the cellar. On 10 May, the bodies of Bealin and James Healy were disinterred. At an inquest at the City Morgue, Mary O’Rourke deposed that at midnight on 28 April she, her three children, the cook and Bealin took refuge in the cellar of 177 North King Street. A military party entered and soldiers searched Bealin and Mary O’Rourke’s thirteen-year-old son and then ordered everyone upstairs. Sometime later, Bealin was taken away. Mrs Roseanna Knowles of 23 Lurgan Street claimed a soldier told her he had not wanted to shoot Bealin, but eventually took him upstairs and killed him. Medical evidence showed that the fatal rounds were fired from some distance.

Christopher Hickey (29Apr1916/31) 16, Butcher’s assistant, RC 170 North King Street, Dublin See Hughes (29Apr1916/26). ‘Christy’ was son of Thomas and Teresa Hickey of 168 North King Street. Buried with his father at DGC (P3. 28. W).380 RD: Hickey (29Apr1916/32) Thomas Hickey (29Apr1916/32) 41, Butcher, Married with children, RC 170 North King Street, Dublin See Hughes (29Apr1916/26). Hickey lived above his shop at 168 North King Street. Buried with his son at DGC (P3. 28. W).381 James Finegan (29Apr1916/33) 40, Van driver, RC 27 North King Street, Dublin See Hughes (29Apr1916/26). Finegan lived at 27 North King Street. Buried GC (Dublin Section: Q. §. 40.5).382

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No soldiers gave evidence. The military authorities later stated that Bealin had been armed with a revolver given to him by Mary O’Rourke to ward off looters, a fact that had not been disclosed at the inquest. The jury found that Bealin was ‘an unarmed and unoffending prisoner . . . the explanation given by the military authorities is very unsatisfactory, and we believe that if the military authorities had any inclination they could produce the officer in charge’. By contrast, General Maxwell blamed ‘those resisting His Majesty’s troops in the execution of their duty’. A similar verdict was returned in the case of James Healy, who had been on his way to work when detained. This inquest occasioned much public outcry. Buried Castlecomer Cemetery, Kilkenny.386 RD: Healy (29Apr1916/38)

Jane Caldwell (29Apr1916/41) 23, Seamstress, Married, RC Store Street, Dublin Jane Caldwell of 58 Foley Street was shot while trying to buy bread at Rourke’s bakery. Buried GC (Dublin Section: W. §. 30.5). Her husband Edward secured £50 from the RVC.390 Mary Anne Cole (29Apr1916/42) 38, Domestic servant, Married, RC Upper Gloucester Street, Dublin Mary Anne Cole was shot in the head by a bullet which came through the window as she got out of bed at 14 Upper Gloucester Street. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: N. a. 37.5). Her father secured £25 from the RVC.391 Mary Anne Corrigan (29Apr1916/43) 34, Dealer, Widowed, RC MHD Mary Anne Corrigan of 8 Engine Alley was killed in unknown circumstances. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: G. a. 37.5).392

James Patrick Healy (29Apr1916/38) 42, Clerk, Married with four children, RC 177 North King Street, Dublin See Bealin (29Apr1916/37). Healy had worked in Jameson’s Distillery, Bow Lane, for fourteen years. He and his wife Catherine, of 143 Church Street, stayed at 7 Little Green Street after fighting broke out. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: O. b. 7).387

Margaret Daly (29Apr1916/44) 70, Housekeeper, Widowed, RC Queen Street, Dublin Margaret Daly was killed in her home, 57.6 Queen Street, by a stray bullet. Buried GC (Dublin Section: J. §. 49.5). Her daughter secured £10 burial expenses from the RVC.393

Percival Havelock Acheson (29Apr1916/39) Army Service Corps, 58, Retired, Married with one child, CoE Dublin Acheson was commissioned on 4 December 1878. He retired as a major on 31 July 1895. He and his wife Charlotte lived at Ive-leBawn, Fermoy, Cork. Acheson was killed in unknown circumstances while taking part in the suppression of the Rising. Buried Church of Ireland Churchyard, Castlehyde, Cork.388

Patrick Dignam (29Apr1916/45) 51, Van driver, Married with six children, RC Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin Dignam, of 22 Lower Ormond Quay, had worked for Sir Joseph Downes’s Bakery for twenty-one years, and was secretary to the A. M. Sullivan branch of the National Foresters. He was shot near the metal (Grattan) bridge on Lower Ormond Quay on the way to work. Buried GC (Dublin Section: D. §. 28.5). His widow Maria and dependents secured £273 compensation from the RVC.394

Bridget Barry (29Apr1916/40) 36, Seamstress, Married, RC Lower Dominick Street, Dublin Bridget was hit in the head by a bullet which came through the window of her home at 44 Lower Dominick Street. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: Y. k. 328). Her husband Patrick secured £50 from the RVC.389

Robert Dillon (29Apr1916/46) 55, Poulterer, Married with one child, RC Moore Street, Dublin From Kerry, Dillon, of 8 Moore Street, owned a fruit shop at 6 and 6A Moore Street. He was

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very active in the St Vincent de Paul charity. He was shot as he attempted to flee his burning premises with his wife, who was wounded, and daughter. Séamus Scully recalled that the Carroll family in No. 49 used a rope to drag the Dillons into their shop. The Irish Independent reported that he was most likely dead when brought to the Rotunda Hospital. James Ryan, then a medical officer with the Volunteers and afterwards a government minister, described how when he evacuated the GPO on 29 April, he saw:

Tuesday at Boland’s Bakery. ‘While suffering from overstrain [he] was shot dead in an encounter with a sentry’ near the railway line: first aid man Seán Byrne saw his remains lying ‘in a railway carriage’. Ennis’s sister Sarah Rogers subsequently failed to secure a dependent’s award. Ennis may be the unnamed unhinged Volunteer who shot Peadar Macken (27Apr1916/27) before being killed in turn by a comrade, although the stated date of death differs. Buried GC (Dublin Section: A. §. 24.5).400

a sight I shall never forget. Lying dead on the opposite footpath of Moore Street with white flags in their hands were three elderly men. It seems that when they feared the fires would soon reach their homes they decided to take the chance of walking out carrying white flags. But they were cut down by the British machine-guns.

Daniel Glennon (29Apr1916/50) 62, Porter, Widowed, RC East Arran Street, Dublin Glennon, of 99.3 Upper Church Street, was shot on East Arran Street as he went towards his son’s house. Buried GC (Garden Section: W. 82.5). His son George secured £10 funeral expenses from the RVC.401

Buried GC (Garden Section: M. e. 133.5). His widow Ellen secured £300 from the RVC.395

William Gregg (29Apr1916/51) 62, Bottle blower, Married with three children, RC RCDH Gregg, a Scot, lived at 135 Stella Gardens, Irishtown. He died of gunshot wounds inflicted while buying tobacco in Ringsend. Buried DGC (S3. 34. W). His widow Mary secured £150 from the RVC.402

Cornelius Duggan (29Apr1916/47) RIR (3/5470), 23, RC MHD Rifleman Duggan, son of Bridget Duggan of Calhame, Annagry, Donegal,396 enlisted in Glasgow. He died from wounds. Buried RHKC.397

Thomas Harrison (29Apr1916/52) Army Service Corps (M2/156059), Protestant Dublin Castle From Salford, Lancashire, Private Harrison enlisted at Grove Park in the 615th Mechanised Transport Company. He was killed in unknown circumstances. Buried GMC (CE. 646).403

Edward Dunne (29Apr1916/48) 38, Dairyman, Married with three children, RC Grangegorman, Dublin Dunne lived at 91.3 North King Street. He was shot dead outside 14 Grangegorman as he returned from delivering milk. Buried GC (Dublin Section: H. §. 43.5). His widow Jane and children secured £179 compensation from the RVC.398

William Joseph Heavey (29Apr1916/53) 34, Grocer, RC MMH From Roscommon, Heavey lived at 57 Moore Street. Although carrying a white flag, he was shot dead as he and his sister fled his burning premises. Buried GC (Dublin Section: O. §. 48.5). His sister Mary Anne secured £300 compensation from the RVC.404

Edward Ennis (29Apr1916/49) IV, c. 31,399 Chimney cleaner, RC Grand Canal Street, Dublin Ennis lived with his parents at 5 Dromard Avenue. Away at the Punchestown races on 24 April, he joined comrades on Easter

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John (Seán) Bernard Howard (29Apr1916/54) IV, 17, Fitter’s apprentice, RC Richmond Hospital, Dublin Howard, eldest of twelve children of George and Annie Howard of 26 Temple Cottages, Broadstone, was a boy clerk in London for a year before taking a Land Commission post in Dublin in 1915 to avoid conscription. In early 1916, he became an apprentice in Dublin Corporation. He was a member of the Dublin Brigade and the Fianna Éireann Pipers’ Band. Éamon Morkan stated Howard was wounded manning a barricade on Church Street, dying that evening. Buried GC (St Patrick’s Section: N. l. 308.5). His mother Annie was unable to secure a dependent’s allowance because of her husband’s level of income; a sister who subsequently applied was also refused because she had never been a dependent, being only two at the time of her brother’s death.405

was seriously injured. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: Q. a. 37.5). His widow Elizabeth and children secured £300 compensation from the RVC.407

John (Seán) Hurley (29Apr1916/55) IV, 29, Draper, RC Father Matthew Hall, Church Street, Dublin Hurley, from Drinagh, Cork, joined the Gaelic League and GAA, and was sworn into the IRB, while working at Harrods in London. He was honorary treasurer of the Irish Volunteers in London before returning to Dublin to work in the wholesale drapery trade. Shot in the Four Courts area, he died in Church Street. Christine O’Gorman (née Hayes), a nurse in the Red Cross station in Father Matthew Hall, recalled how he was buried unidentified. Some weeks later, a London woman friend came to Dublin to make inquiries, and Christine recognised Hurley from a photograph. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: 1916 Plot). His widowed mother subsequently received a dependent’s gratuity of £100.406

James Moore (29Apr1916/59) 29, Corporation labourer, Married with two children, RC Little Britain Street, Dublin Moore, of 124 Church Street, was shot by soldiers at the door of his mother’s home. Buried GC (Dublin Section: R. §. 39.5). His widow Mary and children secured £215 from the RVC.410

Wilfred Llewellyn (29Apr1916/57) Pembroke Yeomanry (4954), 17, Protestant Mercer’s From Llanstadwell, Wales, Private Llewellyn, who enlisted at Haverfordwest, was killed in unknown circumstances. Buried GMC (CE. 640).408 Patrick McManus (29Apr1916/58) 60, Corporation pensioner, Married with five children, RC Moore Street, Dublin From Meath, McManus, of 12 Moore Street, was shot dead while crossing the street after Volunteers who had tunnelled into his house told everyone to leave. Buried GC (Dublin Section: D. §. 30.5). His widow Bridget secured £156 from the RVC.409

Nathaniel Morton411 (29Apr1916/60) RIR (250), 18, Presbyterian Dublin Castle Lance-Corporal Morton, one of six children of James and Sarah Morton of 22 Woodvale Street, Belfast, died in unknown circumstances. Buried GMC (Pres. 96).412 Mary Morris (29Apr1916/61) 27, Domestic servant, RC Upper Mount Street, Dublin Mary Morris was fatally wounded when a bullet came through the window of her employer’s house at 31 Upper Mount Street. Buried GC (Dublin Section: K. §. 29.5). Her mother secured £54 from the RVC.413

Christopher Jordan (29Apr1916/56) 45, Plumber, Married with six children, RC Grant’s Row Jordan lived at 5 Grant’s Row, where he was shot through a window. His son James

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GC. His widow Kathleen and child secured £234 compensation from the RVC.416

Seán (John) James O’Grady (29Apr1916/62) IV, 27, Porter, Married, RC Adelaide Hospital, Dublin O’Grady lived on Ormond Quay, and was a Volunteer. Seán Murphy recorded that Thomas MacDonagh dispatched a small cycle party under Dan O’Riordan from Jacob’s Factory towards Mount Street Bridge to draw British fire away from Boland’s Bakery. This came under considerable fire from the direction of Holles Street. As they returned to Jacob’s, the party was warned by people on Cuffe Street about troops at the top of Grafton Street. Some Volunteers went by Cuffe Street while the remainder cycled along St Stephen’s Green West and turned on to York Street. O’Grady was wounded in the stomach at the corner of York Street by a soldier firing from Sibley’s bookshop on Grafton Street. Taken back to Jacob’s and then to the Adelaide Hospital, he later died. According to Murphy and Michael Walker, O’Grady was the only fatality of the Jacob’s garrison. O’Grady’s brother Charles also fought during the Rising. Buried St James’s Churchyard, James’s Street, Dublin. In 1925 his widow Josephine, ‘a loyal supporter of the State’, received a dependent’s yearly pension of £90, and a ‘first remarriage gratuity’ of £120 in 1932.414 SA: MacDonagh (3May1916/3)

Mary Timmins (29Apr1916/65) 39, Charwoman, Married with six children, RC Harmony Row, Dublin Mary Timmins, of 4 Harmony Row, was shot in the head as she left home to buy food. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: Q. a. 38). Her husband John secured £50 from the RVC.417 Arthur Charles Smith (29Apr1916/66) 4th (Queen’s Own) Hussars (2373), Protestant College Green, Dublin From Maldon, Essex, Private Smith enlisted at Colchester. He was shot near Trinity College. Buried GMC (CE. 807). He is commemorated by a plaque in Trinity College.418 Arthur Neill Weekes (29Apr1916/67) ICA, 30, Chef GPO, Sackville Street, Dublin The Republican Soldiers’ Casualty Committee described Arthur Weekes as a Germanborn chef working in the Shelbourne Hotel, whereas the Last Post claimed he was from Norwich. Max Caulfield termed him a Londoner. Weekes, who apparently belonged to the German Communist Party and the Irish Socialist Party, joined the ICA in November 1915 and was a ‘thoroughly good soldier’. Charles Saurin made several references to a Londoner named ‘Neale’ in the ICA garrison in the Metropole Hotel in Sackville Street. ‘Neale’ wore no uniform and had a German rifle. He had taken part in the attempted destruction of the Great Northern viaduct in Fairview on Easter Monday, and displayed considerable bravery during heavy firing on 26 and 27 April. When the hotel became untenable, Oscar Traynor led his garrison into the yard of the GPO. There ‘some projectile struck and exploded the contents of Andy Furlong’s right-hand pouch. It contained revolver ammunition which went off like shrapnel’, wounding Furlong, Saurin and ‘Neale’. Saurin believed that ‘Neale’ died next day as he was being taken to Dublin Castle.419

Thomas Pentony (29Apr1916/63) 48, Storeman, Married with four children, RC North Cumberland Street, Dublin Pentony, of 34.4 North Cumberland Street, was hit in the heart and killed when a bullet came through his upstairs window. Buried GC (Dublin Section: Q. §. 49.5). His widow Cecelia and family secured £265 compensation from the RVC.415 George Pierce (29Apr1916/64) 20, Vanman, Married with one child, RC MHD See Warbrook (24Apr1916/30). Pierce, of 38 South Earl Street, died from wounds inflicted while seeking bread in Kevin Street. Buried

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Daniel Whelan (29Apr1916/68) 33, Labourer, RC MMH Whelan lived at 122 Parnell Street. According to Charles Macauley, Whelan died of gas gangrene as a result of compound fracture of the left leg, possibly caused by a bullet wound. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: P. a. 37.5). His father William secured £150 from the RVC.420

James Brady (29Apr1916/72) Married, RC North King Street, Dublin Brady, of 3 Bow Street, was shot while going to buy food. His widow Mary Anne secured £195 compensation from the RVC.424 John Dawson (29Apr1916/73) 27, Blacksmith, Married with three children, RC NMHD Dawson, of 23 Marlborough Place, was shot on Townsend Street when he left home to buy bread, dying next day. His pregnant widow Elizabeth and dependents secured £164 compensation from the RVC.425

Robert Hall (29Apr1916/69) 29, Ironmonger, CoI 40 Merrion Square, Dublin Hall, shot by troops outside his home, 3 Serpentine Avenue, died that evening in a temporary hospital. Buried MJC (B. 367. 68).421

Edward C. Varnals (29Apr1916/74) 42, Factory worker, Married with two children, CoI NMHD Varnals, from Offaly, of 12 Holles Street, was shot nearby while seeking bread for his family. His widow Annie and children secured £234 compensation from the RVC.426

John Murphy (29Apr1916/70) 61, Spirit grocer, Married, RC Moore Street, Dublin Murphy, of Delgany, Wicklow, chairman of Rathdown No. 2 Rural Council since 1908, was also a JP, a member of Wicklow County Council and of Rathdown Board of Guardians. When the Rising began, he remained in the pub which he managed with his brother Thomas at 42 Henry Street, probably to guard against looters. As the military closed in on the GPO, they ordered residents to leave before bombardment commenced. Robert O’Beirne, a teacher, was in Murphy’s premises. The two left, but Murphy sought to return to fetch something. They were allegedly warned to turn back. When Murphy persisted, both were shot dead. Buried GC (South Section: G. c. 55). The RVC granted his wife an annual pension of £60.422 RD: O’Beirne (29Apr1916/71)

John O’Duffy (29Apr1916/75) 82, Dentist, Married with children, RC JSH O’Duffy lived at 54 Rutland Square. In 1919 his son Eimar, later a well-known writer and journalist, published The Wasted Island, a sceptical literary treatment of the Rising.427 Wounded near Henry Street on 27 April as he went to buy a newspaper, he died two days later. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: G. h. 142.5). His widow Elizabeth secured £300 from the RVC.428 Georgina Murphy (29Apr1916/76) 56, Widowed with 4 children, CoI MMH Georgina Murphy, an ex-soldier’s widow of 10 Leo Street, wounded on 27 April when a bullet came through her back window, died two days later. Her son secured £25 from the RVC.429

Robert F. O’Beirne (29Apr1916/71) 51, National school teacher, RC Henry Street, Dublin See Murphy (29Apr1916/70). From Sligo, O’Beirne had taught for eighteen years in Ballinaclash, Rathdrum, Wicklow. He was to attend a Teachers’ Congress in Cork as the Rathdrum delegate.423

John Henry Cooke (29Apr1916/77) 54, Accountant, Married with three children, RC Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin Cooke worked in the Military Barracks, Birr, Offaly. He was visiting Dublin on 24 April.

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While in a taxi driving from Kingsbridge along the quays he was wounded in the back when two officers stopped the vehicle, drawing rebel fire. His dependent adult children secured compassionate grants from the RVC.430

Thomas Doyle (30Apr1916/5) 50, Labourer, Married, RC Redmond’s Hill, Dublin Doyle, of 12 Upper Mercer Street, worked for Jacob’s. He was shot as he returned home, having bought tobacco. Buried GC (Dublin Section: T. §. 48.5). His widow Ellen secured £228 by the RVC.437

30 APRIL 1916 Montague Bernard Browne (30Apr1916/1) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment), 39, Protestant RCDH See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Lieutenant Browne, son of Mary and Reverend S. B. Browne of North Collingham, enlisted at Nottingham in September 1914 before being commissioned in the 2/8th Battalion. His younger brother Percy was killed in France in August 1915. Browne died from wounds received on 26 April during the fighting at Mount Street Bridge. Buried DGC (TI. 85. SW). He is commemorated at St Mary’s Church, Plumtree, Nottingham.431

John S. Dwan (30Apr1916/6) IV, 24, Labourer, RC Drumcondra Hospital, Whitworth Road, Dublin See Wright (28Apr1916/53). Dwan lived with his parents at 1.5 Lower Gardiner Street, and worked in the Inchicore railway works. He had joined the Volunteers on their formation. Wounded at the junction of St Michan’s Street and Chancery Street on 29 April, he died next day. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: L. i. 330).438 Patrick Fennell (30Apr1916/7) 33, Porter, RC Mercer’s Fennell, of 13 Portobello Road, worked at the City of Dublin Working Man’s Club. He died from wounds. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: Q. h. 143.5). His mother Kate secured £179 from the RVC.439

James Byrne (30Apr1916/2) RDF (18259), 19, Soldier, RC Upper Earl Street, Dublin From Dublin, where he enlisted, Byrne was a private in the 12th (Depot) Battalion. On home leave while convalescent,432 he was shot in the head while sitting in civilian clothes at a window. He was due to depart Dublin next day. Buried GMC (RC. 483).433

Thomas Foran (30Apr1916/8) 28, Foreman, Married with two children, RC Patrick Street, Dublin Foran worked in Jacob’s Biscuit Factory. He was shot in the head in his bedroom at 22 Patrick Street. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: N. h. 264). His dependents secured £300 from the RVC.440

James Hamlet Cornwell (30Apr1916/3) North Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s) (3818), 24, Brewery worker, CoE Dublin Cornwell, a lance-sergeant in the 2/6th Battalion from Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, was a noted tenor. The Burton Observer reported that he died about four hours after being shot in the lung.434 Buried GMC (CE. 821).435

Neville Nicholas Fryday (30Apr1916/9) Canadian Infantry (140229), 17, Soldier, CoI Mercer’s Private Fryday of the 75th Battalion, Central Ontario Regiment, from Milestone, Thurles, Tipperary, the son of William and Elizabeth Fryday of Mill House, Shankill, Dublin, died of wounds. Buried MJC (A. 276. 101).441

J. Coyle (30Apr1916/4) RIR (6427) MHD Company Quartermaster Sergeant J. Coyle DCM, from Middlesbrough, died in unknown circumstances. Buried RHKC.436

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fatally wounded in Ringsend while walking during a lull in firing. Buried GC (Dublin Section: B. §. 21.5). Her father secured £50 from the RVC.446

Mary Kelly (30Apr1916/10) 12, Schoolgirl, RC Townsend Street Mary, daughter of Joseph Kelly of 128 Townsend Street, was shot at the junction of Townsend and Lombard streets. Buried DGC (A2. 9. W). Her father secured £25 from the RVC.442

George Synnot (30Apr1916/15) 58, Clerk, Married with two children, CoI RCDH An ex-RIC man from Westmeath, Synnot lived at 98 Haddington Road. He was shot at about 11:00 while going to purchase food and tobacco. The O/C Garrison Battalion, RIR, reported he was hit in the stomach and shoulders by shots fired, probably by insurgents, from the railway bridge on Bath Avenue. Attended by a Captain Beveridge in Beggars Bush Barracks, he died that night. He may be the old man described by W. G. Smith as killed while seeking a loaf of bread for his daughter. Buried DGC (R. 96. SW). His widow Agnes secured £300 from the RVC.447

Raphael McLoughlin (30Apr1916/11) 62, Grocer’s assistant, RC Pleasant Street, Dublin McLoughlin was shot near his home at 27 John Street, Blackpitts. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: V. c. 30).443 James Power (30Apr1916/12) 70, Pensioner, Widowed, RC MMH Power lived with his son’s family at 8 Buckingham Place. He died of a lung wound sustained on 27 April when he went to buy bread. Buried GC (Dublin Section: V. b. 18.5). No RVC award was made.444

Rosanna Taaffe (30Apr1916/16) 43, Vegetable dealer, Widowed with three children, RC Mercer’s Rosanna Taaffe of 26 Corporation Street died in her bedroom when a bullet came through the window. Buried GC (the Dublin Section: F. §. 49.5). Her son James secured £50 from the RVC.448

Philip Addison Purser (30Apr1916/13) Army Service Corps, 20, CoI Dublin Castle Purser’s father William was secretary of the Scottish Widows’ Fund Society, Westmoreland Street. The SFRH lists him as having served in Trinity College OTC. On the outbreak of war, he was attached to the Duke of Cambridge’s Hussars. In October 1914, he was commissioned in the Army Service Corps. Sent to Flanders in February 1915, he was invalided home within months, but subsequently returned to duty. In early April 1916, Purser became acting adjutant, Army Service Corps, at the Curragh. When the Rising took place, he carried dispatches to Dublin. Though held up, he managed to deliver them. Shot on the evening of 29 April while returning from Kingstown (Dún Laoghaire), he died the following day. Buried GMC (Grave 68).445

Margaret Mary Veale (30Apr1916/17) 13, Schoolgirl, RC RCDH Margaret was one of seven children of John, a commercial clerk, and Mary Jane Veale of 103 Haddington Road. Áine O’Rahilly, sister of The O’Rahilly, who taught her Irish, said she was shot by a soldier ‘who aimed at her as she stood at her window in Haddington Road’. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: G. h. 76).449 SA: The O’Rahilly (29Apr1916/1) James Byrne (30Apr1916/18) 9, Schoolboy, RC Mercer’s James was the only son of William, a labourer, and Mary Byrne of 11.5 Stephen Street. Buried GC.450

Elizabeth Smyth (30Apr1916/14) 19, Shop assistant, RC RCDH Elizabeth, one of six children of Peter Smyth, a coal labourer, of 5.1 Sandwith Place, was

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William Carrick (30Apr1916/19) 15, RC SPDH William Carrick’s body was brought to Deansgrange Cemetery for burial without a recorded address. The 1911 census lists one William Carrick, the ten-year-old son of Thomas and Katrina Carrick of Beef Row in St Michan’s Parish, which was at the heart of the fighting along the north quays.451

Joseph Maguire (30Apr1916/26) Dublin Maguire died in unknown circumstances. The 1916 Rebellion Handbook stated that his body was brought from Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital to Deansgrange Cemetery for burial without a recorded address.458 William Mallen (30Apr1916/27) Dublin Mallen, of 5 Moore Place, died in unknown circumstances.459

Unknown Corbin (30Apr1916/20) JSH Corbin is listed by the Freeman’s Journal and the SFRH as among the dead at Jervis Street Hospital. He could not be traced. Buried GC.452

William McDonnell (30Apr1916/28) Dublin McDonnell, of 3 Upper Sackville Street, died in unknown circumstances.460

John Creevan [or Craven?] (30Apr1916/21) RC MMH Creevan, from Dublin, died in unknown circumstances. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: P. a. 38).453

Kathleen O’Brien (30Apr1916/29) 3 months, Infant Dublin Kathleen, of 53 Corporation Street, died in unknown circumstances, possibly unrelated to the Rising.461

John Flynn (30Apr1916/22) 63, St Stephen’s Green, Dublin In Deansgrange, Bateson suggests Flynn, of Dodder View, may have died in St Stephen’s Green. Buried DGC.454

John O’Callaghan (30Apr1916/30) St Stephen’s Green South, Dublin O’Callaghan was reportedly killed on St Stephen’s Green. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: P. a. 38).462

John Kenyon (30Apr1916/23) SVH Kenyon, who reportedly lived in Mountpleasant Square, died in unknown circumstances. The SFRH stated that his body was brought from St Vincent’s Hospital to DGC for burial.455

David Swords (30Apr1916/31) Dublin The SFRH stated that Swords’s body was brought to DGC for burial without a recorded address.463

Michael Keogh (30Apr1916/24) NMHD Keogh died of wounds. Buried GC.456

Anne Walsh (30Apr1916/32) Dublin No address was found for Anne/Kate Walsh. Buried DGC.464

John Loughlin (30Apr1916/25) Dublin Loughlin died in unknown circumstances. The SFRH stated that his body was brought from Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital to Deansgrange Cemetery for burial without a recorded address.457

Robert Woodcock465 (30Apr1916/33) 38, Grocer, RC SVH Woodcock, from Kilkenny, a grocer of 45 Thomas Street, died in unknown circumstances. Buried DGC.466

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sought food for his family. Buried DGC (T3. 36. W). His widow Kathleen and children secured £273 compensation from the RVC.472

Stephen Patrick Doyle (30Apr1916/34) 50, Carpenter, Married, RC Mercer’s Doyle, of 27 Wellington Quay, died two days after being shot through a window. Buried GC (Dublin Section: K. §. 42.5). His widow Kate secured £273 compensation from the RVC.467

Mary Cunningham (1May1916/3) 62, Fish dealer, RC Dublin Castle Hospital Mary Cunningham, living at 6 Chancery Street with her sister Elizabeth O’Connor and her family, died of wounds suffered when a bullet came through the window of her niece’s Capel Street home. Buried GC (Dublin Section: F. §. 22.5). Her sister secured £152 from the RVC.473

Elizabeth Moran (30Apr1916/35) 31, Housewife, Married with five children NMHD Mrs Moran was wounded in the hip when a bullet came through the window of 2 Hamilton Row. She died next day. Her husband and children secured £150 from the RVC.468

John Doyle (1May1916/4) 20, Painter, RC 104 South Lotts Road, Dublin Seán O’Shea recalled how Doyle, his neighbour, wounded in the stomach in the vicinity of Mount Street, was apparently refused admission to Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital. He died at home ‘after considerable agony’, as the family were afraid to call a doctor. Buried DGC (E1. 30. W).474

Christopher Tynan (30Apr1916/36) 75, OAP, Widowed with children, CoI MMH Originally from Laois, Tynan, a retired commercial traveller living at 8 Hardwicke Place, died two days after he was shot on Dorset Street on 28 April.469 John Hoey (30Apr1916/37) Civilian, Soldier, Dublin An ex-serviceman living on Ryder’s Row, Hoey died in unknown circumstances. His body was taken to the City Morgue. Buried GC, Dublin (St Paul’s Section: J. a. 38).470

Alfred Ellis (1May1916/5) RDF (21735), 19 JSH Private Ellis, son of Alfred and Sarah Jane Ellis of Leeds, Yorkshire, had served in the RFA (97706) before joining the RDF. Buried DGC (S1. 85. SW).475

1 MAY 1916 John Ballantyne (1May1916/1) 79, Foreman joiner, Married with five children, Presbyterian 40 Merrion Square, Dublin From Scotland, Ballantyne lived at 1.3 Glencullen Terrace, East Wall. Shot while seeking bread, he died in an emergency hospital. Buried MJC (B. 367. 93). His widow Eliza and daughter secured £300 from the RVC.471

Patrick Leen (1May1916/6) 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers (16095), 22, Accountant, RC MHD Leen, one of five sons of Daniel and Margaret Leen of Abbeyfeale, Limerick, was Rockwell College rugby captain and fullback on the Munster Schools team, and later studied at and played rugby for Blackrock College.476 An assistant accountant with Dublin Corporation, he enlisted in the Royal Irish Lancers, and was in training. His four brothers joined the Congregation of the Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost Fathers). P. B. Kenny recalled that on 24 April ‘Paddy’ Leen, on leave, had intended to take a train home that afternoon. They were having a drink when

Andrew Christopher Cunningham (1May1916/2) IV, 24, Silk weaver, Married with two children, RC Ringsend Park, Dublin Cunningham, of 77 Pembroke Cottages, and a member of the Volunteers since 1913, was shot by the military on Ringsend Road as he

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news of the Rising reached them. Leen reported for duty in Portobello Barracks. Towards the end of the week, he was accidentally shot in the knee by a comrade. Septic poisoning necessitated the amputation of his leg in the Meath Hospital, where he died. Buried RHKC.477

Loos in France. Her surviving children received £150 from the RVC.482 Alice Neil (1May1916/12) 44, Housewife, Married with three children, CoI Adelaide Hospital, Dublin Alice Neil was shot near her home at 70 Aungier Street while seeking provisions on 28 April, dying three days later. Buried MJC (A. 276. 80). Her husband Herbert secured £10 for burial expenses from the RVC.483

Laurence Mulligan (1May1916/7) 19, Shop assistant, RC Children’s Hospital, Temple Street, Dublin Mulligan, of Williamstown, Westmeath, died from wounds inflicted on 26 April as he left his workplace on Lower Abbey Street. Buried GC (Dublin Section: B. §. 29.5). His father Andrew secured £25 from the RVC.478

Edmund O’Grady (1May1916/13) 25, Clerk, RC MMH O’Grady, of 2 Lower Sheriff Street, died from wounds received on 28 April while looking out the window. Buried GC (Dublin Section: M. §. 46.5). His sister secured £25 from the RVC.484

Joseph O’Donoghue (1May1916/8) 42, Draper’s manager, RC Cross Guns Bridge, Glasnevin, Dublin O’Donoghue, of 31 Cabra Park, was shot at Cross Guns Bridge. Buried GC (Dublin Section: T. §. 29.5).479

Joseph Clarke (1May1916/14) 72, Labourer, Married with one child, RC SPDH From Meath, Clarke lived at 25 Grattan Street. Shot on 30 April when trying to get home, he died the following day. Buried DGC. His widow Margaret secured £150 compensation from the RVC.485

Christopher Redmond (1May1916/9) 22, Packer, Married with one child, RC SVH ‘Christy’ Redmond of 2 Clare Lane was wounded on 29 April as he returned from his mother’s home. Buried GC (Dublin Section: R. §. 29.5). His wife Catherine and child secured £155 compensation from the RVC.480

2 MAY 1916 William Nelson Rowe (2May1916/1) RIC (52673), 49, Clerk, Married with five children, CoI Castlelyons, Cork From Wexford, Rowe joined the RIC on 12 September 1887, allocated to Cork. Promoted to sergeant in 1898, he became a head constable in 1915, stationed in Fermoy. Constable Frank King described how, at around 03:45 on 2 May, a police patrol from Fermoy, under Rowe’s command, arrived at the Kents’ home in two trucks. Rowe knocked on the door, stating his business: ‘Almost immediately there was a very loud and defiant answer. I believe the words spoken were: “We will not surrender until we leave some of you dead.” This answer was followed almost immediately by a shot.’ Rowe’s head was almost blown off by a shotgun blast. William Kent

Sarah Whelan (1May1916/10) 28, Stoker’s wife, Married with two children, RC NMHD Whelan, of 16 Great Clarence Street, died of wounds. Buried GC (Dublin Section: A. §. 27.5).481 Margaret Naylor (1May1916/11) 35, Married with three children, RC SVH Joseph O’Byrne and Seán O’Shea recalled how a Mrs Naylor from Ringsend was carrying bread on 29 April when shot by a soldier near the Barrow Street railway bridge. This was most likely Margaret Naylor of 14 Stephen’s Place. Her husband, Private John Naylor of the RDF, was killed the same day at

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claimed that he had been asleep when the police arrived, and that the RIC fired the first volley. A gun battle ensued. Military reinforcements from Fermoy arrived at around 06:00, and the Kents surrendered. Thomas and William were immediately handcuffed. Richard, a well-known athlete, attempted to escape by jumping over a nearby hedge. Fired on, he was severely wounded in the back. He and David, who was wounded in the side, were removed to Fermoy Military Hospital, where Richard died on 4 May. Thomas and William were tried by court martial at Cork Detention Barracks, charged with ‘armed rebellion’. King gave evidence that William Kent was ‘a quiet inoffensive type’ who had taken no part in ‘Sinn Féin activities’. He was acquitted but Tom was convicted and was executed in Cork Detention Barracks on 9 May. David was also sentenced to death, later commuted to five years imprisonment, by court martial. Rowe’s widow secured a yearly pension of £50, with £6.5s.0d. annually to each child.486 RD: Kent (4May1916/5), Kent (9May1916/2)

James Gibney (2May1916/5) 5, Schoolboy, RC North Dublin Union James, a labourer’s son of 16 Henrietta Place, reportedly died from concussion received during an artillery bombardment. Buried GC, Dublin (St Paul’s Section: O. a. 38).490 Christopher Higgins (2May1916/6) 26, Horse clipper, RC JSH Higgins, of 40 Jervis Street, died from wounds. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: K. a. 38).491 James McCullough (2May1916/7) RIR (3728), 38, Married, CoE Dublin Castle Rifleman McCullough, from the East Indies, enlisted in Belfast. He died from wounds. Buried GMC (CE. 810).492 Albert Newland (2May1916/8) 12th (Prince of Wales Royal) Lancers (5937), CoE Dublin Castle Private Newland, from Poplar, London, died from wounds. Buried GMC (CE. 809).493

James Blundell (2May1916/2) 12th (Prince of Wales Royal) Lancers (6976), CoE JSH From Christchurch, Lancashire, Private Blundell died from wounds. Buried GMC (CE. 643).487

Elizabeth Wilkinson (2May1916/9) 60, Schoolteacher, CoI Adelaide Hospital Elizabeth Wilkinson of 4 Woodstock Gardens, died from wounds received while shopping in Ranelagh on 29 April. Buried MJC (A. 410. 21). Her sister secured £10 burial expenses from the RVC.494

Julia Brunell (2May1916/3) 24, Waitress, RC SPDH On 27 April Julia, one of three daughters of Julia Brunell of 6.2 South Cumberland Street, was shot in the lungs while in her room at 2 Grattan Street, dying five days later. Buried GC (Dublin Section: E. §. 46.5).488

3 MAY 1916 Patrick Henry Pearse (Pádraig Mac Piarais) (3May1916/1) IV, 36, Schoolmaster, RC Kilmainham Jail, Dublin Pearse, from Dublin, was son of James Pearse, an English monumental sculptor, and Margaret Brady. An ardent participant in the Gaelic revival, Pearse’s preoccupations were for years primarily cultural. In 1912, he publicly supported Home Rule while threatening revolution if it was not granted. Between 1912 and 1914 he became convinced that revolutionary violence was a necessity.

Catherine Davis (2May1916/4) 59, Baker’s wife, Married with no surviving children, RC MMH Catherine, of 6 Stratford Row, Summerhill, died of gunshot wounds received on 29 April while washing clothes. Buried GC (Dublin Section: D. §. 30.5).489

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Pearse was a key speaker at the Rotunda Rink meeting which launched the Irish Volunteers on 25 November 1913. He joined the IRB soon afterwards. Following the Volunteer split after John Redmond’s pledge of support for the war in September 1914, Pearse became director of organisation. In May 1915, with Plunkett and Ceannt, he became a member of the IRB’s military committee, established to plan an insurrection. This later became the Military Council. Supported by Thomas Clarke, Pearse became the public face of the separatist movement. On 1 August 1915, he delivered a defiant oration at the graveside of the Fenian Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa. In 1916, Pearse published a number of pamphlets justifying a military uprising. He was involved in the planning of the Kerry arms landing, and played a key role in convincing James Connolly and the ICA not to mount a separate insurrection. He helped conceal the Military Council’s plans from the Volunteers chief of staff Eoin MacNeill. Styled commandant-in-chief of the army of the Irish Republic and president of the provisional government, Pearse read out the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, much of which he had drafted, in front of the GPO at 12:45 on Easter Monday. Coming under unceasing bombardment as the week progressed, the garrison evacuated the GPO on 28 April. The following morning the rebel leaders decided to capitulate. At 14:30, Pearse surrendered to Brigadier-General William Lowe at the junction of Moore Street and Parnell Street. General Lowe’s son John escorted Pearse to Kilmainham Jail:

this’ and he took off his sort of Australian type hat . . . and he took out the badge and he said ‘here, keep this as a momento [sic]’.

Tried by court marital on 2 May, Pearse was prisoner number one in proceedings presided over by Brigadier-General C. G. Blackadder. He said he had surrendered unconditionally to avoid ‘the slaughter of the civilian population’ and appealed for his followers to be spared. Sentenced to death, he was shot in Kilmainham Jail between 03:30 and 04:00, and buried in an unmarked grave at Arbour Hill. He wrote to his mother: ‘This is the death I should have asked for if God had given me the choice of all deaths – to die a soldier’s death for Ireland and for freedom. We have done right. People will say hard things of us now, but later on will praise us.’ Great Brunswick Street, where he was born, was later renamed Pearse Street.495 SA: Ceannt (8May1916/1), Clarke (3May 1916/2), Connolly (12May1916/2), Plunkett (4May1916/4) Thomas James Clarke (3May1916/2) IV, 58, Tobacconist, Married with three children, RC Kilmainham Jail, Dublin ‘Tom’ Clarke, born on the Isle of Wight, was son of James Clarke, a Royal Artillery bombardier, and Mary Palmer. In 1865, his father was posted to the Ulster Militia in Dungannon, Tyrone, where Tom attended St Patrick’s National School. In 1880, he immigrated to New York. He joined Clan na Gael, and undertook a dynamiting mission in England in 1883. Arrested in Birmingham, he was sentenced to penal servitude for life. The harsh prison regime permanently undermined his health. Released in 1898, he went to Dublin to live with his mother and sister. The following year, he met John Daly’s niece Kathleen; they married in New York on 16 July 1901. Clarke worked on the Gaelic American, becoming a naturalised US citizen in 1905, but in 1907 returned to Dublin. He opened tobacconist shops on Amiens Street and Parnell Street which became centres of republican activity.

There was Pearse, a priest and myself and he was talking to the priest and giving him his rings and his crucifix and everything else . . . when we got to Kilmainham gates he wasn’t finished so I said to the driver go on driving . . . when I saw he [Pearse] was finished I said ‘All right drive into the jail’. . . . Just before Pearse got out he turned . . . and he said ‘Young man that was a very fine gesture you just made and I want to thank you but I’ve nothing I can give you except

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Clarke played a prominent role in reviving the IRB. He supported Seán Mac Diarmada in a struggle which saw younger men gain the ascendancy. Clarke resurrected the annual march to Wolfe Tone’s grave at Bodenstown, and encouraged Patrick Pearse. In 1913, he joined the IRB’s Supreme Council. In 1915, he organised the large public funeral for Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa. Clarke later joined the Military Council set up in May 1915 to plan an insurrection. Despite Eoin MacNeill’s order cancelling the Easter weekend mobilisation, Clarke argued strenuously that the Rising should proceed. He declined to style himself president, but was the first of the seven signatories of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic. He fought in the GPO. Clarke was ‘clear elated’ that Ireland had risen in arms, and opposed the decision to surrender. Sentenced to death on 2 May following a court martial at Richmond Barracks, Clarke told his wife: ‘I am to be shot at dawn. I’m glad it’s a soldier’s death I’m getting. I’ve had enough of imprisonment.’ He was unaware that she was pregnant, though she later miscarried. He was shot in Kilmainham Jail between 03:30 and 04:00, and was buried at Arbour Hill.496 SA: Mac Diarmada (12May1916/1), Pearse (3May1916/1)

the Irish Theatre on Hardwicke Street, which produced Irish and foreign plays rejected by the Abbey Theatre. Literature in Ireland, his PhD thesis, was published after his death, and James Stephens edited The Poetical Works of Thomas MacDonagh (1916). MacDonagh joined the provisional committee of the Irish Volunteers in November 1913. He helped to organise the Howth gun running in July 1914 and the O’Donovan Rossa funeral in August 1915. After the Volunteer split, he became director of training. MacDonagh was only co-opted to the Military Council a fortnight before the Rising. A signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, he commanded the Jacob’s Biscuit Factory garrison on Bishop Street, seemingly with the mission of disrupting troop movements. An ineffective commander almost unhinged by emotional strain, MacDonagh was fortunate that Major John MacBride had some military expertise. He was initially reluctant to comply with Pearse’s order to surrender, arguing that Pearse’s status as a prisoner invalidated his command. Only after meeting BrigadierGeneral William Lowe in St Patrick’s Park did he surrender. Sentenced to death by a court martial in Richmond Barracks on 2 May, he stated, ‘You would all be proud to die for Britain, your imperial patron, and I am proud and happy to die for Ireland, my glorious fatherland.’ He was shot in Kilmainham Jail between 03:30 and 04:00. Buried Arbour Hill.497 SA: MacBride (5May1916/1), Pearse (3May 1916/1), Plunkett (4May1916/4)

Thomas Stanislaus MacDonagh (3May1916/3) IV, 38, University lecturer, Married with two children, RC Kilmainham Jail, Dublin MacDonagh, from Cloughjordan, Tipperary, attended Rockwell College. Abandoning plans to become a priest, he taught in St Kieran’s College, Kilkenny. In 1908 Pearse invited him to help found St Enda’s school. After studying literature and philosophy in Paris, in 1911 he was appointed lecturer in English literature at UCD, and in 1912 married Muriel Gifford, a solicitor’s daughter. They had two children, Donagh and Barbara. After Muriel drowned in July 1917, her children were raised by their uncle John MacDonagh. In 1914 MacDonagh was joint-founder with Joseph Plunkett and Edward Martyn of

Margaret McGuinness (3May1916/4) 50, Labourer’s wife, Widowed, RC Dublin Kildare-born Margaret McGuinness, of 27 Pembroke Cottages, died in unknown circumstances. Buried DGC (T3. 92. N).498

4 MAY 1916 John Edward Daly (4May1916/1) IV, 25, Shop assistant, RC Kilmainham Jail, Dublin ‘Ned’ Daly, from Frederick Street (now O’Curry Street), Limerick, worked in Glasgow

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and Limerick before moving to Dublin in 1912. His father participated in the 1867 Fenian Rising and his uncle John Daly was a prominent IRB man. Daly’s sister Kathleen married Tom Clarke. While working for Clarke, Daly joined the Volunteers, playing a leading role in the Howth gun-running in July 1914. He was elected O/C 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade, in 1915 when working for May Roberts and Company Ltd. Daly commanded the Four Courts garrison. Its key task was to prevent the deployment of troops from the Royal Barracks. Sentenced to death by a court martial at Richmond Barracks on 3 May, he was shot in Kilmainham Jail between 04:00 and 04:30, the youngest of those executed. Buried Arbour Hill.499 SA: Clarke (3May1916/2)

in 1918. O’Hanrahan was a founder member of the Irish Volunteers, of which he became quartermaster-general. In 1916, he and his brother Henry worked in Volunteer headquarters at 2 Dawson Street. His sisters Áine, Máire and Eily were in Cumann na mBan. O’Hanrahan served under Thomas MacDonagh in Jacob’s Factory. Condemned to death by a court martial in Richmond Barracks on 3 May, he was shot between 04:00 and 04:30. Henry was also sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment. Buried Arbour Hill.501 SA: MacDonagh (3May1916/3) Joseph Mary Plunkett (4May1916/4) IV, 28, Poet, Married, RC Kilmainham Jail, Dublin Plunkett, eldest son of Count George Noble Plunkett, the director of the National Museum, attended Belvedere College and Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, where he was said to have acquired some military training through the OTC. Returning to Dublin at the age of twenty, he was taught Irish by Thomas MacDonagh. After contracting tuberculosis, Plunkett spent several months in the Mediterranean and in Algeria in 1910–11. While abroad, his first collection of poems, The Circle and the Sword, was published. Plunkett helped MacDonagh and Edward Martyn to establish the Theatre of Ireland to produce new Irish plays. He also edited The Irish Review. Elected to the provisional committee of the Irish Volunteers in 1913, in 1915 the IRB military committee sent him to Germany to assist Roger Casement to secure German support for a rising. His poor health afforded a convenient reason for his continental journey. After returning to Ireland, he went to the US to inform Clan na Gael, the American wing of the IRB, about the planned Rising. Plunkett was the youngest of the Proclamation signatories. Although recuperating from an operation, he served in the GPO alongside his brothers George and John. Desmond FitzGerald recalled that Plunkett ‘looked appallingly ill’. On 3 May he was sentenced to death by a court martial in Richmond Barracks. So too

William James Pearse (4May1916/2) IV, 35, Sculptor, art teacher, RC Kilmainham Jail, Dublin ‘Willie’ Pearse attended the National College of Art from 1901 to 1909. He spent short spells at the Kensington School of Art and in Paris. Keenly interested in drama and in the Gaelic League, he carried on the family monumental sculpture business until the company was dissolved in 1910. He then taught art in St Enda’s, his brother Patrick’s school. An IRB man and captain E Company, 4th Battalion, Dublin Brigade, he spent most of the Rising as his brother’s aide-de-camp. Sentenced to death by a court martial in Richmond Barracks on 3 May, the only one of those executed to enter a ‘guilty’ plea, he was shot in Kilmainham between 04:00 and 04:30. Buried Arbour Hill.500 SA: Pearse (3May1916/1) Michael O’Hanrahan (4May1916/3) IV, 39, Journalist, RC Kilmainham Jail, Dublin O’Hanrahan, from New Ross, Wexford, was brought up in Carlow. His father Richard participated in the Fenian Rising of 1867. Moving to Dublin, he contributed freelance articles to various journals. His published works include A Swordsman of the Brigade, a heroic novel published in 1914, and When the Normans Came, published posthumously

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were his brothers, but their sentences were commuted. Plunkett was due to marry Grace Gifford, sister-in-law of Thomas MacDonagh, on Easter Sunday 23 April in a double ceremony with his sister Geraldine and Tom Dillon. However, the Rising intervened. At 20:00 on 3 May, only hours before his execution, he and Grace were married by Father Eugene McCarthy in Kilmainham Jail chapel. Plunkett was shot between 04:00 and 04:30. Buried Arbour Hill. Grace Plunkett, who wrote that it was ‘impossible to exist on the proceeds’ of her work as an artist, received a yearly pension of £90, later increased to £180. Two of his sisters secured awards under subsequent legislation.502 SA: Casement (3Aug1916/1), MacDonagh (3May1916/3)

Lenehan’s public house’ at Hanlon’s Corner. Buried GC (Dublin Section: N. §. 43.5). His widow Bridget and youngest child secured £183 compensation from the RVC.506

5 MAY 1916 John MacBride (5May1916/1) IV, 47, Water bailiff, Separated with one child, RC Kilmainham Jail, Dublin MacBride, from Westport, began but soon abandoned medical studies in Dublin. In 1895, he immigrated to South Africa. He persuaded Arthur Griffith† to join him there in 1897, where they arranged centenary celebrations of the 1798 Rising. MacBride helped to organise an Irish Brigade to fight alongside the Boers against British rule. He reached the rank of major and was wounded. In 1902 he went to Paris, where he met Maud Gonne, whom he married on 21 February 1903. They had one child, Seán, before obtaining a judicial separation in September 1905. Almost penniless and battling alcoholism, in 1910 he became a Dublin Corporation water bailiff, and joined Sinn Féin. He sat on the Supreme Council of the revitalised IRB before being displaced by Seán Mac Diarmada. He was not involved in planning the Rising and was not in the Volunteers. MacBride only joined the rebellion by chance, but was made second-in-command to the inexperienced Thomas MacDonagh in Jacob’s Factory on Bishop Street. He helped fortify the building and supervised the placing of snipers. Jacob’s remained on the periphery of the conflict. On 4 May, MacBride was convicted by court martial at Richmond Barracks. He sought a soldier’s death facing his executioners, but was blindfolded and his hands were bound. At 03:47, he was shot in Kilmainham Jail. MacBride reportedly said, with supreme indifference: ‘Fire away, I’ve been looking down the barrels of rifles all my life.’ The economist Thomas Kettle (1890–1916), himself soon to die fighting in France, termed this ‘a lie, but a magnificent lie. He had been looking down the necks

Richard Kent (4May1916/5) IV, 44, Farmer, RC Military Hospital, Fermoy, Cork See Rowe (2May1916/1). ‘Dick’ Kent, a wellknown athlete, was one of nine children of David Kent and Mary Rice of Bawnard House, Castlelyons. All the Kent sons were active Volunteers. Buried St Nicholas’s churchyard, Castlelyons.503 Samuel Long (4May1916/6) 44, Coal porter, Married with four children, RC SPDH Long, of 25 Great Clarence Street, died from wounds received on 29 April when he went to find food for his family. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: I. a. 38). His widow Mary and children secured £215 compensation from the RVC.504 Charles Saunders (4May1916/7) South Staffordshire Regiment (4953) JSH From Brierley Hill, Staffordshire, Private Saunders of the 2/6th Battalion died from wounds. Buried DGC (SW. S1. 85).505 Timothy Spellman (4May1916/8) 68, Labourer, Married with eight children, RC Richmond Hospital, Dublin From Tipperary, Spellman, of 62 Arbour Hill, was wounded on 27 April when shot ‘at

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of porter bottles all his life.’ Buried Arbour Hill. In 1933 his estranged widow Maud Gonne MacBride secured a widow’s pension. In 1963 President Éamon de Valera unveiled a bronze plaque at MacBride’s Westport birthplace.507 SA: Mac Diarmada (12May1916/1), MacDonagh (3May1916/3)

John Henry Sherwood (5May1916/5) South Staffordshire Regiment (4841), Protestant Dublin Castle From Bolton, Private Sherwood enlisted at Bilston in Staffordshire. Buried GMC (CE. 615).512

6 MAY 1916 Francis Keegan (6May1916/1) 60, Labourer, Married with four children, RC North Dublin Union From Longford, Keegan, of 28 Upper Ormond Quay, died from leg wounds received on 29 April at his hall door. Buried GC (Dublin Section: C. §. 30.5). His widow Margaret secured £150 from the RVC.513

James Horace Bradford508 (5May1916/2) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (5617), 19, Bricklayer RHK, Dublin See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Bradford, from Alfreton, Derbyshire, enlisted in the Royal Engineers, and transferred to the 2/7th Battalion. He died of lung wounds received on 26 April. Buried RHKC.509

7 MAY 1916 Catherine Murphy (7May1916/1) 68, Widowed with children, RC North Dublin Union Catherine Murphy, a policeman’s widow of 63 Railway Street, reportedly died of injuries caused when she was trampled. Buried GC (Dublin Section: F. §. 41.5).514

Albert Keep (5May1916/3) 29, Chauffeur, Married with one child, CoE MHD See Shanagher (28Apr1916/2). From England, Keep was chauffeur of the Marquis of Conyngham of Slane Castle. His car had been commandeered by the police. His dependents secured an ex-gratia payment of £300.510

8 MAY 1916 Éamonn Ceannt (Edward Thomas Kent) (8May1916/1) IV, 34, Clerk, Married with one child, RC Kilmainham Jail, Dublin Ceannt, from Ballymoe, Galway, one of seven children of an RIC officer from Tipperary, was schooled in Ardee and Drogheda, before the family moved to Dublin. In 1898 he became a Corporation clerk. He was later elected chairman of the Dublin Municipal Officers’ Association. He was a noted piper. In 1914 he became a member of the IRB’s Supreme Council. A founder member of the Irish Volunteers, he took part in the Howth and Kilcoole gun-running. Along with Pearse and Plunkett, Ceannt formed the IRB’s Military Council, which often met in his home. A signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, as O/C 4th Battalion, Dublin Brigade, he occupied the South Dublin Union and Marrowbone Lane Distillery, with Cathal Brugha† as his vice-O/C. His force held out against superior numbers until he received

Richard Patrick O’Carroll (5May1916/4) IV, 40, Trade unionist, Married with seven children, RC Military Hospital, Portobello Barracks, Dublin ‘Dick’ O’Carroll and his wife Anne Esther lived at 49 Cuffe Street. Secretary of the Ancient Guild of Incorporated Brick and Stonelayers’ Union, he had been a Labour councillor on Dublin Corporation for nine years, was a member of the South Dublin Board of Guardians and an Irish Volunteer. On 26 April, when driving through Camden Street, O’Carroll was pulled from his motorcycle by Captain J. C. Bowen-Colthurst, dragged into a yard and shot. Left lying on the street, he was taken by a bread van to hospital, dying nine days later. In 1924, his widow, ‘a very respectable woman and a strong supporter of the present government . . . in poor circumstances’, secured a yearly pension of £90, with £24 for each child. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: V. b. 7).511

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news of Pearse’s surrender order. Initially unwilling to comply, Ceannt eventually obeyed. Sentenced to death by a court martial in Richmond Barracks on 4 May, he was shot in Kilmainham Jail between 03:45 and 04:05. Buried Arbour Hill. His widow eventually received a yearly pension of £90, later increased to £180, with additional support for her son. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Rising in 1966, Galway Railway Station was renamed Éamonn Ceannt Station.515 SA: Mac Diarmada (12May1916/1), MacDonagh (3May1916/3), Pearse (3May 1916/1), Plunkett (4May1916/4)

Barracks. On 4 May, he was sentenced to death by a court martial at Richmond Barracks. He was shot in Kilmainham between 03:45 and 04:05. Buried Arbour Hill. On the fiftieth anniversary of the Rising, Kingsbridge Station was renamed Heuston Station. In 1924 his mother secured a dependent’s pension, as subsequently did his sister.518 Michael Mallin (8May1916/4) ICA, 41, Soldier, Silk weaver, Married with five children, RC Kilmainham Jail, Dublin Mallin, from Dublin, joined the Royal Scots Fusiliers as a band boy. After twelve years’ service, seven in India, he returned to Dublin in 1902. Apprenticed in Atkinson’s poplin factory, he became a silk weaver and secretary of the Silk Weavers’ Union. In 1903, Mallin married Agnes (Úna) Hickey, a Fenian’s daughter, living at her shop on Francis Street. During a weavers’ strike in 1913, Mallin became friendly with James Connolly, later joining the ICA. He published articles on military strategy in the Workers’ Republic and instructed the ICA in guerrilla tactics. Mallin commanded about seventy-seven men at St Stephen’s Green, with Constance Markievicz as his second-in-command. His disposition of his men was puzzling, particularly given his military experience. Sentenced to death on 5 May by court martial in Richmond Barracks, he was shot in Kilmainham Jail between 03:45 and 04:05. Buried at Arbour Hill. Michael T. Soughley recalled that Mallin’s widow Úna was heavily pregnant – her son was born shortly afterwards – and ‘never thought of a sentence of death’. In 1924 she secured an annual pension of £90, with £24 for each child, and educational fees. One daughter also ultimately received a dependent’s allowance. On the fiftieth anniversary of the Rising, Dún Laoghaire station was renamed Mallin Station.519 SA: James Connolly (12May1916/2)

Cornelius Bernard Colbert (8May1916/2) IV, 26, Bookkeeper, RC Kilmainham Jail, Dublin ‘Con’ Colbert, from Castlemahon parish, Limerick, was tenth of thirteen children. After his mother’s death, his sister Catherine brought him to Dublin. A bookkeeper in Kennedy’s Bakery, he became prominent in the Fianna Éireann, and a drill instructor at St Enda’s School. He later joined the Volunteers. An IRB man, he acted as Thomas Clarke’s bodyguard leading up to the Rising. Colbert fought at Watkins’ Brewery and Jameson’s Distillery on Marrowbone Lane. Sentenced to death by a court martial at Richmond Barracks on 4 May, Colbert was shot in Kilmainham Jail between 03:45 and 04:05. Buried Arbour Hill. In 1955 his sister Elizabeth secured a dependent’s allowance, as did another sibling in 1963. In 1966 Limerick railway station was named after him.516 SA: Clarke (3May1916/2) John (Seán) J. Heuston (8May1916/3) IV, 25, Railway servant, RC Kilmainham Jail, Dublin ‘Seán’ Heuston, from Limerick,517 was a GS&WR clerk. He moved to Dublin in 1913, commanded a Fianna sluagh (company), and later became director of training. An IRB man, he took part in the Howth gun-running, being responsible for transport. Heuston was in command in the Mendicity Institute on Usher’s Island, tasked to delay troops advancing along the quays from the Royal

Felix Joseph Watters (8May1916/5) 63, RC Priest SVH Watters, from Dundalk, Louth, joined the Society of Mary in 1872. In 1884 he went to

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New Zealand, where he founded the College of St Patrick in Wellington. Returning to Ireland in 1902, he became president of the Catholic University School, Dublin. He was shot as he left the presbytery on St Mary’s Road. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: B. h. 7).520

as the Richmond Hospital was full. He died of pneumonia. His wife Sarah and children secured £156 compensation from the RVC.524 Christopher Lawler (9May1916/4) 42, Grocer’s porter, RC JSH Lawler, of 6 Halston Street, died from wounds received when a bullet came through a rear window on 29 April. Buried GC (Dublin Section: K. §. 35.5). His sister Margaret Lawless secured £155 compensation from the RVC.525

John O’Connor (8May1916/6) 17, Grocer’s assistant, RC Mercer’s O’Connor, of 1 Emerald Street, was shot nearby while looking for a neighbour’s child. His mother Julia secured £150 compensation from the RVC.521

10 MAY 1916 Alexander Gray (10May1916/1) RIC, 57, Widowed, CoI Infirmary, Navan, Meath See Shanagher (28Apr1916/2). Gray, from Tyrone, son of Reverend Alexander Gray, joined the RIC as a cadet in 1880, and in 1883 was posted as a DI to Dingle, Kerry. His role in an affray there was recalled by Peig Sayers in her autobiography. He served in many other counties, reaching the rank of CI in 1907. He was transferred to Meath in 1912. He died from wounds received at Ashbourne. Buried Lucan, Dublin.526

9 MAY 1916 John Kealy (9May1916/1) Merchant, RC Upper John Street, Kilkenny Kealy, of Upper John Street, Kilkenny, was a member of the Gaelic League. Thirty men arrested the previous day were marched to Kilkenny railway station bound for Richmond Barracks in Dublin. Kealy, who was in poor health, collapsed and died.522 Thomas Kent (9May1916/2) IV, 51, Farmer, RC Military Detention Barracks, Cork See Rowe (2May1916/1). ‘Tom’ Kent, from Castlelyons, Cork, spent some time in the United States, becoming well known in Irish circles in Boston. In 1899 he returned home for health reasons, and became involved in land agitation: along with four of his brothers, he was arrested and imprisoned for a time. He also joined the Gaelic League. The Kents were among the first to join the Volunteers in 1913. He was imprisoned in 1915 for opposing wartime recruitment. Buried Cork Detention Barracks. On the fiftieth anniversary of the Rising, Glanmire railway station in Cork was renamed Kent Station.523

James Crawford Neil (10May1916/2) 29, Librarian, Engaged, Presbyterian JSH Neil, from Dublin, educated at St Andrew’s College, joined the National Library in 1902. A cultural nationalist who published poems, essays and reviews in journals such as Irish Review, he also became involved in musical and theatrical networks. He had planned to marry the actress Máire Nic Shiubhlaigh (Mary Walker) in June 1916. On the evening of 25 April, Neil, returning home along the north quays, was shot in the spine by a looter whom he disturbed. Buried MJC (B. 367. 82). His mother secured £156 from the RVC.527

Francis Finlay (9May1916/3) 42, Labourer, Married with two children, RC New Lisburn Street, Dublin On 26 April, Finlay, of 3 New Lisburn Street, volunteered to bring coal to Chapel House on North Anne Street where people were sheltering. Shot in the back, he was nursed at home

11 MAY 1916 James Joseph Walsh (11May1916/1) 19, Newsboy, RC JSH Walsh, of 14 Upper Kevin Street, died over two weeks after being shot in both legs

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on Talbot Street on 25 April. Buried GC (St Patrick’s Section: O. l. 145). His mother Bridget secured £50 from the RVC.528

impression is left that Seán MacDermott, with his ease of manner, his great knowledge of the IRB and the Volunteers . . . and his obvious talent for revolutionary conspiracy, made a remarkable individual contribution to the moulding of the IRB into an instrument of active revolution.’ Denis McCullough, then chairman of the IRB Supreme Council, stated that, coming up to Easter Week, Mac Diarmada ‘had control of all matters connected with the Rising’. Despite the capture of the German arms ship Aud, Mac Diarmada was determined that the Rising should still go ahead. He was the second signatory of the Proclamation of the Republic. On 9 May, he was sentenced to death by a court martial at Richmond Barracks. Detective Daniel Hoey identified him. In a final letter to his family, Mac Diarmada wrote, ‘The cause for which I die has been re-baptised during the past week by the blood of as good men as ever trod God’s earth and should I not feel justly proud to be numbered among them.’ Shot in Kilmainham Jail at 03:45, he was buried at Arbour Hill. Gloucester Street was renamed in his memory, and a statute was unveiled in Kiltyclogher on 12 May 1940.531 SA: Clarke (3May1916/2), Hoey (12Sep 1919/1)

Catherine Clinton (11May1916/2) 53, Seamstress, Widowed MMH Mrs Clinton was shot in the eye in her bedroom at 17 Aldborough Square, the military being responsible. Taken to hospital by military ambulance, she died a fortnight later. Her sister secured £55 from the RVC.529

12 MAY 1916 Seán Mac Diarmada (John Joseph MacDermott) (12May1916/1) IV, 32, Newspaper manager, RC Kilmainham Jail, Dublin Mac Diarmada, from Laughty Barr,530 between Kiltyclogher and Glenfarne, Leitrim, was one of ten children. In 1903, his cousin secured him work in Edinburgh. He returned to Leitrim in 1904, studying bookkeeping and Irish by night. In 1905–6 he was a tram conductor in Belfast until dismissed for smoking on duty. While there he met Bulmer Hobson and joined the Dungannon Club. He also joined Arthur Griffith’s† Sinn Féin and the IRB. In 1907, Hobson and Denis McCullough employed him as an organiser for the Dungannon IRB. He organised the unsuccessful Sinn Féin campaign of Charles J. Dolan in the 1908 North Leitrim by-election. Mac Diarmada was recruited by Thomas Clarke as a full-time IRB organiser. In 1910 he became secretary of the IRB Supreme Council and manager of Irish Freedom. Although rendered lame by polio contracted in 1911, he continued his IRB work and in 1913 was closely involved in the founding of the Volunteers. Sentenced in June 1915 to four months’ imprisonment with hard labour for making anti-recruiting speeches, on release he became manager of Nationality, a new IRB newspaper edited by Arthur Griffith. Mac Diarmada was closely involved in the IRB Military Council’s preparations for an insurrection. Kevin B. Nowlan stated, ‘The

James Connolly (12May1916/2) ICA, 47, Trade unionist, Married with seven children, RC Kilmainham Jail, Dublin Connolly, born in Cowgate, Edinburgh, held various jobs before falsifying his age and joining the army in 1882, serving mostly in Ireland until he deserted in 1889 and returned to Scotland. In 1890, he married Lillie Reynolds, whom he had first met while in Dublin. Connolly became a casual labourer for Edinburgh Corporation. He joined the Scottish Socialist Federation in 1890 and the Independent Labour Party in 1893. In 1896, the Dublin Socialist Club employed him as an organiser. He established the Irish Socialist Republican Party (ISRP), one of its central tenets being that Irish nationalism and socialism were complementary. In 1903 he immigrated to the US. In

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1905 he was a co-founder of the syndicalist Industrial Workers of the World, two years later he founded the Irish Socialist Federation, and in 1909 he worked for the Socialist Party of America. Connolly returned to Ireland in 1910, publishing Labour in Irish History. In 1911, he became Ulster organiser of James Larkin’s ITGWU, and in 1912 founded the Independent Labour Party. He succeeded Larkin as general secretary of the ITGWU and editor of the Irish Worker in 1914. He was also commander of the ICA, established by Jack White in response to police violence during the 1913 lock-out. Connolly committed his movement against the Allies when the war broke out in 1914. The IRB Military Council, fearful that the ICA might rise independently, inducted him into the IRB. A signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, he exercised overall military command of the Volunteers and ICA, based in the GPO. On 27 April, he received serious leg and ankle wounds. Dr John Doyle, medical officer, performed an operation with the assistance of a prisoner, Captain John O’Mahony of the Indian Medical Service. After the surrender, Connolly was taken to the hospital in Dublin Castle. On 9 May, Connolly was sentenced to death by a court martial at Richmond Barracks. He was shot in the early hours, while propped in a chair in Kilmainham Jail, the last of the fifteen executions. Buried in Arbour Hill. The shooting of a wounded man caused public outcry. In 1924 his widow Lillie received a yearly pension initially of £90, with £24 for each of her children and educational fees. In 1966, the fiftieth anniversary of the Rising, Amiens Street Station was renamed Connolly Station. In 1996, on the eightieth anniversary, President Mary Robinson unveiled a statue of Connolly opposite Liberty Hall.532

of Surgeons: ‘Murray casually threw himself down on a bed and somehow a bullet hit him in the face.’ One eye was removed in hospital, where he died three weeks later. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: F. i. 265). His sister Jenny failed to secure a dependent’s award.533

14 MAY 1916 Mary Connolly (14May1916/1) 23, Fish dealer’s wife, Married, RC MMH Mary Connolly, of 4 North Richmond Street, was wounded in the leg while sitting in her kitchen on 28 April. Buried GC (Dublin Section: W. §. 13.5). Her husband Michael secured £50 from the RVC.534 Kate Lennon (14May1916/2) 55, Labourer’s wife, Married, RC MMH Kate Lennon, of 23 Hardwicke Street, was shot on Gloucester Street on 27 April while out on an errand. Her leg was later amputated. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: G. a. 37.5). Her daughter secured £10 burial expenses from the RVC.535

15 MAY 1916 James Allan (15May1916/1) King Edward’s Horse (1293), Soldier, Presbyterian Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim Private Allan was stationed in Longford. He is the only 1st Battalion fatality noted in the regimental history during service in Longford. While on night sentry duty, Allan fell into the River Shannon and was drowned. Head Constable Boyle stated that he heard cries for help from the Shannon at about midnight. A post-mortem examination found that Allen’s stomach contained only stale beer. Buried Longford Presbyterian Churchyard. He is commemorated at GMC.536

13 MAY 1916

16 MAY 1916

Daniel Joseph Murray (13May1916/1) IV, 31, Bookbinder, RC SVH ‘Dan’ Murray lived with his mother Mary at 35 Lower Mount Pleasant Avenue. The ICA’s Rose Hackett recalled how Volunteers were handling rifles they had found in the College

John Charlesworth (16May1916/1) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (2863), Protestant Killaloe, Clare Private Charlesworth enlisted in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire. On 16 May, the battalion

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arrived by train in Killaloe, Clare. Troops were billeted in an empty hotel beside the River Shannon, which was in flood. Three men disobeyed orders by taking out a boat. This was swiftly carried downstream, striking a bridge and capsizing. One man held on to the bridge until rescued; the others were swept away. Two fishermen succeeded in saving and resuscitating one soldier, but Charlesworth disappeared. His body was recovered eight days later. Soldiers Died in the Great War records him as dying ‘at sea’. Buried St Flannan’s Cathedral, Killaloe.537

Andrew Golding (19May1916/1) 35, Coal porter, Married with one child, RC North Dublin Union Golding, of 5 Longford Street, was wounded on 27 April at Custom House Bridge while going to work. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: C. a. 37.5). His dependents secured £234 from the RVC.540

23 MAY 1916 John McCarthy (23May1916/1) 55, Groom, Married, RC MHD McCarthy, of 46 John Dillon Street, was shot on 30 April on Montagu Street as he went to visit his son. Buried DGC. His widow Julia secured £203 compensation from the RVC.541

17 MAY 1916 Albert Edward Wood (17May1916/1) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (4031), 18, Soldier, Protestant RCDH See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Wood of 2/8th Battalion, from New Balderton, Nottinghamshire, died from wounds received on 26 April at Mount Street Bridge. Buried St Giles Churchyard, Balderton.538

28 MAY 1916 Ernest Davenport (28May1916/1) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment), 20 RCDH See Dietrichsen (26Apr1916/12). Private Davenport of the 2/8th Battalion, from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, died from wounds received on 26 April at Mount Street Bridge. Buried Mansfield Cemetery, Nottingham Road (B. 1318).542

Michael Kavanagh (17May1916/2) 35, Carter, Married with seven children, RC SVH From Prosperous, Kildare, Kavanagh, of 43 Queen’s Square, was conveying luggage to the Shelbourne Hotel on 24 April. His lorry was seized by ICA men to make a barricade and Kavanagh was shot in the head when he went to retrieve it. W. G. Smith of the St John Ambulance Brigade, heard an order to halt and saw:

30 MAY 1916 John Farrelly (30May1916/1) 35, Labourer, RC Mercer’s Farrelly, of 3 Monk’s Cottages, Lower Sherriff Street, was shot on 26 April on George’s Quay en route to work. Buried GC (Dublin Section: H. §. 19.5). His mother Catherine secured £150 from the RVC.543

[a] man dragging a lorry across the road by the shafts at whom the command was directed. He took no notice and I heard two shots and saw bullets flick up the dust at his feet; at this, he dropped the shafts . . . and ran across . . . apparently to remonstrate with the men who fired, who were crouching just inside the railing with levelled rifles and as he came to the chains a shot rang out and he threw up his hands and fell in a heap.

2 JUNE 1916 Daniel Doyle (2Jun1916/1) 46, Furniture dealer, Married with three children, RC JSH Doyle lived at his furniture store at 27 Upper Liffey Street. Shot on 28 April while going to feed his horse on Dominick Lane, he died

Kavanagh lingered on until 17 May. Buried Ballinafagh, Kildare. His widow secured £300 from the RVC.539

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from his wounds. Buried GC (St Patrick’s Section: V. j. 121). His widow Mary and children secured £380 from the RVC.544

Walter Eric Scott (5Jul1916/1) 8, Schoolboy, RC Mercer’s Walter, of 3 Irvine Crescent, one of six children, was shot in the head on 28 April as he went to buy bread. Two operations failed to save him. Buried GC (South Section: N. b. 54). His mother Annie secured £25 from the RVC.549

7 JUNE 1916 Ellen O’Connor (7Jun1916/1) 50, Flower seller, Married, RC SDU Ellen O’Connor of Meath Street, shot on O’Connell Bridge on 26 April, died of wounds. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: V. a. 39.5). Her husband Michael secured £156 from the RVC.545

6 JULY 1916 James Delooze (6Jul1916/1) RIF (15554), 40, RC KGVH Private Delooze, of Warrington, Lancashire, initially enlisted in the Lancashire Fusiliers (5890) before changing regiments. A colleague accidentally shot him through the liver at a rifle range in Skerries. Buried Warrington Cemetery (C. RC. 228A).550

10 JUNE 1916 Christina Purcell (10Jun1916/1) 30, Labourer’s wife, Married with five children, RC SVH Christina Purcell, of 37 Wentworth Place, died from wounds received in unknown circumstances. Buried GC (Dublin Section: J. §. 17.5).546

29 JULY 1916 Joseph Smyth (29Jul1916/1) 52, Coach painter, Widowed with three children North Dublin Union Smith, of 14 Hammond Lane, was knocked down by a crowd on Sackville Street on 24 April and never recovered from his injuries. His three daughters secured £133 from the RVC.551

15 JUNE 1916 James Connor (15Jun1916/1) 36, Owner of a lime works, Married with six children MHD On the night of 24 April, Connor, from Milford, Carlow, drove some munitions workers from Carlow to Dublin because all trains were cancelled. On his return journey next day, he was wounded when fired on in the vicinity of St Stephen’s Green. Before he died on 15 June, he said that he had heard no warning before being shot. His widow Eleanor secured a yearly pension of £43.6s.8d. and a £50 gratuity for her children.547

3 AUGUST 1916 Roger David Casement (3Aug1916/1) IV, 51, Consular official, RC Pentonville Prison, London Casement, born in Sandycove, Dublin, was raised by his uncle John Casement near Ballycastle, Antrim. His fate aroused controversy then and since for three reasons: his outstanding reputation as a champion of the rights of indigenous peoples in Africa and South America; his open disavowal of British rule in Ireland, which led him to campaign openly during the Great War for German victory in hopes that this would lead to Irish independence; and attempts by British officials to discredit

17 JUNE 1916 Patrick Nealon (17Jun1916/1) 61, Labourer, RC SPDH Nealon, of 77 Bride Street, died from wounds received on Bath Avenue on 29 April. Buried GC (Dublin Section: M. §. 21.5). His brother secured burial expenses of £10 from the RVC.548

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him by circulating disputed evidence of his homosexuality. Casement was a shipping clerk in Liverpool before becoming a customs official in the Gulf of Guinea in 1892. Three years later, he was appointed consul at Delagoa Bay in Portuguese East Africa. Further consular work followed in Congo and the French Congo. In June 1902, the Foreign Office instructed him to investigate alleged Belgian misgovernment in the Congo. His report, published in 1904, catalogued appalling abuses. It was instrumental in King Leopold relinquishing his holdings in Africa: from 1908 the Belgian parliament took over the administration of what became the Belgian Congo. Casement secured a CMG in 1905. This was a highly unusual honour for a junior consular official. In 1906, Casement was appointed consul in Santos, Brazil, and in 1908 was promoted to consul-general in Rio de Janeiro. At the Foreign Office’s behest, he produced a damning report on the enslavement and horrendous abuse of indigenous tribes by commercial rubber interests in the Putamayo region of the Amazon, and was rewarded with a knighthood in 1911, again an unusual distinction for a relatively junior consular official. Throughout his consular career, Casement regularly returned to Ireland and his interest in nationalism and the Irish language deepened. In 1913, he resigned on pension on grounds of ill-health, joining the provisional committee of the Irish Volunteers. In July 1914, he went to the US to raise support for the Volunteers. With the onset of war, he travelled to Germany and there tried to induce Irish prisoners of war to join an Irish Brigade to fight alongside Germany for Irish freedom. He was also involved in efforts to procure German arms, though he was opposed to the rebellion, judging the circumstances inopportune. In April 1916 he travelled by submarine to Ireland. Casement and his companions Robert Monteith and Daniel Bailey came ashore at Banna Strand in the early hours of 21 April, but he was quickly arrested. Taken to London, he was imprisoned in Brixton Prison, and placed on trial on 26 June.

On 29 June, Casement was convicted of high treason. Next day he was stripped of his knighthood. An appeal against his conviction was rejected. An international campaign for a reprieve was damaged by the leaking of extracts from his ‘black diaries’, containing graphic accounts of homosexual encounters. After his arrest Casement indicated that he wished to convert to Catholicism, but Cardinal Bourne of Westminster thought his stated reason – that he wished to belong to the religion of the majority of Irishmen, and to be ‘confirmed only by an Irish Bishop’ – problematic. Bourne was also mindful that his reception into the Catholic Church ‘might arouse anti-Catholic feeling’ and become part of the debate about a reprieve (which Bourne anticipated would eventually issue). Furthermore, Bourne had heard ‘on the highest authority that his moral life had been deplorable and that proof . . . might be produced at the trial . . . [and] the only safe course was to allow time to elapse in order to obtain sufficient proof of the sincerity and valid grounds of his wish to become a Catholic’. After Casement’s conviction, ‘two priests with ample faculties were sent to receive his abjuration and to reconcile him to the Church’. Casement was hanged on 3 August. Exhumed from Pentonville, his remains were returned to Ireland and interred after a state funeral on 1 March 1965. The authenticity of the ‘black diaries’ occasioned bitter controversy, inspiring various convoluted forgery theories. Forensic test results published in 2002 strongly indicated, as a mass of other evidence also suggested, that these were genuine. Sexuality is no litmus test for patriotism. Buried GC.552

4 AUGUST 1916 Patrick Reynolds (4Aug1916/1) 20, Journalist, RC Mercer’s Reynolds, of 5 Greenfield Place, shot as he passed Cork Hill on 24 April, died of his wounds. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section:

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C. c. 18). His mother secured £117 compensation from the RVC.553

30 SEPTEMBER 1916 Jack O’Reilly (30Sep1916/1) IV, 35, Civil engineer, RC Infirmary, Tralee, Kerry O’Reilly, a builder’s son from Tralee, Kerry, became a technical instructor before going to New Zealand, where he qualified as an engineer. He travelled widely in Australasia before returning to Ireland, becoming principal of the Ballinasloe Technical School, Galway. Arrested in Ballinasloe after the Rising and held in Wandsworth and Frongoch, he contracted ‘pernicious anaemia’. Released in July, he died in Tralee. Buried Rath Cemetery, Tralee.554

18 NOVEMBER 1916 Hedley Wilkins Jewell (18Nov1916/1) Leicestershire Regiment (4954) Fermoy, Cork Private Jewell of the 2/5th Battalion, from Appleby Magna, Leicestershire, accidentally drowned along with a colleague in the River Blackwater, then in flood. Buried Fermoy Military Cemetery.555 RD: Smith (18Nov1916/2) Bertie Smith (18Nov1916/2) Leicestershire Regiment (2596) Fermoy, Cork See Jewell (18Nov1916/1). Corporal Smith of the 2/5th Battalion lived in North Luffenham, Rutlandshire. Buried Fermoy Military Cemetery.556

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1917 24 JANUARY 1917 Christopher Brady (24Jan1917/1) ICA, 27, Packaging porter, RC Foley Street, Dublin Brady, imprisoned in Wandsworth and Frongoch after the Rising, was released due to ill-health in November 1916. He died at home from pneumonia. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: J. i. 243.5).1

20 MARCH 1917 Martin Byrne (20Mar1917/1) RIR, 56, Married, RC Malahide, Dublin Lance-Corporal Byrne, from Thurles, on guard duty at Malahide Railway Bridge, was hit by a train in stormy weather.2

8 MAY 1917 Bernard Ward (8May1917/1) IV, 27, Carpenter, RC Dublin Ward, from Monaghan, lived in Rialto and was a member of the 4th Battalion, Dublin Brigade. Imprisoned after the Rising in Wandsworth, he died from prison-related illness. Buried Latlurcan Cemetery, Monaghan.3

11 JUNE 1917 John Mills (11Jun1917/1) DMP (9300), 51, Married with three children, Protestant JSH From Dysart, Westmeath, Mills joined the DMP in 1886. He became a sergeant in 1901, station sergeant in 1908 and inspector in 1916. After arresting Cathal Brugha† for addressing an illegal public meeting in Beresford Place, Mills was struck with a hurley by Éamonn Murray of Fianna Éireann, later to become a Garda officer himself: ‘I killed the man.’ He died at 04:00 from a fractured skull. Frank Daly was ‘very sorry for Inspector Mills. I was present. . . . I never could find out who had done that.’ Mills had

interrupted Daly’s interrogation after the Rising to tell the inquisitor ‘what a good boy I was’. Buried MJC (Grave 57A. 296).4

24 JUNE 1917 Abraham Allen (24Jun1917/1) 25, Labourer, Married with children, CoI North Infirmary, Cork Tom Crofts recalled how, during disturbances following demonstrations to welcome home released 1916 prisoners, ‘we shelled’ the police ‘with stones’, and revolvers were fired. A police bayonet charge and military fire inflicted a number of injuries between 21:00 and midnight. Nine civilians and five policemen were wounded, including DI Oswald Swanzy. At 22:00 Allen of 374 Blarney Street appealed to Ellen McCarthy: ‘Have mercy on me ma’am, I’m dying.’5 A bayonet cut had severed the femoral artery.6 SA: Swanzy (22Aug1920/1)

3 JULY 1917 George Versey (3Jul1917/1) RFA, 17, CoE KGVH Gunner Versey was accidentally shot in Marlborough Barracks by Corporal Sedingham. Buried GMC (CE. 666).7

12 JULY 1917 Daniel Scanlon (12Jul1917/1) IV, 25, Hotelier, RC Ballybunion, Kerry During celebrations on 11 July following Éamon de Valera’s by-election victory in east Clare, police fired shots over the crowd to prevent them rushing the RIC barracks. Shot in the abdomen about 22:00, Scanlon died in the family’s hotel at 05:00, the first Volunteer fatality in north Kerry. Constable Lyons was tried for murder, but acquitted. Buried republican plot, Killehenny Cemetery. Scanlon’s sister secured a £50 gratuity.8

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26 JULY 1917

25 SEPTEMBER 1917

William Partridge (26Jul1917/1) ICA, 43, Trade unionist engineer, married with children, RC Ballaghadereen, Roscommon The Sligo-born son of a train driver, Partridge was a devout convert to Catholicism, and a radical socialist. A one-time Corporation councillor, he became a union official after losing his railway job for protesting at the preferential promotion of Protestants. Sent to Kerry to oversee the planned landing of weapons from the Aud, he returned to Dublin in time for the Rising, fortifying the spirits of the rebels occupying the College of Surgeons by nightly recitations of the Rosary. Countess Markievicz, who spoke at his graveside, attributed to him her decision to convert to Catholicism. He died two months after release from Lewes on medical grounds. He left four children, three by his second wife Mary Hamilton (m. 22 April 1909), including his daughter Constance, born seven months after his death. Mary’s initial dependent’s application was found inadmissible, although the pensions board accepted that ‘death . . . was due to prison treatment’ and recommended the family for support. President Cosgrave arranged a special interim payment before the pensions legislation was amended. Mary was eventually awarded support for herself and her children, and the state met her daughter’s school fees at Loreto College, St Stephen’s Green. Buried Kilcommon graveyard, Ballaghadereen. He is commemorated on a plaque at his home, 3 Patriot’s Terrace, Brookfield Road.9

Thomas Ashe (Tomás Ághas) (25Sep1917/1) IV, 32, Schoolteacher, RC MMH From Kinard, Lispole, Kerry, Ashe was principal of Corduff National School near Lusk, Dublin. A committed separatist, Gaelic speaker, IRB man and O/C 5th (Fingal) Battalion, Dublin Brigade, his unit was alone in adopting guerrilla tactics during the Rising, raiding police barracks, cutting communications and keeping on the move. Its defeat of a large force of RIC at Ashbourne on 28 April was the only real offensive success of the Rising (see Shanagher (28Apr1916/2)). Sentenced to death by court martial, Ashe’s penalty was commuted to penal servitude for life. Released from Lewes in June 1917 in a misguided conciliatory gesture, Ashe became president of the IRB’s supreme council. Jailed in Mountjoy for a seditious speech, he and others went on hunger strike for political status on 20 September. A jury found that he died just five days later due to ‘heart failure and congestion of the lungs . . . caused by [being] left to lie on the cold floor for fifty hours and then subjected to forcible feeding in his weak condition after hunger strike’. They denounced ‘mechanical feeding as an inhuman operation’, condemned the Dublin Castle authorities and defended hunger striking as ‘a protest against . . . being treated as criminals’. Police reported that Ashe’s death ‘evoked demonstrations of sympathy on the part of Nationalists’ across Ireland and ‘has given a fresh impetus to the Sinn Féin movement’. In 1924 his father Gregory secured a gratuity of £150. Buried GC. Michael Collins† delivered a graveside oration.11

29 SEPTEMBER 1917

16 SEPTEMBER 1917 Martin Hansberry (16Sep1917/1) IV, RC Moyode, Athenry, Galway Hansberry, from Rahard, Athenry, imprisoned after the Rising, accidentally shot himself crossing a hedge while drilling. Buried Athenry.10

Thomas Joseph Stokes (29Sep1917/1) IV, 24, Painter, RC Enniscorthy, Wexford Stokes, imprisoned after the Rising in Stafford, Knutsford and Wandsworth before transfer to Frongoch, was released on Christmas Eve 1916 due to prison-related illness. Buried St Aidan’s Cathedral cemetery.12

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28 MARCH 19185

George Sheehan (4Jan1918/1) 78, Army pensioner, Married with children, RC Workhouse Infirmary, Nenagh, Tipperary Sheehan, of Cooleen, Silvermines, was an ex-soldier with twenty-two years’ service. His soldier son Henry was home on furlough with his rifle. At around 20:00, three masked men entered the family home, threatening Sheehan’s wife Mary. After a struggle, her husband was shot in the throat and abdomen. Seán Gaynor, later O/C Tipperary No. 1 Brigade IRA, recalled that he used the captured rifle. Brothers William and John O’Brien, both teachers, were acquitted after two inconclusive trials. Their brother Patrick later told Ernie O’Malley that he had killed Sheehan. Mary Sheehan secured £500 compensation.1

Thomas Russell (28Mar1918/1) IV, 22, National school teacher, RC St Joseph’s Hospital, Kilrush, Clare From Dingle, Kerry, Russell was a Gaelic League teacher and a Volunteer in the Clare Brigade. A detachment of the Welsh Regiment in Kilrush adopted an abrasive attitude towards Sinn Féin supporters. On 24 March, soldiers unexpectedly interrupted the weekly meeting of the Carrigaholt Sinn Féin club. Military witnesses afterwards claimed the ‘quiet but panicky’ crowd surged towards the front door, some people being accidentally pressed up against soldiers’ bayonets. Russell was treated for a bayonet wound before being removed to hospital next day, where he died. Buried Kilmalkedar, Dingle, Kerry. In 1922 his parents received a weekly allowance of 15s.6

26 JANUARY 1918 John F. Hickey (26Jan1918/1) RIR, 51, RC Glanmire terminus, Cork Private Hickey ‘received terrible injuries’ when struck by an engine while on guard duty. Buried Millstreet graveyard.2

1 MARCH 1918 John Ryan (1Mar1918/1) IV, 23, Labourer, RC Infirmary, Ennis, Clare After a cattle drive on 24 February at Manus, about five miles from Ennis, Volunteers clashed with the RIC. Sergeant O’Mara stated that he and five officers from Castlefergus RIC Barracks were confronted by about one hundred men, some carrying hurleys. One apparently shouted: ‘There are only six of them there, we will kill . . . them and take the barracks afterwards.’ O’Mara gave the order to fire. Ryan, of Crossagh, was hit in the neck and spine.3 Buried Clonlohan, Newmarket-on-Fergus. A commemorative cross was erected in the 1930s. His mother Mary secured a £75 gratuity.4

13 APRIL 1918 John Browne (13Apr1918/1) IV, 25, Farmer’s son, RC Gortatlea, Tralee, Kerry In what could arguably be termed the opening clash of the War of Independence, Volunteers under Tom McEllistrim raided the RIC Barracks at Gortatlea around 21:00. The idea was to capture weapons and avoid shooting. Constables Considine and Denning were easily subdued, but two policemen on patrol returned unexpectedly and opened fire. Browne was shot in the temple, and Laide mortally wounded in the stomach. All four policemen secured the constabulary medal, and Sergeant Boyle and Constable Fallon were promoted. About a month later, McEllistrim and John Cronin attempted to kill them, wounding Fallon in the shoulder. Martial law was declared in Tralee for three weeks. Cronin and McEllistrim evaded arrest. However, Robert Browne and Maurice Carmody were charged with attempted murder. As late as May 1922, anti-Treaty IRA forces occupying the Four Courts

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maintained a watch on Sergeant Boyle with a view to killing him. Browne and Laide were buried side by side at Rath Cemetery, Tralee.7 RD: Laide (14Apr1918/1). SA: Browne (8Feb 1921/2)

14 APRIL 1918 Richard Laide (14Apr1918/1) IV, 29, Farmer’s son, RC Infirmary, Tralee, Kerry See Browne (13Apr1918/1). ‘Dick’ Laide served in the Ballymacelligott Company. His mother secured a £25 gratuity.8

4 JUNE 1918 Patrick Duffy (4Jun1918/1) RC Carrigartha, Castleblayney, Monaghan An inquest heard how at about 03:00 Duffy, of Main Street, Castleblayney, while drunk, argued with a sentry and tried to disarm him near Carrigartha Military Camp. The soldier, wounded on the arm, shot Duffy, whom he also bayoneted. A doctor stated that Duffy might have been on the ground when shot. Buried St Mary’s Cemetery, Castleblayney.9

22 JULY 1918 Séamus Courtney (22Jul1918/1) Fianna Éireann, 21, RC Mountnicholas, Gortatlea, Tralee, Kerry Courtney, of 95 Hibernian Buildings, Cork, never recovered from the effects of hunger strike while serving three months imprisonment for illegal drilling in 1917, dying in his aunt’s home. Buried Monkstown, Cork.10

12 SEPTEMBER 1918 Séamus Rafter (12Sep1918/1) IV, 44, Businessman, RC Enniscorthy, Wexford From Coolree, Ballindaggan, Wexford, Rafter and his brother ran a business at Slaney Place, Enniscorthy. He was O/C A (Enniscorthy) Company and vice-O/C Wexford Brigade. A death sentence imposed after the Rising was commuted to penal servitude for five years. He was jailed in Dartmoor, and later in Lewes, Maidstone and Pentonville, before release in

1917. He died from burns received on 27 August while manufacturing munitions at his premises. This was ‘a severe blow to the Volunteer movement in Wexford’. Thomas Sinnott believed ‘his death disorganised the whole thing. Everything fell through after that – we were all caught after that.’ Buried Ballindaggan Churchyard. A statue was later erected in Abbey Square, Enniscorthy. His sister Johanna failed to secure a dependent’s allowance.11

29 SEPTEMBER 1918 Josephine McGowan (29Sep1918/1) Cumann na mBan, 20, Weaver, RC Dolphin’s Barn, Dublin Josephine McGowan served in the Marrowbone Lane garrison during the 1916 Rising, after which she was detained for a time. While her death certificate records her cause of death as ‘pneumonia’, she had reportedly been badly beaten about the head in a DMP baton charge some days earlier during a women’s protest against the detention of Irish political prisoners in Britain during which stones were allegedly thrown at the DMP. Maureen Duggan and Evelyn O’Brien were afterwards jailed after refusing to pay fines imposed. In 1953 she was posthumously awarded a 1917–21 medal with bar.12

2 NOVEMBER 1918 William Staines (2Nov1918/1) IV, 20, Engineering student, RC Church Avenue, Rialto, Dublin From Roscommon, Staines joined Fianna Éireann in 1908 and the Volunteers in 1913. Awarded a Corporation scholarship in 1915, he studied engineering at UCD. Staines received serious head wounds in the Mendicity Institute on 26 April 1916, losing a piece of his skull when a British grenade which he was attempting to throw back exploded. His mother failed in a claim for a dependent’s allowance, the pensions board deciding that his death arose directly from influenza and septicaemia and not from his wounds. His elder brother Michael, a significant figure in the revolutionary movement, in 1922 was the founding commissioner of

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An Garda Síochána. Another brother, John, died when the British submarine L55 was sunk in combat with Bolshevik warships in the Gulf of Finland in 1919 (the crew’s remains were recovered by the Soviets and returned to Portsmouth for burial in 1928).13

8 NOVEMBER 1918 John Moriarty (8Nov1918/1) RIC (64065), 31, Farmer, RC Eyeries, Cork From Kerry, Constable Moriarty joined the RIC on 6 July 1908, allocated to Cork. At about 18:45 Moriarty and Sergeant John Phelan were wheeling their bicycles back towards Eyeries from Castletownbere Petty Sessions, when Phelan, some distance behind Moriarty, heard the cry: ‘Hands up.’ Phelan, fearing an ambush, fired his revolver, hitting Moriarty in the back. It transpired that the challenge had come from Sergeant O’Connell, RIC, who was with a patrol of soldiers sheltering from the rain along the roadside. Buried Killarney, Kerry. The RIC Inspector General recommended a gratuity of £50 for his parents.14

29 NOVEMBER 1918 Joseph Reid15 (29Nov1918/1) Fianna Éireann, 18, RC North Infirmary, Cork Reid, son of an ex-serviceman, lived with his mother and three brothers at 43 Harbour Row, Queenstown (Cobh), Cork. Before his death, he explained that he had been cleaning his revolver when it went off. Buried Ticknock Cemetery. A housing estate in Cobh was named after him.16

Christian Brothers’ novitiate. He later became an insurance agent. He founded the Swords Company, of which he was captain, and was also adjutant 5th (Fingal) Battalion, taking part in the Howth gun-running in July 1914. At Easter 1916, Coleman fought in the Mendicity Institution. A death sentence was commuted to three years penal servitude. Incarcerated in Dartmoor and Lewes. Released in June 1917, he returned to activism, being imprisoned for illegal drilling, and later detained during the ‘German Plot’ scare in May 1918. He never recovered from the effects of a hunger strike. He died from pneumonia contracted in Usk. Buried GC. In 1924 his widowed mother Mary secured a gratuity of £60, and a sister later received a dependent’s allowance.18 He is commemorated on a Fingal 1916 memorial in Lusk.

17 DECEMBER 1918 Anthony Herron (17Dec1918/1) 57, Farmer, Married with six children, RC Glenties, Donegal Herron, from Lackley, Glenties, was returning home from an Irish Parliamentary Party rally in Glenties on 12 December when overtaken by Sinn Féin supporters. Before his death he described how he saw John Ward point his arm towards him. Then ‘a shot struck me in the throat’. He died of ‘septic pneumonia’. Ward initially denied any part, but at his trial pleaded guilty to manslaughter, explaining that ‘he bought the revolver in Omagh [Tyrone] for £5’. He ‘promised to give it to the police’. As he had been in detention for seven months, he was released and bound over to keep the peace.19

7 DECEMBER 191817 Richard Coleman (7Dec1918/1) IV, 28, Insurance agent, RC Usk, England Coleman, from Swords, Dublin, worked for the MGWR in Cavan before entering the

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1919 15 JANUARY 1919 Elizabeth Dunne (15Jan1919/1) 8, Schoolgirl, RC MMH Elizabeth, of 11 Dorset Avenue, died from a fractured skull after being struck by an RAF tender driven by Private Charles Hopper.1

20 JANUARY 1919 Daniel Joseph McGandy (20Jan1919/1) IRA, 19, Postman, RC Derry For some time ‘Dan’ McGandy, ‘a strong, well-built young man’ from the Waterside, had been helping Michael Sheerin, who had been pilfering a stock of grenade casings in Craig’s engineering works, by carrying these off in his postman’s bag. On 19 January he failed to attend a rendezvous with Sheerin. Next day his coat, revolver and post bag were found on the quay outside Craig’s; a week later his body was recovered from the River Foyle. Liam Brady suggested that McGandy was thrown into the river during a struggle with two soldiers on guard on the quay. Other IRA sources stated he was attacked by police. Gerald Loughrey recalled that ‘we were pretty well convinced that he had lost his life on account of unofficial hostile action’. The body of Private Arthur Henderson, who disappeared while on leave the same night, was recovered drowned in March. The two deaths were not publicly linked at the time. His father secured a £50 gratuity.2 RD: Henderson (20Jan1919/2) Arthur Alexander Henderson (20Jan1919/2) Royal Army Service Corps, 38, Carter, Married, Protestant Derry See McGandy (20Jan1919/1). Henderson, from Donegal, formerly of the Royal Irish

Rifles, enlisted in December 1914. His wife Annie Maude lived at 5 Belleview Terrace, Derry.3

21 JANUARY 1919 James McDonnell (21Jan1919/1) RIC (50616), 57, Farmer, Widowed with six children, RC Soloheadbeg, Tipperary From Belmullet, Mayo, McDonnell joined the RIC on 18 October 1882, serving in Wexford, the RIC Reserve and Wexford again before transfer to Tipperary town in 1891. Paddy O’Dwyer recalled the Soloheadbeg ambush. Seán Hogan, Dan Breen and Seán Treacy decided to seize a consignment of gelignite due to arrive at Soloheadbeg quarry from the military barracks in Tipperary town. Armed with revolvers, the IRA party waited several days at a prearranged position near the quarry entrance. The cart arrived at about 12:30. There is a conflict of evidence about the ambushers’ intentions. It was generally held that they planned to disarm the policemen, whereas Tadhg Crowe maintained that they had decided to shed enemy blood. Treacy apparently issued a challenge, and the two constables were shot when they reached for their weapons. The gelignite and detonators were safely removed. Coincidentally, this attack took place on the day that Dáil Éireann, composed of Sinn Féin representatives – styled TDs – elected as MPs in the General Election of December 1918, met in the Mansion House in Dublin and proclaimed itself the legitimate parliament of the Irish Republic. Among them was P. J. Moloney, TD for South Tipperary, EOH’s great grandfather, whose Tipperary pharmacy was reportedly ‘Brigade Headquarters at the time’.4 Buried St Michael’s Cemetery, Tipperary. McDonnell’s dependents secured £1,500 compensation.5 RD: O’Connell (21Jan1919/2). SA: Treacy (14Oct1920/3)

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Patrick O’Connell (21Jan1919/2) RIC (61889), 36, Farmer, RC Soloheadbeg, Tipperary See McDonnell (21Jan1919/1). O’Connell, from Clonmoyle, Coachford, Cork, joined the RIC on 1 June 1906, serving in Galway, Tipperary and Offaly before posting to Tipperary town in 1916. Buried Coachford. His father secured £200 compensation.6

24 FEBRUARY 1919

David McKay (3Feb1919/1) RMLI, 40 Rocky Island, Haulbowline, Cork The CFR records the self-inflicted death by revolver shot of Colour-Sergeant McKay, who had survived the sinking of his ship at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, and who held the French Croix de Guerre.7

Patrick Casey (24Feb1919/1) IRA, 23, Farmer, RC Kenmare Road (near Mangerton), Killarney, Kerry Casey was captain Black Valley Company, 4th Battalion, Kerry No. 2 Brigade. Maurice Horgan claimed that Casey, unarmed, and Jerome Griffin, carrying a shotgun, went to meet a gamekeeper from the Kenmare Estate, John Lyne, whom they thought would surrender his rifle, at a place known locally as ‘Lump of Beef ’. Lyne refused and Casey wrestled with him, still believing that the struggle was make-believe. He was shot in the chest. Griffin then fired, wounding Lyne in both thighs. After this incident, the military took custody of all rifles on the Kenmare Estate.10

11 FEBRUARY 1919

28 FEBRUARY 1919

3 FEBRUARY 1919

James N. Down (11Feb1919/1) 35, RC North Fever Hospital, Cork The CFR records that Down, of Gardiner’s Hill, Cork, died of injuries following a drunken brawl with ex-soldiers in Patrick Street on 1 February.8

Thomas Meehan (28Feb1919/1) 80, Old age pensioner, Married, RC JSH Meehan, of 14 Great Longford Street, died from shock after a military vehicle struck him.11

1 MARCH 1919

13 FEBRUARY 1919 Patrick Gavin (13Feb1919/1) 45, Agricultural labourer, RC Brownstown, Curragh, Kildare From Maddenstown, the Curragh, Gavin worked for Joseph Moore of Tully East. He was driving a cow to Newbridge Fair when challenged by a sentry at Brownstown pumping station, Curragh Camp at about 05:30. Sergeant Arthur Jones of The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment told an inquest that at 06:00 he had heard Private Arthur Gay shout: ‘Guard turn out.’ Gay claimed that he fired, after issuing three challenges, because Gavin was about to attack him with a stick. The jury found that death was due to a bullet wound in the heart, and decried the use of inexperienced soldiers as sentries. Charged with causing Gavin’s death, Gay was acquitted after Sergeant Jones reiterated his inquest evidence.9

William Thomas Wilson (1Mar1919/1) King Edward’s Horse, 39 Military Barracks, Kilkenny Trooper Wilson shot himself.12

6 MARCH 1919 Pierce McCan (6Mar1919/1) IV, 36, Farmer, Engaged, RC Nursing home, Gloucester, Gloucestershire From New Ross, Wexford, McCan was brigade O/C Irish Volunteers for Tipperary. Interned in Knutsford Prison after the Rising, upon release he resumed revolutionary activities. Arrested again during the ‘German Plot’ round-up in May 1918, he was deported to Usk and then transferred to Gloucester. While in prison he was elected Sinn Féin MP for Tipperary East in the December 1918 General Election. McCan contracted influenza on 25 February. Moved to a nursing

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home, he made satisfactory progress until his condition dramatically worsened and he died. Buried Dualla, Cashel, Tipperary.13

10 MARCH 1919 William Edward Smith (10Mar1919/1) Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, 26 Ballyvonaire Military Camp, Buttevant, Cork The CFR lists Private Smith as dying from an accidentally inflicted gunshot wound to the head.14

11 MARCH 1919 Alfred Pearson (11Mar1919/1) 48, Ex-serviceman, draughtsman, Married with children, CoI 146 Richmond Road, Drumcondra, Dublin Pearson, of 146 Richmond Road, Drumcondra, was manager of Harrisons’ monumental works on Richmond Road. Living separately from his wife, he was described, surprisingly, as a Sinn Féiner. He owned two or three rifles, as well as some antiquated pistols and a sword. Two women whom Pearson had invited home for some food from a nearby pub stressed that, whatever Pearson might have had in mind, they were respectable ladies. They described a considerable altercation between Pearson and raiders on an upstairs landing. They were held downstairs, where one pleaded: ‘I am a Sinn Feiner. Don’t shoot me, for mercy’s sake.’ Some of the youthful raiders were in quasi-military (presumably Fianna Éireann) uniform. A DMP constable heard a shot and then saw about six people rush through Pearson’s garden. Pearson staggered out and collapsed, covered in blood. As well as a bullet wound, he had numerous abrasions, suggesting a struggle. Buried MJC (9. A. 387).15

15 MARCH 1919 Harry Harrison (15Mar1919/1) East Yorkshire Regiment, 19 Westmeath Harrison, from Walsall, was killed accidentally in unknown circumstances. Buried Ballyglass Cemetery.16

20 MARCH 1919 Ashley Elliott Herbert Fetherstonhaugh (20Mar1919/1) 14th (King’s) Hussars, 33, Army Officer,17 Married, CoI Leemount, Carrigrohane, Cork Major Fetherstonhaugh, from Bracklin, Westmeath, had married Janet Gordon only a few days before he was in a motor car travelling to Victoria Barracks, Cork, which was hit by an oncoming train at Leemount railway level crossing. The driver was thrown clear. Buried Rathconnell Churchyard, Westmeath.18

30 MARCH 1919 John Charles Milling (30Mar1919/1) 46, Magistrate, Married with three children, CoI Newport Road, Westport, Mayo ‘Jack’ Milling, from Glasson, Westmeath, joined the RIC as a DI in 1894, serving in Derrygonnelly, Ballyshannon and Ballymena before transfer to Belfast in 1908. He wrote The RIC ABC or Police Duties in Relation to Acts of Parliament. Appointed resident magistrate for the Castlebar district in Mayo on 2 January 1915, he lived in Westport. Milling had received numerous threatening letters since 1916, and was considered for transfer in the early months of 1919. At about 23:00 on 29 March, Milling was shot through his drawing room window as he went to put the clock on summer time. One bullet him hit in the abdomen, another passed through his wife’s hair. He died at about 22:00 the following night. A rumour that Milling was shot by an RIC DI involved with Mrs Milling was dismissed by locals, who maintained Milling was killed because of his indiscreet remark in the Railway Hotel that he would deal severely with Joe Ring,† leader of the Westport Volunteers, scheduled to appear before him. Volunteers Joe Gill, Joe Walsh and Joe Ruddy took part in the shooting which, Thomas Hevey believed, was orchestrated by the IRB. Westport was declared a special military area on 1 April, restrictions remaining in place until 1 June. Despite intense police and military activity, no one was charged with Milling’s murder. Buried Church of Ireland

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Cemetery, Westport. His widow Elizabeth, sister and youngest son each secured £2,000 compensation. The family subsequently left Westport, settling in Armagh.19

6 APRIL 1919 Martin O’Brien (6Apr1919/1) RIC (62375), 35, Farmer, Married with one child, RC Union Hospital, Limerick From Tipperary, Constable O’Brien joined the RIC on 18 February 1907, stationed in Caherconlish, Limerick. O’Brien spent three weeks with other RIC men and a prison officer guarding Bobby Byrne, an IRA officer on hunger strike in hospital. Michael Stack recalled how five Volunteers attempted to disarm the police. Things went awry. After Constable Spillane fired at Byrne, Stack shot him in the spine. When O’Brien struggled free, Stack killed him. Byrne was taken in a horse-drawn carriage about three miles to Meelick, Clare, where a neck wound was discovered. He died at about 20:30. His body was found by the authorities next day. Buried Birr, Offaly. O’Brien’s widow Abina secured £1,200 compensation.20 RD: Byrne (6Apr1919/2) Robert J. Byrne (6Apr1919/2) IRA, 28, RC Meelick, Clare See O’Brien (6 Apr1919/1). ‘Bobby’ Byrne, a member of the Trades and Labour Council, was adjutant 2nd (Limerick City) Battalion, Mid Limerick Brigade. Michael Stack regarded Byrne’s rescue as ‘really the start of IRA activities in Limerick city’. The day following Byrne’s enormous funeral, Limerick was declared a special military area. Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery.21

11 APRIL 1919 John Sheehan (11Apr1919/1) 54, Stoker, Widowed with two children, RC MHD Sheehan, of 3 Albert Place, died of heart failure. He had been hit by an RAF lorry on 22 February while dismounting from a

trap at Drimnagh. Buried GC (St Patrick’s Section).22

29 APRIL 1919 Charles Bernard Kirk (29Apr1919/1) Somerset Light Infantry (44458), 35 Hollywood, Down Kirk was awaiting permission to travel home as his wife Annie was seriously ill. A bugler came in, picked up Kirk’s rifle and discharged it, hitting him in the back. Buried New Basford Cemetery, Nottingham (GS 16).23 William Grant (29Apr1919/2) c. 29, Labourer, RC Waterford Grant lived in Harrington’s Lane. A supporter of the local MP Captain William Redmond, an inquest jury recorded that he suffered severe head injuries on 7 April during a fight with Sinn Féin supporters and died on 29 April.24

4 MAY 1919 Stephen Lehane (4May1919/1) IV, Groom, 21, RC Mallow, Cork The CFR records the accidental shooting of Lehane, a labourer’s son of 2 Humes Lane, Mallow, by his friend and comrade Daniel Hassett as he examined an old revolver at the Short Castle paddock beside Cleeves’ condensed milk factory. After sending for a priest, Hassett reported the incident to the RIC.25

11 MAY 1919 Michael Walsh (11May1919/1) IRA, Fisherman, RC Ballingoul, Ring, Dungarvan, Waterford On 25 April a party of naval ratings from a gunboat off Ballingoul, Ring, became obstreperous in Walsh’s sister’s pub. She sent him for help to the RIC barracks. Constable McCarthy, mistaking Walsh for an attacker, shot him in the neck.26 He was said to be the first Volunteer killed in Waterford, albeit slain in very confused circumstances. McCarthy was subsequently dismissed. Buried Ring.27

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13 May 1919

13 MAY 1919 Michael Enright (13May1919/1) RIC (62005), 35, Clerk, RC Knocklong Railway Station, Limerick Constable Enright was the first fatality of the Knocklong engagement. A teacher’s son from Ballyneety, Limerick, he joined the RIC on 1 August 1906, allocated to Tipperary. Seán Treacy led a party of Volunteers to release Seán Hogan, who was being sent by train to Cork, where political prisoners in Munster were generally detained. Hogan was guarded by Sergeant Peter Wallace and constables Reilly, Ring and Enright. Treacy, Ned O’Brien, Jim Scanlon and Seán Lynch boarded the train at Knocklong Station. O’Brien killed Enright, apparently because he had put a gun to Hogan’s neck. Wallace knocked Treacy’s gun from him and they fought hand to hand. Wallace, a powerful man, shot Treacy in the throat before the latter wrenched his revolver from him and shot him twice. The sergeant subsequently died in Kilmallock Union Hospital. The shooting brought Dan Breen and Séamus Robinson, on guard outside the station, running to the platform. Breen was seriously wounded in the lung and right arm. The IRA party escaped, and Hogan’s handcuffs were cut on a local butcher’s block. Enright’s parents secured £455 compensation. Michael Murphy, Edmond Foley and Patrick Maher were subsequently tried by a military court on murder charges. Murphy was acquitted, but Foley and Maher were sentenced to death and were hanged in Mountjoy Jail on 7 June 1921.28 RD: Wallace (14May1919/1). SA: Foley (7Jun 1921/4), Maher (7Jun1921/5), Treacy (14Oct 1920/3)

14 MAY 1919 Peter Wallace (14May1919/1) RIC (56438), 46, Postman, Married, RC Union Hospital, Kilmallock, Limerick See Enright (13May1919/1). From Roscommon, Wallace joined the RIC on 16 May 1894, serving in Wexford and Offaly before transfer to Tipperary in 1909 and

promotion to sergeant in 1918. Buried Curraghroe, Roscommon.29

20 MAY 1919 Michael (Micheál) Tobin (20May1919/1) IRA, 29, Draper’s assistant, RC Mercy Hospital, Cork Tobin, from Ballineen, lived in Cork city. Seán O’Connell recalled bomb-making at the rear of Andy Hearne’s boot shop on Grattan Street. On 28 April, 28 pounds of gunpowder, used for blasting in quarries, was ground into a fine powder to fill cartridges for ‘tin can’ bombs. Receiving word of an imminent police raid, Volunteers O’Connell, Tobin and Dick Murphy ‘decided to shift it and were packing it into Tin Boxes and whatever happened the thing went off and we were all burned’. They were taken to hospital. On 5 May the police discovered 262 partially prepared bombs concealed under floorboards, as well as a canister containing loose gelignite. On 17 May, Volunteers removed Murphy and O’Connell from the North Infirmary lest they be arrested (O’Connell took three months to recover). Tobin died there. Buried Ballineen, Cork.30

7 JUNE 1919 Patrick McNiff (7Jun1919/1) Labour Corps (2G/2452), 28, RC KGVH Private McNiff, stationed in Wellington Barracks, Dublin, had previously been in the RIR (329681). He left his sister’s house at 22:00 on 6 June to return to barracks. Although sober, he was shot by sentry Private Frederick Hughes when he failed to report to the guardroom. He died at 00:15 from abdominal and chest wounds. An inquest jury exonerated Hughes. Buried GMC (RC 672).31 Matthew Murphy (7Jun1919/2) 21, Commercial traveller, RC Infirmary, Dundalk, Louth Murphy, son of Frank Murphy of St Mary’s Road, Dundalk, was a commercial traveller with Messrs P. J. Carroll and Co. Tobacco Manufacturers. He was in a motor car driving

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1919

south into Dundalk which passed by a military picket at New Inn set up in response to a series of arms raids. The driver apparently did not hear a challenge and drove on; a soldier fired a round which passed through the windscreen, wounding Murphy in the thigh. He died in hospital. Buried Castletown Cemetery, Newry. His father secured £240 compensation.32

23 JUNE 1919 Michael Hunt (23Jun1919/1) RIC (55727), 45, Farmer, Married with five children, RC Liberty Square, Thurles, Tipperary From Sligo, Hunt joined the RIC on 2 January 1893, allocated to Offaly. He subsequently served in Longford and Tipperary. Promoted to sergeant in April 1901, and to head constable in 1907, in 1911 Hunt became a DI (3rd class), a notable achievement for a Catholic recruited as a constable, and was stationed in Thurles. He was regarded as particularly hostile towards the Volunteers and Sinn Féin supporters, and it was decided to shoot him as he returned from the Thurles races. At about 17:30, as Hunt reached the Square, Jim and Tommy Stapleton and Jim Murphy shot him three times from behind. He died almost immediately. Twelve-year-old Dan Maher was wounded in the knee. Hunt’s companions ran for their barracks. An inquest jury returned a verdict of wilful murder only after what the RIC termed ‘considerable hesitation’ and ‘a grudging expression of sympathy’. A proclamation issued on 4 July under the Criminal Law & Procedure Act suppressed Sinn Féin, the Irish Volunteers, the Gaelic League and Cumann na mBan. When Dr John Harty, Catholic archbishop of Cashel, condemned the killing but also deplored what he termed the provocative action of the government, and asked that ‘the military domination of Ireland cease at once’, the dead man’s son Captain Michael Hunt walked out of Thurles cathedral. Buried Passlands Cemetery, Monasterevin, Sligo. His widow secured £5,025 in compensation.33

24 JUNE 1919 R. J. Phillips (24Jun1919/1) Royal Welsh Fusiliers,34 24 New Barracks, Limerick Corporal Phillips, a gymnasium instructor, was shot through the neck around 10:30 when Second Lieutenant Harman Douglas Bastick accidentally discharged an automatic pistol he was clearing. Bastick was acquitted of negligence by a court martial. Buried Penycefn Cemetery, Trawsfynydd, Wales.35

1 JULY 1919 Patrick Studdert (1Jul1919/1) 56, Farmer, fisherman, Married with nine children, RC St Joseph’s Hospital, Kilrush, Clare Studdert lived in Kilkee. At about 16:00 on 30 June, he was in a field near his boathouse, and close to the fence of a military camp. Being deaf, he did not hear several warnings from sentries of the Scottish Horse, and was shot once in the back of the head by Sergeant Wolseley. He died during the early hours following an operation. His widow Kate secured £400 compensation, but in 1933 failed in a dependent’s claim to the Department of Defence as Studdert was deemed not to have been a Volunteer.36 Buried Kilkee, Clare.37

7 JULY 1919 George Caygill (7Jul1919/1) 106th Squadron, RAF, 33 Fermoy Military Aerodrome Private Caygill shot himself with a revolver while temporarily insane, reportedly depressed at delay in his discharge from service. Buried Bedale, North Yorkshire.38

15 JULY 1919 Kathleen O’Grady (15Jul1919/1) 5, Schoolgirl, RC MHD Kathleen, of 19 South Richmond Street, died from a fractured skull after she was struck by a motor car driven by Corporal George Troughton which hit a pillar box while trying to avoid her. An inquest jury exonerated Troughton.39

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21 JULY 1919 Donald Lawrence (21Jul1919/1) MGC, 34, Steelworker Moorepark, Fermoy, Cork The CFR states that Lawrence, from Norwich, shot himself in the head because he was facing disciplinary proceedings. An inquest jury determined that he was suffering from temporary insanity.40

4 AUGUST 1919 Michael James Murphy (4Aug1919/1) RIC (69587), 20, Farmer, RC Ballyvranneen, Illaunbaun, Clare Murphy, a policeman’s son from Westmeath, joined the RIC on 3 December 1918, stationed in Derrymore. Constable Murphy and Sergeant John Riordan were cycling from Ennistymon to the police protection hut at Illaunbaun at about 22:00 when ambushed at ‘Eighty-One Cross’ by Martin Devitt, ‘Tosser’ Neylon and Séamus Connolly of the Mid Clare Brigade. It was almost dusk when the police appeared, cycling abreast. When Devitt ordered ‘hands up’, the policemen opened fire. Riordan wounded Devitt severely in the chest. Neylon killed Murphy outright and severely wounded Riordan, who died next day in Ennistymon Union Hospital after making a deathbed statement, stating that he shot one attacker. He reportedly wrote ‘shot by three assassins; wounded them’ in his prayer book before collapsing. The IRA seized the policemen’s bicycles and revolvers. Buried Aughavas Cemetery, Leitrim. Murphy and Riordan were the first RIC men to be killed in Clare during the War of Independence. Murphy’s father Cornelius secured £240 compensation.41 RD: Riordan (5Aug1919/1). SA: Devitt (24Feb1920/1)

twice, the reserve in Galway, and Laois, before transfer to Clare in 1917 and promotion to sergeant in 1918. Riordan had lived for some years in the Ennistymon district, where his brother also served in the RIC. Buried at Kilnamartyra, Macroom. His brother William failed in a compensation claim.42

14 AUGUST 1919 Francis Murphy (14Aug1919/1) Fianna Éireann, 15, Shop assistant, RC Glann, Ennistymon, Clare Murphy, one of eleven children of John Murphy, a prominent member of the Gaelic League and formerly a local councillor, lived in Glann, outside Ennistymon. He served in Fianna Éireann. On 13 August, he was reading by the fire when, just after midnight, several shots were fired from outside. His sister Agnes found him lying dead in a pool of blood at 00:30. She ‘said a little prayer in his ear before shouting out that he was dead’. The military claimed that all troops ‘on the night in question have been accounted for’. W. E. Wylie, the law adviser to the Irish government, urged that an inquiry be held because there was strong evidence of prior misbehaviour by troops in the district while enforcing a ban on lights after 22:00. Buried Ennistymon.43

22 AUGUST 1919 Timothy Murphy (22Aug1919/1) RIC (64361), 33, Farmer, RC Union Hospital, Ennistymon, Clare From Cork, Constable Murphy joined the RIC on 16 September 1908, allocated to Clare, stationed in Liscannor. Murphy’s revolver discharged when he accidentally knocked it off a shelf while making his bed. He died next day at 15:30.44

5 AUGUST 1919

24 AUGUST 1919

John Riordan (5Aug1919/1) RIC (57242), 45, Labourer, Widowed, RC Union Hospital, Ennistymon, Clare See Murphy (4Aug1919/1). Riordan, from Kilnamartyra, Macroom, Cork, joined the RIC on 15 October 1895, serving in Meath

James Albert Williams (24Aug1919/1) RGA, 30 Fort Carlisle, Cork The CFR records that Gunner Williams was shot when Gunner Ruttledge inadvertently discharged his weapon while on parade.45

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2 SEPTEMBER 1919 Philip Brady (2Sep1919/1) RIC (54833), 48, Farmer, Married with six children, RC Carrigahorig, Borrisokane, Tipperary From Cavan, Brady joined the RIC in 1891, serving in Galway and Fermanagh. Promoted to sergeant in 1911, Brady had only been stationed in Lorrha, Tipperary, since 5 June, having arrived from Enniskillen on temporary duty. Shortly before midnight, he was in a three-man cycle patrol ambushed while returning to Lorrha RIC Barracks. The attackers – Felix Cronin, Jack and Michael Joyce, James Carroll, Tim Haugh, William Bouchier and Martin Needham – were all Volunteers of the Lorrha Company. They fired from behind roadside shrubbery. Brady, shot in the chest, was killed outright. Constable Foley was seriously wounded. Constable McCormack returned fire. The attacking party soon ran out of ammunition and withdrew. John Joe Madden, a Volunteer who had taken no part in the ambush, was acquitted of Brady’s murder at the Dublin Assizes. Buried Kiloughter, Redhills, Cavan.46

7 SEPTEMBER 1919 William Jones (7Sep1919/1) King’s (Shropshire Light Infantry), 20, Protestant Walkers Row,47 Fermoy, Cork From Carmarthen, South Wales, Private Jones was stationed in Fermoy. Liam Lynch,† O/C Cork No. 2 Brigade, planned to disarm a military party which attended the Methodist chapel on Walker’s Row each Sunday. About thirty IRA men armed with revolvers and shotguns were to rush and disarm the soldiers when the order ‘hands up’ was given. IRA sources state that fire was opened only because soldiers initially refused to surrender their weapons. Jones was killed, and three others wounded. Lynch, shot in the shoulder, spent six weeks recovering in Rathgormack, Waterford. Thirteen rifles and ammunition were removed by motor car. The incident became known as the ‘Wesleyan raid’. Between 150 and 200 members of the King’s (Shropshire Light Infantry) and the RFA

wrecked or looted over 50 shops in Fermoy the following night in retaliation, at an estimated cost of £3,000. Eight local men were subsequently arrested in connection with the murder. Some went on hunger strike in Cork Prison and one, Michael Fitzgerald, died. Jones’s body was returned to Wales.48 SA: Fitzgerald (17Oct1920/3)

8 SEPTEMBER 1919 Patrick Smyth (8Sep1919/1) DMP (9816), 51, Married with seven children, RC MMH From Drumard, Longford, Smyth was a detective-sergeant in the political crime section of G Division and had twenty-eight years’ service. Five members of the Squad waited several nights near his home before they shot him. This was their first assassination and their .38 revolvers proved insufficiently powerful. Although severely wounded when attacked on 30 July when he alighted from a tram at Drumcondra Bridge, he managed to reach his own front door at 51 Millmount Avenue before collapsing. His son and daughter helped him inside. Smyth had previously been threatened by Michael Collins† in an attempt to make him drop charges against a Sinn Féiner. In a deathbed deposition, Smyth stated: I was coming home soon after 23:00 . . . I saw four or five men against the dead wall and a bicycle resting against the kerbstone. Just as I turned the corner into Millmount Avenue I was shot in the back. I turned around and said: ‘You cowards’, and three of them fired again with revolvers at me and one bullet entered my leg . . . they pursued me to within about fifteen yards of my own door and kept firing at me all the time . . . I shouted for assistance but no one came to me except my own son. I had no revolver myself and I am glad now I had not one as I might have shot some of them when I turned around after the first shot, as I would not like to have done that.

Smyth was the first detective killed by the Squad. Buried GC. His widow secured £3,650 compensation, including £2,450 to be divided between her seven children.49

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9 SEPTEMBER 1919 Brian Crowley (9Sep1919/1) 23, Clerk, RC Patrick Street, Cork From Dunkettle, Glanmire, Cork, Crowley worked for Michael Ryan of King Street, Cork. At about 17:10, he died of a fractured skull when his bicycle was hit on Patrick Street by a military lorry. Buried SFC.50

12 SEPTEMBER 1919 Daniel Hoey (12Sep1919/1) DMP (11007), 31, RC Townsend Street, Dublin From Rhode, Offaly, Hoey joined the DMP in 1910 and was a detective-constable in G Division. Due shortly to take up duty with the Special Branch at Scotland Yard, Hoey was killed on Townsend Street at about 22:00, apparently by the IRA’s Mick McDonnell, after leaving the Central Police Station on Brunswick Street. Earlier that day Dáil Éireann had been declared illegal and Sinn Féin headquarters at 6 Harcourt Street had been raided by police, who almost captured Michael Collins.† Some sources claimed that Hoey led the raid and that Collins, or members of the Squad themselves, reacted by having him shot. Éamon Ó Duibhir stated: A bit of relief to us . . . was the shooting . . . of Detective Hoey. . . . He knew all the crowd from the countryside pretty well and he was a slimy snake with a long career of villainy against his own countrymen before his life was terminated. He was one of those who picked out the prisoners for court martial and execution immediately after the Rising.

Tipperary military hutments. Buried St Mary’s Churchyard, Norton, Durham (K. 1. 12).52

4 OCTOBER 1919 Michael Crowley (4Oct1919/1) 40, Farmer, Married, RC Skibbereen Union Hospital, Skibbereen, Cork An inquest jury on 7 October recorded Crowley’s death from injuries sustained on 15 August when a horse-drawn trap in which he and three others were riding was struck by a military lorry on a road outside Skibbereen.53

19 OCTOBER 1919 Michael Downing (19Oct1919/1) DMP (11346), 24, RC Mercer’s Constable Downing, from Castletownbere, Cork, had three years’ DMP service, stationed in Chancery Lane. James Flood and Patrick Egan told an inquest jury how they had seen three men on High Street shortly before 02:00. A shot was fired, and Downing cried ‘I am shot.’ Egan and Flood went to his assistance. Constable Neary was later honoured by the Red Cross for giving blood in an attempt to save Downing’s life. He died at 19:00. Patrick Egan of the 4th Battalion, Dublin Brigade, recalled that Downing had challenged Volunteers moving boxes of explosives from one dump to another. Buried Adrigole, Cork. His parents ultimately secured £500 compensation, with £100 for his sister Helena.54

30 OCTOBER 1919

Buried Rhode. His parents secured £700 compensation, with ‘£100 to Kate, for whose instruction as a nurse he intended to pay’, and £250 between three other sisters.51

15 SEPTEMBER 1919 William M. Booth (15Sep1919/1) Yorkshire Regiment (60488), 24, CoE Tipperary, Tipperary Private Booth, from Norton, Durham, died at about 13:30 when accidentally shot by Private Pagan with a revolver in Hut 12 of the

Edward N. Perry (30Oct1919/1) Welsh55 Regiment, 29 North Dublin Union, Dublin Lance-Corporal Perry of the Welsh Regiment, stationed at the North Dublin Union Rest Camp, shot himself while handling an officer’s revolver in the Armourer’s Office.56

31 OCTOBER 1919 William Agar (31Oct1919/1) RIC (63198), 37, Labourer, Married, CoI Ballivor RIC Barracks, Meath From Tullow, Carlow, Agar joined the RIC on 15 October 1907, serving in Galway and

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Belfast before transfer to Meath in 1913. He was stationed in Ballivor, having just transferred from Navan. An IRA plan to trick their way into RIC barracks at Lismullin and Ballivor was partially successful at Ballivor. When Agar, who was barracks orderly, answered a knock on a side door at around 22:10, three masked men – Paddy Mooney, Pat Fay and Stephen Sherry – tried to push in. Agar attempted to close the door, and a shot was fired. The bullet ricocheted and passed through Agar’s body before finally embedding itself in the sixth step of the stairs. He staggered into the dayroom, where Sergeant McDermott and constables Shannon and Leonard were seated. His only words were: ‘Oh, I’m shot.’ The raiders rushed the rear door, and seized a revolver, five rifles and some ammunition. Sergeant Shannon fired at them through the dayroom door as they left. Agar was the first policeman to be killed in a barracks raid. Buried Rathvilly. Agar’s widow Florence and his newly born child each secured £1,000 compensation, and his seventy-four year-old mother £100.57

police station in Brunswick Street . . . when fire was opened on him. He went down on his side, falling to the right slightly. Then he turned towards the left and raised himself a little on his right knee and said: ‘Oh God, what did I do to deserve this?’ The detective then drew his gun and fired.

The IRA men dispersed. Barton died a short time later, the fourth DMP man to be killed in 1919. It was reported that he had recently uncovered an IRA arms dump and arrested a suspected killer of Constable Downing. Frank Robbins of the ICA recalled him as ‘exceedingly officious and obnoxious’ following the Rising. Barton’s DMP colleague (and IRA informant) David Neligan described him thus: ‘Cadaverous, immensely tall with weird clothes and farmer’s boots he looked like a Rustic from an Abbey play. Anyone would take him for a simpleton’ but Barton ‘was easily the best detective in these islands’. Buried old cemetery, Keel, Kerry. His mother, to whom he had given £40 annually, secured £450 compensation, with £50 for his sister.58 SA: Downing (19Oct1919/1)

29 NOVEMBER 1919 John Barton (29Nov1919/1) DMP (10497), 39, RC Mercer’s From Firies, Kerry, Barton joined the DMP in 1903, and rose to become a detectivesergeant in G Division. Commended for his conduct during the Rising, he secured the King’s Police Medal in February 1917. Frank Henderson recalled that Barton had ignored IRA threats. Vinnie Byrne of the Squad recalled he told Mick McDonnell he would shoot Barton, as the detective had raided his home. Byrne, McDonnell, Slattery and Keogh met at College Green and subsequently spotted Barton on Grafton Street shortly after 18:00. They were later joined by Paddy Daly, Joe Leonard and Ben Barrett. Byrne recalled: It was a race to see whose party would get Barton first . . . Barton got as far as the Crampton monument and was in the act of stepping off the path to cross over to the

11 DECEMBER 1919 Jane Violet Pearson (11Dec1919/1) 15, Schoolgirl, CoI South Circular Road, Dublin Violet, daughter of John and Charlotte Pearson of 105 South Circular Road, was knocked off her bicycle and killed by a military lorry being towed by another vehicle. Buried MJC.59

14 DECEMBER 1919 Edward Bolger (14Dec1919/1) RIC (54668), 47, Married with four children, RC RIC Barracks, Kilbrittain, Cork Constable Bolger, the first RIC man killed in an attack in Cork since 1916, was from Kilkenny. Joining the RIC on 2 January 1891, he served in Tipperary before transfer to Kilbrittain in 1900. His children ranged from seventeen to seven years old. He was shot at around 18:30 from a laneway by two men while going unarmed from

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his lodgings in Kilbrittain to his barracks. Other policemen on duty returned fire before taking Bolger into the barracks, where he soon died. His CI described him as ‘a zealous constable and most active in the suppression of Sinn Féin and the Irish Volunteers’. Bolger had been involved in search-and-arrest operations locally, and was the main witness at the trial in November 1918 of seven men, during which a riot developed outside the courthouse. These were released two days before Bolger’s killing. Peter Hart noted that Bolger had ‘a reputation as a “political” and a brutal officer: a declared enemy of the Volunteers’. Jack Fitzgerald, whom Bolger had arrested and beaten up, recalled IRA policy was that ‘we would only be allowed to shoot bad RIC men’. He acknowledged an element of revenge: ‘In practice, however, the ones shot were ones people didn’t like.’60

17 DECEMBER 1919 John Mahon (17Dec1919/1) IRA, 25, Labourer, RC Briskil, Newtownforbes, Longford John Mahon, of Ballagh, Newtownforbes, was shot in the head by his friend Peter Nolan, who was examining a revolver in the Sinn Féin hall in Briskil, Longford, where about twenty young men had assembled. Nolan was arrested, taken before a special court in Drumlish and released on bail. It was claimed that the IRA ‘got at the magistrates before the trial with the result that Nolan was released’. Buried family burial ground, Newtownforbes.61

19 DECEMBER 1919 Martin Savage (19Dec1919/1) IRA, 21, Grocer’s assistant, RC Ashtown, Dublin Savage died when the IRA tried to kill the lord lieutenant Field Marshal Lord French, an action which if successful would have created a sensation. Instead, when the jittery chief secretary for Ireland gave news of the attack, prime minister Lloyd George simply remarked, ‘They are bad shots.’ From Streamstown, Ballisodare, Sligo, Savage had worked in Dublin since 1915 for

William Kirk of 137 North Strand Road. Imprisoned in Knutsford and Frongoch following the Rising, after release in 1917 he became quartermaster in the reorganised D Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. An earlier assassination plan scheduled for Armistice day had been abandoned. Dan Breen and Seán Hogan intended to kill French as he drove from Ashtown Station to the Viceregal Lodge. Savage was apparently a late addition to the ambush party of about a dozen Volunteers, mainly members of the Squad. They first warned off a DMP constable, shooting him in the foot when he refused to leave. During the attack on the five-vehicle convoy, two policemen were wounded, as was Breen. Vinnie Byrne recalled: ‘The next thing Savage said “I’m hit” and down he went.’ Medical evidence indicated that ‘he was shot in the jaw. The bullet passed through his head.’ The detonation ring of a grenade was found still attached to his finger. James J. O’Connor, then a special constable, said a detective told him that as Savage ‘lay on the road a soldier went over and kicked the corpse. Lord French got out of his car and ordered the man away, saying: “That young man is a soldier just as you are; leave his body alone.”’ An eyewitness told the press that ‘his body bears ghastly marks of laceration, apparently from the effects of a bomb exploding near him, or while in the act of being thrown. A part of his side is blown away, and the mouth and upper part of his face is fearfully gashed and torn.’ Buried Corhownagh. A memorial was erected at Ashtown Cross in 1948. His father secured a dependent’s gratuity.62

26 DECEMBER 1919 William James Murtagh (26Dec1919/1) RIC (68983), 21, Shop assistant, RC Clonoulty, Cashel, Tipperary From Knockcroghery, Roscommon, son of a former policeman, Constable Murtagh joined the RIC on 1 February 1917, allocated to Donegal. By 1919 he was stationed in Clonoulty, Tipperary. Constable Michael Twomey was carrying his rifle over his left arm in the kitchen when it discharged.

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Murtagh, seriously wounded in the head, died at about midday. The IRA’s Michael Davern recalled that about three weeks before this Murtagh had tried to intervene when Davern was being beaten up by the police. Buried Clonoulty parish cemetery.63 Harry Corless (26Dec1919/2) RE Victoria Barracks, Cork Corless, a corporal in a special signals company, fell from a high window in Victoria Barracks. He ‘had had a few drinks, but was not drunk’. An RIC sergeant said he believed Corless had overbalanced while sitting on the window sill. Buried New Wortley Cemetery, Leeds (‘C’: 2577).64

28 DECEMBER 1919 Frederick Boast (28Dec1919/1) Prince of Wales’s Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment), 20, Army officer, CoE Phoenix Park, Dublin Son of Major Sydney Thomas Boast MC, DCM, of Orford, Warrington, Lieutenant Boast served in France before his posting to Dublin. At about 02:25, soldiers thought they heard shots. Lawrence Kennedy, deaf in one ear, was shot when he failed to halt when challenged at about 02:30. So too was Boast: an inquest jury ruled he was ‘accidentally

killed by . . . one of his own party’. Buried GMC (CE. Officers. 41).65 RD: Kennedy (28Dec1919/2) Lawrence Kennedy (28Dec1919/2) c. 46, Agricultural labourer, RC Phoenix Park, Dublin See Boast (28Dec1919/1). Kennedy, of Carpenterstown, Castleknock, Dublin, worked in Monks Bakery, Dublin.66

29 DECEMBER 1919 Joseph Heap (29Dec1919/1) Border Regiment (52676), 17, CoE Aerodrome, Castlebar, Mayo Private Heap was accidentally shot in the head while on sentry duty by his old school friend Private Partington. Buried St Cross Churchyard, Clayton, Manchester (I. 3).67

31 DECEMBER 1919 Maurice Keough (31Dec1919/1) RIC (64005), 32, Labourer, Married, RC Union Hospital, Killarney, Kerry From Limerick, Constable Keough joined the RIC on 15 September 1908, allocated to Kerry. On 24 December, he was accidentally shot in Killarney by Constable Egan as they went to quell fighting between soldiers and civilians at Casey’s pub. Keough’s widow Hannah secured a special RIC allowance of £77.68

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1920 19 JANUARY 1920 Michael Darcy (19Jan1920/1) IRA, 22, RC Cooraclare, Clare When Constable Costigan was removing family furniture from Cooraclare, where the RIC barracks had recently been closed, the IRA ambushed the Ennis police lorry and its cycle escort of five policemen outside Cooraclare village. The police returned fire, and the IRA withdrew. Art O’Donnell, O/C West Clare Brigade, recalled the ‘disastrous consequences’: Darcy, of the Cooraclare Company, ‘while being pursued . . . attempted to cross the Doonbeg River . . . and was drowned.’ In 1921, the IRA executed his brother Patrick Darcy. Buried Kilmacduane, Cooraclare.1 SA: Darcy (17Jun1921/3)

21 JANUARY 1920 William Charles Forbes Redmond (21Jan1920/1) DMP (57951), 47, previously RIC, exserviceman, Married with two children, CoI Harcourt Street, Dublin Son of a Newry timber merchant, Redmond became an RIC DI in 1896. During the war, he fought with the RIR, rising to the rank of major before rejoining the police. On 1 January, he was transferred to the DMP from the RIC in Belfast, to rejuvenate the Criminal Investigation Department. David Neligan recalled ‘a neatly-built man of about forty, nattily dressed and wearing a bowler. He looked more like a stockbroker than a policeman.’ The IRA learned that Redmond was staying in the Standard Hotel on Harcourt Street because secure quarters in Dublin Castle were not ready. ‘One thing and another upset the shooting for a few days’, but eventually an IRA party succeeded in trailing Redmond from Dublin Castle to St Stephen’s Green, where he dismissed his armed escort. At 18:10, as Redmond reached the corner of

Montague Street, Paddy Daly shot him under the ear and Tom Keogh in the back, severing his spinal cord. Buried MJC (Plot C. 39). His widow Ethel secured £4,650 compensation and his two daughters £2,000 each. Initially deemed ineligible for a widow’s pension, she eventually secured £120 a year as from January 1952.2

22 JANUARY 1920 Luke Finnegan (22Jan1920/1) RIC (65234), 29, Farmer, Married with two children, RC Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin Finnegan, from Dunmore, Galway, joined the RIC on 28 March 1910, serving in Limerick and Tipperary, moving to Thurles in 1918. James Leahy recalled that Constable Finnegan knew everyone as he had administered the wartime sugar ration, and was believed to be drawing up a list of IRA suspects. Finnegan, unarmed, was shot near his home in the Mall at around 22:15 by Jim Leahy, Jerry Ryan, Mick Small and Jerry McCarthy of Tipperary No. 2 Brigade. Wounded in the abdomen, he staggered home, crying out: ‘Oh, Mary I am shot.’ Removed by train to Dublin, he died at 23:30 after an operation. In reprisal police wrecked fourteen houses belonging to prominent Sinn Féiners. Twelve compensation claims were subsequently lodged. A girl who had gone to Finnegan’s assistance received death threats. Buried Ballinlough, Roscommon.3

c. JANUARY 1920 Joseph Gibbs (Jan1920/1) Soldier Vicinity of Tydavet, Monaghan Patrick Corrigan of Monaghan recounted how:

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The Tans dropped off young men . . . who posed as IRA men. In January 1920 one of these came to our district. He stayed in a vacant house and asked after the IRA . . . I

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smelt a rat . . . We found papers on him showing that he was a British soldier . . . Joseph Gibbs. We shot and buried him on a hillside.

Such actions, Corrigan maintained, ‘had the effect of keeping “our own weak ones” right’. Gibbs was not listed as missing by Crown forces, suggesting he was a deserter. It is also possible this was the ‘spy’ reported killed in January 1921.4

2 FEBRUARY 1920 Richard O’Dwyer (2Feb1920/1) 38, Publican, Married, RC Roches Street, Limerick From Tipperary, O’Dwyer was hit in the head by a stray bullet at around 22:20 at the counter of his pub on Roches Street as the IRA’s Michael Stack and Tim Murphy exchanged shots with soldiers following disturbances at the junction of Roches Street and Catherine Street. On Sarsfield Street, Lena Johnson, hit in the abdomen, was carried into the Shannon Rowing Club by members who heard her screams. She died the following night. Buried Kilpatrick, Tipperary.5 RD: Johnson (3Feb1920/1)

3 FEBRUARY 1920 Lena Johnson (3Feb1920/1) 23, Usherette, Engaged, RC Barrington’s Hospital, Limerick See O’Dwyer (2Feb1920/1). ‘Lena’ (Elenia) Johnson from Thomondgate, daughter of Francis and Bridget Johnson, was an usherette in the Coliseum Picture Palace, and an ITGWU member. Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery.6 James Arthur Barnes (3Feb1920/2) The Welch Regiment (84561), 19 KGVH Son of Joseph and Mary Jane Barnes of Ardwick, Manchester, Private Barnes was stationed in Arklow military barracks. Severely wounded when Private Bennett accidentally discharged his rifle while unloading, he died next day after an operation. Buried Phillips Park Cemetery, Manchester (I. N.C. 1175).7

James Ward (6Feb1920/1) 50, Caretaker, Married with two children, RC Menlo, Castlegar, Galway Ward worked for Sir Thomas Blake of Menlo Castle, and lived on the grounds. At about 18:00, he was chatting at his door with his son Malachy and a neighbour when shot from behind a nearby wall. Ward died almost immediately, and Malachy was hit in the face by pellets. Ward had been fired on twice previously. Five men were later arrested. Ward’s widow Julia secured £700 compensation and his children £400 each.8

8 FEBRUARY 1920 Edward J. Mulholland (8Feb1920/1) RIC (61695), 32, CoI Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin Constable Mulholland, from Limerick, joined the RIC on 15 February 1906, serving in Waterford and Belfast, before transfer in January 1920 to Moyne RIC Barracks, Tipperary. Constable Bernard Danagher, in unloading his revolver, accidentally shot him in the back. Taken to hospital in Dublin, he died next day.9 The RIC later disciplined Danagher for gross carelessness. Buried Church of Ireland Cemetery, Westport.10 Patrick Thornton (8Feb1920/2) 31, Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC Infirmary, Galway From Loughaunbeg, Spiddal, Thornton was invalided out of the Connaught Rangers in November 1915. He returned to Spiddal at the end of 1919. At around 22:00 on 2 February, he and his brother Martin were walking home from Watters’ pub when accosted by twelve men, Patrick being beaten and shot in the hip. He died six days later at 13:00 after an operation on a perforated bowel. Five neighbours were remanded on murder charges.11

9 FEBRUARY 1920 Benjamin Charles Shreeve (9Feb1920/1) RFA, 22 Cahir Military Barracks, Tipperary Lance-Corporal Shreeve, from Norwich, died when a comrade accidentally discharged a rifle. Buried Cahir military plot.12

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12 FEBRUARY 1920 Michael Neenan (12Feb1920/1) RIC (62412), 32, Farmer, RC RIC Barracks, Allihies, Cork From Kilmihil, Clare, Neenan joined the RIC on 4 March 1907, stationed in Allihies. Allihies RIC Barracks was attacked by about forty Volunteers of Cork No. 3 Brigade. RIC reports suggest the objective was to capture gelignite. An explosion blew a hole in the gable wall, killing Constable Neenan. The IRA opened heavy fire through the breach, but the police resisted stoutly. After almost five hours, the raiders withdrew. The barracks was evacuated the next day. Buried Ennis, Clare. Neenan was posthumously awarded the constabulary medal.13 Séamus (Jim) O’Brien (12Feb1920/2) IRA, 25, Shopkeeper, Married with one child, RC Market Square, Rathdrum, Wicklow From Morriscastle, Kilmuckridge, Wexford, O’Brien was a grocer’s assistant in Enniscorthy. Interned for nine months in Frongoch following the Rising, he later moved to Rathdrum, establishing a business with Seán Walshe in Market Square. O’Brien became O/C 5th Battalion East Wicklow Brigade. At about 23:00, five Volunteers fired on two RIC on the main street. Constable John Mulligan was wounded in the shoulder. They returned fire, killing O’Brien, in the first violent incident in Rathdrum during the War of Independence. Buried Ballyvaldon Churchyard. A memorial plaque was erected over the door of Rathdrum Post Office. His widow Kate failed to secure compensation in 1922 as she had remarried, but obtained £24 annually for her daughter Margaret.14

14 FEBRUARY 1920 Ella C. Wood (14Feb1920/1) CoE Soldiers’ Home, Buttevant, Cork The CFR records how Ella C. Wood, sister of the English-born supervisor of the soldiers’ home, died when arsonists set fire to the wooden building without warning. Witnesses

said that she had returned to her room for something after the alarm was raised around 06:00. A doctor said that ‘the whole body was burned, with the exception of a small portion of the back of the skull and a portion of the brain’.15 Ellen Morris (14Feb1920/2) 61, Housewife, Married with thirteen children, RC Glentire Hill, The Ballagh, Wexford At around 21:00 William Morris was in his shoemaker’s workshop when armed and masked men burst in. He initially thought it was a joke. Ellen, polishing boots in the kitchen, ordered the raiders out. One, John Lacey, fired a warning shot into the ceiling, whereupon Ellen went into the scullery: ‘She raised the spade to hit me’ and he inadvertently fired again, killing her. In July, Lacey pleaded guilty to manslaughter, claiming he had fired in ‘an unconscious, impulsive act’. Lacey received just eighteen months imprisonment with hard labour; the other raiders captured pleaded guilty to unlawful assembly, receiving six months. T. D. Sinnott, O/C North Wexford Brigade, recalled: ‘She was shot by fellows raiding for arms. I was courtmartialled, and reduced in the ranks for three months.’ Peter O’Dwyer, who joined the Garda Síochána in 1922, claimed his men acted precipitately before he arrived. Prime Minister Lloyd George gleefully instanced this case as one where men ‘turned King’s witness in order to save their own lives . . . a boy of 17 who . . . went to the house but the woman there beat him off with a spade and he shot her. He was caught and in terror confessed the whole plot.’ Buried Oulart.16

18 FEBRUARY 1920 Harry Timothy Quinlisk (18Feb1920/1) 25, Ex-serviceman, RC Tory Top Road, Ballyphehane, Cork Son of a former RIC sergeant, Quinlisk had become a prisoner of war while a corporal in the RIR. He subsequently joined Casement’s ill-fated Irish Brigade. Discharged in England in June 1919 for ‘misconduct’, Quinlisk went to Dublin, where he met Michael Collins.†17

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Peter Hart states that Collins initially helped Quinlisk, securing him a job with New Ireland Assurance, but tired of him and offered him money to leave the country. Quinlisk then attempted to betray Collins, who was tipped off by his DMP informant Ned Broy. Quinlisk was lured to Cork, where Mick Murphy, O/C 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, thought him suspicious. He went to a meeting on the promise of £10 if he would show the IRA how to assemble and operate a Hotchkiss machine gun. Taken about two miles outside the city, Murphy ordered Quinlisk to put his hands up. Protesting his innocence, Quinlisk was searched for weapons and documents. Murphy and two comrades then shot him. Murphy fired a final shot through Quinlisk’s forehead: newspapers reported nine shots in all were fired. Murphy recalled his victim as ‘a tall, fair, athletic-looking lad who had a good Irish accent’. A subsequent mail raid recovered a letter from Quinlisk addressed to the RIC, which claimed he had made contact with a prominent Cork IRA officer (Murphy) and that Collins was in Clonakilty. Discovered by a herdsman, Quinlisk’s body was taken to the City Morgue. The RIC advanced the theory that Quinlisk had been shot for some infringement of Sinn Féin regulations. Initially buried unidentified at Cork Union burial ground, about a fortnight later his father took the remains to Waterford.18

20 FEBRUARY 1920 John M. Walsh (20Feb1920/1) DMP (10536), 38, Pawnbroker’s assistant, RC Grafton Street, Dublin A railway signalman’s son from Wexford, Walsh had about thirteen years of DMP service. At about 01:40, two constables on College Green exchanged fire with two youthful gunmen who approached from O’Connell Bridge. On Grafton Street shortly afterwards, a Volunteer shot Walsh in the chest, killing him, and wounded Dunleavy in the stomach. Buried Galbally, Ballyhogue, Wexford. His father secured £350 compensation, his elder sister £100 and his younger sister £50.19

Michael Ensko (20Feb1920/2) 74, Shoemaker, Widowed, RC Infirmary, Ennis, Clare Ensko died six days after being hit by a military lorry at about 13:30 on 14 February near his home. A witness said he shouted at the driver before he was struck.20

24 FEBRUARY 1920 Martin Devitt (24Feb1920/1) IRA, 20, Shop assistant, RC Crowe’s Bridge, Inagh, Clare A shop assistant in his home town of Ennistymon, Devitt, vice-O/C Mid Clare Brigade, had been wounded in the ‘Eighty One Cross’ ambush the previous August when two policemen had been killed. When police seized weapons which the IRA had just stolen in raids, Devitt resolved to have revenge by capturing police guns. He set an ambush to attack two RIC men patrolling on bicycles, not realising two other police (Murphy and Riordan) were coming. In an engagement lasting almost two hours, Devitt was ‘shot through the head’. ‘Tosser’ Neylon mourned his loss: he was ‘utterly fearless, strictly honest and very resourceful’. Michael Brennan said that, after his death, ‘you’ll find a big blank . . . for a long time in that area’. The police recovered his secretly buried body and returned it to the family after an inquest. Devitt’s two sisters, one severely disabled, secured dependents’ gratuities, initially of £30 and £60 each. They sought more: ‘The relatives of the men who fell to his rifle’ – a reference to compensation secured by the families of the two RIC officers he had helped kill – ‘have been amply provided for while the dependents of one of Ireland’s greatest soldiers have nothing to fall back on but the Co[unty] Home.’ Buried Clouna, Ennistymon.21 SA: Murphy (4Aug1919/1), Riordan (5Aug 1919/1)

29 FEBRUARY 1920 William H. Newman (29Feb1920/1) Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment) (123987), 19 Military Hospital, Queenstown (Cobh), Cork From Nottingham, Private Newman was stationed in Queenstown. A five-man party

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returning from escorting a consignment of gelignite for blasting at Rushbrooke was held up and disarmed at Bunker Hill, outside Queenstown, between 00:00 and 01:00, by Volunteers under John P. O’Connell, captain Cobh Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade. When Newman tried to run he was shot in the neck, dying next day. Buried Nottingham General Cemetery (03280. A).22 SA: O’Connell (29May1921/6)

and there was not a quiver on him. . . . Tom Cullen . . . collected all his luggage. From it we discovered he was in charge of a group here . . . but when we went for them they . . . had left on the mail boat that night.

Byrne’s remains were identified by his widow Mary. Buried Romford Cemetery, Essex. The funeral time was kept secret and only the family attended.26

2 MARCH 1920 John Charles Byrne23 (2Mar1920/1) Secret Service(?), 36, Ex-serviceman, Married, Protestant Ballymun Road, Dublin Byrne, son of a London china-shop manager, was discharged on medical grounds after war service in Greece. David Neligan claimed that Byrne was the son of an RIC DI from Newcastle West, Limerick. His wife lived in Romford, Essex. Byrne used several aliases, the most frequent being ‘John Jameson’, representing Keith Prowse & Co., a piano company. He stayed at the Granville Hotel on Upper O’Connell Street. Byrne had been recruited during the war by A2, a domestic surveillance unit formed to counter leftist subversion. When an undercover agent in socialist and radical circles, he became acquainted with Art O’Brien, Michael Collins’s key London contact.24 Through him he met Collins in November 1919, and they discussed plans to secure weapons. Byrne came under the suspicion of GHQ Intelligence. He did not realise his peril and continued to contact republicans in both London and Dublin. He returned to Dublin for the last time on 28 February. On 2 March,25 Paddy Daly and Joe Dowling of the Squad called on Byrne, told him Collins wished to see him and took him by tram to the back entrance of the Albert College in Ballymun, where Daly: told him that we were satisfied he was a spy, that he was going to die, and that if he wanted to say any prayers he could do so. The spy jumped to attention immediately and said: ‘You are right. God bless the King. I would love to die for him.’ He saluted

3 MARCH 1920 Francis Manly Shawe-Taylor (3Mar1920/1) 51, Grazier, Married with two children, CoI Cashla, Athenry, Galway Shawe-Taylor, from Ardrahan, Galway, lived in Moorpark, and was a JP and extensive grazier. His brother Captain John ShaweTaylor played a prominent part in the evolution of the 1903 land act. Francis Shawe-Taylor had incurred local resentment on issues including land redistribution and the creation of a right of way across a landlord’s field for Mass goers, on which local Volunteers had approached him. At around 05:45 he left Athenry in his motor car for a fair in Galway, accompanied by his driver. At about 06:00 at Cashla, a donkey cart and gate blocked the road. When they got out to clear the obstruction, Shawe-Taylor was hit in the head and face by a volley of shotgun fire from behind a wall and died almost immediately. No one was convicted of the killing, though it was widely believed that local IRA men were involved. Buried Athenry. His widow secured £3,000 compensation and her two sons £6,000 each.27

5 MARCH 1920 Martin Cullinane (5Mar1920/1) 48, Farmer, Married with four children, RC Ardskea More, Corofin, Galway Cullinane, from Cummer, Tuam, Galway, was visiting Patrick Lardner at Ardskea More when, at about 21:30, five armed and masked men raided the house looking for weapons. Two waited in the kitchen; others searched

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the building. A sixth man outside appeared very nervous, and fired when Cullinane moved from his chair to make room for the searchers. The raiders left quickly without saying anything. A search by police failed to uncover any clues. Cullinane died from chest wounds at 00:30. Buried Lackagh Cemetery, Turloughmore. His widow Catherine secured £350 compensation and each of his four children £200.28 John Martin Heanue (5Mar1920/2) RIC (69188), 24, Pawnbroker’s assistant, RC Military Hospital, Tipperary From Tullycross, Galway, Heanue joined the RIC on 1 August 1917, stationed in Dovea, Tipperary. Jim Stapleton, Paddy O’Brien and Jim Larkin of Tipperary No. 2 Brigade were in Fanning’s pub in The Ragg when constables Heanue and Flaherty came in and ordered groceries. The assistant was ‘in the act of counting the eggs’ when the IRA opened fire. Heanue was wounded as he attempted to vault over the counter. Initially his shoulder wound was not considered life threatening, but he died in Tipperary Military Hospital next day. Flaherty, who returned fire, was uninjured. Buried Cashel, Galway.29

9 MARCH 1920 Thomas Ryan (9Mar1920/1) RIC (60822), 40, Farmer, Married with three children,30 RC RIC Barracks, Hugginstown, Kilkenny From Limerick, Constable Ryan joined the RIC on 1 July 1902, serving in Waterford and in the RIC Reserve, before transfer to Hugginstown, Kilkenny in 1909. In the Kilkenny Brigade’s first major operation, Hugginstown RIC Barracks was attacked at around 23:30 on 8 March by about thirtysix Volunteers. When the barracks’ roof was breached by bombs, the RIC surrendered, handing over six rifles, some revolvers and ammunition. Ryan’s right arm was shattered and an artery severed. A priest and doctor attended him before he died at about 06:00. Buried Butlerstown Cemetery, Waterford.31

10 MARCH 1920 George Neazer (10Mar1920/1) RIC (59800), 42, Farmer, Married with two children, CoI Rathkeale, Limerick From Ballycahane, Pallaskenry, Limerick, Neazer joined the RIC on 17 September 1900, allocated to Kerry. Commended for conspicuous service in the suppression of the Rising in Tralee, he was promoted to sergeant in 1918 and transferred to Lixnaw, Kerry. Thomas Wallace of the ASU West Limerick Brigade claimed that Neazer had made himself ‘obnoxious in Tralee and word was sent on for him to be dealt with’. Neazer and Constable Doyle were attacked in the coffee room of Ward’s Hotel. They locked the door when they sensed danger, but a Volunteer drove it in. Neazer fired one shot before he was killed. Doyle received five wounds; left for dead, he recovered. Buried Castletown, Pallaskenry, Limerick. His widow Rebecca secured a special RIC allowance of £96.13s.9d.32

11 MARCH 1920 Timothy Scully (11Mar1920/1) RIC (49471), 64, Farmer, Married, RC Glanmire, Cork From Adrigole, Cork, Scully joined the RIC on 19 June 1882, allocated to Tipperary. He was transferred to Cork in November 1900, stationed in Glanmire. At about 22:00 Volunteers of the Riverstown company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, confronted an RIC patrol. By their account Constable Scully resisted, and was then shot. The RIC said that three constables sheltering from a rainstorm were fired on without warning. Scully returned fire before being hit in the heart. His last words were: ‘I am done for.’ Buried Skibbereen. His widow Mary secured £1,600 compensation, and a special RIC allowance of £84.11s.8d.33 James Alexander Bruce (11Mar1920/2) Naval Rating, 39 Queenstown (Cobh), Cork The CFR reports that Leading Seaman Bruce, from Wigton, accidentally drowned while

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serving on the sloop HMS Poppy. Buried Sleepy Hillocks Cemetery, Montrose, Forfarshire.34

16 MARCH 1920 James Rocke (16Mar1920/1) RIC (67945), 26, Farmer, RC Toomevara, Tipperary From Killimor, Ballinasloe, Galway, Rocke joined the RIC on 15 July 1914 and served in Cork before transfer to Tipperary in 1918, stationed first in Borrisoleigh and from 23 February 1920 in Toomevara. John Hackett of Tipperary No. 1 Brigade recalled that he and other Volunteers sought permission to attack the RIC in Toomevara, but were refused. Nevertheless, they went ahead with a plan to target policemen attending devotions during Lent. Armed with revolvers and in disguise, at 19:30 Hackett and Paddy Whelehan followed constables Rocke and Healy from the church gates, and each then shot one policeman. Before he died in the barracks at 23:15,35 Rocke forgave his killer and asked that all his possessions go to his mother. Healy also died that night. Hackett, Whelehan and nine others were later arrested, but were never brought to trial. Buried Killimor, Galway.36 RD: Healy (17Mar1920/1)

17 MARCH 1920 Charles Healy (17Mar1920/1) RIC (69198), 25, Farmer, RC Military Hospital, New Barracks, Limerick See Rocke (16Mar1920/1). Healy, from Glengarriff, Cork, joined the RIC on 1 August 1917, stationed in Toomevara. Described by his CI as ‘one of the most excellent constables’, he sent his family £10 a month. His father secured £780 compensation, his two sisters £600 each and his brother £20.37 Cornelius Kelly (17Mar1920/2) 35, Caretaker, Married with one child, RC Caherdaniel, Kerry Kelly was caretaker of the Caherdaniel courthouse. He stored six police bicycles, despite IRA warnings, after the RIC barracks was abandoned. His wife described how ‘I was

combing my child’s hair’ when six men rushed in: ‘I told them not to frighten the child.’ They shot Kelly and stole the bicycles.38

19 MARCH 1920 Joseph Murtagh (19Mar1920/1) RIC (57783), 46, Farmer, Widowed with three children, RC Pope’s Quay, Cork From Westmeath, Murtagh joined the RIC on 1 June 1896, serving in Waterford and Kerry before transfer in 1908 to Sunday’s Well Barracks, Cork. Constable Murtagh was shot dead at 22:30 as he walked along Pope’s Quay in civilian clothes by Christy MacSwiney and another Volunteer. Pa Murray stated that Murtagh was shot because he used brutal methods while interrogating Volunteer Martin Condon. Buried Lismore, Waterford, beside his late wife. His three teenage children, in the care of their uncle James Hartnett, a journalist from Lismore, each secured £1,000 compensation.39 Michael Fahy (19Mar1920/2) IRA, 25, RC Barrington’s Hospital, Limerick From Kilkee, Clare, Fahy was captain Kilkee Company, West Clare Brigade. Recalled as ‘our most energetic and prominent officer’, Fahy shot himself accidentally in the thigh. Brought to hospital, where he was placed under arrest, he died shortly afterwards.40 Buried Kilkee.41

20 MARCH 1920 Tomás MacCurtain (20Mar1920/1) IRA, 36, Clerk, Married with children, RC 40 Thomas Davis Street, Cork MacCurtain, from Ballyknockane, Cork, worked for the Cork Steam Packet Company and later in Mack’s Mills. Commander of the Cork Brigade in 1916, he knew nothing of the planned insurrection until Holy Thursday, and afterwards received conflicting orders. Consequently Cork did not rise. After the Rising he was interned in Wakefield, Frongoch and Reading before release at Christmas 1916.

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In 1920, MacCurtain was O/C Cork No. 1 Brigade and the elected lord mayor of Cork, the first Republican to hold this office. Following the killing of Constable Joseph Murtagh, at 02:00 on 20 March a party of RIC under District Inspector Oswald Swanzy left King Street Barracks for MacCurtain’s house on Thomas Davis Street. The police, some with blackened faces, held up Eilís MacCurtain at the door, while two ran upstairs, called MacCurtain from bed and shot him on the landing. Public opinion was outraged at what was evidently a murder by police (although one Cork unionist believed a rumour that this ‘remarkable & very upright man’ had been killed by wilder spirits with the Cork IRA). Swanzy was secretly transferred to Lisburn, where he was shot on 22 August, an assassination which sparked major anti-Catholic rioting there and in Belfast. Two years later the Cork IRA abducted, killed and buried a youth named Parsons,† recalled by one of his executioners as ‘a small rat of a fellow . . . only captured (in Crosshaven, in a tent?) during Truce’, who supposedly confessed that he had watched MacCurtain’s house for Swanzy, as well as ex-RIC constable Michael Williams† whom they believed were implicated in MacCurtain’s murder.42 SA: Murtagh (19Mar1920/1), Swanzy (22Aug 1920/1)

21 MARCH 1920 Thomas Charles Evans (21Mar1920/1) RE, 39 KGVH Sergeant Evans, from Guildford, a signaller enlisted in 1909, was accidentally shot in the head in Marlborough Barracks. Buried GMC.43

22 MARCH 1920 (Mary) Ellen Hendrick44 (22Mar1920/1) 17, Domestic servant, RC Portobello Bridge, Dublin Ellen, of 9 Garden Lane, off Francis Street, worked in Rathmines. Soldiers returning from the Theatre Royal singing God Save the King attracted a hostile crowd near the canal. Troops from the nearby barracks came

to their comrades’ assistance. There was a conflict of evidence as to whether rioters fired – one soldier allegedly being hit in the chest – before the military replied. Ellen, standing on the Rathmines side of Portobello Bridge, ran but was hit in the chest. Michael Cullen, shot in the back, also died. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: D. a. 71).45 RD: Cullen (22Mar1920/2) Michael C. Cullen (22Mar1920/2) 23, Labourer, RC Portobello Bridge, Dublin See Hendrick (22Mar1920/1). Cullen lived with his parents Michael and Mary at 30 Charlemont Mall. Buried Glencullen, Dublin.46

23 MARCH 1920 Frederick James Hale (23Mar1920/1) Rifle Brigade, 17 Dublin Rifleman Hale, from Ashford, Kent, was accidentally killed. Buried Ashford Cemetery.47

24 MARCH 1920 Bryan Fergus Molloy48 (24Mar1920/1) RASC (ES/59087), 24, RC Mercer’s Private Molloy of 1st Supply Company was a clerk at GHQ, Royal Barracks, Parkgate Street. He was believed to be working for Colonel Hill Dillon, an intelligence officer whose Irish intelligence career extended into the Second World War. Molloy made contact with IRA intelligence, and Michael Collins† ordered him killed. Mick McDonnell and Tom Keogh† were detailed to shoot Molloy, with Joe Guilfoyle and Dolan providing cover. On 24 March, Molloy was to meet Tobin at Café Cairo on Grafton Street; the latter deliberately failed to show up. When Molloy tired of waiting, he walked along Wicklow Street, followed by the IRA party. Just before 19:00, he was shot at the junction of South William Street and Wicklow Street. Two women came to his assistance. Molloy died shortly afterwards in hospital. David Neligan claimed he later saw lists of Sinn Féin suspects which detectives had found in

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Molloy’s clothes. The chief secretary for Ireland later denied that Molloy was working undercover. Buried GMC (RC. 701). The Freeman’s Journal reported that no relatives could be traced.49

Constable Heanue. Buried Holycross Abbey, Tipperary.51 SA: Heanue (5Mar1920/2)

26 MARCH 1920

Denis J. Crowley (27Mar1920/2) 23, Ex-serviceman, Married with two children, RC Moanroe, Newcastle West, Limerick Crowley was from Mitchelstown, Cork. Following the rescue of Seán Hogan at Knocklong in May 1919, Séamus Robinson, Dan Breen, Seán Hogan and Seán Treacy arrived in the West Limerick Brigade area. Michael Sheehy recalled that around February 1920 a suspicious stranger attempted to insinuate himself into IRA circles. He had ‘a small insignificant little frosty jaw on him, a typical ex-soldier’. He was executed in a field at Moanroe, near Newcastle West. His body was found blindfolded, shot in the head, chest and hands, in which were clasped rosary beads.52 Buried Newcastle West workhouse cemetery. Alice Crowley of Cappoquin, whose husband Denis had been a serial deserter from the Royal Service Corps and the Royal Munster Fusiliers under the name Byrne, succeeded in having the body exhumed on 21 May 1920, but could not identify it. The military authorities concluded that Crowley had deserted, and they stopped her separation allowance. She appealed for assistance to the Lismore Board of Guardians.53 SA: Treacy (14Oct1920/3)

Alan Bell (26Mar1920/1) 62, Resident magistrate, Married, CoI Simmonscourt Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin From Banagher, Offaly, son of a Church of Ireland rector, Bell joined the RIC as a cadet in 1879, serving as a DI. He played a prominent role in dealing with disorder during the Land War. In 1898, he became a resident magistrate, serving in Claremorris, Lurgan and Portadown. Retired, Bell had been advising Dublin Castle on security issues for some months, and was investigating the failed assassination attempt on Lord French in which Martin Savage was killed. In March he began investigating dealings between Irish banks and Sinn Féin. He travelled by tram every morning from his Monkstown home to his office, having refused police protection and accommodation in Dublin Castle. At the corner of Ailesbury Road four men boarded the tram, sat beside Bell and asked him his name: then ‘Mick McDonnell caught Bell by the shoulder and said: “We want you.” I know he resisted.’ After dragging him onto the platform at Simmonscourt Road, Tobin and McDonnell shot him at point-blank range at about 09:30. Death was instantaneous. Buried DGC Cemetery. His widow Ellen secured £5,000 compensation. A school copybook in which Bell kept notes of his enquiries is in the National Archives in London.50

27 MARCH 1920 James McCarthy (27Mar1920/1) IRA, 27, Baker, RC Fianna Road, Thurles, Tipperary McCarthy, of Fianna Road, Thurles, of the 1st Battalion, Tipperary No. 2 Brigade, answered the door at about 01:30. Shot in the chest, he died within minutes. Three policemen dressed in black were responsible. James Leahy, O/C Tipperary No. 2 Brigade, said this killing was a reprisal for the shooting of

c. 27 MARCH 1920

30 MARCH 1920 Thomas A. O’Dwyer (30Mar1920/1) IRA, 21, Publican, RC Bouladuff, Thurles, Tipperary O’Dwyer lived with his widowed sister, her daughter and his invalid uncle. He was lieutenant D (The Ragg) Company, Tipperary No. 2 Brigade. At around 01:30, a party of masked RIC from Thurles raided O’Dwyer’s house, shooting him in the presence of his sister. O’Dwyer had been seen talking to Jim Stapleton and his companions a short time before they killed Constable Heanue on 4 March. Sergeant Anthony Foody, who allegedly led the raid, was killed in July

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1921 in a revenge shooting. Buried Drom, Templemore, Tipperary. A commemorative plaque was placed near Bouladuff Post Office.54 RD: Heanue (5Mar1920/2), Foody (7Jul1921/1) Walter Payne Hopkins (30Mar1920/2) RFA (290768), 19 Fermoy The CFR reports that Gunner Hopkins, from Patchway, Bristol, was cut in two by a train at Pike Boreen Bridge, Fermoy. Buried St Mary’s Churchyard, Almondsbury.55

c. 3 APRIL 1920 John Byrne (3Apr1920/1) IRA, RC RIC Barracks, Luggacurren, Laois Byrne, from Gracefield, Ballylinan, died from burns during the partial destruction of the abandoned Luggacurren RIC barracks. Petrol tins were found nearby.56 Another Volunteer was injured.57

7 APRIL 1920 James McKay (7Apr1920/1) RE, 33 Bere Island, Cork The CFR records the accidental drowning of Sapper McKay, stationed on Bere Island. Buried Ballinakilla Churchyard, Castletownbere.58

9 APRIL 1920 William Finn (9Apr1920/1) RIC (69209), 23, Farmer, RC Lackamore Wood, Newport, Tipperary From Castlerea, Roscommon, Finn joined the RIC on 4 September 1917, and had been stationed in Rearcross since August 1919. Constables Finn, Daniel McCarthy and Thomas P. Byrne were cycling from Rearcross to Newport Petty Sessions at about 10:30 when ambushed at Lackamore Wood, midway between Newport and Rearcross, by a dozen Volunteers. Two policemen were cycling abreast, the third a few yards behind. Finn and McCarthy were hit in the head and killed outright. Byrne, hit in the shoulder, fell off his bicycle, threw himself over a fence and after emptying his revolver at the attackers escaped to Rearcross Barracks, about three

and a half miles away. Buried Castlerea, Roscommon.59 RD: McCarthy (9Apr1920/2) Daniel McCarthy (9Apr1920/2) RIC (67704), 25, Farmer, RC Lackamore Wood, Newport, Tipperary See Finn (9Apr1920/1). Constable McCarthy, from Waterville, Kerry, joined the RIC on 16 February 1914. He had been stationed in Kilcommon for about two months. A comrade reported his dying words to his killers: ‘Oh stop! Stop!’ Buried Waterville.60 Patrick Morrissey (9Apr1920/3) IRA, 40, Farmer, RC North Infirmary, Cork The CFR records the death from gunshot wounds received in a raid on a house at Pilmore near Youghal of Volunteer Patrick Morrissey of Lady’s Bridge. He was treated under an assumed name.61

14 APRIL 1920 Henry Kells (14Apr1920/1) DMP (10119), 42, Married, CoI Upper Camden Street, Dublin From Drumlane, Cavan, Kells served in B Division, DMP and had twenty-two years police service. He lived at 7 Pleasants Street, and was a Mason (Lodge 227). He had recently been promoted to detectiveconstable. At about 09:30, Kells was shot dead by Hugo MacNeill and Tom Keogh† of the Squad near the corner of Upper Camden Street and Pleasants Street. One bullet passed through his windpipe. Death was instantaneous. Buried MJC. His widow Louisa secured £1,750 compensation.62 Patrick Lavin (14Apr1920/2) RIC (59924), 39, Farmer, ex-serviceman, RC RIC Depot, Phoenix Park, Dublin Lavin, from Roscommon, joined the RIC in 1901, serving in Cork, in the Reserve and then as an instructor at the RIC Depot. ‘Of splendid physique’, he was wounded with the Grenadier Guards in France, and was a drill instructor at Caterham before rejoining the RIC, resuming as a drill instructor at the RIC depot. At 10:00 he was found dead in his

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room. He had shot himself through the mouth with a rifle. Colleagues said he had seemed in good spirits immediately beforehand. On a previous occasion, when a term as drill instructor was up, he had resigned, returning ‘after an absence of some months’. Buried GC.63 Patrick Hennessy (14Apr1920/3) IRA, 30, Farmer, Married with two children, RC Main Street, Miltown Malbay, Clare ‘Pat’ Hennessy, a well-known Clare footballer, farmed a smallholding in Miltown Malbay. After three weeks on hunger strike in Wormwood Scrubs, sixty Sinn Féin prisoners interned weeks earlier were released. A mixed party of military and police under Sergeant Hampson approached a celebratory crowd around a bonfire. He ordered them to disperse and simultaneously opened fire, causing a stampede. Firing was directed up Church Street, Ballard Road and Main Street, killing three people and wounding nine. Hennessy was shot through the chest outside Dan Clancy’s on Main Street. Jack O’Loughlin and Tom O’Leary died on Ballard Road. Edward Lynch stated that Hennessy and O’Loughlin were Volunteers, but O’Leary, an ex-serviceman, was ‘a most inoffensive individual who belonged to no organisation’.64 Crown forces were later confined to barracks. Following the funerals the civilian population in north and west Clare became very hostile to the RIC, refusing to serve them food or fuel. The police responded by commandeering their requirements.65 RD: O’Leary (14Apr1920/4), O’Loughlin (14Apr1920/5) Thomas O’Leary (14Apr1920/4) 38, Ex-serviceman, Married with ten children, RC Ballard Road, Miltown Malbay, Clare See Hennessy (14Apr1920/3).66 John O’Loughlin (14Apr1920/5) IRA, 28, Tailor, RC Ballard Road, Miltown Malbay, Clare See Hennessy (14Apr1920/3). O’Loughlin lived on the Ennistymon Road.67

15 APRIL 1920 Patrick Foley (15Apr1920/1) RIC (70111), 25, Ex-serviceman, RC Camp, Kerry From Annascaul, Kerry, Foley served with the Royal Munster Fusiliers and the Irish Guards, and was a prisoner of war in Germany. He joined the RIC on 21 January 1920, stationed in Kilkerrin RIC Barracks, Ballinasloe. Constable Foley was home on leave, when arrested by the IRA as he was leaving Moriarty’s Hotel. Foley was believed to be collecting intelligence: Patrick Curran, later a Garda himself, observed him drinking with a suspicious character ‘in a certain pub in Annascaul’. Documents were allegedly found on him listing local IRA officers and prominent Sinn Féiners, many of these his relatives. Tadhg Kennedy, intelligence officer Kerry No. 1 Brigade, recalled that ‘the poor lad was a relative of mine’, and added that Foley’s brother Mick served in the Inch Company. Foley was held captive in a shed. Convicted by an IRA court martial, he was shot at Camp. He was found, his hands tied behind his back, bearing twenty-six wounds inflicted at close range, in a creamery yard.68

16 APRIL 1920 Patrick Finnerty (16Apr1920/1) RIC (56458), 50, Labourer, RC MMH From Clonkeen, Athenry, Galway, Finnerty joined the RIC on 15 December 1894, serving in Leitrim, Galway, Tipperary and the RIC Reserve. Promoted to sergeant in 1912, in 1913 he was transferred to Balbriggan, Dublin. On the night of 14 April a crowd sang songs around a bonfire on Clonard Hill to mark the release of hunger strikers. Led by Thomas Lawless, they then returned to Balbriggan. Sergeant Finnerty and four constables followed them. Near Clonard Street he was wounded in the back and abdomen by two shots. He had apparently received a threatening letter a short time beforehand. The night being dark and wet, the crowd did not notice the incident. He

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died after an operation at 08:30. Buried Clonkeen burial ground, Athenry. His mother and sister Delia each secured £250 compensation.69

17 APRIL 1920 Thomas Mulholland (17Apr1920/1) IRA, 28, Porter, yardman, RC Louth Infirmary, Dundalk, Louth The police termed Mulholland, from Balrobin, Louth, a prominent Sinn Féiner. Interned in Frongoch after the Rising, he was quartermaster of C (Dundalk) Company, North Louth Battalion. On 16 April, the IRA in Dundalk made two attempts to disarm policemen. At about 22:30, constables Gormley and Walker were on patrol at Seatown Place when five men approached, overwhelmed them and stole their weapons. About half an hour later, three policemen were attacked on Bridge Street by about fifteen men carrying revolvers and sticks. Constables Meade and Quinn were knocked down. Sergeant Bustard, seeing a masked man rush at him, called on him to halt and fired a shot over his head. He then fired two further shots which dispersed the attackers. Mulholland, wounded in the left lung, died at 00:15.70 Buried Castletown Cemetery, Dundalk. A memorial stone marks the spot where he was shot, and a terrace of houses in Dundalk was named in his memory.71

18 APRIL 1920 Patrick J. Carroll (18Apr1920/1) RIC (58743), 43, Railway clerk, RC Kilmihil, Clare From Dublin, Carroll joined the RIC on 1 September 1899, allocated to Kerry. He subsequently served in Armagh until October 1919, when he was transferred to Clare. Promoted to sergeant on 1 March 1918, he was stationed in Kilmihil. Volunteers of the West Clare Brigade attacked a party of police after 11:00 Mass, just outside the church gates. Carroll was killed in the first burst of revolver fire, and Constable Collins wounded in the back. Constable Patrick Martyn retreated through

the congregation, and shot the pursuing John Breen in the forehead. Police reports stated that two civilians named Higgins and McMahon were wounded. The military in Kilmihil were quickly on the scene, and took Breen’s body to his uncle’s house in the village. Carroll was posthumously awarded the constabulary medal. His father Cornelius secured £1,000 compensation.72 RD: Breen (18Apr1920/2) John (Seán) Breen (18Apr1920/2) IRA, 22, Farmer’s son, RC Kilmihil, Clare See Carroll (18Apr1920/1). Breen, a farmer’s son, had been imprisoned for illegal drilling. Buried Kilmihil graveyard.73 Daniel Neville (18Apr1920/3) IRA, 24, Farmer’s son, RC Pallaskenry, Limerick Neville was a lieutenant in D (Ballysteen) Company, West Limerick Brigade. He was shot during a struggle with Peter Switzer, whose house in Moig, Pallaskenry, the IRA were raiding for arms, and died next day. Buried Castletown, Pallaskenry. He is commemorated on a monument in Newcastle West.74

19 APRIL 1920 Bird Everton75 (19Apr1920/1) Dorsetshire Regiment, 30, Married Ebrington Barracks, Derry Lieutenant Everton, from the Isle of Wight, was crushed to death between two armoured cars. Buried Londonderry City Cemetery (SB. 613).76 Christopher Duckworth (19Apr1920/2) Lancashire Fusiliers (71783), 22 KGVH Private Duckworth, from Blackburn, accidentally shot while on duty outside Mountjoy Prison, died on admission to hospital. Buried Blackburn (E. N.C. 3643).77 Francis Curran (19Apr1920/3) 68, Farmer, Married with eight children, RC Aughalough, Aughavas, Leitrim Curran lived in Augharan, Aughavas, with his large family. He was shot on the road at

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Aughalough by two masked men while returning from work. Michael McKiernan was warned off by the gunmen but returned. Curran asked for a priest, but died before one arrived. On 21 April an inquest jury found he was killed by unknown persons. At Carrickon-Shannon Quarter Sessions in March 1921, Curran’s widow Margaret secured £250 compensation, as did each of his children under age.78

20 APRIL 1920 Laurence Dalton (20Apr1920/1) DMP (11194), 26, RC MMH ‘Larry’ Dalton, from Monagea, Limerick, served in B Division, DMP for six years. He had only been a G Division detectiveconstable a short time. Joseph Dolan of GHQ intelligence said Dalton watched the trains at Broadstone Station, the terminus of the MGWR. Mick McDonnell, Tom Keogh† and Jim Slattery were detailed to kill him. Detective-constables Dalton and Spencer were on their way to Broadstone when attacked at 12:45 on Mountjoy Street. Dalton, who returned fire, reportedly cried out ‘let me alone’ when hit, but received three further shots. Four men were seen running away. Wounded in the abdomen and legs, Dalton died at 15:30 after an operation. David Neligan described him as ‘a charming fellow of mild disposition, he had never raised a finger against Sinn Féin’. His death was ‘one of the tragedies of the time’. Buried Ardagh Cemetery, Limerick.79

24 APRIL 1920 Michael McCarthy (24Apr1920/1) DMP (11286), 29, Farmer’s son, RC CMHC McCarthy, from Lackenalooha, Clonakilty, Cork, had five years’ DMP service. On 22 April, Constable McCarthy was home on leave, working on his brother-in-law’s farm at Lackenalooha. At around 15:00, he was struck in the leg by shots from the roadside. He ran, pursued by two men. He fell, and was shot in the stomach. McCarthy refused to identify his assailants before dying.80

25 APRIL 1920 Cornelius Crean (25Apr1920/1) RIC (55059), 48, Farmer, Married with one child, RC Ballinspittle, Cork From Annascaul, Kerry, Crean joined the RIC on 1 June 1891, serving in Galway, the RIC Reserve and Belfast, before transfer in 1906 to Cork. Promoted to sergeant on 1 March 1912, he was stationed in Innishannon. He was a brother of Tom Crean, the Antarctic explorer. At about 17:00, Crean and constables McGoldrick and Power were ambushed near Upton railway station by members of Crosspound Company, Cork No. 3 Brigade, under Charlie Hurley ‘at about 3 or 4 yards’ range’ with shotguns. Crean and McGoldrick were killed outright. Power returned fire and ‘got away while we were re-loading’. Buried Cork city.81 RD: McGoldrick (25Apr1920/2). SA: Hurley (19Mar1921/2) Patrick McGoldrick (25Apr1920/2) RIC (48684), 59, Farmer, Married, RC Ballinspittle, Cork See Crean (25Apr1920/1). Constable McGoldrick, from Cavan, joined the RIC on 21 February 1882, serving in Waterford and Cork. He was stationed in Innishannon for almost twenty-five years. Buried Waterford.82

26 APRIL 1920 Philip Dowling (26Apr1920/1) 27, Railway porter, RC Arklow, Wicklow Dowling, son of an RIC man, served in the RIC from 1910 until dismissed in 1916. Living with his parents in Ferrybank, Arklow, he was a porter at Woodenbridge Railway Station. Two brothers served in the RIC, of whom Michael was killed in March 1921. Following disturbances as a crowd celebrated the release of hunger striker Andrew Holt from Mountjoy, at about 21:00 a party of about eighteen soldiers, described by the police as ‘excited’, marched through Arklow. A shot was fired, and three volleys were discharged towards Main Street. Dowling,

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walking on Bridge Street, was wounded in the stomach. He died half an hour later in a nearby house. A soldier was reportedly accidentally shot by a comrade. A strong military picket was dispatched to restore order. Buried new cemetery, Arklow.83 SA: Dowling (22Mar1921/9)

shotguns: McKenna was killed and the two constables wounded. Two police revolvers were captured, but Constable Rabbitt held on to his carbine.85 SA: Walsh (12May1921/3)

27 APRIL 1920

Robert F. Bishop (6May1920/1) 6th Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers) (D/8761), Protestant Infirmary, Galway Private Porteous unloaded four bullets from another soldier’s weapon in the guardroom in Athenry, Galway. He then squeezed the trigger, discharging a shot that wounded Sergeant Bishop MM, who died that night. Buried New Cemetery, Bohermore, Galway (Prot. K. 15. 23).86

Francis H. Quinn (27Apr1920/1) Royal Welch Fusiliers (24698), 19, RC Wolfe Tone Street, Limerick From Folkestone, Kent, Private Quinn was stationed in New Barracks, Limerick. On 26 April privates Quinn and Roberts, who had returned from patrol, joined a fracas around 22:15 between civilians and a crowd of soldiers. Both sides threw stones, and Volunteers of 1st (Limerick City) Battalion, Mid Limerick Brigade, fired some shots. A military witness said that a man concealed behind a tree shot Quinn in the head. The crowd then dispersed. Quinn died in a nearby house early next morning. Buried Wrexham Cemetery, Denbighshire (B. 537). His father secured £300 compensation.84

3 MAY 1920 Francis McKenna (3May1920/1) RIC (58789), 39, Married with three children, RC Gale Bridge, Ballydonoghue, Kerry From Waterford, McKenna joined the RIC on 15 March 1899, serving in Kilkenny and Cork before transfer to Kerry in 1906. As a detective stationed in Tralee, he was involved in the arrest of Roger Casement in April 1916. Promoted to sergeant in 1918, early in 1920 he was transferred to Ballylongford. McKenna and constables Patrick Colgan and Michael Rabbitt were cycling back from Listowel Quarter Sessions to Ballylongford when held up at Gale Bridge, about two miles from Listowel, by Paddy Walsh, Mick Galvin, Patrick Corridan, John Walsh and a man named Ahern, of the Tullamore Company, attached to Listowel Battalion, Kerry No. 1 Brigade. Edmond J. Walsh maintained that when challenged one policeman drew his revolver. The IRA opened fire with

6 MAY 1920

9 MAY 1920 Francis Aidan Gleeson (9May1920/1) IRA, 25, Clerk, RC MMH ‘Frank’ Gleeson, from Liverpool, joined the Irish Volunteers in 1915. A one-time Liverpool University student, he assumed the name Redmond in 1918 to avoid conscription. Living at 34 Cadogan Road, he served in F Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. Discharged from Mountjoy on 18 March, he and his brother Martin were rearrested at the prison gates and sentenced to three months imprisonment for possession of firearms. After nine days on hunger strike, they and other prisoners were released on 14 April and admitted to hospital. Discharged on 3 May, Frank was readmitted three days later, and died two days after an operation from ‘toxaemia following nephritis and acute appendicitis’. Buried GC.87 John Edward Brady (9May1920/2) RIC (55744), 50, Footman, Married, RC Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin From Bray, Wicklow, Brady joined the RIC on 16 January 1893, serving in Belfast and the RIC Reserve. Promoted to sergeant in 1913, he was in charge of Rush RIC Barracks, Dublin. Wounded in both legs in the early hours of 29 April during an abortive attack

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on Rush RIC Barracks by the Naul Battalion, Fingal Brigade, Brady died from cardiac failure and bronchial pneumonia following an operation. Buried MJC (A. 396. 30). His widow Margaret secured a special RIC allowance of £72.88 William Lehane (9May1920/3) Farmer, Married with children, RC Mercy Hospital, Cork Armed and masked men called to Lehane’s house at Ardgroom, Cork, in the early morning, seeking ‘the boss’. He pleaded with them, but they shot him in the thigh. He cried, ‘Oh Lord I am killed’, before receiving a second shot. His daughter Mary Ellen described how medical help took eight hours to arrive. There was ongoing friction with an evicted tenant, and Lehane had previously received a malicious damages award for damage to his crops, but this was an IRA operation.89

10 MAY 1920 Mark Clinton (10May1920/1) IRA, 24, Farmer’s son, RC Rosemount, Moynalty, Meath90 Clinton lived on his father Joseph’s farm in Cormeen in north Meath. Involved in the Gaelic League and the IRA, his death featured prominently in Meath BMH statements. At about 18:00, Joseph heard shots from where Mark was harrowing a field of oats. He found two horses dead and Mark severely wounded. He refused to name his five assailants, and forgave them. He died shortly afterwards in Phil Smith’s house. Joseph secured £400 compensation. Seán Boylan, O/C Meath Brigade, named Clinton’s killer as an ex-serviceman named Gordon, while another ex-serviceman named McGovern shot the horses. Both were apparently paid by William Rogers, a former policeman in South Africa, who intended to frighten Clinton over the land dispute. RIC reports support this. Gordon was arrested for possession of arms and ammunition without a permit, but later released and advised to flee. Boylan’s men captured him in a pub near the railway station. Imprisoned in an old

rectory in Salestown, Gordon gave the names of seven associates. These were arrested by the IRA and held for several weeks. GHQ appointed a court to try Gordon. Dublin Brigade officers acted as judges. Séamus O’Higgins prosecuted and Séamus Cogan defended Gordon, who confessed, admitted two other attempted murders, and was sentenced to death. GHQ in consultation with the Dáil government ordered a retrial a fortnight later, which produced the same outcome. GHQ left Boylan to settle Gordon’s fate; he decided to kill him. A Presbyterian clergyman, Reverend Irwin, ministered to Gordon before he was shot at Castlefarm, Dunboyne. His body was dumped in a nearby quarry. His accomplice McGovern was ordered to leave Ireland for life; other gang members were expelled for periods ranging from three to fifteen years. Buried Moybolgue Graveyard, Cavan.91 RD: Gordon (1Jun1920/1). SA: Cogan (22Jul 1920/1) William Brick (10May1920/2) RIC (64151), 32, Postman, RC Ahawadda Cross, Timoleague, Cork From Tralee, Kerry, Brick joined the RIC on 13 July 1908, stationed in Butlerstown, Cork. Michael Coleman, Barryroe Company, recalled how the IRA drove cattle off a loyalist’s lands to draw out the RIC. A four-man cycle patrol from Butlerstown Barracks was attacked at around 07:00 by eleven Volunteers under Charlie Hurley, brigade O/C, concealed behind a fence at Ahawadda Cross. Constables Brick and Dunne were killed outright: Jerome O’Hea ‘was responsible for one of them’. Although badly wounded, Flynn continued to fire until shot dead as he crawled for cover about 100 yards away. Hurley pursued Grimsdale, but ‘he turned up a by-road and we thought it dangerous to follow him’. Flynn and Dunne had participated in the successful defence of Timoleague Barracks the previous February, Grimsdale being wounded. Brick’s mother secured £100 compensation, and his brother £600.92 RD: Dunne (10May1920/5), Flynn (10May 1920/3). SA: Hurley (19Mar1921/2)

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John Flynn (10May1920/3) RIC (56899), 51, Farmer, Married with six children, RC Ahawadda Cross, Timoleague, Cork See Brick (10May1920/2). From Kildysart, Clare, Flynn joined the RIC on 1 April 1895, serving in Leitrim and Cork. Promoted to sergeant in 1916, he was in charge of Butlerstown RIC Barracks. He had been awarded the constabulary medal on 16 March 1920 for his part in the defence of Timoleague RIC Barracks. His widow Annie secured a special RIC allowance of £72.93 Patrick McDonnell (10May1920/4) RIC (55303), 49, Farmer, Married, RC Goulds Cross, Cashel, Tipperary McDonnell, from Dromore, Tyrone, joined the RIC on 15 March 1892, serving in Roscommon and Cavan. Promoted to sergeant in 1918, he was stationed in Cootehill, Cavan, but on temporary duty in Tipperary. He had been due to leave on 5 May but was retained due to an injury to another sergeant. His brother John was also a policeman. A colleague described him as ‘the quietest man I ever met’. At 13:00, he and Constable Hayes were walking from the railway station at Goulds Cross to Clonoulty RIC Hut. Four armed men, including ‘John Ryan . . . the son of the schoolmaster from Turaheen . . . and Ned Reilly’ challenged them. Hayes testified that Ryan ‘said to me, “Why don’t you put up your hands?” Then there was a general fusillade of shots. I bolted down the road . . . When I got about 60 or 70 yards . . . I turned round and saw Sergt McDonnell running towards me and falling. I discharged my revolver at Ryan and then at Reilly’, who had taken the sergeant’s gun. This attack was carried out by Ned O’Reilly of Glenough and other Volunteers from D (Rossmore) Company, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade. McDonnell’s widow Mary secured £2,600 compensation. She later sought £5,000 from the British government.94 Edward Dunne (10May1920/5) RIC (62633), 40, Farmer, Married, RC Ahawadda Cross, Timoleague, Cork See Brick (10May1920/2). Dunne, from Maryborough (Portlaoise), Laois, joined the

RIC on 21 May 1907, serving in Tipperary and Waterford before transfer to Cork in 1915. He was awarded the constabulary medal on 16 March 1920 for his part in the defence of Timoleague RIC Barracks. Buried Raheen Cemetery, Maryborough. His widow Bridget secured a special RIC allowance of £55.6s.11d.95

11 MAY 1920 Michael Nolan (11May1920/1) IRA, 25, Agricultural labourer, RC Ballymacandrew, Ardfert, Kerry Nolan, from Ardfert, died after a bungled attack. Captain E. M. P. Wynne RM was driving from Tralee to the Petty Sessions court at Causeway in a hired horse and jaunting-car, when ‘about eight men, masked and armed, jumped over a hedge, cried “Hands Up”, and fired six or seven shots’. The horse shied. Wynne jumped off the car, and fired five shots from his revolver: ‘One man dropped on the road. He saw two others stagger. When Wynne shouted “Come on, you cowards”’, the attackers dithered, then fled. When Wynne returned with police, it was clear that a body had been dragged away through the fields. A week later, Wynne said he was ‘most truly sorry for the relatives and friends of the men who lost their lives’. Wynne was withdrawn from Tralee. In September, a van carrying his furniture, consigned to London from his former home, was destroyed by fire by members of the Fianna in Tralee Railway Station. Nolan is commemorated on a plaque in Ardfert. His father secured a £50 gratuity.96

12 MAY 1920 William James McCabe (12May1920/1) 42,97 Gardener, Baptist Strathmore Road, Killiney, Dublin McCabe, from Kilcock, Kildare, was head gardener for the Right Hon. Laurence Waldron. He and his sister lived in a gate lodge. At about 22:00 he left Joseph Coyle’s house on Strathmore Road. Shortly afterwards, there were three or four gunshots. Coyle saw two men running away. McCabe had been shot in the head. That night the

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IRA burned Ballybrack RIC Barracks nearby. Several civilians were held up by patrols in the wake of the attack: the Irish Independent suggested that possibly McCabe was shot for failing to answer a challenge. Buried Sallins, Kildare. His father Robert secured £500 compensation.98 Denis Garvey (12May1920/2) RIC (56861), 47, Labourer, Married with eight children, RC Lower Road, Cork From Killarney, Kerry, Garvey joined the RIC on 2 January 1895, serving in Limerick, the RIC Reserve and Cork. Promoted to sergeant in 1918, he was stationed in Lower Road Barracks, Cork. Pa Murray maintained that Garvey and Constable Daniel Harrington took part in the murder of Tomás MacCurtain. Terence MacSwiney eventually gave Murray instructions to kill them. Murray and Martin Donovan shot Garvey and Harrington as their tram drew up at about 22:30. Constable Patrick Doyle was seriously wounded. The three policemen had been on night duty. Buried Aghadoe Cemetery, Killarney.99 RD: Harrington (12May1920/3). SA: MacCurtain (20Mar1920/1), MacSwiney (25Oct1920/3) Daniel Harrington (12May1920/3) RIC (59401), 44, Farmer, RC Lower Road, Cork See Garvey (12May1920/2). Harrington, from Cork, joined the RIC on 23 January 1900, stationed in Lower Road Barracks, Cork. His sister Margaret secured £300 compensation.100

13 MAY 1920 John Matthews (13May1920/1) The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), 57, married Cork Park, Cork The CFR recounts how Matthews, from St Helen’s, Lancashire, a military clerk in 6th Division headquarters at Victoria Barracks, was found drowned in a pond in Cork Park, with possible marks of violence on his body. A post-mortem found he had drowned accidentally: he had reportedly been severely shocked by the death of a brother.101

14 MAY 1920 Thomas Dunne (14May1920/1) IRA, 22, Grocer’s assistant, RC MMH Dunne, a farmer’s son of Ballasize, Wicklow, was a lieutenant in the 6th Battalion, Dublin Brigade. Patrick Brennan recalled how on 12 May the IRA destroyed the evacuated Kill-o-the-Grange RIC Barracks. At about 20:00 Volunteers used straw sprinkled with petrol to set the building on fire. Dunne and Pat Meaney suffered severe burns. Dunne died in hospital from broncopneumonia. Meaney died on 21 May. They are commemorated on a memorial plaque in Dún Laoghaire.102 RD: Meaney (21May1920/1)

15 MAY 1920 Denis Moroney103 (15May1920/1) RIC (59644), 40, Farmer, Married, RC Metropole Hotel, Derry From Tulla, Clare, Moroney joined the RIC on 2 July 1900, serving in Cavan, Mayo and Belfast before being promoted to sergeant in 1912 and transferred to Derry on 29 June 1912. In November 1919 he took charge of the Crimes Special Department in Derry. Moroney lived at 16 Grove Place, Derry. Disorder and violence began to mount in Derry from April onward. When some republican prisoners were transferred to the city jail in mid-April, nationalists and unionists clashed. On 18 April, shots were fired into the nationalist Bogside, and police charged a nationalist crowd. The situation deteriorated rapidly over the following two months. Growing fear among working-class unionists led to the reorganisation of the UVF in the city. In mid-June, renewed conflict claimed many lives. At about 21:30, rioting ‘of the fiercest character’ broke out between nationalists from the Bridge Street area and unionists from Fountain Street. Police from Ferryquay made a charge down Bridge Street and were met with a hail of stones, bottles and bricks. Detective-Sergeant Moroney chased rioters towards the quay, along with four detectives

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and men in uniform. Hit in the chest by revolver shots, he died within minutes in the Metropole Hotel. Liam A. Brady denied IRA responsibility, whereas the Derry City battalion later claimed that Moroney was killed by Volunteers McCallion, Keenan and McCauley. Buried in Clare.104 James Dalton (15May1920/2) IRA, 49, Clerk, Married with thirteen children, RC Clare Street, Limerick ‘Jim’ Dalton of 5 Clare Street was a clerk in the Municipal Electric Lighting Department. An all-round sportsman, he once held the Irish lightweight boxing title. He also trained the Limerick hurling team which won the 1918 All-Ireland Championship. In 1896, he had been president of the first Trades Union Congress held in Limerick. He played a prominent part in Sinn Féin by-elections campaigns in North Roscommon and East Clare in 1917. Dalton was a captain in the 1st Limerick City Battalion. At 18:00 he was shot by three or four men as he left a pub. Felled by the first volley, he was hit again as he tried to rise. Six-yearold Eileen Horne was wounded in the leg. A few weeks beforehand, the top of one of Dalton’s fingers had been shot off, and walls around the city were painted in large letters: ‘A bullet is waiting for Dalton the spy.’ Dalton had been spotted one night leaving a detective’s home on Ellen Street. Accused of informing, he was acquitted in a court martial presided over by Cahir Davitt, although the court criticised his indiscretion. Éamon Dore deprecated this shooting and regretted that he himself got ‘much notoriety because of it’. Richard O’Connell recalled that Martin Barry and other members of the 2nd Limerick City Battalion were suspected. Barry was later arrested by the IRB, but no hard evidence was found. The leading Volunteer Dan Breen later wrote that Dalton had been framed to protect the wrongdoing of senior officers, and Frank Thornton of GHQ intelligence recalled that after a week’s investigation he and Joseph Dolan established that:

Dalton as an intelligence officer . . . was only doing his duty as such and had contacted certain enemy agents, i.e. ‘G’ men and had met them fairly frequently and had secured some very valuable information. . . . we were able to prove conclusively . . . that Dalton’s name was completely clear.

Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery. His widow initially secured a gratuity and ultimately a widow’s military service pension. A 1917–21 service medal was also awarded.105

16 MAY 1920 Bernard Doherty106 (16May1920/1) 21, Ex-serviceman, sawmill worker, RC Linenhall Street, Derry ‘Barney’ Doherty, son of James Doherty of Ann Street, had been gassed and wounded during the war. His only brother had been killed at Gallipoli. Rioting broke out following the killing of Denis Moroney. During a lull, Doherty went to see a girl home and was hit by a bullet fired most likely by a loyalist from between Ferryquay Gate and Market Street. He staggered back to New Market Street before collapsing on Linenhall Street. He died from chest wounds after midnight in a nearby house.107 SA: Moroney (15May1920/1)

19 MAY 1920 Kieran Dunphy108 (19May1920/1) RIC (65998), 31, Farmer, RC Upper Mallow Street, Limerick From Cullohill, Rathdowney, Laois, Dunphy joined the RIC on 4 July 1911, allocated to Mayo. He enlisted in the Leinster Regiment on 25 May 1916, rejoined the RIC on 18 October 1919 and was promoted to sergeant in 1919. From March 1920 he was stationed in Ballincurra RIC Barracks, Limerick. At around 17:30 Sergeants Dunphy and Patrick Hearty were attacked as they left the surgery of Dr John Roberts by Volunteers of B Company, 2nd Battalion, Mid Limerick Brigade. Dunphy, shot in the head, was killed outright. Hearty, wounded in the leg, returned fire before being hit in the jaw. Removed to Dublin, he died on 22 June. In

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follow-up search operations, various properties were destroyed by Crown forces.109 Buried Durrow Cemetery, Laois. His sisters Bridget and Mary Eileen each secured £700 compensation.110 RD: Hearty (22Jun1920/4). James Saunders (19May1920/2) 35, Dock labourer, ex-serviceman, Widowed with two children, RC Ellen Street, Limerick Following the shooting of Sergeant Dunphy, police ran amok in Limerick, discharging their weapons indiscriminately in what the RIC claimed was return fire. Around 23:00 police fired volleys near Charlotte Quay, Bridge Street and Patrick Street. Saunders was fatally wounded.111 Other civilians were also hit. Several bombs were thrown, setting fire to various premises. Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery.112 SA: Dunphy (19May1920/1)

20 MAY 1920 Arthur Bowes (20May1920/1) Yorkshire Regiment (66896), 18, Protestant Military Barracks, Tipperary, Tipperary From Durham, Private Bowes was stationed in Tipperary Military Barracks. At about 22:00 his friend Private Bowens inadvertently shot him in the neck as soldiers going on duty loaded their rifles. Buried St Mary’s Churchyard, Tipperary.113

21 MAY 1920 Patrick Meaney (21May1920/1) IRA, RC MMH See Dunne (14May1920/1). ‘Paddy’ Meaney was quartermaster 6th Battalion, Dublin Brigade.114

23 MAY 1920 Peter Kelly (23May1920/1) Farmer’s son, Married with one child, RC Aghagad, Castlecoote, Roscommon At about 02:00 twelve masked men burst into Kelly’s house and shot him dead in the kitchen, despite his cries of ‘mercy’.

The Kellys had taken part in cattle drives on disputed land held by Tom Geraghty, and had received a warning letter. The Irish Independent stated the dispute was over a small piece of marshy ground of little value. The jury found that Kelly’s death was caused by a gunshot wound deliberately inflicted by some person or persons unknown. Kelly’s widow secured £1,200 compensation.115

27 MAY 1920 Joseph Clarkson (27May1920/1) King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) (51979), 19, RC Phoenix Park, Dublin Private Clarkson, stationed in Richmond Barracks, was on guard duty at the Chief Secretary’s Lodge in Phoenix Park when Private James McGaw, while changing a magazine, accidentally shot him. Buried Ince-in-Makerfield Cemetery, Lancashire (B. R.C. 159).116

28 MAY 1920 Thomas Kane117 (28May1920/1) RIC (55093), 41, Married with eight children, RC RIC Barracks, Kilmallock, Limerick From Meath, son of a head constable, Kane joined the RIC on 16 July 1891, posted to Tyrone. He also served in the RIC Reserve and Limerick, before another stint in the Reserve, after which he returned to Limerick. He resigned in 1909 to join the Imperial Yeomanry, later rejoining. Sergeant Kane was transferred from the RIC Reserve to Kilmallock the day before his death. Kilmallock RIC Barracks, heavily sandbagged and fitted with steel shutters, was regarded as the best fortified barracks in Munster. Seán Wall, brigadier East Limerick, led a major attack. All roads, byroads and railway lines around the town were rendered impassable. At around 02:00 five IRA sections attacked in turn. Heavy weights were dropped from an adjoining roof on to the barracks roof to break the slates, followed by petrol bombs.

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The IRA’s Liam Scully was shot in the neck. Sergeant Kane and Constable Morton were killed. By 05:00 the barracks roof had fallen in. The police continued a stubborn resistance, holding out in a rear portion which had not caught fire. The fight ended around 08:00. Scully died in a motor car near Bruree. Only two police escaped injury. Sergeant Tobias O’Sullivan, in charge on the night of the attack, was struck in the chest, but a pocket book saved his life. He was immediately promoted to head constable and given a gratuity of £50. Buried GC. Kane was awarded a posthumous constabulary medal.118 RD: Morton (28May1920/2), Scully (28May 1920/3). SA: O’Sullivan (20Jan1921/2), Wall (6May1921/5) Joseph P. Morton (28May1920/2) RIC (54291), 39, Married with seven children, RC RIC Barracks, Kilmallock, Limerick See Kane (28May1920/1). From Dublin, Morton joined the RIC on 14 April 1890, serving in Meath and Tipperary before transfer to Kilmallock in 1898. Morton’s widow Mary Agnes secured £3,800 compensation. He was posthumously awarded the constabulary medal.119 Liam Scully (28May1920/3) IRA, Schoolteacher, RC Vicinity of Bruree, Limerick See Kane (28May1920/1). Scully, from Glencar, Kerry, a captain in the East Limerick Brigade, lived in Ballyhahill. Buried Templeglantine, Limerick, he is commemorated on monuments at Newcastle West and Murroe, Limerick.120

29 MAY 1920 Thomas Sheridan (29May1920/1) IRA, 23, Farmer’s son, RC MMH ‘Tom’ Sheridan lived with his uncles Thomas and Patrick Delaney in Drumrooskey. Seán Sheridan of the Drumbrade Company, Ballinagh Battalion, recalled that Volunteers attempted to disarm two RIC officers at

08:30. Sergeant G. Johnson fired, hitting Tom. The sergeant was wounded before surrendering. The police were disarmed. This was the first such encounter between the IRA and police in Cavan. Sheridan was carried away by his comrades, and later moved in a horse and trap and then by motor car to the Columcille area of Longford. That night he was admitted to hospital in the guise of ‘Thomas Murphy’ from Kilkenny. He died from toxaemia and abdominal wounds: his parents arrived too late to see him alive. Buried Ballinagh Cemetery. A memorial cross marks the location where he was shot. His mother subsequently received a dependent’s gratuity of £40.121

31 MAY 1920 Peter Miller (31May1920/1) East Lancashire Regiment (51983), 18, RC Dingle, Kerry Son of William and Mary Miller of New Cross, Manchester, Private Miller is recorded as accidentally shot while on duty in Dingle. Buried St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Moston, Lancashire (M. 536).122

1 JUNE 1920 William Gordon (1Jun1920/1) Ex-serviceman, Protestant Castlefarm, Dunboyne, Meath See Clinton (10May1920/1).123

6 JUNE 1920 Peter Charles McCreesh (6Jun1920/1) 28, Farmer’s son, RC Cullyhanna, Armagh From Aughanduff, five miles from Cullyhanna, McCreesh and his brother attended an aeraíocht on the outskirts of Cullyhanna. Sergeant Holland, Constable Rossdale and Constable Rafferty sat on a wall watching proceedings. As the gathering concluded at about 20:00 five men confronted the police, one shouting ‘Hands up!’ Fire was opened and the police replied. Holland, wounded in the abdomen, returned fire. Rossdale was wounded, and Rafferty found

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shelter in a nearby house. McCreesh, who was sitting on a ditch nearby, was shot in the back and lung as he tried to move away when the firing began. Another man named Donnelly was slightly wounded. Buried Mullaghbawn Cemetery, Armagh.124 RD: Holland (9Jun1920/1)

8 JUNE 1920 James McConnell (8Jun1920/1) 60, Linen weaver, married with children, CoI Lurgan, Armagh McConnell was killed in Victoria Street when a Mills bomb, which a recently demobilised ex-soldier named George Baxter was displaying, exploded. Baxter lost his hand; three other men were wounded. It is unclear whether this incident had any political or paramilitary significance.125

9 JUNE 1920 Timothy Holland (9Jun1920/1) RIC (60721), 42,126 Farmer, Married with five children, RC Louth Infirmary, Dundalk, Louth See McCreesh (6Jun1920/1). Holland, from Dunmanway, Cork, joined the RIC on 1 May 1902 and served in Mayo and Belfast before transfer to Armagh in 1911. Promoted to sergeant in 1918, he was in charge of Crossmaglen RIC Barracks. Two brothers served in the DMP and RIC respectively. In his dying message to his wife, Holland forgave the man who shot him. Buried Milltown Cemetery. His widow secured £4,000 compensation.127

11 JUNE 1920 Patrick Carroll128 (11Jun1920/1) RIC (62341), 38, Labourer, RC Railway Hotel, Parnell Street, Limerick From Ballina, Mayo, Carroll joined the RIC on 17 January 1907, allocated to Tipperary. He had only recently transferred to Limerick city to take up detective duties. He and Constable Norman J. Cruise were in plain clothes in the Railway Hotel at about 15:15 when Volunteer Patrick Naughton,† by chance visiting the bar, opened fire with a revolver, killing Carroll outright. Carroll’s

sister Bridget secured £1,100 compensation and his niece Mary Kate, a minor, £340.129

12 JUNE 1920 Thomas King (12Jun1920/1) RIC (69878), 26, Naval rating, RC Snave, Glengarriff, Cork From Roundstone, Galway, King had served as a stoker at the Battle of Jutland. He joined the RIC on 1 October 1919, stationed in Glengarriff. He was shot, unarmed and in civilian clothes, while returning to barracks from eight hours leave in Bantry, apparently having attended confession, by an IRA party under Ted O’Sullivan. King was said to be implicated in the murder of Thomas O’Dwyer of Tipperary. Although wounded, he reached a nearby farmhouse, hiding in a cupboard until discovered, when he was dragged into a yard, thrown on a manure heap and killed lest he identify his attackers. King’s mother secured £800 compensation.130 SA: O’Dwyer (30Mar1920/1) Cyril Constable (12Jun1920/2) MGC (Infantry) (189359), 18 Military Hospital, New Barracks, Limerick Lance-Corporal Constable, stationed in Bruff, Limerick, died of groin and arm wounds received on 11 June in a ‘friendly fire’ incident at around 00:30 after a mixed patrol came to the aid of three RIC officers attacked by a dozen IRA men. Buried Nottingham General Cemetery (2970. CC).131

13 JUNE 1920 Herbert Thompson (13Jun1920/1) 6th Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers) (D/36279), 23, Protestant Earls Island, Galway At about 00:45 privates Thompson and Cairns attempted to re-enter their billets covertly in an old jute factory at Earls Island, and were fired on after ignoring a sentry’s challenges. Thompson, from Newcastle upon Tyne, was killed outright; Cairns, wounded in the neck, died in the county infirmary.132 Buried New Cemetery, Bohermore, Galway (Prot. K. 15. 22).133 RD: Cairns (13Jun1920/2)

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James M. Cairns (13Jun1920/2) 6th Dragoon Guards (Carabiniers) (D/36579), RC Military Hospital, Earls Island, Galway See Thompson (13Jun1920/1). Private Cairns was from Newcastle upon Tyne. Buried New Cemetery, Bohermore, Galway (RC. B. 3. 11).134 Edward Stratton (13Jun1920/3) 17th Lancers, 17, Trooper Ballincollig, Cork Stratton, from London, was accidentally shot dead by a comrade at Ballincollig Cavalry Barracks. Buried Ballincollig military cemetery.135

15 JUNE 1920 Percival Samuel Lea Wilson (15Jun1920/1) RIC (65448), 33, Married, CoE Knockmullen, Gorey, Wexford From Kent, Wilson was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford. He joined the RIC on 3 August 1910. He had been stationed as a district inspector in Gorey since 1917, having previously served in Charleville, Cork. In 1915 Wilson joined the army as a musketry instructor. Promoted from lieutenant to captain, he served with the RIR. Following an accident, Wilson rejoined the RIC in 1917. During the Rising, Wilson, in Dublin on temporary duty, was in charge of about 250 prisoners at the Rotunda and allegedly mistreated Tom Clarke, forcibly straightening Clarke’s damaged arm when removing his coat and reopening the wound: Éamon Dore recalled that ‘A comrade of mine . . . who was lying beside me on the grass swore that “if that fellow lives through the war – meaning the 1914–18 war – I will search for him and kill him for this.” He and four others kept that promise.’ The comrade was Liam Tobin. Wilson was shot dead at 09:45 while returning home after buying a newspaper. The operation was supervised by Dublin IRA officers Frank Thorton and Liam Tobin. Joseph McMahon and John ‘Waxer’ Whelan were also involved. The RIC reported that

‘the murderers drove away laughing’ after the shooting, the first RIC fatality in Wexford. In gratitude for their support following her bereavement, Wilson’s widow Monica later presented the Irish Jesuit community with a religious painting. In 1993 this was definitively identified as Caravaggio’s lost masterpiece The Taking of Christ, now in the National Gallery of Ireland. Buried Putney Vale Cemetery, London, beside his father.136 SA: Clarke (3May1916/2), McMahon (15Aug 1920/3) Pierce Doogue (15Jun1920/2) RIC (60412), 42, Farmer, RC Belmullet, Mayo From Laois, Doogue joined the RIC on 1 October 1901. Initially allocated to Mayo, thereafter he served in Roscommon, Mayo a second time and Wicklow, before returning to Mayo in 1914, stationed in Ballycroy. Constable Doogue was on one-day leave at the Belmullet Fair. At around 21:00, he was found unconscious on his back outside Murphy’s pub on Main Street, with his head in the water channel near the kerb, after an altercation between RIC men and a drunken crowd. Michael Henry, then O/C 6th Battalion, North Mayo Brigade, later claimed that the IRA killed him, thinking him a plain-clothes detective. But his death was recorded as arising from dislocation of the neck caused by falling while drunk. No one had seen him assaulted. Buried Laois.137 Daniel Fitzgerald (15Jun1920/3) 28, Married, RC Leitrim Street, Cork Fitzgerald, of Wallace Avenue, Cork, was hit by one of two military lorries travelling close together at night.138

17 JUNE 1920 John J. Campion (17Jun1920/1) RIC (59524), 41, Farmer, RC Granard, Longford From Borris-in-Ossory, Laois, Campion joined the RIC on 16 May 1900, serving in

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Mayo and Belfast before transfer to Longford in 1911. Promoted to sergeant in 1913, he was stationed in Granard. He was pumping a bicycle tyre in the barracks at around 13:00 when his loaded revolver fell, discharging when it hit the flagstone. Shot through his wrist and heart, he died within minutes.139

18 JUNE 1920 Thomas Brett (18Jun1920/1) IRA, 25, Farmer’s son, RC MMH From Ballycahill, Thurles, Tipperary, Brett was an officer in the Drombane Company, Tipperary No. 2 Brigade. On 7 June Brett and a few comrades attempted to hold up an army officer from Nenagh, Lieutenant R. Gillespie, who was on a motorcycle. Brett, the only Volunteer armed, was hit several times. Gillespie, wounded in the thigh, rode off towards Thurles before colliding with a cow. A passing military lorry rescued him. Brought to Dublin with hip and thigh wounds, despite an operation Brett died of toxaemia around 08:30. Buried Drombane.140 Patrick Loughran (18Jun1920/2) IRA, 28, General dealer, RC RVHB Loughran, from Dungannon, Tyrone, was in an IRA party which attempted to trick their way into the RIC Barracks in Cookstown, Tyrone. The twelve-strong garrison opened fire, severely wounding and capturing Loughran. He died at 15:30 after an abdominal operation. Buried Dungannon. His mother secured a £75 gratuity.141

19 JUNE 1920 James McVeigh (19Jun1920/1) 60, Married with three children, RC Long Tower Street, Derry McVeigh lived at 27 Walker’s Square, Derry. His three sons fought in the war, one dying in France. His was the first death in a renewed bout of sectarian killing in Derry. He was shot in the neck when walking with his son-in-law up Long Tower Street towards Bishop’s Gate, allegedly by a loyalist named

Rankin firing from Fountain Street. Carried on a shutter to the City Infirmary at 21:00, he was pronounced dead. Rankin, a gasworks plumber, was acquitted of murder on 3 December 1920. On 19 June Thomas Farren of Long Tower Street died about 23:45, shot at his front door. About the same time Orangemen, led by a former army sergeant, marched along London Street and Bishop Street firing shots. As he entered the Diamond Hotel, Edward Price received two abdominal wounds, dying within minutes. The same loyalist group killed Thomas McLaughlin, one of three men going to the quays to ship a horse to Scotland: when McLaughlin stopped to look around, he was wounded by a shot from Butcher Street, lined with armed men. A woman who went to his aid was wounded. Next day, James Doherty, also Catholic, was killed. A semblance of order was restored by Crown forces on the evening of 20 June, by which time five people had been killed by loyalists. The same claims were made by the Derry Journal, the Derry People and Donegal News and the Irish Independent. Over the next two days, four other men died in violent circumstances, and Catholics were driven from their homes in unionist-dominated districts. After the president of St Columb’s College asked the local IRA to take over the building lest it be destroyed by the UVF, this became the scene of intense gunfire. The IRA were forced to withdraw when troops of the Norfolk Regiment arrived by special train on 23 June at Foyle Road Station, a destroyer was stationed on the Foyle opposite the Guildhall, and martial law was declared in the city. By 9 July, twenty people had died.142 RD: Doherty (20Jun1920/1), Farren (19Jun 1920/2), McLaughlin (19Jun1920/4), Mallet (24Jun1920/5), Price (19Jun1920/3)143 Thomas Farren (19Jun1920/2) 27, Fowl dealer, RC Long Tower Street, Derry See McVeigh (19Jun1920/1). Farren, of 17 Long Tower Street, was disabled, having a short leg.144

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Edward Andrew Price (19Jun1920/3) 45, Protestant Diamond Hotel, Derry See McVeigh (19Jun1920/1) Price, a Canadian war veteran of the Ambulance Corps, visiting Derry to see his brother, stayed at the Diamond Hotel.145 He was an Orangeman (Loyal Orange Lodge 858). Buried Derry City Cemetery. In July a special meeting of the City of Derry Grand Lodge of the Orange Order passed a vote of sympathy to Price’s brother Albert, a merchant on Shipquay Street.146 Thomas McLaughlin (19Jun1920/4) RC Butcher Gate, Derry See McVeigh (19Jun1920/1). McLaughlin lived at 7 Thomas Street.147

20 JUNE 1920 James Doherty (20Jun1920/1) 32, French polisher, RC Long Tower Street, Derry See McVeigh (19Jun1920/1). Doherty lived at 12 Tyreconnell Street. He had been talking with Janie O’Kane at the door of the house where Thomas Farren was being waked at about 05:25, when she saw a woman on Fountain Street pointing them out to a young gunman. Doherty fell, shouting that he was wounded, and died within minutes. Another shot was fired before the police arrived.148

21 JUNE 1920 David Brennan (21Jun1920/1) IRA, Farrier, RC Drumcollogher, Limerick ‘Dave’ Brennan from Broadford, Limerick, second lieutenant Broadford Company, West Limerick Brigade, was trapped inside Drumcollogher courthouse after petrol ignited prematurely. Police later found his charred remains, and a considerable quantity of burned clothing nearby.149 Volunteer Pat Buckley died hours later, and Volunteer William Danaher the next day. On 21 October 1921, the remains of the three were reinterred in Killagholehane Cemetery, Broadford, Limerick. They are

commemorated on a monument in Newcastle West. His father secured a gratuity of £50, later increased to £75.150 RD: Buckley (21Jun1920/2), Danaher (22Jun 1920/2) Patrick Buckley (21Jun1920/2) IRA, RC Drumcollogher, Limerick See Brennan (21Jun1920/1). Buckley came from Drumcollogher.151 Howard McKay (21Jun1920/3) 33, Farmer, CoI Junction of Lone Moor Road & Letterkenny Road, Derry Howard, son of Marshall McKay, governor of the Apprentice Boys of Derry, was captured on the Letterkenny road at about 14:00 by an armed group who brought him into the showgrounds. The caretaker of the Foyle Hill Hospital intervened, shouting, ‘Do not shoot.’ He was assured the group only intended to scare their captive. McKay was searched and then led out of the show grounds. The youngest captor, perhaps only fourteen or fifteen years old, left last. The caretaker then heard a shot. McKay’s corpse lay face down in a water channel until almost 18:00, when a passing hearse was commandeered. The following month a special meeting of the City of Derry Grand Lodge of the Orange Order passed a vote of sympathy. McKay’s father secured £500 compensation.152 James Brett (21Jun1920/4) RIC (54026), 50, Farmer, Married with four children, RC Clonee Wood, Bantry, Cork From Waterford, Constable Brett joined the RIC on 10 October 1889, serving in Mayo and Kerry before transfer to Cork. The constable was well known, having served in Timoleague, Leap and Dunmanway, and Bantry for eight years. At around 19:15 Sergeant Driscoll and four constables from Bantry were cycling towards their barracks, after serving jury papers. Fired on by Volunteers of the 5th (Bantry) Battalion, Brett was killed and Driscoll slightly wounded in the head. The other

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police returned fire. DI John Regan recalled Brett as ‘a big, quiet, inoffensive policeman, known as the sugar king, as he had been responsible for sugar coupons during the war. I had never heard of his being active against the IRA in any way.’ Mossy Donegan stated that the RIC engaged in drunken reprisals in Bantry that night during which Cornelius Crowley, a disabled boy, was shot in bed. Houses were burned and a bomb was thrown into Donegan’s home. Press reports indicated that this in fact took place on 25 June. Two months later, Donegan had the policeman responsible for shooting Crowley, Constable Haugh, killed. Brett’s widow secured £4,500 compensation.153 SA: Crowley (25Jun1920/1), Haugh (25Aug 1920/1) John Gallagher (21Jun1920/5) 19, Apprentice shipyard riveter, RC City Infirmary, Derry Gallagher, of 8 Pennyburn Terrace, one of a family of thirteen, was described by the Derry Journal as ‘a sober boy’. His father told an inquest that his dying son had described being accosted by five civilians near Queen Street at around 23:30 as he returned from the Picture Palace with a companion. One ran after Gallagher and shot him twice in the stomach. He crawled to the Great James Street infirmary. Gallagher’s father secured £120 compensation.154

22 JUNE 1920 William O’Kane (22Jun1920/1) 25, Railway ganger, RC Duke Street, Derry O’Kane, of 38 Upper Violet Street, Waterside, was walking to work with Patrick McLoone at about 06:45 on Spencer Road when James Gray produced a revolver and ordered them to turn around, asking them, ‘What are you?’ McLoone asked if he meant occupation to which Gray replied, ‘You know well what I mean.’ When McLoone and O’Kane said they were Catholic, Gray fired but missed. As they ran towards the bridge, Gray fired another five rounds, hitting O’Kane. As he lay dying in a house on Duke Street, O’Kane told his brother

that he had been shot by ‘Gray of Benvarden, the fellow with the one arm’. Constable Clarke and Dr Stevenson also heard this. In total, six witnesses claimed Gray was responsible. On 2 December, a Belfast jury took just seventeen minutes to find Gray ‘not guilty’. Unionist witnesses gave alibi evidence.155 William Danaher (22Jun1920/2) IRA, Agricultural labourer, RC Newmarket, Cork See Brennan (21Jun1920/1). Danaher was from Broadford. Buried Killagholehane Cemetery, Broadford. His father secured a £75 gratuity.156 Patrick J. Plunkett (22Jun1920/3) Commercial traveller, Married with four children, RC Bishop Street, Derry A Dubliner, Plunkett lived in Belfast, and was the Northern Ireland representative of Planter’s Margarine Company, Manchester. While in Derry on business he lodged with Robert Kennedy at 45 Lower Bennett Street. He was killed by a sniper at about 20:30, having left a friend’s house to return to his lodgings nearby. The Derry Journal reported that he had sent his wife a telegram assuring her that he was safe. His corpse lay in the street for two days. Buried Milltown Cemetery.157 Patrick Hearty (22Jun1920/4) RIC (54232), 53, Farmer, RC Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin See Dunphy (19May1920/1). From Creggan, Armagh, Hearty joined the RIC on 24 February 1890, stationed in Ballinacurra RIC Barracks, Limerick. He was promoted to sergeant in 1908. Admitted to hospital on 20 May, Hearty died on 22 June of heart failure and bronchial pneumonia following gunshot wounds. Five family members shared compensation of £1,450.158

23 JUNE 1920 Peter Campbell (23Jun1920/1) Youth, RC Fish Lane, Derry Campbell, from Dungiven, Tyrone, was being rowed across the Foyle at around 14:15 with

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five others when hit in the head close to the landing stage by a bullet fired from the Waterside direction.159 William Rankin (23Jun1920/2) 56, Bricklayer, Married with children, CoI Workhouse Infirmary, Glendermott Road, Derry Rankin, of 6 Barrack Street, was shot in the chest by a sniper on Barrack Street shortly after leaving his father-in-law’s house to feed horses in the GNR stables, falling into the arms of Mary Pollock. He died at around 18:30.160 Margaret Mills (23Jun1920/3) Married, Presbyterian 30 Ferguson Street, Derry Margaret Mills of 6 Orchard Row, Derry, was shot in the chest by a sniper while walking along Ferguson Street during the evening. She died a few minutes later in Albert Duff ’s house.161

24 JUNE 1920 George Caldwell (24Jun1920/1) 13,162 Schoolboy, RC Nazareth House, Great James Street, Derry Caldwell, an orphan living in Nazareth House, run by the Sisters of Nazareth, died at about 13:15 in the dormitory, which faced Foyle Road, when hit by a stray bullet from a service rifle.163 Augustus Austin (24Jun1920/2) 27, Ex-serviceman, boot worker, Married with three children, RC Union Street, Waterside, Derry From Newcastle upon Tyne, Austin was a convert to Catholicism. He lived in a house on Cross Street owned by a Protestant who was warned by letter to evict the ‘turncoat’. Driven out by a mob, Austin and his family took refuge in the house of John Mulhern. At around 18:15 Austin and his brother-in-law ventured out to get food. He was shot through the heart by a sniper, possibly firing from Bond Street, at the corner of Union Street. His widow secured £750 compensation, with £250 for each of her three children.164

John McKinney (24Jun1920/3) 60, Labourer, Widowed, RC City Infirmary, Derry ‘Jack’ McKinney lived on Cross Street, Derry. A servant girl saw him walking along the otherwise deserted Clooney Terrace when shots rang out and he fell, wounded in the neck. Florence O’Sullivan went to his assistance. A priest administered the last rites.165 Robert McLaughlin (24Jun1920/4) 28, Barber, Married, RC Bishop Street, Derry Robert McLaughlin was shot while going to see if relatives were safe, a bullet passing through his neck and out through his eye. His body lay in Bishop Street for some hours.166 Patrick Mallet (24Jun1920/5) 25, Shipyard worker, RC City Infirmary, Derry See McVeigh (19Jun1920/1). Mallet lived at 14 Deanery Street. He was hit in the abdomen shortly after 23:00 on 19 June, when walking up Long Tower Street by a shot from the direction of Fountain Street.167

25 JUNE 1920 Cornelius Crowley (25Jun1920/1) 20, RC Barrack Road, Bantry, Cork ‘Con’ Crowley was brother of a prominent Sinn Féiner and a local councillor. Following the killing of Constable Brett, a series of raids were staged on the houses of Sinn Féiners in the early hours of 25 June. At around 01:30 four masked men rushed into the Crowley home. They shot the ‘deformed and delicate’ Con in his bedroom. Buried Abbey graveyard, Bantry.168 SA: Brett (21Jun1920/4) Michael Horan (25Jun1920/2) RIC (61494), 38, Farmer, RC Tipperary From Boyle, Roscommon, Horan joined the RIC on 22 November 1905, serving in Tyrone, Sligo and Tyrone again. He was stationed in Beragh village. He was shot dead while on temporary duty.169

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27 JUNE 1920

1 JULY 1920

Joseph McGlinchey (27Jun1920/1) 16, RC City Infirmary, Derry McGlinchey, son of James McGlinchey of 1 Nelson Street, commander of the Irish Volunteers in Derry, died of head wounds received when shot in the head on Long Tower Street around 05:15 on 21 June, possibly while attempting to remove a Union Jack from a lamp post. The shot came from the Fountain Street direction. McGlinchey’s father secured £150 compensation.170

Samuel Perrott (1Jul1920/1) RIC (54065), 39, Farmer, Married with six children, Methodist Donegall Pass RIC Barracks, Belfast From Bandon, Cork, Perrott joined the RIC on 25 October 1899, serving in Kerry and the RIC Reserve before transferring to Belfast in 1898. Promoted to detective-sergeant in 1911, in 1918 he became a head constable, serving in Galway until returning to Donegall Pass Barracks in Belfast. He was one of the city’s best-known policemen. The Irish News reported that Perrott was seriously injured by a stone on Utility Street when a crowd on Sandy Row confronted police. His widow secured £750 compensation.174

29 JUNE 1920 James Dobbyn (29Jun1920/1) 32, Carter, Married with one child, Protestant City Infirmary, Derry Dobbyn, of 7 York Street, was attacked by six men near the GNR station at 05:30 while on his way to work in what appeared to be a sectarian attack. At 06:10 the station nightwatchman heard moaning. He and two others found Dobbyn near the quayside, entirely covered in mud except for his head and one arm. They lifted him into a boat. He had a gunshot wound, a broken back and scalp wounds. He said he did not know his assailants, some of whom were masked, and to whom he had offered no provocation.171 Hugh McFeely and Robert Doyle, labourers from Bridge Street, were twice tried for this killing in Belfast. On each occasion the jury could not agree a verdict, and they were released in June 1921. Mrs Dobbyn gave birth in August but the baby only lived for six weeks, and she herself died in November. The guardian of Dobbyn’s eight-year-old daughter Lily Eileen Dobbyn secured £1,000 compensation.172

30 JUNE 1920 Eliza Moore (30Jun1920/1) 55, Married with children, Presbyterian Workhouse Infirmary, Glendermott Road, Derry Eliza Moore died from chest, neck and shoulder gunshot wounds received at around 07:30 on 24 June when she answered the door at 105 Bishop Street.173

Patrick Smyth (1Jul1920/2) Connaught Rangers, RC Jalandar, Punjab, India Private Smyth, who enlisted in 1914, was killed during unsuccessful attempts by mutineers led by Private James Daly (2Nov1920/4) to seize control of the armoury at Solon camp. Peter Sears also died. Soldiers in a detachment of the Connaught Rangers, stationed at Solon hill-station, refused to obey orders after news reached them on 29 June of a mutiny the previous day by other members of the battalion at Jullundur, about two hundred miles distant. They were outraged at accounts of British repression in Ireland which reached them via newspapers and letters. After negotiation, a chaplain persuaded them to surrender their unloaded weapons. At around midnight, James Daly, executed in November for his role, led about fifty men armed with sticks and bayonets towards the magazine. The men, some of whom had been drinking, were challenged by Lieutenant O’Brien, commanding a picket of troops, who fired revolver shots over their heads. One of these probably struck Smyth, said to be an unlucky onlooker: speaking in 1982, a comrade recalled ‘poor auld Smyth, he had nothing to do with it, he was away on a drunken tear and he only came back the night of the mutiny and he was at the back of the crowd and he

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was shot’. Private Sears, who rushed forward carrying a bayonet, refused to halt and was shot dead. His comrades then withdrew to their accommodation, where they were arrested next morning without incident. Despite evidence indicating that Smyth was a bystander accidentally killed, British authorities refused to pay compensation. His sister eventually received a small Irish pension under legislation passed in 1935. On 30 October 1970, the remains of Smyth, Sears and Daly were flown to Dublin. Smyth and Sears were reinterred next day in GC.175 RD: Sears (1Jul1920/3), Daly (2Nov1920/4) Peter Sears (1Jul1920/3) Connaught Rangers, 19, RC Jalandar, Punjab, India See Smyth (1Jul1920/2). Sears, who enlisted during the Great War, was from the Neale, Mayo. William Entwistle (1Jul1920/4) RMLI, 23 Castletownbere, Cork The CFR lists the death through an unexplained gunshot wound of Private Entwistle, of Sheffield, who enlisted in 1915. Buried St Finian’s Cemetery, Castletownbere.176

2 JULY 1920 Robert Tobin (2Jul1920/1) RIC (57569), 45, Married with six children, RC Newtown Cross, Dualla, Tipperary Tobin, a police sergeant’s son from Wexford, joined the RIC on 2 February 1896, serving in Dublin, Tipperary and Galway before returning to Tipperary in April 1903. Stationed in Ballinure, he was promoted to sergeant in 1918. Tommy O’Donovan led an attack on an RIC party at Newtown Cross, midway between Dualla and Ballinure. At around 16:30, the RIC party arrived at the crossroads, unexpectedly cycling in extended order. The first policeman challenged dismounted and shouted: ‘Don’t shoot.’ But Tobin and Constable Brady opened fire. O’Donovan and Burke killed Tobin and hit Brady, an ex-serviceman who despite severe abdominal wounds recovered Tobin’s revolver and haversack, which contained the

month’s pay for the Ballinure station, and escaped on his bicycle. He was later awarded the constabulary medal. Buried Killenaule, Tipperary. Tobin’s widow secured £4,600 compensation.177 SA: O’Donovan (31Oct1920/5)

4 JULY 1920 Richard Lumley (4Jul1920/1) 60, Labourer, RC Holycross, Tipperary ‘Dick’ Lumley from Cork lived in Rearcross, Tipperary. On 3 July he left work at the Abbey Hotel, Holycross, to attend the wake of Miss Anastasia Stakelum, a local publican. Standing by the bridge in the early hours of 4 July, he was riddled with bullets by a military party coming to the aid of Holycross RIC Barracks which the IRA had attacked. Jim Leahy, O/C Tipperary No. 2 Brigade, said that soldiers shot Lumley without warning. A Dublin Castle report asserted that he was in a group which had attacked Crown forces. Buried Holycross Abbey.178 Michael Small (4Jul1920/2) IRA, 33, Farmer, RC Shevry, Upperchurch, Thurles, Tipperary From Gortnacran, Borrisoleigh, Tipperary, Small was captain Borrisoleigh (C) Company, Tipperary No. 2 Brigade. He was in a section of Volunteers waiting in ambush for a police ration lorry. As the target did not arrive when expected, Small was permitted to return home to attend early Mass and milk his cows. He had not gone far when the lorry appeared. His comrades ignored instructions and opened fire prematurely. Small was spotted as he crossed a field and was shot dead. Buried Ileigh Churchyard, Borrisoleigh.179 Patrick Grant (4Jul1920/3) Farmer, RC Mullaghbawn, Armagh John Grant, captain Mullaghbawn Company, recalled the shooting dead of his cousin, Patrick, by the RIC: ‘His only offence . . . was the natural instinct to evade the danger of capture by a band of undisciplined ruffians wearing government uniform.’180

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5 JULY 1920 James Dunne (5Jul1920/1) 42, Miller, RC Ferns, Wexford Dunne,181 from Ballintray, Courtown Harbour, worked for D. V. Bolger, Milltown Mills, Ferns. He and James Deacon, a blacksmith, were in Thomas Dunbar’s pub. At about 21:45, Constable Henry Lenihan, newly arrived in Ferns, challenged Dunne to a fight. The latter told Lenihan to mind his own business. Lenihan apparently drew his revolver and fired two shots, one striking the ground and the other the ceiling. Dunne then left to avoid further trouble. Lenihan, nicknamed ‘the red [haired] policeman’, followed him. They fought. Lenihan was knocked down, got up, and fired four shots at Dunne. Lenihan was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to seven years penal servitude. Buried St Michael’s Cemetery, Gorey.182 James William Henry Parfitt183 (5Jul1920/2) Worcestershire Regiment (73326), 18, CoE KGVH From Pensnett, Staffordshire, Private Parfitt, stationed in Portobello Barracks, was accidentally shot by Private J. T. Webb. Buried St Mark’s Churchyard, Pensnett, Staffordshire.184

7 JULY 1920 Thomas Foster (7Jul1920/1) RIC (71433), Ex-serviceman, 31, Married, Protestant Foster, from London, joined the RIC in May 1920. He shot himself with his revolver in unknown circumstances. A jury concluded that he killed himself while ‘temporarily insane’.185

8 JULY 1920 Thomas Feery (8Jul1920/1) 60, Labourer, RC Ballycommon, Tullamore, Offaly Feery, originally from Westmeath, lived in Ballycommon. Sergeant Noel Greenfield, King’s (Shropshire Light Infantry), led a party searching for men who had earlier disarmed a soldier. He knocked at Feery’s

house and, hearing no answer, shot the lock off. He found Feery wounded inside. Buried Ballycommon Graveyard.186

9 JULY 1920 William John Penson-Harris (9Jul1920/1) RFA, 26, CoE Fermoy Military Hospital, Cork The CFR describes how Lance-Sergeant Penson-Harris inadvertently discharged a Very pistol while on patrol on 28 June, causing severe burns to his leg, leading to his eventual death from acute septicaemia. Buried St Andrew’s Churchyard, Great Rollright, Oxfordshire.187

c. 10 JULY 1920 Michael Kennedy188 (10Jul1920/1) IRA, Ex-serviceman, RC Barrington’s Hospital, Limerick From Bank Place, Nenagh, Tipperary, Kennedy served in 1st (Nenagh) Battalion, Tipperary No. 1 Brigade. During an attack on Borrisoleigh RIC Barracks around midnight on 26 June, Kennedy was detailed to break holes in the roof. He was hit in the leg by a shot from his own side. Dr Louis Courtney had him admitted to Barrington’s Hospital under the name ‘Gleeson’.189 Buried Kilbarron, Nenagh, Tipperary.190

11 JULY 1920 Alexander Will (11Jul1920/1) RIC (70974), 24, Agricultural labourer, exserviceman, Presbyterian Rathmore, Kerry From Forfar, Scotland, Will joined the RIC on 30 March 1920, stationed in Rathmore. Manus Moynihan, captain E (Rathmore) Company, recalled a surprise attack on Rathmore RIC Barracks. An ambitious scheme to refit an antique cannon was abandoned in favour of using a hod to drop a mine over the steel shutters that protected the barrack windows. The resulting explosion killed Will, but the garrison held out. Buried Aberdeen. Will was posthumously awarded the constabulary medal. His mother Jane secured £1,000 compensation.191

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Mary Anne Ward (11Jul1920/2) 61, Married with children, CoI Cat Fort, Cork The CFR records how, as Mary Anne Ward and her caretaker husband were forced from their accommodation in the decrepit barracks known as Cat Fort by an IRA party, she collapsed from heart failure. The raiders helped carry her to a nearby premises, but nothing could be done.192

12 JULY 1920 John Godfrey Stokes (12Jul1920/1) RIC (71609), 21, Ex-serviceman, RC Rearcross RIC Barracks, Tipperary From Newry, Down, Stokes served with the RIR in France and Belgium. On demobilisation, he joined the RIC on 31 May 1920, posted to Rearcross, Tipperary. He was the first defence of barracks sergeant killed by the IRA. A large IRA party mounted a sustained attack on Rearcross RIC Barracks, which had been well prepared under Stokes’s direction. He was shot dead as he attempted to close the door to the raiders. The attack ended at about 06:00: although the barracks was destroyed, the garrison held out in an adjacent building. Buried St Mary’s Old Chapel Cemetery, Newry.193

13 JULY 1920 John Dwyer (13Jul1920/1) 48, Caretaker, Married, RC Annesgrove, Drumbane, Tipperary Dwyer was caretaker for W. P. Hanly of Lanespark, Thurles. He was shot dead at his gate at about 06:00 after searching for his employer’s cattle.194 His ‘terrified wife and children, who were getting dressed at the time, ran out on hearing the shots but saw nobody’. Ellen Dwyer deposed that there had been trouble over an eviction. Her husband had received threatening letters, and people were warned not to associate with him. A newspaper report was headed ‘Terrible sequel to land agitation’. Éamon Ó Duibhir of Tipperary No. 3 Brigade later remarked: ‘If it were members of the IRA shot him, they did so without orders, and it simply meant that they were growing up with the notion that they could act on their own

and regardless of national direction.’ Hanly, unable to find a replacement caretaker, instead sold the lands.195 Michael Lenihan (13Jul1920/2) RIC (63592), 34, Clerk, RC Kilmore Cross, Dingle, Kerry From Cork, Lenihan joined the RIC on 4 January 1908, serving in Limerick and Tipperary before being posted to Dingle in 1919. DI Fallon, Lenihan and two other constables were ambushed at Kilmore Cross, where the road from Brandon formed a T-junction with the Tralee to Dingle road. When the police tender came abreast of the ambush site twelve Volunteers opened fire. Constables Lenihan and Roche were killed in the first volley. Fallon tried to run towards Brandon but was captured. The IRA carried off some Mills bombs, four rifles, a revolver and a quantity of ammunition. Buried MJC.196 RD: Roche (13Jul1920/3) George Roche (13Jul1920/3) RIC (62449), 32, Farmer, RC Kilmore Cross, Dingle, Kerry See Lenihan (13Jul1920/2). From Clare, Constable Roche joined the RIC on 18 March 1907, serving in Tipperary and from 1917 in Dingle. Buried Clare.197 Patrick Fahy (13Jul1920/4) RIC (69396), 25, Farmer, RC Foynes, Limerick From Rathmore, Galway, Fahy joined the RIC on 2 April 1918, stationed in Foynes. Constable Fahy, who had submitted his resignation, died from abdominal wounds at around 20:00, after a party of six RIC men were attacked at Loughill, between Glin and Foynes, by the West Limerick Brigade.198 When the police arrived in Foynes with their dying comrade they ran amok, firing shots throughout the village.199

14 JULY 1920 Martin Clarke (14Jul1920/1) RIC (64977), 31, RC Moneen, Roscommon, Roscommon From Cork, Clarke joined the RIC on 20 September 1909, stationed in Mount Talbot, Roscommon.

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Clarke was one of two constables who travelled from Lanesboro for duty at Roscommon Assizes on 11 July, as the tallest policemen in each barracks were required to form a guard of honour for the judge. Michael Ryan, O/C 3rd Battalion, Longford Brigade, said that ‘Kearney, the policeman in the Barracks, told me about them coming. . . . It was never intended to shoot them.’ When constables Clarke and Macken passed the house in which the IRA were sheltering, they were ordered to halt. But they cycled hard past the ambush position. The Volunteers fired. Clarke fell off his bicycle into the ditch. He encouraged Macken to ‘Let them have it’ till his ammunition ran out. Clarke died a few minutes later. Macken hid in a nearby house, where the IRA found him. He then grabbed a captor’s shotgun, which went off. Macken fell, feigned death, and later returned to Lanesboro. The IRA captured two rifles and ammunition. They hid the bicycles in the Shannon, recovering them later for use. Buried Ballygar, Galway.200

17 JULY 1920 Gerald Bryce Ferguson Smyth (17Jul1920/1) RIC, 34, Army officer, CoI Cork Club, South Mall, Cork Smyth, born in Dalhousie, Punjab, son of George Smyth of Milltown House, Banbridge, Down, was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Commissioned in the Royal Engineers on 29 July 1905, he fought in France, losing his left arm at Givenchy in September 1914. Promoted to captain, he fought at the Battle of the Somme and other major engagements, securing a DSO and Bar. In October 1918 he was promoted to temporary brigadier-general. He was wounded five times in total. In June 1920 the new police adviser General Tudor appointed him divisional police commissioner for Munster. On 19 June, Smyth infamously addressed police in Listowel, Kerry, prompting Constable Jeremiah Mee to place his revolver on the table and refuse to do his duty after Smyth had said:

You may make mistakes occasionally and innocent persons may be shot, but this cannot be helped and you are bound to get the right persons sometimes. The more you shoot, the better I will like you, and I assure you that no policeman will get into trouble for shooting any man.

Smyth had only just returned from explaining himself to the Irish Office in London when he was killed in the Cork County Club by Seán Culhane, Cork No. 1 Brigade. Buried Newry Road, Banbridge, Down. His funeral sparked violent attacks on nationalists in Banbridge, Dromore and Belfast. On 12 October his younger brother George died in a shootout with Dan Breen and Seán Treacy at ‘Fernside’ in Drumcondra, Dublin.201 SA: Mitchell (23Jul1920/1), Smyth (12Oct 1920/1), Treacy (14Oct1920/3) James F. Masterson (17Jul1920/2) RIC (62862), 35, Farmer, Married with two children, RC Sweep’s Cross, Newcastle West, Limerick From Leitrim, Constable Masterson joined the RIC on 2 September 1907, serving in Armagh, Galway, and Newcastle West, Limerick. Jeremiah Kiely recalled the killing of this ‘particularly obnoxious RIC man’, who died while travelling on leave to Galway by motor car. His driver staged a series of breakdowns to give members of the Newcastle West Battalion an opportunity to kill Masterson, who was in civilian clothes and unarmed. The driver was then tied to a tree to disguise his complicity. Reidy recalled trouble over this killing because it transpired that Masterson was an IRA intelligence source. The following night, police burned the Carnegie Library in Newcastle West and partially destroyed the creamery. Masterson’s widow Delia secured £4,249 compensation, of which £1,200 was for the benefit of her children.202

18 JULY 1920 James Burke (18Jul1920/1) 40, Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC North Main Street, Cork Burke worked in a chemical plant. The shooting of Divisional Commissioner Smyth

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on 17 July precipitated intense security activity. After Burke and two companions had a ‘drunken squabble’ with two off-duty officers, a detachment of soldiers attacked and bayoneted Burke on North Main Street. Troops turned out at 21:30 and several civilians, military and police were hurt in street clashes. John O’Brien, a Volunteer, was killed by machine-gun fire on King [now MacCurtain] Street while going to help a woman. Members of the Cork branch of the Demobilised Soldiers and Sailors Federation were among almost five thousand exservicemen and others in Burke’s funeral cortège to St Joseph’s Cemetery, Ballyphehane, Cork.203 RD: O’Brien (18Jul1920/2). SA: Smyth (17Jul1920/1) John P. O’Brien (18Jul1920/2) IRA, 18, Messenger, RC King [now MacCurtain] Street, Cork See Burke (18Jul1920/1). ‘Jackie’ O’Brien was an orphan living with his aunt at 8 Green Lane, Blackpool. A GS&WR messenger, he served in 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. Buried SFC, Cork.204

19 JULY 1920 James Burke (19Jul1920/1) RIC (66147), 28, RC Gallagh, Brownsgrove, Tuam, Galway From Limerick, Burke joined the RIC on 10 October 1911, serving in Roscommon, Clare and Kerry before transfer to Galway, stationed in Dunmore. Twenty Volunteers under Michael (Con) Fogarty, O/C North Galway Brigade, ambushed Dunmore police as they returned from the Galway Assizes. The police van stopped at a tree trunk blocking the road. Fogarty claimed that the police opened fire when called on to surrender, whereas the Irish Independent reported that constables Burke and Carey were mortally wounded when they left their vehicle to clear the obstruction. Burke, shot in the head, died instantly. Wounded in the chest, Carey

died on the roadside. Sergeant Beatty and Constable Brennan returned fire, but surrendered after about ten minutes. Blindfolded, they were ordered to walk back to Tuam. The Tuam RIC burned parts of the town in reprisal, and claims for damages amounting to almost £73,000 were subsequently lodged. The police believed that Michael Hoade, James Kirwin and William Walsh were involved in this ambush. All three were killed while supposedly evading arrest in January 1921. Buried Clonoghill Cemetery, Birr, Offaly.205 RD: Carey (19Jul1920/2). SA: Hoade (22Jan1921/7), Kirwin (22Jan1921/6), Walsh (22Jan1921/5) Patrick Carey (19Jul1920/2) RIC (66045), 29, Farmer, RC Gallagh, Brownsgrove, Tuam, Galway See Burke (19Jul1920/1). From Skibbereen, Cork, Carey joined the RIC on 17 July 1911, stationed in Dunmore, Galway. Buried Caheragh, Skibbereen.206

c. 19 JULY 1920 Thomas Hannon207 (19Jul1920/3) RIC,208 37, RIC pensioner, farmer, Married with five children, RC Ballyduff, Philipstown [Daingean], Offaly Hannon, from Offaly, was a postman before joining the RIC on 15 December 1905 (No. 61547), stationed in Meath. He resigned in 1915 to run a farm. He became a special constable in 1916, stationed in Clonbulloge. Hannon left the barracks alone at about 10:30, unarmed and in civilian clothes. He never returned; searches proved fruitless. His bicycle and overcoat were found on the roadside. He was held captive for some time before being shot. Among his killers were Charles Mallin, Michael Fennelly and John Hickey of the Offaly No. 1 Brigade. It was alleged that Crown forces killed Thomas McKeever in reprisal. A year later Hannon’s badly decomposed body was found in a bog at Ballyduff. His hands bound and a sack tied

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around his neck, he had been shot in the head.209 SA: McKeever (20May1921/2)

21 JULY 1920 James Osmund Airy (21Jul1920/1) Manchester Regiment, 36, Army officer, Married, Protestant Ballyvourney, Cork Airy, from Birmingham, was educated at Repton School and Sandhurst. One BMH witness claimed that Airy had just come to Macroom from Fermoy, where ‘a short time previous [sic] he had criminally assaulted a girl coming home from school . . . the authorities were of the opinion that he had been killed . . . by the Fermoy IRA for that offence’. At Coolavokig, about four miles outside Macroom, a rations lorry carrying Airy and eight other soldiers was ambushed by about thirty Volunteers who had lain in position for three days. Firing from both sides of the road, they wounded four soldiers, among them Airy and Private E. F. Barlow (64159). Driver Ball, although also wounded, was able to bring the lorry through the ambush while soldiers returned fire. Although its fuel tank was pierced by a bullet and ran dry outside the village, the lorry was recovered by the military. Airy died at 18:00 from abdominal wounds.210 Private Barlow succumbed to his wounds on 2 August. Buried Cork Military Cemetery. His widow Gladys Maud secured £7,000 compensation.211 RD: Barlow (2Aug1920/1) Michael Conway (21Jul1920/2) IRA, 22, Baker, RC Ennistymon, Clare Conway lived with his parents in Caherlohan near Ennistymon. He had reportedly booked a passage to the US. At about 22:30, Conway was among about a dozen young men who attempted to disarm two officers. One was knocked to the ground but recovered, and both officers then fired. Conway was shot through the back of the head and killed outright. James McMahon was wounded. Conway’s brother, an Oblate Father home

on holiday, gave him the last rites. Buried Killilagh, Clare.212 Thomas McDonnell (21Jul1920/3) IRA, 27, Agricultural labourer, RC Corracunna Cross, Mitchelstown, Cork Police claimed that at about 22:30 a lorry containing soldiers was fired at by a party of men with five girls at Corracunna Cross, outside Mitchelstown. The military replied, killing McDonnell, shot through the neck and spine, and Dan McGrath, shot through the head. The Cork Examiner gave a very different account: unarmed young people were amusing themselves with dancing and cards when attacked by the military, who drove off after firing about fifty shots. Buried Glanworth, Cork.213 RD: McGrath (21Jul1920/4) Daniel McGrath (21Jul1920/4) IRA, 18, Agricultural labourer, RC Corracunna Cross, Mitchelstown, Cork See McDonnell (21Jul1920/3). Buried Kilbehenny, Limerick.214 Francis Finnegan (21Jul1920/5) 40, Foundry worker, RC Kashmir Road, Belfast Finnegan, of Lower Clonard Road, Belfast, worked in Travers’ Foundry. There were widespread disturbances in Belfast during July, fuelled by press coverage of increasing IRA violence in Munster and Connacht and the killing in Cork city of G. B. F. Smyth, police commissioner for Munster. In reaction to the mass expulsion of Catholic shipyard workers, and widespread attacks on Catholic property (particularly pubs), trams taking Protestant workers home were attacked by crowds throwing paving stones in Cromac Street. Loyalists then gathered in the Donegall Pass area and a riot ensued. As darkness fell there was intermittent gunfire. Further disturbances broke out across Belfast. Finnegan was killed on Kashmir Road by a ricochet after troops fired. The military claimed that they were responding to sniping. Buried Milltown Cemetery.215 RD: Devlin (21Jul1920/7), Noade (21Jul 1920/6). SA: Smyth (17Jul1920/1)

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Margaret Noade (21Jul1920/6) 27, Married, RC Bond Street, Belfast See Finnegan (21Jul1920/5). ‘Maggie’ Noade, of 3 Anderson Street, was fatally wounded when a policeman stumbled, accidentally discharging his revolver. Buried Milltown Cemetery.216 Bernard Devlin (21Jul1920/7) 18, Ex-serviceman, RC MIHB See Finnegan (21Jul1920/5). Devlin, of 39 Alexandra Street, was reportedly returning from a greyhound race meeting. Buried Milltown Cemetery.217 Thomas Robert Armstrong (21Jul1920/8) RIC (53611), 56, Farmer, Married with eleven children, Presbyterian Ballina, Mayo From Cavan, Armstrong joined the RIC on 13 February 1889, posted to Galway. He was transferred to Ballina in 1898. Sergeant Armstrong and three constables were returning to barracks at 23:35 when challenged by an IRA group which had intended to disarm them. Constable Barnes opened fire. The Volunteers responded, killing Armstrong and wounding Constable Regan. Buried Protestant cemetery, Ballina. His widow secured £4,500 compensation.218

22 JULY 1920 James (Séamus) Cogan (22Jul1920/1) IRA, 26, Farmer, RC Oldcastle, Meath Cogan, O/C 5th (Stonefield) Battalion, Meath Brigade, lived in Clonsilla. He and others arrested John Farrelly, a suspected cattle thief. In the early hours, their commandeered motor car ran into a military checkpoint. A short exchange of firing ensued. Cogan, hit in the head, died instantly. Although wounded in the hand, the driver managed to retain control for a short distance before the car ran into a field. Harry Sheridan and the prisoner Farrelly were also wounded. The military later found Cogan’s body in a nearby house. A Dáil publication instanced Cogan’s death and the release of his prisoner as evidence of

an unholy British alliance ‘with the criminal classes’, a ‘nihilist expedient for destroying law and order’.219 Buried Ballinlough.220 Henry Hennessy (22Jul1920/2) 48, Factory hand, RC Kashmir Road, Belfast Rioting resumed in Belfast. Six Catholics and four Protestants were killed. Hennessy, of 22 Ardilea Street, died as he returned from work at Mackies Foundry. A loyalist sniper was thought responsible. The military claimed that Clonard Monastery was being used by snipers. Father Michael Morgan was walking along a corridor at around 18:15 when struck in the throat by a bullet from a Lewis gun. At about 18:30, John Downey was shot dead after leaving home to visit his sister on Kashmir Road. In the vicinity of Cupar Street, Alexander McGovan, William Godfrey and William Dunning were killed at around 19:00. As James Conn went to help lift Dunning’s body, a soldier shot him. Machine-gun fire killed Thomas Robinson at the corner of Kashmir Road and fatally wounded Joseph Giles on Bombay Street. John Joseph McCartney, wounded on Kashmir Road, died two days later.221 RD: Conn (22Jul1920/7), Downey (22Jul 1920/4), Dunning (22Jul1920/9), Giles (22Jul 1920/12), Godfrey (22Jul1920/11), McCartney (24Jul1920/2), McGovan (22Jul1920/10), Morgan (22Jul1920/8), Robinson (22Jul 1920/6) William John Sterritt (22Jul1920/3) 18, Presbyterian Banbridge, Down During rioting in Banbridge, a crowd beset the home of Daniel Monaghan, a prominent Sinn Féiner. He and his sons James and Donald fired at the attackers. Minnie Shields, aged about twenty, was wounded in the shoulder. Sterritt was shot in the head. The three Monaghans were arrested after a two-hour siege. Their premises was wrecked, and some pubs looted. The Monaghans were later acquitted of discharging firearms endangering military and police, but fined for possessing firearms and ammunition.222

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John Downey223 (22Jul1920/4) 20, RC Kashmir Road, Belfast See Hennessy (22Jul1920/2). Buried Milltown Cemetery.224 James Stewart (22Jul1920/5) 18, Apprentice engineer, Protestant Newtownards Road, Belfast Stewart, from Clydebank, Scotland, was staying with relatives on Frome Street. He was shot dead while walking down the Newtownards Road with his cousin. Nellie McGregor and John Doyle were fatally wounded.225 RD: Doyle (10Aug1920/2), McGregor (25Jul 1920/4) Thomas Robinson (22Jul1920/6) 33, Married, RC Kashmir Road, Belfast See Hennessy (22Jul1920/2). Robinson and his wife Catherine lived at 6 Kane Street. Hit in the head at the corner of Clonard Gardens and Kashmir Road by fire from a military Lewis gun, he died quickly. Buried Milltown Cemetery.226 James Albert Conn (22Jul1920/7) 33, Married, CoI Cupar Street, Belfast See Hennessy (22Jul1920/2). Conn and his wife Agnes lived at 47 James Street. He was killed by the military.227 Michael Morgan (22Jul1920/8) 28, Clergyman, RC Clonard Monastery, Clonard Gardens, Belfast See Hennessy (22Jul1920/2). Morgan, a Redemptorist monk, was a son of James Morgan of Drumavaddy, Cavan. He had lived in Clonard Monastery since 1919.228 William Dunning (22Jul1920/9) 23, Ex-serviceman, Married, Methodist Cupar Street, Belfast See Hennessy (22Jul1920/2). Dunning, once of the RIR, of 76 Bellevue Street, was shot by the military at the junction of Kashmir Road and Cupar Street.229

Alexander McGovan230 (22Jul1920/10) 25, Married, Protestant Bombay Street, Belfast See Hennessy (22Jul1920/2). McGovan and his wife Mary lived at 5 Tralee Street. Buried Belfast City Cemetery.231 William Godfrey (22Jul1920/11) 46, Widowed, Protestant Cupar Street, Belfast See Hennessy (22Jul1920/2). Godfrey lived on Argyle Street.232 Joseph Giles (22Jul1920/12) 19, Ex-serviceman, RC Bombay Street, Belfast See Hennessy (22Jul1920/2). Giles lived at 11 Kashmir Road. Buried Milltown Cemetery.233 Albert McAuley (22Jul1920/13) 19, RC Eliza Street, Belfast A well-known greyhound trainer, McAuley, from Stanfield Street, was standing in Eliza Street when shot after troops fired on stone-throwing youths. Buried Milltown Cemetery.234

23 JULY 1920 Wesley Mitchell (23Jul1920/1) 30, CoI Dromore, Down When a police patrol discharged their revolvers to disperse a crowd of rioters attacking Catholic homes, Mitchell was shot dead.235 SA: Smyth (17Jul1920/1) William McCune (23Jul1920/2) 39, Ex-serviceman, Protestant Newtownards Road, Belfast McCune, of 22 Clonallen Street, who had spent sixteen years in the army, was shot when soldiers guarding the convent of the Sisters of the Cross and Passion opened fire on a crowd attempting to burn down the building. At least twelve people were wounded, three fatally.236 RD: Houston (12Aug1920/1), Weston (23Jul 1920/3)

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Mary Ann Weston (23Jul1920/3) 29, Mill worker, Presbyterian RVHB See McCune (23Jul1920/2). Mary Ann Weston of 24 Welland Street was carried into her neighbour Andrew Kirkland’s house at about 22:20, shot in the back.237

Charles Burdett Yates (24Jul1920/3) RMLI, 24 Ballyvaughan Coastguard Station, Clare Corporal Cleaver, from Coventry, enlisted in 1914. He was murdered by Private Helmore, who was sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment, in February 1921. Buried Coventry.241

William McGrath (23Jul1920/4) 30, Ex-serviceman, dockyard labourer, Married with three children, RC Mercy Hospital, Cork McGrath, who had lost part of one hand serving in the Leinster Regiment, lived at 12 Coach Street. His youngest child was only a few days old. On 18 July, he was shot for no reason from a military vehicle near North Gate Bridge, Cork. His widow secured £1,500 compensation, and each of his children £300.238

John Crowley (24Jul1920/4) Ex-serviceman, RC Vicinity of Bandon, Cork The CFR states that Crowley, of Lissagroom near Upton, was kidnapped by the IRA on 10 July, executed by the Knockavilla company of the Bandon Battalion, Cork No. 3 Brigade, on 24 July, and his remains concealed. He was alleged to have given information concerning the Upton ambush while under interrogation.242

24 JULY 1920

25 JULY 1920

Daniel McGee (24Jul1920/1) 34, Body-maker, RC Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin McGee, of 20 Inchicore Road, was cycling eastwards along Victoria Quay during the afternoon when struck by a military motor car travelling westwards. The vehicle was carrying Sir Warren Fisher, permanent secretary to the Treasury, and his colleague Sir Malcolm Ramsay, in Dublin to discuss the reform of Dublin Castle. They drove McGee to Dr Steevens’ Hospital, where he was pronounced dead from head injuries. On 26 July Fisher and Ramsay told an inquest that the vehicle was travelling at a moderate speed, that there was plenty of road space, and that before the collision the cyclist’s front wheel appeared to get stuck in a tramline as he pulled out to pass a parked vehicle, making a collision unavoidable.239

William Mulhern243 (25Jul1920/1) RIC (61051), 39, Farmer, Married with two children, RC Bandon, Cork From Knockmore, Mayo, Mulhern joined the RIC on 15 October 1902. He served twice in Limerick, in Roscommon, in Monaghan, in the RIC Reserve, and in Cork. Promoted to detective-sergeant in 1913, he had been stationed in Bandon for a few months. Mulhern, chief RIC intelligence officer for west Cork, had received several threatening letters, and had survived one assassination attempt in March. The IRA shot him at 08:30 in the porch of the Catholic Church. Mulhern, anticipating assassination, had arranged to be buried in Skibbereen. His widow secured £2,000 compensation, his two children £1,800 each and his mother £100.244 RD: Maddox (27Jul1920/1)

John Joseph McCartney (24Jul1920/2) 36, Painter, Married with one child, RC RVHB See Hennessy (22Jul1920/2). McCartney, of 41 Lucknow Street, was shot by the military on Kashmir Road. Buried Milltown Cemetery.240

Charles Brown (25Jul1920/2) HM Coastguard (166914), 44, Married, Protestant Ballycrovane Coastguard Station, Eyeries, Cork Brown, a coastguardsman (Grade 2) from Dover, was stationed in Ballycrovane, Cork. An IRA party under Liam O’Dwyer attacked

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the station. Entering on the ground floor, O’Dwyer ordered Petty Officer Brown to put his hands up. Brown’s wife Caroline begged him not to fight but he reached for his revolver. Chief Officer Snewin then opened fire. A fight ensued which ended when O’Dwyer killed both coastguards – his dramatic account of these killings contrasts with his silence about his role in the execution in March 1921 of Brigid Noble. The remaining eight coastguards surrendered. The IRA captured seven thousand rounds of ammunition, twelve rifles, six Webley revolvers and various stores. Buried Linthorpe Cemetery, Middlesbrough (D. U. 4819). His widow secured £4,000 compensation.245 RD: Snewin (25Jul1920/3). SA: Noble (15Mar 1921/8) Philip Snewin (25Jul1920/3) HM Coastguard, 51, Married with children Ballycrovane Coastguard Station, Eyeries, Cork See Brown (25Jul1920/2). Chief Officer Snewin joined in 1885. Buried Scarborough.246 Nellie McGregor247 (25Jul1920/4) 20, Presbyterian RVHB See Stewart (22Jul1920/5). Nellie McGregor of 30 Frome Street was walking on the Newtownards Road between 21:30 and 22:30 on 23 July when hit by a shot from a military lorry on Bryson Street. She died at 21:10.248

26 JULY 1920 David Dunbar (26Jul1920/1) 20, Ex-serviceman, taxi driver, Methodist Northumberland Street, Belfast Dunbar, of 64 Silvio Street, severely wounded in France, was invalided out, becoming an Ulster Taxicab Company driver. He was returning to the garage at about 03:00 when challenged by a military patrol. Engine noise may have prevented him from hearing this. He drove on, but had to halt at a barbed-wire barricade. A machine-gunner shot him dead. Military witnesses claimed he had attempted to run away when challenged, but his brother stated that, as a result of his injuries, he could hardly walk, let alone run.249

27 JULY 1920 Thomas Maddox (27Jul1920/1) Essex Regiment (52203), 29, Married with children Bandon, Cork Maddox, a war veteran, was a lance-corporal in D Company, stationed in Cork. Following the killing of Detective-Sergeant William Mulhern on 25 July, the IRA put a guard on the home of Seán Buckley, intelligence officer Cork No. 3 Brigade. At 00:30, Michael Doyle and John Coveney fired on Maddox and Major A. E. Percival as these approached stealthily, possibly intending to capture or kill Buckley. Percival recalled how ‘a shot rang out’ in the darkness: Maddox ‘fell dead, shot through the head by a fellow with a shot-gun loaded with slugs’. Buried Chiswick Old Cemetery, London. His widow secured £2,000 compensation.250 SA: Mulhern (25Jul1920/1)

28 JULY 1920 James Murray (28Jul1920/1) RIC (69939), 26, Ex-serviceman, RC Clonakilty, Cork From Laois, Murray served with the Irish Guards before joining the RIC on 4 November 1919, posted to Clonakilty. James (‘Spud’) Murphy said the IRA decided to assassinate the constable after he fired on two unarmed civilians. At 22:10 on 27 July, Murray was shot in the head by Murphy and three other Volunteers as he entered Fitzgerald’s grocery shop on Main Street. He died at 02:00. Buried Stradbally, Laois. His mother secured £800 compensation and his sister £200.251 William Henry Ridgeway252 (28Jul1920/2) East Lancashire Regiment (53975), 18, Methodist Ballymullen Barracks, Tralee, Kerry Private Ridgeway, from Macclesfield, Cheshire, was examining a hand grenade in the square of Ballymullen Barracks at about 18:00 when it exploded. Buried St Peter’s Churchyard, Prestbury, Macclesfield, Cheshire (3. 12).253

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29 JULY 1920 Walter Oakley (29Jul1920/1) RIC (71636), 20, Ex-serviceman Military Hospital, New Barracks, Limerick A former Royal Marine, Oakley, from Essex, joined the RIC on 11 June 1920, stationed in Limerick. At about 16:30 on 24 July, constables Oakley, Albert Jones and William Jones were returning to Frederick Street Barracks when they were rushed by ten men in a laneway. These fired at point-blank range. Oakley and William Jones were wounded, and a bullet apparently glanced off the clasp of Albert Jones’s braces. This attack was carried out by a party of E Company, 2nd (Limerick City) Battalion, Mid Limerick Brigade, under William Barrett. Oakley died from kidney wounds. Two ex-servicemen were later tried in Dublin for Oakley’s murder and acquitted. On their return to Limerick in two parties they were held up by masked men, believed to be police. Michael Blake, a brother of Patrick Blake, who had stood trial, and James O’Neill, the second man tried, were killed. Buried West Ham, London.254 SA: Blake (20Nov1920/1), O’Neill (20Nov 1920/2) Patrick Duggan (29Jul1920/2) 10, Schoolboy, RC Bruree, Limerick A patrol of ten soldiers and two police cycling from Bruree to Kilmallock was ambushed by the newly formed East Limerick Brigade ASU under O/C Donnchadh O’Hannigan. One of the patrol, Private Rodgers, was mortally wounded. O’Hannigan could not press home the attack for fear of wounding an elderly couple in whose house the patrol barricaded themselves. Rodgers died on 4 August. The mixed patrol returned to Bruree, carrying out reprisals leading to two deaths. Patrick, a labourer’s son, was killed by a ricochet while entering the back lane to his house.255 Thomas Harris, an epileptic, was having supper when soldiers entered his home and shot him. An official report claimed that both deaths were caused by crossfire. Houses were also attacked and looted.

At Patrick’s funeral at Athlacca near Kilmallock, four schoolmates shouldered his coffin barefoot to his grave.256 RD: Harris (29Jul1920/3), Rodgers (4Aug 1920/2) Thomas Harris (29Jul1920/3) 33, Boxmaker, RC Bruree, Limerick See Duggan (29Jul1920/2). Buried Bruree.257

30 JULY 1920 Francis H. Brooke (30Jul1920/1) 69, Ex-serviceman, businessman, Married with three children, CoI Westland Row Railway Station, Dublin ‘Frank’ Brooke was a prominent businessman, and chairman of the Dublin and SouthEastern Railway Company. From Fermanagh, between 1865 and 1877 he was a Royal Navy officer. As an Irish Privy Councillor, he was a signatory of the order proclaiming Dáil Éireann illegal. He was a member of the viceroy’s advisory council established in 1919, and a close friend of the lord lieutenant Lord French, who termed his death ‘a terrible tragedy. . . . He was one of the shining lights of the Irish Turf.’ Arthur Tennison Cotton described how he was talking with Brooke in his office on the upper floor of Westland Row Station when men burst in and fired a volley of shots, hitting Brooke. They left, but one returned, firing more shots at Brooke. Cotton hid under a table and was unharmed. A postmortem examination revealed that Brooke received five bullet wounds. He normally had police protection, but had sent away the detective. According to Paddy Daly, O/C the Squad, ‘there were no definite plans made to shoot him [Brooke]. Tom Keogh† and some other members of the Squad happened to come across him and took advantage of the opportunity to eliminate him’, but it is more likely that the killing of so prominent a figure was planned: what else would bring a group of specialist gunmen upstairs in a railway station? Peter Hart termed Brooke’s killing the ‘only outright political assassination’ of the War of Independence. Buried Shillelagh

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Cemetery, Wicklow. His widow secured £9,500 compensation.258 Daniel Verey Bayliss (30Jul1920/2) Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (27862), 18 Oola, Limerick Bayliss, from Oxford, enlisted in the 43rd band as a boy in 1916. A private in A Company, he was part of the escort for the daily police mail run between Limerick and Cork. The Crossley tender had halted at Pallasgreen RIC Barracks to pick up General Lucas, who had escaped after a month in IRA captivity. No. 1 ASU, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, ambushed the tender at Oola on the Tipperary to Limerick road (intelligence for this operation was collated by the 4th Battalion’s intelligence officer, James Moloney, EOH’s grandfather). The road was blocked by carts and ‘about 50 Sinn Feiners’ opened fire from behind a wall. Privates Bayliss and Parker were killed before the IRA withdrew. Buried Rose Hill Cemetery, Oxford (I. 1. 37). His mother Minnie secured £240 compensation.259 RD: Parker (30Jul1920/3) George B. Parker (30Jul1920/3) Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (47297), 20 Oola, Limerick See Bayliss (30Jul1920/2). Lance-Corporal Parker of A Company had served in Mesopotamia and north Russia. Buried High Wycombe Cemetery (Grave 158). His mother Daisy secured £240 compensation.260 John O’Sullivan (30Jul1920/4) Watchman, Married with six children, RC Barrington’s Hospital, Limerick O’Sullivan, from Thomondgate, lived on Davis Street, Limerick. He was badly injured at 01:50 on 21 July when the adjacent building, home of Volunteer Michael Hartney, was blown up in an unofficial reprisal following the death of G. B. F. Smyth, in whose death Hartney was wrongly believed to have been involved. Pulled from the debris, O’Sullivan died at 21:00.261 SA: Smyth (17Jul1920/1)

31 JULY 1920 John Ahern (31Jul1920/1) 45, Ex-serviceman, RC Cork At around 09:00 Ahern, a brain-damaged veteran living with his mother and sister in Coole East, Whites Cross, Cork, walked into an ambush on a military mail escort. A bullet severed his femoral artery.262 James Mulcahy (31Jul1920/2) 41, Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC Nicker, Pallasgreen, Limerick Mulcahy, of Nicker, spent nineteen years in the RFA. He was one of four men fired on as they fled from a military raid on Gleeson’s pub, allegedly for failing to halt. An RIC report stated that Mulcahy was deaf from his artillery service and so would not have heard any such command.263

c. JULY 1920 Unknown Crowley (Jul1920/1) Ex-serviceman Vicinity of Bandon, Cork Frank Neville recalled the execution of Crowley, who had allegedly informed on members of the IRA party which had ambushed RIC men Cornelius Crean and Patrick McGoldrick. He had apparently received £20 for this information.264 SA: Crean (25Apr1920/1), McGoldrick (25Apr1920/2)

1 AUGUST 1920 Patrick Daly (1Aug1920/1) 22, Agricultural labourer, RC Clonmore, Dromcollogher, Limerick Daniel Doody recalled a would-be informer named Daly:

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Fancying himself badly treated . . . over wages, he wrote a letter of complaint to the DI and said in it he could give information. . . . That he was a spy was discovered by chance when an ex-army man, Ryan, was given a letter from Daly by mistake. . . . Daly was offering to give the names of all the IRA company captains in the district and of those who had taken part in the attack on Kilmallock Barracks.

1920

Patrick Ahern gave an alternative version, saying he found Daly’s letter requesting £500 for information when he raided Newcastle West Post Office. Doody acted as IRA court martial defence counsel for Daly, arguing that being young he had not realised the seriousness of his actions. But Daly’s intercepted letter had stated: ‘If this is found out I won’t live twentyfour hours.’ Father Thomas Wall, curate in Broadford, heard Daly’s confession before he was shot. At about 08:30 on 1 August, Daly’s body was found, shot in the head, near Drumcollogher by a youth taking milk to the creamery. An attached label read: ‘Spy’. His pockets contained an ITGWU membership card.265

2 AUGUST 1920 Ernest F. Barlow266 (2Aug1920/1) Manchester Regiment (64159), 26, Fireman CMHC See Airy (21Jul1920/1). From Oldham, Private Barlow enlisted in April 1918. Buried Crompton Cemetery, Shaw (Church. 8418).267

4 AUGUST 1920 J. Connelly268 (4Aug1920/1) Royal Scots (65529) Kilmihil, Clare Private Connelly accidentally shot himself with a revolver while on duty. Buried Shanakyle Graveyard, Kilrush, Clare.269 William R. Rodgers (4Aug1920/2) MGC (Infantry) (189230), 17 Barrington’s Hospital, Limerick See Duggan (29Jul1920/2). Buried Yardley Cemetery, Birmingham (C. 24989). His mother Emily secured £240 compensation.270 Alfred George Stonnell (4Aug1920/3) Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Union Workhouse, Limerick Private Stonnell, who had war service in Mesopotamia, picked up another soldier’s loaded rifle, which discharged. He died instantly of head wounds. Buried King’s Island Military Cemetery, Limerick (Grave 91).271

5 AUGUST 1920 H. C. J. Jerrum (5Aug1920/1) Hampshire Regiment, 20 CMHC Private Jerrum, from Southsea, Hampshire, was accidentally shot by a sentry. Buried Kingston Cemetery, Portsmouth.272

7 AUGUST 1920 Ernest S. Watkins (7Aug1920/1) RIC (71756), 29, Engineer, ex-serviceman, Married Military Hospital, Fermoy, Cork Watkins, from Monmouth, immigrated to Canada, where he enlisted in 1914. He joined the RIC on 29 June 1920, serving in Limerick before transfer to Kildorrery, Cork. Constable Watkins was in a six-member RIC foot patrol ambushed near Kildorrery by the ASU East Limerick Brigade. All six policemen were hit. Two wounded policemen were captured and then released. Donnchadh O’Hannigan maintained that these retraced their steps months later and killed Denis O’Donnell. Watkins later died in Fermoy Military Hospital – one Volunteer made the colourful claim that he got drunk and tore off his bandages, causing his own death. His widow Elizabeth Jessie secured £2,850 compensation.273 SA: O’Donnell (24Nov1920/5)

8 AUGUST 1920 William Alfred Bricknell (8Aug1920/1) 15th (The King’s) Hussars (52233), 18 Workhouse, Dunshaughlin, Meath Lance-Corporal Bricknell, from Oxford, accidentally shot himself in the chest when he poked at tufts of briars with his rifle butt while hunting for rabbits in the workhouse grounds. Buried Rose Hill Cemetery, Oxford (A3. 302).274

9 AUGUST 1920 Charles Leonard Burke (9Aug1920/1) The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 21, RC Ebrington Barracks, Derry Private Burke, son of Albert Edward and Ada Grace Burke of Westminster, London, was

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‘skylarking’ with Private Mattia. Burke challenged Mattia to ‘pull the trigger’ of an empty rifle. Mattia shot his friend in the forehead. Lance-Corporal Andrews, responsible for ensuring that weapons were unloaded, was arrested. Buried All Saints Cemetery, Nunhead, London (Screen Wall. 40. 25979).275

hounds’, was walking with another man near Keating’s Cross around 20:00 when a cyclist passed who had failed to halt for a police patrol nearby. The patrol fired one shot, hitting Hartnett in the chest. The fugitive dismounted and escaped.282

Matthew Park (9Aug1920/2) 7, Schoolboy, Protestant Belfast On 14 August, an inquest jury found that Matthew Park, of 60 Lawther Street, accidentally shot himself with his stepfather’s revolver.276

Reginald Radcliffe (11Aug1920/1) 57, Grazier, Married with two children, CoI Hurdlestown, Kells, Meath Mary Kelly, a governess, described how on 12 August, between 22:00 and 23:00, six or seven masked men came to Radcliffe’s home seeking weapons. Radcliffe collapsed in the hall and died. Buried Martry Cemetery, Kells. His widow secured £3,000 compensation, and his two children £1,000 each.283

10 AUGUST 1920 Thomas Farrelly277 (10Aug1920/1) 20,278 Van driver, RC Mary’s Lane, Dublin Farrelly lived with his widowed mother and sister at 30 Mary’s Lane. During the night of 9 August bonfires were lit to celebrate the anticipated arrival of Daniel Mannix, the Cork-born Catholic archbishop of Melbourne and advocate of Irish independence. A crowd around a dying bonfire at the junction of Greek Street and Mary’s Lane was singing songs; around 01:00 a curfew patrol ordered them to disperse, afterwards firing five rounds. Farrelly, reportedly running towards his house, was hit in the chest and killed outright, while Thomas Clarke was wounded. Several civilians stated that the patrol had not been seen because the street lamps had been extinguished, and that soldiers fired without warning. Buried GC.279 John Doyle280 (10Aug1920/2) 24, Labourer, CoI RVHB See Stewart (22Jul1920/5). Doyle, of 11 Prim Street, was wounded by the military on 22 July.281 William Hartnett (10Aug1920/3) 55, Labourer, Widowed with children, RC Emly, Tipperary Hartnett, an inoffensive widower with a large family living near Emly railway station, ‘in charge of the deer van of the Black and Tan

11 AUGUST 1920

12 AUGUST 1920 Susan Houston (12Aug1920/1) 15, Presbyterian RVHB284 See McCune (23Jul1920/2). Susan died at 07:30, from head wounds received on 23 July.285

14 AUGUST 1920 A. E. Nunn (14Aug1920/1) MGC (Infantry) (185267), 20, Protestant Drominagh, Derrinagree, Cork Private Nunn, from Chesterfield, Derbyshire, was stationed in Kanturk. On the evening of 13 August, an RAF aircraft flying from Fermoy to Ballybunion made a forced landing at Drominagh, seven miles from Kanturk. The aircraft was undamaged. Twelve soldiers from Kanturk mounted guard. An IRA party had planned to rush the guard, destroy the aircraft and steal its machine gun, but a Volunteer precipitately shot Nunn dead from long range, initiating a brief exchange of fire after which the IRA withdrew. Buried St John’s Churchyard, Newbold, Chesterfield, Derbyshire.286 Patrick Lynch (14Aug1920/2) 49, Harness maker, RC Hospital, Limerick Lynch lived on Main Street. He was ordered into the street by a military patrol which had

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earlier searched his house, and was marched barefoot to the fairgreen, deserted because of the military curfew. Shot six times in the head and body, he died instantly. Police reports claimed that he had tried to escape. Although robbery was a likely motive – Lynch had £50 in his house – Bill Kelly suggested that Lynch’s killers mistook him for the solicitor John Aloysius Lynch, later killed by Crown forces in Dublin. Another possibility is that he was mistaken for Ned Lynch, a battalion commander in the East Limerick Brigade, who worked in Hospital. O’Sullivan stated that the Hospital Company revenged Lynch by shooting Constable Cyril Brewer on 5 July 1921.287 SA: Brewer (6Jul1921/5), Lynch (22Sep1920/1)

himself!’ Buried Midleton Union burial ground.288 SA: O’Sullivan (28Apr1921/3)

John Coughlan (14Aug1920/3) Married with children, RC Queenstown (Cobh), Cork In early September, a cart was found on the shoreline at low tide at Ballybrannigan beach in east Cork. Bound with wire to the axle by the arms and legs were the badly decomposed remains of a man. The cause of death was assumed to be drowning. This was John Coughlan, listed by Gerard Murphy as killed in unknown circumstances on 14 August 1920, arrested by the Queenstown (Cobh) IRA because his daughters were prostitutes consorting with British soldiers. One version maintains that, after admitting during interrogation at Aghada that he was also a paid informer, he was brought back to Cobh and deliberately drowned. But Mick Leahy claimed the IRA had decided to release Coughlan, only to find that he had hanged himself in panic. They tied the body to the axle of a cart which was then thrown into the sea. One of those involved, Patrick O’Sullivan, was himself killed in 1921 after capture at Clonmult. Leahy broke into the Macroom morgue: ‘We moved along from corpse to corpse with a flash lamp . . . when we pulled back the cloth we found that the crabs had got hold of his face and that there was nothing of it left. A month later we got evidence that this man had been a spy, and that’s why he hanged

Cyril Henry Nathan (15Aug1920/2) RIC (71627), 19, Clerk, ex-serviceman, Protestant Military Hospital, New Barracks, Limerick From London, Nathan joined the RIC on 11 June 1920, stationed in Boherbuoy Barracks, Limerick. According to LFS, Volunteers were preparing an ambush near the People’s Park when two policemen unexpectedly appeared and were seized and disarmed. Shortly afterwards more police and military arrived and opened fire. Constable Nathan was apparently hit on Edward Street.291

15 AUGUST 1920 Francis McNiece (15Aug1920/1) 21, Farmer’s son, RC Maghery Hotel, Maghery, Armagh McNiece, of Ardress, Loughgall, Armagh, was shot while travelling in a motor car fired on, most likely by the UVF, as it carried people home from a sports meeting. Francis Donaghy, shot through the lung, died two days later. J. J. Murray suggested the UVF were responsible.289 Buried Tartaraghan Cemetery, Loughgall, Armagh.290 RD: Donaghy (17Aug1920/2)

Joseph McMahon (15Aug1920/3) IRA, Coachbuilder, RC Oldtown, Cavan McMahon, from Kilmaley, Clare, a real ‘live wire’ in the Kilkenny IRA, was a signalling and explosives instructor. He participated in the Hugginstown RIC Barracks attack in which Constable Thomas Ryan died. McMahon subsequently went on the run. For a time he was an explosives instructor around Enniscorthy, Wexford. Seán Whelan told the BMH that McMahon was ‘action, action, action’, being involved in the killing of DI Lea Wilson, after which he went to Cavan. Using the alias McCarthy, he was demonstrating grenades292 to Volunteers at Moynehall when a home-made ‘tail bomb’ exploded. Patrick Roche, intelligence officer

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Cavan Battalion, lost part of his arm. Buried Kilmaley, Clare.293 SA: Ryan (9Mar1920/1), Wilson (15Jun 1920/1)

16 AUGUST 1920 Patrick Clancy (16Aug1920/1) IRA, 19, Creamery manager, Engaged, RC Derrygalun,294 Kanturk, Cork Clancy, from Kilfinnane, Limerick, had recently become O/C ASU Cork No. 2 Brigade. Clancy and Jack O’Connell were resting at O’Connell’s home in Derrygalun, about three miles south-west of Kanturk, after two nights guarding the town against reprisals following the killing of Private Nunn. A party of military and police arrived. Clancy and O’Connell decided to run for it. Clancy was fatally wounded while climbing a fence. O’Connell was shot dead. It was rumoured that an ex-serviceman’s daughter had reported their whereabouts. Buried Kilfinnane, Limerick. Commemorated on a monument at Murroe.295 RD: O’Connell (16Aug1920/2). SA: Nunn (14Aug1920/1) Jack O’Connell (16Aug1920/2) IRA, Draper’s assistant, RC Derrygalun, Kanturk, Cork See Clancy (16Aug1920/1). From Kanturk, O’Connell was acting O/C of the 5th (Kanturk) Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade. Buried Dromtariff, Cork.296 William Harding Wilson (16Aug1920/3) RIC (50239), 60, Married with four children, Methodist Patrick Street, Templemore, Tipperary From Ballycumber, Offaly, Wilson joined the RIC on 16 September 1882, serving in Kerry, Wexford, twice in the RIC Depot, Drogheda, Meath, Kerry again, Cork and Tipperary. Promoted to sergeant in 1895, to head constable in 1901 and to DI in 1910, Wilson had taken temporary charge in Thurles following the killing of DI Michael Hunt. He led the party which killed Michael Small at Shevry on 4 July 1920. IRA officers decided to shoot him at any cost. Jim Leahy, O/C Tipperary No. 2 Brigade, brought a group of

Volunteers into Templemore: ‘We waited three or four days to get him.’ As Wilson, in civilian clothes, walked along Patrick Street at around 18:45, Jim Stapleton stepped out from Fogarty’s pub and shot him through the nape of the neck. Police and military wrecked several shops and houses and the town hall. Creameries in Castleiney, Killeen and Loughmore were also destroyed. During the burning of the town hall, Lieutenant-Colonel Sidney Herbert Beattie of the Northamptonshire Regiment was injured and a soldier killed in confused circumstances. Beattie later died. Northamptonshire Regiment records indicated that Lance-Corporal H. J. Fuggle was accidentally burned to death, but gives the wrong date. Buried St Mary’s Cemetery, Templemore. His widow secured £7,300 compensation.297 RD: Beattie (19Aug1920/1), Fuggle (16Aug 1920/4). SA: Hunt (23Jun1919/1), Small (4Jul1920/2) Herbert John Fuggle (16Aug1920/4) Northamptonshire Regiment (10629), 18 Templemore, Tipperary See Wilson (16Aug1920/3). Lance-Corporal Fuggle, from Market Harborough, Leicestershire, was stationed in Richmond Barracks, Templemore. Buried Northampton Road Cemetery, Market Harborough.298 Edward Paget299 (16Aug1920/5) 43, Ex-serviceman, builder’s labourer, Married with seven children, RC Union Hospital, Limerick Paget, once of the RIR, lived on Carroll’s Row. Severely beaten by police in the People’s Park, Limerick, during disturbances following the death of Constable Nathan (15Aug1920/2), he collapsed at home, dying the following night. His youngest child, Nancy, was born after his death. Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery.300

17 AUGUST 1920 Andrew Hayes (17Aug1920/1) 37, Carpenter, RC Military Hospital, Tipperary, Tipperary Hayes died from a gunshot wound, initially not thought life-threatening, received on

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31 July when police in Tipperary town shot at another man on O’Connell Street.301 Francis Donaghy (17Aug1920/2) RC Armagh See McNiece (15Aug1920/1). Donaghy reportedly died from wounds sustained in the same incident.302

18 AUGUST 1920 Frederick C. Sharman (18Aug1920/1) RFA, 30, Army officer Knockanure, Ballyvourney, Cork From St Neots, Huntingdonshire, Sharman served in the ranks for six years, before transferring to the Army Reserve on 17 May 1914. Commissioned in 1917, he became an acting captain. Sharman was attached to the Manchester Regiment, based in Ballincollig, Cork. Patrick J. Lynch, captain Ballyvourney Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, described how at Knockanure the Ballyvourney Company ambushed a cycle patrol delivering provisions to Ballyvourney. The military tried to cycle through. Sharman, commanding the patrol, was killed and four soldiers wounded. After thirty minutes, the survivors surrendered. Eleven rifles, one revolver, twelve bicycles and ammunition were captured. Buried St Neots Cemetery (C. 1811).303

19 AUGUST 1920 Sidney Herbert Beattie (19Aug1920/1) Northamptonshire Regiment, 32, Army officer, Presbyterian Military Hospital, Templemore, Tipperary See Wilson (16Aug1920/3). LieutenantColonel Beattie, a one-time medical student from Dublin, son of Sir Andrew Beattie, was commissioned on 3 May 1911. Promoted to captain in 1915, he won the MC. Buried Dublin.304 Patrick Kennedy (19Aug1920/2) IRA, 28, Farmer, RC Gurteen,305 Annascaul, Kerry Kennedy, of the Annascaul Company, was killed by a mixed patrol of the East Lancashire Regiment and police while crossing a field.

Patrick Houlihan suggested that Kennedy may have been recognised, whereas Kennedy’s brother Tadhg believed ‘they were really after another fellow that day’. The IRA killed an ex-policeman named Jasper in reprisal. Buried Annascaul.306 SA: Jasper (29Oct1920/2)

20 AUGUST 1920 James Duffy (20Aug1920/1) RIC (69645), 21, Farmer, RC Boston, Galway From Mayo, Constable Duffy joined the RIC on 4 March 1919, stationed first in Clare and then in Boston. At about 22:30 a six-man patrol was mistaken for the IRA by police in a lorry travelling from Corofin. Duffy was killed outright by a revolver shot to the heart. The RIC General Register recorded his death as accidental. He had sent £6 each month to his parents, who had ten other children.307 Joseph Goodreid (20Aug1920/2) SWB, 18 Cottage Hospital, Drogheda, Louth Private Goodreid died from pneumonia following wounds inflicted in Millmount Barracks, Drogheda, on 18 July when Private Burrowes discharged a shot from Goodreid’s rifle, mistaking it for his own unloaded weapon, as they came off guard duty.308 James Herlihy (20Aug1920/3) Ex-serviceman, RC Farmers Cross, Cork Jeremiah Keating, intelligence officer 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, described how raids on the houses of several local IRA men, including that of Connie Neenan, suggested an informer was at work. Suspicion fell on Herlihy after a confidential clerk in the military barracks named Conroy said Herlihy had ‘given information’. Patrick Collins, O/C G Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, knew Herlihy ‘very well’, and asked him ‘why he gave us away . . . He said he could give no reason why he did it, but added that he had given the military a wrong address in my [Collins] own case’, which turned out to be true. He was shot and buried in the Farmers

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Cross district, where Cork Airport now stands, by men from G Company. A year later, Herlihy’s brother sought information from President de Valera: ‘Without precipitating publicity . . . With the exception of myself, his family believes he is alive, and any sudden realisation to the contrary would, I fear, be disastrous.’ The Cork IRA were, uncharacteristically in the case of missing victims, willing to help: ‘This man’s relatives are alright.’ John was told his brother’s fate though not his burial place.309

21 AUGUST 1920 Thomas Martin Craddock (21Aug1920/1) RIC (56968), 43, Engaged, RC King (now Pearse) Street, Athlone, Westmeath From Donegal, Craddock joined the RIC on 15 June 1895, posted to Donegal. He subsequently served in the RIC Reserve, Belfast, Westmeath, and the Reserve again before transfer to Westmeath on 1 April 1905. Promoted to sergeant in 1912, he was stationed in Athlone in the Crime Special Headquarters at Fry Place. GHQ ordered him killed. Several attempts were made before Craddock was attacked just after midnight on 21 August, as he and a constable left the Comrade of the Great War Club on King Street. Severely wounded in the shoulder and abdomen, he died about thirty minutes later. His companion escaped. Among his four Athlone Brigade killers was ex-serviceman James Tormey. Craddock was accorded a military funeral in Ballinasloe, where ‘the people generally closed their houses and joined in the funeral cortège in large numbers’. At Mullingar Quarter Sessions in October 1920, his mother Elizabeth secured £1,200 compensation, his niece Elizabeth Leddy £1,500, and his sister Emily £250. Craddock’s fiancée, a Miss Fox, had her claim dismissed.310 SA: Tormey (2Feb1921/7) Daniel Maunsell (21Aug1920/2) RIC (55061), 49, Farmer, Married with children, RC Inchigeelagh, Cork From Tralee, Kerry, Maunsell joined the RIC on 1 June 1891, serving in Galway and

from 1893 in Cork. Promoted to sergeant in 1911, he was stationed in Inchigeelagh. Remembered as ‘an honest man’, he was shot in Inchigeelagh at about 21:10, possibly by Mick Seán Rua O’Sullivan and Ted Quinlan, son of an RIC man, of E (Inchigeelagh) Company, in Inchigeelagh. The parish priest was reportedly removed by his bishop for failing to control his flock. Maunsell’s widow did not long survive him and their children were raised by relatives. In July 2010, descendants of Maunsell and of his killers attended a commemorative Mass in Inchigeelagh.311 Martin Foley (21Aug1920/3) RIC (64007), 33, Labourer, RC Merlin Park, Galway From Castlerea, Roscommon, Foley joined the RIC on 3 July 1908, allocated to Galway. He had served in Oranmore for about five years. Constable Foley was in a cycle patrol bringing dispatches from Oranmore to Galway ambushed at about 12:30 at the Red Bridge, some distance from Renmore Barracks, by sixteen members of Galway No. 1 Brigade. The IRA opened fire prematurely. Foley, hit in the head, died immediately. Two other policemen were wounded, while the others escaped to Renmore Barracks. At midnight on 21 August the police in Oranmore ran amok, firing shots and damaging two pubs. Buried Castlerea.312 John Hanlon313 (21Aug1920/4) RIC (64249), 33, Farmer, Married with two children, RC Moore Street, Kilrush, Clare From Kerry, Hanlon joined the RIC on 20 July 1908. He was transferred from Cork to Clare in 1915 as a detectiveconstable, stationed in Kilrush. The West Clare brigade council decided to kill him. Two attempts were made before Bill Haugh happened to see Hanlon going into Walsh’s pub on Moore Street around 16:30 and followed him, shooting him in the head. Haugh then escaped by bicycle. Hanlon’s widow Hanna Agnes secured £3,900 compensation, and a special RIC allowance of £47.6s.0d.314

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Patrick Haverty (21Aug1920/5) RIC (60160), 40, Herdsman, RC Greenhills, Kill, Kildare From Lawrencetown, Galway, Constable Haverty joined the RIC on 1 May 1901, serving in Kildare, Cork and twice in the RIC Reserve before returning to Kildare in 1912. Haverty was first stationed in Kilteel, and then in Kill. He was in a four-man cycle patrol ambushed at 22:30 at Greenhills, Kill on the main Dublin–Naas road while on their way to take up guard duty at the home of RIC CI K. L. Supple, in Naas. The attack, the first of its kind in Kildare, was carried out by thirty-three members of the Kill Company, under Thomas Harris, 2nd Kildare Battalion O/C. Sergeant Patrick O’Reilly was severely wounded. Haverty, shot through the chest, died almost immediately. The ambush lasted about twenty minutes. Weapons and ammunition were captured. O’Reilly died in hospital on 31 August. Buried Galway.315 RD: O’Reilly (31Aug1920/2)

22 AUGUST 1920 Oswald Ross Swanzy (22Aug1920/1) RIC (61367), 39, CoI Market Square, Lisburn, Antrim From Castleblayney, Swanzy joined the RIC on 28 February 1905. He was DI in Cork city north from January 1916 until May 1920, when secretly transferred to Lisburn following the shooting of Tomás MacCurtain on 20 March, a killing for which the IRA believed him responsible. Culhane and Dick Murphy of Cork No. 1 Brigade were sent to Lisburn to kill Swanzy. Assisted by Belfast IRA men, at about 13:00 Culhane shot Swanzy, using MacCurtain’s pistol, at the entrance to the Northern Bank as he returned from church to his home on Railway Street: ‘I got him behind the ear, which is as good a place as any.’ A large crowd chased the IRA party, who made a successful, if narrow, getaway after a wheel fell off a vehicle in which the police attempted a pursuit. Seán Leonard, who had driven the gunmen from Belfast to Lisburn, was convicted of murder by a military court and sentenced to

death, but this was commuted to twelve years penal servitude. He was released during the Truce. Serious rioting in Lisburn lasted for three days. Hundreds of nationalist homes and businesses were destroyed. There was also renewed rioting in Belfast. Buried MJC (Plot C. 108). In April 1921 a commemorative plaque was unveiled in Lisburn Cathedral.316 SA: MacCurtain (20Mar1920/1) Michael Galvin (22Aug1920/2) IRA, Farmer, Married with children, RC Kilmurry, Cork ‘Mick’ Galvin was quartermaster of Kilmurry Company. At 11:30 all available Volunteers from the Kilmurry–Crookstown area were mobilised to ambush a police party returning from Inchigeelagh following investigation of the shooting of Sergeant Maunsell. Many Volunteers were at Sunday Mass, so only a few were in position when the police lorry appeared. It was halted by a cart blocking the road. The police dismounted, took cover and returned fire. After an hour the IRA were forced to withdraw. Several policemen were wounded (though none killed, despite later claims). Galvin was shot through the heart. Galvin’s brother, Fr (later Bishop) Edward Galvin, was co-founder in 1916 of the Maynooth Mission to China (now the Missionary Society of St Columban). Buried Kilmurry. His widow Annie and son John eventually secured military service dependents’ allowances.317 SA: Maunsell (21Aug1920/2) Thomas Smyth Brennan (22Aug1920/3) RIC (59297), 42, Farmer, Married, RC Distillery Lane, Dundalk, Louth From Tubbercurry, Sligo, Constable Brennan joined the RIC on 16 January 1900, serving in Wexford, Mayo, Kildare, Belfast and Quay Street Station, Dundalk. At about 16:15 a patrol of one sergeant and three constables was fired at, apparently by a Fianna Éireann party, on Jocelyn Street. Brennan was killed and constables Isdell and Witherden wounded.318 Buried Tubbercurry. His widow Kate secured £1,500 compensation.319

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24 AUGUST 1920 John McNamara (24Aug1920/1) RIC (68892), 24, Farmer, Married with two children, RC Glengarriff, Cork From Crusheen, Clare, McNamara joined the RIC on 5 December 1916, stationed in Glengarriff. He was awarded the constabulary medal. At around 20:00, McNamara was shot dead320 and Constable Cleary was wounded while leaving O’Shea’s pub. A third constable escaped upstairs. McNamara’s widow secured £600 compensation with an additional £150 for each of his two children.321 Joseph Evans (24Aug1920/2) MGC (Infantry), 19 (181848) Charleville, Cork Private Evans, from Stratford, Essex, was accidentally shot on 23 August322 in a building near Charleville police barracks occupied by the military. Buried Holy Cross Cemetery, Charleville.323

25 AUGUST 1920 Matthew Haugh (25Aug1920/1) RIC (68052), 25, Farmer, RC Chapel Street, Bantry, Cork From Ballyea, Ennis, Clare, Haugh joined the RIC on 10 September 1914, stationed in Bantry. Maurice Donegan, then O/C Bantry Battalion, Cork No. 3 Brigade, believed Haugh had been responsible for the shooting of Cornelius Crowley, a disabled boy, and ordered him killed. Haugh was shot dead when a police party was ambushed on Chapel Street at 13:45 by Ralph Keyes, captain Bantry Company, John Keohane and Cornelius O’Sullivan of the Bantry Battalion. Buried Clare.324 SA: Crowley (25Jun1920/1) James McCartney (25Aug1920/2) 19, Rope worker, CoI Dee Street, Belfast McCartney, the son of Samuel McCartney, a carter, lived at 1 Frome Street. Following the Oswald Swanzy shooting in Lisburn on 22 August, severe rioting broke out in Belfast.

Disturbances lasted for almost ten days and a curfew was imposed on 30 August. Several people were killed. According to police reports, on the evening of 25 August a mixed patrol of military and police was stoned and fired on in the Dee Street area. The military returned fire. McCartney, wounded in the back, died at about 23:30. Ethel Burrowes, shot in the abdomen, died the following day. Several houses were burned and looted.325 RD: Burrowes (26Aug1920/4). SA: Swanzy (22Aug1920/1)

26 AUGUST 1920 James Munnelly (26Aug1920/1) RIC (66662), 30, Farmer, RC Infirmary, Omagh, Tyrone From Ballycastle, Mayo, Munnelly joined the RIC on 1 July 1912, stationed in Drumquin, Tyrone. The RIC Barracks was attacked by members of the Letterkenny Company, Donegal No. 2 Brigade, on a fair day. Posing as cattle dealers, the IRA party approached the barracks at about 10:00. On answering the door, Constable Munnelly, the barrack orderly, was shot in the head by James McMonagle. Sergeant Bradley was wounded but managed to throw a grenade, which dispersed the attackers. Munnelly died about eight hours later. Buried Ballycastle.326 William J. Potter (26Aug1920/2) RIC (61150), 36, CoI Knockcroghery, Roscommon From Turlough, Castlebar, Mayo, the son of an RIC man, Constable Potter joined the RIC on 2 March 1903. He was cycling from Roscommon town to Kiltoom with Constable Michael McMahon. After leaving a pub in Knockcroghery at around 21:00, they were ambushed at a railway crossing by Volunteers of the Knockcroghery Company, South Roscommon Brigade. McMahon stated that two men rushed out, firing two shots before shouting ‘hands up’. More shots were then fired. The policemen attempted to cycle away, but Potter, shot through the right lung, died within minutes. The IRA maintained fire was opened only because

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the police failed to halt. This attack did not have battalion or brigade sanction. Buried Turlough Cemetery, Castlebar. His mother secured £700 compensation.327 John Hynes (26Aug1920/3) 76, Labourer, Widowed with children, RC Shanagolden, Limerick Constables Huckerby and Hall went from Foynes to Shanagolden seeking medical attention, but were set upon by armed men who made them walk from the village in their bare feet before being released. A large body of police later returned to Shanagolden. They fired indiscriminately. Hynes was killed sheltering in a ditch. The creamery, Henry Reidy’s shop, John Dore’s pub and the Carnegie Library were set on fire. Lord Monteagle wrote to the Irish Times to dispute a Castle statement that police came under fire: Hynes was a ‘most harmless .  .  . Pensioner’, and ‘though a Catholic . . . the sexton of the Protestant church’. James Collins, captain Abbeyfeale Company, said the IRA decided to kill Huckerby, believed to have shot Hynes. But this plan was scrapped. On 22 September, Huckerby killed Jeremiah Healy and Patrick Harnett in cold blood in Abbeyfeale. In December, the RIC shot Volunteer Timothy Madigan in Shanagolden, again apparently on foot of the indignity heaped on Huckerby and Hall in August.328 SA: Hartnett (22Sep1920/8), Healy (22Sep 1920/9), Madigan (28Dec1920/1) Ethel Mary Burrowes (26Aug1920/4) 16, Rope worker, CoI RVHB See McCartney (25Aug1920/2). Ethel, daughter of Alexander Burrowes, a tramway motorman, lived on Bright Street.329 Francis McCann (26Aug1920/5) 52,330 Labourer, RC Young’s Row, Seaforde Street, Belfast McCann, of 38 Chemical Street, died at about 22:15 when the military fired into Seaforde Street during disturbances between Catholic residents and Protestant shipyard workers.331

John Kelly (26Aug1920/6) Manchester Regiment (3512795332), 29, Seaman Military Barracks, Ballincollig, Cork From Liverpool, Private Kelly served with the Sherwood Foresters (43681) before joining the Manchester Regiment. Discharged in France on 14 March 1919, he re-enlisted next day, stationed in Ballincollig, where he died from unspecified accidental wounds.333 Buried Cork Military Cemetery.334

27 AUGUST 1920 Georgina Rice (27Aug1920/1) 24, Dressmaker, CoI Dundalk, Louth Georgina, eldest child of William Rice, a groom and gardener of Ardee, Louth, had lived in Thomas Craig’s drapery in Market Square for four years, along with a dozen other staff. At around 02:30 a fire began at the front of the shop (and also, according to one report, at the rear, ‘as if a fire bomb had been thrown in’). The Ulster Bank, the post office and Melville’s drapery in the square were also set alight. Georgina roused her fellow workers, most of whom escaped through a back window and gangway into an adjoining wine merchant’s, or by jumping from windows, or by ladders put up by the military and town fire brigades. Her charred remains, and those of Alexander Alderdyce and Elizabeth Wilson, were found downstairs near the front door. The fire destroyed Craig’s, McGorisk’s and the Ulster Bank, while the ground floor of the post office and Melville’s was saved. Despite being on the run, the local IRA commander James McGuill forced his way onto the platform at a protest meeting. He made a ‘fiery’ speech claiming that exsoldiers had produced a list of Protestant premises which they proposed to attack in reprisal for attacks on Catholic areas in Lisburn and Belfast. He said that he ‘threatened them with a gun . . . but for his timely action, half-a-dozen Protestant houses would have been burned down’, and he remarked that if Crown forces would leave the town, the IRA would ensure the safety of all

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sections of the community. He told the BMH that he had also warned these men that the IRA would kill anyone who took action against Protestants. A later IRA investigation identified three suspects, imbued with the ideas of ‘the Russian Revolutionaries’, who left the area after the blaze. But, as he told the BMH, there remained strong suspicions in Dundalk and surrounding areas that IRA elements were responsible. He believed that his public intervention, while necessary, was misrepresented by the press as almost an indirect admission of responsibility and led to long-term difficulties. Following a service in St Nicholas Parish Church, where she was in the choir and the Girls Friendly Society, Georgina was buried in Ardee.335 RD: Alderdyce (27Aug1920/2), Wilson (27Aug1920/3) Alexander Alderdyce (27Aug1920/2) 15, Draper’s assistant, CoI Dundalk, Louth See Rice (27Aug1920/1). Alderdyce, son of George Alderdyce of Drogheda, had worked in Craig’s for four months. Buried Dundalk. Elizabeth Wilson (27Aug1920/3) Milliner, 36, Presbyterian Dundalk, Louth See Rice (27Aug1920/1). From Ballynure, Antrim, Elizabeth had worked in Craig’s for twenty years. Buried Dundalk. John Mullan (27Aug1920/4) RIC (70256), 25, Ex-serviceman, shipyard stager, naval rating, RC Drumlish, Longford From Tyrone, Constable Mullan joined the RIC on 3 February 1920, stationed in Drumlish, Longford. At about 09:30, a four-man patrol escorting the mail car from Drumlish to Ballinamuck with pension money was attacked by ten masked men concealed behind a wall at Gaigue. Patrick Kiernan, then quartermaster North Longford Battalion, recalled strict orders not to fire unless the police refused to surrender. During the struggle, Mullan was killed by a shot in the neck. Constables Brogan, King and Reidy

were wounded. Mullan was posthumously awarded the constabulary medal.336 Charles Edward Hall (27Aug1920/5) RASC (M/45295), 19, CoE Whiterock,337 Churchtown North, Cork Private Hall served in the 1155th Mechanised Transport Company, stationed in Cork. A military party consisting of one officer and seven other ranks of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders was fired on at 16:00 as it drove through Churchtown by an IRA party. The first volley struck Driver Hall, Lieutenant Begg (45295) and Private H. Winterton (34702). Although mortally wounded, Hall managed to drive the Garford car past the ambush position, but it then ran into a wall. Soldiers under Sergeant ‘Ginger’ Carse engaged the IRA while Hall was lifted into the back of the car, which was driven back to barracks. Hall died three-quarters of an hour later. Begg was awarded an MBE for his conduct, and Carse was officially commended. Buried Wirksworth Cemetery, Derbyshire (C. of E. 532).338 John (Seán) Buckley (27Aug1920/6) 26, RC CMHC Buckley, of Ballyedmond, Midleton, was secretary of the Midleton branch of Sinn Féin.339 He and his brother Bartholomew were arrested by the military. They were brought to Midleton Barracks, and later handcuffed together and put in a military lorry. According to press and police reports, while being conveyed to Cork, they attempted to escape and when fired on were wounded, John mortally. Buried Midleton.340 Francis Alfred Day (27Aug1920/7) SWB (57671),341 19 KGVH From Birmingham, Private Day was stationed in Dollymount Camp, Dublin. He died from a gunshot wound accidentally inflicted the previous day by Private Roberts at Gormanston aerodrome. Buried Witton Cemetery, Birmingham (Screen Wall. 47. 08652).342

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28 AUGUST 1920 Harry Francis Chads (28Aug1920/1) Border Regiment, 29 Castlebar Aerodrome, Mayo From Buckinghamshire, Chads was commissioned on 9 March 1910, rising to major by 1919, and won the MC. He died while a passenger in an aircraft which crashed near Castlebar Aerodrome.343 Terence Burns (28Aug1920/2) 39, Labourer, Married with children, RC RVHB Burns, who was disabled, of 17 Massereene Street, died after an operation on his thigh. He had been shot when, hearing shooting, he went to look for his children.344 Patrick Gilmore (28Aug1920/3) 25, Telephone wireless erector, ex-serviceman, Married with two children, RC Townsend Street, Belfast Gilmore, living at 22B Campbell’s Row, had been wounded in France. Gilmore and Robert Lynch were killed by a single volley fired by military in an attempt to separate two rioting groups.345 RD: Lynch (28Aug1920/4) Robert Lynch (28Aug1920/4) 20, RC Townsend Street, Belfast See Gilmore (28Aug1920/3). Lynch lived at 20 Massereene Street.346 George Hamilton Johnston (28Aug1920/5) 70, Landowner, CoI Eden House, Ardara, Glenties, Donegal Johnston owned a large estate at Ardara, sat on the Glenties Board of Guardians and was a JP. An advocate of dominion home rule, keenly interested in country sports, he was reportedly very popular although a rake said to have fathered several children by local women. At around 22:00, he was in his home, Eden House, when two IRA men burst in looking for weapons. Johnston rose from his chair and made a motion as if to push away one of the intruders, whom he recognised. The gunman accidentally discharged his weapon upwards at close range, shooting Johnston through the

chin. He died instantly, and local lore suggested that his moustache ended up stuck to the ceiling. The gun with which he was shot is said still to be held in the area.347

29 AUGUST 1920 William John Cassidy (29Aug1920/1) 25, Spirit grocer, RC Glenpark Street, Belfast Cassidy, from Londonderry, lived at 42 Glenpark Street. Catholics in the Marrowbone district attacked the homes of Protestant textile workers, apparently in revenge for the burning of nationalist homes in Lisburn. Fierce rioting left five Catholics and one Protestant dead. A seventh victim, Charles O’Neill, died a fortnight later. The military eventually fired to disperse the rioters. Cassidy was shot in the chest and killed at about 01:15, along with five others, by a single burst from a Hotchkiss machine gun.348 RD: Kinney (29Aug1920/5), Moan (29Aug 1920/2), Murray (29Aug1920/3), O’Neill (10Sep1920/1), Orr (30Aug1920/1), Toner (29Aug1920/4) Owen Moan (29Aug1920/2) 16, Labourer, RC Glenview Street, Belfast See Cassidy (29Aug1920/1). Moan, of 36 Glenview Street, was shot in the heart at about 01:30.349 John Leo Murray (29Aug1920/3) 19, RC Glenpark Street, Belfast See Cassidy (29Aug1920/1). He was fatally wounded in the abdomen.350 Thomas Toner (29Aug1920/4) 19, Labourer, RC Glenpark Street, Belfast See Cassidy (29Aug1920/1). Toner, of 89 Ardilea Street, was shot dead on Glenpark Street.351 Henry Kinney (29Aug1920/5) 47, Packer, Married with children, RC MIHB See Cassidy (29Aug1920/1). Kinney, of 120 Ardilea Street, was fatally wounded in the chest.352

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Timothy Fitzgerald (29Aug1920/6) IRA, 18, RC Brinny, Bandon, Cork At about 18:30, a military patrol from Bandon surprised a party of around thirty Volunteers near Brinny, about four miles from Bandon. Fitzgerald, a lieutenant in the Farnivane Company, was killed and another Volunteer captured. Charles O’Donoghue, assistant adjutant Bandon Battalion, recalled how in January 1921 the IRA abducted and killed Daniel Lynch, whom they believed had betrayed them. Fitzgerald was the first IRA fatality in west Cork. Buried Kilbrogan Cemetery, Bandon.353 RD: Lynch (21Jan1921/4) George Walker (29Aug1920/7) 36, Ex-serviceman, boatman, Married with six children, CoE Military Hospital, Queenstown (Cobh), Cork Walker, from Liverpool, lived in Queenstown and worked on a harbour launch. Soldiers rioted in Queenstown following the ambush on 27 August during which C. E. Hall was killed, smashing almost every shop window. In the early hours of 29 August, Walker was fatally wounded, having allegedly failed to halt when challenged. Buried Ballymore Cemetery.354 SA: Hall (27Aug1920/5)

30 AUGUST 1920 Grace Orr (30Aug1920/1) 23, Spinner, Presbyterian MIHB See Cassidy (29Aug1920/1). Wounded at Ewart Row, Grace Orr died at about 01:30 after an operation.355 John Coard (30Aug1920/2) 25, Driller, Married, CoI RVHB Coard, of 11 Lawther Street, was a driller in the Workman and Clark Shipyard. His wife Sarah was pregnant. Wounded on Henry Street when the military fired to quell disturbances, he later died, one of six fatalities.356 RD: Colville (30Aug1920/4), Hobson (30Aug 1920/5), McAlpine (30Aug1920/6), McLean

(30Aug1920/8), Mullan (30Aug1920/3), Thompson (30Aug1920/7) William Mullan (30Aug1920/3) 18, Shipwright, Protestant Henry Street, Belfast See Coard (30Aug1920/2). Mullan, of 100 Upper Meadow Street, was shot by an IRA gunman on a tram in Henry Street.357 Samuel Colville (30Aug1920/4) 18, Riveter, Presbyterian Molyneux Street, Belfast See Coard (30Aug1920/2). Colville’s mother Martha said she saw her son fall wounded on Molyneux Street when shots were fired by snipers, not by the military.358 Henry Alfred Hobson (30Aug1920/5) 16, Shipyard worker, CoI RVHB See Coard (30Aug1920/2). Hobson, a keen soccer player with Distillery F.C., was shot during disturbances in the Millfield area, probably by IRA gunmen.359 Robert McAlpine (30Aug1920/6) 11, Messenger, Presbyterian Great George’s Street, Belfast See Coard (30Aug1920/2). Robert, a son of Emanuel McAlpine of 35 Little York Street, was shot at about 13:00 while trying to stop the looting of a pub.360 John Thompson (30Aug1920/7) 18, Driver, Protestant RVHB See Coard (30Aug1920/2). Thompson, of 3 Henry Street, shot in the Great George’s Street area, died at 13:00.361 Adam McLean (30Aug1920/8) 26, Plater’s mate, Married with two children RVHB See Coard (30Aug1920/2). Annie McLean, of 20 Southwell Street, described how, as she and her husband were standing on Southwell Street at around 15:30, he was hit by four shots fired by the military.362

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Paul Chapman (30Aug1920/9) 31, Labourer, Married with two children, CoI Union Infirmary, Lisburn Road, Belfast Chapman lived at 161 Matilda Street. He was among a crowd fired on by the military when they refused to disperse during rioting in the Sandy Row area. Wounded in the arm and abdomen, he died at about 23:00. Robert Seymour died on 12 September.363 RD: Seymour (12Sep1920/2)

Frederick Saye (31Aug1920/5) 26, Engineer, ex-serviceman, CoI Bankmore Street, Belfast A Royal Irish Fusilier veteran living at 62 Donegall Pass, Saye was shot after curfew after ignoring challenges and running away from Henry McDevitt’s pub, which was in flames. It is unclear whether he was an arsonist or had been attempting to put the fire out.370

31 AUGUST 1920

James Ayton Jamieson (31Aug1920/6) Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) (3234829) Linfield Road, Belfast Private Jamieson, stationed in Royal Victoria Barracks, was accidentally shot at about 23:00 by a comrade on Linfield Road after firing a shot himself. Buried Riddrie Park Cemetery, Glasgow (A. 7881).371

James Cromie (31Aug1920/1) 35,364 Ex-serviceman, dock labourer, Married with five children, RC Dufferin Dock, Belfast Cromie, a Royal Navy veteran, and his wife Katherine lived at 65 Trafalgar Street. Cromie was killed in the Dufferin Dock by a bullet which ricocheted off a wall, striking him in the chest, when revolver shots were fired during rioting. Buried Milltown Cemetery.365 Patrick O’Reilly366 (31Aug1920/2) RIC (56526), 48, Farmer, Married with children, RC Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin See Haverty (21Aug1920/5). From Fivealley, Birr, Offaly, O’Reilly joined the RIC on 16 July 1894, posted to Meath and in 1907 to Dublin. Promoted to sergeant in 1913, he was due to retire in September 1920. He died of septic pneumonia following gunshot wounds. Buried Esker, Tullamore, Offaly.367 Edward Burns (31Aug1920/3) Labourer, 65, Married, RC Earl Street, Belfast Burns, from Tyrone, of 65 Grove Street, was shot by a loyalist gunman who rushed into Earl Street. In October 1920, George Dilworth was charged with the murder.368 Thomas McMahon (31Aug1920/4) 69, Farmer, RC Aughafin, Clones, Monaghan McMahon died following a blow from a sharp instrument received on the evening of 29 August, apparently inflicted by a man named Leslie during a political row.369

James Lonergan (31Aug1920/7) 33, Farmer’s son, RC Tinalira, Dungarvan, Waterford James, son of William Lonergan, a farmer from Tinalira, was dragged from his home at about midnight by between twenty and thirty armed and masked men. They shot him in the yard. His father and brother were beaten. The police said the killing arose from an agrarian grievance ‘of many years standing’.372 James Gordon373 (31Aug1920/8) Civilian, RC Knockraha, Cork From Kiltyclogher, Leitrim, Gordon was said to be an RIC agent who moved from station to station, in each case resulting in the killing of a prominent Sinn Féin supporter. He was allegedly implicated in the shooting of Thomas O’Dwyer of The Ragg, Tipperary. Volunteers of E Company, 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, arrested a very drunk man at Penrose Quay following a tip-off from a suspicious publican. After perusing Gordon’s notebook, Seán Hegarty, O/C Cork No. 1 Brigade, ordered his execution. This was delayed until a priest could be found. Gordon was eventually taken to Knockraha, the Cork No. 1 Brigade’s favoured killing

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ground seven miles east of the city, shot, and his remains buried in a nearby bog.374 SA: O’Dwyer (30Mar1920/1)

1 SEPTEMBER 1920 Bernard Marron (1Sep1920/1) IRA, 25, Carpenter, RC Corcreeghagh, Monaghan ‘Barney’ Marron, from Ardragh, Carrickmacross, served in the Corduff Company, Monaghan Brigade which carried out a general raid for arms on the night of 31 August. In the northern areas, members of the AOH and Protestants, ‘aware that the raid was to take place’, put up considerable resistance, whereas in south Monaghan there was little trouble. Only a few rifles, several pistols and some shotguns were captured, at considerable cost – four confirmed IRA fatalities, and several woundings.375 James Mulligan characterised the raid as ‘partly a failure’. Another IRA veteran, Charlie O’Neill, recalled: ‘To me it seemed a silly order as it would only alert Protestants & put them on the defensive.’ It engendered a spate of reprisals and counterreprisals in the following months, including sectarian murders. As a county where comparatively few fatalities occurred, and where Crown forces lost only a handful of men in a few engagements, Monaghan stands out for the high proportion of civilians – AOH and Protestant – killed by the IRA. Marron, severely wounded leading a raid on James McCaul’s farm, died in the early hours of 1 September at Corcreeghagh, two miles from Shercock, Cavan. The IRA reportedly shot McCaul in the chest about a fortnight later in reprisal, while his son Patrick was ordered to leave the country. Buried Raferagh Cemetery. His brother Patrick,† killed on 24 May 1922, was interred in the same grave, marked with a Celtic cross.376 RD: Keenan (20Sep1920/10), McKenna (1Sep1920/3), O’Reilly (1Sep1920/2) Peter O’Reilly (1Sep1920/2) IRA, RC Drum, Monaghan O’Reilly served in the Rockcorry Company, Monaghan Brigade. John McGahey, a

Rockcorry Volunteer, recalled raids on about a dozen unionist houses by eighteen members of the Rockcorry Company. Towards morning, O’Reilly broke down the door of the Crawford home near Drum, but was seriously wounded by a shotgun blast, fired by whom is unclear. Using a garden gate as a stretcher, his comrades carried him some distance until they met Father Edward Quigley, parish priest of Rockcorry, and Dr W. Canning. O’Reilly died before the last rites could be administered. Buried Edergole Churchyard, Rockcorry.377 Patrick Joseph McKenna (1Sep1920/3) IRA, Woodturner, RC Castleblayney, Monaghan From Church Street, Castleblayney, McKenna was fatally wounded at the farm of William Fleming at Drumgarra. Six months later the IRA killed William and Robert Fleming in reprisal, an act which some republican veterans characterised as vindictive and sectarian. Buried St Mary’s Church, Castleblayney, Monaghan. His father ultimately received a dependent’s gratuity of £50.378 SA: Fleming (29Mar1921/1), Fleming (29Mar 1921/2) Thomas Maher (1Sep1920/4) 53, Water bailiff, farmer, Married, RC Knockgraffon, Cahir, Tipperary Maher lived with his wife Ellen in Knockgraffon, Cahir. At about 03:00, he answered his door. Although carrying a shotgun, he was ordered to put his hands up, then killed by a revolver shot to the chest. His wife saw two men running away. The RIC thought this a botched arms raid.379 John O’Brien (1Sep1920/5) 45, Married, RC Park Street, Belfast O’Brien, of 9 Kildare Street, was shot in the head on Park Street around 08:00, either by a sniper, or by the military while returning fire.380 Edward Murphy (1Sep1920/6) RIC (69231), 24, Farmer, RC Ratra Crossroads, Tibohine, Roscommon From Knock, Mayo, Constable Murphy joined the RIC on 2 October 1917, posted

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first to Leitrim and in February 1920 to Ballaghadereen, Roscommon. About thirty men of the South Sligo Brigade IRA ambushed a five-man RIC group cycling to Frenchpark at Ratra Crossroads. One section fired prematurely, fatally wounding Constable Martin McCarthy but allowing his comrades to take cover and fight back. Thomas McDonagh killed Murphy, but was then shot dead himself. The IRA withdrew, and the RIC dragged McDonagh’s body through the streets of Ballaghaderreen before handing it over to relatives. That night, several Ballaghadereen premises were destroyed in reprisal. Murphy’s parents William and Kate later secured £800 compensation.381 RD: McCarthy (2Sep1920/2), McDonagh (1Sep1920/7) Thomas McDonagh (1Sep1920/7) IRA, 20, Stereotyper, Engaged, RC Ratra Crossroads, Tibohine, Roscommon See Murphy (1Sep1920/6). Born in the United States, McDonagh was brought back to Ireland and raised by his grandmother and uncle on a farm at Cloonloo, Sligo. Buried Temple Ronain, Sligo. He is commemorated on a monument at Shankill, Roscommon.382 James A. Cowser383 (1Sep1920/8) 37, Sawyer, Married with one child, Protestant Cliftonpark Avenue, Belfast Cowser lived at 7 Benwell Street with his wife Elizabeth and their child. He had lost his nose during the Boer War. He was shot by police on Cliftonpark Avenue, allegedly while one of a loyalist group chasing a Catholic.384 Henry McCann (1Sep1920/9) 30, Carter, RC Brown Street, Belfast McCann, of 34 Wall Street, was shot dead on Brown Street, probably by a loyalist sniper. Buried Milltown Cemetery.385 Thomas Maxwell (1Sep1920/10) 38, Well sinker, Married, CoI RVHB Maxwell, of 61 North Boundary Street, died from a leg wound received the previous day

when the military fired to disperse a crowd on Old Lodge Road.386

2 SEPTEMBER 1920 Thomas Boyd (2Sep1920/1) 45, Ex-serviceman, labourer, Married with four children, Presbyterian RVHB Boyd, of 11 Northland Street, was wounded in the throat on Louden Street when police clashed with a mob.387 Martin McCarthy (2Sep1920/2) RIC (66580), 28, Farmer, RC Ratra Crossroads, Roscommon See Murphy (1Sep1920/6). McCarthy, from Clare, joined the RIC on 15 May 1912, stationed in Ballaghaderreen.388 Frederick Hobbs (2Sep1920/3) 30, Ex-serviceman, Married with one child, RC RVHB Hobbs, of 26 Boundary Street, shot in the head by a loyalist gunman as he helped to move furniture, died next day.389 William James McMurty (2Sep1920/4) 18, Shipyard worker, CoI RVHB McMurty, of 13 Derry Street, died the day after he was wounded during a riot, most likely by IRA or other nationalist gunmen.390 Patrick Seery (2Sep1920/5) IRA, 36, RC MMD ‘Paddy’ Seery from Cloneyheigue, Ballinagore, Westmeath, was a captain in Offaly No. 2 Brigade. He died from wounds received on 2 June, when Volunteers from local companies attacked the RIC Barracks at Clara, Offaly. The attack was abandoned at around 03:00.391 Timothy Folan, an RIC constable awarded a constabulary medal following the attack, believed Seery had been accidentally wounded by his own side. Colun also recalled how locals called to the barracks after the attack, bringing bottles of whiskey and other comforts. Buried Meedin Graveyard, Tyrrellspass, Westmeath. Two of his siblings later failed to secure dependents’ allowances.392

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3 SEPTEMBER 1920 Neil Kerr (3Sep1920/1) IRA, 24, Sailor, RC Thomas Ashe Sinn Féin Club, 93 Scotland Road, Liverpool From Pigeon House Road, Dublin, Kerr lived at 6 Florida Street, Liverpool. A fireman on a US ocean liner, after the Rising he was imprisoned in Knutsford and Frongoch. He, his brother Tom and father Neil senior were key IRA arms smugglers. One account says Tom Kerr was examining a .45 automatic, part of an arms consignment, in the cellar of 93 Scotland Road. He pressed the trigger, shooting his brother dead. Another version has it that Neil Kerr accidentally shot himself. Buried GC.393 William McDowell (3Sep1920/2) 50, Motor driver, Married, CoI Knocknagor, Laurencetown, Down McDowell was driving William McConville from a bank in Banbridge, where he had collected £1,308 for wages for Messrs Dunbar, McMaster and Co. They were held up at Knocknagor. McDowell was later found dead on the road; the money was missing. McConville was suspected of tipping off the robbers, whose motives may have been mercenary rather than political. In December 1920 William Conlon, Frank O’Boyle, Hugh Rogers and McConville were tried for murder, but the jury could not agree. In April 1921 they were arraigned before a general court martial, where Rogers, a chauffeur from Sixmilecross, Tyrone, was sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment. An appeal on the grounds that he should not have been court martialled, having already faced a civil court, failed.394 Essie McDowell lost an action seeking £3,000 compensation.395

c. 3 SEPTEMBER 1920 William Kenny (3 Sep1920/3) Ex-serviceman, RC Ballyogan, Graiguenamanagh, Kilkenny Kenny was from Harristown, Graiguenamanagh. Michael O’Carroll claimed that Kenny ‘consorted’ with newly arrived soldiers, ‘gave them information and

accompanied them on their raids’. On 27 August Volunteers of A Company captured Kenny. He reportedly carried a ticket to Canada and a good sum of money. Held for a week in Graiguenamanagh, he was sentenced to death by IRA court martial. Father David Gorry ministered to him before he was blindfolded, bound and gagged, and drowned in the River Barrow – apparently for fear that gunshots might have been heard at a nearby military post. It also meant his disappearance would be a mystery. Two months later his body was washed up three miles downriver. Three Volunteers had the gruesome task of attaching weights to the decomposed corpse and sinking it for a second time. His family left the area.396

4 SEPTEMBER 1920 Charles Harold (4Sep1920/1) British Military, Protestant Military Hospital, Victoria Barracks, Belfast Private Harold died from injuries received during earlier disturbances.397 Percy Harold Charles Turner (4 Sep1920/2) The Queen’s Regiment, 27, Married, one child Military Hospital, Victoria Barracks, Belfast Acting-Sergeant Turner, from Surrey, died from a leg wound. His second child Phyllis was born five months later.398

5 SEPTEMBER 1920 William Hegarty (5Sep1920/1) IRA, 30, Farmer, RC Ballymakeera, Cork ‘Liam’ Hegarty, quartermaster Ballyvourney Company, 8th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, and a local man Dan Healy approached a military lorry which had apparently broken down and been abandoned. Hegarty was shot by soldiers concealed inside and, apparently, finished off at close range by a shot to the head. This incident occurred near the home of Michael Lynch whose youngest son, also Michael, was shot near his gate and died about three hours later. The lorry was then driven away to Cork. Buried Kilgarvan,

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Kerry. Commemorated on a monument in The Square, Macroom.399 RD: Lynch (5Sep1920/2) Michael Lynch (5Sep1920/2) 22, RC Ballymakeera, Cork See Hegarty (5Sep1920/1). Lynch lived in Ballymakeera. One brother was an RIC man, another an ex-serviceman. The Cork Examiner stated that Lynch was not a Sinn Féin supporter. Buried Kilgarvan, Kerry. He is commemorated on a plaque in Ballyvourney.400 Thomas Moriarty (5Sep1920/3) Fianna Éireann, 17, Farmer’s son,401 RC Cloghane, Kerry Two policeman brothers named Granville were home on leave at Cloghane to bury a relative. They were in a neighbour’s house when a party of men sought them. They escaped through the back door. One version had it that Moriarty helped them attempt to escape, another that he was a local Fianna scout whom his comrades accidentally shot in the back. He was buried by the IRA next day. The Granvilles were captured but later released. Moriarty’s father secured £120 compensation, and later a dependent’s award.402

8 SEPTEMBER 1920 Timothy Delaney (8Sep1920/1) RIC (65728), 30, Signalman, Married with one child, RC Tullow, Carlow From Mountrath, Laois, Delaney worked with the GS&WR before joining the RIC on 15 February 1911, allocated to Clare. First stationed in Clare, in September 1915 he was transferred to Carlow. Delaney was in a four-man RIC patrol ambushed as it returned to Tullow RIC Barracks at about 22:20 by Volunteers of the 3rd Battalion, Carlow Brigade. When challenged, the police apparently opened fire. Constables Delaney and John Gaughan were killed outright. Constable O’Halloran was wounded in the arm and Sergeant Warrington, who was in charge,

escaped with minor injuries. The surviving policemen ran to their barracks nearby. The Wicklow People reported that Delaney and Gaughan had already tendered their resignations, and that a letter of acceptance of Gaughan’s resignation reached Tullow RIC Barracks the morning after his death. Delaney’s widow Mary secured £1,500 compensation, with £2,000 for his daughter Mary Margaret.403 RD: Gaughan (8Sep1920/2) John Gaughan (8Sep1920/2) RIC (64181), 34, Irish teacher, RC Tullow, Carlow See Delaney (8Sep1920/1). From Belmullet, Constable Gaughan joined the RIC in 1908, stationed in Wicklow and later in Tullow, Carlow. His father Richard secured £760 compensation.404

9 SEPTEMBER 1920 Edward Krumm (9Sep1920/1) RIC (72372), 25, Ex-serviceman, electrical engineer, CoE Infirmary, Galway From Middlesex, Krumm enlisted in 1914. Demobilized in August 1919, he joined the RIC on 10 August 1920. Initially stationed in Dunmore as a driver, he was transferred to Eglinton Street Barracks, Galway. At about 23:45 on 8 September he left Baker’s Hotel in Eyre Square to collect newspapers from the midnight train. Krumm was in civilian clothes, fuelling rumours that he was engaged in intelligence work. Galway Volunteers were also at the station to meet a comrade carrying a case of arms and ammunition. As Krumm was leaving the station, Volunteers ‘tried to disarm him by grappling with him’, but he managed to draw his revolver and shoot Seán Mulvoy in the side of the head. Krumm was then shot. He died almost immediately, Mulvoy two hours later. At around 02:30 police from Eglinton Street Barracks fired several volleys around Galway and set fire to a house on Prospect Hill. At about 04:20, police called at Charles Burbidge’s house. Séamus Quirke, a lodger, was taken, barefoot, his rosary beads in his

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hands, about 300 yards. Shot ten times and left for dead, he struggled back to his lodgings where Father Michael Griffin administered the last rites. Krumm’s mother Edith secured £2,100 compensation.405 RD: Mulvoy (9Sep1920/2), Quirke (9Sep 1920/3). SA: Griffin (15Nov1920/2) Jack (Seán) Mulvoy (9Sep1920/2) IRA, 20, Shop assistant, RC Infirmary, Galway See Krumm (9Sep1920/1). Mulvoy, of Bohermore, Galway, worked for Messrs Corbett & Co. Buried Teampaill, Renmore, Galway. Seán Mulvoy Road commemorates him.406 Séamus Quirke (9Sep1920/3) IRA, 23, Shop assistant, RC The Docks, Galway See Krumm (9Sep1920/1). From Cork, Quirke worked at Jeremiah O’Donovan’s watch-making and jewellery shop, and was adjutant A Company, 1st Battalion, Galway No. 1 Brigade. Buried SFC, Cork. A road in Galway was named in his memory.407 Edward Morley (9Sep1920/4) RIC (71418), 21,408 Ex-serviceman, Protestant Clonbullogue, Offaly Constable Morley, from Surrey, joined the RIC on 14 May 1920, and in July was posted to Clonbullogue. After breakfast he went to his room and shot himself through the mouth with a rifle.409

10 SEPTEMBER 1920 Charles O’Neill (10Sep1920/1) Spirit grocer, 40, RC MIHB See Cassidy (29Aug1920/1). O’Neill was from Glenpark Street.410

11 SEPTEMBER 1920 Patrick Gill (11Sep1920/1) 50, Farmer, RC Drumsna, Leitrim Gill, from Corlara, Leitrim, was going to a wake with his sister Lizzie and a neighbour.

Around 22:00, they encountered police and soldiers of the East Yorkshire Regiment. Gill was shot in the abdomen when he failed to answer a challenge. He died nearby. His companions said they had heard only one challenge to halt. Whether he was a Volunteer is unclear. Buried Drumsna, Leitrim.411 John Toner (11Sep1920/2) 51,412 Carter, Widowed with two children, RC Newtownards Road, Belfast Toner, of 29 Cable Street, was going home twenty minutes after curfew when called on to halt several times, before being shot by a patrol of the Prince Albert’s (Somerset Light Infantry). Wounded in the left shoulder and chest, he soon died. Samuel Toner said that his brother, who had gone out to buy groceries, was hard of hearing, having worked in the shipyards on Queen’s Island for thirty years.413

12 SEPTEMBER 1920 Frank Basil Catchpole (12Sep1920/1) Norfolk Regiment (5765260), 22, Protestant Cavan Private Catchpole, of Woodton, Bungay, Norfolk, was killed when Private Constable discharged a rifle while cleaning it in Cavan. Constable was charged with murder. Buried All Saints Churchyard, Woodton, Norfolk.414 Robert Seymour (12Sep1920/2) 33, Grocer, Presbyterian Union Infirmary, Lisburn Road, Belfast See Chapman (30Aug1920/9). Seymour died from wounds received when shot by troops on 30 August as he lifted a box outside his grocery at 186 Sandy Row.415

14 SEPTEMBER 1920 James Connolly (14Sep1920/1) 70, Married, RC Unshinagh, Kinlough, Leitrim At about 04:30, the Connolly house was raided by police and military looking for James junior, captain Kinlough Company, Donegal Brigade. James Connolly senior said James was in Manorhamilton, though in fact he had returned late and was in his room. A shot was fired, possibly accidentally,

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wounding James senior. Soldiers lifted him onto a bed while help was sought. He died at around 17:00. His son was arrested.416 Michael Glavey (14Sep1920/2) IRA, 36, Tailor, Engaged, RC Ballinlough, Roscommon Glavey, from Clooncan, Ballinlough, was a well-known sportsman, and a lieutenant in the Ballinlough Company, South Roscommon Brigade. On 11 September, Ballinlough Barracks was closed and its men transferred to Castlerea. The IRA went to burn the building. Unknown to them, soldiers of the 9th Lancers had been dropped off at Cashlieve Wood. They returned to Ballinlough Barracks surreptitiously on foot and lay in ambush. Glavey was shot in front of the building, and died within minutes. Pat Glynn was killed while climbing a ladder to bore a hole in the roof. Michael J. Keane was also killed. Other Volunteers escaped. Buried Ballyhaunis, Mayo. Commemorated on a monument at Loughglinn, Roscommon. Michael Glavey’s GAA Club in Ballinlough is named in his memory. His mother and sister each received a £50 gratuity.417 RD: Glynn (14Sep1920/3), Keane (14Sep 1920/4) Patrick Glynn (14Sep1920/3) IRA, 28, Agricultural labourer, carpenter, RC Ballinlough, Roscommon See Glavey (14Sep1920/2). From Aghaderry, Loughglinn, Glynn was O/C 1st (Castlerea) Battalion, South Roscommon Brigade. Buried Kilrudane Cemetery, Loughglinn. Commemorated on a monument at Loughglinn. His father secured a £150 gratuity.418 Michael J. Keane (14Sep1920/4) IRA, 24, Farmer, RC Ballinlough, Roscommon See Glavey (14Sep1920/2). Keane, from Clooncrim, Ballinlough, was second lieutenant Ballinlough Company, South Roscommon Brigade. Buried Granlahan Cemetery, Ballinlough. Commemorated on a monument at Loughglinn. His father secured a £75 gratuity.419

William Carroll (14Sep1920/5) RIC, 26, Farmer, RC Douglas, Cork The CFR records that Constable William Carroll (67944), from Galway, who joined the RIC on 15 July 1914, allocated to Cork East Riding, was driving a timber lorry commandeered at gunpoint, when thrown through the windscreen when it hit a telegraph pole in Douglas after speeding and zigzagging. Two other policemen were injured. Some onlookers said all three policemen appeared to be drunk.420

15 SEPTEMBER 1920 John O’Callaghan (15Sep1920/1) 29, Ex-serviceman, clerk Farmer’s Cross, Cork O’Callaghan, a clerk in Victoria Barracks, was kidnapped by Patrick Collins and Jeremiah Keating. Held for some hours, he attempted to flee but was tripped up and recaptured. Driven out to the Farmer’s Cross area, shot and buried, his remains were never recovered. Patrick Collins, captain G Company, 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, asserted that the ‘brigade had ample evidence that this man [O’Callaghan] was conveying information’. Collins appeared to confuse the date of this killing with that of Stephen O’Callaghan, shot on Anderson’s Quay on 29 April 1920.421 SA: Callaghan (30Apr1920/3)

17 SEPTEMBER 1920 Joseph Athy (17Sep1920/1) 22, Road worker,422 RC St Bride’s Nursing Home, Galway Athy, from Maree, Oranmore, Galway, was fatally wounded at 18:30 when shots were fired from behind a hedge into a cart carrying three labourers. He died next day. The police suggested that the men were unpopular because they took road contracts previously held by locals under ‘the direct labour system’. The Last Post stated that Athy was murdered by police, as did Thomas Newell, lieutenant Castlegar Company. At Galway Quarter Sessions in July 1921, Patrick Burke swore that one of the men who shot at him was in uniform. Buried Kilcaimin Cemetery, Oranmore.423

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18 SEPTEMBER 1920 Terence Patrick Wheatley (18Sep1920/1) RIC,424 25, RAF, Married Louth Infirmary, Dundalk, Louth Wheatley, a Dublin comedian’s son, was stationed in Anne Street Barracks, Dundalk, as a driver. He died of abdominal wounds received at about 02:45 on 16 September, when he was out of his barracks without permission. A search of his pockets yielded twelve silk handkerchiefs stolen from J. D. Melville’s drapery after the constable had smashed the plate glass window. Other witnesses deposed that they heard an argument before shots were fired. A threatening note addressed to Wheatley, which it was suggested he may have written himself, was also found: Poblacht na hÉireann – To Driver Wheatley RIC Take warning, relinquish your present occupation and leave Ireland within one month from this date or the sentence of death already passed on you will be carried out. Signed by the Commandant Louth Area IRA, 02/09/1920.

Buried St Patrick’s Cemetery, Dowdallshill. His widow secured £1,200 compensation.425 Robert John Clout (18Sep1920/2) Prince Consort’s Own (Rifle Brigade) (6908971), 18 Finner Camp, Ballyshannon, Donegal Lance-Corporal Clout was accidentally shot through the throat by a soldier of the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment. Buried Clapham Cemetery, Kent (HH. 1147).426

19 SEPTEMBER 1920 Seán Doyle (19Sep1920/1) IRA, 19, Fitter, RC Kilmashogue, Dublin Doyle, of 159 Emmet Road, served in 4th Battalion, Dublin Brigade. An explosives demonstration was held at Kilmashogue mountain, frequently used for IRA training purposes. Although a warning was received the night before of possible Crown forces activity, Rory O’Connor,† director of

engineering, stuck to the plan. O’Connor, chief of staff Dick Mulcahy and others were observing tests of the munitions when they heard a fusillade of shots. Two IRA companies preparing to march to the top of a hill nearby had been challenged by a large group of Auxiliaries behind the wall of St Columba’s College. Doyle was shot dead while attempting to throw a grenade. IRA officers believed the Auxiliaries had been in position since the previous night, whereas the Auxiliary commander testified said they deployed only at 10:00. Forty-three men were arrested. Buried Esker Cemetery, Lucan, Dublin.427

20 SEPTEMBER 1920 James D. Mathers (20Sep1920/1) Blacksmith’s apprentice, CoI RVHB Mathers, of 8 Hartley Street, died at 02:00 of wounds received during rioting on 30 August.428 Albert Sweeney (20Sep1920/2) King’s Own (Royal Lancaster Regiment) (3703223) 33, Married KGVH Sergeant ‘Bertie’ Sweeney was stationed in Kilbride Camp, Dublin. His wife lived in Lancaster, Lancashire. He and Sergeant Thomas Downton intervened when the highly decorated Sergeant George Pollington DCM MM, Worcestershire Regiment, who had been drinking prodigiously, announced his intention of shooting May Fitzpatrick, who had stayed with him in Richmond Barracks for two days after he invited her to attend a dance there. A soldier hid one rifle, but Pollington went out and found another weapon. Returning, he aimed at Fitzpatrick but hit Sweeney. Downton then stepped in front of her, crying: ‘If you shoot her you shoot me.’ Pollington killed him, and wounded another NCO. May Fitzpatrick escaped by jumping out of a window just as Pollington fired again. Pollington, described by one former officer as the bravest man he had ever met, had won a DCM at the Somme, and an MM and Bar at Loos and Arras. Twice wounded and once buried alive, he had been discharged

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with shell shock in 1918, but had re-enlisted in 1919. He was found guilty but insane at a court martial on 9 and 10 November 1920. The prosecuting counsel was Captain S. Newberry, himself destined for assassination on ‘Bloody Sunday’.429 Buried Lancaster Cemetery (M. CE.41).430 RD: Downton (20Sep1920/3) Thomas Downton (20Sep1920/3) Worcestershire Regiment, 29, Married KGVH See Sweeney (20Sep1920/2). Sergeant Downton, a ‘bosom’ friend of Pollington’s, was stationed in Richmond Barracks. His wife Annie lived in Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne. Buried St John’s Westgate and Elsgate Cemetery, Newcastle upon Tyne (D. U. 229).431 Harold Washington (20Sep1920/4) The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, 15  432 Upper Church Street, Dublin Private Washington was stationed in Collinstown Aerodrome, Dublin. Born in Salford on 24 October 1904, he had enlisted under age: the army recorded him as nineteen. An older brother had been killed in the Great War. Sixteen Volunteers of H Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade and some members of G Company mobilised to disarm a military rations party which travelled from Collinstown Camp twice a week to collect bread from Monks’ Bakery on Upper Church Street. The IRA were in position at 09:00 sharp with the exception of Kevin Barry, a medical student, who was ten minutes late because he had gone to UCD to enquire about a repeat examination set for that afternoon. Because of his late arrival, Barry was issued with an unfamiliar automatic. Although a coveted weapon, the Mauser had a tendency to jam when loaded with Parabellum rounds from different batches. The lorry, which did not arrive until 11:00, carried one driver, an unarmed NCO, two unarmed privates to carry the bread and six armed members of the Duke of Wellington’s (Regiment). Barry’s court martial heard that at around 11:00 five civilians ordered the military to put their hands up and fired almost simultaneously.

O/C Séamus Kavanagh later recalled that one of his men ran out, probably due to anxiety, shouted hands up and fired a round. Seán O’Neill gave a slightly different version of events, stating that when the soldiers realised that they were being covered by only one Volunteer they grabbed their rifles and an exchange of fire ensued. The shootout lasted for about three minutes. Bullets pierced the hats and clothing of some of the IRA men. Washington was killed outright, shot through the chin, and privates Humphries and Whitehead were hit in the abdomen. The IRA dispersed without capturing any arms and without any withdrawal signal. Barry’s comrades then realised that he was missing. Captured under the lorry, where he had sheltered while trying to clear a jam in his gun, he was subsequently court martialled and hanged for shooting Whitehead. Humphries and Whitehead were brought to hospital. Whitehead’s ‘bowel was perforated in three places . . . it is the most dangerous wound any man can have’, and his abdominal cavity was ‘full of blood, clotted blood’, which a surgeon ‘roughly removed by the hand’. He died that day. Humphries, wounded behind the right hip, died a day later. Buried Weaste Cemetery Salford, Lancashire (G. 1454).433 RD: Humphries (21Sep1920/3), Whitehead (20Sep1920/5). SA: Barry (1Nov1920/5), McKee (22Nov1920/9) Marshall Whitehead (20Sep1920/5) The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment (4603629),434 20 KGVH See Washington (20Sep1920/4). Private White­ head, an only son from Halifax, enlisted in October 1918. He was stationed in Collinstown Camp. His funeral cortège in Halifax passed through streets ‘thronged with people’. Buried Stoney Royd Cemetery, Halifax.435 John A. Denham (20Sep1920/6) RIC (72222), 23, Labourer, ex-serviceman, Protestant RIC Barracks, Glenbower, Tipperary From the Isle of Wight, Constable Denham joined the RIC on 3 August 1920, stationed in

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Glenbower. Accidentally shot by a comrade, he died at 15:20.436 Peter Burke (20Sep1920/7) RIC (62175), 36, Farmer, RC Balbriggan, Dublin From Boyounagh, Glenamaddy, Galway, Burke joined the RIC on 15 October 1896, serving in Antrim, Tipperary and Kerry before transfer to the RIC Reserve in 1916. Promoted to sergeant in 1918 and to head constable in 1919, as an instructor at the Phoenix Park RIC depot, he was reportedly promoted to DI on the day of his death and also awarded the constabulary medal. His brother William was a police sergeant in Balbriggan. The brothers were in Smyth’s pub in Balbriggan at 21:30 while en route to Gormanston, three miles away. Thinking that a group of Auxiliaries who had earlier been refused service were making trouble, William Corcoran and Michael Rock, O/C Naul Battalion, Fingal Brigade, entered through the back door with their weapons drawn. Rock ordered the brothers to clear out, but ‘instead of doing so they made a rush at me and I had no option but to fire. I shot one of the head constables dead and wounded the other.’ News of the shooting reached Gormanston Camp. An estimated 200 Auxiliaries and RIC regulars descended on Balbriggan. Four pubs, a hosiery factory and nine private houses were set on fire. A further thirty houses, mostly on Clonard Street, were vandalised. Claims amounting to £160,000 were later lodged for damages caused by what became known as ‘the sack of Balbriggan’. According to Rock, ‘Jack’ Straw, an ex-serviceman, ‘guided the Tans around the town and pointed out . . . the houses to burn’. The IRA subsequently killed him. At around 01:00 on 21 September, the homes of Volunteers James Lawless and John Gibbons were raided. They were taken to Balbriggan RIC Barracks, where the local RIC reportedly stated that neither had been involved in the earlier killing. After several hours of abuse, they were bayoneted and shot on Quay Street. Their extensively wounded bodies were

discovered at 06:00. Buried Glenamaddy, Galway.437 RD: Gibbons (21Sep1920/1), Lawless (21Sep 1920/2). SA: Straw (21Sep1920/4) James Donohoe (20Sep1920/8) RIC (66183), 29, Farmer, RC Military Hospital, New Barracks, Limerick From Monaghan, Constable Donohoe joined the RIC on 18 October 1911, posted to Donegal, then Belfast, and in June 1920 to Abbeyfeale, Limerick. James Collins, captain Abbeyfeale Company, West Limerick Brigade, recalled how fifty Volunteers lay in wait for an RIC patrol just outside Abbeyfeale. One Volunteer accidentally broke a branch and when Constable Mahony went to investigate he was mortally wounded. Donohoe was also shot. The other police took cover in a nearby presbytery, and brought Father David Fitzgerald and Father John Carr out to attend to Mahony. He was placed on a cart which the police pushed to the barracks, accompanied by the two priests. Donohoe died at 23:00. Buried Carrickmacross. His father James secured £450 compensation.438 RD: Mahony (20Sep1920/9) John Mahony (20Sep1920/9) RIC (68276), 26, Postman, RC Military Hospital, New Barracks, Limerick See Donoghue (20Sep1920/8). From Castletownsend, Cork, Mahony joined the RIC on 1 April 1915, stationed in Abbeyfeale. According to Séamus de Róiste, ‘But for the presence of the two priests, section No. 1 and No. 2 could easily have wiped out the patrol on its return.’439 It was later said that he had been an IRA informant. Buried Castletownsend. His father Daniel secured £720 compensation and his fifteen-year-old brother £300.440 SA: Finn (30Mar1921/3)

c. 20 SEPTEMBER 1920 Owen Keenan (20Sep1920/10) IRA, RC Dublin Hospital Keenan, wounded at Gortnanan, Three­ milehouse, during the Monaghan IRA’s

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disastrous general raid for arms on 31 August, died in Dublin about three weeks later.441 Buried Corcaghan Cemetery, Monaghan.442

Dublin. A Celtic cross was erected in 1941, and a plaque placed on the bridge over the Bracken River in memory of them both.444

James Doyle (20Sep1920/11) 34, Agricultural labourer, Married with seven children, RC Knockroe, Rathanna, Borris, Carlow Doyle, from Templeshambo, Enniscorthy, Wexford, was a munitions worker in England during the war. A ‘quiet, inoffensive man’, he lived at Tomgarrow, Ballycarney, Enniscorthy, working for a Mrs Whitty. His children ranged in age from eleven years to four months. Micheál Ó Ciardubháin (Michael Kirwan), adjutant 1st Battalion, North Wexford Brigade, and Seán Whelan, O/C ASU North Wexford Brigade, said they had seen proof he was an informer. Doyle was drinking tea with his wife on 19 September when the IRA’s James Whelan and Tom Roche arrived in British officers’ uniforms. Doyle supposedly offered information on the local Volunteers. Taken away, next night he was sentenced to death by a court martial presided over by Phil Lennon, O/C North Wexford Brigade. Father Aidan McCormack, curate Kiltealy, administered spiritual aid. Doyle was shot at Knockroe on the Wexford–Carlow border, about thirteen miles from his home (Michael Kirwan told the Pensions Board that he ‘arranged for trap for spy James Doyle’, while James Whelan said he ‘was on the execution’). Shot in the head and body, his corpse ‘was partly covered with sheaves of corn’. An attached label read: ‘Spies and Informers Beware’. Doyle’s brother identified him on 24 September. Buried Templeshambo. His widow secured £300 compensation and his children a total of £900.443

James Lawless (21Sep1920/2) IRA, 40,445 Barber, Married with eight children, RC Balbriggan, Dublin See Burke (20Sep1920/7). Lawless, from Dublin, lived on Bridge Street, Balbriggan. Lawless was buried at Balscadden, Dublin, in the same grave as John Gibbons. A plaque commemorating them was placed on the bridge over the Bracken River.446

21 SEPTEMBER 1920 John Gibbons (21Sep1920/1) IRA, c. 29, Dairyman, farmer, RC Balbriggan, Dublin See Burke (20Sep1920/7). Gibbons lived on Skerries Road, Balbriggan, with his widowed mother Rose. Gibbons and James Lawless were buried in the same grave at Balscadden,

Thomas Humphries (21Sep1920/3) The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment (460264), 19 KGVH See Washington (20Sep1920/4). Private Humphries, of West Bowling, Bradford, was stationed at Collinstown Camp, Dublin. Buried Bowling Cemetery, Bradford (U. 335).447

c. 21 SEPTEMBER 1920 William ‘Jack’ Straw448 (21Sep1920/4) Ex-serviceman, labourer, 30 Bettyville, Ballyboughal, Dublin Straw, twice wounded while with the Argyll and Southern Highlanders in Palestine and Mesopotamia, was reported missing on 21 September: ‘It was common talk in and around Balbriggan’ that he had been ‘chased out of Skerries by two men armed with revolvers’. This was probably the ‘spy’ whom Thomasina Weston of Cumann na mBan believed she detected near Balbriggan. Thomas Peppard, intelligence officer Fingal Brigade, recalled: ‘We were very anxious to pick up this man. . . . He was court-martialled and shot’ for his role in the sack of Balbriggan. On 21 October his corpse was found in a ditch at Bettyville Wood after heavy rain had washed away some soil. Among his killers were Bartholomew Weston and Richard Kelly of the 2nd Battalion. Peppard said Straw was the only spy executed in the Fingal Brigade area, although at least one other such killing was attempted in Malahide in 1920. The RIC reported that Straw had not

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been an informer, whereas J. V. Lawless heard that he had ‘admitted’ he was a British agent and ‘died bravely’. Thomas Rafferty and Charles Donnelly, labourers who gave evidence at the court of inquiry, were each accorded one day’s wages (7 shillings).449

22 SEPTEMBER 1920 John Aloysius Lynch (22Sep1920/1) 40, Solicitor’s clerk, RC Royal Exchange Hotel, Parliament Street, Dublin ‘Jack’ Lynch, of Bulgaden, Kilmallock, Limerick, may have been a marked man both because of his Sinn Féin activities and because his employer’s firm had acted for defendants charged with the murders of two policemen at Knocklong in May 1919. He was honorary secretary of the Limerick Sinn Féin executive and a county councillor. Lynch may also, as Florrie O’Donoghue and David Neligan suggested, have been mistaken for Liam Lynch.† Bill Kelly suggested that Lynch’s killing was authorised by Captain G. T. Baggallay, himself to die at IRA hands on ‘Bloody Sunday’. At about 03:00 intelligence officers shot Lynch in his hotel room. They claimed he fired first, whereas the Irish Bulletin maintained that Lynch was unarmed, and GHQ instructed that this point be ‘made strongly’ to press correspondents. Kelly maintained that Lieutenant Henry James Angliss, also killed on Bloody Sunday, was one of ten raiders involved. Buried Kilmallock, Limerick.450 SA: Angliss (21Nov1920/7), Baggallay (21Nov 1920/6), Enright (13May1919/1), Lynch (16Nov1920/1), Wallace (14May1919/1) Alan Cain Lendrum (22Sep1920/2) 34, Magistrate, CoI Caherfennick, Doonbeg, Clare From Kilskeery, Tyrone, Lendrum was commissioned in the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, on 2 December 1914. He served in France and Flanders, with the 16th Irish Division and the 36th Ulster Division. Wounded four times, he won an MC in 1918 and a bar on 15 February 1919. He had been resident

magistrate at Kilkee, Clare, since 31 March 1920. At around 10:00, Lendrum left Kilkee to attend Ennistymon Petty Sessions. When James Neylon, James Griffin, Patrick Boland and James McGrath, D (Doonbeg) Company, West Clare Brigade, attempted to seize his Ford motor car, Lendrum opened fire with two guns which he always carried, but was mortally wounded. His car was later dismantled and dumped in Coolough lake. Police and military found evidence of the attack near Doonbeg. It was presumed that Lendrum had been kidnapped and killed. Sir Arthur Hezlet claimed that Lendrum was buried up to his neck in sand for the tide to come in to drown him, and his body then thrown on a manure heap. The IRA maintained that Lendrum died in an outhouse, and that his corpse was taken away eight miles, ‘weighted and sunk off low-water mark that night’. Yet an autopsy revealed that Lendrum had drowned, giving some currency to the belief that he had still been alive when placed on the beach. David Joseph Conroy stated that parish priest Canon Patrick Glynn persuaded the 5th Battalion to return Lendrum’s body, and so averted widespread reprisals. On 1 October his corpse was left in a crude coffin near Kilmurry railway station. Buried Kilskeery Church of Ireland Churchyard. His father George secured £850 compensation and £300 for the loss of his son’s car.451 Reginald Hardman (22Sep1920/3) RIC (71746), 21, Gold ring maker, exserviceman, Protestant Rineen, Miltown Malbay, Clare From Highbury, London, Hardman was wounded and gassed while in the Royal Artillery. He joined the RIC as a driver on 29 June 1920, stationed in Miltown Malbay. About forty Volunteers of the 4th Battalion, Mid Clare Brigade, under Ignatius O’Neill, took position between 06:00 and 07:00 at Rineen. An RIC lorry heading towards Ennistymon came under concentrated fire. Constable Hardman, the driver, was killed by the first volley along with constables Hodnett, Kelly and Maguire. Constable Harte escaped

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from the tender and, under the cover of a wall, managed to get about 300 yards before he was killed near the railway line. Sergeant Hynes, seriously wounded, died two days later. The lorry was set on fire. Shortly afterwards a military party from Ennistymon approached and opened fire, but the IRA got clear. During this exchange, John Keane, an elderly man working in a field, was wounded in the leg. He died in Ennistymon Workhouse on 1 October.452 Buried Islington Cemetery, East Finchley, London. His parents secured £100 compensation.453 RD: Harte (22Sep1920/7), Hodnett (22Sep 1920/4), Hynes (24Sep1920/1), Keane (1Oct 1920/2), Kelly (22Sep1920/5), Maguire (22Sep 1920/6). SA: Lehane (23Sep1920/1), Lehane (27Oct1920/4), Lendrum (22Sep1920/2) John Hodnett (22Sep1920/4) RIC (66278), 31, Farmer, RC Rineen, Miltown Malbay, Clare See Hardman (22Sep1920/3). From Cork, Hodnett joined the RIC on 14 December 1911, serving in Westmeath before transfer to Ennistymon in 1916. His mother Mary secured £445 compensation.454 Michael Kelly (22Sep1920/5) RIC (63544), 32, Farmer, RC Rineen, Miltown Malbay, Clare See Hardman (22Sep1920/3). From Roscommon, Kelly joined the RIC on 2 December 1907, serving in Westmeath before transfer to Ennistymon. His sister Kate Forde secured £315 compensation.455 John Maguire (22Sep1920/6) RIC (69743), 20, Farmer, RC Rineen, Miltown Malbay, Clare See Hardman (22Sep1920/3). From Claremorris, Mayo, Maguire joined the RIC on 3 June 1919, stationed in Ennistymon. His parents, brothers and sisters secured £410 compensation.456 Michael Harte (22Sep1920/7) RIC (66362), 28, Farmer, RC Rineen, Miltown Malbay, Clare See Hardman (22Sep1920/3). From Sligo, Harte joined the RIC on 24 January 1912,

stationed in Westmeath. In 1917 he was transferred to Ennistymon. His father secured £25 compensation and his mother £150.457 Patrick J. Hartnett (22Sep1920/8) 25, Postman, RC Castleisland Road, Abbeyfeale, Limerick Hartnett, a postman, lived with his father. Between 18:30 and 19:00 three gunshots were heard in Abbeyfeale. Hartnett and Jeremiah Healy were later found dead, shot in the head, in a field outside the town. They had last been seen alive at 18:30. Healy had just left work, and Hartnett his home. James Collins, captain Abbeyfeale Company, West Limerick Brigade, believed the killer was Thomas Huckerby, a Black and Tan, who had told his DI that he fired because the men looked suspicious. Huckerby was subsequently transferred to Cork. Neither victim had any connection with the IRA. Buried Abbeyfeale.458 RD: Healy (22Sep1920/9) Jeremiah Healy (22Sep1920/9) 18, Blacksmith’s apprentice, RC Castleisland Road, Abbeyfeale, Limerick See Hartnett (22Sep1920/8). Buried Abbeyfeale.459 Thomas Connole (22Sep1920/10) Married with two children,460 RC Ennistymon, Clare The Rineen ambush provoked widespread police reprisals in the villages of Ennistymon, Lahinch and Miltown Malbay. Uniformed men set fire to seven houses in Miltown Malbay, six in Lahinch and five in Ennistymon. There were also fatalities. Helena Connole described how the police ordered everyone out of her house, shot her husband dead in front of her and their young children, and then set their home on fire, throwing the body into the flames. His charred remains were found next day. She secured £2,200 and her children £2,525. Michael Linnane described how at around 05:00, his son Patrick was shot in the temple and killed outright while helping to fight a fire in a neighbour’s house.461 RD: Linnane (22Sep1920/11)

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Patrick J. Linnane (22Sep1920/11) 21, RC Ennistymon, Clare See Connole (22Sep1920/10). His father Michael secured £2,000 compensation. Buried Miltown Malbay.462 Joseph Sammon463 (22Sep1920/12) 36, Farmer, Married with one child, RC Lahinch, Clare Sammon, from Feakle, Clare, visiting a friend in Lahinch, was shot dead by police when he ran out of the house he was staying in. Buried Ennistymon. His widow Mary secured £1,280 with £500 for their child.464 Charles Christopher Grieve (22Sep1920/13) Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, 38, Protestant CMHC Major Grieve joined the Cameron Highlanders in 1900, serving in Malta and South Africa. Twice invalided home from France, where two of his brothers were killed, he was appointed adjutant, 2nd Battalion, in 1919. He died after an ‘accidental fall’, having ‘suffered ill-health for some time’. Buried Cork Military Cemetery. His father later presented the 2nd Battalion officers’ mess with a dirk and documents including the original ‘Commission as Secretary of War’ of Fox-Maule Ramsay, the Earl of Dalhousie, who was largely blamed for the military deficiencies exposed during the Crimean War.465

23 SEPTEMBER 1920 Patrick Lehane466 (23Sep1920/1) IRA, RC Lahinch, Clare ‘Pake’ Lehane of the 4th Battalion, Mid Clare Brigade, had fought in the Rineen ambush the previous day. Asleep in a secret room in the attic of Flanagan’s in Lahinch when RIC men set the building alight, he died in the blaze. T. S. McDonagh found his charred remains next day. Some hours before this, Lehane’s home was raided: his father Daniel was shot. His brother Captain Donal Lehane was to die on 27 September 1922 in an

exchange with anti-Treaty forces at Killorglin, Kerry.467 SA: Lehane (27Oct1920/4)

24 SEPTEMBER 1920 Michael J. Hynes (24Sep1920/1) RIC (66009), 29, Farmer, RC Infirmary, Ennis, Clare See Hardman (22Sep1920/3). From Athlone, Roscommon, Hynes joined the RIC on 17 July 1911, serving in Carlow before promotion to sergeant and transfer to Ennistymon in February 1920. Buried Drum, Athlone. His father John secured £324 compensation.468 Henry Owen (24Sep1920/2) Royal Welch Fusiliers (4180426), 29, Protestant Military Hospital, New Barracks, Limerick Private ‘Harry’ Owen, of Nantwich, Cheshire, was stationed in Limerick. Accidentally shot with a revolver by a comrade at New Barracks, he died early next day. Buried All Saints Church Cemetery, Nantwich (East 3. 439).469

25 SEPTEMBER 1920 Michael Brogan (25Sep1920/1) RIC (61507), 41, Herdsman, RC Broadford, Clare From Attymon, Galway, Constable Brogan joined the RIC on 28 November 1905, serving in Kilkenny and Roscommon before his transfer in 1919 first to Ennis and then Broadford. Michael Brennan, O/C East Clare Brigade, received reports that RIC were drinking in Will O’Brien’s pub in Broadford, and that two Black and Tans were out with girls. At around 21:00 his party saw five RIC men leave O’Brien’s. When they came within a few yards, Brennan opened fire. Brogan was shot dead and Constable Brennan seriously wounded. Buried Loughrea, Galway. His father Thomas secured £300 compensation.470 Thomas Leonard (25Sep1920/2) RIC (62331), 35, Farmer, Married with three children, RC Broadway, Falls Road, Belfast From Knockcroghery, Roscommon, Constable Leonard joined the RIC on 16 January 1907,

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serving in Armagh, before transfer to Springfield Road Barracks, Belfast. Three of his brothers also served in the RIC. He lived at 22 Rodden Street. Leonard and Constable Thomas Carroll were on beat duty at Broadway on the Falls Road. At about 23:30 two Volunteers from B Company, 1st Battalion, Belfast Brigade, killed Leonard and seriously wounded Carroll. Around the same time, constables Farrell and Kerin were fired at by four men at the corner of Barrack Street and Mill Road. Farrell was wounded but not seriously. Roger McCorley said that these attacks were for the purpose of disarming police. Likewise, Thomas McNally, quartermaster Belfast Brigade, claimed that the policemen were shot only when they refused to surrender their weapons. Leonard was the first RIC man to be killed in Belfast. That night three Catholics were shot dead in reprisal. Buried Knockcroghery. His dependents secured £3,500 compensation.471 RD: Trodden (26Sep1920/1)

26 SEPTEMBER 1920 Edward Trodden (26Sep1920/1) IRA, 45,472 Barber, Married, RC Falls Road, Belfast ‘Ned’ Trodden, whose home and premises at 68 Falls Road where regularly used for IRB meetings, was described as an ‘active’ Volunteer in the Belfast Brigade. Following the Constable Leonard killing, three Catholics were assassinated in the early hours by members of the RIC and USC, allegedly led by DI Harrison. Trodden was the first. His son Eddie answered the door at 02:15 to uniformed men with blackened faces. They shot Ned Trodden in the head outside his house. At around 05:30, Seán McFadden, a Sinn Féin supporter, was shot dead nearby, as was Seán Gaynor. Thomas McNally, quartermaster Belfast Brigade, suggested that the police probably sought Gaynor’s betterknown brother Liam. In November, the chief secretary for Ireland told the Commons that Gaynor was shot while resisting arrest and that Trodden and McFadden were killed by unknown men. Buried Milltown Cemetery.

His sons secured £500 compensation, but his sister Elizabeth later failed in an application for a dependent’s award.473 RD: Gaynor (26Sep1920/3), McFadden (26Sep1920/2). SA: Leonard (25Sep1920/2) John (Seán) McFadden (26Sep1920/2) IRA, 24, RC Springfield Road, Belfast See Trodden (26Sep1920/1). McFadden was shot in the hall of 54 Springfield Road. He and his brother were apparently ‘associated with the IRA’s intelligence branch’. Buried Milltown Cemetery.474 Seán Gaynor (26Sep1920/3) IRA, 24, Plumber, RC Springfield Road, Belfast See Trodden (26Sep1920/1). The youngest of four sons, Gaynor lived in the family home at 236 Springfield Road. His father served with the RIR for twenty-five years after quitting the RIC during an eviction. A brother served during the war. Gaynor was a member of B Company, 1st Battalion. Shot dead in his bed, ‘the bullet passed through his body and went through the ceiling of the kitchen. His mother in her demented grief went to the nearest RIC barracks and accused the police of being murderers’. She described how a gunman ‘put a gun to her neck’, demanding a candle. She heard ‘Hands up’ from upstairs, and her son replying, ‘I have my hands up.’ She then heard a thud, but no shot. She found her son’s room ‘in a terrible state from blood and brain matter, and her son was lying partly on his side and face’. The departing assailants shouted, ‘That’s the stuff to give them . . . We’ll get the other one too.’ Buried Milltown Cemetery. His parents secured £400 compensation.475

27 SEPTEMBER 1920 Martin Morgan (27Sep1920/1) RIC (58174), 44, Farmer, ex-serviceman, Married with two children City Infirmary, John’s Hill, Waterford From Galway, Morgan joined the RIC on 16 May 1898, stationed in Tipperary. He enlisted in the South Irish Horse on 28 April 1916, rejoining the RIC in 1918, posted to

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Lemybrien, Waterford. He was promoted to sergeant in 1919.476 Seán Tobin recalled how an IRA party were getting into position for an ambush when a police cycle party arrived. Morgan was severely wounded, and another constable captured. The remaining five RIC men escaped. Fearing the arrival of another patrol, the IRA released their prisoner and withdrew. Buried St Patrick’s Cemetery, Clonmel, Tipperary.477 SA: Keating (19Mar1921/17)

28 SEPTEMBER 1920 William G. Gibbs (28Sep1920/1) 17th (Duke of Cambridge’s Own) Lancers (312181), 22 Military Barracks, Mallow, Cork Gibbs was senior sergeant in C Squadron, posted to Mallow from Buttevant in June 1920. Every morning most of the troops took their horses out for exercise, leaving a small detail to clean the stables. At around 10:00 the ASU Cork No. 2 Brigade, under visiting GHQ officer Ernie O’Malley, seized the guardroom. Gibbs resisted and was shot. The IRA collected all the weapons in the barracks, including two Hotchkiss guns, about thirty rifles and a large quantity of ammunition. An attempt to burn the barracks failed. Reprisals saw shops, the creamery and Mallow Town Hall destroyed. Two women who took shelter overnight in the grounds of St Mary’s Church, Hannah O’Connell and Mary Quirke, soon died, O’Connell from illness, Quirke after she became mentally unhinged. Six men sentenced to death for the murder of Sergeant Gibbs were released after the Treaty. Buried Bedford Cemetery, Bedfordshire (K/3.3).478 RD: O’Connell (15Oct1920/4), Quirke (8Nov 1920/5). SA: McCarthy (22Nov1920/10), McCreery (15May1921/11) Edward James O’Brien (28Sep1920/2) 25, Chauffeur, Married, RC Jigginstown, Naas, Kildare Edward O’Brien, a newly married collector of accounts for Shelbourne Motor Sales Company of St Stephen’s Green, lived at 14 Synnott Place, Dublin. He won an OBE for

his ambulance work during the Rising. At around 19:00, his motorcycle collided with a speeding police vehicle in the Curragh district. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: M. h. 302).479 Frederick Blair (28Sep1920/3) 44, Ex-serviceman, tailor, Married with four children, CoE MIHB A veteran of the Boer War and the Great War, living at 69 Louisa Street, Blair was a prominent Orangeman and UVF drill instructor. Between 21:00 and 22:00, serious rioting and shooting broke out in the Marrowbone district. Blair and John Lawther were fatally wounded by sniper fire. Buried Belfast City Cemetery.480 RD: Lawther (29Sep1920/8)

29 SEPTEMBER 1920 Edward A. Noonan (29Sep1920/1) RIC (70978), 26, Electrician, ex-serviceman, Married with three children, RC Killoskehane, Borrisoleigh, Tipperary From Galway, Noonan, severely wounded during the war, joined the RIC on 30 March 1920, posted to Kerry. In June he was transferred to Golden in Tipperary. Constables Noonan and Flood were killed, and Constable Ferris wounded, when about a dozen Volunteers of the Borrisoleigh Company under Jim Stapleton fired from behind a hedge on a cycle patrol which travelled regularly between Barnane and Borrisoleigh RIC posts. A fourth policeman escaped. Noonan’s widow, ‘a very young woman’ whose voice was ‘barely audible when she gave evidence’, told a court that her first husband had died in the war, leaving her with two children. She and Noonan also had a son. She secured £2,300 compensation, with £2,700 to be shared by the children.481 RD: Flood (29Sep1920/2) Terence Flood (29Sep1920/2) RIC (64194), 35, Labourer, Married, RC Killoskehane, Borrisoleigh, Tipperary See Noonan (29Sep1920/1). From Drumsna, Leitrim, Constable Flood joined the RIC on 16 July 1908, serving in Fermanagh. By 1920,

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he was stationed in Golden, Tipperary. His widow secured £600 compensation.482 Denis P. Maguire483 (29Sep1920/3) RIC (57625), 45, Married with seven children Infirmary, Tullamore, Offaly From Killyon, Offaly, the son of an RIC sergeant, Maguire joined the RIC on 1 April 1896, serving first in Kilkenny and from 1904 in Offaly. Promoted to sergeant in 1914, he was in charge of Shannonbridge RIC Barracks. In the early hours of 21 September, he was in a mixed patrol of police and soldiers searching houses in the Ferbane district, sitting on a window sill chatting with James Claffey, whose house was being searched and who had been taken into custody. A shot discharged from outside the house passed through the back window, the bedroom and then through the front window, hitting Maguire in the right eye. The IRA later claimed responsibility. He died at 23:00.484 Buried Clonminch Catholic cemetery. His widow secured £1,000 compensation and each of his children £500.485 John Downey (29Sep1920/4) RIC (63680), 35, Farmer, Married with one child, RC O’Briensbridge,486 Clare From Cork, Downey joined the RIC on 24 March 1908. He resigned in May 1913, but soon rejoined, stationed in O’Briensbridge, Clare. Constable Downey had indicated his intention to resign shortly before his death. Michael Brennan, brigade O/C, and four men entered O’Briensbridge to attack Black and Tans. Close to midnight in John Ryan’s pub, beside the RIC barracks, they saw three policemen’s caps. Brennan entered, killing Downey with a shot in the chest. Constable John O’Keeffe, shot in the stomach as he tried to reach the back door through the kitchen, died about two hours later. The publican’s sixteen-year-old daughter, who was tending bar, was hit in the ankle. Buried St Joseph’s Cemetery, Ballyphehane, Cork. Downey’s widow Margaret secured £4,908 compensation.487 RD: O’Keeffe (30Sep1920/1). SA: Gildea (16Nov1920/3), McMahon (16Nov1920/4), Rodgers (16Nov1920/5)

James Shields (29Sep1920/5) 19, Window cleaner, RC Falls Road, Belfast Shields, William Teer, Robert Gordon and Thomas Barkley, all Catholics, were shot during disturbances in the Falls Road area. Gordon’s brother James stated that a military lorry came up North Howard Street and fired on bystanders for five or six minutes without provocation. Shields and Teer were killed outright. Gordon and Barkley were severely wounded. Gordon died that night, and Barkley on 2 October.488 RD: Barkley (2Oct1920/1), Gordon (29Sep 1920/7), Teer (29Sep1920/6) William Teer (29Sep1920/6) 30, Tailor’s cutter Falls Road, Belfast See Shields (29Sep1920/5).489 Robert Gordon (29Sep1920/7) 18, Storeman, RC MIHB See Shields (29Sep1920/5). Gordon, of 80 Falls Road, worked for a publican.490 John Lawther (29Sep1920/8) 19, Shipyard worker, Protestant Belfast See Blair (28Sep1920/3). Lawther, of 20 Everton Street, died a day after being shot as he returned from work.491

30 SEPTEMBER 1920 John Thomas O’Keeffe (30Sep1920/1) RIC (67115), 30, Tea agent, RC492 O’Briensbridge, Clare See Downey (29Sep1920/4). From Clare, O’Keeffe joined the RIC on 17 February 1913, posted to Wexford. In 1916, he was transferred to O’Briensbridge, Clare. His mother Mary secured £1,560 compensation.493 James Joseph Brady (30Sep1920/2) RIC (70381), 21, Ex-serviceman, RC Tubbercurry, Sligo From Dublin, son of Captain Louis Brady, former Dublin harbour master, Brady served with the Irish Guards before joining the RIC as a DI on 23 February 1920, stationed in

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Tubbercurry, Sligo. Three IRA sections under Frank Carty, Michael O’Hara and Charles Gildea, lay in ambush at Chaffpool for Crown forces investigating an earlier mail car raid. Brady had been in Sligo and was returning to Tubbercurry in a Crossley tender with six other policemen. At around 17:30, the IRA fired on the vehicle as it reached Leitrim Hill. Mortally wounded, Brady was given the last rites in Tubbercurry by Father Felix Burke and died in the RIC barracks at about 20:30. As Liam Swords noted, Brady was dead before the Western People announced his transfer from Monaghan to Tubbercurry on 2 October. Towards midnight four military lorries entered Tubbercurry. Those on board opened fire and ransacked the town while calling on Sinn Féin supporters to come out and fight them like men. The Leitrim Observer reported that compensation claims totalled £107,900. Buried GC (South Section: T. e. 7). His father secured £2,000 compensation.494

c. SEPTEMBER 1920 John Watt (30Sep1920/3) British Military Mount Town Bog, Geevagh, Sligo John Watt, claiming to have deserted from a military detachment in Drumboe, contacted the IRA in the Conway’s Cross–Geevagh area. An IRA court martial in Gleann Hall comprising Tom Deignan, M. J. Marren, Alec McCabe and Tom O’Donnell sentenced him to death as a spy. Executed and buried in Mount Town Bog, Geevagh, by John Costello and others, his remains were discovered by turf cutters on 2 June 1962. He had been shot in the head. A newspaper report that he had been a Black and Tan attached to Boyle Barracks is not confirmed by RIC records or other research. Watt’s remains were reinterred at Carrick an Teampall Graveyard, Conway’s Cross.495

Company, Cork No. 3 Brigade. Arrested at night on 30 September at Maulskinlahane by soldiers and taken to Bandon Military Barracks, he was supposedly released. On 16 October, his partly decomposed body was discovered covered with earth and leaves in Castle Bernard Park. Buried Kilbrogan Cemetery, Bandon.496 John (Seán) Keane (1Oct1920/2) 80, Farmer, Married, RC Ennistymon Workhouse, Clare See Hardman (22Sep1920/3). Keane lived near Dromin Hill, Rineen, Ennistymon. The army denied responsibility for his death, caused by a ‘dum-dum’ bullet.497 Samuel Richard Shannon (1Oct1920/3) 24, Farmer’s son, CoI Lissaclarig, Aghadown, Skibbereen The CFR describes how Shannon was shot outside his house after he and his father had driven off an IRA raid using only sticks. He died two weeks later from abdominal wounds. His father had already sold the family farm. Buried Aghadown. His father secured £5,000 compensation.498

2 OCTOBER 1920 Thomas Barkley (2Oct1920/1) 32, Moulder, RC MIHB See Shields (29Sep1920/5). Barkley, a soldier’s brother, lived at 38 Rumania Street.499

1 OCTOBER 1920

Hugh Conway (2Oct1920/2) 28, General labourer, RC Cullen, Tipperary500 Conway lived in Cullen. He was drinking in Quinlan’s pub when soldiers ordered all present to leave and to move up the road. Shots were allegedly fired to hasten them and Conway was killed. The army’s own account in WO 35/89 indicates this was unjustified, but efforts to trace those responsible proved fruitless.501

John Connolly (1Oct1920/1) IRA, 25, RC Castle Bernard Park, Bandon, Cork From Boyle Street, Bandon, Connolly was an ITGWU member and lieutenant, Bandon

John O’Hanlon (2Oct1920/3) 34, Farmer, Married with two children, RC Lackagh, Turloughmore, Galway At about 23:00, O’Hanlon, secretary of the local Sinn Féin club, was at home with his

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wife, infant children and parents. O’Hanlon ran out the back while his father William answered a knock on the door. Two men with revolvers entered, one wearing a policeman’s long coat, the other in civilian dress. They first asked who lived there, and then why John had run away. As they searched the house, two shots were heard outside. The men left. William O’Hanlon saw about fourteen men outside. At about 06:00, he found his son’s body behind the house, shot through the forehead. His clothes had been searched and his penknife, pipe and string left on his chest. The police maintained that O’Hanlon was twice ordered to halt before being fired on. Buried Turloughmore.502 Alfred John Wicks (2Oct1920/4) 10th Hussars, 19 Ennis, Clare Wicks, from Oxford, who enlisted in May 1919, was killed in a training accident in Ennis. Buried Buttevant, Cork.503

3 OCTOBER 1920 Clarence Victor Chave (3Oct1920/1) RIC (72072), 24, Tailor, ex-serviceman CMHC From Sheerness, Kent, Chave joined the RIC on 27 July 1920, stationed in Empress Place RIC Barracks, Cork. At about 00:30, four constables were fired on from a shop window on Patrick Street. Chave, wounded in the shoulder, died at 02:30. Chave’s mother Sarah Ann secured £1,200 compensation.504

5 OCTOBER 1920 Horace St Clair L’Amie (5Oct1920/1) The Duke of Wellington’s (Regiment), 23, Army Officer, CoE Collinstown Aerodrome, Dublin From Bridgwater, Somerset, Lieutenant L’Amie was commissioned in the Duke of Wellington’s (Regiment) on 11 August 1915. He was intelligence officer at Collinstown aerodrome. Three soldiers heard a shot. L’Amie fell, hit in the side, having apparently shot himself. Buried GMC (CE. Officers 44).505

6 OCTOBER 1920 Patrick Thompson (6Oct1920/1) 29, Cattle dealer, farmer, RC Finea, Westmeath William Fagan said that he and Thompson, a ‘very popular’ cattle dealer from Lisnageeragh, Longford, had been drinking in Mrs O’Connor’s pub in Finea, before leaving at 21:55. As he crossed the street, Fagan heard three shots. Publican Patrick Fitzgerald deposed that Constable Henry Corbett, stationed in Kilnaleek, drank a whiskey and two pints of porter in his pub before going out to enquire about turf. After a few minutes the constable returned in an agitated condition, taking another drink before departing. Shots were heard a short time later. Thompson’s body was discovered at 07:00 next day. In March 1921 Corbett was acquitted of murder when it transpired that the following day he had gone to Dublin Castle and made a statement that he had fired at IRA men whom he feared were about to attack him. Additional evidence was given about IRA threats.506

7 OCTOBER 1920 John Clifford (7Oct1920/1) 17, Labourer, RC City Infirmary, Derry Clifford lived with his widowed mother Lizzie at 19 Sugarhouse Lane, Derry. His only brother was killed during the war. According to police reports, at 22:40 on 6 October a curfew patrol challenged Clifford on Sugarhouse Lane three times. He ran away and was shot in the abdomen. He died at 09:00. Friends stated that this ‘young inoffensive youth’ had been on his way to a friend’s house before the 22:30 curfew and that only one challenge was issued. Lizzie Clifford told an inquest that she and her son left a neighbour’s house at 22:25. On the doorstep John said: ‘I am shot’, after which she heard an order to halt. James Clifford, a cousin and himself an ex-serviceman, stated that he heard a shot at 22:28. Buried Ardmore Cemetery, Derry.507

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William Stanley (7Oct1920/2) RIC (58371), 45, Farmer, Married with four children Feakle, Clare From Cork, Stanley joined the RIC on 2 August 1898, serving in Limerick. In 1908 he was transferred to Clare, stationed in Feakle. He was in a six-man patrol attacked at 11:30 while going to collect mail at the post office, one mile outside Feakle, by the ASU 6th Battalion, East Clare Brigade. Stanley was killed by Volunteers firing from the first floor of the post office.508 Sergeant Francis Doherty was mortally wounded. The other police retreated to their barracks. Crown forces burned various buildings that night including the post office and the adjoining houses used during the ambush. Stanley’s widow Ellen secured £5,160 compensation.509 RD: Doherty (7Oct1920/3) Francis Doherty (7Oct1920/3) RIC (57303), 46, Farmer, RC Feakle, Clare See Stanley (7Oct1920/2). From Mohill, Leitrim, Doherty joined the RIC on 15 November 1895, allocated to Clare, stationed in Feakle. He was promoted to sergeant in 1913. His brother secured £600 compensation and his sister £252.510

8 OCTOBER 1920 Gordon John Squibb (8Oct1920/1) Hampshire Regiment (5487222), 17, Labourer, Baptist Barrack Street, Cork Son of Mr and Mrs F. Squibb of Wroxall, Isle of Wight, Private Squibb attested at Winchester on 19 February 1920 and was stationed in Cork. He was the first member of his battalion killed in action in Ireland. At about 09:45, Mick Murphy, O/C 2nd Battalion, and Tadhg O’Sullivan lobbed grenades at a lorry carrying an NCO and six men at the junction of Barrack Street and Cove Street. IRA covering parties also fired. Peter Kearney recalled that because ‘they were armed with rifles’ the attack ‘was not quite successful. We had to retreat after the first big volley.’ Squibb took the full force of

the explosion as he tried to pick up the bomb. Privates A. Russell and J. Bailet were wounded. The remainder of the escort drove off their attackers. Buried Niton Baptist Churchyard, Isle of Wight.511

9 OCTOBER 1920 Gurth Alwyn Richardson (9Oct1920/1) RAF, 30 Newcestown, Bandon, Cork From Norwich, Richardson was a flight lieutenant in the RAF wireless section in Bandon. Seán Hales, O/C Bandon Battalion, and colleagues improvised an ambush on two roads near Newcestown Cross to attack two military tenders. The IRA line extended over about 100 yards. The first vehicle, fired on at about 23:30, drove on a short distance before crashing into a fence. Those soldiers not hit took cover under their vehicle. Soldiers from the second lorry attempted to outflank the IRA position. The engagement was broken off after a sharp exchange of fire in the dark. Richardson was killed. Lieutenant Robertson of the Essex Regiment, wounded in the stomach, died on 13 October.512 Buried Norwich. His mother secured £3,000 compensation.513 RD: Robertson (13Oct1920/4)

11 OCTOBER 1920 E. W. Cowin514 (11Oct1920/1) RASC (EMT/44943), 28, CoE Ballydrocane, Kanturk, Cork Private Cowin, from Douglas, Isle of Man, served in the 1155th Mechanised Transport Company, RASC. Volunteers of the Kiskeam and Kingwilliamstown companies linked up with members of the ASU Cork No. 2 Brigade under Liam Lynch† and Ernie O’Malley, and men from nearby companies, for an ambush at Ballydrocane. They were in position by 08:00, armed with rifles, shotguns and a Hotchkiss gun captured the previous month in Mallow Military Barracks. One party was to block the road with a cart; the rest were in extended formation north of the road. At around 10:00, one tender drove into the ambush site. Although three vehicles

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had been expected, fire was opened. Cowin, the driver, was killed in the opening volley. His lorry collided with the cart and then ran into the fence. Soldiers took cover underneath their vehicle and returned fire, but surrendered after a burst of fire from the Hotchkiss gun. Eight rifles, two revolvers and a few hundred rounds of ammunition were captured. The lorry was set on fire.515 Buried St Runius’s Churchyard, Marown, Isle of Man (F. 14). Cowin’s mother Elizabeth secured £1,000 compensation.516 Maurice Griffin (11Oct1920/2) RC South Infirmary, Cork The Cork Examiner reported how, during military checks in the city on 10 October, Griffin, from Market Street, failed to halt when challenged. Shot in the back, he died next day.517

12 OCTOBER 1920 George Osbert Stirling Smyth (12Oct1920/1) RFA, 30, Army Officer, CoI ‘Fernside’, 6 Church Avenue, Drumcondra, Dublin From Banbridge, Down, Smyth was commissioned and gazetted to the RFA on 23 December 1909. Promoted to captain in 1915, by 1920 he was a brevet-major, holding the DSO and the MC. Smyth was a younger brother of Gerard Bryce Ferguson Smyth, police commissioner for Munster, killed in Cork on 17 July 1920. He was appointed to the Dublin District Force with eleven handpicked intelligence officers. Smyth had been tracking the movements of Dan Breen and Seán Treacy in Dublin. When GHQ warned James Fleming, whose Drumcondra home was frequently used by Tipperary Volunteers, of impending police raids, Fleming persuaded his neighbour Professor John Carolan to accommodate Breen and Treacy on 11 October in his house, ‘Fernside’. Smyth and a party of troops raided ‘Fernside’ between 01:00 and 02:00. Before answering the door, Carolan woke Breen and

Treacy. A gun battle ensued. Treacy and Breen fired from the stairs landing and killed Major Smyth and Captain White Purcell, wounding other soldiers. Fire was returned. Carolan, hit in the neck, died on 28 October. Breen was seriously wounded but both he and Treacy managed to escape through a bedroom window. Treacy was killed in Talbot Street two days later. Buried Banbridge Cemetery, Newry Road, Banbridge, Down.518 RD: Carolan (28Oct1920/5), White (12Oct 1920/2). SA: Smyth (17Jul1920/1), Treacy (14Oct1920/3) A. White519 (12Oct1920/2) East Surrey Regiment, Army Officer ‘Fernside’ 6 Church Avenue, Drumcondra, Dublin See Smyth (12Oct1920/1). Captain White won the DSO while serving in the East Surrey Regiment, before becoming an intelligence officer in Dublin. His mother secured £3,000 compensation.520 John Crawford (12Oct1920/3) RIC (67464), 29, Farmer, RC Ballinderry, Four Mile House, Roscommon From Miltown Malbay, Clare, Crawford joined the RIC on 18 August 1913, stationed in Roscommon town.521 He was one of eight policemen travelling in a tender towards Ballaghadereen which was attacked at about 08:30 at Ballinderry, Four Mile House, by about fifteen Volunteers from the 2nd and 3rd battalions, South Roscommon Brigade. The tender drove through the ambush and on to Strokestown. Frank Simons commended the police driver, Constable Joyce: ‘I was speaking to him after the Truce came . . . he was a remarkably good man, he escaped another night too.’ The IRA had no idea of enemy casualties. Constables Crawford and Michael Kenny were killed outright. Constable Francis Gallagher died that afternoon and Sergeant Martin O’Connor on 15 October.522 Constable O’Rahilly was also seriously wounded.523 Buried New Cemetery, Roscommon.524 RD: Gallagher (12Oct1920/6), Kenny (12Oct 1920/4), O’Connor (15Oct1920/3)

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Michael Kenny (12Oct1920/4) RIC (63217), 38, Asylum attendant, Married with one child, RC Ballinderry, Four Mile House, Roscommon See Crawford (12Oct1920/3). Constable Kenny, from Clare, joined the RIC on 16 October 1907, serving in Mayo before transfer to Roscommon town on 1 February 1920. His widow secured £5,000 compensation.525 William James Anderson (12Oct1920/5) ADRIC (73033), 28, Army officer, Protestant Beggars Bush Barracks, Haddington Road, Dublin From Antrim, Cadet Anderson joined the Auxiliary Division RIC on 6 September 1920 (auxiliary number 463) after war service as a lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment. At about 09:30, a cadet picked up a revolver, jokingly ordered him to put his hands up and shot him in the chest. His last words were, ‘Don’t blame the man that did it.’526 Francis Gallagher (12Oct1920/6) RIC (70351), 30, Riveter, ex-serviceman, RC Strokestown, Roscommon See Crawford (12Oct1920/3). From Donegal, Constable Gallagher joined the RIC on 16 February 1920, stationed in Roscommon town. His father secured £500 compensation.527 Michael Fitzgerald (12Oct1920/7) IRA, 18, Farmer, RC St Kierans, Saltmills, Wexford Fitzgerald, from St Kierans, was a section commander in the Ballycullane Company, South Wexford Brigade. Explosives seized during raids on Hook Lighthouse and elsewhere were stored in a disused house employed for bomb-making by the Ballycullane Company. Consignments of bombs were sent in butter boxes to Dublin and Cork. Fourteen Volunteers were preparing for an attack on Foulksmills RIC Barracks. In a room illuminated by candles, explosives in open buckets were being packed into 6-inch lengths of engine piping when a blue flame filled the room and within seconds a powerful explosion blew the roof off. Michael Fitzgerald and Martin Roche were killed instantly, Robert Walsh and James 528

Gleeson soon afterwards. Jimmy Byrne died next morning. Nine others were injured. The last rites were administered by two local curates. The bodies of Gleeson, Walsh and Roche were brought to their own homes. Buried Ballycullane graveyard, New Ross. The fourteen Volunteers are commemorated on a memorial erected in 1970 at Crosstown Cemetery. A recent ballad begins: Many years have gone by but we’ll not forget Our fourteen gallant heroes who are all now dead For each year we all gather to pray for their souls Where their monument is standing at St Kearns’ shore.529

RD: Byrne (13Oct1920/3), Gleeson (12Oct 1920/10), Roche (12Oct1920/8), Walsh (12Oct1920/9) Martin Roche (12Oct1920/8) IRA, 28,530 Farmer, RC St Kierans, Saltmills, Wexford See Fitzgerald (12Oct1920/7). From Saltmills, Roche was a section commander in the St Leonard’s Company. Buried Tintern Abbey, Wexford.531 Robert Walsh (12Oct1920/9) IRA, 27, Farmer, RC St Kierans, Saltmills, Wexford See Fitzgerald (12Oct1920/7). Buried Ballycullane graveyard, New Ross.532 James Gleeson (12Oct1920/10) IRA, 26, Farmer, RC St Kierans, Saltmills, Wexford See Fitzgerald (12Oct1920/7). Buried Poulfur, Fethard, Wexford.533

13 OCTOBER 1920 James M. Mahoney (13Oct1920/1) 25, Watchmaker Skibbereen, Cork Mahoney, an itinerant watchmaker reportedly of ‘weak intellect’, used the alias ‘John Hawkes’. Mahoney, who two months earlier had been arrested by Sinn Féin police for selling two watches given to him for repair, was arrested

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again, this time for spying. However, he escaped and reported the incident to the military. This led to ‘wholesale raids’ in the Skibbereen Battalion area. Jeremiah Keating, intelligence officer 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, recalled the execution of a spy named ‘Hawkes’, unmasked when a letter delivered in error apparently reached the IRA. After spending the night in Skibbereen Workhouse, Mahoney was attacked as he left at about 10:30. He cried out ‘Mercy’, was knocked down and shot in the head by a masked man (Denis Coakley), dying shortly after the last rites were administered.534 Michael Kelly (13Oct1920/2) 37, Garage owner, RC Glaslough Street, Monaghan, Monaghan Kelly, of Glaslough Street, Monaghan, was said to be a Volunteer. At about 23:10 on 12 October, Kelly and his brother were fired on as they drove homewards. Michael was shot in the lung and left arm, and he died next day at 21:30. Police reports stated that the UVF disliked motor cars travelling in certain districts at night and suggested Kelly was shot during an arms raid which had been violently ‘repulsed’. Several IRA statements maintained that Kelly was shot by Orangemen, or that the real target was a priest whom the brothers had driven home. Fearghal McGarry suggested that Kelly was shot in reprisal for the IRA’s general arms raid of 31 August 1920. Buried Latlurcan Cemetery, Monaghan town.535 James Byrne (13Oct1920/3) IRA, 23,536 Labourer,537 RC St Kierans, Saltmills, Wexford See Fitzgerald (12Oct1920/7). Volunteer Byrne, from Duncormick, joined the St Leonard’s Company in 1919 due to a change in residence. Buried Rathangan Old Cemetery.538 Robert Douglas Finch Robertson (13Oct1920/4) Essex Regiment, 25, Army officer, Married with one child CMHC See Richardson (9Oct1920/1). Lieutenant Robertson, from Southsea, Hampshire, won

an MC during the war. He was stationed in Cork. Buried Fulford Cemetery, York (I. A. 31).539

14 OCTOBER 1920 William (Liam) O’Connell (14Oct1920/1) IRA, 19, Railway labourer, RC Phibsborough, Dublin ‘Liam’ O’Connell from Glantane, Cork, served in D Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade. Bernard C. Byrne recalled an attack on an armoured car which called at the Munster & Leinster Bank at Doyle’s Corner to collect soldiers’ pay. Initially opposed as too dangerous, Brigadier Dick McKee eventually sanctioned it. The vehicle was attacked at around 14:30. Byrne attempted to jam the vehicle’s shutters open. As he did so, another Volunteer fired prematurely. The armoured car’s machine-gunner opened fire. O’Connell, struck in the head, died instantly. Byrne was able to fire into the car through the shutter, silencing the machine gun; it was subsequently rumoured, wrongly, that several soldiers were killed. Buried Glantane, Cork.540 SA: McKee (22Nov1920/9) Gilbert Arthur Price (14Oct1920/2) Tank Corps, 25, Army officer 94 Talbot Street, Dublin Price was from Lewisham, Kent. The Republican Outfitters at 94 Talbot Street, which was under frequent observation, was raided by soldiers in an armoured car and two lorries at about 16:00. Seán Treacy had been meeting Peadar Clancy and Dick McKee in the shop. In the confusion Treacy took McKee’s bicycle, which was too big for him. Two plain-clothes intelligence men – Lieutenant Price and Sergeant Francis Christian – knocked him off and grappled with him. Treacy managed to draw his revolver and fire at a third man who came to assist them. Treacy then got Price between himself and the window of Speidel’s Pork Shop. He shot Price in the stomach, killing him outright, but was in turn shot in

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the head. A burst of machine-gun fire from the armoured car then wounded Christian, killed Patrick Carroll, a seventeen-yearold messenger, and mortally wounded Joseph Corringham. Sergeant Christian later received compensation of £1,250 at Dublin City Sessions. Buried Ladywell Cemetery, Lewisham, London (D. 1111 A.D).541 RD: Carroll (14Oct1920/4), Corringham (14Oct1920/5), Treacy (14Oct1920/3). SA: Clancy (22Nov1920/7), McKee (22Nov1920/9) Seán Allis Treacy (14Oct1920/3) IRA, 25, Farmer, Engaged, RC Talbot Street, Dublin See Price (14Oct1920/2). From Soloheadbeg, Tipperary, Tipperary, Tracey was sworn into the IRB in 1913 and joined the Irish Volunteers the following year. He was released after a hunger strike in Mountjoy Prison in 1918, becoming vice-O/C Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, participating in the Soloheadbeg ambush on 21 January 1919, the rescue of Seán Hogan at Knocklong in May, and the attack on Lord French at Ashtown in December 1919. In 1920, Treacy returned to Tipperary, participating in attacks on Hollyford, Rearcross and Drangan RIC Barracks. In September he again went to Dublin. Treacy and Dan Breen narrowly escaped capture in the home of Professor John Carolan in Drumcondra on 12 October. He was due shortly to wed Mai Quigley, a music teacher. Buried Kilfeakle Cemetery, Tipperary. In 1937 the National Graves Association unveiled a plaque where he was killed. His mother Bridget secured a dependent’s allowance.542 SA: Carolan (28Oct1920/5) Patrick Carroll (14Oct1920/4) 17,543 Messenger, RC Talbot Street, Dublin See Price (14Oct1920/2). Carroll, of 3 Royal Canal Terrace, worked for the Talbot Street branch of Messrs W. & A. Gilbey Wine Stores. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: X. j. 300.5). His father Patrick secured £150 compensation.544

Joseph Corringham545 (14Oct1920/5) 52, Newsagent, Tobacconist, Married with three children, CoI JSH See Price (14Oct1920/2). English-born, Corringham, of 15 Lower Gardiner Street, was a newsagent and tobacconist on Eden Quay.546 Jeremiah Herlihy547 (14Oct1920/6) IRA, 33, Agricultural labourer, RC Mosaplier Private Hospital, Dyke Parade, Cork Tim Herlihy, O/C 3rd (Ovens) Battalion Cork No. 1 Brigade, stated that Herlihy was O/C Signals, 3rd Battalion. Michael Foley, vice-O/C 3rd Battalion, described how for three days his unit had lain fruitlessly in ambush for a weekly military supply convoy at the Chetwynd Railway Viaduct between Cork and Bandon. Returning on 4 October, they found themselves surrounded but escaped and retreated in small groups towards Ballincollig. They claimed they were ‘sold’ by an informer. Herlihy, a scout, stayed in position too long. He may have been captured before being shot. Wounded in the throat, he rolled down an incline and was left for dead. A woman found him that evening. Taken to the Union Hospital on the Douglas Road, and afterwards moved to the Mosaplier Private Hospital, he died nine days later.548 Buried in his native Carrigadrohid, where he was accorded a military funeral. His mother Johanna secured a £100 gratuity.549 Joseph Cotter (14Oct1920/7) 27, Ex-serviceman, clerk, RC Boreenmanna Road, Cork Cotter lived in the Hibernian Buildings, Cork, and was a clerk at the RASC Office in Victoria Barracks, Cork. He was last seen alive at around 21:30 on 13 October, walking a young woman home towards Douglas. On 15 October, children at play found his body in a disused quarry on Boreenmanna Road, with face, head and neck wounds. He had been shot by the IRA, supposedly after he had volunteered information to a Volunteer dressed as a military chaplain.550

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15 OCTOBER 1920 James Lehane (15Oct1920/1) Labourer, Married, RC Ballymakeera, Cork Lehane was from Ballymakeera, Cork. Daniel Harrington, 8th (Ballyvourney) Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, recalled that eight lorries of military and police arrived in Ballyvourney shooting at random and rounded up every man. Black and Tans arrested Lehane in the blacksmith’s house. According to Harrington, when the police ascertained Lehane’s name, they shot him several times. His body was recovered with his pipe in one hand and a penknife in the other. Harrington believed Lehane was probably shot in error for a Volunteer of the same name. Feeney gave a different account, stating that the Auxiliaries fired their weapons indiscriminately around Ballyvourney, killing Lehane. BMH statements incorrectly placed his death in November 1920. Some unsubstantiated accounts implicated Cadet Cecil Guthrie, who later escaped from the Kilmichael ambush but was subsequently captured and killed. Buried Ballymakeera. He is commemorated on a plaque in Ballyvourney.551 SA: Guthrie (29Nov1920/7) Matthew Furlong (15Oct1920/2) IRA, 28, Barman, Engaged, RC MMH ‘Matt’ Furlong, from Wexford town, was an engineering apprentice before moving to Dublin, living at 70 Seville Place. He was to have married in November 1920. Furlong served in D Company, 2nd Battalion, working in the Dublin Brigade munitions factory under Michael Lynch. Lynch gave Furlong a sketch of a trench mortar with instructions to manufacture one. On a Sunday morning in mid-October, Furlong, McHugh, Peadar Clancy, Tom Young and Seán O’Sullivan went to test the prototype in Meath. When a live round failed to discharge, Furlong, a ‘very strong willed man’, insisted on investigating. He accidentally tripped the firing mechanism and was severely wounded by the consequent explosion. His left leg was amputated, to no avail. Patrick McHugh regarded

the ‘loss of Matt Furlong’ and the prototype as ‘a severe blow to [the] Dublin Brigade and IRA generally’, as an effective mortar ‘would have given the war an entirely new aspect’. Buried Wexford. His mother Alice later received a £100 dependent’s gratuity.552 SA: Clancy (22Nov1920/7) Martin G. O’Connor (15Oct1920/3) RIC (51713), 53, Married with children, RC Strokestown, Roscommon See Crawford (12Oct1920/3). From Sligo, O’Connor joined the RIC on 13 July 1886, allocated to Mayo, where he married on 17 August 1898. He was transferred to Roscommon town on 1 October 1898 as a sergeant. Buried Achill, Mayo. At Roscommon Quarter Sessions in February 1921, his dependents secured £7,000 compensation. The court heard that ‘all the children got scholarships’, due to their father’s encouragement.553 Hannah O’Connell (15Oct1920/4) 23, Housewife, one child, RC Mallow, Cork The CFR records the death of the young mother Hannah O’Connell, a locomotive fireman’s wife, from illness contracted when she and her infant daughter took shelter in the grounds of St Mary’s Catholic Church as soldiers ran amok during the night of 28 September.554 SA: Gibbs (28Sep1920/1), Quirke (8Nov 1920/5)

16 OCTOBER 1920 Peter O’Carroll (16Oct1920/1) 62, Shopkeeper, Married with seven children, RC Manor Street, Dublin O’Carroll and his wife Annie lived in their shop on Manor Street. At about 02:00 he was shot in the head and killed instantly when he answered his door to a raiding party. His sons were on the run. A note attached to his clothes reportedly read: ‘Traitor to Ireland – shot by the IRA.’ His wife Annie, who heard no shot, found her husband lying in a pool of blood. His premises had been raided several

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times and he had been warned, ‘We shall come back again soon and if they [O’Carroll’s sons] are not here it will be worse for you.’ David Neligan claimed that O’Carroll was killed by members of F Company, Auxiliary Division RIC. A few days previously he had refused to serve a stranger, recognising him as one of a party which had previously raided his house. O’Carroll’s fourteen-year-old son Gerard was seized by police, who wanted him to identify his father’s remains. After a scuffle his mother rescued him. Peter’s daughter Mary Lawlor, of Cumann na mBan, later received a pension for her 1916 service. Buried GC.555 William Robinson (16Oct1920/2) 26, Dealer, ex-serviceman, Married with three children, CoI JSH Robinson, a ‘well-known member of the Jacobs football team’, and his wife Christina lived at 28 Stafford Street. Just before midnight on 15 October, he was at the corner of Mary Street and Capel Street with two other civilians and an RASC soldier. Two men, one wearing ‘a black velour hat, a navy blue suit and a soft collar’, accosted them and asked Robinson if he was a Sinn Féiner. Robinson jokingly said he would show them proof, and crossed the road with them. They then fired four shots at him and ran away up Little Mary Street, pursued by two of Robinson’s companions, who lost sight of them near the Bridewell. Shot in the ankle and stomach, he was tended to by Father Sheehan of the Pro-Cathedral. He died between 19:00 and 20:00. Buried GC (Garden Section: R. §. 61).556 John Flaherty (16Oct1920/3) RIC (57717), 43, Farmer, Married with two children, RC Bishop’s Gate, Derry From Athleague, Roscommon, Constable Flaherty joined the RIC on 8 May 1896, serving in Leitrim and Down before transfer to Derry in 1914. He lived on Stanley’s Walk. His brother was also an RIC man. Flaherty and Constable Dykes were on beat duty at

Bishop’s Gate when fired on at 22:00. Flaherty was hit in the left breast. Liam A. Brady denied this shooting was the work of the IRA. Joost Augusteijn suggested the killer was a unionist trying to rescue a friend who had been arrested. Flaherty’s widow and two children secured £2,200 compensation.557 John Gibson (16Oct1920/4) 55, Riveter, CoI Marrowbone, Belfast Gibson, of 10 Byron Place, was killed outright in crossfire as police and military attempted to quell clashes between nationalist and loyalist groups in the Marrowbone district. William Mitchell was fatally wounded. In addition, while getting his children to safety Matthew McMaster was crushed by an armoured car, reportedly on its way to protect the Sacred Heart Church on Oldpark Road, and died early the next day.558 RD: McMaster (17Oct1920/1), Mitchell (16Oct1920/5) William J. Mitchell (16Oct1920/5) 25, CoI RVHB See Gibson (16Oct1920/4). Mitchell lived at 26 Downing Street, Belfast.559

c. 16 OCTOBER 1920 Patrick W. Joyce (16Oct1920/6) 52, National school teacher, Married with four children, RC Knockferry, Galway Joyce, from Lisheennageeha, Headford, Galway, became principal of Barna National School in 1901. A former president of the Galway branch of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, he wrote to the press on teachers’ grievances. The Connacht Tribune described him as a politically inactive constitutional nationalist. At about 23:30, he was kidnapped from his home by masked men. Notices were posted warning of reprisals if Joyce was not returned safely by Sunday 17 October. Mícheál Ó Droighneáin, O/C East Connemara Brigade, described how postmen had uncovered letters incriminating Joyce. Before arresting and interrogating

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him, Ó Droighneáin arranged for a priest ‘to be rowed across the lake from Kylebeg to Knockferry, and from thence to our rendezvous, which was a little disused cabin’. There: We lit the place with candles. The court consisted of three of my highest officers, and I prosecuted. I produced all the letters that had been intercepted, and much material in his own handwriting. He denied that he had been communicating with the British authorities, but feebly. He was convicted of spying. . . . The priest was then brought to him, and heard his Confession, and he received the Holy Viaticum.

Shot, Joyce’s body was buried and never found. Mary Leech, sister of the priest who ministered to him, recalled the incident in her BMH statement.560

17 OCTOBER 1920 Matthew McMaster (17Oct1920/1) 34, Labourer, Married with children, Presbyterian RVHB See Gibson (16Oct1920/4). McMaster, of 107 Conlig Street, Belfast, died of a fractured spine in the early hours.561 Daniel Roche (17Oct1920/2) RIC (59912), 45, Coachman, Married, RC Little Strand Street, Dublin From Cork, Roche joined the RIC on 15 November 1900, serving in Mayo, Roscommon and Tipperary town. Promoted to sergeant on 1 August 1920, he transferred to Golden, Tipperary. He was one of two policemen brought to Dublin to identify the body of Seán Treacy, killed on Talbot Street on 14 October. Joseph Dolan of GHQ Intelligence recalled that David Neligan passed on information about Roche’s movements on 17 October. Tom Keogh,† Jim Slattery, Frank Thornton and Dolan were told to kill him. Neligan was to take a handkerchief from his pocket and wave it to identify Roche. In his autobiography, however, Neligan claimed he had not realised that Roche would be assassinated. At about 15:00, he stopped to chat with Roche and another

policeman, named Fitzgerald, at the corner of Capel Street and Little Strand Street. Dolan said he fired six bullets into Roche and that Keogh and Slattery also shot him. Press reports suggested that Roche managed to run along Capel Street before being shot in the face at the corner of Little Strand Street, where he collapsed and died almost immediately. Two civilians were wounded.562 SA: Treacy (14Oct1920/3) Michael Fitzgerald (17Oct1920/3) IRA, 39, Mill worker, Engaged, RC Cork Prison, Cork Fitzgerald, from Ballyoran, Castlelyons, worked at Clondulane Mill and was secretary of its ITGWU branch. In 1919 he became O/C 1st (Fermoy) Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade. He was arrested in connection with the ‘Wesleyan raid’ in Fermoy on 7 September 1919, and was awaiting trial in Cork on a capital charge. He acted as O/C prisoners in jail. He was one of eleven men who went on hunger strike on 10 August 1920. He died after sixty-seven days. Patrick Ahern, then intelligence officer 1st (Fermoy) Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade, recalled that he posed as Fitzgerald’s brother and obtained a pass to spend the night of 17 October in the prison. At 20:30, three nuns and a priest came to the cell and began to recite the rosary. At about 21:00, a nun told Ahern that Fitzgerald was dead. The authorities refused Fitzgerald permission to marry his fiancée days before his death. Buried Kilcrumper, Cork.563 SA: Jones (7Sep1919/1) Henry Kelly564 (17Oct1920/4) IRA, 27, Barman, RC Frederick Street North, Dublin From Ballygawley, Sligo, Kelly worked in Timothy Grogan’s pub at North Wall. He served in D Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade and was a 1916 veteran. A group of Volunteers assembled in Banba Hall, Rutland Square in preparation for an armed patrol in Sackville Street. They were spotted, and a lorry of Auxiliaries arrived. Most of the Volunteers escaped, but Kelly was not so fortunate. When he attempted to

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flee through the back door, gun in hand, he ran into a party of soldiers. Kelly wounded one soldier before a second crushed his skull and killed him with a rifle butt. He was then shot in the forehead. A second man, Thomas O’Rourke, was killed nearby. Buried Kilross Cemetery, Ballygawley, Sligo.565 RD: O’Rourke (18Oct1920/4)

18 OCTOBER 1920 John Lougheed566 (18Oct1920/1) RIC (65478), 36, Farmer, Methodist RIC Barracks, Ruan, Clare From Sligo, Lougheed joined the RIC on 25 August 1910, stationed in Ruan. With the aid of a sympathetic constable, Bill Carroll, who afterwards joined the IRA, the Mid Clare Brigade sneaked into Ruan RIC Barracks and confronted most of the fourteen-man garrison in their dormitories. Lougheed resisted and was killed. The barracks was destroyed. Lougheed’s parents secured £200 compensation.567 Patrick Doyle (18Oct1920/2) IRA, 20, Farmer, RC Ballinagare, Castlerea, Roscommon Doyle, from Drummin, Ballinagare, served in Ballinagare Company, South Roscommon Brigade. His sister Bina Kelly recalled how she, her two children and her brother were in Doyle’s house when four lorries containing fifteen uniformed men stopped outside. Two men armed with rifles ordered Doyle, who had been reading a newspaper, out the back. Shortly afterwards, there was a shot and she heard Patrick: ‘I am done.’ The Leitrim Observer stated that Doyle’s captors initially let him off after threatening him, but returned, took him outside, put him against a wall and shot him.568 Buried Kilcorkey, Castlerea, Roscommon. He is commemorated on a monument at Shankill. His father Michael secured £800 compensation and his sister Mary Kate £400.569 Richard Hinds (18Oct1920/3) SWB (3903259), 24, RC Dollymount Camp, Dublin From Blaina, Monmouthshire, Corporal Hinds fell from a military lorry at Clontarf.

Buried Penyrheol Cemetery, Caerphilly (R.C. E. 52).570 Thomas O’Rourke571 (18Oct1920/4) 24, Labourer, RC MMH See Kelly (17Oct1920/4). O’Rourke and his widowed mother Josephine lived at 5 Peter Street. Reportedly a bystander during trouble at the Banba Hall, he was shot in the lung and died next day. Buried GC (Garden Section: U. f. 89.5).572 Edward Turner (18Oct1920/5) 24, Ex-serviceman, RC Military Barracks, Mallow, Cork The CFR recounts how Edward Turner, a farm labourer’s son of 6 Bridge Street, Mallow, was mortally wounded in the buttocks when troops opened fire on civilians, supposedly in response to shots fired at them.573

19 OCTOBER 1920 Michael S. Walsh (19Oct1920/1) 40, Publican, Married with eight children, RC Long Walk, Galway From Headford, Galway, Walsh owned the Old Malt House on High Street, Galway, and was a Headford UDC councillor. Shortly before 22:00, five partially disguised men wearing civilian clothes and waterproof coats, armed with revolvers, ordered the pub to be cleared and closed the door. The shop assistant Patrick Meenaghan was instructed to remove the light bulb. The men raided the till. As Walsh took a cup of rum, a raider said, ‘It is no good, it is only going to waste; you will be dead within an hour.’ He was refused permission to see a priest. One man accused Walsh of shooting a lot of policemen. Walsh replied: ‘If I were as free of everything as the shooting of police, I would be alright. I do not know of any police being shot in Galway.’ Four men took Walsh outside. The fifth told Meenaghan that they were English secret servicemen and knew what they were doing. Walsh was shot in the head on Long Walk at about 22:20. IRA sources believed a Black and Tan named Miller and two others were responsible. The

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men returned to the pub and warned Meenaghan he would be killed if he spoke of what had occurred. He told Mrs Walsh. Two priests searched in vain for Walsh’s body that night. The next morning, men going to work saw a submerged body, which was recovered. Buried New Cemetery, Galway. His widow Agnes secured £390 for damage to her premises.574 SA: Joyce (16Oct1920/6) Edward O’Dwyer (19Oct1920/2) IRA, 26, Farmer, RC Ballydavid, Bansha, Tipperary ‘Ned’ and Francis O’Dwyer of Ballydavid, Bansha, Tipperary, were Volunteers in 4th Battalion, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade. Police raided the O’Dwyer farm in the Glen of Aherlow at the foot of the Galtee Mountains, probably looking for Jerry, the eldest brother, the local Volunteer company captain. He hid under his parents’ bed. Ned was shot in the body and Frank in the head in front of their sister Kate, a Cumann na mBan captain. She later told the press seven or eight men in military uniform were responsible. These murders might have been in reprisal for Jerry O’Dwyer’s action in preventing the local school principal, a policeman’s wife, from opening her school on the day of Seán Treacy’s funeral. Edmond Grogan told the BMH that a Black and Tan named Chelster [sic] was shot in Bansha in retribution for his part in these killings. This was Joseph Shelsher. According to Brian Shanahan, Constable John Nutley was killed in Bansha for the same reason. Buried Bansha. The brothers are commemorated on a roadside plaque near what was their family farm. This also commemorates republicans Dinny Lacey† and Paddy McDonagh,† who died in February 1923 in a fight with Free State troops in fields behind the O’Dwyer home.575 RD: O’Dwyer (19Oct1920/3). SA: Shelsher (1Jul1921/7), Treacy (14Oct1920/3) Francis O’Dwyer (19Oct1920/3) IRA, 30, Farmer, RC Ballydavid, Bansha, Tipperary See O’Dwyer (19Oct1920/2).576

21 OCTOBER 1920 Michael O’Dwyer (21Oct1920/1) 39, Farmer, Married, RC Baldonnell Aerodrome, Dublin O’Dwyer, of Newton Park, Wicklow, was travelling by motorcycle to visit his brother Frank at Lynchpark, carrying a priest as a sidecar passenger. They were hit from behind by a military mail lorry coming from the Curragh. The two injured men were taken to the nearby Baldonnell Aerodrome, where O’Dwyer died of head injuries. Buried DGC.577 Charles Lynch (21Oct1920/2) 75, Farmer, Married, RC Miltown Malbay, Clare Lynch lived in Breaffy North, Miltown Malbay, Clare. Members of his family saw off two unarmed Royal Scots soldiers who tried to force their way into the family home claiming that they were searching for arms. One of the soldiers returned with six comrades and a Constable Madill, claiming he had been assaulted. Charles Lynch was shot in his doorway, supposedly as the military replied to shots aimed at them. On 9 March 1921 the chief secretary for Ireland told the House of Commons that Lynch had been accidentally shot. Edward Lynch maintained that LanceCorporal McPherson killed his father without provocation or warning. The party went off firing indiscriminately, and raided several houses. One of Lynch’s neighbours had a narrow escape when a policeman prevented him from being shot. Buried Miltown Malbay, Clare.578

22 OCTOBER 1920 William Alfred Dixon (22Oct1920/1) Suffolk Regiment, 38, Army officer, Married with one child Annagh Beg, Ballinhassig, Cork Dixon, from Dover, won an MC as a lieutenant in the Suffolk Regiment. He was stationed in Bandon. Two lorries containing soldiers and naval ratings escorting the mail were travelling from Bandon to Cork when ambushed at Annagh Beg, Ballinhassig, by the ASU Cork

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No. 3 Brigade under Tom Barry. The first lorry rushed through the ambush position unscathed because a landmine failed to detonate. However, the second was halted by Barry’s section. After a gunfight, the military surrendered. The IRA believed that five soldiers were killed. In fact, only Lieutenant Dixon, in command of the party, and Private Reid of the Essex Regiment were killed outright. The wounded included Sergeant Bennett, who died next day. Buried Dover. His wife Ellen secured £5,500 compensation and his fifteen-year-old daughter £3,500.579 RD: Bennett (23Oct1920/1), Reid (22Oct 1920/2) Charles William Reid (22Oct1920/2) Essex Regiment (5998619), 18, Baptist Annagh Beg, Ballinhassig, Cork See Dixon (22Oct1920/1). Private Reid, from Twickenham, enlisted on 26 March 1919, was stationed in Bandon. Buried Earlsfield Cemetery, Wandsworth, London (B.20.511).580 Harry Biggs (22Oct1920/3) RIC (73983), 23, Motor driver, ex-serviceman581 Parkwood, Offaly Biggs, from London, an ex-serviceman and former policeman, joined the RIC on 8 October 1920, attached to the motor transport division at Gormanston Camp, Meath. Three police lorries travelling from Gormanston to Ballinasloe, Galway, were ambushed at Parkwood, Offaly, between Kilbeggan and Moate, by eleven members of the ASU, Athlone Brigade, under Jim Tormey.582 The ‘original plan had been for the attackers to seize the lorries, arms and ammunition, don the occupants’ uniforms and attempt to bluff their way into the barracks at Moate’. One lorry was expected but three appeared. Biggs, driving the first lorry, was shot dead as planned. The other vehicles halted and their occupants began to shoot wildly. Heavily outnumbered and low on ammunition, the IRA withdrew. When the police party arrived in Athlone in two vehicles at about 20:45, two shots were fired from Mardyke Street. The police returned fire. During the exchange, Michael

Burke, a civilian returning home, was severely wounded. He died five days later. Biggs’s mother, Mrs Mary Cuffe of Euston, London, secured £650 compensation.583 RD: Burke (27Oct1920/3). SA: Tormey (2Feb1921/7) Bertie Rippingale (22Oct1920/4) RIC (71838), 25, Labourer, ex-serviceman, Protestant CMHC From Essex, Constable Rippingale joined the RIC on 6 July 1920, stationed in Leap, Cork. He was one of three policemen ambushed on 21 October while returning to Leap RIC Barracks at Glandore, about seven miles from Skibbereen, by five Volunteers of the Leap Company, Cork No. 3 Brigade, armed with shotguns. Rippingale died the next day, and Constable Albert Rundle after an operation on 4 November.584 RD: Rundle (4Nov1920/5)

23 OCTOBER 1920 Thomas Arthur Bennett585 (23Oct1920/1) RASC (M/32520), 26, CoE CMHC See Dixon (22Oct1920/1). Bennett, from Gravesend, Kent, attested in London on 16 May 1913. He served in 1155th Mechanised Transport Company attached to the Essex Regiment. Buried Saints Peter and Paul Churchyard, Shorne, Kent.586 Edward Meade (23Oct1920/2) 45, Ex-serviceman, clerk, RC CMHC Meade of Father Matthew Quay, Cork, an army clerk, had soldiered mainly in Italy. He was passing a lorry of soldiers at Victoria Barracks when a rifle was accidentally discharged, hitting him in the head.587

24 OCTOBER 1920 James McCormack (24Oct1920/1) 32, Shop assistant, RC Richmond Hospital, Dublin McCormack lived with his cousin John Farrell at 101 North Brunswick Street, and was an assistant in Farrell’s fish and chip shop

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next door. At about 21:15 on 23 October, two men entered the shop. One ordered McCormack to put his hands up, then shot him in the chest. He died at 03:00. Dublin Castle claimed the IRA shot him for disobeying orders not to serve the military. This was denied by Farrell’s wife.588 Thomas Egan (24Oct1920/2) 51, Publican, farmer, Married with eight children, RC Cashla, Athenry, Galway Egan had a pub, but farming was his main livelihood. The Connacht Tribune reported that he had no political interests. He married in 1900. Egan’s wife Margaret answered the door around 22:30. Men in police uniforms entered, grabbing Egan. Margaret went between then, but the men fired over her shoulder at her husband, hitting him in the head. When she shouted for her children, a shotgun was placed in her mouth. The raiders left, one of them imitating Margaret’s cries. In March Egan’s cart had been used to block the road prior to the shooting of Frank M. Shawe-Taylor. The police suggested that Egan was killed by the IRA lest he give information about that killing. Republican sources more plausibly claimed that he was murdered by Crown forces. Margaret Egan secured £700 compensation, with £200 each for the four eldest children, and £300 each for the younger four.589 SA: Shawe-Taylor (3Mar1920/1)

25 OCTOBER 1920 Michael Ryan (25Oct1920/1) IRA, 27, Farmer, RC Curraghduff, Upperchurch, Tipperary Ryan was the local Sinn Féin court registrar and a lieutenant in the Upperchurch Company, Tipperary No. 2 Brigade. At about 00:30, his sister Margaret answered the door to two men, one masked, who claimed to be secret service agents. They sought Michael, who was ill with pneumonia. Believing that he would not be harmed, Ryan said to let them into his room. Margaret was pushed out. She then heard four shots.

Severely wounded in the chest, Ryan died within minutes. They then called to the Stapleton farm in Finaghy, two miles away, seeking Jim Stapleton, who was not at home. In the same townland, they encountered Jeremiah and James Kinnane, who were ordered to kneel down but fled. Although fired on they managed to escape over a fence, despite Jeremiah being wounded. At about 03:30, the raiders called to William Gleeson, of Moher, Upperchurch, seeking his son James. After an angry exchange, Gleeson’s son Willie called out from his bed to shoot him instead of his father. He was taken outside in his nightshirt. His body was found with four bullet wounds about 200 yards from the house. James Leahy, O/C Tipperary No. 2 Brigade, described the raiders as the Thurles police ‘murder gang’. Buried Drom, Templemore, Tipperary.590 RD: Gleeson (25Oct1920/2) William Gleeson (25Oct1920/2) IRA, 18, Farmer’s son, RC Moher, Upperchurch, Tipperary See Ryan (25Oct1920/1). From Moher, Upperchurch, Gleeson was a Volunteer in the Upperchurch Company, Tipperary No. 2 Brigade. Buried Upperchurch. His sister Kate ultimately secured a dependent’s allowance of £125.591 Terence MacSwiney (25Oct1920/3) IRA, 41, Lecturer, Married with one child, RC Brixton Prison, London MacSwiney, from Crookstown, Cork, became a clerk in 1894. After graduating from the Royal University in 1907, he taught business methods at Cork Municipal School of Commerce. President of the Cork branch of the Gaelic League, he wrote a play, The Revolutionist, several volumes of poetry and a political tract entitled The Principles of Freedom. He married the wealthy Muriel Murphy in 1917. Their only child, Maura, was born a year later. MacSwiney helped to organise the Irish Volunteers, becoming chairman of the Cork executive. Shortly before the Rising, he joined the IRB. Due to conflicting orders and

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indecisive leadership, the Cork Volunteers did nothing during the Rising. MacSwiney was severely criticised for deciding afterwards that Cork Volunteers should surrender their arms. Interned in Frongoch and in Reading, after release in December 1916 he resumed his Volunteer activities, and later became O/C Cork No. 1 Brigade. In the December 1918 general election, MacSwiney was returned unopposed as Sinn Féin representative for Cork Mid constituency. According to his widow, ‘He did not want this; he did not like politics although in those days the Sinn Féin politics were clean.’ On 30 March 1920, he was elected lord mayor of Cork in succession to the murdered Tomás MacCurtain. Arrested on 12 August at City Hall after a meeting of the brigade staff, he went on hunger strike. Sentenced to two years for making seditious speeches, he was incarcerated in Brixton Prison in an unoccupied hospital ward. MacSwiney’s protest captured the attention of the world. He died at 05:40 on the seventy-fourth day of his strike. Buried SFC, Cork.592 GHQ issued orders for reprisal shootings throughout the country. SA: MacCurtain (20Mar1920/1) Patrick Perry (25Oct1920/4) RIC (56270), 51, married with ten children, RC Moneygold, Grange, Sligo From Ballivor, Meath, Perry joined the RIC on 16 January 1894, allocated to Sligo. Promoted to sergeant in 1909, he was transferred from Bunnanadden to Cliffoney 1913. He led an eight-man RIC patrol attacked as they cycled from Cliffoney along the Sligo to Donegal road at around 11:30 by about thirty Volunteers under Liam Pilkington and James Devins, in an ambush organised by Nurse Linda Kearns. Shot in the mouth, Perry was killed outright, as were constables Keown and Laffey in single file behind him. Three others were wounded, of whom Constable Lynch died that evening in Sligo Infirmary.593 The ambushing party captured the police weapons, which were recovered six days later when police stopped a motor car carrying Kearns, Devins and others. The lorry bearing

the coffins of the dead policemen carried a banner stating: ‘Sinn Féin victory. Three widows and 17 orphans.’ Extensive reprisals took place. Buried Boyle, Roscommon. His dependents secured £9,000 compensation.594 RD: Keown (25Oct1920/5), Laffey (25Oct 1920/6), Lynch (25Oct1920/10) Patrick Keown (25Oct1920/5) RIC (69697), 25, Farmer, ex-serviceman, RC Moneygold, Grange, Sligo See Perry (25Oct1920/4). From Fermanagh, Keown joined the RIC on 3 June 1920, stationed in Cliffoney. Buried Belleek, Fermanagh. His next of kin secured £2,000 compensation.595 Patrick Laffey (25Oct1920/6) RIC (60083), 41, Farmer, Married with five children, RC Moneygold, Grange, Sligo See Perry (25Oct1920/4). From Attymon, Galway, Laffey joined the RIC on 18 March 1901, serving twice in Limerick and once in Galway before transfer to Cliffoney. Buried Attymon, Galway. His wife and children secured £7,000 compensation.596 Joseph McLeod (25Oct1920/7) 25, Labourer, Protestant Foundry Street, Belfast McLeod, of 45 Church Street East, who had lost his job in a rope works due to the curfew order in Belfast, was shot dead at about 13:45 by Henry McGraw during disturbances near the railway gate on Foundry Street. Witnesses at an inquiry stated that McGraw shouted ‘up the rebels’, was the ‘ringleader’ of a Nationalist crowd, and had been throwing stones.597 Philip Breen (25Oct1920/8) IRA, 24, Publican’s son, RC Main Street, Tempo, Fermanagh The 4th Battalion, Fermanagh Brigade, carried out a raid on Tempo RIC Barracks. There was some collusion: two policemen took sick leave, and a third arranged to be captured while on patrol with a Black and Tan and detained until the raid was over. James J. Smyth, adjutant Lisnaskea Battalion, recalled ‘a fight from the outset; a fight to get

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in and a fight to get out’. At around 20:00, three Volunteers entered the barracks via the unlocked back door. Only Sergeant Samuel Lucas and Constable Bannon were inside. Lucas went to investigate, was disarmed, and ordered into the yard. He struggled with one of the raiders and was seriously wounded. Other raiders apparently shouted, ‘Shoot him, Shoot him.’ Reverend Thomas H. Scanlon, rector in Tempo, was twice fired on as he tended to Lucas, who died on 4 November. The main IRA party took weapons from the barracks. However, the shooting alerted members of the local UVF, who opened fire. Breen had avoided direct participation for fear of being recognised, instead working in his father’s pub. At about 20:15, while standing on Main Street with five other men, he was shot dead, and John Bogue from Tempo was wounded in the arm by two UVF gunmen. The IRA later attempted to kill one of these, a postman named Potter. Although they failed, he died shortly afterwards. The other gunman was never definitely identified. Breen’s father Bernard maintained that Philip had been shot by civilians. He did not want any revenge or reprisals but believed that eventually the perpetrators would be identified. Bernard Breen was angered at the dependent’s gratuity of £30 initially awarded: ‘It is an insult to me and to the dead.’ There was some sympathy in his case, but as he had not been wholly dependent on his son the amount was not increased. When he eventually accepted the award in 1931, the local RUC provided verification of his signature. Buried Tempo Churchyard, Fermanagh.598 RD: Lucas (4Nov1920/2)

was delayed, and he went on hunger strike. He died at 20:35 on 25 October after seventysix days, two days longer than the fast of Terence MacSwiney. His was the second such death in Cork Prison. Buried SFC, Cork. A road was named in his memory in Ballyphehane.599 SA: Fitzgerald (17Oct1920/3), MacSwiney (25Oct1920/3)

Joseph Murphy (25Oct1920/9) IRA, 24, Council employee, RC Cork Prison, Cork Murphy, born in Massachusetts, USA, his family returned to Ireland when he was three. His family lived on Lower Pouladuff Road. Educated at Togher National School, he worked for Cork County Council, was a keen hurler, and served in 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. Arrested on 15 July 1920 on a charge of possessing a Mills bomb, his trial

James Power (25Oct1920/12) IRA, RC Kill, Waterford From Carrigeen, Kill, 10 miles from Waterford City, Power served in E Company, 3rd Battalion, East Waterford Brigade. After an unsuccessful IRA attack on 18 September 1920, Kill RIC Barracks was evacuated. On 22 October Constable Cullen602 returned on leave to see his sick child. Eight Volunteers under Andrew Kirwan raided the Cullen

Patrick Lynch (25Oct1920/10) RIC (63750), 33, Farmer’s son, Married with two children, RC Infirmary, Sligo, Sligo See Perry (25Oct1920/4). From Cavan, Lynch joined the RIC on 23 April 1908, serving in Galway and from 1916 in Cliffoney, Sligo. Buried Bailieborough. His family secured £6,000 compensation.600 Michael Flynn (25Oct1920/11) 34, RC Mountjoy Prison, Dublin Flynn, of Glenidan, Collinstown, Westmeath, was listed as an active Volunteer in the Moss Twomey Papers, but other sources indicate he ‘was not active either in Sinn Féin or the IRA’. In late October, the IRA briefly kidnapped magistrates Scott Moore and G. P. Hyde en route to the petty sessions at Castlepollard. On 18 October, eight people, including Flynn, who was in poor health, were arrested. Detained in a military camp for some days before transfer to Mountjoy Prison, Flynn died three days later. The Moss Twomey Papers record: ‘Death was due to exposure in open lorry and bad treatment from RIC.’ Buried Fore, Collinstown, Westmeath.601

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home intending to capture his equipment and uniform. When Cullen refused to answer a knock, Kirwan fired a revolver shot at the roof and others attacked the door with a hatchet. The resourceful Cullen went upstairs, threw a grenade out of the window and then escaped through fields to Tramore. James Power, a newly enrolled Volunteer, was badly wounded, and died three days later. In order to avoid trouble with the authorities, his relatives said that he had succumbed to pneumonia. Buried Kill.603

26 OCTOBER 1920 Thomas Henry Moore (26Oct1920/1) 22, Farmer, Presbyterian Sackville Street, Derry Moore, from Glebe, Clondermott, had been escorted safely through various curfew checkpoints by soldiers while driving a dog cart to fetch a veterinary surgeon. At 13:00 he was shot outside Victoria Police Barracks for failing to halt: it seemed likely that his horse’s hooves had drowned out the sentry’s challenge.604 Martin Counihan (26Oct1920/2) 53, Process server, Married with six children, RC Bodyke, Clare Counihan, a county court process server, was from Lower Feakle, Clare. Four of his children were in the US but two daughters, aged twelve and nine, still lived at home. Thomas Tuohy, vice-O/C 6th Battalion, East Clare Brigade, recalled that following the Feakle ambush on 7 October, Counihan allegedly collected information for the RIC. A week later, four Volunteers digging potatoes at Annagh, Feakle, saw Counihan and his daughter in a pony and trap bringing turf home from Ballynahinch bog. They fashioned masks out of an apron and captured Counihan. Touhy presided at a court martial at which Counihan ‘admitted to having given information but adopted a defiant attitude saying that he would again notify the police of any IRA activity. He was sentenced and shot that night.’ Although Counihan received two shotgun blasts and one revolver bullet,

he survived long enough to drag himself to a pub in Bodyke a mile away. Attended by a local priest, he died later that night. Four houses including Tuohy’s were burned in reprisal. Counihan’s widow secured £1,000 compensation and his daughters Norah and Catherine £580 each.605

27 OCTOBER 1920 Elizabeth Carberry (27Oct1920/1) 28, RC Dame Lane, Dublin ‘Bessie’ Carberry of 8 Vicar Street was observed by neighbours and passers-by talking with a soldier in a laneway off Dame Street at various times from 23:15 on 26 October. When Hannah Rigley passed the pair, they were arguing. Neighbours heard Bessie saying, ‘For ---- sake give me a drop of that’ and ‘I could identify you by your nose’, and at another point the soldier saying, ‘I’ll punch the head off you.’ There were sounds of a scuffle around 01:00, and the soldier ran off. Soon afterwards a Mrs Eustace found Bessie Carberry’s body, and summoned the police, who found a cap badge lying nearby. Bessie Carberry died from suffocation. There were bruises on the jaw, mouth and scalp, on both forearms and on the right thigh, and her windpipe ‘showed signs of congestion’. Lance-Corporal Alfred Hadley of the King’s Own Lancashire Regiment was tried before a court martial on 16 and 17 January 1921. When found in a dishevelled state by a military patrol, Hadley claimed to have been assaulted and chased by civilians. He was missing his cap badge, but so was another soldier who had returned to Richmond Barracks. The court dismissed the charges on the basis of insufficient evidence, without even hearing Hadley’s defence.606 John Terence Sherlock (27Oct1920/2) IRA, 22, Agricultural labourer, RC Skerries, Dublin Sherlock lived with his father Michael, a farm labourer, and mother Jane at 7 Cabra Terrace, Skerries, Dublin. Two of his brothers were ex-servicemen. Sherlock was a captain

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in the 1st Battalion, Fingal Brigade. At around 02:00 armed men came to Sherlock’s house, took him into a nearby field and shot him five times. His father found his body in a ditch. Michael Rock, O/C Naul Battalion, Fingal Brigade, termed this ‘an act of blackguardism and provocation on the part of the Tans. There was no incident whatsoever in Skerries that would have given the Tans any excuse for this outrage.’ Buried Holmpatrick Cemetery, Skerries. A memorial was erected on the Golf Links Road, and he is also commemorated on a memorial in Holmpatrick Cemetery.607 Michael Burke (27Oct1920/3) Married with three children, RC St Vincent’s Hospital, Athlone, Westmeath See Biggs (22Oct1920/3). Burke, of Dublin Gate Street, Athlone, is listed by the Last Post as a Volunteer, but several BMH witnesses describe him as a civilian. The Westmeath Examiner termed him an active supporter of the constitutional movement who for the previous twenty years had participated on local public boards. A jury found that Burke died on 27 October from a bullet wound to the head unlawfully fired by Crown forces. Burke’s funeral in St Mary’s Church was attended by thousands. Buried Cornamagh Cemetery, Athlone. At Athlone Quarter Sessions in April 1921, his widow Esther secured £1,500 compensation.608 Daniel Lehane (27Oct1920/4) 65, Farmer, Married, RC Cregg, Lahinch, Clare Lehane lived with his wife in Cregg, Lahinch, Clare. Taken from his home and shot in the head and neck by the police in the early hours of 23 September, he lingered for a month. The police had been searching for his son Patrick,609 a participant in the Rineen ambush, who died in a fire in Lahinch that morning. Lehane’s house was set on fire. His fourteen-year-old son Jimmy would also have been shot but for the intervention of a military officer. Lehane was subsequently operated on in Ennistymon Hospital before being discharged after a fortnight. The family would give the RIC no information, and his

corpse was not made available for a court of inquiry. Lehane’s widow Margaret stated that her husband died from wounds. She secured £2,250 compensation for the destruction of her house. Buried Miltown Malbay, Clare.610 SA: Lehane (23Sep1920/1) Michael Scanlon (27Oct1920/5) IRA, Primary school teacher, RC Military Hospital, New Barracks, Limerick Donnchadh O’Hannigan, vice-brigadier East Limerick Brigade and O/C brigade ASU, recalled that Tadhg Crowley, adjutant ASU, and Michael Scanlon, O/C 4th (Kilmallock) Battalion, East Limerick Brigade, were arrested in Laurencestown outside Kilmallock. They were taken to William Street Barracks, Limerick. Scanlon jumped off the lorry as it halted and hid in the cellar of a house on Thomas Street. John Regan, then an RIC DI in Limerick, wrote that, while searching a house on a tip-off, an army sergeant shot Scanlon. He died a short time later. Buried Castle Jane Cemetery, Limerick. He is commemorated by a plaque on Thomas Street and on a monument at Murroe.611

28 OCTOBER 1920 Purcell R. Bowen (28Oct1920/1) General List, 29, Army officer, Protestant Lincoln Place, Dublin Bowen, one of thirteen children of a Carmarthenshire farmer, contemplated becoming a clergyman, but enlisted as a private in the RASC. Later commissioned, he won the MC, and was transferred to the RAF, being awarded the DFC. After demobilisation in June 1920, he came to Dublin, staying at 28 Upper Fitzwilliam Street. The Saturday Record, reporting accounts from the English press, stated that Bowen played rugby with Bective Rangers and described himself as agent for a Welsh coal firm. On the night of 27 October, Bowen was shot in a lane off Lincoln Place. His body was discovered at 06:45, with a bullet in the spine. Bowen was probably targeted as a suspected intelligence officer, although no IRA material about him has been found. Buried Abergele,

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Wales. His father Josiah secured £1,000 compensation.612

Templemore, Tipperary. Buried Woodlands Cemetery, Gillingham, Kent (F. B. 80).615

T. Crummey (28Oct1920/2) Northamptonshire Regiment (5875693), 18, RC Thomastown, Golden, Tipperary From Nenagh, Tipperary, Private Crummey or Crummy was stationed in Richmond Barracks,613 Templemore, Tipperary. The ASU 3rd Tipperary Brigade, awaiting a police patrol, instead encountered a military lorry. Privates Crummey and F. A. Short and LanceCorporal William Henry Hobbs of the Royal Engineers were killed. Lieutenant Parker of the Royal Engineers and five soldiers were wounded. The Northamptonshire Regiment record book maintained that the attackers were eventually driven off, whereas IRA sources indicate that the IRA only withdrew on hearing another lorry approach. The ASU’s James Kilmartin recalled that Lieutenant Parker held off ‘our whole force single-handed . . . He stood in the middle of the road blazing away with his pistols at any puffs or flash that appeared from any of our shots and whether any of our shots hit him I do not know but he was being fired at from everywhere without apparent effect.’ Parker secured the MBE, and a Corporal Goodes a certificate for gallant conduct. Various premises in Tipperary town were wrecked following the Thomastown ambush. Claims amounting to £6,400 were later lodged for the damage caused. Intelligence for the IRA attack had been gathered by Jim Moloney (EOH’s grandfather). Buried St Michael’s Cemetery, Tipperary (E. H. 111).614 RD: Hobbs (28Oct1920/3), Short (28Oct 1920/4)

Frank Arthur Short (28Oct1920/4) Northamptonshire Regiment (5875915), 18616 Thomastown, Golden, Tipperary See Crummey (28Oct1920/2). Private Short was stationed in Richmond Barracks, Templemore, Tipperary. Buried London Road Cemetery, Kettering, Northamptonshire.

William Henry Hobbs (28Oct1920/3) RE (1852907), 22, Ex-serviceman Thomastown, Golden, Tipperary See Crummey (28Oct1920/2). From Gillingham, Kent, Hobbs joined the Royal Engineers as a bugler and after surviving the retreat from Mons returned to Chatham as a sapper, later serving in Hong Kong and Sierra Leone. Lance-Corporal Hobbs’s planned demobilisation was deferred. He was stationed in Richmond Barracks,

John Carolan (28Oct1920/5) Lecturer, 47, Married with two children, RC MMH See Smyth (12Oct1920/1). From Sligo, the census describes Carolan as a professor in the ‘science and art of teaching’ (teaching practice) at St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: V. c. 85).617

29 OCTOBER 1920 Francis B. Warren (29Oct1920/1) 70, Retired printer and publisher, RC Inchicore, Dublin Between 19:00 and 20:00, Warren opened his door in Hollybrook, Inchicore, to three armed and masked men who entered and shot him. The Warrens had given information which led to the discovery of a quantity of arms and ammunition near their home in December 1919. Police believed this explained the killing.618 Godfrey W. Jasper (29Oct1920/2) 31, Ex-serviceman, policeman, Married Carrahane Strand, Ardfert, Kerry From Shropshire, Jasper joined the RIC (71738) on 29 June 1920, stationed in Limerick. This is a confusing case. The RIC General Register recorded that Constable Jasper was dismissed from the force on 29 August 1920, but he was still in Kerry when taken off a train at Tralee by members of the 1st Battalion, 1st Kerry Brigade, IRA, in September. Tadhg Kennedy recalled that a soldier known as ‘Ginger George’, subsequently transferred to another regiment, and a Black and Tan named Jasper were believed responsible for his brother’s death

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on 19 August. The Ardfert Company, 1st Kerry Brigade, held Jasper a prisoner for about five weeks, believing him to have been ‘doing Intelligence work’. Despite Kennedy’s protests, he was executed on 29 October and buried (either at Carrahane Strand or the nearby Banna Strand). Kennedy said that when Jasper’s remains were subsequently exposed by the tide he had them sent to England for burial. He also certified the execution so that Jasper’s wife and family could claim compensation.619 SA: Kennedy (19Aug1920/2)

c. 29 OCTOBER 1920 Bernard Loftus Brown (29Oct1920/3) RGA, 24, Army officer Laharn, Rusheen, Cork From West Norwood, London, Lieutenant Brown was educated at Dulwich College and the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. Commissioned in the Royal Artillery on 22 April 1915, he was a battalion adjutant from 30 April 1919 until 27 May 1919, with the rank of acting captain, and secured the MC. Brown served in the 26th Heavy Battery, 7th Brigade, stationed in Fermoy, Cork. Lieutenants Brown and David Alfred Rutherford were kidnapped between 29 October and 1 November while driving by motorcycle from Fermoy to Killarney on three days’ leave. A soldier remarked, ‘They don’t look much like civilians,’ as although in civilian clothes they had ‘military haversacks’ and officers’ bedding. Charles Browne, adjutant 7th (Macroom) Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, said they were captured by the Coachford Company and transferred to E (Kilmichael) Company for interrogation. Shot as spies, they were buried at Laharn, Rusheen. In March 1921 Brown’s Sunbeam motorcycle and sidecar were discovered in a shed of a farmer named Casey at Killeens, five miles from Cork city. Three Casey brothers were arrested. A soldier told an inquiry that ‘Mr Brown was often occupied in operations against Sinn Feiners, with patrols or with one man or by himself. . . . I know of his being out more than once at night in the Battery trap’, and

‘The Irish Rebellion in the 6th Divisional Area’ stated that the two officers had occasionally carried out intelligence work. Brown and Rutherford were presumed dead under authority of War Office letter 45/Gen. No. 2557 dated 29 November 1921, which stated that Sinn Féin had confirmed through Art O’Brien that Lieutenant B. L. Brown, Lieutenant D. A. Rutherford, Captain M. H. W. Green, Captain S. Chambers and Lieutenant W. S. Watts had been killed. Their remains were not recovered. Mabel Brown appealed to Michael Collins† several times between November 1921 and May 1922 for information about her son’s death and place of burial. She was particularly anxious to recover his pocket book and any last message it might have contained. Collins could only return Brown’s watch and camera.620 RD: Rutherford (29Oct1920/4) David Alfred Rutherford (29Oct1920/4) RGA, 22, Army officer Laharn, Rusheen, Cork See Brown (29Oct1920/3). Rutherford, from Bushey, Hertfordshire, was commissioned in the Royal Artillery on 10 April 1916. He won the MC on 18 June 1917 and a bar on 26 July 1918. In Cork he served in the 115th Siege Battery, 7th Brigade.621

30 OCTOBER 1920 Timothy Horan (30Oct1920/1) RIC (60534), 40, Farmer, Married with three children, RC Castledaly, Kilchreest, Loughrea, Galway From Kerry, Constable Horan joined the RIC on 3 March 1902, serving in Roscommon and Cork before transfer to Kilchreest, Galway. At 12:00 a cycle patrol of one sergeant and four constables was ambushed between Kilchreest and Peterswell by about thirty Volunteers under Thomas McInerney, O/C South Galway Brigade. Horan appears to have been killed as he pursued his attackers. Daniel Ryan recalled that the IRA’s plan was to capture the policemen’s weapons without killing them. Five farmhouses in the Castledaly and Kilchreest districts were

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destroyed in reprisal. Peter J. Moylan and Michael Callanan of Crannagh, Loughrea, defended by Tim Healy KC, were acquitted of Horan’s murder on 31 March 1921. Buried Glenbeigh, Kerry. His widow Margaret secured £1,000 compensation and each of his three children £600.622 G. Robertson (30Oct1920/2) Royal Scots (3044595) Connolly, Clare Private Robertson, stationed in Ennis, Clare, was last seen alive on 30 October. Military authorities believed he had been kidnapped and killed. Despite extensive searches no trace was found. Robertson was the unnamed soldier mentioned by Edward Lynch, who had been involved in events which culminated in the shooting of Lynch’s father Charles by a Corporal McPherson of the Royal Scots. According to Lynch, about a week after that killing McPherson was placed under military arrest in Miltown Malbay, but he and his guard deserted. Both were subsequently captured by the IRA in the Connolly district. Lynch was notified and went to see the prisoners. While Lynch consulted the battalion officers, McPherson escaped, having tricked his Volunteer guard into handing over his revolver. Robertson was not so lucky: he was ‘shot and buried in a bog in the Connolly area where the body still lies’.623 SA: Lynch (21Oct1920/2)

31 OCTOBER 1920 Philip St John Howlett Kelleher (31Oct1920/1) RIC (71645), 23, Army officer, RC Greville Arms Hotel, Granard, Longford From Macroom, one of twelve children of Dr Jeremiah Kelleher, Kelleher was educated at Castleknock College, Dublin. He won an MC while a lieutenant in the Leinster Regiment. He became an RIC DI on 7 August 1920, stationed in Granard, where he became a ‘bitter opponent of the Volunteer movement’. Orders were received to eliminate him. At around 21:30 Kelleher was in the bar of the Greville Arms Hotel, unarmed and in civilian

clothes. Two Volunteers entered and shot him in the chest with revolvers at pointblank range. The presence in Granard of a section of Seán Mac Eoin’s ASU saved the town from being burned in reprisal by Crown forces on 2 November. However, after the IRA withdrew an estimated £295,000 of damage was inflicted. Buried Millstreet, Cork. Less than a month later, it fell to his father to perform autopsies on the sixteen Auxiliary cadets killed in the Kilmichael ambush near Macroom. His father secured £3,000 compensation.624 Albert F. Caseley (31Oct1920/2) RIC (71924), 24, Ex-serviceman Bansha,625 Killorglin, Kerry From Kent, Caseley lived in Brixton, London. He joined the RIC on 16 July 1920, stationed in Killorglin. Constables Caseley and Evans were shot dead at around 22:00 about half a mile from Killorglin, while returning from leave in civilian clothes, by Volunteers from the Listry Company, Kerry No. 2 Brigade. The constables had been seeing two girls home. Reprisals followed in Killorglin, during which Denis M. O’Sullivan was taken from his home in the Square, beaten and shot four times. Buried Lambeth Cemetery, Tooting, London. Caseley’s dependents secured £3,000 compensation.626 RD: Evans (31Oct1920/3) John Herbert Evans627 (31Oct1920/3) RIC (71269), 22, Telegraphic operator, RAF pilot, Presbyterian Bansha, Killorglin, Kerry See Caseley (31Oct1920/2). From Belfast, Evans joined the RIC on 23 April 1920, stationed in Galway, before transfer to Killorglin. Buried Dundonald Cemetery, Belfast. William Madden (31Oct1920/4) RIC (65081), 30, RC CMHC From Tipperary, Constable Madden joined the RIC on 8 December 1909, posted to Abbeydorney, Kerry. At around 22:00, two IRA sections under Michael Pierce, captain

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Ballyheigue Company, and Paddy Sheehan shot two RIC men and a Black and Tan as they left Harty’s pub in Abbeydorney. Madden was killed and Constable Gorbey was seriously wounded. Buried Newcastle West, Limerick. His mother secured £1,000 compensation, and a sister £500.628 RD: Gorbey (6Nov1920/2) Thomas O’Donovan (31Oct1920/5) IRA, 24, Apprentice motor mechanic, RC Main Street, Killenaule, Tipperary O’Donovan, from Glengoole, Thurles, Tipperary, was interned in Frongoch after the Rising. After release, he was arrested several times. Living in Drangan, Tipperary, he was O/C 7th Battalion, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, in RIC eyes, a ‘prominent Tipperary desperado’. O’Donovan was determined to kill Lieutenant Hooton,629 commanding the military detachment in Killenaule, in Connell’s pub. O’Donovan and his men waited across the street. Hooten and a Sergeant Davies approached. What followed is unclear – one IRA source said that O’Donovan was ambushed, another that he had been drinking whiskey beforehand – but Davies killed O’Donovan while he was in the act of drawing his Colt automatic. Another Volunteer was wounded but escaped. The O/C of Tipperary No. 3 Brigade was in no doubt that O’Donovan: had to do things that perhaps crossed the border into foolhardiness so as to get his men shamed into showing some spirit. I may say . . . that it is not personal cowardice on behalf of the officers but the fear of their property . . . we should make the terror behind greater than the terror in front by shooting all really bad cases . . . now that something in the nature of a crisis is on us we require to show sternness.

GHQ replied that all convicted deserters should be publicly named, and ‘all recommendations to death penalty’ must be ‘referred to Headquarters’. Hooton and Davies secured an MBE and an OBE respectively. Buried Glengoole. A plaque commemorated him on Main Street, Killenaule.630

SA: Clancy (19Nov1920/1), Sadlier (13Jun 1921/6) James Donaldson (31Oct1920/6) 19, CoI Monaghan Donaldson was on his way to church when accidentally shot through the heart by a neighbour, said to be a fellow UVF member, as they examined a revolver.631

1 NOVEMBER 1920 George Morgan (1Nov1920/1) RIC (70802), 23, Grocer’s assistant, RC Ballyduff, Kerry From Mayo, Constable Morgan joined the RIC on 22 March 1920, stationed in Ballyduff. He was one of three policemen ambushed at around 01:00 by about twenty Volunteers of the Ballyduff and Lixnaw companies as they came through the village. He was shot dead; although wounded, constables Dolan and Reidy were able to reach their barracks. The attack was mounted to avenge the death of Terence MacSwiney. Buried Longford.632 SA: MacSwiney (25Oct1920/3) Ernest Bright (1Nov1920/2) RIC (71848), 34, Presser, ex-serviceman Blennerville, Tralee, Kerry From London, Bright joined the RIC on 9 July 1920, stationed in Tralee. Paddy Cahill, O/C Kerry No. 1 Brigade, instructed the Tralee Battalion to carry out reprisals for Terence MacSwiney. Bright and Constable Patrick Waters were captured on New Street and killed on Cahill’s orders in the early hours of 1 November by members of B (Strand Street) Company. They were buried in slob land near the beach at Blennerville, not, as rumour suggested, thrown live into the Tralee Gas Works furnace.633 The RIC General Register recorded them as ‘kidnapped and presumed murdered’. A wave of reprisals followed. Tralee Town Hall and several shops were burned down, and there was indiscriminate shooting. John Conway was shot dead on Rock Street as he left home to attend devotions, 1 November being a holy day. Tommy Wall, an ex-

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serviceman, was ordered to put his hands up while standing in the Mall. Beaten about the head with a rifle butt, he was told to run. Shot in the back, he died on 3 November.634 RD: Conway (1Nov1920/8), Wall (3Nov 1920/3), Waters (1Nov1920/3). SA: MacSwiney (25Oct1920/3) Patrick Waters (1Nov1920/3) RIC (69079), 24, Farmer, RC Blennerville, Tralee, Kerry See Bright (1Nov1920/2). Waters, from Spiddal, Galway, joined the RIC on 17 April 1917, stationed in Tralee. It was said that for many years his brother took a fortnight off work to search for his remains. Henry Cronin (1Nov1920/4) RIC (56371), 47, Labourer, Married with children, RC Infirmary, Tullamore, Offaly From Cork, Cronin joined the RIC on 2 April 1894, serving in Roscommon and Offaly. Promoted to sergeant in 1912, he had been stationed in Tullamore since 1916. He was shot and wounded in the chest, stomach and arm near his home on Henry Street, Tullamore, while returning to the barracks on the night of 31 October. His wife found her husband collapsed, saying, ‘I’m shot.’ He died at 04:00, leaving a young family. Various premises were wrecked in reprisal. Cronin was popular and was regarded as a competent and decent RIC officer. Buried Clonminch Cemetery, Tullamore.635 Kevin Gerard Barry (1Nov1920/5) IRA, 18, Student, RC Mountjoy Prison, Dublin Although born in Dublin, where his mother Mary ran a dairy, Barry spent his early years on the family farm in Tombeagh, Hacketstown, Carlow. He attended Rathvilly National School in Carlow, and later St Mary’s College in Dublin, before transferring in 1916 to Belvedere College. In 1917, he and his friend Frank Flood joined C Company, Dublin Brigade, of which Flood’s brother Seán was O/C. By 1920 he was a somewhat wayward medical student in UCD. Due to increasing numbers, a new H Company was

formed with Seán Kavanagh as O/C and Barry as commander No. 2 Section. While visiting Carlow he had seen action with the Rathvilly Company, taking part in a raid on John Redmond’s former home at Aughavannagh, Wicklow, and in an exchange of fire with a clergyman during an abortive raid for arms on the Church of Ireland rectory in Tullow, Carlow. On 20 September, H Company launched a botched arms raid on a military ration party outside Monks’ Bakery, Upper Church Street, Dublin. Private Harold Washington was killed outright, while privates Humphries and Whitehead died of their wounds. Unaware that his comrades had withdrawn, Barry was sheltering under a military lorry trying to clear a blockage in his automatic when he was captured. He was badly roughed up after arrest, treatment later branded as ‘torture’, although he made little of it, only providing a very measured account on GHQ instructions in a sworn affidavit two days before his execution. Tried by court martial, he refused to recognise the court, insouciantly reading a newspaper during proceedings. He simply replied ‘No’ when asked if he had any questions of each witness, but evidently grew irritated, telling the presiding officer, ‘Don’t bother asking me that question any more, I am not interested in the proceedings.’ A bullet from his automatic was linked to Whitehead’s death. He was sentenced to death on 20 October. Frantic efforts were made to secure a reprieve. Two escape plans fell through. He was hanged at 08:00, the first such execution during the War of Independence. Hundreds had gathered outside the prison. Barry remained calm and humorous in the face of death. The day before his execution, his mother, brother Mick and eldest sister Kitby – EOH’s grandmother – visited to say goodbye. He reportedly wrote to a fellow student that he forgave all his enemies, but that he ‘had nothing to forgive in the case of his Black and Tan guards and his warder, all of whom had been most kind’. Jesuit scholastic Thomas Counihan, who had taught him in Belvedere and who saw him the night before his death, wrote afterwards that

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Barry’s death was a turning point. A rumour gained currency that he had to be dragged to the gallows, whereas contemporary records suggest the contrary: a Dublin Castle press officer noted a report from the prison that, having ‘talked sport mainly’ with his warders during his last hours, Barry ‘went to his death with callous composure’. What finer epitaph could an enemy offer? Buried Mountjoy. In October 2001, his remains were exhumed and reinterred in GC after a state funeral, along with those of eight other Volunteers executed in Mountjoy in 1920 and 1921. A ninth Volunteer was reinterred in Ballylanders, Limerick.636 SA: Humphries (21Sep1920/3), Washington (20Sep1920/4), Whitehead (20Sep1920/5) Eileen (Ellen) Quinn (1Nov1920/6) 23, Farmer’s wife, Married with three children, RC Kiltartan, Gort, Galway Eileen Quinn (née Gilligan) and her husband Malachy lived in Kiltartan, Gort. At around 14:45, she was sitting on a wall outside her house holding her nine-month-old baby when she was hit in the groin, probably by a shot from a passing police tender. She staggered to her door, handed her child to a servant and collapsed. Henry O’Mara, O/C 6th Battalion, East Clare Brigade, claimed that a police lorry from the direction of Gort:

close. He was so fond of his wife, “she could play every musical instrument”.’ Police on the lorry claimed they had seen no woman near the roadside, and stated that as a precaution against ambushes they often fired shots in the air when approaching wooded areas or dangerous bends. It was suggested that Eileen Quinn was wounded by a ricochet. Buried Kiltartan Cemetery. A compensation claim was dismissed in October 1921, but the Treasury subsequently sanctioned an ex gratia payment. Her death, a gift for republican propagandists, was evoked in W. B. Yeats’s poem ‘Reprisals’: Where may new-married women sit And suckle children now?637

SA: Blake (15May1921/10) Albert Leigh (1Nov1920/7) Hampshire Regiment (5485478),638 23, Groom, CoE Pilltown Cross, Waterford Private Leigh attested at Southampton on 13 June 1916. Stationed in Cork, he was killed when a party of eleven soldiers from the musketry depot in Youghal were ambushed at Pilltown Cross on the main Dungarvan to Youghal road. The IRA provided ‘a dray to enable the British to take away their wounded’ to Youghal Military Barracks. Buried St Mary’s Churchyard, Broughton, Hampshire.639

slackened speed and a shot was fired. Then one man knelt down, steadied his rifle and taking every precaution so as not to miss, fired deliberately at Mrs Quinn and mortally wounded her. As she fell . . . all the occupants of it, save one, cheered the dastardly deed.

John Conway (1Nov1920/8) 57, Painter, Married with six children, RC Rock Street, Tralee, Kerry See Bright (1Nov1920/2). Conway lived on Rock Street. Buried Rath Cemetery, Tralee.

It seems more likely that she was hit by chance, as Black and Tans on the lorry, who were apparently drunk, had been firing randomly and indiscriminately as they passed through the district. Despite the attentions of two doctors, Eileen Quinn died at 22:45. A few days later her bereaved husband visited their near neighbour Lady Augusta Gregory, ‘looking dreadfully worn and changed and his nerves broken, he could hardly speak. . . . He believes they shot her on purpose – they came so

Seán (John) Houlihan (1Nov1920/9) IRA, 30, Farmer’s son, RC Ballyduff, Kerry Houlihan served in 3rd (Lixnaw) Battalion, Kerry No. 1 Brigade. Eight lorries of police arrived at the Houlihan house in Ballyduff in response to the killing of Constable Morgan. Seán was pulled from his bed, placed against a ditch, shot several times and bayoneted. His parents were forced to watch. Their hay shed was burned, and other houses looted and set on fire. During indiscriminate shooting a

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girl named Sheehy was wounded. Houlihan’s father secured £150 compensation in 1924, but further applications from his mother and brother James were unsuccessful. The latter, a county councillor, resigned his chairmanship of the local Fianna Fáil cumann in February 1934 in protest. Buried Rahela, Ballyduff.640 SA: Morgan (1Nov1920/1) Peter Cooney (1Nov1920/10) RIC (60641), 45, Farmer, Married with two children, RC Breaghy Crossroads, Ballinalee, Longford From Sligo, Cooney joined the RIC on 1 April 1902, serving in Galway, and in Ballinalee and Granard in Longford. According to his killer, Frank Davis, Longford Brigade, Cooney was ‘a noted detective who was wont to go around dressed in women’s clothes and other forms of disguise IRA-hunting . . . Michael Collins† . . . ordered that he be shot’, but ‘for some time we had no idea of where he was’. Cooney was returning to duty in civilian clothes after visiting his family when he was shot at Breaghy Crossroads near Ballinalee at about 14:00, allegedly carrying coded dispatches containing the names of Longford IRA men.641 Alfred George Bell (1Nov1920/11) 17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge’s Own) (313829) Buttevant, Cork Private Bell, of Shoreditch, London, accidentally shot himself with a revolver. Buried Islington Cemetery, London (Screen Wall. M. 20986).642

c. 1 NOVEMBER 1920 Edward Canning (1Nov1920/12) Ex-serviceman, RC Roscommon Reported missing on 1 November, he was executed as a spy by the IRA. His body was not recovered.643

2 NOVEMBER 1920 Sidney G. Larkin644 (2Nov1920/1) RIC (71468), 22, Footman, ex-serviceman Auburn, Athlone, Westmeath From London, Constable Larkin joined the RIC on 25 May 1920, posted to Leitrim. At

around 09:30 a party of ten police travelling from Carrick-on-Shannon to Athlone in two Crossley cars was ambushed by twenty-five Athlone Brigade Volunteers, mainly armed with shotguns. This was part of general IRA reprisals following the death of Terence MacSwiney. Larkin, driving the first lorry, was shot in the chest. The police returned fire and some attackers were seen to fall. The RIC found James Finn’s body in a nearby house, apparently killed by a police bullet.645 RD: Finn (2Nov1920/2). SA: MacSwiney (25Oct1920/3) James (Séamus) Finn (2Nov1920/2) IRA, 21, Farmer’s son, RC Auburn, Athlone, Westmeath See Larkin (2Nov1920/1). Finn, of Killeenbrack, Streamstown, Westmeath, served in the 3rd Battalion, Athlone Brigade. Buried Killare, Westmeath. William Michael Maxwell (2Nov1920/3) RIC (71234), 24, Postman, ex-serviceman, RC Cloughjordan, Tipperary From Ballynahinch, Down, Maxwell joined the RIC after demobilisation from the Irish Guards on 23 April 1920, stationed in Cloughjordan. At around 21:00 Joe O’Brien, Bill Kelly, Bill Meagher and Paddy Whelehan entered Tooher’s hotel bar. Maxwell attempted to draw his gun but was shot dead.646 Another policeman escaped. Buried Ballynahinch.647 James Daly (2Nov1920/4) Connaught Rangers, 21, RC Dagshai Barracks, Punjab See Smyth (1Jul1920/2). Daly, from Tyrrellspass, Westmeath, re-enlisted in the Connaught Rangers, in which his brother was already serving, on 4 April 1919, having been wounded in France while serving in the RIR. He was executed for his part in the disturbances at Solon hill-station on 29–30 June. Thirteen others so sentenced were later reprieved, but Daly was not as he was ‘the ringleader throughout’. Also, sparing his life would make it impossible to maintain discipline among Indian troops, and would have

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‘disastrous consequences on the Indian Army’. His commanding officer and a chaplain wrote that ‘the boy met his death like a brave soldier, and ‘his last moment was marked by coolness and greatness of soul’. Buried Dagshai Cemetery. In 1970 he was reinterred in Geoghegan Graveyard, Westmeath.648

home, where a police party shot him dead. This was probably a reprisal for the Four Mile House ambush of 12 October in which four policemen died.650 Conry had not taken part. Buried Ballinderry Old Cemetery, Fourmilehouse, Roscommon.651 SA: Crawford (12Oct1920/3)

3 NOVEMBER 1920

Thomas Wall (3Nov1920/3) 25, Ex-serviceman, RC Infirmary, Tralee, Kerry See Bright (1Nov1920/2). ‘Tommy’ Wall, an ex-serviceman, had fought in France.652

Patrick Fallon (3Nov1920/1) RIC (55021), 49, Farmer, Widowed with three daughters, RC RIC Barracks, Ballymote, Sligo Fallon, from Tuam, Galway, joined the RIC on 1 May 1891, serving in Donegal and Sligo. Promoted to sergeant in 1912, he had been stationed in Ballymote for about five years. He was due for promotion to head constable. Tom Brehony and Thady McGowan thought Fallon:

4 NOVEMBER 1920

Although there was disagreement at a battalion meeting on 1 November, Pat Coleman and Jim Molloy went ahead. They shot Fallon, on duty at Ballymote Fair, at around 14:00 as he returned unarmed from his lodgings on Mill Street to the barracks. At about 20:00, six lorries of soldiers arrived in Ballymote. The creamery, a bakery and a house were burned down. Other houses were damaged. Michael Gray of Ballinlough, who had not been involved in Fallon’s killing, was nevertheless convicted of it in June 1921. Buried Ballymote.649

Henry James Hambleton (4Nov1920/1) Northamptonshire Regiment, 26, Army officer Casey’s Cross, Knockalton Upper, Nenagh, Tipperary Hambleton, commissioned on 15 August 1914 in the Northamptonshire Regiment, was a battalion intelligence officer, stationed in Templemore. Edward O’Leary termed him ‘an extremely bad pill’. At about 16:00 an IRA party in wait at Casey’s Cross fired at Hambleton, who fell off his motorcycle and was killed. His regimental record book commented, ‘There is no doubt that this was done owing to Lt. Hambleton’s activities as intelligence officer at Nenagh.’ Nenagh Creamery was burned in reprisal that night, together with a printing office and a pub. John O’Brien and Thomas O’Brien, both Volunteers of the Nenagh Company but not related, and a workman of Cleary’s named Phil Cruise were arrested. On the way to Nenagh, the O’Briens were bayoneted to death.653 Cruise was released after a fortnight. Buried Devonshire.654 RD: O’Brien (4Nov1920/3), O’Brien (4Nov 1920/4). SA: Starr (1May1921/11)

John Conry (3Nov1920/2) IRA, 32, Stonemason, Married with one child, RC Rathconnor, Four Mile House, Roscommon Conry, of Rathconnor, Four Mile House, served in the 2nd Battalion, South Roscommon Brigade. Although apparently tipped off about a possible raid, he stayed at

Samuel Wilfred Lucas (4Nov1920/2) RIC (58083), 47, Bread server, Married with one child, Presbyterian RVHB See Breen (25Oct1920/8). From Tyrone, Lucas joined the RIC on 1 March 1898, serving in Donegal and from 1916 Fermanagh. Promoted to sergeant in 1917, he was stationed in Tempo.

a very dangerous enemy. . . . He had gone out of his way . . . to harry men who were active and on the run. This man’s daughter was also actively engaged in doing intelligence work. . . . When Sergeant Fallon’s anti-IRA activities had become notorious, orders were issued for his execution.

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Wounded during an IRA attack on Tempo RIC Barracks on 25 October, he died from septic poisoning at 17:45. Buried Cloveneden Cemetery, Loughgall, Armagh. His widow secured £3,500 compensation, and his twoyear-old son £1,000.655 John O’Brien (4Nov1920/3) IRA, RC Nenagh, Tipperary See Hambleton (4Nov1920/1). O’Brien, born in the US, son of John O’Brien, licensed vintner, Nenagh, served in Nenagh Company, Tipperary No. 1 Brigade. Buried Lisboney Cemetery, Nenagh.656 Thomas O’Brien (4Nov1920/4) IRA, Carpenter, RC Nenagh, Tipperary See Hambledon (4Nov1920/1). Thomas O’Brien lived with his brother and sisters at the convent lodge in Nenagh. He served in Nenagh Company, Tipperary No. 1 Brigade. Buried Monsea Cemetery, Nenagh.657 Albert E. Rundle (4Nov1920/5) RIC (71830), 26, Rubber worker, ex-serviceman, Married CMHC See Rippingale (22Oct1920/4). Rundle, from London, joined the RIC on 6 July 1920, stationed in Leap, Cork. His family secured £4,000 compensation.658 John McLean (4Nov1920/6) Protestant Belfast McLean, of Glenallen Street, died of injuries sustained during earlier disturbances.659

5 NOVEMBER 1920 Thomas Archer (5Nov1920/1) IRA, 17, Agricultural labourer, RC Causeway, Kerry Archer was from Kilflynn, Tralee, Kerry. At around 04:30 the Ardfert battalion ASU and Volunteers from Causeway and Ballyheigue companies occupied houses near Causeway RIC Barracks. They particularly hoped to kill Sergeant McGrath, responsible for burning

local farmhouses. At 09:30, a retired RIC sergeant named Patrick Roche, resident in Causeway for some years, passed by and saw a Volunteer through the window. A short time later, all the police withdrew to barracks and the streets were cleared. Scouts reported police reinforcements arriving from Tralee, Listowel and Abbeydorney. The IRA fought their way out of the town. Archer, a scout, was killed.660 Michael McGuire, a local man, was later captured and shot dead. Buried Ardfert.661 SA: McGuire (5Nov1920/3), Roche (1Mar 1921/8) Teresa O’Connell (5Nov1920/2) 15, RC North Commons, Ardfert, Kerry Teresa O’Connell, ‘the daughter of a buttermaker’, was shot dead on her doorstep as a party of the Ardfert Battalion was assembling for an ambush. Lieutenant J. R. Chalker, East Lancashire Regiment, subsequently stated that on entering Ardfert a mixed patrol of military and police came under fire, which they returned. Two Volunteers were captured. Michael McGuire, a shopkeeper, was arrested and taken to Causeway, where he was shot dead by the police outside their barracks. He had supplied paraffin for the burning of Ardfert RIC Barracks some time before. The deaths of Teresa O’Connell and Michael McGuire as well as those of Michael Brosnan and John Cantillon, three days later, were not officially reported. There was some confusion in official circles as to whether a court of inquiry should have been held, and in January 1921 the Chief Secretary’s Office decided that it would serve ‘no good purpose’. A report by DI Reilly in December 1920 stated that a party of military and police, in search of persons suspected of involvement in an ambush the previous week, had been shot at. Fire was returned. It only emerged some days later that Teresa O’Connell, who was 500 yards away, had been killed, allegedly in consequence of ‘a wager between two Black and Tans as to which of them could shoot the best’.662 RD: McGuire (5Nov1920/3). SA: Brosnan (8Nov1920/1), Cantillon (8Nov1920/2)

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Michael McGuire (5Nov1920/3) 55, Shopkeeper, Married with seven children, RC Causeway, Kerry See O’Connell (5Nov1920/2). McGuire, a former rural district councillor, owned a provisions store in Ardfert. One BMH statement asserts that he was killed ‘in a ball alley’. Buried Ardfert.663 William George King (5Nov1920/4) Hampshire Regiment (5485574), 22, Groom, CoE Youghal, Cork Private King, from Andover, Hampshire, attested in Belgium on 27 January 1919. At 23:00, a picket sent to break up trouble between off-duty soldiers and civilians came under fire near Bradfield’s barber shop, into which the troops forced an entry. King was shot by a man who was in turn wounded. At the same time, the IRA attacked the RIC barracks. The military picket attempted to outflank the attackers, who dispersed. A civilian was severely wounded. Press suggestions that troops exchanged fire with the RIC were emphatically denied. Buried St Mary’s Churchyard, Liss, Hampshire.664

6 NOVEMBER 1920

cemetery, Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary, on 9 November.666

c. 6 NOVEMBER 1920 Christopher McEvoy (6Nov1920/3) IRA, RC Portrane Asylum, Dublin McEvoy, of 73 Gloucester Street, served in the 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. Patrick Kearney recalled that following an unsuccessful ambush an IRA party were walking back to Parnell Square when one of the Cotter brothers from Drumcondra threw a bomb at a passing police tender. McEvoy was wounded in an ensuing exchange of fire. Secretly removed from Jervis Street Hospital to Portrane Asylum that night, he died shortly afterwards.667

7 NOVEMBER 1920 Thomas Joseph Walsh (7Nov1920/1) RIC, Ex-serviceman, mechanic, 27, RC Vicinity of Blarney, Cork The CFR details how Constable Walsh, a Dubliner who joined the RIC in November 1919, was captured by the IRA at Blarney on 6 November. He escaped under cover of fog, but was recaptured, killed and buried early next day. His remains were never recovered.668

William Mulcahy (6Nov1920/1) Blacksmith, RC Bachelor’s Quay, Cork Mulcahy, from Evergreen Street, worked for Messrs McBride. At around 22:10 a military patrol enforcing the curfew ordered men at Bachelor’s Quay near North Gate Bridge to halt. Some ran, and were fired on. Mulcahy died from a chest wound. Buried SFC, Cork.665

James Joseph O’Keeffe (7Nov1920/2) 42, Commercial traveller, RC SPDH O’Keeffe, from Cork, lived at 6 Stamer Street. At around 19:00, he was knocked down on Clare Street by an Auxiliary Division motor car, dying soon afterwards. Buried GC.669

Robert Gorbey (6Nov1920/2) RIC (70996), 23, Manservant, ex-serviceman, CoI CMHC See Madden (31Oct1920/4). Gorbey, from Waterford, joined the RIC on 6 April 1920, allocated to Kerry. He was awarded the constabulary medal. Buried Protestant

Michael Brosnan (8Nov1920/1) IRA, 30, Agricultural labourer, RC Ardfert, Kerry From Castleisland, Kerry, Brosnan served in the Ardfert Company, Kerry No. 1 Brigade. Patrick Sheehan recalled how a police patrol arrested Brosnan, John Cantillon and Maurice McElligott. At around 16:30, they were taken

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into a field and ordered to run. Brosnan and Cantillon were shot dead when they did so. McElligott refused to run, and escaped after a severe beating. Buried Ardfert.670 RD: Cantillon (8Nov1920/2) John Cantillon (8Nov1920/2) IRA, 24, Agricultural labourer, RC Ardfert, Kerry See Brosnan (8Nov1920/1). Cantillon served in the Ardfert Company, Kerry No. 1 Brigade. Buried Ardfert. His father secured a £50 gratuity. 671 Hugh Kearns (8Nov1920/3) RIC (63613), 35, Farmer, Widowed with three children, RC City Infirmary, Derry From Scotstown, Monaghan, Kearns joined the RIC on 15 January 1908, serving in Donegal and from 1913 in Derry. Of exceptionally fine physique, he was a good athlete. The circumstances surrounding his death are unclear. Constables Kearns and Short, who were in plain clothes during disturbances, were shot and critically wounded; Kearns died two days later. They may have been in a party of RIC men engaged in burning houses of Sinn Féin supporters on Foyle Street. Buried Scotstown, Monaghan.672 Percy Vincent Starling (8Nov1920/4) RMA, 26, Married, Protestant Naval Hospital, Queenstown (Cobh), Cork Gunner Starling (RMA/13560) was one of three marines accidentally shot by a comrade at Union Hall at 08:30 on 5 November. Evacuated to Queenstown by boat, he was, reportedly, less than three weeks married. Buried Cobh Old Church Cemetery (C.26.60).673 Mary Quirke (8Nov1920/5) 49, Widowed with children, RC Mallow The CFR records the death of Mary Quirke, widow of a butcher and mother of fourteen children, who never recovered after she took refuge in the grounds of St Mary’s Church, Mallow, on 28 September as troops ran amok.674

RD: Gibbs (28Sep1920/1), O’Connell (15Oct 1920/4)

9 NOVEMBER 1920 Archibald Turner (9Nov1920/1) RIC (71552), 28, Labourer, ex-serviceman Ballybrack, Firies, Kerry Constable Turner, from Kent, served with the Welsh Regiment before joining the RIC on 4 June 1920, stationed in Farranfore, Kerry. Tom McEllistrim, O/C Firies Battalion, Kerry No. 2 Brigade, with men of the Ballymacelligott ASU, halted a train at Ballybrack Station, posting a man in the cab to prevent it from moving until the operation was completed. The two constables, regarded as particularly aggressive, were pulled onto the platform, disarmed and shot by McEllistrim and Bill Diggins. Turner died shortly afterwards, Woods a week later. Local houses were burned in reprisal. Buried Kent. His mother secured £1,000 compensation.675 RD: Woods (15Nov1920/1) Denis Ring (9Nov1920/2) IRA, 23, Farmer’s son Killeendooling, Midleton, Cork The CFR describes how Ring shot himself in the abdomen while cleaning a revolver, dying a few days later. His father deceived the authorities, reporting the cause of death as wounds caused by falling on the prong of a hay fork.676

10 NOVEMBER 1920 Christopher Lucey (10Nov1920/1) IRA, Student, RC Tooreenduff, Ballingeary, Cork Lucey, a UCC student and former pupil of Mungret College, was a section commander in B Company, 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. Arrested while attending a training camp in Glandore and sentenced to two years in Mountjoy, he went on the run after release following the June 1920 hunger strike. Police reports stated he was killed in an exchange of fire with Auxiliaries searching houses in the Tooreenduff area at about 12:00. Buried SFC. A monument was erected at Tooreenduff, between Ballingeary and Gougane Barra.677

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Francis Hoffman (10Nov1920/2) IRA, 21, Farmer, CoI Farmers Bridge, Tralee, Kerry Hoffman, of Farmers Bridge near Tralee, was described by Tom McEllistrim as an active Volunteer. There was considerable police activity after the shootings on 9 November of constables Turner and Woods, with various arrests and houses burned in reprisal. A police convoy returning to Tralee encountered Hoffman at Farmers Bridge. The Irish Independent reported that he was bayoneted before being shot. Lieutenant N. C. Buckton, East Lancashire Regiment, stated that a mixed patrol of troops and RIC stopped Hoffman and Patrick O’Connor on a cart. Two policemen searched them without finding anything suspicious. As the patrol was moving off, Constable E. Johnson inadvertently discharged a shot, killing Hoffman. Although a court of inquiry exonerated Johnson, ColonelCommandant Cumming, commanding the British military’s Kerry Brigade, considered Johnson culpable through negligence. He was acquitted of manslaughter at Tralee Petty Sessions on 3 January 1921. Buried Ballyseedy, Tralee. A memorial was erected at Farmers Bridge.678 SA: Cumming (5Mar1921/1), Turner (9Nov 1920/1), Woods (15Nov1920/1) Robert James Muir (10Nov1920/3) RMLI, 36, married with two children Kenmare, Kerry Corporal Muir, 6th Battalion, stationed at Blackwater Coastguard Station, a Scot who had served since 1902, died when he discharged his fowling piece while clubbing a wounded rabbit with the butt. Buried Plymouth Old Cemetery.679

12 NOVEMBER 1920 Patrick Herlihy (12Nov1920/1) 19, Creamery employee, RC Ballydwyer, Ballymacelligott, Kerry Herlihy, from Ballydwyer, had recently passed Department of Agriculture qualifying exams for assistant manager. It is unclear whether he was a Volunteer. Tom McEllistrim described how a large convoy of police trav-

elling from Tralee to Castleisland stopped at Ballydwyer Creamery at around 12:00. Members of the Ballymacelligott ASU who happened to be nearby ran for it and were fired on. Herlihy and John McMahon were killed and two others wounded.680 RD: McMahon (12Nov1920/2) John McMahon (12Nov1920/2) 31, Farmer, Married, RC Ballydwyer, Ballymacelligott, Kerry See Herlihy (12Nov1920/1). Ballymacelligott.681

Buried

Daniel O’Brien (12Nov1920/3) RIC (65199), 33, Farmer, RC Riverstown, Cork From Mountprospect, Cork, O’Brien joined the RIC on 24 February 1910, serving in Carlow, Limerick and Tuckey Street, Cork. At about 17:35 he was fatally injured through falling from a lorry which swerved to avoid a farm cart near Riverstown.682

13 NOVEMBER 1920 Jeremiah O’Leary (13Nov1920/1) RIC (65367), 30, Labourer, RC Lisvernane, Glen of Aherlow, Tipperary Constable O’Leary, from Kilbrittain, Cork, joined the RIC on 15 January 1910, serving in Galway and from 1917 in Tipperary town. His uncle Sergeant Daniel Roche had recently been killed in Dublin. He was in a lorry carrying an eight-man police patrol from Tipperary Barracks which visited various smaller outlying stations. The patrol left Emly at about 12:30 and went towards Bansha. A volley was fired at about 12:45 as the tender passed Lisvernane (Lisnagaul), about two and a half miles from Bansha. No one was hit, but the lorry’s steering gear was disabled and it swerved into a ditch. The constables jumped out and returned fire for about twenty-five minutes until they ran out of ammunition. The ambush was carried out by No. 1 ASU Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, under Dinny Lacey.† O’Leary was killed. Constable Patrick Mackessy, who was horribly burned under the lorry when petrol caught fire, was mortally wounded, and constables Charles Buntrock and John Miller were severely

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wounded. Buntrock died at 20:45 that night and Miller at 18:15 next day. Press reports stated that the IRA commander ‘called twice on his companions to cease firing before the order was obeyed’. The policemen were disarmed and the lorry set on fire. Buntrock’s brother, also an RIC constable, was captured and held by the IRA for some hours. He later identified Patrick Harrington, Michael Mullally and Thomas Walsh, and they were arrested. Various premises in Tipperary town were burned in reprisal, including the pharmacy and home of P. J. Moloney TD whose son Jim – EOH’s grandfather – had assembled the intelligence for the ambush. O’Leary’s mother secured £1,000 compensation.683 RD: Buntrock (13Nov1920/3), Mackessy (13Nov1920/2), Miller (14Nov1920/1). SA: Roche (17Oct1920/2) Patrick Mackessy (13Nov1920/2) RIC (62820), 35, Farmer, Married with three children, RC Lisvernane, Glen of Aherlow, Tipperary See O’Leary (13Nov1920/1). From Kerry, Constable Mackessy joined the RIC on 26 August 1907, serving in Clare before transfer to Tipperary town in 1913. Buried Abbey Cemetery, Ballydonoghue, Kerry. His widow and three children secured £5,000 compensation.684 Charles William Buntrock (13Nov1920/3) RIC (74436), 27, Boilermaker’s helper, exserviceman, Married with two children Military Hospital, Tipperary, Tipperary See O’Leary (13Nov1920/1). Constable Buntrock, from Essex, joined the RIC on 15 October 1920, stationed in Tipperary town. His widow secured £1,545 compensation, and each of his two children £1,552. She later secured additional compensation of £2,542.6s.8d. from the British government.685 Annie O’Neill (13Nov1920/4) 8, Schoolgirl, RC Charlemont Street, Dublin Annie lived at 22 Charlemont Street. At around 17:00, a military lorry drew up at

Charlemont Place. A group on the corner immediately dispersed although ordered to halt: one later told a reporter that ‘he had no particular reason for running away, but when he saw others running, he ran too’. An officer gave chase and fired. A bullet hit Annie O’Neill in the chest, passed through her body and struck her playmate, Teresa Kavanagh, aged six and a half. Mrs O’Neill rushed out: ‘I . . . picked up my little girl and brought her into the house I thought she was alive and put her standing up, but she fell at my feet.’ Soldiers took the two girls to hospital, but Annie was already dead. A solicitor representing Mrs O’Neill was excluded, along with the press, from a court of inquiry on 15 November. Buried Kill O’ the Grange Cemetery, Dublin.686

14 NOVEMBER 1920 John Thomas Miller (14Nov1920/1) RIC (71096), 22, Teacher, CoI Military Hospital, Tipperary town, Tipperary See O’Leary (13Nov1920/1). Constable Miller, from Wicklow, joined the RIC on 22 April 1920, stationed in Tipperary town. Miller’s mother secured £1,500 compensation.687

15 NOVEMBER 1920 James Thomas Woods (15Nov1920/1) RIC (70264), 29, Ex-serviceman, Protestant Killarney, Kerry See Turner (9Nov1920/1). Woods, from Lancashire, served with the Grenadier Guards before joining the RIC on 3 February 1920, posted to Farranfore, Kerry. He reportedly died at 09:00. Buried New Cemetery,688 Killarney. His mother secured £1,500 compensation.689

c. 15 NOVEMBER 1920 Michael J. Griffin (15Nov1920/2) 28, Clergyman, RC Lenaboy Castle, Taylor’s Hill, Galway Griffin, from Gurteen, Ballinasloe, Galway, ordained in 1917, was on loan to the Galway diocese, in Rahoon parish. An ardent Gaelic Leaguer, during the 1918 general election he supported Pádraic Ó Máille, the Sinn Féin candidate for Galway-Connemara.

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Griffin left his home at 2 Montpellier Terrace at around 23:30. Mary Leech recalled that her brother Father John O’Meehan believed he had been hunted by a party of Black and Tans. Failing to find him, they instead called to Griffin’s house, where a youth in civilian clothes told the housekeeper that a priest was needed urgently. Captain Joseph Taylor, staff captain Galway Brigade, suggested that this man was William Joyce (later to achieve notoriety as the Nazi radio propagandist ‘Lord Haw Haw’), who was believed to be a police tout. Griffin’s disappearance was reported on 15 November. On the evening of 20 November, coat tails were noticed in boggy land near the roadside at Cloughscoiltia (Cloughskella), outside Barna. Griffin had been shot in the head. His biographer noted that the shooting had evidently taken place elsewhere, and a post-mortem examination showed he had died some days earlier. Griffin was possibly killed as a reprisal for the shooting of the alleged informer Patrick W. Joyce and his body deliberately left near Barna close to the school where Joyce had taught. The RIC also connected his death to an unspecified ‘prominent part’ Griffin had allegedly played in Joyce’s death. Louis O’Dea, a Galway solicitor, claimed that Griffin was shot at the Auxiliaries’ base in Colonel O’Hara’s house. An implausible countervailing rumour was that Griffin had been shot by the IRA at the behest of the Church authorities because he was having an affair with a farmer’s daughter, on whose land his body was buried. An official later described a conversation in the early 1930s in the Valuation Office in Dublin, during which a man named Morris, believed to have formerly been a Black and Tan or Auxiliary, claimed, ‘That bastard got what he deserved, and there was another man too we were looking for, and he’d have got the same if we’d found him.’ On 28 May 1922 ex-RIC constable Thomas Greer† and his father ex-sergeant James Greer† were murdered at their home in Cootehall, Roscommon, reportedly because Thomas was wrongly believed to have been implicated in Griffin’s death. Buried St Brendan’s Cathedral, Loughrea. In November 1922, a

monument was erected at Cloughscoiltia, and another at the graveside. A church in his native Gurteen was built in his memory, in 1937 a road connecting Wolfe Tone Bridge and the Salthill Road was named after him, and in 1948 the Father Griffin Gaelic Football Club was founded in Claddagh, Galway.690 SA: Joyce (16Oct1920/6)

16 NOVEMBER 1920 Patrick Lynch (16Nov1920/1) 46, Labourer, Married, RC Infirmary, Cashel, Tipperary Lynch lived with his wife of three weeks in Golden. On the night of 14 November shots were fired in the village; there had earlier been an attack on police in nearby Bansha. Mrs Lynch said that at around 20:30 they had heard shooting outside. When they thought it was all over, they went out, and saw police shouting at the corner. They ran back towards their house, chased by police. Wounded as they reached the back door, Patrick died at 06:30. RIC witnesses gave a different account. They claimed they had been searching for a stranger wearing a trench coat and felt hat. Later they were fired on, and saw men crouching in a laneway. These ran away when challenged. The next morning they learned that Lynch had been wounded. Buried Golden.691 Michael Egan (16Nov1920/2) 24, Caretaker, RC Killaloe, Clare Egan, from Tuamgraney, Clare, was arrested in his house with three Volunteers of the Scarriff Battalion, East Clare Brigade, by an Auxiliary party which achieved surprise by travelling quietly by boat from Killaloe. First taken to the Lakeside Hotel in Killaloe, which had been recently occupied by Auxiliaries, they were reportedly tortured for hours before being shot dead in the middle of the bridge across the Shannon. Locals heard shots between 23:00 and midnight. Next morning there were large pools of blood and brain matter on Killaloe Bridge. The

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Auxiliaries maintained the Volunteers were shot while attempting to evade arrest. Buried Scarriff.692 RD: Gildea (16Nov1920/3), McMahon (16Nov1920/4), Rodgers (16Nov1920/5)

recalled how two British intelligence officers were captured, tried, executed and secretly buried in the Rusheen Company area. On 26 September 1921, the IRA confirmed this.697 RD: Mitchell (16Nov1920/7)

Martin Gildea693 (16Nov1920/3) IRA, 27, Shop assistant, RC Killaloe, Clare See Egan (16Nov1920/2). Gildea, from Ashbrook, New Inn, Ballinasloe, Galway, was a foreman for a Mr Sparling in Scarriff, Clare. An officer in the 4th (Scarriff) Battalion, East Clare Brigade, he served in the ASU. Buried Scarriff.694

Lionel Ralph Mitchell (16Nov1920/7) ADRIC (72848), 23, Ex-serviceman Rusheen, Macroom, Cork See Agnew (16Nov1920/6). Mitchell, from Somerset, won the DCM and became a lieutenant in the Princess Charlotte of Wales’s (Royal Berkshire Regiment). Joining the Auxiliary Division on 17 August 1920 (auxiliary number 298), he was a section leader in C Company, stationed in Macroom. His parents secured £800 compensation.698

Michael McMahon (16Nov1920/4) IRA, 26, Shop assistant, RC Killaloe, Clare See Egan (16Nov1920/2). ‘Brud’ McMahon, from Scarriff, Clare, was an officer in the 4th (Scarriff) Battalion, East Clare Brigade, and served in the ASU. Buried Scarriff.695 Alfred Rodgers (16Nov1920/5) IRA, 22, Shop assistant, RC Killaloe, Clare See Egan (16Nov1920/2). ‘Alfie’ Rodgers, from Scarriff, Clare, educated at Mungret College, was an officer in the 4th (Scarriff) Battalion, East Clare Brigade, and served in the ASU. The Mungret Annual described ‘his fine address, his gay and compelling personality’, which made him ‘the natural leader of the young men of his native town’. Buried Scarriff.696 Bertram Agnew (16Nov1920/6) ADRIC (72842), 24, Naval officer Rusheen, Macroom, Cork From Lancashire, former naval reservist Lieutenant Agnew joined the Auxiliary Division on 17 August 1920 (auxiliary number 370). He was an intelligence officer in C Company, stationed in Macroom. On leave in Cork city, he and Lionel Mitchell were last seen driving towards the South Mall at about 09:15. Both cadets were reported missing and eventually struck off the Auxiliary Division register. Ned Neville, O/C Rusheen Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade,

17 NOVEMBER 1920 James O’Donoghue699 (17Nov1920/1) RIC (58216), 46, Farmer, Married with children, RC White Street, Cork O’Donoghue, from Cahirciveen, Kerry, joined the RIC on 1 June 1898, serving in Sligo, Kilkenny, and in the RIC Reserve, before transfer to Cork in 1903. Promoted to sergeant in 1919, he was stationed in Tuckey Street RIC Barracks, Cork. Regarded as an even-handed and competent officer, he was to have been promoted to head constable the week after he was killed. O’Donoghue was shot three times as he walked along White Street from his home in Tower Street towards his barracks. According to Leo Buckley, the killers were Tommy Healy and Willie Joe O’Brien of G Company, 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. Peter Hart has written that Healy’s brother Charlie, O’Brien and Justin O’Connor were responsible. Later that night, men in police uniforms killed James Coleman, Patrick Hanley and Eugene O’Connell. Three others were wounded, including Charlie Healy. Why O’Donoghue was shot is a puzzle: a week afterwards, the Cork IRA apologised in writing. Bishop Cohalan wrote that ‘a few roughs who had some grievance against the policeman’ were believed responsible. Buried Keelavarnogue Cemetery, Cahirciveen. O’Donoghue’s widow

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Mary Frances secured £2,500 compensation and each of his children £1,500.700 RD: Coleman (18Nov1920/3), Hanley (18Nov 1920/1), O’Connell (18Nov1920/2)

18 NOVEMBER 1920 Patrick Hanley (18Nov1920/1) Fianna Éireann, 17, Labourer, RC 2 Broad Street, Cork Hanley lived with his widowed mother and sister. The shooting of Sergeant James O’Donoghue provoked reprisals, most likely carried out by RIC men. Three people were killed and a number wounded in the early hours of 18 November. Leo Buckley heard lorries pull up at the corner of Sheares Street at about midnight. Soldiers cordoned off the entire area from North Main Street to the Mardyke. From his room, Buckley could see the back of a house on Broad Street. He observed two men wearing RIC caps, great coats and motor goggles enter a room on the first floor and fire at the people in bed. The raiders then went up to the second floor and into the back room. He remembered distinctly hearing a boy shouting: ‘Oh God, sir, don’t shoot me.’ Both men opened fire, killing Hanley. Buckley suggested Hanley might have been mistaken for Tommy Healy, one of O’Donoghue’s killers. Eugene O’Connell was shot dead in 7 Broad Lane, the home of his brother-inlaw Willie O’Brien, believed to be involved in O’Donoghue’s killing. O’Brien’s younger brother was wounded. At 13 North Mall, a third killing took place. Margaret Coleman told a court of inquiry how at about 03:15 her husband James opened the door. A tall man in an overcoat and a cap, like a policeman’s, shot him twice. A police report stated that ‘Coleman was very popular, and a great friend of the police, having from time to time supplied them with refreshments . . . he was cautioned by the Sinn Féiners (about six weeks ago) but he still continued to supply them: this would appear to be the motive for the crime.’ The Chief Secretary’s Office was dissatisfied with inquiries into these killings. G. G. Whiskard pointed out that in all three cases,

houses were broken into by a tall man in a coat and cap similar to that of a policeman. What struck Whiskard was that on the evidence the only possible verdict was murder by a police officer. He asked why no attempt was made, when a court of inquiry was investigating Coleman’s death, to produce rebuttals to Mrs Coleman’s damning evidence. Leo Buckley suspected that an informer had identified Hanley and O’Connell to the police. He believed only four people knew who participated in killing O’Donoghue: Healy, O’Brien, Dick Murphy (captain G Company) and himself. Murphy was very friendly with Denis ‘Din Din’ Donovan of Barrack Street, who was eventually shot as a spy in April 1921. Buried SFC.701 RD: Coleman (18Nov1920/3), O’Connell (18Nov1920/2). SA: Donovan (9Apr1921/5), O’Donoghue (17Nov1920/1) Eugene O’Connell (18Nov1920/2) Ex-serviceman,702 Married with one child, RC 7 Broad Lane, Cork703 See Hanley (18Nov1920/1). O’Connell, formerly of the Munster Fusiliers, lived with his wife Lizzie. Buried St Joseph’s Cemetery, Ballyphehane, Cork.704 James Coleman (18Nov1920/3) 45, Vintner, Married with two children, RC 13 North Mall, Cork See Hanley (18Nov1920/1). Coleman, a publican, was treasurer of the Cork Industrial Development Association and a Chamber of Commerce member. He had no Sinn Féin links. Peter Hart stated that Coleman had complained to the military authorities about rowdy temporary constables in his pub. Buried SFC.705 A. W. Spackman (18Nov1920/4) Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (5373641706), 17, CoE Cratloe, Clare From Twyford, Berkshire, Private Spackman enlisted in April 1920, serving in Limerick. At about 16:00 on 17 November an aeroplane flying from Ennis to Limerick made a forced landing near Cratloe. A platoon of

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C Company mounted guard. About fourteen Volunteers of the 4th Battalion, East Clare Brigade, moved into position nearby, in hopes of overrunning the guard and stealing the aircraft’s machine gun. They opened fire, killing Spackman and wounding Private M. F. Robins. The military replied with machine-gun fire, obliging the IRA to withdraw. Buried St Peter’s Church Cemetery, Knowl Hill, Berkshire. His parents secured £300 compensation.707 RD: Robins (2Mar1921/4)

19 NOVEMBER 1920 Patrick Clancy (19Nov1920/1) IRA, 19, Storeman, RC Newtown, Drangan, Tipperary From Ballylusky, Drangan, Tipperary, Clancy was lieutenant A Company, 7th Battalion, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade. He had been wounded but escaped during the exchange in Killenaule in which Thomas O’Donovan was killed. Thomas O’Carroll recalled that against his advice Clancy carried a loaded police carbine when he went to visit his parents. A military patrol from Killenaule noticed a youngster flashing a lamp in a farmyard at New Line, Newtown, Drangan. Clancy and two companions, Byrne and Maloney, were arrested. O’Carroll suggested that Lieutenant Litchfield shot Clancy dead out of hand. Byrne and Maloney were imprisoned until after the signing of the Treaty. Lieutenant Edward R. Litchfield, 1st Lincolnshire Regiment later stated that he led a ten man patrol to meet a party of the Lincolnshire Regiment at Mullinahone. Near Drangan, he saw what appeared to be signalling nearby. He investigated, arresting Clancy outside Hickey’s house in possession of a carbine. While being searched Clancy supposedly reached for a pistol in his pocket, whereupon Litchfield shot him.708 Buried Magoury, Drangan. His brother Martin was killed in action in March 1921. Another brother, Laurence, led the Free State army patrol which killed the anti-Treaty IRA chief of staff Liam Lynch† on 10 April 1923. A memorial to the brothers was erected in Drangan.709 SA: Clancy (6Mar1921/5), O’Donovan (31Oct 1920/5)

20 NOVEMBER 1920 Michael Blake (20Nov1920/1) 36, Ex-serviceman, clerk, Married with three children, RC Grange Crossroad, Boher, Limerick Blake, of Rosbrien Road, Limerick, worked in New Barracks, Limerick. Patrick Blake and James O’Neill, described by the RIC as ‘ex-soldiers of the paid assassin type’, were charged with the murder of Constable Oakley in July 1920. Following acquittal by court martial in Dublin, they and their families headed home. When the party arrived at Limerick Junction station at 19:35, the police procured a motor car for John Blake and his sons Patrick and Michael to complete the final leg of their journey. During the drive, Patrick Blake swapped places with his brother. Masked men stopped the vehicle at a crossroads beyond New Pallas Barracks, and fired two shots, killing Michael and slightly wounding the driver. Patrick, rather than Michael, was probably the intended target. James O’Neill, his mother and other relatives travelled separately in a charabanc (motor coach). About five or six miles beyond New Pallas Barracks, their vehicle was halted by masked men. James O’Neill was ordered out and the others told to drive on. Several witnesses recalled that two Ford motor cars, without lights, later overtook them. Between 20:45 and 21:00 a witness heard five shots in the vicinity of Grange Crossroads. O’Neill’s body was found, face downwards and blindfolded, near Grange Crossroads at 00:40 by Head Constable Thomas Hannon. Kitty O’Neill deposed that during the journey home her brother had said he would have to leave Limerick for fear of being shot. Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery.710 His widow secured £1,800 compensation.711 RD: O’Neill (20Nov1920/2). SA: Oakley (29Jul1920/1) James O’Neill (20Nov1920/2) 23, Ex-serviceman, RC Grange Crossroad, Boher, Limerick See Blake (20Nov1920/1). O’Neill, from Rosbrien, Limerick, lived in Prospect View,

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Limerick. Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery.712 His mother Winifred secured £320 compensation.713 Joseph Thompson (20Nov1920/3) Manchester Regiment, 32, Teacher, Presbyterian Model Farm Road, Cork The Armagh-born son of a Belfast grain merchant, and formerly a teacher at Methodist College, Thompson was commissioned in November 1914, and promoted to captain in 1917. He was an intelligence officer, stationed in Ballincollig, Cork. He left Ballincollig by motorcycle during the afternoon to deliver a parcel to a house near Macroom. Although he failed to return that night, because he was an intelligence officer often out and about not much notice was taken initially. Captured at Carrigrohane, Thompson was shot near the Model Farm Road by Leo Murphy, D. O’Mahoney and J. Murray (later to become a Garda). The IRA took his revolver and motorcycle. According to Herlihy, Thompson had previously treated Murphy’s mother roughly during a house raid, possibly contributing to her premature death. On 22 November, his body was found, blindfolded, in a turnip field at Ballinaspigmore, between Carrigrohane and Cork. He had been shot seven times in the head and twice in the body. Buried Belfast City Cemetery (C. 763).714 SA: Murphy (27Jun1921/5) John McSwiggan (20Nov1920/4) 24, Postman, RC The Diamond, Magherafelt, Londonderry McSwiggan was shot at the Diamond by a soldier, apparently accidentally, who was searching for a group of civilians who had earlier accosted three officers.715

21 NOVEMBER 1920 Peter Ashmun Ames716 (21Nov1920/1) Secret Service(?), 32, Army officer, RC 38 Upper Mount Street, Dublin Ames, born in Pennsylvania, USA, was a lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards prior to appointment as an intelligence officer in

Dublin. It remains unclear whether he was attached to a military or a civilian intelligence organisation, as a number were operating. The concerted shooting of suspected British intelligence officers on the morning of 21 November was one of the most notorious episodes of the War of Independence. Writers have long differed on the practical impact of the killings – Bowden and Coogan arguing that it was an almost mortal blow, others such as McMahon, O’Halpin and Townshend that they shook up the British and resulted in the systematic reorganisation, systemisation and enhancement of intelligence activities against the IRA. The attacks had a marked impact both in Ireland and in Britain, where there was particular shock both at the manner of the killings of unarmed men in their bedrooms and at the loss of so many officers. Some of those killed that morning were involved in intelligence work; others were, as Michael Collins† himself put it, ‘just regular officers’, while one was the hapless landlord of an IRA target. Other suspect officers and civilians targeted for death across Dublin escaped because their would-be assassins could not find them. The killings were planned to coincide with a series of sabotage attacks in Liverpool, London and Manchester. On 1 November Ernie O’Malley, a GHQ organiser then in Tipperary, had indiscreetly noted: ‘England to go up in lumps. Also intelligence officers in Dublin’, in papers seized in June 1921 by Crown forces. As Michael Ó Laoghaire of Liverpool put it, reprisals in England for burnings in Ireland were considered ‘very appropriate as we believed an eye for an eye’. Only some arson attacks materialised, because plans for Manchester and Liverpool had been captured when the office of IRA chief of staff Richard Mulcahy was raided. Peter Hart has written that ‘neither the “hush-hush men” nor their superiors had anticipated such attacks – no G man or spy had ever been killed at home – and so they had taken no precautions’ (although DMP detectives Patrick Smyth and William Redmond had been shot outside their dwellings). Frank Thornton of GHQ intelligence compiled a

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target list: ‘Great care was exercised . . . and the cabinet and army council had to be satisfied that they were actually employed on secret service work here . . . before they would agree to their execution’, yet mistakes were obviously made. Four battalions of the Dublin Brigade were engaged, and eight lodging houses were targeted. The shootings were scheduled for 09:00. The killings of Ames and George Bennett in 38 Upper Mount Street are described here. Twelve others were killed as follows: Captain William Newberry in 92 Lower Baggot Street; Leonard Wilde and Captain Patrick McCormack in the Gresham Hotel; Lieutenant Geoffrey Baggallay in 119 Lower Baggot Street; Lieutenant Henry Angliss in 22 Lower Mount Street; Sergeant John Fitzgerald in 28 Earlsfort Terrace; Donald MacLean and Thomas Smith, MacLean’s hapless landlord, in 117 Morehampton Road; Major Charles Dowling, Captain L. Price and Colonel Hugh Montgomery in 28 Upper Pembroke Street. Two Auxiliaries – cadets Frank Garniss and Cecil Morris – were killed at 16 Northumberland Road, bringing the total killed to sixteen. Frank Saurin, GHQ intelligence officer, and Vinny Byrne of the Squad described the shootings at 38 Upper Mount Street. Saurin, detailed to shoot lieutenants Ames and Bennett, arranged to meet Byrne outside St Andrew’s Church on Westland Row at 08:00 on Sunday. Byrne was in charge of ten Volunteers, including a first-aid man. A maid admitted Byrne’s party to No. 38 Upper Mount Street. Bennett was captured and brought into Ames’s room, where Byrne said he shot them both (although Albert Rutherford, another experienced if more reticent Volunteer, stated that ‘he took him [Ames] down’). The party came under fire as they left the house, but reached the South Quays unscathed, and crossed the Liffey in a rowing boat. Saurin captured Ames’s notebook, which showed that the British used agents or ‘touts’ to identify suspects just as the IRA did. Just before the shooting, a military dispatch rider knocked on the front door and was placed under guard. He was released and, according to Byrne, later testified against

Patrick Moran, claiming that he had been present. Moran was found guilty and hanged. The bodies of ten of those officers killed on Bloody Sunday reached Euston Station on 26 November. Seven were brought to Westminster Abbey and three to Westminster Cathedral for services before being handed over to relatives. On 21 November 1921, a memorial service was held in Dublin in the Royal Hospital Chapel. The service also commemorated all officers and other ranks killed on service in Ireland. Buried St Mary’s Cemetery, Kensal Green, London (2628. N. E.).717 RD: Bennett (21Nov1920/2). SA: Angliss (21Nov1920/7), Baggallay (21Nov1920/6), Dowling (21Nov1920/11), Fitzgerald (21 Nov1920/8), Garniss (21Nov1920/13), McCormack (21Nov1920/5), MacLean (21Nov1920/9), Montgomery (9Dec1920/1), Moran (14Mar1921/2), Morris (21Nov 1920/14), Newberry (21Nov1920/3), Price (21Nov1920/12), Redmond (21Jan1920/1), Smith (21Nov1920/10), Smyth (8Sep1919/1), Wilde (21Nov1920/4) George Bennett (21Nov1920/2) Special List, Army officer, RC 38 Upper Mount Street, Dublin See Ames (21Nov1920/1). From London, Bennett was educated at Sherborne School, Dorset, and Magdalen College, Oxford. On the outbreak of the war, he joined the RASC and later worked in intelligence in neutral Holland. A convert to Catholicism, after demobilisation he was recalled for intelligence service in Ireland. Buried St Mary’s Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green, London (2623. N. E.).718 William Frederick Newberry (21Nov1920/3) The Queen’s (Royal West Surrey Regiment), 45, Barrister, Married with one child 92 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin Newberry, from London, was educated at Cheltenham College, the Royal Naval College Greenwich, and at Gray’s Inn, London. Newberry left the army in 1912 and went to Canada. Rejoining the army in 1914, he was employed on court martial work.

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Jim Stapleton, then lieutenant B Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, described how at Baggot Street Bridge at 08:30 he met Joe Leonard, in charge of five members of B Company, including Jack Stafford and Hugo MacNeill. They went to 92 Lower Baggot Street and gained entrance through the front door. Newberry occupied the ground floor flat. The IRA hammered on the front parlour door, which was opened a little before the occupant tried to close it again. One of the IRA men jammed his foot in the door, while the others fired shots through it. Newberry, who was in night clothes, was hit several times as he tried to escape through the window: ‘The man’s wife was standing in a corner . . . and was in a terrified and hysterical condition.’ The operation lasted about fifteen minutes. Buried St Pancras Cemetery, London. His widow secured £3,200 compensation.719 Leonard Aidan Wilde (21Nov1920/4) 35, Ex-serviceman, consular official, RC Gresham Hotel, 20–22 Sackville Street Upper, Dublin Lieutenant Wilde, from Reading, was allegedly an intelligence officer posing as a commercial traveller. A one-time Benedictine novice and soldier invalided out from the Sherwood Foresters in France, he had subsequently had a chequered career, which seems to have involved both secret work in Spain while a temporary consul, and dishonesty, culminating in dismissal from his post.720 D Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade was given the task of assassinating three guests in the Gresham Hotel. Three groups were each assigned a target by Paddy Moran, company O/C. Nicholas Leonard stated that the whole operation could have ended in disaster: William Hogan ‘failed to carry out the duties assigned him and neglected to issue the necessary orders to those in his charge, thereby endangering the success of the operation not to mention the casualties likely to be incurred . . . through any confusion’. The head porter guided the IRA to Patrick McCormack’s room. In the corridor James Cahill saw ‘a man of foreign appearance come to a bedroom door. I had a hunch

that he might be one of the other two intelligence officers.’ Cahill covered him with his revolver and asked his name. Wilde promptly replied: ‘Alan Wilde, British intelligence officer, just back from Spain.’ Kilkelly’s group, which had been assigned to deal with Wilde, came along and fired, killing him instantly. Cahill believed that being newly arrived in Dublin, Wilde probably mistook the IRA for a British raiding party. Cahill claimed that McCormack fired at him before he and Nicholas Leonard shot him in his bedroom. A hotel porter gave a somewhat different account: around 08:45 about seven armed men arrived seeking the register. They ordered him to take them to rooms 14, 15 and 24. Room 14, occupied by Wilde, was locked. However, a few words were spoken through it before shots were fired. The men then went into Room 24, which was unlocked. McCormack, who was reading a racing newspaper in bed, was shot five times. The whole operation lasted no longer than fifteen minutes. Room 15 was unoccupied. The court brought a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: P. c. 87).721 RD: McCormack (21Nov1920/5). SA: Moran (14Mar1921/2) Patrick Francis McCormack (21Nov1920/5) 47, Ex-serviceman, veterinary surgeon, Married with one child, RC Gresham Hotel, 20–22 Sackville Street Upper, Dublin See Wilde (21Nov1920/4). McCormack, from Castlebar, a bishop’s nephew and a relative of Michael Davitt, founder of the Land League, was educated at Castleknock College, Trinity College Dublin and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. He practised in his native Castlebar, and was keenly interested in racing and hunting. Commissioned in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps in 1917, McCormack served in Egypt in the Remount Department. He retired in 1920, working on commission for the Irish Bloodstock Agency. According to James Doyle, manager of the Gresham

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Hotel, he had been a guest since September and had purchased some racehorses: ‘There would appear to have been grave doubt as to his being associated with British Intelligence. While he was here I never saw him receiving any guests. He slept well into the afternoon and only got up early when a race meeting was on.’ Michael Collins† remarked to IRA chief of staff Richard Mulcahy that, as in the case of several others killed that morning, ‘we had no evidence that he was a Secret Service Agent’. Buried GC (South Section: V. a. 37). His widow Mollie secured £4,500 compensation, his child £2,000 and his mother £750.722 Geoffrey Thomas Baggallay (21Nov1920/6) 29, Army officer, Engaged 119 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin From London, Baggallay attended Merchant Taylors School in Middlesex. Commissioned in the South Wales Borderers, he lost a leg in 1917 while serving with the MGC. He worked as a court martial officer before becoming a prosecutor under the Restoration of Order in Ireland Regulations. Michael Noyk, the Sinn Féin solicitor, claimed that Baggallay was connected with the Kevin Barry case. Given his previous army legal role, and his conspicuous disability, it seems unlikely that he discharged any covert duties. When the IRA entered Baggallay’s bedroom, he apparently tried to escape through the window but was shot before he reached it. Patrick McCrae stated that the ‘job was completed in the space of a few minutes’. James Boyce, James McNamara, Michael Tobin and Thomas Whelan were arrested for the shooting. Only Whelan was convicted: he was hanged in Mountjoy.723 SA: Barry (1Nov1920/5), Whelan (14Mar 1921/3) Henry James Angliss (‘Patrick McMahon’) (21Nov1920/7) 28, Army officer, Married, RC 22 Lower Mount Street, Dublin Angliss, from Enniskillen, Fermanagh, enlisted at Colchester on 27 November 1910. He won a DCM in 1917, and was commissioned in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He

retired in March 1920, but was recalled for special service on 16 August, operating in Dublin under the alias ‘Patrick McMahon’.724 He was shot dead at 09:00. Charles Dalton, GHQ intelligence officer, stated that Angliss had aroused the suspicion of Seán Hyde, a veterinary student living next door. Frank Teeling, William Conway, Edward Potter and Daniel Healy were tried for this murder in City Hall. Although Conway produced alibi evidence, he, Potter and Teeling were convicted. Conway and Potter were later reprieved, while Teeling escaped from prison. Buried Earlsfield Cemetery, Wandsworth (F. 18. 25). His widow Ellen Catherine Maud secured £3,750 compensation.725 John Fitzgerald (21Nov1920/8) RIC (71614), 22, RAF officer, RC 28 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin Fitzgerald, a doctor’s son from Tipperary, was educated at Blackrock College, Dublin. In 1915 he joined the RIR. Wounded at the Somme, he subsequently became a pilot, crashing behind enemy lines in 1917, was wounded and captured, escaped and was recaptured. He later served with the RAF in Russia, being mentioned in dispatches. He joined the RIC on 1 June 1920 as a defence of barracks sergeant, serving in Clare, where he was kidnapped by the IRA, who attempted to shoot him with his own revolver, which misfired. He was then dragged into a field, his arm being dislocated, put against a wall and fired at. Feigning death, he fell to the ground. Later he recovered sufficiently to be able to escape. Fitzgerald was in Dublin for surgery to his arm, and had recently been discharged from hospital. Kit Farrell, of A Company, 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, recalled being asked by Mick Kennedy to go on a job to shoot a British agent. The IRA group under Paddy Byrne assembled at the junction of Hatch Street and Harcourt Street at 08:45. At 09:00 they were admitted by a maid. They apparently sought a Lieutenant-Colonel Fitzpatrick. The maid replied that only a Captain Fitzgerald lived in the house. Three men shot Fitzgerald four times in his room at point-blank range, twice in the forehead, once in the heart and once in

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the wrist. It appears that he was not the intended target. Buried GC (South Section: A. c. 64). Fitzgerald’s representatives secured £2,220 compensation.726 Donald Lewis MacLean727 (21Nov1920/9) 31, Ex-soldier, policeman, Married with one child, CoE 117 Morehampton Road, Dublin MacLean, from Ayrshire, was a policeman before enlisting in the Scots Guards on 22 June 1915. Commissioned in the 6th Rifle Brigade in 1917, he resigned in March 1920, but was re-employed as an intelligence officer and sent to Ireland. He and his wife stayed at 117 Morehampton Road, where his landlord Thomas Henry Smith also lived. Maclean had aroused the suspicions of the Mid Clare Brigade the previous month, he and a Captain Collis being arrested in Lisdoonvarna while posing as commercial travellers and held for about a fortnight. They were then released on condition that they leave the country immediately. Three men were shot in No. 117 when eight men rushed in and opened fire. A DMP man found John Caldow, the landlord’s brother-in-law, severely wounded on a landing, though he recovered; in another room MacLean was dead and Thomas Smith lay dying under a bed frame. One of the ‘firing party’, James Paul Norton, arrested on another operation in 1921 and sentenced to ten years in Dartmoor, emerged with ‘mental trouble’ from which he never recovered. Buried GMC (CE Officers 47).728 RD: Smith (21Nov1920/10) Thomas Herbert Smith (21Nov1920/10) 47, Boarding house owner, Married with three children, CoI 117 Morehampton Road, Dublin See MacLean (21Nov1920/9). Buried MJC (Plot C 91).729

Commissioned in the Grenadier Guards on 9 September 1911, he was wounded in France in November 1914. Promoted to captain in 1915, he was wounded twice more. After the war, he served in Germany. He resigned in April 1919, but on 30 September 1920 was remobilised and sent to Ireland with the rank of major. He was reportedly awaiting demobilisation when killed. Joseph O’Carroll, of C Company, 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, recalled that about thirty IRA men went to 28 Upper Pembroke Street, under Paddy Flanagan, O/C ASU Dublin Brigade. Future Taoiseach Seán Lemass told the military pensions board that ‘I was in charge of the company’ that day, a claim supported by his brigade O/C Frank Henderson. Evelyn Flanagan of Cumann na mBan had ‘kept the secret papers for the identification of these [8] officers for 10 days beforehand’. The caretaker, who may have been complicit, was kept under guard. The IRA party, among them James Doyle, one of four Volunteer survivors of the battle of Mount Street in 1916, filed through and questioned the various occupants. They sought Major Dowling and Major Crookshanks. Dowling and Captain Price occupied rooms on the second floor. The IRA men knocked on Dowling’s door, entered and shot him. This brought other officers to their doors. Price was fatally wounded at the bottom of the stairs. Colonel Woodcock, Colonel Montgomery, Captain Keenlyside, all members of the Lancashire Fusiliers, and Lieutenant Murray of the Royal Scots were wounded. Woodcock’s wife Caroline left an account. She stated that four secret service men were staying in the house, but that her husband was not one of them:

Charles Milne Cholmeley Dowling (21Nov1920/11) 29, Army officer, CoE 28 Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin ‘Chummy’ Dowling, from London, was educated at Rugby School and Sandhurst.

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There were great splashes of blood on the walls, floor and stairs, bits of plaster were lying about, and on the walls were the marks of innumerable bullets. Fortunately, the murderers had been so panic-stricken themselves and their hands so shaky that their firing had been wild in the extreme, and to this fact my husband and Captain Keenlyside, who was shot in the jaw and both arms, owed their lives.

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Of the wounded, Montgomery died on 9 December. Buried Kensal Green Cemetery (All Souls), Harrow Road, London.730 RD: Price (21Nov1920/12), Montgomery (9Dec1920/1)

in the Middlesex Regiment and the MGC. He joined the Auxiliary Division on 18 October 1920 (auxiliary number 756). Buried Bandon Hill Cemetery, Croydon. His widow secured £2,500 compensation.733

Leonard Price (21Nov1920/12) RE, 35, Army officer, Protestant 28 Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin See Dowling (21Nov1920/11). Captain Price, from Shanklin, Isle of Wright, was commissioned in the field in the Middlesex Regiment. Twice mentioned in dispatches and awarded the MC, he was demobilised in 1919. He was recalled for service as an intelligence officer, while nominally attached to the Royal Engineers. Buried Sandown– Shanklin Cemetery, Shanklin (1946).731

Thomas Patrick Lyons (21Nov1920/15) 28, Blacksmith, RC Knappagh, Westport, Mayo Lyons was from Knappagh. At around 15:00, a cycle patrol of twenty-five members of the Border Regiment, under Lieutenant A. F. Gear, RGA, was engaged in search operations south of Westport. The advance party ordered a man in a field off the Knappagh Road to halt and approach. Instead he ran away. A soldier fired two shots without orders: the second killed Thomas Lyons. A police witness stated that Lyons was on good terms with them, having once assisted a wounded constable. Lieutenant Gear deposed that a document found on Lyons read: ‘You, Thomas Lyons, are hereby directed to join the Company of Irish Volunteers most convenient to your district. Failing which strong action may be taken. By order.’734

Francis Garniss (21Nov1920/13) ADRIC (79177), 34, Army officer, Married with two children 16 Northumberland Road, Dublin From Yorkshire, Garniss enlisted in 1903 and was later a reservist in the RGA. He reenlisted in 1914, becoming a sergeant in the West Yorkshire Regiment. Commissioned in the Leicester Regiment, he was wounded in France in July 1918. He joined the Auxiliary Division as a cadet on 18 October 1920 (auxiliary number 755). A maid in 22 Lower Mount Street called for help to a passing party of Auxiliaries from Beggars Bush Barracks en route to the railway station. Some Auxiliaries entered the house, with Garniss and Morris being dispatched for reinforcements. However, they were stopped by the IRA on Mount Street Bridge at about 09:20. After questioning, they were shot in the garden of a house on Northumberland Road, the first Auxiliaries to die on active duty. Buried Hull. His widow Lilly secured £1,000 compensation, and each of his two children £750.732 RD: Morris (21Nov1920/14) Cecil A. Morris (21Nov1920/14) ADRIC (79106), 24, Army officer, Married, CoE 16 Northumberland Road, Dublin See Garniss (21Nov1920/13). Lieutenant Morris, from Croydon, served during the war

Michael Hogan (21Nov1920/16) IRA, 24, Farmer, RC Croke Park, Jones’s Road, Dublin ‘Mick’ Hogan, from Ninemilehouse, Tipperary, was captain Grangemockler Company, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade. A large crowd attended a Gaelic football match between Tipperary and Dublin at Croke Park, staged in aid of the Republican Prisoners’ Dependents’ Fund. It started at 15:15. About twenty minutes later, a large force of RIC ‘Black and Tans’, military and Auxiliaries descended on the ground to conduct search operations. Shots were fired and amid chaotic scenes fourteen people were killed or later died; about eighty others were injured. Crown forces were clearly responsible for the catastrophe.735 There is no convincing evidence to support official claims that the first shots fired in the ground came from unidentified gunmen. Civilian eyewitnesses all concurred that the police fired on the crowd without provocation, claims supported by a British Labour Party

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delegation nine days later, and by a contemporary police report. Most of the fatalities occurred at the canal end of the ground. The Croke Park tragedy was a bungled search and arrest operation by Crown forces, rather than a calculated reprisal for the earlier IRA killings of officers as is often asserted. It seems only the RIC present fired, not the Auxiliaries or the military. Major E. L. Mills, adjutant Auxiliary Division, wrote an account of the incident which, oddly enough, was not submitted as evidence at any of the subsequent courts of inquiry. Mills commanded a mixed force of RIC and Auxiliaries from Beggars Bush detailed to hold up and search people attending Croke Park. A contingent of soldiers was also deployed. Mills travelled in a car behind the RIC vehicles, leading the Auxiliaries. As the convoy of thirteen tenders approached the railway bridge near the south-west corner of Croke Park, he heard men in the lorry ahead shouting that there was an ambush. Mills stopped his vehicle and went to see what was happening. He heard a considerable amount of rifle fire. His report suggested that the RIC fired without orders or reason, although some police witnesses claimed they had come under fire from the direction of the entrance to the ground. There is no indication that the police fire was returned by anyone in the crowd. Mills tried to stop the shooting, and for this was later commended by the coroner. He recalled seeing six dead bodies, including two children and a woman, and four wounded people. Mills commented: ‘I did not see any need for any firing at all and the indiscriminate firing absolutely spoilt any chance of getting hold of any people in possession of arms. The men of the Auxiliary Division did not fire.’ Thomas Ryan, then acting O/C 5th Battalion Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, gave a player’s perspective. Play was concentrated around the Dublin goal, where Tipperary had been awarded a penalty, when there was a burst of gunfire. The spectators stampeded. Most of the players also fled towards the sideline. Six, however, all Volunteers with some training, threw themselves to the

ground. Two then got up, and ran for the fencing surrounding the pitch. One by one, the four others followed suit. Hogan, hit as he ran, died within minutes in Ryan’s arms. Ryan escaped on to Clonliffe Road. Shortly afterwards Auxiliaries entered the house where he was sheltering and threatened to shoot him. He was knocked down and his clothes ripped off him leaving him naked. An officer appeared and instructed the Auxiliaries to bring him back into Croke Park, where he and the remaining players were lined up against the railway embankment until all the people left in the ground had been searched. Ryan described how the players’ clothes in the dressing room were searched and their money stolen. Nothing incriminating was found and they were released. Two sets of courts of inquiry were held: one at the Mater Hospital, and the second at Jervis Street Hospital. The findings differed somewhat. On 23 November, a court of inquiry was held into the death of Jane Boyle at the Mater Hospital. Dr Robert Vincent Monahan, house surgeon, deposed that death was caused by gunshot wounds. There followed a separate inquiry into the deaths of four people later identified as John William Scott, James Matthews, Patrick O’Dowd and Jeremiah O’Leary. The first three were dead on admission. Scott suffered a bullet wound to the back, Matthews a severe wound to the leg and O’Dowd a wound to the face. Dr Monahan said that death in each case was caused by gunshot wounds. Ten-year-old Jeremiah O’Leary, the youngest victim, died from two gunshot wounds to the head at about 17:00. On 24 November, a court of inquiry at Drumcondra Hospital into the death of eleven-year-old William Robinson heard John Joseph Byrne state that at about 16:55 on 21 November an RIC man told him to take a wounded boy to hospital. Dr Henry Stokes stated that William Robinson died on the morning of 23 November from a wound to the chest. On 27 November, a court of inquiry at the Mater Hospital heard that Thomas Hogan was admitted at about 16:00 on 21 November, bleeding profusely. His right shoulder was

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shattered. On 22 November Hogan’s right arm was amputated, but gangrene set in and he died at 12:30 on 26 November. On 8 December, the court found that the wounds suffered by Scott, O’Dowd, O’Leary, Robinson, Boyle and Hogan were: inflicted . . . while the said deceased persons were spectators at a football match . . . by a mixed force of RIC, Auxiliary Police and Military. The court finds that the firing was started by civilians unknown, either as a warning of the raid or with the intention of creating a panic. The court further finds that the injuries on the deceased persons were inflicted by rifle or revolver fire fired by members of the RIC from the Canal Bridge and the Canal Bridge gates of Croke Park Football Ground; and by civilians in the football ground; that some of the RIC fired over the heads of the crowd and that others fired into the crowd at certain persons who they believed were attempting to evade arrest. Further that the firing by the RIC was carried out without orders and was in excess of what was necessitated. . . . The court further finds that no firing was carried out by the Auxiliary Police or by the military except that the military in an armoured car fired a burst of fire into the air to stop the crowd from breaking through.

On 23 November, inquiries were held into the deaths of James Burke, Michael Feery, Michael Hogan, James Teehan and Joseph Traynor. The court determined that Burke died in Croke Park as a result of shock and heart failure. Sergeant Timothy Maher, DMP, found him dead in the north-eastern corner of the ground. Dr William Hanway, house surgeon, stated that a post-mortem on Feery, who was dead on admission, revealed two large gashes on his legs. He had died of shock and haemorrhage. The inquiry into Michael Hogan’s death returned a verdict of death due to shock and haemorrhage. Hanway deposed that Teehan was dead on admission, due to shock and heart failure. Dr Patrick J. Cassin, house surgeon, stated that Traynor was admitted on the evening of 21 November in a state of collapse and

died about one hour later. A post-mortem examination revealed he had been shot in the back and death was due to shock and haemorrhage. On 24 November, a court of inquiry at Jervis Street Hospital into the deaths of Daniel Carroll and Thomas Ryan heard that Carroll died at about 10:00 on 23 November following an operation on a thigh wound. Hanway deposed that Ryan died about two hours after admission with an abdominal wound. On 8 December, the court found in similar terms to the earlier one held at the Mater Hospital, concluding that ‘in order to prevent certain civilians escaping from the football ground, without orders, an indiscriminate and excessive fire was opened by the RIC from the Canal Bridge. That certain civilians opened fire at the RIC who were at the time near the Canal Entrance gate. This fire was returned by the members of the RIC.’ Thirty-five witnesses gave evidence. Not one corroborated a Dublin Castle report that thirty revolvers had been found at the ground. It may have been the case that the first shot was accidentally discharged by one of the police in his haste to enter the ground. Buried Grangemockler. A monument was erected in Grangemockler, and in 1924 a stand in Croke Park was named after him. The reconstructed Hogan Stand carries a memorial plaque for all the dead.736 RD: Boyle (21Nov1920/17), Burke (21Nov 1920/18), Carroll (23Nov1920/5), Feery (21Nov1920/19), Hogan (26Nov1920/7), Matthews (21Nov1920/20), O’Dowd (21Nov 1920/21), O’Leary (21Nov1920/24), Robinson (23Nov1920/4), Ryan (21Nov1920/25), Scott (21Nov1920/23), Teehan (21Nov1920/22), Traynor (21Nov1920/26) Jane Boyle (21Nov1920/17) 26, Shop assistant, Engaged, RC Croke Park, Jones’s Road, Dublin See Hogan (21Nov1920/16). Jane Boyle, of 18 Lennox Street, worked for a pork butcher. She was due to marry Daniel Byron the week after her death. Buried GC (Dublin Section: B. §. 48.5).737

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James Burke (21Nov1920/18) 44, Launderer, Married with five children, RC Croke Park, Jones’s Road, Dublin See Hogan (21Nov1920/16). Burke and his wife Annie lived in Windy Arbour. Buried Churchtown.738

her two daughters, prayed for him as he bled profusely, dying about three-quarters of an hour later. The military took the body outside. It lay in the avenue for some time, and Mrs Colman covered him with a blanket. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: P. h. 74.5).747

Michael Feery739 (21Nov1920/19) c. 44, Ex-serviceman, Married, RC Croke Park, Jones’s Road, Dublin See Hogan (21Nov1920/16). Feery, of 1 Smith’s Cottages, Gardiner Place, had served with the RIF, the Royal Engineers and the Royal Marines. Bridget Feery said that her husband had been mainly unemployed since discharge in 1919. Buried GC.740

Jeremiah O’Leary748 (21Nov1920/24) 10, Schoolboy, RC Croke Park, Jones’s Road, Dublin See Hogan (21Nov1920/16). Jeremiah O’Leary was son of Jerome and Ellen O’Leary of 69 Blessington Street. His father, a retired quartermaster sergeant employed as a military clerk, was wounded by gunmen in Mountjoy Square on 28 June 1921, telling an onlooker: ‘I’m shot. My God. I have done nothing to anybody.’ Buried GC (Garden Section: Z. a. 151).749

James Matthews (21Nov1920/20) 48, Labourer, Married, RC Croke Park, Jones’s Road, Dublin See Hogan (21Nov1920/16). Matthews and his wife Kate lived at 32 North Cumberland Street. Buried GC (Garden Section: X. e. 224).741 Patrick O’Dowd (21Nov1920/21) 60,742 Builder’s labourer, Married with children, RC743 Croke Park, Jones’s Road, Dublin See Hogan (21Nov1920/16). O’Dowd and his wife Julia lived at 18 Buckingham Street. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: S. d. 13).744 James Teehan745 (21Nov1920/22) 26, Barman, RC Croke Park, Jones’s Road, Dublin See Hogan (21Nov1920/16). Teehan, from Tipperary, lived with his employer at 5 Green Street. Buried Thurles.746 John William Scott (21Nov1920/23) 14, Schoolboy, RC 37 St James’s Avenue, Dublin See Hogan (21Nov1920/16). ‘Billy’ Scott, eldest child of John Scott of 15 Fitzroy Avenue, lived adjacent to Croke Park. He attended St Patrick’s School, Drumcondra. He watched the match with a friend named Daly. Wounded in the chest, he was taken into Mrs Colman’s house at 37 St James’s Avenue. She placed him on a table, and, with

Thomas Ryan750 (21Nov1920/25) 27, Gas company labourer, Married, RC JSH See Hogan (21Nov1920/16). Ryan, originally from Enniscorthy, Wexford, lived with his wife Mary at 56 Viking Road. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: D. c. 86).751 Joseph Traynor (21Nov1920/26) 21, Labourer, RC JSH See Hogan (21Nov1920/16). Traynor lived in Ballymount, Clondalkin.752 Austin Francis Cowley753 (21Nov1920/27) 67, Journalist, RC Union Hospital, Navan, Meath Cowley, only son of the late master of the Navan workhouse, had ‘received a splendid education and was highly cultured in every way’. Employed by Campbells wine merchants in Dublin before turning to journalism, he was ‘a well-known hunting correspondent’, although deaf and a patient at the workhouse infirmary. At about 18:20 Private John Stride, South Wales Borderers, on sentry duty at Navan Workhouse, challenged Cowley three times. Cowley took no notice and Stride fired a round in accordance with standing instructions. Buried New Cemetery, Navan.754

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Harry Clement Jays (21Nov1920/28) RIC (70194), 22, Waiter, ex-serviceman Leap, Cork Constable Jays, from Hampshire, joined the RIC on 30 January 1920, stationed in Leap. Constable Bertie Ernest Mills described how at about 21:00 he and Jays were walking towards the police barracks. As they passed the road to Glandore, he heard the call ‘ready fire’. The constables returned fire. Jays ran down the Glandore Road while Mills, wounded in the arm and leg, returned to barracks to raise the alarm. A patrol later found Jays’s body on the Glandore Road, shot in the heart. His killers were Volunteers of the Leap Company, Cork No. 3 Brigade.755 William Henry West Barnett (21Nov1920/29) 35, Chandler, Married, CoI Mountjoy Square, Dublin Barnett, of 339 North Circular Road, owned a wholesale and retail chandlery business, and was a Freemason and an Orangeman. His wife Lucy stated that her husband sometimes slept at his premises at 106 Summerhill and was going there when he was killed. About 23:40 a woman saw a man with a dog crossing near the junction of Mountjoy Square and Belvedere Place. He was challenged by two uniformed men in a hackney car, who fired on him. He fell on his back and groaned. They searched the body and left, but returned for a time while a Doctor McCullagh tended to the victim. Various witnesses gave similar accounts. The Irish Independent reported that Barnett’s silver watch had been stolen. Buried MJC.756 Arthur Boundary757 (21Nov1920/30) Soldier Victoria Barracks, Belfast According to Kenna, Boundary died from injuries sustained during earlier disturbances.758 Henry E. Spenle (21Nov1920/31) ADRIC, Ex-serviceman KGVH Spenle, also reported as ‘Lieutenant Spenleigh’ and as ‘Captain Spendle’, joined the Auxiliary Division on 21 September 1920 (auxiliary

number 614). He shot himself in the head in his bedroom in Dublin Castle during the afternoon, dying after an operation that evening. While he had suffered from ‘deep depression’ since the war, the morning’s killings had undoubtedly ‘preyed on his mind’. A verdict of suicide was returned. Other sources claim that he was involved in secret service work and was shaken by the deaths of comrades similarly engaged. His remains were returned to Britain in company with those of others killed on ‘Bloody Sunday’ morning, though his fate was explained simply with the phrases ‘who died’ and ‘who died a natural death’.759

22 NOVEMBER 1920 John McCann (22Nov1920/1) IRA, 33, Labourer, Married with two children, RC Quay Road, Rush, Dublin Nicknamed ‘The Rover’, ‘Jack’ McCann from Rush was a council road worker. Imprisoned in Knutsford after the Rising, when he had fought at Ashbourne, he had reportedly ceased to be active following his marriage in 1918. He is, however, listed as a lieutenant on an IRA monument in Rush. His children were aged two years and fourteen months. At around 02:00, a group of men took McCann away from the house of his mother-in-law Mary Cosgrave. His body was found next morning in a field 100 yards away. Two other houses were similarly visited and inquiries made for young men, who fortunately were away. Buried Rush Graveyard, Dublin. A monument was erected in Rush. McCann is also commemorated on a memorial in Holmpatrick Cemetery, Skerries.760 Michael O’Reilly (22Nov1920/2) 16, Messenger, RC JSH Michael O’Reilly, son of Michael and Margaret O’Reilly of 36 Temple Bar, was walking with his brother George along Capel Street at about 18:30 when someone shouted ‘Up the rebels’ as a military lorry passed. It stopped, a shot was fired and Michael fell, dying shortly afterwards. It later emerged

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that Private Hampton of the Duke of Edinburgh’s (Wiltshire Regiment) accidentally discharged his rifle at the junction of Capel Street and Great Britain Street at about 19:50 while using it to press back some civilians. The general officer commanding the Dublin District recommended that compensation of £150 should be paid as an act of grace to O’Reilly’s parents. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: T. c. 87).761 Edmond Carmody (22Nov1920/3) IRA, 27, Farmer, RC Ballylongford, Kerry ‘Eddie’ Carmody from Cuss, Newtownsandes (Moyvane), was a lieutenant in the 6th Battalion, Kerry No. 1 Brigade. On the run, he and other Volunteers were surprised by police around 20:30 in Ballylongford. He fled, but was shot and wounded. His friend Brian O’Grady claimed he was then placed against a wall and shot dead. Earlier that day a large party of police under DI Tobias O’Sullivan had arrived in Ballylongford, searching O’Grady’s house for arms. They also burned down Collins’ creamery and timber yard, a pub and hardware store, and some houses. O’Grady recalled being: in a cold rage at the fact that Eddie’s death was, in part, due to the order from headquarters at the time which forbade us to carry arms. We had the men and sufficient arms to put a fright on the Tans, and Eddie Carmody would not then have been murdered so cruelly as we stood helplessly by.

Buried Murher Graveyard, Newtownsandes (Moyvane). Sergeant John Maher was shot dead in Ballybunion in reprisal in December 1921.762 SA: Maher (13Dec1921/1), O’Sullivan (20Jan 1921/2) Patrick Driscoll (22Nov1920/4) RIC (65954), 31, Farmer, RC Dromoland Castle, Newmarket-on-Fergus, Clare From Ballydehob, Cork, Constable Driscoll joined the RIC on 16 May 1911, stationed in Ennis, Clare. He died when a Crossley tender returning from Limerick crashed into a gate leading into Dromoland Castle at an awkward

bend in the road. Constables Michael Fleming and Edward Roper were also killed. Roper, the driver, had been warned about the possibility of ambushes and so might have driven too fast on a dangerous road.763 RD: Fleming (22Nov1920/6), Roper (22Nov 1920/5) Edward Roper (22Nov1920/5) RIC (71496), 25, Ex-serviceman, Protestant Dromoland Castle, Newmarket-on-Fergus, Clare See Driscoll (22Nov1920/4). Constable Roper, from Hampshire, joined the RIC on 28 May 1920, stationed in Ennis, Clare.764 Michael Fleming (22Nov1920/6) RIC (70213), 31, Ex-serviceman, Married with one child, RC Dromoland Castle, Newmarket-on-Fergus, Clare See Driscoll (22Nov1920/4). Constable Fleming, from Laois, a former sergeant-major in the Irish Guards, joined the RIC on 30 January 1920, stationed in Ennis, Clare. Buried Warley, Essex. The prime minister reportedly intervened to ensure the prompt removal of his remains. The Treasury granted his widow an annual pension of £60.13s.4d. and an annual allowance to his son of £12.2s.8d. until he attained the age of sixteen.765 Peadar Clancy (22Nov1920/7) IRA, 32, Draper, RC Dublin Castle, Dublin Clancy, from Cranny, Kilrush, Clare, comanaged the Republican Outfitters on Talbot Street, Dublin, a popular IRA meeting place. Sentenced to death after the Rising, he was released in 1917. Clancy was director of munitions at the time of his death. Clancy and Dick McKee, O/C Dublin Brigade, arrived separately on Saturday night 20 November at 36 Gloucester Street, home of John Fitzpatrick, an auctioneer’s assistant and captain on the Dublin Brigade staff. McKee thought he had been shadowed by a ‘man with a trilby hat & light coat’. They discussed leaving, but McKee ‘was very sick’ and Clancy would not go without him. At around 01:00 on 21 November, Auxiliaries raided the house. McKee and Fitzpatrick

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managed to burn brigade papers before the patrol broke down the door. In a written account completed on 25 January 1922, Fitzpatrick recalled how he claimed his guests were brothers named Bonfield, to which an Auxiliary replied: ‘You are a fucking liar. One is the notorious P. Clancy & the other the notorious R. McKee.’ McKee, Clancy and Fitzpatrick were taken to Dublin Castle, where they met Conor Clune among other prisoners rounded up. They were held in part of the guardroom, behind a sandbagged partition. McKee, Clancy and Clune were held back while the other prisoners were moved to Beggars Bush Barracks – Peter Young, another prisoner, thought Clune was selected in error as he resembled Fitzpatrick and wore similar clothes. As Fitzpatrick said goodbye, ‘McKee said to me “if you get through give my love to my mother, sisters, brothers & all the boys”. He looked very pale & sad.’ Clancy just ‘smiled goodbye’. Clancy, McKee and Clune were interrogated by British personnel led by Captain Hardy. Dublin Castle stated that they were shot while trying to escape on the morning of 22 November, but medical examination revealed broken bones and abrasions consistent with prolonged assaults, and bullet wounds to the head and body. Fitzpatrick was later singled out in Beggar’s Bush by ‘a tall young fellow, good-looking, with a stiff leg’, who said: ‘I am after putting three bulletts [sic] through your two fucking Sinn Fein pals’ hearts and I am coming back to do the same to you in a few minutes.’ Fitzpatrick was shown the three bodies in an effort to make him identify them (each corpse was already correctly labelled): McKee’s ‘face was battered up a lot. He had big marks all around his face. Some marks looked as if pieces of flesh was knocked out of them. He had bayonet wound in side & his fingers were all cut where he had grabbed Bayonette [sic].’ Clancy’s ‘face looked as if it had got a good beating. His forehead was marked over the eye. Also it stuck out well over his face & it looked as if it was burnt. His face was all yellow.’ Dr Richard Hayes gave Michael Collins† a report on the ‘partially mutilated bodies’.

Pat McCrae of the Squad recalled that ‘Dick McKee and Peadar Clancy were great personalities idolised next to Michael Collins by all men of the Dublin Brigade.’ Lance-Corporal John Ryan, believed to have tracked Clancy, was shot dead on 5 February 1921. Buried GC (South New Section: R. d. 35.5). After independence, Islandbridge Barracks was renamed Clancy Barracks. Clancy’s mother and sister later received dependents’ gratuities. A lock of his hair found among the effects of Kathy Barry, eldest sister of Kevin Barry, was returned to the Clancy family in 2012.766 RD: Clune (22Nov1920/8), McKee (22Nov 1920/9). SA: Ryan (5Feb1921/1) Conor Clune (22Nov1920/8) 27, Manager, RC Dublin Castle See Clancy (22Nov1920/7). Clune, from Quin, Clare, was a nephew of Archbishop Patrick Joseph Clune of Perth, Australia, who was responsible for an unsuccessful peace initiative following Bloody Sunday. Involved in the Gaelic League, he joined the Irish Volunteers shortly after their formation, but it is unclear whether he was ever active. He was manager of the cooperative society at Raheen, Clare. Clune had come to Dublin on 19 November to have the society’s accounts audited. He had been a spectator at Croke Park on 21 November. Afterwards he went to Vaughans’ Hotel, where he was arrested by Auxiliaries. Buried Quin Abbey, Clare.767 Richard McKee (22Nov1920/9) IRA, 27, Compositor, RC Dublin Castle See Clancy (22Nov1920/7). ‘Dick’ McKee, from Dublin, joined the Irish Volunteers, becoming captain G Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, fought in Jacob’s Factory under Thomas MacDonagh during the Rising, and was interned in Knutsford and Frongoch. Released in August 1916, McKee set to work reorganising the Irish Volunteers. In 1918 he became O/C Dublin Brigade. During 1919 and early 1920, the brigade greatly intensified its activities, with raids for arms, seizures of mail and the burning

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of income tax offices. In June 1920 he and Peadar Clancy were sent to Derry during sectarian rioting to help restore order. On 14 October, McKee had a narrow escape when the Republican Outfitters was raided and Seán Treacy was shot dead. His comrade Liam Archer recalled that, shortly before his death, McKee remarked, ‘Well if we Clatther [sic] them hard enough we might get Dominion Home Rule.’ Buried GC. His close friend Michael Collins† came out of hiding to shoulder the coffin. After independence, Marlborough Barracks was renamed McKee Barracks.768 SA: MacDonagh (3May1916/3), Treacy (14Oct1920/3) Patrick McCarthy (22Nov1920/10) IRA, 25, Cow testing supervisor, RC Upper Mill Lane, Millstreet, Cork ‘Paddy’ McCarthy, from Meelin, Newmarket, lived with an aunt in Freemount. Twice imprisoned in 1918 and in 1919 (when he escaped from Strangeways Prison, Manchester), he went on the run, joining the ASU Cork No. 2 Brigade. He was also quartermaster Newmarket Battalion. The ASU and local Volunteers took up positions in Millstreet after dark, expecting Black and Tan activity. Someone dashed past the end of Mill Lane, firing a shot which killed McCarthy outright.769 The IRA unsuccessfully pursued two Black and Tans. Daniel Browne of the ASU recalled: ‘Poor Paddy McCarthy – my boyhood friend and comrade – was shot dead.’ One policeman was reported wounded. Buried Kilcorcoran Cemetery, Cork. His brother secured a £25 gratuity.770 John J. Kearney (22Nov1920/11) RIC (52729), 51, Married with two children, RC Newry, Down Kearney, from Westmeath, joined the RIC on 13 November 1889, serving in Cavan, Antrim, Cavan for a second term, and Armagh. Promoted to sergeant in 1907 and to head constable in 1916, he was transferred to Clare and then to Newry, Down. He was scheduled for promotion to DI. The Frontier Sentinel said Kearney had the reputation of ‘having acted discreetly and of having

shown great consideration to prisoners’, whereas Patrick Casey recalled Kearney as particularly aggressive. It was decided to kill him. At about 20:15 on 21 November, he was shot as he left devotions in the Dominican Church near Needham Street, getting ‘what he richly deserved’ and dying next day. Kearney’s widow secured £5,400 compensation.771

c. 22 NOVEMBER 1920 Stewart Chambers (22Nov1920/12) The King’s (Liverpool Regiment), 29, Army officer, Married Farran, Cork Chambers, from Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, was a pre-war reservist recalled in 1914. Commissioned in the King’s on 9 October 1918, he was a temporary captain and education officer with the 1st Battalion. Mick Murphy, O/C 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, recalled how 2nd Battalion Volunteers held up a train at Waterfall Railway Station on 15 November in order to capture Chambers, Lieutenant M. H. W. Green and Lieutenant W. S. Watts, believed to be intelligence officers. Murphy said they were ‘shot there and then’, whereas Michael O’Regan said they were held prisoner for about a week in the Farran Company area, and then killed on the instructions of brigade O/C Seán Hegarty. Mick Leahy said Chambers was ‘supposed to have pulled the finger nails off Tom Hales’ during interrogation of the Cork No. 3 Brigade O/C in July 1920. Buried in the Aherla Company area, the bodies were never recovered.772 Replying to a parliamentary question, Winston Churchill, secretary of state for war, suggested Chambers was kidnapped because he was the principal witness against a Father O’Donnell, an Australian army chaplain arrested in October 1919 for seditious speeches. The History of the 6th Division offered a different explanation, claiming that Green and Chambers had witnessed a murder at Ballybrack in Kerry shortly before their deaths, but suggested no reason for the killing of Watts. On 29 November 1921, the three officers were presumed dead under authority of

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War Office letter 45/Gen. No./2557. This adduced a statement by Sinn Féin, issued through Art O’Brien, that a number of officers previously reported missing in Ireland had been ‘executed’. These were: Lieutenant B. L. Brown, Lieutenant D. A. Rutherford, Captain M. H. W. Green, Captain S. Chambers and Lieutenant W. S. Watts. Chambers is commemorated on the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton.773 RD: Green (22Nov1920/13), Watts (22Nov 1920/14) Montague William Henry Green (22Nov1920/13) Lincolnshire Regiment, Army officer, Married with one child Farran, Cork See Chambers (22Nov1920/12). The IRA evidently mistook Green, a lieutenant in the Army Education Corps, for another officer of that name involved in torturing Tom Hales, O/C Cork No. 3 Brigade, in July 1920. He is commemorated on the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton. His widow secured £3,500 compensation, as did his child.774 William Spalding Watts (22Nov1920/14) RE, Army officer, Married with one child Farran, Cork See Chambers (22Nov1920/12). Watts, an electrical engineer, was a lieutenant in 33rd Fortress Company, stationed in Victoria Barracks, Cork. His duties were apparently confined to ‘electric lighting’. In its April 1921 number, The Sapper ‘regretted that nothing has yet been heard of Lieutenant W. S. Watts . . . although there are reports that the whole of those with whom he was taken were killed’. Watts is commemorated on the Hollybrook Memorial in Southampton. His widow Mabel and child secured £4,000 compensation.775

23 NOVEMBER 1920 William Cullinane (23Nov1920/1) 21, Clerical student, RC Mercer’s Cullinane, from Claregalway, Galway, lived at 103 Lower Baggot Street. He was shot when

Auxiliaries intercepted a party of civilians in organised formation at Lincoln Place. These scattered in all directions, and three shots were fired in the air to halt them. The police had orders to search every male civilian. During this operation people emerged from Mass at St Andrew’s Church on Westland Row. Males among them were searched, as were about a dozen men who had been rounded up from the Nassau Street end of Lincoln Place. As nothing was found, they were ordered to go home. They began to run and were joined by others from nearby doorways. Auxiliaries fired about six shots without a direct instruction: apparently they were obeying a general order to wound any person attempting to evade arrest, avoid being searched or escape from custody. Three civilians were wounded. James Conlan, evidently fearing he would be killed, said he was a former soldier and had only joined the IRA because otherwise he would not have been able to obtain work. Another, who was wounded in the ankle, stated that he had been forced to join the IRA under intimidation. The third man, Cullinane, was too badly wounded to speak. All were admitted to hospital. Before he died, Cullinane told Father P. P. O’Dwyer that he and his companions were searched by Auxiliaries at Lincoln Place and some of them were then told to run. He said a policeman held him and shot him in the side. He died at 16:15. Conlan subsequently developed gangrene. Despite an operation, he died at 18:35 on 29 November. Buried Lacheny, Claregalway.776 RD: Conlan (29Nov1920/3) Edward Mehigan (23Nov1920/2) IRA, 30, RC Mercy Hospital, Cork Mehigan, of 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, lived at 35 Friar’s Walk. Five 2nd Battalion Volunteers were chatting at the corner of Princes Street and Patrick Street after a meeting in the Thomas Ashe Hall, when a Black and Tan in civilian clothes threw a grenade. The explosion caused the deaths of Paddy Trahey, vice-O/C 2nd Battalion; Patrick O’Donoghue, quartermaster 2nd Battalion; and Mehigan. The

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other Volunteers were wounded. The RIC noted an explosion at about 20:55. Mehigan and Patrick O’Donoghue, admitted to the Mercy Hospital at 21:15 unconscious and bleeding profusely, died just before midnight.777 Mehigan, O’Donoghue and Trahey were given a joint funeral in St Finbarr’s South Church. Buried SFC.778 RD: O’Donoghue (23Nov1920/3), Trahey (24Nov1920/6) Patrick O’Donoghue (23Nov1920/3) IRA, 31, French polisher, Married with one child, RC Mercy Hospital Cork See Mehigan (23Nov1920/2). O’Donoghue lived on St Brigid Street. Buried SFC, Cork. His widow Mary secured a yearly allowance of £90 and his daughter £24.779 William Robinson (23Nov1920/4) 11, Schoolboy, RC Drumcondra Hospital, Whitworth Road, Dublin See Hogan (21Nov1920/16). William was son of Christopher Robinson, a labourer of 15 Little Britain Street. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: B. c. 86).780 Daniel Carroll (23Nov1920/5) 30, Bar manager, RC JSH See Hogan (21Nov1920/16). Carroll, from Templederry, Tipperary, was a bar manager for Martin Kennedy of James Street. It was customary for bar employees to have every fourth Sunday off, and Carroll spent his in Croke Park. Mary Carroll said her brother’s only interests outside his work were Gaelic games. Their brother Joseph had served in France with 20th Battalion, Durham Light Infantry. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: G. h. 31.5).781

c. 23 NOVEMBER 1920 Bernard Ward (23Nov1920/6) RC Roscommon Kidnapped by the IRA on 23 November and described as a ‘habitual visitor to the police barracks in Roscommon’, he was

drowned by the IRA. His body was never recovered.782

24 NOVEMBER 1920 Patrick Flynn (24Nov1920/1) IRA, 23, Farmer’s son, RC Tarmon, Castlerea, Roscommon ‘Paddy’ Flynn from Tarmon, Castlerea, Roscommon, helped farm his father’s 12acre holding. Adjutant South Roscommon Brigade, his home had been destroyed by Crown forces on 2 October. Flynn was shot in bed when the house of his neighbour John Monaghan was raided and set on fire in the early hours by unidentified Crown forces.783 Buried Castlerea. He is commemorated on a monument at Loughglinn. His father Frank secured £800 compensation.784 Michael Moran (24Nov1920/2) IRA, 27, Farmer, RC Earls Island, Galway Moran, O/C Tuam Battalion, lived with his widowed mother Margaret at Carrowmoneen, Tuam, Galway. Arrested for a second time and taken to Galway, he was being escorted by police from Eglinton Street Barracks to Earls Island when, according to the Auxiliary officer in command, the escort paused to disperse a crowd of civilians by the wall of University College Galway. Moran attempted to escape and was shot dead. Buried New Cemetery, Tuam.785 Thomas Dillon (24Nov1920/3) RIC (68998), 25, Farmer, RC Infirmary Road, Dublin Dillon, from Roscommon, joined the RIC on 1 February 1917, serving in Wexford until transfer in March 1920 to the RIC Reserve. He was with a picket of eight soldiers at the junction of Infirmary Road and North Circular Road, Dublin. At around 21:30, a tram stopped at the terminus near the gates of the Phoenix Park. Passengers were challenged to put up their hands as they alighted. Shots were fired, and Dillon was found dead on Infirmary Road. Lance-Corporal Turner, shot in the head, also died.786 RD: Turner (24Nov1920/4)

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William Turner (24Nov1920/4) 15th (The King’s) Hussars (537303), 18 Infirmary Road, Dublin See Dillon (24Nov1920/3). Lance-Corporal Turner was from Northwood, Hanley, Staffordshire. Buried Hanley Cemetery, Shelton, Stoke-on-Trent (281. 80).787 Denis O’Donnell (24Nov1920/5) 36, Tailor, RC Meadstown, Kildorrery, Cork O’Donnell lived with his father and five siblings. He had a thriving tailoring business. Constables Wood, Coe and Grey from Kildorrery RIC Barracks searched James Dwaine’s house, apparently on foot of reports of wanted men in the area. Denis O’Donnell was found in the house and ordered out of bed. While the constables were searching the bedroom, O’Donnell tried to run out. Wood and Grey killed him. Donnchadh O’Hannigan, O/C ASU East Limerick Brigade, suggested that this was a revenge shooting for an ambush in Kildorrery on 7 August 1920, which saw the death of Constable Ernest Watkins. O’Hannigan maintained that two policemen whom he had captured and then released returned to the cottage and shot O’Donnell. Buried Farrihy Churchyard, Kildorrery.788 SA: Watkins (7Aug1920/1) Patrick Trahey (24Nov1920/6) IRA, 29, Clerk, Married with one child, RC South Infirmary, Cork See Mehigan (23Nov1920/2). Trahey, Vice O/C 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, lived on Friar’s Walk. His widow Catherine secured a £90 annual allowance, and his daughter £24.789

25 NOVEMBER 1920 Martin Lyons (25Nov1920/1) 50, Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC Ballynamuddagh, Moate, Westmeath Lyons, a veteran of both the Boer War and the Great War, lived in Patrick Galvin’s house in Ballynamuddagh. At around 03:00 he was ordered outside and told to say an act of contrition before being shot several times at close range with a revolver. He died at

about 07:00. Galvin later told Sergeant Austin O’Toole that Lyons had had a bitter dispute with Michael Johnston. Also, ‘the boys around did not like him and . . . they suspected him of going to the RIC Barracks and giving information’.790 Thomas Doyle (25Nov1920/2) 22, Machinist, RC 3 Dolphin’s Barn Street, Dublin Doyle, of 3 Dolphin’s Barn Street, worked for the City Woollen Mills, Cork Street. At about 18:30 a military patrol went to arrest two suspects. Doyle was shot, supposedly after failing to halt when challenged as he climbed over a garden wall: his family said he was washing himself in the yard after a day’s work. A bullet pierced his right lung and entered his heart. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: N. c. 87).791

26 NOVEMBER 1920 Denis Christopher Morrissey (26Nov1920/1) IRA, 17, Coachbuilder, RC No. 1 Watercourse Road, Blackpool, Cork Morrissey lived on Commons Road. He and William Mulcahy, members of 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, died following an explosion in their employer’s workshop on Watercourse Road at about 09:30. The two inexperienced Volunteers had evidently tampered with a bomb, causing it to detonate. The police subsequently uncovered ammunition, an unexploded bomb and a trench helmet in the workshop. Buried SFC.792 RD: Mulcahy (26Nov1920/2) William Mulcahy (26Nov1920/2) IRA, 22, Coachbuilder, RC North Infirmary, Cork See Morrissey (26Nov1920/1). Mulcahy lived at 22 Watercourse Road. Buried SFC. His mother secured a £85 gratuity.793 Walter Spencer Gammon794 (26Nov1920/3) The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) (6278154), 29, Shop assistant Labbacallee, Glanworth, Cork From Ramsgate, Kent, Private Gammon attested at Canterbury in 1909. He served in

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France, and re-enlisted for twenty-one years in the Buffs. Tom Barry and nine members of the ASU Cork No. 3 Brigade, supported by local Volunteers armed with shotguns, lay in ambush spread out over about 70 yards along the top of a steep hill on the western side of the Glanworth–Fermoy road, awaiting two military lorries. These were about 150 yards apart. Fire was opened on the first lorry, causing it to crash. Soldiers returned fire. The second vehicle was able to change direction at a crossroads, and so avoid the ambush. Gammon and Corporal Hall were killed, and other soldiers wounded.795 Buried St Lawrence Cemetery, Ramsgate (LB. 53). His parents secured £750 compensation.796 RD: Hall (26Nov1920/4) Ernest A. Hall (26Nov1920/4) The Buffs (East Kent Regiment) (6278145),797 27, Musician, Married Labbacallee, Glanworth, Cork See Gammon (26Nov1920/3). Hall, from Blackrock, Stalybridge, Lancashire, attested at Aldershot in 1908. He served in France, won the DCM, re-enlisted for twenty-one years, and was an acting corporal. Buried Streatham Cemetery, London (F. 598). His widow secured a weekly pension of 21s.8d. from 28 December 1920.798 Denis Carey (26Nov1920/5) IRA, 32, Shop manager, RC Workhouse Infirmary, Nenagh, Tipperary Carey, from Kilnaneave, Killeen, Tipperary, was manager of McCurtain’s hardware shop on Castle Street,799 Nenagh, where he also lodged. He was a lieutenant 1st Battalion, Tipperary No. 1 Brigade. Maureen McCurtain answered the door at about 00:30 to four armed men, one wearing a farm overcoat, soft cap and khaki mask. They took Denis Carey and Jim Moore away. Moore managed to escape. Carey, shot three times, struggled to Michael Geaney’s house. He died at 21:00, after describing a brutal interrogation about recent attacks on Crown forces. The IRA believed Carey was killed by RIC constables Keane and Moore. Buried

Kilnaneave Cemetery. His mother secured a £50 gratuity.800 Mortimer Duggan (26Nov1920/6) 28, Teacher, RC Broadford, Limerick Duggan lived and taught in Broadford. At about 22:00, lorries were heard outside Timothy Riordan’s pub in Broadford. Some men who were playing cards inside, including Duggan, rushed out of the back door into fields. They ignored orders to halt and Duggan was shot. He is commemorated as a Volunteer on a monument in Newcastle West, Limerick.801 Thomas Hogan (26Nov1920/7) IRA, 19, Mechanic, RC MMH See Hogan (21Nov1920/16). Hogan, from Kilmallock, Limerick, lived at 24 St James’s Terrace, Dublin. His death brought the death toll from the Croke Park disaster to fourteen. Buried Kilmallock.802

27 NOVEMBER 1920 Patrick Loughnane (27Nov1920/1) IRA, Farmer, RC Drumharsna, Ardrahan, Galway ‘Pat’ Loughnane and his brother Harry worked their large farm at Shanaglish, Beagh, where they lived with their widowed mother and four siblings. Pat was president of the Beagh Sinn Féin club, a Volunteer in the Beagh Company and an IRB man. Harry captained the Beagh senior hurling team. They took part in an ambush at Castledaly on 30 October 1920 in which Constable Timothy Horan was killed. On 26 November, sixteen or so neighbours were engaged in threshing on the Loughnane farm. At around 15:00 Auxiliaries surrounded the farm. The Loughnanes were arrested and brought to Gort RIC Barracks. En route, Michael Carroll was also arrested. He afterwards said he and the Loughnanes were badly beaten in the lorry. The abuse continued in the RIC barracks. The Auxiliaries then set off with the Loughnanes for their headquarters at Drumharsna Castle, about six miles

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north of Gort. It is said that they dragged the Loughnanes behind their lorry at Crann Mór. At 23:00, the Loughnanes were taken from Drumharsna to Moy O’Hynes Wood, shot and left for dead. Two days later the Auxiliaries returned and took the bodies to Owenbristy,803 where they attempted to burn them; this did not work, and the ground proved too rocky to bury them, so the corpses were dumped in a muddy pond. Next day Auxiliaries from Drumharsna told Mrs Loughnane that her sons had escaped from custody. Their badly charred bodies were discovered on 4 December.804 In both cases, there was extensive fracturing of the skull, and they were virtually unrecognisable. Their sister Nora identified them. On 4 December, the commanding officer of the Auxiliary company based at Lenaboy, Taylor’s Hill, Galway, told Nora that her brothers were among eight suspects who had escaped and were thought to have headed south. Buried Shanaglish Churchyard. Gruesome photographs of their open coffins were taken to show the condition of the bodies. A memorial cross was erected in Shanaglish Churchyard, and a cross was placed on the Kinvara to Ardrahan road near the spot where the bodies were burned.805 RD: Loughnane (27Nov1920/2). SA: Horan (30Oct1920/1) Henry Loughnane (27Nov1920/2) IRA, 22, Farmer, RC Drumharsna, Ardrahan, Galway See Loughnane (27Nov1920/1). Henry, a Volunteer in Beagh Company, was goalkeeper for the Beagh hurling team and secretary of the local Sinn Féin club.806 William Heffernan (27Nov1920/3) IRA, 22, Chauffeur, RC Castlemartyr, Cork ‘Liam’ Heffernan, from Knockmore, Conna, Cork, was a chauffeur for the Commercial Hotel in Midleton, and served in B Company, 4th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. He drove three battalion officers to Castlemartyr for fruitless negotiations with two constables about a scheme to let the IRA slip into the RIC barracks unopposed. As they sat in the motor

car afterwards they were questioned by two RIC men. In an exchange of fire, Constable Timothy Quinn was killed by Joseph Aherne, and Heffernan was fatally wounded by Sergeant Curley. He managed to drive the car a short distance before collapsing. Buried Knockmourne Cemetery, Conna. A monument was erected in Castlemartyr on 23 May 1971.807 RD: Quinn (28Nov1920/20)

28 NOVEMBER 1920 Frederick Hugo (28Nov1920/1) ADRIC (79333), 40, Army officer Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork Cadet Hugo, from London, won an MC and OBE during wartime service with the Royal Engineers and the Indian Army, achieving the rank of major. Joining the RIC on 22 October 1920808 (auxiliary number 820), he served in C Company, stationed in Macroom.809 From the location of his body, he was probably first to die. In impact, if not in execution, Kilmichael became the most celebrated IRA ambush of the War of Independence. The Dromkeen ambush of 3 February 1921 was a more clinical operation, resulting in eleven police deaths without any IRA fatalities, but that engagement is seldom discussed. Sixteen Crown forces, three Volunteers and an Auxiliary who escaped only to be captured and killed the next day, died. One badly wounded Auxiliary lived to tell the tale. The ambush has remained controversial, due to contemporary and later disputes about aspects of the engagement and wider debate about historical ‘revisionism’. In his celebrated memoir Guerilla Days in Ireland, Tom Barry, O/C ASU, maintained that a ‘false surrender’ caused the deaths of his three men, leading him to refuse to accept further attempts at capitulation by the surviving Auxiliaries. Contemporary British sources, on the other hand, alleged a massacre of wounded and defenceless men, some of whose bodies were mutilated after death. British claims of a massacre are exaggerated, though some Auxiliaries were almost

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certainly shot after surrendering. It is also unlikely, however, that the three IRA men who were killed or fatally wounded in the attack died directly as a result of a false surrender, as Barry claimed in his 1949 memoir. All three Volunteer fatalities were in the second section. Michael McCarthy and Jim O’Sullivan were most likely hit during the early exchanges of fire, and Patrick Deasy was probably shot after the action by an Auxiliary thought to be dead. In his analysis of Kilmichael published in 1998, Peter Hart drew on recorded interviews with Jack O’Sullivan and Ned Young carried out by Fr John Chisholm in 1969, another recorded interview with Jack O’Sullivan, and his own interviews with Ned Young and Willie Chambers (in November 1989), the latter of whom claimed to have been an unarmed scout at the ambush. Hart’s refusal to name some of these individuals on grounds of confidentiality led to accusations that he had fabricated evidence, although the interviewees have since all been identified by Dr Eve Morrison. Hart’s research notes, now available in Memorial University in Newfoundland, show conclusively that Hart interviewed everyone he said he did, although the canard that his claimed interview with Ned Young postdated Young’s death remains in circulation. In reality, Hart’s interview with Young took place over a year before he died. Morrison also demonstrates that the dispute about Kilmichael reflected wider divisions among West Cork IRA veterans about Barry’s claims to primacy, his propensity to downplay or ignore the contributions of others, and his tendency to attribute the deaths of some men under his command to their inexperience rather than to any possible failings or miscalculations of his own (see the entries for Joseph Begley and Patrick O’Driscoll regarding other controversies). That Barry was sometimes prone to vary his recollections is clear from his military service pensions records. The ambush site was on an S-shaped curve in Shanacashelgneeves. The ASU built a protective wall of loose stones at the west (Macroom) side of a high rock just north of

the road. Barry, an ex-serviceman, dispersed the ASU in sections along both sides of the ambush site. They waited from 08:00 until 16:00, when scouts reported the approach of two lorries. Seventeen members of C Company, Auxiliary Division under DI F. W. Crake, and a Black and Tan named Poole, were searching for a wanted man near Dunmanway. According to Timothy Keohane, Barry ordered that the leading lorry be allowed pass the first IRA sections, to be attacked at the far end of the ambush position where Barry, wearing a British helmet, stood on the road. The lorry slowed down and he threw a bomb, killing the driver and Crake. The lorry lurched into a ditch and the seven cadets in the back had little time to react before being killed or wounded. On seeing the unfolding ambush, the second lorry attempted to turn around but became stuck. The cadets on board took cover and returned fire, hitting Mick McCarthy in the head and Jim O’Sullivan in the jaw. Michael O’Driscoll of the ASU said of O’Sullivan: ‘As far as I could judge a bullet struck his rifle and part of the bolt was driven into his face. Michael McCarthy our section commander was also killed.’ Other evidence indicates that, although mortally wounded, McCarthy actually died on the way to Buttimer’s farm in Gortroe, to which he and the other Volunteer casualties were brought by their comrades. Statements made decades later to the BMH, and other accounts of the ambush, are unclear as to what happened next. Jack Hennessy of the ASU recalled:

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Our orders were to fix bayonets and charge on to the road when we heard three blasts of the O/C’s whistle. I heard the three blasts and got up from my position, shouting ‘hands up’. At the same time, one of the Auxies about five yards from me drew his revolver. He had thrown down his rifle. I . . . shot him dead. I got back to cover, where I remained for a few minutes firing at living and dead Auxies on the road. The Column O/C sounded his whistle again. Nearly all the Auxies had been wiped out. When I reached the road a wounded Auxie moved his hand towards his revolver. I put

28 November 1920

my bayonet through him under the ribs. Another Auxie tried to pull on John Lordan, who was too near to use his bayonet and he struck the Auxie with the butt of his rifle. The butt broke on the Auxie’s skull. . . . During the action the driver of the lorry which we had attacked . . . appears to have taken cover under the lorry. While I sat on the roadside a party of our men was ordered to collect the arms, ammunition and papers of the Auxies and pull the bodies clear of the lorries. While this was being done one of our men, Sonny Dave Crowley, shouted . . . that an Auxie was running away across country. He was the driver . . . who had slipped out from cover while our men were engaged taking the stuff of the other Auxies.

The escaper was Cecil Guthrie. According to Charles Brown, he got to within two miles of Macroom before being captured next day by two unarmed members of K Company. He was handed over to Cornelius Kelliher, O/C Tarelton Company, 1st Cork Brigade, and killed. His body was buried in Annahala Bog, south of Macroom. Timothy Keohane stated that ‘Tom Barry . . . called on the enemy to surrender and some of them put up their hands, but when our party were moving on to the road the Auxiliaries again opened fire. Two of our men were wounded’, including Pat Deasy. Barry then apparently ordered an all-out attack. A military court of inquiry at Macroom concluded that three of the Auxiliaries were shot at point-blank range, and that most ‘were murdered after being wounded’. A number bore wounds in the axila (armpit), suggesting that they had been shot with their hands up. Cadet H. F. Forde survived being clubbed and shot in the head. Although unable to give evidence, he afterwards provided a brief but graphic account of the ambush which supported the claim that some of the Auxiliaries were killed after surrender or as they lay wounded and helpless. This would not have been a unique occurrence, as there are various instances before and after Kilmichael where the IRA, the police and the military killed wounded

or surrendered captives after combat: see William Hegarty, Michael Desmond, Michael Joseph Hickey. The term ‘false surrender’ is something of a misnomer. It is clear from IRA accounts that the Auxiliaries who survived the initial attack had no opportunity, even had they wished, to confer about their situation or to concert any collective plan to deceive the IRA. On the other hand, Jack Hennessey’s BMH account describes an Auxiliary throwing down his rifle but then reaching for his gun before John Lordan smashed his head. Jack O’Sullivan also told Father Chisholm that when he was beseeched for help by a wounded Auxiliary, he asked Barry what to do: ‘Finish him’ was the answer, so he shot him in the head. The IRA captured eighteen rifles and about thirty revolvers. The ASU moved away crosscountry. Pat Deasy died in Buttimer’s farmhouse. According to Cornelius Kelliher, the three IRA fatalities were buried in a bog in roughly made coffins before proper interment in Castletownkenneigh. Buried All Saints Church, Surrey. His father Thomas secured £1,000 compensation.810 RD: Barnes (28Nov1920/18), Bayley (28Nov 1920/2), Bradshaw (28Nov1920/3), Crake (28Nov1920/4), Deasy (28Nov1920/19), Gleave (28Nov1920/5), Graham (28Nov 1920/6), Guthrie (29Nov1920/7), HooperJones (28Nov1920/7), Jones (28Nov1920/8), Lucas (28Nov1920/9), McCarthy (28Nov 1920/10), O’Sullivan (28Nov1920/11), Pallister (28Nov1920/12), Pearson (28Nov 1920/13), Poole (28Nov1920/14), Taylor (28Nov1920/15), Wainwright (28Nov1920/ 16), Webster (28Nov1920/17). SA: Begley (2Dec1920/2), Desmond (20Feb1921/6), Hegarty (5Sep1920/1), Hickey (19Mar 1921/3), O’Driscoll (7Feb1921/2) Cyril Dunstan Wakefield Bayley (28Nov1920/2) ADRIC (72843), 22, RAF Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). Cadet Bayley, from Lancashire, joined the RIC on 17 August 1920 (auxiliary number 328) and served in C Company, stationed in Macroom. Buried

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Southern Cemetery, Manchester. Relatives secured £500 compensation.811 Leonard Douglas Bradshaw (28Nov1920/3) ADRIC (72847), 24, Army officer Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). Cadet Bradshaw, from Blackburn, Lancashire, joined the RFA at sixteen, being commissioned two years later. He joined the RIC on 17 August 1920 (auxiliary number 297) and served in C Company, stationed in Macroom. His mother Edith secured £1,000 compensation.812 Francis William Crake (28Nov1920/4) ADRIC (72473), 27, Army officer, Married, CoE Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). DI Crake, from Newcastle upon Tyne, first served in the 11th Reserve Regiment of Cavalry before enlisting (16957) in the Hampshire Regiment in 1915. Commissioned in the Bedfordshire Regiment in 1917, he won an MC. Crake joined the RIC on 14 August 1920, and served in C Company, stationed in Macroom. Buried Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne. His widow Guinivere, mother and sister secured £4,000 compensation.813 James Chubb Gleave (28Nov1920/5) ADRIC (72825), 21, RAF Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). Cadet Gleave, from Worcester, won an MC during war service. He joined the Auxiliary Division on 17 August 1920 (auxiliary number 266), and served in C Company, stationed in Macroom. Buried Wye, Ashford, Kent. His mother Kate secured £1,500 compensation.814 Philip Noel Graham (28Nov1920/6) ADRIC (72813), 31, Army officer Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). Cadet Graham, from Abingdon, Berkshire, was mentioned in dispatches as a captain in the Northumberland Fusiliers. He joined the RIC on 17 August 1920 (auxiliary number 274), and on 3 October was promoted to section leader

C Company, stationed in Macroom. Buried Abingdon. His father Thomas secured £600 compensation.815 J. W. Hooper-Jones816 (28Nov1920/7) ADRIC (72307), 27, Army officer Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). Cadet HooperJones, from Hampshire, was a lieutenant in the Northumberland Fusiliers before joining the RIC on 17 August 1920 (auxiliary number 413). He served in C Company, stationed in Macroom. Buried Holcombe. His father Albert secured £1,500 compensation.817 Albert George James Jones (28Nov1920/8) ADRIC (72818), 33, Army officer Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). Cadet Jones, from Northamptonshire, served as a lieutenant in the Shropshire Regiment. He joined the Auxiliary Division on 17 August 1920 (auxiliary number 268), serving in C Company, stationed in Macroom. His sister Edith Anne Jones secured £1,000 in compensation.818 Ernest William Henry Lucas (28Nov1920/9) ADRIC (72845), 31, Army officer, Married with one child Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). Cadet Lucas, from Sussex, served in the Royal Sussex Regiment before joining the RIC on 17 August 1920 (auxiliary number 292) serving in C Company, stationed in Macroom. Lucas’s widow Gladys Emma and child secured £4,000 compensation.819 Michael McCarthy (28Nov1920/10) IRA, 25, Cooper, RC Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). McCarthy, from Dunmanway, Cork, worked with his father in Dunmanway. He served periods of imprisonment in 1917 and again in 1918. In June 1919, he was elected vice-O/C 3rd (Dunmanway) Battalion, Cork No. 3 Brigade. Arrested in March 1920, he was imprisoned in Belfast Jail before transfer to Wormwood Scrubs, where he participated in a hunger strike securing a

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general release of prisoners. In October, he joined the ASU Cork No. 3 Brigade. Buried Castletownkenneigh Cemetery, Cork. A terrace of houses in Dunmanway was named in his memory. His father Daniel secured a £150 gratuity, although a Garda report stated that he appeared ‘comfortable’.820 James O’Sullivan (28Nov1920/11) IRA, 23, Farmer, RC Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). O’Sullivan, from Knockawaddra, Rossmore, was lieutenant E (Kilmeen) Company, Cork No. 3 Brigade and the brigade ASU. Buried Castletownkenneigh, Cork. His mother Mary secured a gratuity of £100.821 William Andrew Pallister (28Nov1920/12) ADRIC (71615), 25, Army officer, Married with one child Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). Pallister, from Yorkshire, was demobilised as a captain in the Prince of Wales’s Own (West Yorkshire Regiment). He joined the RIC on 21 October 1920 (auxiliary number 822), as a Cadet in C Company, stationed in Macroom. Buried Burngreave Cemetery, Sheffield. His widow Annie secured £4,000 compensation.822 Henry Oliver Pearson (28Nov1920/13) ADRIC (71615), 21, Railway clerk, army officer, Protestant Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). Pearson, a schoolteacher’s son from Tanfield, Yorkshire, enlisted in the Yorkshire Regiment in 1914, and was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1918. He joined the Auxiliary Division on 25 October as a Cadet in C Company, stationed in Macroom. His representatives secured £1,500 compensation.823 Arthur Frederick Poole (28Nov1920/14) RIC (73356), 21, Motor fitter, ex-serviceman Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). Constable Poole, from London, joined the RIC on 24 September, stationed in Macroom. Buried

Kensal Green Cemetery, London. His father George secured £500 compensation.824 Frank Taylor (28Nov1920/15) ADRIC (72824), 22, RAF Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). Cadet Taylor, from Gillingham, Kent, joined the RIC on 17 August (auxiliary number 331), serving in C Company, stationed in Macroom. His father Frederick secured £1,000 compensation.825 Christopher Herbert Wainwright (28Nov1920/16) ADRIC (72850), 36, Army officer, Married with two children Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). Wainwright, from Lancashire, formerly a captain in the RDF and the RIR, joined the RIC on 17 August (auxiliary number 330) as a Cadet in C Company, stationed in Macroom.826 Benjamin D. Webster (28Nov1920/17) ADRIC (79332), 30, Army officer, Married with one child Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). Webster, from Lanarkshire, joined the RIC on 21 October827 (auxiliary number 832), after wartime service as a lieutenant in the Black Watch, and was a Cadet in C Company, stationed in Macroom. His widow Ethel, of Redcliffe, Ayrshire, secured £4,000 compensation.828 William Thomas Barnes (28Nov1920/18) ADRIC (72849), 26, Army officer, CoE Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). Cadet Barnes, from Surrey, enlisted in 1914 and was later commissioned in the field. In 1918 he transferred to the RAF. He joined the Auxiliary Division on 17 August (auxiliary number 269), serving in C Company, newly stationed in Macroom. His father Thomas secured £1,000 compensation in January 1921.829 Patrick Deasy (28Nov1920/19) IRA, 16, RC Gortroe, Kilmichael, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). ‘Pat’ Deasy from Kilmacsimon Quay, Bandon, the youngest of

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six boys and a brother of Liam Deasy, adjutant Cork No. 3 Brigade, attended Ballinadee National School. He was O/C Signals, 1st (Bandon) Battalion, Cork No. 3 Brigade. Deasy suffered abdominal wounds at Kilmichael. Brought on a door to Buttimer’s of Gortroe about half a mile from the ambush site, he died at 22:00. Buried Castletownkenneigh Cemetery, Cork. A memorial cross was erected in Gortroe bog, where he had been temporarily interred.830 Timothy J. Quinn (28Nov1920/20) RIC (62234), 34, Married, RC CMHC See Heffernan (27Nov1920/3). Quinn, from Tipperary, joined the RIC on 15 November 1906, serving in Galway and Meath before transfer to Cork in 1909, stationed in Castlemartyr.831 William Joseph Ward (28Nov1920/21) 19, Labourer, RC Parliament Street, Liverpool Ward lived on Upper Harrington Street, Liverpool. GHQ documents detailing plans for arson attacks in Liverpool, timed to coincide with the Bloody Sunday assassinations, had been captured in Dublin. Nonetheless, the Liverpool attacks went ahead. Seventeen cotton warehouses and lumberyards were targeted. Ward, returning from a Catholic mission, noticed two men acting suspiciously in a warehouse doorway. He ran for a policeman. When he returned with a constable, a man with a revolver shot him in the heart.832 Thomas Downing (28Nov1920/22) Ex-serviceman, telephonist, Married, RC Knockraha, Cork Downing was kidnapped on 24 November while going to a meeting of the Cork branch of the Federation of Demobilised Sailors and Soldiers. He was executed and buried at the Cork No. 1 Brigade’s killing field at the Ray, Knockraha, six miles north-east of the city. Two days later a notice was posted around the city and also published in the Cork Examiner:

kidnapping in cork notice If Mr Downey [sic] is not returned to his home within 56 hours, Cork citizens prepare especially Sinn Féiners Signed black and tans

This threat, which some argue indicates that Downing was involved with the police, went unheeded.833 Frederick Arthur Bundy (28Nov1920/23) Somerset Light Infantry, 16 Belfast, Antrim Bundy, from Bath, was accidentally shot in the stomach in his quarters by a comrade while cleaning a weapon. Buried Bath.834

29 NOVEMBER 1920 Martin Walsh (29Nov1920/1) 62, Labourer, RC Asylum, Ennis, Clare Walsh, from Killanena, Feakle, Clare,835 was a long term ‘liberty-patient’ in the Ennis Asylum, having been admitted on 18 August 1895. Regarded as quiet and harmless, he had a habit of running to work. Private James Arthur, Royal Scots, on guard duty at about 07:30, challenged three men leaving the asylum to halt several times. He fired, killing Walsh.836 Maurice Quirke (29Nov1920/2) RIC (63192), 34, Farmer, Married with three children, RC Walsh’s Hotel, Cappoquin, Waterford From Kerry, Constable Quirke joined the RIC on 15 October 1907, serving in Galway before transfer to Cappoquin, Waterford, in 1915. George Lennon and Mick Mansfield of the West Waterford Brigade ASU had intended to kill the local DI, but did not find him where expected in Walsh’s Hotel. Instead they shot Quirke, fearing he had noticed their car, at around 20:40. Buried Kilnanare Old Burial Ground, Firies, Kerry. His widow Anne secured £1,600 compensation, and his three children £2,400.837

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James Conlan (29Nov1920/3) IRA, 27, Ex-serviceman, cinematograph operator, RC Mercer’s See Cullinane (23Nov1920/1). Conlan lived at 35 North Great George’s Street. Buried GC (South Section: T. a. 25.5).838 Denis O’Sullivan (29Nov1920/4) Agricultural labourer, RC Coolderrihy, Kilmichael, Macroom, Cork ‘Denny’ O’Sullivan worked for James Cronin of Cooldaniel, Toames, Cork. Two members of Crown forces took him outside a pub at Coolderrihy and shot him. Some houses had been burned earlier that day in reprisal for the Kilmichael ambush. Buried Old Cemetery, Moneycusker, Kilmichael. He is commemorated by a plaque on the wall of the pub, now renamed ‘The Kilmichael Bar’.839 James Blemens (29Nov1920/5) 55, Civil servant, Married with children, CoI Cork Blemens, from Dublin, lived on Blackrock Road, Cork. Described as a popular inspector of horticulture and bee-keeping with the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction, he and his son Frederick were casualties of the spy frenzy which gripped the Cork city IRA between November 1920 and March 1921, resulting in the killing of a number of suspected spies and informers. IRA accounts of these killings allege that Cork loyalists and Protestants developed a sophisticated information-gathering network and were in league with Crown forces. Dispassionate analysis suggests that informers were neither so ubiquitous nor so organised as the Cork IRA maintained, and that some of those killed were not involved in any way with loyalist spy rings, if such existed, or in anti-republican activities. Blemens was kidnapped from his home; his son Frederick had been abducted earlier that day. Neither was seen again. According to Mick Murphy, ‘These two were members of the senior spy section in the YMCA [Young Men’s Christian Association]. Their names were given to me by Parsons.[†] We

also had information about them from letters captured by our lads in raids on postmen for mails.’ Murphy told Ernie O’Malley that, when questioned, ‘Fred’ Blemens said, ‘I don’t know anything but the old man might know something.’ His father, shot while ‘dead drunk’, told them nothing. They were buried in Carroll’s Bog. Connie Neenan recalled that ‘the Blemens had a good pair of shoes and the lads took the shoes off them’. In November 1921 Seán O’Hegarty informed GHQ of the fact and date of their executions. The Cork press claimed that neither man had any political connections.840 RD: Blemens (29Nov1920/6) Frederick Blemens (29Nov1920/6) 31, Shop assistant, CoI Cork See Blemens (29Nov1920/5). Cecil J. Guthrie (29Nov1920/7) ADRIC (72863), 21, RAF, Married, Protestant Dromcarra, Macroom, Cork See Hugo (28Nov1920/1). Cadet Guthrie, a solicitor’s son from Fyfe, joined the RIC on 17 August 1920 (auxiliary number 294), stationed in Macroom. Guthrie was commissioned into the RFC in 1916, giving his year of birth as 1892. He served as a pilot and instructor in the Middle East and in the Third Afghan War of 1919, when he was mentioned in dispatches. In 1920 he married Irene Peach, a nurse whom he had met in India. She moved with him to Macroom. In January 1921 she gave birth there to a daughter, placing a notice in the Irish Independent: ‘Cecil. Little Dorothy arrived safely. Irene’. She never remarried, and apparently wore his pilot’s wings day and night. Dorothy died only in 2011. Guthrie, who had escaped from the Kilmichael ambush the previous day, was captured by Volunteers near Macroom after he tried to commandeer a vehicle. It was rumoured that he was beaten to death, rather than shot, because he was believed to have been involved in the shooting of a bystander in Ballyvourney some days previously. By that account, he died screaming, while his killer subsequently died of ‘lockjaw’ (tetanus),

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a fate interpreted locally as a punishment for his unnecessary cruelty. Guthrie was initially buried in Annahala Bog, south of Macroom. During the Truce Tom Barry, who had led the IRA at Kilmichael and was now the senior IRA liaison officer for Cork, informed the British that Guthrie had been killed shortly after the main engagement about 700 yards from the ambush site and that the whereabouts of the remains were unknown. This was misleading. Guthrie’s body was eventually located by the Garda Síochána in 1926, after they arrested Timothy Mullane. He had secured £1 from Guthrie’s father in Scotland through sending a letter saying he knew where Guthrie was buried and had his leggings, but had then failed to send on the promised information and material. Guthrie was reinterred at the Church of Ireland graveyard in Inchigeelagh, as his father did not want to recover the remains until their identity was confirmed. His widow secured £5,200 compensation.841

30 NOVEMBER 1920 Seán (John) O’Carroll (30Nov1920/1) IRA, 25, Irish teacher, RC Station Street, Ardee, Louth O’Carroll, from Dublin, was raised in Belfast and became a machinist. About two years before his death, he was appointed as Irish teacher for Ardee and district. He became a captain in the 3rd Battalion, Louth Brigade. At about 01:15, uniformed men took him from his lodgings on Market Street, shooting him three times. He died at about 04:30. At around 02:00, armed men, some in khaki clothing, took Patrick Tierney from his home on Tisdale Street and shot him dead. Buried Milltown Cemetery. O’Carroll’s mother secured £250 compensation. Station Street, Ardee was renamed in memory of him. A monument was erected on the Drogheda Road, Ardee.842 RD: Tierney (30Nov1920/2) Patrick Tierney (30Nov1920/2) IRA, 26, Butcher, farmer’s son, RC Tisdale Street, Ardee, Louth See O’Carroll (30Nov1920/1). Buried Ballypousta Cemetery, Ardee. His parents

John and Brigid secured £250 compensation. Tisdale Street was renamed in memory of him. A monument was erected on the Drogheda Road, Ardee. His stepmother secured £250 compensation, but was ruled ineligible for a dependent’s award.843 William McCarthy (30Nov1920/3) RIC (66903), 27, Post office clerk, exserviceman, RC Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin McCarthy, from Rathmore, Kerry, joined the RIC in 1912, allocated to Kilkenny. He enlisted in the Leinster Regiment in May 1916, rejoining the police in April 1919. Promoted to sergeant in January 1920, he was attached to the RIC Depot. He was in a Lancia tender being towed by another vehicle around 04:15 near Julianstown, Louth. As they hit a bump in the road, the driver saw a flash. McCarthy, whose Lee-Metford carbine had discharged, told him: ‘Stop the car. I’m hit.’ He died at 10:00 from a single wound.844 James Joseph Malynn (30Nov1920/4) RIC (67903), 31, Policeman, Married, RC Main Street, Moate, Westmeath From Cork, Malynn joined the RIC on 1 July 1914, having previously been a policeman in Hull. He served in Limerick, before transfer to Westmeath in July 1915. His brother Bernard was also in the RIC. Severely wounded in the spine during an IRA attack on Baltinglass RIC Barracks, Wicklow, on 24 January 1920, he was operated on in Mercer’s Hospital. He secured £3,000 compensation, with a further £100 for medical expenses and nursing attendance, and £35 for special removal expenses. Brought home to his wife Theresa in Moate, he died at 19:50.845

c. NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 1920 Unknown Brady (Nov–Dec1920/1) Printer Tory Top Lane, Ballyphehane, Cork Charles Brown, adjutant 7th (Macroom) Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, said that a printer from Dublin named Brady came

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under suspicion in September 1920: while drinking with Auxiliaries in the Market Bar, Macroom, he reportedly told them that a nearby house was an IRA billet. The 7th Battalion deported Brady to Britain. However, he returned to Cork. Shadowed one night after he left Union Quay RIC Barracks, he was captured and shot dead at Tory Top Lane, Cork.846 Peter O’Dwyer (Nov/Dec1920/2) IRA, RC County Tipperary O’Dwyer was section leader Clonoulty Company, 3rd Battalion, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade. Michael Davern told the BMH of O’Dwyer’s death – ‘one of our best men’ – apparently during the autumn of 1920, but did not give a date or circumstances. Buried Ballintemple, Dundrum, Tipperary. He is commemorated in St Michael’s Cemetery, Tipperary.847

1 DECEMBER 1920 Nicholas Francis-de-Sales Prendergast (1Dec1920/1) 44, Ex-serviceman, teacher, Married with two children, RC Fermoy, Cork Prendergast, from Rochestown, New Ross, Wexford, at one time a Christian Brother, subsequently taught at St Colman’s College, Fermoy, Cork. In 1914 he became an army recruiter, then joined the Leinster Regiment and served in France and Italy, being commissioned in the field for gallantry. He was invalided home and demobilised in 1919. His second wife owned the Blackwater Vale Hotel on King Street (now MacCurtain Street), Fermoy. At about 21:30 members of the Auxiliary Division staying in the Royal Hotel got into a heated argument in the bar with Prendergast, who often had a drink there. One Auxiliary accused him of belonging to the IRA. He retorted that the IRA were his greatest enemies but that he was an Irishman. Auxiliaries then dragged him outside, apparently with the intention of frightening him. He was beaten with revolver butts and

thrown into the River Blackwater, which was in flood. According to James Coss, then intelligence officer Fermoy Company, 1st Battalion, Auxiliaries then set fire to three shops in the town, throwing one man into the river who managed to reach the riverbank. Prendergast’s decomposed body was recovered at Clondulane on 5 January 1921. His teeth had been broken, and it was thought this may have caused him to asphyxiate. Cadets A. K. Watson and E. S. Radford were subsequently arrested and charged with murder. Prendergast’s widow secured £3,500 compensation and each of his children £1,500.848 Carl Johannsen (1Dec1920/2) 25, Seaman South Infirmary, Cork Johannsen, just paid off by the SS Tonjeir of Haugesund in Norway, was found lying shot in the abdomen on the quay at Cork’s Custom House Dock at 04:00. He died that evening. Groups of armed and masked men had been setting fires to premises in the city centre, and it is possible that he encountered them.849 Thomas Keighery (1Dec1920/3) RIC (60977), 41, Farmer, Married with one child, RC Kilcarn, Navan, Meath From Aughrim, Galway, Keighery joined the RIC on 16 September 1902. He served in Donegal, Cavan, the RIC Reserve and Dublin before transfer to Dunshaughlin, Meath, in December 1915. Commended for conspicuous service during the Rising, he was promoted to sergeant in 1919, serving first in Robinstown and then in Navan. He died when, on a dark, wet night, an RIC patrol challenged military vehicles just outside Navan. When these failed to halt, a warning shot was fired. Soldiers in the vehicles, assuming they were under attack, replied. Keighery was hit and soon died. A civilian was slightly hurt. Buried Aughrim, Galway. His widow Margaret secured an annual pension of £80.3s.4d. together with an allowance of £16.0s.8d. for her child until the age of sixteen.850

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W. Parsons (1Dec1920/4) Devonshire Regiment (5609973), 28, Engaged Clonmel, Tipperary Private Parsons, of Kingsbridge, Devon, fell into the River Suir, which was in flood. Sergeant Lyons dived in and rescued another soldier, but Parsons drowned, his body being recovered the following month. Buried St Patrick’s Cemetery, Waterford Road, Clonmel (8. N. 12).851

2 DECEMBER 1920 Mark Scally (2Dec1920/1) 3, Child, RC Collooney, Sligo Mark, son of Thomas Scally, was eating sweets between 17:30 and 18:00 near a table where his father’s lodger Constable Michael Finnan left his weapon as he hung his coat. Mark must somehow have discharged the gun. He died at 23:00 from a head wound.852 Joseph Begley (2Dec1920/2) IRA, 25, Plasterer, RC Bandon, Cork Begley, of Castle Street, was section commander Bandon Company, Cork No. 3 Brigade. At about 19:15, he and two comrades were challenged by an Essex Regiment patrol under Major R. Neave, as they went to meet a supposed military informer. There had reportedly been an unsuccessful ambush of police at Brinny. They ran, and one, Begley, fired at pursuing soldiers, who shot him in the head. Company Sergeant-Major H. Benton found a revolver and ammunition on him. James O’Donoghue and John Galvin also suffered fatal head wounds. IRA accounts agree that the Volunteers were lured into a trap. The net issues in dispute are: i) whether Tom Barry was foolish to sanction a meeting with a British soldier supposedly willing to give information; ii) whether the three Volunteers were impetuous in proceeding to the rendezvous after Barry had twice been unable to join them; and iii) whether they had gone unarmed. In Guerilla Days in Ireland, Barry wrote that he was to meet Galvin, who would accompany him to interview a Sergeant

Taylor. Taylor’s brother was in IRA hands, and had written to the sergeant urging him to sell information. Barry believed Taylor the deserter ‘was a spy’, but thought the IRA might still make use of him. Others believed that Taylor had written to his sergeant brother in good faith, but that his letter fell into the wrong hands in Bandon military barracks. A reply proposing a clandestine meeting at Laurel Walk on the outskirts of Bandon duly reached Barry via a cover address. But Barry suddenly fell ill before he could get to Bandon or send an order postponing the operation. He speculated that ‘in all probability Jim O’Donoghue and Joe Begley were about to turn back since John Galvin had specific instructions to come alone’ when attacked. Barry claimed they were unarmed, and were killed by Major A. E. Percival.853 Galvin’s brother Miah challenged this account, stating that John had been armed (as the military reported). Stephen Buckley also maintained that a rendezvous arranged for a fortnight earlier had fallen through due to Barry’s non-appearance: ‘We learned later that Tom had had a mild heart attack.’ But this earlier cancellation might also have been the occasion recalled by Patrick Holland, who ‘drove T[om] B[arry] . . . to Ahiohill on [the] way to Bandon’: ‘B got drunk at Slatterys. Sent word to postpone opp[eration] to some other night.’ When, on 2 December, Barry again failed to arrive, Galvin and two comrades went ahead. Miah Galvin’s ‘personal recollection’ was that, ‘I would have accompanied my brother . . . but a fourth gun was not available.’ Similarly, as Stephen Buckley’s revolver had been given to Joe Begley, Buckley decided he would eat before taking another route to Laurel Walk. En route, Buckley and a friend encountered ‘four or five men in civvies. We told them we had dates at the Lovers’ Walk which was a short distance. . . . At first I thought they were Barry’s men.’ Initially allowed to proceed, the two were then told to go back towards town. Shortly afterwards they heard shots. Their three comrades ‘didn’t have a chance to fight’. In 1948 Flor Begley, Joseph’s brother, wrote that Barry’s published account

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was self-serving and misleading. Begley also said the three Volunteers were armed. Barry subsequently had Taylor and the second deserter – Watling – shot at Kilbree, Clonakilty, although some of their captors believed that Taylor was not a spy and not responsible for the Bandon disaster. Corporal A. E. Cooper of the Essex Regiment arrived in Bandon military barracks from Kinsale the next day: ‘The barracks . . . were in a most dilapidated condition, and resembled one of those dirty old French farms. In the hospital were three civilians, who had been shot the night before.’ Buried St Patrick’s Cemetery, Bandon.854 RD: Galvin (2Dec1920/3), O’Donoghue (2Dec1920/4), Taylor (31Dec1920/5), Watling (31Dec1920/6)

challenged on the Shercock to Ballybay road at Corgreagh Crossroads by two men dressed in long coats with belts, who flashed a light on them and ordered them to go home. Shortly afterwards, a shot was fired, apparently by Thomas D’Arcy of Corhelshinagh, Castleblayney, wounding O’Brien. Despite two operations, he died of septicaemia. It was believed locally that O’Brien was shot because he recognised IRA men outside a safe house and called out their names. In June 1922, the AOH secretary claimed that O’Brien and Arthur Treanor were shot because they refused to join or support the IRA. O’Brien’s father secured £125 compensation. A cross was erected beside St Patrick’s Catholic Church, Bawn, Monaghan.855 SA: Treanor (25Jun1921/1)

John Galvin (2Dec1920/3) IRA, 19, Carpenter, RC Bandon, Cork See Begley (2Dec1920/2). Galvin, from South Main Street, was captain Bandon Company, Cork No. 3 Brigade. His relative Father (later Bishop) Edward Galvin, co-founder of the Missionary Society of St Colomban, left Ireland for China that autumn. Buried St Patrick’s Cemetery, Bandon.

William Bell (2Dec1920/6) 19, RC Belfast Bell, of 100 Broom Street, died of injuries received during earlier disturbances.856

James J. O’Donoghue (2Dec1920/4) IRA, 19, Clerk, RC Bandon, Cork See Begley (2Dec1920/2). O’Donoghue, of Shannon Street, was first lieutenant Bandon Company, Cork No. 3 Brigade. Buried St Patrick’s Cemetery, Bandon. Michael O’Brien (2Dec1920/5) 24, Sawmill worker, RC MMH O’Brien, one of nine children, of Drumod, Shantonagh, Castleblayney, Monaghan, and his father Patrick were AOH men. There had been bitter rows with local Sinn Féiners. Patrick O’Brien was elected councillor in the Clones No. 1 Rural District, ignoring IRA warnings not to stand. He received several warning notices. On 13 November, sometime after 21:00, Michael O’Brien and three others were

3 DECEMBER 1920 Maurice Prendiville (3Dec1920/1) RIC (57219), 46, Farmer, Married with six children, RC Main Street, Youghal, Cork From Listowel, Kerry, Prendiville joined the RIC on 8 October 1895 serving in Monaghan, Belfast and Limerick before transfer to Cork in 1906. Promoted to sergeant in 1918, he was reduced to constable on 25 April 1919. He had been stationed in Youghal for two years. Prendiville, two other constables and a sergeant left Youghal RIC Barracks on patrol at 10:15. They were also to deliver pension money to a retired RIC man in a nearby townland. While crossing the Youghal metal bridge, Prendiville was hit in the stomach by rifle fire from Volunteers of the 3rd Battalion, West Waterford Brigade. Removed by trap to Youghal – Captain Douglas Wimberley of the Cameron Highlanders later claimed that ‘the man was just left to die in the street. I and one or two others were left to carry him, a dying man, into a local chemist’s shop’ – Prendiville died in Torrens’ Chemist

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Shop at 18:30, despite the attentions of doctors Murphy and Orpin. Buried Kilsinon Cemetery, Listowel.857 William Mullan (3Dec1920/2) 50, Tailor, RC Belfast Mullan, of 99 Urney Street, died of injuries sustained during earlier disturbances.858

4 DECEMBER 1920 Michael Joseph Howley (4Dec1920/1) IRA, 25, Farmer, RC KGVH ‘Joe’ Howley, from Oranmore, Galway, was jailed in Dartmoor following the Rising. Released in 1917, he later became O/C Galway No. 1 Brigade (Mid-Galway). His mother Mary wrote that ‘he made a good lot’ from ‘trading with cattle & sheep’. Howley took the train to Dublin, probably to enquire about an expected consignment of arms. It was believed locally that a Sergeant Healy, stationed in Oranmore, subsequently promoted to DI and transferred, followed Howley and identified him. Two detectives challenged Howley as he left the 18:20 Galway train. They claimed they told him to put his hands up and only fired when they thought he was trying to draw a gun. P. J. Mullins, who accompanied Howley, gave a very different account in 1925: ‘As we were crossing the bridge outside the Broadstone [station]’, Mullins ‘saw the figures of four or five men behind us in a half circle, and saw one figure . . . jam a gun . . . into Howley’s head. Simultaneously I heard shots. “I ducked” . . . I ran towards Dominick Street’, and ‘looked back. I saw Howley lying on the ground, a girl or some woman kneeling beside him raising his head and putting a [rosary] beads in his hands.’ He died after an operation around midnight. Buried Oranmore. A monument was erected in 1947.859 Terence McNulty (4Dec1920/2) 62, Labourer, Married with children, RC Kings Bridge, Dublin McNulty, who lived in Mill Street, was run over by a military vehicle travelling towards Parkgate Street at Kings Bridge, when he

stepped out suddenly from behind a tram. Although the driver sounded his horn and braked immediately, the vehicle hit McNulty. One passenger ‘felt . . . a distinct bump of the hind wheels as if we had gone over the body’. Buried GC.860

5 DECEMBER 1920 Hedley A. Balls (5Dec1920/1) ADRIC (72875), 29, Army officer Sallymount Avenue, Leeson Park, Dublin Balls, from Suffolk, joined the Auxiliary Division on 20 August 1920 (auxiliary number 281) after demobilisation as a lieutenant in the MGC. He was shot in an exchange of fire on Sallymount Avenue at about 02:30 when James Byrne escaped from a house that was being searched. Buried Lowestoft, Suffolk. His representatives secured £5,000 compensation.861 Thomas Rooney (5Dec1920/2) 26, Ex-serviceman, compositor, RC East Port, Ballyshannon, Donegal Rooney, once of the RIR, worked for the Donegal Democrat. Lieutenant G. A. Austee, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, led a four-man patrol which challenged two men around 00:10. One halted, but Rooney did not, and was shot. A Mrs Keane was about to bolt her door when Rooney pushed it open, crying, ‘Oh Mrs Keane I am shot’, dying in the hall. Buried Ballyshannon.862 Thomas Hand (5Dec1920/3) IRA, 44, Quarry labourer, Married with four children, RC Baltrasna, Balbriggan, Dublin Hand, from Skerries, Dublin, served in the Fingal Brigade. Secretary of his local ITGWU branch, he had been interned following the Rising. At about 01:30 several men in police uniforms forced the door of his mother’s house. They initially seized Hand’s disabled brother before returning and seizing Hand, shooting him in the head and neck as his family watched. Buried Baldungan Graveyard, Skerries, Dublin. A monument was erected near where he died; a street in Skerries was named after him. He is also commemorated on a memorial in Holmpatrick Cemetery, Skerries.863

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6 DECEMBER 1920 Thomas Curtin (6Dec1920/1) 46, Farmer, Married, RC Craggaknock, Doonbeg, Clare Lieutenant A. W. Tuffield, Royal Scots, led a mixed patrol to raid a Sinn Féin court at Craggaknock. About a dozen people fled from the building, and after a warning volley were fired on. Hit, Curtin died from head wounds at about 19:00. Buried Kilrush, Clare.864

7 DECEMBER 1920 John Fleming (7Dec1920/1) 36, Ex-serviceman, Married, RC North Infirmary, Cork Fleming, of 17 Cattle Market Avenue, and his brother Patrick were walking along the Lower Glanmire Road at about 16:15 when three lorries, containing about twelve RIC, sped past them. Shots were fired. John, wounded in the abdomen, died at about 20:00 on the operating table. From the position of the entrance and exit wounds, it appeared likely that the shots came from some high point near the road. There was apparently no ‘trustworthy evidence to show who fired the shots’. His widow secured £900 compensation and a brother £400.865 Denis Regan (7Dec1920/2) 21, Agricultural labourer, RC Timoleague Road, Clonakilty, Cork Regan, from Castlefreke, Clonakilty, worked for Denis Flynn of Gaggin, Bandon, Cork, where both were arrested by the military. Flynn was taken to Bandon and subsequently released. Regan was found dead on the Clonakilty to Timoleague road with a bullet wound to the head. Buried St Patrick’s Cemetery, Bandon. His father acknowledged that he had been ‘kindly and sympathetically treated’ by the Clonakilty RIC.866

8 DECEMBER 1920 Bernard Reilly (8Dec1920/1) IRA, 18, General servant, RC Dunboyne, Meath Reilly, a blacksmith’s son, was a captain in the 1st (Dunboyne) Battalion, Meath Brigade. He

was shot at around 00:10 by a Volunteer from another section who did not recognise his accent, as an IRA party lay in ambush in a cemetery for a Crown forces raiding party. Father Patrick Kelly, curate in Dunboyne, ministered to Reilly. Father Kelly subsequently refused to identify anyone involved. This led to an exchange of correspondence between the GOC in Ireland, Sir Nevil Macready, the Catholic primate Cardinal Logue, and the Bishop of Meath, Lawrence Gaughran. The latter argued that if a priest were compelled to name people who sought help in such circumstances, ‘the attendance for the dying would be seriously imperilled’. Buried Dunboyne.867 Michael J. Murphy (8Dec1920/2) 22, Post office employee, RC Paul Street, Cork Murphy, of 18 Tower Street, who worked in the South Mall telephone exchange, was shot once in the chest as he left St Peter’s and St Paul’s Church at about 21:00. Auxiliaries had opened fire nearby shortly beforehand, allegedly in response to a gun attack: it is possible that Murphy was hit by a stray bullet. His stepfather said that he ‘had no troubles of any sort and was quite cheerful when I last saw him’.868 Michael John McLean (8Dec1920/3) IRA, 18, Farmer’s son, RC Gaggin, Bandon, Cork McLean, from Lowertown, Schull, Cork, was a lieutenant in Leamcon Company, Cork No. 3 Brigade, and served in the brigade ASU. A Volunteer fired prematurely as an IRA party lay in ambush for a police lorry at Gaggin, enabling the vehicle to speed through unscathed. The police dismounted and exchanged fire with the IRA before driving on to Bandon. The IRA withdrew, but McLean, who had injured his foot, remained in a local house. Frank Neville said that a military party returned, captured McLean and killed him. The military maintained that McLean was found dead near the original ambush site. Buried St Patrick’s Cemetery, Bandon. His sister Mary Ellen was

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unsuccessful in a pension application in 1924.869 Harriet K. Meara (8Dec1920/4) 75, CoI Grand Parade, Cork Harriet Meara, of 1 Wellington Avenue, College Road, was crossing Grand Parade in Cork city when hit by a lorry carrying Auxiliaries. She received only a superficial scalp wound as she fell, but died within minutes, possibly from shock. She was slightly deaf.870

9 DECEMBER 1920 Hugh Ferguson Montgomery (9Dec1920/1) RMLI, 40, Army officer, Married KGVH Colonel Montgomery entered the Royal Marines in 1896, rising through the ranks. He served in the Admiralty from 1914 to 1915, and in France from 1915 to 1919, where he won the DSO, was mentioned in dispatches six times and secured the CMG. He was a close relative of the future Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, also serving in Ireland in 1920. He had been a patient since Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920, when shot in 28 Upper Pembroke Street. Buried Brompton Cemetery, London. His widow Ethel secured £8,000 compensation.871 Arthur Michael Atkins (9Dec1920/2) 17th (Duke of Cambridge’s Own) Lancers (312581), Ex-serviceman, Married, RC Galway A Boer War veteran and former prisoner of war in Germany, Sergeant-Major Atkins was stationed in Earls Island, Galway, as squadron quartermaster of B Squadron, after transfer from the 12th Lancers (Canterbury). He may have slipped while crossing a pontoon bridge spanning the River Corrib. On 29 January 1921, children playing at the rear of Campbells Mills discovered his badly decomposed body floating in the mill race. Buried Bohermore Cemetery, Galway (R.C. B. 2. 26).872

10 DECEMBER 1920 Robert Charles Cambridge (10Dec1920/1) RFA (1032133) (previously 292095), 19, Carman Deerpark, Castlelyons, Cork Gunner Cambridge attested in Surrey on 6 May 1919. The ASU 1st (Fermoy) Battalion ambushed a military lorry near Leary’s Cross. After a prolonged exchange of fire, Cambridge was killed and eight soldiers were captured, disarmed and released. Buried Kingston-upon-Thames Cemetery, Surrey (C ‘C’ 3972).873 William Owens (10Dec1920/2) IRA, 24, Shop assistant, RC Shankill, Dublin ‘Willie’ Owens, from Shanganagh, worked in the hardware department of Messrs Griffin and Sons, Bray. His headstone terms him section commander A Company, 1st Battalion, South Wexford Brigade. He was hit in the head during a Cheshire Regiment raid on Shankhill Sinn Féin Club at 22:00, after a soldier inadvertently fired a shot when, hearing a scuffle, he turned quickly. Buried St Peter’s Cemetery, Little Bray, Wicklow. His mother secured a £75 gratuity.874 William John Hayes (10Dec1920/3) West Riding Regiment, 21 Collinstown Camp, Dublin Bandsman Hayes, from London, died of wounds sustained when a lorry which failed to halt when challenged was fired on by a sentry at Collinstown Camp on 8 December.875 Sarah Medalie (10Dec1920/4) Housewife, 53, Jewish 23 Tuckey Street, Cork The CFR records how, when a military search party unexpectedly appeared in her bedroom, Mrs Medalie exclaimed, ‘We are Jews . . . and have nothing to do with the political movement.’ Then she cried out, ‘Oh my heart.’ The military drove her son to fetch a doctor, but she soon died. Her husband described how ‘they came up the stairs in the dark and gave us all a fright’.876

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11 DECEMBER 1920 Spencer R. Chapman (11Dec1920/1) ADRIC (77834), 27, Stock jobber, exserviceman CMHC After demobilisation from the London Regiment, Surrey-born Cadet Chapman joined the Auxiliary Division RIC on 12 September 1920 (auxiliary number 495). Seán Healy described how the IRA ambushed two lorries of Auxiliaries which left Victoria Barracks at 20:00. Six Volunteers armed with revolvers and Mills bombs attacked at Dillons Cross. A bomb exploded in one of the lorries, killing Chapman and wounding several others. This attack provoked widespread reprisals which left most of Cork city centre in flames. Between 21:30 and 04:00, the City Hall, the Carnegie Library and eighteen business premises on Patrick Street were set on fire. Damage was estimated at £3,000,000. Crown forces sped around in lorries, discharging their weapons at random. At Dublin Hill on the north side, Cornelius and Jeremiah Delaney were shot in their beds by unknown men. Jeremiah was killed outright; Cornelius died around midday on 18 December in the Mercy Hospital. On 20 December, Head Constable James Dunne told an inquiry at Victoria Barracks that Jeremiah Delaney was a Volunteer. A separate inquiry into the death of Cornelius was held on 29 December. The dead men’s father Daniel Delaney refused to give evidence in either case. The court found that it had no evidence as to the time and circumstances of Jeremiah’s death, while Cornelius Delaney was killed by some person or persons unknown.877 RD: Delaney (12Dec1920/1), Delaney (18Dec 1920/1) James Lawlor878 (11Dec1920/2) 35, Engine driver, RC Main Street, Lismore, Waterford Lawlor, from Inchicore, Dublin, worked for the GS&WR, and had been based in Lismore for about a year. He was shot at 21:10 after failing to halt when challenged three

times by Private C. Redman on Main Street, Lismore. Buried New Cemetery, Lismore.879

12 DECEMBER 1920 Jeremiah Delaney (12Dec1920/1) IRA, 26, Farmer’s son, RC Dublin Hill, Kilbarry, Cork See Chapman (11Dec1920/1). Delaney, from Dublin Hill, Kilbarry, Cork, was second lieutenant F Company, 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. Buried SFC. Mary Jane O’Callaghan, sister of the Delaney brothers, made an application under the Army Pensions Act but it is unclear if an award was made.880 John O’Brien (12Dec1920/2) IRA, 15, RC Cloyne, Cork O’Brien, of Spittal Street, Cloyne, was in an IRA party engaged by soldiers of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders travelling from Cloyne to Midleton in three lorries. One soldier was severely wounded; O’Brien was shot in the lungs, and two other Volunteers captured.881 George Horgan (12Dec1920/3) 22, Ex-serviceman, RC Blackpool, Cork Horgan, reportedly on ‘friendly terms with the military and police . . . used frequently to speak with them’, was kidnapped by an IRA group from his home on 9 December. A notice appeared in the press next day stating, ‘If G. Horgan is not returned by 4 o’clock today (Friday) 10th December, rebels of Cork beware as one man and one shop shall disappear for each hour after the given time.’ He was killed and buried at Lakelands, Blackrock. It is said his remains were returned to his family after the Civil War. In January 1922 his mother secured £900 compensation. This may be the Horgan whose death was described by IRA officer Stan Barry: ‘He was between tears and acts of contrition before we shot him, and we buried him then and there. Nobody knew where he was buried and nobody but ourselves knew that he had been shot.’882

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Vivian Reddecliffe (12Dec1920/4) 22, Naval rating Castletownbere, Cork The CFR records the accidental death through drowning of Ordinary Seaman Vivian Reddecliffe.883

13 DECEMBER 1920 Frederick Taylor (13Dec1920/1) RIC (74612), 18, Ex-serviceman, handyman, RC Ballinalee, Longford From Newcastle upon Tyne, Taylor joined the RIC on 19 October 1920, stationed in Ballinalee. The garrison consisted of twentyseven constables and four sergeants. The ASU North Longford Brigade attacked Ballinalee RIC Barracks at 02:00, blowing up the gable wall. Next day Constable Walker described to an inquiry in Longford how an explosion blew in part of one wall outside the room he shared with Constable Taylor. A second explosion blew Taylor out of his bed, killing him almost immediately. The IRA withdrew around 07:00. At 10:00, a relief party arrived in Ballinalee. Half the village was set on fire in reprisal. Buried Newcastle upon Tyne. His father secured £1,200 compensation.884 William Canning (13Dec1920/2) IRA, 19, Draper’s assistant, RC Egyptian Arch, Newry, Down ‘Bill’ Canning, from Ballymaclare, Magilligan Point, Londonderry, lived at 64 Hill Street, Newry, and worked for Cahill Brothers. He served in the 1st Battalion, 2nd (Newry) Brigade. An ambush at the Egyptian Arch outside Newry went badly wrong: when the IRA opened fire from the bridge parapet on a party of the Kings Royal Rifle Corps obstructed by a barricade, the military responded with ferocious rifle and machine-gun fire, killing Canning and wounding three others. The military later found a corpse, described as ‘clean shaven’ with ‘dark curly hair’, still holding a revolver: he had been ‘shot through the neck and forehead’. They also captured the badly wounded John O’Hare, who died on 5 October 1921. Lieutenant Butler, in charge of the military party, was awarded an MBE.

The IRA carried the severely wounded Peter Shields seven or eight miles crosscountry to the Charity Fathers’ Monastery in Omeath, Louth, where he later died. Buried St Aidan’s Cemetery, Magilligan Point.885 RD: O’Hare (5Oct1921/1), Shields (25Dec 1920/1) John Joseph Hickey (13Dec1920/3) 26, RC RCDH Hickey, of 112 Cross Avenue, Dún Laoghaire, listed in some accounts as a Volunteer, was walking towards the city when accosted by two strangers at Elm Park. One asked Hickey why he had his hands in his pockets: ‘Before a reply could be offered, a shot was fired.’ He died after an operation. Buried DGC.886

14 DECEMBER 1920 John O’Connor (14Dec1920/1) 45, Farmer, Married with seven children, RC Three Gneeves, Currow, Kerry O’Connor, of Glandaeagh, Currow, was among a number of men taken into custody by a mixed patrol of police and military as he left Killeentierna Presbytery. The Cork Examiner reported that a summons to a Sinn Féin court was found on him. Others similarly arrested were taken to Currow. At about 13:00, all except O’Connor were released. The patrol fired shots at random and set fire to a hay shed. At around 15:00 O’Connor was found lying on the road with a severely broken leg – the thigh bone was protruding through his trousers. He had been thrown from a lorry and shot. Taken by donkey cart to a house for help, O’Connor was then shot dead in the kitchen by a policeman and a man in civilian clothes.887 His killing caused outrage in the parish and led many young men to join the IRA. Buried Kilsarcon Cemetery, Currow. His wife secured £4,000 compensation.888 Thomas O’Loughlin (14Dec1920/2) IRA, 27, Farmer, RC Union Infirmary, Thurles, Tipperary ‘Tom’ O’Loughlin from Killinan, Thurles, was playing cards at Michael Leahy’s home

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at Mullaunbrack. At about 20:00, Leahy answered the door to a man dressed in a grey suit and hat who entered and opened fire. O’Loughlin was hit as he tried to climb over a gate in the back yard. James Leahy, O/C Tipperary No. 2 Brigade, said that this was the work of a police murder gang led by Sergeant Eugene Igoe. Buried Killinan.889 John (Seán) Riordan (14Dec1920/3) IRA, 24, Commerical traveller, Ex-serviceman, RC Union Hospital, Kilmallock, Limerick Riordan, from Ballintober, Kilfinane, Limerick, of ASU East Limerick Brigade, ‘not long out of the British Army’, had been a sergeant major. The ASU East Limerick Brigade under Donnchadh O’Hanningan prepared an ambush at the Cross of the Tree on the Garryspillane to Knocklong road on 10 December, hoping to kill Lieutenant Browne, an intelligence officer, who had evaded several assassination attempts. Alerted by an accidental shot, Crown forces took cover and fought O’Hannigan’s men for about fifteen minutes. Browne received an MBE for his part in the fight. Despite being outnumbered, Riordan covered the ASU’s retreat. Wounded in the abdomen, possibly by grenade fragments, he was the only IRA casualty. He died after an operation. Buried Kilfinane, and commemorated on a monument at Murroe.890

15 DECEMBER 1920 John J. McGowan (15Dec1920/1) IRA, 26, Labourer, RC Rathkeery, Frenchpark, Roscommon ‘Johnnie’ McGowan from Portaghard, Frenchpark, Roscommon, was captain Tibohine Company, East Mayo Brigade. He was staying at Patrick Dwyer’s house at Rathkeery. At 04:00, there was knocking on the door. Three masked men entered and shot McGowan in the kitchen. He ‘struggled to his feet, called for a priest’, and died soon afterwards. IRA sources said the killers were Auxiliaries from Boyle. Buried Tibohine. A Celtic cross was erected near where he died.

He is also commemorated on a monument at Shankill.891 Timothy (Tadhg) Crowley (15Dec1920/2) 24, Farmer’s son,892 RC Ballyhalwick, Dunmanway, Cork Crowley, of Behagullane, Dunmanway, was stopped outside Dunmanway at around 13:30 by two lorries of Auxiliaries en route to Cork for the funeral of their comrade Spencer Chapman. Cadet Sergeant Vernon Harte, in command, beat Crowley up and then shot him. When Canon Thomas Magner, parish priest of Dunmanway, happened on the scene, Harte ordered him to kneel on the road and killed him. Harte was arrested, and was later found guilty of homicide but insane. Buried Dunmanway.893 RD: Magner (15Dec1920/3). SA: Chapman (11Dec1920/1) Thomas J. Magner (15Dec1920/3) 73, Clergyman, RC Ballyhalwick, Dunmanway, Cork See Crowley (15Dec1920/2). Magner, from Ovens, Cork, was educated at the diocesan seminary and at the Irish College in Paris, where he was ordained in 1876. On 21 April 1907 he was appointed parish priest of Dunmanway. Buried St Patrick’s Church, Dunmanway.894 J. J. Collopy (15Dec1920/4) IRA Limerick Collopy, severely injured at an abandoned RIC barracks on 3 April during the IRA’s concerted arson attacks on abandoned police premises, eventually died in Limerick. He is commemorated by a small roadside cross at Castletroy, just north of Limerick city.895 James Kennedy (15 Dec1920/5) 53, RC Rathkeale, Limerick Kennedy was killed when a car carrying Captain John Mackintosh, B Company, Auxiliary Division RIC, swerved to avoid some dogs and mounted the footpath in Rathkeale.896

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16 DECEMBER 1920 Patrick J. Halford (16Dec1920/1) RIC (70628), 28, Clerk, ex-serviceman, RC Kilcommon, Tipperary From Meath, Halford joined the RIC on 8 March 1920, stationed in Kilcommon. The ASU Tipperary No. 1 Brigade ambushed an eight-man patrol en route to collect mail. Four constables were killed in the encounter and three wounded. Halford’s father secured £250 compensation.897 RD: Harden (16Dec1920/2), Palmer (16Dec 1920/3), Smith (16Dec1920/4) Ernest F. Harden (16Dec1920/2) RIC (73877), 21, Labourer, Protestant Kilcommon, Tipperary See Halford (16Dec1920/1). Constable Harden, from Essex, joined the RIC on 5 October 1920, stationed in Kilcommon.898 Albert H. Palmer (16Dec1920/3) RIC (72263), 24, Labourer, ex-serviceman, Married with children Kilcommon, Tipperary See Halford (16Dec1920/1). From Farnham, Surrey, Constable Palmer joined the RIC on 4 August 1920, stationed in Kilcommon. Palmer’s widow secured £2,400 compensation and his children £3,000.899 Arthur Smith (16Dec1920/4) RIC (73844), 22, Carman, ex-serviceman, Married with children Kilcommon, Tipperary See Halford (16Dec1920/1). Constable Smith, from London, joined the RIC on 5 October 1920, stationed in Kilcommon. His widow secured £2,700 compensation and his children £3,000.900 Mary Maher (16Dec1920/5) 60, Shopkeeper, Widowed with children, RC Main Street, Templemore, Tipperary Mary Maher, of Main Street, Templemore, was found by police on 13 December lying semi-conscious on her kitchen floor with a fractured skull. She died three days later. Her injuries were caused by a blunt instrument, probably a government hammer

found in the kitchen. Private A. O’Brien, Northamptonshire Regiment, who reportedly told a lance-corporal that ‘it was he and his missus’ who ‘done the old girl in down town’, was arrested and returned for trial on a charge of murder the following month.901 Robert Keeley902 (16Dec1920/6) RASC (T/32565), 26, Horse driver, Married with two children KGVH Keeley, from Summerhill, Dublin, served with the RASC (T/32565) in France from 1914 to 1915 and then with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. He reenlisted in Dublin on 26 July 1919 in the Horse Transport Company. On the night of 15 December, civilians attacked Keeley and two companions on Corporation Street. Struck on the head by a bottle, he died next day. Buried GC (Garden Section. I. a. 113).903

17 DECEMBER 1920 Michael Edmonds (17Dec1920/1) 32, Fitter, Married with two children, RC Tipperary, Tipperary Edmonds, of 30 O’Connell Road, Tipperary, worked in the local casein factory. Taken from his home by armed and masked men at 01:00, his body was subsequently found, shot in the head, at a place known locally as Cup and Saucer Hill. He was most likely killed by Auxiliaries. Buried St Michael’s Cemetery, Tipperary.904 Leonard Ellis (17Dec1920/2) Lincolnshire Regiment (4793006), 27, CoE Glenacurrane, Limerick905 Ellis, from Monks Road, Lincoln, was stationed in Tipperary. About forty Volunteers under Donnchadh O’Hannigan, O/C ASU East Limerick Brigade, set an ambush in the Glenacurrane Valley on the Mitchelstown to Tipperary road. Spread out on high ground over a distance of about 200 yards, the IRA detained several civilians en route to a party being held nearby by the retired General Franks. The IRA deployed a captured Hotchkiss gun.

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A military party in a Crossley tender and a touring car were halted by an obstruction, and a tree was then felled to prevent them reversing. As the touring car approached the bend, Dick Willis and Leo O’Callaghan opened fire with the Hotchkiss gun. Troops in the lorry took cover and returned fire. Sergeant Ellis, who was in command, and Private Minchin were killed. Buried St Swithin’s Cemetery, Lincoln, Lincolnshire.906 RD: Minchin (17Dec1920/3) Joseph Minchin (17Dec1920/3) Lincolnshire Regiment (4794312), 17 Glenacurrane, Limerick See Ellis (17Dec1920/2). Private Minchin was stationed in Tipperary. His father was killed in France in 1917.907 Philip John O’Sullivan (17Dec1920/4) RIC (72019), 23, Solicitor, Engaged, RC JSH O’Sullivan, from Skibbereen, was son of Florence O’Sullivan, a journalist and the founder of the Southern Star, and Margaret Barry. He won an MC while a lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve, later qualifying as a solicitor. He joined the RIC on 21 July 1920, becoming a DI on 1 October, attached to the assistant inspector general’s office at Dublin Castle. According to Joe Leonard of the Squad, O’Sullivan ‘was too good at decoding’, so it was decided to kill him. O’Sullivan had just met his fiancée Alice Moore at 18:10 when he fell wounded outside 29 Henry Street. She thought that a shot had come from two men whom she had seen staring at them from the doorway of McDowell’s Jewellers. She was tending to her fiancé and had just turned him around when a man ran up and, after struggling with her, shot O’Sullivan again. He died shortly afterwards. Buried GC (South Section: S. a. 27.5). His father secured £1,500 compensation, his mother £500 and Alice Moore £1,500.908 Peter Shannon (17Dec1920/5) RIC (62069), 36, Farmer, Widowed with two children, RC Swanlinbar, Cavan From Mantua, Roscommon, Constable Shannon joined the RIC on 3 September

1906, stationed in Swanlinbar. His brother was also a policeman. A patrol under Sergeant Morahan came under fire at the north end of Swanlinbar village. Shannon jumped over a wall but was severely wounded in the head, dying in Agnes Fee’s cottage at about 22:00. He was posthumously awarded the constabulary medal. The RIC inspector general reported with some satisfaction that the family of the Leonard brothers, believed to have taken part in Shannon’s killing, had since encountered misfortune of almost biblical proportions: two sisters ‘who up to the time of the ambush had been perfectly healthy pined away and died. The father and mother were also stricken and are not expected to recover.’ Locals ‘believe that this is a result of the Priest’s warning that neither the murderers nor their relatives could expect any luck either in this world or in the next’. As guardian of Shannon’s young children, his sister Ellen Flynn secured £2,000 compensation.909

18 DECEMBER 1920 Cornelius Delaney (18Dec1920/1) IRA, 28, Farmer’s son, RC Mercy Hospital, Cork See Chapman (11Dec1920/1). ‘Con’ Delaney of Dublin Hill, Kilbarry, was lieutenant F Company, 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. Buried SFC.910 William Delaney (18Dec1920/2) IRA, 28, Blacksmith, RC Kilfeacle, Tipperary ‘Bill’ Delaney from Dulla and James Looby of Dualla Company, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, were arrested by a military party who took them in a Crossley tender from Tipperary towards Cashel. On reaching Kilfeacle at about 18:00, a Ford motor car accompanying the tender broke down. While it was being pushed up the hill, Delaney and Looby allegedly attempted to escape. The escort opened fire, killing both men. The following night, Crown forces raided a house where James’s brother Laurence happened to be visiting. On hearing his name, they took him outside and shot him

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dead. Buried Dualla. In 1958 his sister Bridget secured a dependent’s allowance of £125: ‘I was only a girl when I had to face the Tans in Tipperary barricks [sic] to pick out my brother’s body.’911 RD: Looby (18Dec1920/3), Looby (19Dec 1920/3) James Looby (18Dec1920/3) IRA, 24, Labourer, RC Kilfeacle, Tipperary See Delaney (18Dec1920/2). Looby, from Ballyowen, Cashel, Tipperary, served in Dualla Company, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade. Buried Dualla. As his father Laurence secured £325 compensation, he was deemed ineligible for a dependent’s award.912

19 DECEMBER 1920 Michael Walton (19Dec1920/1) 19, Farmer, RC Clonbealy, Newport, Tipperary After a party of about twenty Auxiliaries were attacked near Walton’s home in Rossaguile, Newport, two men were seen jumping into a cart and driving off at about 13:15. When they ignored an order to halt, fire was opened. Walton was killed outright, and Patrick O’Connor died shortly afterwards. It is unclear whether they had been involved in the attack. Private J. O’Connor of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, through his commanding officer in Cairo, wrote to the War Office, pointing out that his brother Patrick worked on the family farm to support his aged parents, and that neither of those killed were Sinn Féiners. Buried Killoscully Graveyard, Newport.913 RD: O’Connor (19Dec1920/2) Patrick O’Connor (19Dec1920/2) 17,914 Agricultural labourer, RC Clonbealy, Newport, Tipperary See Walton (19Dec1920/1). O’Connor lived in Fiddane, Newport.915 Laurence Looby (19Dec1920/3) IRA, 19, Agricultural labourer, RC Ballysheehan, Cahir, Tipperary See Delaney (18Dec1920/2). Looby, from Dualla, Tipperary, was reportedly adjutant

of D (Dualla) Company, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade. Buried Dualla. As his father secured £325 compensation, he was deemed ineligible for a dependent’s award.916

20 DECEMBER 1920 James Whelan (20Dec1920/1) 27, Vintner, Married, RC Ballyroan, Laois At around 03:00 Rita McDonnell was woken by a knock on the front door, answered by her son-in-law James Whelan. Two armed masked men, dressed in dark coats and grey caps, entered, shouting, ‘Your money or your life.’ Rita McDonnell heard five revolver shots on the landing, after which she saw the men cycle away. Whelan had grabbed one raider’s police revolver, later produced in evidence, and was shot by the second intruder. Patrick McDonnell was shot in the lung when he went to Whelan’s aid. The two gunmen were quickly identified as constables J. H. Coburn and John Reeves. Sentenced to death by a court martial on 18 June 1921, their sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment. Incarcerated in Dartmoor, they were released on 8 May 1922 under the terms of the Treaty, being warned that ‘it would be unsafe for them to return to Ireland’.917 Buried Ballyouskill Graveyard, Ballyragget, Kilkenny. Thomas Walsh (20Dec1920/2) RIC (58465), 40, RC Ahanure, Callan, Kilkenny From Cork, Walsh joined the RIC on 1 October 1898, serving in Roscommon and Westmeath before transfer to Kilkenny in September 1900, stationed in John Street, Kilkenny. He was promoted to sergeant on 1 August 1920. Following an inconclusive engagement with a mixed cycle patrol, Volunteers from the 7th and 8th Battalions, Kilkenny Brigade, captured some bicycles. Paddy Ryan and Tom Maher, on two of the captured machines, ran into another mixed cycle patrol about two miles from Callan. They escaped into an adjoining field. Private Squibb cycled ahead

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to cut them off. Coming abreast of them, he opened fire. Ryan replied, hitting Squibb in the right eye. Ryan and Maher escaped through a wood at Trenchmore. Police reinforcements from Kilkenny in a Crossley tender passed soldiers of the Devonshire Regiment. A few minutes afterwards, there was an exchange of fire between the two groups. Sergeant Walsh was killed in the lorry. Buried Ballyragget, Kilkenny. During the funeral a civilian named Margaret Ryan was mortally wounded.918 SA: Ryan (23Dec1920/1) John Hynan (20Dec1920/3) 56, Ex-serviceman, RC Emly, Tipperary Hynan was from Emly. Constable Andrew McKinlay was walking towards Father John Connery’s house at about 17:30 when Hynan attacked him, striking him repeatedly with a stick. McKinlay fired several warning shots and Hynan appears to have been killed by a ricochet. The circumstances suggest that Hynan’s assault was attributable to drunkenness or mental instability, not politics.919 James Walsh (20Dec1920/4) 53, Shopkeeper, farmer, RC Danescastle, Carrig-on-Bannow, Wexford Walsh rented rooms above his shop as accommodation for RIC men stationed in Carrigon-Bannow Barracks. The IRA brought gelignite on a pony and trap to destroy it. Davy Sears, in command, entered Walsh’s shop at around 19:00, pretending that he wanted to buy cigarettes: I was attacked by this man at once. He jumped on me . . . a big strong man. We fell back out through the door. My men scattered and I suppose if I had kept my head . . . I would have knocked him out by hitting him on the head . . . I thought the police were coming out, so I shot him.

The IRA abandoned the operation, leaving a donkey nearby carrying 100 pounds of gelignite. Buried Ambrosetown, 23 December. His brother Richard secured £5 compensation with £400 for his nephew John.920

21 DECEMBER 1920 Patrick Tarrant (21Dec1920/1) 19, Trainee creamery manager, RC GPO, Oliver Plunkett Street, Cork Tarrant was from Ballintemple, Cork. Constables Edward Taylor DCM and J. H. Every were in the GPO at around 19:00, on private business, in civilian clothes, when Tarrant appeared from inside the office carrying a revolver, sprang onto the counter and jumped down among the public. He shouted, ‘Hands up or I’ll shoot.’ Every rushed at Tarrant, shouting, ‘Put that bloody thing down.’ Tarrant fired three shots. Despite being hit in the hip, Every fired twice, hitting Tarrant in the chest and leg. Taylor told an inquiry at Victoria Barracks on 24 December that Tarrant ‘had a moustache which . . . I found to be false’. Three other masked men carrying a canvas bag fired shots before running out through the back of the building. Tarrant’s father explained that ‘I am a commercial traveller and my business takes me from home a good deal. I heard my son was connected with the Volunteer movement.’ Buried SFC, Cork.921 Kate Maher (21Dec1920/2) 45, Servant, One child, RC Dundrum, Tipperary Kate Maher, an unmarried farm servant with one daughter, had been drinking with soldiers of the Lincolnshire Regiment in Norah Hennessey’s pub in Dundrum. Acting on a complaint, an RIC patrol found her and seven drunken soldiers behind the premises. They attempted to herd the soldiers back to their barracks. There they realised that some were missing. They later found Kate Maher, ‘her clothes . . . much disturbed’, lying barely alive behind a building. Her body bore marks ‘of considerable violence’: the back of her skull had been smashed by ‘some blunt instrument’, and she had ‘a lacerated wound in the vagina from which she was bleeding profusely’. A few feet away lay Private Thomas Bennett, ‘drunk and insensible’. She died some hours later. Under questioning from Bennett at a military court of inquiry in Dundrum on

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23 December, an RIC constable agreed that Kate Maher was ‘known locally as a woman of dissolute habits’. The court returned an open verdict. On 5 January 1921 the GOC in C General Macready wrote that ‘there is little doubt that the death of this woman was caused through ill-treatment at the hands of soldiers . . . the affair is most discreditable to the Military and to the . . . Lincolnshire Regiment’. At his court martial for murder in Cork on 16 July 1921, Bennett claimed he had seen Kate Maher go off with other soldiers. His counsel asked why another suspected soldier had been suddenly drafted out to serve in Russia. Bennett was acquitted.922

22 DECEMBER 1920 Timothy O’Donovan (22Dec1920/1) 31, Ex-serviceman, labourer, Married, RC Mercy Hospital, Cork O’Donovan, of No. 1 St Paul’s Avenue, was employed by Daniel Neal, fowl dealer. He was found lying wounded in a tobacconist shop at about 19:15 on 21 December, just after an attempted robbery at the nearby GPO during which Patrick Tarrant was shot dead by police. It is unclear whether Donovan was a bystander or had been involved in the crime. He died from abdominal wounds at about 03:00.923 SA: Tarrant (21Dec1920/1) Michael McNamara (22Dec1920/2) IRA, 28, Farmer, RC Darragh, Ennis, Clare McNamara was captain Doonbeg Company, West Clare Brigade. Michael Russell recalled how between 01:00 and 02:00 on 20 or 21 December 1920, Crown forces from Kilrush captured McNamara and William Shanahan in Doonbeg. They were taken to Kilrush RIC Barracks. A day or so after arrest, they were removed to Ennis by an escort of Royal Scots. McNamara, whom IRA sources said had been badly mistreated, was shot dead in disputed circumstances: the military said that he died when one of his escort accidentally discharged his rifle when their vehicle went over a bump.

BMH statements by Chambers and Russell described how William Shanahan suffered ‘most inhuman treatment. The unfortunate man, bereft of several of his finger and toe nails and with nearly every bone in his body broken, was left lying in a prison cell in Ennis Gaol for the most part of a week before death came to his relief.’ An entirely different version was offered by the military: Company Sergeant-Major W. Strath stated that Shanahan was handed over to him in good health at Ennis Gaol by an escort at 12:00 on 22 December. At 19:45 Strath, who was alone on duty, escorted Shanahan to the latrine. At some point Shanahan struck him in the right eye and tried to escape down the stairs. Strath caught him and, as they struggled, shot him in the head. Patrick Darcy, alleged to have informed on McNamara and Shanahan, was killed in Doonbeg in June 1921. Buried Doonbeg, Clare.924 RD: Shanahan (22Dec1920/3). SA: Darcy (17Jun1921/3) William Shanahan (22Dec1920/3) IRA, 26, Farmer’s son, RC Ennis Gaol, Clare See McNamara (22Dec1920/2). ‘Willie’ Shanahan, of the 3rd Battalion, West Clare Brigade, was chief of the Republican police. His father Patrick made an unsuccessful application under the Military Pension Acts.925 William Jones (22Dec1920/4) RIC (62330), 37, Miller, Married with three children, RC Newtownbarry, Wexford From Castleconnell, Limerick, Jones joined the RIC on 1 May 1907. Stationed in Newtownbarry since June 1918, he had previously served in Enniscorthy. At about 20:15, constables Jones and Martin Daly were in a private room of a pub drinking port. When Jones went to question three suspiciouslooking men outside, Ned Murphy of the ASU North Wexford Brigade shot him in the chest at point-blank range. Buried Castleconnell, Limerick.926

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Laurence McDonagh (22Dec1920/5) 36, Farmer, fisherman, RC Inishmore, Galway McDonagh lived in Mainistir, Inishmore. On the night of 18 December, a mixed party of military and police dropped men off at Kilmurvy, on the Connemara side of the island at about 02:00, before coming in to land at Kilronan. Almost every house from Kilmurvy to Kilronan was searched. Thirteen islanders were arrested and detained until the end of February 1921. McDonagh was the only fatality. Lieutenant W. W. Honeywood, 17th Lancers, said McDonagh, who was found shot in the right lung and paralysed in the lower body, was one of a number fired on for failing to halt when challenged during a military sweep. The Connacht Tribune reported that McDonagh had simply failed to understand the military’s orders. Father S. J. Walsh, parish priest of Kilronan, sought £120 in compensation for McDonagh’s family, twice securing meetings with the GOC in C Sir Nevil Macready. Without acknowledging liability, in April he authorised an ex gratia payment of £50, the largest amount he could sanction. Macready undertook to do his best to secure an additional £70 if the priest ensured that disturbances on the island ceased. Ultimately, Father Walsh was sent an ex gratia payment of £120 for the McDonagh family on 10 November 1921.927

23 DECEMBER 1920 Margaret Ryan (23Dec1920/1) 36, Grocer, Married, RC Infirmary, Callan, Kilkenny Margaret Ryan lived on Bridge Street, Callan. At around 17:30 on 21 December her husband Michael heard shots. He found her in agony in her bedroom, wounded in the abdomen. Jim Maher suggested that she had been letting a customer out of her shop when a shot rang out. Despite an operation, she died. A court of inquiry ruled that she was shot by a .45 revolver bullet fired from motor cars carrying J Company, Auxiliary Division, which were following the remains of the

late Sergeant Thomas Walsh. There were two further military investigations, neither of which produced adequate explanations for Margaret’s death.928 SA: Walsh (20Dec1920/2) Andrew Moynihan (23Dec1920/2) 43, Farmer, Married with four children, RC Castleisland to Tralee Road, Kerry Moynihan, a small farmer from Gneeveguilla, Kerry, was arrested at around 14:00 by a party of Auxiliaries when found in possession of a receipt for £1 paid to the IRA in July 1920. The Auxiliaries let him off the lorry to relieve himself. He supposedly attempted to escape, failed to halt, and was shot three times. The Last Post stated that Moynihan was tied to a lorry and dragged along the road till he died. John Scannell, captain A (Anablaha) Company, Kerry No. 2 Brigade, claimed that Moynihan was a Volunteer killed in reprisal for an earlier train hold-up near Rathmore. The death was the subject of parliamentary questions on 10 March and 11 April 1921. He is commemorated on a monument in Rathmore, though not listed as a Volunteer.929 William Gaffney (23Dec1920/3) RIC (63877), 35, Creamery manager, Married, RC Mullaghslin, Carrickmore, Tyrone From Manorhamilton, Leitrim, Gaffney joined the RIC on 15 June 1908, serving in Roscommon and Galway before transfer to Tyrone in 1917. His brother was also a policeman. Gaffney, a passenger and guide in a motor car which overturned at around 18:00 at a sharp bend near Mullaghslin, died of a broken neck. Buried Manorhamilton. His widow secured a pension of £39.930

24 DECEMBER 1920 Joseph Mullan (24Dec1920/1) 23, RC Killucan, Cookstown, Tyrone Mullan expected trouble. He apparently confronted raiders at about 01:00 in a field, saying not to enter his home because his parents were frail. He was then shot. Patrick

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McKenna, captain Dunamore Company, Dungannon Battalion, said Mullan, a former Volunteer, was shot because he fired a shotgun at an IRA party carrying out raids against poteen distillers. Mullan’s father Michael secured £150 compensation.931 John Leen (24Dec1920/2) IRA (Kerry No. 2 Brigade), 26, Farmer, RC Ballydwyer, Ballymacelligott, Kerry Leen, an IRA captain from Rathanny, Tralee and Maurice Reidy were having a Christmas drink in a friend’s house which was raided by Auxiliaries at about 19:45. Major John A. MacKinnon claimed that as he entered, he heard a misfire and immediately ordered two men at a table to put their hands up. One drew a revolver. MacKinnon shot Maurice Reidy in the face and John Leen through the head just as he attempted to fire a second shot. Bessie Cahill, who was present, claimed that, whereas Leen was shot instantly, the unarmed Reidy was allowed to pray before being killed. An Auxiliary refused an order to kill Reidy, so MacKinnon ‘retorted “I will finish the job myself ”’, shooting him in the head. The two bodies were then dragged out of the house, which was set on fire. MacKinnon then, bizarrely, gave the owner a lift to fetch a priest who came and anointed the remains. Buried with Reidy, Rath Cemetery, Tralee. His father secured a £75 gratuity.932 RD: Reidy (24Dec1920/3). SA: MacKinnon (15Apr1921/1) Maurice Reidy (24Dec1920/3) IRA (Ballymacelligott Company), 26, Farmer, RC Ballydwyer, Ballymacelligott, Kerry See Leen (24Dec1920/2). Mossie Reidy, from Ballymacelligott, was a renowned weight thrower. Thomas Walsh (24Dec1920/4) East Lancashire Regiment (3379127), 19, Tripe dresser, RC Kilquane, Headford, Killarney, Kerry From Blackburn, Walsh enlisted at Preston on 22 February 1920. He was accidentally shot dead while on duty in Kilquane. Buried Blackburn Cemetery (RC. 2399).933

Jack Evans (24Dec1920/5) 1st South Lancashire Regiment (3644803), 25, CoE Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin Private Evans, from Farnborough, Hampshire, an officer’s orderly, was killed by a sentry near the Tower Gate of the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham after failing to heed a challenge and warning shot. He was in civilian clothes. Buried GMC (CE 819).934

25 DECEMBER 1920 Peter Shields (25Dec1920/1) IRA, Married with two children, 21, RC Omeath, Louth See Canning (13Dec1920/2). From Newry, Shields played in the ‘John Mitchel’ (Newry) Fife and Drum Band. An officer of the 2nd (Newry) Brigade, he died from ‘numerous bomb wounds’ received twelve days earlier during the ‘Egyptian Arch’ ambush. Secretly buried near Omeath, ten months later he was reinterred in St Mary’s Old Chapel Cemetery, Newry. His widow Ellen and children Jack and Lucy later received dependents’ awards.935 Benjamin Swain (25Dec1920/2) King’s Royal Rifle Corps (6840399), 21 Infirmary, Downpatrick, Down From Sussex, Rifleman Swain was stationed in Ballykinlar, Down. He and comrades were discussing revolvers when Rifleman Shipway accidentally discharged one, mortally wounding Swain. Buried Hastings Cemetery (L. D. F25).936 Alfred Glazebrook (25Dec1920/3) 23, Naval rating Queenstown (Cobh), Cork The CFR describes how Leading Signalman Glazebrook of the sloop HMS Heather choked on his food. Both his brothers had died in the Great War.937

26 DECEMBER 1920 Elizabeth Scales (26Dec1920/1) 19, Clerk, CoI St Alphonsus Street, Limerick At about 19:00 Elizabeth Scales and Constable George Richardson were accosted by four

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men as they left church. Richardson tried to draw his revolver. A struggle ensued during which Elizabeth came between the men, crying out, ‘Don’t shoot him.’ Richardson then fled, and heard a shot. He returned with fellow officers to find Elizabeth slumped in a doorway. Hit in the right breast, she died very quickly. Buried St Mary’s Cathedral Cemetery.938 James Hickey (26Dec1920/2) IRA, 25, Draper’s assistant, RC Military Barracks, Tipperary, Tipperary Hickey, from Knocknagoshel, Kerry, lived and worked at 31 Main Street, Tipperary. Captain B Company, 4th Battalion, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, he was detained on 21 December in Tipperary Barracks. Sergeant Frederick Woods, Lincolnshire Regiment, stated that at about 15:00 Hickey rushed at him, attempting to seize his rifle. Woods bayoneted Hickey in the chest. IRA veterans maintained that Hickey had fallen ill and become delirious: ‘The sergeant shouted at him to stop, then the sergeant bayonetted him and killed him.’ Buried Dysert, Castleisland, Kerry.939 Michael J. McAuliffe (26Dec1920/3) 28, Farmer’s son, RC Dysert, Lixnaw, Kerry McAuliffe was shot in the thigh near Lixnaw Post Office at around 16:00 on 12 December while attending a neighbour’s funeral. He died of erysipelas (a bacterial infection). Press reports suggested that he was accidentally shot by police. Buried Dysert, Lixnaw.940

27 DECEMBER 1920 John Quinlan (27Dec1920/1) IRA, 33, Motor driver, Married, RC Cahirguillamore House, Bruff, Limerick Born in the US, Quinn lived in Grange, Kilmallock, Limerick, and was lieutenant Grange Company, East Limerick Brigade. He was one of five Volunteers to die due to a major security failure. The 3rd Battalion

council organised a fund-raising dance at Cahirguillamore House, the unoccupied residence of Lord Guillamore. A cover story was circulated. Everyone actually invited was told to go to a particular crossroads, from where they would be further directed. Nonetheless, Crown forces received accurate information about the dance, possibly through an innocent slip by the mother of one Volunteer. Approximately two hundred attended. At 00:30 on 27 December, a shot was heard but was initially discounted as a false alarm. At about 01:00 a mixed patrol of military and police took sentries by surprise. Daniel Sheehan, carrying a rifle behind the house, was fired on and mortally wounded. John Quinlan failed to heed a challenge, was fired on and died instantly. Martin Conway, wounded, was tracked by a police bloodhound which he shot before himself being killed. Henry Wade died of wounds. Edward Moloney shot Constable Alfred Hodgsden before being killed himself.941 Women were released at around 08:00, and at 11:00 all the men – 138 according to reports – were taken to Limerick Jail. Most were tried before a court martial and imprisoned in Portland and Dartmoor prisons. This disaster, involving the death or capture ‘of most of the blackguards for miles around’, broke the back of the Bruff Battalion. Quinlan, Conway, Moloney, Sheehan and Wade were buried at Grange, Kilmallock, Limerick. Quinlan is commemorated on a monument at Murroe.942 RD: Conway (27Dec1920/4), Hodgsden (27Dec1920/2), Moloney (27Dec1920/3), Sheehan (27Dec1920/9), Wade (27Dec1920/8) Alfred C. Hodgsden (27Dec1920/2) RIC (75225), 32, Ex-serviceman Cahirguillamore House, Bruff, Limerick See Quinlan (27Dec1920/1). Constable Hodgsden, from London and once of the London Fire Brigade, joined the RIC on 5 November 1920, stationed in Bruff. Buried Crystal Palace District Cemetery, London. His father Frederick secured £1,150 compensation.943

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Edward Moloney (27Dec1920/3) IRA, 25, Labourer, RC Cahirguillamore House, Bruff, Limerick See Quinlan (27Dec1920/1). Moloney, from Grange, served in Grange Company, East Limerick Brigade. Martin Conway (27Dec1920/4) IRA, 30, Farmer’s son, RC Cahirguillamore House, Bruff, Limerick See Quinlan (27Dec1920/1). Conway, from Holycross, Bruff, captain of his local company, is commemorated on a monument at Murroe. Patrick McCann (27Dec1920/5) RIC (70598), 30, Ex-serviceman, RC RIC Barracks, Cappamore, Limerick From Castlebar, Mayo, Constable McCann joined the RIC on 8 March 1920, stationed in Cappamore. As barracks orderly on duty, he had a loaded revolver. At around 01:00 Constable Martin Morris (69235) inadvertently discharged it while chatting with other officers. Shot in the face, McCann died at 02:30. Buried Cappamore.944 Patrick O’Brien (27Dec1920/6) 38, Hardware merchant, RC Clonbeg, Glen of Aherlow, Tipperary O’Brien was spending Christmas at Longford, Glen of Aherlow. Walking in stormy weather on the night of 26 December, and possibly drunk, he and another man did not hear a challenge from a Green Howards sentry, who fired. O’Brien, shot through the back, was mortally wounded. He died at around 03:00. Although wounded in the knee, his companion managed to slip away. Buried Bansha, Tipperary.945 William Muir (27Dec1920/7) RIC (73036), 30, Stonemason, ex-serviceman, Married RIC Barracks, Ballylongford, Kerry From Edinburgh, Muir joined the RIC on 8 September 1920, stationed in Ballylongford. He cut his throat in the washroom at around 10:00. Sergeant McNamara deposed that some weeks before Muir had been kidnapped by the IRA and held for three

days. He returned in ‘a shaky and nervous condition . . . he has been very silent and would only speak when spoken to’. John Ahern recalled that two policemen had been captured by the Ballylongford Company. The military threatened to raze Ballylongford to the ground if the men were not freed within forty-eight hours. Brian O’Grady recalled a delay because the local IRA insisted on written orders to release their prisoner.946 Henry Wade (27Dec1920/8) IRA, 21, Labourer, RC Military Hospital, New Barracks, Limerick See Quinlan (27Dec1920/1). From Ballyneety, Limerick, Wade served in Ballyneety Company, Mid Limerick Brigade. His father secured a gratuity of £40, and in 1953 his mother Mary secured an annual allowance.947 Daniel Sheehan (27Dec1920/9) IRA, 25, Labourer, RC Military Hospital, New Barracks, Limerick See Quinlan (27Dec1920/1). Sheehan, from Grange, served in Grange Company, East Limerick Brigade. Isaac James Rea (27Dec1920/10) RIC (70130), 20, Farmer’s son, CoI CMHC From Durrus, Bantry, Cork, Rae joined the RIC on 13 January 1920, stationed in Cappoquin. He was hit in the back when he and Sergeant Patrick Walsh were fired upon on Main Street by four Volunteers of the Waterford No. 2 Brigade from a slowly moving motor car. A woman was also hit. Buried Durrus.948 Joseph Morrison (27Dec1920/11) Protestant Belfast Morrison, of 19 Boyne Square, died of injuries sustained during earlier disturbances.949

28 DECEMBER 1920 Timothy B. Madigan (28Dec1920/1) IRA, 24, Farmer, RC Clashganniff House, Shanagolden, Limerick Madigan, of Clashganniff House, Shanagolden, was captain Shanagolden Company, West

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Limerick Brigade, described in the Mungret Annual as a ‘model of earnest faith, industry and kindness’. At around 15:30, an RIC patrol arrested Timothy’s brother William, and then went to his home. Timothy, working in the haggard, was called on to halt and was shot when he failed to stop. This was evidently a further reprisal for the roughing up of two RIC constables in August. Buried Knockpatrick, Limerick. He is commemorated on monuments at Newcastle West and Murroe, Limerick.950 Michael Smith (28Dec1920/2) RC Belleek, Newtownhamilton, Armagh John Grant, captain Mullaghbawn Company, recalled that following an attack on Camlough RIC Barracks, Smith was shot in Belleek by a USC party, supposedly for failing to halt when challenged to do so. His brother Patrick was arrested for possession of dum-dum bullets.951 Joseph Doherty (28Dec1920/3) IRA, RC Boleran, Garvagh, Londonderry As police vehicles drew up outside a Sinn Féin dance held at Boleran School near Garvagh, they were fired on. The RIC replied, killing Doherty. He was found about 15 yards from the schoolhouse with a bullet wound to the right temple.952

29 DECEMBER 1920 Martin Mullin (29Dec1920/1) RIC (48593), 61, Labourer, Married with four children, RC Main Street, Midleton, Cork From Roscommon, Mullin joined the RIC on 29 June 1882, serving in Waterford and Tipperary. Promoted to sergeant in 1907, he retired in 1910. Mullin was stationed in Midleton as a special constable, apparently without a new RIC number. Joseph Aherne, vice-O/C 4th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, recalled a carefully planned attack on one of the nightly police patrols in the town. Sixteen men of the ASU, 4th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, took part at about 21:45. Mullin was killed, and constables Thorpe and Dray subsequently

died. Buried Clashmore, Waterford. The families of the three dead policemen secured a total of £10,250 compensation.953 RD: Dray (31Dec1920/2), Thorpe (30Dec 1920/2)

30 DECEMBER 1920 William Slattery (30Dec1920/1) IRA, 25, Farmer, RC Military Hospital, Tipperary, Tipperary Slattery, from Emly, was a captain in the 3rd Battalion, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade. A police patrol under DI Gallogly arrived at Emly searching for Daniel Quirke and William Slattery, both on the run. Slattery was arrested. Gallogly believed Slattery had taken part in an attack on police and military at Emly in June 1920: ‘I know many of his relatives – notably his father & uncle have always discouraged violence, but had no control over the deceased.’ At about 13:20, as the tender slowed down at Roseborough, Slattery apparently jumped out and attempted to scale a wall bordering the road. Shot, he afterwards died in hospital (although locals maintained that he was killed outright and that his body was dragged behind the lorry to Tipperary). Slattery’s capture was blamed on Paddy O’Gorman, a cattle dealer, arrangements for whose execution on 15 March 1921 were interrupted by a military patrol, resulting in his escape and the death of Volunteer James ‘Ned’ Crawford. O’Gorman was subsequently recaptured, shot and left for dead by the IRA, but he survived and ‘disappeared to England’, later securing £1,100 compensation. Buried Grange, Kilmallock, Limerick. Commemorated on a monument at Murroe, his family maintained he was murdered. His mother Mary failed to secure a dependent’s award, his father having previously received a £100 gratuity.954 SA: Crawford (25Mar1921/3) Arthur Thorpe (30Dec1920/2) RIC (76333), 23, Fitter’s mate, ex-serviceman, Protestant CMHC See Mullin (29Dec1920/1). Thorpe, from Middlesex, was stationed in Midleton, Cork.

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His parents secured £350 compensation. Buried London.955

c. 30 DECEMBER 1920 James Blagriff (30Dec1920/3) 45, Ex-serviceman, agricultural labourer, Married with children, RC Ballykeeran, Athlone, Westmeath Blagriff worked for Simon Whelan of Glasson. Twice wounded while in the RFA, he had a weekly pension of 12s.6d. Abducted from his employer’s farm on 30 December, his body was found next day by police in a bog ‘in a kneeling position with his hands clasped’, a piece of cardboard with the word ‘Spy’ around his neck. His widow Anne said that a month previously Patrick Killin, who lived in a separate part of the same building, had blamed her husband when the military raided his quarters, which had been used for Sinn Féin meetings. Frank O’Connor, captain Coosan Company, claimed that while drunk Blagriff confided in his employer that he planned to join the police, adding that he knew most of the local IRA. Blagriff denied this to his IRA captors. His execution was sanctioned by Séamus O’Meara, O/C Athlone Brigade. Michael McCormack, adjutant Drumraney Battalion, said he was ‘never satisfied’ that Blagriff was fairly condemned. The Last Post, perhaps reflecting local IRA embarrassment at the dubious circumstances, wrongly claimed that the RIC shot Blagriff.956

31 DECEMBER 1920 Richard Leonard (31Dec1920/1) IRA, 26, School attendance officer, insurance agent, RC Ballybrood, Caherconlish, Limerick Leonard served in Ballybricken Company, Mid Limerick Brigade. His O/C Morgan Portley recalled that ‘the murder gang’ mounted an early-morning raid on Michael Hannon’s house in Ballybrood. They ordered Leonard outside and shot him. Mary Hannon deposed that she was in bed about midnight on 30 December. Her husband admitted three armed officers and a driver who asked where the McMahon

house was. Hannon said he would show them and went upstairs to get dressed. Davis followed him. He found Leonard fully dressed and accused him of being a Sinn Féiner. Major Gray decided to take Leonard to Bruff. What followed is unclear, but Leonard was shot and fatally wounded by Captain W. Davis, Northumberland Fusiliers, attached to the MGC, supposedly while attempting to escape. This cock and bull story disturbed even the military authorities. The three officers involved had apparently been on a drunken ramble, returning to their billets almost five hours late, claiming they had got lost, without even mentioning that they had killed someone. Colonel-Commandant Cameron, com­ mand­ing the 18th Infantry Brigade, had the officers arrested on 2 January 1921 on a charge of murder: Gray and Davis must have been ‘to a certain extent under the influence of drink . . . when they arrived at the Hannon house’: There seems no reason why under ordinary circumstances, Leonard should have made a dash for liberty, knowing what the risks would be. I think he must have been affected by his treatment when arrested. After leaving Ballybrood, the officers, instead of returning to Bruff, went to Caherconlish, which lies in exactly the opposite direction. There is no pretence of their going there on duty and the proceeding seems highly irregular.

In March 1921, an army legal officer told the under secretary at Dublin Castle that, as the judge advocate general advised that Davis could not be prosecuted for killing Leonard, the GOC had asked the Army Council to have him removed from the army. Buried Hospital, Limerick. He is commemorated on a monument at Caherconlish.957 Ernest Dray (31Dec1920/2) RIC (71631), 21, Ex-serviceman, Protestant CMHC See Mullin (29Dec1920/1). From Kent, Constable Dray joined the RIC on 11 June 1920, stationed in Limerick and Midleton, Cork. He died of wounds at 17:30. He was

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posthumously awarded the constabulary medal. Buried London.958 Reuben George Lockyer (31Dec1920/3) King’s Liverpool Regiment, 20 Skibbereen, Cork Private Lockyer accidentally shot himself during a night search at Mohona, Skibbereen. Three men were arrested after troops came under fire during the operation. Buried Anfield Cemetery, Liverpool.959 Unknown Maher (31Dec1920/4) Ex-serviceman, RC Carricknaughton, Athlone, Westmeath Seamus O’Meara and Patrick Lennon described the killing in December of an ex-soldier named Maher from Irishtown. A beggar known as ‘Slickfoot’ on account of a false leg, he is listed alongside James Blagriff and George Johnston as men killed by the Athlone Brigade as spies. Dumped in the River Shannon, his body floated on account of his false leg. He was then buried nearby.960 RD: Blagriff (31Dec1920/3), Johnston (11Apr 1921/3) Percy Taylor (31Dec1920/5) Soldier Kilbree, Clonakilty, Cork A deserter from the Essex Regiment in Bandon, Taylor and his companion Watling were shot by the IRA as spies ‘some time after’ the Essex Regiment’s killing of Joseph Begley and two companions at Bandon on 2 December 1920.961 RD: Watling (31Dec1920/6). SA: Begley (2Dec 1920/2)

uniform without badges’, who claimed to be a deserter. He was held for two days in an unoccupied cottage on Matt Donovan’s farm. Then: it was . . . decided to execute him. . . . He died very bravely without the slightest flinching which convinced us that he was a British intelligence officer. . . . His remains were buried on the farm . . . as far as I know, the remains are still there.962

Unknown O’Neill (31Dec1920/8) 32, Ex-serviceman Rosegreen, Cashel, Tipperary The IRA captured a suspicious man in civilian clothes at Killusty. He gave his name as O’Neill, of Bridge Street, Arklow, but said nothing further. He was held for about three weeks, while inquiries were made. It was learned that he had called to a few houses asking if he could be put in touch with Dan Breen’s column, and that an O’Neill of Bridge Street, Arklow, had joined the army years before, although his whereabouts since were unknown. Sentenced to death, O’Neill was shot and buried in a field near Rosegreen. Séamus Robinson, the Brigade O/C, stated that: Fr. Kingston of Rockwell College attended him. . . . Just as he was about to be shot he made one last dramatic outburst of denial that he was a spy. I went over to him and said quietly: ‘Young man, you are about to die. Don’t say anything that may sully your conscience at this awful moment.’ Instantly he had himself under control. ‘I’m not afraid to die’ was all he answered.

In 1926 a Garda report described him as ‘the only person shot as a spy’ in the Clonmel district.963

Thomas Watling (31Dec1920/6) Soldier Kilbree, Clonakilty, Cork See Taylor (31Dec1920/5). Unknown soldier (31Dec1920/7) Ballyvaloon, Grenagh, Cork The Grenagh Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, recorded capturing ‘a military spy’, ‘in

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1921 1 JANUARY 1921 Patrick Walsh (1Jan1921/1) 19, Farmer’s son, RC Town Hall, Galway Walsh, of Hollymount, Mayo, was detained on 21 November. ‘Of splendid physique’, a court of inquiry found he died of influenza. Six fellow prisoners were allowed to carry his coffin to the mortuary, and another was allowed out to purchase two wreaths.1 Michael Mullins (1Jan1921/2) IRA (South Roscommon Brigade), 31, Farmer’s son, RC Lough Attalia Hospital, Galway Mullins, of Springlawn, Moylough, Galway, detained on 28 November, died of influenza contracted while held in Galway Town Hall. A well-known footballer, his family denied rebel links. Buried Moylough.2 RD: Walsh (1Jan1921/1) Michael O’Meara (1Jan1921/3) 40, Schoolteacher, ex-serviceman, Married with eight children, RC Kiltankin, Ballyporeen, Tipperary O’Meara, from Hospital, Limerick, taught in Knockainey National School. An alcoholic, he allegedly accompanied Crown forces on raids. This ‘sealed his doom’. Patrick Meehan, ‘dressed up as a woman of the tinker class complete with shawl which covered a Peter the Painter automatic [pistol]’, and Jim O’Brien captured him. Held before execution following a court martial, his body was left at Kiltankin on 1 January, bearing the label ‘spy’. His widow Florence secured £2,850 compensation.3 David Tobin (1Jan1921/4) IRA (ASU East Limerick), 25, Blacksmith, RC Glenbrohane, Ballylanders, Limerick As Lieutenant R. C. Keller, the Hampshire Regiment intelligence officer for south Limerick, approached Tobin’s forge around 13:30, he saw two men running up the

mountain. Soldiers fired, mortally wounding Thomas Murphy in the groin. When asked why he ran, he said ‘If I had [halted] you would have killed me.’ Tobin was attempting to fire when shot. A revolver, allegedly loaded with dum-dum bullets, was recovered. His brother Ned recalled that a subsequent decision to shoot a local informer was not followed up. Buried Ballylanders, Limerick. Tobin and Murphy are commemorated on a monument at Murroe. Tobin’s sister Mary Ryan was refused a pension.4 RD: Murphy (1Jan1921/5) Thomas F. Murphy (1Jan1921/5) IRA (ASU East Limerick), 29, Baker, RC Glenbrohane, Ballylanders, Limerick See Tobin (1Jan1921/4). Murphy, from Ballylanders, had been detained in 1916 and in 1917. Lieutenant Keller stated that as he lay dying, ‘He asked me to shake hands which I did.’5 Michael Francis Malone (1Jan1921/6) RIC (70142), 30, Electrician, ex-serviceman, RC Main Street, Ballybay, Monaghan A policeman’s son from Westmeath, Malone enlisted in 1909, and was discharged from the 6th Lancers in 1919. He joined the RIC in January 1920, stationed in Ballybay. At around 21:00, a four-man police patrol on Main Street was attacked by the ASU Carrickmacross Battalion, wounding constables Cromwell and Vanbeest. When Malone and others went to assist, he ‘was fired on and at the same time hit on the head with the butt of a gun’. He wounded one attacker before dying. Next morning, Malone’s body was found near that of John Somerville. The RIC believed Somerville was hit accidentally as he emerged from Coyle’s pub, whereas the IRA claimed that they killed him as he attempted to raise the alarm. Owen and Edward McGahey, Patrick McDermott and James Keenan, convicted in Belfast of Malone’s murder, were released after the

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Treaty. Malone was posthumously awarded the constabulary medal. His father James secured £600 compensation.6 RD: Somerville (1Jan1921/7)

were sentenced in June for kidnapping. The Curraghboy Company ‘was reduced to an outpost’.9 SA: Killian (23Sep1921/3)

John Somerville (1Jan1921/7) 38, Butcher, Presbyterian Main Street, Ballybay, Monaghan See Malone (1Jan1921/6). Buried Derryvally Presbyterian Church burial ground.7

John Lawlor (1Jan1921/9) 18, Clerical student, RC All Hallows College, Listowel, Kerry Son of the parish clerk, Lawlor was beaten by police on Main Street between 23:30 and 23:40. A court of inquiry exonerated the police, but did not explain his head injury. Buried Ardfert. His father’s compensation application failed because as a cleric John would not have been a source of financial support, but £30 funeral costs was awarded.10

Martin Heavy8 (1Jan1921/8) 30, Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC Shannon River, Roscommon Heavy, from Brideswell, Ballynamona, Roscommon, was abducted along with his mother, sister, young niece and nephew on the night of 30 December by masked members of the Curraghboy Company, 4th Battalion, South Roscommon Brigade. His sister described how, when raiders asked him to give information ‘about the Volunteers . . . he said he could not’. Held overnight in a cattle shed, the family were taken next evening by ‘mule and trap’ through Knockcroghery to ‘a big house’. There the party was split up, with Heavy’s elderly mother and young niece moved by boat. His family, described dismissively as ‘his women friends’, were expelled, ‘rowed for an hour and a half ’ across the Shannon by James Brehony and Patrick Foxe to Longford, where they found shelter before travelling to Athlone. Heavy ‘was left behind with his hands tied’. Thrown into the Shannon, his body was never recovered. Among those involved were Thomas Naughton, Richard Mee, James Brehony and Luke Killian. Heavy’s may be the death recalled by Patrick Mullooly: ‘As the spy slid over the edge of the boat in midstream, [Frank] Treacy, as if speaking to himself, said: “I will never die content until the Shannon is full of you.”’ Ten Curraghboy Company Volunteers were arrested in January 1921, each suffering ‘a severe beating’. Heavy’s sister and mother identified some of them by their gait, build and voices. A defence lawyer argued that ‘the women who purported to identify the accused were labouring under excitement, and a feeling that they had a grievance’, but all

3 JANUARY 1921 Jeremiah Casey (3Jan1921/1) 17, Farmer’s son, RC Derryfineen, Macroom, Cork DI E. Fleming, C Company, Auxiliary Division led a search of a house near Casey’s home at Derryfineen at about 12:35. Four men ran away, failing to halt when ordered. Casey was shot, the others arrested. Buried Ballyvourney, Cork.11 Joseph Green (3Jan1921/2) 52, Farmer, Married, RC Tourahoun, Kilrush, Clare Green was shot through a window as he sat by the fire ‘reading a paper’. A newspaper reported rumours that ‘there is nothing political in the shooting’.12

4 JANUARY 1921 George Frend (4Jan1921/1) c. 70, Land agent, farmer, Married with four children, CoI Silverhill, Cloughjordan, Tipperary Frend, a Synodsman of the Church of Ireland, was shot as he returned by horse and trap from Moneygall, Offaly, at about 16:00 on 28 December. He died of heart failure. The RIC recovered one rifle case. Edward Frend testified that his father was unpopular, having pursued several tenants for rent arrears. This appears primarily a freelance agrarian attack, probably carried out by two local Volunteers from the ASU Tipperary No. 1 Brigade. Frend’s

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killing was mentioned by Archbishop Charles Frederick D’Arcy, the primate, at the 1921 General Synod of the Church of Ireland.13

robbed him of his shop’s takings on Crescent Avenue, near his home. Off-duty Black and Tans were suspected. Buried St Munchin’s.16

Finbar Darcy (4Jan1921/2) 28, Lay brother, RC Cornmarket Street, Cork A postmaster’s son from Bishopstown, Cork, Darcy wore clerical garb although recently dismissed from the Alexian Brothers order. Attracting suspicion by his heavy drinking in his hotel, he was questioned by Cadets Roberts and Wakefield of R Company, Auxiliary Division. They searched him in his room, and telephoned for assistance. When Lieutenant A. R. Roe, Hampshire Regiment, arrived, Darcy had escaped through a window. Eventually discovered naked under a bed in the servants’ quarters, he was brought back to his room and ordered to dress. He rushed at Roe, seized his right wrist and shouted, ‘Don’t shoot, Captain’, or words to that effect. He made further such efforts before being put in a lorry for transfer to the Bridewell. After failing to grab a soldier’s rifle, he jumped out of the lorry and was shot dead. The raconteur Eoin ‘the Pope’ O’Mahony recalled a rumour that Darcy and others had entrusted £8,000 robbed from the GPO to a woman who then disappeared with it. This was possibly the robbery on 21 December 1920 which cost Patrick Tarrant his life. Buried SFC.14 SA: Tarrant (21Dec1920/1)

6 JANUARY 1921

5 JANUARY 1921 Michael Cassidy (5Jan1921/1) 35, Agricultural labourer, RC Dysart, Castlecomer, Kilkenny Cassidy slept in an outhouse on James Campion’s farm where he was shot by two masked men at about 07:30. When drunk he had apparently spoken against the IRA, and supposedly had guided Crown forces locally.15 Michael Collier (5Jan1921/2) 60, Provisions merchant, Married with children, Protestant Broad Street, Limerick Collier, from Manchester, died of injuries sustained on 1 January when three men

Patrick Durr (6Jan1921/1) IRA (South Roscommon Brigade), 22, Farmer’s son, RC Kennyborough, Ballintober, Roscommon Fearing a raid on their homes, ‘Paddy’ Durr, son of Patrick Durr of Toberkeagh, Ballintober, and William Cunnane slept at Agnes Leonard’s, nearby. At about 03:30, armed and masked men came in. Cunnane and Mrs Leonard’s son escaped, but Durr was taken outside and shot. Mrs Leonard said the raiders were not local. This was one of a number of killings probably attributable to a Crown forces death squad operating in Roscommon. Buried Ballintober Cemetery. His father secured £750 compensation.17 SA: Conry (7Apr1921/1), Durr (7Apr1921/1), Monds (7Apr1921/2) John McSweeney18 (6Jan1921/2) 15, Agricultural labourer, RC Union Hospital, Kanturk, Cork Lieutenant C. McKerron, MGC, stated that at 15:30 on 4 January he brought twenty men by lorry to reinforce Newmarket RIC station after an ambush nearby. At Allenbridge, soldiers fired with a machine gun on civilians running away through fields. McSweeney, who was returning from the creamery, was hit in the back.19

7 JANUARY 1921 Francis Luke Shortall (7Jan1921/1) RIC (64741), 38, Ex-serviceman, Married, RC CMHC From Tipperary, Constable Shorthall joined the RIC in 1909, serving in Kilkenny. Captured at Mons in 1914 while serving with the Irish Guards, he rejoined the RIC on 21 February 1919, stationed in Empress Place RIC Barracks, Cork. At about 19:40 on 5 January eight RIC leaving Union Quay Barracks were attacked by twenty-five Volunteers under Mick Murphy from positions at Parnell Bridge, Anglesea Street and Parliament Bridge, supported by

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ex-soldier Seán Healy operating a Lewis gun. Six constables and five civilians were wounded. Wounded in the chest and thigh, Shorthall died from gangrene. Constable Thomas Johnston died thirteen days later. Buried Wexford. His widow Mary received £2,250 compensation, his father and sister £1,250.20 RD: Johnston (20Jan1921/10) Thomas James McGrath (7Jan1921/2) RIC (65788), 30, Farmer, ex-serviceman, RC Kilshruley, Ballinalee, Longford A policeman’s son from Croom, Limerick, McGrath joined the RIC in 1911, serving in Cork. Enlisted in the RIR in 1916, he was commissioned into the West Yorkshire Regiment, becoming a captain. Severely wounded in 1917, he won the MC. Rejoining the RIC in October 1919, he was immediately promoted to sergeant, serving in Charleville, and became a DI in November 1920, serving in Ballinalee. At about 17:00, as six RIC approached a cottage, Seán Mac Eoin, O/C North Longford ASU, rushed out of the door: ‘There were two old ladies in the house and I could not defend myself there.’ He told his court martial that ‘fire was opened by both sides simultaneously’. McGrath fell, hit in the neck: Mac Eoin argued he could have been killed inadvertently by his own men. A constable was wounded. Mac Eoin and another Volunteer escaped. Captured on 2 March, Mac Eoin was sentenced to death, despite an appeal for clemency from McGrath’s family. The Truce saved him. He was eventually released, at Michael Collins’s† insistence, in August 1921. McGrath’s father John secured £2,500 compensation.21

8 JANUARY 1921 Michael McGrath (8Jan1921/1) IRA (East Waterford Brigade), 25, Joiner, RC Pickardstown, Tramore, Waterford ‘Mick’ McGrath, of 34 Poleberry, was one of about fifty IRA who mounted an ambush at Pickardstown. Another party under Pat Keating attacked Tramore RIC Barracks at around 23:00 to lure in military reinforcements from Waterford. A drunken Volunteer

fired prematurely, enabling the military to seize the initiative. McGrath and Tom O’Brien were killed on the Ballinattin road. An IRA inquiry concluded that ‘all [IRA] parties were 2 & 3 hours late, and three men’ were drunk. Liam Lynch, O/C 1st Southern Division, asked GHQ whether ‘there [is] any use in our courtmartialling those . . . under the influence of drink?’ Buried Carbally Cemetery, Waterford. Commemorated by a monument on the Ballinattin road, McGrath was the first Waterford city Volunteer killed during the War of Independence.22 RD: O’Brien (8Jan1921/2). SA: Keating (19Mar1921/17) Thomas O’Brien (8Jan1921/2) IRA (East Waterford Brigade), 24, Farmer, RC Pickardstown, Tramore, Waterford See McGrath (8Jan1921/1). ‘Tom’ O’Brien was only identified after the Truce. Buried Ballygunner.23 Michael Kennedy (8Jan1921/3) IRA (Tipperary No. 1 Brigade), 18, Labourer, RC Moneygall, Offaly Kennedy, from Moneygall, was shot on 7 January by a military and police patrol as he fled across fields, defying orders to halt, and died at 07:30. Buried Toomevara, Tipperary.24 Charles French (8Jan1921/4) 60, Farmer, RC Relagh, Omagh, Tyrone Hit by a Crossley tender, French died instantly.25

9 JANUARY 1921 Frederick Gordon Smyth26 (9Jan1921/1) RIC (70426), 21, Shop assistant, ex-serviceman, CoI KGVH From Rathdrum, Wicklow, Constable Smyth joined the RIC on 23 February 1920, serving in Limerick and the RIC motor transport division at Gormanston Camp, Meath. He fractured his skull when in a lorry which hit a telegraph pole around midday on 8 January. He died at 01:00. Buried Rathdrum.27

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10 JANUARY 1921 James Farrell (10Jan1921/1) 50, Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC North Brunswick Street, Dublin Farrell, a Boer War and Great War veteran, of 11 Prebend Street, was shot when two Auxiliaries ambushed on North Brunswick Street returned fire. Buried GC (South Section: K. §. 11).28

11 JANUARY 1921 John Doran (11Jan1921/1) 26, Farmer’s son, RC Keggal, Camlough, Armagh At about 23:30 two masked men ordered John and his brother Michael, whom they accused of participating in an ambush on police on 8 January, to dress. Ignoring pleas, they shot John dead outside. Michael was freed after shots were fired over his head. Republicans maintained Doran was murdered by plain-clothes Crown forces, whereas official sources blamed the IRA. One of Doran’s sisters was widow of Head Constable John Kearney, killed on 22 November 1920. Buried Camlough, Armagh.29 SA: Kearney (22Nov1920/11)

12 JANUARY 1921 Felix Mallon30 (12Jan1921/1) 16, Agricultural labourer, RC Newry Nursing Home, Newry, Down Shot from a passing motor car outside Clonlum Sinn Féin Hall at around 15:00, an operation could not save Mallon.31

13 JANUARY 1921 Stephen Carty (13Jan1921/1) RIC (58105), 46, Farmer, Married, RC Cratloe, Clare From Roscommon, Sergeant Carty joined the RIC in 1898. Promoted to sergeant in 1916, he was stationed in Ruan, Clare. He died when twenty-five East Clare Brigade Volunteers under Michael Brennan attacked a vehicle carrying eight RIC which had left Ennis at 11:00. The driver accelerated away and reached Limerick, but Carty, severely wounded, fell from the lorry. Sergeant Curtin,

hit in the head, died at about 12:15. The IRA captured Carty’s revolver. Buried Roosky, Roscommon. His dependents secured £600 compensation.32 RD: Curtin (13Jan1921/2) Jeremiah Curtin (13Jan1921/2) RIC (60459), 43, Farmer, Married with children, RC Military Hospital, Limerick See Carty (13Jan1921/1). Curtin, from Cork, joined the RIC on 16 October 1901. He served in Clare, the RIC Reserve and Roscommon before returning to Clare in August 1908, stationed in Newmarket-on-Fergus. Promoted sergeant in 1918, he was awarded the constabulary medal. Buried Cork. His widow secured £2,500 compensation, his father £600, and his children £2,500.33 Robert William Compston (13Jan1921/3) USC, 25, Presbyterian Cullyhanna, Armagh Constable Compston, from Lisnadill, Armagh, was stationed in Crossmaglen. He was one of three local constables who volunteered to go with a USC party from Dundalk to recover Patrick Kirke, a postman fatally wounded during an IRA robbery. After firing warning shots, as he advanced towards a house used in the earlier attack he shouted that he was hit, and quickly died from a groin wound. Police found ammunition and food in the empty house. Buried Lisnadill Church.34 RD: Kirke (13Jan1921/4) Patrick Kirke (13Jan1921/4) 23, Ex-serviceman, postman, RC Louth Infirmary, Dundalk, Louth See Compston (13Jan1921/3). Kirke, from Crossmaglen, Armagh, was a telegraph messenger before enlisting in the RIF on 23 March 1916. He served for three years, being mentioned in dispatches. On demobilisation he was appointed postman. Although escorted by RIC, he was shot in the back while carrying old age pension money by an inexperienced Volunteer who disobeyed orders.35

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Martha Henrietta Nowlan (13Jan1921/5) 31, Bookkeeper, CoI Westmoreland Street, Dublin Martha, of 57 Connaught Street, worked for Messrs Michell & Co. Confectioners, Grafton Street. She left home at about 16:20 to visit friends on Westmoreland Street. A military lorry stood at the junction with O’Connell Bridge while soldiers checked motor permits. A shot was heard at about 16:45. A boy lay on the pavement and Martha by the kerb. Eight people were taken to Jervis Street Hospital. Martha died before admission. A court of inquiry concluded that the bullet that caused her death had struck a soldier’s rifle and splintered the stock, killing her and wounding other bystanders. The Washington Times carried a claim by ‘a former Sinn Féin soldier’ that Crown forces were responsible. Ten-year-old James Brennan, wounded in the forehead, died on 15 May. Buried MJC (31. A.332). Her mother secured £550 compensation.36 RD: Brennan (15May1921/13)

14 JANUARY 1921 William Michael McGrath (14Jan1921/1) 54, Journalist, King’s Counsel, Married with five children, RC SVH McGrath, from Portaferry, Down, was called to the Bar in 1895. His son said ‘he always had a most peaceful life, and had practically no enemies’. At about 01:30 armed and disguised men forced their way into his home at 129 Altona Terrace, Dublin, shooting McGrath four times. The dying McGrath thought ‘the only reason he could have been attacked was because of the spitefulness or enmity on the part of ex-soldiers from whom he had disallowed donations’ as chairman of the court of referees for unemployment assistance for ex-servicemen. He died at 09:30. His name appears on a list headed ‘Casualties British Agents’ and ‘British Casualties’ in the Michael Collins papers. Buried GC (Garden Section: Q. f. 56.5–57). His widow secured £5,000 compensation and his children £3,000.37

15 JANUARY 1921 Gerald Oswald Pring (15Jan1921/1) 32, Excise officer, RC Western Road, Cork Pring, of 3 Bloomfield Terrace, worked in Midleton, Cork. He, his brother and sister took back streets home from the railway station because of tension following the shooting of two RIC men near the courthouse earlier that afternoon. At about 21:10, two police Crossley tenders passed and a shot was heard. Pring fell dead, shot through the left eye by a high-velocity bullet. A court of inquiry could not determine responsibility. Buried SFC.38

16 JANUARY 1921 Patrick O’Donovan (16Jan1921/1) IRA (Timoleague Company), 21, Farmer’s son, RC Cullinagh, Courtmacsherry, Cork O’Donovan was killed and two comrades wounded when shot during a Crown forces round-up. His father found his body at 08:00 in a field, after he had failed to return home the previous night. Lieutenant H. J. N. Silver, Essex Regiment, said that pickets in the vicinity of Butlerstown House Crossroads fired on men who refused to halt when challenged around 16:00 on 15 January. Buried Timoleague, Cork. His father secured £500 compensation.39 Archibald Hanway Robert Richmond (16Jan1921/2) RIC (61140), 42, Teacher, ex-serviceman, Married, CoE New Ross, Wexford Richmond, from London, joined the RIC in 1902, and was DI in Banagher, Offaly, from 1913 to 1915, when he enlisted in the Royal Irish Rifles, serving in France and at Gallipoli. Demobilised with the rank of major, he returned to the RIC as DI in New Ross. Richmond shot himself with his revolver in his hotel room around midday. A colleague spoke of ‘family trouble’.40 SA: Mason (16Jun1921/2)

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17 JANUARY 1921 Patrick Sloan (17Jan1921/1) IRA (Athlone Brigade), 28, Blacksmith, Married, RC Ballykinlar Internment Camp, Dundrum, Down Sloan, of Moate, Westmeath, interned just a week after his wedding, was killed with Joseph Tormey in Ballykinlar Camp at 12:25 by a sentry of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps, who said he had warned groups of internees away from the wire fence four times. Standing orders were that ‘prisoners signalling or attempting to communicate with persons outside the cages are to be warned and if persisting, fired on’. A court of inquiry observed that shooting for any form of signalling was too severe a penalty. Fellow detainee Thomas Treacy claimed that neither man was within 15 yards of the fence. The bullet hit Tormey on the right side of his head, passed through and hit Sloan in the neck. Their deaths were the subject of several parliamentary questions. Buried Old Cemetery, Drumraney, Westmeath.41 RD: Tormey (17Jan1921/2) Joseph Tormey (17Jan1921/2) IRA (Athlone Brigade), 19, Railway employee, RC Ballykinlar Internment Camp, Dundrum, Down See Sloan (17Jan1921/1). Tormey, of Moneen, Moate, Westmeath, was one of five Volunteers in his family. His brother James was killed in February 1921. Buried Mount Temple, Moate. He is commemorated on monuments at Shankill and Athlone. His father secured a dependent’s gratuity of £150.42 SA: Tormey (2Feb1921/7) Robert A. E. Boyd (17Jan1921/3) RIC (70823), 24, Ex-serviceman, labourer, Presbyterian Cappawhite, Tipperary From Banbridge, Down, Boyd, once of the RIF, joined the RIC on 22 March 1920, stationed in Cappawhite. His father and two brothers were also policemen. At about 20:00, while sitting in Margaret Moran’s pub, chatting to the owner’s two nieces, he was

shot in the back by P. English, J. Fitzpatrick, J. Ryan and D. Ahearne: ‘He never stirred, and the glass in his hand was smashed to atoms, the contents being splattered into the face of one of the terrified girls’, one of whom was wounded. This was on foot of a general IRA order for reprisals following the death of Terence MacSwiney. Buried Banbridge, Down. His father secured £1,400 compensation.43 SA: MacSwiney (25Oct1920/3) Alfred John Blitchford Williams (17Jan1921/4) Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 18 Ballyvonaire Military Camp, Buttevant, Cork The CFR reports that Williams, of Penryn, Cornwall, shot himself in the abdomen while temporarily insane. Buried St John’s Churchyard, Buttevant.44

18 JANUARY 1921 Thomas Collins (18Jan1921/1) 21, Farmer, RC Keelkill, Headford, Galway Collins lived with his widowed mother and sister. Three of his brothers were exservicemen, and his brother Robert† was to die during the Civil War. The military said Collins was arrested by a mixed party of police and Auxiliaries searching for men who had attacked a patrol of eleven Auxiliaries from Galway at Kilroe, about four miles from Headford, causing eight casualties. Collins apparently made a dash for a nearby wall and was shot for failing to halt. Celia Collins told a very different story at Galway Quarter Sessions in July 1921. She stated that police entered her house and took Thomas outside. Some struck him, while others jabbed his back with rifles. One policeman hit her with his revolver and threatened to blow her brains out. She then heard a man say ‘Run, run, you —’, after which shots were fired. An English policeman said to her: ‘Do not blame me mother; I did not fire . . . because I am a Catholic.’ She secured £400 compensation, her daughter £400, her son Hubert £600 and her other son Michael £100.45

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19 JANUARY 1921 Denis Hegarty (19Jan1921/1) IRA, 30, Agricultural labourer, RC Barryshall, Timoleague, Cork Hegarty, a ploughman in Barryshall, Timoleague, Cork, left his stepbrother’s house at about 21:00 on 18 January. His body was found in a pool of blood in the bohereen leading into the farm of his employer John Good. Alerted by dogs barking at around 03:00, Good had seen some men moving around in the yard. The IRA believed the killers were Essex Regiment soldiers and that John Good was implicated. They subsequently killed him and his son William as alleged spies. Buried Timoleague, where a memorial was erected.46 RD: Good (10Mar1921/7), Good (26Mar 1921/3)

20 JANUARY 1921 Geoffrey McDonald (20Jan1921/1) 47, Labourer, Married with children, RC Drimaterril, Ballinakill, Laois On 15 August 1920 McDonald was convicted by a Sinn Féin court of stealing harnesses. Sentenced to leave the district, he instead slept away from home. His children brought him food. Between 23:00 and 00:00 on 19 January, three masked men entered an outhouse where McDonald, his wife and a child were sleeping. They dragged McDonald from his bed, threw him on the floor and fired on him with a shotgun. After crying out to his wife, he died. Mrs McDonald initially identified one killer, but later changed her statement and named different perpetrators – Alphonsus O’Hara of Ballinakill and Peter and John Campion of Ballymullen, Abbeyleix. When the case came before a civil court in January 1922, she explained that she had been too scared to name the Campions. O’Hara, an ex-serviceman who said he was only in the dock because he was ‘a republican soldier’, maintained the purpose of the raid had been to get McDonald to admit to burning the Campions’ hay, not to harm him, and that he had no idea how the shotgun went off. There were cheers and cries of ‘Up the Republic’ from the body of the court.47

Tobias O’Sullivan (20Jan1921/2) RIC (59193), 44, Farmer, Married with three children, RC Church Street, Listowel, Kerry O’Sullivan, from Galway, joined the RIC on 16 November 1899, serving in Donegal and Galway. On promotion to sergeant, O’Sullivan was transferred to Maryborough, Laois, then to Athea, Limerick, after which he was stationed in Kilmallock. He was sergeant in charge when Kilmallock Barracks was successfully defended on 28 May 1920 despite the deaths of Sergeant Thomas Kane and Constable Joseph Morton and the wounding of six others, including O’Sullivan. Decorated with the constabulary medal by General Tudor, he was promoted to head constable. On 26 September, O’Sullivan was promoted to DI and sent to Listowel with hand-picked men from Limerick to restore discipline following the ‘Listowel Mutiny’ when fourteen policemen resisted transfer orders, appealed for IRA support and in some cases abandoned their posts. Four of O’Sullivan’s brothers were also policemen. Two previous attempts to shoot O’Sullivan had failed and he had a double bodyguard. An IRA party waited in Stack’s pub, about 100 yards from the barracks, intending to shoot O’Sullivan as he went home for lunch. At 13:20, having just dismissed his bodyguards, he was shot by Daniel O’Grady and Cornelius Brosnan on Church Street, yards from his house and in sight of his wife and child (his family maintained he was actually holding his son when killed). Buried GC. Due to a gravediggers’ strike, the grave was dug and filled by RIC and Auxiliaries.48 SA: Kane (28May1920/1), Morton (28May 1920/2), Scully (28May1920/3), Sheehan (26May1921/3) William Clarke (20Jan1921/3) RIC (72020), 28, Ex-serviceman, Presbyterian Glenwood, Sixmilebridge, Clare From Lurgan, Armagh, Clarke joined the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles at Winnipeg in 1914, and was later commissioned in the Royal Irish Rifles attached to the Ulster Division. Clarke became an RIC DI on

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1 October 1920, stationed in Sixmilebridge. He led a police patrol travelling by Crossley tender which was attacked at Glenwood around 15:30. About thirty East Clare Brigade Volunteers took part. The IRA held fire until the tender was very close. Clarke was killed outright. As other police sought shelter, Sergeant Michael Molloy and constables Doogue, Moran, Morris and Smith were killed. Four others survived. Several farmhouses and business premises in the area were wrecked in reprisal. Buried Presbyterian Graveyard, Lurgan. His father Walter secured £8,500 compensation for himself, his wife and two daughters.49 RD: Doogue (20Jan1921/4), Molloy (20Jan 1921/7), Moran (20Jan1921/5), Morris (20Jan 1921/6), Smith (20Jan1921/8) John Doogue (20Jan1921/4) RIC (64362), 34, Farmer, RC Glenwood, Sixmilebridge, Clare See Clarke (20Jan1921/3). Constable Doogue, from Laois, joined the RIC on 16 September 1908, stationed in Sixmilebridge. Buried Killeshin, Laois. His brother Patrick secured £300 compensation, his sister £400 and his cousin Winifred £400.50 Michael Moran (20Jan1921/5) RIC (69674), 24, Farmer, RC Glenwood, Sixmilebridge, Clare See Clarke (20Jan1921/3). From Castlebar, Mayo, Constable Moran joined the RIC on 1 April 1919, stationed in Sixmilebridge.51 Francis Edward Morris (20Jan1921/6) RIC (74768), 27, Naval rating Glenwood, Sixmilebridge, Clare See Clarke (20Jan1921/3). Morris, from Lancashire, had served ten years in the navy. He joined the RIC on 22 October 1920, stationed in Sixmilebridge. His mother secured £1,576 compensation.52 Michael Molloy (20Jan1921/7) RIC (61673), 38, Farmer, Married with two children, RC Glenwood, Sixmilebridge, Clare See Clarke (20Jan1921/3). Molloy, from Mayo, joined the RIC on 1 February 1906, serving in

Galway and Tipperary before transfer to Clare in 1913. Promoted to sergeant on 1 September 1920, he received the constabulary medal for his part in the defence of Broadford RIC Barracks.53 His widow Mary secured £3,300 compensation and his children the same amount between them.54 William J. Smith (20Jan1921/8) RIC (72706), 24, Clerk, ex-serviceman, Married with one child, Protestant Glenwood, Sixmilebridge, Clare See Clarke (20Jan1921/3). Smith, from London, joined the RIC on 31 August 1920 after demobilisation, stationed in Sixmilebridge. His widow Winifred and child were each awarded £2,488 compensation.55 Thomas Lawless (20Jan1921/9) 43, Ex-serviceman, Married with seven children, RC Lyster Lane, Maryborough (now Portlaoise), Laois Lawless, subsisting on a military pension of 10s.4d. per week, lived on Lyster Lane, Maryborough. At around 22:00 as he went to answer a knock, a bullet was fired through the door, wounding him fatally in the abdomen. The shot was fired by Constable Wilton, who was drunk and had already tried to gain admission to three houses. Buried Catholic cemetery, Maryborough. RIC men in Maryborough donated £20 towards the relief of the family. Lawless’s widow secured £800 compensation and his seven children amounts varying from £80 to £260. Wilton received ten years penal servitude for manslaughter, remitted in March 1922.56 Thomas R. Johnston (20Jan1921/10) RIC (74669), 19, Labourer, CoI CMHC See Shortall (7Jan1921/1). From Cavan, Johnston joined the RIC on 20 October 1920, stationed in Empress Place Barracks.57 Alfred Samuel Manley (20Jan1921/11) East Surrey Regiment, 19 KGVH Manley, accidentally wounded by a Verey light while on guard duty in Mountjoy during the night of 19 January, died next day.58

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21 JANUARY 1921 Henry J. Bloxham (21Jan1921/1) RIC (58519), 41, Clerk, Married with one child, CoI Waterfall, Cork Bloxham, from Mayo, joined the RIC on 1 November 1898, serving in Donegal. Promoted to sergeant in 1908, he was transferred to Ballincollig, Cork, in 1918. At about 11:45, Bloxham, cycling in civilian clothes to Waterfall Railway Station, was shot by Leo Murphy, D. Forde, J. O’Shea and other members of C (Ballincollig) Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade. Head Constable Larkin escaped. Bloxham’s weapons and bicycle were captured. Buried Carrigrohane, Cork. His widow secured £2,000 compensation.59 William A. George (21Jan1921/2) Royal Warwickshire Regiment (5095164), 20, Blacksmith’s striker Tipperary, Tipperary Private George, from Birmingham, attested there. He was killed by a motor lorry near Tipperary Military Barracks. Buried Yardley Cemetery, Birmingham (Screen Wall. E. 27363).60 Daniel Horner (21Jan1921/3) 38, Fruit and fish dealer, Married with children, RC Belfast Horner, of 50 Kent Street, Belfast, died from injuries received during an earlier disturbance.61 Daniel Lynch (21Jan1921/4) 26, Farm labourer’s son, RC Vicinity of Timoleague, Cork The CSF detail the IRA’s killing of Lynch, accused of giving information leading to the death of Volunteer Timothy Fitzgerald. Shot and buried in a quarry near Timoleague, his remains were never recovered.62 SA: Fitzgerald (29Aug1920/6) Herbert Eagling (21Jan1921/5) MGC, 22, Horseman CMHC Eagling, of the Norfolk Regiment, died four days after Private Allen shot himself in the

hand while handling Lieutenant Turk’s automatic, the bullet passing on and striking Eagling, who cried, ‘You have hit me.’ He was buried in his homeplace, Hingham, Norfolk.63

22 JANUARY 1921 William Charters (22Jan1921/1) 27, Farmer’s son, CoI Corbeagh, Ballinalee, Longford Charters lived in Garvagh, Ballinalee. His brother David drowned on the Titanic in 1912; another died in the Great War. At about 03:00, armed men threatened to burn the house and began to break the door down before being admitted. They took William away. In 2013 a relative wrote how the family afterwards ‘found a note had been pushed under the front door. The note said simply “Try Currygrane”. . . . Sure enough, Willie’s body was found, shot and dumped in Lake Currygrane . . . headfirst.’ These events struck fear into the hearts of EOH’s grandparents, who fled overnight on the boat to England, together with seven young children and two elderly great uncles. They never returned to County Longford, eventually settling in County Down.

Seán Mac Eoin, O/C ASU North Longford Brigade, later said that Charters was killed because, following an unfavourable adjudication by a Sinn Féin court in a land dispute with his brother-in-law, he informed the authorities when he saw the Sinn Féin magistrate and an IRA officer surveying the disputed fields. William Elliott was abducted from his home at Drummeel, Ballinalee, about an hour before Charters, by raiders who fired two shots. At 16:00 next day, a neighbour discovered his body beside a bog hole. Mac Eoin asserted that Elliott was a UVF lieutenant, who considered it his duty to accompany Crown raiding parties. To quell unease among many local Protestants, Mac Eoin issued ‘a proclamation over my own name, guaranteeing protection of both life and property to all citizens, both Catholic and Protestant, who remained neutral, and stating that they were not to regard what had

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happened as an attack upon them’. This, Mac Eoin believed, had the desired effect. Buried Ballinalee Churchyard. His parents secured £1,200 compensation.64 RD: Elliott (22Jan1921/2) William George Elliott (22Jan1921/2) 22, Farmer, CoI Listraghee, Ballinalee, Longford See Charters (22Jan1921/1). Buried Ballinalee Churchyard. His father secured £1,000 compensation.65 Michael Dwyer66 (22Jan1921/3) 23, Ex-serviceman, RC Farranalough Cross, Bandon, Cork Dwyer was from Castletownkenneigh, Enniskeane. Denis Lordan, vice-O/C Bandon Battalion, Cork No. 3 Brigade, recalled that on the night of 20 January, Charlie Hurley, brigade O/C, Liam Deasy, Tom Barry and Mick Crowley went to reconnoitre an area six miles west of Bandon on the Dunmanway road for a possible ambush site. Near Palaceanne, on horseback and in Volunteer uniform, the IRA officers encountered Dwyer asleep by the road. Mistaking them for Auxiliaries, Dwyer said that ‘the Major [A.E. Perceval of the Essex Regiment in Bandon] knows me well, as I work for him’ and promised to sell further information. When Deasy, who was known to Dwyer, was brought before him as if he was a prisoner, Dwyer said he should be shot at once. Dwyer was then court martialled and shot shortly after daybreak on the roadside at Farranalough Cross, four miles north-west of Bandon. Saturday was the weekly market day. It was hoped that farmers going into Bandon would report seeing Dwyer’s body, which might act as a lure. But a police patrol chanced upon it separately. Buried Castletownkenneigh. His parents secured £1,600 compensation.67 SA: Hurley (19Mar1921/2) Michael Magee (22Jan1921/4) IRA, 24, Labourer, RC KGVH An IRA party under Frank Flood planned to attack a police tender that usually drove in

from Gormanston. Expected at Binn’s Bridge at 08:30, an hour later it had not arrived. Flood moved his party further down the Drumcondra Road, near Clonturk Park. He then decided to attack an approaching military lorry, but when an armoured car and two tenders also materialised, the IRA had to retreat. Auxiliaries opened fire on them in Grace Park Gardens. McGee, severely wounded, died next day. Flood, O’Sullivan, Thomas Bryan, Patrick Doyle and Bernard Ryan were captured. All save O’Sullivan were convicted, and hanged on 14 March 1921. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: B. j. 320.5).68 SA: Bryan (14Mar1921/6), Doyle (14Mar 1921/4), Flood (14Mar1921/7), Ryan (14Mar 1921/5) William Walsh (22Jan1921/5) 30, Farmer, RC Claran, Headford, Galway Following an ambush of Auxiliaries at Headford on 18 January, the RIC sought suspects also thought responsible for killing constables James Burke and Patrick Carey near Dunmore on 19 July 1920. Walsh was having his breakfast when police under DI J. McGlynn arrived, asked his name and ordered him outside, where four lorries were waiting. He was then shot in the head, supposedly as he attempted to escape. At Caherlistrane, police took Michael Hoade from his home. Shortly afterwards his sister heard shots. Michael had apparently been ordered to run and then fired on. His killers brought Hoade’s body back to the house on a board. One commented: ‘There will not be an ambush here for a long time again.’ McGlynn’s party arrived at 14:30 at the Kirwin farm at Ballinastack, seeking ‘Jim’ Kirwin. They ill-treated a brother, Tom, who was in poor health. Jim, who had been unloading a cart of manure in a field, attempted to flee when he saw the police and was shot for failing to halt. A horse was also killed. Buried Claran. Walsh’s brother and sister were each awarded £400 compensation.69

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RD: Hoade (22Jan1921/7), Kirwin (22Jan 1921/6). SA: Burke (19Jul1920/1), Carey (19Jul1920/2) James Kirwin (22Jan1921/6) 26, Farmer, RC Ballinastack, Corofin, Galway See Walsh (22Jan1921/5). Buried Corofin. His father and brother Tom each secured £400 compensation.70 Michael Hoade (22Jan1921/7) 30, Shopkeeper, RC Caherlistrane, Headford, Galway See Walsh (22Jan1921/5). Hoade kept a grocery and general store. Buried Donaghpatrick, Headford, Galway. His sister secured £650 compensation.71 Robert Henry Hegarty (22Jan1921/8) RIC (73068), 18, Ex-serviceman, CoI Aghnaglogh, Stranooden, Monaghan Hegarty, from Cork, a policeman’s son, joined the RIC on 11 September 1920, stationed in Stranooden. Philip Marron of the Monaghan Battalion (later a Garda himself), claimed that RIC from Stranooden Barracks searched houses ‘in an unofficial and blackguardly manner’ for purposes of robbery. An IRA party in wait at the creamery cross, midway between the barracks and Leonard’s pub where policemen were drinking, allowed a Constable McKeever, ‘whose attitude was friendly’, to pass. Constables Hegarty, Taylor and Clarke were ambushed at 21:45: Hegarty and Taylor were killed and Clarke severely wounded. The IRA seized one automatic pistol and a revolver. After the 22:00 roll call, a search party found three bodies. When they returned with reinforcements, Clarke was missing. He was found at 08:00 next day, barely conscious and covered in blood, in the creamery, to which he had crawled. He later died. Buried Kerry.72 RD: Clarke (30Jan1921/4), Taylor (22Jan 1921/9) Frederick William Taylor (22Jan1921/9) RIC (75307), 24, Driller, ex-serviceman, RC Aghnaglogh, Stranooden, Monaghan See Hegarty (22Jan1921/8). Taylor, from Plymouth, joined the RIC on 9 November 1920, stationed in Monaghan town.73

23 JANUARY 1921 James McCullough (23Jan1921/1) USC, 23, Protestant Fermanagh Street, Clones, Monaghan McCullough, from Belfast, was stationed in Newtownbutler, Fermanagh. At 03:30, John O’Reilly and Charles McEntee alerted the Clones RIC to armed burglars in their grocery shop. Sergeant Abbott and Constable Clarke called on two men near the premises to halt. These fired three shots before the RIC replied. Shortly afterwards, the police arrested a USC party in a Crossley tender, among whom was McCullough, seriously wounded. They also found stolen liquor and groceries. The Newtownbutler USC platoon was disbanded, and some members charged with indiscipline.74 Timothy Keane (23Jan1921/2) RIC (65193), 32, Married with two children, RC Military Hospital, Tipperary, Tipperary A Kerryman, Keane joined the RIC in 1910, serving in Galway and from 1917 in Tipperary. He died from septic poisoning at 04:15, having been accidentally shot in the knee on 24 November 1920 by Constable Creed, who was later fined 10s. for negligence. Buried Ardfert, Kerry. Each of his children under sixteen received annual allowances of £15. His brother-in-law Michael Cleary, a Volunteer from 1917 to 1921, died in an accidental explosion while serving in the National army in Kerry on 13 March 1923.75 Thomas Bradfield (23Jan1921/3) 65, Farmer, CoI Carhue, Bandon, Cork Bradfield lived in Carhue, Bandon, Cork. Denis Lordan, vice-O/C 1st (Bandon) Battalion, Cork No. 3 Brigade, described how a section of the brigade ASU approached Bradfield’s house. Allegedly mistaking the party for Auxiliaries, he gave a lot of information about the local IRA, ‘even to the extent of a minute description of a dugout . . . He also arranged to give further information later on through his local clergyman and pressed very hard for the immediate capture and execution

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of certain local [IRA] boys.’ The IRA arrested Bradfield. One of his captors claimed ‘he was always suspected. I was minding him for about 4 hours and then Liam Deasy took charge of him’, and he was shot. The police found his body at about 12:30 on 23 January near his home, shot in the head. An attached note stated that he had been shot on the night of 22 January for intending to inform the enemy about the IRA. The RIC reported that Bradfield ‘evidently mistook the IRA for military & gave information’. Curiously, his cousin, also Thomas Bradfield, living a few miles away, made precisely the same fatal error of mistaking IRA men for British forces, resulting in his death. Both men were relatives of the Reverend W. Bradfield MA, rector of Munterconnaught, Virginia, Cavan. Buried Killowen Cemetery, Enniskeane, Cork on 25 January.76 SA: Bradfield (1Feb1921/6) John J. Kemp (23Jan1921/4) RIC (58633), 42, Farmer, Married, CoI County Infirmary, Armagh From Drumgola, Butlers Bridge, Cavan, Kemp joined the RIC on 3 January 1899. Promoted to sergeant in 1917, he was stationed in Armagh City. In August 1920 he received a threatening letter featuring a picture of a coffin: ‘Prepare for death. You are a doomed man. You are a traitor to your country.’ At around 21:30 on 14 January Kemp was wounded in the leg by a grenade as he passed a grocery store on Market Street. He reached Russell Street Barracks before collapsing. Francis Campbell, a civilian, was severely wounded in the head. Kemp developed septicaemia following an operation and died at 14:15. Buried New Cemetery, Cavan. His widow secured £3,000 compensation.77 Richard Morey (23Jan1921/5) 14, RC Step Lane, Shandon Street, Cork Robert, a labourer’s son, reportedly lived at 13 Step Lane. At around 20:00, youths talking and listening to music scattered when challenged by a Hampshire Regiment curfew patrol. A round was fired, killing Robert and wounding Michael Ward. The O/C 17th

Infantry Brigade wrote: ‘It is essential to differentiate between clearing the streets at the commencement of curfew and dealing with civilians who break the regulations later, when the streets are empty and women and children are not about.’78

c. 23 JANUARY 1921 Patrick Ray (23Jan1921/6) Ex-serviceman, Married with four sons, RC Passage West, Cork On 21 January Patrick Ray, who suffered from shell shock, collected his pension of 35s. in Cork and returned to Passage West: ‘As he came out of the train he met his little boy and told him to go home. But he never turned in home since.’ The IRA killed him two days later. Five days after the Treaty was signed, his distraught wife Catherine wrote to the Dáil government: ‘I am heartbroken, and only ask you . . . to let me know is he a prisoner or is he dead or alive. I have 4 young children and am destitute.’ His sister Agnes wrote that ‘he was an ex-serviceman but I know him not to be doing any harm . . . one would be satisfied to know if he was dead . . . but living in suspense is awful’. After inquiries the Dáil minister for defence wrote on 25 January 1922 that Ray was executed after conviction for espionage by ‘a duly authorised authority’. Ray’s sister Agnes then sought a death certificate as he was ‘insured in the Royal Liver Friendly Society . . . it is 31 pounds that is coming’ to Catherine Ray ‘and her 4 young children almost starving and with no one to turn to. May be you could get it done in Dublin . . . also for Christian Charity’s sake.’ After further representations, Catherine was assured that her husband had ‘received the ministrations of a priest’. This was Father Donovan of Passage West. She secured £1,200 compensation, with £200 for each of her children.79

24 JANUARY 1921 Daniel O’Reilly (24Jan1921/1) IRA, RC Bandon, Cork ‘Dan’ O’Reilly from Kilbrittain, Cork, served in the brigade ASU. Charlie Hurley, O/C

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Cork No. 3 Brigade, and Tom Barry planned to attack a curfew patrol of the Essex Regiment which came out of barracks in Bandon nightly at 22:30. Over one hundred Volunteers took up positions, but no patrol appeared. As the IRA withdrew at 03:00, O’Reilly was killed by machine-gun fire from the military post. Buried, initially unidentified, St Patrick’s Cemetery, Bandon.80 SA: Hurley (19Mar1921/2) Martin Brackenbury (24Jan1921/2) Lincolnshire Regiment (4792757), 26, CoE Poynstown, Glengoole, Thurles, Tipperary Sergeant Brackenbury, stationed in Tipperary, was in a Ford car ambushed by the newly formed Tipperary No. 2 Brigade ASU when it crashed into a trench on the road at Poynstown at around 15:00. Jim Leahy believed that Crown forces sustained heavy casualties; however, official records identify only two fatalities, Brackenbury and Private Staves. Buried St Margaret’s Churchyard, Thimbleby, Lincolnshire.81 RD: Staves (24Jan1921/3) Harold Staves (24Jan1921/3) Lincolnshire Regiment (4793670), 21, CoE Poynstown, Glengoole, Thurles, Tipperary See Brackenbury (24Jan1921/2). Private Staves was from Lincoln. Buried All Saints Churchyard, Wellingore, Lincolnshire.82 Mary Hudson (24Jan1921/4) 7, Schoolgirl, RC Dorset Street Upper, Dublin Daughter of William Hudson, a porter of 22 Dorset Street Upper, Mary was hit at about 17:45 on Dorset Street Upper by a tender returning to Dublin Castle from Gormanston Camp. Witnesses saw her run off the footpath. A second child was struck but not seriously injured. Buried GC (Garden Section: D. a. 108).83

26 JANUARY 1921 Francis Barnane (26Jan1921/1) 73, Old age pensioner, Married, RC North Infirmary, Cork Barnane and his wife Julia lived at 21 Cathedral Walk. Hit at around 19:00 by a

police tender on Patrick Street, he died next morning at 03:00.84 James Devaney (26Jan1921/2) IRA, 21, Chemist’s assistant, RC Lisgarode, Kilruane, Nenagh, Tipperary Devaney, of Pallas, Toomevara, and Pat O’Brien, both of the ASU Tipperary No. 1 Brigade, ran out the back door of O’Meara’s pub when a police patrol approached. O’Brien escaped but Devaney was hit, a bullet severing a main artery. The police said the IRA had fired first. Buried Toomevara, Tipperary. A plaque marks where he died. His brother Thomas was killed on 1 March 1921.85 SA: Devaney (1Mar1921/3) Thomas Heffron (26Jan1921/3) RIC (69264), 26, Farmer, RC Railway View Hotel, Townhall Street, Belfast From Doonfeeny, Ballycastle, Mayo, Heffron joined the RIC on 4 December 1917, stationed in Cork. Later transferred to the Phoenix Park Depot, he was awarded the constabulary medal Three constables of the RIC’s Reserve Force attached to Phoenix Park Depot were sent to Belfast on special escort duty. The Times reported that one was undertaking an investigation of ‘a most delicate nature’; the others were his escorts. Roger McCorley, O/C 1st Battalion, Belfast Brigade, stated that Heffron and Quinn were guarding Constable Denis Gilmartin, a former Volunteer who was testifying in a murder trial. McCorley learned about the police visitors in the Railway View Hotel, also known as ‘Roddys Hotel’, from barman Vincent Watters, a Volunteer. At about 21:45 men who had been sitting in the snug of Roddy’s bar made their way upstairs, where McCorley, McKennay, Séamus Woods and Joe Murray shot the three policemen in their beds. Heffron and Quinn were killed outright and Gilmartin severely wounded, survived. Heffron’s dependents secured £350 compensation.86 RD: Quinn (26Jan1921/4). SA: Fallon (3Nov 1920/1), Hunt (23Jun1919/1)

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Michael Quinn (26Jan1921/4) RIC (69729), 20, Farmer, RC Railway View Hotel, Townhall Street, Belfast See Heffron (26Jan1921/3). From Killeigh, Laois, Constable Quinn joined the RIC on 3 June 1919, stationed in Cork, and transferred to the RIC Reserve on 11 September 1920. He was awarded the constabulary medal. His brother William was also a policeman. Buried Killeigh, Laois.87

Robert T. W. Barney (27Jan1921/3) RIC (74970), 23, Grocer’s assistant, exserviceman, Married, Protestant Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin Constable Barney, from London, joined the RIC on 29 October 1920, stationed in Trim. He died around 02:00 from wounds suffered on 25 January when the Trim Company attacked a police patrol on Haggard Street at about 22:00.90

27 JANUARY 1921

Frank O’Meara91 (27Jan1921/4) 19, Agricultural labourer, RC Laffansbridge, Killenaule, Tipperary O’Meara, from Stockport, came to Ireland from ‘Bishop Browne’s School, Stockport’ around 1916 and lived in Killenaule, Tipperary. A mixed patrol of police and soldiers of the Lincolnshire Regiment arrested him near Laffansbridge. Unable to give a coherent account of himself, he was taken for further questioning, but tried to run back towards Laffansbridge and was shot. Thomas Croke of Graystown deposed that he had recently given O’Meara notice: ‘I was afraid he might burn the place down by mistake some night . . . he was not quite right in the head. He talked loudly in his sleep and if spoken to he would not answer for some time. He had no friends at all in the neighbourhood.’ Buried St Michael’s Cemetery, Thurles, Tipperary.92

John Cowhig (27Jan1921/1) 63, Shoemaker, Widowed with children, RC Coolflugh, Tower, Cork Just before midnight on 27 January armed men entered Cowhig’s house at Coolflugh through the back door. They went upstairs, ordering him out of bed. Cowhig spoke only to himself, saying: ‘My God what is this?’ One man threatened to blow Cowhig’s brains out if he moved, and then shot him. The raiders then fled. According to Feeney, they were Black and Tans. A police report suggested robbery as the motive, as Cowhig was reputed to keep a lot of money in his home.88 Michael Garvey (27Jan1921/2) 26, Chemist’s assistant, RC Bray Street, Crumlin Road, Belfast From Armagh, Garvey was employed by McLaughlin’s Chemists, Old Park Road. At about 04:00 some men entered his lodgings at 1 Bray Street and went into his bedroom. His landlady Margaret Moran heard two shots in quick succession, followed by a third. Garvey was killed in his bed. Margaret Moran thought the intruders were probably police, and shouted from the window at them as they left. They and others at the corner got into a motor car. The three killers were most likely DI Richard Harrison, DI John William Nixon and Head Constable Pakenham. Garvey’s killing may have been a reprisal for the shooting of constables Heffron and Quinn the night before and it appears his name was confused with a barman of the same name. Buried Sandyhill Cemetery, Armagh.89 SA: Heffron (26Jan1921/3), Quinn (26Jan 1921/4)

28 JANUARY 1921 Thomas Moyles (28Jan1921/1) RIC (71364), 21, Farmer, RC Tooreengarriv, Scartaglin, Kerry From Mayo, Moyles joined the RIC on 4 May 1920, allocated to Cork. He was among a six-man escort accompanying Divisional Commissioner Philip Armstrong Holmes from Tralee to Cork via Castleisland in two Crossley touring cars. Holmes succeeded G. B. F. Smyth as commissioner for Munster. At about 12:30, they were ambushed at Daly’s Glen, Tooreengarriv, by the ASU 5th (Newmarket) Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade, under Seán Moylan, and some Volunteers from Kingwilliamstown and Kiskeam. A trench was cut across a bend. The ASU deployed a Hotchkiss gun as well as riflemen

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and Volunteers with shotguns. The driver of the first car skidded to a halt on seeing the trench, at which point the Hotchkiss gun opened fire. The police fought for about thirty minutes, until their ammunition was exhausted. Moyles was killed and six RIC were wounded. Moylan, who earned a reputation for treating his enemies decently, provided first aid for the wounded policemen. A private car, belonging to a school inspector, was used to bring three of the most seriously wounded to Castleisland for medical attention. One of the police vehicles was set on fire. Another was driven away with the Hotchkiss gun. Holmes, who suffered six wounds, died shortly after an operation next day. After his arrest in May 1921, Moylan was prosecuted for Holmes’ murder. The prosecutor told the court that, when Volunteers wished to kill three captured RIC men, Moylan had said, ‘If you shoot them I will shoot you.’ This probably contributed to his escaping a death sentence. According to press reports, this was the first ambush in the Castleisland district. In reprisal, the military burned several premises in Kingwilliamstown. Buried Moygownagh Cemetery, Ballina, Mayo. His father secured £1,000 compensation.93 RD: Holmes (29Jan1921/3). SA: Smyth (17Jul 1920/1) Hyde Egerton Marmion (28Jan1921/2) c. 40, Land agent, CoI Salterbridge, Cappoquin, Waterford Marmion, son of Thomas H. Marmion, JP of South Mall, Lismore, Waterford, apparently visited his neighbour Captain Chearnely at Salterbridge House to collect apples. At around 15:30 he was challenged at Salterbridge Lodge near Glenribben by a police patrol. He appears to have panicked and fled towards a wood, and was shot in the head and killed. Buried Protestant churchyard, Lismore.94 Thomas Blake (28Jan1921/3) IRA, 25, Chemist’s assistant, RC Clyde Road, Limerick Blake, of 1 St Alphonsus Avenue, worked for Messrs Laird & Co., O’Connell Street.

President of the Limerick branch of the Chemists’ Association, and a Mid Limerick Brigade Volunteer, he was shot dead near Clyde Street at about 18:40 on his way home. There were no witnesses. Cáit O’Callaghan, widow of Michael O’Callaghan, later maintained that Blake had been threatened the previous evening by Auxiliaries while attending a dance at the George Hotel. Buried Shanboha Cemetery, Granagh, Limerick.95 SA: O’Callaghan (7Mar1921/1)

29 JANUARY 1921 Philip Marmion Hall (29Jan1921/1) ADRIC (79229), 18, Army officer Infirmary, Tralee, Kerry Hall, from Kent, joined the Auxiliary Division on 2 November 1920, and served in H Company, stationed in Tralee. He was shot near the Carnegie Library in Tralee around 14:00 on 28 January, shortly after Divisional Commissioner Holmes had been killed, when Section Leader Eric Leslie inadvertently discharged his weapon while in a motor car reversing around a corner. Despite an operation, he died at 00:30. Leslie was later acquitted of manslaughter.96 SA: Holmes (29Jan1921/3) William Doran (29Jan1921/2) 38, Ex-serviceman, porter, Married with three children, RC Wicklow Hotel, Wicklow Street, Dublin Doran, of 19F, Iveagh Buildings, Bride Street, was the Wicklow Hotel’s night porter. The hotel was frequented by key figures including Michael Collins,† his deputy Liam Tobin, Tom Cullen, Gearóid O’Sullivan, Dermot O’Hegarty and Thornton. Garry Byrne and Frank Thornton recalled that he allegedly passed on information to Dublin Castle and ignored several warnings to cease his activities. Doran told his wife that he was being shadowed. Joe Dolan and Dan McDonnell shot him four times at about 09:45. Emily Doran told a court of inquiry that her husband was on friendly terms with the police and used to pass the time at Dublin Castle. This was confirmed by Inspector Robert Forrest, DMP, who deposed that Doran had in the past provided valuable

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information on burglaries. Charles Dalton, GHQ intelligence officer, told the BMH that Doran’s widow wrote to Collins claiming that her husband had been killed by Crown forces. She was in financial difficulty: ‘Rather than tell her the true facts, Collins instructed that she receive financial assistance.’ Buried DGC. His widow secured £800 compensation, each child £300, and his mother £50.97 Philip Armstrong Holmes (29Jan1921/3) RIC (58074), 45, Ex-serviceman, CoI CMHC See Moyles (28Jan1921/1). Holmes, a son and grandson of RIC inspectors, joined the RIC as a cadet in 1898. He served in Clare, Roscommon, Galway and Belfast. During the Great War, Holmes fought with the RIR and RIF, was twice wounded, and gassed, and before demobilisation was attached to the Intelligence Office for the Midland District Irish Command at the Curragh. He succeeded Gerard B. F. Smyth as divisional commissioner for Munster in July 1920. Buried GC. His mother secured £6,000 compensation.98 SA: Smyth (17Jul1920/1) John Doody (29Jan1921/4) 41, Dairyman, RC Leinster Road, Rathmines, Dublin Doody lived on 3 Greenmount Lane. His twelve-year-old assistant Michael Byrne described how two men confronted him on Leinster Road West, shouting, ‘Hands up.’ One seized the horse’s head; the other pointed a gun at Doody. As he alighted from the milk cart, one man shot Doody in the hip. He soon died. This was thought to be a straightforward robbery. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: D. j. 339).99 John Rowlette (29Jan1921/5) 15, Schoolboy, RC Cork Street Hospital, Dublin John, eldest son of William and Catherine Rowlette of 2 Michael Terrace, Church Road, died of injuries sustained on 24 December 1920 when he was on a milk cart struck by an armoured car in wet conditions at Eden Quay. The military driver was exonerated.100

30 JANUARY 1921 Charles Ingledew (30Jan1921/1) Ex-RIC, 24, Motor driver Military Barracks, Listowel, Kerry Ingledew, a Scot, was in a pub in Listowel on 29 January. Drunk, he drew a revolver from his hip pocket ‘and began playing with it’, shooting himself in the forehead. He died at 01:45.101 Terence G. Sweeney (30Jan1921/2) RIC (76552), 27, Gardener, ex-serviceman, RC Borrisoleigh, Tipperary Sweeney, son of Terence Sweeney of Church Street, Paddington, enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers in 1913. Twice wounded, he joined the RIC on 10 December 1920, serving in Templemore, Tipperary. He was shot in the head when Cadet Evans discharged his rifle while using the butt to break a door lock during a search.102 Peter John McArdle (30Jan1921/3) RIC (57940), 42, Shop assistant, Married, RC Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin From Cork, McArdle joined the RIC on 15 September 1896, subsequently serving in the RIC Depot, the RIC Reserve and Limerick, before transfer to Roscommon town in February 1915, where he was inspector of weights and measures. A sergeant since 1905, he was on temporary duty in Strokestown, Roscommon. On 5 January a section of the newly formed 3rd (Strokestown) Battalion ASU attacked Tarmonbarry RIC Barracks, wounding two policemen. The remainder of the ASU went into Strokestown and fired at a police lorry. Hearing shots, McArdle left his home for the barracks next door and was shot in the right leg. He recovered rapidly until ‘he contracted an acute form of pneumonia’ and died. Buried GC (South Section: D. c. 28–29.5). His widow Mary secured £6,000 compensation.103 Sidney George Clarke (30Jan1921/4) RIC (76744), 19, Ex-serviceman, Protestant Infirmary, Monaghan, Monaghan See Hegarty (22Jan1921/8). Clarke, from London, joined the RIC on 17 December 1920, allocated to Monaghan. Buried London.104

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Alexander Brodie Macpherson (30Jan1921/5) Cameronians, 18 Dublin Private Macpherson, from Coupar Angus, was killed when a comrade accidentally discharged a rifle while cleaning it. Buried Coupar Angus.105

31 JANUARY 1921 Charles Gleeson (31Jan1921/1) 60, Ex-serviceman, RC Kilmoganny, Kilkenny Gleeson served in both the British army and the US navy. Missing since Christmas Eve 1920, his remains were found in a pond near Kilmoganny, his legs and wrists bound with a belt and muffler. No IRA sources have been traced.106 Denis Bennett (31Jan1921/2) 18, Locomotive cleaner, RC Railway Station, Mallow, Cork The ASU Mallow Battalion intended to ambush a police party which regularly delivered official dispatches to Mallow Railway Station for the night mail train. They opened fire as three figures approached. It was not the expected party, but DI William Herbert King, his wife Alice and her cousin. King described how they heard shots. He returned fire, and was wounded in the right leg. Alice, hit on her left side, died in the Southern Nursing Home at 02:00. Police rushed to the station. GS&WR records note a ‘serious attack’ on station staff and premises, causing the deaths of Denis Bennett, Daniel O’Mullane, Patrick Devitt and Joseph Greensmyth, while six others were wounded. Bennett was killed outright. O’Mullane died at 18:00 next day. Devitt died on 13 February. Thrown down the steps of a signal cabin, Greensmyth was beaten with a rifle butt. He never recovered and died on 25 June 1921. Several other railway workers were arrested. Evidence suggested that three of the dead were among a group ordered on to the road at gunpoint with their hands up and told to run for their lives. When they had gone about

10 yards they were fired on. Bennett’s father Edward secured £1,000 compensation.107 RD: Devitt (13Feb1921/2), Greensmyth (25Jun1921/2), King (1Feb1921/1), O’Mullane (1Feb1921/3)

c. JANUARY–FEBRUARY 1921 Thomas Kirby (Jan–Feb1921/1) Lincolnshire Regiment, 30, Agricultural labourer, RC Turraheen, Rossmore, Cashel, Tipperary Kirby, from Golden, Tipperary, worked in Annacarty, Tipperary. An ex-soldier, he habitually drank with Black and Tans. The IRA warned him off, but he re-enlisted in Tipperary town, being posted to the Lincolnshire Regiment in Dundrum Military Barracks. Captured by the IRA in a pub in Ballybrack, BMH accounts suggest he was held for several weeks, whereas an IRA document said he ‘met his Waterloo’ the night after capture. Tadhg Dwyer, in whose area Kirby operated, recalled that he pleaded insanity at his court martial. The parish priest of Clonoulty heard his confession before he was shot at Turraheen, Rossmore. Crown forces searched for his remains without success. On 6 September 1990, after an elderly local pinpointed the grave in a bog, Clonoulty Community Council arranged an exhumation of his well-preserved remains, dressed in an army tunic and cap with a Lincolnshire Regiment badge. Rosary beads were also recovered.108

1 FEBRUARY 1921 Alice Mary King (1Feb1921/1) 40, Married, CoI Southern Nursing Home, Mallow, Cork See Bennett (31Jan1921/2). Alice King, daughter of the Rector of Kilcolman, Kerry, was active in church work in Cork. Her DI husband had been transferred from Cork a few months previously. Buried New Cemetery. Her husband later withdrew a compensation claim, as money would be no consolation. The judge said this would ‘intensify the sympathy felt for him by the public’.109

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Cornelius Murphy (1Feb1921/2) IRA, 31, Farmer, RC Military Detention Barracks, Cork ‘Con’ Murphy and his married brother Timothy lived on a farm in Ballydaly, Cork. Interned after the Rising in Frongoch, he was a founding member of the Millstreet Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade. Believed involved in the killing of Private Squibb, Murphy was convicted in December of possession of a loaded revolver. The trial was controversial, as soldiers had given differing accounts to an earlier inquiry. An appeal to the High Court failed, and he was executed at 08:01, the first execution under martial law. Buried Millstreet, Cork.110 SA: Squibb (8Oct1920/1)

and Section Leader Treasure attempted to disarm him. Emily hit him over the head and the cadet fell back. Cadet Wood and Freeman then traded shots. The Freemans locked themselves in a room until Auxiliaries first ordered them out and then fired through the door. Both husband and wife were wounded. Emily died at 23:20 after an operation for abdominal wounds. Major-General G. F. Boyd, commanding the Dublin District, noted, ‘The bandmaster should not have been armed, although both he and his wife acted in a very courageous manner in this regrettable affair.’ In September 1921, an ex gratia payment of £200 was made from Army funds.113

Daniel O’Mullane (1Feb1921/3) 24, Railway fireman, RC West End, Mallow, Cork See Bennett (31Jan1921/2). O’Mullane, of Bridge Street, Mallow, worked for the GS&WR. His father Edward secured £1,000 compensation.111

Thomas Bradfield (1Feb1921/6) 56, Farmer, Married with one daughter, Methodist Castlederry, Ballineen, Cork Thomas Bradfield lived in Knockmacool House, Desertserges, Enniskeane. He was twice married. Denis Lordan recalled that the ASU Cork No. 3 Brigade were billeted at Ahiohill. James ‘Spud’ Murphy maintained that Bradfield mistook Tom Barry for a British soldier and gave him information about the IRA. Joseph Bradfield said that his brother was working in a turnip field at 16:30 on 1 February when three armed men called. After taking milk and bread, they led Bradfield away. Tried and executed on the night of 1 February, Bradfield’s body was found on the morning of 2 February at Castlederry, six miles from his home, shot through the head. Lordan’s account of this man’s supposed treachery is uncannily similar to that for the killing of his cousin Thomas Bradfield days previously. That two Methodist farmers, related and of the same name, should make the identical error of mistaking an IRA unit for Crown forces is scarcely credible. It also raises the question of the evidential value of anything which a defenceless civilian, menaced by armed men of unspecified allegiance, might say in hopes of appeasing them.

Patrick William Joseph O’Connor (1Feb1921/4) RIC (69676), 22, Ex-serviceman, RC Drimoleague, Cork O’Connor, a Mayo man decorated for war service, joined the RIC on 1 April 1919, stationed in Drimoleague. He was one of four RIC men fired on from behind a wall as they left Beamish’s pub at around 21:00.112 Emily Blanche Freeman (1Feb1921/5) 30, Soldier’s wife, Married with children, CoE Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin Emily Freeman, from England, married Bandmaster Robert James Freeman, South Lancashire Regiment, in 1909. They lived on Donore Avenue, South Circular Road, Dublin. They were in bed when a party of N Company, Auxiliary Division knocked on their door. Freeman asked, ‘Who do you want?’ The reply, ‘We want you,’ led him to think it was an IRA raid. He produced a gun,

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Bradfield’s widow Elizabeth secured £4,000 compensation and his daughter Elizabeth Stokes, £2,000.114 SA: Bradfield (23Jan1921/3)

c. 1 FEBRUARY 1921 Patrick O’Halloran (1Feb1921/7) IRA, Carpenter, RC Limerick ‘Paddy’ O’Halloran served in B Company, 1st (Limerick City) Battalion, Mid Limerick Brigade. He died after being shot on 30 January during fighting between mourners and the RIC at the funeral of Thomas Blake. Buried Shanavoher, Croom, Limerick.115 SA: Blake (28Jan1921/3)

2 FEBRUARY 1921 Robert Gilbert Dixon (2Feb1921/1) 58, Auctioneer, farmer, Married, CoI Milltown House, Dunlavin, Wicklow Dixon, a JP, lived in Milltown House, Dunlavin. He and his son James resisted when two masked men demanded money about 02:45. Constable William Mitchell was identified from a revolver which James had wrenched from him and from his cap which he had dropped. The next morning Constable Alexander Hardie told another policeman that ‘Mitchell and myself went to a house and . . . there was a scramble. . . . Mitchell lost his revolver and I shot the man to get it back.’ James was seriously injured. Shortly afterwards, Hardie shot himself. On 18 April, Mitchell was convicted of Dixon’s murder by a court martial in Dublin. He was hanged on 7 June 1921, the only policeman executed for murder between 1916 and 1921. Professor Eoin MacNeill, chief of staff of the Irish Volunteers from 1913 to 1916, recalled seeing Mitchell’s wife and baby daughter visiting him in Mountjoy the day before his execution. Dixon’s murder soured relations between the RIC and the ‘loyal and Unionist section. . . . Mr Dixon had been extremely kind to the local police . . . and especially to the newly arrived strangers from across the water.’ Buried Dunlavin. His widow was refused compensation but secured legal costs.116 RD: Hardie (3Feb1921/2), Mitchell (7Jun 1921/6)

Patrick Mullaney (2Feb1921/2) RIC (65685), 34, Dairyman, RC Trinity Street, Dublin Mullaney, from Cavan, joined the RIC in January 1911, allocated successively to Galway, the Reserve, Waterford, and the Reserve again in September 1919. From 1912 to 1918 he was on ‘mounted’ duty. A driver in Gormanston Camp, he was cycling along Trinity Street in plain clothes with another RIC constable when IRA men chanced to recognise them. As his anonymous killer put it, ‘I fired and shot’ him dead. ‘The other detective fell off his bicycle, got up and ran away.’117 William Vanston (2Feb1921/3) 26, Labourer, ex-serviceman, Married with two children, CoI Dublin Road, Maryborough (now Portlaoise), Laois Originally from Belfast, Vanston served in France with the Royal Engineers until discharged due to ill-health in February 1919. In January 1921, he returned to Laois from Glasgow. He had planned to bring his family to Scotland, but opted instead to apply to join the RIC, in which his father and uncle had served. It was believed that his references and discharge record fell into IRA hands when they stole the mail from the Maryborough to Dublin train. At 06:10 Vanston left for work. His wife heard a struggle and cries for help. She kicked her husband’s attacker, then turned to fetch a hatchet. She heard a shot and the words ‘You’ll never join the fucking police.’ After another shot, the attacker, Thomas O’Neill, O/C 1st Battalion, Leix Brigade, who later became a Garda, cycled away. Vanston died at about 08:30. Buried Oakvale Cemetery, Stradbally. His funeral was attended by the local Catholic parish priest. His widow secured £3,000 compensation.118 John Aldridge Houghton (2Feb1921/4) ADRIC (80249), 25, Army officer, Married Clonfin, Granard, Longford Houghton, from Gloucester, was a Royal Sussex Regiment lieutenant before joining the Auxiliary Division on 1 January 1921, in M Company (auxiliary number 1375). His

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wife of six months was visiting him in Longford town. He was in a patrol under DI Francis W. Craven carrying out search operations in two Crossley tenders. At Clonfin they were ambushed by an IRA party under Seán Mac Eoin, O/C ASU North Longford Brigade. A mine explosion blew the front wheels and engine out of the first lorry, killing Houghton. The police put up a stubborn resistance for about forty minutes, surrendering when their ammunition was exhausted. According to an unnamed Auxiliary, Mac Eoin congratulated the police on their fight. Mac Eoin recalled that just before Craven died he told him his name. Cadets George Bush and Harold Clayton, severely wounded, died in Longford Infirmary. Clayton died on 4 February in Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin. Mac Eoin disarmed and released the remaining police. The IRA captured weapons including a Lewis gun and a supply of Mills bombs. The lorry was set on fire. Some houses were burned in reprisal. Bush, Craven and Houghton were buried in England. Houghton’s widow secured £1,500 compensation.119 RD: Bush (2Feb1921/6), Clayton (4Feb 1921/3), Craven (2Feb1921/5) Francis Worthington Craven (2Feb1921/5) ADRIC (80043), 32, Naval officer, Married Clonfin, Granard, Longford See Houghton (2Feb1921/4). Craven, from Barrow-in-Furness, served at the Dardanelles in 1915, and won the DSO for ‘remarkable courage and seamanship’ when HMS Otranto was damaged in a collision on 5 October 1918. He also won a DSC and DSM. Craven joined the RIC on 20 December 1920, becoming a DI in M Company, stationed in Longford. His widow Ada secured £1,021 compensation.120 George Bush (2Feb1921/6) ADRIC (79943), 22, Army officer, Married Infirmary, Longford, Longford See Houghton (2Feb1921/4). From Hertfordshire, Bush joined the RIC on 15 June 1920, and the Auxiliary Division on 19 November (auxiliary number 1073), first

in B Company and from 29 January in M Company. His widow secured £1,500 compensation.121 James Tormey (2Feb1921/7) IRA, 21, Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC Cornafulla, Creggan, Roscommon Tormey, from Moneen, Moate, Westmeath, enlisted in the Connaught Rangers 17 February 1915. Serving with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, and promoted to lancecorporal in June 1915, he was discharged on 15 March 1916 for having lied about his age on attestation. His military experience influenced his selection as O/C ASU Athlone Brigade in 1920. He was involved in killing Sergeant Thomas Craddock, and also in the Parkwood ambush in which Constable Harry Biggs died. David Daly said Tormey was anxious for revenge for the recent shooting of his brother Joseph in Ballykinlar Internment Camp. He fired on two policemen cycling near Cornafulla, not realising they were part of a bigger party. While his comrades withdrew, Tormey provided covering fire standing on a plough. Shot in the head, he died instantly. The IRA later recovered his body and ferried it across the Shannon to Cloonbonny, Offaly. Buried in secret, the RIC soon found the coffin and his body was returned to the family. Buried Mount Temple Cemetery, beside his brother. A memorial was erected at Creggan. His mother Kate secured a dependent’s gratuity of £150.122 SA: Biggs (22Oct1920/3), Craddock (21Aug 1920/1), Tormey (17Jan1921/2) Edward Campbell (2Feb1921/8) 43, Commercial traveller, Married, CoI O’Connell Street, Dublin Campbell, from Londonderry, was crushed to death by an armoured car at about 20:30 as he waited for a tram near Nelson’s Pillar. Buried MJC.123 Orr Graham (2Feb1921/9) RIC (57367), 46, Farmer, Married with four children, RC RIC Barracks, Bessbrook, Armagh Graham, from Antrim, joined the RIC in 1896, allocated in succession to Down, Derry,

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Belfast and in 1909 Armagh. At about 23:30 he shot himself in an upstairs hallway with a rifle, ‘one side of his face being blown away’, after leaving the dormitory. His last words were, ‘Don’t put out the light.’ He was facing a disciplinary charge, ‘a very trivial one, but it probably preyed on his mind’. His oldest child was just ten.124

3 FEBRUARY 1921 Unknown (3Feb1921/1) Ex-serviceman Dundrum, Dublin A postman found the body of ‘a well-set-up man, 6ft tall and aged about 30 . . . his black hair . . . oiled and neatly parted’, ‘having all the appearance of an ex-soldier’, at Balally, near Dundrum. This bore the hallmarks of an IRA killing. A .45 revolver bullet was found nearby. The dead man had black military boots, and ‘woollen drawers with the marks “2ND Welsh Regiment” and No. 3349420 printed on them’. He also had black military boots. That was the regimental number of a recently discharged Private Briggs, but a former comrade viewed the corpse and said it was not him. A 10s. note was found inside one sock. Buried MJC.125 Arthur Hardie (3Feb1921/2) RIC (76166), 23, Labourer, ex-serviceman, Married, Protestant RIC Barracks, Dunlavin, Wicklow See Dixon (2Feb1921/1). From Stirling, Hardie joined the RIC on 2 December 1920, stationed in Dunlavin. Buried GC (Garden Section: P. a. 91).126 Edward L. Carter (3Feb1921/3) RIC (75523), 19, Hotel porter, Protestant Ballinhassig, Cork From Blackpool, Carter joined the RIC on 16 November 1920, stationed in Ballinhassig. Constables Carter, Flaherty, Taylor and Fuller left Ballinhassig Barracks at about 11:30 to buy stores in a nearby town. They were ambushed by seventeen men of the Ballinhassig Company near Paddy’s Bridge. At about 13:15, Flaherty heard shots behind him. He took cover and then returned to

barracks, about two miles away, for help. When a military car returned to the spot, Taylor and Carter were found dead, while Fuller was badly wounded.127 RD: Taylor (3Feb1921/4) William H. Taylor (3Feb1921/4) RIC (75998), 28, Ex-serviceman, Married, Protestant Ballinhassig, Cork See Carter (3Feb1921/3). Taylor, from Leeds, joined the RIC on 30 November 1920, stationed in Ballinhassig.128 Samuel Adams (3Feb1921/5) RIC (75905), 21, Coach painter, exserviceman, Presbyterian Dromkeen, Limerick Adams, from Glasgow, joined the RIC on 24 November 1920, stationed in Pallasgreen. Richard O’Connell, O/C ASU Mid Limerick Brigade, and Donnchadh O’Hannigan, O/C ASU East Limerick Brigade, decided on a joint ambush in the Drumkeen area to attack two police lorries which regularly travelled from Pallasgreen RIC Barracks to Fedamore. About one hundred Volunteers took part, spread out over about 250 yards on either side of the road, under good cover. DI Adam Sanson described how he was in charge of two Crossley tenders with twelve men returning to Pallasgreen. They were attacked at about 14:30 near Dromkeen and eleven police were killed. Sanson’s driver accelerated when he saw an armed man, but the vehicle was travelling too fast, struck a wall and crashed into carts blocking the road. One driver and Sanson were able to get out and escape to Pallasgreen. Sanson, dressed in civilian clothes, was mistaken for a civilian hostage, which probably saved his life. Two of the three constables in the leading tender were shot dead. The second tender was forced to stop and three of its five occupants were killed. The others, Smith and Pearce, took cover under the vehicle. One policeman returning fire from under the front wheel of the first lorry was shot dead. Constables Smith and Pearce, who had feigned death, attempted to flee but were captured. Taken to

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a nearby farmhouse, they were tried by court martial and sentenced to death. Two of the five IRA officers involved were against killing them. Maurice Meade, a veteran of both the British and German armies, stated that he and Seán Stapleton were told to kill them, but the latter did not want to. O’Connell believed that Meade put one policeman in front of the other and shot them using one bullet to save ammunition, though other evidence does not support this. At least eight local properties were destroyed in reprisal. Adams’s mother Agnes secured £1,000 compensation.129 RD: Bell (3Feb1921/6), Bourke (3Feb1921/7), Doyle (3Feb1921/8), Foody (3Feb1921/9), Hayton (3Feb1921/10), Kingston (3Feb 1921/11), Millin (3Feb1921/12), Mollaghan (3Feb1921/13), Pearce (4Feb1921/1), Smith (3Feb1921/14) George William Bell (3Feb1921/6) RIC (75644), 21, Labourer, ex-serviceman, Protestant Dromkeen, Limerick See Adams (3Feb1921/5). From Benwell, Newcastle upon Tyne, Constable Bell, ex-Scottish Rifles, joined the RIC on 18 November 1920, stationed in Pallasgreen. Bell’s mother Charlotte and three siblings secured £1,600 compensation.130 John Joseph Bourke (3Feb1921/7) RIC (66247), 30, Gamekeeper, RC Dromkeen, Limerick See Adams (3Feb1921/5). Bourke, from Kilkenny, joined the RIC on 9 November 1911, stationed in Pallasgreen. Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery. His father William secured £250 compensation.131 Michael Doyle (3Feb1921/8) RIC (71009), 31, Rough-rider, ex-serviceman, Married, RC Dromkeen, Limerick See Adams (3Feb1921/5). From Dublin, he joined the RIC on 6 April 1920, stationed in Pallasgreen. Buried GC (Garden Section: K. f. 220.5). His widow Nellie secured £1,660 compensation.132

Patrick Foody (3Feb1921/9) RIC (58968), 45, Farmer, RC Dromkeen, Limerick See Adams (3Feb1921/5). Foody, from Sligo, joined the RIC on 1 June 1899, serving in Pallasgreen. The IRA also killed his brother Anthony. Buried Ballina, Mayo. His mother Mary secured £550 compensation, his brother Michael £250 and niece Mary £200.133 SA: Foody (7Jul1921/1) William Hayton (3Feb1921/10) RIC (74603), 21, Ex-serviceman, RC Dromkeen, Limerick See Adams (3Feb1921/5). From Sutton-onCraven, Yorkshire, Hayton joined the RIC on 19 October 1920, stationed in Pallasgreen. His mother Sarah secured £1,700 compensation.134 William Kingston (3Feb1921/11) RIC (76041), 36, Painter, ex-serviceman, Widowed with three children Dromkeen, Limerick See Adams (3Feb1921/5). Kingston, from London, joined the RIC on 30 November 1920, stationed in Pallasgreen. Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery. His sister Louisa, guardian of his children, secured £500 compensation with £2,100 for the children.135 Sidney Millin (3Feb1921/12) RIC (73738), 24, Motor mechanic, exserviceman, Married with two children, Protestant Dromkeen, Limerick See Adams (3Feb1921/5). Millin, from London, joined the RIC on 1 October 1920, stationed in Pallasgreen. His widow Hannah secured £2,400 compensation.136 Bernard Mollaghan (3Feb1921/13) RIC (61122), 44, Labourer, Married with five children, RC Dromkeen, Limerick See Adams (3Feb1921/5). Mollaghan, from Longford, joined the RIC on 1 December 1902, serving in Donegal and Galway, before transfer to Limerick in 1913, stationed in

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Pallasgreen. Buried Laurencetown, Galway. His widow Kate secured £1,900 compensation with £300 for each child.137 Henry Smith (3Feb1921/14) RIC (75901), 24, Mill worker, ex-serviceman, RC Military Hospital, New Barracks, Limerick See Adams (3Feb1921/5). From Selkirk, Smith joined the RIC on 24 November 1920, stationed in Pallasgreen. His mother Julia secured £850 compensation.138 Samuel Green (3Feb1921/15) RIC (75477), 22, Ex-serviceman, RC Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin Green, from Middlesex, joined the RIC Veterans Corps on 12 November 1920 at Gormanston Camp. At about 21:00, he was drinking in Kathleen Fagan’s pub in Balbriggan when a man rushed in and opened fire. Sergeant J. M. O’Malley ducked; Green, wounded, died in hospital.139 Michael Farrell (3Feb1921/16) 68, Farmer, Married with two children, RC Graffoge, Ballinalee, Longford A party of police and military set fire to a neighbour’s house in Graffoge. Farrell and his wife decided to take refuge on nearby bogland. As they moved off, he was shot in the chest and killed instantly by Cadet Claud Ridgeway, Auxiliary Division, who maintained he was evading arrest. Farrell was reportedly hard of hearing. Farrell’s widow Kate secured £300 compensation and her daughter £100.140 Frederick C. Curtis (3Feb1921/17) Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (5373986), 21, Ex-serviceman, Married, CoE Carey’s Cross, Nenagh, Tipperary Curtis re-enlisted in February 1919. His wife lived in Winslow, Buckinghamshire. He died when pinned underneath a Crossley tender he was driving to Templemore after braking to avoid a cart carrying a young woman. Buried All Saints Churchyard, Hulcott, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.141

Sarah Fitzpatrick (3Feb1921/18) 25, Chorus girl, Widowed, RC John’s Lane, Christchurch Place, Dublin Sarah ‘Sadie’ Fitzpatrick was a Scottishborn war widow, whose married name was McGrath or MacGrath. Her only close relative was a married sister in Australia. As ‘Connie Curzon’, she was a chorus girl in the pantomime The House that Jack Built at the Empire Theatre, where she had also performed the previous year. Described as ‘tall, handsome and of striking appearance . . . 24 to 26 years of age, always well dressed and of pleasant and genial manner, but of very highly strung temperament’, she had as usual gone for a drink after the evening performance. She bumped into her former boyfriend DI Arthur John ‘Tiny’ Purchase, F Company, Auxiliary Division, stationed in Dublin Castle. He said she ‘asked me to accompany her to her door’. He replied that he had ‘to visit the Castle to see if there were any duties to perform’, and she ‘hurriedly left me . . . apparently in a bad temper’. Sadie’s friend Alba Lena deposed that ‘She was a jolly girl, but very quick tempered. She had not been in her usual spirits for about a week, and I knew that they must have fallen out.’ Sadie ‘told me she loved Tiny, and that if anything came between them she would put a bullet in him first and then in herself afterwards’. She was ‘in the habit of taking the revolvers from the men’s pockets . . . remarking that she was a good shot’. After calling in to Dublin Castle, Purchase intervened when he saw Sadie being questioned by a patrol. As they neared her home at 5 John’s Lane, Sadie took his pistol from his pocket and discharged a shot. He attempted to disarm her but she said it was ‘quite alright’ and told him to knock on the door of her lodgings. As he did so, ‘another shot rang out and I saw the girl lying on the ground, with a wound in her left breast’. The military authorities thought ‘a case like this should have had a legal man on it’. In addition to the suspicious circumstances, the evidence indicated ‘great slackness & want of

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supervision’ of the Auxiliaries. A letter had been received claiming that ‘curfew passes were given to loose women’. Buried DGC (U3. 96N).142

c. 3 FEBRUARY 1921 Daniel Lucey (3Feb1921/19) RC Kilcorney, Millstreet, Cork According to Charlie Browne of the 7th (Macroom) Battalion, Lucey, sometimes rendered as ‘Lucy’, reported missing on 20 January 1921, was ‘of violent tongue and . . . quarrelsome in disposition. He had fallen out with a few Volunteers.’ Ned Neville, O/C Rusheen Company, stated that Lucey, when approached by two Volunteers from the Donoughmore area disguised as British officers, gave them information. Held prisoner for about a fortnight, he was shot in the Kilcorney area by the Millstreet Battalion, and his remains buried.143

4 FEBRUARY 1921 Arthur Pearce (4Feb1921/1) RIC (72803), 23, Labourer, Protestant Military Hospital, New Barracks, Limerick See Adams (3Feb1921/5). From Liverpool, Constable Pearce joined the RIC on 7 September 1920, stationed in Pallasgreen. His mother Sarah Anne secured £540 compensation.144 Patrick Crowley (4Feb1921/2) IRA (Cork No. 3 Brigade), RC Maryborough, Timoleague, Cork. ‘Paddy’ Crowley from Kilbrittain, whose father’s shop was burned down in a reprisal in January 1921, served on Bandon RDC and on the Board of Guardians. Crowley ran from O’Neill’s house at Maryborough, Timoleague, when he heard the approach of an Essex Regiment patrol led by Major A. E. Percival, and fled. The Walsh sisters tried to obstruct Percival, but Paddy was wounded as he ran. Captured, he was then apparently finished off by Percival at about 09:00. Buried Clogagh Cemetery, Timoleague.145

Harold Clayton (4Feb1921/3) ADRIC (80248), 24, Army officer, Married Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin See Houghton (2Feb1921/4). Clayton, from Yorkshire, won a DCM while in the RFA. Joining the Auxiliary Division on 1 February 1921, he was a Cadet in M Company (auxiliary number 1514). His widow Eleanor and children secured £3,500 compensation.146 Jeremiah M. Galvin (4Feb1921/4) 50, Hotel proprietor, Married, RC Cahirdown, Listowel, Kerry Proprietor of the Central Hotel, Galvin was among about a hundred men from Listowel forced by the military to repair roads which had been trenched. While being marched back to Listowel, he collapsed. His widow Mary claimed he had a heart condition and asthma.147

5 FEBRUARY 1921 John Ryan (5Feb1921/1) Military Police Corps (7681746), 48, Married, RC 19 Lower Gloucester Place, Dublin Ryan, of 16 Railway Street, fought with the 3rd Hussars before becoming a military police lance-corporal. He was believed to have trailed Peadar Clancy and Dick McKee, who were tortured and shot dead on the night of ‘Bloody Sunday’. At about 10:30, Ryan was shot dead in Hynes’ pub at 19 Lower Gloucester Place. Bernard C. Byrne of the ASU Dublin Brigade said there was ‘keen competition within the Squad as to who would have the honour’ of killing the man held responsible for the capture of Clancy and McKee. Tom Keogh† and Byrne approached Ryan at the bar as he studied the Early Bird, a horseracing paper. Byrne asked him for a racing tip. According to Todd Andrews, Ryan’s last words were, ‘What the fuck?’ Keogh and Byrne shot him in the head and chest. Buried GMC (RC. 733). His widow secured £800 compensation.148 SA: Clancy (22Nov1920/7), McKee (22Nov 1920/9)

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Patrick Thornton (5Feb1921/2) IRA, 20, Cinema clerk, RC Drogheda, Louth ‘Paddy’ Thornton, wounded in Dublin during the Rising, was afterwards interned, contracting a chronic lung condition. A ticket collector in the Boyne Cinema Picture House in Drogheda, he was a brother of GHQ’s Frank Thornton. Another brother, Captain Hugh Thornton†, was killed in Clonakilty on 27 August 1922. Frank wrote that ‘he was taken out of the Boyne Cinema . . . by the Black and Tans, and beaten to death. He was found dying in the Market Square’, whereas the Drogheda Advertiser simply said ‘he had been in failing health’. His death certificate indicated he had suffered from pulmonary disease for about four years. Buried New Cemetery, Drogheda. His father and sisters subsequently secured dependents’ awards.149 Alfred Kidney (5Feb1921/3) 30, Ex-serviceman, locksmith, RC Union Hospital, Youghal, Cork At 20:00 on 4 February, Kidney was shot in the head and back on North Main Street, Youghal. Locals suggested this was the work of the Black and Tans, although on 19 October 1920 the IRA had tried to kidnap him as a suspected informer. Kidney did not identify his assailants. The police reported that Kidney, ‘though exceptionally clever in some things, was generally thought to be mentally weak’. He thought a bomb had been thrown at him from behind, whereas police and military witnesses described hearing four shots, and a soldier described ‘a very tall man, wearing a soft felt hat and overcoat, rushing from the scene’. He died at 19:30.150 William Fitzgerald (5Feb1921/4) 3½, Child, RC Camden Street, Dublin As Katherine Fitzgerald, of 2 Lower Digges Street, was selling fruit with her son at around 20:45, two military lorries drove by. She thought she heard shots, whereas a police witness heard a bomb explode. A postmortem examination found an improvised

grenade fragment in William’s brain. Buried DGC.151 Daniel Moloney (5Feb1921/5) 69, Farmer, married with children, RC Lislevane, Barryroe, Cork The CFR records the death from head wounds inflicted by Crown forces during a search operation of Daniel Moloney, a prosperous farmer. Three of his sons were in prison. His wife’s nephew had been killed the previous day.152 SA: Crowley (4Feb1921/2)

6 FEBRUARY 1921 James O’Keeffe (6Feb1921/1) IRA, 25, Farm manager, RC Two Mile Bridge, Clonmel, Tipperary O’Keeffe, of Moangarriff, Clonmel, served in the 6th Battalion, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade. He was on guard duty for an IRA trenching party when surprised by a Devonshire Regiment patrol. He was held under guard, but when the rest of the patrol moved forward the IRA opened fire, wounding one soldier. When the patrol returned, the soldiers told their officer that O’Keeffe had been shot while trying to escape. Buried Powerstown Churchyard, Clonmel. A monument was erected at Two Mile Bridge.153 Michael John Kelleher (6Feb1921/2) 17, Schoolboy, RC Knocknagree, Cork Kelleher, only son of a carpenter, was killed when at about 16:15 a military convoy opened fire with a Lewis gun on some men, supposedly bearing arms, running across a field. Kelleher was fatally wounded. Dónal and John O’Herlihy, aged twelve and thirteen respectively, were also hit. Suggestions that the IRA had opened fire were angrily denied by J. J. Herlihy in the Irish Independent on 12 February. He wrote that upwards of thirty boys, aged between seven and fourteen, were playing hurling in a field (the Knocknagree school roll book gave Kelleher’s age as seventeen). Youths were also gathered at the cross, as was customary on Sundays. Buried Nohoval Graveyard, Knocknagree.154

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John Cummings (6Feb1921/3) USC, 23, Steam loom tenter, Married, Methodist Warrenpoint, Down Cummings, from Banbridge, Down, joined the USC in November 1920. At about 22:15, he was on patrol with two colleagues when attacked at Back Sea View by Volunteers of the Corrogs Company with bombs and revolver fire. All were wounded. Cummings, hit in the back by shrapnel, died en route to hospital. Buried Seapatrick, Down. His widow secured £3,000 compensation.155

dependent’s gratuity, and Joseph’s sister Brigid (d. 1964) later secured an allowance. Most of their siblings were in the United States by 1921.159

Pádraig O’Toole (6Feb1921/4) IRA, 29, Accountant, RC Ballykinlar Internment Camp, Dundrum, Down ‘The Nipper’ O’Toole, from Brown Street, Carlow, had been a factory accountant, but became secretary of the ITGWU’s Carlow branch. He died of pneumonia, probably developed from a cold contracted while being shipped by destroyer to Ballykinlar Camp. Buried St Mary’s Cemetery, Carlow.156

Patrick O’Sullivan (7Feb1921/1) 17, Labourer, RC North Infirmary, Cork O’Sullivan, of 7 Broad Lane, died at about 00:30, having been shot in the head near St Patrick’s Quay the previous day.161

Patrick Folan (6Feb1921/5) IRA, Farm labourer, RC Roundstone Bay, Galway Folan, James Ferron, Joseph Green and Joseph Keely, all from Carna, Galway, were drowned when their boat was washed onto rocks as they crossed from Moynis to Roundstone to attend a 3rd Battalion, West Connemara Brigade, council meeting to which they were bringing the proceeds of a collection for arms. His father John secured a £60 dependent’s gratuity, and later an allowance.157 RD: Ferron (6Feb1921/6), Green (6Feb 1921/7), Keeley (6Feb1921/8) James Ferron (6Feb1921/6) IRA, 18, Farmer, RC Roundstone Bay, Galway See Folan (6Feb1921/5). Ferron’s father Henry, who had a 21-acre farm, secured a £50 dependent’s gratuity.158 Joseph Green (6Feb1921/7) IRA, Farmer, fisherman, RC Roundstone Bay, Galway See Folan (6Feb1921/5). Green’s father Patrick, who farmed 16 acres, secured a £40

Joseph Keeley (6Feb1921/8) IRA, Farmer, fisherman, RC See Folan (6Feb1921/5). His father Martin secured a £50 dependent’s gratuity, and his sister Mary later obtained an allowance.160

7 FEBRUARY 1921

Patrick O’Driscoll (7Feb1921/2) IRA, 21, Farmer, RC Skibbereen, Cork ‘Paddy’ O’Driscoll from Mohona, Dunmanway, Cork, was captain Mohona Company. He and other local IRA men were guarding the ASU Cork No. 3 Brigade as they prepared to kill two Protestant farmers, William Connell and Matthew Sweetnam. Tom Barry described the killing as occurring because he had been questioning another scout to ensure he knew his duties, when the man accidentally discharged his revolver, killing O’Driscoll. Barry remembered this ‘all his life with sadness as it was the man’s nervousness in his presence that had caused the accident’. By contrast, Neilus Connolly maintained that Barry and other ASU men were invited to a wedding party in Pat Leary’s house. At about 07:00, Leary ‘went to a nearby billet where Pat Driscoll was on scout duty. . . . Leary took the revolver and was play acting. A shot rang out. Pat Driscoll fell dead. Barry was 300 yds [sic] away. It was thought that both of them were under the influence after the wedding.’ The ASU moved away for fear of discovery. Connell and Sweetnam were ultimately killed on 19 February. Buried Skibbereen.162 SA: Connell (19Feb1921/3), Sweetnam (19Feb 1921/4)

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8 FEBRUARY 1921 Patrick Falsey (8Feb1921/1) 24, Farmer’s son, RC Kilmacduane, Cooraclare, Clare Falsey helped farm a 58-acre holding. He died at 03:00. The IRA shot him at around 16:00 the previous afternoon for filling in a trench, dug to hinder Crown forces, in order to drive a donkey and cart across it. The road divided the Falsey home and grazing land from their tillage farm. This shooting occasioned much local criticism. His father secured £700 compensation.163 Robert Browne (8Feb1921/2) IRA (Kerry No. 2 Brigade), 38, Grocer, RC Knockalougha Bog, Duagh, Kerry ‘Bob’ Browne, from Fealebridge, Abbeyfeale, Limerick, was a brother of John Browne, killed in the Gortatlea Barracks attack in 1918. Browne conducted a successful provisions and grocery business at Fealebridge before going on the run. Captured in the remote elevated townland of Knockalougha, Browne was beaten and then shot on Knockalougha Bog, about two miles from his father’s house at Fealebridge, by unidentified Crown forces. Buried Knockane Cemetery. A monument was erected where he was killed.164 SA: Browne (13Apr1918/1) Martha McCormick (8Feb1921/3) 24, Canteen worker, RC Derry Infirmary Before she died, Martha confirmed that the shot that hit her was accidentally fired on 2 February by Lance-Corporal O’Reilly, who was unloading his revolver as she brought him cigarettes.165

9 FEBRUARY 1921 Thomas Halpin (9Feb1921/1) 26, Married, RC Mornington Road, Drogheda, Louth Halpin, of George’s Street, was a Sinn Féin alderman on Drogheda Corporation. At about 07:40, two bodies were discovered by the roadside. These were Halpin and Seán Moran. Between midnight and 01:00 they

had been taken half-dressed from their homes; shots were later heard on the opposite side of the River Boyne. Nora Thornton of Cumann na mBan stated that Halpin had commanded a firing party at the funeral of her brother Paddy, and that he was tied by the legs to the back of a lorry and dragged along the road until he was dead, an account significantly at variance with press reports and other evidence. Eugene Kavanagh afterwards said that these murders caused ‘consternation’ among republicans, with weapons being thrown into the Boyne. IRA morale locally never recovered. Buried New Cemetery, Dundalk. Terraces in Drogheda were named in memory of Halpin and Moran, and a memorial was erected on the Mornington Road. Halpin’s widow Agnes secured £2,000 compensation.166 RD: Moran (9Feb1921/2). SZ: Thornton (5Feb1921/2), Wilson (15Jun1920/1) Seán (John) Moran (9Feb1921/2) IRA, 33, Printer, Married with one child, RC Mornington Road, Drogheda, Louth See Halpin (9Feb1921/1). Moran, from Church Street, Enniscorthy, had served in A (Enniscorthy) Company, and was interned after the Rising. In Drogheda, he worked in Messrs Cahills Printing Works. Buried St Mary’s Cemetery, Enniscorthy. His father, wife Mary and daughter Maura received criminal injuries awards; his widow also secured a dependent’s award, and his sister Brigid an award for Cumann na mBan service.167 Frederick James Newsom (9Feb1921/3) 21, Ex-serviceman, RC Union Infirmary, Enniscorthy, Wexford Newsom, of 7 St John Street, Enniscorthy, enlisted in the RIR in 1916. Towards the end of 1920 the IRA convicted him in absentia of spying: James Leacy said, ‘We got the information in the [intercepted] mails.’ An attempt to shoot him in Enniscorthy in December failed. Leacy and John Carroll shot him at Slaney Place, Enniscorthy, at about 21:00 on 8 February: after the first shot, one gunman said, ‘Put another in him.’ Hit in the stomach and hip, Newsom got to his feet, crying: ‘Murder. Help.’ Passers-by refused to send for a

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doctor or clergyman. His companion, Maurice Waters, wrongly identified one of the gunmen as Thomas Roche of Templeshannon (who had taken part in the first attempt, and later to be one of killers of the Skelton brothers). Newsom died at 04:55. Buried Corrig graveyard. Newsom’s father secured £150 with an additional £4 towards expenses.168 William Johnson (9Feb1921/4) 22, Labourer, CoI Kilbrittain, Cork Johnson lived in Kilbrittain with his mother, brothers and sisters. His late father had been a police sergeant. The IRA killed him as a spy at 14:00, while he was hunting for rabbits. Buried Rathclarin, Kilbrittain. His dependents secured £2,000 compensation.169 Alfred Charles Reilly (9Feb1921/5) 58, Businessman, Married with children, Methodist ‘The Hill’, Douglas, Cork Reilly, of ‘The Hill’, Douglas, Cork, was managing director of F. H. Thompson & Son Ltd Bakers and Confectioners, and a director of other firms. Twice married, a son was killed during the war. Reilly was one of several Protestants killed by the Cork city IRA on the accusation of membership of a loyalist spy circle, variously described as the ‘Anti-Sinn Fein Society’ and ‘senior secret service of the YMCA’. These killings remain particularly controversial for the following reasons: it is not known whether such a secret organisation existed; whether any or all of those killed were involved in collecting intelligence for the Crown; whether it was proportionate to kill everyone suspected of any involvement, including a fifteen-year-old boy and a father and son; and whether the killings were sectarian in impact, if not directly in intention. William Barry, captain D Company, 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, claimed that Reilly was paymaster of a group of loyalist spies. He and others boarded Reilly’s pony and trap as he drove home through King Street and shot him outside his own gate. A card found nearby read, ‘Spys [sic] Beware. Penalty for all. IRA’. The Cork Constitution

described this shooting as ‘one of the most horrifying deeds recently recorded’ in the city. It also reported that Reilly had never exhibited any animosity towards republicanism. He had marched in the funeral cortèges of Tomás MacCurtain and Terence MacSwiney, and during the latter’s hunger strike Reilly organised a Methodist petition calling for his release. Buried St Luke’s Cemetery, Douglas. His widow Agnes secured £4,500 compensation and his daughter £4,000.170 SA: Blemens (29Nov1920/5), Blemens (29Nov1920/6), MacCurtain (20Mar1920/1), MacSwiney (25Oct1920/3) Patrick Kennedy (9Feb1921/6) 18, Plasterer’s labourer, RC Clonturk Park, Drumcondra, Dublin Kennedy, of 13C Corporation Buildings, Corporation Street, was returning home from the cinema at about 21:30 when held up by Auxiliaries. Searched, a poem about Kevin Barry was allegedly found. He was placed in a lorry and brought to Dublin Castle together with James Murphy. Official reports claimed that both men were released after interrogation, but in reality they were murdered by their captors. Dinny Kenny of Tolka Cottages told the IRA he saw a car containing seven men arrive at Clonturk Park, heard shots, and then saw five men re-enter the vehicle and leave. William Gannon of the Dublin Brigade, who had been held up along with Murphy after they left the Oxford Billiard Rooms on Dorset Street, stated that an Auxiliary demanded of each that they take an oath. Murphy refused and was placed in a lorry; Gannon took the oath ‘in the circumstances’ and was let go (six years later, he went undetected when he and others assassinated vicepresident of the Executive Council Kevin O’Higgins in Blackrock). At about 23:10, a policeman on duty in Drumcondra heard moans from Clonturk Park. He found Kennedy dead, shot twice in the back and once in the head. Murphy, also shot in the head and body, died at 05:00 on 12 February. Three Auxiliaries – Captain H. L. King, Cadet H. Hinchcliffe and Cadet

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Welch – were tried for Murphy’s murder but acquitted on 15 April 1921. Buried DGC.171 RD: Murphy (12Feb1921/1). SA: Barry (1Nov 1920/12)

11 FEBRUARY 1921 Daniel O’Mahoney (11Feb1921/1) 15, RC Clondrohid, Macroom, Cork Daniel was a shoemaker’s son. At around 16:30 an Auxiliary tender was held up by a damaged bridge. Several civilians nearby were fired on after ignoring an order to halt. O’Mahoney was found dead in an adjacent field, hit in the head. A memorial plaque was erected in Clondrohid.172 Frederick Boxold (11Feb1921/2) Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) (6446521), 34, Labourer, RC Rathcoole, Mallow, Cork Private Boxold, from Arundel, Sussex, reenlisted on 30 July 1919. He and Private Holyome were mortally wounded when the IRA caused a train to halt at a prepared ambush position and opened fire on a carriage carrying fourteen soldiers. After ten minutes, the soldiers surrendered. Lieutenant Clarke, who evaded capture by hanging on to the underside of a carriage, and five soldiers were wounded. The IRA captured fourteen rifles and equipment. The train was eventually allowed to continue on to Killarney. One soldier described how ‘I appealed to the Rebels and to all the civilians in the train for rags or bandages. . . . I did not get anything, but a civilian got into the carriage with us and after the train started tore his white shirt to help me make bandages’ for the dying Boxold. Another described how a rebel ‘said “I wish you the best of luck, we don’t want to harm you” and with that he shook me by the hand’. Buried New Cemetery, Killarney, Kerry.173 RD: Holyome (13Feb1921/4) Robert Eady (11Feb1921/3) 40, Labourer, Married with four children, RC Clogheen, Clonakilty, Cork Eady was allegedly observed visiting Clonakilty RIC Barracks wearing a hooded

cloak. Arrested by the IRA, he was court martialled and executed. His body was found near his home next day, shot in the head and back. An attached card read, ‘Spies and Informers Beware.’ A DI stated that Eady had come to the barracks in a hooded cloak to obtain a pass to travel to England, not to give information. His dependents secured £2,000 compensation.174

12 FEBRUARY 1921 James Anthony Murphy (12Feb1921/1) 25, Grocer’s assistant, RC MMH See Kennedy (9Feb1921/6). Murphy, from Meath, lived at 22 Killarney Street and worked for Whiteside & Co. Grocers. In April 1921, three members of the Auxiliary Division – Captain H. L. King, Cadet H. Hinchcliffe and Cadet Welch – were acquitted of his murder. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: T. d. 43).175 Patrick Joseph Walsh (12Feb1921/2) RIC (68763), 23, RC Churchtown, Charleville, Cork From Turloughbeg, Rosmuck, Galway, a head constable’s son, Constable Walsh joined the RIC on 3 October 1916. He had only recently been transferred from Kildorrery to Churchtown, where he was shot dead as he left at 21:45 by members of the ASU 4th (Charleville) Battalion only 100 yards from the RIC barracks. Buried Galway. His father Patrick senior secured £1,500 compensation.176 John Joseph Healy (12Feb1921/3) 49, Insurance agent, dairy proprietor, Married with three children, RC Merrion Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin Healy, from Clara, Rathdrum, Wicklow, of 12 Carysfort Avenue, was an inspector with the Prudential Insurance Company, a dairy proprietor and a member of Blackrock District Council. He was shot after police apparently came under fire. James Brophy was also killed: his wife Sarah described how at 19:30 he was in bed in a front room of their house on Merrion Road when hit by a bullet

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which police believed was fired from Herbert Avenue. He died at about 20:15. Rory MacDermott, who led the ambush, was described by superiors as highly energetic and fearless: ‘His only fault was his ruthlessness, and his disregard for civilians in doing his military duty.’ Buried DGC. His widow secured £1,000 compensation, with £750 for his children.177 RD: Brophy (12Feb1921/4) James Brophy (12Feb1921/4) 45, Tram worker, Married with one child, RC RCDH See Healy (12Feb1921/3). Brophy, his wife Sarah and their twenty-two-month-old child lived at 244 Merrion Road.178

13 FEBRUARY 1921 John Patrick Lynch (13Feb1921/1) RIC (61290), 38, Married, RC RIC Barracks, Swords, Dublin From Mayo, Lynch joined the RIC on 16 March 1903, serving in Kerry, Sligo, Roscommon and Cavan before transfer to Swords, Dublin, 1915, living at 5 Marine Cottages, Malahide. At about 02:45 Lynch and three other constables were returning from Balbriggan by Crossley tender when fired on at Ballough near Lusk. Lynch, beside the driver, was wounded in the thigh and died quickly. Buried GC (Garden Section: N. a. 97).179 Patrick Devitt (13Feb1921/2) 38, Railway servant, Married with seven children, RC South Infirmary, Cork See Bennett (31Jan1921/2). Devitt, a GS&WR signalman with twenty years’ service, lived in Twopothouse, Mallow. Wounded in the lungs and spinal cord during the attack on Mallow Station on 31 January 1921, he died in hospital at 04:00. His widow Mary Anne secured £2,000 compensation, with a further £100 to each of his seven children. In November 1921 the GS&WR reportedly attempted to evict the family from their company house, although they had ‘no prospect of getting another house anywhere’.180

Patrick Howard (13Feb1921/3) 38, Egg and poultry dealer, RC MMH Howard was in Landy’s pub in Balscadden when two RIC men and one civilian, who had been drinking earlier in the day, came in around 19:30. After a few more drinks, they left. A few minutes later one returned, masked, and ordered everyone to put their hands up. Howard rushed for the back door and was shot. The raider then took about £20 from the till. As he was leaving, the handkerchief covering his face slipped off. Howard died next day at 15:45 after an operation. Mary Anne Cannon, a barmaid, picked out constables George Stuart Pearson and George Smith at an identification parade in Gormanston Camp. At a military court martial at City Hall, Dublin on 15 and 16 June 1921, Smith was acquitted, but Pearson was convicted. Sentenced to be hanged, this was later commuted to penal servitude for life. In March 1922, the remainder of his sentence was remitted under the terms of the Treaty.181 John Joseph Holyome (13Feb1921/4) Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) (6446476), 23, Naval rating Killarney, Kerry See Boxold (11Feb1921/2). Private Holyome, from London, was a navy and military veteran who re-enlisted at Whitehall on 16 June 1919. He died of wounds sustained at Rathcoole on 11 February. Buried City of London & Tower Hamlets Cemetery. Unnamed dependents secured £2,100 compensation.182 John Carroll (13Feb1921/5) RIC (62113), 34, Farmer, Married, RC Ballycommon, Nenagh, Tipperary ‘Jack’ Carroll, from Tipperary, joined the RIC on 17 September 1906, stationed first in Galway, then in Empress Place Barracks, Cork. Visiting his father overnight, he was betrayed by a first cousin, Denis Hayes. Overpowered at Ballyhisky, he was shot in Ballycommon by a five-man firing party on the orders of Captain Michael McCormack, a GHQ organiser. It was said he might be a witness at the trial of men charged with the

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murders of Constable Michael Enright and Sergeant Peter Wallace. His body was discovered in a field on 14 February, blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back, shot in the head and body. Carroll’s father was warned by letter that in the event of reprisals he and his three surviving sons would be shot. Nevertheless Hayes’s home was destroyed in an official reprisal. Locals were warned off attending Carroll’s funeral, whereas townspeople from Nenagh did. Buried Burgess Graveyard, Nenagh. On 12 June 1922, his brother Patrick was shot dead and the family home set on fire by armed men. His father then left north Tipperary.183 SA: Enright (13May1919/1), Wallace (14May 1919/1)

lived at 7 Laurelhurst, College Road. He served on the executive council of Cork Chamber of Commerce and was a Home Ruler. He was another victim of the drive against civilian spies undertaken by the IRA in Cork city in the last months of 1920 and the early months of 1921. Patrick Collins stated: during the latter half of 1920, there was formed in Cork an Anti Sinn Féin organisation, comprising members of the Freemason and Protestant Young Men’s Christian Association. . . . The objects were to supply the British authorities with information concerning (principally) the IRA. . . . There was a senior section (for adults) and a junior section . . . and it was some time before our intelligence got to grips with this highly dangerous situation. Eventually, the names of some of the principals became known and it fell to the lot of G Company to deal with one of the officials – the secretary – a man named Charles Beale.

14 FEBRUARY 1921 James Coffey (14Feb1921/1) 25, Farmer’s son, RC Kilrush, Ahiohill, Enniskeane, Cork James and Timothy Coffey lived with their father. Their gravestone does not mention IRA membership. At around 02:00, masked men abducted them. Their father heard shots, and a few hours later found his dead sons lying in a field about a quarter of a mile away, shot in the head. A card on one read, ‘Vice Bradfield, Anti Sinn Féin’. A notice on the other stated, ‘Convicted of Murder’. It is highly probable they were murdered by Crown forces. Buried Ahiohill. Their parents James and Mary secured £2,500 compensation.184 RD: Coffey (14Feb1921/2). SA: Bradfield (1Feb1921/6) Timothy Coffey (14Feb1921/2) 23, Farmer’s son, RC Kilrush, Ahiohill, Enniskeane, Cork See Coffey (14Feb1921/1).185 James Charles Beal (14Feb1921/3) 36, Manager, Married, CoI Dennehy’s Cross, Cork Beal, an Englishman who had worked for Messrs Woodford, Bourne & Co. since 1913,

Jeremiah Keating and John Horgan captured Beal. He was taken to Wilton and shot. According to Collins, he had papers that gave the IRA: valuable information about the spy organisation. . . . As a result . . . members of his organisation were picked up by other IRA companies . . . and suitably dealt with. This had a discouraging effect on the Anti-Sinn Féin League which faded out, thus removing a serious threat to the Cork IRA.

Jeremiah Keating similarly commented, ‘The shooting of Beale broke the back of the antiIRA-Sinn Féin organisation in Cork city.’ A GHQ list of IRA executions drawn up early in 1922 gives 15 February as the date of death. Beal’s body was found at 12:00 on 15 February in a field at Dennehy’s Cross, shot in the head and abdomen. A nearby notice read: ‘Convicted Spy. This is the penalty for all those who associate with the Auxiliary Cadets, the Black and Tans and the RIC – IRA. P.S. Beware.’ On 15 and 16 February, Beal’s brother-in-law James Blemens stated, ‘When I heard he was missing I was afraid for him because my father

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and brother [James and Frederick Blemens] disappeared on 29th November 1920 and I have never had any idea since how or where they went or what has become of them.’ Beal’s relationship to them was probably a factor in his death. Buried St Luke’s Cemetery, Douglas. His grave was unmarked. His widow Sarah secured £3,250 compensation, and his mother and sister £900 between them.186 SA: Blemens (29Nov1920/5), Blemens (29Nov 1920/6) Denis Quinlan (14Feb1921/4) 34, Agricultural labourer, RC Workhouse Infirmary, Tipperary, Tipperary Quinlan, of Inch, Kilcommon, Tipperary, was among men leaving midday Mass at St Joseph’s Church, Headford, on 13 February who fled when challenged by a police patrol. After a chase, three or four of them allegedly opened fire on the police, who replied. Wounded, Quinlan died the next day. Buried Drombane, Tipperary.187 William O’Sullivan (14Feb1921/5) 34, Ex-serviceman, Married with one child, RC Tory Top Road, Ballyphehane, Cork O’Sullivan lived in Douglas, Cork. On 12 February, he took his mother shopping but did not return with her. William Barry, who alleged O’Sullivan was ‘a paid spy of the Freemasons etc.’, with five other Volunteers took O’Sullivan from a pub on Evergreen Street to nearby Tory Top Road where they shot him. His corpse was found next day with head and body wounds. A card on his overcoat read: ‘Convicted Spy. Penalty Death. Let all spies and traitors beware.’ He was one of three local men shot as spies who had served in the RASC. Sometimes listed as ‘Sullivan’. Buried St Joseph’s Cemetery, Ballyphehane, Cork.188

15 FEBRUARY 1921 John O’Leary (15Feb1921/1) 33, Clerk, ex-serviceman, Married with children, RC North Infirmary, Cork O’Leary, once of the Leinster Regiment and a former prisoner-of-war, living at 30 Gerald

Griffin Avenue, worked in the Records Office at Victoria Barracks. The Cork Constitution described him as ‘a quiet, inoffensive young man, who performed his duties efficiently and was generally popular’. The IRA thought him an informer. He died at 01:00. He had been shot that night near his house by four men, one of whom took his barracks pass. His wife rushed out. O’Leary managed to describe what had happened, but did not recognise any of his IRA attackers. These were members of 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. His wife Annie secured £1,400 compensation, his two children £600 each and his mother £325.189 Bartholomew Falvey (15Feb1921/2) IRA, 22, RC Upton Railway Station, Cork ‘Batt’ Falvey from Ballymurphy, Innishannon, Cork, was section commander Crosspound Company. Charlie Hurley planned to ambush troops taking a Cork–Bandon train at Upton Station. Scouts were unable to warn him about how many troops were involved. When the IRA attacked, the military returned fire, inflicting heavy losses. Falvey was shot in the head and killed instantly. In British records he was recorded as Seán Hegarty (22), for whom a death certificate was issued. Seán Phelan died as he tried to escape through the waiting-room window. Patrick O’Sullivan, shot in the stomach, died next day. Dan O’Mahony, John Hartnett and Hurley were seriously wounded. Seven military were wounded. The IRA party retreated, one Volunteer being captured. At least eight civilian passengers died. James Byrne, John Spiers, Thomas Perrott and Charles Penrose Johnston died of head wounds. William Finn, Mary Hall, John Sisk and Richard Arthur died in the following days. In terms of civilian casualties inflicted, combined with their own losses, this was one of the most disastrous IRA ambushes of the conflict. A less renowned officer than Charlie Hurley might well have lost his command. Buried SFC.190

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RD: Arthur (19Feb1921/6), Byrne (15Feb 1921/3), Finn (15Feb1921/4), Hall (15Feb 1921/5), Johnston (15Feb1921/6), O’Sullivan (16Feb1921/5), Perrott (15Feb1921/7), Phelan (15Feb1921/8), Sisk (17Feb1921/1), Spiers (15Feb1921/9). SA: Hurley (19Mar 1921/2) James Joseph Byrne (15Feb1921/3) 44, Commercial traveller, Married with five children, RC Upton Railway Station, Cork See Falvey (15Feb1921/2). Byrne, from Ardee, Louth, lived at 5 St Clare’s Terrace, Dublin. His widow Ellen secured £3,000 compensation and each of his five children £1,000.191 William Finn (15Feb1921/4) 25, Merchant seaman, RC Upton Railway Station, Cork See Falvey (15Feb1921/2). Finn, from Rosscarbery, Cork, of the SS Audby, was en route to Baltimore, where he had been trained at Baltimore Fishery School.192 Mary Hall (15Feb1921/5) 32, Cook, RC Upton Railway Station, Cork See Falvey (15Feb1921/2). Mary Hall was returning home to Castletownbere on holidays.193 Charles Penrose Johnston (15Feb1921/6) 55, Commercial traveller, Married, Protestant Upton Railway Station, Cork See Falvey (15Feb1921/2). Johnston, from Cork, lived at 104 Upper Rathmines Road, Dublin.194 Thomas Perrott (15Feb1921/7) 54, Painter, Married, RC Upton Railway Station, Cork See Falvey (15Feb1921/2). Perrott lived on Douglas Road, Cork. Buried St Luke’s Cemetery, Douglas.195 Seán Phelan (15Feb1921/8) IRA, 21, Primary school teacher, RC Upton Railway Station, Cork See Falvey (15Feb1921/2). The son of Liverpool-Irish parents, Phelan was a staff

captain in the Crosspound Company. Buried SFC.196 John Spiers (15Feb1921/9) 58, Commercial traveller, Widowed, CoI Upton Railway Station, Cork See Falvey (15Feb1921/2). Spiers, from Londonderry, lived at 3 Clarence Terrace, Cork. Buried St Luke’s Cemetery, Douglas, Cork.197 Éamonn (Edward) Creedon (15Feb1921/10) IRA, 19, Farmer, RC Mourne Abbey, Mallow, Cork ‘Ned’ Creedon from Mourne Abbey served in the Burnfort Company, Cork No. 2 Brigade. On 11:00, the ASU Cork No. 2 Brigade and local Volunteers, preparing for a major ambush, were taken unawares by a military sweep. The ASU withdrew in a westerly direction, and despite coming under machine-gun fire reached safety: ‘a reliable source’ later said this was only because a British officer whose men should have blocked their line of retreat blundered. The local Volunteers were caught completely off guard. Joe Morgan and others were still sleeping in the kitchen of Herlihy’s house – brigade headquarters, or ‘the Barracks’ as it was known – when Manchester Regiment soldiers burst in and captured them: ‘Get out you we will give you some of your own stuff now.’ Ordered to run by a British officer, Creedon, Paddy Dorgan and Pat Flynn were shot down and killed outside. Morgan and others were wounded, but escaped. Michael Looney, severely wounded, died a week later. Eight others were captured. The IRA found themselves in the position of ambushed rather than ambusher. The army claimed there were as many as nineteen IRA casualties and no Crown fatalities. A subsequent inconclusive IRA inquiry focused on betrayal, ignoring glaring problems of coordination and command between the ASU and local units. The local officers attributed any leakage to ex-soldier William Shields, who had joined the IRA. James Saunders, shot as a spy in May 1921, also confessed to passing on information about

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Mourne Abbey – not that much weight can be put on an admission extracted under IRA interrogation. IRA veterans maintained that, despite mysterious absences and drunkenness – on one occasion Jim Hayes ‘accused him of leaving the ranks and he FF’d me from a height’ – Shields had been retained in the ASU by O/C Denis Lyons, who had recruited him. Liam Lynch, the divisional commander, who was present at Mourne Abbey, told GHQ in July 1921 that he was ‘now certain’ that Shields was not responsible for what happened: ‘Poor leadership and indiscipline in the local unit seemed a more likely culprit.’ Two Volunteers, Thomas ‘Sonny’ Mulcahy and Patrick Ronayne, sentenced to death by court martial, were shot by firing squad on 28 April 1921.198 RD: Dorgan (15Feb1921/11), Flynn (15Feb 1921/12), Looney (22Feb1921/2), Mulcahy (28Apr1921/2), Ronayne (28Apr1921/1). SA: Cumming (5Mar1921/1), Saunders (31May1921/12), Shields (11Jul1921/9) Patrick Dorgan (15Feb1921/11) IRA, 23, Farmer, RC Mourne Abbey, Mallow, Cork See Creedon (15Feb1921/10). Dorgan, from Island, Burnfort, Cork, was in the Burnfort Company.199 Patrick Flynn (15Feb1921/12) IRA, 25, RC Mourne Abbey, Mallow, Cork See Creedon (15Feb1921/10). Flynn, from Monee, Mourne Abbey, was in the Burnfort Company.200 Martin Barry (15Feb1921/13) IRA, 21, RC Mallow, Cork Barry, a publican’s son, was from Newtown, Tipperary. On 13 January Barry and Jack Hassett were arrested by the police in Nenagh, taken a few miles out on the Limerick road, and ordered to run for their lives. Fired on, Barry was wounded in the hip. He reached a safe house, and later a Mallow hospital, but eventually died. His death is not mentioned in BMH statements, or in the press. Buried Youghalarra, Newtown, Tipperary.201

John Frederick Pettman (15Feb1921/14) The Buffs (East Kent Regiment), 16 Castletownroche, Cork Boy Pettman, stationed in Fermoy when accidentally killed, was buried in New Romney, Kent.202

16 FEBRUARY 1921 Timothy Connolly (16Feb1921/1) IRA, Labourer, RC Crois na Leanbh, Kilbrittain, Cork ‘Tim’ Connolly from Farrannagark, Kilbrittain, served in the Kilbrittain Company, Cork No. 3 Brigade. At Crois na Leanbh Crossroads, a patrol of the Essex Regiment under Major A. E. Percival, investigating road cutting, took an IRA unit completely by surprise. Four Volunteers were killed. Percival later instanced this engagement as vindicating ‘our tactics of surprise action, based on information available’. The four dead were Tim Connolly, Con McCarthy, John McGrath and Jeremiah O’Neill. Buried together at Kilbrittain Churchyard. His ‘very feeble’ father, also Timothy, secured a £70 gratuity.203 RD: McCarthy (16Feb1921/2), McGrath (16Feb1921/3), O’Neill (16Feb1921/4) Cornelius McCarthy (16Feb1921/2) IRA, Harness maker, RC Crois na Leanbh, Kilbrittain, Cork See Connolly (16Feb1921/1). ‘Con’ McCarthy was from Ballinadee. His sister Katie, who earned £14 a year as a domestic servant, failed to secure a dependent’s award.204 John McGrath (16Feb1921/3) IRA, Labourer, RC Crois na Leanbh, Kilbrittain, Cork See Connolly (16Feb1921/1). McGrath was from Rathclaren, Kilbrittain. His father Thomas secured a £60 gratuity, and he, his wife Mary and daughter Ellen ultimately secured allowances.205 Jeremiah O’Neill (16Feb1921/4) IRA, 19, Farm labourer, RC Crois na Leanbh, Kilbrittain, Cork See Connolly (16Feb1921/1). O’Neill was from Knockpogue, Kilbrittain. His father, also Jeremiah, secured an £80 gratuity.206

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Patrick O’Sullivan (16Feb1921/5) IRA, 31, Coachbuilder, RC North Infirmary, Cork See Falvey (15Feb1921/2). O’Sullivan, from Raheen, Innishannon, of the Crosspound Company, was severely wounded during the Upton ambush. Buried SFC. Two of his brothers failed to secure dependents’ awards.207 John William Oldham (16Feb1921/6) King’s Own Royal Regiment, 22 KGVH Oldham, accidentally shot by a guard at the Royal Hospital, was buried in Hurst Cemetery, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire.208

17 FEBRUARY 1921 John Sisk (17Feb1921/1) 49, Railway signalman, Married with five children, RC South Infirmary, Cork See Falvey (15Feb1921/2). Sisk, from Upton, was a signalman at Kinsale Junction. His widow Mary was subsequently appointed gatekeeper at 9s. per week. She and her children secured £4,250 compensation.209

18 FEBRUARY 1921 Thomas Hodgett (18Feb1921/1) 54, Postmaster, Married with four children, CoI Blackwater Bridge, Navan, Meath On the night of 17–18 February, Hodgett was kidnapped by armed men claiming to be IRA. Grace Hodgett deposed that they ‘put on’ Irish accents. Several witnesses reported hearing a shot at around 01:00 and the sound of a motor car. Next morning blood stains were discovered on the bridge parapet. Hodgett’s body was recovered from the river at Alesbury’s Mills on 25 March, shot in the chest. Hodgett, from Dungannon, Tyrone, joined the post office in 1887 and came to Navan from Claremorris, Mayo, in 1917. A former international rugby player, he was partially disabled following a bicycle accident. The IRA’s Eugene Bratton recalled that they secured access to coded police telegrams sent through Navan Post Office. Suspecting this,

Head Constable Michael Queenan placed his daughter in the post office to report any suspicious activity. When Hodgett apparently reproved her for some error, she said she would tell her father. A few nights later, Hodgett was taken from his home and shot by three policemen. Buried Church of Ireland cemetery, Navan. Grace Hodgett subsequently wrote to the GOC General Sir Nevil Macready alleging that DI Meredith Egan of Drogheda, Head Constable Michael Queenan of Navan, District Inspector James Munroe of Gormanston Camp and Captain Parry Firth were involved in her husband’s murder, occasioned by his report about a police raid on Garlow Cross, a sub-office of Navan Post Office. She also stated that Captain Firth threatened to burn down her house for making accusations. HQ Dublin District ordered further inquiries. R. D. F. Oldman, colonel-commandant 24th Provisional Infantry Brigade, interviewed Grace Hodgett on 17 June. She refused to substantiate her charges before a military court, stating that she would only do so before a judge and jury. Former RIC constable Eugene Bratton later named DI Egan and a Black and Tan from Gormanston as among Hodgett’s killers: it was ‘farcical to see Egan investigating this affair, scraping blood from the footpath into a box and so forth. He did his best to pin the crime on the IRA.’ While Bratton and other sources are incorrect in some details and assumptions, Hodgett was plainly killed by police officers.210 Michael Walsh (18Feb1921/2) 45, Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC Workhouse Infirmary, Douglas Road, Cork ‘Mickaroo’ Walsh was a Boer War veteran. At about 19:30 six armed and masked men entered the Workhouse Infirmary, where Walsh – this ‘low type’ with ‘venereal disease’, as Mick Murphy described him – was a patient. In pyjamas and slippers, barely able to walk, Walsh had to be assisted down the stairs. Carried through the gates of the workhouse, he was shot dead on the road by Tom Crofts and other members of the 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade. A card was left

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reading: ‘Caught at last. Spies and informers beware. IRA.’ P. J. Murphy stated that Walsh had given police details of a Sinn Féin court which had ordered his eviction from his lodgings. The IRA had kidnapped him, but soldiers raided the Cork Union workhouse, freeing him along with a Mrs Marshall, a soldier’s wife and ‘a woman of easy virtue’ who was probably a British informant. Walsh went to Wales, but returned to Cork a few months later. According to Mick Murphy, Walsh was frequently seen entering the police barracks and information about him was uncovered in raids on the mail. Even by his killers’ accounts, Walsh was not a sly, craven informer but a reckless man who refused to be cowed by the IRA, returning openly to Cork despite threats against him.211

19 FEBRUARY 1921 Thomas Bradshaw (19 Feb1921/1) RIC, 24, Farmer, RC Monasterevin RIC Barracks, Kildare Constable Bradshaw, from Tipperary, joined the RIC in 1907, serving in Kerry and Kildare. He took up duty in Monasterevin the day before his death. He shot himself in the mouth with his revolver at about 09:30 in the barracks stables, just as he was due to go on duty. A few minutes earlier he had borrowed a pump for his bicycle tyres. He seemed in good form, had shown no signs of stress or worry, and had been looking forward to receiving some transfer expenses due to him.212 George Frederick Tilson (19Feb1921/2) 36, Pawnbroker, CoI St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, London Tilson cut his throat in a lavatory of the recently arrived Fishguard Express in London. An electrician found him, still conscious, at about 11:00. When asked by a policeman if he had wounded himself, Tilson nodded. A note in his pocket read: ‘I have been shadowed from Cork, not to be done in by them. George F. Tilson.’ He died at 15:20 in St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington.

Henry Tilson told an inquest in Paddington on 24 February that his brother’s health was good, that he had been of sound mind, and that he was not involved in politics. George had shown him an undated letter threatening to kill him as a spy. George felt ‘too nervous for words’ and decided to leave his home for England. Henry saw his brother off on 17 February. The jury returned a verdict of ‘suicide whilst temporarily insane as the result of receiving a threatening letter’. There is no evidence that Tilson was or had contemplated becoming an informer. His terror was probably attributable to the spate of IRA killings of a number of Protestant males for spying – he left Cork just two days after his friend James Beal’s body was found.213 SA: Beal (14Feb1921/3), Blemens (29Nov 1920/5), Blemens (29Nov1920/6) William Connell (19Feb1921/3) 60, Farmer, Married, CoI Lissanoohig, Skibbereen, Cork Elizabeth Anne Connell was preparing for bed at around 20:40 when she answered the door of her home at Lissanoohig. A man said he had a message for her husband. Five or six raiders then entered through the back door, shooting William several times. Marie Sweetnam deposed that between 20:00 and 21:00, her husband heard dogs barking before he was abducted by armed men. Soon afterwards, he staggered back wounded to the farmhouse. A man forced his way in and shot him again at point-blank range. Patrick O’Sullivan, quartermaster 4th (Skibbereen) Battalion, Cork No. 3 Brigade, recalled that brigade headquarters ordered the killing of William Connell and Matthew Sweetnam. Their farms and property were also to be confiscated, which suggests agrarian as well as political motives. The RIC reported that on 5 January 1921 the two had given evidence in the prosecution of Florence McCarthy, a local councillor sentenced to six months for attempting to collect money for an IRA arms levy. This probably ensured their deaths. Connell received an anonymous warning, and sought advice from his solicitor.

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There had been no killings of civilians locally, but an initial attempt to carry out the order by the West Cork ASU was only abandoned when Patrick O’Driscoll, a local Volunteer, was accidentally shot dead in drunken circumstances which gave rise to enduring controversy among republican veterans about ASU O/C Tom Barry’s explanation of the incident.214 RD: Sweetnam (19Feb1921/4). SA: O’Driscoll (7Feb1921/2) Matthew Sweetnam (19Feb1921/4) 65, Farmer, Married with children, CoI Lissanoohig, Skibbereen, Cork See Connell (19Feb1921/3). At around 02:00 on 14 May, almost three months after Sweetnam’s killing, a party of men took twenty-two cows, two horses and one pony, twelve young cattle and some sheep from his widow’s farm. Locals believed this was an IRA confiscation.215 Michael ‘Luby’ Ryan (19Feb1921/5) 32, Labourer, RC Kilfeacle, Tipperary At 22:00 Michael ‘Luby’ Ryan and Frank Ryan left Golden, where they had been drinking, to attend a wake in Thomastown. They were kidnapped by unknown men, blindfolded, marched through fields and then moved by motor car. Frank Ryan was eventually released in Bansha. Michael’s body was found next day about five miles from Tipperary, between Thomastown and Kilfeacle. He had been shot in the head. His death, which had the hallmarks of an unofficial killing by Crown forces, was raised in parliament on 23 June 1921.216 Richard Arthur (19Feb1921/6) 45, Railway servant, Married with one child, CoI South Infirmary, Cork See Falvey (15Feb1921/2). Arthur, from Tipperary and living at St Luke’s, Cork, was a ticket checker with the Cork, Bandon & South Coast Railway and had about twenty years’ service. His widow Alice was subsequently granted £20 yearly from the railway benevolent institution, and the staff collected

£70 on her behalf. She ultimately secured £3,250 compensation.217 Elizabeth Bray (19Feb1921/7) 30, CoI MIHB ‘Letty’ Bray was the Scottish-born daughter of a Customs officer of 61 Rosemount Gardens. Letty, who had a speech defect and was deaf, went out at about 19:30 on 7 February. Shot in the leg on Castle Street by a Somerset Light Infantry patrol after ignoring an order to halt, she died from septicaemia.218 An unnamed RIC constable said that ‘if he had been left alone he could have caught the girl’, and the sergeant in charge said a soldier fired without orders.219 Albert Mason (19Feb1921/8) Manchester Regiment Ballincollig, Cork The CFR reports that Mason, initially regarded as a deserter, was kidnapped, killed and buried by the IRA. His remains were never recovered.220

20 FEBRUARY 1921 John Geoghegan (20Feb1921/1) IRA (East Connemara Brigade), 26, Farmer, RC Killagoola, Moycullen, Galway Geoghegan, a district councillor, lived with his mother and brothers on a mountainside farm in Killagoola. At about 23:00 his mother answered the door to two men, one wearing a black coat and policeman’s cap, the other in khaki and a tin hat. Entering a bedroom shared by Michael and John Geoghegan, one raider accused John of being a friend of Michael Collins.† He was taken outside and shot. A doctor found six bullet wounds, some inflicted at close range. His brother later passed to GHQ a document which John had concealed in a haystack. The killing was raised in parliament. Officers commanding units in the area stated they could account for all their troops: the assistant adjutant general told Dublin Castle that ‘troops were not in the neighbourhood on the night in question’. If true, then Geoghegan’s murder was probably the work

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of Black and Tans or Auxiliaries. Buried Moycullen.221 Michael Robert McElligott (20Feb1921/2) IRA, 21, Rates collector, RC Military Hospital, Ballymullen Barracks, Tralee, Kerry ‘Bob’ McElligott of Convent Street, Listowel, was O/C 6th (Listowel) Battalion, Kerry No. 1 Brigade. McElligott and Patrick Garvey left Camp in the early morning of 19 February following a brigade meeting. At Derrymore, west of Tralee, they spotted a military cycle patrol checking the roads for trenches. They dismounted and ran for cover. Garvey obeyed a command to halt as he carried nothing incriminating. McElligott kept running, and was hit. He died of hip and back wounds at 06:00. Buried Listowel. His mother Ellen was awarded a gratuity of £40, which was later increased to £75.222 William Mohally (20Feb1921/3) 27, Ex-serviceman, Nightwatchman, RC South Infirmary, Cork Mohally (Mohilly in some accounts), of Roches Buildings, was a nightwatchman for shopkeepers on King Street. He had been attacked in September and November 1920. He then left Cork for a period, but in late March 1921 Robert Langford, O/C 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, reported his ‘re-appearance’. For daring to defy the IRA, he was dealt with in particularly ruthless fashion. On 19 February, the IRA shot him at pointblank range on the Lower Glanmire Road. He was admitted to hospital with severe head wounds. Next day, Volunteers from the 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, compelled the resident surgeon Dr Henry Hannon to tell them where Mohally lay. They forced another patient and a porter to carry the wounded man on a stretcher outside the infirmary gates and there shot him twice in the head. An attached note read, ‘For a spy there is no escape IRA.’ Irrespective of whether he was an informer or not, Mohally was another victim of the Cork city IRA’s spy frenzy. His death was raised in the House of Commons on 22 March 1921.223

Aidan O’Donovan (20Feb1921/4) 14, Schoolboy, RC Blackwater Mills, Ardnacrusha, Clare Aidan O’Donovan, son of Thomas O’Donovan of 3 Emma Villas, Thomondgate, Limerick, was one of three brothers out walking in the early afternoon near Blackwater Mills, four miles from Limerick, when a mixed patrol of military and RIC arrived to search for a drilling party. These ran away across a field and were fired on. Coming into the line of fire, Aidan and Cecil O’Donovan were killed. Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery. Among the wreaths was one from William Street RIC Barracks.224 RD: O’Donovan (20Feb1921/5) Cecil O’Donovan (20Feb1921/5) 18, Clerk, RC Blackwater Mills, Ardnacrusha, Clare See O’Donovan (20Feb1921/4). Cecil worked for Messrs Lloyd, Wine Merchants, Limerick.225 Michael Desmond (20Feb1921/6) IRA, 22, RC Clonmult, Midleton, Cork Desmond was the first Volunteer to die in the disastrous Clonmult engagement, in some respects a Crown forces’ success to equal the West Cork IRA’s overwhelming Kilmichael victory of November 1920. Desmond and his brother David served in B (Midleton) Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, and the 4th Battalion ASU. O/C Diarmuid Hurley selected a remote disused farmhouse near Clonmult village as a training base for the newly formed ASU. The ASU stayed there for five to six weeks, despite the security risks involved: this ‘was in great measure responsible for the tragic events of Sunday 20 February 1921’. Mick Leahy, then O/C 6th (Cobh) Battalion, maintained that ‘the [ASU] column in the 4th Batt[alio]n was drinking and it was no use’. Joseph Aherne, vice-O/C 4th Battalion, described orders from Florrie O’Donoghue, brigade adjutant, to attack soldiers escorting ammunition carried by train between Queenstown (Cobh) and Cork: ‘The wording of the dispatch was such that it was more or less of a challenge to the column. . . . It ended with the words “if

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you are unable to carry out the job, please let me know and I will make other arrangements.”’ Aherne and Hurley regarded this as an insult to their ASU, which had received little help from the brigade. Hurley, Aherne and Patrick Whelan planned an attack for Dunkettle Railway Station for Tuesday 22 February. Jack O’Connell, captain Cobh Company, recalled arriving at Clonmult as acting O/C in mid-afternoon on 20 February. Sentries had already been withdrawn, and the ASU were packing up prior to leaving – there were rumours afterwards of slackness and drinking – when around 16:00 the farmhouse was surrounded by Hampshire Regiment soldiers under lieutenants Hammond, G. R. A. Dove,† Koe and Hook. These were only spotted when Michael Desmond and John Joseph Joyce were shot as they attempted to return, having left to fetch water. Led by O’Connell, a five-man sortie attempted to break out. Mick Hallinan and Dick Hegarty were immediately killed. Aherne actually penetrated the military cordon, but was shot before he could reach cover. Jeremiah O’Leary managed to get back to the farmhouse. Only O’Connell escaped. He could not find another local unit to attack the military from the rear and rescue the ASU. Patrick Higgins was now the most senior officer. An attempt to escape by making a hole in the gable wall was thwarted by gunfire. After a lull, Crown reinforcements arrived from Midleton. The thatched roof was set on fire and bombs were thrown through the breach. Higgins, Liam Aherne and Jimmy Glavin wanted to keep fighting, but the majority of the Volunteers voted to give up. They shouted out that they would surrender, threw their guns into the fire, and left the building: We were lined up alongside an outhouse with our hands up. The Tans came along and shot every man with the exception of three, namely Paddy O’Sullivan, Maurice Moore, both from Cobh, and Diarmuid ‘Sonny’ O’Leary, who had been wounded. . . . These three were saved from the Tans by the officer in charge of the military party.

Higgins, shot in the face, passed out. Rebel Cork’s Fighting Story and other BMH statements maintain that the Volunteers were killed in cold blood, whereas the Hampshire Regimental Journal and WO 35/89, perhaps mimicking IRA dissimulation about Kilmichael and other ambushes, claimed that there had been a false IRA surrender. The engagement lasted almost three hours. Liam Aherne, Jeremiah Ahern, Dónal Dennehy, David Desmond, Jimmy Glavin, Joseph Morrissey and Christopher O’Sullivan were killed, bringing IRA fatalities to twelve. This decimated the ASU, and demoralised the 4th Battalion thereafter. The war diary of the 2nd Battalion, Hampshire Regiment initially recorded that thirteen IRA men were killed, but an inspection of the ambush site on 21 February recovered twelve bodies. A search for the supposed missing body found nothing. One soldier and one policeman were wounded. Between 8 and 10 March, the fit prisoners were tried by court martial and sentenced to death. Appeals for commutation failed. On 28 April 1921 Maurice Moore and Patrick O’Sullivan were executed at the Military Detention Barracks, Cork. The sentences imposed on John Harty, William Garde, Edmund Terry, Robert Walsh and Jeremiah O’Leary were later commuted. Patrick Higgins recovered. Sentenced to death by a military court on 21 June 1921, the Truce saved him. The IRA killed a shell-shocked exserviceman named David Walsh for allegedly giving away the ASU’s position, although it is unlikely he was in any condition to pass on useful information to anyone. The military action report stated that they acted on information received ‘from Cork [city]’, presumably from divisional headquarters. Buried Midleton. A memorial was erected at the farmhouse in Clonmult, and a second in the graveyard of St Lawrence’s Church, Clonmult. Desmond’s sister Bridget initially secured a £26 gratuity, later increased to £100 although no dependency could be proven.226 RD: Ahern (20Feb1921/11), Aherne (20Feb 1921/8), Aherne (20Feb1921/12), Dennehy (20Feb1921/13), Desmond (20Feb1921/14), Glavin (20Feb1921/15), Hallinan (20Feb

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1921/10), Hegarty (20Feb1921/9), Joyce (20Feb1921/7), Moore (28Apr1921/4), Morrissey (20Feb1921/16), O’Sullivan (20Feb1921/17), O’Sullivan (28Apr1921/3). SA: Hurley (28May1921/4), Walsh (16May 1921/6) John Joseph Joyce (20Feb1921/7) IRA, 22, Student, RC Clonmult, Midleton, Cork See Desmond (20Feb1921/6). Joyce, from Midleton, an engineering student, served in B (Midleton) Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, and the battalion ASU. His father Eugene made an unsuccessful claim for a dependent’s gratuity.227 James Aherne (20Feb1921/8) IRA, 24, Fitter, RC Clonmult, Midleton, Cork See Desmond (20Feb1921/6). ‘Jim’ Ahern from Queenstown (Cobh) had served in Fianna Éireann before joining the ASU 4th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. Buried Ticknock Graveyard, Cobh. His sister received a £75 gratuity, increased on appeal to £100.228 Richard Hegarty (20Feb1921/9) IRA, 22, Farmer, RC Clonmult, Midleton, Cork See Desmond (20Feb1921/6). ‘Dick’ Hegarty from Garryvoe was captain Ballymacoda Company, and served in the ASU 4th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. Buried Ballymacoda.229 Michael Hallinan (20Feb1921/10) IRA, 22, Tailor, RC Clonmult, Midleton, Cork See Desmond (20Feb1921/6). Hallinan, from Midleton, served in B (Midleton) Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, and the ASU 4th Battalion. On appeal his father John secured a £100 gratuity.230 Jeremiah Ahern (20Feb1921/11) IRA, Mechanic, RC Clonmult, Midleton, Cork See Desmond (20Feb1921/6). Ahern, from Midleton, served in B (Midleton) Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, and the ASU 4th Battalion. His father secured a £100 gratuity.231

William Aherne (20Feb1921/12) IRA, 26, Accountant, RC Clonmult, Midleton, Cork See Desmond (20Feb1921/6). ‘Liam’ Aherne from The Park, Midleton, served in B (Midleton) Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, and the ASU 4th Battalion. Two sisters shared a £100 gratuity.232 Dónal Dennehy (20Feb1921/13) IRA, 22, Labourer, RC Clonmult, Midleton, Cork See Desmond (20Feb1921/6). Dennehy, from Midleton, served in B (Midleton) Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, and the ASU 4th Battalion. On appeal his father secured a £100 gratuity.233 David Desmond (20Feb1921/14) IRA, 24, RC Clonmult, Midleton, Cork See Desmond (20Feb1921/6). Desmond, from Midleton, served in B (Midleton) Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade and the ASU 4th Battalion. On appeal his sister Mary received a £100 gratuity.234 James Glavin (20Feb1921/15) IRA, 17, Telephonist, RC Clonmult, Midleton, Cork See Desmond (20Feb1921/6). ‘Jimmy’ Glavin from Queenstown (Cobh) was in the Fianna before joining the ASU 4th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. He worked in the naval dockyard. His father William secured a £100 dependent’s gratuity. Buried Ticknock Graveyard, Cobh.235 Joseph Morrissey (20Feb1921/16) IRA, 21, Apprentice carpenter, RC Clonmult, Midleton, Cork See Desmond (20Feb1921/6). Morrissey, from Athlone, served in B (Midleton) Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, and the ASU 4th Battalion.236 Christopher O’Sullivan (20Feb1921/17) IRA, 27, Ex-serviceman, RC Clonmult, Midleton, Cork See Desmond (20Feb1921/6). ‘Christy’ O’Sullivan, from Midleton, a former solicitor’s

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clerk who was wounded during the war, served in B (Midleton) Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, and the ASU 4th Battalion. His mother Mary, a retired teacher, secured a £50 gratuity.237 James Toner (20Feb1921/18) 55, Farmer, RC Infirmary, Armagh, Armagh Toner lived in Lagan, Keady, Armagh. At about 20:45 on 19 February, four armed raiders burst in and ordered him and two friends to put their hands up, in what appeared to be an arms raid. Toner stated that he had no firearms. When he tried to stand up he was shot, wounded in both thighs. The raiders spent about fifteen minutes searching the house. Initially he rallied in hospital, but he died at around 21:00. Toner’s sister Margaret secured only nominal damages of £25 as she had inherited all his property.238 Patrick Lyons (20Feb1921/19) 40, Ex-serviceman, agricultural labourer, RC Workhouse Infirmary, Castlerea, Roscommon Lyons, once of the Connaught Rangers, lived in Frenchlawn, Ballintubber, Roscommon. Following demobilisation in March 1919, he assisted his brother John on his farm. On 19 February Patrick was having supper when an armed man dressed in a faded police jacket and khaki trousers came to the door and ordered him outside. Next morning, his brother received a message from the parish priest that Patrick’s body had been found at 07:30 at Timanagh, about a mile away, lying face down, but still alive. He died in Castlerea Workhouse at 23:30. This killing of an alleged ‘spy’ was most likely carried out by Volunteers under John Brennan, O/C Kilteevan Company, South Roscommon Brigade. John Lyons secured £300 compensation.239

c. 20 FEBRUARY 1921 Michael Finbar O’Sullivan (20Feb1921/20) 22, Ex-serviceman, tailor, RC Ballinlough, Cork O’Sullivan, wounded at the Somme, lived at 121 High Street. He was demobilised early in

1920. Jeremiah O’Sullivan of 121 High Street last saw his son alive on the evening of 31 January. Michael had talked of joining the Black and Tans but had instead enlisted in the RFA. William Barry stated that IRA intelligence said O’Sullivan was about to join the Black and Tans. Barry captured O’Sullivan, and he was afterwards shot in the vicinity of the Douglas River. The date is uncertain: BMH statements say 20 February, but that was when his blindfolded body was pulled out of the River Lee: a post-mortem indicated that he had died from gunshot wounds three weeks beforehand. Buried St Columba’s Catholic Church, Douglas.240 B. Pincher (20Feb1921/21) Manchester Regiment Vicinity of Ballincollig, Cork The CFR reports that, although initially recorded as a deserter, Private Pincher was abducted and killed by the IRA. His body was not recovered.241

21 FEBRUARY 1921 Thomas Hennessy (21Feb1921/1) IRA, 30, Farmer, RC Friary Street, Kilkenny, Kilkenny Hennessy, from Killaree, Threecastles, was captain C (Threecastles) Company, Kilkenny Brigade. The IRA planned to disarm the escort of the daily rations cart going from Kilkenny Military Barracks to Kilkenny Jail. Sixteen Volunteers from three companies were involved, allowing two men to tackle each soldier. Captain Jim O’Brien was in command. In an effort to avoid reprisals, no shots were to be fired. The plan misfired. A woman screamed when she saw the IRA in waiting. Privates Harry Hawthorn and Stanley A. Gay grappled with two civilians dressed in trench coats who pointed revolvers at them and ordered them to put their hands up. Thomas Hennessey was killed outright, and Mick Dermody died in hospital on 4 March. Men, women and children on Friary Street fled from the shots. Civilian Thomas Dollard was shot in the head, dying within hours. His wife Bridget said he was a loyalist who had nothing to do with Sinn Féin.

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Dermody died in the military hospital on 4 March. An inquiry by the Kilkenny Brigade IRA concluded that no one could be blamed for the disastrous outcome. Buried Tullow Churchyard, Threecastles, Kilkenny.242 RD: Dermody (4Mar1921/2), Dollard (21Feb 1921/2) Thomas Dollard (21Feb1921/2) 37, Labourer, Married with five children, RC Military Hospital, Kilkenny See Hennessy (21Feb1921/1). Dollard, of Upper Walkin Street, worked for the Corporation. Buried St Patrick’s Cemetery, Kilkenny.243 Samuel James Finnegan (21Feb1921/3) USC, 20, CoI Rosslea, Fermanagh Finnegan worked for McClean Brothers in Smithborough and lived in Tattindonagh, Ballinode, Monaghan. George Lester, a leading unionist, was wounded by an IRA sniper named Prunty, who later became a Garda, while removing the shutters from his shop in Rosslea. The IRA believed Lester had incited violence against nationalists and had searched Catholic children in the streets. At about 22:00 a UVF party, reportedly including Finnegan, visited the town. Some nationalist houses and business premises were set on fire in retaliation for the Lester shooting. Finnegan died around 22:00 in confused circumstances. In 1966, the IRA’s James Mulligan said that USC men pursuing four Volunteers fired on someone who emerged suddenly from a passageway: ‘The B men . . . opened fire and riddled one of their own men . . . a B man from Smithboro, a blacksmith named Finigan [sic]’.244

22 FEBRUARY 1921 Joseph Hughes (22Feb1921/1) RIC (64330), 34, Postman, RC Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin Hughes, from Laois, joined the RIC in 1908, serving in Kildare and Roscommon. Promoted to sergeant on 1 January 1921, he was transferred to Maynooth. At about 22:15

on 21 February, he and another policeman were wounded when the IRA fired on a patrol near St Mary’s Catholic Church. He died some hours later. Buried Wolfhill Cemetery, Laois. His brother Andrew and sister Mary secured £450 compensation.245 Michael Looney (22Feb1921/2) IRA, 26 Farmer, RC CMHC See Creedon (15Feb1921/10). ‘Mick’ Looney from Island, Burnfort, Cork, served in the Burnfort Company, Cork No. 2 Brigade. He died of septicaemia a week after being shot in the leg near Mourne Abbey for refusing to halt.246 Thomas William Satchwell (22Feb1921/3) RIC (68650), 25, Farmer, CoI Mountcharles, Donegal A farmer’s son from Tarmon, Castlerea, Roscommon, Satchwell initially joined the RIC on 15 April 1915, posted to Donegal. He resigned in September 1917 for family reasons, but rejoined four months later, stationed in Donegal town. A mixed patrol of police and military cycled towards Mountcharles Fair. As they dismounted outside the village, they were fired on by a party of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Northern Division, IRA. Shot through the chest, Satchwell died shortly afterwards. During an exchange lasting about thirty minutes, a soldier was wounded. Buried Castlerea. His relatives secured £600 compensation. His father’s home near Castlerea was burned to the ground by armed men on 10 July 1921.247 William Fennessy (22Feb1921/4) RIC (67060), 28, Ex-serviceman, farmer, Married, RC Connagh Crossroad, Duncannon, Wexford Fennessy, from Ballysaggart, Lismore, Waterford, joined the RIC in 1913. Enlisting in the Irish Guards in 1915, he was wounded, rejoining the RIC in 1918, stationed in Duncannon. At about 17:00, a five-man RIC patrol returning from Fethard dismounted at Connagh Crossroad while the sergeant spoke

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to his wife. Constable Edward Wallis apparently took a shot at a crow about 400 yards distant with his new long Webley revolver. He accidentally fired again as he holstered the gun, mortally wounding Fennessy in the back. Buried Lismore. The CI reported ‘a large attendance . . . and much sympathy expressed for the widow which is a proof of the good relations still existing between the police and people of the county’. His widow secured an annual pension of £50.248 George H. Howlett (22Feb1921/5) RIC (76830), 22, Steelworker, ex-serviceman, Protestant Ballylongford, Kerry Howlett, from Middlesbrough, joined the RIC on 16 December 1920, stationed in Ballylongford. A section of the ASU Kerry No. 1 Brigade opened fire on a policeman and a naval rating near Ballylongford RIC Barracks, killing Howlett and wounding the other. As Denis Quille approached the second casualty, a comrade cried out to be careful as he still had a gun. The wounded man then said: ‘ “My God – can’t you see I can’t use it”, holding the Webley out in his open palm . . . all his bullets had been fired’. The IRA left him, as he was ‘evidently mortally wounded’ (Naval Rating Clarence Charles Wills actually survived). The following day, police arrived and burned down the local hall, about a third of the houses, a pub, a butcher shop and Mrs Enright’s sweet shop. Howlett’s mother Edith secured £1,000 compensation.249 John William Hughes (22Feb1921/6) RIC (65939), 33, RC Main Street, Donegal, Donegal From Boyle, Roscommon, Hughes joined the RIC on 14 December 1911, stationed in Donegal town. Following the killing of Constable Thomas Satchwell on 22 February, several premises were wrecked and houses were set on fire in Donegal town. Constable Hughes was apparently accidentally shot in the heart by a comrade. Buried Boyle, Roscommon.250 SA: Satchwell (22Feb1921/3)

c. 22 FEBRUARY 1921 Thomas Leonard Mullett (alias H. Morgan) (22Feb1921/7) Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (5374617), 32 Derrycnaw, Corlea, Sixmilebridge, Clare From Colchester, Private Mullett enlisted as H. Morgan on 23 May 1919, having previously served in the Labour Corps. He was stationed in Strand Barracks, Limerick. He and two fellow soldiers went missing on 13 February. Their bodies were discovered, each shot in the head, at about 10:00 on 22 February in the townland of Derrycnaw. Around the neck of one was a notice stating ‘Spies. Tried by court martial and found guilty. Let all others beware.’ GOC General Sir Nevil Macready described how he urged troops to maintain their discipline despite such provocation. No IRA sources on these deaths have been traced. Buried Colchester Cemetery, Essex (R. 15. 63).251 RD: Walker (22Feb1921/8), Williams (22Feb 1921/9) William Sidney Walker (22Feb1921/8) Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (5374675), 23, Married Derrycnaw, Corlea, Sixmilebridge, Clare See Mullett (22Feb1921/7). Private Walker re-enlisted on 5 August 1919, stationed in Strand Barracks, Limerick. Commemorated Brookwood 1914–1918 Memorial, Surrey.252 David John Williams (22Feb1921/9) Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (5373002), 33, Married Derrycnaw, Corlea, Sixmilebridge, Clare See Mullett (22Feb1921/7). Private Williams served in the Gloucestershire Regiment before re-enlisting in the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry on 4 December 1919, stationed in Strand Barracks, Limerick. Buried Viney Hill (All Saints) Churchyard, Gloucestershire.253 John Sheehan (22Feb1921/10) 26, Butcher, RC Dromalour, Kanturk, Cork Sheehan’s mother stated that around 21:00 on 21 February, her son begged her not to

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answer the door: ‘Don’t open it, it’s the Sinn Féiners come for me.’ A masked gunman forced him outside. On 21 March a military patrol recovered his body, in an advanced state of decomposition, with a bullet wound to the forehead and a sign around his neck stating: ‘Spies, Traitors, Informers associate with Military, Police and Black and Tans in Kanturk, you are all listed. Beware. IRA.’ A British officer said Sheehan was notorious in Kanturk but had not given information.254

RD: Hoey (23Feb1921/3), McDonagh (23Feb 1921/4)

23 FEBRUARY 1921

Edward McDonagh (23Feb1921/4) RIC (69370), 24, Farmer, RC KGVH See Greer (23Feb1921/2). From Tuam, Galway, McDonagh joined the RIC on 4 March 1918, serving in Cork before transfer to the RIC Reserve on 16 September 1920.258

Mary Harley (23Feb1921/1) 28, Dressmaker, munitions worker, RC Mountcharles, Donegal ‘May’ Harley, London-born of an Irish father, moved to Mountcharles in 1920 to live with her uncle Bernard McGroary. She was about to return to London when, during reprisal burnings following the killing of Constable Thomas Satchwell, she was shot while attempting to escape from a burning house at about 02:00. Her mother Catherine Harley secured £350 compensation.255 SA: Satchwell (22Feb1921/3) Martin John Greer (23Feb1921/2) RIC (67768), 27, CoI Parliament Street, Dublin Greer, from Cootehall, Boyle, Roscommon, joined the RIC on 1 April 1914. On 26 March 1920, he was transferred to the RIC Reserve, stationed in Dublin Castle. IRA intelligence learned that three RIC men were due to visit Dublin Castle to help in identifying suspects. They were attacked by the Squad on Essex Street, close to the Castle. When constables Greer, Hoey and McDonagh appeared, Greer and Hoey were shot dead. Wounded in the leg, McDonagh managed to cross the street where he was shot again. He fell through a shop window. Jim Stapleton believed they were brought to the Castle in connection with general intelligence work for the purpose of identification of names or documents or people. Buried GC (Garden Section: K. f. 221). His father James secured £750 compensation, and his sister Elizabeth £250.256

Daniel Hoey (23Feb1921/3) RIC (66287), 32, Farmer, RC Parliament Street, Dublin See Greer (23Feb1921/2). Hoey, from Lancashire, joined the RIC on 9 January 1912, serving in Galway before transfer in 1918 to the RIC Reserve in Dublin. His mother Mary secured £750 compensation.257

Frederick Perrier (23Feb1921/5) RIC (73253), 34, Naval rating, Protestant Bandon, Cork From Hampshire, following naval service Perrier joined the RIC on 24 September 1920, stationed in Bandon. Tom Barry led the ASU Cork No. 3 Brigade into Bandon. Constables Perrier and Kearns were attacked by Barry’s section on North Main Street. Barry described how he eventually shot Perrier in a house into which he had fled. Kearns was wounded in the kitchen. Another ASU section captured Private Knight and Lance-Corporal Stubbs of the Essex Regiment. In uniform but unarmed, they were shot dead. Michael J. Crowley of the ASU recorded that he ‘agreed with this decision, feeling that it was necessary for our very existence’. His brother Paddy had been shot dead by Major Percival, two other brothers had been captured, and his parents’ house had been burnt down by the Essex Regiment. The IRA withdrew, later sending a prisoner back with a letter for Percival stating that the killings were in reprisal for the conduct of the Essex Regiment. Buried Portsmouth.259 RD: Knight (23Feb1921/6), Stubbs (23Feb 1921/7). SA: Crowley (4Feb1921/2)

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James Arthur Knight (23Feb1921/6) Essex Regiment (5999062), 25, Ex-serviceman, CoE Laurel Walk, Bandon, Cork See Perrier (23Feb1921/5). Knight, son of Alfred Knight of 73 Station Road, Dagenham, re-enlisted in France on 9 March 1919 aged twenty-three. Buried St Peter and St Paul’s Churchyard, Dagenham, Essex.260 Herbert Leslie Stubbs (23Feb1921/7) Essex Regiment (5999140), 25, Clerk Laurel Walk, Bandon, Cork See Perrier (23Feb1921/5). Lance-Corporal Stubbs, from Woolwich, Kent, served in France from 1915 to 1918, re-enlisting in 1919. Buried Woolwich.261

25 FEBRUARY 1921 Hepworth Ambrose Vyvian Hill (25Feb1921/1) RAF, 24, Pilot RVHB From Liphook, Hampshire, son of LieutenantColonel H. A. Hill of the West India Regiment. Flight Lieutenant Hill of 100 Squadron was shot by a sentry at Aldergrove Aerodrome after he failed to answer a challenge. Buried Belfast City Cemetery (Q. 307).262 James Seafield Grant (25Feb1921/2) ADRIC (79885), 30, Army officer, Married Coolavokig,263 Macroom, Cork Major Grant, from Suffolk, was wounded at Loos in 1915 while in the King’s Own Scottish Borderers. Subsequently, he commanded MGC companies, winning an MC, and was twice mentioned in dispatches. He was commandant J Company, Auxiliary Division (auxiliary number 1179). The Auxiliaries regularly travelled from their base at Macroom Castle to Ballyvourney. The IRA had lain in ambush three times without success. Seán Hegarty, O/C Cork No. 1 Brigade, led about sixty Volunteers into position to ambush Crown forces. They were taken by surprise when a convoy of five Crossley tenders and three Ford cars carrying thirtynine cadets of J Company, together with one sergeant and six RIC constables appeared,

moving slowly ‘as if they were looking for something or someone. The Auxies were standing up . . . and appeared to be ready to jump out at a moment’s notice.’ The IRA opened fire on the leading vehicle at a range of about 50 yards. Grant, hit during the first volley, died almost immediately. After about an hour, several Auxiliaries were wounded and they were forced to withdraw to two labourers’ cottages south of the road. Cadet Soady was hit on the jaw while ‘firing from a window’. DI W. R. McConnell, in command after Grant’s death, sent to Macroom for assistance. The engagement continued for three hours, until soldiers of the Manchester Regiment arrived at about 10:20. The IRA party withdrew. Seán Lucey and others claimed there were fourteen Crown fatalities; in fact, there were three. Soady, admitted to hospital, died at 04:25 on 1 March. Constable Cane, severely wounded at about 08:30, died at about 01:30 on 26 February. The 1st Battalion, Manchester Regiment digest of service recorded that on 18 March 1921 a party proceeded to Coolavokig to destroy houses believed to have been used by the IRA. The British divisional command felt that ‘an excellent opportunity of defeating the enemy was missed’ owing to bad tactics and poor planning; IRA sources were equally critical of their own performance, citing: bad scouting, bad inter-communication between units, bad control of the units, lack of initiative and sense of responsibility on the part of the subordinate commanders . . . a critical examination . . . shows that it might easily have been a disaster only for bold and steady action of small groups.

Hegarty termed it ‘a failure of scouts . . . [who] were not in position . . . when the enemy column advanced from Macroom, much earlier than anticipated’. Buried Aldeburgh, Suffolk.264 RD: Cane (26Feb1921/1), Soady (1Mar1921/9) Henry Murray (25Feb1921/3) 36, Ex-serviceman, photographer, RC Chapel Street, Dundalk, Louth Murray, from Doorgh, Carrickmacross, Monaghan, had been a shop assistant in

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Dundalk before enlisting during the war. He returned to Dundalk in late 1920 and became a photographer, lodging at 6 Bachelors Walk. At about 20:00, he was attacked on Chapel Street by P. McKenna, J. Cunningham and others of the 1st North Louth Brigade. Shot at close range over the right eye and twice in the body, he died within minutes. Handwritten notices were affixed to church doors: ‘Henry Murray had been tried as a spy, found guilty and convicted. IRA.’ Murray was believed to have applied to join the RIC. Another IRA source claimed that he was a known ‘police agent’ in Louth and Monaghan, and that a policeman was overheard to say that in killing him the IRA had secured a ‘bulls eye’. A rumour persisted locally that he was killed simply because he was an ex-soldier.265 Alfred James Cotter (25Feb1921/4) 35, Baker, CoI Ballineen, Cork Cotter and his brother Frederick lived in Ballineen. At about 21:30 there was a knock on the door. Frederick heard revolver shots. Alfred, wounded in the head, staggered to his bedroom and died. Jack Hennessy, adjutant Ballineen Company, 3rd (Dunmanway) Battalion, Cork No. 3 Brigade, said that all Ballineen traders save the Cotters obeyed an order to boycott the police: ‘The whole family were anti-Irish and the RIC used to visit their premises.’ Hennessy stated that Cotter was executed on brigade orders as a spy. Cotter’s mother Elizabeth secured £3,000 compensation and his brothers Frederick and Herbert £1,000 each.266 George Fletcher (25Feb1921/5) 17, Messenger, RC Mercy Hospital, Cork Fletcher, who lived with his mother and younger brother and sister at 21 Kyle Street, was a canteen messenger at Union Quay RIC Barracks. He was wounded in the thigh on 22 February when Constable Joseph Prendergast’s rifle was accidentally discharged in the barrack room. Buried St Joseph’s Cemetery, Ballyphehane, Cork. His mother Sarah secured £70 compensation.267

26 FEBRUARY 1921 Arthur William Cane268 (26Feb1921/1) RIC (72068), 36, Clerk, ex-serviceman, Engaged, Protestant CMHC See Grant (25Feb1921/2). From London, Constable Cane was wounded fighting at Gallipoli and again in France. He joined the RIC on 27 July 1920, stationed in Macroom. Buried Cork Military Cemetery. His fiancée, dressmaker Mary Anderson of London, secured £300 compensation.269 Charles Binion (26Feb1921/2) RIC (70900), 25, Clerk, ex-serviceman, RC KGVH From Montreal, Canada, Binion joined the RIC on 25 March 1920, stationed in Louth. In January 1921, he was transferred to Cork, but was temporarily attached to B Company, Transport Division RIC, stationed in Gormanston Camp, Meath. Binion and two other constables fell from a lorry near Santry Post Office, possibly because the tailboard gave way. Buried RIC Plot, GC (Garden Section: K. f. 221).270 John Stapleton (26Feb1921/3) 23, Agricultural labourer, RC Workhouse Infirmary, Thurles, Tipperary Stapleton, from Drombane, Thurles, Tipperary, was arrested on 22 February by Auxiliaries investigating an attack on RIC at Rathcardan. He gave the name Thomas Ryan. He later broke away, jumped a 3-foot wall and took flight. He was shot but escaped. Treated in the Thurles Workhouse Infirmary under the name John Ryan, he was recognised by Sergeant Michael Donohue and he then gave his real name as Stapleton. He died from peritonitis. Buried Glenkeen, Borrisoleigh, Tipperary.271

27 FEBRUARY 1921 Joseph Taylor (27Feb1921/1) IRA, 28, Postman, RC Lyranes Upper, Glencar, Kerry ‘Joe’ Taylor from Glencar, Kerry, became drill master and later captain, Glencar Company, Killorglin Battalion, Kerry No. 2 Brigade.

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In the early hours, Taylor, ‘brave and fearless’, had only just reached his home in the Glencar area, having returned from a fruitless IRA operation, when he was ‘captured in the kitchen half asleep’ by police under DI Michael Francis McCaughey at 08:30 as he dozed by the fire. He was suspected of involvement in an ambush at Glencar in July 1920 in which two policemen were wounded, including Constable Joseph Cooney. McCaughey left Taylor under guard as he chased and captured three civilians who had fled. Returning, he heard shots and found Taylor mortally wounded in the right thigh. His guards had shot him, allegedly when he attempted to escape. Taylor’s father, a Land League veteran, claimed that his son was murdered outright. His mother Mary later secured a dependent’s award of £112.10s., less £100 on foot of compensation already paid to her late husband. Buried Shronahiree, Glencar. His brother Séamus† was killed on 8 March 1923 during the Civil War.272 SA: Cooney (1Jun1921/7), McCaughey (1Jun1921/8), Scully (28May1920/3) William Kelly (27Feb1921/2) IRA, 25, Agricultural labourer, RC Workhouse Infirmary, Thurles, Tipperary Kelly, from Castletown, Thurles, served in the 1st Battalion, Tipperary No. 2 Brigade. One of about twenty Volunteers drilling at Loughtagalla who were taken by surprise due to poor security, he was mortally wounded. Buried St Mary’s Cemetery, Thurles.273 James Cronin (27Feb1921/3) 20, RC Castlegregory, Kerry Cronin, from Illauncaum, Castlegregory appears in two IRA lists as a Volunteer, but this is not mentioned in BMH statements. Crown forces from Dingle investigating an ambush the previous day claimed that Cronin and another man fled when caught digging a trench, whereas a press report said the men were simply launching a boat when fired on without warning.274

Patrick Connellan (27Feb1921/4) 30, Agricultural labourer, RC Union Hospital, Kildysart, Clare Connellan, of Lissycasey, was in a group fired on when they allegedly fled from outside the Lissycasey Catholic church when challenged by a patrol of the Royal Scots. He died from abdominal wounds at 22:00. The military also burned houses in Lissycasey in reprisal for damage caused to roads.275

28 FEBRUARY 1921 Seán (John) Allen (28Feb1921/1) IRA, 24, Shoemaker, RC Military Detention Barracks, Cork Allen, from Tipperary town, was executed in Cork Prison following conviction for possession of a revolver and a booklet entitled Night Fighting on 19 January 1921. T. M. Healy, KC, appealed to the King’s Bench Division on the grounds that the military court had exceeded their powers, but the court ruled it had no jurisdiction durante bello to interfere with the decision of a military court operating under martial law. Buried Cork Prison yard. His father William secured a £100 gratuity.276 John Lyons (28Feb1921/2) IRA, 26, Agricultural labourer, RC Military Detention Barracks, Cork Lyons, from Coachford, Cork, joined the Irish Volunteers in 1917, serving in D (Aghabullogue) Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, and the newly formed battalion ASU. John J. O’Leary, O/C 6th Battalion, was O/C, with Frank Busteed his deputy. O’Leary selected an ambush position at Godfrey’s Cross, extending over 200 yards on high ground overlooking the Dripsey to Coachford road, parallel to the River Lee. The IRA took position at 06:30 and waited for hours without sighting any Crown forces. The ambush had in fact become common knowledge locally. Daniel McCarthy recalled that the elderly Mrs Mary Lindsay of Coachford met Father Joseph Shinnick, the Catholic curate in Ballyvourney, and told him ‘he should mind his flock who were lying in ambush on the road and that she would mind her own. She then drove to Ballincollig

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and informed the military there of the intended ambush.’ Shinnick sent a warning to the IRA to withdraw, but ‘was not taken seriously as he was always preaching from the Altar against ambushes’. This was to prove disastrous. Busteed was also casual in handling his scouts, many of whom were left unbriefed and unfed. He was unrepentant, commenting that ‘if Mrs Lindsay hadn’t told the British, it would have been complete annihilation for them’. At 15:30, sixty soldiers of the Manchester Regiment reached Dripsey at about 16:00. Lieutenant-Colonel Evans divided his men into five groups. Two went north to Peake Railway Station and walked in a southerly direction towards the remaining parties advancing along the main road to Macroom. The IRA scouts, hungry and tired, failed to spot them. By the time soldiers were seen, at around 16:00, the ASU was almost completely surrounded. According to Denis Dwyer, the first warning was a volley of shots fired on the IRA’s right flank and the appearance of an armoured car. The signal to withdraw northwards was given. James Barrett commanded a covering party, most of whom were wounded and subsequently captured. As well as Barrett, these were Denis Murphy, Thomas O’Brien, Daniel O’Callaghan, Patrick O’Mahony and Timothy McCarthy. John Lyons, a scout who had returned to the ambush when he heard the firing, was also captured. The main body escaped to the Rylane Company area. Ten prisoners in total were taken. Sixteen shotguns, four rifles, three revolvers, six bombs and a quantity of ammunition were seized. The ASU 6th Battalion was stood down after this disaster. Barrett and Murphy were gravely wounded. Three less seriously injured Volunteers and five others came before a military court on 8, 9 and 10 February. Eugene Langtry, Denis Sheehan and Jeremiah Sheehan were acquitted. The other five were convicted and sentenced to death, as was Denis Murphy once he recovered from his wounds. However, on the intervention of Major Woodley, a local unionist, Murphy’s sentence was commuted to twenty-five years imprisonment.

James Barrett, who had argued that Fr Shinnick’s warning should be heeded, never stood trial. Despite amputation of his leg, he died from septicaemia on 22 March. On the morning of 28 February, five men captured at Dripsey, and Seán (John) Allen, were shot by firing squad. This led to a spate of revenge attacks in which six soldiers were killed and four wounded. It also occasioned the killing of Mrs Lindsay and her chauffeur. Lyons, McCarthy, O’Brien, O’Callaghan and O’Mahony were buried in the yard of Cork Prison. Lyon’s mother Hannah secured dependents’ gratuities totalling £75, and an elderly brother later obtained an allowance.277 RD: Barrett (22Mar1921/1), McCarthy (28Feb 1921/3), O’Brien (28Feb1921/4), O’Callaghan (28Feb1921/5), O’Mahony (28Feb1921/6). SA: Allen (28Feb1921/1), Clarke (11Mar 1921/10), Lindsay (11Mar1921/9) Timothy McCarthy (28Feb1921/3) IRA, 21, Labourer, RC Military Detention Barracks, Cork See Lyons (28Feb1921/2). McCarthy, from Monavanshere, Donoughmore, lived in Donoughmore. A Volunteer in C Company, 6th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, he participated in all its major engagements, including the Blarney Barracks attack. His father John secured a £100 dependent’s gratuity.278 Thomas O’Brien (28Feb1921/4) IRA, 21, Ex-serviceman, woolcarder, RC Military Detention Barracks, Cork See Lyons (28Feb1921/2). O’Brien, of no. 12 Model Village, Dripsey, worked in the Dripsey Woollen Mills. He joined the Inniscarra Company following discharge from the South Irish Horse, participating in all their major operations. His father secured a £150 dependent’s gratuity, and his sister later secured an allowance.279 Daniel O’Callaghan (28Feb1921/5) IRA, 23, Farmer’s son, RC Military Detention Barracks, Cork See Lyons (28Feb1921/2). O’Callaghan, from Dripsey, was in the Inniscarra Company.

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Family members failed to secure dependents’ awards.280 Patrick O’Mahony (28Feb1921/6) IRA, 24, Farmer, RC Military Detention Barracks, Cork See Lyons (28Feb1921/2). O’Mahony, from Berrings, Cork, served in the 6th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, participating in attacks on Blarney and Carrigadrohid RIC barracks and at Inniscarra. His mother Kate secured gratuities totalling £100.281 Richard Boyce (28Feb1921/7) 27, Farmer’s son, RC Bawnmore, Ardpatrick, Limerick A mixed party of soldiers and police searching houses in Bawnmore at around 08:45 shot Boyce, who was helping his father catch horses, for failing to halt. He is listed as a Volunteer on a memorial in Newcastle West.282 Michael Heeney (28Feb1921/8) IRA, 31, RC Malinbeg, Glencolmcille, Donegal A party of military and police from Killybegs searching houses in Malinbeg at about 10:30 saw a man leaving an outhouse carrying two guns. Rifleman W. Stannard, Rifle Brigade, shot him.283 John Edwin Lawrence George Beattie (28Feb1921/9) Hampshire Regiment (5485484), 24, Messenger Infirmary Road, Cork Cork No. 1 Brigade IRA issued orders to the city battalions to shoot any Crown forces found out of barracks, armed or unarmed, in reprisal for the six executions carried out on the morning of 28 February at Victoria Barracks. About fifty IRA men took part between 18:30 and 20:00. In many cases, the targets were with girlfriends. Private Thomas Wise, RASC, the first soldier shot, died later. John Beattie of 2 Peverell Park Road, Peverel, attested at Devonport in 1912, on 19 February 1912 aged fourteen. Wounded three times, he was promoted to lance-

corporal in 1919. Stationed in Cork, he was killed at around 19:00 on Infirmary Road. Bandsman Albert Whitear and Signaller G. Bowden were shot at the corner of Leycester’s Lane and Glanmire Road. Bowden died immediately and Whitear shortly afterwards. Bowden’s girlfriend of three months deposed that she met him at 18:30 and that they walked towards Summer Hill and from there to Leycester’s Lane. They had stopped and were talking when two civilians approached, drew revolvers and fired. As he fell, Bowden cried out ‘Charlotte’. Although wounded in the leg, she went for help. Whitear died in a nearby house. Private Bettersworth stated that at about 19:00 he and Private William Gill went into a music shop on Patrick’s Street to buy a mouth organ. Two men, armed with service revolvers, entered and ordered the soldiers outside. When they went out, four men fired at them. Gill was killed and Bettersworth wounded. At about 20:15, Corporal Hodnett, RASC, was shot dead walking along Ballyvolane Road. Privates Price and Rollason of the Hampshire Regiment were shot at on the junction of Cook Street and Patrick Street. Several soldiers reported a rumour that six Hampshires would be killed for the six IRA men executed that morning. On 2 March, a service for the six fatalities, attended by Major-General E. P. Strickland, was held at Victoria Barracks. The remains, except those of Hodnett and Wise, were sent to England for burial. Buried Old Plymouth Cemetery.284 RD: Bowden (28Feb1921/11), Gill (28Feb 1921/12), Hodnett (28Feb1921/13), Whitear (1Mar1921/10), Wise (28Feb1921/10). SA: Allen (28Feb1921/1) Thomas Wise (28Feb1921/10) RASC (19097), 30, RC Mercy Hospital, Cork See Beattie (28Feb1921/9). Wise served in 1155th Mechanised Transport Company. Wise was severely wounded in the thigh on Hayes Lane off Grand Parade while on furlough visiting his family, and died at about 19:30. Buried Cork. His representatives secured £1,500 compensation.285

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George Stakes Bowden (28Feb1921/11) Royal Corps of Signals, 20 Leycester’s Lane, Cork See Beattie (28Feb1921/9). Buried Ladywell Cemetery, London.286 William Alfred Gill (28Feb1921/12) Hampshire Regiment (5485999),287 20, Baker Cork See Beattie (28Feb1921/9). Gill, from London, attested at Colchester on 14 February 1919. He was stationed in Cork. His fifteen-year-old brother Frederick secured £100 compensation and his aunt Sarah Clarke, who had raised the brothers after their parents died, £300. Buried Cheltenham Cemetery, Prestbury, Gloucestershire.288 Leonard Douglas Hodnett (28Feb1921/13) RASC (M/16638), 20, Engineer, motor driver Evergreen Street, Cork See Beattie (28Feb1921/9). Corporal Hodnett, from London, attested at Whitehall on 15 July 1919. He had been visiting his fiancée in Douglas Street. Her brother noticed suspicious-looking characters nearby and tried to convince Hodnett to put on civilian clothes when returning to barracks. Hodnett treated the matter as a joke. He and his fiancée left at around 20:15. A woman warned him: ‘My boy don’t go down that way, they will murder you. Two soldiers have been murdered in Evergreen Street.’ Almost immediately a man came up and ordered Hodnett to put his hands up. He was searched and then taken further up the road by men who told his fiancée, ‘If you go back we won’t shoot him.’ She followed and held on to him, but was dragged away, put against a wall and threatened. Hodnett was allowed to speak to her: he said ‘to be brave and run home, as the men would not kill him’. Moments later he was shot. The men fired again as he lay on the ground. A doctor tended to him and had him removed to his house, where he died. Buried Cork Military Cemetery.289 Unknown (28Feb1921/14) 28, Naval rating Balreask, Navan, Meath At 07:45 an unidentified man was found dead in a lane on the outskirts of Navan, with bullet

wounds to the chest and under the right eye. His right arm bore a tattoo of a harp and the words ‘Ireland for Ever’ and ‘HMS Victory’, suggesting that he was or had been in the Royal Navy. Of medium height, with ‘grey eyes, Roman nose’ and dark brown hair, his decayed teeth were ‘very much discoloured’. John McLoughlin, a shop assistant and Volunteer, described how at 08:30 the man ‘called for a pint of porter. . . . He said he came into Navan the previous night on a bicycle, that he took a few drinks too much, and felt very sick.’ He said he had been drinking for some days and had spent £20. He claimed to be ‘Michael O’Brien, of Clonmel . . . on the run. .  .  . I supplied him with 6 drinks (various)’ before he left at about 10:30, saying he would return in the afternoon. Another witness said the man, who appeared drunk, claimed to be a former Guardsman from Edinburgh. At about 22:55, a sentry at the Workhouse, Navan, heard two revolver shots about half a mile away. The man was killed by Hugh Magee, John McLoughlin, Thomas Boylan and Michael Hillard, 2nd Meath Brigade. Hilliard, who later served as Minister for Defence from 1965 to 1969, said the man knew Gaelic but spoke with a Scottish accent. He refused the services of a clergyman, and declared: ‘I did not think it was in you to do this. If you are ever in a similar position I will show you how to die; go ahead and do your duty.’ Buried Navan workhouse.290 Victor Bickersteth Murray (28Feb21/15) Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, 23, CoE Spike Island, Cork Lieutenant Murray, from Newcastle and educated at Eton and Sandhurst, commanded a platoon of the 2nd Battalion, Cameron Highlanders, on Spike Island. He shot himself. A verdict of suicide on this ‘most loveable and efficient officer’ was returned. Buried St Mary Churchyard, Rostherne, Cheshire (Old Yard. 14.L).291 Michael John O’Mahony (28Feb1921/16) IRA, 18, Apprentice shipwright, RC Passage West, Cork The CFR records that O’Mahony, of Railway Street, Passage West, received a thigh wound

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during an ambush on police in Passage West on 20 February. He was moved from house to house to avoid capture. His father Thomas secured a £75 dependent’s gratuity, and his mother Mary later obtained an allowance.292

1 MARCH 1921 Charles J. Daly (1Mar1921/1) IRA, 23, Ex-serviceman, railway worker, RC Railway Station, Glanmire Road, Cork ‘Charlie’ Daly was an army pay clerk before becoming a parcels porter at Glanmire Station, Cork. He served in the 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. At 00:30 an armed man forced Daly and Cornelius O’Donoghue, the head porter, out of the checkers’ office. Daly was taken towards the tunnel at the end of No. 5 platform. About three hours later, his corpse was found, shot in the chest, inside the tunnel. His murder was probably in reprisal for the shootings of six soldiers in Cork the previous night, although the RIC believed the IRA had killed him for refusing to help remove goods from the station. His killers may have mistaken him for another Charles Daly, a 3rd Battalion officer later killed while in custody. Daly’s parents secured £900 compensation and his two siblings £150 each.293 SA: Daly (28Jun1921/5) Thomas Looby (1Mar1921/2) IRA, 19, Agricultural labourer, RC Ballynamrossagh, Tipperary, Tipperary Looby, from, Rathkea, Tipperary, served in the Mount Bruis Company, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade. He died when two patrols of Crown forces engaged about fifteen armed men in a field near Knockjordan crossroads. The IRA withdrew under fire, leaving Looby’s body. John Hayes and Cornelius Power lay wounded nearby. Hayes died three days later. Buried Lattin Churchyard, Tipperary.294 RD: Hayes (4Mar1921/3) Thomas Devaney (1Mar1921/3) IRA, 23, Farmer, RC Pallas, Toomevara, Tipperary Devaney, from Pallas, Toomevara, was a lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, Tipperary No. 1 Brigade. A patrol searching a premises for a

wanted man fired on him as he attempted to flee. When a soldier asked the mortally wounded Devaney why he had not stopped, he replied that he was frightened. His brother James had been killed by Crown forces on 26 January 1921. Martin O’Dwyer suggested that Devaney had taken part in the court martial of a suspected spy, who, on his release, told the authorities where he had been held. Buried Toomevara. His mother Marianne could not prove dependency on either son.295 SA: Devaney (26Jan1921/2) James Kennedy (1Mar1921/4) 35, Ex-serviceman, unemployed, RC Great Brunswick Street, Dublin Kennedy, of 24 South Cumberland Street, had a weekly pension of 6s. He was killed at about 16:45 by a military lorry near the Palace Cinema on Brunswick Street.296 Daniel Casey (1Mar1921/5) 30, Dock labourer, RC North Infirmary, Cork Casey, of 13 Caroline Street, was shot in error by a military party pursuing civilians who fled from a checkpoint in front of the GPO. He died at around 20:30.297 Thomas Cotter (1Mar1921/6) 55, Farmer, Married with one child, CoI Curraclogh, Bandon, Cork An IRA account claimed Cotter was interrogated and court martialled, yet his widow Jane described how, at around 21:30, her husband answered the door, there was a scuffle, and she heard him shout, ‘Lord have mercy on us.’ About ten minutes later she found his body outside bearing the notice ‘Convicted Spy. IRA.’298 Alfred George Vendon Brock (1Mar1921/7) RIC (72038), 31, Labourer, ex-serviceman, Protestant RIC Barracks, Rosscarbery, Cork Born in India, Brock joined the RIC on 23 July 1920, stationed in Rosscarbery. Prior to joining, he lived at 31 Aspring Road, London. Shot in the stomach in unknown

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circumstances while on mess duty, he died next day.299 Patrick Roche (1Mar1921/8) RIC pensioner, Married, RC Causeway, Kerry Roche, a retired RIC man from Macroom, Cork, lived in Sanford House, Causeway. He defied the general boycott by supplying the local police with milk and vegetables. The IRA believed he warned of an IRA ambush in Causeway on 5 November 1920, resulting in the death of Thomas Archer. From then on, Roche was a marked man. He was seized by John Lucid and other Volunteers of the 2nd Battalion, Kerry No. 1 Brigade, and shot in front of his wife.300 SA: Archer (5Nov1920/1) Cleve Lindsay Soady (1Mar1921/9) ADRIC (79905), 28, Naval officer, CoE CMHC See Grant (25Feb1921/2). Soady, from Hampshire, joined the Auxiliary Division on 21 October 1920 (auxiliary number 810), stationed in Macroom, after wartime service in the Royal Naval Reserve. Buried Church of Ireland burial ground, Macroom.301 Albert Edward Whitear (1Mar1921/10) Hampshire Regiment (5485394), 20, Butcher’s assistant CMHC See Beattie (28Feb1921/9). Bandsman Whitear attested at Winchester aged fourteen. Buried Wimbledon Cemetery, London.302

2 MARCH 1921 Seán O’Brien (2Mar1921/1) 29, Hardware merchant, Married with one child, RC Charleville, Cork O’Brien, of Main Street, Charleville, was a prominent local political figure, but not a Volunteer. On 1 March, the ASU 4th (Charleville) Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade, under Paddy O’Brien, fired on but failed to hit Constable Quinn as he returned to the barracks after buying a newspaper. Michael Geary and Richard Smith recalled, ‘That night the Tans

came into the town mad looking for blood.’ O’Brien’s house had already been raided various times. Mick Geary, O/C Charleville Company, advised him not to sleep at home for fear of reprisals following the attack on Constable Quinn. O’Brien did not want to leave his wife alone. His house was raided at around 20:30. Wounded, he died at about 04:00. Deborah O’Brien stated that she was upstairs when she heard an explosion. She found her husband lying wounded just inside the door. He told her that when he answered a knock by a person claiming to be the military, he was confronted by two Black and Tans with English accents. One shot him, while the other threw a bomb inside. He suffered multiple leg and arm wounds. In statements made to a priest, an army officer and Head Constable James Brennan, O’Brien repeated that his attackers were uniformed Black and Tans. The RIC barracks orderly reported that two constables were missing at 20:50 when the sergeant was detailing men for duty. The IRA maintained these were constables Spain and Spellman. Buried Holy Cross Cemetery, Charleville. He is commemorated on a monument in Charleville.303 Thomas Mullen (2Mar1921/2) 29, Agricultural labourer, RC Killavoher, Clonbern, Galway Thomas Mullen, sowing cabbage when arrested by a police patrol at 15:30, was probably mistaken for his Volunteer brother Michael. He then supposedly attempted to escape and was shot for failing to halt. General Macready, GOC of troops in Ireland, was disturbed by the circumstances:

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the facts amount to this: two policemen allowed a man they had just taken into custody to escape. On the plea that the party were tired and hungry, they made no attempt to recapture him, but shot him. . . . He was a young strong man, was challenged several times, and then . . . fired [on] with buckshot. The range must have been an extraordinary short one for buckshot to be effective. To say the least this is another example of the necessity of handcuffing at once persons arrested in order to prevent them escaping.

3 March 1921

Buried Clonbern. A monument was erected at Kilavoher.304 James Nixon (2Mar1921/3) RIC (64718), 34, Carter, RC Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin Nixon, from Ardnaree, Mayo, joined the RIC on 21 April 1909, stationed in Roscommon. Wounded in the hip on 7 February when a constable sitting behind him on a tender inadvertently discharged his carbine, he died in hospital.305 M. F. Robins (2Mar1921/4) Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (5373574), 20, Ex-serviceman Military Hospital, Fermoy, Cork See Spackman (18Nov1920/4). Private Robins enlisted in February 1920. Stationed in Limerick, he died from wounds sustained in an attack near Cratloe. His stepmother Mrs Amy Hughes secured £1,000 compensation.306 Denis O’Brien (2Mar1921/5) 70, Coachman, RC Cork O’Brien, of 397 Blarney Street, was shot near the Bridewell by Private T. D. Fry of the Hampshire Regiment after failing to heed several challenges by a curfew patrol. His death was raised in parliament on 2 June 1921.307

3 MARCH 1921 Joseph Duddy (3Mar1921/1) RIC (75988), 33, Clerk, ex-serviceman, Married with two children, Presbyterian Scartnacrooha, Waterford Duddy, from Armagh, was a sergeant in the RASC and the Royal Engineers before joining the RIC on 29 November 1920, stationed in Ballyduff. He was in a party of eight RIC from Ballyduff RIC Barracks investigating reports of trees felled across the Fermoy road. At Scartnacrooha, he was killed when fired on from a wooded hill. The patrol returned fire. James Brennock of the ASU 1st (Fermoy) Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade, said this ambush involved thirty-six Volunteers.308

Victor Ronald Scott (3Mar1921/2) ADRIC, 35, Army officer, Protestant Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin Scott, born in India in 1886 and resident in Essex, served in N Company, stationed in Trim, Meath. He enlisted in the ADRIC on 9 February 1921. He died at 18:00 in Dr Steevens’ Hospital, after admission at about 01:00 on 25 February suffering from revolver wounds to the right hand and the roof of his mouth. Colleagues described a cheerful and balanced officer, which may explain why a court of inquiry ruled that his death was accidental. Buried MJC.309 Francis Elliott (3Mar1921/3) 37, Ex-serviceman, labourer, Married with five children, RC Ballymurray, Knockcroghery, Roscommon Elliott, of Bracknagh, Ballymurray, was a roads worker. Between 21:00 and 22:00, two men in long coats and military caps knocked on the door and asked Elliott to show them the way to Athlone as their car had broken down. If he pointed out a Sinn Féiner they would give him £50. Hannah Elliott heard her husband say as he left that he did not know anything about Sinn Féiners. Next day the RIC found Elliott at the level crossing between Curry Crossroads and Ballymurray, shot in the face. Inside a vest pocket a note bore the words ‘Spies Beware.’ The RIC concluded, ‘There is no doubt that this ex-serviceman was murdered owing to suspicion that he had conveyed information to Crown forces.’ This killing was most likely the work of John Brennan, Bill Stroker, Michael Brennan, Tom Killian and John Murray of the Kilteevan Company, South Roscommon Brigade. Elliott’s widow secured £2,600 compensation.310 Richard Keane (3Mar1921/4) IRA, RC Derrycloney, New Inn, Cashel, Tipperary Keane was from Hymenstown, New Inn, Cashel. The Last Post lists him as killed in action. No other reference has been found. Buried Dualla, Cashel.311

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4 MARCH 1921 James R. Beasant (4Mar1921/1) RIC (74691), 25, Motor driver, ex-serviceman, Protestant Main Street, Cashel, Tipperary From Wiltshire, Beasant joined the RIC on 22 October 1920, stationed in Cashel. Timothy Tierney stated that Beasant was known to be seeing Julia Cantwell of Cantwell’s pub on Main Street, possibly to extract information from her. At about 21:25, Paddy Hogan and Thomas Nagle entered Cantwell’s. Shooting from the doorway, they killed Beasant and wounded Julia in the head. Buried Swindon, Wiltshire.312 Michael Dermody (4Mar1921/2) IRA, 24, Agricultural labourer, RC Military Hospital, Kilkenny, Kilkenny See Hennessy (21Feb1921/1). Dermody, from Ballydaniel, was a lieutenant in the Threecastles Company, Kilkenny Brigade. He and his girlfriend had apparently just booked a passage to the US. Buried Tullow Churchyard, Threecastles, Kilkenny. His father received a gratuity of £50, later increased to £75.313 John Hayes (4Mar1921/3) IRA, 22, Agricultural labourer, RC Military Hospital, Tipperary, Tipperary See Looby (1Mar1921/2). Hayes, from Knockordan, served in the Mount Bruis Company, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade. Buried Lattin Churchyard, Tipperary. His father received a gratuity of £60.314

5 MARCH 1921 Hanway Robert Cumming (5Mar1921/1) General Staff, 53, Army officer, Married Clonbannin Cross, Mallow, Cork Cumming served as a captain in the Boer War from 1899 until 1901, was present at the relief of Ladysmith in 1900, and mentioned in dispatches. In 1916–17, he was temporary brigadier-general 91st Brigade, 7th Division. He won the DSO and Légion d’Honneur. In 1917–18 he commanded the MGC Training Centre, and from March 1918 until the armistice the 110th Brigade, 21st Division, in France. His memoir Brigadier in France, 1917–1918 was published posthumously in

1922. On 25 November 1920, Cumming took command of the army’s Kerry Brigade, becoming military governor of Kerry when martial law was declared in December 1920. Annie Barrett, a Mallow telephonist, listened in on a call in which Cumming discussed his movements and informed the IRA. Cumming was escorted by an armoured car and three lorries containing members of the East Lancashire Regiment. At about 15:00, they were ambushed about half a mile west of Clonbannin Cross on the Killarney to Mallow road. This operation, under Seán Moylan, O/C Newmarket Battalion, involved IRA units from Cork No. 2 Brigade and Kerry No. 2 Brigade. The IRA position extended over 600 yards on rising ground. The convoy was headed by two lorries, followed by Cumming’s touring car and the armoured car, with the third lorry bringing up the rear. The first vehicle ran into a ditch when its driver was hit. The second was put out of action by a burst from a Hotchkiss gun, while the armoured car and the third lorry were attacked with rifle fire. The armoured car crashed into the touring car and, in attempting to get clear, sank in the soft margin of the road. The IRA’s Hotchkiss gun jammed and remained unusable for the remainder of the engagement, which lasted about two hours. Cumming was wounded in the head. A fellow officer and two soldiers were killed, with four soldiers and one policeman wounded. IRA accounts claimed thirteen soldiers were killed and fifteen wounded. Daniel Browne said that a small silver-plated revolver which Cumming dropped was later given to Denis Galvin. Cumming’s funeral took place at Golders Green Crematorium, London. His widow Beatrice secured £10,000 compensation and his brother £3,000.315 RD: De Maligny (5Mar1921/2), Turner (5Mar1921/3), Walker (5Mar1921/4) Harold Adolf de Maligny (5Mar1921/2) RASC, 40, Army officer, Married Clonbannin, Mallow, Cork See Cumming (5Mar1921/1). De Maligny, of Croydon, served in the Coldstream Guards before transferring to the RASC. Buried Queen’s Road Cemetery, Croydon, Surrey

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(GG. 2.35239). His widow Edith Hilda secured £8,000 compensation.316 Harold Turner (5Mar1921/3) East Lancashire Regiment (3378394), 22, Labourer Clonbannin, Mallow, Cork See Cumming (5Mar1921/1). Private Turner, from Manchester, enlisted at Scarborough on 22 February 1919. Buried Willow Grove Cemetery, Stockport, Cheshire (P. 8337).317 William Walker (5Mar1921/4) East Lancashire Regiment (3379257), 18, Shop porter Clonbannin, Mallow, Cork See Cumming (5Mar1921/1). Private Walker, from Lewisham, Kent, enlisted at Woolwich on 7 June 1920 aged eighteen. Buried Ladywell Cemetery, London.318 Thomas Lee (5Mar1921/5) IRA, 20, Clerk, grocer’s assistant, RC Military Hospital, Fethard, Tipperary From Loughcapple, Fethard, Lee served in the Fethard Company, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade. At about 11:00 on 4 March, a police convoy investigating thefts of mail and other articles from Tipperary railway station surrounded Coffey’s farm, where Lee and Patrick Ryan had slept in the hay barn. Lee fired through the window at the police. Nellie Walsh, a maid, showed the two Volunteers a back window through which they escaped. They split up, Lee taking the Cashel road. He was shot as he crossed a field. Brought by cart to the military barracks, he died there next morning. The military authorities wanted to take legal action against the Irish Independent for its ‘lying statement that the men were “working in a field”’. Buried Clerihan, Clonmel, Tipperary. His father William and brother Laurence made unsuccessful pension applications.319 Eric Chilver Wilson (5Mar1921/6) Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, 24, Army officer, CoE KGVH Wilson was badly wounded at Givencyen-Gohelle and the Somme while with the Bedfordshire Regiment. His only brother was

killed in France. In 1921, his battalion was posted to Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim. On 3 March, following an anonymous letter claiming that leading IRA men would attend a first Friday Mass, he led a party of soldiers, RIC and a lady searcher to Gowell, about six miles north-east of Carrick-on-Shannon. While returning they were ambushed. Sergeant A. M. Austin described how about twenty IRA opened fire from behind a stone wall on a thickly wooded slope. Wilson ordered Austin to provide covering fire as he and seven soldiers attempted to outflank their attackers, and took out field glasses to examine the hill: Charlie McGoohan recalled how ‘the sun . . . shone on his glasses. I think I said “this is for me”. . . . The poor chap fell’, hit in the head. Private C. Groves was wounded while attending to him. The wounded were brought to Carrick-on-Shannon. Wilson was taken by afternoon mail train to Dublin. Despite an operation, he died on the morning of 5 March. Captain A. L. Dunnill noted that investigation of the ambush site disclosed six rifle pits behind a wall and an observation post. He believed that nine IRA took part. Buried Bedford Cemetery (E/3. 57).320 Jeremiah O’Mahony (5Mar1921/7) IRA, 29, Labourer, RC Enniskeane, Cork O’Mahony, captain of the Copeen Company, 3rd (Dunmanway) Battalion, Cork No 3 Brigade, was leading a party to trench the road at Ballyvelone Cross when a lorry was heard nearby. As the men took cover, one accidentally discharged his rifle, killing O’Mahony. His remains were concealed overnight, and then secretly buried in a rough coffin in the republican plot in Castletownkennigh, Cork. A rumour persisted that he was shot by a love rival. His mother secured a dependent’s gratuity of £50, as did a widowed sister forty years later.321

6 MARCH 1921 Patrick J. Hogan (6Mar1921/1) IRA, 23, Draper’s assistant, RC Derrycloney, New Inn, Tipperary ‘Paddy’ Hogan of Dualla, Cashel, was O/C 2nd Battalion, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade. He

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and Patrick Keane were staying with the Dagg family, whose house was raided at 07:00. They exchanged fire, wounding Captain C. F. K. Marshall, RFA. The raiders withdrew to the yard and fired from there. Hogan was hit, dying within minutes. Keane was then obliged to surrender. He and the Daggs (uncle and nephew) were arrested and imprisoned in Cahir. Keane subsequently escaped. When Hogan’s body was searched a notebook, two copies of An tÓglach and an unopened envelope marked ‘Capt B Company, Battalion 2’ were found. Buried Dualla, Cashel. His father Richard was awarded a gratuity of £120 and his mother Mary an allowance from June 1937.322

Lieutenant R. Lacey searching for IRA men among Mass goers. One round was fired. There was a strong wind blowing, so that the patrol’s challenge may not have been heard. Buried Rathanna.324

John O’Neill (6Mar1921/2) 32, Ex-serviceman, bakery hand, RC Malahide Road, Dublin O’Neill, a Dubliner, spent eleven years in Australia, and served with the Australian Corps in Egypt. After demobilisation, he returned to Dublin, living at 42C Great Brunswick Street. He worked for Johnson, Mooney & O’Brien Bakers, but was temporarily employed as a chauffeur for Edmund McGrath. He was driving two passengers to Portmarnock at around 10:30 when ordered to halt by men behind a wall opposite Donnycarney House on the Malahide road As he pulled up, fire was opened and bombs thrown. O’Neill was killed instantly by a shot to the head. On ascertaining the name and address of one of the passengers, the attackers said a mistake had been made, and left. A British officer noted, ‘This should be useful for propaganda.’ The intended target was a motor car which had brought ten officers to Portmarnock Golf Links. Buried GC (H. a. 55.5). His sisters Mary and Jane were each awarded £100 compensation.323

opened fire somewhat hastily: as it turned out they were confronted by unarmed civilians only. . . . The occurrence is regrettable as the District is very quiet. Guy was a local man and I recommend that the case of Mrs Guy, his mother, be favourably considered with a view to some compensation being awarded.325

James Hayden (6Mar1921/3) 35, Farmer, RC Rathanna, Carlow Hayden, from Crannagh, Carlow, was among a group of men outside Rathanna Chapel who disobeyed an order to halt from a party of the North Staffordshire Regiment under

Henry Guy (6Mar1921/4) 28, Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC Sutton, Dublin Guy, from Howth, lived in Baldoyle. He and others were playing pitch and toss in a field off Saxe Lane near Sutton Cross at around 15:00 when two lorries of Auxiliaries pulled up. Fire was opened, apparently after an order to halt: Guy was killed and two others wounded. Commenting on the case, the GOC Dublin District considered that the Auxiliaries:

Martin Clancy (6Mar1921/5) IRA, 18, Agricultural labourer, RC Knockroe, Drangan, Tipperary Clancy, from Ballylusky, Drangan, was adjutant A (Drangan) Company, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade. His brother Patrick had been killed on 19 November 1920. Due to an ineffective lookout, a patrol of the Lincolnshire Regiment under Lieutenant M. M. Ormond completely surprised a battalion council meeting in a disused stable at Knockroe. Twelve battalion officers were handing in money collected for the arms fund. Only a couple had weapons. Denis Sadlier fired a few shots, holding up the military for a short time. Clancy and Denis Croke had only got about 150 yards from the stable when hit. Clancy was then apparently finished off, and Croke captured. Dick Fleming of Moyglass remained in the stable and was killed by a grenade. Patrick Hackett of Drangan, hit by Lewis gun fire, died next day in Tipperary Military Hospital. Buried Magoury, Drangan, Tipperary. A monument commemorating the Clancy

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brothers was erected. Their father Martin was awarded a gratuity of £50 and their mother an allowance.326 RD: Fleming (6Mar1921/5), Hackett (7Mar 1921/5). SA: Clancy (19Nov1920/1), Sadlier (13Jun1921/6)

East Limerick Brigade. He was shot dead at about 20:50 by five men as he left Kilmallock Post Office. Reprisals against property followed. Buried Kilfinane. His widow Nora secured £3,200 compensation.329 SA: Murphy (1Jan1921/5), Tobin (1Jan1921/4)

Richard Fleming (6Mar1921/6) IRA, 30, Farmer, RC Knockroe, Drangan, Tipperary See Clancy (6Mar1921/5). ‘Dick’ Fleming from Coolmore, Tipperary, was captain E (Moyglass) Company, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade. Buried Drangan, Tipperary. His mother Catherine was awarded a gratuity of £75 which was later increased to £150.327

Thomas Larkin (6Mar1921/9) RC Vicinity of Drangan, Tipperary According to O’Dwyer’s biographical dictionary, Larkin, from Rosegreen, Cashel, Tipperary, was killed by Crown forces. No other references to this death have been traced in British or Irish sources. Buried Clerihan, Clonmel, Tipperary.330

Cornelius Foley (6Mar1921/7) IRA, 27, Creamery worker, RC Macroom Castle, Macroom, Cork ‘Neilus’ Foley was quartermaster Toames Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, and a member of the battalion ASU. At around 16:00 a mixed patrol under Major W. P. Gill, Auxiliary Division, encountered a party of about twenty-five men near Toames. These immediately fled through the fields and were fired on. Foley was wounded and twenty others arrested and brought to Macroom Castle. Foley died at about 18:00. The 1st Battalion Manchester Regiment digest of service recorded that before he died, Foley said: ‘Up de Valera, we’ll kill all you bastard English before long.’ Buried Kilmichael. Foley is commemorated on a monument in The Square, Macroom. His mother Mary was awarded a gratuity of £50 which was later increased to £100.328

Bridget Walpole (6Mar1921/10) 57, Widowed, RC Ballyea, Tralee, Kerry Bridget Walpole, a childless widow, went missing from her home at about 18:30. Next morning her body was found about 400 yards away, shot in the head. The local IRA immediately denied involvement. While bearing the hallmarks of an execution of an alleged spy, her death was believed to be the work of some of her late husband’s relatives anxious that her land would remain in the family. This was also the RIC’s view.331

James Maguire (6Mar1921/8) RIC (54713), 50, Farmer, Married with eight children, RC Kilmallock, Limerick From Cavan, Maguire joined the RIC on 2 February 1901, serving in Clare before transferring to Limerick. Promoted to sergeant in 1909, he was stationed in Kilmallock. Maguire was thought to possess enormous local knowledge and it was believed it was his information which led to the deaths of Thomas Murphy and David Tobin of the ASU

7 MARCH 1921 Michael O’Callaghan (7Mar1921/1) 41, Tannery owner, Married, RC North Strand, Limerick O’Callaghan, from Limerick, ran the family tannery. In 1920 he served as mayor of Limerick, His widow Cáit recalled that he had received threatening letters. The second one was a ‘Final Warning – Whereas, it has come to our knowledge that the Sinn Féin organisation of which you are a prominent official through the so-called IRA, or murder gang, has been committing outrages in this hitherto God-fearing and law abiding country’, he would ‘personally be held responsible and punished in such a manner that others will be deterred from criminal courses’. Cáit O’Callaghan said her husband supported the IRA financially but was not a

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Volunteer. During his term as mayor until 31 January 1921, he slept away from home. His house was raided by police on 8 February 1921 and again on 22 February, when O’Callaghan remarked to his wife, ‘Wasn’t it a shame to have a fellow with a charming voice to be doing that kind of thing raiding a private house?’ On the night of 6 March, the O’Callaghans were awoken by knocking. When O’Callaghan answered, two men armed with revolvers asked him to step outside. His wife intervened and there was a brief struggle – Cáit ‘pulled the goggles off one of them’, and she recognised one of the raiders’ voices – before one of the men fired, shooting O’Callaghan several times. Joseph O’Donoghue was taken from a house on Janesboro Avenue by RIC under Detective William Leech† at about 23:30. He was found dead next day. George Clancy, who had succeeded O’Callaghan as mayor on 1 February 1921, was also killed in the early hours. His widow Máire stated that since the end of 1919 her husband had made it a point not to sleep at home for fear of raids. On 4 March, her husband returned to attend her father’s funeral. At about 01:30 on 7 March, the house was raided. Clancy refused to go outside, and was shot by one of three armed and masked men. His wife was wounded. These killings were believed to be the work of an Auxiliary named George Nathan, who died in July 1937 fighting on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War. Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery. O’Callaghan is commemorated on a plaque on Sarsfield Bridge, and also on a monument at Murroe. O’Callaghan Strand and O’Callaghan Avenue bear his name.332 RD: Clancy (7Mar1921/3), O’Donoghue (7Mar1921/2) Joseph O’Donoghue (7Mar1921/2) IRA, 26, Factory manager, RC Janesboro Avenue, Limerick See O’Callaghan (7Mar1921/1). O’Donoghue, from Ballynacargy, Westmeath, lived on Janesboro Avenue. Manager of the River Plate Meat Company, he was a member of the Gaelic League and served in E Company,

2nd Battalion, Mid Limerick Brigade. He is commemorated on a plaque on Sarsfield Bridge and on a monument at Murroe, Limerick. Wilmount Lane was renamed O’Donoghue Avenue. His disabled brother Michael secured a £112.10s.0d. dependent’s gratuity, and his sister Margaret later obtained an allowance.333 George Clancy (Seoirse Mac Fhlannchadha) (7Mar1921/3) IRA, 42, Insurance agent, Married, RC North Strand, Limerick See O’Callaghan (7Mar1921/1). Clancy, from Grange, Limerick, attended Grange National School and St Patrick’s Seminary, Bruff. In 1904, he graduated from the Royal University. He was a teacher before becoming local superintendent of the Irish National Assurance Company, and he married Máire Ní Cillín in July 1915. A senior IRB man, Clancy was also vice-O/C 1st Limerick City Battalion, Mid Limerick Brigade. On 31 January 1921, he succeeded Michael O’Callaghan as mayor. He is commemorated on a plaque placed on Sarsfield Bridge, later relocated to the wall of the Hilton Hotel, and on a monument at Murroe. Part of North Strand was renamed Clancy’s Strand.334 Thomas Horan (7Mar1921/4) 55, Farmer, Married, RC Srah, Tourmakeady, Mayo Horan, from Srah, Tourmakeady, had been cutting turf and was sitting in the kitchen around 16:30 with his daughter Mary. Three men in police uniforms entered the kitchen and shot him in the head. He died at about 20:00. A neighbour who heard the shooting saw a motor car depart at speed towards Westport. It is likely that he was killed in reprisal for the shooting earlier that day of Charles Bell, who died on 8 March.335 SA: Bell (8Mar1921/1) Patrick Hackett (7Mar1921/5) IRA, 23, Agricultural labourer, RC Military Hospital, Tipperary See Clancy (6Mar1921/5). Hackett, a farmer’s son of Rathkenny, Tipperary, was a lieutenant in A (Drangan) Company, Tipperary No. 3

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Brigade. Buried Drangan. His father Patrick was awarded a gratuity of £50.336 Patrick Keane (7Mar1921/6) 9, RC Dublin Patrick, a coal driver’s son of Thomas Davis Street, Inchicore, and another boy were standing at the window of Miss O’Brien’s sweet shop on Emmet Road when a Ford car driven by Frederick George Ward, a civilian driver attached to 1165th Company, RASC, came around a corner and made ‘a kind of dive on to the pavement and struck the two boys’. Ward had previously reported that a rear wheel was faulty. Patrick was carried into the Black Lion pub; brought to hospital, he died around 21:00 from abdominal injuries.337

c. 7 MARCH 1921 Harold Stiff (7Mar1921/7) RIC (72620), 27, Nightwatchman, exserviceman, Protestant Maynooth, Kildare Stiff, from Canning Town, London, joined the RIC in August 1920, stationed in Maynooth, where he shot himself in the barracks. A colleague said that ‘deceased’s mind was deranged for some time’.338

8 MARCH 1921 Charles Frederick Bell (8Mar1921/1) Border Regiment (3590739), 20, Locomotive fireman Infirmary, Castlebar, Mayo Corporal Bell, from London, attested aged eighteen. Stationed in Mayo, he was mortally wounded when a military party in a Crossley car was ambushed at Partry by an IRA party of the South Mayo Brigade. Buried England.339 SA: Horan (7Mar1921/4) James Maher340 (8Mar1921/2) 24, Ex-serviceman, RC Ballytarsna, Cashel, Tipperary ‘Rockham’ Maher lived on The Mall, Thurles, Tipperary. James Leahy, O/C Tipperary No. 2 Brigade, sanctioned the killing of ex-soldiers Maher and Patrick Meara, who were

suspected of giving information to the police. Captured sitting on Tortulla Bridge outside Thurles by Mick Small and members of the brigade ASU on 8 March, Maher became ‘very abusive’ when told his fate. They were shot at Ballytarsna, midway between Thurles and Cashel, apparently after refusing ‘spiritual attention’. A label bearing the word ‘spy’ was pinned to Maher’s chest. The RIC reported that ‘these two men were absolutely useless to us’ and ‘had never given any information about Sinn Fein’. Police reprisals resulted in the deaths of Laurence Hickey and William Loughnane.341 RD: Meara (8Mar1921/3). SA: Hickey (10Mar 1921/1), Loughnane (10Mar 1921/2) Patrick Meara (8Mar1921/3) Ex-serviceman, RC Ballytarsna, Cashel, Tipperary See Maher (8Mar1921/2). ‘Swordy’ Meara lived in Thurles.342

9 MARCH 1921 Nicholas Somers (9Mar1921/1) RIC (71336), 22, Farmer, RC Shronebeha, Banteer, Cork From Wexford, Somers joined the RIC on 30 April 1920, stationed in Banteer. He was in a four-man RIC patrol under Sergeant James George ambushed by units of the Cork No. 2 Brigade at Shronebeha, known locally as Father Murphy’s Bridge. He fell during the first volley. His comrades later claimed to have fought until compelled to surrender when their ammunition was exhausted, whereas the IRA report stated they ‘did not return the fire. Our men closed in on those in cover and after some difficulty poked them out of the bushes’, capturing ‘3 long and 1 short Webley and 48 rounds ammunition’. The report indicates they intended to kill their captives: ‘Prisoners were placed on the Bridge as we were going to act [three or four words following redacted]. This was frustrated owing to the Rev Fr Kavanagh CC coming on and intervening, so [they] were let off on promising to resign.’ Somers’s next of kin secured £1,600 compensation.343

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James Kennelly (9Mar1921/2) 65, Farmer, Married, RC Moybella, Lisselton, Kerry Kennelly was tending to his cattle when shot in the chest by a police patrol. This killing may have been a reprisal for an unsuccessful attack by the ASU Kerry No. 1 Brigade on police at Lisselton on 25 February. Buried Gale Cemetery, Ballydonoghue, Kerry.344 Francis McPhillips (9Mar1921/3) 21, Farmer, RC Aghabog, Monaghan, Monaghan McPhillips lived with his mother and six sisters in Corleck, Aghabog. An AOH man, he farmed a holding of 30 acres. John Sullivan, who was on the run, recalled that ‘a Protestant man told my mother to beware’ of McPhillips and another man, who ‘were spying and giving information to the Rev[erend] Gaskin, the head of the B-men [special constabulary]’. McPhillips was tied to the railings of Aghabog church, but ‘it was no use. He continued his activities’. One night two IRA men disguised themselves in police uniforms and met McPhillips. They questioned him about the local IRA; McPhillips allegedly willingly gave information. This, according to John McConnell, confirmed the suspicions of the battalion staff. At 04:00, Margaret McPhillips answered the door to armed and masked men wearing long coats, who claimed to be police searching for arms. They told her brother to get dressed. Taken away, he was convicted of informing by a court-martial presided over by Eoin O’Duffy, O/C Monaghan Brigade. J. M. McKenna attempted to intervene, telling senior IRA officer Dr Con Ward, ‘I don’t think this man should be executed.’ McKenna was told, ‘It’s already decided’: ‘I wouldn’t take part in [the] execution.’ McPhillips’s body and that of Patrick Larmour were later found in Aghabog Lane, blindfolded and shot at close range. A card pinned to Larmour’s label read, ‘Tried, Convicted & Executed by IRA’, while that on McPhillips read, ‘Convicted Informer. IRA.’ In a letter to Joseph Devlin, MP, a Monaghan AOH man claimed that McPhillips was shot ‘for no other reason than that he was a

staunch Hibernian. That’s the treatment meted out to Nationalists at Sinn Féin hands.’ Some Monaghan IRA veterans also deplored the killing, which they too ascribed to Sinn Féin/AOH rivalry. Buried Aghabog Church. The funeral was attended by AOH men from many counties, and a Celtic cross was later erected over the grave. His mother Margaret secured £1,400 compensation.345 RD: Larmour (9Mar1921/4) Patrick Joseph Larmour (9Mar1921/4) IRA, 23, Farmer, RC Aghabog, Monaghan346 See McPhillips (9Mar1921/3). Larmour, of Maghernaharny, between Rockcorry and Ballybay, Monaghan, was a Volunteer in the Rockcorry Company. Around the end of January 1921 he was arrested by Crown forces and after a severe beating in Victoria Barracks, Belfast, gave some information. He was later released. James Sullivan, later adjutant Monaghan Brigade, said that on returning home, Larmour willingly told him what he had disclosed under coercion. John McGahey made a strong plea to Brigade O/C O’Duffy in Larmour’s defence, citing extenuating circumstances: Larmour ‘was an intelligent country boy who unfortunately for everybody concerned was timid and easily scared’. Dan Hogan, O/C ASU, then intervened ‘in a manner most aggressive towards myself. I have felt since that only for Hogan’s untimely arrival I could have succeeded in influencing [the brigade O/C] O’Duffy to spare Larmer’s [sic] life. I failed.’ McGahey thought the execution was ‘much too drastic’ a punishment, and that Larmour’s memory deserved vindication. Other Monaghan IRA veterans were of the same view. Larmour was shot at Aghabog. Buried Corracrin Graveyard, Emyvale, Monaghan.347

10 MARCH 1921 Laurence Hickey (10Mar1921/1) IRA,348 41, Vintner, grocer, Married with one child, RC Main Street, Thurles, Tipperary Three armed and masked men entered Hickey’s house at 00:30. One kept Mrs Hickey

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in the hall, while the others sought her husband. Several shots were fired. She found her husband dead in the kitchen. James Leahy, O/C Tipperary No. 2 Brigade, secured information on this killing from Sergeant Enright, who led the raid on Hickey’s house. It was a reprisal following the killing by the brigade ASU of two suspected spies named Maher and Meara. Masked men ordered Hickey out of bed. He was then tripped and thrown downstairs by an RIC man named Jackson. This broke his neck, and Sergeant Enright shot him dead to put an end to his agony. While that raid was in progress another party of masked police visited the Loughnane home on Quarry Street, Thurles, shooting William Loughnane in his bedroom. According to Leahy, Loughnane, his father and three brothers were active IRA men. Police reports suggested that Loughnane was involved in the deaths of Maher and Meara two nights before. Buried Killenaule, Tipperary.349 RD: Loughnane (10Mar1921/2). SA: Maher (8Mar1921/2), Meara (8Mar1921/3) William Loughnane (10Mar1921/2) IRA, 28, Labourer, RC Quarry Street, Thurles, Tipperary See Hickey (10Mar1921/1). Loughnane, a Volunteer in the 1st Battalion, Tipperary No. 2 Brigade, was on the run. Buried St Mary’s Cemetery, Thurles.350 Edmond Twomey (10Mar1921/3) IRA, 22, Farmer, RC Lyre, Banteer, Cork Twomey, of Glen South, Banteer, was supervisor of the Lyre Cow Testing Association. A Volunteer, he was killed for failing to halt when challenged at about 07:30 by a patrol under Lieutenant A. E. Wheatley, East Lancashire Regiment. He was believed to be on his way to milk his cows. The patrol was part of a large military sweep intended to engage IRA forces known to be in the area, and which shortly afterwards encountered an IRA party at Nadd.351 RD: Herlihy (10Mar1921/4)

David Herlihy (10Mar1921/4) IRA, 35, Farmer, Widowed, RC Nadd, Banteer, Cork Herlihy was the first fatality during a surprise raid on an IRA party staying in his house at Nadd. This was the second calamity to befall the 5th Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade, Mourne Abbey being the first. Both episodes were blamed on a single informer, William Shields, but Liam Lynch†, then O/C Cork No. 2 Brigade, believed responsibility in each case rested squarely with the O/C 5th Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade. When Lynch ‘went into [the] moral character of his Unit’, insisting on the removal of two dubious characters, the O/C’ kept from me any particulars of Shields, as he did not trust him and wished to keep him on in the Unit where he could be watched: an impossibility, and going from frying pan to fire’. William Shields had been accepted as an ASU Volunteer because of his military experience, despite his dubious character and habits. On one occasion when carrying dispatches, ‘he fired shots from a revolver and went into a “pub” and became drunk. . . . The Commandant’s reply [to a report on this] was to “put any charge in writing”!’ It was believed that Shields alerted Crown forces to the IRA’s presence at the Nadd. Lynch had combined the ASUs of the Mallow and Kanturk Battalions. They began training at Nadd, south of Banteer. In early March brigade headquarters moved to Paddy McCarthy’s house in Nadd. The joint ASU was responsible for security. But there was a catastrophic failure, as Lynch described: On the previous day I had discussed with Comm[an]d[a]nt his instructions on protection, on the same day I lectured the two AS Units on all carrying out the orders they had or would receive in the matter. After all this no guard was placed in front of [the] principal house, with the result that enemy went into beds [sic], pulled out men and shot them.

Tadhg McCarthy recalled wet and foggy conditions, which Lynch afterwards wrote ‘saved all our lives’. At around 07:45 the three men on guard duty with McCarthy took shelter from the rain in a shed in Bride’s Yard.

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At around 08:30 McCarthy saw two military lorries, part of a large force drawn from the Manchester Regiment and the South Staffordshire Regiment in Cork, Ballincollig and Buttevant, which had moved surreptitiously into position during the night. The brigade staff were warned in time and escaped across the fields. But two men going to warn six Volunteers staying in David Herlihy’s house, known as ‘The Barracks’, were told by locals that they had already gone. Consequently, these were still in bed when the military forced the front door. ‘Congo’ Moloney recalled being brought out in his bare feet and searched by about twelve soldiers. An officer told them that he had intended shooting them out of hand, but then decided to let them run. A firing party was drawn up at the gable end of the house. Moloney and Joe Morgan, both from Mallow, ran the gauntlet and, although wounded, escaped. Herlihy, Michael Kiely and Ned Waters were shot dead. It is claimed that the informer Shields was present in police uniform during the round up. He subsequently disappeared. Some sources say he was never traced, although two plausible accounts of his capture and death have been found.352 RD: Kiely (10Mar1921/4), Twomey (10Mar 1921/3), Waters (10Mar1921/6). SA: Shields (11Jul1921/9) Michael Kiely (10Mar1921/5) IRA, 20, Labourer, RC Nadd, Banteer, Cork See Herlihy (10Mar1921/3). Kiely was from Lyre, Banteer. Cornelius O’Regan of the ASU Mallow Battalion recalled that Kiely, a dispatch rider, had pleaded to be allowed to join the ASU. He was permitted to stay the night in Nadd. His father Daniel was awarded an allowance from 1 April 1922 subject to the recovery of £200 paid by the Compensation (Personal Injuries) Committee.353 Edmond Waters (10Mar1921/6) IRA, 25, Butcher, RC Nadd, Banteer, Cork See Herlihy (10Mar1921/3). ‘Ned’ Waters from Glashabee, Dromahane, Mallow, had

been on the run since September 1919. He served in the ASU, 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade, formed in January 1921. Buried Newberry, Mallow. His mother Mary was awarded a dependent’s gratuity of £112 10s.354 John Good (10Mar1921/7) 66, Farmer, Married with five children, CoI Barryshall, Timoleague, Cork Good farmed around 400 acres. He was a brother-in-law of Thomas Bradfield and a relative of William Connell, both of whom had been shot dead in February 1921. His labourer Denis Hegarty was killed on the farm on 19 January 1921, and the local IRA told GHQ that Good was implicated. At about 20:30, Good went into the kitchen to have a smoke and to let the dog out. When he opened the back door, three shots were fired. He fell wounded. A doctor summoned from Timoleague was too fearful to attend. Good died at 23:30. His son William was killed on 26 March. John O’Driscoll, captain Timoleague Company, Cork No. 3 Brigade, referred to the shooting of a spy named John Good and the confiscation of his cattle and property. After his death, effects to the value of £3,040 were stolen from the farm, and the family had to flee their home. His wife Elizabeth and son James secured £10,000 compensation.355 RD: Hegarty (19Jan1921/1). SA: Bradfield (1Feb1921/6), Connell (19Feb1921/3), Good (26Mar1921/3) James Bergin (10Mar1921/8) RIC (78335), 29, Porter, ex-serviceman, Married with two children Infirmary, Ennis, Clare From London, and formerly of the Irish Guards, Bergin joined the RIC on 28 January 1921, stationed in Ennis. He was shot in the lung when Constable Band, in removing the magazine from his rifle in his barracks bedroom, accidentally discharged his weapon through the floor, striking Bergin in the dayroom below. The Treasury granted Bergin’s widow a yearly pension of £50, with an annual allowance to each child of £10 until the age of sixteen.356

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11 MARCH 1921 Michael Edward Baxter (11Mar1921/1) IRA, 23, Railway clerk, RC Selton Hill, Glasdrumman, Mohill, Leitrim In 1983 an elderly Leitrim farmer recalled how in March 1921 ‘I was setting a plot of cabbage. . . . It was . . . a dry hard darkish kind of a day’, when gunfire erupted. Michael Baxter was the first fatality in a disastrous engagement at Selton Hill, or Gorvagh, which effectively destroyed the IRA in south Leitrim. Baxter, from Bawnboy, Cavan, joined the Cavan & Leitrim Railway in Ballinamore in 1914. A captain in the ASU, South Leitrim Brigade, he went on the run in November 1920: the staff register noted him as ‘ordered to leave County Leitrim by the authorities’.357 Seán Connolly, a GHQ organiser, planned an ambush at Annaduff on the Roosky to Carrick-on-Shannon road, the main artery between Dublin and the north-west. This was abandoned when a large explosive mine disintegrated. Connolly then divided the ASU into sections, detailing them to different areas to hit as many targets as possible. One group under Connolly and Bernard Sweeney, intending to attack Ballinamore RIC Barracks, were billeted in houses at Selton Hill, Glasdrumman. No local lookouts were posted. It was said that a Black and Tan driver named Fowler deliberately kept his engine running to alert the IRA of the approach of a raiding party. At 15:30, finally warned of approaching Crown forces, Connolly ordered his men out the back. Patrick Doherty, then vice-O/C 1st Battalion, South Leitrim Brigade, and an ASU member, stated that Connolly had ignored warnings that the district was unsafe. Connolly’s group were allegedly seen by a Protestant farmer named William Latimer on his way in to make arrangements for his mother’s funeral. He told Dr Pentland in Mohill, who in turn informed the police. A large force of police and soldiers, with armoured cars and machine guns, surrounded the house of local farmer Charles Flynn, where Volunteers were billeted, at about 17:00. Lieutenant J. C. Preston, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, described how his

patrol was fired on, and replied, enfilading a group of men who attempted to escape by making for a valley behind the house with Lewis gun fire. There was little cover and five Volunteers were killed almost immediately, while Connolly was hit. Bernard Sweeney was badly wounded but fortuitously fell into a drain: ‘I could see the enemy as they swarmed over the place pounding our dead or dying men . . . with the butts of their rifles.’ Connolly died en route to Carrick-onShannon at 23:00.358 John Hunt, who was wounded and captured, was later sentenced to ten years imprisonment for carrying arms. Crown forces suffered no casualties. The body of John Joseph O’Reilly of Miskaun (sometimes ‘Miskawn’) could not be identified because his face had been shot off. That two of the six dead were named John Joseph O’Reilly seems to be the reason for variations in the number reported killed. The ASU South Leitrim Brigade did not fight again. Baxter’s mother recalled how she and her daughter had to ‘take his remains out of an old shed & coffin him’. Buried Kilnavart. He is commemorated on monuments in Cavan town and Selton Hill. His father secured a dependent’s gratuity of £120.359 RD: Beirne (11Mar1921/2), Connolly (11Mar 1921/3), O’Reilly (11Mar1921/4), O’Reilly (11Mar1921/5), Wrynn (11Mar1921/6). SA: Latimer (30Mar1921/6) Joseph Beirne (11Mar1921/2) IRA, 27, Railway clerk, RC Selton Hill, Glasdrumman, Mohill, Leitrim See Baxter (11Mar1921/1). ‘Joe’ Beirne from Rooskynamona, Mohill, who worked for the Cavan and Leitrim Railway Company at Ballinamore, was adjutant South Leitrim Brigade. The Railway Service Journal extended its sympathy to the relatives and colleagues of Beirne and James Barrett. Buried Mohill.360 SA: Barrett (22Mar1921/1) Seán Connolly (11Mar1921/3) IRA, 31, Farmer’s son, RC Military Barracks, Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim See Baxter (11Mar1921/1). Connolly, from Ballinalee, Longford, was vice-O/C 1st Battalion, North Longford Brigade. A

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successful GHQ organiser in north Roscommon, in early 1921 he moved to become O/C ASU South Leitrim Brigade. GHQ men were often resented, but Charlie McGoohan recalled ‘a most impressive man, sallow complexion with dark penetrating eyes, a real leader of men . . . an Irish Ché Guevara’. Diarmaid O’Hegarty of GHQ believed ‘Collins had an idea that S. Connolly was let down by somebody’ in Leitrim. Buried Clonbroney Cemetery, Ballinalee.361 John Joseph O’Reilly (11Mar1921/4) IRA, 21, RC Selton Hill, Glasdrumman, Mohill, Leitrim See Baxter (11Mar1921/1). O’Reilly, from Derrinkeher, Ballinamore, was Leitrim Brigade quartermaster. Buried Aughnasheelin Cemetery, Ballinamore.362 John Joseph O’Reilly (11Mar1921/5) IRA, 25, Agricultural labourer, RC Selton Hill, Glasdrumman, Mohill, Leitrim See Baxter (11Mar1921/1). O’Reilly, from Kiskawn, Glebe, Ballinamore, Leitrim, was a lieutenant in the South Leitrim Brigade. Buried Aughnasheelin Cemetery, Ballinamore. His father Francis was granted a gratuity of £50 in 1924. His sister Catherine was later granted an allowance of £125 per annum while unmarried.363 Séamus (James) Wrynn (11Mar1921/6) IRA, 24, Agricultural labourer, RC Selton Hill, Glasdrumman, Mohill, Leitrim See Baxter (11Mar1921/1). Wrynn, from Tarmon, Ballinamore, Leitrim, was vice-O/C South Leitrim Brigade. Buried Aughnasheelin Cemetery, Ballinamore. His father Michael secured a gratuity of £100 which was later increased to £150.364 Robert E. Crook (11Mar1921/7) RIC (73850), 26, Motor driver, ex-serviceman, Married, Protestant Military Hospital, Belfast Crook, from Cornwall, joined the RIC on 5 October 1920, stationed in Gormanston RIC Depot, Meath. Constables Crook, Cooper and McIntosh left a bar and walked slowly down Victoria

Square towards Musgrave Street Barracks. They were chatting to two girls at about 20:30 when four men of the newly formed Belfast Brigade ASU approached and shot them at close range. One of the girls was slightly wounded in the hip. Crook died at about 22:00 and McIntosh at 22:25 during an operation. Alexander Allen, a civilian shot in the hip, died the following night. Buried Scotland.365 RD: Allen (12Mar1921/2), Cooper (13Mar 1921/5), McIntosh (11Mar1921/8) John McIntosh (11Mar1921/8) RIC (76247), 26, Motor driver, ex-serviceman, Protestant Military Hospital, Belfast See Crook (11Mar1921/7). Constable McIntosh, from Inverness, joined the RIC on 8 December 1920, stationed in Gormanston Camp, Meath.366 Mary (Maria Georgina) Lindsay (11Mar1921/9) 60, Widowed, CoI Annagannihy, Ballinagree, Macroom, Cork Mary Lindsay from Kildare, widow of John Lindsay, a businessman from Down, lived in Leemont House, Coachford, Cork. Members of the 6th (Donoughmore) Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, commanded by ‘Sonny’ O’Leary, blamed Mary Lindsay for giving away a planned ambush at Godfreys Cross between Dripsey and Coachford on 28 January 1921. This led to the capture of eight Volunteers, of whom one died of wounds and five were executed on 28 February. The IRA had had fair warning: Mary Lindsay had told Fr Joseph Shinnick, curate in Ballyvourney, that she would be informing the authorities after she came upon the IRA party, and advised him to warn the IRA to disperse. Interrogated afterwards by Frank Busteed, the battalion vice O/C, and Fra Kelleher, Shinnick confirmed that Mrs Lindsay had spoken to him before he sent a warning. But in an IRA report to GHQ of 19 July 1921 this was disregarded because ‘it passed through 2 or 3 [people] before it reached the O/C and then not in a convincing form, and also because Fr Shinnick was not

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taken seriously as he was always preaching from the Altar against ambushes’. Another source claimed that the warning was given to O’Leary directly by the man to whom Fr Shinnick had spoken. It is one of many conflicts of evidence surrounding Mrs Lindsay’s fate. On the night of 17 February, the IRA took Mrs Lindsay and her driver James Clarke from Leemont House to the Rylane Company area. They offered to exchange the prisoners for the five men under sentence of death. They also raided her home. An IRA officer showed the housekeeper Miss Eakin ‘a few lines written by Mrs Lindsay . . . asking to have some papers taken out of her desk’, which Miss Eakin did before the IRA burned down the house. ‘They took with them all blankets and eider-down quilts, but refused to allow any of Mrs Lindsay’s clothes or furniture to be saved’ – this contrasts with Busteed’s claim that they allowed the housekeeper to save Mrs Lindsay’s silver. The raiders ‘stated when asked that Mrs Lindsay was then “fairly well and very plucky”’. In later raids, Mrs Lindsay’s motor car, as well as farm implements, ‘stable fittings, iron gates, donkey and cart, and 11 cows were taken’. On 19 July 1921 the O/C Cork No. 1 Brigade told GHQ that the cattle were removed and sold to prevent their theft by locals, a claim disputed by Mrs Lindsay’s family, and said that the £150 proceeds could be remitted to Mrs Lindsay’s representatives. On 25 February, Mary Lindsay wrote to Major-General E. P. Strickland, commanding the 6th Division, asking him to secure a reprieve for those captured at Dripsey. This did not prevent the executions on 28 February. She again wrote before the trial of Denis Murphy on 9 March: ‘Denis Murphy and James Barrett are to be tried tomorrow. Will you please for my sake spare these two men . . . if these men are spared I shall be allowed to go home and if not I cannot say what will be my fate.’ As it happened, Murphy’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, while Barrett was too ill to be tried. Nevertheless, Mary Lindsay and Clarke were taken from Ger Mickey Murphy’s house in Donoughmore, one of the houses where

they had been imprisoned, and marched to Annagannihy. O’Callaghan wrote that they were killed on 11 March, whereas Cork IRA officers – who provided an array of contradictory stories over the years – stated that they were shot on the night of 15–16 March. One account said each declined the services of a clergyman, whereas O’Callaghan (relying on Busteed) said no such offer was made. Busteed told O’Callaghan that, whereas Mary Lindsay faced her death bravely, Clarke, whose only offence even in IRA eyes had been to drive his employer’s trap, soiled himself, and was forced to swallow poitín to calm him down. He had to be shot in a kneeling position. Killed by revolver fire, the two were buried in the same grave in the bog. Jeremiah Murphy, who had been forced to accommodate ‘a pure bred Lady of Title and her chauffeur . . . at the point of a revolver’, afterwards complained bitterly that, despite IRA promises, he had received no compensation for fuel and food provided: ‘I had to keep them for 3 weeks and 3 days at the hands of a degraded crowd I had to supply them with all they required. . . . I had often times to drink my own tea black and give the cream to them.’ Mary Herlihy of Cumann na mBan wrote that while Mrs Lindsay was held in Rylane, ‘I had to attend on her frequently and I was given the particular duty of seeing that she was supplied with books.’ On 6 July Ethel Benson wrote to Éamon de Valera seeking her sister Mary Lindsay’s release, ‘or if this not be conceded that she should be permitted to communicate with her relatives, which as you know is allowed to all prisoners in any civilised country; or if she has died I ask that I should be definitely informed with the date of death & place of interment’. She also sought news of ‘her man James Clarke’. GHQ, unaware of what had happened – earlier inquiries had produced contradictory responses from Cork, the most recent indicating ‘that she was released but in hospital but ill’ – on 9 July ordered their release. Seán O’Hegarty, O/C Cork No. 1 Brigade, replied: ‘I beg to say that this lady has been executed long ago. I am surprised if the Br[igade] Ad[judant] did not notify this.’ On 29 July 1921, Cathal Brugha,† minister for

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defence, confirmed that Mary Lindsay had been shot as a spy. Mrs Benson persisted in her correspondence with the new Irish government, and in 1924 also wrote to Jeremiah Murphy. He showed her letter to a priest who persuaded him not to reply. He did, however, approach ‘Sonny’ O’Leary, who, ‘when I noticed him’ about the communication, ‘ignored my letter, for he had all her means taken’. O’Leary did, however, get ‘her body disinterred fearing the bullets would be found in her body and got her reinterred in some remote location’. This was probably the occasion in April 1924 described by Tim Sheehan when O’Leary and some comrades dug up the bodies, took them away by lorry to a remote area, and incinerated them: ‘the ashes were dumped in an irretrievable place’. In 1926, enraged by the lack of compensation, Jeremiah Murphy appeared willing to name ‘those that broke into my house’. He no longer feared the IRA, as ‘I have but one life to lose. . . . Let them do with me what they will.’ The Irish military authorities and the Garda Síochána were pressed into further efforts to locate the remains of Mrs Lindsay and James Clarke. Professor Ernest Alton TD of Trinity College raised the matter more than once, relaying rumours which had reached him. By 1926 a range of claims were in circulation: one, that the two bodies had been buried in quicklime; another, that O’Leary had dug up Mrs Lindsay’s body and reburied it elsewhere to prevent its return to her relatives; and third, that she had been killed after the Truce. As late as 1999 Seán O’Mahony wrote that in the early 1970s, Maurice ‘Moss’ Twomey, the Cork-born former IRA chief of staff (1926–35), approached the Provisional IRA chief of staff Seamus Twomey to prevent the publication of O’Callaghan’s Execution, apparently for fear that it would reveal that Mrs Lindsay had been poisoned because ‘they felt that shooting a woman was not on’. On 28 January 1922, the anniversary of the Dripsey ambush, the Manchester Regiment held a memorial service for Mrs Lindsay in Ballincollig Garrison Church.367 RD: Clarke (11Mar1921/10)

James Clarke (11Mar1921/10) 50, Chauffeur, Presbyterian Annagannihy, Ballinagree, Macroom, Cork See Lindsay (11Mar1921/9). Clarke, from Ballydown, Banbridge, had worked for the Lindsay family since boyhood.368

12 MARCH 1921 Walter Vernon Falkiner (12Mar1921/1) ADRIC (79207), 32, Engineer, ex-serviceman, Married Ardfert Railway Station, Ardfert, Kerry Falkiner, from Middlesex, won an MC while a lieutenant in the Durham Light Infantry. He joined the Auxiliary Division on 1 November 1920 (auxiliary number 925), serving in H Company, stationed in Tralee, Kerry. He was among six Auxiliaries of H Company returning to Tralee from Listowel on the 20:25 train, dispersed throughout the carriages, which came under heavy fire at Ardfert (Tubrid) Station at about 20:50 by the newly formed ASU, Kerry No. 1 Brigade. Falkiner, shot in the mouth, died almost immediately. Buried England. His widow secured £9,000 compensation.369 Alexander Allen (12Mar1921/2) 50, Joiner, Widowed with eight sons, Presbyterian Military Hospital, Belfast See Crook (11Mar1921/7). Allen, of 18 Austin Street, was said to have been one of a party of joiners who accompanied the Titanic on its maiden voyage as far as Southampton. Buried Dundonald Cemetery, Belfast.370 Margaret Guinan (12Mar1921/3) 58, Married with four children, RC Creggan, Athlone, Westmeath Guinan from Carrowkeel, Offaly, was killed when a cart overturned and threw her into the path of a military lorry. Ex gratia payments of £25 to Margaret Guinan’s husband and £20 to Pat Shea, who owned the cart, were approved, no legal liability being accepted by the War Office.371 John McMahon (12Mar1921/4) 56, Farmer, Widowed with children, RC Richmond Hospital, Dublin Originally from Monaghan, McMahon farmed at Newtown, Kilmainhamwood,

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Meath. He was well known, being involved in various political and professional organisations and a prominent horse-breeder. He suffered severe head injuries returning from Kells Fair when he fell into a river while attempting to cross a bridge damaged by the IRA on 11 March. He died following an operation. Buried Moynalty.372 Ernest James Riley (12Mar1921/5) RIC (79407), 26, Ex-serviceman, Protestant Garryricken, Callan, Kilkenny Riley, from Sussex, had been a prisoner of war while in the Royal Scots Fusiliers, before joining the RIC on 24 February 1921, stationed in Callan. In January 1921, the 7th Battalion, Kilkenny Brigade formed a small ASU under Jimmy Leahy consisting of men on the run. They resolved to avenge the deaths on 6 March of the three 7th Battalion, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade officers killed at Knockroe by mounting an attack on Mullinahone RIC Barracks. Three ASU officers spent the night beforehand in the unoccupied Garryricken House, once the dower house of the Ormonde family. Word of this reached Callan Military Barracks. In the early hours, DI Hubert L. Baynham led a patrol to Garryricken House in accordance with a pre-arranged plan with the Devonshire Regiment to surround and search the building. However, the military failed to appear. The caretaker’s wife alerted the ASU men, sleeping in an upstairs bedroom. They fired on Baynham as he entered the house, wounding him in the neck and shoulder. They escaped down a ladder, killing Constable Riley nearby as they fled. Seán Quinn took the dead man’s weapon. The three Volunteers escaped to Mallardstown. Buried Brighton. His mother secured £750 compensation.373 SA: Quinn (13May1921/3) Timothy Herlihy (12Mar1921/6) 60, Agricultural labourer, RC Cork District Hospital The CFR records how on 9 March a military lorry caused a jennet towing a cart to panic, throwing the driver Timothy Herlihy

of Inniscarra, Carrigrohane, onto the ground. He died from spinal injuries.374

c. 12 MARCH 1921 Daniel Anthony Murphy (12Mar1921/7) RIC (70065), 22, Ex-serviceman, RC Between Broadford and Sixmilebridge, Clare From Cork, Murphy, once of the Irish Guards, joined the RIC on 6 January 1920, stationed in Broadford. He left Broadford alone by bicycle for Sixmilebridge, in civilian clothes. The RIC General Register recorded 12 March as his date of death. On 22 October 1921, a coffin was left at the church in Sixmilebridge bearing a plate which read: ‘Daniel A. Murphy, died 9 Mar. 1921, aged 23 years RIP.’ A badly decomposed corpse, wrapped in sacking, inside a wooden shell, had been placed in a ‘well made expensive’ lead coffin ‘obviously new’. It was identified from the clothing. Death appeared to have been caused by a gunshot wound. The body had been buried in a field. Murphy’s parents Edmond and Kate secured £1,750 compensation.375

13 MARCH 1921 Timothy Hourihan (13Mar1921/1) 57, Labourer, Married with eight children, RC Paddock, Cappeen East, Enniskeane, Cork Hourihan lived in Castletownkenneigh, Cork. According to the IRA’s Philip Chambers, Hourihan was held up and searched by an Auxiliary at Paddock. Allowed to proceed, he was then shot. The police maintained that two warning shots were fired before Hourihan was hit.376 Thomas Hennessy (13Mar1921/2) 48, Ex-serviceman, agricultural labourer, Widowed with eight children, RC The Point, Crosshaven, Cork Hennessy worked for Mrs Sisk of The Point, Crosshaven, and lived in a cabin off the farmyard. He confronted a plain-clothes patrol of police and military from Queenstown (Cobh) which had arrived by boat to carry out a search, saying, ‘Who the hell are you?’ When a soldier fired, Hennessy started to

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run, was shot, and died in the farmhouse around 20:30. Dublin Castle sought a review of safeguards for plain-clothes patrols holding up civilians. Regulations were issued to 16th, 17th and 18th Infantry brigades and the Kerry Brigade that soldiers should wear plain clothes only for protective purposes and intelligence work. Revised instructions stated that plain-clothes soldiers ‘are not to hold up and search civilians unless such persons are actually committing offences against the law’, implicitly acknowledging that deaths such as Hennessy’s were avoidable.377 Michael Joseph Murray (13Mar1921/3) 22, Ex-serviceman, railway fireman, RC Alexandra Road, Cork Murray lived at 10 Cahillville, St Luke’s, Cork. At about 21:25, an unnamed NCO heard screams on Alexandra Road. Carrying a service revolver – ‘no one but my wife knew’ that he kept it at home, contrary to orders, for fear of IRA attack – ‘I went out . . . in my stockinged feet’. In the darkness nearby ‘a girl who had been lying underneath a man screaming caught hold of my arm’. The man got up but refused to put his hands up, instead putting one in his pocket. The NCO fired one round: ‘I had no intention of killing.’ A court of inquiry heard corroborating evidence from Margaret O’Sullivan, who described the attempted rape – Murray ‘knocked me down & bit my cheek’ before covering her mouth with his hand – and found that the NCO was justified in firing. He was, nevertheless, tried before a field general court martial on a charge of manslaughter, but found not guilty. Buried Mourne Abbey. The Cork Examiner carried a photograph of Murray in military uniform, stating simply that he ‘was shot dead in Cork on Sunday night. He served in France during the late war.’378 Thomas Shannon (13Mar1921/4) 40, Farmer, Married, RC Moyasta, Kilrush, Clare Shannon lived on a small farm in Moyasta, Kilrush. The Cork Examiner reported that he was not identified with any political

organisations. At about 21:30 he was shot in the neck by two men who had knocked on the farmhouse door. Before he died he told his wife Bridget he did not know his assailants. Her neighbours ‘were too frightened to go out to get a priest. . . . They stayed in the house with me till morning.’ ‘The Good Old IRA’ stated that shortly beforehand Shannon had refused to pay a Sinn Féin levy. Buried Kilrush. Bridget Shannon secured £3,000 compensation.379 Walter Henry Cooper (13Mar1921/5) RIC (74169), 28, Fitter, ex-serviceman, Married, Protestant RVHB See Crook (11Mar1921/7). Cooper, from Surrey, joined the RIC on 12 October 1920, stationed in Gormanston Camp, Meath. Buried England.380 David Nagle (13Mar1921/6) 58, RIC pensioner, postman, Married with six children, RC Aherla, Cork Nagle was from Mallow, Cork, where his family had a bakery and a hotel. Nano Nagle, founder of the Presentation Sisters, was a collateral ancestor. He served in the RIC from 1882 to 1909. His brother John was also a policeman. Another brother was killed during the war. He ran a shop at Waterfall, on the outskirts of Cork, and was also the local postman. Nagle disappeared on 12 March. Patrick Cronin, lieutenant D (Aherla) Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, said three civilians were executed at the battalion headquarters and prison, a house called ‘Kilbawn’ near Aherla. These were Nagle, Jimmy Devoy and Daniel McCarthy. Nagle was tried by court martial and shot, as was Devoy. Nagle’s arrest may have led to the shooting of Christopher O’Sullivan on 27 May 1921. On 2 February 1922 the Cork IRA gave 13 March 1921 as the date of Nagle’s death, although 20 March 1921 appears elsewhere in the same file.381 Nagle’s daughter recalled that her father was apolitical, but his policeman brother often visited, which might have aroused suspicion. No one in the family ever discussed the

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killing. His widow secured £500 compensation, with £150 for each child.382 SA: Devoy (31May1921/11), McCarthy (28May1921/3), O’Sullivan (27May1921/1)

14 MARCH 1921 Richard Newman (14Mar1921/1) 23, Labourer, RC Infirmary, Castletownbere, Cork Newman, from Allihies, Cork, was shot at about 14:00 on 13 March near Allihies by a party of King’s Own Scottish Borderers, dying next morning at 02:00. The military claimed he had run away from them and failed to halt when ordered. Newman’s brother and uncle stated that he was subject to periodic fits, and was not always responsible for his actions. On 14 March, a court of inquiry at Castletownbere Workhouse heard that Newman died of gunshot wounds at 02:00 that morning. The court ruled that he brought his fate upon himself by failing to obey a lawful challenge to halt. Buried Allihies parish church.383 Patrick Moran (14Mar1921/2) IRA, 33, Barman, RC Mountjoy Prison, Dublin ‘Paddy’ Moran, from Crossna, Roscommon, worked in Boyle and Mohill before becoming a barman in Phibsborough. During the Rising, he fought at Jacob’s Factory under Thomas MacDonagh, and was jailed in Knutsford, Frongoch and Wormwood Scrubs. In 1917, he was a founder member of the National Union of Vintners, Grocers and Allied Traders, of which he later became president. He lived at 5 Main Street, Blackrock, his employer’s premises. He was also captain D Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. Moran was arrested on 26 November, and picked out as being part of the group that killed lieutenants Ames and Bennett at 38 Mount Street. In fact, Moran had taken part in the Gresham Hotel shootings. Before his trial in February 1921, he was involved in two abortive escape attempts from Kilmainham Jail. The first, on 13 February, involving Moran, Ernie O’Malley and Frank Teeling, failed when bolt cutters did not

work. The following night Simon Donnelly took Moran’s place, for reasons which remain uncertain. There was some feeling that Moran was hard-done by. Moran and Joseph Rochford were tried by court martial at City Hall, Dublin for the murder of Ames, defended by James Williamson, KC, and Charles Power. Rochford was acquitted. Despite alibi evidence placing him in Blackrock at the time of the killing, Moran was found guilty and sentenced to death. At 06:00 on 14 March, Moran and Thomas Whelan were hanged in Mountjoy. Buried Mountjoy Prison. His body was exhumed on 14 October 2001 and reinterred at GC after a state funeral along with those of eight other executed Volunteers.384 SA: Ames (21Nov1920/1), Bennett (21Nov 1920/2), MacDonagh (3May1916/3), Whelan (14Mar1921/3) Thomas Whelan (14Mar1921/3) IRA, 22, Railway employee, RC Mountjoy Prison, Dublin Whelan, from Clifden, Galway, came to Dublin in 1918 to work in the locomotive department of the MGWR at Broadstone Station. He served in A Company, 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. He was arrested at his lodgings at 14 Barrow Street, Ringsend, in connection with the murder of Captain Geoffrey Thomas Baggallay at 119 Lower Baggot Street on Bloody Sunday. He informed his solicitor Michael Noyk that he had admitted being a member of A Company, 3rd Battalion. On 1 February 1921, he, James Boyce, Michael Tobin and James McNamara were charged with Baggallay’s murder. After what Noyk termed ‘a most biased trial’, Tobin and McNamara were acquitted. But Whelan and Boyce were positively identified by an officer who had been in 119 Lower Baggot Street during the IRA action. Whelan protested his innocence. Four witnesses said they had seen him attend 09:00 Mass at Ringsend Church while the shooting was taking place. A fifth, Charles Dunlop, an architect, testified that it would have been physically impossible for the officer to have seen Boyce and Whelan clearly owing to the layout of the hallway.

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Whelan was sentenced to death, while Boyce was acquitted. Efforts to gain a reprieve were unsuccessful. He and Patrick Moran were hanged in Mountjoy on 14 March with four others. Buried Mountjoy Prison. His body was exhumed on 14 October 2001 and reinterred at GC after a state funeral along with those of eight other executed Volunteers. His mother Bridget secured a £100 dependent’s gratuity, and a brother later obtained an allowance.385 SA: Baggallay (21Nov1920/6), Moran (14Mar 1921/2) Patrick Doyle (14Mar1921/4) IRA, 29, Carpenter, Married with three children, RC Mountjoy Prison, Dublin Doyle, born on Portland Row, attended O’Connell’s School. He was a founding member of the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters, Cabinetmakers and Joiners. A Volunteer in F Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade, he later joined No. 1 Section ASU Dublin Brigade. His brother Seán was also a Volunteer. On 21 January 1921, Doyle, Thomas Bryan, Frank Flood and Bernard Ryan were arrested after a failed ambush on an RIC lorry at Clonturk Park, Drumcondra, during which Volunteer Michael Magee was mortally wounded. Because they had not killed anyone, they were charged on 23 February with high treason, the first to be so arraigned since Roger Casement. The prosecution relied on the fact that the four were caught fleeing from the ambush and that they were armed. They were sentenced to death. Dermot O’Sullivan was also found convicted, but his death sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life because he was only seventeen years old. A planned rescue attempt by Nos. 1 and 2 Sections ASU Dublin Brigade did not materialise. On 11 March, GOC General Sir Nevil Macready confirmed the sentences. Doyle shared a cell with Bernard Ryan, while Frank Flood occupied a room with Thomas Bryan. Along with Patrick Moran and Thomas Whelan, they were hanged in pairs on 14 March: Doyle and Ryan at 07:00, Bryan

and Flood at 08:00. Doyle’s wife Louise last saw him on 12 March, bringing their threeyear-old daughter and newly born twin girls. On the way home, one of the twins, Louisa Patricia, died in her mother’s arms. She was buried on the morning of her father’s execution. Buried Mountjoy Prison. His widow Louise secured an annual £90 dependent’s allowance, with £24 for each of her daughters. On remarriage she obtained a gratuity of £120.386 RD: Bryan (14Mar1921/6), Flood (14Mar 1921/7), Ryan (14Mar1921/5). SA: Casement (3Aug1916/1), Doyle (30May1921/6), Magee (22Jan1921/4), Moran (14Mar1921/2), Whelan (14Mar1921/3) Bernard Ryan (14Mar1921/5) IRA, 20, Apprentice tailor, RC Mountjoy Prison, Dublin See Doyle (14Mar1921/4). Ryan, of 8 Royal Canal Terrace, was educated at St Gabriel’s School, Cowper Street. A keen Gaelic footballer, swimmer and Irish language enthusiast, he served in F Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade, and, according to Christopher Fitzsimons, was a member of No. 1 Section ASU Dublin Brigade. Buried Mountjoy Prison. His body was exhumed on 14 October 2001 and reinterred at GC after a state funeral along with those of eight other executed Volunteers. His adoptive mother Mary secured a £100 dependent’s gratuity, but his invalid ‘foster sister’ Sarah was later deemed ineligible for an allowance.387 Thomas Bryan (14Mar1921/6) IRA, 22, Electrician, Married, RC Mountjoy Prison, Dublin See Doyle (14Mar1921/4). Interned in Frongoch after the Rising, Bryan took part in the 1917 hunger strike in Mountjoy during which Thomas Ashe died. Liam O’Doherty recorded that Bryan served in No. 3 Company, 5th Battalion. He later joined No. 1 Section ASU Dublin Brigade, and for a time was an aide to Dick McKee. Buried in Mountjoy Prison, his body was exhumed on 14 October 2001 and reinterred at GC after a state funeral along with those of eight other executed Volunteers. His widow Annie received a £90

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dependent’s allowance until her death; his parents and sister, who in 1927 were reportedly surviving on ‘6/– per week disablement benefit’, were unsuccessful in their applications for support. Another widowed sister ultimately received an allowance in 1975.388 SA: Ashe (25Sep1917/1), McKee (22Nov 1920/9) Francis Xavier Flood (14Mar1921/7) IRA, 19, Student, RC Mountjoy Prison, Dublin See Doyle (14Mar1921/4). Flood, of 30 Summerhill Parade, son of a DMP pensioner, was educated at the CBS, North Richmond Street. Holding a UCD scholarship, he was a second-year engineering student. He was a lieutenant in H Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade. Christopher Fitzsimons recalled that Flood became O/C Nos. 1 and 2 Sections ASU Dublin Brigade, which operated on the north side of the Liffey. Three of Flood’s brothers were active members of the Dublin Brigade, and later became officers in the National army. He took part in the King’s Inn raid with his friend Kevin Barry, as well as in the Church Street attack during which Barry was captured. Flood was buried beside his friend Kevin Barry in Mountjoy Prison, as he had wished. His body was exhumed on 14 October 2001 and reinterred at GC after a state funeral along with those of eight other executed Volunteers. His parents were deemed ineligible for dependents’ awards. In 2018 Drumcondra Bridge was renamed Frank Flood Bridge.389 SA: Barry (1Nov1920/5) Stephen Clarke (14Mar1921/8) 22, Ex-serviceman, moulder, Married, RC Great Brunswick Street, Dublin Clarke, living at 2 Rostrevor Terrace, Lower Grand Canal Street, was one of three bystanders killed after an ambush on Great Brunswick Street. A patrol of two lorries and an armoured car was on its way to search St Andrew’s Catholic Club at No. 144 Great Brunswick Street, occupied by members of B Company, 3rd Dublin Battalion, IRA. IRA lookouts opened fire. The leading tender drove straight at the attackers, allowing the Auxiliaries to

dismount and rush the IRA: an IRA document stated that ‘the fight was of a very fierce nature, practically hand to hand’. Cadet Beard was shot in the head at about 20:15 and Temporary Constable Farrell390 was severely wounded in the chest. Farrell died at 22:00, and Beard at about 22:00 the following evening. The IRA claimed to have killed seven Crown forces. David Kelly of Sinn Féin and two Volunteers were killed: Leo Patrick Fitzgerald was shot in the head at about 20:15 and Bernard O’Hanlon died in hospital. Two others were arrested. Three civilians were killed or subsequently died of their wounds. Stephen Clarke was dead on admission to Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital, reportedly shot in the neck while trying to help a woman. Thomas Asquith, wounded in the abdomen, died at about 23:00. Mary Frances Morgan died at 17:00 on 11 April from the effects of a hip wound. Buried DGC (J. 47. N).391 RD: Asquith (14Mar1921/13), Beard (15Mar 1921/5), Farrell (14Mar1921/11), Fitzgerald (14Mar1921/9), Kelly (14Mar1921/10), Morgan (11Apr1921/2), O’Hanlon (14Mar 1921/12). SA: Traynor (25Apr1921/2) Leo Patrick Fitzgerald (14Mar1921/9) IRA, 28, House painter, RC Great Brunswick Street, Dublin See Clarke (14Mar1921/8). Fitzgerald, of 173 Great Brunswick Street, was a section leader in the 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. He had served with Fianna Éireann during the Rising. Buried GC (South New Section: R. d. 34). His father Thomas Joseph was awarded £50 which was later doubled.392 David Christopher Kelly (14Mar1921/10) 43, Bank manager, RC Great Brunswick Street, Dublin See Clarke (14Mar1921/8). Kelly, of 132 Great Brunswick Street, was manager of the Sinn Féin bank at 6 Harcourt Street. His brother Alderman Thomas Kelly was Sinn Féin TD for College Green and a former lord mayor of Dublin. He had just left his house when the shooting began. Buried GC (Garden Section: H. f. 73).393

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Francis Joseph Farrell (14Mar1921/11) ADRIC (75984), 27, Cycle-builder, exserviceman, RC KGVH See Clarke (14Mar1921/8). Farrell, from Aston, Warwickshire, served with the RDF before receiving a commission as a lieutenant in the Tank Corps. He was mentioned in dispatches. He joined the RIC on 27 November 1920, serving in F Company, Auxiliary Division. His estate came to £262.16s.1d.394 Bernard O’Hanlon (14Mar1921/12) IRA, 18, Pawnbroker’s apprentice, RC KGVH See Clarke (14Mar1921/8). O’Hanlon, from 6 Upper Erne Street, Dundalk, served in the 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. He had been arrested in connection with the ‘Bloody Sunday’ shootings but was later released. Buried Castletown Cemetery, Dundalk. Described as ‘a second Kevin Barry’, in 1933 O’Hanlon Park in Dundalk was named after him.395 Thomas Asquith (14Mar1921/13) 68, Caretaker, weigh-master, Married with children, CoI SPDH See Clarke (14Mar1921/8). Asquith, from Yorkshire, lived and worked at the Hammond Lane Foundry, 111 Great Brunswick Street. Buried MJC (32. A. 389).396

15 MARCH 1921 Charles O’Reilly (15Mar1921/1) IRA, 24, Cow testing supervisor, shopkeeper, RC Church Street, Newmarket, Cork ‘Cha’ O’Reilly of Church Street, Newmarket, son of a well-known auctioneer, had served a period of imprisonment in Cork Jail. In November 1920 he joined the ASU, Cork No. 2 Brigade. At about 22:45 on 12 March, an MGC patrol under Lieutenant W. A. King challenged an approaching horse and trap. Two men jumped off, one carrying a revolver. They were fired on but disappeared in the darkness. At 06:30 next day O’Reilly was found wounded in a nearby house. Brought to his home by the military, he died there at 15:30 on 15 March. Buried Kilbrin, Cork. His family failed to secure dependents’ awards.397

Frederick de Orfe (15Mar1921/2) RE (2308636), 23 KGVH From Southampton, de Orfe was a dispatch rider in the Royal Engineers. At around 16:00 de Orfe and another motorcyclist returning from Dún Laoghaire came under fire at Rialto Bridge. De Orfe was hit, ‘receiving three bullets’. The other rider shot one Volunteer in the hand, wounding him slightly, and then ‘got away, being wounded in the arm’. A passing motorist took de Orfe to King George V Hospital, where he died. This attack was carried out by three members of No. 4 Section ASU Dublin Brigade. Buried Hollybrook Cemetery, Southampton (A. 2. 268).398 John Grant (15Mar1921/3) RIC (75772), 26, Surfaceman, ex-serviceman, Protestant Tullacremin, Abbeydorney, Kerry Constable Grant, from Inverness, joined the RIC on 23 November 1920, stationed in Abbeydorney. At around 18:00 Grant visited Kate Hanlon at Tullacremin. Although off duty, he was in uniform and armed. When the time came for him to leave his bicycle was missing. He searched without success and, as it was getting dark, began to walk back to Abbeydorney. A few minutes later, Kate Hanlon heard several shots. Grant, deemed a ‘Black and Tan spy’, was hit several times. There are differing accounts of Grant’s death. One is that he was killed outright and his body moved to a nearby farmhouse where a woman, on seeing his corpse, collapsed and died. The Cork Examiner claimed, ‘Woman Dies of Fright’, naming her as Mrs Kelleher. Another version was that Grant sought refuge in a farmhouse, but was followed and shot with his own gun, leading to the death from shock of the woman. No confirmation of her death has been traced. Among Grant’s attackers were Richard Glavin, Patrick Mahony and Con Lyons of F (Abbeydorney) Company, Kerry No. 1 Brigade, under the battalion O/C Thomas Clifford.399 RD: Kelleher (15Mar1921/4)

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Unknown Mrs Kelleher (15Mar1921/4) Widowed Tullacrimeen, Abbeydorney, Kerry See Grant (15Mar1921/3).400 Bernard James Leonard Beard (15Mar1921/5) ADRIC (73551), 34, Army officer, Married KGVH See Clarke (14Mar1921/8). Beard, born in Staffordshire, served as a captain in the 6th Cavalry Division. Awarded the MC and mentioned in dispatches three times, he rose to be a brigadier general in the 112th Infantry Brigade. Joining the Auxiliary Division on 18 September 1920, he was a section leader in F Company, stationed in Dublin Castle. Buried Nottingham. At Dublin Recorder’s Court in July 1921, his widow Alice secured £2,000 compensation.401 William Kennedy (15Mar1921/6) 39, General merchant, RC Borris, Carlow Kennedy was a pharmacist, general merchant and farmer. The IRA placed a boycott on his business because he refused to close during a protest in support of Mountjoy hunger strikers in April 1920. He did the same on the day of Terence MacSwiney’s funeral, suffering intimidation as a result. He took a court action against one of those involved, with Michael O’Dempsey acting as his solicitor. In February 1921 armed men raided the mails in what the RIC thought was an attempt to intercept documents relating to the case. John Hynes of the Carlow Brigade described Kennedy as openly hostile to the IRA. Similarly, Thomas Ryan, intelligence officer 4th Battalion, stated that Kennedy used to go to Gowran, Kilkenny, with his car to bring Black and Tans to raid Borris and was consequently regarded as a public enemy. In defiance of GHQ orders, this bizarre case was not referred to the Brigade O/C for a decision. Hearing that Kennedy, Michael O’Dempsey and two others were in Kennedy’s shop, Hynes decided to shoot them all, mobilising twelve 4th Battalion Volunteers. By contrast P. J. O’Byrne, second in command during the operation, was emphatic that there were at

least ‘approximately 40 to 60 in it, because there was so much enthusiasm. We only wanted half a dozen men to go and take him prisoner but the man in command wanted the whole countryside in it.’ In what sounds more like a public lynching than a covert assassination, they converged on Kennedy’s premises at about 21:30. Kennedy emptied a revolver at his attackers before being shot dead. O’Dempsey, who was unarmed, suffered head and stomach wounds, dying on 17 March. The other men escaped through Kennedy’s back door and, according to Hynes, subsequently left Carlow for good. The two dead men were carefully termed ‘suspected spies’ in a later Carlow Brigade account. Buried Ballinkillen, Carlow.402 RD: O’Dempsey (17Mar1921/1). SA: MacSwiney (25Oct1920/3) Thomas Leacock (15Mar1921/7) 27, Tailor, RC Mosstown, Keenagh, Longford Leacock, a tailor, was said to be a vocal opponent of Sinn Féin. His brother Michael was county secretary of the AOH. Between 19:00 and 20:00, three men, unmasked, took Leacock away from his employer Mr Flanagan’s workshop. About thirty minutes later, two returned to ask for the tailor’s books. They then asked Flanagan to identify handwriting on a piece of paper as Leacock’s, which he did. Shots were heard at about 23:30. The police reported that ‘after a trial of some sort in an old barn’, Leacock was killed. His corpse was discovered on the road at 08:00, bearing a sign reading: ‘Executed by the IRA for espionage. Traitors beware, death is always near.’ William Corcoran of Cartron, Keenagh, later claimed involvement in Leacock’s killing. Leacock may also be the ‘Mr X’ who was unmasked through intercepted letters, according to Michael Heslin, adjutant and intelligence officer Longford Brigade.403 Bridget Noble (15Mar1921/8) 45, Married, RC Ardgroom, Cork Bridget Noble of Kilcatherine, Ardgroom, was arrested by the IRA between Ardgroom

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and Castletownbere on 4 March and held for some days, possibly in a shed near Ballycrovane pier. Her husband Alexander Noble, of Montrose in Scotland, wrote from Grimsby to President de Valera in July and again on 8 September 1921 seeking information: ‘It is not clean work to take away my lone & defenceless wife.’ In response to repeated GHQ enquiries, on 21 October Liam O’Dwyer, O/C 5th Battalion, Cork No. 3 Brigade reported tersely that Bridget Noble had consorted with various RIC men. An IRA raid on her home yielded ‘part of a letter from the H[ead] Constable, Castletown, five half-torn letters from other members of the RIC and two photos of RIC men’. When she ‘came home from hospital she was “bobbed” by order of Batt[alio]n’. This may have been the incident reported by Dublin Castle in which a woman near Castletownbere suspected of informing had her hair bobbed and was robbed of £35 by eight masked men. She then had the temerity to hand in a letter to the RIC identifying the Volunteers involved. As a result, John Dwyer received a six-month sentence and Michael Sullivan was interned. Bridget was also alleged to have given other information, although ‘what resulted . . . was not too serious as any of the “murderers” were not caught, but were kept on the run’. The IRA discovered this through interrogating the woman who had accompanied her to the barracks. At her court martial Bridget apparently ‘admitted guilt on all the charges’, and was ‘fortified with the Rites of the Church before being executed’ two days later. Hannah Hanley recalled Liam O’Dwyer’s order to ‘attend to a lady spy prisoner’ who ‘was two nights in the area. She was moved on then and I got other girls to attend to her. . . . She came from about five miles of our place.’ One source claims Bridget was tortured before being shot, it is said by Patsy Dan Crowley, her body either buried or thrown into the sea. On 20 August 1921 she appeared as ‘Nogle’ in a list of missing persons furnished in reply to a parliamentary question at Westminster. Alexander Noble ended his second letter: ‘Howing [hoping] you will make an inquiry

and do your best to restore my wife to me again and that you will have peace in Ireland soon and lasting.’ Neither wish was fulfilled.404

16 MARCH 1921 Charles O. M. Reynolds (16Mar1921/1) RIC (62614), 33, Labourer, Married with one child, RC Clifden, Galway From Roscommon, Reynolds joined the RIC on 16 May 1907, serving in Kilkenny, Galway and Longford before transfer to Clifden in 1918. He was shot in the head and killed as he was about to enter Market Square in Clifden. Constable Thomas Sweeney was mortally wounded. Two other constables returned fire without effect. The attackers were members of the West Connemara Brigade, IRA, out to avenge the execution of Thomas Whelan, a native of Clifden, in Mountjoy on 14 March. Before he lost consciousness, Sweeney said that the men opened fire with revolvers at a distance of a few yards. A large police and military party came by rail and road from Galway to Clifden in the early hours of 17 March. Sixteen houses were burned and looted as many inhabitants fled or took refuge in the workhouse. John Joseph McDonnell was shot dead. Buried Keenagh, Longford. At Galway Quarter Sessions in June 1921, Reynolds’s widow and his eighteen-month-old daughter secured £2,434 compensation.405 RD: McDonnell (17Mar1921/2), Sweeney (18Mar1921/4). SA: Whelan (14Mar1921/3)

17 MARCH 1921 Michael J. O’Dempsey (17Mar1921/1) 35, Solicitor, RC Borris, Carlow See Kennedy (15Mar1921/6). O’Dempsey inherited his father Thomas’s legal practice in Enniscorthy. Educated at Clongowes Wood College and the Royal University, as students he and Tom Kettle established the Young Ireland branch of the UIL. O’Dempsey had been secretary of its north Wexford branch.

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O’Dempsey’s mother wrote to Dáil minister for defence Austin Stack protesting at the killing of her son. Buried Enniscorthy Cathedral Cemetery. At Carlow Quarter Sessions in May 1921, his mother secured £2,500 compensation. His sister Mrs Franklin, with whom he lived, received £1,000 compensation, with £1,000 invested for his nephew Alan Franklin.406 John Joseph McDonnell (17Mar1921/2) 32, Ex-serviceman, hotel manager, RC Main Street, Clifden, Galway See Reynolds (16Mar1921/1). McDonnell lived on Main Street, Clifden, where his father Alexander owned a hotel. He had fought in France, being promoted to sergeant-major in the field. On 23 March, two police witnesses told a court of inquiry in Galway that at about 05:15 on 17 March they saw McDonnell leave a house on Main Street in Clifden. He failed to halt when challenged. The police then fired at him but, according to Cadet Frederick Harvey-Smith, they missed. McDonnell then crossed the road and as he neared an archway was shot and killed. Although the court ruled this a lawful killing, Colonel J. G. Chaplin was dissatisfied with the inquiry as no medical evidence was taken. When the court reassembled, Alexander McDonnell claimed that his son was ordered out of bed by the police, despite protesting that he was an exserviceman, taken outside and killed. The court was unable to corroborate this evidence and the original verdict stood. McDonnell gave the same evidence at a probate hearing in November 1921. Newspaper reports differed as to whether McDonnell was trying to evade arrest or was seeking police assistance to fight a fire at his father’s hotel.407 James O’Brien (17Mar1921/3) RIC (75921), 26, Locomotive driver, exserviceman, RC Ballymote, Sligo Born of Irish parents in Warrington, Lancashire, O’Brien was a railway fireman before enlisting. After demobilisation, he drove trains in Algeria before joining the RIC

on 26 November 1920, stationed in Ballymote. A patrol of one sergeant and seven constables from Ballymote RIC Barracks was attacked at Newtown Corner by two Volunteers of the 4th Battalion, Sligo Brigade. O’Brien shouted ‘Hands up!’ but they shot him. He died around 13:00. One escaped; the other, James Molloy of Lissananny, was captured. However, a soldier in Boyle Barracks named Neary was later bribed to release him. Buried Warrington. His parents Thomas and Jane secured £800 compensation.408

18 MARCH 1921 John O’Grady (18Mar1921/1) 26, Ex-serviceman, factory hand, Married with three children, RC Plassey Mill, Plassey, Limerick ‘Johnny’ O’Grady, an ex-soldier and ex-naval rating, fell out with his wife’s family and moved in with his stepfather at 12 Madden’s Lane. Unemployed, he had previously worked in Michael O’Callaghan’s leather factory. He was cornered by an IRA party from the Castleconnell Battalion and at about midnight was shot nine times at Plassey, beside the River Shannon; a postman found his body next morning at about 05:40, rosary beads clutched in his hands. O’Grady was suspected of giving information regarding his brother-in-law’s possession of a revolver. His widow Mary secured £450 compensation.409 SA: O’Callaghan (7Mar1921/1) Michael Joseph Duffy (18Mar1921/2) 22, Ex-serviceman, RC Carrownalecka, Ballinrobe, Mayo Duffy was in a neighbour’s house at Carrownalecka at about midnight when James Horkan came for help: his house had just been raided by two armed and masked men who had stolen £20 and told him to give up James Regan’s land at Ardkill. Horkan recognised one raider as Regan’s son John. As Horkan ran back with his neighbours, one of two men they saw on the road fired, hitting Michael Duffy. He died at about 03:30. On 24 July 1921 Martin Payton and John Regan were acquitted by a court martial in

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Galway after one witness was discredited, and after hearing that Regan had won the DCM: even the prosecutor described him as ‘a very gallant soldier’.410 Thomas Martin (18Mar1921/3) 32, Labourer, Married with seven children, RC JSH Martin, of 31 Empress Terrace, worked for the London & North Western Railway at North Wall. He was in an armoured car which, at about 21:30 on 17 March, was taking prisoners arrested by a curfew patrol to the Bridewell Police Station. As the vehicle turned the corner from Ormond Quay on to Chancery Place, Thomas Martin and another prisoner fell out and were injured. He died of cardiac failure at 04:30 next morning. Buried Kilbarrack, Dublin.411 Thomas Sweeney (18Mar1921/4) RIC (75734), 24, Policeman, RC St Bride’s Hospital, Sea Road, Galway See Reynolds (16Mar1921/1). Sweeney, from Aughrim, Galway, was a labourer before joining the Irish Guards in November 1915. Wounded in action, he served at home, transferring to the Labour Corps. He served in the London police before joining the RIC on 19 November 1920. He had been stationed in Clifden since January 1921. His right leg became infected and was amputated, but he died at 19:00. Buried Aughrim. His father John secured £1,100 compensation and his sister £100.412

19 MARCH 1921 William Elton (19Mar1921/1) RIC (76391), 23, Labourer, ex-serviceman, Protestant RIC Barracks, Castletownroche, Cork Constable Elton, from Middlesex, joined the RIC on 7 December 1920, stationed in Castletownroche. David O’Callaghan, second lieutenant Castletownroche Company, Castletownroche Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade, recalled a confused ambush in Castletownroche. At about 22:30 IRA scouts walked into a police patrol around a bend in the road. James O’Neill saw what was

happening and opened fire, mortally wounding Elton. Elton’s father secured £700 compensation.413 Charles Hurley (19Mar1921/2) IRA, 29, Clerk, Engaged, RC Ballinphellic, Upton, Cork ‘Charlie’ Hurley, from Baurleigh, Bandon, Cork, was jailed for a time in Cork and Maryborough prisons in 1918 for possession of weapons. In early 1920, he succeeded Tom Hales as O/C Cork No. 3 Brigade, following the latter’s arrest and torture. A close friend of Tom Barry, O/C ASU Cork No. 3 Brigade, he was engaged to Leslie Price, a Cumann na mBan organiser. Hurley was recuperating in Humphrey Forde’s house in Ballinphellic from wounds received the previous month during the disastrous Upton ambush. At 06:00, a patrol of the Essex Regiment under Major Arthur Halahan arrived. Hurley, dressed only in shirt and trousers, tried to fight his way out, wounding Halahan in the chest. Hurley then ran out of the back door, where Sergeant Poole shot him in the head, killing him instantly. The occupants of the house refused to identify the body. His body was removed by the military to the morgue at Bandon Workhouse. Members of Cumann na mBan switched the corpse with that of an inmate who had died and took Hurley’s body to Clogagh, about seven miles from Bandon. His remains were secretly buried in his family plot at Clogagh at around 02:00. Tom Barry delivered a short oration and fired three revolver shots over the grave. Barry later married Leslie Price. On 16 May 1971 the Bandon GAA ground was officially renamed in his memory. His father John secured an initial gratuity of £50 which was later doubled.414 Michael Joseph Hickey (19Mar1921/3) RIC (61706), 36, Clerk, RC Castlequarter, Dungarvan, Waterford From Limerick, Hickey joined the RIC on 1 May 1906, serving in Galway. Transferred to Dungarvan, he was promoted to sergeant on 1 January 1921.

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A joint police/military patrol was ambushed at about 02:30 at the Burgery, a mile outside Dungarvan on the Waterford road, by the West Waterford Brigade, IRA. Hickey was captured along with Captain Thomas and Private E. W. Colyer of the Buffs. Hickey offered to leave Ireland if spared, but the IRA nevertheless decided to kill him because ‘he knew their identities’. In an account provided in the form of a one-act play, IRA officer George Lennon described how Hickey appealed to him: ‘George, I knew you as a child . . .’ Lennon replied, ‘I would give anything in the world to save you . . . but I cannot.’ Father Joseph Rea, curate in Kilgobnet, heard Hickey’s confession. Thomas and Colyer were released at 03:00, on condition that they did not seek help until dawn. At 06:00 six Volunteers shot Hickey. His body was recovered in a bog two miles from the ambush site. Police reports said Hickey had been treated ‘with refined cruelty’ but ‘died bravely and faced his torturers with the utmost courage’. Buried Dungarvan. His father Timothy secured £600 compensation and his brother £250.415 Arthur Frederick Kenward (19Mar1921/4) RIC (73283), 20, Motor fitter, ex-serviceman Crossbarry, Cork Constable Kenward, from Surrey, joined the RIC on 24 September 1920, stationed in Bandon. The ASU Cork No. 3 Brigade had lain in ambush for a military patrol expected from Kinsale which did not appear, probably due to good intelligence. Crown forces instead attempted to encircle the IRA. IRA scouts observed a spotter plane. The IRA withdrew, and the following night moved to John O’Leary’s of Ballyhandle, Crossbarry, which became ASU headquarters. Men were assigned to billets in surrounding houses, and the local company put out a ring of sentries. In the early hours of 19 March, Crown forces began a large-scale sweep, with eight lorries dropping off police and military from the Essex and Hampshire regiments at points. These moved on foot or by bicycle, searching houses and farms. In Ballinphellic

a patrol killed Charlie Hurley, O/C Cork No. 3 Brigade. Between 02:00 and 03:00, the ASU was alerted. The military were approaching from Bandon, Ballincollig, Kinsale and Cork. The IRA had to avoid encirclement. It was expected that military from Bandon would be the first to reach Crossbarry, eight miles from Bandon and twelve from Cork on the old Bandon to Cork road. An ambush site was selected on the Bandon side of the crossroads. The IRA were divided into seven sections. Six were to attack, with the seventh protecting their rear. Two mines were laid in the road. The IRA lay in wait from about 04:30 until 08:00, when a convoy of eight lorries was observed. After an attempt to detonate the mines failed, an intense gunfight took place. Constable Arthur Kenward, driving one of the lorries, was immediately killed. Privates Baker, Gray and Martin also died in action. There were six Essex Regiment fatalities: Sergeant Watts and privates Cawley, Crafter and Wilkins were killed during the engagement, Private Steward died at about 10:00 on 19 March, and Lieutenant Hotblack on 22 March. When firing ceased, Daniel Holland and others were instructed to burn the three lorries within the ambush position and to collect enemy weapons. A renewed burst of fire from the eastern end of the main ambush position then led to three IRA fatalities. Peter Monahan, a deserter who had joined the ASU, was shot, while Con Daly and Jeremiah O’Leary were killed nearby. IRA sources overstated military casualties, with some accounts claiming more than thirty soldiers killed. The official War Office figures, supported by records, show ten killed and three wounded, itself a remarkable total.416 It may appear perverse, but Major A. E. Percival regarded the losses at Crossbarry as a minor reverse more than outweighed by two factors: the army’s success in killing the Brigade O/C Charlie Hurley, and the impact which he claimed for the coordinated sweep operation, which was to deter the West Cork IRA from assembling in large force again.417

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RD: Baker (19Mar1921/5), Cawley (20Mar 1921/5), Crafter (19Mar1921/8), Daly (19Mar1921/12), Gray (19Mar1921/6), Hotblack (22Mar1921/12), Martin (19Mar 1921/7), Monahan (19Mar1921/13), O’Leary (19Mar1921/14), Steward (19Mar1921/9), Watts (19Mar1921/10), Wilkins (19Mar 1921/11). SA: Hurley (19Mar1921/2) Harold Baker (19Mar1921/5) RASC, 21 Crossbarry, Cork See Kenward (19Mar1921/4). Private Baker was in 1155th Mechanised Transport Company, stationed in Cork. Buried Liverpool (Anfield) Cemetery.418 William Alfred Gray (19Mar1921/6) RASC (M/53359), 19, Motor driver Crossbarry, Cork See Kenward (19Mar1921/4). Private Gray, from St Pancras, London, attested at Whitehall on 3 July 1919, stationed in Cork. Buried Highgate Cemetery, London (52. 42045. Screen Wall, Panel 5). His parents secured £800 compensation.419 Cyril Gordon Martin (19Mar1921/7) RASC (M/22863), 25, Motor driver Crossbarry, Cork See Kenward (19Mar1921/4). Private Martin, from Tunbridge Wells, attested on 12 February 1920, and was stationed in Cork. Buried Crowborough Burial Ground, Plot A, Grave 60.420 Joseph Thomas Crafter (19Mar1921/8) Essex Regiment (5999398), 21, Wood machinist Crossbarry, Cork See Kenward (19Mar1921/4). Private Crafter enlisted at Clipstone, Mansfield, Nottinghamshire on 9 April 1919. He was stationed in Cork. An unnamed dependent secured £800 compensation.421 Stanley William Steward (19Mar1921/9) Essex Regiment (5998205), 24, Agricultural labourer Crossbarry, Cork See Kenward (19Mar1921/4). Private Steward, from Ilford, Essex, enlisted in 1915 and served

in France. He was based in Cork. Buried Romford Cemetery, Essex. An unnamed dependent secured £700 compensation.422 Edward Watts (19Mar1921/10) Essex Regiment (5998138), 26, Engineer’s mate, Married with two children Crossbarry, Cork See Kenward (19Mar1921/4). Sergeant Watts, from Islington, London, enlisted on 5 July 1914. He was stationed in Cork. His body was found two days after the Crossbarry ambush, his head smashed in by a rifle butt. Buried Manor Park Cemetery, Essex (Screen Wall Extn. 127.366). Watts’s widow Florence Maud secured £2,000 compensation and his children £700 each.423 William Wilkins (19Mar1921/11) Essex Regiment (5998204), 24, Baker Crossbarry, Cork See Kenward (19Mar1921/4). Private Wilkins, from Manchester, enlisted in 1915, and was stationed in Cork. Buried Salford (Weaste) Cemetery. His unnamed dependent secured £800 compensation.424 Cornelius Daly (19Mar1921/12) IRA, RC Crossbarry, Cork See Kenward (19Mar1921/4). ‘Con’ Daly from Ballinascarty was a Volunteer in the Clogagh Company, Cork No. 3 Brigade. Buried St Patrick’s Cemetery, Bandon. He is commemorated on a monument at Crossbarry.425 Peter Monahan (19Mar1921/13) IRA, Ex-serviceman, RC Crossbarry, Cork See Kenward (19Mar1921/4). Monahan was one of two deserters arrested by the IRA near Bandon around mid-November 1920 whom battalion officers concluded were genuine deserters. Monahan had apparently been a sergeant in the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, and there is a War Office medal card for a soldier of that name. Nothing is known about the other deserter save his name, Tom Clarke. Monahan later joined the ASU Cork No. 3 Brigade, and served as

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engineer until killed at Crossbarry. Buried St Patrick’s Cemetery, Bandon.426

1920, stationed in Dungarvan. His father secured £850 compensation.429

Jeremiah O’Leary (19Mar1921/14) IRA, Labourer, RC Crossbarry, Cork See Kenward (19Mar1921/4). O’Leary, from Leap, Cork, served in the Corran Company, Cork No. 3 Brigade. Buried St Patrick’s Cemetery, Bandon. He is commemorated on a monument at Crossbarry. His parents received a 15s. weekly allowance.427

Patrick Keating (19Mar1921/17) IRA, Co-operative employee, RC Monarud, Dungarvan, Waterford See Fitzgerald (19Mar1921/15). Keating, from Comeragh, Kilrossanty, was captain Kilrossanty Company, West Waterford Brigade. Secretly buried at Newtown Churchyard, his corpse was later placed in a shallow grave by the banks of the River Mahon before in May being reinterred at Kilrossanty. His mother Margaret secured a £112.10s. dependent’s gratuity in respect of Patrick and of his brother Thomas, killed on 11 April 1921.430

John Fitzgerald (19Mar1921/15) IRA, 24, Labourer, RC The Burgery, Abbeyside, Dungarvan, Waterford Fitzgerald, from Gortivicary, Kilrossanty, Waterford, was a captain in the 2nd Battalion, West Waterford Brigade. At about 08:00 an IRA party returned to the site of an earlier ambush at the Burgery, north of Dungarvan. They did so at the behest of GHQ’s George Plunkett, brother of Joseph Plunkett, despite a warning from the local commander Pax Whelan and others who thought it ‘madness’. The IRA encountered a mixed part of soldiers and police who had gone to recover an abandoned lorry. Lance-Corporal E. Venn, The Buffs, shot Fitzgerald. Constable Redman shot Pat Keating, O/C Kilrossanty Battalion, but was himself shot by George Plunkett. Redman died about two hours later, despite the efforts of a local doctor, who also tended to Keating, who died at about 17:00. Fitzgerald’s remains were held in the military barracks until after the funeral of Sergeant Michael Hickey. Buried Kilrossanty Churchyard. His mother Mary secured a £60 dependent’s gratuity.428 RD: Keating (19Mar1921/17), Redman (19Mar1921/16). SA: Hickey (19Mar1921/3), Plunkett (4May1916/4) Sydney Robert Redman (19Mar1921/16) RIC (77083), 25, Motor driver, ex-serviceman, Protestant RIC Barracks, O’Connell Street, Dungarvan, Waterford See Fitzgerald (19Mar1921/15). Redman, from Kent, joined the RIC on 28 December

Nellie Carey (19Mar1921/18) 18, Labourer’s daughter, RC Military Hospital, Fermoy, Cork Nellie, daughter of an ex-serviceman, had been a land girl during the war. She was shot at about 20:30 on 18 March, while walking with two soldiers, by men concealed behind a wall on Mill Road, Fermoy. The soldiers were wounded. She died next day at about 17:30 following an operation. She may have been attacked because she was associating with soldiers. An IRA document claimed she was ‘accidentally killed’, although gun attacks on unarmed, off-duty soldiers were most unusual in Fermoy. The Morning Post maintained that she had been warned two days earlier not to associate with soldiers and was shot while ‘kneeling and praying by the side’ of her wounded companion: when she ‘crawled into a house close by to get help . . . she was deserted by the occupants, who turned out the lights!’ She apparently recognised her assailants as local men. Buried Castlehyde Cemetery, Fermoy.431 Henry Charles Jarvis (19Mar1921/19) Prince of Wales’s Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment) (3645052), 20, Butcher Aungier Street, Dublin432 Private Jarvis, from London, enlisted at Whitehall on 12 June 1919. He was stationed in Dublin. Leo O’Brien of GHQ detailed a company to attack military vehicles passing

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along Aungier Street, nicknamed ‘the Dardanelles’ because it narrowed markedly near the junction with Kevin Street. Carroll recalled that the biggest ambush took place on 19 March. Two sections of Volunteers threw bombs at a lorry. Two exploded inside the vehicle, killing Lance-Corporal Jarvis and Private George Thomas. Private Whiting died later. Press reports also recorded three civilians wounded. Buried Nunhead (All Saints) Cemetery, London (Screen Wall. 3.34125).433 RD: Thomas (19Mar1921/20), Whiting (21Mar1921/16) George Thomas (19Mar1921/20) Prince of Wales’s Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment) (3645320), 18, Shoemaker Camden Street Lower, Dublin See Jarvis (19Mar1921/19). Private Thomas, from Manchester, enlisted at Warrington on 2 February 1920, and was stationed in Dublin. He is commemorated at Brookwood 1914–1918 Memorial, Surrey.434 Cornelius Sheehan (19Mar1921/21) 54, Asylum attendant, Married with six children, RC Blarney Street, Cork ‘Cors’ Sheehan had twenty-five years’ service as an attendant in the Cork Eglinton Asylum. He was a victim of the Cork IRA’s zeal for killing suspected spies. On 9 January 1921, he was shot in the shoulder while in the company of a policeman, later securing £125 compensation. Two months afterwards, at around 20:30, there was a knock on his door. Sheehan slipped out the back, but was shot in the chest, dying almost immediately. His wife Abina claimed that her husband’s only enemy was his landlady, who ‘had declared in my presence that she would have him shot: “I will get him another bullet” was the expression she used.’ Sheehan was in financial difficulties. The previous year, Cork Corporation condemned his home as unfit for human habitation. On 31 May 1921, Mrs Walsh initiated an action against Abina Sheehan to recover the house and garden at 198 Blarney Street. Abina Sheehan secured

£1,500 compensation and her six children a total of £1,600.435

20 MARCH 1921 Dermot Richard O’Dwyer (20Mar1921/1) IRA, 19, Student, RC JSH O’Dwyer, from Rossmore, Cashel, Tipperary, was an engineering student at UCD living at 108 St Stephens Green. He was a member of No. 1 Company, 5th Battalion, Dublin Brigade. At about 19:10 on 18 March, a ration lorry driving slowly along North Frederick Street was attacked by nine men who threw four bombs and fired. Soldiers replied immediately. Sergeant Crouch shot one attacker, and saw a bomb explode near another. O’Dwyer was brought to hospital, dying at 01:30. Buried GC. His next-of-kin failed to secure a gratuity.436 James Mullane437 (20Mar1921/2) 22, Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC North Main Street, Cork Mullane lived at 17 St Paul’s Avenue. He was shot by three men in civilian clothes near North Main Street at around 21:15. His father said his son was slightly ‘mentally deficient’ due to wartime wounds sustained in France. He was wont to declare publicly his pride in having fought for King and country. The Last Post suggested that Mullane was killed by Black and Tans. Buried SFC.438 William Campbell (20Mar1921/3) RIC (62454), 37, Farmer, Married with three children, RC Fethard Street, Mullinahone, Tipperary Constable Campbell, from Leitrim, joined the RIC on 18 March 1907, serving in Tipperary. He was on sick leave in Mullinahone. He was shot when he went to investigate a noise in the barracks yard at around 21:45 by the Callan ASU. They were said to be seeking to kill an army intelligence officer, Lieutenant Litchfield (actually, Litchford), described in several BMH statements as ‘foxy’ and believed responsible for several IRA deaths. Campbell’s widow secured £5,500 compensation.439 SA: Clancy (6Mar1921/5), Clancy (16Aug 1920/1)

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James McKenna440 (20Mar1921/4) RIC (66625), 29, Farmer, RC Falcarragh, Donegal McKenna, from Enybegs, Longford, joined the RIC on 4 June 1912, serving in Monaghan until transfer to Falcarragh in 1918. He was shot ‘through the chin’ when he opened the door of a disused house in which men from the West Donegal ASU lay in ambush. His body ‘lay on the street until daylight’, as IRA attempts to attack the nearby RIC barracks foundered.441 Sidney Robert Cawley (20Mar1921/5) Essex Regiment (5999664), 20, Iron Erector CMHC See Kenward (19Mar1921/4). Private Cawley, from Chelmsford, Essex, was stationed in Cork. Buried Writtle Road Cemetery, Chelmsford. An unnamed dependent secured £800 compensation.442 Martin Daly (20Mar1921/6) 60, Farmer, RC Ranaleen, Currow, Kerry Daly lived in Inchincummer, Currow, Kerry. He had feared for his life since handing over a Sinn Féin court summons to the military in Killarney, and sometimes slept in Farranfore RIC Barracks. About 12:00 he was accosted by three armed men while bringing cattle to water. His sister Bridget, seeing him with his hands bound behind his back, confronted the men. Her dog attacked them. One man shot the dog. Claiming to be soldiers from Farranfore, they said they would bring Daly back by 22:00. His body was later found in the townland of Ranaleen, Currow, shot in the left breast and right eye. An attached notice read: ‘Informers Beware. Convicted Informer.’ Kate Greaney of Cumann na mBan claimed to have secured ‘information from [the] Barrack’ about Daly’s activities from a constable’s wife. Bridget Daly secured £600 compensation.443 Michael Roche (20Mar1921/7) 72, RC444 JSH Roche, of 23 Stafford Street, died from a hip wound received on 2 March when five

bombs were thrown at a military convoy at the junction of Capel Street and Parnell Street. Buried MJC (33. A. 235).445

21 MARCH 1921 James Skelton (21Mar1921/1) 28, Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC Boladurragh, Rossard, Enniscorthy, Wexford ‘Jim’ Skelton, his father and younger brother lived in a cottage in Templeshambo, Enniscorthy, Wexford. At about 01:00, two men armed with revolvers abducted him. His brother Thomas, who lived in Kilcullen, was similarly seized. A farmer found their bodies at 10:00 in a field at Boladurragh, both shot in the head. James O’Toole of the ASU North Wexford Brigade recalled how the police in Newtownbarry and Ballindaggan had accurate intelligence about local IRA members. It was initially believed that the source was Constable William Jones. The IRA killed him on 22 December 1920, but the RIC evidently continued to receive good information. Suspicion next fell on the Skeltons. A raid on the mail uncovered an official letter addressed to Sergeant Torsney of Newtownbarry, which showed that James Skelton planned to join the police. It also apparently contained a sum of money for the Skeltons. GHQ sanctioned their execution, carried out by Patrick Fitzpatrick, James Whelan, Frank Gibbons, Thomas Roche and William Kavanagh of the South Wexford ASU. Sergeant John McNally deposed that both Skeltons had been shot through the head. On Jim’s body was a card which read: ‘Spy Sergt. __________ [no surname provided] is responsible for this man’s death. All informers beware we are on your track. IRA.’446 RD: Skelton (21Mar1921/2). SA: Jones (22Dec1920/5) Thomas Skelton (21Mar1921/2) 21, Labourer, RC Boladurragh, Rossard, Enniscorthy, Wexford See Skelton (21Mar1921/1). Thomas Skelton lived and worked in Kilcullen, Wexford.447

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John Graham (21Mar1921/3) 33, Married with children, RC MIHB Graham lived at 11 Emily Place, Belfast. Shot in the abdomen as he went to fetch his children after disturbances broke out, he died next day.448 Martin Burke (21Mar1921/4) 16, Farmer’s son, RC Borrisoleigh, Tipperary Burke was from Garrangrena, Borrisoleigh. Thirteen-year-old Daniel Ryan stopped on his way to school to help Burke fill his water can. As the boys left the well, Ryan heard shots. Burke fell, shot in the head. Lieutenant and Section Leader H. J. Splatt, G Company, Auxiliary Division, gave a very different account. When he rounded a sharp bend in a Lewis gun tender near Borrisoleigh, he saw what he thought were two men leaning over the parapet of a bridge. He called on them to halt, but they ran. He fired the Lewis gun, and subsequently found a dead youth.449 Cecil Edward Adams (21Mar1921/5) Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), 29, Army officer, Married with one child Headford Railway Junction, Killarney, Kerry Adams was commissioned in the Royal Fusiliers after six years in the ranks and one as a warrant officer, and promoted to lieutenant in 1920. He won a DCM. He was the first fatality in the Headfort ambush, one of the largest engagements of the War of Independence. Volunteers of the ASU Kerry No. 2 Brigade under Tom McEllistrim and Dan Allman took over Headfort station to attack a military ration party which travelled weekly by train from Kenmare to Killarney. Men were positioned on a high bank overlooking the platform and in station buildings. The train stopped and disgorged a crowd of civilians and soldiers. A soldier was shot when he noticed an armed man in the lavatory, and this was taken as a signal for general firing. The result was that civilians, mostly pig and cattle buyers returning from the Kenmare Fair, were hit.

Adams was shot through the heart as he opened his carriage door. Three senior NCOs were also killed immediately; several others were subsequently wounded. Eventually the military on the platform rallied under a sergeant who led a charge down the platform towards the Mallow end. He was shot dead along with other soldiers. The survivors jumped from the platform and crawled under the train or tried to get around the engine but were picked off by McEllistrim’s section. O’Connor claimed that five or six soldiers got under the train, where IRA men on the embankment could not get a clean shot. Dan Allman, O/C ASU, moved to the end of the platform, covered by a sloping ramp. Declaring ‘We have them now,’ he knelt down to fire at soldiers under the train, but ‘he got it through the heart. . . . “Water”, he said . . . I sprinkled him with the Holy Water bottle. . . . As I watched him, the blood poured out his nose and he was grunting.’ McEllistrim then assumed command. At about the same time, Volunteer Jimmy Baily was killed on the embankment, apparently shot in the head while in the act of throwing a grenade. At 15:50, the Mallow–Killarney train was due to enter the station, carrying Lieutenant C. H. W. Clarke, also of the Royal Fusiliers, with fourteen men. On hearing the firing ahead, he stopped the locomotive and had his men advance extended out across the line towards the station. They opened fire on the IRA, who withdrew. The regimental digest commented: ‘That was quite enough for the rebels, who fled precipitately.’ Clarke was awarded an OBE for his actions. Michael Hopkinson has argued that, though not an unqualified success for the IRA, the Headford ambush had a considerable psychological impact on British morale in Kerry. Several IRA accounts considerably overstate British casualties: one BMH statement says twenty-four soldiers died, whereas regimental records show eight fatalities. Three civilians were killed. John Breen died at Headford, while Michael Cagney and Patrick O’Donoghue died later. The IRA suffered two fatalities. Buried Sutton-in-

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Ashfield Cemetery, Nottinghamshire (A. V. 2672). His widow secured £3,500 compensation and his infant child £3,500.450 RD: Allman (21Mar1921/13), Baily (21Mar 1921/14), Breen (21Mar1921/12), Brundish (21Mar1921/6), Cagney (23Mar1921/14), Chandler (21Mar1921/7), George (21Mar 1921/8), Greenwood (22Mar1921/11), O’Donoghue (24Mar1921/2), West (21Mar 1921/9), Woods (21Mar1921/10), Young (21Mar1921/11) George Brundish (21Mar1921/6) Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) (6446502), 31, Labourer, CoE Headford Railway Junction, Killarney, Kerry See Adams (21Mar1921/5). Sergeant Brundish, from Kent, re-enlisted in Salonika in 1919, having previously served with the King’s (Shropshire Light Infantry) (battalion number: 45674). Buried St Peter’s Churchyard, Thundersley, Essex.451 Edward Albert Chandler (21Mar1921/7) Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) (6449781), 18, Labourer Headford Railway Junction, Killarney, Kerry See Adams (21Mar1921/5). Lance-Corporal Chandler, from Hackney, attested at Whitehall. Buried Woodgrange Park Cemetery, East Ham (Screen Wall 11. 11973).452 Arthur George (21Mar1921/8) Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) (6446510), 22, Packer Headford Railway Junction, Killarney, Kerry See Adams (21Mar1921/5). Private George, from Windsor, Berkshire, re-enlisted at Dunkirk on 2 April 1919, having previously served with the Royal Welch Fusiliers. He was stationed in Kerry. Buried New Cemetery, Killarney.453 Frederick George West (21Mar1921/9) Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) (6446447), 19, Labourer Headford Railway Junction, Killarney, Kerry See Adams (21Mar1921/5). Private West, from Norfolk, re-enlisted in Mansfield on 4 June 1919, having previously served with the Royal Fusiliers (battalion number: 126756).

He was stationed in Kerry. His next of kin secured £250 compensation. Commemorated Brookwood 1914–1918 Memorial, Surrey.454 Francis Edward Woods (21Mar1921/10) Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) (6446536), 23, Factory hand, Married Headford Railway Junction, Killarney, Kerry See Adams (21Mar1921/5). Private Woods, from London, re-enlisted on 8 April 1919, having previously served with the Labour Corps (battalion number: 56607). Woods’s representatives secured £1,600 compensation. Commemorated Brookwood 1914– 1918 Memorial, Surrey.455 George Edward Leslie Young (21Mar1921/11) Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) (6453611), 20, Carman Headford Railway Junction, Killarney, Kerry See Adams (21Mar1921/5). Private Young, from London, re-enlisted at Whitehall on 12 October 1920, having previously served with the Royal Fusiliers (battalion number: 139065). Buried Fulham Old Cemetery, London (8A. K. 32). His representatives secured £600 compensation.456 John Breen (21Mar1921/12) 52, Cattle dealer, RC Headford Railway Junction, Killarney, Kerry See Adams (21Mar1921/5). Breen, a wellknown cattle dealer from Killarney, was returning from the Kenmare Fair when mortally wounded. He dragged himself into the waiting room, where he died. Buried Churchtown Cemetery, Killarney. All businesses closed while the procession passed. His unnamed next of kin secured £1,800 compensation.457 Daniel J. Allman (21Mar1921/13) IRA, 30, Farmer, RC Headford Railway Junction, Killarney, Kerry See Adams (21Mar1921/5). Allman, from Rockfield, Beaufort, was O/C of the recently established ASU Kerry No. 2 Brigade. His brother Fr Myles Allman was a prominent worker for the Irish cause in California. Buried Aglish Cemetery, Killarney. His

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mother Mary secured a dependent’s gratuity of £100 despite being ‘an exceptionally bitter opponent of the government’.458 James Baily (21Mar1921/14) IRA, 21, Farmer’s son, RC Headford Railway Junction, Killarney, Kerry See Adams (21Mar1921/5). From Rathanny, Tralee, ‘Jim’ Baily was a lieutenant in the Ballymacelligott Battalion, Kerry No. 2 Brigade. Buried Aglish Graveyard, Killarney. His mother failed to secure a gratuity but an award was eventually made to his blind sister Mary Bridget.459 Liam Dignam (21Mar1921/15) IRA, 23, Labourer, RC MMH ‘Willie’ Dignam was from Clara, Offaly. His headstone states he was O/C 1st (Clara) Battalion, Offaly No. 2 Brigade. He was one of a group of young men fired on in Clara on 25 October 1920 as they ran away from uniformed men, believed to be Black and Tans, who dismounted from a lorry. Wounded in the back, he eventually died in hospital. Buried Clara Cemetery, Offaly. His mother Mary was disappointed at her failure to secure a dependent’s award: ‘I am sure the Turkish Government would not turn down deserving cases like mine.’460 Benjamin James Whiting (21Mar1921/16) Prince of Wales’s Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment) (3645917), 27, Coal miner, Married with one child, CoE KGVH See Jarvis (19Mar1921/19). Lance-Corporal Whiting, from Bridgend, enlisted at Cardiff on 21 July 1919. Buried GMC (CE. 822).461 Patrick Hassett (21Mar1921/17) IRA, 35, Fisherman, RC St John’s Hospital, Limerick Hassett, from Burrane, Clare, served in the 2nd Battalion, West Clare Brigade. Bill ‘Liam’ Haugh, O/C ASU West Clare Brigade, recalled that Hassett was accidentally shot by a fellow Volunteer during a raid on Kilmore House, the home of the GoreHickman family. Buried Killimer, Clare. A

married sister was unsuccessful in a claim for a dependent’s allowance.462

22 MARCH 1921 James Barrett (22Mar1921/1) IRA, 40, Railway servant, RC CMHC See Lyons (28Feb1921/2). Barrett, from Killeen, Cork, was a celebrated Gaelic footballer. Stationmaster for the Cork and Muskerry Light Railway Company at Firmount, and a member of the Railways Clerks’ Association, he was captain C Company, 6th (Donoughmore) Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade and battalion quartermaster. He died from septicaemia at 00:01. Buried Donoughmore.463 Samuel Nixon (22Mar1921/2) USC, 45, Farmer, Married with five children, Methodist Tattymore, Rosslea, Fermanagh Nixon was a USC sergeant. His oldest child was nine and his youngest three. The IRA killed him in retaliation for the burning by USC of Catholic houses in Rosslea, during which Constable Samuel Finnegan (21Feb1921/3) was accidentally shot dead; those attacks had been prompted by the IRA’s attempt to kill George Lester. John T. Connolly, captain Rosslea Company, recalled that Eoin O’Duffy, O/C Monaghan Brigade, called for widespread reprisals. Frank Aiken did not at first approve, but O’Duffy prevailed. James McKenna, brigade O/C, and Matthew Fitzpatrick,† O/C Clones Battalion, were jointly in command. On the night of 21–2 March there were widespread attacks on loyalist houses in the Rosslea area, mostly the homes of USC men. Samuel Nixon and William Gordon were killed, four houses were razed to the ground, and others were damaged. The IRA’s Rosslea Company used their local knowledge to guide the raiding parties. Nixon was in bed when his home came under fire at about 02:00. Although wounded, he fought for some time before eventually surrendering on the point of exhaustion. He was dragged outside and shot dead. His wife Mary Anne was wounded in the hand

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while trying to protect him. The IRA had apparently not intended to shoot Nixon but only to burn his house. Unable to move her husband, Mary Anne Nixon remained with his corpse in the rain until a passer-by came along at 06:30. Patrick McMeel, quartermaster Monaghan Brigade, told the BMH that Nixon had a ‘bad local reputation’, whereas other IRA veterans deplored the execution of a man who had surrendered after bravely defending his family and home. The next house attacked was that of Special-Sergeant William Gordon at Rathkeevan. His aged parents were at home. Gordon reportedly wounded one of the IRA before he was killed, whether by a bomb or a bullet is not clear. At about midnight, the house of Sergeant Joseph Douglas at Aghafin, Clones, Monaghan, was attacked. Douglas was dragged outside by seven or eight men and severely beaten. As he attempted to escape, he was shot in the hip. An attempt to burn his house failed. Douglas was initially reported to have died. The IRA’s Matthew Fitzpatrick was seriously wounded during the attack. Admitted to Monaghan County Infirmary and placed under armed police guard, he was subsequently rescued by the IRA and made a full recovery. The home of Edward Nelson, Mullaghconnolly, Rosslea, was burned to the ground. The nearby Megwood house was set on fire but the flames were extinguished by Mrs Megwood’s sons, who drove off their attackers. The houses of Thomas Lester and William Andrews in Mullaglass, Rosslea, were attacked, as were those of William Leary of Kilcorn and John Johnston of Drumummery, Smithborough, Monaghan. Peadar Livingstone wrote that following the killings of Nixon and Gordon, USC members poured into Rosslea, causing many nationalist inhabitants to flee. At about 07:00 on 22 March, a USC party intercepted two men armed with rifles, apparently returning from raids on Protestant homes. They were pursued for over a mile before Frank Connolly was shot dead. Rosslea remained a controversial matter among republicans. Combined with activities against loyalists in Monaghan itself, it

suggested that under O’Duffy the IRA carried out sectarian operations in much the same manner as had been so strongly deplored when loyalists attacked nationalist communities indiscriminately in Belfast, Derry and Lisburn. In his statement to the Marron Collection, Harry Macken stated: ‘From what we heard they [Nixon and Gordon] were a pair of bad boys and richly deserved what they got.’ Buried Clough, Rosslea. Mary Anne Nixon and her children secured £1,500 compensation.464 RD: Connolly (22Mar1921/5), Gordon (22Mar1921/3). SA: Finnegan (21Feb1921/3) William Gordon (22Mar1921/3) USC, 34, Ploughman, Married with one child, CoI Rathkeevan, Rosslea, Fermanagh See Nixon (22Mar1921/2). Gordon was a head labourer for Miss Maddes of Rosslea Manor. Married less than a year, he was a USC sergeant. Gordon’s widow Maude Violet secured £1,000 compensation and his father James £100, with £400 for his daughter, born on the day of her father’s burial.465 Arthur Mulcahy (22Mar1921/4) IRA, 22, Farmer’s son, RC Currabeha, Conna, Cork Mulcahy, from Currabeha, joined the Irish Volunteers after the Rising. He was a renowned local athlete. Arrested by a patrol of the RFA searching houses in the vicinity of his home, he was shot dead in the early hours allegedly while attempting to escape. Buried Church of the Immaculate Conception, Tallow, Waterford. A monument on the Clashaganniv Road marks where he was killed.466 Francis Connolly (22Mar1921/5) 18, RC Rosslea, Fermanagh See Nixon (22Mar1921/2). Connolly was from Rosslea.467 Daniel Lyons (22Mar1921/6) 26, Ex-serviceman, butcher, RC 6 Bridge Street, Bandon, Cork Lyons lived on Castle Road, Bandon. At about 13:15, soldiers under Lieutenant D.

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Chambers, South Staffordshire Regiment were in three pickets about 200 yards apart, at Park Bridge, Bandon. Anyone crossing the bridge was to be arrested, and any suspicious movement met with fire. Three men approached a picket. When challenged, two put up their hands, but the third appeared to turn away. He was fired at and wounded. Lyons’s companions, who were going fishing with him, said no warning had been given. He died six hours later. In September 1921, the army made a payment of £16.17s. towards Lyons’s funeral expenses. His widow Margaret and three daughters secured £1,200 compensation.468 Maurice Fitzgerald (22Mar1921/7) IRA, 26, Farmer, RC Lispole, Kerry Fitzgerald, from Minard West, Lispole, was a section leader in C (Lispole) Company, Kerry No. 1 Brigade. Over forty Volunteers from the Dingle and Castlegregory battalions, the ASU Kerry No. 1 Brigade and the Fianna lay in ambush at Lispole, midway between Dingle and Annascaul, the third day on which they had expected a military patrol. Fitzgerald was hit in the stomach when a comrade accidentally discharged his rifle, the first of three fatalities arising from bad luck and poor organisation. A doctor could do nothing. At around 13:00, scouts reported a lorry and a car approaching from Dingle. These stopped out of sight about half a mile from the ambush position, and police and military alighted and moved to encircle the ambush party. The IRA, taken by surprise, were almost surrounded. Tommy Ashe, Tommy Hawley and Jimmy Daly were wounded by machine-gun fire as they tried to retreat along a stream. Five others were captured. The IRA commander Paddy Cahill eventually rallied his men. An engagement lasting almost three hours ended in confusion, when a whistle blown by an IRA officer was mistaken by British forces as a signal from their own commander to withdraw. They abandoned their prisoners and drove back to Dingle. Ashe died next day. Daly and Tommy Hawley, who had been hit in the head, were

moved six miles by cart along rough bohereens to Ballynahunt. Attended by Dr P. Ferris of Castlegregory, they were brought on to Glanlough, where they were nursed for about six weeks. Hawley died on 2 May 1921. Buried Aglish Cemetery, Minard, Kerry. Fitzgerald is commemorated on a monument at Lispole. His sister failed to secure a dependent’s allowance.469 RD: Ashe (23Mar1921/13), Hawley (2May 1921/8) William Devereux (22Mar1921/8) RIC (49046), 58, Married with children, RC Keadue, Roscommon From Wicklow, Constable Devereux joined the RIC on 11 April 1882, serving in Sligo, in Ballyfarnan and in Keadue, Roscommon. He was in a five-man cycle patrol ambushed after the IRA raided Ballyfarnan Post Office in the early hours, in an attack intended to avenge the hanging in Dublin of Roscommon man Paddy Moran. Constables Devereux and Michael James Dowling were killed. Although wounded eight times, Sergeant Reilly survived. Claims that the bodies were abused were disputed by IRA sources. Devereux’s widow Maria secured £3,000 compensation.470 RD: Dowling (22Mar1921/9). SA: Moran (14Mar1921/2) Michael James Dowling (22Mar1921/9) RIC (67499), 30, Grocer’s assistant, RC Keadue, Roscommon See Devereux (22Mar1921/8). Dowling, from Arklow, joined the RIC on 1 September 1913. Stationed in Keadue, he had previously served in Boyle and Croghan. On the morning of his death, Dowling reportedly told a comrade of a premonition that he would die. His brother Philip had been killed by the military in April 1920. Buried Catholic cemetery, Ferrbybank, Arklow.471 SA: Dowling (26Apr1920/1) John Coughlan (22Mar1921/10) RIC (55450), 48, RC Derrakillew, Carrowkennedy, Westport, Mayo From Ballaghaderren, Roscommon, Coughlan joined the RIC on 5 September 1892, posted to

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Galway. Transferred to Mayo in 1894, he was promoted to sergeant in 1911, stationed in Westport. His brother James had also been a policeman. Michael Kilroy, O/C ASU West Mayo Brigade, and two comrades ran into a four-man RIC patrol about eight miles outside Westport on the Clifden road. Three policemen, one slightly wounded, surrendered; Kilroy shot Sergeant Coughlan as he emerged from cover as he was still armed. Buried St Colman’s Cemetery, Claremorris.472 Charles Rupert Greenwood (22Mar1921/11) Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) (6446547), 20, Metal twiner CMHC See Adams (21Mar1921/5). Corporal Greenwood, from Surrey, enlisted at Norwich in February 1919. He died from wounds sustained during the Headford Junction ambush. Buried Hampton Hill Churchyard, Middlesex. His representatives secured £300 compensation.473 Geoffrey Turner Hotblack (22Mar1921/12) Essex Regiment, 20, Army officer, CoE CMHC See Kenward (19Mar1921/4). Lieutenant Hotblack, commissioned in December 1919, stationed in Cork, died from wounds sustained during the Crossbarry ambush. Buried St John the Baptist Sub-Castro, Lewes, Sussex. His father secured £1,000 compensation and his mother £600.474 Timothy Whooley (22Mar1921/13) IRA, Draper’s assistant, RC Shannonvale Cross, Clonakilty, Cork ‘Tim’ Whooley, from Derrymeleen, Ballineen, Cork, served in the Clonakilty Company, Cork No. 3 Brigade. Tom Barry, O/C ASU Cork No. 3 Brigade, stated that Whooley shot himself while cleaning his rifle.475 Ted Hayes, intelligence officer 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 3 Brigade, said that a comrade who knew little about firearms discharged a Peterthe-Painter pistol, shooting Whooley in the head. Buried Ahiohill Churchyard, Cork. His father John secured a gratuity of £50.476

23 MARCH 1921 Daniel Crowley (23Mar1921/1) IRA, 22, Plasterer, RC Ballycannon, Kerry Pike, Cork Crowley, of 171 Blarney Street, served in C Company, 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. At around 03:45, a police party under District Inspector J. T. Haggart seeking the killers of Cornelius Sheehan came to Cornelius O’Keefe’s farmhouse at Kerry Pike, on the outskirts of Cork city. They claimed to have come under fire. Six Volunteers were captured in an outhouse where they had been sleeping. All were killed, supposedly as they attempted to escape, by Sergeant S. Chance and other RIC. In reality, they were massacred after capture. Mick Murphy, O/C 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, himself no stranger to coldblooded killing, claimed all six were savagely murdered: ‘Arms and legs were cut off some of them and one poor chap [Jeremiah Mullane] had his stomach ripped by a bayonet. The brutal British then poured petrol over him and set him alight. I saw the bodies, horribly mutilated, when they were in coffins.’ Professor A. E. Moore, chair of pathology at UCC, and Dr George Hegarty performed post-mortem examinations on behalf of the families. The wounds were very extensive due to rifle or machine-gun fire at point-blank range, although there was no evidence of post-death mutilation. The RIC attributed this success to ‘good plain clothes duty’, but republicans thought otherwise. P. J. Murphy maintained that the IRA’s Paddy ‘Cruxy’ Connors had broken under interrogation in Shandon RIC Barracks and had led the police to the farmhouse where comrades from C Company were sleeping. Connors disappeared. P. J. Murphy claimed an intercepted letter addressed to Connors’s family, whom the IRA ordered to leave the district, indicated he was in London. Daniel Healy, O/C Cork City ASU, and Liam O’Callaghan went there in July 1921 in a bid to find him. It was later discovered that he had left for New York. Cork men there located him. Healy and Martin Donovan

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were selected to kill him. Michael Collins† supplied letters of introduction and funds. Corkman Pa Murray, based in London, travelled separately. All reached New York in February 1922. They spotted Connors one evening as he left work but lost him. After watching his home for some nights, Connors was confronted near 84th Street, close to Central Park West, in April 1922, by a gunman who shouted, ‘I’ve got you now’ before firing four shots. Healy cited press reports that Connors died after admission to hospital. The three assassins left the US shortly afterwards.477 But this ‘mild-mannered young bookkeeper’ appears to have survived. Two months later a newspaper reported that Connors ‘slowly recovers’ under police guard from liver, chin and arm wounds and ‘is now well enough to devote himself to a small weaving machine on his bed’.478 All six Volunteers killed at Kerry Pike were buried SFC. Crowley’s mother Elisabeth secured a £50 dependent’s gratuity, and two sisters ultimately obtained allowances.479 RD: Deasy (23Mar1921/2), Dennehy (23Mar1921/3), Mullane (23Mar1921/4), Murphy (23Mar1921/5), O’Sullivan (23Mar 1921/6). SA: Sheehan (19Mar1921/21) William Deasy (23Mar1921/2) IRA, 20, RC Ballycannon, Kerry Pike, Cork See Crowley (23Mar1921/1). Deasy, of Mount Desert, served in C Company, 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade.480 Thomas Dennehy (23Mar1921/3) IRA, 21, Insurance agent, RC Ballycannon, Kerry Pike, Cork See Crowley (23Mar1921/1). Dennehy, of 164 Blarney Street, served in C Company, 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. His mother Catherine failed to secure dependents’ allowances, but a widowed sister ultimately did.481 Jeremiah Mullane (23Mar1921/4) IRA, 22, Grocer’s assistant, RC Ballycannon, Kerry Pike, Cork See Crowley (23Mar1921/1). The RIC regarded Mullane, of 227 Blarney Street, of

C Company, 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, as ‘perhaps the most notorious member of the Cork murder gang’.482 Daniel Murphy (23Mar1921/5) IRA, 24, Pig dealer, RC Ballycannon, Kerry Pike, Cork See Crowley (23Mar1921/1). Murphy, of Westburn, Glasheen Road, served in C Company, 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. A sister later failed to secure a dependent’s allowance.483 Michael O’Sullivan (23Mar1921/6) IRA, 19, Apprentice carpenter, RC Ballycannon, Kerry Pike, Cork See Crowley (23Mar1921/1). O’Sullivan, of 281 Blarney Street, served in C Company, 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. Buried SFC. His gravestone states ‘Sullivan’. His father Stephen secured a £25 dependent’s gratuity, and his mother and sister ultimately secured allowances.484 John Keenan (23Mar1921/7) RASC (M/21319), 21, Miner, motor driver Scramogue, Roscommon Private Keenan, from Kirkintilloch, Dumbarton, attested at Glasgow on 12 February 1920. Stationed in Athlone, he was the first fatality in an ambush at Scramogue by elements of the North Roscommon and South Roscommon brigades. Scramogue lay almost on the boundary between the two brigade areas, on one of the main thoroughfares for military traffic from Longford to north and west Mayo. Seán Leavy said that one motive for the ambush was to avenge the deaths at Selton Hill in Leitrim of Seán Connolly and five other IRA men. Connolly had identified Scramogue as suitable before his own death. At about 07:00 a party of police and military under Captain Roger Grenville Peek left Strokestown bringing two constables, Robert Buchanan and James Evans, to Longford, where they were to be court martialled for allegedly smashing the windows of Elphin Church. A Crossley tender carried Peek, Lieutenant John H. A. Tennant and four soldiers of the 9th Lancers. A lorry of

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policemen escorted them. At about 07:15, fire was opened at Scramogue, where the IRA had lain in ambush since early morning. Keenan was shot, receiving a gaping wound in the abdomen, and fell from the vehicle, which crashed. Tennant was wounded as he and Peek jumped onto a wall. Peek managed to drag himself into a field: an IRA report stated that ‘he refused to surrender several times. Had he done so no injury would have been done to him . . . none of the wounded were touched by our men’, and fell dead into a drain about 400 yards from the ambush site. Constable Edward Leslie was wounded, and died in hospital on 26 March. Volunteers on the hill engaged the second lorry, which turned around and returned to Strokestown. The IRA captured five rifles, some Mills bombs, a Hotchkiss gun and ammunition. The tender was set on fire. Buchanan and Evans, in civilian clothes, surrendered, claiming that they were prisoners. After questioning, the IRA discovered their identities. At Curraghroe, the IRA divided into two groups. Ernie O’Malley stated that, after one party was almost surrounded by Crown forces in the valley between Aghamuck and Fairymount before evading capture, they shot Evans, burying him in Clonberry Bog. Buchanan was to be thrown into the Shannon, weighed down by a heavy stone. Realising his impending fate, he jumped into the river while his captors were waiting for a boat. Martin Fallon shot him in the water. Another IRA source stated, laconically, that, ‘We took two of them prisoners to get them to teach us how to work the Hotchkiss gun but they would not and we did away with them after that night.’ In 1982 a local woman recalled hearing that the prisoners ‘begged them for to let them go, but they thought that if they let them go that they’d give away on everything do you see. So they were executed.’ Documents captured on Volunteers Brian Nagle and Pat Mullooly revealed that Mullooly’s brother Michael was an IRA officer. Michael was taken from his home next day and killed, the only IRA fatality attributable to the Scramogue ambush. Pat Mullooly escaped from prison in Athlone

before he could be tried; Nagle received fifteen years’ imprisonment. Pat Mullooly claimed that after the Truce a Tan he was drinking with in Strokestown named his brother’s killer as ‘Basil Pearce’, an Auxiliary. Buried Glasgow.485 RD: Buchanan (23Mar1921/11), Evans (23Mar1921/10), Leslie (26Mar1921/5), Peek (23Mar1921/9), Tennant (23Mar1921/8). SA: Connolly (11Mar1921/3), Mullooly (24Mar1921/1) John Harold Anthony Tennant (23Mar1921/8) 9th Queen’s Royal Lancers, 21, Army officer, CoE Scramogue, Strokestown, Roscommon See Keenan (23Mar1921/7). Tennant, from Harrogate, educated at Eton College and Sandhurst, was commissioned on 20 December 1918. The Roscommon Herald described him as popular in Longford, where he was very involved in hare coursing. Buried All Saints Churchyard, Spofforth, Yorkshire (north-west corner). His family secured £500 compensation.486 Roger Grenville Peek (23Mar1921/9) 9th Queen’s Royal Lancers, 32, Army officer, Married with two children, CoE Scramogue, Strokestown, Roscommon See Keenan (23Mar1921/7). Peek, a nephew of the Irish peer the Earl of Midleton, joined the Territorial Force, 9th Royal Lancers in 1910. Promoted to lieutenant in 1912, and to captain in 1915, he won the DSO while in France. Buried St Michael’s Churchyard in Loddiswell, Devon. His widow Joan secured £8,000 compensation and his two infant sons £2,000.487 James Evans (23Mar1921/10) RIC (70336), 22, Ex-serviceman, CoI Clonberry Bog, Kilrooskey, Roscommon See Keenan (23Mar1921/7). Constable Evans, a farmer’s son from Offaly, joined the RIC on 1 April 1920, allocated to Roscommon. The RIC General Register recorded him as presumed dead. His father Thomas secured £500 compensation.488

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Robert A. Buchanan (23Mar1921/11) RIC (73835), 20, Motor fitter’s mate, exserviceman, Protestant River Shannon, near Derryhanee, Roscommon See Keenan (23Mar1921/7). Constable Buchanan, from London, joined the RIC on 5 October 1920, stationed in Roscommon town. His mother Sarah secured £600 compensation.489 Patrick McDonnell490 (23Mar1921/12) IRA, 27, RC Stonefield, Ballinlough, Meath ‘Paddy’ McDonnell, intelligence officer 5th (Stonefield) Battalion, Meath Brigade, and his brother Tommy were surprised by police at their home at about 14:00. They fled across the fields and, failing to halt, were fired on. Paddy, hit in the back, soon died (possibly in Kells RIC Barracks). Tommy was arrested. Buried Ballinlough.491 SA: Cogan (22Jul1920/1) Thomas Matthew Ashe (Tomás Maitiú Ághas) (23Mar1921/13) IRA, Farmer, RC Acres, Annascaul, Kerry See Fitzgerald (22Mar1921/7). Ashe, from Kinard East, a cousin of the 1917 hunger striker Thomas Ashe, was a lieutenant in C (Lispole) Company, 5th Battalion, Kerry No. 1 Brigade. Wounded in the spine by a ricochet, he died that night. Buried Kinard Cemetery. He is commemorated on a monument in Lispole. A brother failed to secure a dependent’s award.492 SA: Ashe (25Sep1917/1) Michael Cagney (23Mar1921/14) Cattle dealer, Married, RC Union Hospital, Killarney, Kerry See Adams (21Mar1921/5). Cagney, from Ballybane, Cork, had been wounded during the Headford Junction ambush. Buried Cork. His widow Elizabeth secured £2,800 compensation.493 Annie Jamieson (23Mar1921/15) 40, Married with four children, RC Vere Street, Belfast Annie Jamieson, a shipyard labourer’s wife, of 31 Moffatt Street, was shot in the right eye,

probably by a loyalist sniper, while shopping on Vere Street following the funeral of John Graham. A man who went to her aid was wounded.494 SA: Graham (21Mar1921/3)

24 MARCH 1921 Michael Mullooly (24Mar1921/1) IRA, 25, Farmer, RC Kiltrustan, Strokestown, Roscommon Mullooly, from Kiltrustan, Strokestown, of the North Roscommon Brigade, was shot in a neighbour’s garden by Auxiliaries searching houses. He was suspected of involvement in the Scramogue ambush the previous day. Buried Kiltrustan. His mother Anne secured £1,500 compensation.495 RD: Keenan (23Mar1921/7) Patrick O’Donoghue (24Mar1921/2) Cattle dealer, RC Union Hospital, Killarney, Kerry See Adams (21Mar1921/5). O’Donoghue, from Killarney, wounded in the abdomen while a by-stander at the Headford Junction ambush, died after an operation.496 Louis Darcy (24Mar1921/3) IRA, 22, Medical student, RC Merlin Park, Galway Darcy, from Claran, Headford, Galway, once a student at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, was O/C Headford Battalion, Galway No. 1 Brigade, and one of the first GHQ organisers. Brigadier Ormonde Winter, chief of intelligence, termed him ‘the Michael Collins† of the West’, and said captured IRA documents disclosed that he planned to take the train to Dublin. Darcy and a companion were arrested by police at Oranmore Railway Station at around 08:20 on 23 March. Darcy claimed to be a labourer, but police suspicion ‘was aroused by the smooth, velvet hands’. Handed over next day to Auxiliaries to be escorted to Galway, the police said he was shot as he attempted to escape from a tender bringing him to Eglington Street Barracks. By contrast, Gerald Davis stated that outside Oranmore, Darcy was tied to the back of the lorry and dragged to the scene of the Merlin

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Park ambush where Constable Martin Foley was killed on 21 August 1920, before being shot. According to Winter, this was but ‘a curious coincidence’. Darcy is commemorated on a monument in Castlegar, Galway.497 SA: Foley (21Aug1920/3) Margaret Grehan (24Mar1921/4) 70, Old age pensioner, Widowed, RC Union Hospital, Granard, Longford Margaret Grehan of Main Street died of tetanus after being hit in the ankle by a ricochet in her house on the night of 11 March. Two RIC constables were also wounded by rifle fire. Buried Granardkill Cemetery, Granard.498 Hannah Keegan (24Mar1921/5) 12, Schoolgirl, RC MHD Hannah, the second of six children of John Joseph, a silk weaver, and Sarah Ann Keegan of 83 Cork Street, was returning home with ‘a parcel containing sugar and green peas’ when hit in the head as Volunteers of No. 4 Section ASU Dublin Brigade attacked Denis Lenihan, a former Leinster Regiment sergeant-major believed to be a spy, on Cork Street, shooting him in both legs. Buried MJC (39. A. 235).499 SA: Murphy (25Mar1921/4) Jack Howard Self (24Mar1921/6) Gloucestershire Regiment, 19 Kilworth Military Camp, Cork The CFR reports that Self was killed accidentally by a gunshot to the heart. Commemorated Brookwood 1914–1918 Memorial, Surrey.500

25 MARCH 1921 (GOOD FRIDAY) John Cathcart (25Mar1921/1) 52, Merchant, Widowed with three children, Methodist Devonshire Square,501 Youghal, Cork Cathcart, a widower living on Devonshire Square with his children Rita, Adelaide and John, was a manager with Paisley & Co., Youghal. At about 03:30 the maid Minnie Foley was awakened by noise and saw a man

in the backyard. She called Cathcart, who shouted downstairs. A man said he was looking for arms. Cathcart replied that he had none, and was shot. His fourteen-year-old daughter cried out ‘Daddy, Daddy’, finding him lying dead outside the bathroom. An envelope lying nearby bore the words: ‘Convicted Spy. Spies and Informers beware. IRA.’ The loyalist Western News noted that the killing was denounced by the parish priest, and that ‘Catholic Priests and Catholic people of all classes, as well as Protestants, attended the unfortunate man’s funeral, his three motherless little children being the chief mourners behind his coffin’. Cathcart’s children each secured £2,500 compensation and his mother Margaret Wilson £1,000.502 George ‘Sardy’ Nagle (25Mar1921/2) 35, Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC Gortagass, Kenmare, Kerry At about 11:00, a patrol under Lieutenant F. W. Coleman found the body of a man, poorly dressed, blindfolded and with hands tied behind his back, shot in the head and chest, near Cleady Bridge, Kenmare. An attached label read: ‘All Spies Beware. IRA.’ A .45 revolver case lay nearby. His pockets contained ‘only a clay pipe & a halfpenny’. Initially unidentified, he was described as 5 foot 8 in height, in his thirties, with a dark complexion and a dark moustache. He was later identified as George ‘Sardy’ Nagle, once of the RGA, described as a tramp. Interrogated by Tom McEllistrim, O/C Kerry No. 2 Brigade, who killed him, he allegedly admitted ‘receiving 8/– a week from a Captain O’Sullivan in Killarney to track down “wanted men”’. He also named four others ‘on the same job’, although this information ‘proved bogus’. The IRA’s Jack Keogh maintained, ‘Nagle should never have been shot; he was a harmless ould devil.’ A policeman who helped recover the body described Nagle as ‘a fine, big lump of a man’. Nagle’s mother Ellen Doolan later came forward: ‘It was her son, an ex-army man who had been put out of the army during the war, he was a sort of a useless type of fellow’ who ‘used to go round from

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Barrack to Barrack looking for an odd pair of pants and any old boots’. She secured £300 compensation.503

His father John secured a £25 dependent’s gratuity.506 SA: Keegan (24Mar1921/5)

(Edmond) James Crawford504 (25Mar1921/3) IRA, 34, Farmer’s son, RC Union Hospital, Kilmallock, Limerick Crawford, from Glenbrohane, Limerick, was a Volunteer in the Cush Company, East Limerick Brigade. On 24 March he was in a party under Phil Ryan, captain Cush Company, taking a spy – Paddy O’Gorman, believed responsible for the arrest of Willie Slattery – for execution. At Glenbrohane they encountered a military cycle patrol. They attempted to bluff their way through, but O’Gorman somehow alerted the military. Crawford was shot as the IRA party scattered, and died of shock and peritonitis at about 12:30. The IRA recaptured O’Gorman, but bungled his execution. He eventually escaped to Britain. Crawford’s father James secured a £50 dependent’s gratuity.505 SA: Slattery (30Dec1920/1)

John Kane (25Mar1921/5) 70, Widowed with three children, RC North Quays, Dublin Kane, of 40 Montpellier Hill, was struck by a lorry which had just exited Royal Barracks. Private Reginald James maintained that Kane ‘smelt very strongly of drink’.507

Augustine Murphy (25Mar1921/4) IRA, 29, Labourer, RC MHD ‘Gus’ Murphy of 12 Watkins Buildings, Ardee Street, was commander No. 4 Section, ASU Dublin Brigade. He had reportedly been involved on ‘Bloody Sunday’, and also in the ambush which resulted in the death of Hannah Keegan. Murphy, Patrick Rigney and Joseph O’Toole were walking along Lower Clanbrassil Street towards Leonard’s Corner. In a statement to police, who were unaware of his IRA activities, Rigney said that as they passed three soldiers, who were possibly drunk, they were ordered to take their hands out of their pockets. One soldier rushed up to Murphy and during a struggle a shot went off. Rigney then twisted the soldier’s arm and wrenched an automatic pistol from him. The other soldiers were unarmed. Murphy died at 18:00. Private T. Williams (3646046), Prince of Wales’s Volunteers (South Lancashire Regiment) was convicted of manslaughter by a court martial. Buried Kilbride, Wicklow.

26 MARCH 1921 Joseph Molloy (26Mar1921/1) 15, Farmer’s son, RC Aghrafinigan, Boyle, Roscommon There were intensive search operations in the districts of Keadue and Ballyfarnan following the deaths of William Devereux and Michael Dowling at Keadue on 22 March. Joseph Molloy was working in the fields north of the family home with his three brothers, aged from ten to eighteen years. He was killed for failing to halt, as they ran away from a patrol of the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment, when a sergeant fired without orders, claiming that he heard incoming shots. Buried Kileelan Cemetery. He is commemorated on a monument at Shankill.508 SA: Devereux (22Mar1921/8), Dowling (22Mar1921/9) Alfred W. Browning509 (26Mar1921/2) RAF (340790), 19 KGVH Browning, an aircraftsman 2nd class in the 100th Squadron, was mortally wounded when a Crossley tender was attacked on Parnell Street near the Parnell monument by a patrol of B Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade. Another serviceman was hit. Patrick Sex, working in a butcher’s shop at 63 Parnell Street, was wounded and died on 6 April. His employer John O’Doherty described how at about 14:45 he heard two explosions interspersed with three or four shots. Sex, who was serving a customer, was wounded in the left thigh. Despite an operation on 4 April to remove a bomb fragment, he died from cardiac failure following

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tetanus. Buried Tooting Cemetery, Lambeth, London (F. 3. 4).510 RD: Patrick Sex (6Apr1921/8) William Good (26Mar1921/3) 26, Ex-serviceman, student, CoI Ballycatteen, Timoleague, Cork Good, an engineering student at Trinity College Dublin, from Barryshall, Timoleague, won an MC while a captain in the RGA. His father John had been killed by the IRA on 10 March 1921. Good left Bandon for home by horse and trap at around 16:00. The horse reached the farm at about 18:30. His brother Thomas went in search of William. He met DI Smith from Bandon with his brother’s body. It had been found bearing a note stating ‘Tried, Convicted and Executed. Spies and Informers Beware.’ Good died of injuries to the head inflicted with a blunt instrument. Buried Protestant cemetery, Clonakilty, Cork.511 SA: Good (10Mar1921/7), Hegarty (19Jan 1921/1) William McCarthy (26Mar1921/4) IRA, 25, Trade unionist, RC The Green, Tralee, Kerry ‘Sonny’ McCarthy of McCarthy’s pub, Lixnaw, Kerry, had been a clerical student before becoming secretary of the Kerry Farmers’ Association. A prominent hurler, he was also adjutant and intelligence officer 3rd (Lixnaw) Battalion, Kerry No. 1 Brigade. Three plainclothes policemen arrested McCarthy in the Railway Hotel, first allowing him to finish his drink. He was taken to No. 1 Police Barracks. Apparently of a very nervous disposition, he pleaded to be let go. Billy Mullins claimed that McCarthy was brutally beaten, his hands being broken. At around 21:00, McCarthy was marched from No. 1 Barracks towards the jail at No. 2 Barracks by way of the Green. Constable Patrick Culleton, who was in charge, deposed that as they entered the Green they heard shots. McCarthy apparently tried to escape. Ordered to halt, he did not and was shot. The firing caused members of the Auxiliary Division stationed at 12 Denny Street and at the Technical School, Ballymullen, to sweep the area with

machine-gun fire in reply. One constable was wounded. A search party later found McCarthy’s body. Buried Kiltomey Cemetery, Lixnaw. A monument was erected in The Green, Tralee. A ballad runs: He died for the cause of his country Neath the flag of the green, white and gold, And History will tell how they planned it, I think the poor hero was sold.512

Edward Leslie (26Mar1921/5) RIC (70378), 21, Labourer, ex-serviceman, Married with one child, Presbyterian Military Hospital, Curragh, Kildare See Keenan (23Mar1921/7). Leslie, from Lanark, joined the RIC on 20 February 1920, allocated to Roscommon. His widow Agnes secured £4,500 compensation and his daughter Wilhelmina £1,500.513

28 MARCH 1921 Seán O’Leary (28Mar1921/1) IRA, 23, Bank clerk, RC Workhouse Infirmary, Nenagh, Tipperary From Park View House, Killarney, O’Leary worked in the Munster and Leinster Bank in Nenagh, Tipperary, until forced to go on the run in October 1920. He served in the ASU Tipperary No. 1 Brigade. He and five other unarmed ASU men had just entered Moneygall, where O’Leary was to see a dentist, when three lorries of Auxiliaries arrived from the direction of Roscrea. Three jumped over the ditch on one side of the road; O’Leary and another did likewise on the other. The Auxiliaries opened fire, wounding them both: ‘the Auxies came up on us and some of them wanted to finish us off. . . . To give the devil his due, the Auxies gave us first-aid treatment and put us in one of their lorries.’ Two of their comrades were also captured. O’Leary died at midday. Buried Muckross Abbey Cemetery, Killarney. His father failed to secure a gratuity.514 Henry Carr (28Mar1921/2) 67, Farmer, RC Corvoy, Ballybay, Monaghan ‘Harry’ Carr had a smallholding of 8 acres. Described by the Northern Standard as a

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constitutionalist ‘long out of favour with Sinn Féin’, he was one of a number of nationalists killed by the Monaghan IRA in circumstances suggesting political antagonism was the root cause. At about midnight on 25 March, James Kearns was outside his house when he heard someone shouting his name. He and his brother found Carr at Glebe Crossroad. He had been shot by four men. Police from Ballybay found an envelope in a pool of Carr’s blood, carrying the words, ‘Convicted and Executed by IRA.’ Carr refused to make a statement, an attitude hardly consistent with that of an informer. After two days he died at home about 18:00, of heart failure and peritonitis. In their joint submission to the Marron Collection, McGahey et al. stated: ‘We [the IRA] raided the mails several times and censored them. It was in this way that we found out about informers. Harry Carr . . . was found out in this way. He was warned several times but persisted. He was arrested, court-martialled and shot.’515 Anne Elizabeth Seville (28Mar1921/3) 15, Bread worker, RC JSH At about 15:00 on 26 March, ‘Annie’ Seville of 17 Findlater Place ‘was standing by the table at the window’. She and her sister heard firing outside, as the IRA attacked an RAF vehicle. Annie was wounded in the head during a second exchange. A bullet fragment from a ricochet was removed in an operation on 28 March, but she died that night. Buried GC (Garden Section: B. a. 83).516 SA: Browning (26Mar1921/2), Sex (6Apr 1921/8)

29 MARCH 1921 Robert Fleming (29Mar1921/1) 24, Farmer’s son, CoI Drumgarra, Castleblayney, Monaghan Fleming, from Cavan, lived in Drumgarra where he helped his father William farm a 20-acre holding. During the Monaghan IRA’s general raid for arms on 31 August–1 September 1920, the Flemings exchanged

shots with the IRA. Patrick McKenna was killed, while Robert was wounded in the knee. McKenna’s death led to a revenge attack on the Flemings. At 10:00 Head Constable William O’Connell from Castleblayney Barracks found Robert lying dead about 20 yards from his father’s home, shot in the neck and with multiple pellet wounds. The Northern Standard reported that he had been practically decapitated. The roof of the Fleming home had been destroyed by fire. O’Connell found William John Fleming dying in an adjacent barn. He described to O’Connell how at around 02:30 about thirty men had arrived, ordering him to surrender all arms and ammunition or face being burnt out. William Fleming refused, and father and son were ordered outside at gunpoint. They were asked where the bombs and arms were stored, and one of the men searched the house, which was set on fire. The men said the Flemings were to be placed on trial. They were ordered to stand by a ditch. William Fleming then recalled shots. His son was killed outright. He himself was hit in the stomach. He died in hospital at 16:40. Also in the barn were Fleming’s eighty-six-year-old mother, who died four months afterwards, and his younger children, eleven-year-old Samuel and eight-year-old Sarah. Samuel had sought help from a neighbour. In 1965 an IRA veteran commented that after these killings the Castleblayney IRA ‘collapsed. As Magee said to me, “I can’t get a man in Blayney even to give me information.”’ Peter McElearney of the Doohamet Company, Monaghan Brigade, claimed involvement. Buried St Maeldoid’s Church of Ireland Cemetery, Castleblayney. No headstone was erected.517 RD: Fleming (29Mar1921/2). SA: McKenna (1Sep1920/3) William John Fleming (29Mar1921/2) 60, Farmer, Married with three children, CoI Union Hospital, Castleblayney, Monaghan See Fleming (29Mar1921/1). Fleming worked for many years in the US, where he married. He returned to Monaghan, apparently at the request of his mother, about 1909. Two other

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children, Samuel and Sarah, were born in Ireland. Fleming was regarded as ‘a quiet inoffensive man, a unionist in politics, but not mixing much in political matters’.518

immediately shot in the head and killed. The RIC stated the IRA killed Donovan for carrying out ‘an unauthorised robbery’ in Rochestown.520

Cecil H. F. Lees (29Mar1921/3) General List, 44, Army officer, Married with children Exchequer Street, Dublin Lees, born in France, son of a one-time British consul at Boulogne, joined the Cape Mounted Police in South Africa in 1897 and fought in the Boer War, being decorated for distinguished service. In 1904, he joined the Transvaal civil service. From 1914, he served as a staff captain in France. He was due for demobilisation on 31 March. Press reports described him as a clerical worker, staying in St Andrew’s Hotel on Exchequer Street since about August 1920. The IRA considered Lees ‘an ace intelligence officer’. Charles Dalton recalled an intercepted letter indicating that Lees was in touch with Major S. S. Hill Dillon, District GSO Intelligence Branch, Dublin District. He was thought to have left the country, and his whereabouts were uncovered only by accident. On 27 March, Byrne and Tom Keogh† were in the dress circle of the Scala picture house. Just before the programme commenced, a couple taking their seats were caught in the beam of the projector. Keogh nudged Byrne and said, ‘I think that is Lees.’ They followed him to his hotel. Without discussing the matter with GHQ, Keogh rounded up Frank Bolster and Mick O’Reilly. The four IRA men met at 09:30; half an hour later Byrne and Bolster shot Lees, mortally wounding him as he walked along Exchequer Street. GHQ’s Joseph Dolan also claimed involvement.519

John Brosnan (29Mar1921/5) 18, Schoolteacher, RC Infirmary, Tralee, Kerry Brosnan, from High Street, Killarney, taught in St Joseph’s School in Tralee. At about 21:30 on 21 March, Sergeant Quinlan, whom the IRA had targeted, was spotted in a private car with three other policemen. As it turned the corner on to Bridge Street, Patrick Daly and Denis Keane threw a Mills bomb which struck the vehicle and rebounded, exploding on the road. Brosnan, walking along Bridge Street with a fellow teacher, was hit by bomb splinters. He died eight days later; two other civilians were wounded. The IRA spread a rumour that it was the RIC who had thrown the bomb; this version gained currency locally. Buried Kilcummin, Kerry. His next of kin secured £450 compensation.521

Denis Donovan (29Mar1921/4) 45, Ex-serviceman, insurance agent, postman, Married with three children, RC Watergate Street, Bandon, Cork Donovan lived on Watergate Street, Bandon. His eldest child was five. At about 19:00 Kate Donovan answered the door to two men in trenchcoats. One asked: ‘Is Denis inside? I want to see him about some insurance.’ When Donovan came to the doorstep he was

Thomas Desmond Fitzhugh (29Mar1921/6) 13, Schoolboy, RC Ivy Cottage, Killiney, Dublin Desmond Fitzhugh was the ninth child of Edward Joseph and Mary Anne Fitzhugh of Ivy Cottage, Killiney, Dublin. He died shortly before midnight, when the IRA set fire to the local telephone exchange over which his family lived. The telephone apparatus had been stolen the previous day. The rest of the family escaped, some with burns. The arson was the work of members of 6th Battalion, Dublin Brigade as part of a general operation to cripple the public telephone network in south Dublin.522 William H. Stephens (29Mar1921/7) RIC (73707), 41, Clerk, ex-serviceman, Protestant Galway Hospital, Merlin Park, Galway From London, Temporary Constable Stephens joined the RIC on 1 October 1920, stationed first in Claremorris and then in Ballyhaunis. Two men saluted him on Knox Street, Ballina, at around 21:00. He replied

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and had walked past about 4 yards when shot in the back and hip.523

30 MARCH 1921 Kate Burke (30Mar1921/1) 37, Shop assistant, RC JSH Kate Burke, who worked for C. E. Vize, photographer, South Main Street, Wexford, was on holidays, staying with Josephine Murray at 10 Fairfield Road, North Strand. She had ‘barely exchanged greetings’ with her sister Mamie outside Amiens Street Post Office at about 19:00 on 29 March when she was severely wounded by grenade splinters, most likely from an IRA attack on a passing military lorry. She died next morning from shock and peritonitis. Buried MJC.524 Michael Hallissy (30Mar1921/2) RIC (59218), 42, Farmer, Married, RC Ballyfermot, Dublin From Cahirciveen, Kerry, Constable Hallissy joined the RIC on 16 November 1899. He served twice in Tipperary, once in Galway, and twice in the RIC Reserve. He was in a four-man cycle patrol returning to Lucan RIC Barracks which was ambushed at Ballyfermot at about 13:30 by five men of the No. 4 Section, ASU Dublin Brigade. Hallissy ‘attempted to fight but was shot dead’. Constables Mulrooney and Neill were wounded but returned fire. The ASU did not capture any weapons as the ‘O/C . . . thought the escaped constable . . . would be able to snipe them’. The ASU ‘had but little ammunition, as two men had emptied all they had got’. Mulrooney died days later following an operation for abdominal wounds. Buried GC (Garden Section: K. f. 221). His widow Mary secured £1,950 compensation.525 RD: Mulrooney (4Apr1921/3) Seán (Michael John) Finn (30Mar1921/3) IRA, 21, Baker, RC Ballyhahill, Limerick Finn, from Rathkeale, Limerick, was brigadier West Limerick Brigade. He was resting in a house along with other officers. Hearing shots

nearby, they left hurriedly and joined with ASU members being pursued by police and military. A running fight then ensued between Crown forces and the IRA. Donnchadh O’Hannigan described how Finn was hit: ‘His hands went up, his rifle whirled straight into the air, and I caught his words . . . “Goodbye lads. Carry on. I am done.”’ Fog from the Shannon Estuary enabled O’Hannigan’s group to escape. The police captured a pistol, ammunition and documents. Buried Rathkeale. He is commemorated on monuments at Newcastle West and Murroe, Limerick. His father John secured a £150 dependent’s gratuity in 1929, and two siblings later obtained dependents’ awards: his brother Thomas was dissatisfied that he received support only for one year ‘for no good reason, while they gave medals and big pensions to men who should have been shot for cowardice’.526 James McLoughney (30Mar1921/4) IRA, 17, Agricultural labourer, RC Workhouse Infirmary, Thurles, Tipperary McLoughney, from near Doon, Limerick, lived with his aunt in The Heath, Thurles. He died following an unauthorised raid in Thurles by three men who were challenged on the Mall by Constable W. J. Fraser. The police tracked McLoughney to a field at Cormackstown, about four miles from Thurles. After an exchange of fire, he was wounded and captured. He died in the workhouse infirmary at around 20:00. IRA sources on the exact circumstances vary. Buried Kilcommon, Tipperary. A limestone plaque marks the place where he was shot.527 Frederick C. Stenning (30Mar1921/5) 56, Landlord’s agent, Married with two daughters, CoI Innishannon, Cork Stenning, originally from England, worked for Hugh Moreton Frewen. His only son Frederick had died in the Great War. His daughter Dorothy ‘saw two men chasing my father down the passage into the kitchen, firing as they went’. One of these was John Lordan, vice-O/C Bandon Battalion. Richard Russell claimed that Stenning had notified

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the authorities of an IRA ambush at Curranure in August 1920. A report by the deputy adjutant general at Parkgate Street described Stenning as ‘a Protestant and the staunchest loyalist in his neighbourhood . . . this no doubt accounted for his murder.’528 William James Latimer (30Mar1921/6) 45, Farmer, Married with six children, Methodist Doonarah, Mohill, Leitrim Latimer, of Doonarah, about four miles from Mohill, owned two farms in the district, comprising 130 acres. His death and that of Dr H. Pentland of Mohill529 were ordered by the South Leitrim Brigade, in revenge for the Selton Hill disaster. Latimer was believed to have seen the ASU at Selton Hill, or to have heard of their presence in nearby houses from ‘this lassie, I suppose she’d be about 14 years, an illegitimate girl’, who slipped away from a house which the ASU had taken over: wasn’t Latimer’s mother dead the same day and wasn’t he putting the pony in the trap to go to Mohill to get the coutraments as they called them . . . She went in and said: ‘There was a whole batch of lads with rifles and all in Flynns and three of them in our house.’

According to Charles Pinkman, Latimer told this to Dr Charles Pentland at the dispensary: ‘whatever Latimer told Pentland, the doctor only stayed for a very brief period . . . and then returned to Mohill’ and contacted the RIC, who questioned Latimer in detail before setting out with soldiers for Gorvagh, where they took the IRA unawares. Latimer apparently had police protection for a time, but this was withdrawn as the threat against him appeared to ease. GHQ supposedly discovered through Collins’s Dublin Castle informer, Ned Broy, that Latimer was ‘head spy in the west of Ireland’. One Leitrim man maintained Latimer was innocent, but feared saying so publicly, even in 1991: ‘It’d be awful if that came out, do you know I’d get killed.’ Four locals sent to shoot Latimer ‘went down and they had a look at the house and the poor man that was there and the children . . . they turned back’. The

job was then given to outsiders. Joe Sweeney, a local Volunteer, described guiding Michael Geoghegan, Marty Boylan (who in January 1945 said ‘I remember shooting of Lattimer [sic] the spy . . . I volunteered and shot him’), Patrick McGarrity and another member of Cloone Company. Latimer barricaded himself into his house and fired through a window, hitting Geoghegan in the lower arm: ‘It was a terrible dust-up for one and a half hours,’ until Geoghegan threw a grenade through a window: ‘I believe that it blew hell out of furniture and everything that was in it.’ In order to save his family, Latimer shouted: ‘I’m going out will that do ya, I’m going out.’ The IRA took Latimer to ‘a couple of big old ash trees’. Boylan asked why he had given information. ‘He said nothing. “Are you not going to tell us? Do you know what this is for?”. “I can partly guess” said Latimer.’ When offered the services of a clergyman, he said, ‘I want to see no one.’ Charles Pinkman claimed that before he was shot, Latimer stated that Dr Pentland was ‘far more guilty than he’. The IRA ‘had their [Spies Beware] tag with them’, and after shooting Latimer attached it to his body. But Mrs Latimer ‘pulled him about twenty yards from the house and into the kitchen. She had a good nerve, and threw the bloody yoke into the fire off his neck. This is how a lot of it was, that he was innocent . . . there was a lot of them that thought he was shot innocently you know, naturally I suppose, they didn’t know.’ John McCullagh, who had been visiting Latimer, gave a somewhat different description to a court of inquiry. He said that Latimer refused to go outside until shots were fired into the house. Ten minutes after he eventually went outside, a single shot was heard. Latimer was killed, the usual ‘spy’ label attached to his body. On hearing of Latimer’s death, Dr Pentland left the country. The IRA traced him to Woking Hospital near London and intended to kill him until the Truce intervened. In December 1924 Pentland was killed on Gower Street in London when a lorry mounted the pavement after colliding with a motor car at a junction, crushing him against the railings.

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One Leitrim veteran maintained that while ‘It was supposed to be a car that hit him . . . it was some of the IRA lads in London that got him’, but the inquest evidence suggests that the two drivers involved, neither of them Irish, were simply reckless. Pentland’s widow and two children subsequently secured £12,000 damages jointly against Dewhurst Butchers and Cieste (a blouse manufacturer), whose vehicles had been involved. Latimer’s widow Isabella secured £3,080 compensation and his children a total of £1,100.530 SA: Connolly (11Mar1921/3)

31 MARCH 1921 John Leonard Garvey Griffiths (31Mar1921/1) ADRIC (72340), 27, Army officer, Married KGVH Griffiths, from Glamorgan, joined the Auxiliary Division on 6 August 1920 (auxiliary number 148). He was a defence of barracks sergeant in C Company. He was shot at around 01:50 in the drawing room of Lissenfield House, the residence of the O/C Portobello Barracks, by Cadet William Gilmour, who thought he was an intruder. Griffiths had apparently entered the room from the garden through French windows. Lissenfield House later became the family home of General Richard Mulcahy, IRA chief of staff from 1918 to 1921.531 Charles H. Bowles (31Mar1921/2) RIC (72058), 22, Switchboard operator, exserviceman, RC RIC Barracks, Rosscarbery, Cork Bowles, from Kent, joined the RIC on 27 July 1920, stationed in Rosscarbery. He died during an attack on Rosscarbery RIC Barracks by the Cork No. 3 Brigade ASU under Tom Barry, O/C, ASU. About seventy men took part, divided into sections with a range of tasks, from mining the barracks wall cutting all roads around the town. At around 01:10, a mine was exploded against the barrack wall. It proved ineffective, and a fierce battle ensued, both police and IRA using rifles and Mills bombs. The bodies of

Constable Charles Bowles and Sergeant Shea, last seen alive in the dayroom at 23:00 on the 30th, could not be reached: Constable Secombe heard Bowles ‘calling for help from under the wreckage, but we were quite unable to render assistance owing to the mass of debris, the darkness, and enemy action from a distance of fifteen yards’. After two hours, the police had been forced out of the front ground-floor rooms into the back and then to the top storey of the building. The ASU detonated two smaller bombs in the ground floor rooms in a failed attempt to collapse the floors above. The stairway was then set on fire. This forced the police into a single upstairs room, and they were compelled to surrender. Before doing so, they threw their weapons into the flames and lowered their wounded through a back window before leaving the same way.532 RD: Shea (31Mar1921/3) Ambrose Shea (31Mar1921/3) RIC (57356), 46, Post office sorter, Married with three children, RC Rosscarbery, Cork See Bowles (31Mar1921/2). From Wicklow, Shea joined the RIC on 16 December 1895, serving in Limerick and Cork. Promoted to sergeant in 1916, he was stationed in Rosscarbery.533 Patrick Collins (31Mar1921/4) 60, Farmer, Widowed, RC Rosscarbery, Cork Collins, from Derryduff, Rosscarbery, attended Rosscarbery Fair hours after the successful IRA attack on Rosscarbery RIC Barracks. A boy named Tim Regan found an unexploded Mills bomb in the wreckage, and pointed it out to another child, Catherine Cotter. She took it to Constable William Doyle, who was apparently drunk. He threw the bomb towards the wall of the barracks. It exploded, wounding Doyle and some people who had gathered to look at the wreckage. Collins, struck in the chest by shrapnel, died almost immediately. George Wilson, similarly wounded in the chest, was attended to by Dr J. J. Walsh but died at about 09:00. Francis Fitzpatrick died in the Mercy

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Hospital on the evening of 2 April from leg and abdomen wounds. Buried Abbey Cemetery, Rosscarbery.534 RD: Fitzpatrick (2Apr1921/4), Wilson (31Mar 1921/5)

house and only returned the next day. He said the shots had been fired by a small, thickset man. Halpin, tried for murder, was acquitted. Buried GC (Garden Section: G. e. 156.5).537

George Wilson (31Mar1921/5) 27, Farmer, Married with one child, CoI Rosscarbery, Cork See Collins (31Mar1921/4). Wilson lived with his wife Sarah Jane and his child in Derry, Rosscarbery.535

c. MARCH 1921

Stanley L. Moore (31Mar1921/6) RIC (72217), 30, Dentist, ex-serviceman, Protestant Main Street, Miltown Malbay, Clare Moore, from Bristol, joined the RIC on 3 August 1920, stationed in Miltown Malbay. The Saturday Record described him as popular. Constables Moore and H. Tattle left Wilson’s pub and were passing the Central Hotel on their way to barracks for roll-call at 22:00 when fired on from across the street by members of the 4th Battalion, Mid Clare Brigade, armed with shotguns and revolvers. Moore fell, wounded in the head. Tattle escaped.536 Mary Patterson (31Mar1921/7) 54, Married with five children, RC Summerhill Parade, Dublin Mary Patterson, from Donegal, lived on Clonmore Terrace, Ballybough. Her husband John, formerly of Ballyshannon, Donegal, was an assistant in the GNR law department. A member of the Church of Ireland, he stated he did not like his wife associating with Catholics. The 1911 census indicates their sons took their father’s faith, their daughters their mother’s. She was shot three times in the house of her friend Mrs Halpin of Summerhill Parade, while Mrs Halpin was in another room. She had been shopping and paying bills (her husband had given her £14, and in the mortuary he recovered £1 hidden in her stocking). When asked who shot her, she managed to say ‘a man, a man’ and ‘motioned towards the door’. Mrs Halpin’s son William, described as ‘nervous and delicate’, fled the

Michael Looby (311Mar1921/8) RC Grantstown, Donaskeigh, Tipperary Looby was captured as he returned home from Thomastown towards Golden by Patrick Butler, Martin Quinlan and Andy Kennedy of the ASU Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, acting on the orders of Dinny Lacy,† O/C ASU. While bringing Looby to his place of death, ‘Lacy and I decided we would say a Rosary for him before we executed him. . . . I cannot say whether Looby joined in it with us, or not.’ Father Matthew Ryan of Donaskeigh ministered to him. He was then shot. A label around his neck described him as a spy.538

1 APRIL 1921 Hugh Duffy (1Apr1921/1) 61, Ex-serviceman, Married with one child, CoI Moylemuck, Lisnalong, Ballybay, Monaghan Duffy, a Boer War veteran, lived in Rockcorry with his wife, caretaker of Rockcorry courthouse, and their adopted daughter Lena. Termed a unionist by the police, he worked occasionally as a tailor, and delivered telegrams because the regular postman was frequently ill. The RIC believed he was killed ‘by those who opposed’ his obtaining this casual work, surmising that ‘an attempt [to wound], not pushed hard’ on his successor, the regular postman’s brother, was intended to divert suspicion. John McGahey claimed that orders were received for Duffy’s ‘liquidation’ because he was a USC constable and allegedly also a UVF drill instructor. Duffy’s wife last saw him as he left at about 10:00 on 1 April to deliver what transpired to be a bogus telegram to an address in Moylemuck, a mountainous area about two miles from Rockcorry. At around 18:00 Hugh Connolly, while returning from

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Cootehill market, discovered Duffy’s body in a laneway off the Cootehill to Ballybay road. A nearby label declared him a spy.539 Buried Rockcorry. His widow Margaret secured £1,500 compensation.540 Seán Corcoran (1Apr1921/2) IRA, 30, Shop manager, RC Crossard, Ballyhaunis, Mayo Corcoran, a grocer’s son from Kiltimagh, Mayo, managed Dominic Murtagh’s shop. Deported to Wandsworth Prison after the Rising, he was later interned in Dartmoor and Frongoch. He served various terms of imprisonment for illegal drilling in 1917 and 1918 in Sligo, Dundalk and Lincoln Prisons, and was elected to Mayo County Council. In 1919 he was appointed O/C of the newly formed Kiltimagh Battalion, and in September 1920 became brigadier of the newly formed East Mayo Brigade. At around 20:00, a mixed patrol of military and police spotted Corcoran and the East Mayo Brigade adjutant Michael Mullins. When challenged, Corcoran drew his pistol which apparently jammed. Constable Fitzpatrick shot him dead. Mullins was arrested. Buried Kilkinure Cemetery, Kiltimagh, Mayo. He is commemorated on a monument at Kilkelly. His father and two of his sisters ultimately secured limited dependents’ awards.541 SA: Coen (2Apr1921/1) John Higgins (1Apr1921/3) RIC (55504), 48, Shepherd, Widowed with two children, RC City Infirmary, Derry Higgins, from Ballinrobe, Mayo, joined the RIC on 1 October 1892, serving in Donegal and Belfast before transfer to Derry in 1899. He was promoted to sergeant in 1919. Séamus McCann recalled that Peadar O’Donnell, brigade commander of Derry, ordered attacks on the RIC on 1 April. IRA men were sent out in pairs. McCann and another Volunteer saw Higgins coming from Victoria Barracks with a civilian. The sergeant, described by one IRA veteran as ‘an elderly man, religious, fond of a Pint, always in trouble with his superiors, with a mind

focussed on his pension and on retirement’, was on his way home at around 20:00 when McCann shot him in the head with a .45 revolver on Creggan Street. Constable Michael Kenny was shot in the abdomen while defending his barracks at Cable House. He died on 6 April. Buried Letterkenny, Donegal. One daughter described as ‘delicate’ secured £1,200 compensation and the other £600.542 RD: Michael Kenny (6Apr1921/11) Oriel Richard Lee (1Apr1921/4) 31, Court clerk, CoI Killagowan, Oulart, Wexford Lee, only son of Samuel Goodison Lee of Killagowan, was clerk of petty sessions in the Oulart district and clerk of the Church of Ireland vestry. After Oulart courthouse was sold, he transacted business from home. Lee, who had been collecting dog licence fees, was having a cup of tea with Richard Robinson and Constable Patrick Eger at around 21:00 when Thomas Cullen and Thomas Cosgrove of E Company, 4th Battalion, South Wexford Brigade, apparently seeking to steal the dog licence money, knocked and ordered him outside, where a shot was fired. Eger opened fire on the raiders, who fled. Robinson summoned help. About twenty minutes later, Lee staggered into the kitchen, his face covered in blood, and collapsed on the floor. His parents secured £1,000 compensation.543 Matthew Kane (1Apr1921/5) IRA, 34, General labourer, RC Hophill, Tullamore, Offaly Kane, living on Barrack Street, was lieutenant Tullamore Company, Offaly No. 1 Brigade. Two of his brothers were servicemen. Between 20:30 and 22:30 there were three separate attacks on the police barracks in Tullamore. The RIC returned fire. Kane’s body was found in a lane at Hophill, about 200 yards from St Catherine’s Church, at about 08:00 next morning. A court of inquiry ruled that he died from a shot fired during one of the attacks, which IRA accounts confirm. Kane’s nephew, John Conroy, was also wounded.

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In February 1922, the Midland Tribune termed Kane’s death ‘mysterious’. It was suggested locally that he might have been abducted and killed by the police. Buried Mucklagh Graveyard, Tullamore.544 Mary Maher (1Apr1921/6) 68, Married, RC Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin From Tipperary, Mary Maher, a labourer’s wife of 35 Usher’s Quay, hit by a slowmoving Crossley car at about 18:20 on 24 March, died of shock and heart failure. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: U. h. 337.5).545 James Foley (1Apr1921/7) IRA, 26, Stonemason, RC Vicinity of Ballincollig, Cork Foley, from Aherla, Cork, was vice-O/C, 3rd (Ovens) Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade and in the battalion ASU. Michael O’Regan recalled that after a fortnight’s training at Farnanes, twenty ASU members were having tea in a farmhouse when one accidentally discharged his rifle, wounding Foley in the stomach. Foley’s brother Michael stated that this happened in April (his MSPC file states 1 April). A reported rumour that Foley was in fact shot as an informer cannot be substantiated. Buried Kilbonane Graveyard, Aherla. His father James secured a ‘paltry’ £50 dependent’s gratuity and his sister Kate later obtained an allowance.546

2 APRIL 1921 Michael Coen (2Apr1921/1) IRA, 19, Carpenter, RC Lecarrow, Ballyhaunis, Mayo Coen, of Lecarrow, Ballyhaunis, was a member of Holywell Company, East Mayo Brigade. His father Thomas was awoken at about 03:00 by a knock on the door. Two men called his son outside. At 06:00, Thomas found Michael’s body about 200 yards from the house, shot several times and ‘his throat was cut right into the windpipe’. In November 1921, an RIC sergeant told a court that the remains bore evidence of ‘a great deal of violence’. A Mayo Volunteer later claimed

that Coen was killed by Crown forces in reprisal for an earlier IRA ambush and his body mutilated, his ears and genitals being cut off. Coen is commemorated by monument on the Cloonfad Road, Ballyhaunis, and at Kilkelly.547 SA: Corcoran (1Apr1921/2) Christopher Reynolds (2Apr1921/2) 23, Insurance official, Engaged, RC KGVH Reynolds, of Woodview Terrace, Rathfarnham, worked for the New Ireland Assurance Company and was a well-known amateur comedian. On the night of 1 April he was arrested along with a Volunteer named O’Kelly, who had come to Rathfarnham on the run, and Bernard Nolan, a member of E Company, 4th Battalion, Dublin Brigade. Nolan was placed in a Crossley tender beside Reynolds and driven to Rathmines, where the vehicle stopped opposite Grove Park. The escort dismounted and ordered the prisoners to stand up. Reynolds did so but Nolan remained seated, and tried to turn around to seize a rifle left behind him in the tender. He heard a volley. The next thing he remembered was coming to on the footpath. He feigned death and recalled the patrol lifting Reynolds and himself into the lorry. They were brought to King George V Hospital. Both were still alive, but both feigned death until their escort had departed. Reynolds then made a statement that he had been shot in the back in cold blood. He died after an operation at about 17:45. Nolan recovered. Buried Church of Ireland Cemetery, Churchtown, Dublin. His ailing father died some weeks later.548 James Wright (2Apr1921/3) KOYLI, 18 Shipquay Street, Derry Private Wright, from Sunderland, was stationed in Shipquay Street military post. Believing that his rifle was unloaded, Private W. Keen pointed it at Wright and exclaimed what he would do if Sinn Féiners were present, before accidentally firing. Commemorated Brookwood 1914–1918 Memorial, Surrey.549

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Cornelius Francis Fitzpatrick (2Apr1921/4) 4, Child, RC Mercy Hospital, Cork See Collins (31Mar1921/4). Cornelius’s death was the third associated with a bomb which exploded outside Rosscarbery RIC Barracks on 31 March. His parents lived in Rosscarbery, Cork. His mother secured £100 compensation.550 SA: Bowles (31Mar1921/2) Thomas Morris (2Apr1921/5) 57, Police pensioner, ex-serviceman, RC Kinvara, Galway Morris, from Loughcurra, Kinvara, joined the RIC on 4 August 1882 (service number: 49810). He later served in Galway and Westmeath before retiring after fourteen years’ service. During the war, he enlisted in the RIF. After demobilisation Morris, described by the RIC as ‘a very quiet inoffensive man’, lived with his sister Bridget Hynes in Crushoa, outside Kinvara. He had tea with his sister at about 20:00, having returned from Galway after five weeks of medical treatment, bringing ‘two new shirts, a collar and tie, and some bacon (about 2 lbs)’. At about 22:30, she answered the door to three armed and disguised men who seized Morris. She later said it was believed locally that her brother was the spy responsible for the burning of Mrs Quinn’s house at Caherawoneen. According to Michael Hynes, the IRA refused to summon a priest before Morris was killed for fear that one might try to intercede. Hynes had no doubt of Morris’s guilt, although his evidence was hardly conclusive: Morris was in a crowd of men who were talking after the day’s work. A few Volunteers were in the crowd also and Séamus Davenport said to them that a few others and himself were going to sleep in Gorman’s that night. Gorman’s house was raided early the next morning . . . the only house . . . that was raided.

attached label read: ‘Convicted spy; tried, convicted and executed – IRA’. ‘An old clay pipe was beside his head.’ He bore extensive neck, chest and abdominal wounds, most likely inflicted by a shotgun blast at close range.551 John (Seán) Morgan (2Apr1921/6) IRA, 21, Railway porter, ex-serviceman, RC Erskine Street, Hulme, Manchester Lieutenant Morgan was one of a handful of republicans killed in Britain during the Anglo-Irish conflict. A soldier in the Royal Engineers from 1916 to 1919, he died around midnight in a gunfight with police outside the Erskine Street Irish Club at Hulme, Manchester. His comrade Shaun Wickham and three policemen were wounded. Some of the forty or so men inside the building escaped through a back window. The raid followed a co-ordinated series of IRA arson attacks on hotels and warehouses. Patrick O’Donoghue, O/C Manchester IRA, recalled that following the Lincoln Prison escape in 1919, three Manchester companies were established with an approximate strength of one hundred. Their main function was to collect arms and munitions. O’Donoghue rented a garage for storage purposes. Whenever the opportunity arose, materiel was smuggled to Dublin on board the Eblana. But then it was decided to mount active operations, although this exposed the IRA’s smuggling networks to detection. Police found a list of oil works and timber yards on Morgan’s corpse. Several jars of paraffin, weapons, ammunition and bags of loose fibres were seized. Edward Brady maintained that the IRA were betrayed by an informer named Murphy. At Manchester Assizes in July 1921, sixteen of nineteen Irishmen accused were sentenced to penal servitude. His mother Emily secured a £90 dependent’s gratuity.552

3 APRIL 1921

Morris’s blindfolded remains were found next morning at a crossroads near the convent. An

James Duffy (3Apr1921/1) RIC (77133), 30, Farmer, ex-serviceman, RC Killeshin, Carlow, Carlow From Toniscoffy, Monaghan, Constable Duffy served with the RGA, becoming a sergeant,

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and was decorated for bravery. He joined the RIC on 28 December 1920, stationed in Carlow from 19 January 1921. At 18:30 he left Carlow RIC Barracks on leave, dressed in civilian clothes. Henry James deposed that he met Duffy by prior arrangement to go for a walk. In Killeshin they went to Fitzpatrick’s pub before heading home at about 20:20. Three men sitting on a ditch opened fire on them. James was hit in the left hip and right shoulder, but managed to escape. Duffy attempted to run, but two attackers pursued him. His body was found next day in a ploughed field. This attack was carried out by Patrick Connors, Patrick Hogan and John Brennan of the Carlow Brigade, IRA. Pádraig Ó Catháin, then adjutant Carlow Brigade, claimed that both Duffy and James were informers. Duffy’s parents secured £900 at Carlow Quarter Sessions. Buried Monaghan.553 William Graham (3Apr1921/2) USC, 19, Agricultural labourer, CoI Infirmary, Enniskillen, Fermanagh Graham, from Grogey, Brookeborough, Fermanagh, was a USC constable. On 8 March, a dark night, Special-Sergeant James Wilson and Special Constable Stephen Lyttle were on duty near Grogey Crossroads. They heard the sound of someone running towards them. Wilson issued three unanswered challenges to an approaching man and then fired a shot, aiming high. Graham was hit in the head. He survived an operation, but ultimately died of sceptic meningitis.554 Vincent Fovargue555 (3Apr1921/3) 21, Clerk, bookkeeper, RC Ashford Manor Golf Links, Middlesex Fovargue, who lived with his mother and sister on Dunville Avenue, Ranelagh, was reportedly a clerk for McGrath Bros tea and sugar merchants of 3 Bachelor’s Walk. Joseph Kinsella, intelligence officer 4th Battalion, Dublin Brigade, recalled that Fovargue was briefly intelligence officer for the battalion. Kinsella distrusted him and told him little. Captured by Crown forces, Fovargue apparently disclosed information. Frank Thornton of GHQ intelligence said it was ‘not clear whether this was done

under torture or not, but the enemy staged an alleged ambush on the South Circular Road . . . during which Fovargue was allowed to escape.’ A Dublin Castle report stated that at about 21:00 on 31 January, a tender carrying Fovargue to Dublin Castle was fired on on the South Circular Road. While his escort chased the attackers, Fovargue escaped. David Neligan, DMP detective and IRA informer, thought it ‘highly suspicious that this man should have escaped in broad daylight from an escort consisting of British intelligence officers who fired no shots’. Ormonde Winter, chief of police intelligence, stated that the ambush was ‘a bogus one’. He supplied Fovargue with secret ink before sending him to London after the escape. Winter believed that Fovargue’s death ‘must have been due to some carelessness on his part. . . . I lost a man who was potentially a good agent.’ IRA suspicions of Fovargue were conveyed to Michael Collins.† Fovargue was followed from Dublin. On 3 April, he was shot on Ashford Manor Golf Links. A piece of paper found nearby read, ‘Let spies and traitors beware – IRA.’ Scotland Yard was initially unable to identify the body. The shooting was reportedly carried out by Joe Shanahan and Reginald Dunne.† Dunne, who commanded the IRA in London, was hanged with Joseph O’Sullivan† in August 1922 for the murder of Sir Henry Wilson.† At an inquest at Ashford on 6 April held amid tight security, Fovargue’s remains were identified by his cousin Frances Berthur. He had last been seen alive in conversation with three men at an Irish dance in Kelvedon Hall, Fulham.556 James Johnston (3Apr1921/4) IRA, c. 21, CoI Castlewellan, Down Johnston, a farm labourer’s son of Imeroo, Tullyullagh, Fermanagh, was a commandant in the East Down Battalion, IRA. He had been imprisoned in Dundalk, Belfast and Wormwood Scrubs, from where he was released along with many other republican detainees in May 1920 after a hunger strike. He accidentally shot himself near Castlewellan, Down, while retrieving a rifle from a dump.

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In 1955 a commemorative monument was unveiled in St Mary’s Graveyard by Dan Rice. Johnston’s brother Seán Nethercott of Fermanagh, who was himself interned from 1922 to 1924, explained that James had used his mother’s maiden name in the IRA, and said ‘he hoped for the day when our Protestant fellow countrymen could take their proper place in their own country. They were not free as they were subject to the dictates of the Orange Order.’ Buried St Mary’s Graveyard, Castlewellan. His mother Mary Ann, who ‘has no holding of any sort, not even a garden’, secured a £60 dependent’s gratuity.557

4 APRIL 1921 Robert Guy (4Apr1921/1) 33, Porter, RC KGVH Guy, who lived with his mother Mary Ann at 6 Chancery Street, did casual work as a pub porter. On 27 March he was knocked down on Winetavern Street by a staff car driven by Sergeant F. R. Lean, RASC, sustaining a fractured skull. He died at 04:00. Buried MJC (59. A. 236).558 John Burke (4Apr1921/2) 4, Child, RC MMH Bridget Fraher was walking along Dorset Street on 2 April with her grandson John when a motorcycle driven by Private Henry Cherry, RASC, was attacked by four armed men. A bomb was also thrown. The child was hit in the head, and she was also wounded. She blamed the military, although an inquest jury found the unidentified civilian attackers responsible. John died at 11:20 after an operation. Buried GC (Garden Section: K. a. 107).559 Edward Mulrooney (4Apr1921/3) RIC (55316), 47, Shop assistant, Married, RC Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin See Hallissy (30Mar1921/2). Head Constable Mulrooney, a policeman’s son, joined the RIC on 1 April 1892, serving in Cavan, Belfast and from November 1920 Lucan in

Dublin. Buried Holywood, Down. His widow Margaret secured £2,830 compensation.560

5 APRIL 1921 William Kerr (5Apr1921/1) Irish Guards, 36, CoE Blackhorse Avenue, Dublin Guardsman Kerr died from head injuries when he fell while climbing over a turnstile ‘opposite Baggots’ Pub’, where he had been chatting with Miss Frances Pennicatt, around 21:00. He was on security duty at the Viceregal Lodge nearby. Buried GMC (CE 824).561 Edward Beirne (5Apr1921/2) 50, Farmer, Widowed with five children, RC Scramogue, Roscommon Beirne lived in Scramogue. About twenty Volunteers, probably from the Knockcroghery Company, South Roscommon Brigade, abducted him around 23:30 as he went ‘to water a horse’. About half an hour later, his daughter Mary ‘heard six shots go off, apparently a good way off. I never saw my father again.’ A card left beside Beirne’s body read: ‘Convicted Spy. Spy’s [sic] and Informers beware of the Flying Column.’ ‘A loyal man and on very friendly terms with the police’, Beirne ‘was opposed to the Sinn Féin movement and frequently expressed himself forcibly’. He had been warned by the IRA some days before his death.562

6 APRIL 1921 John Gilligan (6Apr1921/1) 40, Postman, ex-serviceman, Married with children, RC Loughglinn, Roscommon Gilligan was discharged from the Connaught Rangers in January 1919. Between 01:00 and 02:00 he answered the door of his home in Loughglinn to two men who ordered him to get dressed. A third waited outside. Gilligan began to cry. Handing his wife Bridget some money, he said, ‘You may never see me again.’ About half an hour later, she heard shots. At about 04:00, she found his body. A piece of cardboard tied around his neck read: ‘Spies

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and Informers this is your fate. IRA.’ Beside Gilligan lay the dead body of John Wymes, also shot as a spy. Wymes initially refused to respond to a knock on his door at around 02:00. When he did, he was ordered to get dressed. His son Alfred described how ‘one of the men said to him, “we won’t keep you long” . . . I was going to go after my father, when a voice said “Go back out of that or I’ll put you back”.’ At around 05:00, two of his sons found him lying on the ground beside Gilligan. Around his neck was a card reading, ‘Spies and informers this is your fate, IRA.’ The killers most likely were John Brennan, Patsy Treacy and other Volunteers of the Kilteevan Company, South Roscommon Brigade. Gilligan’s widow secured £2,000 compensation.563 RD: Wymes (6Apr1921/2) John Wymes (6Apr1921/2) Ex-RIC, 66, Farmer, Married with nine children, RC Loughglinn, Roscommon See Gilligan (6Apr1921/1). Wymes, from Sligo, joined the RIC on 5 August 1882, serving in Louth, Offaly, Kerry, Roscommon, Westmeath and Galway. Dismissed from the force in 1901, he settled in Loughglinn with his wife and children, farming a holding of 12 acres. Wymes’s widow Kate secured £1,000 compensation, with £100 to each of the seven children still living at home.564 Patrick Cloonan (6Apr1921/3) 27, Agricultural labourer, RC Ballinaclough, Maree, Oranmore, Galway Cloonan worked the farm of Laurence Donoghue of Ballinaclough while the latter recovered from a broken leg. The police knew he had participated in the attack on Oranmore RIC Barracks during the Rising. He was termed a Volunteer in his sister’s unsuccessful application for a dependent’s allowance. At 03:30, masked men took Cloonan from Donoghue’s house. He was found that morning, shot in the chest and lying almost naked on the strand near the house.565

Michael Galvin (6Apr1921/4) IRA, Labourer, RC Kilmorna, Listowel, Kerry Members of the ASU 6th Battalion, Kerry No. 2 Brigade, including Galvin, a lieutenant in the Ballydonoghue Company from Drombeg, Listowel, left Newtownsandes (Moyvane) for Duagh. On their way, via Kilmorna, they learned that a military patrol had left Sir Arthur Vicars’s house in Kilmorna for Listowel. They attacked two soldiers on bicycles, wounding both. However, more soldiers soon arrived. Galvin was shot in the head by a Captain Watson. His comrades escaped. A shotgun and a revolver were recovered. Galvin’s body was brought to Listowel Workhouse. No one, not even his mother, would identify it for fear of reprisals. Galvin’s remains were buried by the military in an unmarked grave in Teampaillín Bán, the workhouse cemetery. Three weeks later they were quietly removed under cover of darkness and reinterred at Gale Cemetery, Ballydonoghue. His father Michael secured a gratuity of £25, later increased to £125.566 SA: Vicars (14Apr1921/1) Terence Glynn (6Apr1921/5) IRA, 26, Grocer’s assistant, RC Harcourt Street, Dublin Glynn, from Drumsillagh, Roscommon, lived at 58 Fleet Street. He served in G Company, 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. As a lorry carrying troops of the Worcestershire Regiment turned into Harcourt Street at about 20:05, a bomb exploded, followed by revolver fire. An officer and the driver fired at two armed men concealed behind a lamp post. These were hit, and fell. But one managed to roll a bomb under the lorry, which exploded, wounding Lieutenant Gregory and killing Michael Daly, a civilian. Three men were found either dead or dying outside Harcourt Street Station: Michael Daly and ambushers Terence Glynn and Daniel Carew. The Republican Soldiers’ Casualty Committee claimed Daly was hit as he went to the aid of an IRA attacker. Carew was operated on, but died on 7 April. Buried Ardcarne Cemetery, Cootehall, Roscommon.567 RD: Carew (7Apr1921/9), Daly (6Apr1921/6)

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Michael Daly (6Apr1921/6) 26, Painter, RC Harcourt Street, Dublin See Glynn (6Apr1921/5). Daly, son of William Daly of Tipperary, lived at 17 Crampton Buildings, Dublin, and was vice-captain of Glasnevin Association Football Club. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: C. I. 275.5).568 John O’Mahony (6Apr1921/7) 58, Shoemaker, ex-serviceman, Widowed with nine children, RC Rahoneen, Tralee, Kerry ‘Boxer’ O’Mahony, once of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, spent some years in England before returning months before his death. A shoemaker living on Mary Street, he was well known in boxing circles. According to John O’Riordan of the ASU Tralee Battalion Kerry No. 1 Brigade, O’Mahony came under IRA suspicion, as did other ex-servicemen. O’Riordan, Pat Moriarty, Michael Sheehy and (possibly) Cornelius Hannafin arrested O’Mahony in Rourke’s pub. An IRA court martial consisting of John Joe Sheehy, Tom Clifford, O/C Ardfert Battalion, and others sentenced him to death. Sheehy ordered a Volunteer inclined to loose talk to do the killing, reasoning that this would make him more discreet. O’Mahony was shot four times. A label left nearby read: ‘No. 1 Spy Convicted and Executed by the Flying Squad. Traitors Beware.’ Tadhg Kennedy maintained the IRA then killed three other informers named by O’Mahony, but if so these have not been identified. O’Mahony’s body was found about 500 yards north-east of the railway station. His children secured £3,000 compensation.569 Patrick Sex (6Apr1921/8) 41, Butcher’s porter, Married with ten children, RC JSH See Browning (26Mar1921/2). Sex and his wife Mary lived at 7 Lower Dominick Street. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: T. h. 72.5).570 Thomas Beirne571 (6Apr1921/9) 27, Ex-serviceman, RC Drumlish, Longford Beirne, described as disabled, lived in Drumlish in north Longford. He and his

brother were ex-servicemen. At 23:30 two undisguised men, one armed, entered Ellen Beirne’s house and took Thomas away. He soon returned, shouting, ‘Mother, save me.’ He ran to his bedroom and tried to shut the door, but one of the raiders fired. His seventeen-year-old sister Lizzie was spattered with his blood as he was hit three times in the stomach, shoulder and side of the head. On 9 April, Ellen Beirne received a threatening letter warning her to quit Drumlish before 12 April, as otherwise the family would all be treated as spies. They left. DI V. Hawkins later said that men had to be commandeered to dig Beirne’s grave; and the police had to carry his coffin. The Longford Independent reported allegations that he had been an informer. Beirne’s mother secured £750 compensation.572 Jack Brett (6Apr1921/10) IRA, 19, Shopkeeper, RC Windgap, Kilkenny Brett, from Mullinahone, Tipperary, attended Rockwell College, Cashel as a boarder. He won two Tipperary Senior Championships with the C. J. Kickham Senior Football Club. Captain of Drangan Company, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade IRA, he went on the run after the Nine Mile House ambush in November 1920. He and Ned Cuddihy joined the Dublin Brigade. Brett was on the Tipperary team which played Dublin in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920. He was a lieutenant in the ASU 7th (Callan) Battalion, Kilkenny Brigade. He was killed in a farmhouse at Castlejohn, just inside the Tipperary border, when an inexperienced Volunteer inadvertently discharged a weapon. Buried Mullinahone, Tipperary. A brother and sister failed to secure dependents’ allowances.573 SA: Walsh (20Dec1920/2) Michael Kenny (6Apr1921/11) RIC (65275), 33, Farmer, Married with two children, RC City Infirmary, Derry See Higgins (1Apr1921/3). Kenny, from Leitrim, joined the RIC on 1 June 1910, serving in Armagh and from 1917, Lecky Road RIC Barracks, Derry. His widow

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secured £1,500 compensation, with £250 for each of his two children.574

widow & them to the care of the Republic. He had only a small piece of land.

7 APRIL 1921

The RIC maintained Monds was shot ‘for withdrawing from the IRA’ and was contemplating immigration to the US. Buried Church of Ireland Cemetery, Castlerea. He is commemorated on monuments at Tarmon and Shankill near Elphin. His widow Fanny secured £2,000 compensation, with £200 awarded to each child.576

Patrick Conry (7Apr1921/1) IRA, 20, Farmer’s son, RC Tarmon, Castlerea, Roscommon ‘Sonny’ Conry, eldest son of Patrick Conry senior of Tarmon, Castlerea, helped his father farm an 8-acre holding, and also worked on the Satchwell Estate. He served in the Lisliddy Company, 1st (Castlerea) Battalion, South Roscommon Brigade. Conry’s mother described how at around 01:30 armed men in trench coats took him from the house. He was shot twice in the head with a revolver. Michael O’Callaghan maintained he was killed by Black and Tans, whereas the RIC reported that he was ‘trying to go to America – he had got a passport – without IRA permission’. It is probable that the same gunmen went to the home of James Monds. Buried Castlerea. He is commemorated on monuments at Shankill and Loughglinn, Roscommon. His father secured £500 compensation.575 RD: Monds (7Apr1921/2) James Monds (7Apr1921/2) 47, Farmer, Married with six children, CoI Southpark, Castlerea, Roscommon See Conry (7Apr1921/1). Monds, from Skreen in north Sligo, married a farmer’s daughter from Castlerea. His wife Fanny answered the door around 03:00 to men who asked for her eldest boy, William, who was fourteen or fifteen. The youth was too frightened to come downstairs so they took his father James instead. Monds’s body was found, shot in the head, nearby next morning by Mai Forde, a teacher cycling to Tarmon. The O/C South Roscommon Brigade described Monds as a: respectable and inoffensive Protestant farmer . . . identified with the Volunteer movement . . . [who] had ranged himself on the popular side . . . a professed Republican but not a Volunteer or in any way active. . . . Monds leaves a family of young helpless children and I strongly recommend his

John Devine (7Apr1921/3) IRA, 42, Clothes dealer, RC Dromore, Tyrone Devine lived with his mother and sister in Dromore. He, Daniel O’Doherty and Charles Slevin were taken out in the early hours and shot dead, their bodies left at the base of a telegraph pole at the crossroads near the railway station. Nicholas Smyth, vice-O/C Fintona Battalion, described the dead as ‘three of our men’, whereas William J. Kelly, O/C Dungannon Battalion, termed them simply nationalists. They are listed on the nominal roll for Dromore Company, 2nd Dromore Battalion, No. 2 Brigade, 2nd Northern Division. Mick Gallagher and a few others had fired on a police patrol in Dromore, as part of a larger operation ordered by Eoin O’Duffy, O/C Monaghan Brigade, involving attacks in ten Tyrone villages on the night of 5–6 April. The following night, reprisals were carried out in Dromore, allegedly by Orangemen from lodges across Tyrone. Civilian witnesses described firing in the street between midnight and 01:00, and there were reports of parties of masked men carrying flashlights entering houses. In September 1921, Archibald Griffin of Dromore, Robert Bradley of Straduff and John Gilmore of Drumskinny were charged with O’Doherty’s murder. All three were later acquitted. Buried Dromore. Devine’s mother Sarah secured £200 compensation, as did his sister, also Sarah. Mother and sister also respectively secured a £112.10 dependent’s gratuity, and allowances.577 RD: O’Doherty (7Apr1921/4), Slevin (7Apr 1921/5)

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Daniel O’Doherty (7Apr1921/4) IRA, 23, Cycle agent, RC Dromore, Tyrone See Devine (7Apr1921/3). ‘Dan’ O’Doherty lived with his mother Cassie. He had worked in a spirit grocery in Belfast, and had also trained as a motor mechanic in Liverpool. He came home to the family bicycle repair business. Devine’s mother Cassie identified Robert Bradley, ‘who had been in my shop at times for cigarettes & whom I know well by sight’, and ‘Charlie Griffin the bellman [fuel supplier]’ as killers. Sarah Devine recognised ‘Johnny Gilmore, a porter at the railway station. I know him well as we were reared together & he often comes to our house to collect money for the railway’. O’Doherty’s mother secured £200 compensation and each of his four younger siblings £100. His family failed to secure dependents’ awards. His sister Eileen, badly wounded in both legs by USC gunfire while on Cumann na mBan service in November 1921, wrote unavailingly in 1953 that she was ‘entirely dependent’ on her own £15 yearly military service pension, the amount of which varied in relation to her social welfare payments.578 Charles Slevin (7Apr1921/5) 24, Cattle dealer, RC Dromore, Tyrone See Devine (7Apr1921/3), with whom Slevin was staying on the night of his death. His mother Kathleen and his sister secured £600 compensation.579 John Goddard (7Apr1921/6) 8, Schoolboy 3 Kearn’s Place, Kilmainham, Dublin John Goddard came from what the IRA termed ‘a bitter Anti-Irish family’.580 His father Frederick described John’s death in a letter to the Colonial Office. At about 11:00, two civilians robbed Private Pugh of the Welch Regiment of his bicycle at the front entrance of the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham. The guard at the hospital intervened and the civilians made off via Kearn’s Place: ‘the bike

had to be abandoned, and was just smashed’, in front of the Goddard home. A party of the King’s Own Royal Regiment came along some minutes later and, instead of mounting a search, fired a volley through the Goddard’s door. John was hit in the head and died instantly.581 Eugene Benjamin Thomas Weldon (7Apr1921/7) Leicestershire Regiment, 20 Castlerea, Roscommon Lance-Corporal Weldon, from Syston, Leicestershire, was stationed in Castlerea, Roscommon. In retaliation for the shooting of Pat Conry and James Monds, the ASU South Roscommon Brigade went into Castlerea to attack Crown forces. At around 22:20, as the ASU was about to withdraw, soldiers emerged from a premises near the bridge on Main Street. Weldon was returning to his barracks at Castlerea Workhouse when a man asked for a light. While he was searching for matches the man shot him twice in the chest. Carried into a nearby shop, he soon died. Lieutenant Mackay of the Leicestershire Regiment claimed that, when captured in Loughglinn Wood a week afterwards, the dying John Bergin admitted to killing Weldon. His mother secured £250 compensation. Buried South Croxton, Leicestershire.582 RD: McDonagh (7Apr1921/8). SA: Bergin (19Apr1921/1), Conry (7Apr1921/1), Monds (7Apr1921/2) Mary Anne McDonagh (7Apr1921/8) 61, Shopkeeper, Married with six children, RC Castlerea, Roscommon See Weldon (7Apr1921/7). Mary Anne McDonagh lived with her husband Patrick on Main Street, Castlerea. She had gone to put a beam across her shop door when she was hit in the right hip. Major E. S. W. Tidswell, O/C British military in Roscommon, believed she was hit by shots aimed at Crown forces. Her death brought the death toll in the vicinity of Castlerea to six within two days. Buried Castlerea Cemetery. Her husband secured £2,600 compensation.583

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Daniel Carew (7Apr1921/9) IRA, 22, Grocer’s assistant, RC MHD See Glynn (6Apr1921/5). Carew, from Dundrum, Tipperary, worked in the Ivy House, Drumcondra. He served in G Company, 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. His brother Tom had hidden the gelignite seized during the Soloheadbeg ambush on 21 January 1919. He was also a first cousin of Dinny Lacey,† O/C No. 1 ASU, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade. Buried Kilfeakle, Tipperary. He is commemorated on a monument at Annacarty, Tipperary.584 James Duffy (7Apr1921/10) IRA, Farmer, RC Rockfield, Westport, Mayo Duffy, of Prospect, Westport, was a section leader in the ASU, West Mayo Brigade. The ASU rested in Austin Hastings’s house at Rockfield. Thomas Hevey asked Jimmy Flaherty, an ex-soldier, to clean his pistol. Flaherty also cleaned and reassembled his own gun and left it beside Hevey’s. Hevey then reloaded his weapon. A few minutes later, Flaherty picked up Hevey’s gun by mistake, pressing the trigger. Duffy, standing by the mantelpiece, was killed outright, shot in the heart. Buried Aughawal, Westport. His mother Mary secured a gratuity of £50.585

8 APRIL 1921 Gerard Thomas Joseph Barry (8Apr1921/1) SWB, 38, Army officer, RC CMHC Barry, from Queenstown (Cobh), Cork, attended the Oratory School, Birmingham and Sandhurst. Commissioned in 1902, he served in the Boer War. Promoted to captain on 18 April 1913, Barry was posted to the South Wales Borderers, in France on 3 October 1914. Promoted to major in 1917, he later served with the RAF as a kite/balloon officer. He was commandant Cork Military Barracks. At about 11:45, he accompanied another officer to the main entrance. While

he was unlocking a wicket gate, he fell, wounded in the abdomen, accidentally shot by a sentry in the courtyard. He died at 12:20. An armourer stated that the safety catch of the soldier’s rifle was defective, apparently quite a common fault.586 William Hoare (8Apr1921/2) IRA, 24, RC Ballymacoda, Youghal, Cork Hoare, from Beanfield, Youghal, Cork, was captain, Ballymacoda Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade. At about 13:45 Constable Harold Thompson, driving the leading tender in a three-vehicle convoy, saw Hoare throw his bicycle against a hedge near the village of Ballymacoda. Thompson stopped and ran after Hoare, who went through Mrs Gumbleton’s house. The police allegedly heard a shot and only returned fire after Hoare failed to halt. A Mauser automatic pistol and a six-chamber bull dog revolver were found on him. William Flavin claimed that Hoare had walked into an RIC trap while ‘hunting a spy’ and had been shot from behind a wall. Buried Ballymacoda.587 Frederick H. Lord (8Apr1921/3) RIC (73305), 33, Electrician, ex-serviceman, Protestant Mashanaglass, Macroom, Cork From London, Constable Lord joined the RIC on 24 September 1920, stationed in Carrigadrohid. He was due to resign on 11 April 1921 to immigrate to Canada. At around 16:00 Lord and Constable Lawrence were returning with provisions from Macroom to Carrigadrohid RIC Barracks by horse and cart. At Mashanaglass, outside Macroom, a volley of shots was fired, wounding Lord. Lawrence opened fire on armed and masked men who emerged from a wooded area. He managed to escape to Carrigadrohid Barracks on the horse and cart, but Lord fell off. Lawrence and colleagues later returned by motor car and recovered Lord’s body. He had been shot five times. Charles Browne, adjutant 7th (Macroom) Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, said the ambush was by members of

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F (Canovee) Company. Buried Church of Ireland churchyard, Macroom. His sister Mabel secured £200 compensation.588 Francis McMahon (8Apr1921/4) 65, Labourer, RC John’s Street, Limerick Margaret Doyle was talking to Constable Hubert Wiggins in John’s Square around 21:35 when he was accosted by four or five men. She begged them not to shoot the unarmed Wiggins, but after she left she heard four or five shots. He died of his wounds at 23:00 next day in the military hospital. This was the work of A Company, Limerick 1st Battalion, Mid Limerick Brigade. A few minutes before this shooting, members of C Company, 1st (Limerick City) Battalion unexpectedly ran into RIC men and attacked them. Head Constable Headon was returning along John’s Street to the barracks with sergeants McCarthy and Salmon when two bombs were thrown. All three were injured, as was bystander Frank McMahon, who died almost immediately. The IRA’s Davy Dundon was wounded in the hand.589 RD: Wiggins (9Apr1921/3) John McNamee (8Apr1921/5) Married with children, RC Drumlish, Longford McNamee, of Lake View House, Cloncowley, Drumlish, Longford, disappeared early in April 1921. After harrowing requests for information from his wife Bridget following the Treaty – ‘my health is in a bad way owing to suspence [sic]’; ‘I’m leaving here and want to know be he alive or dead’ – T. J. Reddington, O/C Longford Brigade, told GHQ that McNamee confessed to selling information leading to the arrest of Thomas Connolly: ‘This man was a great source of danger to our men as he was acquainted with them all . . . he had to be always specially watched and followed.’ McNamee was court martialled, and killed on 8 April, ‘his body was thrown into the Shannon with the object of saving his children from any disgrace that might arise’. Bernard Keating, Ballagh, Longford, claimed a hand in this death.590

9 APRIL 1921 Albert William Smith (9Apr1921/1) RIC (71895), 34, Cook, ex-serviceman Lanesborough, Longford Constable Smith from London first joined the RIC on 13 July 1920, resigned for personal reasons three weeks later and rejoined on 3 September, posted to Longford. At around 21:30 he and Constable Albert Smith visited Patrick Fallon, a tailor, who was making a suit for one of them. At some point John Sullivan, a twenty-year-old Volunteer posing as Fallon’s assistant, also went in, while comrades hid outside. What happened next is unclear: an IRA account prepared some years later stated that a Volunteer from A Company, 3rd Battalion, Longford Brigade fired at Albert Smith through a window, that the constable drew his own gun and fired wildly, and that O’Sullivan then shot him in the head. A court of inquiry on 12 April in Longford accepted a different story, supported by both Constable Robert Smith and the tailor Fallon. They described the shooting as purely accidental. It may be that they had been intimidated into giving false evidence. The court found that Sullivan had accidentally committed manslaughter. Commenting on this, the general officer commanding wrote, ‘This looks accidental and due to carelessness of the deceased in allowing tailors to handle revolvers.’ GHQ directed that the court reassemble, on the basis that if it was a case of manslaughter, then a verdict of ‘accidentally inflicted’ should not be included in the finding. A revised verdict dated 2 May 1921 appended to the file classified the death as homicide by Sullivan. Buried Ballymacormack Cemetery, Longford.591 Daniel O’Driscoll (9Apr1921/2) 16, RC Dispensary, Ardfert, Kerry Daniel O’Driscoll, the son of Timothy O’Driscoll of East Commons, Ardfert, left school a short time before his death. He and another youth named John O’Sullivan were near a bridge at Liscahane, Ardfert, when surprised by Crown forces and fired on. Both

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youths were wounded, but Sullivan managed to get away. Major John MacKinnon said the youths were fired on for failing to halt, as he led a patrol to investigate a bridge believed to be a target for IRA sabotage. O’Driscoll died at about 22:00 in Ardfert Dispensary.592 SA: John MacKinnon (15Apr1921/1) Hubert J. Wiggins (9Apr1921/3) RIC (71259), 27, Postman Military Hospital, New Barracks, Limerick See McMahon (8Apr1921/4). Wiggins, from Donegal, joined the RIC on 23 April 1920, stationed in John Street RIC Barracks. His mother, living in Clones, Monaghan, secured £800 compensation.593 Maurice Galvin (9Apr1921/4) IRA, 17, Draper’s assistant, RC Ballykinlar Internment Camp, Dundrum, Down Galvin, from Tallow, Waterford, a Volunteer in E Company, Cork No. 2 Brigade, worked in Midleton, Cork. Arrested on 31 December 1920, he was sent to Ballykinlar Internment Camp. According to Thomas O’Riordan, Galvin sustained serious head and other injuries while in a prison boat on the Lagan when loyalist workers threw ‘shipyard confetti’ – iron bars and other missiles. His death certificate gives ‘acute nephritis’ as cause of death. Buried Dangan Cemetery, Killeagh, Cork. His father secured a £50 gratuity, and his mother Norah an allowance from August 1953.594

9–12 APRIL 1921 Denis Finbar ‘Din Din’ Donovan595 (9Apr1921/5) 21, Ex-serviceman, RC Ballygarvan, Cork ‘Din Din’ Donovan lived at 9 Gouldings Terrace. His body was discovered, shot several times, in a wood just off the main road on the outskirts of Cork on 13 April. The IRA shot Donovan, reportedly at one time a Sinn Féin policeman, as an alleged spy believed to have given information about the killers of Sergeant O’Donoghue.596 SA: Hanley (18Nov1920/1), O’Donoghue (17Nov1920/1)

10 APRIL 1921 Thomas Lyons (10Apr1921/1) 37, Ex-serviceman, RC Military Infirmary, Listowel, Kerry Lyons lived in Listowel, where on 9 April, at about 21:30, a curfew patrol encountered him on Charles Street, drunk and shouting, ‘Up John Bull.’ Lyons apparently seized a rifle by the barrel. During the struggle Sergeant Browne discharged the weapon, wounding Lyons in the abdomen. He died in the infirmary at 04:00.597 John Fluke (10Apr1921/2) USC, 28, Ex-serviceman, Married, CoI Cregganduff, Crossmaglen, Armagh From Ballydoo, Armagh, Fluke had been captured after the battle of Le Chateau in August 1914 when with the RIF. He was a USC constable, stationed in Crossmaglen. Five constables armed with revolvers left Crossmaglen RIC Barracks by bicycle at 11:45 to attend divine service at Creggan Church. They decided to investigate unusual activity in McConville’s pub, a short distance away, where the IRA were holding a group of Protestant churchgoers under guard. A hand grenade was thrown from behind a wall which inflicted minor injuries on three of the party. They opened fire, and were hit by a volley of rifle and revolver shots. Fluke was struck by nine bullets and killed. Constables Linton, Leeman and Dougald were wounded. Constable Irwin, who alone escaped uninjured, saw about thirty bicycles in a nearby ploughed field as he went for help. Fluke’s wife was expecting their first child. Buried Killylea parish church.598 Joseph Boynes (10Apr1921/3) RIC (75994), 23, Labourer, ex-serviceman Scart, Kildorrery, Cork Boynes, from Northumberland, joined the RIC on 29 November 1920, stationed in Kildorrery. Constables Boynes and George Woodward had been out for a walk, off duty and unarmed, near their barracks when they were attacked by the ASU Castletownroche Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade: ‘Parts of their heads were blown away’. The Cork Examiner

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reported that six local farm houses were destroyed on 14 April in reprisal. Boynes’s parents secured £600 compensation.599 RD: Woodward (10Apr1921/4) George Woodward (10Apr1921/4) RIC (71533), 26, Sawyer’s mate, exserviceman, Protestant Scart, Kildorrery, Cork See Boynes (10Apr1921/3). Woodward, from Surrey, joined the RIC on 1 June 1920, stationed in Kildorrery.600

11 APRIL 1921 Peter Freyne (11Apr1921/1) IRA, 18, Distillery employee, RC KGVH Dublin Freyne, from Kilcullen, Thomastown, Kilkenny, served in E Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. His brother Frank described how they both mobilised for action on Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920, but ‘my brother had the only gun, so he went out that morning’. At 07:50 the London & North Western Railway Hotel, North Wall, which had recently been occupied by Auxiliaries to facilitate patrolling of the docklands, was attacked by a thirty-strong IRA party, many of whose incendiary bombs malfunctioned. An Auxiliary described how Freyne ‘ran towards him, with a bomb in his hand’, before he was shot in the chin. Freyne’s brother Frank, captured during the Customs House raid on 11 May 1921, later joined the National army. Demobilised as a commandant in 1923, in January 1924 he received five years and ‘fifteen lashes of the cat’ for armed robbery of £50. This conviction initially debarred him from receiving a military service pension, but in 1942 he finally received an award. His father John failed to secure a dependent’s award. Buried Thomastown, Kilkenny.601 Mary Frances Morgan (11Apr1921/2) 70, Dressmaker, RC SPDH See Clarke (14Mar1921/8). Mary Morgan lived at 43 Queen’s Square.602

George Johnston (11Apr1921/3) 43, Farmer, CoI Baylin, Athlone, Westmeath Johnston, of Baylin, Athlone, was an extensive farmer. About 22:30 seven or eight armed and masked members of the IRA’s Athlone Brigade ASU rushed into his house. He grappled one raider to the floor before being shot by others. While a GHQ document termed him an ‘alleged spy’, his killing bears agrarian hallmarks: he had received threatening letters demanding he give up his farm. Frank O’Connor, captain Coosan Company, Athlone Brigade, claimed that Johnston, a gamekeeper, had been responsible for prosecutions of poachers and was ‘the principal enemy agent’ locally. His body was labelled ‘Spies and Traitors Beware – IRA.’ On 2 May, Lieutenant-Colonel E. L. Challenor, commanding Troops Athlone, wrote: ‘George Johnstone [sic] was a most loyal individual bearing a good character.’603 Michael O’Brien (11Apr1921/4) Ex-serviceman, RC Ballinhassig, Cork O’Brien lived at 16 Reed’s Avenue, off Barrack Street, Cork. His mother Bridget wrote on 21 February 1922 that her son, who had served in the RASC under the name ‘Michael Aherne’, left home ‘on the morning of the 11/4/21 and since then he has not been seen. I am all the time seeking information of his whereabouts but up to the present I have not anything of him’. She described him as ‘Height about 5 ft 6 inches. Hair Fair. Eyes Blue. Sallow Complexion’, and gave his RASC regimental number as ‘m/350212’. She later wrote that even confirmation of his death would be a blessing: ‘My mind would be easy for I am like a lunatic over him as he was a very good boy to me always.’ On 19 June 1922 she wrote that ‘people here see that he was not a traitor to his country, as he never got any money from the English Government for any information. . . . If he was inosent [sic] I would publish it in the newspapers’. She also wondered if ‘there was anyone outside . . . the IRA had anything to do with his murder’. Florence O’Donoghue, adjutant, 1st Southern Division, confirmed to GHQ

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that O’Brien ‘was executed for espionage on 11/4/21. The name is not Mcl [Michael] Ahern’. This was the unknown man who was found with a bullet in the head and still clasping rosary beads, lying by a fence near Ballinhassig.604

12 APRIL 1921 James McGlynn (12Apr1921/1) IRA, 23, Shop assistant, RC Drumshanbo, Leitrim McGlynn, from Corderay, Drumshanbo, served in the 2nd Battalion, South Leitrim Brigade. At about 03:00 the guard at the police barracks reported shots. When a mixed patrol of military and police investigated, they found McGlynn lying face down in the street, wounded in the stomach. Nearby lay a double-barrelled shotgun. Several windows had been smashed and under the doors of some shops were notices regarding the Belfast boycott. McGlynn was carrying two such notices. Family members were unsuccessful in attempts to claim dependents’ awards.605

13 APRIL 1921 William Kenefick (13Apr1921/1) 48, Carter, Married with two children, RC Mercy Hospital, Cork Kenefick, of 48 Blarney Street, Cork, employed by Lynch and Sons, Hanover Street, was twice married. At around 10:00 on 12 April, bombs were thrown at two lorries carrying police on Washington Street, wounding passing civilians. The police dismounted and fired at two men seen running down a side street. The injured civilians – Maurice Moynihan, Stephen Maher, Philip Galway, Francis Galway and William Kenefick – were removed to the Mercy Hospital. Kenefick died from a severe chest wound at 09:00 on 13 April.606 Patrick Joseph Neary (13Apr1921/2) RIC (62029), 34, RC KGVH Neary, from Cork, joined the RIC on 1 October 1906, serving in Kilkenny, Galway, Kilkenny for a second term, Clare and

Dublin. An RIC driver, he died at 16:00 from wounds received on 1 April when Section Leader H. Playle’s rifle fell and discharged, hitting Neary as he drove a Crossley tender. Buried GC (Dublin Section: E. j. 62).607 William Moran (13Apr1921/3) 65, Ex-serviceman, shoemaker, Married with seven children, RC Lord George Lane (now Davis Street), Dungarvan, Waterford Moran lived on Lord George Lane, Dungarvan. At 23:00 a man with an English accent knocked on the door, asking Bridget Moran for her father. He went outside. Next day his body was discovered in the marsh at the end of the lane, shot in the chest at close range. Patrick Power recorded that the body bore a label: ‘Spies beware! Shot by the IRA.’ Moran, who was known to frequent the police barracks, was ‘shot by mem[ber]s of Dungarvan’ Company.608 George Henry Rogers (13Apr1921/4) RIC (70266), 25, Ex-serviceman, carter, Protestant Fedamore, Limerick Constable Rogers, from London, joined the RIC on 3 February 1920, stationed in Fedamore. The IRA knew that the Black and Tans frequented James Power’s pub. A young scout entered, on the pretext of buying a packet of Woodbines. He reported that five policemen were having a drink. Constables Pielow, Redford and Rogers were wounded as they left the pub when fired on by six Volunteers with rifles and shotguns. Two managed to re-enter the pub; two others escaped through a back door to their barracks. Rogers, lying mortally wounded in the street, was then ‘finished off ’. IRA chief of staff Richard Mulcahy was unimpressed: ‘There seems no reason at all why the whole patrol should not have been got.’ Buried England. His mother Mrs Ada Emery secured £850 compensation.609 Horace Potter (13Apr1921/5) Queen’s Royal Regiment, 18 Kilworth Military Camp, Cork The CFR describes the accidental death of Private Potter from a gunshot to the head.

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Commemorated Brookwood Memorial, Surrey.610

1914–1918

14 APRIL 1921 Arthur Edward Vicars (14Apr1921/1) 57, Genealogist, chief herald, Married, CoI Kilmorna House, Listowel, Kerry Arthur Vicars, from Lamington, Warwickshire, was Ulster King of Arms from 1893 until 1907. He had then resigned due to the scandal arising from the theft from Dublin Castle of the Irish Crown Jewels, which were in his care. He lived in Kilmorna House outside Listowel. Volunteers of the Knockanure and Duagh companies, Kerry No. 1 Brigade, under James Costello, raided Kilmorna House. Matthew Finucane claimed that Costello was ordered to execute Vicars and destroy his house. Patrick McElligott, O/C 6th Battalion, maintained that due to time pressure, permission for the killing was not sought from GHQ. McElligott decided to burn down the house because there were rumours it might be occupied by Crown forces. He claimed he intended to court martial Vicars as a spy, but when Vicars fled carrying a revolver he was shot dead on the lawn. Vicars’s valet Michael Murphy, brother of a Volunteer, strongly denied that his employer had been armed or was a spy. It appears that the raid began at about 10:15, as Vicars was talking to his land steward. Jack Brehony, Paddy Dean and Jack Sheehan took Vicars outside in his dressing gown and shot him, leaving a sign bearing the words, ‘Spies, Kilmorna House’. Within minutes, police and military from Listowel rushed towards the scene. Fortunately for the IRA, a scout fired shots, delaying the Crown forces. Buried St Peter’s Churchyard, Leckhampton, Gloucestershire. His sister Madame de Janaz secured £27,500 compensation for the destruction of the house and contents.611 Alexander Morrison (14Apr1921/2) RGA (1415170), 20 Baldonnel Aerodrome, Dublin Gunner Morrison, 19th Battery, who was unarmed, was shot dead by Lance-Bombardier

S. E. Ince, who then wounded himself. The two had been at odds over a girl. She told a court that after Ince had interrupted her dance with Morrison and told him to return to duty, Morrison had threatened to shoot Ince, telling him, ‘You showed me up to that girl . . .’ Colleagues had noticed Ince behaving oddly shortly before shots were fired. He pleaded insanity: his father gave evidence that he was highly strung, and that another son had killed himself at seventeen over a minor matter. Found guilty of murder, Ince’s death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. Buried Seafield Cemetery, Edinburgh (A.334).612 Michael Byrne (14Apr1921/3) 37, Farmer, cattle jobber, Married, RC Windsor, Coolrain, Laois Byrne, from Windsor, Coolrain, Mountrath, often carried substantial amounts of money for cattle dealing. Last seen leaving a neighbour’s house at 23:00, he was found dead from a shotgun blast on the road next day. The RIC thought robbery the likely motive.613 Thomas Walker (14Apr1921/4) 71, Farmer, civil bills officer, Married, CoI Ballinfull, Sligo At around 23:00 Walker’s wife Louise heard the door being smashed open and her husband shout, ‘Oh murder!’ His home had been raided on 11 March by masked men who threatened him with death if he served any more civil bills, making him ‘swear he would serve no more processes’. Seventeen men, many of them neighbours, were arrested and jailed for those offences. The RIC reported that ‘Walker was wrongly suspected of having given information’, leading to that action. Four masked men told Louise they were taking him outside to be cautioned. Two then searched the house. Walker’s body was discovered next day in a nearby quarry. His killers, from the Grange Battalion, Sligo Brigade, included Eugene Brady, Thomas Leonard, Patrick McGowan, Patrick Hardagon, William Devins, Thomas Smith, Edward Bofin, Martin Gillan, Patrick Currid and James Meehan. Walker’s family left the country. The Sligo IRA reported this

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killing simply as ‘Spy shot’. Louise Walker secured £3,000 compensation.614

Buried Leigue Cemetery, Ballina. His mother secured £750 compensation. Tolan Street in Ballina is named in his memory.615

c. 14 APRIL 1921 Michael Tolan (14Apr1921/5) IRA, 25, Tailor, RC Shraheen, Foxford, Mayo Tolan, of Shamble Street (now Mill Street), Ballina, born with deformed feet, was an IRA intelligence operative and a summons server for the local Sinn Féin court. A party of Auxiliaries abducted Tolan from his home. On 5 May the local IRA commander told GHQ that following his arrest Tolan had been assaulted ‘in the Barricks [sic]. He is detained there yet. Apparently they will not remove nor release him till his countenance bears no trace of his keepers’ savage cruelty.’ Tolan was most likely already dead, killed while en route to prison in Galway. On 13 June, a badly decomposed body was found in a bog hole at Shraheen near Foxford. In addition to six packets of cigarettes, the pockets contained a linen shirt collar stamped ‘JJ Murphy Outfitter Ballina’ and a tailor’s thimble. Some reports said the feet had been hacked off, whereas an RIC sergeant gave evidence that ‘the left arm was extended and the fingers had a grasp of bog mud. The flesh on the legs was torn away by dogs and birds except on the feet which were protected by the boots’. Dr Staunton of Swinford also ‘found flesh on the feet but none on the legs or thighs. . . . The genitals were also missing.’ There was a large wound on the chest, ‘a rough one and not one as would be caused by a bullet’. Another witness suggested this might have been caused by a bomb fragment, and mentioned a second smaller wound in the neck. The unidentified remains were buried in a pauper’s grave at Leigue Cemetery, Ballina. Tolan’s mother sought information about her missing son and in November 1921 the body at Leigue was exhumed. An IRA inquiry found that Tolan died from two shots in the head, an act of wilful murder by Crown forces. The loyalist Western News described Tolan’s injuries as ‘the most horrible ever seen in print . . . his feet were cut off, and he was absolutely mangled’.

15 APRIL 1921 John Alistair MacKinnon (15Apr1921/1) ADRIC (80776), 31, Army officer, Married, CoE Military Hospital, Ballymullen Barracks, Tralee MacKinnon, from Dumbarton, entered Sandhurst in 1912, after which he joined the Canadian forces. During the war, he won the DCM, MM and MC, attaining the rank of major. He joined the RIC on 28 October 1920 as a DI (auxiliary number 917), commanding H Company, Auxiliary Division, which arrived in Tralee in December 1920. MacKinnon was responsible for the deaths of John Leen and Maurice Reidy on Christmas Eve 1920 at Ballydwyer, Ballymacelligott. Kerry No. 1 Brigade, IRA, issued orders to kill him. MacKinnon usually had a bodyguard, and was believed to wear a steel waistcoat. As he was a keen golfer, the IRA hoped to kill him on Tralee golf course. MacKinnon was ‘in the act of putting’ on the third green when a single rifle shot by Con Healy, an ex-soldier and expert marksman, hit him in the head. It was followed by a volley of shotgun fire which wounded his playing partner DI Ballantyne, who managed to reach the club house and drive away in the major’s car seeking help, although ‘I realised there was no hope, as his brains were scattered on the green.’ While investigating the killing, DI T. Reilly took two Crossley tenders of police to Ballydwyer Creamery near Ballymacelligott. At around 17:30 two men were seen running away, and were fired on for failing to halt. John Reidy was shot in the head and body and killed. His companion escaped. Buried Windsor Cemetery, London. A barrister acting for his widow Agnes Beatrice explained at Tralee Quarter Sessions in June 1921 that ‘her father-in-law did not know of the marriage, but she sent him details after her husband’s death’. She secured £9,500 compensation. Judge Cusack offered her singularly crass words of consolation, first

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complementing her on her appearance, and then adding, ‘£500 a year for ever . . . not a bad dowry for the next fellow.’616 RD: Reidy (15Apr1921/2). SA: Leen (24Dec 1920/2), Reidy (24Dec1920/3) John Reidy (15Apr1921/2) IRA, 23, Tailor, RC Ballydwyer, Ballymacelligott, Tralee, Kerry See MacKinnon (15Apr1921/1). Reidy was from Rathanny, Ballymacelligott, Tralee. Buried Ballymacelligott. His mother Mary secured a dependent’s allowance.617 Wilfred Jones (15Apr1921/3) RIC (75293), 35, Stoker, ex-serviceman, Protestant Ballinamore, Leitrim Jones, from London, joined the RIC on 9 November 1920, stationed in Ballinamore. He was remembered as ‘a terrible outlaw. He used to make a blow of it, saying that he left out of Dartmoor [prison], he was after getting [a] ten year sentence for choking the wife, and getting a pound a day for shooting every so and so of a Republican over here he says’. Jones was courting Margaret Sadlier, a post office worker whom he ‘used to be up after about the Goods Store’ at Ballinamore railway station. She met Jones at 21:10. They walked about half a mile, then returned to the station where they remained talking. Charles McGoohan, O/C ASU, South Leitrim Brigade, approached and fired, wounding her in the foot and buttock. Jones told her to lie down, and exchanged shots with his attacker, but was mortally wounded. An IRA account claimed that it was Jones who accidentally shot Margaret Sadlier. She was carried to safety by Johnny Maher: ‘ “Be Jasus”, says Johnny, “she got a bullet in the arse.”’ Jones died while being brought to the RIC barracks. Constable Mugan, accidentally shot and wounded hours later during a scuffle involving an overwrought colleague, died two days afterwards. Buried Corbollog Cemetery, Carrick-on-Shannon. It was rumoured locally that his grave was in the ‘old jail yard’ in Carrick-on-Shannon: ‘He hadn’t a bloody friend, or anyone belonging

to him. Of course he choked his wife as he said it.’618 SA: Thomas Mugan (17Apr1921/1) Michael Kennedy (15Apr1921/4) 38, Miller, farmer, RC Ballinavary, Bree, Enniscorthy, Wexford Kennedy was considered well-to-do. There had been raids for money in neighbouring farmhouses in previous months. Mary Whelan, a domestic servant, said that at around 22:00 Kennedy answered the door. She heard shuffling of feet outside, before Kennedy re-entered the kitchen and put his shoulder to the door. Those outside forced it partly open, and Kennedy was mortally wounded by a single shot. A ‘fairly tall man with a red face’ entered and said, ‘Why did you not open the damn door?’ Stephen Kennedy deposed that being a miller, his brother often had large sums of money in the house. Robbery was probably the motive. Kennedy, who ‘was popular in the neighbourhood’, took no part in politics and had no known enemies. Buried Bunclody, Wexford.619

16 APRIL 1921 Robert Stone (16Apr1921/1) 18, Farmer’s son, CoI Killusty, Fethard, Tipperary Stone lived with his father William in Claremore House, Killusty. Seán Walshe, described [William] Stone as an ‘emergency man’ – an occupier of a farm from which the previous tenant had been legally evicted. According to Walshe, Stone was constantly in the company of Crown forces. At about 07:30, Robert and George Stone were letting out the cattle and horses when Robert was shot and killed by the IRA. George came under fire as he went for help. William stated that he had been threatened several times and on 25 June 1920 had received a notice warning him to leave the farm. Accusations of spying appear to be what Murnane terms ‘a tattered excuse’. The killers’ motivation was agrarian rather than political or sectarian. The Stone family took refuge in the military barracks, and their home was then burned down. Buried Protestant

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Churchyard, Fethard. His father William secured £2,000 compensation.620 SA: Boyle (14Jun1921/1) Patrick James O’Neill (16Apr1921/2) 30, Army officer, Widowed, RC KGVH O’Neill, from Omagh, Tyrone, formerly a captain in the Royal Fusiliers, lodged at 38 Heytesbury Street, Dublin. At about 09:40 on 15 April a young man called, looking for him. The landlady ‘said he was out’, and closed the door, but O’Neill was spotted ‘at the [basement] window in his night attire’. The man, one of four members of the Dublin Brigade ASU ordered to ‘execute enemy spy’, ‘fired one round from his Parabellum’. Admitted to hospital with a severe chest wound, O’Neill died at 13:45. A Dáil Department of Defence document headed ‘British Agents killed by the IRA’ listed O’Neill as a ‘Staff Officer’.621 Sidney Rew (16Apr1921/3) Royal Scots, 35, Engaged, RC Market Street, Ennis, Clare Rew, from London, was stationed in Ennis as a typist and shorthand writer at the Ordnance House. At about 22:20 revolver shots were fired into Shaughnessy’s pub on Market Street, Ennis. A bomb was also thrown, killing Rew. Kate Shaughnessy, the proprietor, and Mary Anne Danagher were seriously wounded. Constable Vanderburgh was slightly wounded. Buried City of London Cemetery, Manor Park. Rew’s brother Philip secured £1 compensation and his fiancée Mary Montgomery, who produced an engagement ring and correspondence to show that she and Rew had been engaged, £600.622 Harry G. Moscrop (16Apr1921/4) RIC (79475), 20, Ex-serviceman, Protestant Annacotty, Limerick Moscrop, from London, joined the RIC on 31 January 1921. Posted to Limerick, he died of ‘gunshot wounds, self-inflicted’. DI Greally described how an Annacotty woman reported that policemen who had searched her home had stolen her jewellery. She identified Moscrop, on whom the goods were found. He cried ‘ “You will put me in gaol”,

immediately pulling his revolver out. “I will shoot myself ”, he said. He then ran off 50 yards & I called out “Don’t be a bloody fool”. I thought he was fooling.’ But Moscrop shot himself in the heart. Greally thought him ‘an exceptionally good policeman. There was no reason, except for the theft, for this action.’623

17 APRIL 1921 Thomas Mugan (17Apr1921/1) RIC (68851), 23, Farmer, RC KGVH Mugan, from Castlebar, Mayo, joined the RIC on 15 November 1916, stationed in Ballinamore. At about 01:40 on 16 April, hours after the killing of his best friend Constable Wilfred Jones, Constable A. D. Young became agitated in Ballinamore Barracks. When Sergeant Carey attempted to seize his rifle from him it went off, wounding Young in the leg and Mugan in the thigh. Mugan died at 06:15 next day despite an operation. Buried Old Church Cemetery, Castlebar. The Treasury sanctioned an ex gratia payment to his father.624 SA: Jones (15Apr1921/3) William Duncan (17Apr1921/2) RIC (76234), 20, Fish worker, Presbyterian RIC Barracks, Dungarvan, Waterford Duncan, from Kincardine, Fife, Scotland, joined the RIC on 8 December 1920, stationed in Dungarvan. Duncan jokingly pointed a rifle at Constable Bangham, who in turn pointed a revolver at him which discharged.625 Bride Glynn (17Apr1921/3) 53, Married, RC Ailesbury Road, Dublin Wife of Sir Joseph Glynn, Bride Glynn was hit by an RIC tender at about 16:30 at the junction of Ailesbury Road, where she lived, and Merrion Road. Buried GC (South Section: J. e. 175.5).626 William John Hughes (17Apr1921/4) RIC (57781), 45, Married with six children Shannon View Hotel, Castleconnell, Limerick Hughes, from Clare, joined the RIC on 1 June 1896, stationed in Newport. He was promoted to sergeant on 1 May 1920.

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Auxiliaries in plain clothes went to search the bar of the Shannon View Hotel. They entered and immediately ordered ‘hands up’. Sergeant Hughes and constables Taylor, Morrison and Talbot were having a drink. Thinking their challengers were IRA, Constable Talbot drew his revolver and fired. The search party withdrew and fired through the door wounding Sergeant Hughes. Constable Morrison shot Cadet Pringle who was looking through the window. When hotel proprietor Denis O’Donovan and Morrison went out to the courtyard, they were both shot, O’Donovan fatally. Hughes, O’Donovan and Pringle died of their wounds at about 20:00. Hughes was posthumously awarded the constabulary medal. The Treasury granted his widow a yearly pension of £82.6s.8d. and an allowance of £16.9s.4d. to each child until they reached the age of sixteen.627 RD: O’Donovan (17Apr1921/5), Pringle (17Apr1921/6)

Eoin O’Duffy, O/C Monaghan Brigade, ordered her execution. This poteen maker had been raided many times both by the IRA and by the police. James McKenna, captain Donagh Company, Monaghan Battalion, claimed that evidence ‘was very strong. She was scarcely normal and was not sufficiently intelligent to cloak her activities’ as an informer. A Monaghan post office official, Fred McHenry, passed to the IRA letters from her addressed to the RIC at Scotstown which denounced rival poteen makers (John McGonnell of Clones offered another version, that a government cheque to Carroll ‘for services rendered’ was found). Thomas Brennan, a near neighbour of Kitty Carroll, described: One case in particular giving information about where the IRA had an arms dump and where the boys stopped at night. . . . Kate Carroll sent letters again & again to RIC Scotstown wanting to know why these fellows were not arrested and their arms seized. This case was investigated and the Batt[alion] I[ntelligence] O[fficer] T[homas] B[rennan] found the letters were written by Kate Carroll. Case reported to Brigade O/C who sent two men to warn her to stop these at once or serious notice would have to be taken of it. She denied all knowledge but proof was forthcoming next day when another describing the men who had given her the warning &

Denis O’Donovan (17Apr1921/5) 46, Hotelier, Married with four children, RC Shannon View Hotel, Castleconnell, Limerick See Hughes (17Apr1921/4). O’Donovan, from Skibbereen, Cork, was described as a life-long Home Ruler. Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery. His widow Agnes secured £15,000 compensation.628 Donald Pringle (17Apr1921/6) ADRIC (79056), 28, Army officer Shannon View Hotel, Castleconnell, Limerick See Hughes (17Apr1921/4). Pringle, from England, was a lieutenant in the East Lancashire Regiment before joining the Auxiliary Division on 13 October 1920 (auxiliary number 707) as a Cadet in G Company, stationed in Killaloe, Clare.629 Catherine Carroll (17Apr1921/7) 36, RC Drumscor, Scotstown, Monaghan ‘Kate’, ‘Kitty’ or ‘Kathleen’ Carroll lived in Aghanameena, Scotstown, Monaghan with her disabled brother Patrick and elderly mother Susan.

He left the remainder of the page blank. Her brother Patrick described how at about midnight on 16 April a masked man entered and asked Kate, ‘Are you making any drink now?’, which she denied. Susan Carroll begged the man not to take her daughter. However, he and another man dragged Kate out, tied her wrists and took her away. Patrick ‘heard Kate screaming . . . she said “I will never come back”’. Her body was found at Drumscor at about 01:30, bearing five gunshot wounds to her head and body. On an attached card was written in blue pencil: ‘Spies and Informers Beware. Convicted – IRA.’ The attorney general for Ireland told the House of Commons that Kate Carroll had written letters to the police concerning

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illicit drink traffic, and that these had led to her killing. IRA veteran Patrick McGrory thought, ‘Poor Kitty Carroll was by any standards a half-wit and her shooting was a poor thing even if she was guilty of what she was accused of.’ If conclusive proof was lacking, he maintained, her name should be exonerated. Charlie O’Neill of the Scotstown IRA, in jail at the time of the killing, told his daughter that ‘seven men set out to execute Kate Carroll. Nobody thought in their wildest dreams that they would have to do this as a lot of them didn’t agree with the decision. Most of the seven cried the whole way out [to] the mountain’ where she was killed. Her death ‘brought a wave of revulsion against the IRA’. When O’Neill’s father died in 1922, ‘the family blamed his death on Kate Carroll’s execution & Daddy [Charlie] belonging to such an organization’. Buried Scotstown. Her mother secured £200 compensation and her brother £400.630

18 APRIL 1921 Michael Ryan (18Apr1921/1) 62, Farmer, RC Mullannagaun, Ballymurphy, Borris, Carlow Ryan was shot, most likely by a stray bullet, as he pumped water in his yard, during an engagement which destroyed the Carlow Brigade ASU. Lieutenant J. E. Grundy led a mixed patrol of soldiers and RIC in two Crossley tenders searching for men who had attacked Bagenalstown RIC Barracks. Empty houses in Clashganny bore signs of recent occupation, so Grundy decided to conduct an area patrol. At about 13:00 he saw armed civilians in Mullannagaun, drilling in a field. The lieutenant stopped his lorry and opened fire. Four men died and six were taken prisoner. Thomas Ryan maintained that British forces were guided by an informer named Finn. Brothers James and Peter Farrell, later stated to be Volunteers although not involved with the ASU, were shot and bayoneted in Stephen Murrin’s field: sowing corn, they had attempted to warn the ASU of the danger. No arms were found with them, whereas Michael

Joseph Fay had a loaded rifle when he was killed. According to Ryan, Finn subsequently disappeared from the area. He was later captured near Borris, tried and executed. The account of this incident broadly tallies with that of Michael Hackett, whom the IRA killed for allegedly giving information which led to Fay’s death. It may be that ‘Finn’ was in fact Hackett. There is nothing in Grundy’s detailed action report to indicate any kind of tip-off: rather, IRA security had been lax. Buried Ballymurphy, Borris, Carlow.631 RD: Farrell (18Apr1921/2), Farrell (18Apr 1921/3), Fay (18Apr1921/4). SA: Hackett (1Jun1921/15) James Farrell (18Apr1921/2) IRA, 22, Farmer, RC Mullannagaun, Ballymurphy, Borris, Carlow See Ryan (18Apr1921/1). Farrell, from Mullannagaun, is stated to have served in 4th Battalion, Carlow Brigade. Buried Ballymurphy, Borris, where a plaque commemorates him and his brother.632 Peter Farrell (18Apr1921/3) IRA, 20, Farmer, RC Mullannagaun, Ballymurphy, Borris, Carlow See Ryan (18Apr1921/1). Farrell, from Mullannagaun, is stated to have served in 4th Battalion, Carlow Brigade. Buried Ballymurphy, Borris, where a plaque commemorates him and his brother.633 Michael Joseph Fay (18Apr1921/4) IRA, 22, Ex-serviceman, chauffeur, RC Mullannagaun, Ballymurphy, Borris, Carlow See Ryan (18Apr1921/1). Fay’s family reportedly moved from Dublin to Ballyoliver, Rathvilly, Carlow. Once of the RASC, he served in the ASU Carlow Brigade. Buried St Mary’s Cemetery, Carlow.634

19 APRIL 1921 Seán (John) Bergin (19Apr1921/1) IRA, 23, Sawyer, RC Loughglinn Wood, Roscommon Bergin, from Cappamore, Limerick, lived in Nenagh, Tipperary. He was O/C ASU 1st (Castlerea) Battalion, South Roscommon

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Brigade. Bergin, Stephen McDermott, Toby Scally and Matt Kilcawley, all ASU men, were staying in a house in Loughglinn Wood, about five miles from Castlerea. Bergin was recovering from pleurisy. Lieutenant S. F. Mackay, Leicestershire Regiment, with a patrol of forty soldiers and ten RIC, were spotted nearby. The four IRA men left by the back door, carrying what arms they could. All four ASU members were captured after a fight during which a soldier was seriously wounded. Bergin and Stephen McDermott were handcuffed together and brought deeper into the woods. Kilcawley ‘heard the shots ringing out and the [army] officer said: “Do you know what your so and so comrades are getting?” They had killed the two of them.’ The brigade O/C described them as ‘heroes – absolutely fearless and I recommend them for any token there is for heroic valour’. Kilcawley, sentenced to life imprisonment, was released after the Truce in 1921. Mackay maintained that Bergin and McDermott were already mortally wounded when captured and died within half an hour. Two service rifles, a revolver, a detonator and a quantity of ammunition were recovered. He had ‘received private information’ about armed rebels in the vicinity. He also stated that Bergin admitted responsibility before his death for the shooting of Lance-Corporal Weldon ‘and wished to exonerate his two other companions from all blame’. The IRA attributed the disaster to Paddy Egan, brigade intelligence officer, who was an informer. Egan later fled the country. Buried Lisboney Cemetery, Nenagh, Tipperary. Bergin is commemorated on a monument at Loughglinn. His sister Sarah ultimately received a dependent’s allowance.635 RD: McDermott (19Apr1921/2). SA: Weldon (7Apr1921/7) Stephen William McDermott (19Apr1921/2) IRA, 19, Farmer, RC Loughglinn Wood, Roscommon See Bergin (19Apr1921/1). McDermott, from Brackloon, Castlerea, lived in Tully, Ballinagare, serving in the ASU Castlerea Battalion, South Roscommon Brigade.

Buried Baslick Cemetery, Castlerea. A monument marks his place of death, and he is also commemorated on a monument at Shankill, Roscommon.636 Stephen Kirwan (19Apr1921/3) RIC (58582), 44, Married with at least four children, RC637 KGVH Kirwan, from Wexford, joined the RIC in 1898. Posted to Galway, he subsequently served in Carlow and Dublin. He was promoted to sergeant on 1 August 1920, stationed in Balbriggan. He was followed into Edward O’Connor’s pub in Ballyboghil by Peter White and two other ASU Fingal Battalion Volunteers on 18 April. At around 18:00, shots were exchanged: Kirwan, severely wounded, died next day. So too did White, who told a doctor: ‘Kirwan did for me.’638 Buried GC (Garden Section: K. f. 221.5).639 RD: White (19Apr1921/4) Peter White (19Apr1921/4) IRA, 32, Ex-serviceman, agricultural labourer, RC KGVH See Kirwan (19Apr1921/3). White, of Richardstown, Swords, was captain Swords Company, Fingal Brigade. He was a suspect in the killing of an RIC man at Balbriggan and in other IRA operations. The police report continued: White when a young lad was very wild . . . he ran away . . . and joined the army from which he was subsequently “bought out” by his mother. He never is known to have done an honest day’s work; but kept himself alive by sponging on his parents and picking pockets at race meetings. Naturally the criminal prospects offered by the IRA proved a great temptation and he became a willing member.640

SA: Green (3Feb1921/15) James Hoban (19Apr1921/5) 23, Farmer’s son, RC City Infirmary, Waterford Hoban, from Mullinavat, Kilkenny, was attending Mullinavat Fair when shot and

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wounded in the thigh while standing with his uncle and brother near the police barracks when a soldier discharged a shot from a Rolls Royce armoured car. He died at 19:00.641 Tadg O’Sullivan (19Apr1921/6) IRA, 28, RC Douglas Street, Cork Mick Murphy, O/C 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, regarded O’Sullivan, from Rathmore, Kerry, as one of his best company captains. In early 1921 he was sent to England to carry out killings which did not materialise for one reason or another. At around 20:00, O’Sullivan encountered a plain-clothes patrol. He ran into a building, then upstairs and out through a back window, but was intercepted and shot, dying within minutes. Buried SFC.642 James Hetherington (19Apr1921/7) RIC (67866), 31, Farmer, CoI Ballisodare Railway Station, Sligo Hetherington, from Fivemiletown, Tyrone, joined the RIC on 2 June 1914, stationed in Sligo town. Thomas Deignan claimed that the IRA discovered that constables Hetherington and Thomas Kelly, who were very active in reprisals in the brigade area, would be on the Dublin–Sligo train. Led by brigade O/C Liam Pilkington, they took over the train at Ballisodare Station at 20:15. As well as the two unarmed constables, they disarmed six soldiers. These were released, but Hetherington and Kelly were interrogated and shot dead 100 yards from the station. They were carrying dispatches for Dublin and Athlone respectively. Buried Fivemiletown Churchyard. His mother secured £450 compensation plus expenses.643 RD: Kelly (19Apr1921/8) Thomas Kelly (19Apr1921/8) RIC (64253), 37, Farmer, Married with two children, RC Ballisodare Railway Station, Sligo See Hetherington (19Apr1921/7). Kelly, from Louisburgh, Mayo, joined the RIC on 20 July 1908, serving at Rosses Point and Grange before being stationed in No. 2 Barracks, Sligo. His eldest child was two-and-a-half

years old. Buried Drumcliffe, Sligo. His widow secured £5,000 compensation and his children £2,000 each. A further £1,000 went to sister-in-law Evelyn Mackey, who lived with the family.644

20 APRIL 1921 Jeremiah George Quill (20Apr1921/1) Ex-RIC (67239), Ex-serviceman, Married, RC Kilgarvan, Kerry Quill, from Clare, was kidnapped by armed men from his aunt’s house in Kilgarvan at around 02:00. They took him towards Ballyvourney: ‘He has not since been heard of.’ The BMH Chronology lists him as ‘shot dead’. Quill originally joined the RIC on 16 April 1913, serving in Kerry and then Clare. In February 1916 he enlisted in the navy, and married without official sanction on 21 October 1916. Demobilised on 9 February 1919, he rejoined the RIC next day, but resigned in October.645 Charles Nicholson (20Apr1921/2) 28, Riveter, Widowed with three children, CoI Albertbridge Road, Belfast Nicholson, of 80 Medway Street, was arrested by a curfew patrol and taken away in a cage lorry. At about 23:30 he fell from the vehicle on Albertbridge Road and it drove over him.646 William Mordon (20Apr1921/3) 60, Ex-serviceman Dungannon, Tyrone The Fermanagh Times reported how Mordon was taken from his home near Dungannon during the night. His body was found next day in a marsh some distance away, shot through the heart. No individual or organisation claimed responsibility.647

21 APRIL 1921 John Harrison (21Apr1921/1) 54, Farmer, Married with twelve children, Methodist Drumreilly, Ballinamore, Leitrim Harrison lived in Drumreilly, five miles east of Ballinamore. Described as ‘a Protestant of an inoffensive disposition’, he farmed a

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holding of 40 acres. In October 1920 the IRA ‘took his best cow’ for his refusal to contribute £1 to an arms levy. After an exchange of shots in the air, Harrison handed over a .45 revolver. That weekend a Protestant minister met with brigade officers on Harrison’s behalf. Harrison ‘paid the money there and then and his cow [was] returned to him’. A day later houses in which brigade officers had stayed were raided, though without result. The IRA subsequently pressed Harrison to hand over another gun they believed he held: ‘On one occasion we marched him about a mile from his house and fired shots over him and . . . still he’d give up no gun.’ At 04:00 Jane Harrison heard loud knocking. Her husband refused to go outside, and IRA accounts claim he fired ‘several shots’. When the raiders, from the Aughawillan Company, Leitrim Brigade, IRA, led by Thomas Smith, smashed windows and threatened to set fire to the roof, Harrison ‘handed out a short service rifle . . . and about 20 r[oun]ds of Ammunition’. Although ‘he begged us not to shoot him, I said we had to carry out our orders, we told him he had to come with us, we also told [him] he needed no coat’. After bringing him ‘about 300 y[ar]ds down . . . I asked him was there any reason why he shouldn’t be executed, as he was both spying and informing. He made no answer.’ Patrick Martin, James McTeighe and John McGuire, all from Ballinamore, shot him. Charles Pinkman, IRA brigade intelligence officer, said Harrison was shot as ‘a spy or intelligence agent’, though the detailed story scarcely supports this predictable accusation. Shortly after his killing ‘several Protestant farmers . . . left the locality and others are preparing to leave as they have been threatened with the extreme penalty’. Seventy years later local Frank Darcy recalled that ‘everyone condemned it. Oh damn me it was too cruel.’ Jane Harrison secured £2,800 compensation plus an additional £400 for damage to her mental health. Each of her children secured £400.648 SA: Lambert (19Jun1921/9)

Thomas Phelan (21Apr1921/2) 18, Agricultural labourer, RC Oldtown, Ballyragget, Kilkenny Phelan, from Oldtown, Ballyragget, was shot near his home as he returned from buying a newspaper. A mixed patrol of military and police detailed to go to Mary Phelan’s farm to obtain labour to clear trees felled across the road encountered a cyclist, who on being called on to halt jumped off his machine and ran. Fired on, he died in the bohereen leading into his farm.649 Denis O’Loughlin (21Apr1921/3) RIC (78430), 48, Ex-serviceman, Married with four children, RC Main Street, Tralee, Kerry O’Loughlin, from Kerry, joined the RIC on 21 January 1921 as a temporary constable, detached as a cook with H Company, Auxiliary Division, stationed in Tralee, where he lived at 22 Brogue Lane, Rock Street. He was shot in Knightly’s pub on Main Street at about 22:10 by three men while drinking with another constable. The pub was destroyed in reprisal next day. Buried Rath Cemetery, Tralee. His widow Mary secured £600 compensation and each of his four children £300.650 John O’Reilly651 (21Apr1921/4) 40, Labourer, ex-serviceman, Married with one stepchild, RC Ballycar, Newmarket-on-Fergus, Clare O’Reilly, of Weaver’s Row, Newmarketon-Fergus, demobilised in May 1919, was a labourer for Lord Inchiquinn. He also worked part time in a quarry and was secretary of the Newmarket-on-Fergus branch of the Comrades of the Great War Association. RIC Sergeant Thomas Harrison described him as ‘a well-known loyalist’, but ‘I know John Reilly was not a spy’. Michael Brennan, West Clare Brigade O/C, ordered O’Reilly’s execution because he was ‘mixing a good deal with the Black and Tans in Newmarket’. At around 23:30, armed and masked Volunteers called to O’Reilly’s home, claimed to be police and ordered him to get dressed. He was shot by a firing party including P. Maher, P. Higgins, P. Liddy,

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P. Purcell and John Mack. Father William Kennedy, curate in Newmarket-on-Fergus, described how he was summoned to tend a wounded man. He then met a party of about twelve men carrying revolvers, with Reilly as their prisoner: ‘They retired about 12 yards and left me with him, guarding us carefully. I then ministered to him.’ Father Kennedy: left Reilly kneeling and intimated to the men that he was ready. They . . . formed a part circle round him. One man then blindfolded him and pinned a paper to his back. Then they fired a volley at about three paces distance. The prisoner uttered a groan after he fell over. Then about four men fired shots at him. Then I anointed him.

discussed this incident. The wagons were set on fire and the prisoners released. DI Gilbert Potter came upon the scene and was kidnapped as the IRA were leaving. The dead soldier was not named in press reports, BMH statements or police accounts, but his father Amos, of Plymouth, sought compensation for the ‘murder’ of his son (he had already secured £700 compensation). Buried Plymouth (Ford Park) Cemetery (General M. 45 25).653 SA: Potter (26Apr1921/3)

John Cyril MacDonald (22Apr1921/2) RIC (76409), 28, Ex-serviceman, Protestant CMHC From London, MacDonald joined the RIC on 7 December 1920, stationed in Union Father Kennedy broke the news to Mrs Reilly, Quay Barracks, Cork. On 17 April the telling her, ‘Your husband is in heaven. I was constable was out walking with Kathleen with him from first to last.’ Patrick Reidy Murphy at about 21:45 when two men on recalled that O’Reilly met his end ‘in a brave Cove Street jumped on him and disarmed and quiet manner’. Seán Murnane, quarter- him. MacDonald told another RIC man master East Clare Brigade, who led the in the Cork Military Hospital that he had operation, suggested that O’Reilly was impli- been shot in the face when he tried to grab cated in the deaths of the Loughnane an assailant’s revolver. He died at 19:00. brothers. But Séamus Connolly maintained Mick Murphy, O/C 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 that ‘O’Reilly was innocent and was . . . Brigade, termed MacDonald ‘a particularly framed by the postman in Newmarket obnoxious individual’.654 who himself was the real spy.’ Connolly said O’Reilly’s supposed guilt rested on a letter Peter Dempsey (22Apr1921/3) seized in the post addressed to him from the 19, Ex-serviceman, builder’s labourer, RC RIC. O’Reilly’s widow Mary secured £1,200 Junction of Rutland Place and Thompson’s compensation.652 Cottages, North Circular Road, Dublin SA: Loughnane (27Nov1920/1), Loughnane Dempsey, demobilised from the RAF in (27Nov1920/2) February 1921, lived at 3 Bailey’s Cottages, Summerhill. One of three men fired on by 22 APRIL 1921 Auxiliaries travelling through Summerhill Thomas Edward Conday (22Apr1921/1) towards the Parnell Monument at around RFA (6325), 21 19:00, supposedly for having failed to halt, he Garrymore Cross, Clogheen, Tipperary was hit in the head. No incriminating papers ASUs of the 3rd Tipperary Brigade had lain or weapons were found. Dempsey and a in ambush at Hyland’s Cross, near Clogheen friend had been watching some boys playing on the Cahir road, for a military convoy cards. R. D. F. Oldman, colonel-commandant which did not materialise. They were 24th Infantry Brigade, considered that the withdrawing when, unexpectedly, a rations Auxiliaries were not justified in firing, while convoy appeared. Police reports indicate that acknowledging the trying circumstances a party of fifteen military with supply wagons in which they had to operate. Near where was ambushed at 16:45. Three soldiers were Dempsey fell, neighbours ‘erected a small wounded, of whom one died. Four horses white wooden cross . . . surrounded by little were also killed. Several BMH statements statues and images’.655

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Unknown (22Apr1921/4) Ex-serviceman, 25 Rutland Place, Dublin Press accounts, the BMH Chronology and a tally of Dublin IRA executions compiled by Todd Andrews record an unknown man found at around 22:00 with a bullet wound to the head in Rutland Place, North Summer Street: ‘well dressed, in a brown suit . . . nothing . . . in his possession which might lead to identification except an R[oyal] F[ield] A[rtillery] badge’.656 Vivian Montagu Lys de Belabre (22Apr1921/5) Royal Corps of Signals, 27 Dublin Signalman de Belabre fractured his skull in a motorcycle collision. This dashing figure had previously served as a lieutenant from 1915, before being dismissed from the service by a general court martial in November 1918. He subsequently served in the British forces in Murmansk in 1919. The Cairo Gang website, and a curious double entry on the CWGC register, suggests he may have had an intelligence role. Buried GMC.657

23 APRIL 1921 John Boylan (23Apr1921/1) RIC (60741), 40, Farmer, Widowed with five children, RC Kilmilkin, Maam, Galway Constable Boylan, from Leitrim, joined the RIC on 16 May 1902, serving in Kilkenny, the RIC Reserve, Kilkenny a second time, Galway, Kerry and Oughterard, Galway. His eldest child was seven. He was in a fourteen-man cycle patrol under DI Sugrue searching for an IRA ASU. They left Oughterard at 03:00 in motor lorries, transferring to bicycles near Leenane to avoid detection. They were fired on at around 07:30 from high ground near Muintir Eoin House, the home of Pádraic Ó Máille TD. The police took cover in a stream and engaged the IRA. Some hours into the engagement, Boylan said to his companions: ‘I’m hit. They have the range of the road. Do the best you can.’ Father C. Cunningham, administrator in Leenane, drove to the scene,

and came under IRA fire while ministering to wounded policemen. At about noon, Constable Ruttledge held up a motor car driven by Francis Joyce of Leenane, himself a Volunteer but not part of the operation. Ruttledge commanded Joyce to ‘drive like hell’. Although wounded in the arm, the constable reached Maam and raised the alarm. At about 15:30, police reinforcements with machine guns arrived, forcing the IRA to retreat. Some of the local IRA wished to kill Joyce as a traitor, though the O/C West Connemara Brigade proposed only a large fine: ‘His actions, besides spoiling a complete victory for us, has lost us at least £100 worth of ammunition & explosives.’ GHQ sought more information on his case. Buried Oughterard. Boylan was posthumously awarded the constabulary medal. His sister secured £237 compensation and his five children a total of £3,000.658 Timothy Cranley (23Apr1921/2) 40, Butcher, RC Rosanna, Tipperary, Tipperary Cranley lived with his mother on St Michael Street, Tipperary. He left his home to go for a walk on the afternoon of 23 April. His body was found at Rosanna, off the Dundrum road about half a mile north of Tipperary town, shot with American ammunition of a type not issued to Crown forces. DI Captain Gallogly confirmed that during the boycott of police in October 1920 Cranley openly supplied them, being almost the only one to do so voluntarily. He further deposed that the Cranley family and that of William Allen, father of Seán Allen, had been on poor terms. Family members stressed that Cranley’s death was not the result of a family feud. A relative later wrote that Volunteers had intended to court martial Cranley, who resisted and was shot. Buried St Mary’s Cemetery, Tipperary.659 SA: Allen (28Feb1921/1) John McFadden (23Apr1921/3) RIC (65056), 31, Farmer, Married, RC Henry Street, Kilrush, Clare McFadden, from Derry, joined the RIC on 1 November 1909, serving in Down and

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Belfast and in Kilrush. Promoted to sergeant on 1 November 1920, he was awarded the constabulary medal. Volunteers of the East and West Clare brigades combined to mount a night ambush in Kilrush, where there were strong military contingents of Royal Scots and Royal Marines as well as RIC. Michael Brennan led a few Volunteers who fired at the police barracks in the hope that Verey lights would be sent up and that these would draw out the military based in the coast guard station and the workhouse. As they reached Market Square, they heard voices and saw men standing in the shadow of a house on the far side. Brennan left his companions and went to investigate. The men called out in Irish accents. Brennan, assuming they were locals, approached them. Only then did he see McFadden, who mistook Brennan for a fellow policeman. Brennan fired and ran. Buried Donegal.660 Ernest Baron Bolam (23Apr1921/4) ADRIC (81837), 34, Army officer Donegall Place, Belfast Bolam, from Kent, served with The King’s (Liverpool Regiment), and was later a captain attached to the Chinese Labour Corps. He joined the Auxiliaries on 23 January 1921, and in March transferred to P Company, stationed in Tubbercurry, Sligo. Cadets Bales and Bolam went to Belfast on escort duty on 22 April. Shortly after 21:00, they were attacked near Donegall Place by Séamus Woods and Roger McCorley of the ASU Belfast Brigade. Bolam was killed outright. Bales died in hospital at about 23:00 the next day. McCorley recalled this as a chance shooting: a larger operation had just been called off when the two Auxiliaries were observed. The Duffin brothers were killed in reprisal. Bolam’s father secured £500 compensation.661 RD: Bales (24Apr1921/2). SA: Duffin (23Apr 1921/5), Duffin (23Apr1921/6) Daniel Duffin (23Apr1921/5) IRA, 24, Clerk, RC 64 Clonard Gardens, Belfast Daniel (Dan) and Pat Duffin lived at 64 Clonard Gardens. Daniel, a former Labour

Exchange clerk, was unemployed, and an officer in B Company, 1st Battalion, Belfast Brigade. Following the shooting of Auxiliaries Bales and Bolam, the police carried out reprisals during curfew hours. John Duffin heard a knock on his door at about 23:50. As he came downstairs, armed men ordered him to put his hands up. Shooting then broke out, and he found his brothers Dan and Pat lying dead in the kitchen. Dan had been shot four times in the chest and Pat three. The raiders wore trench coats. McKenna stated that many such reprisals against nationalists were directed from Springfield Road RIC Barracks, with DI Ferris, who had served with DI Swanzy in Cork, particularly implicated. Several attempts were made to assassinate Ferris. Buried Glenravel, Antrim.662 RD: Duffin (23Apr1921/6). SA: Bales (24Apr 1921/2), Bolam (23Apr1921/4), Swanzy (22Aug1920/1) Patrick Duffin (23Apr1921/6) 28, Primary school teacher, RC 64 Clonard Gardens, Belfast See Duffin (23Apr1921/5). A teacher at St Paul’s Primary School, Patrick was in the Gaelic League but was not involved in radical politics. Buried Glenravel, Antrim.663

24 APRIL 1921 Michael Joseph Cahill (24Apr1921/1) RIC (72022), 25, Ex-serviceman, RC KGVH Cahill, from Clonmel, Tipperary, joined the RIC as a cadet on 22 July 1920 after demobilisation from the RIF, and was promoted to DI on 1 October, stationed in Gormanston Camp, Meath. He was one of three policemen in a motor car which encountered a Lancashire Fusiliers patrol near Cloghran Crossroads. The police in the car and the military each said the other group had opened fire. Cahill, mortally wounded, died at 00:35 after an operation. Buried Shanavine, Clonmel, Tipperary.664 John Beets Bales (24Apr1921/2) ADRIC (82706), 23, Army officer RVHB See Bolam (23Apr1921/4). Bales, from Norfolk, served with the Norfolk Yeomanry

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and then with the RFC in Gallipoli, Egypt and the Balkans. He joined the RIC on 30 March 1921, serving in P Company in Tubbercurry, Sligo.665

25 APRIL 1921 Patrick Joseph Bell (25Apr1921/1) 24, Cattle dealer, RC Infirmary, Tralee, Kerry Bell, from Lusk, Dublin, was shot in the leg by a soldier for failing to halt at 23:00 on 21 April, when Crown forces in Tralee were very active following the shooting of Constable Denis O’Loughlin. Although initially reported as ‘doing well’, his leg was amputated on 23 April; he died due to infection two days later.666 SA: O’Loughlin (21Apr1921/3) Thomas Traynor (25Apr1921/2) IRA, 39, Shoemaker, Married with ten children, RC Mountjoy Prison, Dublin Traynor, from Carlow, owned a shoe shop on Crown Alley. He lived at 142 McCaffrey Street. He fought at Boland’s Mills during the Rising, and was later interned in Frongoch. He was in B Company, 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. Traynor was captured at the junction of Great Brunswick Street and Upper Sandwich Street in possession of an automatic pistol and ammunition. This followed a fierce exchange between an Auxiliary raiding party and the IRA in which two policemen and three IRA men were killed. He was apparently badly beaten in Dublin Castle by members of the so-called ‘Igoe Gang’. Charged with the murder of Temporary Constable James J. Farrell on 5 April, he was tried before a general court martial at Dublin City Hall. Solicitor Michael Noyk recalled that Traynor claimed that he was delivering the revolver to 144 Great Brunswick Street. His barrister argued that there was no evidence that he had fired the gun. Convicted, he was sentenced to death. The IRA sought to exchange the kidnapped DI Gilbert Potter. Various individuals and organisations called for a reprieve, including the archbishop of

Cashel, but Traynor was hanged at 08:00. The IRA shot Potter the following day. Buried Mountjoy Prison yard. His remains were exhumed and reburied at GC after a state funeral on 14 October 2001, along with those of eight other executed Volunteers. His widow and seven of her children secured dependents’ allowances.667 SA: Farrell (14Mar1921/11), Potter (26Apr 1921/3) Thomas McGrath668 (25Apr1921/3) 42, Farmer, Married, RC Glendree, Tulla, Clare McGrath lived in Glendale, Tulla, Clare. At about 19:00 a mixed patrol of police and military claimed they heard a shot as they encountered a ditch dug across the road at Glendree. Private Hemmings of the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry fired at a man seen running away. The Saturday Record reported that McGrath had been feeding his cattle.669 John Henry George Marquis (25Apr1921/4) Gloucester Regiment, 19 Buttevant, Cork Drummer ‘Jack’ Marquis, from Guernsey, badly wounded during operations around Banteer, died in Buttevant Military Hospital. Buried St Peter Port (Foulon) Cemetery, Guernsey.670

26 APRIL 1921 Norman Thorton Fielding (26Apr1921/1) East Lancashire Regiment (3379143), 19, Coal drawer, CoE Churchtown, Buttevant, Cork From Blackburn, Lancashire, Private Fielding was ‘an enthusiastic member of the East Lancashire Cadets’ and a boy scout before enlisting at Preston on 14 March 1920. Patrick O’Brien, vice-O/C Charleville Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade, recalled how the military at Buttevant sometimes sent out men posing as deserters. One detained in the Liscarroll Company area for a few days and then ‘allowed on his way’ later guided a patrol which razed the house in which he had been

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held. Fielding, captured in the Freemount area, was deemed to be another false deserter, and ‘extreme measures’ were taken. At about 09:15, a man found a body, shot three times in the back, on the Churchtown to Liscarroll road. According to the Lillywhites’ Gazette, Fielding had been out for a walk unarmed. The homes of two Liscarroll Company officers were destroyed in reprisal, which suggests that the military had good local information. Buried Blackburn Cemetery, Lancashire (N. CE. 8842).671 Thomas Hannon (26Apr1921/2) 21, Groom, RC Clonbern, Galway Hannon, from Tuam, Galway, worked for Charles O’Rourke, who owned land at Clonbern, about 9 miles north-east of Tuam. They were bringing beagles to Clonbern to go hunting when seized by the IRA, apparently after Crown forces had been tipped off about a planned IRA ambush. Hannon was shot after a priest ministered to him. Schoolchildren found his body. An attached envelope stated: ‘Convicted Spy. Executed by IRA. Others beware.’ The British colonelcommandant Galway Brigade termed Hannon ‘a loyal subject, employed by a loyal subject’. Hannon’s father Denis secured £759 compensation and his mother Mary £400.672 Gilbert Norman Potter (26Apr1921/3) RIC (59414), 43, Married with four children, Protestant Clonea Power, Waterford Potter, from Dromahair, Leitrim, joined the RIC as a cadet on 27 January 1900. He had been stationed in Cahir, Tipperary, since 1911. On 22 April, No. 1 ASU of Tipperary No. 3 Brigade stopped a man in civilian clothes driving towards Cahir when he drove into the aftermath of an ambush. This was Potter. Potter was held in various houses in different company areas. The brigade staff offered to release him in return for a reprieve for Thomas Traynor, due to be hanged in Mountjoy Prison. BMH statements indicate that Potter was initially optimistic. He kept a diary until his death. At one point, according

to his captors, he attempted to escape but was fired on and recaptured. At 11:00 on 26 April he wrote that he had been informed that he was to be killed at 19:00, on orders from GHQ. James Kilmartin, vice-O/C No. 1 ASU, regarded Potter as a gentleman. It was put to him unofficially that he would be allowed to escape provided he gave his word of honour that he would take no further action against the IRA. Potter said that he had to do his duty as he saw fit. Dinny Lacy† took charge of the execution on the banks of the River Clodagh – BMH statements differ slightly on the precise location. Bill Allen and another Volunteer named Crowe shot Potter but did not kill him outright, whereupon Lacy administered a fatal bullet. Ten farmhouses in the south Tipperary area were blown up by the military as an official reprisal. Lilias Potter received a parcel on 8 May, bearing a Cahir postmark, containing a letter from her husband, his diary, will, signet ring and gold watch. As early as 23 June, IRA chief of staff Richard Mulcahy noted a request for details of Potter’s burial received ‘through a Dublin doctor . . . it would be very desirable’ to provide such information. On 10 August, Mrs Potter wrote to President de Valera ‘to ask for the body of my late husband, or knowledge as to its whereabouts. . . . My husband was very dear to me . . . it would be a sad comfort to visit his grave & care for it . . . I & my little children hope it will be granted.’ On 26 August Potter’s remains were handed over in Clonmel. His widow secured £12,000 compensation.673 SA: Traynor (25Apr1921/2) Alfred Stephen Brinson (26Apr1921/4) 39, Coastguard, married Buncrana, Donegal Brinson, an Englishman and former Royal Marine, shot himself in married quarters in the Buncrana coastguard station. His wife Elizabeth, of Chatham, Kent, said he had become convinced that his superiors were against him, whereas he was regarded as a diligent and able officer. His suicide note began, ‘I wonder if they will be satisfied now.’ Commemorated United Kingdom Book of Remembrance, Berkshire.674

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27 APRIL 1921 Laurence Allen (27Apr1921/1) 64, Farmer, Married, RC MHD Allen lived in Raheenagurren, Gorey, Wexford. The People reported that on 26 April, shortly after prosecution for a milk hygiene offence in the police court, Allen was knocked down by a Rolls Royce armoured car on Curzon Street, dying next day from a fractured skull, damaged hip and other injuries. Buried St Michael’s Cemetery, Gorey, Wexford.675 William Thomas Steadman (27Apr1921/2) DMP (10950), 34, Protestant KGVH Steadman, from Ballygarrett, Gorey, Wexford, had twelve years’ DMP service. He carried documents daily by motorcycle between Dublin Castle and the RIC depot in the Phoenix Park. After two days of waiting, Christopher Fitzsimons, No. 2 Section ASU Dublin Brigade, and Tom Flood intercepted Steadman on 21 April as he passed at the corner of Mary Street and Jervis Street: ‘Myself and the other man stepped from the path. I put my gun to his back, the other put his to his chest, and fired. In all seven shots, putting six into the D[ispatch] R[ider] and the seventh missed him. . . . As there were police about . . . I had not the time to take the dispatches or to search the man.’ Witnesses told how they found a man lying wounded beside a motorcycle. Steadman himself described how he had been held up by a tall man armed with an automatic pistol who fired at him but missed. Then other civilians fired and wounded him as he lost control of his motorcycle. His condition deteriorated over the days. He died at 14:45. Buried Enniscorthy, Wexford.676

28 APRIL 1921 Patrick Ronayne (28Apr1921/1) IRA, 24, Farmer, RC Military Detention Barracks, Cork See Creedon (15Feb1921/10). Ronayne, from Greenhill, Burnfort, Cork, farmed 50 acres

and was a Volunteer in the Burnfort Company, Cork No. 2 Brigade. Sentenced to death following the Mourne Abbey ambush, he was shot by firing squad in the Military Detention Barracks, Cork, at 08:05 on 28 April. Buried Cork Prison yard. His father Patrick secured a £50 dependent’s gratuity.677 Thomas Mulcahy (28Apr1921/2) IRA, 19, Farmer, RC Military Detention Barracks, Cork See Creedon (15Feb1921/10). Mulcahy, from Toureen, Burnfort, Cork, was in the Burnfort Company, Cork No. 2 Brigade. Mulcahy was sentenced to death by court martial following the Mourne Abbey ambush in February 1921. The IRA claimed that ‘though wounded and had [sic] his hands up [he] had his finger blown off by an Officer, when he would not give the name of his Officers’. Shot by firing squad in the Military Detention Barracks, Cork, at 08:05, he was buried in Cork Prison yard. His father Thomas failed to secure a dependent’s award.678 Patrick O’Sullivan (28Apr1921/3) IRA, 22, Labourer, RC Military Detention Barracks, Cork See Desmond (20Feb1921/6). O’Sullivan, from Carrignafoy, Queenstown (Cobh), Cork, was an overseer at Haulbowline Dockyard. Two of his brothers were exservicemen, and a third died serving in the Royal Navy. He was a Volunteer in A (Cobh) Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, and the battalion ASU. Prior to capture at Clonmult, he had assisted in the disposal of the body of John Coughlan in 1920. At 08:22 he was executed by firing squad. Buried Cork Prison yard. He is commemorated in Ticknock Graveyard, Cobh, Cork.679 SA: Coughlan (14Aug1920/3). Maurice Moore (28Apr1921/4) IRA, 26, Plumber’s labourer, RC Military Detention Barracks, Cork See Desmond (20Feb1921/6). Moore, from Ticknock, Queenstown (Cobh), was a plumber’s mate at the Haulbowline Dockyard, and a

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Volunteer in A (Cobh) Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade and the battalion ASU. Captured at Clonmult on 20 February 1921 and subsequently convicted of waging war against the king, he and Patrick O’Sullivan (28Apr1921/2) were executed by firing squad at the Military Detention Barracks, Cork. Buried Cork Prison yard. He is commemorated in Ticknock Graveyard, Cobh, Cork. His father Michael secured a £100 dependent’s gratuity.680

29 APRIL 1921 John Edward Bunce (29Apr1921/1) RIC (79386), 31, Plate layer, ex-serviceman, Married with four children CMHC Bunce, from Windsor, joined the RIC on 24 February 1921, stationed in Bandon. He was fatally wounded when, clambering over a bank of earth at a trenched road at Castlelact near Bandon, he bumped into and caused to discharge a rifle which was stacked nearby. Buried England. His widow was granted a yearly pension of £50 together with an annual allowance of £10 to each child until they reached the age of sixteen.681

30 APRIL 1921 Patrick Molloy (30Apr1921/1) 25, Agricultural labourer, RC Kilroe, Headford, Galway Molloy lived with his mother in Kilroe, Headford, Galway. At around 01:30 three masked men with revolvers took him from his home. His mother was held prisoner. She heard shots. His body was later found near his house, shot ten times. An attached label read: ‘Reported informer. Convicted spy. Others beware. IRA.’ The police described him as ‘a sober, industrious and wellconducted man . . . his death is regretted’. Buried Kilroe.682 Owen Rice (30Apr1921/2) 25, Factory hand, RC Staplestown Road, Carlow Rice lived with his mother on Staplestown Road, Carlow, and worked in the boot factory. At about 21:00, he was shot dead by a

military curfew patrol close to his home. Thomas Neill of Pollerton Road, Carlow was wounded during the same incident. The military maintained that shots had earlier been fired. The evidence presented scarcely supported this. A secret report by Colonel-Commandant P. C. B. Skinner, commanding 14th Infantry Brigade, to HQ 5th Division disclosed that an IRA party on bicycles had raided Carlow railway station and burnt furniture consigned to Dublin Castle, but had dispersed before soldiers in a Crossley tender under Lieutenant Grundy arrived in pursuit. Grundy’s party encountered an antagonistic crowd of civilians drawn by the earlier excitement. Orders ‘in regard to firing . . . were not strictly complied with . . . some of these men were under the impression that they had been fired on, and possibly the accidental discharge of a rifle by one of them led to the opening of fire’. Rice’s death was ‘unfortunate and unnecessary’, though it was the IRA, not the army, who should be blamed: ‘This incident is due to the practice of armed rebels of waging a form of warfare in the midst of an unarmed and often inoffensive population and I consider that the blame for the killing of Owen Rice does not lie with the troops.’ Buried Ballinacarrig, Carlow.683 Stephen [O’]Callaghan (30Apr1921/3) 28, Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC South Infirmary, Cork O’Callaghan, of 23 Rutland Street, Cork, came under suspicion. Patrick Collins of G Company, 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, asserted that the ‘brigade had ample evidence that this man [O’Callaghan] was conveying information’. Collins’s confused account – most details of which correspond to the killing of John O’Callaghan – stated that at around 23:30 on 29 April, he and Jeremiah Keating, also of G Company, approached O’Callaghan and asked O’Callaghan to help identify men who had recently beaten him up. O’Callaghan apparently agreed. Held initially in the Thomas Ashe Hall on Father Matthew Quay, he was later brought out to Farmers

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Cross, where Keating claimed he was killed and buried. However, RIC reports indicated that Stephen O’Callaghan, who ‘in fact . . . had not’ given information, was shot and dangerously wounded at Anderson Quay at 21:45 on 29 April. He died early next day following an operation. Connie Neenan later stated that O’Callaghan was killed because he had been overheard telephoning a British intelligence officer about a man who had disappeared the previous September, a claim which again appears to relate to John O’Callaghan.684 SA: O’Callaghan (15Sep1920/1) Thomas Walsh (30Apr1921/4) 24, Egg packer, RC Davis Street, Tipperary, Tipperary Walsh, from Robertstown, Foynes, Limerick, lived at 12 Davis Street, Tipperary. Suspected of involvement in the murder of Timothy Cranley, police took him into custody. Three constables guarded him. They claimed that he suddenly bolted and, failing to halt when ordered, was shot. He died around 23:45. Buried Dunmoylan Cemetery, Shanagolden, Limerick.685 SA: Cranley (23Apr1921/2) Geoffrey Lee Compton-Smith (30Apr1921/5) Royal Welch Fusiliers, 31, Army officer, Married with one child Donoughmore, Cork Compton-Smith, from Surrey, was commissioned in the Green Howards in 1910, and promoted to captain in the Royal Welch Fusiliers in 1915. By 1918 he was an acting lieutenant-colonel in The King’s (Liverpool Regiment). Twice wounded and five times mentioned in dispatches, and awarded the DSO and the Légion d’Honneur, he became commandant Ballyvonare Camp. Major Compton-Smith disappeared on 16 April, while ostensibly on a sketching expedition (he was rumoured to be conducting an affair with a woman in the Hydro Hotel in Blarney). Felix O’Doherty, of Blarney Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, described how a tall man in civilian clothes

with a military bearing purchased a large packet of Players cigarettes and a newspaper in a shop in Blarney. Frank Busteed, vice-O/C, O’Doherty and E. J. Murphy, who were unarmed, trailed and captured the man as he headed towards the station. He was removed to what Busteed termed ‘the death chamber’ in Rylane parish, in which perhaps as many as fifteen people were kept before being killed: ‘It was away from everywhere in the wilderness. It was known as “the Cottage”. He’s for “the Cottage”, we’d say among ourselves, and that meant he was for execution.’ Compton-Smith thanked the IRA for their care, said that they would be quite justified in shooting him ‘because we shoot your men’, and remarked that if they held out for a few more months Ireland would certainly get dominion status. The IRA offered to trade Compton-Smith for Volunteers under sentence of death in Cork, but the exchange was refused and six prisoners were executed on 28 April. Compton-Smith was condemned by an IRA court martial at Courtbrack, Blarney. Frank Busteed termed him ‘a real soldier. I wouldn’t allow any of the country boys to lay a hand on him.’ Maurice Brew, Donoughmore Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, described how Compton-Smith lit a cigarette and gave instructions that he would drop it as a signal to shoot. This improbably gallant officer wrote to: My own darling wife, yours humbly will die with your name on his lips, your face before my eyes, and he will die like an Englishman and a soldier. . . . I leave my watch to the officer who is executing me, because I believe him to be a gentleman, and to mark the fact that I bear him no malice for carrying out what he believes to be his duty.

A note to his regiment ran:

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I am to be shot in an hour’s time. I should like you fellows to know that this sentence has been passed on me and that I intend to die like a Welch Fusilier with a laugh and forgiveness for those who are carrying out the deed.

c. 30 APRIL 1921

Coachford village’. His body was never found. Ellen Harrison and her child each secured £250 compensation.687

I should like my death to lessen rather than increase the bitterness which exists between England and Ireland. I have been treated with great kindness and during my short captivity, have learned to regard Sinn Féiners rather as mistaken idealists than as a ‘Murder Gang’. My cigarette case I leave to the Mess. I carried it with the Regiment throughout the war and I shall die with it in my pocket. God bless you all comrades

1 MAY 1921

Shot by a party including John J. O’Leary, Maurice Brew, Patrick Collins and John Mannin, he was buried in a bog near Donoughmore. There he lay, despite several inquiries, until 2 March 1926, when the Garda Síochána recovered his corpse. A lead-lined coffin was ‘found to be an absolute necessity as the remains on arrival at Cork Barracks were oozing out through the ordinary coffin’. The coffin, escorted by an Irish army guard of honour, was handed over to British forces at Penrose Quay, Cork. Compton-Smith was buried at Fort Carlisle Military Cemetery, Cork, on 24 March. His widow Gladys secured £10,000 compensation, divided equally between herself and her daughter Anne. His cigarette case is in the Royal Welch Fusiliers Regimental Museum.686

Henry Ross Cowie (1May1921/1) RIC (79339), 35, Storekeeper, ex-serviceman, Presbyterian Infirmary, Monaghan, Monaghan Cowie, from Aberdeen, joined the RIC on 23 February 1921, stationed in Newbliss, Monaghan. He and other constables were in the barracks kitchen at around 11:30 on 30 April discussing Constable McCullie’s new Webley revolver. Constable Boyle inadvertently pressed the trigger, wounding Cowie in the side. He died at 01:00. Buried Liverpool.688

c. 30 APRIL 1921

Joseph Coughlan (1May1921/2) IRA, 17, Agricultural labourer, RC Sunfort, Liscarroll, Cork Coughlan lived in Sunfort, Liscarroll. Trenching of roads had become commonplace in Liscarroll. At 01:00 a military patrol on the Churchtown to Milford road challenged a group of about six people to halt; they ran, and about twenty rounds were fired. Joseph was later found dead on the roadside. His grandmother Margaret Dennehy secured a £50 dependent’s gratuity on the basis that Joseph was a member of the Liscarroll Company.689

Arthur Joseph Harrison (30Apr1921/6) RIC (73342), 29, Labourer, ex-serviceman, Married with one child, RC Coachford, Cork Harrison, from Lancashire, joined the RIC on 24 September 1920, stationed in Carrigadrohid. The RIC General Register recorded that Harrison resigned on 30 April due to his wife’s ill-health. He was last seen alive at 15:00 as he left Carrigadrohid for Coachford Railway Station, where he was captured, reportedly armed, by John Buckley, Daniel Dineen and James O’Keeffe of 6th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. GHQ noted that Harrison was ‘charged & tried for being responsible for a large number of arrests in the district. He was executed outside

Michael O’Keeffe (1May1921/3) 29, Ex-serviceman, Married with two children, RC Carrigtwohill, Cork O’Keeffe, discharged from the RGA with a disability pension, hailed from Ballyvolane, Cork and lived on Main Street, Carrigtwohill. His wife described how, late at night, he answered the door. His body was found at 05:00 near the post office, shot three times in the temple and chest. An attached card read, ‘Spies and Informers Beware IRA.’ Mick Leahy, Vice O/C, Cork No. 1 Brigade, said, ‘We had the goods on him.’ A British officer of 17th Infantry Brigade noted, ‘The deceased was a very loyal man.’ Thomas

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Cotter, O/C D Company, 4th Battalion Cork No. 1 Brigade, said he carried out this killing along with J. Aherne, T. O’Shea and M. Murnane, all from Carrigtwohill. O’Keeffe’s widow Hannah secured £450 compensation, and each of his two children £250.690 George Cuthbertson (1May1921/4) RIC (78047), 21, Shepherd, ex-serviceman Fihoragh, Moyne, Longford Cuthbertson, from Ayr, Scotland, joined the RIC on 19 January 1921, stationed in Arva. Constables Cuthbertson and Shaw left Arva Barracks at 11:30. Two hours later, shots were heard. After they had still not returned by 17:30, a search party found their bodies on the Cavan–Longford border, about four miles from Arva Barracks. The attack was a chance encounter. Cuthbertson and Shaw, ‘who were in tennis shoes’, had intended to arrest a man named Kiernan who was staying in a house locally. An IRA party fired on the constables from the first-floor windows as they approached. James McKeon, quartermaster North Longford ASU, recalled that he, John ‘Bun’ McDowell and Pat Cooke shot them. Buried Yorkshire.691 RD: Shaw (1May1921/5) Walter Shaw (1May1921/5) RIC (78435), 20, Post office clerk, Protestant Fihoragh, Moyne, Longford See Cuthbertson (1May1921/4). Constable Shaw, from Yorkshire, joined the RIC on 1 February 1921, stationed in Arva.692 William Albert Smith693 (1May1921/6) RIC (73965), 27, Turner, Protestant Castlemartyr, Cork Smith, from Lancashire, joined the RIC on 8 October 1920, stationed in Castlemartyr. Just after 15:00, constables Smith and Webb were seen walking, unarmed, along the riverbank in Castlemartyr demesne. Shortly afterwards, Constable Hughes, who was fishing nearby, heard five shots. Unarmed, he and his companion ran to the barracks for help. They found Smith lying dead on a cart track. Webb crawled out from the bushes, severely wounded. He died in hospital at 09:40 the

next day. Commenting on the case, the GOC wrote: There is no excuse for this man losing his life. Here are four constables going out unarmed to fish in one of the worst areas. The sooner police understand that restrictions which have to be observed by the military should be equally observed by them, the better. In my opinion, the police officer responsible for this police constable is to blame for his death.

Smith’s mother Ellen Carter secured £600 compensation.694 RD: Webb (2May1921/1) Henry Clancy (1May1921/7) IRA, 21, Ex-serviceman, railway labourer, RC Singland, Limerick Clancy, once of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, from Limerick, was in C Company, 2nd (Limerick City) Battalion, Mid Limerick Brigade. After 11:00 Mass in St John’s Cathedral, he accompanied Captain Thomas Keane to collect weapons lent to another company. They were surprised by a police patrol under Sergeant J. Horan. When the patrol approached Singland Railway Bridge, just outside the city on the Limerick to Tipperary road, men were seen running from the bridge and hiding near cottages. These opened fire, and the RIC replied. Keane and another man surrendered, but Clancy ran away and was shot dead. Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery. He is commemorated on a plaque at Ballysimon Bridge and on a monument at Murroe. His mother and a sister subsequently secured dependent’s awards.695 SA: Keane (4Jun1921/1) Seán Duffy (1May1921/8) IRA, 30, Draper’s assistant, RC Gortdrum, Tipperary, Tipperary Duffy, from Ballybay, Monaghan, was chairman of Tipperary Board of Guardians. He had worked in the Irish House, a drapery in Tipperary town, for eight years until it was burned down in a reprisal in December 1920. He then went on the run. He was O/C

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4th Battalion, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, and a senior IRB man. Tadhg Crowe, quartermaster 4th Battalion, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, recalled that at the end of April, he, Duffy, Patrick Moloney and Brian Shanahan escorted a prisoner named Jackson, a one-eyed plasterer from Tipperary town, from Lattin, where he had been imprisoned and convicted of spying. They were to shoot him as a spy. Tadhg Crowe’s recollection was that GHQ then ordered his release, whereas in the 1960s Shanahan maintained that, impressed by the prisoner’s demeanour, he had asked Duffy to postpone the killing until the order was confirmed. Whatever the reason, Jackson was released at Monard. Next day, Duffy and Moloney went to Moloney’s uncle’s farm at Gortdrum; the others were to rejoin them later. Shanahan believed that John Buckley, who worked for Moloney’s uncle, inadvertently disclosed the IRA men’s presence on the farm while he was visiting a house in Tipperary town that morning and that this reached the police. At about 15:00, a party of police and military, acting ‘on reliable information that two prominent rebels were in a certain house’, approached the farm. Armed men ran from the back of the farmhouse. Duffy was in civilian clothes, Moloney in ‘the green jacket of the I[rish] V[olunteers] with riding breeches and officer’s badges’. They were killed in an exchange of fire. Two rifles were captured; a third man, Buckley, and possibly others, escaped. The New York Times reported ‘Two Sinn Fein Chiefs Killed By The Police’, describing Duffy as ‘a leading Sinn Feiner’ and Moloney as ‘a prominent official in the republican army’. In the 1960s Brian Shanahan recalled that Duffy, whom he succeeded as O/C, was wounded ‘on top of a ditch’ but ‘continued to shoot’. Moloney ‘turned back to shoot back. . . . If he had to keep his head down, he could have got away. He got a bullet in the chin which finished him straight away.’ Shanahan also named the alleged informer. Buried St Michael’s Cemetery, Tipperary.696 RD: Moloney (1May1921/9). SA: Buckley (29Jun1921/2)

Patrick Moloney (1May1921/9) IRA, 21, Chemist’s assistant, RC Gortdrum, Tipperary, Tipperary See Duffy (1May1921/8). ‘Paddy’ Moloney, educated at Mungret College SJ where he was remembered as ‘a generous and manly boy’, was the third son of Patrick J. Moloney, Sinn Féin TD for Tipperary South, who had been on hunger strike in Wormwood Scrubs in London alongside Seán Duffy. The family home and pharmacy on Church Street, Tipperary, had been destroyed in an unofficial reprisal following the Lisvernane ambush on 13 November 1920. Paddy Moloney, who had been jailed for three months in 1919 for possession of revolvers, was adjutant 4th Battalion, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade. His brothers James and Con were also IRA officers; his older half-brother William Hannon was an RAF pilot. Moloney family narrative has it that Black and Tans brought his body back into Tipperary town on a cart, jubilant because they believed it was Con, a more senior officer, whom they had killed. Marnane cites another source which maintained that the bodies were ‘thrown out on the grass in front of the officers quarters’ in the military barracks square, where the colonel’s wife ‘happened to see one . . . raise an arm’, and sent for the workhouse chaplain ‘to perform the Last Rites’. Dublin Castle initially telegraphed London that it was James who had died with Seán Duffy. Buried St Michael’s Cemetery, Tipperary.697 SA: Buckley (29Jun1921/2) Denis Edward Tuohy (1May1921/10) IRA, 28, Policeman, farmer, RC Kenmare, Kerry Tuohy, from Kenmare, joined the RIC (68246) on 2 November 1914, serving in Galway, Dublin and Cork. He was twice denied permission to resign, before finally departing ‘to better his position’ on 29 April 1918, in the midst of the ‘Conscription Crisis’. He subsequently worked in London, becoming involved in IRA arms purchasing, before returning home in 1920. A lieutenant in the Kerry No. 2 Brigade, he was arrested by police at 04:00 at the

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family farm. Held in Kenmare Workhouse, a local doctor found he ‘was apparently well although he had sustained some bruises’. He later supposedly attempted to escape before being shot dead. His family found that ‘his neck was broken, his ten nails had been extracted, and he had at least six bullets in his back’. In reply to a parliamentary question on 25 May from Lieutenant-Commander Kenworthy MP about Tuohy’s death, the chief secretary for Ireland replied that he had not yet received the result of the court of inquiry. Buried old burial ground, Kenmare. Tuohy is, along with Con Looney,† commemorated by a memorial at Cross Roads, between Kenmare and Kilgarvan, and in 1994 a cumann of Ógra Fianna Fáil was named after him. His parents Margaret and Edward failed to secure dependents’ awards.698 Patrick Starr (1May1921/11) IRA, 21, Bootmaker, RC Knockanevin, Kildorrery, Cork Starr, of Silver Street, Nenagh, Tipperary, was a captain in the ASU, Mid Limerick Brigade. In the last week of April 1921, the three ASUs of West, Mid and East Limerick, about 130 men, assembled in the Galtee Mountains and moved to Shraharla on the Cork border. They intended to combine to attack a cycling patrol from Galbally. In a sharply critical report, Donnchadh O’Hannigan, O/C East Limerick Brigade, complained that his men were surprised by ‘5 or 6 lorries’ of enemy troops, who opened fire at a range of 600 yards: Knowing that we were to meet the East Limerick F[lying] Column . . . and having got into a very good position I kept up the fight in the hope that help would be forthcoming – . . . the fight dragged on for about a half hour until our position became untenable.

They ‘retreated in absolute order’, but two men ‘left the main body’. Starr, recalled as ‘impetuous and dangerously brave’, and James Horan were killed. Lieutenant A. S. Boyd of the Queen’s Royal Regiment found

the two bodies ‘with one rifle and ammunition between them. Also a “Flying Column Kit” namely socks – pyjamas – toothbrush etc.’ Patrick Casey, who, according to O’Hannigan, ‘appeared to have completely lost heart while the fight was in progress, deserted our men and moved into a farmhouse’, where he was eventually captured. O’Hannigan asked GHQ to establish an inquiry: ‘The fact is that we were left on a strange hillside engaging 60 or 70 men without even one East Limerick man to show us the proper line of retreat.’ The Green Howards’ Gazette recorded one wounded soldier, and overstated IRA casualties. Tim Hennessy was wounded, captured and died in Cork Military Prison on 17 May. Casey, convicted by court martial of possession of a rifle, a revolver and fifty rounds of ammunition, was executed by firing squad at 18:31 on 2 May at Cork Military Detention Barracks. This was raised in the House of Commons, as the execution happened only twenty-five hours after his initial arrest and before the sentence had been reviewed by the judge advocate general. It was the twentieth British execution in Ireland since November 1920. Buried Tyone Cemetery, Nenagh, Tipperary. Starr is commemorated on a monument at Murroe, Limerick. His father Thomas eventually secured a £100 dependent’s gratuity.699 RD: Casey (2May1921/2), Hennessy (17May1921/7), Horan (1May1921/12) James Horan (1May1921/12) IRA, Grocer’s assistant, RC Knockanevin, Kildorrery, Cork See Starr (1May1921/11). Horan, from Limerick, was in the ASU, Mid Limerick Brigade and 4th Battalion. Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery. He is commemorated on monuments at Caherconlish and Murroe, Limerick.700 Herbert Reginald Wenn (1May1921/13) Royal Corps of Signals (2309611), 19 Military Hospital, Curragh, Kildare Wenn, from Norwich, was a dispatch rider in the 5th Divisional Signals. The Sapper states

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that Wenn jokingly pointed a revolver at himself. After pulling the trigger once, he remarked that this was his last chance. So it proved. He fired again, severely wounding himself in the head, dying that evening.701

2 MAY 1921 John Thomas Webb (2May1921/1) RIC (75159), 20, Carman, Protestant CMHC See Smith (1May1921/6). Webb, from London, joined the RIC on 2 November 1920, stationed in Castlemartyr. Buried England.702

Howard were killed. Michael Hennessy claimed that, although badly wounded, William O’Riordan crawled into a nearby field where he was discovered and bayoneted to death. The rest of Allis’s section had a very narrow escape. On hearing firing, the other IRA sections moved in to support their comrades. But the soldiers, alerted by an accidental shot, retreated without loss, leaving the bodies and their bicycles behind. Buried Murroe Churchyard. He is commemorated on a monument at Murroe, Limerick. His brother James failed to secure a dependent’s award.704 RD: Howard (2May1921/4), O’Riordan (2May1921/5), Ryan (2May1921/6)

Patrick Casey (2May1921/2) IRA, 25, General labourer, RC Military Detention Barracks, Cork See Starr (1May1921/11). Casey, from Caherelly, Grange, Limerick, a keen hurler, joined the Irish Volunteers in 1914, and was quartermaster 5th Battalion, Mid Limerick Brigade. Buried Cork Prison. He is commemorated on monuments at Caherconlish and Murroe, Limerick. His father, also Patrick, secured a £1 weekly allowance.703

Thomas Howard (2May1921/4) IRA, 25, Farmer, RC Lackelly, Knocklong, Limerick See Frahill (2May1921/3). Howard, from Glenbrohane, was section commander ASU, East Limerick Brigade. Buried Ballylanders, Limerick. He is commemorated on a monument at Murroe, Limerick. His father John secured a gratuity of £100.705

James Frahill (2May1921/3) IRA, 26, Shoemaker, RC Lackelly, Knocklong, Limerick Frahill was a lieutenant in the ASU, Mid Limerick Brigade. The ASU East Limerick Brigade divided into small parties for the night at the Cross of the Tree. Twelve men under vice-O/C Dan Allis were billeted in Lackelly on the Tipperary–Limerick border. A scout reported a strong cycle patrol of the Yorkshire Regiment, apparently going towards Emly. The IRA section consequently abandoned its position. Mai Moloney arrived with further news, and left to inform Donnchadh O’Hannigan so that he could ambush the military on their return journey. She had barely cycled off round the bend when she turned and dashed back to warn that the military were almost upon them. The Volunteers, concealed in a haggard, were spotted and fired on from a range of about 15 yards. Frahill, Patrick Ryan and Thomas

William O’Riordan (2May1921/6) IRA, 25, RC Lackelly, Knocklong, Limerick See Frahill (2May1921/3). O’Riordan, from Cullane, Ballylanders, was a captain in the ASU East Limerick Brigade. Buried Ballylanders, Limerick. He is commemorated on a monument at Murroe, Limerick.

Patrick Ryan (2May1921/5) IRA, 23, Farmer, RC Lackelly, Knocklong, Limerick See Frahill (2May1921/3). From Annagh, Murroe, Ryan was a captain in the Mid Limerick Brigade. His mother Nora was denied a gratuity as dependency could not be proved.706

Patrick Farrell (2May1921/7) IRA, 29, Agricultural labourer, RC Ardboghil Crossroad, Edgeworthstown, Longford Farrell, from Killenaugh, Edgeworthstown, Longford, was an adjutant in B (Keenagh)

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Company, 4th Battalion, Longford Brigade. He was mortally wounded at Ardboghil Crossroad by a booby-trap bomb while trenching a road outside Edgeworthstown, and died a few hours later. Buried Foxhall Graveyard, Longford. His father John secured a gratuity of £50.707 Thomas Hawley (2May1921/8) IRA, 24, Miller, RC Glanteenassig, Castlegregory, Kerry See Fitzgerald (22Mar1921/7). Hawley, of 1 Chute’s Lane, Tralee, Kerry, was a section leader in the ASU, Kerry No. 1 Brigade. About 2 May, he died of wounds received at Lispole during an ambush on 22 March, apparently accidentally inflicted by his comrade Greg Ashe.708 Buried Rath Cemetery, Tralee. He is commemorated on a monument in Lispole. His sister Mary secured a gratuity of £50.709

3 MAY 1921 Christopher Patrick O’Regan (3May1921/1) RIC (67167), 26, Engine cleaner, RC Tourmakeady, Mayo O’Regan, from Ennis, Clare, joined the RIC on 18 March 1913. In 1921 he was stationed in Ballinrobe, Mayo. J. R. W. Goulden, son of RIC Sergeant Henry Goulden, stationed in Tourmakeady, gave the BMH a detailed account of the Tourmakeady ambush based largely on information gleaned from his father as well as Constable Pat Flynn (a survivor), personal memories and newspaper accounts. Sergeant John Regan and constables Herbert Oakes, Christopher O’Regan and William Power were killed. Members of the South Mayo Brigade, under Tom Maguire, occupied Tourmakeady village. They expected a routine police convoy to provision Derrypark Station, about eight miles north-east. All the inhabitants of Tourmakeady except William Billington, the postmaster, were held prisoner in Tom Robinson’s house. Billington was kept under guard at the post office to answer the phone and preserve a show of normality. The police

party setting out for Derrypark Station comprised thirteen men in a Crossley tender, led by a Ford car. In 1953 former DI A. W. Pocock wrote that he usually led the weekly convoy from Ballinrobe, but had acceded to Head Constable Frawley’s request to take his place as ‘It was a nice ride via Lough Mask.’ Pocock thought it unfortunate that the defenceless Ford car was leading. At about 12:45, when passing the fair green in Tourmakeady, the Ford was fired on. O’Regan, who was driving, was killed and the car crashed. The other three occupants were thrown on to the road and during a second volley of fire Constable Oakes was killed, and Sergeant Regan and Constable Flynn were wounded. Regan died about two hours later. A volley fired at the accompanying lorry, some 300 yards behind near Hewitt’s Hotel, killed Constable Power and wounded Constable J. Morrow. The remaining policemen returned fire with rifle grenades before taking cover in Hewett’s Hotel: Morrow described how ‘the bombs must have scared them completely . . . they absolutely faded away . . . unless for an occasional bit of sniping’. Constables O’Brien and Coughlin detained Patrick Feeney, who cycling along the road in the direction that the rebels were retreating, placing him under guard in the hotel. In their haste to retreat, the IRA had omitted to put the telephone out of commission and within an hour soldiers arrived under Captain A. V. H. Wood, Border Regiment. As the military came into the village, Feeney apparently attempted to escape. Captain Wood said that soldiers chased him for about 300 yards and ordered him to halt. A volley was fired but he still continued to run. A second volley hit him in the neck, killing him. His sister Christina was engaged to Tom Maguire, O/C South Mayo Brigade, responsible for the earlier ambush. Lieutenant Geoffrey Ibberson led a small party of Border Regiment soldiers in a drive of the Partry Mountains in pursuit of the retreating IRA. As they advanced up the mountain, they opened fire with rifles and another party later fired with a Lewis gun. Maguire’s men attempted to escape but were

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headed off by Ibberson, who ran ahead of his men and shot and wounded Maguire. He then killed Michael O’Brien, adjutant South Mayo Brigade, who had stopped to help Maguire. Ibberson was wounded in the legs, but eventually managed to make his way down to safety, helped by an understandably reluctant old man. Believing themselves surrounded, the IRA waited until dusk, when the military withdrew, leaving pickets on the lower slopes. Maguire was carried to the nearest house, where he was attended by the local doctor before being moved down the mountain. The IRA men slipped through the military cordon in the darkness. However, those carrying O’Brien’s body lost their way and abandoned his corpse. Crown forces found it and five rifles during a subsequent search. Tom Maguire’s and other IRA accounts of this series of engagements were initially confused, and were heavily embellished over time. In retirement Ibberson challenged Maguire’s version of events. The co-operative stores, an empty house near Drimbawn Gate and the home of Tom O’Toole in Tourmakeady were destroyed as a reprisal on the night of 3 May. When ordered some time later to burn O’Brien’s mother’s house at Cross, Sergeant Goulden refused and resigned. In June 1921, O’Regan’s parents secured £850 compensation.710 RD: Feeney (3May1921/5), Oakes (3May 1921/3), O’Brien (3May1921/6), Power (3May1921/4), Regan (3May1921/2) John Regan (3May1921/2) RIC (56814),711 47, Farmer, Married with four children, RC Tourmakeady, Mayo See O’Regan (3May1921/1). Regan, from Crossna, Roscommon, joined the RIC on 15 December 1894. In 1905 he was transferred to Mayo. He was promoted to sergeant in 1916. Witness statements indicate that Regan, already wounded and defenceless, was finished off by a shotgun blast to the stomach by a Volunteer. Regan’s nephew was told that the Volunteer remarked, ‘Regan, you bastard, you prosecuted me for not having a light on

my bicycle.’ In June 1921, Regan’s widow secured £3,000 compensation and each of his four children £1,250.712 Herbert Oakes (3May1921/3) RIC (78855), 24, Carman, ex-serviceman, Married with one child, Protestant Tourmakeady, Mayo See O’Regan (3May1921/1). Constable Oakes, from London, joined the RIC on 15 February 1921, stationed in Ballinrobe, Mayo. In June 1921 his widow secured £3,000 compensation and his infant child £2,000.713 William Power (3May1921/4) RIC (61221), 39, Draper’s assistant, RC Tourmakeady, Mayo See O’Regan (3May1921/1). Constable Power, from Waterford, joined the RIC in 1903. He served in the RIC Reserve, Roscommon and Kilkenny before transfer back to Mayo in late 1916.714 Patrick (Pádraig) Feeney (3May1921/5) IRA, 22, Shop assistant, RC Tourmakeady, Mayo See O’Regan (3May1921/1). A member of the Ballinrobe Company, Feeney lived at and worked in his father’s shop on Glebe Street, Ballinrobe, Mayo. Buried Ballinrobe. A monument in Tourmakeady commemorates him.715 Michael J. O’Brien (3May1921/6) IRA, RC Partry Mountains, Mayo See O’Regan (3May1921/1). The Connaught Telegraph reported that O’Brien came from Westmeath, whereas the Last Post stated The Neale, Mayo. He was adjutant South Mayo Brigade. Buried Cong.716 Jack (Seán) O’Sullivan (3May1921/7) IRA, RC Ballykinlar Internment Camp, Dundrum, Down O’Sullivan, from Tipperary, lived in Kill, Kildare, and was in the Naas branch of the ITGWU. He served in Kill Company, Kildare

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Brigade. Following the Greenhills ambush in August 1920, in which RIC men Patrick Haverty and Patrick O’Reilly died, O’Sullivan went on the run. On 2 January 1921, he and Paddy Domican were arrested in Domican’s home in Kill. They were transferred to Ballykinlar on 8 January 1921. O’Sullivan died there as the result of a severe beating which James Dunne stated was inflicted during arrest. Internee Seán Keating from Cork claimed that one Volunteer in Ballykinlar, discovered to be an informer, suffered ‘kind of a sudden death’: it is not known if this was O’Sullivan. Buried St Corban’s Cemetery, Naas, Kildare.717 SA: Haverty (21Aug1920/5), O’Reilly (31Aug 1920/2)

4 MAY 1921 Thomas O’Sullivan (4May1921/1) 80, Itinerant, RC Bog Road, Rathmore, Kerry O’Sullivan was from Gneeveguilla, Kerry. Manus Moynihan, O/C E (Rathmore) Company, Kerry No. 2 Brigade, recalled that while a prisoner in Killarney police barracks, Eddie Crowley noticed that an old man named Thomas O’Sullivan regularly visited Black and Tans. O’Sullivan was arrested by the IRA at Farrankeal. In the meantime, two British deserters, George Mottley and Jack Steer, were captured. They identified O’Sullivan, apparently by his ‘distinctive voice’, as the old man seen visiting the barracks. A court martial of Humphrey Murphy (O/C Kerry No. 2 Brigade), Jeremiah O’Riordan (O/C Kerry No. 3 Brigade), Denis Reen, Con O’Leary, P. D. Moynihan and Manus Moynihan convicted ‘Old Tom’ of informing. He was executed on the Bog Road outside Rathmore. A label branding him a spy was attached. The British records state that O’Sullivan had never given information. An IRA party hidden by a hedge used O’Sullivan’s body to draw the police out from Rathmore RIC Barracks. At about 10:00, a patrol of one sergeant and eight constables reached the ambush position. They were fired on as they gathered round the corpse. Five were killed outright. Sergeant McCormack

died later that day, and constables Brown and Phelan on 5 May. Constable Hickey, who had lagged behind the main group, escaped. The IRA captured eight rifles and about 200 rounds of .303 ammunition. GHQ organiser Andy Cooney left a somewhat different account, maintaining that he planned the operation specifically as a reprisal for the execution of Rathmore man Cornelius Murphy in Cork prison on 1 February. Cooney was taken aback that this engagement, which ‘was a complete success from our point of view’, was not discussed in Kerry’s Fighting Story, and annoyed that Tom Barry failed to mention it in Guerilla Days in Ireland.718 RD: Brown (5May1921/3), Clapp (4May 1921/2), Dyne (4May1921/3), Hillyer (4May 1921/4), McCormack (4May1921/5), Phelan (5May1921/4), Watkins (4May1921/6), Woodcock (4May1921/7). SA: Mottley (4Jun 1921/9), Steer (4Jun1921/10) William E. Clapp (4May1921/2) RIC (72780), 22, Dairyman, ex-serviceman Rathmore, Kerry See O’Sullivan (4May1921/1). Constable Clapp, from Hampshire, joined the RIC on 7 September 1920, stationed in Rathmore. His representatives secured £700 compensation.719 Robert Dyne (4May1921/3) RIC (75917), 21, Wireless operator, exserviceman, Protestant Rathmore, Kerry See O’Sullivan (4May1921/1). Constable Dyne, from Sussex, joined the RIC on 26 November 1920, stationed in Rathmore. His representatives secured £1,000 compensation.720 Alfred Hillyer (4May1921/4) RIC (73061), 18, Motor mechanic, naval rating Rathmore, Kerry See O’Sullivan (4May1921/1). Hillyer, from London, joined the RIC on 10 September 1920, stationed in Rathmore.721 Thomas McCormack (4May1921/5) RIC (62054), 35, Farmer, RC Rathmore, Kerry See O’Sullivan (4May1921/1). Sergeant McCormack, from Ballinagare, Roscommon,

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joined the RIC on 15 August 1906. He served in Louth, the RIC Reserve, Down and Belfast before transfer to Kerry in 1918, stationed in Rathmore. Buried Kilcorkey. His representatives secured £710 compensation.722 Samuel H. Watkins (4May1921/6) RIC (72778), 21, Labourer, ex-serviceman, Protestant Rathmore, Kerry See O’Sullivan (4May1921/1). Watkins, from Middlesex, joined the RIC on 7 September 1920, stationed in Rathmore. His representatives secured £570 compensation.723 Hedley V. Woodcock (4May1921/7) RIC (72743), 20, Cook, ex-serviceman, Protestant Rathmore, Kerry See O’Sullivan (4May1921/1). Woodcock, from London, joined the RIC on 3 September 1920, stationed in Rathmore. His representatives secured £1,200 compensation.724 Robert Johnston (4May1921/8) City of Glasgow Police (W 268), 41, Farm servant, Married Cathedral Square, High Street, Glasgow, Scotland Johnston, from Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire, joined the City of Glasgow Police in 1902. Promoted to detective-constable in 1909 and to uniformed sergeant in C Division in November 1912, on 17 February 1919 he was promoted to inspector A (Central) Division. He was bar officer at Glasgow Central Police Court. Frank Carty (alias Frank Somers) from Sligo, who had been on the run in Scotland, was arrested by Glasgow police. D. P. Walsh organised a party to rescue him while he was being brought by police van from prison to the High Street courthouse. As the prison van approached Cathedral Square shortly after midday, about thirteen IRA men opened fire from Drygate and Rotten Row. Johnston, sitting beside the driver, was hit in the heart. Two detectives returned fire, but were hampered by the presence of onlookers. When the van was halted, a shot intended to break the lock only jammed it, and the IRA

were forced to disperse. There were thirtyfour arrests in the aftermath, with thirteen men tried before Edinburgh High Court in August 1921. All pleaded not guilty. After an eleven-day trial, the jury found six ‘not guilty’ and the case against the rest ‘not proven’. Walsh was reprimanded by Michael Collins† for the attempted rescue because it caused dislocation of the IRA’s Scottish support networks. Seán O’Dare,† who played a leading part, was killed in Sligo in 1922 in a Civil War ambush by an IRA party under Carty. Buried Balmaghie Churchyard, Galloway.725 Patrick Michael Downey (4May1921/9) IRA, 32, Farmer, RC Garryowen, Limerick From Rhebogue, Limerick, Downey was a section leader in B Company, 1st Battalion, Mid Limerick Brigade. The military attempted to disperse mourners at the funeral of Henry Clancy. Three men running across a field were called on to halt. DI John Greally ordered his men to follow. After a time, one man stopped and was arrested. Shots were fired over the heads of the others. They still failed to halt and were shot. Downey was killed and Gerald Noonan severely wounded. Two loaded revolvers were found ‘on line of retreat’. LFS, which dates this action as 4 May, claimed that the police opened fire indiscriminately as the cortège neared the cemetery. Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery. He is commemorated on a monument at Murroe, Limerick.726 SA: Clancy (1May1921/7)

5 MAY 1921 John Stokes (5May1921/1) IRA, 18, Agricultural labourer, RC Tullylease, Charleville, Cork Stokes was from Tullylease, Cork. The ASU Charleville Battalion billeted in and around Tullylease for the night. At dawn, Stokes, a local Volunteer acting as a scout, and Michael O’Regan, O/C Liscaroll Company, were making their way to consult the battalion O/C when called on to halt. Stokes was shot

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dead and O’Regan was arrested. John Roche, a second scout, attempted to warn the ASU, but was shot in the shoulder. The ASU managed to evade a patrol of thirty soldiers. Neither his father Mark nor sister Kate secured dependents’ allowances.727

operation to remove a bullet from his buttock. He initially recovered but toxaemia set in leading to death. His killing was the subject of a parliamentary question by Oswald Mosley MP on 1 June 1921. A memorial stone was erected at Carrigthomas.731

John Hickey (5May1921/2) 44, Farmer, RC Newtown, Kildare, Kildare Hickey was from Harristown, Nurney, Kildare. At around 15:30, postman Patrick Farrelly found Hickey face down on the far side of a trench dug in the road. He had died of a fractured skull, evidently suffered through a fall. Hickey’s uncle Martin Lawlor had collapsed and died a few hours earlier at Kildare Market.728

c. 5 MAY 1921

Walter Thomas Brown (5May1921/3) RIC (70259), 29, Ex-serviceman, Protestant Rathmore, Kerry See O’Sullivan (4May1921/1). Browne, from Middlesex, joined the RIC on 3 February 1920. In July he was transferred from Limerick to Rathmore. His representatives secured £720 compensation.729 James Phelan (5May1921/4) RIC (63574), 33, RC Rathmore, Kerry See O’Sullivan (4May1921/1). Constable Phelan, from Limerick, joined the RIC on 16 December 1907. He was stationed in Rathmore. His representatives secured £500 compensation.730 Patrick Goggin (5May1921/5) 7, Schoolboy, RC South Infirmary, Cork At around 16:00 on 21 April, Patrick was returning for his tea at Carrigthomas, Ballinagree, having counted the cows. His father Jack heard two shots and found his son lying outside bleeding. Patrick said that he had been shot by a soldier in a lorry that was bogged down on the road about half a mile away. Shortly afterwards, two soldiers ran up to where Patrick lay. One of them brought the child into the house and medical attention was sought. On 22 April, he had an

Patrick Bermingham (5May1921/6) Ex-serviceman, RC Cappancur, Tullamore, Offaly The RIC found the body of an unidentified man by the canal bank at Cappancur. Apparently an ex-serviceman, he had been blindfolded and his hands were tied behind him. The body bore four bullet wounds. Fastened to it was a piece of paper stating, ‘Convicted spy, spies and informers beware IRA.’ The dead man was later identified as Patrick Bermingham. The killers were Michael Kilroe, Patrick Birmingham and James Mahon, all of 2nd Battalion, 1st Offaly Brigade.732

6 MAY 1921 James Lynch (6May1921/1) 50, Tailor, Married, RC Whitegate, Cork Brigid Lynch described how at around 23:30 on 5 May a man knocked, seeking her husband. James was apprehensive, but went out. Weeks previously, two men had warned him that it was known that a lot of information was going to the military from his house. Lynch denied this, but was told that he would not get another warning. His body was found by the roadside on the morning of 6 May, shot in the head. IRA intelligence on Lynch was gathered by T. O’Keefe, J. Ahern and other members of C (Ballingcollig) Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade.733 Thomas Lally (6May1921/2) IRA, 19, Builder, RC Clonkeen Bridge, Islandeady, Castlebar, Mayo Lally, from Dooleague, Islandeady, was in C (Islandeady) Company, West Mayo Brigade. Men from the ASUs of the Castlebar, Westport and Newport Battalions combined to carry out an ambush at the Big Wall,

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Clonkeen Bridge on the Castlebar–Westport road. There was no hard information on the movement of Crown forces, but it was anticipated that a patrol would pass at some time during the day. A group were still placing rocks on the road when a police tender appeared. The police fired rifle grenades towards them as they attempted to escape across the fields. Thomas Lally was wounded. His cousin Tommy O’Malley tried to help, but both were shot dead as they attempted to cross a fence. Jim McNulty and Frank O’Boyle were captured. The rest escaped. The two were buried in the same grave at Islandeady Graveyard. A monument stands where they were killed. His mother Catherine secured a £150 dependent’s gratuity, and his sister later obtained an allowance.734 RD: O’Malley (6May1921/3) Thomas O’Malley (6May1921/3) IRA, 26, Agricultural labourer, RC Clonkeen Bridge, Islandeady, Castlebar, Mayo See Lally (6May1921/2). O’Malley, from Lismolin, Islandeady, was in C (Islandeady) Company, 1st Battalion, West Mayo Brigade. His mother Bridget secured a £75 dependent’s gratuity, and his sister, also Bridget, later obtained an allowance.735 James Kingston (6May1921/4) RIC (57392), 48, Farmer, Married with six children, RC Annacarty, Tipperary Kingston, from Crohane, Clonakilty, Cork, joined the RIC on 16 December 1895, serving in Cork, Roscommon and Cork again before transfer to Tipperary in 1908. Promoted to sergeant on 1 May 1915, he was awarded the constabulary medal. Kingston was stationed in Cappawhite. An RIC patrol from Cappawhite moved in around midday on three houses near Annacarty, about four miles from Cappawhite in south Tipperary, in which Brigadier Seán Wall and other officers from the East Limerick Brigade were billeted, escorted by elements of the brigade ASU. Wall had been summoned to meet GHQ’s Ernie O’Malley. The IRA reacted in confusion when the approaching RIC were spotted, and one Volunteer apparently ran

out into the open. Wall went after him, unarmed. A running fight followed. BMH statements vary as to who fired the shot which fatally wounded Kingston through the right eye. Maurice Meade claimed that Wall was captured alive, and was then shot in retaliation. Donncadh O’Hannigan succeeded Wall as brigadier, but the brigade ASU was stood down. Buried Cork.736 RD: Wall (6May1921/5) Seán Wall (6May1921/5) IRA, 33, Farmer, builder, Married with five children, RC Annacarty, Tipperary See Kingston (6May1921/4). Wall, from Bruff, Limerick, was an enthusiastic member of the Gaelic League, of which his brother Father Thomas Wall was vice-president. He joined the Irish Volunteers on their inception in 1913 and became captain Bruff Company, East Limerick Brigade. In 1918, Wall became brigade O/C. He was also chairman of Limerick County Council. Wall’s body was not claimed for some days. A photograph of his corpse, stripped from the waist up, with a bullet wound in the side, was displayed in newsagents. Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery. A monument was erected at Annacarty. His name also appears on commemorative plaques at Sarsfield Bridge, Limerick, and on monuments at Murroe and Bruff. His widow Bridget secured an allowance of £90 per annum during widowhood which was later increased to £135 and £250 with an allowance of £24 per annum for each of her children.737 Nora Conway (6May1921/6) 35, Married with one child, RC Caherina, Tralee, Kerry Wife of a railway fireman, Nora lived in Caherina, Tralee. Married just a year, she had a five-week-old baby. During the evening, a police patrol led by Head Constable Francis Benson came towards Caherina, about half a mile from the RIC barracks. A few men on the road spotted its approach and ran away through Nora Conway’s house. Shortly afterwards, she looked out of the front door and

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was shot through the forehead. Buried Rath Cemetery, Tralee.738 SA: Benson (14May1921/2) William B. Purcell (6May1921/7) 40, Cattle dealer, RC Tory Top Road, Ballyphehane, Cork Purcell, from Holy Cross, Tipperary, was a cattle dealer living in Drumcollogher, Limerick. Press reports suggested that he had served in the Royal Munster Fusiliers. He had come to Cork to find a job. He was found dead on 7 May in a field at Tory Top Road, his body bearing nine bullet wounds. Mick Murphy, O/C 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, stated that Purcell was shot for spying, on the basis of letters captured by IRA in mail raids. The litany of assassinations over the preceding six months indicates that the IRA in Cork city did not agonize for long about whether to kill someone whom they suspected.739 Daniel Killoughery (6May1921/8) Labourer, RC Moymore, Liscannor, Clare During a search for rebels at Moymore a mixed patrol of police and military fired on men who ran away when challenged. Daniel Killoughery was fatally wounded and another man hit.740

7 MAY 1921 Thomas Collins (7May1921/1) 25, Ex-serviceman, Married with three children, RC Union Hospital, Youghal, Cork Thomas Collins, formerly of the Cheshire Regiment (79525), lived in Water Lane, Youghal. He played in the Comrades of the Great War band at military dances. At about 05:00, Fanny Sheehan was returning from a dance at the military barracks with her sister Essie, Jack McCarthy, Paddy Lynass and Thomas Collins. At the fair green on North Main Street, two armed men appeared from behind a wall. They opened fire with a shotgun and a revolver. Lynass was shot through the hand. He pulled Fanny Sheehan to the ground while the others ran. A third gunman appeared and shot Collins, part of

whose leg was blown off. Essie Sheehan was wounded. The gunmen ran down Tallow Street to a waiting motor car. Fanny Sheehan did not recognise them, but added that two weeks previously two strangers had warned her against attending such dances. Collins died in the workhouse hospital at 08:45.741 Frederick H. Depree (7May1921/2) RIC (74985), 19, Clerk, Methodist Inch, Gorey, Wexford From London, Depree enlisted in the territorial army before joining the RIC on 15 October 1920. After four months in Gorey, he was transferred to Coolgreany RIC Barracks. Constable Depree was in a five-man patrol travelling from Coolgreany to Inch which at around 08:30 cycled into an ambush at Corcanon, Inch: about eighteen Volunteers under Myles Breen, waiting at a sharp bend in the road, fired as the police cycled past in pairs. Depree was killed and Sergeant Dolan wounded. Two others ‘escaped into the Rocks and thicket and replied with their rifles’. An old woman in a donkey and cart, driving cattle from the fair, appeared on the road just as the ambush began. The cattle stampeded and this probably prevented further police casualties. The People reported that the policemen were going to buy their weekly provisions. Buried Margate, Kent.742 William Curry (7May1921/3) 13, Schoolboy, RC SPDH Curry was a seaman’s son, living at 38 Upper Erne Street, Dublin. Ten-year-old Richard Smithers of 39 Upper Erne Street had gone with Curry, Pat Lynch and Tom Mooney to carry people’s luggage for tips, when Curry found an oblong-shaped object on a gas meter in the lavatory. It exploded when he pulled a pin from it. He died in hospital, but the other boys recovered. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: T. a. 88).743 Thomas Hopkins (7May1921/4) RIC (70690), 21, Farmer Ballindine, Mayo Hopkins, from Leface, Ballindine, Mayo, joined the RIC on 15 March 1920, stationed

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in Dromore. He was at home on nine days’ leave. He, his brother James and a friend were returning from a neighbour’s house when held up by two armed men. Thomas was taken away, the others left tied up. After freeing themselves they found Thomas’s body on the roadside half a mile from Ballindine.744

8 MAY 1921 John McAuley745 (8May1921/1) 60, Ex-serviceman, postmaster, Married, RC Kilrooskey, Roscommon, Roscommon McAuley, sub-postmaster in Kilrooskey, was suspected alongside Martin Scanlon, a farmer and retired RIC man, of informing: Luke Duffy believed ‘it was more or less common gossip that he [McAuley] was acting as an agent for the British Intelligence Service’. To test their suspicions, a few members of the 3rd Battalion in British army uniforms called to interview the postmaster. Duffy was ‘amazed how much the postmaster knew about us [the IRA]. He told the “would-be” British soldiers every detail about our organisation and its members.’ Scanlon’s house was kept under observation, and he was allegedly seen passing information to an agent in Strokestown. The matter was referred to GHQ, which subsequently issued instructions to kill both McAuley and Scanlon. At around 01:00, three or four armed and masked men, claiming to be military, came to McAuley’s home. He was ordered to dress, and taken away. Between 03:00 and 04:00, Mary McAuley heard five or six shots. She later found John and Martin Scanlon lying dead on the roadside. In the early hours armed and masked men also called to Martin Scanlon’s home. He initially refused to dress, telling the raiders they could shoot him in his home if they wanted to kill him. They dragged him outside. A few minutes later one of them returned for his overcoat. BMH statements indicate McAuley and Scanlon were brought separately to the house of Father Thomas Hurley, parish priest in Kilrooskey, to make their last confession.

They were then shot in the head at Kilrooskey Crossroads. Labels attached to their bodies read: ‘Convicted spy. Tried by the IRA.’ In a report to HQ 13th Infantry Brigade at Athlone on 6 June, Major E. S. W. Tidswell, O/C Troops Roscommon, considered ‘McGauley [sic] a loyal citizen’, apparently killed because he had advised locals to fill in a trench in the road cut by the IRA. The execution was probably sanctioned, Tidswell believed, by Patrick Madden of Ballagh, Kilrooskey.746 RD: Scanlon (8May1921/2) Martin Scanlon (8May1921/2) 55, RIC pensioner, farmer, Married with four children, RC Kilrooskey, Roscommon, Roscommon See McAuley (8May1921/1). Scanlon, from Sligo, lived in Tuam, Kilrooskey. He was killed on the anniversary of his joining and leaving the RIC. Bridget Scanlon and her children secured a total of £2,500 compensation.747 John (Seán) McCartney (8May1921/3) IRA, 21, Ex-serviceman, mechanic, RC Lappanduff, Drung, Cavan McCartney, of Norfolk Street, Falls Road, was a lieutenant in D Company, 1st Battalion, Belfast Brigade. He was in receipt of a pension of 16s. a week arising from a hand wound received while serving in the RIF in France. He died during a shambolic engagement with Crown forces which put an end to any hope of sustained IRA activity in Cavan. Towards the end of April 1921 Séamus McGoran from Belfast, an IRA organiser in Cavan, established a new ASU in the East Cavan Brigade consisting mainly of men from the Belfast Brigade, to be reinforced by locals. The newly formed ASU left Belfast in early May. The local Cootehill Battalion only learned of this initiative ten days before the first Belfast man arrived, and made few preparations. McCartney was the last to arrive in Cavan on 6 May. The ASU congregated in a farmhouse on Lappanduff Hill, a remote and apparently secure location. At around 17:00 on 7 May, Joe Magee, O/C ASU, allowed three Belfast men to visit a

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local pub, although he was warned that strangers would cause comment. The trio returned about four hours later. Sentries were posted around the immediate billet area, but no contingency plans were made. In the early morning, a sentry reported activity at the foot of the steep hill. Initially it was assumed these were locals bringing additional supplies and equipment. Thomas Fox claimed that the IRA’s position was given away by a local Protestant farmer, perhaps inadvertently, while others suspected two families with RIC relatives: ‘The local Volunteer companies had neglected their protective duty, and no warning was given of the British movements until they were observed by the sentry.’ Magee detailed McCartney and John McDermott to reconnoitre the hill while the others fought. McKenna recalled that, as daylight broke, he saw McCartney fall as he and McDermott ran across the slope under fire. The firing became more intense. Magee disappeared, leaving no instructions. Poorly armed and uncoordinated, the remaining Volunteers were heavily outnumbered, and the three locals among them did not even know how to use a rifle. McKenna eventually agreed to surrender after an engagement lasting, according to the British, about two hours. He later observed that the clash reflected ‘little credit on the officers concerned, including myself. We should not have given battle to the enemy at all, but collected all our arms and equipment and cleared off ’ over the hill, as they were not surrounded. He was critical of Magee, and thought McGoran should have spirited the ASU away as there was ample cover to the sides and rear. Two days later, Magee complained that ‘Local Volunteers [are] very very slow and do not seem to grasp anything at all. They are just typical of this sleepy place, and seem to hold enemy forces in great dread.’ The O/C Cootehill Battalion reported the disaster in upbeat terms: ‘The enemy lost heavily. Their casualties are ten at the least’ – in fact only one soldier was seriously wounded. IRA chief of staff Richard Mulcahy was not impressed, demanding detailed explanation of the ‘actual facts which stand out . . . and which denote a very appalling want of elementary training’.

Captain C. H. Dowden of the King’s Royal Rifle Corps described how at 05:30 on 8 May he led thirty-six officers, NCOs, soldiers and RIC to search houses in Lappanduff, apparently for an IRA organiser rumoured to be in the area. The patrol divided into four groups. His group encountered the IRA party. They killed McCartney, wounded two others and took eight prisoners. A large quantity of ammunition and bombs was captured. Six of the prisoners were tried in Belfast and condemned to death. Two Cavan men – Paddy Smith (later to be the state’s longest-serving TD, from 1923 to 1977) and a Volunteer named Clarke – were saved by claiming they had unknowingly walked into the ambush. There was an abortive attempt to rescue the condemned men from Belfast Jail on 3 June 1921. In the event, the Truce saved them all, including McKenna, from execution. When McCartney’s father came for his son’s remains in Cavan, British troops ‘saluted’ the coffin (perhaps because he was an ex-soldier). Buried Milltown Cemetery, Belfast. A memorial cross where he fell was unveiled in May 1932. The surrounding fence gradually deteriorated. In 1960 the memorial was transferred to a roadside location two miles away at Tullycoe Cross. McCartney’s father Michael secured a £75 dependent’s gratuity, and his mother Margaret later obtained an allowance. An inaccurate ‘Ballad of Seán McCartney’ describes ‘this great battle’. It concludes: Now all of you good people, may it be your whole delight, To pray for Seán McCartney, morning, noon and night. That his soul may shine in heaven, where he is surely gone, For he gave his life for his country’s cause, that day in Lappanbane.748

William Simpson (8May1921/4) 72, Farmer, CoI Letterbreen, Enniskillen, Fermanagh RIC Sergeant Martin Murphy found Simpson, a unionist but with no political

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interests, badly wounded in the house of Thomas Armstrong, to whom Simpson in November 1920 had signed over his 74-acre farm on condition that he continue to live in the farmhouse and be looked after. Simpson died from a gunshot wound around 09:45. Armstrong said his wife had woken him at 04:00, when he found Simpson wounded in his room. The window was open, and it appeared he had been shot from outside. Who shot Simpson, and why, remains a mystery.749 William Kelleher Storey (8May1921/5) RIC (56877), 47, Clerk, Married with nine children, RC Castleisland, Kerry Storey, a policeman’s son from Limerick, joined the RIC on 16 April 1895. He served in Louth, Wexford, Waterford and Cork. Promoted to sergeant in 1910 and to head constable in 1920, he was stationed in Castleisland. At 09:45, Storey and Sergeant Butler attended Mass with their wives. The church was situated about 400 yards from the RIC barracks. Mrs Storey saw two men aiming revolvers at her husband. She faced them with outstretched hands in an effort to save him, but they opened fire. Michael O’Connell, who with John Mahon, Tim Leahy and Tim Reidy of the 1st Battalion, Kerry No. 2 Brigade ASU, took part, recalled, ‘I fired four bullets into him.’ Buried St Joseph’s Cemetery, Ballyphehane, Cork. His widow secured £7,000 compensation.750 Frederick Sterland (8May1921/6) RIC (77543), 22, Draughtsman, exserviceman, Married with two children South Infirmary, Cork Sterland, from Birmingham, was a draughtsman before joining the RIC on 11 January 1921. He was attached to the RIC transport section at Union Quay Barracks, Cork. William Barry, captain D Company, 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, described Sterland as a ‘prominent British intelligence officer’ and regarded his capture and execution as ‘one of the most daring and successful’ IRA operations in Cork. Sterland ‘always

dressed in civilian clothes and frequented the hotel bars and lounges in the city’. Two IRA intelligence officers, Frankie Mahony and Charlie Cogan, planned to entice Sterland into a pub, capture him and take him for questioning before ‘more drastic action’. At about 17:00, Mahony and Cogan, joined by other Volunteers, surrounded Sterland in the hall of the Rob Roy Hotel on Cook Street, where he was ‘a regular customer, who generally came for tea on Sunday evenings’, and disarmed him. They were disturbed by a military patrol seeking a quiet drink, but these were fobbed off without noticing anything amiss. Sterland was then shot on Cook Street. A South Staffordshire Regiment patrol found him at about 17:50, and fired without effect on four men seen running away. Sterland died at 18:15, from a severe gunshot wound to the head and another to the right hand. His widow Elizabeth secured £1,800 compensation and each of his children £1,200.751 John Hodnett (8May1921/7) 36, Farmer, RC Courtmacsherry, Cork Police reports stated that Hodnett died soon after he was fired on and wounded in Courtmacsherry for disobeying an order to halt. The Cork Examiner reported that he was going to Mass at the time, and that he ‘had no politics’.752

9 MAY 1921 Patrick Wynne (9May1921/1) 26, Farmer’s son, RC Kileenboy, Kilteevan, Roscommon Wynne lived with his father in Kileenboy. At around 01:00, a patrol from the Leicestershire Regiment under Lieutenant Stayner observed lights in a house near Emmo crossroads. While Stayner questioned an old man outside the house, Sergeant J. Morley entered it to search it. Wynne and his brother Peter were, according to the Roscommon Herald, eating porridge in the kitchen. Ordered to put hands up, Wynne extinguished the lamp and bolted through the door. The sergeant fired one shot, fatally wounding him. It afterwards

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emerged that Wynne was mentally unbalanced. Commemorated on a monument at Shankhill near Elphin. Wynne’s relatives, one an ex-serviceman, secured £2,000 compensation.753 William Bransfield (9May1921/2) IRA, 24, Railway employee, married with one child, RC Main Street, Carrigtwohill, Cork Bransfield, from Carrigtwohill, lived with his mother on Main Street. A GS&WR milesman, he was in D (Carrigtwohill) Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade. His daughter Mary was just a month old; his wife Frances died from pulmonary tuberculosis twelve days after his killing. Between 02:00 and 03:00, he answered the door to four ‘disguised Camerons’, who took him away. Shortly afterwards, his mother heard shots outside and found her son dying. Francis Healy, section commander D Company, recalled how he was in a nearby house and heard a man speaking with a pronounced Scottish accent: ‘members of the murder gang drawn from the Cameron Regiment, stationed in Cobh, who were known to be frequently engaged on night raids and shootings in east Cork’, were at work. Healy stole away. He and another Volunteer later saw Bransfield lying dead in the street. The killing was discussed decades later in a private memoir by Major General Douglas Wimberley, who when with the Cameron Highlanders had presided at a court of inquiry in Carrigtwohill ‘on the corpse of a man, who was laid out in a cottage surrounded by lighted candles, while a lot of Irish women were holding a wake, and wailing around the body’. Wimberley ‘returned a verdict of death by an unknown hand’, but: many years later it was revealed to me that the man had in fact been shot, or even murdered, by a certain Cameron, who had been out on his own secretly at night. I think the man concerned was the same madman who was soon after removed from our regiment and the army.

Bransfield was buried in the republican plot at Midleton, Cork. A memorial was

erected in Carrigtwohill. His mother and his infant daughter Mary later received dependents’ allowances.754 SA: O’Keeffe (1May1921/3) James Cullen (9May1921/3) RIC (79391), 23, Printer, ex-serviceman, Protestant CMHC From Wiltshire, Constable Cullen joined the RIC on 24 February 1921, stationed in Clonakilty. He died at 09:30 from severe chest and abdominal wounds sustained on 3 May when a bomb was thrown at him, Constable Martin Fallon and another policeman in Daniel Kingston’s shop on Barrack Street. Fallon, severely wounded, died later that day.755 RD: Fallon (9May1921/9) Alexander Thomas Clarke (9May1921/4) RIC (73193), 20, Motor driver, Protestant Binnion, Clonmany, Donegal Clarke, from Hertfordshire, joined the RIC on 21 September 1920, stationed in Clonmany. At 19:00 constables Clarke and Murdoch left the barracks for a walk. Next day, Sergeant John T. Lilly found Clarke’s body on the beach at Binion 50 yards from the low water mark, shot in the head. His revolver and ammunition were missing. There was no sign of Murdoch. Patrick Lynch, lieutenant Carndonagh Company, recalled that one policeman was shot by the IRA, and the other wounded and killed as he fled.756 RD: Charles Murdoch (9May1921/5) Charles Murdoch (9May1921/5) RIC (73788), 26, Checker, ex-serviceman, Married Binnion, Clonmany, Donegal See Clarke (9May1921/4). Murdoch, from Dublin, joined the RIC on 5 October 1920, stationed in Clonmany. He is said to have been buried on a local strand.757 John Francis Hurley (9May1921/6) IRA, 31, Farmer, RC Carhoo, Ardfield, Clonakilty, Cork Hurley, from Laragh, Bandon, was captain Farnivane Company, 1st (Bandon) Battalion,

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Cork No. 3 Brigade. Charles O’Donoghue described how Hurley, one of three IRA men arrested by a patrol, was shot dead, allegedly as he attempted to escape, at about 22:00. Buried Kilbrogan Cemetery, Bandon. His sister Ellen was later awarded an allowance.758 Godfrey Canty (9May1921/7) IRA, 33, Clerk, RC Murragh, Enniskeane, Cork Canty, from Scrahan, Enniskeane, of the Newcestown Company, 1st (Bandon) Battalion, Cork No. 3 Brigade, was captured by a Hampshire Regiment picket. The 2nd Battalion war diary states that he was shot while attempting to escape; local accounts say he was shot, unarmed, by an approaching patrol. He was apparently carrying out brigade orders to collect all cycles and motorcycles in his company area. Buried Murragh, where there is also a roadside memorial cross. His mother Honora secured a £50 dependent’s gratuity, and later his sister Mary obtained an allowance.759 Francis Donnelly (9May1921/8) 35, Farmer, RC Infirmary, Monaghan Donnelly and his brother Patrick lived on a farm in Springtown, Augher, Tyrone. At about 01:00 on 2 May masked members of Clogher Company (Monaghan No. 3 Battalion) forced them into the yard. Patrick was ordered to face the wall, while Francis was shot. Patrick brought him to Monaghan Infirmary; he died a week later. On 12 May a court of inquiry brought a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown. The local IRA told GHQ that Francis had ‘Belfast goods in a shop’, and when challenged ‘made to rush out of the house saying he “would fix them”. . . . There may be some local trouble over this as deceased’s brother is a P[arish] P[riest], but had this man been allowed to defy us the Boycott could never be enforced in this district.’760 Martin Fallon (9May1921/9) RIC (65154), 31, Farmer, RC CMHC See Cullen (9May1921/3). Fallon, from Roscommon, joined the RIC on 17 January

1910. He served in Tyrone, Laois, Clare and Cork. He was awarded the constabulary medal.761 John Russell (9May1921/10) USC, 48, Ex-serviceman, Widowed with five children, Presbyterian General Hospital, Newry, Down Russell, from Newtownards, Down, was a veteran of the Boer War and Great War. He joined the USC on 24 January 1921. He was on roof guard duty at Newry Military Barracks. At about 00:15 on 3 May he was found unconscious and bleeding, having fallen onto a concrete floor 8 feet below. He died six days later from a fractured skull.762 Unknown (9May1921/11) Man, c. 28 Castlebernard Park, Bandon, Cork At about 23:30 an unidentified man aged about twenty-eight, ‘of respectable appearance’, was shot dead at Castlebernard Park. A court of inquiry was held in Bandon on 11 May 1921.763

10 MAY 1921 Robert Duggan (10May1921/1) 65, Pharmacist, Married with five children, CoI 49 Summerhill Parade, Dublin Duggan and his wife Anna Maria lived at 63 St Laurence Road, Clontarf. He owned a pharmacy at 49 Summerhill Parade. His son said his father was a loyalist but took no part in politics. Another son, James, recalled that at about 12:45 two young men sought two dozen tins of black enamel, although only seventeen were in stock. When these were parcelled, one man said, ‘We are commandeering this in the name of the IRA.’ As they moved towards the door, Robert Duggan came out from behind the counter, where he was serving another customer. The man who had spoken fired, the bullet hitting him under the left eye. Buried MJC (Plot reference: C 39).764 James Mary Quaine (10May1921/2) IRA, 19, Draughtsman, RC Pilltown Cross, Waterford Quaine, a Youghal fish merchant’s son, appears on a GHQ list compiled in 1922 of

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IRA casualties. Royal Marines from Ardmore Coast Guard Station were on patrol near Pilltown Cross to safeguard the Ardmore mail car when they saw five men loitering near the level crossing. Two jumped on bicycles and escaped across some fields. Another was seen behind a hedge in conversation with someone else who appeared to be hiding. Challenged, they refused to come forward. A round was fired which mortally wounded Quaine. E. P. Lynch stated that he and Quaine were standing innocently in a ditch beside a hedge and that there was no challenge before the shot was fired. Buried North Abbey Cemetery, Youghal.765 Michael O’Shea (10May1921/3) IRA, 34, Labourer, RC Charleville, Cork From Granagh, Bruree, O’Shea was second lieutenant Granagh Company, West Limerick Brigade. According to LFS, an ex-serviceman named Ryan was sentenced to death as a spy by a brigade council meeting. An IRA party taking him for execution ran into a military curfew patrol, possibly lying in wait, on a bohereen between Ballingarry and Bruree. The IRA, thinking that they had run into comrades, kept going until fired on. O’Shea, in command, fell seriously wounded, as did Volunteer Patrick Benson. Their prisoner escaped. Both wounded men were captured and taken to Charleville, where O’Shea, whose ‘shoulder [was] practically hanging off ’, died a short time later. Benson survived. Buried Shanboha Cemetery, Granagh, Limerick. He is commemorated on a monument in Newcastle West, Limerick. His father, also Michael, secured a £100 dependent’s gratuity.766

11 MAY 1921 Christopher Folan (11May1921/1) 18, Labourer, RC O’Donoghue Terrace, Galway ‘Christy’ Folan lived with his father on O’Donoghue’s Terrace, Galway. Three men with blackened faces called to the Folans’ cottage at around 01:30. They sought Christy’s brother James, released from Galway Prison the previous day after imprisonment for

possession of seditious literature which said the police had murdered Séamus Quirke. The three raiders entered a bedroom where Christy was sleeping with his brother Joe, asked them their names and killed Christy with a shot to the head. Joe was critically wounded but survived. The police report implausibly suggested the killings were the work of ‘the Sinn Féin murder gang’ who feared that ‘James Folan on his release from prison was about to give some information to the police’. Thomas Hynes, quartermaster Galway Brigade, recalled that Sergeant John O’Connell, with whom he was friendly, told him to tell Jimmy Folan ‘not to be at home tonight’. Hynes suggested that the police were led by Sergeant Keane of Dominick Street Barracks. The same armed party then went to St Bridget’s Terrace, Bohermore, where, according to a police report, two masked men called to the house of Thomas Carew and went to Hugh Tully’s bedroom. When he asked if he should dress, he was told there was no need. At the bottom of the stairs, he was shot four times and killed outright. As in the case of Folan, the police described this as the work of ‘the Sinn Féin murder gang’. BMH statements and common sense indicate otherwise.767 RD: Tully (11May1921/2). SA: Quirke (9Sep 1920/3) Hugh Tully (11May1921/2) 26, Goods foreman, RC St Bridget’s Terrace, Bohermore, Galway See Folan (11May1921/1). Tully, from Tulsk, Roscommon, became an MGWR porter on 16 April 1914. He was posted to the Galway goods store in 1919. Seán Broderick, O/C 4th Battalion, Galway Brigade, stated that his death disrupted the smuggling of rifles via the railway. Buried Kilcooley Cemetery, Tulsk, Roscommon. He is commemorated on a monument at Shankill near Elphin.768 Cornelius Murphy (11May1921/3) IRA, Agricultural labourer, RC Cloonderreen, Kilbrittain, Cork ‘Con’ Murphy, a farmer’s son, was first lieutenant Timoleague Company, Cork No. 3

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Brigade. He was killed while travelling homewards the morning after a battalion council meeting. He and two other Volunteers called to a farm, where they enquired about a British military patrol known to be in the area. Dogs started to bark nearby, and soldiers surrounded the house. Two IRA men ran for it. One escaped but Murphy was shot dead, allegedly by an explosive bullet fired by Major A. E. Percival of the Essex Regiment. Buried Clogagh Cemetery. His parents later received a gratuity of £75.769 Alfred Craig (11May1921/4) Belfast Harbour Police, 24, Ex-serviceman, Married, Presbyterian York Dock, Ship Street, Belfast Craig, of 69 Kingswood Street, formerly of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, became a special constable in the Harbour Police about seven months before his death. He was only three months married. At about 15:30, men of D Company, Belfast Brigade IRA, attempted to disarm him at the Ship Street entrance to the York Dock: ‘When covered he immediately put up his hands’, but as a Volunteer went to disarm him ‘he . . . clutched the man about the throat’. That man’s revolver misfired twice, but a comrade shot Craig in the chest. They ‘were unable’ to take Craig’s weapon. ‘The impression here . . . is that the IRA is not connected with the shooting’, and speculative stories concerning the killing gained currency. Buried City Cemetery, Belfast.770 William J. Quinn (11May1921/5) IRA, 18, RC Windmill, Cashel, Tipperary Quinn, a Volunteer from Templetuohy, was gravely injured during the destruction of a bridge at Bawnmore near Cashel. He died at Ryan’s safe house in Windmill. A rumour was circulated locally that the cause was appendicitis.771

12 MAY 1921 Patrick Dalton (12May1921/1) IRA, 28, Clerk, RC Gortaglanna, Knockanure, Listowel, Kerry Dalton, from Athea, Limerick, was a captain in 6th Battalion, Kerry No. 1 Brigade, and in the battalion ASU.

In a sworn statement made in Listowel in June 1921, Cornelius Dee recalled that on 12 May he, Pat Dalton and Paddy Walsh left Athea, unarmed, after attending a Redemptorist retreat. At Gortaglanna Bridge, they stopped to talk with Captain Jerry Lyons of Duagh: they went ‘into a field as it would be safer’. However, they were soon surrounded by a police patrol: ‘We’re done, Connie,’ said Dalton. They were beaten with rifles before being loaded into lorries: ‘I remember such expressions as “Ye murderers! Ye b[astard]s We have got at the real root, we have the Flying Column.’ Dee recognised Head Constable Smyth, ‘Listowel . . . present also Constable Raymond’. After about half a mile, the lorries stopped. Ordered to run, the four prisoners refused. They were beaten again, then lined up in a field, each man faced by a Black and Tan with rifle resting on the fence ‘about five yards away. . . . I looked straight into the face of the man opposite me. He delayed about twenty seconds as if he would like one of his companions to fire first. The second Black & Tan fired. J Lyons threw up his hands moaned and fell backwards’. Dee ‘turned around and ran. I was gone about twelve yards when I got wounded in the right thigh, my leg bent under me but I kept on running although I had to limp.’ He was pursued ‘for fully three miles when, too exhausted to run any further I threw myself into a drain in an oats field’. A young Cumann na mBan girl later got Dr James Enright to treat Dee in a farmhouse at Dromin. The police claimed that when attacked near Kilmorna they dismounted and returned fire with rifles and a machine gun, pursuing the IRA as they retreated. The bodies of Dalton, Walsh and Lyons were found lying together in a field. Buried Athea, Limerick. He is commemorated on monuments at Newcastle West and Murroe, Limerick, and in a local ballad: Those martyrs bold, now dead and cold To the lorries were thrown in And in Listowel the tyrants told ‘We were ambushed in that Glen!’

His brother failed to secure a dependent’s award.772

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RD: Lyons (12May1921/2), Walsh (12May 1921/3) Jeremiah Lyons (12May1921/2) IRA, 24, Farmer, shopkeeper, RC Gortaglanna, Knockanure, Listowel, Kerry See Dalton (12May1921/1). Lyons was from Duagh, Kerry. Buried Springmount Cemetery, Duagh. His sister Mary failed to secure a dependent’s award.773 Patrick Walsh (12May1921/3) IRA, 30, Farmer’s son, RC Gortaglanna, Knockanure, Listowel, Kerry See Dalton (12May1921/1). Walsh was from Gunsborough, Listowel.774 Buried Gale Cemetery, Ballydonoghue, Kerry. His mother Ellen later secured a £17 dependent’s allowance.775

13 MAY 1921 John Joseph Magee (13May1921/1) IRA, 24, Clerk, RC Millgrange, Greenore, Louth Magee was born and educated in Dublin, where his father worked in the Customs and Excise. The family subsequently moved to Millgrange. He had abandoned studies for the priesthood, apparently for health reasons, and had recently been laid off from the London & North Western Railway office in Greenore because of a slump in business. His gravestone describes him as an IRA section commander. At about 02:00 Magee, ‘a model son of model parents’, who reportedly had a premonition of disaster, was taken from his home and shot dead in a field, ‘riddled with bullets’. His nephew Leo Magee recalled his father describing how the house was surrounded by Black and Tans. Magee’s parents unavailingly offered the police money not to take their son. A few minutes later, shots were heard. There had been considerable police activity in the area following the wounding of a constable during an attack on a cycle patrol on 8 May. The IRA believed that ‘a large Protestant (Unionist) farmer’ named Brown ‘gave the information on Magee’, and they burned

down his Greenore home. Buried Cill Mhuire Cemetery, Templetown, Carlingford, Louth. His parents applied for a dependent’s award.776 SA: Unknown (23Jun1921/1) Michael Ryan (13May1921/2) 25, Farmer’s son, RC Military Hospital, Tipperary, Tipperary Ryan was from Annacarty, Tipperary. Shot by a patrol while crossing a field at Ballybrack near Annacarty, allegedly for failing to halt, he died in hospital in the early hours.777 Seán Quinn (13May1921/3) IRA, 25, Agricultural labourer, RC Military Hospital, Kilkenny Quinn, born in Mullingar, Westmeath, in 1896, became a baker’s apprentice after a period in Clonmel Industrial School in Tipperary, and later an agricultural labourer in Mullinahone. He won two senior county championship football medals. Jim Maher told how, while working for Paitsín O’Brien of Ballylanigan, Quinn joined the ASU, 7th Battalion, Kilkenny Brigade, and went on the run. No. 2 ASU Tipperary No. 2 Brigade and the ASU of the 7th Battalion Kilkenny Brigade linked up in order to carry out an ambush near Callan and a barracks assault in Urlingford, as part of a strategy to bring the war into Kilkenny, which had hitherto been a very quiet county. But they found themselves harried by military searches. The IRA units were resting in three adjacent houses when, at about 11:00, scouts spotted two police lorries approaching. Paddy Power, Seán Quinn and Pat Walsh, who had arrived latest and had slept in an outhouse, were last to leave. Although now threatened by two enemy columns, covering fire allowed most of the ASU to climb over a high bank into an adjoining field and escape. Unknown to them, Quinn, Power and Walsh were still on the wrong side of the bank. As they attempted to climb it, Quinn and Walsh were wounded. Power hid in a dyke. Quinn died that evening in Kilkenny Military Hospital. Walsh was transferred

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to Fermoy Military Hospital, where his gangrenous leg was amputated. He died on 18 May. Buried Mullinahone, Tipperary.778 RD: Walsh (18May1921/7). SA: Darmody (17May1921/1), O’Keeffe (17May1921/8) Patrick Marley (13May1921/4) IRA, 20, Farmer’s son, RC Ardogommon Wood, Westport, Mayo Marley, from Glenhest, Newport, Mayo, was in the West Mayo Brigade. ‘Jim’ Marley was accidentally shot through the eye by James Flaherty while guns were being cleaned in T. Costello’s house at Ardogommon Wood. Buried Cushinine. His mother initially secured a £30 dependent’s gratuity, and an unmarried sister eventually obtained an allowance.779 SA: Duffy (3May1921/8)

14 MAY 1921 Albert George Saggers (14May1921/1) RASC (S/11267 – previously T/453371), 21, Butcher KGVH Private Saggers, from Hertfordshire, was stationed in Dublin. Paddy Daly proposed to capture an armoured car at the military abattoir with a view to rescuing Seán Mac Eoin, under sentence of death at Mountjoy Prison. For two successive mornings, the Squad went to Aughrim Street awaiting a prearranged signal to enter the abattoir. At about 09:15, Peerless Armoured Car No. 12 pulled inside the gates and parked underneath the clock. The NCO in charge got out, and was immediately held up. Tom Keogh† and Patrick Lawson pointed revolvers through the front flap of the car and held up the driver and the gunners, who were ordered out, disarmed and marched over to the wall. Private Jordan, South Wales Borderers, attempted to draw his revolver and was shot. Saggers, on orderly duty, was mortally wounded as he left the office. The IRA party succeeded in making their way into and out of Mountjoy in the armoured car, but for various reasons

the escape plan failed. Buried St James Churchyard, Stanstead Abbots.780 Francis Benson (14May1921/2) RIC (59293), 42, Farmer, Married with five children, RC Pembroke Street, Tralee, Kerry Benson, from Sligo, joined the RIC on 16 January 1900, serving in Kilkenny, Belfast and Kildare before returning to Kilkenny. Promoted to sergeant in 1915, he was transferred to Kerry in July 1917, becoming a head constable in 1920. He had been in Tralee for about six months. He had just left his home on Pembroke Street at about 14:15 when members of the ASU Kerry No. 1 Brigade attacked him near the barracks. While the rest of the party withdrew, leaving Benson ‘only wounded’, Volunteer John Mulcahy, an ex-serviceman, pursued him into ‘Nolan’s shop . . . and finished him there’. Michael Doyle recalled that after this ‘things were more or less quiet in the town until the Truce’. Buried Sligo. His widow secured £2,000 compensation and each of his five children £1,000.781 Joseph E. Coleman (14May1921/3) RIC (61273), 38, Groom, policeman, Married with four children, RC Midleton, Cork Coleman, from London, was a policeman in England before joining the RIC on 16 March 1903. He served in Limerick, the RIC Reserve, Belfast, Clare and Cork, where he was stationed in Midleton. At about 15:00, he was shot dead through a window in Buckley’s pub by members of the 4th Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade. His companions did not see who was responsible. Mick Leahy, a senior officer in Cork No. 1 Brigade, told Ernie O’Malley that Coleman was ‘one I wouldn’t have shot. . . . He was harmless.’ Three constables and a sergeant left their barracks to fetch a priest. One constable entered the parochial house while the others remained outside. They were attacked by the IRA’s Jack Ahern, Tom Buckley and Tom Riordan. Constables Thomas Cornyn and Harold Thompson were fatally wounded.

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Sergeant Gleeson returned fire and managed to reach the barracks. The priest ministered to the wounded. A mixed patrol of military and police recovered the bodies of the two constables. On Cornyn’s clothing was a card stating: ‘Shot trying to escape. Revenge for Clonmult and we will have more.’ On Thompson’s body lay a similar card. Edward McNamara, Michael Ahern, Richard Flynn and John Ryan, all of Carrigtwohill, were killed in reprisal by members of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders. The official report claimed that soldiers who arrested Ahern were then fired on from Flynn’s house. They replied with a grenade, killing Flynn. The building was then searched and Flynn’s son arrested. The same party arrested John Ryan. The press, drawing on official reports, gave a different account. The Cork Examiner said that in the early hours of 15 May, Ahern was abducted by armed men. His body was found about three miles away. John Ryan died in similar circumstances, his body found near Fota. Richard Flynn and his son were dragged from their home in Carrigtwohill and shot. Flynn’s body was found on ground adjoining his house. His son was wounded. Edward McNamara was shot, supposedly after ignoring an order to halt while walking home along the railway line. Buried GC (Garden Section: K. f. 221.5). His widow Anne secured £1,500 compensation and each of his four children £800.782 RD: Ahern (15May1921/2), Cornyn (14May 1921/4), Flynn (15May1921/4), McNamara (14May1921/22), Ryan (15May1921/3), Thompson (14May1921/5) Thomas Cornyn783 (14May1921/4) RIC (64930), 34, Farmer, RC Midleton, Cork See Coleman (14May1921/3). Cornyn, a farmer’s son from Dowra, Cavan, joined the RIC on 26 August 1909, allocated to Galway. There followed service in the RIC Reserve, in Clare and another stint in the Reserve. On 6 July 1920, he was transferred to Midleton. Buried England. His mother secured £700 compensation.784

Harold Thompson (14May1921/5) RIC (76556), 28, Motor driver, ex-serviceman, Protestant Midleton, Cork See Coleman (14May1921/3). Thompson, from Australia, joined the RIC on 10 December 1920, stationed in Midleton. Buried England. His mother and sister Mary Anne secured £500 and £400 compensation respectively.785 Peter Coughlan (14May1921/6) RIC (57842), 48, Married with six children, RC CMHC Constable Coughlan, from Killarney, Kerry, joined the RIC on 15 June 1896. He served in Wexford before transfer to Cork in April 1906. He was stationed in Shandon. Shortly after 16:00, an eight-man RIC party was attacked with bombs at the junction of O’Connell Street and Great William O’Brien Street while on patrol.786 This caused panic in the crowded streets, which facilitated the escape of the two attackers. Sentries at Victoria Barracks fired on men seen running away. Two, seen to fall, were carried away by their companions. Some policemen were wounded. Coughlan died from leg injuries before an ambulance arrived. Constable Ryle’s left leg was amputated and he died on 15 May, and Constable Hayes on 23 May. Buried Killarney. His widow secured £1,500 compensation and each of his children £500.787 RD: Hayes (23May1921/5), Ryle (15May 1921/16) Roland Madell (14May1921/7) Essex Regiment (5998850), 30, Porter Courtmacsherry, Cork Lance-Corporal Madell, from Peter Port, Guernsey, enlisted in 1911 and served in Mesopotamia before being posted to Cork. Courtmacsherry Military Barracks was attacked at 17:45 by the Barryroe Company, Cork No. 3 Brigade. Although the attack was repulsed, Madell was killed. Buried Candie Road Cemetery, St Peter Port, Guernsey (E. X. 44). His representatives secured £500 compensation.788

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Francis William Shepherd (14May1921/8) Essex Regiment (5998780), 19 Coolfada, Bandon, Cork Private Shepherd, from Middlesex, enlisted on 15 May 1920. He was stationed in Cork. Peter Kearney, section commander ASU Cork No. 3 Brigade, described how he, Tom Barry, Seán Lehane, Mick Crowley and Billy O’Sullivan mounted an attack on Crown forces. Using a Ford Model T, captured from the Essex Regiment, with a Lewis gun mounted on the framework of the windscreen, they fired on soldiers and police playing football in a field adjoining their barracks in the Grammar School, Devonshire Square (now Allen Square). Shepherd, on guard duty, was killed. The IRA drove away along the main Dunmanway road and later set fire to their vehicle. During the incident Cornelius Looney was badly wounded while making his way home and died at 22.30. Buried Manor Park Cemetery, Essex. His mother and brother Sidney each secured £250 compensation.789 RD: Looney (14May1921/14) Donald Chalmers (14May1921/9) King’s Own Scottish Borders (3180441), 21, Steward Rossmacowen, Castletownbere, Cork Private Chalmers, from Deptford, London, attested at Whitehall on 2 December 1920. He had previously served with the Prince Consort’s Own (Rifle Brigade). After their tea, privates Chalmers, Hunter and McMillan left Rerrin Camp, Bere Island, for Waterfall, between Bantry and Castletownbere. They were joined by three other soldiers. Three girls apparently encouraged the soldiers to follow them. A corporal turned back. Seeing a large party of armed civilians approach from the direction of Rossmacowen, he jumped on a wall and shouted to his comrades. He was then chased by five men, saving himself by swimming out to sea. Seeing this, the other soldiers also attempted to move towards the sea. One hid in a ditch, but Chalmers, McMillan and Hunter were held up. When asked if they were armed they said ‘No’, and McMillan pleaded with them, ‘You want to play the

game Mac.’ Fired on repeatedly beside a wall, three were killed outright. A fourth, wounded, was left for dead. This action was carried out by Volunteers from Rossmacowen under Micheál Óg O’Sullivan, on orders from brigade headquarters for reprisals for the execution of IRA prisoners in Cork prison. Buried Ladywell Cemetery, Lewisham, London. His mother secured £400 compensation.790 RD: Hunter (14May1921/10), McMillan (14May1921/11) John Alexander Hunter (14May1921/10) King’s Own Scottish Borderers (3180263), 20, Apprentice fitter Rossmacowen, Castletownbere, Cork See Chalmers (14May1921/9). Private Hunter, from Banffshire, attested at Glasgow on 8 November 1920. He was stationed in Cork. Buried Western Necropolis, Tresta Road, Glasgow (P. 3042).791 Robert McMillan (14May1921/11) King’s Own Scottish Borderers (3180640), 18, Labourer Rossmacowen, Castletownbere, Cork See Chalmers (14May1921/9). Private McMillan, from Rutherglen, attested at Glasgow on 23 January 1921, and was stationed in Cork. Buried Rutherglen Cemetery, Mill Street, Rutherglen (N. 763).792 Thomas Bridges (14May1921/12) RIC (69992), 21, Farmer, CoI Drumcollogher, Limerick From Knockvicar, Roscommon, Bridges joined the RIC on 2 December 1919, allocated to Limerick. Michael Sheehy, quartermaster 3rd (Drumcollogher) Battalion, West Limerick Brigade, described how in early May about 350 men were selected from the Drumcollogher, Broadford, Feohanagh, Kilmeedy, Ballygran, Cloncagh, Castlemahon, Feenagh and Killeely companies for attacks in the battalion area. On the evening of 13 May, they mobilised at Belville and marched to Drumcollogher, arriving at 01:00. Ten men under Ben O’Sullivan occupied Paddy Quaid’s house. Con Foley with another ten occupied the

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upper portion of Lil Connors’s premises. As it was a fair day, a military patrol remained in the village until 15:00. The plan was, after the soldiers had left, to attack police. The 18:00 angelus bell was to be the signal. At around 18:00, Volunteers from the 3rd (Drumcollogher) Battalion, East Limerick Brigade, fired on three constables as they left a shop. Bridges was killed. Buried Ardcarne Cemetery, Boyle, Roscommon. His mother secured £400 compensation.793 Harry Biggs (14May1921/13) RIC (76116), 26, Army officer Coolboreen, Newport, Tipperary Biggs, from Hampshire, served as a lieutenant in the 13th Hussars. He joined the Auxiliary Division on 3 August 1920, but transferred to the RIC as a DI on 19 November 1920, stationed in Newport. Seán Gaynor, O/C Tipperary No. 1 Brigade, told the BMH that the IRA were poorly organised in the Newport area. Biggs he described as ‘a vicious type of Black and Tan officer . . . [who] had the countryside terrorised’. Similarly, James Hewitt, quartermaster 6th (Newport) Battalion, Tipperary No. 1 Brigade, termed Biggs ‘an extremely bitter opponent. . . . He resorted to every terror device at his disposal in order to crush the IRA in the district, burning houses on the slightest provocation, shooting and maiming cattle, using old people as hostages.’ Gaynor had the twofold intention of shooting Biggs and strengthening the resolve of the local IRA. He, Paddy Ryan of Lacken (whose father reportedly had been used by Biggs as a civilian hostage on patrol), Tom McGrath and Dinny Hayes were on their way to a meeting of the 6th Battalion when McGrath’s sister recognised Biggs in a passing motor car. She suggested that he was probably on his way to the house of Major Gabbitt, a loyalist, at Killoscully. An ambush party was hastily formed. Gaynor, Ryan, Hayes, McGrath and four Newport Volunteers waited at Coolboreen. Others covered an alternative route. At around 19:00 scouts spotted the car. Biggs was driving, with Winifred Barrington beside him. Gabbitt, Captain Trengrouse and a Miss Coverdale sat

in the back. When the vehicle passed the bridge at Coolboreen, Gaynor opened fire. The car came to a halt, and the three men jumped out. Trengrouse escaped towards Newport. Gabbitt put up his hands, shouting that there were women in the car. Biggs was killed on the road. Winifred Barrington, dressed in a riding outfit and wearing Biggs’s hat, may have been mistaken for a man: shot in the lung, she fell into a ditch. The IRA reported her death as ‘accidental’. Gaynor told the BMH that the spirited Miss Coverdale gave the IRA ‘dog’s abuse’ for killing a woman, to which Ryan remarked that ‘only for the bitch being in bad company she would not have been shot’. A military report stated that ‘the rebels refused assistance’ to Winifred Barrington, remarking ‘ “serve her right”’, but they did bring her to a nearby farmhouse for aid; she died there a few hours later. Buried Aldershot Military Cemetery.794 RD: Barrington (14May1921/16) Cornelius Looney (14May1921/14) Married with two children, RC Union Hospital, Bandon, Cork See Shepherd (14May1921/8). Looney lived on Boyle Street, Bandon. Buried St Patrick’s Cemetery, Bandon. His sons Timothy and Cornelius each secured £250 compensation.795 Edward McCusker (14May1921/15) IRA, 19, Farmer, RC Eskera, Dromore, Tyrone McCusker was a Volunteer from Corladergan, Dromore, Tyrone. Patrick Maguire, quartermaster 2nd Brigade, 2nd Northern Division, stated that Mick Gallagher organised retaliation for the killing in Dromore the previous month of John Devine, Daniel O’Doherty and Charles Slevin. USC Head Constable Matt Henderson, believed responsible, was guarded by a mixed party of USC and RIC. At around 23:00, Gallagher and six Volunteers attacked them at Eskera, just outside Dromore village on the Irvinestown road. A bomb was thrown from behind a hedge, followed by a volley of rifle fire. Shortly afterwards, policemen heard

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someone shout ‘Oh!’ three times, after which the attack ceased. The body of an unknown man (McCusker) was subsequently found a field’s length away from the rebel position, clutching a Colt revolver. He was the only IRA fatality. Maguire, who took part, claimed that during the shooting a police lorry came on the scene, forcing the IRA to retreat without McCusker’s body, though this is not reported elsewhere. The police removed McCusker’s corpse to Dromore RIC Barracks. His parents would not risk the consequences of identifying their son. His mother Rose Ann later secured a £50 dependent’s gratuity.796 SA: Devine (7Apr1921/3), O’Doherty (7Apr 1921/4), Slevin (7Apr1921/5) Winifred Frances Barrington (14May1921/16) 23, CoE Coolboreen, Newport, Tipperary See Biggs (14May1921/13). Winifred Barrington, the only daughter of Sir Charles Barrington of Glenstal Castle, Murroe, Limerick, had worked in France in the wartime ambulance service. The Limerick Chronicle described her as universally popular in Murroe, saying that her death occasioned great sadness. Buried Abington Churchyard, Murroe.797 Laurence Brien (14May1921/17) 21, Labourer, RC Bray, Wicklow Brien lived on School Lane off the top of Main Street, Bray, with his parents and two sisters. He worked for Patrick Quinn of Bray Head. From 10 May 1921, curfew restrictions were imposed in Bray: residents had to remain indoors between 22:00 and 05:00. The Wicklow People reported conflicting accounts of how Brien met his death. According to a police report, shortly before 22:00 on 13 May a military patrol on Main Street observed civilians near the Town Hall. These scattered, were ordered to halt and were fired on when they did not comply. Brien was apparently struck by a bullet in the back of the head and fell at his own doorstep. But his relatives said that he had not been out

on the street when shot. He died next day. Buried Glenealy Cemetery, Wicklow.798 Bernard Francis (14May1921/18) RMA (14710), 23 Ramhill, Ballinacurra, Cork Gunner Francis served in 8th Battalion, RMA, which was stationed in Ireland in early June 1920 to protect coastguard stations in the south and west. Francis and William Parker were stationed in East Ferry. Daniel Cashman, of the Midleton Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, recalled orders in mid-May to shoot on sight any military personnel in uniform, whether armed or not. Cashman and Phil Hyde – himself an exserviceman – disarmed and killed Francis and Parker near Ramhill, Ballinacurra. Buried Lewis (St John the Baptist Sub-Castro) Churchyard, Sussex. Francis’s mother secured £450 compensation.799 RD: Parker (14May1921/19) William Parker (14May1921/19) RMA (14560), 24 Ramhill, Ballinacurra, Cork See Francis (14May1921/18). Gunner Parker, from Manchester, was stationed in Cork. Buried St Mark’s Churchyard, Worsley, Lancashire. His mother secured £500 compensation.800 John Kenna (14May1921/20) RIC (69312), 24, Cycle mechanic, RC Innishannon, Cork Kenna, from Thurles, Tipperary, joined the RIC on 2 January 1918, stationed in Innishannon. He was shot dead in a field close to Innishannon Barracks, according to the IRA ‘at 350 yards range’, by Jim O’Mahony, adjutant 1st (Bandon) Battalion, Cork No. 3 Brigade. Miss M. Cotter of the Cumann na mBan acted as scout and intelligence officer. Buried Templecree Cemetery, Templetuohy, Thurles.801 Robert Redmond (14May1921/21) RIC (78135), 23, Labourer, ex-serviceman, Married with one child, RC Killarney Street, Dublin From Wicklow, Temporary Constable Redmond joined the RIC on 3 January 1921,

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attached to Beggar’s Bush Barracks, the headquarters of the Auxiliary Division. Found wounded in the head on Killarney Street, Dublin, he died while being taken to hospital. He was probably the ‘suspicious character in a pub’ whom two men of C Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade encountered: ‘They searched him and got a B[lack] & T[an] week-end pass on him. He begged to be let go and stated he would give information. One of our men went home for a gun and executed him. 2 r[oun]ds of .45 fired.’ Buried GC (Garden Section: K. f. 221.5). His widow secured £700 compensation and his only child £200.802 Edward McNamara (14May1921/22) IRA, 19, Labourer, RC The Kennels, Midleton, Cork See Coleman (14May1921/3). His father secured a £50 dependent’s gratuity.803 Richard Henry Barry (14May1921/23) 23, Farmer’s son, RC Knockgriffin, Cork The CFR records how Barry was shot by Cameron Highlanders who claimed he had attempted to flee from his house when challenged.804

15 MAY 1921 Patrick Sheehan (15May1921/1) 40, Cattle dealer, Married, RC 9 Langford Row, Cork At about 02:30 four disguised men entered Sheehan’s bedroom at 9 Langford Row and asked: ‘Are you Patrick Sheehan?’ They then shot him. This incident was one of two shootings in Cork by unknown men that night. They followed an attack on police in Blackpool the previous day, in which three policemen died. Buried Templemartin.805 SA: Coughlan (14May1921/6), Hayes (23May 1921/5), Ryle (15May1921/16) Michael Ahern (15May1921/2) IRA, 34, Fruit grower, RC Carrigtwohill, Cork See Coleman (14May1921/3). Ahern lived in Ballyrichard. His sister Christina served in Cumann na mBan, and their family home was

burnt in an official reprisal in December 1920: ‘They lost everything owing to IRA connections.’ Buried Midleton, Cork. A commemorative cross was erected in Carrigtwohill. A housing estate is named after him and John Ryan.806 SA: Ryan (15May1921/3) John Ryan (15May1921/3) IRA, RC Carrigtwohill, Cork See Coleman (14May1921/3). Ryan lived in Woodstock, outside Carrigtwohill. Buried Midleton, Cork. A commemorative cross was erected in Carrigtwohill and a housing estate named after him and Michael Ahern.807 SA: Ahern (15May1921/2) Richard Flynn (15May1921/4) 69, Married, RC Carrigtwohill, Cork See Coleman (14May1921/3). Flynn lived in Knockgriffin, Midleton, Cork. A memorial was erected in Carrigtwohill.808 John Nutley (15May1921/5) RIC (71087), 22, Labourer, ex-serviceman, RC Bansha, Tipperary Nutley, from Kilconnell, Galway, joined the RIC on 22 April 1920, stationed in Bansha. At 10:45 Nutley, Sergeant Jeremiah Sullivan and Constable John McLoughlin were attacked while crossing the street in Bansha after leaving Mass. Nutley was killed, Sullivan and McLoughlin wounded. On 16 May a court of inquiry in Tipperary returned a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown. Intelligence for the attack was gathered by James Moloney, whose brother Patrick had been killed on 1 May. Brian Shanahan recalled that he, Jim and Con Moloney, Dan Breen, ‘Artie’ Barlow and Ernie O’Malley took part. Two of the police shot were believed implicated in the murder of the Dwyer brothers in the Glen of Aherlow the previous August. The loyalist Western News described Nutley as ‘a brave and gallant young man . . . beloved of his new associates’ in the police and military. One local story has it that Nutley’s mother placed a curse of childlessness on the

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premises of a young couple for failing to pass on a warning they had received that the police should not attend Mass, and that in consequence no children were born to them or any subsequent owners of the building. Buried Liscume, Woodlawn, Co. Galway. His sister Mary Lyons and his mother secured £1,050 compensation.809 SA: Moloney (1May1921/9), O’Dwyer (19Oct 1920/2) Peter Graham (15May1921/6) 39, Labourer, Married with children, RC Golf Links, Killiney, Dublin Graham and his wife Anne lived at 48 Patrick Street West, Dublin. Andrew McDonnell, O/C 6th Battalion Dublin Brigade, recalled that Billy Walsh, captain Dún Laoghaire Company and an exsoldier, learned through local ex-servicemen that Graham and Andrew Knight were paid spies. Shots were heard at around 18:00, after which three or four men were seen in a motor car heading towards Dalkey. At 22:15 Graham’s body was found near Killiney Golf Links with five bullet wounds to the head. An attached label termed him a spy. Graham’s remains were later identified in St Michael’s Hospital, Dún Laoghaire.810 SA: Knight (7Jul1921/5) James O’Callaghan (15May1921/7) 38, Priest, RC North Infirmary, Cork Fr James O’Callaghan, from Enniskeane, Cork, was educated at St Finbarr’s Seminary, Cork and St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where he was ordained on 21 June 1908. Well known in Irish language circles, on 20 October 1920 he was appointed a curate in the cathedral parish. He rented rooms in the house of Alderman Liam de Róiste, TD, at Janemount, Sunday’s Well. At about 03:30 men in civilian clothes forced their way into de Róiste’s house. De Róiste no longer slept there for fear of assassination. One of the attackers apparently grappled with Mrs de Róiste. When O’Callaghan tried to intervene he was shot. He died in hospital at 18:30. Buried Church of the Most Precious Blood, Clogheen.811

Cecil Arthur Maurice Blake (15May1921/8) RIC (76106), 36, Army officer, Married, CoE Ballyturin House, Kilbeacanty, Gort, Galway Blake, from Hampshire, joined the RIC as a cadet on 11 November 1920 after distinguished wartime service as a captain in the Royal Artillery. Allocated to Galway, on 1 December 1920 he was promoted to DI, stationed in Gort. He was one of a party, accompanied by Lily Margaret Gregory of Coole Park (daughter-in-law of Lady Augusta Gregory), visiting John Bagott, JP, at Ballyturin House, Kilbeacanty, four miles from Gort. Joseph Stanford, O/C Galway South-West Brigade, lay in ambush for Blake from around 13:00. Others involved included Denis Ryan, brigade quartermaster; Patrick Glynn, vice-O/C, Gort Battalion; John Coen, captain Kilbeacanty Company; Patrick Houlihan of the East Clare ASU (afterwards a Fianna Fáil TD from 1927 to 1937); and Thomas Creaven, Timothy Reilly, Thomas Reilly and John Keely of the Kilbeacanty Company. Scouts were posted on two approach roads. The IRA waited six hours for their prey. Blake drove as the party left Ballyturin House. Lily Gregory sat beside him, with Captain Cornwallis, Lieutenant McCreery and the heavily pregnant Eliza Blake in the back. The car stopped because the gates were closed. When Cornwallis went to open them, there was a shout of ‘hands up’ from the bushes. Lily Gregory, the sole survivor, said ‘Mrs Blake was the first to realize the true danger; very calmly she said: “It’s an ambush”. Simultaneously one or two shots rang out.’ McCreery and Eliza Blake took cover on the left-hand side of the car. Cecil Blake and Lily Gregory followed. Cornwallis fell dead at the far side of the gate. Lily Gregory recalled:

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I felt death might come at any moment. . . . Mrs Blake was still kneeling, and I heard a sound like the running of water from a tap, as the blood poured from a lacerated wound in her neck and chest. A volley was then fired at Mrs Blake: she fell sideways . . . her hand just resting on her husband’s foot.

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She was due to travel to England for her confinement next day. The Western News claimed that, offered a chance to escape, she ‘called out that she would never leave her husband; that if she was to die she would die by her husband’. She was found slumped over his body, apparently with twelve gunshot wounds: to the RIC ‘it appears that this unfortunate lady was deliberately riddled with bullets while she lay on the ground’. The IRA’s terse account runs: ‘I called on them to put up their hands instead of putting up their hands, they drew their revolvers and fired at us. The ladies refused to leave, we did our best not to hit them, but one of them was killed.’ BMH statements claimed that Blake and Cornwallis fired before they were killed, whereas McCreery did not. Lily Gregory described how disguised men searched Blake’s pockets and took Mrs Blake’s purse but did not see her gold cigarette case lying on the ground. Molly Bagott drove a pony and trap to Gort for help. A party of police and military, accompanied by a doctor, came under fire as they arrived. Constable Kearney was hit and died in St Bride’s Nursing Home, Galway on 21 May. His death brought the number of fatalities to five. Eliza Blake had been hit at least five times. The White Lancer, the regimental journal of the 17th Lancers, observed that the killings in ‘circumstances of wanton brutality . . . sent a shudder through England’. The O/C East Clare Brigade believed that the operation would strengthen the Galway men: ‘When they do one thing and succeed they will have more confidence for themselves for the next job. The men are good but the Officers are appalling.’ The Illustrated London News carried an artist’s depiction of the ambush in a graphic centrefold. Eliza Blake’s killing was strongly denounced by the Catholic hierarchy and by the local curate despite ‘his strong Sinn Fein views’, although, unlike Eileen Quinn, also killed near Gort, her death evoked no public comment from W. B. Yeats. Michael Burke, later a Garda officer, claimed credit for securing the ‘valuable information’ leading to the deaths of ‘four of the enemy officers’.

Blake and his wife were buried together on 18 May at the New Cemetery, Bohermore, Galway.812 RD: Blake (15May1921/10), Cornwallis (15May1921/9), Kearney (21May1921/8), McCreery (15May1921/11). SA: Quinn (1Nov1920/6) Fiennes Wykeham Mann Cornwallis (15May1921/9) 17th Lancers (Duke of Cambridge’s Own) Lancers, 30, CoE Ballyturin House, Kilbeacanty, Gort, Galway See Blake (15May1921/8). Captain Cornwallis, from Kent, educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, was commissioned in the West Kent Yeomanry. Stationed in France from November 1914 with the machine-gun section, in 1917 he was given command of the 3rd Machine-Gun Squadron with the acting rank of major. Awarded the MC and Croix de Guerre, Cornwallis remained with his unit until its disbandment in the summer of 1919. In the spring of 1920, he applied to rejoin his regiment, voluntarily relinquishing the rank of major. He commanded C Squadron at Gort and Galway. Buried St Nicholas Churchyard, Linton, Kent.813 Eliza Blake (15May1921/10) 40, Married, Protestant Ballyturin House, Kilbeacanty, Gort, Galway See Blake (15May1921/8). ‘Lily’ Blake’s maiden name was Williams.814 Robert Bruce McCreery (15May1921/11) 17th (Duke of Cambridge’s Own) Lancers, 22, Protestant Ballyturin House, Kilbeacanty, Gort, Galway See Blake (15May1921/8). Lieutenant McCreery, from Templecombe, Somerset, was educated at Eton and Sandhurst. Commissioned on 21 December 1917, he was in C Squadron, stationed in Galway. Buried Sherborne Cemetery, Dorset (13. 14).815 Hugh McLean (15May1921/12) RIC (74660), 21, Motor mechanic, naval rating, Presbyterian Union Hospital, Skibbereen, Cork Constable McLean, from Moray, Scotland, joined the RIC on 20 October 1920, allocated

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to Westmeath. He subsequently transferred to Cork, stationed in Skibbereen. His resignation had been accepted with effect from 31 May. The police reported that at about 15:15, while on recreation at Maulbrack near Skibbereen, constables McLean and Cooper were fired on by a concealed IRA party. McLean, shot through the lungs, died at 20:00. McLean’s father secured £1,200 compensation.816 James Brennan (15May1921/13) 10, Schoolboy, RC JSH See Nowlan (13Jan1921/5). James died of wounds sustained in January 1921.817 Joseph Daly (15May1921/14) RIC (75769), 20, Labourer, RC Lower Graigue, Nenagh, Tipperary From Meath, Daly joined the RIC on 23 November 1920, stationed in Silvermines. Between 15:00 and 16:00, constables Daly and Gallivan were returning towards Nenagh after ‘escorting [sic] young females’, sisters named Kennedy in Ballymackey, as an IRA report censoriously put it. Although ‘in mufti’ and unarmed, they were recognised by Mick Moylan of Nenagh and captured. Seán Gaynor, O/C Tipperary No. 1 Brigade, ordered their killing at Lower Graigue by a firing party under Billy Spain. Their bodies were exhumed from a bog on 31 July 1925, apparently at the prompting of a local priest, and returned to relatives.818 RD: Gallivan (15May1921/15) Thomas Gallivan (15May1921/15) RIC (70812), 20, Labourer, ex-serviceman, RC Lower Graigue, Nenagh, Tipperary See Daly (15May1921/14). Gallivan, from Ballylongford, Kerry, joined the RIC on 22 March 1920, stationed in Silvermines. The RIC General Register recorded him as ‘kidnapped by IRA & not heard from since’.819 John Ryle (15May1921/16) RIC (57411), 46, Farmer, RC CMHC See Coughlan (14May1921/6). Constable Ryle, from Kerry, joined the RIC on 2 January

1896, serving in Galway and from 1902 in Shandon RIC Barracks, Cork. Buried Rath Cemetery, Tralee.820

16 MAY 1921 Daniel O’Brien (16May1921/1) IRA, 29, Farmer’s son, RC Military Detention Barracks, Cork O’Brien, from Liscarroll, Cork, joined the Irish Volunteers in 1917. He was in the Liscarroll Company, Charleville Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade, and the battalion ASU, under his brother Paddy. Paddy O’Brien described how early on 11 May, he and two fellow officers met in John O’Donnell’s house in Aughrim, two miles north of Liscarroll. Although considered unsafe to sleep there, the men decided to stay as it was late. Two lookouts were posted. At about 08:00, O’Donnell and his neighbour warned O’Brien that three military lorries had passed heading towards Milford. Despite this, the men took tea before preparing to go. As O’Donnell opened the door, he was confronted by a military officer. The two O’Briens and O’Regan immediately rushed out the back. In the subsequent shootout, O’Regan was wounded. Dan O’Brien tried to help him escape. Both were captured and taken to Victoria Barracks, Cork. Only Paddy evaded capture. On 14 May, O’Brien was tried by drumhead court martial for possession of a revolver and ammunition. When asked to plead, he stated: ‘I have no defence; I was caught as a soldier and you can try me.’ A guilty plea was entered. Sentenced to death, he was shot at 08:00 at the Military Detention Barracks, Cork. Buried Cork Prison yard. He is commemorated on a monument in Charleville. His mother Mary initially refused a dependent’s gratuity of £112.10s.0d. His sister Johanna later secured an allowance.821 James Lacey (16May1921/2) IRA, 26, Farmer, contractor, RC Shanganagh More, Barrowhouse, Laois Lacey was from Mountbrook, Ballylinan, Kildare. Eight members of B Company, 5th Battalion, Carlow Brigade, assembled during

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the afternoon in the graveyard adjoining St Mary’s Church, Barrowhouse, intending to ambush a police patrol which regularly travelled between Ballylinan and Mageney. However, the patrol was late and as it approached children emerged from the local school. The IRA had to move across the fields before opening fire. The RIC took cover and returned fire in an exchange lasting about an hour. After the IRA withdrew, Lacey’s body was discovered in a ditch, shot in the side. A further search yielded the corpse of William Connor, hit in the neck. Two other Volunteers were believed wounded. Lacey and Connor, born the same day, were buried in the same Barrowhouse grave. Lacey’s father John received a gratuity of £30 in 1925.822 RD: Connor (16May1921/3) William Connor (16May1921/3) IRA, 26, Agricultural labourer, RC Shanganagh More, Barrowhouse, Laois See Lacey (16May1921/2). O’Connor was from Barrowhouse. Although the Gardaí confirmed that she was ‘in very poor circumstances’, his mother Mary received a gratuity of just £50, and failed in an appeal to have the amount increased ‘for the loss of this brave man’. Decades later two of his sisters failed to secure dependents’ allowances.823 John Herrod824 (16May1921/4) SWB (3902304), 33, Foreman master, Married with four children Navan, Meath Herrod married in Canada in 1911, and came to Ireland the following year. The South Wales Borderers arrived in Meath in July 1920. Herrod, a company quartermaster sergeant, had been stationed in Navan for about six months. At around 20:00 he walked to Bishopscourt, where he met a friend who walked a little of the way back with him. They parted at about 21:45. At 17:00 on 26 May, an angler on the River Blackwater at Knockumber noticed a body caught in the weeds. Dressed in civilian clothes, Herrod was blindfolded and his hands were bound behind his back. A stone weighing 17 pounds was found between his coat and vest, held in

position by a belt. There was speculation that Herrod had been engaged in intelligence work. A medical witness stated that there was no water in the lungs and that death was due to strangulation. The court returned a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown. Herrod, the South Wales Borderers’ only Irish fatality, and the only soldier to be killed in Meath, was buried at Brookwood Military Cemetery, Surrey. His widow secured £1,500 compensation and each of his children, who ranged in age from ten years to eleven months, £250.825 Leonard Hart (16May1921/5) RIC (73868), 21, Ex-serviceman, Married, CoE RIC Barracks, Carrick-on-Shannon, Leitrim Constable Hart, from London, joined the RIC on 5 October 1920 after leaving the RAF, stationed in Carrick-on-Shannon. He was married about six months. Hit in the head in his dormitory when a colleague accidentally discharged a revolver, he died three hours later. He was buried beside Constable Wilfred Jones at Corbollog Cemetery. A local recalled how as a youth he had watched the funeral: ‘anyone that didn’t take off their cap they [the police] came along and knocked them off the people who stood up looking’.826 SA: Jones (15Apr1921/3) David Walsh (16May1921/6) Ex-serviceman, RC Doon, Glenville, Cork Walsh was from Shanagarry, Cork. Accounts of his fate are illustrative of the uncertainties surrounding the deaths of alleged informers, particularly in Cork. James Coss, intelligence officer 1st (Fermoy) Battalion, described how an informant in Fermoy Military Barracks passed him a copy of a file which gave particulars of David Walsh. He was believed to have been paid £1 for information which led to the Clonmult massacre on 20 February. On 14 May, the IRA arrested Walsh in the Fermoy area, tried him and sentenced him to death, allegedly after he stated: ‘I met a party of military in February last and told them I knew where

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Volunteers were in Clonmult and afterwards led them to the house. I was getting £1 per week and a lump sum for information.’ The IRA persuaded him to make this declaration by promising him safe passage to Australia. Yet Peter Hart writes that the Clonmult disaster was attributable to a Hampshire Regiment intelligence officer who tracked the ASU to Clonmult independently, while on 19 July 1924 General E. P. Strickland, who had been 6th Division GOC in Munster in 1921, wrote to Walsh’s brother Andrew that, after inquiries, he ascertained that Walsh ‘gave us no information, and he was not known to us’. Furthermore, Andrew Walsh, in the course of various requests for information about his brother’s fate, repeatedly stated that David was mentally unbalanced as a result of war injuries. His erratic behaviour ‘has given me a good deal of trouble. I have had to give up my situations in search of him.’ David was ‘sent home from hospital’ in March 1921 – i.e. a month after the Clonmult massacre for which he was allegedly the informant – still ‘suffering from gas posion [sic] and shell shock’, and had been impossible to control. GHQ initially stated that Walsh had been executed in April 1921, weeks before he actually went missing. Andrew Walsh continued to press his brother’s case for vindication, writing on 9 April 1925: ‘I think it a very wrong thing [to treat] in such a manner a man that lost his position through not being capable of himself . . . he was tried and sent to his doom wrongly’. Clonmult was a disaster, in terms alike of operational slackness and of its bloody consequences: it is not surprising that the IRA scapegoated an alleged informer, even though he was plainly an unstable and probably an innocent man.827 Colville Eyre Crabbe (16May1921/7) ADRIC, 42, Ex-serviceman, Married, CoE Dublin Crabbe, initially commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment on 9 October 1895, was a veteran of both the Boer War and the Great War, where he lost three fingers of one hand

in 1915 and was awarded an MC in France while serving with Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. He relinquished his commission in January 1918 on health grounds, but returned as a temporary captain in the RAF that October, serving until May 1919. He joined the ADRIC on 5 October 1920 (service no. 672) and was posted to F Coy based in Dublin Castle. He had appeared ‘very depressed’ for weeks prior to shooting himself, and a court of inquiry returned a verdict of suicide while of unsound mind.828

17 MAY 1921 Martin Darmody (17May1921/1) 41, Ex-serviceman, RC Ballagh, Tullaroan, Kilkenny Darmody, from Kilmanagh, Kilkenny, enlisted (6232) at Aldershot in October 1900 aged twenty, serving in the Boer War. He re-enlisted in 1908 for a further four years, and again in 1912. For some years a prisoner of war in Germany, he was discharged on 29 July 1919. Edward Halley, vice-O/C 7th Battalion, Kilkenny Brigade, recalled a military attack on the IRA at Knocknamuck on 13 May, resulting in the deaths of Seán Quinn and Patrick Walsh. Officers of the Kilmanagh Company, Kilkenny Brigade, produced sworn evidence that an ex-serviceman named Michael O’Keeffe aided Crown forces. Darmody, O’Keeffe’s friend, was also believed implicated. When the Callan ASU and No. 2 ASU Tipperary Brigade were preparing an ambush in Kilmanagh on 12 May, Darmody had been ‘very troublesome, threatening our men what he would have done to them, and we had to lock him up in a pig-house’. Ned Alyward decided that Darmody and O’Keeffe should be killed. Two members of the Callan ASU and two from the Kilmanagh Company took the men from their homes in Oldtown and shot them at a sandpit in nearby Ballagh in the early hours of 17 May. Darmody was reportedly killed outright; O’Keeffe died later that day. GHQ reprimanded the O/C Kilkenny Brigade: ‘It is a very serious matter that a

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junior officer should take upon himself the responsibility for executing two alleged spies and I want to have a special report in this case.’ All such killings required a brigade commander’s approval: ‘There must be no slacking with regard to this Order.’829 RD: O’Keeffe (17May1921/8). SA: Quinn (13May1921/3), Walsh (18May1921/7) Edmund Kenyon (17May1921/2) RIC (74724), 22, Stoker, ex-serviceman, Married, CoE Newpark, Lanesborough, Longford Constable Kenyon, from Kilcock, Kildare, son of an army gymnasium instructor, joined the RIC on 22 October 1920, stationed in Lanesborough. He was recently married. Bernard Garraghan, O/C 3rd Battalion, Longford Brigade, recalled an ambush at about 15:30 on a nine-man police cycle patrol at Newpark. Kenyon and a comrade took cover in a nearby house. As he went to a window to return fire, he was hit in the right eye and killed instantly. Constables Hynes, Finneran and Crowe were wounded. Due to a shortage of ammunition the IRA then withdrew. Buried London. His widow Florence secured £1,500 compensation, and his mother £500.830 Ernest Williams (17May1921/3) RMLI (PO/15586), 25, Ex-serviceman, Engaged Cregg, Rosses Point, Sligo Corporal Williams had been stationed in Rosses Point Coastguard Station, Sligo, for about twelve months. The Roscommon Herald reported that he was popular locally. He was due to be married in England. This may explain a report in WO 35/89 suggesting that jealousy over a woman might explain his killing. The IRA had tried to kill him a month previously, though he ‘could not be got at’. He was returning by sidecar from Sligo at about 16:00 when captured at Cregg, ‘taken down a laneway and shot dead’ by Edward Bofin, M. J. Kevlehan, M. Gillen, Michael Devins, F. Rooney and J. J. Higgins of F (Rosses Point) Company, Sligo Brigade. Buried Ann’s Hill Cemetery,

Gosport, Portsmouth (Plot 68, Row 1, Grave 25796).831 John Dunne (17May1921/4) RIC (69354), 22, Farmer, RC Kinnitty, Birr, Offaly Dunne, from Tuam, Galway, joined the RIC on 14 February 1918, stationed in Birr. At around 16:00, a police cycle patrol of seven officers came through Kinnity in two groups. One group of four on the Kilcormac road were attacked. Constable Dunne, although ‘wounded . . . attempted to return fire and was killed with the rifle at his shoulder’; Constable Edward Doran died two days later. Their companions were less seriously wounded. The IRA withdrew unharmed to Killoughy. The attack was mounted by Joseph Connolly, O/C ASU Offaly No. 2 Brigade, with Michael Cordial, Joe Scully, Michael Carroll and Michael Seery. Information on the patrol, which was to serve jury notices, came from Mary Coughlan, a barmaid in Birr, who heard about it from a Black and Tan named Fleming. The O/C Offaly No. 2 Brigade observed that ‘this was the first occasion on which these men were in action. . . . Previous to the encounter they were very doubtful about their capacity to tackle the enemy successfully’. Buried Kilconly, Tuam. The King’s County Chronicle reported that flowers on his grave were later vandalised. Dunne’s parents John and Kate secured £1,000 compensation.832 RD: Doran (19May1921/10) Charles T. Mead (17May1921/5) RIC (77946), 36, Coppersmith, ex-serviceman, Married, Protestant Ballyseedy, Tralee, Kerry Mead, from Middlesex on 13 November 1884, joined the RIC on 18 January 1921, stationed in Tralee. Last seen alive by Constable James Reid at 16:00, the RIC reported that Mead, ‘a newly-arrived motor mechanic . . . picked up company in Tralee’, presumably a woman, and was ‘enticed outside the town’. A search near Ballyseedy uncovered two shillings, a button and a quantity of blood. No body was found. On 24 October 1921, a court of inquiry was held

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in Tralee. No IRA source on this killing has been traced. Mead’s widow secured £1,500 compensation.833 Charles Bernard Cox (17May1921/6) 36, Bricklayer, Married with five children, RC North Strand, Dublin Born in Dublin, Cox lived at 184 Riley’s Avenue, Mount Brown, and worked for Dublin Corporation. His children ranged in age from three weeks to eight years. He was working at Kearne’s shop on the North Strand when shot by a soldier during an attack on a military motor car. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: C. a. 81).834 Timothy Hennessy (17May1921/7) IRA, 21, RC Cork Military Prison See Starr (1May1921/11). Hennessy, from Ahabeg House, Caherconlish, Limerick, was in the ASU, Mid Limerick Brigade. Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery. He is commemorated on monuments at Caherconlish and Murroe, Limerick.835 Michael O’Keeffe (17May1921/8) Ex-serviceman, RC Ballagh, Tullaroan, Kilkenny See Darmody (17May1921/1).836

c. 17 MAY 1921 Seymour Llewington Vincent (17May1921/9) RFA, Army officer, CoE Toor, Glenville, Cork Vincent, a lieutenant in the 2nd Brigade, from Loughton, Essex, returned from Britain to the military depot in Fermoy, Cork, on 17 May 1921. He then left the barracks wearing a brown civilian suit and was not seen again. In August 1926, the Department of Defence said their records indicated that he had been captured on 24 or 25 May 1921 near Watergrasshill. George Power, intelligence officer Cork No. 2 Brigade, recalled that the Araglin Company, Cork No. 2 Brigade, captured a British officer near Watergrasshill, disguised as a tramp, with a notebook listing the names of known local loyalists. Before Power could interview the

prisoner, he attempted to escape and his guards killed him. On 21 January 1922, the Cork Examiner carried a notice offering a £50 reward for information. Gardaí found his remains in Lenihan’s Bog, Glenville, Fermoy, in August 1926. On 20 October 1926 he was reinterred in Glenville Graveyard, his grave dug by an Irish Army detachment from Cork. Vincent’s sister and a cousin attended. The Reverend W. Bourchier, who officiated with another clergyman, assigned his £1 fee to the Church Expenses fund.837 Mark Percival (17May1921/10) King’s Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster) (3645255), 18, Ex-serviceman, RC Dublin Private Percival, from Widnes, Lancashire, was killed when a Crossley tender was attacked with gunfire and bombs at Inchicore. Buried Widnes Cemetery, Lancashire (Grave Memorial Reference: VII R. RC. 1669).838

18 MAY 1921 Patrick Dunney (18May1921/1) 27, Agricultural labourer, ex-serviceman, Married, RC Ballymount Lane, Dublin Dunney had a chequered record in the RDF. Enlisting in 1909 (regimental number 15195), he contracted malaria at Gallipoli, and was wounded in France. By 1918 he was a company sergeant-major (service number 7807660), but was twice demoted for drunkenness and insubordination. His last military rank was corporal, and it is unclear if he remained in service by 1921. Matthew J. Kavanagh, O/C 5th Battalion, East Wicklow Brigade, recalled that an alleged GHQ organiser had attempted to lure company captains to a meeting to which they would bring a list of men, arms and ammunition. A Cumann na mBan girl provided a description, and while under arrest a few nights later Kavanagh himself saw the man in Wicklow Jail escorting and beating two prisoners. Kavanagh again spotted him while awaiting trial in Kilmainham Jail. A friendly soldier identified him as a Sergeant

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Dunney of the RGA, stationed in Tallaght. He was said never to wear uniform, and was believed to have a telephone in his house. Kavanagh conveyed this information directly to Michael Collins.† Michael Chadwick also recalled the search for ‘the famous gun-man Dunny’. Pádraig Ó Conchubhair (O’Connor) of No. 4 Section ASU Dublin Brigade, stated that Dunney was an ex-serviceman of the Australian forces serving with the Auxiliaries in Trim. The Dublin Brigade ASU report of his killing termed him ‘a B[lack] and T[an] stationed in the country’. The evidence suggests otherwise. Between 02:00 and 03:00, Simon McInerney, Paddy Rigney and Ó Conchubhair drove to the Dunney family cottage in a commandeered motor car. Dunney’s sister Chrissie recognised Rigney, greeting him, ‘Hello Paddy.’ She told Ó Conchubhair, whom she also knew, ‘I hope you are not going to do anything to him’ as they dragged Dunney outside and drove off with him. They later claimed that they intended to consult brigade headquarters before taking any further action, but when their car stopped on Ballymount Lane, Dunney escaped ‘by jumping out . . . and over a wall into a field’. He was shot in the head: ‘they . . . then searched him but found nothing on him but money’. Police recovered his body next day. On 20 May the Irish Independent carried a photograph of Dunney’s mother, sister and uncle standing forlornly outside the family home. A month later, the IRA were still hunting for a ‘Dunning of Tallaght Camp’ involved in collecting intelligence and supervising military searches for wanted men. Another IRA source mentioned a ‘Dunning gang’ in Tallaght. McInerney’s pension file speaks of ‘shooting of Downey’. Chrissie wrote to the War Office expressing ‘heart-felt thanks for his medals for they are all the world to us, now or anything which belongs to him’. Although ‘working down in Dundalk’, he had returned the previous August ‘when that talk went about . . . and cleared himself of everything’. She enclosed a letter from his Dundalk landlady asking if she should post on his clothes: ‘I cannot get over this tragic untimely end. I will have a Mass said for him.’839

Arthur Edgar Cooper (18May1921/2) 57, Upholsterer, Married with five children, Presbyterian Clare Street, Dublin Cooper, from Oxford, spent most of his life in Ireland. He lived with his wife Emily and family at 9 Mander’s Terrace, Ranelagh, and worked for Messrs R. Strahan & Co. of 135 St Stephen’s Green West. The Irish Independent reported that a lorry carrying Crown forces passed Cooper just as shots were fired. Mortally wounded in the chest, he fell at the junction of Clare Street and Clare Lane. A cyclist who dismounted to give aid was ‘horrified to find that it was his brother-in-law’. Buried MJC (96. A. 395).840 John Smyth (18May1921/3) 29, Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC Foundry Street, Belfast Smyth, of 22 Seaforde Street, wounded when serving with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, worked for the corporation. At about 21:30 a group in an ‘ex-servicemen’s Unionist procession’ returning from the Oval football grounds travelled along the nationalist Newtownards Road. Revolver shots were exchanged during a clash with residents. Smyth was shot in the head and killed as he crossed the road, sparking a further riot which lasted for about two hours. It is unclear who shot him.841 Arthur Wilfred Hill (18May1921/4) Hampshire Regiment (5486595, previously 05331), 21, Butcher Lower Glanmire Road, Cork Lance-Corporal Hill, from Fareham, attested in January 1919 at Randalstown. He was stationed in Cork. Hill, who was in the transport staff at Glanmire Station, left a friend’s house at 21:30 in civilian clothes to return to barracks. Shortly afterwards, shots were heard. A curfew patrol found Hill’s body lying face downwards, shot in the head with a revolver. Seán Healy, captain A Company, 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, briefly referred to the shooting of a soldier ‘who was particularly obnoxious towards railway officials’. The war diary of the 2nd Battalion stated inaccurately that the shooting took

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place in Tivoli. Buried Fareham Cemetery, Hampshire.842 Horace McNeill (18May1921/5) 47, Engineer’s foreman, Married with children Bloemfontein Road, Shepherd’s Bush, London On 15 May, three or four men called to McNeill’s house, asking his wife for her son-in-law. Hearing an argument, McNeill came to the door and tried to push the men out. He told police: one man said ‘I’ll shoot’. The other man said ‘No’ and one man said ‘shoot low’. . . . The one that fired was about 30 . . . I think he was cleanshaven, dark, with dark clothes, and a soft felt hat. I thought it was a drunken thing, nothing like this.

Volunteer Denis Brennan recalled that a comrade ‘was a bit trigger happy’. McNeill died three days later. McNeill was the only known fatality of the IRA’s scheme to attack the homes of Black and Tans and Auxiliaries in Britain, for which addresses and other intelligence were carefully collected. Shortly after the Truce, a senior IRA officer observed that, while ‘perhaps the least successful’ of the IRA’s range of British operations, attacks ‘on the houses of the B[lack] & T[ans]’ evidently ‘had the best effect’ in lowering police morale: ‘if hostilities are resumed . . . we should concentrate on this work’.843 Albert Edward Carter (18May1921/6) RIC (78015), 20, Farmer’s son, CoI Letterkenny, Donegal From Carbury, Kildare, Carter joined the RIC on 19 January 1921, stationed in Letterkenny. At about 23:10 a police patrol was ambushed near Letterkenny Post Office. Shot in the throat, Constable Carter was killed outright. Sergeant Charles Maguire received hip and calf wounds, but returned fire until he fell exhausted. Buried Carbury, Kildare. His father William secured £550 compensation.844 Patrick Walsh (18May1921/7) IRA, 32, Publican, RC Military Hospital, Fermoy, Cork See Quinn (13May1921/3). Walsh, from Dunnamaggin, Kilkenny, was a prominent

local sportsman and captain B (Dunnamaggin) Company, Kilkenny Brigade and battalion quartermaster. In May 1921, Walsh joined the combined ASU of No. 2 ASU Tipperary No. 3 Brigade and the ASU 7th Battalion, Kilkenny Brigade. Buried Dunnamaggin, where a monument was later erected.845

19 MAY 1921 (Francis) Joseph Hayden (19May1921/1) 43, Farmer, RC Gortfad Glebe, Rock, Tyrone The home of Hayden and his brothers in Gortfad was raided at about 01:00 by USC. James Hayden answered the door: without having put any clothes on . . . there came a rush of men into the kitchen. . . . The first blow I got knocked me back into the room. . . . Then I got a blow on the head with the butt of a rifle which knocked me back against the bed where my brother Joe was lying.

The raiders ‘then took at him with butts of rifles and bayonets’. James saw Joe sit up and grab the muzzle of a rifle pointed at him: ‘I said “Joe, let it go and let them go there. Don’t bother your head with them.’ Then one raider ‘drew a revolver and deliberately shot my brother’, who ‘got up on his bottom in the bed and leaned with his head on the window and died on the spot’. Ordered ‘to turn my face to the wall’, James was stabbed with a bayonet at the back of the right shoulder’. He identified three of the raiders, all ‘dressed in Policemen’s black rainproof coats and caps’, as William Devlin and Hugh and Jeremiah McMinn, ‘both of Claggan’. William J. Kelly, O/C Dungannon Battalion, maintained the Haydens had no IRA links. Other IRA sources believed this was a reprisal for the wounding of an RIC DI in Dungannon. Six USC constables from the Cookstown district – Robert James Hutchinson, Duncan Jordan, William Jordan, William Crooks, Robert Black and Howard McNeill – were acquitted of killing Hayden by a special court in Derry on 27 September

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1921. Their solicitor received £31.10s.0d. ‘towards the cost of their defence’. Buried Tullydonnell Cemetery, Tyrone.846 Francis J. Butler (19May1921/2) RIC (59260), 44, Farmer, Married, RC Infirmary, Castlebar, Mayo From Strokestown, Roscommon, Butler joined the RIC on 2 January 1900 and served in Kerry, Leitrim and Mayo. Stationed in Castlebar, he was promoted to sergeant in 1920. Patrick Joseph Cannon, then vice-O/C 1st Battalion, West Mayo Brigade, recalled how two small parties of Volunteers from Westport and Castlebar were instructed to go into their respective towns to shoot up Crown patrols. No Crown forces were encountered. However, in Newport Jim Moran, who was a very good shot, fired from across the river and wounded Sergeant Butler as he passed through the entrance to the police barracks. He died at 05:00 on 19 May. Buried Strokestown, Roscommon. His widow Bridget secured £4,000 compensation.847 Arthur Bardon (19May1921/3) 41, Timekeeper, CoI Rathfarnham, Dublin Bardon lived with his mother Anne in Dundrum, and worked in the Guinness Brewery. At about 08:00, a young girl living in the gate lodge of Featherstonhaugh Convalescent Home found his body lying on the road between Dundrum and Rathfarnham, ‘riddled with bullets’. Volunteers of the 6th Battalion, Dublin Brigade, shot him as a spy on his way to work. Buried MJC (60. A. 398).848 Harry Beckett (19May1921/4) RIC (80290), 21, Cook, Royal Marine, Protestant Kilmeena, Mayo Beckett, from Bootle, Lancashire, joined the RIC on 1 April 1921, stationed in Newport. Following the shooting of Francis Butler on 18 May, Michael Kilroy, O/C West Mayo Brigade, anticipated a round-up in the Newport area. He arranged an ambush at Kilmeena, between Newport and Westport. Seán Gibbons, adjutant West Mayo Brigade, attributed what transpired partly to the fact

that the twenty-two-man ambush party only had about ten rifles; furthermore, ‘the men were after a long march and had no sleep [the] night previous’. At 06:00 Kilroy selected a site on a hill which gave a commanding view of the area, but was rather far from the road. The ambush was set to deal with anything approaching from Newport, but at around 16:00 two Crossley tenders and a Ford car came from Westport with about twenty policemen under DI P. Donnellon. The tenders were about a quarter of a mile apart. The leading vehicle got through the ambush and over a bridge, the second halted about 400 yards from the IRA position and replied to the IRA’s fire with a Lewis gun. The occupants of the first lorry dismounted and advanced along a by-road, cutting off the main IRA body from its flank party, which was ‘weak . . . and nervous (first engagement)’ and soon retreated. Constable Beckett was killed and Head Constable Potter seriously wounded. The IRA’s John Collins, Séamus McEvilly, Tom O’Donnell and Pat Staunton were killed, Paddy Jordan and Paddy O’Malley were wounded and captured, while James Swift and Michael Hughes were wounded but escaped. The IRA eventually reached Skerdagh at the foot of Nephin. Cassidy believed that, were it not for Kilroy’s marksmanship, ‘the disaster would have been of overwhelming proportions’. Jordan died from a septic infection in Dublin following an operation for head injuries on 15 June. Buried England.849 RD: Collins (19May1921/5), Jordan (15Jun 1921/5), McEvilly (19May1921/6), O’Donnell (19May1921/7), Staunton (19May1921/8). SA: Butler (19May1921/2) John (Seán) Collins (19May1921/5) IRA, Tailor, RC Kilmeena, Mayo See Beckett (19May1921/4). Collins had reportedly been expelled from shipyard work in Belfast. A West Mayo ASU comrade recalled him as being ‘from Artane [industrial school in Dublin]’. Another described how ‘Collins was right in front of me . . . and he fell right across my feet’. Buried Castlebar, Mayo.850

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Séamus (James) McEvilly (19May1921/6) IRA, 23, Draper’s assistant, RC Kilmeena, Mayo See Beckett (19May1921/4). McEvilly, from Westport, Mayo, was imprisoned in Crumlin Road Jail, Belfast, for illegal drilling in April 1918. A captain in the ASU, West Mayo Brigade, he was registrar of the local republican court. He died from wounds ‘in the guts’. Buried Castlebar, Mayo. His mother Mary secured a £75 dependent’s gratuity.851 Thomas O’Donnell (19May1921/7) IRA, 22, Coachbuilder, RC Kilmeena, Mayo See Beckett (19May1921/4). O’Donnell, from Rosclave, Newport, Mayo, was one of ten children. His father Patrick, a herdsman for Judge Pim, earned about 5s. a week. Thomas, a member of the ASU West Mayo Brigade, was ‘done to death – probably’. Buried Castlebar, Mayo. His father secured a dependent’s gratuity of £50, and in 1967 his widowed sister Áine obtained a £190 allowance.852 Patrick Staunton (19May1921/8) IRA, Farmer, RC Kilmeena, Mayo See Beckett (19May1921/4). Staunton, from Kilmeena, was second in command of the Kilmeena Company, Castlebar Battalion and in the ASU West Mayo Brigade. Buried Kilmeena. His mother Bridget secured a £100 dependent’s gratuity.853 Mary Fahey (19May1921/9) 28, Agricultural labourer, RC Lehinch, Clara, Offaly Patrick Fahey, an agricultural labourer ‘in a humble position in life’, last saw his daughter Mary at about 15:00, sitting in his house with Thomas Fitzsimons, a twenty-year-old neighbour, who ‘was smoking a “fag” and said he had a toothache’. The two men left the house together, but Fitzsimons evidently returned: a woman caller later came upon him arguing furiously with Mary, who accused him of being the father of the child she was bearing. That evening John Lowe found the woman’s body in a drain on his land, covered with moss and a piece of

sacking. There was evidence of a struggle, and her head had been smashed in by a stone, later found nearby by her brother. The police arrested Fitzsimons, but doubted if a prosecution would succeed because he was ‘a Sinn Feiner and this, coupled with the disturbed state of the county, operates against police inquiries’. They searched his house and took a shirt: a button was missing from one cuff, which also bore what appeared to be bloodstains. Mary’s sister Nellie searched the area where her sister had died, and found her apron, a handkerchief ‘which was not her sister’s’, and a shirt button. The seized shirt was sent to Dublin, where analysis of the bloodstain on the cuff proved inconclusive; in any case, the cuff was afterwards somehow removed from the shirt and mislaid ‘owing to the disorganised state of affairs at the time’. In the absence of such evidence, on 7 December 1921 the lord chief justice told a jury it would not be safe to convict. Fitzsimons was duly acquitted. It may be argued that this crime had nothing to do with politics. Whether the killer struck in hopes that in the prevailing disorder the crime would not be properly investigated is a moot point. On the other hand, investigation was clearly hampered by political conditions – it was Mary’s siblings, not the police, who located key evidence at the murder site; from the outset the accused’s association with Sinn Féin was regarded as a major obstacle to successful prosecution; and, whether by chance or design, key evidence disappeared before the trial.854 Edward Doran (19May1921/10) RIC (69438), 24, Gardener, RC Military Hospital, Birr, Offaly See Dunne (17May1921/4). Doran, from Athy, joined the RIC on 4 June 1918, stationed in Birr. Buried Kildare. His father Martin secured £200 compensation and his siblings £600.855

20 MAY 1921 Frederick Samuel Tasker (20May1921/1) RIC (79658), 20, Mill worker, Protestant KGVH Constable Tasker, from London, joined the RIC on 10 March 1921, stationed in Ballinamore.

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Accidentally shot in the abdomen in the Ballinamore Barracks room on 16 May by Constable C. Hay, he died just after midnight following an operation.856 Thomas McKeever (20May1921/2) 37, Pharmacist, Engaged, RC Clooneen, Dunmore, Galway McKeever, a pharmacist from Kinsale, Cork, came to Dunmore in October 1920 to work in Stafford’s chemist shop. He lodged in James Nestor’s house. The Saturday Record reported that he was shortly due to marry a Dunmore woman. According to James Greeney, McKeever was not a Volunteer. At about 02:00, three men dressed in civilian clothes, one wearing motor goggles and another carrying a flashlight, surrounded McKeever’s bed, ordered him to dress and took him away. Shots were heard about fifteen minutes later. His corpse was found at 08:30 at Clooneen, about one mile from Dunmore, shot in the head and body. An attached piece of cardboard bore the words, ‘Convicted Spy, Traitors Beware.’ James Greeney claimed that McKeever was killed by three Black and Tans in reprisal for the death of Thomas Hannon on 26 April 1921, and that the label around McKeever’s neck was that originally found on Hannon’s corpse. Thomas Mannion, Dunmore Company, recalled that the Dunmore parish priest stated during a Mass for McKeever that he had not been a spy, and accused Crown forces of his murder. In May 1922 a senior IRA officer described McKeever as an ‘ardent’ supporter. Buried Kinsale, Cork. His mother secured £900 compensation, his sister Mary £400 and his brother Michael £50. A commemorative monument was erected in Dunmore.857 SA: Hannon (26Apr1921/2) Edward Hawkins (20May1921/3) 29, Ex-serviceman, labourer, Married with three children, RC Mercy Hospital, Cork Hawkins, of 6 Broad Street, was employed as a labourer by the military. He and his father Daniel were on their way to work at 07:45 when held up by two civilians near St Francis

Church on Liberty Street and marched to the Mardyke, where three other men joined the party. They then went to a quarry on Asylum [Lee] Road. Hawkins apparently tried to tear up a barracks pass and his discharge papers before being searched. John Sherlock, another ex-serviceman, was also held captive. The three were placed in a line a foot apart. Hawkins cried out that his father should be spared. Each man was then shot. However, the ammunition was faulty and none was killed outright. Daniel Hawkins later told a military inquiry that he shielded his head ‘with the arm of a chair he was carrying – he was a chairmaker’. Wounded in the ear and arm, he fell forward but remained conscious. Despite his wounds, he managed to summon help. Edward Hawkins died in hospital at around 23:00, as did Sherlock. The shooting was carried out by the 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. Jeremiah Keating, intelligence officer 2nd Battalion, claimed that the killing of ‘Hawkes [sic]’ arose from a suspicious letter mistakenly delivered to John McCarthy, a Volunteer. The men had been watched for some time by members of Fianna Éireann. Peter Hart suggested that Hawkins may have been under suspicion since November 1920, as he lived beside No. 7 Broad Street where Eugene O’Connell was shot dead and Charlie O’Brien severely wounded. It did not take much for exservicemen to arouse the suspicions of the Cork IRA in 1920–21. Buried St Joseph’s Cemetery, Ballyphehane, Cork. His widow Anne secured £1,500 compensation and each of his children £500.858 RD: Sherlock (20May1921/9). SA: O’Connell (18Nov1920/2) William Stewart (20May1921/4) RIC (69853), 20, Draper, CoI Killeter, Killoe, Longford Stewart, from Dromore, Tyrone, joined the RIC on 2 September 1919, stationed in Ballinalee. Constables Booth and Stewart were returning from leave, unarmed, to Ballinalee RIC Barracks. Word of this reached Frank Gormley, captain Killoe Company, Longford Brigade. Gormley and three comrades set an ambush at Killeter. Doherty

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recalled that he and Gormley ordered Booth and Stewart to put their hands up. The two initially denied that they were police; however, dispatches were found on them. Gormley and Doherty also recognised them. Booth broke away and was quickly out of range. Grabbing a single barrel shotgun, Doherty forced a passing cattle jobber on a pony and car to pursue Booth. As Doherty put it, ‘The galloping pony overtook the Tan at Harrisons Crossroads, Enybegs, within a quarter of a mile of the parochial house, and one slug loaded cartridge ended his career there for ever.’ Gormley killed Stewart. The two bodies were discovered at Agharra Bridge next day. After that, the Ballinalee RIC ‘didn’t go out in twos or threes any more’. Buried Dromore Churchyard, Omagh. The house of a Longford girl who attended the funeral was fired on that night. His father secured £1,000 compensation.859 RD: Booth (20May1921/5) Leonard Booth (20May1921/5) RIC (74959), 32, Ex-serviceman, Married with three children, Methodist Enybegs, Killeter, Killoe, Longford See Stewart (20May1921/4). Booth, from Lancashire, served in the Birkenhead police before joining the RIC on 29 October 1920, stationed in Ballinalee. The RIC General Register recorded that Booth withdrew an application to resign on 18 February 1921. Buried England. His widow Gladys, whom he had deserted in 1919, secured £1,000 compensation, each of his three children £400, and his mother £200.860 William Burke (20May1921/6) IRA, 21, Farmer’s son, RC Gortroche, Ballyhooly, Cork Burke, from Ballymacphilip, Ballyhooly, Cork, left his home due to intensive Crown forces activity to stay with the O’Callaghans of Gortroche. When this farm was raided Burke, being lame, could not escape and was killed by a shot to the chest. Buried Ballyhooly. A monument was erected at Gortroche in 1958. His mother Margaret secured an £85 dependent’s gratuity.861

Stephen Goldsmith (20May1921/7) Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) (6446069), 25, Labourer Kenmare, Kerry Sergeant Goldsmith, from Mitcham, Surrey, attested at Kingston-upon-Thames on 26 November 1914, serving in France and in the Mediterranean. Stationed in Kerry, on 15 May he was cycling alone and unarmed between two billets of the Kenmare detachment when he was knocked off his bicycle and shot six times. He died five days later.862 Francis McMahon (20May1921/8) Ex-serviceman, clerk, Married, RC Cork McMahon, of 6 Woodland View, Western Road, was a clerk in the War Pensions Office. Daniel Healy, O/C Cork City ASU, recalled instructions to execute a spy named McMahon. Captured as he went to work, McMahon was taken outside the city in a cab and shot by members of the ASU. His widow Mary secured £2,000 compensation.863 John Sherlock (20May1921/9) Driver, 35, RC CMHC See Hawkins (20May1921/3). A civilian driver in the military barracks, Sherlock was shot in the temple and neck. Reportedly close to death when brought to hospital, he died shortly after his companion Hawkins. His family subsequently received British government compensation.864

21 MAY 1921 Isaac Robert Bolton (21May1921/1) RMLI, 19 Ballyvaughan, Clare Private Bolton, from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, was stationed in Clare. At 13:00, he was shot, along with Private Henry Chandler, when IRA units attacked a party of marines which came into Ballyvaughan daily to collect the mail. The engagement lasted about fifteen minutes. Buried Great Yarmouth (New Cemetery). Bolton’s mother secured £410 compensation.865 RD: Chandler (21May1921/2)

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Henry Chandler (21May1921/2) RMLI (CH/19831), 24, Married Ballyvaughan, Clare See Bolton (21May1921/1). Private Chandler, from Kent, had been in Ireland since June 1920. Buried Southborough Cemetery, Kent. His widow Minnie secured £1,500 compensation.866 John Byrne (21May1921/3) 33, Bootmaker, Married with one child, RC Jervis Street, Dublin ‘Hoppy’ Byrne, of 44 North Brunswick Street, disabled since childhood, was an unemployed shoemaker. His widow said he ‘could only walk with a stick’. Married for two years, they had a seven-month-old son. He was shadowed for a time by Margaret Cromien (née Morris), who told the pensions board how she had joined Cumann na mBan after the Rising: ‘My boy [John Cromien] was killed in 1916 and I should not have put it on [the pension form]. . . . It had nothing to do with my activities.’ Michael Carroll, section commander A Company, 3rd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, stated that Byrne frequented 16 Usher’s Quay, where members of A and B Companies played football. Byrne arrived at about 19:00 each evening trying to sell army boots, socks and shirts which he had somehow obtained. Carroll regarded Byrne as a quiet unassuming fellow mainly interested in card games, ‘the last man in the world one would suspect as a spy. It came as a great surprise when I learned that he had been shot by a party of armed men.’ Byrne was alleged to have accompanied police on a raid at Usher’s Quay when Joseph Lynch, of A Company, and several others were arrested. Lynch recognised him. George White, of C Company, 3rd Battalion, described how Byrne was taken into 17 Strand Street and questioned. He denied all accusations, but was shot by Volunteers from B Company, including Frank Daly and Seán Price. Admitted to nearby Jervis Street Hospital, he was visited by relatives not long before the IRA came to finish him off. Pádraig Ó Conchubhair (O’Connor), of No. 4 Section ASU Dublin Brigade, recalled how Paddy Flanagan gave instructions to kill

Byrne. The Irish Independent reported that at 14:15 five men entered by the Upper Abbey Street Gate and took the porter prisoner. Three went to Byrne’s ward carrying a stretcher. Other patients mistook them for staff. Byrne was placed on the stretcher and taken away. They laid him down in the yard inside the front porch and shot him twice in the head. He died ten minutes later. Ó Conchubhair recalled that Dublin hospitals protested violently at this killing, the manner of which greatly displeased Michael Collins.† Flanagan subsequently left the ASU. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: F. a. 9).867 SA: Cromien (26Apr1916/48) Joseph Anderson (21May1921/4) RIC (49436), 59, Farmer, Protestant Hampton, Balbriggan, Dublin Anderson, from Donegal, joined the RIC on 13 June 1882, serving in Leitrim and Meath. He was a sergeant and bandmaster in the Veteran Corps in Gormanston Camp. Michael Rock, O/C Naul Battalion, Fingal Brigade, recalled that a servant girl working for the owners of Smith’s factory told her Volunteer boyfriend that officers from Gormanston Camp would be entertained in the house. Rock decided to ‘shoot up this party’. A few Volunteers were mobilised and armed with revolvers, but the operation was aborted because: the ‘Bok’ [John Peter] Maguire with another man was proceeding into town, via the Skerries Road, and . . . met a Black and Tan. The ‘Bok’ shot this man and took his revolver. . . . The ‘Bok’ claimed he had no option but to shoot the Tan who had challenged him. The Tan served in the band (musical) in the camp.

According to police reports, Anderson was shot dead at Hampton at 22:30 by four unknown men.868 Leslie Frazer (21May1921/5) 24, Ex-serviceman Richmond Hospital, Dublin Frazer, formerly of the Irish Guards, lived at 9 Blackhall Parade. At about 14:30, he and another man left Walsh’s pub at the junction

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of Stoneybatter and North Brunswick Street. A young man approached, ordered Frazer’s companion to leave and shot Frazer at point-blank range. The IRA reported that ‘six rounds of .450’ were used: ‘The execution was quick the men behaved very coolly.’ Frazer died around 22:30. An armed guard outside the hospital was withdrawn shortly afterwards. The IRA’s Luke Darling recalled raiding Frazer’s home, and Séamus McGealey claimed to have spied on him.869 Peter Joseph McDonagh (21May1921/6) RIC (64858), 31, Shop assistant, RC Cashel, Mountfield, Tyrone McDonagh, from Brookeborough, Fermanagh, joined the RIC on 21 July 1909, serving in Donegal and from 1916 in Tyrone. Promoted to sergeant on 1 April 1921, he was transferred to Mountfield. At around 22:30 he and three constables were cycling from Greencastle, where they had arranged a polling station for the election on 24 May, to Mountfield RIC Barracks. They were fired on in the townland of Cashel by an ambush party concealed behind a hedge. McDonagh, some distance ahead of his colleagues, was hit by the first volley. The constables jumped from their bicycles and fled back towards Greencastle, taking refuge in a house. A patrol later recovered McDonagh’s body. Buried St Mary’s Churchyard, Brookeborough. His father Michael subsequently secured £200 compensation. This sum was increased to £250 on appeal in July 1921.870 Patrick O’Rourke (21May1921/7) c. 50–60, RC Lissycasey, Clare O’Rourke, the clerk of Lissycasey church, fled through a field in alarm when a military lorry, apparently on road repair work, appeared. He was shot dead, allegedly after ignoring a command to halt.871 John Kearney (21May1921/8) RIC (62450), 37, Farmer, RC St Bride’s Nursing Home, Galway See Blake (15May1921/8). Constable Kearney, from Tralee, Kerry, joined the RIC

on 18 March 1907, serving in Limerick and Salthill before transfer to Gort. He died of wounds received at Ballyturin House, Kilbeacanty, Gort. Michael Reilly, captain Kilbecanty Company, Gort Battalion, claimed that Kearney supplied valuable information to Volunteer Joseph Stanford, and it was apparently well known that he was going to resign. Reilly suggested, though without supporting evidence, that Kearney was shot by his RIC comrades at the scene of the Ballyturin ambush. In a letter to the Irish Independent, Kearney’s sister said that on his deathbed her brother told her the shooting was accidental, and that he had not seen any Sinn Féiners there. Buried DGC (T. 26. W). His siblings Mary O’Connor and Patrick Kearney secured £425 and £250 compensation respectively.872 John Scally (21May1921/9) IRA, 29, Farmer, RC Inchenagh Island, Lough Ree, Roscommon Scally, from Gallagh, Lanesborough, Roscommon, lived in Portnahinch, Lanesborough. He was second lieutenant Cloontuskert Company, South Roscommon Brigade. His company was ordered to keep the Longford to Lanesborough to Roscommon road trenched as it was a main artery between towns housing strong garrisons. On the night of 10 May, a trench was opened at Beechwood. Next day police rounded up locals and made them fill it in. Matthew Davis, brigade quartermaster, claimed someone had seen Auxiliaries setting a trap by removing the pin of a grenade and placing a flat stone on top to keep the lever in position. Despite warnings, Scally, John O’Connor, Peter Egan, John Kelly and Jim Gannon attempted to reopen the trench instead of digging a new one. The grenade exploded. The four were given first aid at Portnahinch, and from there taken by boat to a field hospital in an empty house on Incheneagh Island on Lough Ree. Attended to by Dr Charles Kelly from Roscommon and Dr Dudley Ford from Strokestown, Scally died on 21 May. The others eventually recovered. Buried Cloontuskert Abbey Cemetery, Lanesborough, Roscommon. A

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memorial cross was erected at Beechwood in 1934, and he is also commemorated on a monument in Shankill near Elphin. His mother Kate secured an allowance of £1 per week from the Army Pensions Board in June 1924.873 SA: Killian (23Sep1921/3)

22 MAY 1921 Mary Ann Carroll (22May1921/1) 13, Schoolgirl, RC MIHB Mary Carroll of 9 Carntall Street, Belfast, was, most likely, the daughter of John Carroll, a plasterer, and his wife Mary Jane. She died six days after she was hit in the head on North Queen Street when a loyalist gunman fired from Henry Street at people leaving a Sinn Féin election meeting. Charles Stewart was later charged with her murder.874

Battalion, West Limerick Brigade, recalled that O’Brien was killed when lifting a boobytrapped stone to clear a barricade on a bridge. Police reports also indicated that on the morning of 22 May876 O’Brien was found dying in a culvert between Rathkeale and Tallyho Lodge. He was apparently injured while destroying the culvert. His death was raised in parliament on 9 June 1921, the chief secretary for Ireland replying that he died of injuries and exposure as a consequence of falling into a trench. Buried Rathkeale. He is commemorated on monuments in Newcastle West and Murroe, Limerick.877

23 MAY 1921

Cornelius Gleeson (22May1921/2) IRA, 21, RC Upperchurch, Tipperary ‘Con’ Gleeson lived in Moher, Upperchurch. Paddy Kinnane, O/C 3rd Battalion, Tipperary No. 2 Brigade, described how Gleeson, John Ryan and the two Tom Stapletons went to O’Dwyer’s shop in Upperchurch to buy cigarettes. Jim Stapleton, John Fahy and Kinnane remained outside. Seeing military lorries turn off the main road at Upperchurch Cross and drive towards the village, they alerted the men in the shop. All left by the back door and climbed up the hill towards a by-road leading to Templederry. They ran into a party of Auxiliaries halted on an adjoining hill who shot Gleeson in the ensuing exchange. John Ryan of Drombane was wounded and captured, along with one Tom Stapleton. The other Tom Stapleton escaped by hiding in a bog. Buried Upperchurch.875

Patrick Briody878 (23May1921/1) 60, Shoemaker, Married with five children, RC Mullaghoran, Kilcogy, Cavan Briody lived in Glen, near Kilcogy, Cavan. At about 01:45 armed and masked men held up Briody, his wife and three daughters in their home. When Briody sought time to dress, he was told, ‘You won’t require clothes.’ A police report claimed that about thirty men were involved. Briody was shot dead on the road, a few hundred yards from his home, apparently in a kneeling position. A label nearby read: ‘Spies and Informers Beware. IRA.’ The occupants of two adjacent farmhouses denied hearing anything. BMH explanations for Briody’s death differ. Hugh Maguire, O/C Crosserlough Battalion, Cavan Brigade, claimed that Briody ignored warnings to stop repairing boots for the police: ‘In an effort to persuade him forcibly he, unfortunately, was killed’ in the Ballinagh Battalion area. By contrast, Seán Sheridan stated that Briody was ‘found guilty of giving information to the enemy’, and that the RIC visited him under the pretext of having their footwear mended.879

(John) Patrick O’Brien (22May1921/3) IRA, RC Vicinity of Rathkeale, Limerick O’Brien, from Coolcappagh, Ardagh, Limerick, was in the Rathkeale Company, West Limerick Brigade. James Halpin, O/C 4th (Rathkeale)

Stephen Dorman (23May1921/2) IRA, Compositor, RC South Infirmary, Cork Dorman, son of a well-known Cork musician, worked in the reading department of the Cork Examiner. His gravestone records

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him as a Volunteer. At around 03:15, he and Christopher Walsh, both members of the night staff, were returning home through Douglas Street when wounded by a bomb thrown from the corner of Nicholas Street. They lay on the street for over half an hour before being removed to hospital. Dorman lost a substantial quantity of blood. One leg was amputated, and he died at about 12:00. Buried SFC.880 Joseph Maguire (23May1921/3) RIC (66577), 28, Farmer, RC Skerdagh Lower, Newport, Mayo Constable Maguire, from Fermanagh, joined the RIC on 28 August 1912, allocated to Roscommon. He later served in Sligo before transfer to Mayo in 1917. Following the Kilmeena ambush, about twenty-six members of the West Mayo Brigade retreated to Skerdagh, north of Newport. At around 04:00, an eighteen-man police patrol under DI Munroe moved into the area. Many of the IRA wounded at Kilmeena were staying in Skerdagh Upper. Horses were hastily procured to take them to safety. Six men, under Michael Kilroy, remained behind to provide covering fire. Constable Maguire was killed and DI Munroe was wounded before Kilroy ordered his men to retreat up the mountain through various ravines. They found cover at the top, and eventually slipped through the enemy cordon in the darkness at around 03:00 next day. Press reports greatly exaggerated IRA numbers, suggesting as many as three hundred. According to Thomas Kettrick, Jim Browne, wounded that morning, fell off a stretcher and died shortly afterwards. Buried Fermanagh. His father Bernard secured £600 compensation.881 RD: Browne (23May1921/4) James Browne (23May1921/4) IRA, 22, Farmer, RC Skerdagh, Newport, Mayo See Maguire (23May1921/3). Browne, from Drumgarve, Kilmeena, was quartermaster Kilmeena Company, Castlebar Battalion, West Mayo Brigade, and a member of the

brigade ASU. Buried Kilmeena. His mother Mary secured a £50 gratuity.882 Patrick Hayes (23May1921/5) RIC (57259), 49, Servant, RC CMHC See Coughlan (14May1921/6). Hayes, from Cork, joined the RIC on 22 October 1895, serving in Mayo, Kerry, Waterford and Clare before transfer to Cork, and later was stationed in Cork city. Hayes was made acting sergeant in February 1914, but reduced to constable on 8 November 1915.883 Thomas Morgan (23May1921/6) 25, Butcher, Married with two children, RC Drogheda, Louth Morgan was drinking with Auxiliaries in Drogheda when a revolver he was handling went off, wounding him in the neck. He died a short time later.884 Michael Dennehy (23May1921/7) RIC (68608), 27, Farmer, RC Vicinity of Ballagh, Kilrooskey, Roscommon From Cahirciveen, Kerry, Dennehy joined the RIC on 6 April 1915, stationed in Frenchpark. He was reported kidnapped on 23 May, captured while out walking with a local girl, Mary Horton. Martin Fallon, quartermaster 3rd Battalion, North Roscommon Brigade, told the BMH that Dennehy was prominent in a shooting affair in Elphin and was an IRA target. He described Dennehy’s capture near Rooskey and his gruesome fate without equivocation: The constable came out the road with a girl and Mason and Deignan held him up. He was carrying a bomb but no other arms. . . . I put him under guard in a vacant house . . . and from there he was taken to . . . Ballagh. He was there for a couple of days . . . we took Dennehy to the Shannon. Peter Connolly, John Scally and I brought him out in a boat and tied a stone [to him], we dumped him into the river. His body never floated and he was never heard of again.

Michael Murphy, then vice-O/C 2nd Battalion, Longford Brigade, claimed that

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Dennehy was engaged in intelligence work, but provided no evidence. The North Roscommon Brigade was ‘severely rapped on the knuckles by GHQ over this’. One IRA officer claimed that Dennehy’s corpse eventually ‘came up on the Longford side after the Truce’. Dennehy’s father secured £700 compensation.885 John Lawlor (23May1921/8) Ex-serviceman, RC Mountbolus, Offaly Lawlor was from Mountmellick, Laois. At 08:30 on 26 May, an unknown man, described as ‘well dressed’ and ‘a stranger to the district’, was found shot dead at Carrigeen between Mountbolus and Kilcormac. An attached sign read, ‘Spies and informers beware.’ One source indicates that he had died about six hours earlier from a gunshot wound, whereas IRA sources say he was shot on 23 May. Lawlor had previously been tried by IRA court martial for spying and ordered to leave the country. Failing to do so, he was re­­­ arrested by Joseph Connolly, vice-O/C 3rd Battalion, Offaly No. 2 Brigade. His killers included Michael Seery, Joseph Conley, Michael Cordial, Michael Carroll and Joseph Scully. This unsanctioned killing caused difficulties with GHQ.886 Unknown (23May1921/9) 1st Battalion, MGC Near Charleville, Cork The CFR details the capture, killing and burial by the IRA of two unidentified soldiers near Charleville. They apparently met their fate calmly. They were deserters, or were posing as deserters – the fact that the military quickly put up notices threatening reprisals unless they were returned suggests the latter. The remains of two unidentified males were uncovered and reburied in Charleville Holy Cross Cemetery in the early 1950s.887 RD: Unknown (23May1921/10) Unknown (23May1921/10) 1st Battalion, MGC Near Charleville, Cork See Unknown (23May1921/9).

24 MAY 1921 Denis Broderick (24May1921/1) IRA, 24, Labourer, RC Ballycarty, Ballymacelligott, Tralee, Kerry From Cragg, Castleisland, Broderick served in the Castleisland Battalion, Kerry No. 2 Brigade. Tom McEllistrim, then vice-O/C Kerry No. 2 Brigade, recalled preparing a road mine with Paddy Reidy and bringing it to Ballycarty Bridge on the Tralee to Killarney road. At around 03:00, the main IRA party were challenged to halt. Initially they thought this a joke, but the command was repeated. Moss Carmody and McEllistrim fired towards the challenge, which came from behind a stone wall. Fire was returned from close range. Broderick was shot dead in the fifteen-minute engagement. It was later learned that soldiers had taken up position at the bridge, undetected by IRA scouts. Buried O’Brannan Cemetery, Ballymacelligott. His father secured a £40 dependent’s gratuity.888 Patrick Keating (24May1921/2) 24, Ex-serviceman, unemployed, RC North Infirmary, Cork Keating, formerly of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, lived at 4 Patrick Square. At 20:30 on 22 May, a curfew patrol on Shandon Street challenged him. He apparently turned and looked at the patrol before walking away and then breaking into a run. Challenged again to halt, he kept running and was shot. Wounded in the groin, he died in hospital at 10:00. His mother Annie deposed that, owing to shell shock and wounds, her son was unable to work. Buried St Joseph’s Cemetery, Ballyphehane, Cork.889 Anne Dorothy Dixon (24May1921/3) 20, Milliner, CoI Fermanagh Street, Clones, Monaghan Anne Dixon of Tullycreevy, Monea, Enniskillen, Fermanagh, worked in Kirkpatrick’s Drapery. She and Constable William Robertson (76634) from London, posted to Clones shortly after enlisting on 14 December 1920, had courted for a few months. She regarded the friendship as over

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when he was transferred to Ballybay in May. He did not: I don’t think you know how I love you, but I know that myself, and I think you love me in return. If you do, dearie, I can trust you not to walk out with any more fellows because, you know, I was most jealous of you. I did not like to see anyone else walk out with you . . . I do not like to let anyone else be with you.

while firing at rebels in the act of escaping. This death was raised in parliament on 23 June 1921. His widow Mary secured £1,400 compensation and each of his children £400.891

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Robertson returned on leave in civilian clothes, bringing his revolver as he claimed to be carrying dispatches (this was proved to be untrue). Having called to Clones RIC Station, he arrived at Kirkpatrick’s, where he saw Anne talking with a fellow RIC man. Robertson remarked that he would give this rival ‘a punch in the mouth’. Evidence at his murder trial suggested that he afterwards threatened Anne, at one point producing his gun. He calmed down, taking a cup of tea while she was having her dinner, and bought her chocolates. At about 13:00, Sarah Kells saw the pair chatting in the millinery department. Anne was standing above Robertson on the third step of the stairs when a shot was fired. She fell mortally wounded, her last words being, ‘Oh, my heart’s drops.’ Witnesses found Robertson sobbing on a chair beside her. He said his gun had gone off accidentally while he was removing it from his pocket. He told a court of inquiry in Clones on 26 May that he had hoped to marry Anne. He was severely tested in cross-examination, but the inquiry concluded that he was guilty only of culpable negligence. A good deal more came out on 15 August 1921 during Robertson’s trial for murder before a field general court martial in the City Hall, Dublin. He was, nevertheless, acquitted.890 Patrick Hickey (24May1921/4) 44, Married with children, RC Laravoolta, Enniskeane, Cork Hickey lived in Laravoolta, Enniskeane. He, Patrick Murray and John O’Brien were cutting turf at about 15:30 when fired on by soldiers. Hickey was wounded as he sought cover, and died fifteen minutes later. The military claimed they shot him accidentally

James Joseph Morrissey (25May1921/1) 27, Ex-serviceman, postman, Married, RC Coolnahorna, Enniscorthy, Wexford Morrissey, secretary of the Enniscorthy branch of the Discharged Soldiers and Sailors Federation, was an auxiliary postman. His wife was in England. He lived with his mother on John Street, Enniscorthy. He started his postal round at 11:40. It normally took between three and four hours. He did not return. A mixed patrol of military and police found his body, shot in the head with a shotgun. There were also extensive chest wounds. A nearby notice read: ‘Traitor and Spy. All others beware IRA.’ His killers were James Whelan, Frank Gibbons, Thomas Roche and William Kavanagh. A local recalled that Morrissey had ignored IRA warnings not to consort with Crown forces. Buried Corrig Graveyard.892 Francis James M. Davis (25May1921/2) 63, Caretaker, ex-serviceman, Married with four children, CoI Custom House, Dublin ‘Frank’ Davis, an English ex-serviceman, had been resident caretaker in the Custom House for over fifteen years. The attack on the Custom House by Dublin No. 2 Brigade IRA was one of the largest actions of its kind during the War of Independence. Characterised by bad planning, bad execution and bad luck, it resulted in major IRA losses, although the Dublin Brigade initially termed it ‘a wonderful success as the Custom House is now a mass of ruins’.893 Michael O’Kelly, lieutenant E Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, recalled plans ‘to deliver a smashing blow to England’. Two large-scale military operations – to capture Beggars Bush Barracks, or to destroy the Custom House – were initially considered. The Customs House was eventually

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chosen. It housed several government departments, including the Inland Revenue. Its destruction would, in O’Kelly’s words, ‘reduce the most important branch of British Civil Government in Ireland to virtual impotence and would, in addition, inflict on her a financial loss of about £2,000,000’. Tom Ennis, O/C 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, commanded about 120 men in the operation. Liam O’Doherty, O/C 5th Battalion, Dublin Brigade, obtained plans of the building from a clerk in the Board of Works. The 2nd Battalion carried out the actual burning, assisted by the ASU Dublin Brigade. The 5th Battalion was responsible for isolating the building, cutting off communications, holding up the post office staff at the Liffey side and guarding the exterior. It was also to occupy premises at the corner of Beresford Place and Gardiner Street. Work on disrupting communications began at 12:55, with the cutting of various cables. The main IRA party entered the building at 13:00. The operation was to have been completed by 13:20. The raiders carried two-gallon tins of petrol stolen from the Shell Company yard. The plan was to corral members of staff in the main hall. Each floor would then be set on fire in succession. But the staff panicked and time was lost herding them together. When Frank Davis went to the telephone to raise the alarm, Jim Conroy shot him. Mrs Davis described how she rushed to her husband, who said, ‘They have done for me’: Two gunmen ‘threatened to shoot me if I made any noise’. At about 13:10 the DMP informed the military that the Customs House had been attacked. Two armoured cars were dispatched, one accompanied by a contingent of F Company, Auxiliary Division. The leading car reached the Customs House at 13:25, and covered the southern side of the building. The Auxiliaries made for the northern side. They were engaged by an IRA covering party on the nearby railway bridge. Volunteers inside the burning building also fired. The military and police were reinforced by a party of Q Company, Auxiliary Division

from North Wall, covering the eastern side of the building, now in flames. The IRA’s position became untenable: ‘I noticed one Aux[iliary] firing a Lewis gun from his shoulder: he was in a kneeling position.’ Tom Ennis gave the order to evacuate: ‘I . . . told the men they would have to take a sporting chance.’ Ennis tried, but ‘only one man followed me. . . . I afterwards discovered the man . . . got shot in the back and fell into the dock. A man who had an ass and cart saw him fall in, threw a rope, pulled him out and brought him home on the car.’ According to O’Kelly, the staff rushed out shouting, ‘Friends, friends.’ Several Volunteers dumped weapons and filed out among them. Outside, everyone was held up. Customs House staff were identified and let go (including a few Volunteers ‘released after pitching the tale’). The remainder, being all IRA, were placed under heavy guard. O’Kelly claimed that eighty Volunteers were taken prisoner, five killed and three wounded. Press reports recorded eight IRA deaths and around eleven wounded. This figure did not distinguish between IRA and civilian fatalities. A few Auxiliaries were wounded. The fire brigade was unable to save the building, with its extensive records of centuries of Irish local administration. Confirmed IRA fatalities included Captain Paddy O’Reilly, his brother Lieutenant Stephen O’Reilly and Eddie Dorins. Daniel Head was killed by fire from the armoured car. Seán Doyle was critically wounded. Admitted to hospital that afternoon, he died on 30 May. Thomas Dorins deposed that he never heard his son discuss politics. Similarly, Mary O’Reilly claimed not to know her sons’ political opinions. In addition to Davis, three civilians were killed. There was considerable difficulty in establishing John Byrne’s identity. Mrs James Kelly initially identified him incorrectly as her husband, who it transpired was alive and well in Arbour Hill prison. Eileen Byrne later claimed the body as that of her brother, who she explained always passed the Customs House going to or returning from dinner. James Connelly, a quay labourer, died from gunshot wound in the chest, in what was deemed an accidental death.

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Mahon Patrick Lawless, seized at the top of the building, was among captured officials being taken to the Stationery Office Courtyard when Auxiliaries mistook them for raiders and opened fire. Lawless died in an ambulance. Christopher Fitzsimons estimated that between eighty-three and one hundred members of the ASU, the Squad and 2nd Battalion were captured. Afterwards there was considerable criticism of Oscar Traynor’s leadership of the Dublin Brigade. The performance of the anti-Treaty forces he led in Dublin during the first week of the Civil War a year later suggests that doubts about his command abilities may have been justified.894 RD: Byrne (25May1921/3), Connelly (25May 1921/4), Dorins (25May1921/5), Doyle (30May1921/6), Head (25May1921/6), Lawless (25May1921/9), O’Reilly (25May 1921/7), O’Reilly (25May1921/8) John Byrne (25May1921/3) 22, Poulterer, RC Custom House, Dublin See Davis (25May1921/2). Byrne, of 143 Killarney Street, worked in Rathmines. Buried GC (St Patrick’s Section: F. k. 129).895 James Connelly (25May1921/4) 50, Quay labourer, ex-serviceman, Married with five children, RC Custom House, Dublin See Davis (25May1921/2). Connelly lived at 26 Lower Gardiner Street. His eldest child was eleven years old.896 Edward Dorins (25May1921/5) IRA, 22, Plumber, RC Custom House, Dublin See Davis (25May1921/2). Dorins, of 145 Church Road, East Wall, worked for the Dublin Dock Yard Company. He was in 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. Buried DGC. His father Thomas, a Donegal-born engine driver, secured a £65 gratuity.897 Daniel Joseph Head (25May1921/6) IRA, 17, Apprentice carpenter, RC Custom House, Dublin See Davis (25May1921/2). Head lived with his parents at 3 Courtney Place, Ballybough Road.

He was in D Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. Buried Kilbarrack Cemetery, Dublin. His mother Mary received a £40 dependent’s gratuity, and from 1953 an allowance.898 Patrick Thomas O’Reilly (25May1921/7) IRA, 26, Clerk, RC Custom House, Dublin See Davis (25May1921/2). ‘Paddy’ O’Reilly lived with his mother at 3 Wellesley Place and worked in Arnotts. He was reportedly quartermaster 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: P. h. 85). His mother Sidney secured a £1 weekly allowance in respect of his and his brother Stephen’s deaths, and their sister, also Sidney, later also obtained an allowance.899 Stephen John O’Reilly (25May1921/8) IRA, 19,900 Journalist, RC Custom House, Dublin See Davis (25May1921/2). O’Reilly lived with his mother at 3 Wellesley Place. He was assistant adjutant 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade. As ‘Banba’ he made occasional contributions to the Meath Chronicle, his last piece being a eulogy of Kevin Barry. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: P. h. 85).901 SA: Barry (1Nov1920/5) Mahon Patrick Lawless (25May1921/9) 23, Ex-serviceman, clerk Custom House, Dublin See Davis (25May1921/2). Lawless, from Ilford, Essex, was a civil servant before enlisting on 28 November 1915. Despite poor eyesight, he served in France, initially with the Durham Light Infantry (regimental number 235814), earning a somewhat chequered disciplinary record. After demobilisation in 1919 he moved to Ireland, staying at 5 Leinster Road, Rathmines. He was a temporary clerk with the Local Government Board. Buried Killossery Graveyard, Rowlestown, Dublin.902 Thomas Henry Reilly (25May1921/10) 39, Ex-serviceman, labourer, Married with one child, RC Brookfield Street, Belfast Reilly, of 113 Butler Street, enlisted in the RIF on 6 September 1901 (20789), serving in

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South Africa and during the war. Discharged on 26 July 1916, he re-enlisted in the RFA on 24 November 1917 (249836) but was soon discharged as physically unfit. The Irish News described him as disabled. He was shot on Brookfield Street at about 22:15 as he returned with his son John from a card game. An inquest determined only that Crown forces were not responsible.903

26 MAY 1921 John Murphy (26May1921/1) 31, National school teacher, Married with two children, RC France, Ballinalee, Longford Murphy, from Castletownbere, Cork, had lived in Ballinalee for about eight years. Principal of the local boys school, he had planned to take a masters degree to qualify to become a schools’ inspector. He was a brother-in-law of Seán Connolly. At 01:30 six armed and masked men with English accents demanded entry to his house, saying, ‘We want you, Jack.’ Despite his wife’s pleas, they dragged him by the hair into a laneway and shot him dead. At dawn his wife raised the alarm at her father’s house. Buried Clonbroney. His dependents secured £5,000 compensation, the judge describing him as a ‘brilliant man with good prospects’.904 SA: Connolly (11Mar1921/3) Edgar Budd (26May1921/2) RIC (72348), 23, Gardener, ex-serviceman, Protestant Cooga, Kildysart, Clare Budd, from Fareham, Hampshire, joined the RIC on 9 August 1920, stationed in Kildysart. At about 20:00 constables Budd and Robert Irvine, cycling back from leave in Ennis in plain clothes and unarmed, were attacked by Volunteers of E Company, 2nd Battalion, Mid Clare Brigade concealed behind bushes at Cooga. Budd was killed outright, shot in the temple. Irvine, although slightly wounded, ‘got over the opposite wall where he had splendid cover’. He was pursued for about two miles before hiding in Paradise Wood.905

John Sheehan (26May1921/3) IRA, 27, Farmer, RC Coilagurteen Bog, Listowel, Kerry ‘Jack’ Sheehan lived with his widowed mother in Coilbee, near Listowel. A lieutenant in the ASU, 6th Battalion, Kerry No. 1 Brigade, he had acted as a scout during the shooting of Tobias O’Sullivan in Listowel. Patrick McElligott, O/C 6th Battalion, Kerry No. 1 Brigade, described how, after an attack on Ballylongford RIC Barracks on the night of 25 May, the IRA moved to Inchamore, Newtownsandes (Moyvane). Sheehan got permission to visit his mother as she lived only a couple of miles away. Sheehan’s brother Denis accompanied him part of the way. They were chatting at a bridge when a lorry carrying Crown forces appeared from the Tarbert direction. John jumped behind a low fence and ran for a nearby bog, while Denis slipped behind a ditch on the other side of the road and escaped. John was shot dead by a Black and Tan named Farnlow, stationed in Tarbert. At around 22:00 on 10 July, twelve Volunteers managed to wound Farnlow and another policeman in Tarbert. Buried Knockanure Cemetery, Listowel, Kerry. His mother Mary failed to secure a dependent’s award.906 SA: O’Sullivan (20Jan1921/2)

27 MAY 1921 Christopher William O’Sullivan (27May1921/1) 22, Ex-serviceman, mechanic, Married, RC Model Farm Road, Cork O’Sullivan and his wife lived at 132 Blarney Street. A motor mechanic, he had lost his job at Victoria Barracks five weeks earlier. He was in fear of his life. Jim Ahern, intelligence officer 3rd Battalion, and Tim O’Keeffe, quartermaster 3rd Battalion, recalled a raid on the mail in which a letter was found from a postman named Nagle to a former soldier named O’Sullivan. Nagle was arrested by the 3rd Battalion and gave information about O’Sullivan, as well as a photograph and details of where he had arranged to meet him. Leo Murphy and other Volunteers captured O’Sullivan and shot him. His body was found at about 16:30 on 27 May in a field

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adjoining the Model Farm road. A note in his pocket read, ‘Dear wife, I am going before my God.’ An unnamed relative described how when he came home at 13:00 on 27 May he was told that O’Sullivan had been kidnapped by two men that morning, dragged down River Lane and bundled into a waiting motor car. Another unnamed witness said that while working near the Model Farm road on 27 May at about 10:30 he heard shots. Buried St Joseph’s Cemetery, Ballyphehane, Cork. His widow secured £1,500 compensation and his mother £500.907 SA: Murphy (27Jun1921/5), Nagle (13Mar 1921/6) John Joseph Congdon (27May1921/2) 35, Plumber, RC MMH Congdon, of 7 Lower Glengarriff Parade, was standing with Michael Darwin and James Byrne at about 11:30 on 15 May at the corner of Dorset Street and St Ignatius Road. As a military lorry from Drumcondra passed they noticed a bomb rolling across the road. It exploded about 12 feet away, wounding all three. Neither Darwin nor Byrne saw who threw it. Lance-Corporal Goodwin, King’s Own Regiment, described how three bombs were thrown from the second floor of Leech’s Pub on Dorset Steer towards a military lorry. Two exploded. He did not see who threw the bombs and did not give any order to open fire. Following abdominal surgery, Congdon died in hospital around 15:30. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: U. b. 16).908 James Doherty (27May1921/3) RIC (74307), 24, Labourer, ex-serviceman, RC Donegal Doherty, from Antrim, joined the RIC on 14 October 1920, allocated to Donegal. The RIC General Register recorded that he was ‘accidentally shot by a comrade’.909 Patrick Boland (27May1921/4) IRA, 22, Farmer’s son, RC Aghamore, Ballyhaunis, Mayo Boland, from Aghamore, Ballyhaunis, was captain Crossard Company, East Mayo

Brigade. Shot by soldiers near his home at Aghamore while allegedly attempting to escape, his body was reportedly severely mutilated. He was believed tortured by a Lieutenant Anderson of the Argyll and Southern Highlanders, stationed in Claremorris. Buried Aghamore Cemetery. A commemorative monument was erected in Tooreen village.910

28 MAY 1921 Thomas Fitzgerald (28May1921/1) 31, Railway gatekeeper, Married with three children, RC Ballysheehan, Mallow, Cork Fitzgerald had been railway gate keeper at Lissanisky, near Mallow Station on the line to Waterford, since 1908. At around 01:00 he answered his gatehouse door at Ballysheehan. Armed men ordered him to call his brother Henry, an ex-serviceman who lived with him. They were taken along the road, told that they were to be shot as spies, and fired on from behind. Thomas was killed outright. Henry, seriously wounded, died some time later. Tom Barry, O/C 3rd Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade, said the two were suspected of giving information about the IRA’s Tom Hunter of Castletownroche, who ‘was lucky to escape’. Fitzgerald’s widow Anne secured £1,000 compensation and each of his children £600, while his mother Bridget secured £350.911 RD: Fitzgerald (28May1921/2) Henry Fitzgerald (28May1921/2) Ex-serviceman, RC Ballysheehan, Mallow, Cork See Fitzgerald (28May1921/1).912 Daniel McCarthy (28May1921/3) 37, Unemployed, RC Ovens, Cork McCarthy, a native of Bantry, Cork, was a drifter. Jim Ahern, intelligence officer 3rd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, and Tim O’Keeffe, quartermaster 3rd Battalion, recalled his killing. British records indicate that he had been arrested after wandering into a military camp, and was held until he was found to be of weak mind and harmless.

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McCarthy had been held with IRA prisoners in Ballincollig Barracks for about three weeks, and these grew suspicious of him. The IRA’s Leo Murphy ordered McCarthy’s arrest. One evening Ahern saw McCarthy come out of Ballincollig Barracks and followed him into Cork. Ahern and Frank O’Donoghue held him up near the Lee Cinema on Patrick Street. After a period of detention, during which he never spoke a word, he was killed by Leo Murphy, Dick Murphy (1st Battalion) and others. McCarthy’s body was found shot several times on the roadside near Ovens Post Office at 08:00 on 28 May. An attached label read: ‘Spies and Informers Beware. IRA.’913 SA: Murphy (27Jun1921/5) Diarmuid (Jeremiah) Hurley (28May1921/4) IRA, Foreman, RC Gortacrue, Midleton, Cork Hurley, from Bandon, lived in Midleton, and was a foreman for Coppinger’s Corn Merchants. He had previously worked in Belfast. According to John Kelleher, lieutenant Midleton Company, 4th Battalion, ‘such was this man’s extraordinary personality’ that shortly after arriving in Midleton he was appointed captain of the local company. Hurley was ‘a man of great driving force, one who was anxious to get things done rather than talked about’. Nicknamed ‘The Gaffer’, a strict disciplinarian and a fearless fighter, he was O/C ASU 4th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. Jack O’Connell, captain Cobh Company, recalled that Hurley received information that the local IRA company had failed to respond when a military cycle patrol shot up Carrigtwohill. Hurley went to investigate, but ran into a patrol commanded by DI G. H. A. Aylmore. He attempted to flee, but was shot when he ignored orders to halt. A quantity of IRA correspondence, as well as an automatic pistol and ammunition, were found on him. Official identification proved impossible because Jimmy Barry and Joe Kinsella of the local company, who had been sent to investigate shots heard, removed his body by pony and trap to Paddy Daly’s house at Gurteen. Buried Holy Rosary Cemetery, Midleton. His mother secured a gratuity of £150.914

Mary Foley (28May1921/5) 75, Old age pensioner, RC Carriglea, Dungarvan, Waterford Mary Foley (née Moloney) lived near the Carriglea road, Dungarvan, Waterford. Hard of hearing, she most likely did not hear the approach of a patrol, which, on seeing a figure through the trees, gave an order to halt. When this was not complied with, they fired. The death was the subject of parliamentary questions on 23 June 1921. Denis Henry KC MP, attorney-general for Ireland, replied citing a military report that while Mary Foley and her two grandchildren were collecting sticks in a field, a military patrol operating in the district was fired on. The military returned fire and accidentally wounded her. The inscription on a memorial erected where Mary Foley was shot supports this version of events: ‘Saighdúirí Sasana do lámaidh í agus í ag bailiúghadh brosna.’ (English soldiers shot her while she was gathering kindling.) An officer summoned civilians to aid the wounded woman, but she died at about 18:00.915 Albert Edward Skeats (28May1921/6) RIC (80482), 24, Labourer, ex-serviceman Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin From London, Skeats joined the RIC on 12 April 1921, allocated to Dublin. Shot at the rear of Cabinteely RIC Barracks, Dublin, at around 15:30 on 13 May, he died in hospital. The O/C, F Company, 6th Battalion, Dublin Brigade IRA, reported thus: ‘hit in right eye – bullet passing out over left ear. . . . Both our men are ex-army snipers and behaved very well.’916

c. 28 MAY 1921 Cornelius Ryan (28May1921/7) IRA, 33, Farmer, RC Clonteen, Cappamore, Limerick On 10 June the RIC found Cornelius Ryan’s corpse buried in an unsealed coffin in Ballynure Churchyard. A medical examination indicated that he been dead for twelve to fourteen days. It appeared that he had been killed while felling a tree to block a road. Buried Ballynure Churchyard, Limerick. He is commemorated on a monument at Murroe,

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Limerick. His sister Bridget secured a £100 gratuity.917

29 MAY 1921 Robert Samuel Coulter (29May1921/1) USC, 25, Farmer’s son, Presbyterian Mullaghfad Cross, Fermanagh Coulter, a USC constable, lived with his father, gamekeeper for H. de F. Montgomery, on a small farm in Mullaghfad. According to police reports, on the night of 28 May a twelve-member patrol of USC in the mountainous area between Fivemiletown and the Monaghan border met James Hall near Henry Lowry’s farm at Mullaghfad. Hall invited them for tea. The patrol was marching in two groups. The rear party of four was fired on from close range as they passed Mullaghfad Cross. Coulter, hit in the head, was killed instantly. Special Constable Montgomery was slightly wounded. Although seriously wounded, Hall dragged himself to his neighbour Lowry’s house. He was subsequently found lying dead about two yards from the door. Lowry later denied reports that he refused to help Hall, claiming that he had been afraid to open the door on account of the shooting. An IRA party from Scotstown, Monaghan, under James Mulligan took part in this attack. At the Enniskillen Quarter Sessions in June 1921, Coulter’s father secured £500 compensation. At the Newtownbutler Quarter Sessions in October 1921, Lowry was granted £350 for the destruction of his house.918 RD: Hall (29May1921/2) James Hall (29May1921/2) 55, Farmer, Married, CoI Mullaghfad Cross, Fermanagh See Coulter (29May1921/1). Hall was listed by Abbott as a member of the USC, although this is not reflected in press reports or in the testimony of his widow Mary Elizabeth Hall. She secured £500 compensation.919 George Redding (29May1921/3) RIC (72550), 21, Hatter, ex-serviceman, Baptist Kilrooskey, Roscommon Constable Redding, from Buckinghamshire, joined the RIC on 17 August 1920, stationed

in Roscommon town. A police cycle patrol from Roscommon encountered a party of Volunteers trenching a road at about 01:00. When an IRA sentry challenged the police, they fired. He replied, killing Redding. His parents secured £500 compensation.920 Thomas Howley (29May1921/4) IRA, 18, Shop assistant, RC Military Hospital, Athlone, Westmeath Howley, from Enniscrone, Sligo, had worked in Sligo town for two years for Messrs Downs & Sons. On the night of 24 May he was in an IRA party which ambushed DI White and his wife driving from Enniscrone to Ballina in Mayo: one Volunteer ‘could not say was there anyone with him or not; it was dark’. White, who returned fire, was slightly wounded. At 05:00 next day, police approached a house at Bunree, half a mile outside Ballina. Three men fleeing by the back door were fired on. Howley, dangerously wounded, died in hospital on 29 May. Buried St Patrick’s Cemetery, Kilglass, Sligo. His mother and sisters secured dependents’ allowances.921 Seán O’Rourke (29May1921/5) IRA, 23, Plumber, RC Ballymote, Dunhill, Waterford O’Rourke, from Waterford, was a ‘contact man’ carrying dispatches and moving weapons for the East Waterford Brigade.922 Although his eyesight was apparently poor, on 28 May he was acting as a scout during concerted road-blocking operations when shot and mortally wounded by British officers in civilian clothes whom he mistook for IRA comrades. He died next day.923 Buried republican plot at Ballygunner, Waterford. A monument was erected where he fell. His father John secured a £75 gratuity, and later an allowance.924 John P. O’Connell (29May1921/6) 59, Blacksmith, Married, RC Harbour Row, Queenstown (Cobh), Cork O’Connell, president of the local GAA club, was walking with a postman when challenged by another man. After a brief exchange, the man killed him ‘with a bullet through the

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heart’. It is likely that a Cameron Highlanders freelance assassin mistook him for John P. O’Connell, captain of the Cobh Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade.925 SA: Anderson (26Oct1921/1) Patrick Smith (29May1921/7) 19, Publican’s assistant, RC JSH Smith and another youth spent the evening in Howth with ‘two young lady friends and all returned together by tram’. He was standing just outside his Anglesea Street lodgings around 22:15 when three men ‘searched him and pulled him from the door and told him to go along . . . towards Dame Street. When he was about ten yards up the street, one . . . fired a shot.’ Hit in the arms and lungs, he died at about 23:30. There were a number of attacks on soldiers and girls in the city centre that evening.926 William McCarthy (29May1921/8) 49, Ex-serviceman, miner, Married with children, RC Cork After the Truce, GHQ recorded the IRA’s execution as a spy on 29 May of William McCarthy of Barrack Street, Mallow, formerly an RIR colour-sergeant. Home from Wales during a colliery strike, he was last seen when he went ‘to shoot rabbits at Mourne Abbey’ on 23 May. In January 1922 his widow Bridget secured a grant of probate.927

30 MAY 1921 Thomas Murphy (30May1921/1) IRA, 22, Railway porter, RC Foxrock, Dublin A Dublin Brigade member, Murphy was shot at 03:00 by unknown men in a bedroom of the Foxrock Hotel. His killers, probably ‘Black & Tans from Cabinteely’, left a label stating: ‘Executed by IRA’. Buried DGC. His mother Sarah secured a £100 gratuity, and his sister Anne later obtained an allowance.928 Martin Purcell (30May1921/2) IRA, 18, Farmer’s son, RC Military Barracks, Tipperary Purcell, from Knockavilla, Dundrum, Tipperary, a lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion,

3rd Tipperary Brigade, shared a cell in Tipperary Military Barracks with William O’Brien. At 14:45, they apparently rushed two sentries in the exercise yard and were shot. A court of inquiry accepted evidence to this effect without further scrutiny. Buried Knockavilla, Dundrum, Tipperary.929 RD: O’Brien (30May1921/3) William O’Brien (30May1921/3) IRA, 25, Agricultural labourer, RC Military Barracks, Tipperary See Purcell (30May1921/2). O’Brien, from Nohival Upper, Knockagree, Cork, was a lieutenant in the 3rd Tipperary Brigade. Buried Rathmore, Kerry. His father John secured a £150 compensation payment in 1924.930 Walter P. Perkins (30May1921/4) RIC (77306), 27, Car driver, ex-serviceman, Protestant Tullyvaragh, Monaghan Constable Perkins, from the Isle of Wight, joined the RIC on 4 January 1921, stationed in Carrickmacross, Monaghan. He was awarded the constabulary medal. At 16:30, nine constables, under DI Maunsell, were ambushed at Tullyrvaragh while cycling from Carrickmacross to Castleblayney. Perkins was the only fatality in the hour-long attack. The IRA had apparently been expecting a police tender.931 William Harold Atkin (30May1921/5) RAF, 21 Baldonnell, Dublin Atkin, from Sheffield, was a 1st Class Air Mechanic. At around 17:30 he engaged in banter about marksmanship with Aircraftsman Turnbull, who had just driven a lorry from Dublin and who was carrying a pistol due to fear of IRA attacks. Aiken challenged Turnbull to hit a piece of white paper which he held up. Turnbull, who had ‘unloaded the revolver as I thought’, pointed his gun at the paper ‘in a joking way. To my surprise the revolver went off ’, and Atkin fell, mortally wounded. Buried Sheffied (Abbey Lane) Cemetery.932

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John (Seán) Doyle (30May1921/6) IRA, 31, Corporation employee, Married with one child, RC MMH See Davis (25May1921/2). Doyle, of 55 Amiens Street, a Volunteer in the 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, was one of the first members of the Squad. Under the name ‘John Browne’, he was treated for chest wounds received at the Custom House burning. He developed pneumonia and died. Buried GC. His widow Elizabeth received a £90 annual allowance, with £24 for her daughter Kathleen until 1941. Doyle’s brother Patrick was hanged in Mountjoy Prison.933 SA: Doyle (14Mar1921/4) Albert Hall (30May1921/7) DCLI, 19, Married Penzance, Cornwall ‘Bertie’ Hall first enlisted in the Naval Division in 1916, lying about his age. He enlisted in his regiment on 19 July 1919, and shortly thereafter was accidentally wounded in the hip while guarding a camp at Ballyshannon, County Donegal. Discharged on 24 October 1919, he died from his wounds. Buried Penzance Cemetery.934

31 MAY 1921 Frederick Evans (31May1921/1) Hampshire Regiment (5485675), 17, Errand boy, Protestant Youghal, Cork Boy Evans, son of Mrs E. M. Dymond of Winchester, attested there on 7 December 1917. Stationed in Cork, he was the first to die in the IRA’s most successful landmine attack of the War of Independence, which also resulted in the Hampshire regiment’s highest casualty toll in a single incident in Ireland. Patrick Whelan, of the ASU 4th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, recalled that in early 1921 Tom Hyde of Ballinacurra, a member of the Midleton Company, learned that fishing smacks at Ballinacurra used discarded artillery casings from the coastal battery at Fort Carlisle as ballast. Hyde conceived the idea of filling these with explosives to make landmines. According to Whelan, four such mines were constructed.

At about 08:30, the regimental band and X Company, en route to a firing range about one and a half miles outside the town, drove over a landmine placed against a substantial stone wall which was detonated by Paddy O’Reilly of Youghal Company, using an electrical switch. Patrick Whelan later commented that, had O’Reilly waited another few seconds, the consequences would have been even more deadly. The mine exploded when the fourth and fifth section of the band were directly opposite. ‘Boy’ Evans, Bandsman Frederick Washington and Corporal Charles Whichelow were killed instantly. Three others died of their wounds a short time later: Bandsman Francis Burke, LanceCorporal Reginald David McCall and Boy George William Simmons. Boy Frederick William Hesterman was operated on at the Central Military Hospital, Victoria Barracks, Cork, but died on 1 June. This brought fatalities to seven. The war diary of the 2nd Battalion stated that twenty-one other ranks were wounded.935 The Hampshire Regimental Journal observed bitterly that ‘for the two previous weeks the band had played every day for the townsfolk of Youghal and it had been very popular; it had accordingly been marked down for destruction by the IRA.’ After the mine exploded, X Company dispersed to search for the attackers. Lieutenant C. A. Kenny led men south-west towards the Youghal–Killeagh road. At about 08:45, he noticed a closed jaunting-car coming from Youghal about 400 yards away. It failed to stop despite two challenges. Three or four shots were then fired in front of the car. Rather than stop, the driver whipped up the horse: because of the distance, he might not have heard any challenge. The military then fired at the jaunting-car itself. The driver John Kenure was shot dead and his passenger Father Roche, en route to Finisk to visit parishioners, was wounded in the foot. Col-Commandant H. W. Higginson, 17th Infantry Brigade, wrote:

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that neither deceased nor Father Roche heard any order to halt and the deceased was a victim of the circumstances. As a land mine had just been exploded . . . in the middle of the band it was quite natural for

1921

Chronicle reported that he shared his grave with his father. His mother secured £600 compensation.939

the troops to open fire on persons trying to get away or appearing to do so. No blame can be attached to the Forces. . . . The blame rests indirectly with the rebels who laid the mine.

Buried Magdalen Hill Cemetery (R. 2. 78). His mother secured £300 compensation.936 RD: Burke (31May1921/4), Hesterman (1Jun1921/12), Kenure (31May1921/7), McCall (31May1921/5), Simmons (31May 1921/6), Washington (31May1921/2), Whichelow (31May1921/3) Frederick Arthur Washington (31May1921/2) Hampshire Regiment (5485841 (previously 56773)), 19, Butcher Youghal, Cork See Evans (31May1921/1). Private Washington, from Alton, Hampshire, attested at Southampton on 30 July 1918. He was stationed in Cork. Buried Alton Cemetery (BB. 296). His father secured £300 compensation.937 Charles Louis Thomas Whichelow (31May1921/3) Hampshire Regiment (5485245 (previously 9610)), 22, Bicycle mechanic, Married with one child, Protestant Youghal, Cork See Evans (31May1921/1). Whichelow, born in Wynberg, Cape Colony, South Africa, attested at Portsmouth on 13 July 1914, serving in Princess Charlotte of Wales’s (Royal Berkshire Regiment) from 1918 until June 1919 (army number 45096). The corporal was stationed in Cork. Buried Withycombe Raleigh (St John in the Wilderness) Churchyard, Devon (A. 198). His widow secured £1,500 compensation and his child £1,000.938 Francis Burke (31May1921/4) Hampshire Regiment (5485339 (previously 16232)), 20, Bandsman, Protestant Youghal, Cork See Evans (31May1921/1). Bandsman Burke, son of the late Thomas Burke of Winchester, attested on 21 April 1915. He was stationed in Cork. Buried West Hill Old Cemetery, Winchester (3214). The Hampshire

Reginald David McCall (31May1921/5) Hampshire Regiment (548522 (previously 9486)), 22, Kitchen boy, RC Youghal, Cork See Evans (31May1921/1). Lance-Corporal McCall, from Winchester, the eldest son of William T. McCall, proprietor of the Royal Oak, attested at Winchester on 5 January 1914. He was stationed in Cork. Buried St James’s Hill Roman Catholic Cemetery, Winchester. His father secured £700 compensation.940 George William Simmons (31May1921/6) Hampshire Regiment (5487152), 15 Youghal, Cork See Evans (31May1921/1). Boy Simmons, from Southsea, attested at Winchester on 10 December 1919. He was a bugler. Buried Kingston Cemetery, Portsmouth, Hampshire (Palin’s. 5. 33). His sister secured £350 compensation.941 John Kenure (31May1921/7) 26, Cab driver, RC Youghal, Cork See Evans (31May1921/1). ‘Jack’ Kenure, a fisherman’s son, lived on Power’s Lane, Youghal. No compensation was paid by the army.942 Patrick White (31May1921/8) IRA, 33, Carpenter, RC Spike Island, Cork White, from Meelick, Clare, was a prisoner on Spike Island, where Order No. 5 Camp Regulations issued on 9 April 1921 stated that ‘it is absolutely forbidden for any internee to tamper with barbed wire or any part of the boundary wall or fence. Any person disregarding this order is liable to be shot.’ At around 18:00 Private H. Whitehead, King’s Own Scottish Borderers, saw an internee reaching through the wire to get a ball. As he was under orders to fire at any internee tampering with the wire, he shot White, who died about an hour later.

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Commenting on the matter, ColCommandant H.W. Higginson, 17th Infantry Brigade, wrote: While I am of opinion that . . . the sentry, interpreted order No. 5 . . . to mean that he was to fire on any persons tampering in any way with the wire and therefore technically he is not to blame, I nevertheless consider he displayed crass stupidity. . . . He was aware that the deceased was attempting to get a ball and was evidently not tampering with the wire with any intention of escaping; it was therefore quite unnecessary for him to have fired.

The GOC General Sir Nevil Macready wrote: Had the sentry been more experienced . . . he might very well have challenged at least once and told the man to get out of it. On the other hand, you have got to remember that we put the fear of God into our sentries, and impress on them the slippery nature of the internees . . . the adjutant . . . states that all the internees were warned that they were liable to be shot if they attempted to touch the wire, and in view of the fact that these men will do anything to accomplish their ends, and that a very short time ago an escape was effected from Spike Island, I do not consider that the occurrence was so indefensible as it might have been.

Buried Limerick. His sisters Elizabeth and Mary secured a £150 gratuity.943 Brian Nicholas Bradley (31May1921/9) Ex-serviceman, postman, RC Carnaross, Meath Seán Farrelly, vice-O/C Meath Brigade, maintained that Bradley, from Carnaross, a veteran who had fought in France, was one of several local spies. Bradley was apparently appointed postman in Carnaross when Jack Tevlin was arrested for IRA activities: ‘Living as he was among all the boys and with his advantage as postman’, Bradley ‘compiled a list of every IRA man in the area’, which was allegedly discovered during an IRA raid on the post office. Bradley was arrested, tried by court martial and killed by members of

G (Mullagh) Company, 3rd Meath Brigade, including Philip Carolan, John A. McKenna, James Joe Sheridan, John F. McKenna and John Farley. Father William Swan, curate in Moynalty, administered the last rites. On 3 April 1922, Bradley’s sister Mary Lynch of Kells sought confirmation of his death – ‘ I enclose a stamped addressed envelope’ – but GHQ were unable to furnish a death certificate, although they assured her he had ‘died fortified by the rites of the Catholic Church’. Buried Rathmaine Wood.944 [James or Charles?] Saunders (31May1921/10) 23, Agricultural labourer, RC Boherard, Carrignavar, Cork Timothy Sexton, intelligence officer 5th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, recalled that in May a Volunteer named Davy Flynn encountered a man named Saunders who asked about farmers likely to give him employment. Flynn consulted Sexton, who, being a shoemaker, noticed that Saunders wore new British army boots. Saunders was also wearing an army issue shirt. Arrested by Volunteers James McKeown, Tim Owens and Denis Leahy, he was taken to John Murphy’s of Boherard. Soon afterwards members of the brigade staff tried him by court martial. Saunders apparently confessed that he had given information leading to the Mourne Abbey ambush. Although illiterate, and ‘I can’t count,’ he claimed to have opened a bank account in which he deposited £49 of £50 paid to him by a British officer, and said that he had later kept £1 of an additional £10 he received. He said he informed the British of his brother Jack’s participation in the Mallow Barracks raid, accepted responsibility for the capture of Volunteers at Killeens, and identified William Shields (spelt Shiels in the typescript of his alleged confession) as his handler (Shields, a former member of the ASU Kanturk Battalion, was probably an informer). Saunders was killed. First concealed in a bog, the body was subsequently disinterred and buried elsewhere. As in other such cases, it is impossible to determine whether Saunders’s confession was completely genuine, a collage of fact and fiction, or furnished simply in

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hopes of saving his life, perhaps under severe coercion. Saunders gave his address as 5 Broom Lane, Mallow. In the 1911 census a labourer James Saunders (44), his wife Annie (47) and their three sons John (15), James (13) and Charles (12) lived at 17 Mill Street, Mallow. Given that John often becomes ‘Jack’ – as Saunders termed his brother – it is possible that the dead man was either James or Charles of this family.945 SA: Gibbs (28Sep1920/1), Shields (11Jul 1921/9) James Devoy (31May1921/11) 21, RC Aherla, Cork See Nagle (13Mar1921/6). This alleged informer may be the James Devoy who appears in the 1911 census as a ten-yearold Wicklow-born resident in Danesfort Industrial School (later St Patrick’s), an institution of enduringly evil reputation, outside Upton, Cork. He was the third alleged spy killed at the IRA ‘prison’ at Kilbawn, Aherla.946

1 JUNE 1921 Edward Donnelly (1Jun1921/1) IRA, 22, Carpenter, RC Croom, Limerick Donnelly, from Ballygriffin, Croom, was in the 3rd Battalion, Mid Limerick Brigade. Croom Courthouse was burned to the ground on the night of 31 May by Volunteers under Captain W. Burke. Due to a false alarm about enemy forces, the fire was started too soon. Five men were still in the building when flames began to engulf the courthouse. Donnelly and John Moloney died inside. James Hogan, who escaped with two other Volunteers, died of severe burns a week later. The Limerick Leader reported that two charred bodies were found in the debris. A court of inquiry on 11 July could not even determine their gender. The deaths were registered under ‘Unknown’ on 30 July 1921. A fourth Volunteer, Simon Howard, is believed to have died prematurely in 1927 as a result of his injuries.

Donnelly, Moloney and Hogan are commemorated on a monument at Caherconlish. Donnelly is also memorialised on a monument at Murroe, Limerick. Donnelly’s father secured a £60 dependent’s gratuity, and his mother later obtained an annual allowance.947 RD: Hogan (8Jun1921/10), Moloney (1Jun 1921/2) John Moloney (1Jun1921/2) IRA, Ambulance driver, RC Croom, Limerick See Donnelly (1Jun1921/1). Moloney, from Honeypound, Croom, served in the 4th Battalion, Mid Limerick Brigade. His body was not recovered. His mother Margaret secured a £60 dependent’s allowance, and his sister Hannah, then living in a Legion of Mary Hostel in Limerick, later obtained an allowance.948 W. J. Peacock (1Jun1921/3) 32, Army officer, CoI Skevanish, Innishannon, Cork Peacock, eldest son of the late Captain W. T. Peacock, JP, of Skevanish, Innishannon, was commissioned in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. By December 1916 he was a lieutenant-colonel. He had an outstanding war record, winning the DSO and bar and the Croix de Guerre. Richard Russell, O/C Signals 1st (Bandon) Battalion, Cork No. 3 Brigade, said Peacock ‘was suspected of passing information to the enemy and special instructions were issued to ensure that all his movements were reported to our battalion intelligence officer’, while Cork IRA veteran Connie Neenan termed Peacock ‘the head of the British Murder Gang in Munster’. Russell claimed that Peacock had been recognised before Christmas 1920 when his mask slipped during a police raid. From then on, he lived in Bandon Military Barracks and only visited Innishannon occasionally. Information was received that he was at home. Tom Kelleher and Jim Ryan of the brigade ASU went to shoot him, while Volunteers of the Innishannon Company acted as scouts. Peacock was shot dead,

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1 June 1921

apparently as he attempted to draw a gun. Tom Kelleher claimed Peacock was ‘guarded by four men’, but on 4 June Constable John Edward Deacon told a court of inquiry that at about 18:30 on 31 May he was alone in Peacock’s house when two men fired at Peacock in his garage. Peacock died at 10:30 next day. DI Smith reported that Peacock was popular locally and had not taken any side during the disturbances, but had refused to contribute to the IRA’s arms fund. Buried new Protestant burial ground, Innishannon. As sometimes happened where Cork Protestants were shot as spies, the IRA burned down his house and later ‘took possession of the place and commandeered the produce’ of his farm.949 Unknown Bucker (1Jun1921/4) East Surrey Regiment North Frederick Street, Dublin At about 11:00, a party of D Company, 2nd Battalion, IRA, were in the North Frederick Street/Dorset Street area with instructions ‘to hit up anything in the way of enemy forces which came our way’. It was a public holiday and exceptionally fine, so many civilians were about. A lorry carrying six soldiers was attacked at the junction of Parnell Square and North Frederick Street. After an explosion, Major J. Gurdon fired at ‘a tall thin man running away and looking over his left shoulder . . . he appeared to slip up but recovered and disappeared down a side street’. Michael O’Kelly said soldiers returned fire indiscriminately, wounding some civilians. A regimental history stated that Bucker was killed and three others wounded, one, Henry Goddard, fatally. The driver, hit in both feet, nevertheless drove to safety.950 RD: Goddard (1Jun1921/5) Henry Goddard (1Jun1921/5) East Surrey Regiment (EI/33004), 20, Married North Frederick Street, Dublin See Bucker (1Jun1921/4). Lance-Corporal Goddard was stationed in Dublin. He died of wounds from a bomb splinter. Buried Hampton, Twickenham (C. East. 4.140).951

James Collery (1Jun1921/6) RIC (58355), 45, Farmer, Married with seven children, RC Ballymacandy, Castlemaine, Kerry Collery, from Sligo, joined the RIC on 2 August 1898, posted first to Clare and, from 1912, Kerry, stationed in Killorglin. He was promoted to sergeant in 1919. He was in a twelve-man cycle patrol returning from Tralee to Killorglin RIC Barracks when ambushed at Ballymacandy near Castlemaine by the IRA under Tom O’Connor O/C 6th (Killorglin) Battalion, Kerry No. 1 Brigade, and the ASU Kerry No. 1 Brigade. An earlier ambush had been called off. The ambush party comprised forty-four men, spread out over a distance of about half a mile outside Castlemaine because police patrols usually travelled in extended formation. When the police entered the ambush site at 16:00, they were bunched together. With ‘Sonny’ Mason, Tadhg Brosnan and two others, James Cronin came out on to the road behind the patrol and opened fire. Four police were killed and four wounded. After ‘a stiff fight’, two others escaped uninjured by fleeing into the fields. The wounded policemen were attended to in a nearby farmhouse by Dr Daniel Sheehan of Milltown. Constable McCormack died in hospital at Ballymullen Barracks on 7 June. The dead were conveyed to the Catholic church in Milltown. Documents found on DI McCaughey disclosed plans for a concerted sweep of the Dingle peninsula. Buried Milltown, Kerry. His dependents secured £5,000 compensation.952 RD: Cooney (1Jun1921/7), McCaughey (1Jun1921/8), McCormack (7Jun1921/7), Quirke (1Jun1921/9) Joseph Cooney (1Jun1921/7) RIC (69529), 25, Farmer, RC Ballymacandy, Castlemaine, Kerry See Collery (1Jun1921/6). From Roscommon, Cooney joined the RIC on 3 September 1918, stationed in Killorglin. Seán Scully said the dying Cooney told Father Alex O’Sullivan, ‘Tell the Glencar lads that it wasn’t I [who] shot Joe Taylor.’ Cooney, seriously wounded

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in an ambush in Glencar on 16 July 1920, was believed to have identified Taylor as one of those involved. Cooney’s mother secured £470 compensation.953 SA: Taylor (27Feb1921/1) Michael Francis McCaughey (1Jun1921/8) RIC (67290), 28, Draper’s assistant, Married, RC Ballymacandy, Castlemaine, Kerry See Collery (1Jun1921/6). McCaughey, from Down, joined the RIC on 15 March 1913, allocated to Cavan. He enlisted in the Irish Guards on 6 August 1915 and in 1918 was commissioned in the Indian Army Reserve. On 3 March 1920, he rejoined the RIC, stationed in Limerick. McCaughey was promoted to sergeant on 19 May 1920 and to DI on 1 December 1920. He took up duty in Killorglin, Kerry, on 1 January 1921. McCaughey’s widow secured £4,800 compensation.954 John Quirke (1Jun1921/9) RIC (63249), 33, Farmer, RC Ballymacandy, Castlemaine, Kerry See Collery (1Jun1921/6). Constable Quirke, from Clonakilty, Cork, joined the RIC on 16 October 1907. He was stationed in Killorglin. His mother secured £360 compensation.955 Joseph C. Holman (1Jun1921/10) RIC (74002), 21, Royal Marine, RC Killally, Kilworth, Cork Holman, from St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, joined the RIC on 8 October 1920, stationed in Kilworth. He was killed by shotgun fire at about 19:30, and his companion Minnie McGrath slightly wounded, while out walking near Kilworth, by Mick Condon and members of the Kilworth Company, Cork No. 2 Brigade. Holman’s parents secured £800 compensation.956 Bridget Falvey (1Jun1921/11) 34, Publican, RC Union Hospital, Cahirciveen, Kerry Bridget Falvey lived on New Market Street, Cahirciveen, Kerry. At around 13:00 on 20 May an RIC patrol came under fire about

150 yards beyond her house in Cahirciveen. Constable Michael Sheridan was seriously wounded. The patrol took cover but did not return fire. Bridget Falvey was hit in the right cheek, apparently by a ricochet, standing in her doorway. She died in hospital. The ambush party was led by Mike Griffin, O/C 1st (Cahirciveen) Battalion, Kerry No. 3 Brigade, with about twelve men. A similar ambush two days earlier had not come off.957 Frederick William Hesterman (1Jun1921/12) Hampshire Regiment (5487335), 14 CMHC See Evans (31May1921/1). Boy Hesterman, born in Poplar, London, attested at Winchester on 6 July 1920 aged fourteen. He was stationed in Cork. Following the landmine explosion at Youghal, a large piece of stone was removed from his stomach. Buried Hollybrook Cemetery, Southampton.958 Patrick Coyle (1Jun1921/13) 67, Blacksmith, Married with children, RC Union Hospital, Athlone, Westmeath Coyle lived in Bredagh, Kiltoom, Roscommon. Two of his sons were also blacksmiths. He was mortally wounded during a Black and Tan raid on the house of William Murphy at St John’s. Three of the Murphy brothers were wanted men. Hubert managed to escape but Thomas was captured and interned. Coyle had come to treat a sick horse, and the circumstances of his shooting are unclear, although a court of inquiry recommended that an unnamed RIC man be charged with manslaughter. He was treated at the scene by Dr R. W. Chapman, but died in hospital. On 7 June a military court of inquiry in Athlone found that Coyle’s death was manslaughter and that the unnamed RIC man responsible should be court martialled. Although not a Volunteer, Coyle is commemorated on a monument at Shankill. His son Michael secured £500 compensation.959 Patrick Morris (1Jun1921/14) IRA, 25, RC Cashel Bridge, Greencastle, Tyrone From Glenhall, Newtownstewart, Morris, a lieutenant in the 2nd Northern Division, was

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2 June 1921

accidentally killed during the destruction of Cashel [Cahill] Bridge. The police found his body nearby. Buried Greencastle. In 1954 a memorial cross was placed on his grave. His mother Bridget secured a £75 gratuity.960 Michael Hackett (1Jun1921/15) 27, Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC Coolnasaughta, Myshall, Carlow Hackett was captured by the IRA in Fenagh, Carlow, on 15 May. Convicted of passing information to RIC men with whom he associated, he was eventually shot and buried on 1 June ‘on the mountainside’ at Coolnasaughta. His mother Julia later received an anonymous letter: Pleased to inform you that your son Mick was shot and buried in Crean Wood 5 bullets put true [sic] him by some boys out of his own town there was no use keep you in darkness any longer get him praied [sic] for.

Julia Hackett sought information from the Dáil government. Liam de Staic, O/C Carlow Brigade, initially told GHQ on 28 February 1922 that, after receiving ‘the rites of the Catholic Church’, Hackett was shot ‘as a Spy’ and ‘buried in consecrated grounds’. Julia Hackett was so informed. This attempt to dispose of the matter with a straight lie failed, as she subsequently identified her son’s remains discovered at Coolnasaughta: ‘I cannot see how the consecration comes in on top of a mountain four miles from a churchyard.’ She also sought the return of his bicycle and ‘personal property for his friends’. GHQ were displeased about the inaccuracy of the original report. On 18 October and 28 November the local commander offered an altered version of Hackett’s death. Hackett was now described as one of a network of paid spies operating in the ‘Carlow, Bagenalstown & Borris areas’ whose information had resulted in a surprise attack on the Carlow ASU at Ballymurphy on 21 April. Prior to his killing, Hackett ‘had half an hours’ audience with a priest. I believe that he did not avail himself of this opportunity to go to confession.’ Hackett was not buried in consecrated ground because this might have alerted other spies whom the IRA wished to

surprise. His killers left 4/2d. in his pocket, but his bicycle was ‘requisitioned . . . for dispatch work’. The family’s compensation claim was initially resisted by the Department of Defence because they were ‘moral supporters of the Irregulars’ during the Civil War, but on 29 May 1924 this position was abandoned and Defence recommended ‘consideration’ of the claim ‘with a view to immediate payment’. In November 1924 the Hacketts received £400 compensation. The Carlow Brigade committee dealing with the Military Pensions Board in the 1930s did not state who actually killed Hackett, although ‘Names can be supplied if required’. It is assumed here that Hackett is the alleged spy ‘Finn’ shot by the 6th Battalion, Carlow IRA, after the attack on the Carlow ASU at Ballymurphy.961 SA: Ryan (18Apr1921/1)

2 JUNE 1921 Michael Carty (2Jun1921/1) IRA, 22, Farmer’s son, RC Aughadristan, Lisacul, Castlerea, Roscommon Carty, of Aughadristan, Lisacul, Castlerea, was a lieutenant in the 1st Battalion, South Roscommon Brigade. Tom Crawley, vice-O/C 1st Battalion, South Roscommon Brigade, recalled that Carty and Peter Shannon were on the run and staying in Frank O’Connor’s home in Aughadristan. At about 05:00, the house was surrounded by police. Carty and Shannon were fired on while still in bed. Carty was killed; despite eight bullet wounds, Shannon survived. The police report claimed that the two IRA men fired first. Buried Cuiltyboe Cemetery, Loughglinn. He is also commemorated on a monument at Loughglinn. His father Thomas secured a gratuity of £35.962 James McCarron (2Jun1921/2) IRA, 27, Ex-serviceman, grocer’s assistant, RC Kinletter, Ballybofey, Donegal McCarron, from Ballybofey, was wounded and gassed several times while in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, on one occasion lying three days on the battlefield before being

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rescued. After release from Ballykinlar Internment Camp on health grounds, he was captain Ballybofey Company. At 17:30 soldiers returning to Ballybofey after a fishing trip were ambushed by six men at Kinletter and returned fire. Henry McGowan, vice-O/C 4th Battalion, said McCarron died within minutes from head and stomach wounds. Two other attackers were reported wounded. Crown forces suffered no casualties. Captain Charles Colquhoun McGrigor was later awarded an MBE. During subsequent searches, James Doherty’s house at Correfrin was raided. When his son Edward was questioned he ran out of the house. Fired on, he died in Stranorlar Infirmary on the morning of 3 June. Buried Sessiaghoneill burial ground, Ballybofey. His father James received a gratuity of £80.963 RD: Doherty (3Jun1921/6) Sydney Blythe (2Jun1921/3) RIC (78576), 26, Groom, ex-serviceman, Married, Protestant Carrowkennedy, Mayo Blythe, from Norfolk, joined the RIC on 4 February 1921, allocated to Mayo. A seventeen-man police patrol, under DI Edward James Stevenson, travelling towards Leenane in two Crossley tenders and a private motor car, drove into a well-prepared ambush laid by the ASU West Mayo Brigade at Carrowkennedy. The first tender was engaged from high ground above the roadside. The driver was killed and DI Stevenson mortally wounded. The attackers knocked out the gunner and three replacement gunners manning the Lewis gun, which was later captured and used against the RIC. Edward Moane, vice-O/C West Mayo Brigade, recalled that a policeman in the first tender was shot in the wrist while drawing the pin from a grenade and dropped it, the resulting explosion effectively ending the engagement. The fight lasted for three and a half hours. Five policemen were killed and six were seriously wounded. Two later died: Sergeant Francis Creegan on 3 June and Constable Thomas Dowling on 4 June.964

The West Mayo Brigade captured 23 rifles, 25 revolvers, 1 Lewis gun, 60 Mills bombs and 5,000 rounds of .303 ammunition before setting fire to the lorries. One policeman was allowed to go to Westport for assistance. Buried Hither Green Cemetery, London. At Castlebar Quarter Sessions in October 1921, his widow Martha, whom he married in 1919, secured £4,000 compensation.965 RD: Brown (2Jun1921/4), Creegan (3Jun 1921/10), Doherty (2Jun1921/5), Dowling (4Jun1921/7), French (2Jun1921/6), Stevenson (2Jun1921/7) James Brown (2Jun1921/4) RIC (79746), 23, Tweed mill worker, exserviceman, Married, Presbyterian Carrowkennedy, Mayo See Blythe (2Jun1921/3). Brown, born in Roxborough, Scotland, joined the RIC on 16 March 1921, allocated to Mayo, stationed in Westport. At Castlebar Quarter Sessions in October 1921, Brown’s widow Margaret secured £5,000 compensation.966 John Doherty (2Jun1921/5) RIC (57416), 47, Farmer, Married, RC Carrowkennedy, Mayo See Blythe (2Jun1921/3). Doherty, born in Ballindrumlea, Castlerea, Roscommon, joined the RIC on 15 May 1896, allocated to Galway. Transferred to Mayo in 1906, he was stationed in Westport. Doherty’s widow Margaret secured £6,000.967 William French (2Jun1921/6) RIC (75584), 25, Warehouseman, exserviceman, Protestant Carrowkennedy, Mayo See Blythe (2Jun1921/3). Constable French, born in Gloucestershire, joined the RIC on 16 November 1920, allocated to Mayo. His parents William and Sarah secured £1,200 compensation.968 Edward John Stevenson (2Jun1921/7) RIC (72024), 22, Ex-serviceman, CoI Carrowkennedy, Mayo See Blythe (2Jun1921/3). Stevenson, from Down, was a son of James Verdier Stevenson,

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3 June 1921

chief constable of Glasgow from 1902 until 1922 and a former RIC DI. After service as an officer with the Black Watch and the Royal Highlanders, he joined the RIC on 22 July 1920, stationed in Ballina. On 1 October 1920, Stevenson was promoted to DI. Buried Ardnaree Church, Ballina. His father secured £600 compensation.969 William Edmeads (2Jun1921/8) Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) (6446205), 20, Labourer Military Hospital, Ballymullen Barracks, Tralee, Kerry970 Private Edmeads, from Middlesex, attested at Hounslow on 10 March 1919. He was stationed in Kerry. At about 23:30 on 31 May, he was shot by Constable Stanley Gordan Marchant, who claimed he had fired in the air to disperse civilians and soldiers fighting outside a pub in Rathmore. On 25 November 1921, Marchant was tried for manslaughter before a court martial at Victoria Barracks, Cork. The case was adjourned.971

3 JUNE 1921 Joseph Miller (3Jun1921/1) 59, Labourer, Married with children, RC SVH Miller, of 40 South King Street, was wounded on 28 May during an ambush at St Stephen’s Green while going to visit his dying wife Mary Ellen, a dress maker, in hospital. A bomb was thrown at two tenders of Auxiliaries travelling past Cuffe Street, and shots were fired from Harcourt Street. He developed gas-gangrene after an operation at St Vincent’s Hospital on 30 May, and died at 03:00 on 3 June. Buried GC (B. d. 88). His next of kin secured £900 compensation.972 James Briggs (3Jun1921/2) RIC (70463), 29, Cheese-maker, ex-serviceman, Presbyterian Modrenny, Cloughjordan, Tipperary Briggs, born in Newton Stewart, Wigtownshire, Scotland, won the DCM and the MM during the war. He joined the RIC on 25 February 1920, stationed in Borrisokane.

At around 09:00, a scout signalled to Seán Gaynor, O/C Tipperary No. 1 Brigade, lying in ambush with the ASU at a bend in the road at Modreeny, that Crown forces with an estimated strength of forty were approaching. Although tipped off by a policeman, probably Martin Feeney, Gaynor had expected a far smaller party. Police reports show that Sergeant Jones and eleven constables from Borrisokane had been overtaken on the road near Kylebeg Cross by DI Fitzpatrick and fifteen men in motor cars from Roscrea, carrying pay for outlying stations. The leading cyclists were allowed to go about 200 yards into the ambush site. As the first motor car approached the bend, fire was opened. According to Gaynor, the five police in the lead car were either killed or wounded, except Fitzpatrick who got out and took cover. The other police took up positions along the roadside fence; several were wounded as they tried to advance towards the main IRA section. After about half an hour, Gaynor withdrew his men lest Crown reinforcements arrive. Some rifles and ammunition were captured. Gaynor put losses to Crown forces at four dead and fourteen wounded. Constables Briggs, Cantlon, Feeney and Walsh died at the scene. Briggs’ representatives secured £800 compensation.973 RD: Cantlon (3Jun1921/3), Feeney (3Jun 1921/4), Walsh (3Jun1921/5) John Cantlon (3Jun1921/3) RIC (52669), 53, Farmer, Married with three children, CoI Modrenny, Cloughjordan, Tipperary See Briggs (3Jun1921/2). Cantlon, from Carlow, joined the RIC on 12 September 1887, serving in Tipperary, Kilkenny and Tipperary again from 1902. Made acting sergeant on 1 March 1907, he reverted to constable on 11 April 1910. He was stationed in Roscrea. His dependents secured £2,700 compensation.974 Martin Feeney (3Jun1921/4) RIC (65453), 32, Labourer, RC Modrenny, Cloughjordan, Tipperary See Briggs (3Jun1921/2). Feeney, from Roscommon, joined the RIC on 16 August

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1921

1910, stationed in Borrisokane. Interviewed in 1989, former RIC constable Robert Crossett said Feeney was suspected by comrades of being a Sinn Féin sympathiser. He also said that Feeney had fled the ambush, but was found by the IRA in a nearby house, taken outside and shot. Republican sources are silent on this, though they indicate that Feeney had given advance warning of the RIC’s plans. Buried Roscommon.975 William Walsh (3Jun1921/5) RIC (55430), 52, Labourer, Married, RC Modrenny, Cloughjordan, Tipperary See Briggs (3Jun1921/2). Walsh, from Durrow, Laois, joined the RIC on 1 September 1892, serving in Armagh, Limerick, Cork, the RIC Reserve and Offaly, before transfer to Borrisokane, Tipperary. His widow secured £3,600 compensation.976 Edward Doherty (3Jun1921/6) IRA, 22, Watchmaker, labourer, RC Infirmary, Stranorlar, Donegal See McCarron (2Jun1921/2). Doherty was from Correfrin, Ballybofey, Donegal, and the MSPC suggests he was a Volunteer. His mother Margaret made an unsuccessful application for a gratuity.977 Patrick McDonald (3Jun1921/7) RIC (70694), 25, Farmer, RC Edenderry, Offaly McDonald, from Mayo, joined the RIC on 15 March 1920, stationed in Edenderry. At around 14:45, a party of IRA trying to force an entry into the yard of Edenderry RIC Barracks were driven off by police fire, during which, according to the RIC General Register, McDonald was accidentally shot dead.978 Kathleen Alexanderson Wright (3Jun1921/8) 21, Student, Engaged, CoE College Park, Trinity College, Dublin Kathleen Wright, from London, was daughter of Reverend Ernest Alexanderson Wright, an Irishman and vicar of All Saints, Clapham Park. An Arts student at Trinity College, living in Pembroke Park, she was engaged

to George Herbert Ardill of Sligo, who was studying science. She and Ardill were on a bench in College Park watching a cricket match between the gentlemen of Ireland and the military of Ireland, a fixture announced in the Irish Times. At about 17:20, she was hit by a shot fired from Nassau Street. Ardill said when he heard firing ‘he pulled Miss Wright to the ground. . . . On opening her coat . . . he saw blood on the front of her blouse, and a wound on the right side of her chest. He did not hear her make any remark at all.’ He ‘did not suppose that the shots were fired at them’. Pádraig Ó Conchubhair and Jimmy McGuinness of the Dublin Brigade ASU, ordered to disrupt the match, cycled to Trinity just as play began and fired from behind the boundary wall at Lincoln Place: ‘after the first couple of rounds . . . a lady spectator jumped up . . . and got killed by a stray shot’. The match initially resumed after about fifteen minutes, before the provost of Trinity, J. H. Bernard, insisted that play be abandoned. The military service pension application of Eileen McCarville (née McGrane) contains material suggesting that Kathleen was deliberately targeted because she had given information leading to a Crown forces raid on McGrane’s flat at 19 Dawson Street in which a large cache of Michael Collins’s† working documents were seized. This seems improbable. Buried Brixton, London.979 Robert Armstrong (3Jun1921/9) USC, 20, CoI Infirmary, Omagh, Tyrone Armstrong, from Drum, Clones, Monaghan, accidentally shot himself in the chest while examining another policeman’s revolver at about 17:30.980 Francis Creegan (3Jun1921/10) RIC (59658), 43, Farmer, Married, RC Westport, Mayo See Blythe (2Jun1921/3). Sergeant Creegan, from Fermanagh, joined the RIC on 16 July 1900, serving in Galway, Leitrim, and from 1908 in Westport. His widow Ellen secured £7,000 compensation.981

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4 June 1921

4 JUNE 1921 Thomas Keane (4Jun1921/1) IRA, 36, Carpenter, Married with two children, RC Detention Prison, New Barracks, Limerick Keane, of 1 Moore’s Place, Lelia Street, was captain C Company, 2nd Battalion, Mid Limerick Brigade. Arrested on 14 May, three days later a court martial sentenced him to death for possession of arms and ammunition at Singland. He was executed by firing squad in the Detention Prison, New Barracks, at 08:00. There was surprise locally that he was not reprieved, being a family man, whereas three Volunteers tried with him were. Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery. A commemorative plaque was erected in Sarsfield Barracks (formerly New Barracks), and he is also commemorated on a monument at Murroe, Limerick. His widow Lena secured an allowance of £90 per annum during widowhood, later increased to £135 and from 1 January 1953 £250. Her two children were awarded £24 per annum each.982 Henry O’Rourke (4Jun1921/2) 18, Labourer, RC East Arran Street, Dublin O’Rourke lived at 6 Cornmarket. At about 10:20, a patrol of R Company, Auxiliary Division, in two Crossley tenders driving along the north quays challenged a crowd at the end of Capel Street watching two men fighting. People ran rather than halting as ordered and the Auxiliaries fired over their heads as they continued to flee through Mary’s Abbey to East Arran Street. O’Rourke, who had gone out to buy a pair of boots, was killed, while two others were wounded. John Murphy of 152 Capel Street, also hit, died next day. Buried GC (Garden Section: S. 69).983 RD: Murphy (5Jun1921/11) Patrick Creamer (4Jun1921/3) 25, Ex-serviceman, ironmonger’s assistant, RC Barrington’s Hospital, Limerick Creamer, from Limerick, lived at 16 Charlotte’s Quay. He had served in the Canadian forces.

On 23 May, DI T. H. H. Fuge, leading a party of plain-clothes police investigating a report of illegal drilling, saw between forty and fifty civilians standing by a bridge on the canal about a mile north of Limerick. These scattered as the police drew closer. Some halted when ordered, but others fled and were fired on. According to LFS, these were members of C Company, 2nd (Limerick City) Battalion, who returned fire. Creamer, caught in the crossfire, was wounded in the right side. He developed pleuropneumonia and died in hospital at 10:30.984 Andrew Hanratty (4Jun1921/4) 9, Schoolboy, RC MMH Andrew, son of Francis and Brigid Hanratty of 16 Moy Elta Road, was going shopping with his father when men of E Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, threw grenades at a military vehicle at Newcomen Bridge at 16:30. Hit by a splinter, he was found with his brains protruding. Eleven other people were wounded. Buried Calvary Cemetery, Drogheda, Louth. One source suggests that this attack was much resented locally. It is said that 1916 ICA veteran George Norgrove fell out with William Halpin, who had thrown a grenade, and withdrew from the conflict for a time, concealing IRA munitions so that they could no longer be used. This is not mentioned in his successful military service pension application.985 Jeremiah Moroney (4Jun1921/5) RIC (57354), 46, Farmer, Married with five children, RC Military Hospital, New Barracks, Limerick Moroney, from Feakle, Clare, joined the RIC in 1896, serving in Offaly and Cork before transfer to Limerick on 1 February 1909. Stationed in Mary Street RIC Barracks, he was promoted to sergeant in 1918. On 28 April he was shot in the stomach at around 06:30 at Park Bridge by two unknown men as he went home to retrieve his tobacco pouch. No IRA references to this incident have been traced. Buried Tulla, Clare. His dependents secured £3,300 compensation.986

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1921

John Ellard Brady (4Jun1921/6) 22, Ex-serviceman, student, RC MMH The son of a well-known solicitor of 21 Hollybrook Road, Clontarf, Brady was invalided during the war, in which one of his brothers was killed. Brady, Thomas Halpin and Mitchell Denvir went for a drink around 21:10. Louis Tierney of Amiens Street saw a young man wheel a bicycle up to Halpin and Brady and fire a revolver, killing Brady, before cycling off towards Dublin. Halpin died that night. Frank Saurin of GHQ intelligence said that Brady was believed to be a Black and Tan involved in the sack of Balbriggan in September 1920: it was ‘open to question whether . . . [Halpin] deserved to be shot. To the best of my recollection Brady was concerned in getting local information for the Black and Tans’. IRA officer James Kenny of Clontarf said he traced this ‘Secret Service Agent’, though ‘I did not like to put that down’ on his pension application form that Brady ‘was killed as a result’. Mary Halpin wrote in the Irish Independent that, while her son’s death: is a terrible blow to me, I feel more bitterly the awful allegations being made against my poor boy’s character. I do not believe he would injure the national desires of the people of this country in any way and can swear to his manly and pure character and freedom from all charges.

Both Brady and Halpin appear in a postTruce GHQ tally of alleged spies. Brady fits the description of ‘Cariot’ in David Neligan’s The Spy in the Castle. Buried Kilbarrack Cemetery, Dublin.987 RD: Halpin (4Jun1921/8) Thomas Dowling (4Jun1921/7) RIC (60016), 42, Farmer, Married, RC Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin See Blythe (2Jun1921/3). Dowling, from Ballymaddock, Stradbally, Laois, joined the RIC on 1 April 1901, serving in Belfast and, from 1907, Mayo. He died at 21:30. Buried family burial ground, The Heath, Laois. His widow Cecilia secured £7,000 compensation.988

Thomas Halpin (4Jun1921/8) 22, Ex-serviceman, RC MMH See Brady (4Jun1921/6). Halpin lived in Brookside Cottages, Clontarf.989 George Mottley (4Jun1921/9) East Lancashire Regiment, 18 Kilcummin, Killarney, Kerry From Shipley, Yorkshire, Motley was placed into care at the age of eleven, along with most of his siblings. He absconded repeatedly to return to his mother Sarah Elizabeth Ickeringill. From 1915 to 1917 he was in an industrial school in Bath. He enlisted on 8 December 1918. He and Jack Steer (Stay), deserters from their regiment at Killarney, were eventually killed in a cowshed at Michael Moynihan’s farm in Kilcummin, Killarney. Their fate illustrates how the imperatives of security sometimes outweighed considerations of humanity. As a training camp in the Clydagh Valley ended, the IRA received information of an imminent British round-up. Mottley and Stay, held prisoner since March in the 5th Battalion area, were moved into Kilcummin. Fearing that if they fell into the hands of Crown forces, they might disclose key information about the IRA, Humphrey O’Sullivan, then O/C 5th Battalion, ordered their deaths. No one wished to shoot men who had given no trouble, and whom they had all had got to know, but the two were eventually killed and buried in Annablaha bog, Headford. Their corpses, in civilian clothes and wrapped in canvas sacks, were located by Garda Sergeant James in 1926. Initially their reported names ‘Motley’ and ‘Stay’ could not be traced in British records. London then realised that ‘Motley’ was George Mottley. Ironically for deserters, in death both he and Steer were accorded military honours. Accompanied by an Irish army guard of honour, his remains were transferred to a British military detachment at Penrose Quay, Cork on 14 January 1927.990 RD: Steer (4Jun1921/10)

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5 June 1921

John Thomas Dixon Steer (4Jun1921/10) East Lancashire Regiment, 18 Kilcummin, Killarney, Kerry See Mottley (4Jun1921/9). Following the identification of George Mottley, the Gardaí in Killarney received letters from Blackburn from a Mrs Steer and a T. Walmsley. The British government then accepted that ‘Jack Stay’ was Private John Thomas Dixon Steer, East Lancashire Regiment, born in Blackburn. His remains, escorted by an Irish army guard of honour and band, were transferred to Lieutenant Hitchcock, representing the British military, on the SS Kenmare at Penrose Quay, Cork, on 5 April 1927.991 Seán McIntyre (4Jun1921/11) IRA, 22, Farmer’s son, RC Tomkinroad, Belturbet, Cavan McIntyre, from Lagan, Drumlane Lower, Belturbet, was killed when setting a fire to destroy a house which the IRA believed might become an Auxiliary base. His body was not recovered for weeks. Buried Drumlane Abbey, Belturbet. His widowed sister-in-law and nephew, who by 1930 were in desperate straits and had to sell the family farm, failed in efforts to secure dependents’ allowances.992

5 JUNE 1921 Michael Burke (5Jun1921/1) RIC (66998), 28, Farmer, RC Swatragh, Londonderry Burke, from Ballinrobe, Mayo, joined the RIC on 16 December 1912. Most of his service was in Derry city, but after promotion to sergeant in February 1921 he took up duty in Swatragh. He was shot in an IRA ambush in Swatragh at around 01:00, his two comrades being wounded.993 Eugene Swanton (5Jun1921/2) 31, Labourer, ex-serviceman, RC Ballinacurra, Cork Swanton spent sixteen years in the US, where his mother Margaret lived in Charlestown, Massachusetts, before enlisting in October 1915 in the RDF (regimental number 26983), serving in Macedonia, Abyssinia and Egypt. Demobilised due to malaria in November 1919, he postponed his paid passage to the

US because of his illness. His service records include exchanges relating to his medical treatment and travel arrangements, correspondence which may have attracted IRA suspicion. Police reports state that at about 01:00 Swanton was taken from his home. He was not heard of again.994 Robert W. Jolly (5Jun1921/3) RIC (75228), 37, Upholsterer, ex-serviceman, Married, Baptist Abbeyfeale, Limerick Jolly, from Kent, joined the RIC on 5 November 1920, stationed in Abbeyfeale. He was killed in a carefully planned IRA attack at 06:00, when police removing seditious posters in Abbeyfeale came under fire from nearby houses. His widow secured £2,800 compensation.995 John Cummins (5Jun1921/4) IRA, 25, Farmer, RC Ballyvoile, Stradbally, Waterford Cummins, from Stradbally, of the West Waterford Brigade, was one of about thirty mainly inexperienced Volunteers who ambushed a bicycle unit of The Buffs at Ballyvoile. A contemporary IRA account described how Cummins was shot by troops because he ‘apparently got excited and showing himself, ran towards our position’. Another report said Cummins ‘wasn’t dead when enemy captured him, but they fired two barrels [sic] of a captured shotgun into his head’. Lieutenant G. L. B. Oliver of The Buffs was awarded an MBE for his handling of the clash. Buried Stradbally, Waterford. His sister Bridget secured a £100 dependent’s allowance after representations from a local solicitor: ‘This family of orphans depended solely on the deceased to work the farm . . . the small stock that was on it had to be sold off . . . they have not now a four footed beast of any kind.’996 Matthew Carson (5Jun1921/5) Manchester Regiment (3513561), 17, Butcher’s assistant, RC Kilcrea, Ovens, Cork Boy Carson, of Stretford, Manchester, attested at Ashton-under-Lyne on 2 September 1918

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1921

aged fifteen. He was stationed in Ballincollig, Cork. He and two other soldiers were reported missing without trace at Kilcrea, near Ovens. Although initially regarded as deserters, they had been playing football when abducted. Patrick Cronin, lieutenant D (Aherla) Company, recalled how three soldiers were killed in the yard of a house, ‘Kilbawn’ near Aherla, used by the IRA as a battalion headquarters and to hold prisoners from Cork city and the Cork No. 3 Brigade area: ‘There were at least six executed’ there. Tim Herlihy, O/C 3rd Battalion, described how after a chase he and others including John Brien, Daniel Murphy, Patrick Bourne, James Brien and Jeremiah Ryan from A (Srelane) Company captured three soldiers hiding in Kilcrea Abbey. Herlihy claimed these ‘had been detailed from a special branch of the Essex Regiment organised by the infamous Major [Arthur Ernest] Percival, who had committed many wanton murders. . . . Our Brigade HQ had the three . . . shot.’ In truth these were hapless Manchester Regiment band boys. Shot in a bohereen about a quarter mile from the main road, they were buried in Kilcrea. The regimental enlistment book recorded their deaths as ‘accepted for official purposes’. Richard Carson, once of the RIR, refused to believe that his son had deserted, and in August 1923 arrived to find his grave: ‘I am only a working man with [a] large family and for this object have had to strive and save all year, so that I will have to exercise great economy.’ He sought advice regarding ‘any clean, decent place in Cork to put up’, and ‘to whom I should apply when I reach Cork for information etc.’. He found the three bodies, which were first reinterred at Bandon Workhouse Cemetery on 18 August. Carson wrote that: the remains of my lad & the two other lads . . . now lie in a little graveyard at Bandon . . . owing to the other boys being Protestant, there was a religious difficulty or we could have interred them in a cemetery close to where they had been put. I beg to thank you for your great kindness and I would also like to thank the Superintendent . . . at Bandon the Sergeant . . . at Innishannon & Bandon.

They gave me the greatest of sympathy [and their kindness] kept my charges at probably less than one half of what they would otherwise have been. They were true gentlemen. Their charity towards the dead makes me have great hopes for Ireland’s redemption. On behalf of the poor lad’s mother and myself I again thank you all.

Carson later petitioned the British Compensation (Ireland) Commission to have the boys reburied or repatriated. They were exhumed, brought to England on 5 September 1924, and buried at Ashton (Hurst) Cemetery, King’s Road, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire (M. 544).997 RD: Chapman (5Jun1921/6), Cooper (5Jun 1921/7) Charles Arthur Chapman (5Jun1921/6) Manchester Regiment (3513058), 17, Packer, Protestant Kilcrea, Ovens, Cork See Carson (5Jun1921/5). Chapman, son of William Henry Chapman of 14 Edge Lane, Droylsden, attested in Ashton-under-Lyne on 9 April 1918.998 John Cooper (5Jun1921/7) Manchester Regiment (3513044), 16, Fitter, Protestant Kilcrea, Ovens, Cork See Carson (5Jun1921/7). Cooper, son of John and Ellen Cooper of 22 Retiro Street, Oldham, attested at Ashton-under-Lyne on 8 November 1918.999 William Green (5Jun1921/8) North Staffordshire Regiment (Prince of Wales’s) (5041233), 25, Protestant Monasterevin, Kildare Private Green, stationed in Kildare, was from Tunstall, Staffordshire. An RIC man accidentally shot him while travelling in a convoy of vehicles near Monasterevin. Buried St Margaret Churchyard, Wolstanton, Staffordshire (RH. 17.14).1000 Eleanor Kelly (5Jun1921/9) 13, Schoolgirl, RC MIHB ‘Lena’ Kelly, the daughter of John Kelly of 11 Kilmood Street, was shot in the mouth

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from a passing police tender during a riot in Ballymacarett on 19 May, while on the way to buy sweets. She died in hospital.1001

fugitive IRA officer, which seems wrong. He was described in the Irish Independent as ‘mentally deficient’.1004

John Sullivan Lynch (5Jun1921/10) 31, Railway servant, Married, RC Carrigrohane, Cork Lynch was taken from his home at Castle Cottage, Carrigrohane, at 14:00 on 29 May, having come under suspicion of informing. Nothing further was heard of him. He was killed on 5 June by members of H Company, 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, acting under orders. His disappearance was not reported until July. Four days after the IRA killed him, his wife received ‘a threatening letter from [the] IRA to leave the house’. In November she wrote to the Dáil Department of Defence that ‘Patrick Sullivan a week previous . . . threatened my husband for his life, by the IRA, they had a differ[ence] about a back yard. Kindly let me know if he is living or dead . . . V[ery] Obliged’. On 12 December she was given the official reason for his death, and was assured that ‘there is now no objection whatsoever’ to her returning from Cavan ‘to dispose of some furniture’. She still sought ‘the date my poor husband was executed. . . . Needless for me to say any more I belong to a most respectable family. I am well known by my priests here.’ On 1 March 1923 his date of death was confirmed.1002 SA: Murphy (27Jun1921/5)

Alick Connor (5Jun1921/13) Ballintemple, Limavady, Londonderry Shot dead in unknown circumstances: Dublin Castle stated that there ‘was no apparent motive’.1005

John Joseph Murphy (5Jun1921/11) 63, Shopkeeper, Married with children, RC Richmond Hospital, Dublin See O’Rourke (4Jun1921/2). Buried GC (St Patrick’s Section: G. k. 129).1003 Daniel Riordan (5Jun1921/12) 25, RC Carrigaphooka Bridge, Macroom, Cork Riordan encountered a Manchester Regiment platoon near a damaged bridge which was due to be repaired. Ordered several times to come forward, he instead turned away and was shot. The 1st Battalion Manchester Regiment digest of service lists Riordan as a

Charles Cox (5Jun1921/14) 40, Soldier Dublin He was accidentally shot ‘in the course of his duties’.1006

6 JUNE 1921 George Southgate (6Jun1921/1) RIC (73276), 20, Labourer, ex-serviceman Ballaghaderreen, Roscommon Constable Southgate, from London, joined the RIC on 24 September 1920, stationed in Ballaghaderreen. At about 10:30, a shot was heard; he was found dead in his room, shot through the throat. It was thought his rifle trigger snagged a protruding nail. Buried London.1007 John Fitzgerald (6Jun1921/2) 32, Ex-serviceman, unemployed, RC Ballybeggan Racecourse, Tralee, Kerry Fitzgerald, from Tralee, was wounded and captured during the war while in the Royal Munster Fusiliers, with whom his brother had been killed. Unemployed, he had a disability pension. The IRA believed he was an informer. He was captured by John O’Riordan, Michael Sheehy, Thomas Barrett, Pat Cantillon and Percy Hanafin and taken to Ballybeggan Racecourse. He resisted and very nearly escaped before he was court martialled and shot. A label marked ‘spy’ was placed on his body.1008 Philomena Burns (6Jun1921/3) 15, RC MIHB Philomena, of 24 Upton Street, shot at about 21:30 on 17 May during disturbances in the Shankill Road area, died in hospital.1009

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1921

Frederick George Carroll (6Jun1921/4) Northamptonshire Regiment (5875962), 19, Protestant Templemore Military Barracks, Tipperary From New Bradwell, Buckinghamshire, stationed in Templemore, Private Carroll was accidentally shot by a comrade cleaning a rifle. Buried St James Churchyard, New Bradwell.1010 John Dennehy (6Jun1921/5) 32, Agricultural labourer, RC Shrone, Rathmore, Kerry Crown forces mounted a futile large-scale round-up on the mountainous Kerry–Cork border. Hundreds of troops, supported by cavalry, combed the Clydagh Valley. When challenged by Gloucestershire Regiment soldiers in the Pap Mountains near Shrone, Rathmore, Dennehy ran away and was shot. Cornelius Moynihan died in similar fashion. Dennehy’s mother Julia secured £360 compensation.1011 RD: Moynihan (6Jun1921/6) Cornelius Moynihan (6Jun1921/6) 40, Agricultural labourer, RC Shrone, Rathmore, Kerry See Dennehy (6Jun1921/5). Moynihan was from Shrone, Rathmore.1012 Ernest Gibbons (6Jun1921/7) RGA (1410359), 27, Miner Clondalkin, Dublin Gibbons, from Bristol, Gloucestershire, first enlisted on 2 September 1914. Discharged on 3 September 1919, he re-enlisted next day. His battery was encamped at Tallaght, Dublin. Three men ‘disguised as tramps and strangers to Clondalkin’ raided Harte’s pub, holding up six soldiers believed to be about to ‘strip [search] civilians at [a] Hand Ball match’. When Gibbons ‘tried to rush our men’, he was shot. Buried Penyrheol Cemetery, Mill Road, Caerphilly (C. I. 1851).1013

7 JUNE 1921 Patrick Ryan (7Jun1921/1) IRA, 23, Farmer, RC Knockfune, Newport, Tipperary Ryan lived with his mother in Knockfune, Newport, Tipperary. At about 01:00 five

armed and masked men entered Ellen Ryan’s house. They took away her sons Patrick and James and shot them. Patrick was killed and James was seriously wounded. The house was set on fire. At a court of inquiry on 9 June, Ellen Ryan recalled one man in black clothes with a belt and cap and another in khaki whom she thought was a soldier. Her daughter gave similar evidence. Martin O’Dwyer stated that both Ryan brothers were members of the IRA. In reply to a parliamentary question, the government stated that the brothers were no longer active Volunteers, implying that that might explain their killings.1014 Hugh O’Hanlon (7Jun1921/2) 35, Farm manager, RC Eshwary, Camlough, Armagh O’Hanlon, a well-known athlete, lived in Eshwary with his widowed mother, two sisters and a brother. On foot of threatening letters, he was reportedly allowed to carry a weapon for protection. Three weeks before his death, O’Hanlon received a warning notice from the O/C 2nd Battalion, South Armagh Brigade IRA: ‘Spies and traitors, death. Hugh O’Hanlon you have been convicted and found guilty. So beware. The arm of the IRA is long and all spies, informers and traitors must suffer in consequence’, although one veteran said ‘there was no trial’. It was believed he had informed about the plan to attack Camlough RIC Barracks the previous December, which had resulted in the disastrous ‘Egyptian Arch’ fight. The Armagh Guardian reported that when armed men visited O’Hanlon’s house twice on 6 June he was not at home. He returned at around midnight. Mary O’Hanlon answered the door at about 03:00 to three men who took Hugh away. She found him dead an hour later near the house. A notice on his body read, ‘Spies Beware – IRA.’ O’Hanlon was a cousin of H. J. McConville, JP and chairman of Newry Urban Council, and a brother-in-law of Constable Lynch, ambushed at Greenore a few weeks previously. James Smith’s fate was similar. Taken from his house at Keggal, Camlough and shot between 02:00 and 03:00, his body was found nearby at about 04:00.

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O’Hanlon’s mother Margaret secured £350 compensation.1015 RD: Smith (7Jun1921/3). James Smith (7Jun1921/3) 45, Farmer, RC Keggal, Camlough, Armagh See O’Hanlon (7Jun1921/2). Smith lived on a farm in Keggal overlooking Camlough Lake with his aged housekeeper Mrs McCourt and two servant boys. Father James R. Clarke, curate in Camlough, was summoned by two men for a sick call at Smith’s home. He found Smith’s body lying about 60 yards from the house.1016 Edmond Foley (7Jun1921/4) IRA, Farmer, 23, RC Mountjoy Prison, Dublin Foley, from Duntryleague, Galbally, Limerick, joined the Irish Volunteers in 1918 but it is uncertain if he was active. In September 1919, he and Patrick Maher were arrested and charged with the murders of Michael Enright and Peter Wallace at Knocklong on 13 May 1919. They were remanded in custody along with Michael Murphy, an ex-serviceman, and Michael Shanahan. The prisoners were returned for trial in Belfast, but their legal representatives applied to have the trial changed to Dublin. Instead, the High Court fixed the hearing for the Armagh Assizes in July 1920. However, on the eve of the trial a key witness was kidnapped. The trial was consequently adjourned. Shanahan was later acquitted, whereas Foley, Maher and Murphy were sent before a court martial which had superseded trial by jury for political prisoners. After a five-day hearing in March 1921 in the City Hall, Dublin, Murphy was acquitted but Foley and Maher were sentenced to death. Desmond Ryan wrote that Foley was unarmed at the time of the rescue and that Maher was not present. This is supported by Tadhg Crowley’s BMH statement. Efforts to obtain a reprieve failed. Foley and Maher were hanged in Mountjoy at 07:00 on 7 June after twenty-one months in prison and three sets of proceedings. The Irish Independent reported that they died ‘with dignity and courage, and protesting

their innocence to the last’. They were the last political prisoners executed in Mountjoy before the Truce. Buried Mountjoy Prison yard. His father William secured a gratuity of £100. After a state funeral on 14 October 2001, Foley’s remains were reinterred at GC along with those of eight other executed Volunteers exhumed in Mountjoy; a day later Maher was reburied at Ballylanders, Limerick.1017 RD: Maher (7Jun1921/5). SA: Enright (13May1919/1), Wallace (14May1919/1) Patrick Maher (7Jun1921/5) 32, Egg packer, RC Mountjoy Prison, Dublin See Foley (7Jun1921/4). Maher, born in Glenlara, Garryspillane, Kilmallock, lived in Knocklong. It seems that he was not an active Volunteer. His mother Ellen secured a £100 dependent’s gratuity.1018 William Mitchell (7Jun1921/6) RIC (75719), 33, Groom, ex-serviceman, Married Mountjoy Prison, Dublin See Dixon (2Feb1921/1). Mitchell, from Dublin, joined the RIC on 19 November 1920, stationed in Dunlavin. He was dismissed from the force on 19 March 1921. He was hanged at 08:00 for the murder of Robert Dixon in Dunlavin. Eoin MacNeill, chief of staff of the Irish Volunteers up to the Rising, who was also in Mountjoy, recalled that the day before his execution Mitchell received a visit from his wife: ‘She brought her little child, a baby, along with her. . . . I can still see the picture of them sitting together.’ MacNeill told a visiting Dublin Castle official that ‘the execution of this one man out of all that gang of murderers was a piece of disgusting hypocrisy’.1019 John Stratton McCormack (7Jun1921/7) RIC (71768), 20, Rigger, ex-serviceman, CoI Military Hospital, Ballymullen Barracks, Tralee, Kerry See Collery (1Jun1921/6), McCormack, a land steward’s son from Leitrim, joined the RIC on 17 June 1920, stationed in Killorglin. His mother Susan secured £1,000 compensation.1020

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8 JUNE 1921 Daniel Crowley (8Jun1921/1) IRA, 30, Farmer’s son, RC Behagullane, Dunmanway, Cork Crowley was shot by an Auxiliary patrol after he failed to halt when challenged outside his father’s house at Behagullane at 00:30. Buried Castletownkenneigh, Cork.1021 Charles Mullins (8Jun1921/2) 52, Stonecutter, Married, RC SPDH Mullins, of 62 Sandwich Street, was struck by a grenade splinter at about 12:30 when an RIC lorry was attacked by an IRA party at Hughes Cottages on Great Brunswick Street, shortly after leaving the Gas Works tar yard. William Gorman, who was going to see ‘his little sister Annie, aged five years’, at Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital, where ‘she has been detained for about six weeks as [a] result of shock to her nerves caused by frequent military raids’, was fatally wounded. According to his father, another infant brother had recently been ‘literally frightened to death by the military’. Buried GC (O. c. 89).1022 RD: Gorman (14Jun1921/4) David Fitzgibbon (8Jun1921/3) 37, Ex-serviceman, hoemaker, Widowed with five children, RC Killinane Cross, Liscarroll, Cork Fitzgibbon was taken from his home by armed men and shot dead at about 17:00, his body left on the road. An attached label read: ‘Shot by the IRA. Spies and Informers Beware.’ Lieutenant F. C. Sherwood, intelligence officer of the British army’s Kerry Brigade, wrote that Fitzgibbon: was the only member of his family (which are all rank and file Sinn Féiners) who refused to have anything to do with the IRA and for that reason alone he was considered ‘in the way’. This poor man’s death was ‘engineered by the IRA’. . . . The label attached to him showing he was executed as a spy was part of the IRA propaganda. He was never a spy, but just a man who minded his own business. It is a favourite thing for the IRA at

present to murder innocent people, so as to advertise their ‘intelligence’ regarding spies. This is done to cover their inability to locate spies.

Buried Liscarroll Churchyard.1023 Daniel Buckley (8Jun1921/4) IRA, 18, Farmer’s son, RC Toames, Macroom, Cork ‘Sonny’ Buckley was shot by an Essex Regiment patrol under Captain T. A. Lowe as he fled his father’s cottage. Buried Macloneigh Graveyard, Kilmichael, Cork. A memorial stone was erected in Toames, and he is listed on a monument in The Square, Macroom.1024 Denis P. O’Leary (8Jun1921/5) RIC (60374), 43, Farmer, Married, RC Carrickbeg, Waterford O’Leary, from Rathmore, Kerry, joined the RIC on 1 October 1901, based in Galway, before transfer to Tipperary in February 1911, stationed in Carrick-on-Suir. Harriet Spiers was cycling when she saw two men run out on the road at 20:40 and shoot O’Leary as he cycled, unarmed, from Carrick-on-Suir towards his home in Carrickbeg. Denis O’Driscoll of Tipperary No. 3 Brigade described O’Leary as an intelligence officer, whereas Séamus Babington said views differed: many people maintained that information leading to the arrest of local IRA officers had come from a local Volunteer’s sister. Buried Rathmore. His widow secured £3,165 compensation, to be shared with her mother-in-law.1025 Stephen Magill (8Jun1921/6) 24, Farmer’s son, RC Corrogs, Newry, Down Magill helped his aged father work the family farm at Corrogs. He was not believed to have any political links. At around 20:00, the IRA fired on a cycle patrol of four USC on the Grinan road. Constable Joseph Gibson was wounded in the left heel. Two USC took cover while the others cycled to Newry for assistance, evading IRA efforts to apprehend them. Frank Aiken, O/C 4th Northern

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Division, who was in the area, gave orders to prepare for the expected reinforced police patrol. At around 21:00, two lorries of USC were fired on by the IRA at the junction of the Ballyholland, Grinan and Corrogs roads. The first lorry drove through the ambush and on to Corrogs. The second ran into a ditch. Hidden from the IRA by the brow of a hill, some of the police passed up a laneway to the Magill house. Owen and Stephen Magill were taken out and shot. Stephen was killed outright; Owen was wounded. The police then searched Peter O’Hare’s house, where they were attacked. Constable George Lyness was shot through the eye and killed. The police retreated under intermittent IRA fire, before the IRA withdrew towards the Attical district in the foothills of the Mourne Mountains. At about 23:00, a fresh contingent of police raided the houses of O’Hare, McNally and Magill. In the latter, they removed the wounded Owen Magill, and killed him. The bodies of the Magill brothers were brought to Newry. On 26 July an utterly different version of events was presented to a court of inquiry in Newry. Captain J. Gillespie said Constable Lyness was shot while on guard while the house of a man named O’Hare was being searched. The shot appeared to have come from Magill’s yard. William Beckett, a member of the patrol, claimed to have seen Stephen Magill running towards O’Hare’s armed with a revolver. He was challenged, refused to halt and was shot. His brother Owen was taken prisoner. While being transported to Newry, he jumped from a Crossley tender and was shot dead for refusing to halt. Buried St Mary’s Old Chapel Cemetery.1026 RD: Lyness (8Jun1921/7), Magill (8Jun1921/8) George Lyness (8Jun1921/7) USC, 25, Cabman, ex-serviceman, CoI Corrogs, Newry, Down See Magill (8Jun1921/6). Lyness, a USC constable and member of the Orange Order living on Basin Walk, Newry, was engaged to be married. He had served with the Royal Irish Rifles and the MGC. Buried Meeting

House Green, High Street, Newry. His father George secured £600 compensation.1027 Owen Magill (8Jun1921/8) 22, Farmer’s son, RC Corrogs, Newry, Down See Magill (8Jun1921/6).1028 Harry Minion (8Jun1921/9) The Loyal Regiment, 21, CoE Ballybrack, Kerry Private Minion was in a train travelling from Killarney to Tralee which came under fire from both sides of the track near Ballybrack Station. Hit by two bullets, he ‘dropped from the seat on to the floor, and never spoke’. Another soldier returned fire without effect at a rebel whose head he saw on an embankment. Two of Minion’s brothers had been killed during the war. Minion was reported to have just ‘finished his service’. Buried Bolton (Tonge) Cemetery (III. K2. CE. 41).1029 James Hogan (8Jun1921/10) IRA, 26, Labourer, RC St John’s Hospital, Limerick See Donnelly (1Jun1921/1). Hogan, a labourer’s son from Fanningstown, Croom, served in the 5th Battalion, Mid Limerick Brigade. He was treated in St John’s Hospital, Limerick, as ‘Patrick Gilligan’ following the Croom Courthouse fire, and his death was registered under that name. His father Patrick received a £30 dependent’s gratuity, increased to £50 on appeal. His sister Bridget (d. 1971), in domestic service in Dublin, eventually obtained an allowance.1030

9 JUNE 1921 Henry Woods (9Jun1921/1) Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) (6449751), 18, Labourer Railway Station, Blarney, Cork Private Woods, born in Fulham, enlisted on 15 June 1920. He was in a party on the 06:50 train from Limerick Junction to Cork. At Blarney Station, he accidentally shot himself in the chest as he stood on the footplate, and died shortly afterwards. Commemorated Brookwood War Memorial, Surrey.1031

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Thomas O’Keeffe (9Jun1921/2) 23, Labourer, RC Gouldings Glen, Ballyvolane, Cork O’Keeffe lived at 8 Corporation Buildings. At about 17:00, he and John O’Callaghan walked to Gouldings Glen. O’Callaghan noticed two soldiers on sentry duty at the opposite side of the glen. One shouted at them to move on. They walked along the path towards Ballyvolane. O’Callaghan observed that one of the soldiers was covering them with his rife. A shot rang out and O’Keeffe fell wounded and later died. The military disclaimed responsibility, stating that all weapons and ammunition were accounted for.1032 John Kelleher (9Jun1921/3) 65, Agricultural labourer, Married, RC Mercy Hospital, Cork Kelleher lived in Ballyvourney, Cork. At around 18:30 on 5 June, Lieutenant A. P. C. Hannay, Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, ordered about twenty civilians gathered on the side of the road to halt. The order was ignored and his men opened fire. Fire was apparently returned. Afterwards the patrol searched a nearby house and found an old man wounded in the hip who ‘told me he had been wounded by the civilians’. Kelleher died in hospital at 19:00. He is commemorated on a plaque in Ballyvourney.1033 David Torrens (9Jun1921/4) USC, Farmer, Married with three children, Presbyterian RIC Barracks, Castlerock, Londonderry A party of nine USC and one RIC constable returned from patrol duty to Castlerock RIC Barracks. Constable Acheson discharged his rifle in attempting to clear a jam, hitting Constable Torrens in the back. Torrens’s widow secured a yearly pension of £39 with allowances of £2.10s.0d. for each child.1034

10 JUNE 1921 James Glover (10Jun1921/1) RIC (64889), 31, Gardener, Married, Presbyterian Cupar Street, Falls Road, Belfast Constable Glover, from Antrim, joined the RIC on 8 September 1909, after which he

served in Belfast. He enlisted in the Irish Guards in 1915, later joining the MGC, and was wounded; six of his brothers also served. Glover rejoined the RIC on 21 February 1919, stationed in Springfield Road Barracks, Belfast. At around 14:00, he was in a threeman patrol near the Diamond Picture House on Cupar Street when attacked by Roger McCorley, O/C 1st Battalion, Belfast Brigade, and Séamus Woods, captain B Company, 1st Battalion. Glover was shot dead.1035 Sergeant James O’Sullivan and Constable Hugh Sharkey were wounded, as was a civilian. Glover, ‘long wanted for the murder’ of the Duffin brothers, was the intended target. This may have been a misidentification: Jim McDermott writes that it was a Sergeant Glover who was most likely involved in the shooting of the Duffins. Three Catholic men were killed early the following day as a reprisal for Glover’s death. The Belfast IRA also reported that ‘the usual riots broke out. . . . Snipers, who were probably Specials, fired promiscuously on civilians in Catholic Areas. We were obliged to use some of our riflemen to snipe the Snipers. This was done successfully with casualties on the other side.’ Buried New Cemetery, Antrim. His dependents secured £350 compensation.1036 SA: Duffin (23Apr1921/5), Duffin (23Apr 1921/6) Michael Power (10Jun1921/2) 40, Ex-serviceman, labourer, Married with four children, RC Kilboggan, Nurney, Kildare From Kilkenny, Power, an ex-soldier, lived in Gough Barracks, Curragh Camp, Kildare. Elizabeth Power stated that in September 1920 her husband had been seized by Edward Moran and other masked men and charged with larceny before a Sinn Féin court. Ordered to leave the country for twelve months, he instead secured employment with the Royal Engineers at the Curragh, and the family moved into married quarters in Gough Barracks. Michael Smyth, then O/C 2nd Kildare Battalion, claimed that Power gave information about the local IRA. Elizabeth Power’s sister, a domestic servant for William Scully of Kilboggan, was in poor

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health. While Elizabeth was visiting her in April, four men, two of them armed, called and asked where Elizabeth’s husband was. On 10 June, Elizabeth and her husband visited her ailing sister. After an hour he went out to the yard, saying he would be back in a few minutes. At about 16:45, she noticed three men outside and went to look for her husband. She found him unconscious in a stable. Shot in the chest, he died within half an hour. Elizabeth Power secured £1,000 compensation, with £2,000 to be divided between her four children. The family reportedly left for Scotland in 1922.1037 Matthew Donovan (10Jun1921/3) IRA, 30, Labourer, RC Quarry’s Cross, Bandon, Cork Donovan was in the Quarry’s Cross Company, Cork No. 3 Brigade. Charles Brown, adjutant 7th (Macroom) Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, described how Donovan was captured by a mobile column of the Essex Regiment under Major A. E. Percival and shot dead about 200 yards from his home. Brown said that Percival ‘laughed as he told one of his officers what had happened to Matt’. Buried Templemartin Graveyard, Cork. His mother Hanora failed to secure a dependent’s allowance as she had already received £198 criminal injuries’ compensation.1038 Ernest Evans (10Jun1921/4) Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment (5944089), 33, CoE Sligo Jail, Sligo Captain A. L. Dunnill’s diary recorded that Private Evans, on guard duty in Sligo Jail, was shot near the heart after a fellow soldier tripped in the guardroom, discharging his revolver. Buried St Peter Church Cemetery, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire (Row 9).1039 Leonard J. French (10Jun1921/5) ADRIC (82537), Ex-serviceman, 26 The Rower, Inistioge, Kilkenny Cadet French was one of two Auxiliaries attacked at the Rower, about twenty-three miles south-east of Kilkenny. His comrade escaped. For a time nothing more was known. In an undated letter to A Company, Auxiliary

Division, the Kilkenny IRA’s George Power stated that French ‘was tried for espionage. The trial took place on the banks of the Nore and before it was finished French attempted to escape in the river and was fired on and killed.’ His father later sought confirmation of the date of death, without success. On 15 June, in what may have been an unofficial reprisal, armed and masked men burned down the premises of Timothy Butler in The Rower. Damage was estimated at £10,000.1040 Michael Callaghan (10Jun1921/6) RC Carrigtwohill, Cork Callaghan, from Carrigtwohill, ‘believed to be of importance’, was shot as a spy by Thomas Cotter, O/C of D Company, 4th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, accompanied by ‘Harry O’Brien attached to Divisional Engineering Unit, M. McCarthy “E” Coy Knockraha, [and] P Mahoney Anngrove Carrigtwohill’.1041 John Joseph Walsh (10Jun1921/7) 31, Labourer, ex-serviceman, RC Vicinity of Midleton, Cork On 8 June Gunner J. Walsh, Reservist RFA, disappeared from his home on Charles Street, Midleton. Two days later he was shot as a spy by B Company, 4th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. His disappearance was initially not reported. Inquiries were made by the military in July 1921, and a letter addressed to Walsh’s relatives, handed to the police, stated that Walsh had been tried and executed. It is unclear if his was the body recovered in a bog near Midleton in 1927, and there is confusion concerning his regimental affiliation.1042

11 JUNE 1921 John Lucey (11Jun1921/1) IRA, Married, RC Farrell’s Square, Cork Lucey, of C Company, 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, lived with his wife Margaret at 27 Ballymacthomas Street, Cork. At around 22:20 soldiers of the South Staffordshire Regiment on curfew patrol encountered suspicious men at Farrell’s Square. When

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challenged these scattered and ran. Shot in the chest, Lucey, regarded as an active rebel, died within minutes. Buried St Joseph’s Cemetery, Ballyphehane, Cork.1043 Edward Fitzgerald (11Jun1921/2) 40, Ex-serviceman, railway servant, RC RVHB Fitzgerald, of 122 Dover Street, had served in China, Egypt and India before joining the RFA during the war. After demobilisation, he worked for the GNR. On 10 June a curfew patrol arrested him near College Square. He refused to answer questions. He apparently jumped out of the Crossley tender as it turned into Wellington Place. Sustaining head injuries, he died the following evening in hospital. He went unidentified for almost two weeks. The Irish News reported the death of an unknown man killed after jumping off a Crossley tender. Buried City Cemetery.1044 Terence McGinley (11Jun1921/3) RC Dock Street, Belfast McGinley, from North Thomas Street, was killed by a bomb thrown during a riot in the vicinity of Dock Street and North Thomas Street. Others were injured, of whom Thomas Mallon later died.1045 RD: Mallon (13Jun1921/3) George Duff Chalmers (11Jun1921/4) Royal Scots, 19 Lavereen, Clare In his report for June 1921, the O/C Mid Clare Brigade reported that on 11 June a ‘Royal Scot who dropped off one of four lorries passing through C Coy Area was captured by two riflemen after a chase’. 4th Battalion officers who interrogated him concluded that he had been seeking information and had him ‘executed the same day, after getting all the information they could. . . . He did not give any information of importance.’ It was rumoured that the soldier left the convoy either to visit a local girl or because he was somewhat simple and did not appreciate the danger. Apparently he would not give his name to his interrogators before he

was shot. His body was eventually recovered in 2018, thanks to historians Dr Tomás Mac Conmara and Dr Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc.1046 Joseph Hoare (11Jun1921/5) RGA, 21 Tallaght, Dublin Gunner Hoare, from Llansteffan, Carmarthen, was in the Sergeant’s Mess with a comrade who ‘frequently was attacked by acute depression’ and said he wished to kill himself. Hoare said, ‘Don’t be a fool’, but in seizing his comrade’s rifle inadvertently discharged it, shooting himself in the face. Buried Llansteffan Churchyard, Carmarthenshire, Wales.1047

12 JUNE 1921 Alexander McBride (12Jun1921/1) 30, Publican, Married with one child, RC Ballysillan Road, Belfast McBride, from Carey, Ballycastle, Antrim, had moved to Belfast and established a successful pub on Church Street in 1916. He lived at 28 Cardigan Drive and was a member of Sinn Féin. During curfew armed men searched several Catholic homes, but the majority of the putative targets were not at home. But Alexander McBride, William Kerr and Malachy Halfpenny were killed by a gang reportedly led by DI Nixon. Elizabeth McBride heard the doorbell around 01:00 on 12 June. She saw a lorry outside. When her husband opened the door, two men dressed in police capes and caps, one with an English accent, entered. They claimed they were taking McBride to the nearest police station for identification purposes. The lorry drove off towards the Antrim Road. McBride’s body was found near Ballysillan Road with four bullet wounds to the head and three to the chest. Buried Culfeightrin Cemetery, Antrim.1048 RD: Halfpenny (12Jun1921/2), Kerr (12Jun 1921/3) Malachy Halfpenny (12Jun1921/2) 22, Ex-serviceman, postman, RC Ligoniel Road, Belfast See McBride (12Jun1921/1). Halfpenny lived with his mother and two sisters at 21 Herbert

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Street. He and four brothers had been wounded while in the army, and another was killed. Halfpenny was also gassed. At about 01:10 his sister Winifred heard knocking and saw some men and a motor car like those used by curfew patrols. One man wore a policeman’s cap. Another wearing a short khaki coat entered, seized her brother, saying, ‘You are the man we want.’ Halfpenny was taken away in a lorry. Some minutes later shots were heard. His corpse was found next morning on nearby Ligoniel Road, shot four times. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1049 William Kerr (12Jun1921/3) 26, Barber, Married with one child, RC Springfield Road, Belfast See McBride (12Jun1921/1). Kerr, of 47 Old Lodge Road, Belfast, was in the AOH and the Irish National Foresters. His brother was a regimental sergeant-major in the MGC. At about 01:20 two men knocked at the door and came in. One, apparently in Black and Tan uniform, rushed upstairs and dragged William from his bed. His sister Alice held on to one raider’s arm, begging him to let her brother go. He replied that she would never see him again. Kerr’s body was discovered at 06:30 off the Springfield Road, shot six times. There was strong suspicion that the police were responsible. Kerr’s widow and sister refused to attend an identity parade at Gormanston. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1050 John Edward Finlay (12Jun1921/4) 78, Clergyman, Married, CoI Brackley House, Bawnboy, Cavan Finlay, a graduate of Trinity College Dublin (LLB, 1864) ordained in 1867, was curate of Clonenagh from 1867 to 1873, after which he ministered in Carlow. In 1890 he became rector of Carlow, succeeding his fatherin-law Dean Smyth King, and in 1895 dean of Leighlin. Finlay, a member of the Representative Church Body, was chaplain to the lord lieutenant in 1902. On retirement in 1912 he moved to Brackley House near Bawnboy, where he owned land. George Seaver’s biography of Archbishop John Gregg speaks of Finlay possessing ‘the guileless intentions of a peacemaker’. The RIC

described him as ‘of a very kindly disposition . . . on good terms with all his neighbours and, so far as can be ascertained, he had no enemies’. The Church of Ireland Gazette decried ‘one of the most heartless crimes which have been committed’. At around 02:00, Mrs Isabella Anne Finlay woke her maid to say that the house was going to be set on fire. About twenty men, members of C Company, 1st (Corlough) Battalion, Cavan Brigade, brought eight of the nine occupants to a building some distance away where they were imprisoned. After a few hours, they broke out. Only the walls of Brackley House still stood. Finlay was found dead, dressed only in his nightshirt, about 10 yards from the hall door. He had a puncture wound at the base of the skull, inflicted with a blunt instrument,1051 and was not shot as initially reported. Auxiliaries stationed in nearby Castle Saunderson had recently visited Brackley House: the RIC reported a rumour had gained currency that the house was to be occupied by Crown forces. Herbert King, the fourteen-year-old son of Finlay’s cook, gave evidence at a court of inquiry. Most unusually in such circumstances, he was willing to identify some of the raiders, including James Tubman from Brackley mountain, who ‘was masked and carried a short iron bar about 18 inches long. . . . I know it was iron from the noise that it made when he dropped it on the stairs.’ James, Joseph and Michael McSorley, Thomas McGoldrick, Francis, James and Patrick Tubman, Michael and Peter O’Donnell, Patrick Dolphin and Thomas Kelleher were named as the killers. Arrested, they were detained in Belfast until early 1922. Some subsequently joined the National army, while one gathered intelligence for the government locally during the Civil War. Peter O’Donnell died on 25 February 1924 from tuberculosis contracted in Belfast Jail. The brutal murder of this inoffensive clergyman was probably an unpremeditated act of indiscipline, most likely by James Tubman. The Dáil government’s director of publicity complained that ‘a lack of information’ hampered his ability to counteract ‘enemy

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propaganda’ about the killing. Finlay’s name appears in a GHQ document headed ‘Casualties – British Agents’ prepared early in 1922. Buried Templeport, Bawnboy. The funeral cortège included three Catholic parish priests, a powerful demonstration of local feeling. These also issued a statement saying that anyone would have thought that Finlay’s ‘venerable appearance, his kindly relations with everyone in the locality, and, above all, his profession would have saved him’.1052 William John Kennington (12Jun1921/5) HM Coastguard, 40 Teelin Coastguard Station, Killybegs, Donegal Petty Officer Kennington, from Devon, was shot around 03:30, when Teelin Coastguard Station, near Killybegs, was attacked by about fifty men from the 2nd Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Northern Division. They failed to capture the station. Buried Plymouth (Ford Park) Cemetery.1053 James McElhill (12Jun1921/6) RIC (53480), 53, Farmer, RC Kilbeggan, Westmeath McElhill, born in Castlederg, Tyrone in 1868, joined the RIC on 23 November 1888, serving in Limerick, Monaghan, Antrim and Westmeath. Promoted to sergeant in 1906, on 19 June 1920 he became a head constable, and on 7 November 1920 was assigned to Kilbeggan. He was shot at about 07:50 while going to Mass at St James’s Church. Found wounded ‘in great pain and moaning’ near the church, he died in Constable Doheny’s house nearby at 10:00. McElhill stated that he was attacked by about ten men unknown to him. These were from the 1st Battalion, Offaly Brigade. Buried Castlederg, Tyrone.1054 Thomas Rush (12Jun1921/7) 29, US army pensioner, RC Lisacul, Castlerea, Roscommon Rush, born in the US, lived in Magheraboy, Kilmovee, Mayo. Lieutenant A. C. L. Chudleigh, Leicestershire Regiment, commanded a mixed party of police and military, in three Crossley tenders, patrolling in the vicinity of Castlerea. At about 19:30,

they came on men drilling near Lisacul Crossroads, about five miles from Ballaghaderreen. These immediately scattered. Pursued by Crown forces for over a mile across the fields, they failed to halt when ordered. Soldiers fired, killing Rush. No arms or incriminating evidence was found on him, and no shots were fired at the patrol. Rush, a US army pensioner, had returned to Mayo in 1920. In July, Martin and Bridget Rush told the US consulate in Dublin that their brother was only out for a stroll when shot at close range and that his skull was smashed by troops. They claimed his money, gold watch and chain were taken. The matter was taken up by consul F. T. F. Dumont. In response, Lieutenant Chudleigh stated that Rush was shot through the head from a range of about 200 yards and that the bullet smashed his skull on exit. He was the first to search Rush’s body, and found no watch or money.1055 Michael Brennan (12Jun1921/8) RIC (81087), 27, Naval rating, ex-serviceman, Married Rainsford Street, Dublin Brennan, from Durham, joined the RIC on 20 May 1921, stationed in the Phoenix Park Depot. At 14:30, constables Brennan and Smith left the depot in plain clothes. Joseph Byrne, C Company, 4th Battalion, Dublin Brigade, described how ‘I walked into a pub, into Ryan’s [Parkgate Street] and they were discovered. . . . One was from Newcastle on Tyne, and the other from London.’ Brought across the Liffey, at 20:15 they were shot on Rainsford Street beside Guinness’s Brewery. Donal O’Hannigan was also involved: ‘It was not much of a fight. I killed two of the enemy.’ Brennan was killed outright, and Smith died within a few minutes.1056 RD: Smith (12Jun1921/9) John Frederick Smith (12Jun1921/9) RIC (81097), 25, Carman, ex-serviceman, Protestant Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin See Brennan (12Jun1921/8). Smith, from Middlesex, joined the RIC on 20 May 1921, stationed in the Phoenix Park Depot.1057

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Michael Sturdy (12Jun1921/10) USC, Protestant RVHB Sturdy, from Castlederg, Tyrone, was an A Class special constable, USC, attached to Court Street RIC Barracks, Belfast. Serious rioting broke out in the Dock Street area. Nationalists fired at police when they went to quell the disturbances. Hit while walking behind a lorry on Garmoyle Street at about 21:30, Sturdy died shortly after admission to the Royal Victoria Hospital. Two Catholics, Patrick Milligan and Joseph Millar, also died during the disturbances. It was initially said they were shot by snipers. However, press reports subsequently claimed they were dragged from their homes by uniformed men and killed on the street. Sturdy had been wounded close to Milligan’s house on Dock Lane. Buried Castlederg, Tyrone.1058 RD: Millar (13Jun1921/1), Milligan (12Jun 1921/11) Patrick Milligan (12Jun1921/11) 24, Dock labourer, Married with one child, RC 3 Dock Lane, Belfast See Sturdy (12Jun1921/10). Milligan lived at 3 Dock Lane. At around 22:00 he and his wife were preparing for bed when ten to twelve men rushed through the door with fixed bayonets. Mrs Milligan believed that these were USC. They asked if there were any men in the house. Milligan climbed out of a window and hid in a shed, but was discovered and dragged into the yard. The raiders shouted, ‘Come out you bastard.’ Mrs Milligan then heard two shots before she and her daughter were ejected on to the street. She only returned home the following morning. The only trace of her husband was a pool of blood in the yard. She later identified his body. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1059 Hugh Jenkins (12Jun1921/12) 19, Protestant Kashmir Road, Falls Road, Belfast Jenkins lived at 32 Emerson Street. During the evening on the Kashmir Road section of the Falls Road, a man who had been throwing stones was handed a revolver by a woman. He opened fire, hitting three people. Jenkins

was shot while attempting to rescue a child.1060 Mark Hudson (12Jun1921/13) Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (5373689), 24 Tulla, Clare Lance-Corporal Hudson, from London, re-enlisted on 5 May 1920. He was stationed in Clare. According to the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Chronicle, a sentry at Tulla RIC Barracks mistook a cycle patrol for an IRA party and fired. Buried King’s Island Military Cemetery, Limerick (94).1061

13 JUNE 1921 Joseph Millar (13Jun1921/1) 25, Dock labourer, Married with one child, RC MIHB See Sturdy (12Jun1921/10). Sadie Millar described how as she and her husband prepared for bed at around 22:15 four USC, armed with revolvers, burst through the door. One of them caught Millar by the collar and pulled him downstairs. When he asked to speak to his wife and child, the special constables replied, ‘You and your wife and child!’ She next saw him lying shot in the chest on Coates Street after she had been ejected from her house. She denied her husband had been a rioter. The Irish News said he died in hospital at 02:15. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1062 John Cosgrove (13Jun1921/2) 29, Farmer, Married with three children, RC Eshwary, Camlough, Armagh Cosgrove’s wife Mary was awoken between 03:30 and 04:00 by knocking. Someone said it was all right and to open the door. Two men entered and ordered Cosgrove to get dressed and bid his wife farewell. Cosgrove went out, but returned to the house bleeding from the right arm. He was dragged out again. Mary then heard two shots; ten minutes later she found John dead on the roadside, and heard a motor car. John McCoy recalled that Cosgrove was a well-known Sinn Féiner. His death may have been in

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reprisal for the killings the previous week of Hugh O’Hanlon, a relative, and James Smith. Alternative explanations for his killing that were circulated were that he was targeted by the AOH, that the IRA killed him because he had helped to wash O’Hanlon’s body, and that he was shot by Protestant neighbours because there had been land trouble. Buried Camlough Cemetery. Mary Cosgrove and her children secured a total of £1,500 compensation.1063 SA: O’Hanlon (7Jun1921/2), Smith (7Jun 1921/3) Thomas Mallon (13Jun1921/3) 51, Married, RC MIHB See McGinley (11Jun1921/3). Mallon, of 52 North Thomas Street, was in his front room when bullets came in the window as rioting and gunfire began outside. Wounded in the side, he died shortly after admission to hospital.1064 William Frazer (13Jun1921/4) 12, Schoolboy, Presbyterian Ashmore Street, Belfast William, a labourer’s son of 220 Mayo Street, went out to search for his sister at about teatime. Sometime later, a police patrol found him lying on Ashmore Street, shot in the face by a sniper. Hugh McAree was fatally wounded as he went to assist.1065 RD: McAree (13Jun1921/5) Hugh McAree (13Jun1921/5) 30, Ex-serviceman, RC Ashmore Street, Belfast See Frazer (13Jun1921/4). McAree lived at 12 Sackville Street. Denis Sadlier (13Jun1921/6) IRA, 27, Ex-serviceman, RC Cloneen, Fethard, Tipperary ‘Dinny’ Sadlier was from Rathkenny, Drangan, Tipperary. He had been vice-O/C 7th Battalion, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, but in March 1921 transferred to the 5th Battalion and later became O/C, the intention being to galvanise the unit. Sadlier was accidentally shot dead because of ‘caffling’ (play-acting).

Accounts of his death differ in detail: one holds that a Volunteer discharged a rifle levelled at Sadlier, thinking it unloaded, another that Sadlier and Jim Norris, both ex-servicemen and good friends, were practising bayonet fighting when Norris accidentally shot Sadlier in the head. Norris was later cleared by brigade headquarters of any intent to kill, and resumed ASU duty. Rumours about Sadlier’s death spread widely. A War Office telegram stated: ‘Denis Sadlier reported in [the] Weekly Bulletin as killed by accident was apparently shot in a dispute. . . . It seems he objected to cold blooded murders, neither the father nor priest was allowed to see the body which was buried in a field.’ In July 1921, the Limerick Leader cited a Dáil Éireann publicity department refutation of English press reports that Sadlier had committed suicide, stating that he was accidentally shot at Cloneen on 13 June and his body secretly buried at night. Reburied Drangan. His mother Amy received a £112.10s. dependent’s award. Her son Commandant Michael Sadlier died on 4 November 1922 in New Inn after a clash with government troops.1066 Michael Driscoll (13Jun1921/7) 55, Ex-serviceman, agricultural labourer Waterlands, Kinsale, Cork Lieutenant L. A. G. Bowen, Essex Regiment, led a patrol east of Kinsale towards Charles Fort. At about 22:30, two civilians seen running away ignored an order to halt and were fired on. A follow-up search yielded nothing, but at 11:00 next day Constable Maurice Slattery found the body of Michael Driscoll, described as ‘of weak intellect’, in a hedge at Waterlands. He had a bullet wound in one leg. Slattery, who had known him for about two years, said Driscoll had no political connections.1067

14 JUNE 1921 Francis Crossley Boyle1068 (14Jun1921/1) 38, Farmer, CoI Claremore, Killusty, Fethard, Tipperary ‘Christy’ Boyle lived with his mother in Prospect, Drangan, Tipperary. Seán Walshe

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termed Boyle an ‘emergency man’ – the occupier of a farm from which the previous tenant had been evicted. The War Office termed him a ‘Protestant Loyalist’. The Boyle family had farmed near Drangan for twenty-seven years, receiving numerous threats. As a consequence, Francis was visited periodically by RIC and military. In November 1920, he was compensated after his hay was maliciously set on fire. On the evening of 12 June, several armed men called to Boyle’s house and held up his mother Jane, who was milking the cows. She said her son was out cycling. Stealing his shotgun and ‘several items of jewellery’, they later captured him. Walshe said Boyle made no defence at his court martial. Killed by a four-man firing party at Claremore, his body was left with a label denouncing him as a spy, reportedly at the very spot where Robert Stone, another loyalist farmer occupying disputed land, was killed on 16 April 1921. Buried Protestant Churchyard, Fethard, Tipperary. Agrarian, political and, from a Protestant perspective, sectarian motivations were clearly all involved in this killing.1069 SA: Stone (16Apr1921/1) James Kane (14Jun1921/2) 65, RIC pensioner, fisheries inspector, Widowed with seven children, RC Kilmorna, Listowel, Kerry Kane, from Leitrim, joined the RIC on 7 September 1877 (service number: 43337), serving in Tipperary and Kerry. Promoted to sergeant in 1900, he served in Listowel before retiring in 1910. He then became a fisheries inspector on the River Feale. His brother, Chief Inspector John Kane of Scotland Yard, had investigated the Irish Crown Jewels case of 1907 in which Sir Arthur Vicars had been disgraced. Thomas Pelican, then O/C Fianna Éireann in Listowel, recalled that a witness statement by Kane regarding the shooting of Tobias O’Sullivan was captured during the ambush of Divisional Commissioner Philip A. Holmes at Tooreengarriv on 28 January 1921 and reached GHQ in Dublin. At the end of May a directive was apparently received by the 6th Battalion, Kerry No. 1 Brigade, to

shoot Kane. Patrick McElligott, O/C 6th Battalion, Kerry No.1 Brigade, also recalled information from Tim Walsh, intelligence officer, 6th Battalion, that a retired RIC detective-sergeant had been asking about the ASU. But, according to one source, the brigade O/C refused to sanction his killing, although he gave retrospective approval. Pelican described how, after waiting several days by the river near Listowel, Volunteers Michael Flaherty, Charles Hanlon, Tom Sullivan and Maurice Kelleher captured Kane and held him at Patrick Broderick’s house at Gortdromagownagh. A priest heard his confession, after which he made his will. According to Brian O’Grady, captain Ballylongford Company, Kerry No. 1 Brigade, when asked if he had anything to say, Kane replied, ‘Ye are the finest young men I have ever met and the only thing I am sorry for is that I am not dying for Ireland.’ He was killed at Shanacool near Kilmorna in the early hours of 14 June by an ASU firing squad under Denis Quille, who said Kane asked him to place his body where ‘it should be found quickly’ and to ensure that ‘there would be no lingering death’. His corpse was discovered by a man on his way to work. A police report speculated that this ‘most brutal and cold blooded’ killing was linked to impending prosecutions for poaching. Kane’s will and some pound notes found on his corpse were sent to his daughter. Kane also left an affectionate, matter-of-fact letter advising on small debts connected with some business activities to be paid off or collected. Buried Listowel, Kerry.1070 SA: Holmes (29Jan1921/3), O’Sullivan (20Jan 1921/2), Vicars (14Apr1921/1) John Donoghue (14Jun1921/3) 20, Ex-serviceman, brewery worker, RC Ratoath, Meath Donoghue, a shoemaker’s son, was wounded while serving in the RDF during the Rising, and twice more in France. Demobilised in March 1921, on the day of his death he had secured a job in the Guinness Brewery. His father later told a compensation hearing that his son sometimes returned mended boots

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for the police. David Hall of the Dunshaughlin Company IRA claimed that Donoghue had given information about the Kilbride Company, leading to an arrest. At about midnight an armed and masked man forced Donoghue outside and ordered his father back to bed. At about 04:00 shots were heard close by. Donoghue’s body was found with four bullet wounds on the outskirts of the village. His killers were Volunteers Augustine Gillick, Andy Reilly, Joseph Lynch and Patrick Lynch, all from Dunshaughlin. Donoghue’s parents Bartholomew and Anne secured £350 compensation.1071 William Gorman (14Jun1921/4) 13, Carter, RC KGVH See Mullins (8Jun1921/2). William, one of four surviving children of eleven born to William and Catherine Gorman of 134 Townsend Street, drove a donkey for Mr Kenny of Tara Street, earning 10s. a week and his board. Buried GC (Garden Section: M. 82).1072 Kathleen Collins (14Jun1921/5) 18, Mill worker, RC MIHB Kathleen Collins lived at 35 Cupar Street. She was at home knitting with her sister when struck in the abdomen by a bullet at around 13:10 when a USC convoy was fired on and replied as it drove along the Falls Road while returning from a funeral. She died in hospital at about 21:25.1073 George Sackville Wallis (14Jun1921/6) 65, Civil bills officer, teashop owner, Married with eleven children, CoI The Commons, Cashel, Tipperary Wallis, from Cork, lived in Hills Lot, Rosegreen, Cashel. He was shot at The Commons, about two miles from Cashel on the Clonmel road. Timothy Tierney, captain F Company, 2nd Battalion, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, stated that Wallis served summonses under military escort, and was in the habit of sneaking around in the hope of picking up information. Police regarded him as a

staunch loyalist. His body was found on the roadside at about 12:15 on 15 June, shot in the head, a card marked ‘spy’ attached to his wrist. Buried Cashel. His widow secured £2,100 compensation.1074

15 JUNE 1921 Michael Gleeson (15Jun1921/1) IRA, 22, Farmer, RC Cratloe, Clare Gleeson, from Clondrinagh, Meelick, Clare, was lieutenant Caherdavin Company, East Clare Brigade. The 11:55 Limerick– Ennis train, carrying a party of the Royal Scots, was ambushed at about 12:15 between Longpavement and Cratloe stations by members of the 2nd Battalion, East Clare Brigade, under John McCormack. McCormack intended to raid the mail in an attempt to identify a spy operating in the Cratloe district. The attack was poorly executed. A small barricade of stones placed on the line at Woodcock Hill failed to stop the train. McCormack fired but the train ploughed through and went on to Cratloe Station. As a single shot was to be a withdrawal signal, men placed as outlying pickets dispersed. Unaware of this development, McCormack decided to cut the telegraph wires at Woodcock Hill. Michael Gleeson and Christy McCarthy left their position to watch. Meanwhile, at Cratloe Station a Lieutenant Gordon cleared the train of civilians and had it reversed back, ‘shutting off steam when he got to the hill and making no signal of any sort’, coming into view ‘almost noiselessly’. Caught on the side of Woodcock Hill without cover, McCarthy was wounded. Gleeson ‘had reached a place of safety but finding his comrade was down he ran back . . . helping him up and along, firing back with his free hand’ until wounded. The soldiers then ‘finished him off and very soon caught up on McCarthy and dispatched him also’. The Cork Examiner reported that four wounded men were captured and taken to the military hospital in Limerick. Buried Meelick, Clare.1075 RD: McCarthy (15Jun1921/2)

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Christopher McCarthy (15Jun1921/2) IRA, 22, Barman, Married, RC Cratloe, Clare See Gleeson (15Jun1921/1). McCarthy was from Miltown Malbay. He had been O/C 4th Battalion, West Clare Brigade, until he apparently had a disagreement with brigade staff and left for east Clare, where he joined the 2nd Battalion and became O/C. Buried Meelick, Clare. His widow Elizabeth secured £90 annually and a gratuity of £120 upon remarriage in 1927.1076 Robert Healy (15Jun1921/3) 24, Ex-serviceman, labourer, Married with one child, RC Ballingarry, Thurles, Tipperary Healy, from Ballingarry, was abducted from his home on 10 June by men of B and G companies, 7th Battalion, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade. His body was found on the roadside five days later with a label reading: ‘Tried, sentenced and shot by IRA. Spies and Informers Beware.’ Margaret Healy said her husband was a deserter from the RIR. She secured £600 compensation and their child £800.1077 Frank Roughley (15Jun1921/4) Manchester Regiment (3514304), 21, Carter Ballincollig, Cork Private Roughley, son of George Roughley of Oldham, re-enlisted on 17 April 1919 following his discharge from the Manchester Regiment the previous day. He was stationed in Ballincollig, Cork, from where he disappeared. The regimental enlistment book stated that Roughley’s death on 15 June was ‘accepted for official purposes’. He is listed in the roll of honour inaugurated at the memorial service for all ranks killed in Ireland in the chapel of the Royal Hospital Kilmainham on 21 November 1922 and by the Manchester Regiment Gazette as a fatality. No further details of his death have been traced.1078 Patrick Jordan (15Jun1921/5) IRA, 24, Teacher, RC KGVH See Beckett (19May1921/4). Jordan died from an infected head wound. From Letter,

Islandeady, Castlebar, Mayo, he trained as a teacher but had not taken up a post. A leading light in C (Islandeady) Company, West Mayo Brigade, Jordan was later promoted to O/C 1st (Castlebar) Battalion, and was in the brigade ASU. Buried Kilmeena, Mayo. His father Patrick secured a £50 dependent’s gratuity, and his mother Julia later obtained an allowance.1079

16 JUNE 1921 William T. Saunders (16Jun1921/1) The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment (6336107), 20, Plumber’s mate KGVH Saunders, from Isleworth, enlisted at Hounslow on 10 June 1919. He was stationed in Dublin. At around 08:30 a ‘determined attack’ was made near Drumcondra on a train carrying about 300 troops newly arrived from Silesia, travelling from Amiens Street to Kingsbridge. About forty men shot and threw bombs from either side of the line at St Brigid’s Road and St Clement’s Road. One soldier reportedly said, ‘We were not half an hour in the country when we ran up against the Shinners.’ The Queen’s Own Gazette stated: on arrival at Kingston [sic] the Battalion entrained with magazines charged, sentries detailed to watch at the windows . . . all went well . . . until the Drumcondra district. . . . Suddenly, the noise of shooting and bombs bursting was heard. . . . The whole thing lasted less than a minute . . . when on detraining at Kingsbridge Station, it was passed round that . . . Pte. Saunders [q.v.], of ‘A’ Company, was in a dying condition, a grim silence fell on the Battalion.

Buried Isleworth Cemetery, Middlesex (R. CA. 65). His mother, to whom he had provided a shilling a day in support, sought official help in lodging a compensation claim.1080 Cyril Robert Mason (16Jun1921/2) RIC (77809), 25, Local government official, army officer, CoE Wexford Infirmary, Wexford Mason, from Cheshire, worked in the Borough Treasury Department, Birkenhead, and was a

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well-known cricketer before enlisting in 1914 in the Liverpool Scottish Regiment, serving in France. Commissioned in the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, he was demobilised with the rank of captain, joined the RIC and was posted as a DI to Wexford on 7 February 1921, stationed in New Ross. He succeeded Major A. H. R. Richmond. Mason accidentally shot himself with his revolver at around 20:30 on 15 June while in charge of an armoured car and Crossley tender. He died next day at 17:00 after an abdominal operation. Buried Birkenhead.1081 SA: Richmond (16Jan1921/2) William Arthur Hamilton Boyd (16Jun1921/3) ADRIC (79144), 21, Army officer, CoE Rathcoole, Millstreet, Cork Boyd, a clergyman’s son from Sussex, was a lieutenant in the Royal Sussex Regiment prior to joining the Auxiliary Division on 18 October 1920 (auxiliary number: 774), attached to L Company, stationed in Mountleader, Millstreet, Cork. He died when a party of twenty-five cadets of L Company in two open Crossley tenders, one armoured Crossley and one armoured Lanica car were ambushed at 19:30 at Rathcoole Wood, about two and a half miles east of Millstreet, by the ASUs of Millstreet, Mallow, Charleville, Kanturk and Newmarket, all of Cork No. 2 Brigade and the local company. About 120 IRA men under Paddy O’Brien, vicebrigadier, took part in sections positioned over a mile so as to prevent any possibility of being outflanked. Although six electrically controlled mines were laid in the road, only one exploded effectively, under the fourth lorry. BMH statements suggest that the blast killed two cadets, but the inquest evidence was otherwise. Boyd was found lying on his back in a bohereen: ‘There was a large hole in his face. One eye & part of his nose having been blown away.’ Cadet Joseph Evans, who was in the third lorry with Cadet Shorter, saw him being hit in the head. Although ‘some of the Auxiliaries fought like devils’, they inflicted no casualties. Buried England. His parents secured £2,500 compensation.1082 RD: Shorter (16Jun1921/4)

Frederick Edgar Shorter (16Jun1921/4) ADRIC (79823), 21, Army officer Rathcoole, Millstreet, Cork See Boyd (16Jun1921/3). Shorter, from Middlesex, joined the RIC on 30 November 1920, attached to L Company, stationed in Mountleader, Millstreet, Cork. Buried England. His parents secured £2,000 compensation.1083 Harold Round (16Jun1921/5) RIC (73469), 23, Ex-serviceman, collier, Married with one child, Protestant Donamon, Roscommon Round, from Lancashire, joined the RIC on 28 September 1920, stationed in Frenchpark. Sergeant Quirke said Round received a mysterious letter concerning a stolen bicycle (though his CI said it was about ‘a girl’). He ignored Quirke’s warning and went to investigate. Tom Crawley, vice-O/C 1st Battalion, South Roscommon Brigade, and later a Garda sergeant, recalled that he, Gerald O’Connor, battalion O/C, and Dan O’Rourke, brigade O/C, were in a house between Castlerea and Ballinagare when a stranger in civilian clothes cycled by. O’Connor followed him and held him up, capturing a .45 revolver and eighteen rounds of ammunition. Court martialled, he admitted he had been on intelligence work. Although not a Catholic, a priest attended him. He expressed no ill feeling towards his captors, and was allowed to write a final letter to his wife which James Quigley, O/C 2nd Battalion, stated was duly posted. He asked to be shot, but instead was bound and thrown into the River Suck near Donamon. His body was not recovered. His widow secured £6,000 compensation.1084 Thomas Fleming (16Jun1921/6) IRA, 27, Driver, RC Glountane, Cordal, Castleisland, Kerry Denis Prendiville recalled a 1st Battalion, Kerry No. 2 Brigade training camp at Glountane, near Cordal. Thomas Fleming, brigade engineer, ‘a very active Volunteer’ from Killeentierna, Farranfore, was ‘filling a mine with Chloride powder when an explosion took place’, killing him and wounding about twelve others. Buried Kilsarcon Cemetery, Currow,

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Kerry. His sister Dora secured an £80 gratuity, and his sister Annie received an allowance after other sisters relinquished their claims.1085

17 JUNE 1921 William Campbell (17Jun1921/1) RIC (76250), 21, Caulker, ex-serviceman, Protestant Dowdallshill, Dundalk, Louth Constable Campbell, from Dumbarton, joined the RIC on 1 January 1921, stationed in Bridge Street RIC Barracks, Dundalk. He insisted on trying out a new bicycle. Three IRA men with revolvers ambushed him on his return towards town: ‘The B[lack] &T[an] was cycling with revolver in hand and cried out to our three men . . . to halt. They opened fire at 15 yards range and dropped him. He (B&T) continued firing although lying on the ground and when his six rounds were exhausted our men went over and finished him.’ He ‘had been on several occasions a bit rough with our men’. At 00:20 the RIC received news of his death. Some hours afterwards, John and Patrick Watters were shot dead in an apparent reprisal. Buried St Patrick’s Cemetery, Dowdallshill, Dundalk.1086 SA: Watters (18Jun1921/1), Watters (18Jun 1921/2) Philip Dunne (17Jun1921/2) 35, Labourer, RC Allen, Kilmeague, Kildare Dunne, his seventy-year-old mother Anne and two sisters lived in Grangehiggin, Kilmeague, about seven miles from Naas, Kildare. At about midnight on 14 June there was a knock on the door: a voice threatened to blow up the house if not admitted. Two masked men entered, whom Margaret Dunne recognised as Michael Dunne and Daniel Rigney. They dragged Philip outside where Charlie Dunny, Joe Ward, Martin Heavey and Laurence Flood, all locals, were waiting. Philip resisted, and managed to escape. The family took refuge in a field for the night. They did the same the following night. Raiders returned to Grangehiggin at about 21:00 on 16 June, when Rigney appeared and fired a revolver shot into the kitchen. When Dunne challenged him with a slash hook,

Rigney fled. Dunne gave chase, knocking one raider into a ditch. The others then turned and fired. Dunne and his mother were seriously wounded. Both managed to reach the parochial house and were attended by a priest and a doctor. Dunne died at 16:30. His mother was admitted to Kildare hospital, suffering from head and side wounds. Six members of the IRA’s Athgarvan Company – Rigney, Flood, Ward, Heavey, Charles Dunny and Michael Dunne – were arrested in connection with this less than heroic operation, which has the hallmarks of a local dispute dressed up as a political one. In May 1924 President Cosgrave told the Dáil that compensation claims from Flood, Heavey, Dunny and Dunne for ‘injuries and loss sustained during the Blackand-Tan troubles since 18th June 1921’ fell outside the relevant legislation. Buried Allen Cemetery, Kildare. His mother secured £350 compensation as well as £100 for personal injuries.1087 Patrick Darcy (17Jun1921/3) 27, Schoolteacher, RC Doonbeg, Clare Darcy, from Cooraclare, Clare, was a teacher in Doonbeg. His brother Michael had drowned on 19 January 1920 while escaping after an IRA clash with police. Michael Russell, of the 3rd Battalion, West Clare Brigade, recalled that while two of his brothers were Volunteers, Darcy was not. Russell recalled that Darcy had started frequenting Sheehan’s pub in Kilrush: a haunt of the RIC and Black and Tans . . . wanted IRA men who were ‘on the run’ stayed most of their time around the Cooraclare and Doonbeg areas where Darcy resided and taught. It became obvious from police raids that information regarding . . . these wanted men was being given. . . . Any man . . . keeping company of RIC or any member of the British garrison naturally came under suspicion, and Darcy . . . came to be regarded . . . as a dangerous man and a potential spy.

Darcy was alleged to have given information leading to the deaths, in custody, of Michael

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McNamara and William Shanahan in December 1920. Darcy was convicted by court martial, despite doubts about the local publican who had denounced him. The intention was to shoot him near Michael McNamara’s house in Doonbeg, but a Volunteer argued that it would be ‘most unfair to the McNamara family’ to kill ‘outside their door’. Darcy was instead taken to the other end of the village. Russell heard him say: ‘I forgive ye boys. Ye are shooting me in the wrong,’ just before Bill Haugh and Tom Marrinan killed him. The customary label ‘Spies beware’ was pinned to the body. Doubts persisted about Darcy’s guilt. At the request of the Taoiseach Éamon de Valera, in 1945 Colonel Dan Bryan, the army director of intelligence, investigated the case in some depth, interviewing Marrinan, Haugh and Russell. The latter believed that the wrong man was shot. Darcy’s mother and siblings secured £600 compensation.1088 SA: Darcy (19Jan1920/1), McNamara (22Dec1920/2), Shanahan (22Dec1920/3) Patrick O’Connell (17Jun1921/4) 42, Ex-serviceman, labourer, Married, RC Killeenmore, Tullamore, Offaly O’Connell lived in Cloncon, Tullamore. While cutting turf with his son John he was abducted by men of the Kilbeggan Company, Offaly No. 1 Brigade, under the battalion O/C Seán McGuinness. On 19 June, the police found his blindfolded body lying near the road at Killeenmore, six miles from Tullamore. An attached note read, ‘Convicted spy – Spies and Informers beware of IRA.’ The police believed O’Connell had no political associations. There was considerable doubt locally about O’Connell’s guilt. Soon afterwards his son Patrick wrote that the family ‘are now dependent on me for support. As I am only 18 years of age, my wages as [a] general labourer are very small.’1089 Thomas Healy (17Jun1921/5) IRA, 23, Clerk, policeman, Married with one child, RC Rossroe, Sixmilebridge, Clare ‘Tommy’ Healy, from Abbeydorney, Kerry, joined the RIC in 1916 (RIC no. 68798),

serving in Tipperary and Kildare before resigning on 11 August 1920, ‘dissatisfied with conditions of service’, and joining the Mid Clare Brigade, IRA. He was with the 1st Battalion ASU when surprised by police while lying in ambush at Rossroe, Sixmilebridge. Most of the men were ‘untrained and had never been in action before’. Their O/C had ‘to order, coax, threaten and appeal alternately’ to them as ‘they got so exhausted that they could hardly move’. Together with the O/C, Healy ‘fought a rearguard action’ until he collapsed, apparently overcome by the heat of ‘a roasting hot day’. His comrades carried him away. He died a few hours later of heart failure despite the attentions of a doctor and a priest: Never was courage more magnificently shown. . . . Tottering on his feet from exhaustion he would not leave the side of his O/C. His last words were typical of the man: ‘Boys take my rifle and stuff also empty my pockets and leave me, I am done’, saying so he fell to the ground . . . beyond a doubt he gave his life to save his comrades. . . . This . . . showed extraordinary bravery.

Initially secretly buried in Quin Catholic church, his brothers later had him reinterred in Tralee. His widow Mary secured a 17s.6d. weekly dependent’s allowance with 3s.6d. for her daughter.1090

18 JUNE 1921 John Watters (18Jun1921/1) IRA, 21, Shop assistant, RC Quay Street, Dundalk, Louth John Watters is recorded as a Volunteer in A Company, Dundalk Battalion. The Watters family owned the Windmill Bar at the junction of Seatown Place and Quay Street, living above the premises. John Watters worked for Nicholas Hardy, seed and grain merchant of Park Street. The three Watters brothers had gone to bed at about midnight. At 01:50, a man in a trench coat and cap entered their home looking for Bernard, the eldest boy. Anne Watters asked to be given time to dress, and then showed the man her son’s room. Bernard was told that he was wanted outside. He said he needed to dress and put on his

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boots, then went to the kitchen and did not return. Another gunman then asked for John, and seeing Patrick said he wanted him also. The two were dragged from their beds. Their mother watched as her sons were marched down Quay Street, barefoot and in their night clothes, and shot several times. A few minutes later, she found them lying dead. DI Gallagher, in charge of the Dundalk police district, speculated that they had possibly been killed by the IRA for failing to carry out some assigned duties (in fact only one had been an active Volunteer). The murders, happening only a few hours after the killing of William Campbell, were probably a reprisal. Buried St Patrick’s Cemetery, Dowdallshill, Dundalk. Their mother secured £3,000 criminal injuries compensation, but failed to obtain a dependent’s award. Their sister Anne was also unsuccessful.1091 RD: Watters (18Jun1921/2). SA: Campbell (17Jun1921/1) Patrick Watters (18Jun1921/2) IRA, 18, Carpenter, RC Quay Street, Dundalk, Louth See Watters (18Jun1921/1). Watters, a Volunteer in A Company, Dundalk Battalion, was an apprentice with Thomas McDonald & Sons of Castle Road.1092 Thomas Cunningham (18Jun1921/3) 45, Ex-serviceman, carpenter, Married, RC Cush East, Belmont, Offaly Cunningham worked for Perry Mills in Belmont. Joseph Connolly, O/C ASU Offaly No. 2 Brigade, told the BMH of several alleged spies. Thomas Cunningham was convicted by an IRA court of giving information concerning the movements of members of A and D Companies, 2nd Battalion to the RIC at Shannonbridge, on three occasions. He also ‘kept friendly company with the Enemy (Military) Intelligence Officers, Hunston Camp and entertained same on three occasions in his house’. Mary Ann Cunningham described how at around 02:40 four masked men took her husband away from her home at Cush East, Belmont. Shortly afterwards she heard shots,

and found him critically wounded. He died in her arms. Similarly, Mary Reilly described how at around 23:50 on 17 June two masked men with local accents sought her husband Michael. They found him hiding under a bed and dragged him outside: ‘I heard my husband say he would be the first to fight for his country, if it was fair fighting [and] I heard him say, “If you shoot me, you shoot an innocent man.”’ She then heard three shots. As an army pensioner, her husband was on friendly terms with the military, and had previously been assaulted by Sinn Féiners, including Larry Keoghan and Michael and James Collingham. Head Constable John Duffy believed that the murder was committed by local men. The Offaly IRA told GHQ that Reilly ‘was warned on 2 occasions . . . but ignored the warning’.1093 RD: Reilly (18Jun1921/4) Michael Reilly (18Jun1921/4) Ex-serviceman, Married with four children, RC Cloghan, Belmont, Offaly See Cunningham (18Jun1921/3). Reilly, wounded during the Boer War and gassed in France, was in poor health. Buried Banagher New Cemetery. His widow told the court at Birr Quarter Sessions in October 1921 that she did washing for the officers in the nearby military barracks at Hunston House. Notes were occasionally given to her husband to collect clothes for washing. This, she believed, was the only reason he was killed: ‘Now my husband is dead, I am left destitute as we lived on his pension. My husband . . . was shot because he was not a Rebel.’ She secured £850 and £600 for her four children. In December 1921 efforts were in hand to have two of the children enrolled in the Royal Hibernian Military School.1094 John Hartley (18Jun1921/5) IRA, 22, Grocer’s assistant, RC Coolbawn, Castlecomer, Kilkenny Hartley, of Weatherstown, Glenmore, worked for Thomas Grace on Parliament Street, Kilkenny. Interned after the Rising at

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Wakefield Prison, he was in No. 1 ASU, Kilkenny Brigade. The IRA planned to intercept a consignment of explosives for the Castlecomer coal mines which was due to leave Castlecomer Military Barracks under military escort. An ambush was prepared at Coolbawn, about one mile from Castlecomer, on the Castlecomer to Athy road. This ill-conceived operation, the preliminaries of which could not but attract widespread notice, was under George O’Dwyer. Twenty members of No. 1 ASU Kilkenny Brigade took part, with thirty or forty men from the 3rd Battalion. The plan was to detonate a mine under the first lorry, followed by an all-out attack. From about 06:00 coal carts started passing en route from the colliery. At around 09:00, a military aeroplane circled overhead for a time. At around 10:00, scouts reported military activity to the south of the IRA position and police on the northern and eastern flanks: troops and RIC had deployed on foot instead of by lorry so as to maintain surprise. The IRA recognised too late that they were being surrounded. O’Dwyer blew a whistle and shouted through a megaphone: ‘We are surrounded on all sides. Retreat by river to south.’ Under machinegun fire, some IRA men escaped into a nearby wood, but Hartley and Nicholas Mullins, positioned to the south and south-west, were less fortunate. Hartley was shot dead in the first volley, although an IRA intelligence report suggested that he was ‘finished off ’ by ‘that Black and Tan Constable R Blunt . . . a crack shot’. Mullins, badly wounded as he tried to cross a road, died that evening. After the debacle, Garrett Brennan was appointed battalion O/C to replace O’Dwyer. James Delaney stated that one of the Dreaper sisters had gone by horse along the railway line to Castlecomer to inform the military. Their house was subsequently burned in reprisal. A local priest told GHQ that, while Ms Dreaper’s action was the proximate cause of ‘the . . . terrible results’, news of the ambush preparations was already abroad. It was madness to choose so busy a day, when people travelling to Kilkenny ‘for marketing’ could not fail to spot the IRA. There was also evidence of indiscipline and

negligence: ‘the conclusion is the scouting must be rotten to allow such a calamity to happen’. He believed O’Dwyer’s leadership, and particularly his handling of scouts, aroused suspicions not merely of incompetence but ‘betrayal’: His father grabbed a farm on which the would-be Commander was reared. .  .  . O’Dwyer himself . . . was in [the] Police Force before going to Australia and he has a sister married to a policeman. On 22nd Sept[ember] he paid £1,000 for a farm and the people around are asking: ‘Where did the money come from?’

George O’Dwyer subsequently became a Garda superintendent. Buried Glenmore Cemetery, Kilkenny. Hartley and Mullins, recalled by a comrade as ‘brave men. . . . I knew both of them very well and saw both of them take positions . . . in places where a high degree of courage was needed for survival’, are commemorated on a memorial at Coolbaun erected with the assistance of the Kilkenny Association of New York, whose chairman had to remind the local committee, ‘It is just as difficult to get a dollar out of the people here as it is to get a shilling out of the people at home . . . a thousand dollars is still a lot of money, even in America.’ Hartley’s father Edward secured a £50 dependent’s gratuity.1095 RD: Mullins (18Jun1921/6) Nicholas Mullins (18Jun1921/6) IRA, 27, County council employee, RC Military Barracks, Castlecomer, Kilkenny See Hartley (18Jun1921/5). Mullins, of Market Street, Thomastown, Kilkenny, was in No. 1 ASU, Kilkenny Brigade. Buried Thomastown, Kilkenny. His mother Anne secured a £100 gratuity, and later an annual allowance.1096 Albert Lawrence Bradford (18Jun1921/7) RIC (72721), 21, Labourer, ex-serviceman, Protestant Sinnotts Cross, Fiddown, Kilkenny Bradford, from Essex, joined the RIC on 31 August 1920, allocated to Kilkenny. He was killed at about 15:00, when a cycle patrol

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of seven RIC was attacked just beyond Sinnotts Cross by members of 9th Battalion, Kilkenny Brigade. At 21:15 on 19 June, a military escort with Bradford’s coffin was ambushed near the New Bridge in Carrickon-Suir by armed men concealed on both sides of the road. Private W. Smith of the Devonshire Regiment was killed.1097 SA: Smith (19Jun1921/8) Robert Pike (18Jun1921/8) 38, Ex-serviceman, labourer, Married with six children, RC Fagan’s Corner, Drumcondra, Dublin Pike, of 20 Tolka Cottages, Drumcondra, enlisted in the Royal Engineers on 21 March 1917 in Dublin and was assigned to Quarry Company as a sapper (regimental number: 30597). Suffering from bronchitis, he was reassigned to the reserve in July 1918, and secured a disability pension on discharge in February 1919. He was subsequently employed by Dublin Corporation, where another employee, Patrick Redmond, watched him as a suspected spy. Mary Pike was standing at Fagan’s Corner with her husband and Mary Norton at about 21:45 when a man on a bicycle dismounted, came up and shot Pike twice, killing him outright. The man then rode away towards Whitehall, ‘his retreat being covered by men with small arms and grenade. There was no occasion to use same.’ Pike was said to be implicated in the tracking of Dan Breen and Seán Treacy to Professor Carolan’s house the previous October. Buried GC (Garden Section: R. 90). In October 1921 his widow secured an award from the Ministry of Pensions.1098 SA: Carolan (28Oct1920/5), Treacy (14Oct 1920/3)

19 JUNE 1921 Robert Fisher Bettridge (19Jun1921/1) RFA, 21, Army officer, CoE Woodrooffe, Clonmel, Tipperary Bettridge, from Totnes, Devon, commissioned in 1919, was in the 136th Battery, stationed in Fethard. Lieutenants Bettridge and Glossop, both of the RFA, and Toogood, of the Lincolnshire Regiment, left Fethard Military Barracks in plain clothes on foot at

about 14:30, taking the Cahir road. The RIC reported that they intended ‘to visit a horse dealer about four miles distant’. At Coleman, a mile and a half outside Fethard, they climbed a hill where some youths were trapping badgers. An IRA report stated that, seeing only two apparently unarmed youths, they ‘picked up stones and advanced to meet us. . . . A rifle at the ready was the last thing they expected to see . . . they turned tail and fled.’ After ‘an exciting chase’ lasting half an hour, one was shot in the thigh and they were captured at Moorstown: ‘Their chagrined faces were a study when they found they had surrendered to [a] single armed man!’ Three loaded .320 automatics, some papers and a velour hat discarded during the chase were later found in the fields. The wounded officer was carried and the others marched blindfold to Castleblake. Ernie O’Malley, then O/C 2nd Southern Division, took charge, telling them they would be shot because of the continued killing of captured IRA men. O’Malley, Michael Sheehan, brigade quartermaster, and some ASU men shot them, after a final cigarette and handshakes with the firing party, with hands joined and after saying to each other, ‘Goodbye, old boy’, at around 04:00 at Woodrooffe. Their bodies were recovered at 11:30 on 20 June. O’Malley sent some effects and their farewell letters to the British O/C in Fethard, assuring him that the three ‘upheld the best traditions of their Regiments and died as soldiers should’. As he made clear in his memoir, O’Malley’s action was unilateral. There was no pretence of a court martial, and no attempt to use the officers as hostages against further killings of Volunteer prisoners. Buried Bridgetown and Berry Pomeroy Church Cemetery, Totnes, Devon (2. 9). His father secured £1,000 compensation.1099 RD: Glossop (19Jun1921/2), Toogood (19Jun 1921/3) Walter George Cave Glossop (19Jun1921/2) RFA, 21, Army officer, CoE Woodrooffe, Clonmel, Tipperary See Bettridge (19Jun1921/1). Glossop, son of a vicar from Shoreham, Sussex, was awarded

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the King’s Gold Medal, Pollock Medal and Tomb’s Memorial Prize at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, in 1918. Buried St Luke’s Churchyard, Whyteleafe, Surrey (M. 76).1100 Alexander Cecil Henry Toogood (19Jun1921/3) Lincolnshire Regiment, 20, Army officer Woodrooffe, Clonmel, Tipperary See Bettridge (19Jun1921/1). Toogood, reportedly a popular officer whose father commanded the regiment’s 2nd Battalion in India, was gazetted to the Lincolnshire Regiment in December 1919. Buried Royal Military Academy Cemetery, Sandhurst (535).1101 Thomas Kelleher (19Jun1921/4) IRA, 21, Farmer’s son, RC Drumlish, Longford Kelleher, from Feraghfad, Longford, was carrying dispatches to Roscommon, in company with Peadar Conlon, who was to give instruction on the operation of a captured Hotchkiss gun. They were challenged by a cycle patrol of Auxiliaries in Drumlish. During a brief exchange of fire, Kelleher, ‘one of the noblest young men we had in the Brigade’, was shot through the heart. ‘Thinking he was only wounded’, Conlon carried him for a time. He then took Kelleher’s gun and dispatches and got away, despite having ‘a small piece of the shin bone . . . shattered’. Buried Clonbroney Cemetery. A memorial cross was erected where Kelleher fell.1102 Albert Moore (19Jun1921/5) RIC (77437), 20, Instrument maker, exserviceman, Protestant Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin Moore, from Middlesex, joined the RIC on 7 January 1921, stationed in Kilnaleck, Cavan. Constable Russell was loading his revolver in the kitchen of Kilnaleck RIC Barracks before going to collect the post, when he accidentally shot him. He died in hospital from neck wounds next day at 12:00.1103

Michael Martin (19Jun1921/6) 4, Child, RC JSH Michael, a baker’s son, lived in 66 Capel Street. About 17:30 on 18 June a military lorry travelling from the direction of Bolton Street was attacked by Volunteers from H Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade. Two bombs exploded, wounding one policeman, six civilians and seven members of the Wiltshire Regiment. Three of the civilians – Michael Martin, Kate Mahon and Bessie O’Brien – died of their wounds. Michael, struck in the lower back by a grenade fragment while playing in the street, died in hospital next day at 12:30. Kate Mahon, who had been out shopping, died on 21 June at 12:00. Bessie O’Brien, who had sought her son William following the first explosion, died from a hip wound at about 21:00 on 21 June. Buried GC (Garden Section: O. f. 66.5).1104 RD: Mahon (21Jun1921/1), O’Brien (21Jun 1921/4) Alfred Donald Hugh Breeze (19Jun1921/7) Worcestershire Regiment, 20, Army officer, Protestant Glenamuck, Cabinteely, Dublin Breeze, from Plymouth, commissioned in the Worcestershire Regiment on 16 July 1920, was stationed in Dublin. He was stopped by Volunteers while out for a Sunday afternoon drive, in the company of three women, near Carrickmines, Dublin. The O/C Dublin Brigade received a confusing verbal report that Breeze had first attempted to draw a gun, and then ‘sprang on one of his three captors, wrestled his revolver from him and opened fire’. Wounded by return, he was put into the vehicle. Two of the women were ordered out; the third was forced to drive into the mountains, where Breeze was again taken from the car. The IRA shot him ‘after offering him an opportunity of seeing a clergyman or writing or sending farewell messages, which opportunity he declined to avail himself of ’. His automatic pistol, pass and a diary with ‘interesting notes . . . relative to guards and

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escorts’ were sent to Brigade headquarters. The police reported that Breeze was killed at about 16:00. Patrick Brennan maintained that Breeze was engaged in intelligence work. Buried Ford Park Cemetery, Plymouth (Church B. 1. 32).1105 William Smith (19Jun1921/8) Devonshire Regiment (5610297), 28, Married, RC Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary Private Smith was stationed in Tipperary. At about 19:15 two Volunteers on the New Bridge attacked a military lorry coming from the Carrick-on-Suir side. A soldier recounted how when the lorry came under attack Smith ‘was hit in the head, his left temple was blown away’. IRA accounts vary, but Séamus Babington, brigade engineer Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, maintained that the lorry left the barracks at speed and struck a protecting wall as it turned sharply onto the bridge, causing Smith inadvertently to detonate a grenade he was holding in readiness for an IRA attack. The troops were escorting the coffin of Constable Albert Bradford, killed the previous day. Smith received the last rites from Father John O’Shea. Buried Ford Park Cemetery, Devon (General N. 19. 48). His widow Eva secured £1,700 compensation.1106 SA: Bradford (18Jun1921/7) Thomas Stanton Lambert (19Jun1921/9) General Staff, 50, Army officer, Married, CoE Military Hospital, Athlone, Westmeath Lambert, a vicar’s son from Wiltshire, was gazetted to the East Lancashire Regiment on 17 June 1891. He reached the rank of temporary major general. Awarded a CB and CMG, from October 1919 he was colonelcommandant 13th Brigade, 5th Division in Athlone. The Athlone Brigade’s Tubberclair Company prepared an ambush for military officers returning from a tennis party. A motor car appeared ‘with two Officers and two ladies, one of whom was driving’. Lambert’s wife slowed down and then attempted to accelerate away: ‘One shot was fired over the car, then

two more were fired at the Officers . . . the car still drove on as the men did not want to fire at the women.’ Lambert, severely wounded in the neck, died at 21:00. A Mrs Challoner was slightly wounded. The village of Knockcroghery, Roscommon, was burned in reprisal, due to faulty intelligence reports that the ambush party had come across the River Shannon. Buried Brookwood Military Cemetery (St George’s Avenue 185752).1107 Patrick Walsh (19Jun1921/10) 65, Labourer, Married, RC Rathgormack, Waterford Walsh and a friend were in a pub in Rathgormack at around 22:30 when a mixed patrol of police and soldiers of the Devonshire Regiment arrived. Frightened, they ran off. Walsh was mortally wounded by a shot in the back. Buried Clonea, Waterford.1108 Leo Corby (19Jun1921/11) 26, Dentist, RC Castleblagh, Ballyhooley, Cork Corby, son of the professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at UCC, practised as a dentist in Thurles. He was known for ‘his splendid baritone’. On 19 June he left Clonmel by motorcycle for Cork. On 11 July, Professor Corby received a letter, apparently from the IRA, stating that, because Leo had frequently been seen motoring in the area, orders were issued to question him. If he failed to halt, he was to be fired on and wounded. Leo evidently did not halt and was shot and killed. On 12 July, a Sinn Féin source said that he was buried in a graveyard outside Ballyhooley. The case only came to police attention on 7 October when Professor Corby sought compensation. Inquiries then ascertained that Leo was killed in the Castletownroche district and was said to be buried at Kilathy graveyard. This information was based on hearsay and the police were unable to locate the grave. The Tipperary Star reported that the Publicity Department of the Dáil stated that Corby was accidentally shot during IRA manoeuvres. His brother John Paul secured £300 compensation and his sisters Mollie and Rose £100 and £200 respectively.1109

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20 JUNE 1921 Edward Fox (20Jun1921/1) IRA, 22, Coach builder, ex-serviceman, RC SPDH Fox, of 29 South Cumberland Street, had been drinking with Daniel Whelan in Corbett’s pub before Whelan shot him on South Cumberland Street. He died shortly after a .450 service bullet was removed in an operation. Whelan was found insane by a republican court and committed to the Richmond Asylum, though subsequently released. It later transpired from a dependent’s claim by Fox’s mother Elizabeth, ‘a sober and honest’ blind woman, that Fox was in the 5th (Engineers) Battalion, Dublin Brigade. She was refused a dependent’s award because her son was not on duty when killed. Buried GC (Garden Section: O. 92).1110 George Lysaght (20Jun1921/2) 47, Grazier, Married with three children, CoI 33 Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin Lysaght, an extensive farmer and JP from Cork, lived in Cloneen, near Clonmel, Tipperary. On 7 March he was shot on his farm, which had a troubled agrarian history, and died six weeks later. Seán Walshe recalled Lysaght as ‘violently opposed’ to Sinn Féin and the IRA, and a friend of the RIC and military, but did not know why he was killed. Lysaght told his wife that three or more men fired at him with a rifle from distance, wounding him in the left hip. He died in Sir William Ireland de Courcy Wheeler’s private hospital. The RIC maintained he was shot because he was a loyalist and had removed an obstruction built across a road to impede Crown forces. Lysaght’s widow secured £1,500 compensation and each of his three children £4,166.1111

21 JUNE 1921 Catherine Mahon (21Jun1921/1) 38, Housekeeper, RC JSH See Martin (19Jun1921/6). ‘Kate’ Mahon lived at 13 Royal Canal Terrace. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: O. c. 37).1112

John O’Meara (21Jun1921/2) IRA, 24, Farmer’s son, RC Emly, Tipperary O’Meara, from Ballyhone, Emly, served a six-month prison term for political offences in 1920. Two unnamed RIC constables in plain clothes in a shop in Emly challenged two men they noticed in an adjoining field. One ignored the challenge, remaining in the hedge. O’Meara was found in possession of a belt, holster and revolver. He shouted to his companion, who fired as O’Meara wrenched himself free. O’Meara drew his gun, but was shot dead. After further shooting, his companion fled. Buried Emly graveyard. His sister Ellen secured a dependent’s allowance.1113 John Murphy (21Jun1921/3) IRA, 22, Agricultural labourer, RC Cloghane, Bandon, Cork Murphy, from Cloghane, worked for Robert Hales of Knocknacurra, brother of leading IRA men Tom and Seán Hales,† and was in the Ballinadee Company, Cork No. 3 Brigade. Crown forces under Major A. E. Percival captured Murphy as he was crossing a field, having tended some horses. The IRA reported that ‘his body was found in a glen’ over a mile away: ‘Death was caused by bayonet wounds.’ Buried Ballinadee Churchyard. His mother Kate secured a dependent’s allowance.1114 Elizabeth O’Brien (21Jun1921/4) 30, Labourer’s wife, Married with one child, RC MMH See Martin (19Jun1921/6). ‘Bessie’ O’Brien and her husband Thomas, a labourer, lived at 21 Green Street. Thomas described how, after hearing an explosion, ‘she ran out after my son Willie. . . . Suddenly she felt a blow in her hip and fell down.’ The court of inquiry was unaware that Thomas’s IRA company was responsible for her death. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section).1115

22 JUNE 1921 Edward Shannon (22Jun1921/1) IRA, 28, Agricultural labourer, RC Cloonsuck, Castlerea, Roscommon ‘Ned’ Shannon, from Loughglinn, Roscommon, was a lieutenant in the 1st

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Battalion, South Roscommon Brigade. At around 06:00, a twelve-man RIC patrol led by Sergeant James King surrounded Ellen Vaughan’s house in Cloonsuck. As King approached, John Vaughan threw a bomb. The police opened fire and called on the occupants to surrender. Ellen Vaughan and two of her sons eventually came out. Constable Joseph Knapton, behind the house, saw an armed man exit the back door. Failing to halt when challenged, he was shot, as was a second man who appeared. The two killed were Edward Shannon and John Vaughan. On searching the house, the police found Martin Ganley hiding with two revolvers and ammunition. Ganley and Tom Vaughan, John’s twenty-two-year-old brother, were arrested. Tom Crawley of the South Roscommon Brigade believed the police were tipped off, probably by Paddy Egan, brigade intelligence officer, who eventually fled the country: ‘Quite a number . . . in the Castlerea area were either shot in their beds . . . or taken out of their beds and shot and all of these can be put down to the activities of that ruffian.’ Buried Kilruane Cemetery, Lisacul, Roscommon. He is commemorated on monuments at Loughglinn and Shankill, Roscommon. His mother Kate secured a £50 dependent’s gratuity.1116 RD: Vaughan (22Jun1921/2). SA: King (11Jul 1921/3) John Vaughan (22Jun1921/2) IRA, 26, Farmer, RC Cloonsuck, Castlerea, Roscommon See Shannon (22Jun1921/1). From Cloonsuck, Vaughan was captain Cloonbonniff Company, South Roscommon Brigade. Buried old cemetery, Castlerea. He is commemorated on monuments at Loughglinn and Shankill. His mother Ellen secured a £120 dependent’s gratuity, and later an allowance.1117 Daniel O’Callaghan (22Jun1921/3) 32, Ex-serviceman, dock labourer, Married, RC Military Hospital, Queenstown (Cobh), Cork A naval reservist, O’Callaghan lived on Main Street, Carrigtwohill, Cork, with his wife Kate and mother. At around 20:30 on 21 June, two men arrived on a pony and trap. They entered

O’Callaghan’s home and ordered him outside and on to the trap at gunpoint. A scuffle ensued in which his mother Mary took part, seizing the hat of one of the gunmen. O’Callaghan knocked one to the ground and ran. They pursued him down a lane. O’Callaghan was shot and fell; the smaller of the two men then shot him again. His niece Josie Fitzgerald ‘heard my uncle asking for the priest’. His cousin Kate Foley said O’Callaghan told her earlier that evening that ‘he was being watched as a spy and that he was intending to seek protection from the military’. A Cameron Highlanders patrol found him dying in his home at around 01:00. Mary O’Callaghan secured £600 compensation.1118 James McIntosh (22Jun1921/4) IRA, 33, Butcher, ex-serviceman, Engaged, RC St Michael’s Hospital, Dún Laoghaire, Dublin ‘Jim’ McIntosh, of Maryborough (Portlaoise), Laois, a one-time British army sergeantmajor, worked in Dún Laoghaire. A lieutenant in the 6th Battalion, Dublin Brigade, at about 21:45 on 19 June, he and three other Volunteers entered the Royal Marine Hotel, frequented by Crown forces, and held up guests. McIntosh fired twice, but was then shot in the arm, thorax and abdomen by unidentified Auxiliaries. He died in St Michael’s Hospital at 12:45. Three Auxiliaries were wrongly rumoured also to have died. The editor of An tÓglach was incensed because he had published ‘a contradiction of the Dublin Castle report’: ‘It turned out that the Dublin Castle report was entirely accurate, and that the report of the Vice C[omman]dt VI Battalion was untrue in every detail and apparently based on nothing but hearsay.’ Buried DGC. His mother Mary secured a dependent’s gratuity of £75, whereas his fiancée Kitty Mooney failed to obtain anything.1119 George H. S. Duckham (22Jun1921/5) RIC (73329), 21, Milkman, ex-serviceman, Married with one child, Protestant Clondrohid, Macroom, Cork Duckham, from London, joined the RIC on 24 September 1920, stationed in Millstreet.

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His child was born a short time before his marriage in June 1921. He was returning to his station after his wedding in England, travelling from Macroom to Millstreet by horse and sidecar. Timothy Buckley, captain Clondrohid Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, got word of this. Duckham was captured at around 23:00 by a party led by Jim Twohig of Lackaduv: ‘As he [Duckham] had a bad record, he was shot that night.’ On his person was found a list of members of the ASU Millstreet Battalion. Some days later, Duckham’s father received documents from Macroom including a photograph and marriage certificate, as well as a letter stating that his son had been tried and executed on 22 June. Daniel Corkery, O/C 7th (Macroom) Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, stated that Duckham’s body was left on the roadside in the neighbourhood of Carriganimmy as ambush bait for the police. But locals buried it in Clashmaguire Bog, probably in hope of avoiding reprisals. Duckham’s widow, child and parents each secured £1,200 compensation.1120

23 JUNE 1921 Unknown Man or Woman (23Jun1921/1) Mullatee, Carlingford, Louth The shop and house of James Cunningham of Mullatee, midway between Carlingford and Greenore, Louth, was burned down by armed men at 02:00. The Dundalk Democrat reported that one of Cunningham’s sons was interned in the Curragh. Charred remains in the debris were claimed by the IRA to be those of ‘a B[lack] & T[an] with a revolver by his side’, whereas an army medical officer concluded they were those of a woman. The arson was believed to be a police reprisal for the IRA’s destruction nearby of the home of a Protestant farmer named Brown alleged to have given information resulting in the killing of the IRA’s John Joseph Magee.1121 SA: Magee (13May1921/1) Josephine Scannell (23Jun1921/2) 19, Tailoress, RC 12 French’s Quay, Cork At around 19:30 a bomb was thrown at Grand Parade RIC Barracks from a motor

car travelling from Washington Street. This was followed by indiscriminate firing as the car drove down Tuckey Street towards the South Gate Bridge. Although the IRA believed that ‘there must certainly have been several killed and wounded’, no police were hurt; several civilians were wounded and one killed. Laurence Scannell said that when he heard shooting at around 19:30 he went upstairs to call his sister Josie, who was at her sewing machine. He saw the window break, and she cried out that she was done. Shot in the base of the neck, she soon died. This attack was carried out by the Cork City ASU. Buried St Joseph’s Cemetery, Ballyphehane, Cork.1122 Joseph Blackburn (23Jun1921/3) 30, CoI RVHB Blackburn, of 52 Hillman Street, Belfast, regarded as a quiet and inoffensive man, was shot in the groin while walking home at Meadow Street on the evening of 13 June by gunfire from the North Queen Street area. He died ten days later. A confrontation had arisen between about twenty men and an RIC constable during which shots were fired.1123

24 JUNE 1921 Michael Dineen (24Jun1921/1) IRA, 23, RC Brookpark, Kilcorney, Rathcoole, Cork Dineen, from Tooreenbawn, Millstreet, Cork, was in the Kilcorney Company, Cork No. 2 Brigade. A large force of military and police supported by aircraft surrounded Kilcorney, where Liam Lynch,† divisional O/C, and Paddy O’Brien, vice-O/C Cork No. 2 Brigade, had been billeted but had just left. Dineen was taken from his brother Daniel’s house nearby by members of L Company, Auxiliary Division. He supposedly attempted to escape, striking two Auxiliaries before he ran into a field and was killed. The IRA reported that ‘after failing to get information, they . . . tortured him, bayonetted him, broke one of his legs’ and shot him. Six captured Kilcorney Company Volunteers were interned, and five

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IRA vehicles were seized from ‘our motor garage’. Buried Millstreet, Cork.1124 Charles Dowson (24Jun1921/2) 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales’s Own) (534083), 28, CoE Aghayalloge, Killeavy, Armagh Dowson was from Leeds. His unit provided a mounted escort for King George V on his historic visit to Belfast on 22 June. They boarded a military train for Dublin on 24 June. On board were 113 men, more than 100 horses and 4 officers. An IRA unit, under Frank Aiken, lay in ambush near Adavoyle Station, south of Newry. By one account, Aiken’s unit placed a mine which exploded under the guard’s van rather than beneath the passenger carriages as intended. Aiken’s own report to GHQ, by contrast, stated that two military trains were allowed to pass through the ambush site before a previously loosened length of rail was ‘lifted’. In the derailment that followed, at about 10:30, the luggage van and approximately a dozen cattle wagons ‘crashed down the embankment which was about 18 feet high’. A railway guard and three soldiers died, along with fifty horses (Aiken initially estimated that twenty-five enemy had been killed, and that locals told him that to date ‘80 horses have been buried’). The incident became known as the Adavoyle ambush. Dowson, who had been manning a Hotchkiss gun, was killed along with Trooper Carl Harper. The body of Frank Gallagher, the railway guard, was found pinned under one of the trucks. Private William Henry Telford died en route to hospital. Immediately after the derailment, a patrol of Hussars was organised on both sides of the railway line. Patrick McAteer, a farm labourer, was challenged about half a mile from the ambush site. He apparently failed to halt and was shot. He died in hospital at 23:00. Buried St Oswald Churchyard, Methley, Yorkshire (37). His father John secured £500 compensation. The GNR Company received £4,940 for wrecked rolling stock, as against £7,254 claimed, and the secretary of state for

war £3,513 for the loss of fifty horses and one mule and other damage, as against £6,379 claimed.1125 RD: Gallagher (24Jun1921/3), Harper (24Jun 1921/4), McAteer (24Jun1921/6), Telford (24Jun1921/5) Francis Gallagher (24Jun1921/3) 43, Railway guard, Married with three children, RC Aghayalloge, Killeavy, Armagh See Dowson (24Jun1921/2). Gallagher, of 7 Colin Park Street, Belfast, died from a fractured skull. His widow Sarah secured £700 compensation, and each of his children £400.1126 Carl Horace Harper (24Jun1921/4) 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales’s Own) (537772), 24, Married Aghayalloge, Killeavy, Armagh See Dowson (24Jun1921/2). Buried St Mary’s Churchyard, Walton, Suffolk. His widow Laura, of Folkestone, Kent, secured £1,250 compensation.1127 William Henry Telford (24Jun1921/5) 10th Royal Hussars (Prince of Wales’s Own), (534369), 19 Aghayalloge, Killeavy, Armagh See Dowson (24Jun1921/2). Private Telford was from Middlesbrough. Buried Linthorpe Cemetery, Middlesbrough. His mother Edith Bayes secured £250 compensation.1128 Patrick McAteer (24Jun1921/6) 21, Farm labourer, RC Louth Infirmary, Dundalk, Louth See Dowson (24Jun1921/2). From Flurrybridge, Armagh, McAteer died of wounds after he was shot by the military following the train derailment at Adavoyle.1129 Patrick Morrissey (24Jun1921/7) 6, child, RC Market Street, Ennis, Clare At about 15:45 Frank Keane and Pat O’Keeffe, both of Kilnamona, attempted to disarm two RIC constables shopping on O’Connell Street, Ennis. One was knocked down.

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However, both policemen retained their arms and fired, wounding and capturing their assailants. Delia Hewitt was hit in the thigh, and Patrick, son of John Morrissey of Ennis, fatally wounded. Buried Drumcliffe Cemetery, Ennis.1130 Leonard George Appleford (24Jun1921/8) ADRIC (73555), 27, Army officer, Married with one child Chatham Street, Dublin Appleford, from Essex, was commissioned in the MGC. He joined the Auxiliary Division RIC on 8 September 1920, becoming a section leader in F Company. GHQ detailed the entire ASU Dublin Brigade to attack military and Auxiliaries in and around Grafton Street, where they often congregated in Kidd’s Buffet (subsequently Jammet’s Restaurant, and more recently Lilly’s Bordello). Frank Saurin of GHQ intelligence described how this elaborate operation was disrupted by military checks on people crossing the Liffey bridges, which meant many Volunteers were missing. The attacks were timed to take place at 18:00. The IRA had Thompson machine guns which they intended to use in Kidd’s Buffet after entering from a laneway off Grafton Street. At exactly 18:00, Saurin was standing on the corner of Clarendon Street, waiting in vain for his squad, when two or three shots rang out. Paddy Rigney and Ned Kelliher had shot cadets Appleford and Warnes outside Hurley’s photography shop at 37 Grafton Street. Appleford was killed outright and Warnes died minutes after admission to hospital. Appleford’s widow Grace Hilda secured £1,000 compensation and his child £750.1131 RD: Warnes (24Jun1921/9) George Gerald Warnes (24Jun1921/9) ADRIC (80208), 29, Army officer Mercer’s See Appleford (24Jun1921/8). Warnes, from Suffolk, a Cambridge graduate, served in the Suffolk Regiment, seeing action in Gallipoli, Egypt and Palestine. He joined the Auxiliary

Division on 13 December 1920 (auxiliary number: 1214), attached to F Company.1132 George Henry Caen (24Jun1921/10) Manchester Regiment, 17 Ballincollig Military Barracks The CFR reports the death of Private Caen, who disappeared on 24 June 1921. Initially recorded as a deserter, it transpired that he had been kidnapped, killed and buried by the IRA. His remains were never recovered.1133

25 JUNE 1921 Arthur Treanor (25Jun1921/1) 47, Farmer, Married with five children, RC Davagh, Emyvale, Monaghan Treanor, from Dunmadigan, Emyvale, was president of the Davagh division of the AOH. As in other northern counties, the Monaghan IRA regarded the AOH as bitter enemies. Described by the Dundalk Democrat as ‘a steadfast and consistent supporter of the constitutional movement’, who ‘gave much of his time in devotion to the best interests of his country’, he served on Monaghan RDC for nine years, and on the local board of guardians. Joseph McKenna claimed that a raid on the mails uncovered a letter and cheque from Dublin Castle addressed to Treanor as payment for information concerning the local IRA. McKenna believed ‘this cheque was definite evidence that he was [a] paid informer’, although it seems scarcely credible that an informer would be paid by government cheque posted through the ordinary mail. James McKenna, captain Donagh Company, Monaghan Battalion, claimed that some AOH members were ‘very much opposed to the IRA and would not hesitate in giving information as to the houses frequented by us’. In their collective statement in the Marron Collection, Mohan et al. recalled that Treanor ‘was several times seen calling to Monaghan and Auchnacloy Barracks. He was warned more than once but persisted.’ McKenna stated that, as a result of information received by Dr Con Ward, Eoin O’Duffy ordered the killing of Treanor in the Bragan Company area.

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25 June 1921

Mary Treanor said that her husband had received threats after he had allegedly walked out of an RDC meeting in November 1920 at which a resolution was passed in sympathy with Terence MacSwiney and Kevin Barry. Around mid-December 1920, twenty men searched the family home and accused Treanor of giving information. He was blindfolded, threatened and fined £10. When the men returned ten days later, Treanor was not at home and Mary Treanor refused to pay. The same was so in January 1921 when masked men again called. After this, Treanor went to England, staying until mid-May. Patrick McGrory later claimed that Treanor, who was believed to have received an IRA safe conduct to return to Monaghan, ‘was too intensely Irish to stoop to betray a fellow Irishman’. Other Monaghan IRA veterans agreed, maintaining his innocence. At about 22:00 on 24 June, Treanor’s twelve-year-old daughter Kathleen ‘went to close the fowl house door’, returning because ‘she heard boys coming down the lane’. Three strangers with local accents sought her husband, but he had slipped out ahead of them. They searched the house and demanded the fine of £10. Mary paid it, and was assured her husband would be safe. Treanor returned at 02:00 and, expecting no further trouble, remained. At 04:45, the men came back and ordered Treanor to accompany them, saying ‘they had been ordered to come back to put my husband through a form of trial and that he would only get a caution’. His body was found, shot in the head, in a lane at Davagh – where he had a second farm (perhaps another reason for local animosity) – next day by Patrick McKenna, a neighbour. Pinned to it was a note reading, ‘Spies and Informers Beware, Tried and Convicted by IRA.’ A newspaper reported how, at his wake, ‘One of the little children went over to the body, caught one of the cold hands, and attempted to raise its daddy.’ Buried Carrickroe Cemetery, Emyvale. The AOH erected a Celtic cross over the grave.1134 SA: Barry (1Nov1920/5), MacSwiney (25Oct 1920/3)

Joseph Greensmyth (25Jun1921/2) 68, Railway signalman, Married with four children, RC Mallow, Cork See Bennett (31Jan1921/2). Joseph Greensmyth, born in Limerick, was a GS&WR signalman with forty-eight years’ service. He lived in West End, Mallow, and had four adult children. There were two favourable records on his card: one for presence of mind in averting a collision between two trains, for which he received a gratuity of £5, the other for remaining loyal during the 1911 railway strike. His widow Kate sought assistance from the GS&WR on 15 October 1921. The board awarded her 15s. per week, pending a court award being made. £700 compensation was eventually secured in February 1922.1135 Donald McKenzie (25Jun1921/3) Manchester Regiment, 19, Dock labourer Kinsale, Cork Private McKenzie, from Bootle, attested in Liverpool on 14 September 1920. Stationed in Cork, he died from wounds accidentally self-inflicted. Buried Anfield Cemetery, Liverpool.1136 Michael McNamara (25Jun1921/4) 30, Labourer, RC New Barracks, Limerick McNamara, a farmer’s son, lived on Park Road, Limerick. He was shot for failing to halt after an RIC patrol from William Street Barracks came under fire on Sarsfield Bridge. They replied, and a military party encountered three men whom they ordered to halt. Only one did so; McNamara was fatally wounded, and died that night. David Carroll, admitted to hospital on 27 June suffering from gunshot wounds, died two days after an operation on 1 July.1137 RD: Carroll (3Jul1921/4) Patrick Maher (25Jun1921/5) 40, Ex-serviceman, agricultural labourer, Married, RC Mount Kinane, Borrisoleigh, Tipperary Maher, who had served in the Boer War, lived in Mount Kinane, Borrisoleigh, Tipperary. At

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about 23:30, he was called out of his house. His body was found next morning beside the road about half a mile away, shot twice in the head. He was shot as a spy by an IRA party under Tommy Kirwan, the local company captain, having apparently ignored several warnings to desist from drinking with the police in Borrisoleigh. The Mount Kinane district was much used by IRA men on the run, and raids there by Crown forces suggested that a local was informing.1138

26 JUNE 1921 Thomas Nealon (26Jun1921/1) IRA, 26, Farmer, RC Clydagh, Ballycastle, Mayo US-born ‘Tommy’ Nealon, of Ballycastle, a scout guarding the North Mayo Brigade ASU, was shot by a police patrol at around 03:00. Five ASU members were captured. Buried Doonfeeny Cemetery, Ballycastle. His widowed mother Celia failed to secure a dependent’s gratuity, having previously received a £200 compensation payment.1139 Thomas Shanley (26Jun1921/2) RIC (65937), 30, Farmer, RC Kildorrery, Cork Shanley, from Leitrim, joined the RIC on 16 May 1911, allocated to Cork. He was shot by Volunteers of Cork No. 2 Brigade after leaving Sunday Mass around 10:00. His mother secured £750 compensation.1140 William Connolly (26Jun1921/3) 19, Farmer’s son, RC Rossoulty, Thurles, Tipperary Connolly, from Rossoulty, Thurles, was returning from a neighbour’s wake when challenged by a police patrol. Shot, he escaped to a neighbour’s house. He told his brother Philip that police had seized him by the neck, told him to move on a few steps, and then shot him when he did so. He died at 11:00 from abdominal wounds. Buried Templebeg Cemetery, Thurles.1141

William Frederick Hunt (26Jun1921/4) ADRIC (72296), 35, Army officer, Married with one child Mayfair Hotel, 30 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin Hunt, from Watford, served with the Royal Engineers, and in 1916 was commissioned in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. He joined the Auxiliary Division on 6 August 1920 (auxiliary number 104), serving in Q Company, stationed in the London & North Western Railway Hotel, North Wall, Dublin. Hunt and his wife Alice were staying in the Mayfair Hotel with a fellow Auxiliary, E. W. White, and his wife. They were in the dining room at 18:45 when a group of masked young men rushed in, shooting Hunt in his chair. He was then rolled over and shot at pointblank range in the chest. White was wounded: ‘Our men searched the bodies before leaving but only got some papers which are unimportant.’ Fourteen shots in all were fired. The killers were Pádraig Ó Conchubhair, Peter Larkin, Jack Hanlon, Jim O’Neill and James Tully. Ó Conchubhair, of No. 4 Section ASU Dublin Brigade, who was in charge, recalled that a maid brought them to the dining room. Screaming attracted an armoured car and the Volunteers had a narrow escape: one ‘lost a .45 revolver through mistaking a motor car to belong [sic] to our party’. Hunt’s widow Alice secured £1,200 compensation.1142 Patrick Clarke (26Jun1921/5) RIC (61068), 43, Farmer, RC Creevykeel Cross, Cliffoney, Sligo Clarke, from Mayo, joined the RIC on 15 October 1902. From September 1905, he was stationed in Cliffoney. He was shot as he approached a shop to buy cigarettes by a Sligo Brigade party which had planned to ambush a regular patrol.1143 Mary Parnell (26Jun1921/6) 30, Widowed with one child Kyle Street, Cork Mary (née Fletcher), from Cork, lived at 11 Kryl’s Quay. Her husband Victor had been killed in France during the war. At about 20:00, Seán Twomey, O/C Cork City ASU, escaped from his guards while being put into

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an armoured car. Sergeant E. Roberts and other soldiers of the Manchester Regiment fired at him as he ran towards Kyle Street and took shelter in Bradley’s pub, where he was recaptured. Mary Parnell was found mortally wounded, most of her face and the top of her head shot away.1144 Alex McDonald (26Jun1921/7) RIC (75635), 25, Motor driver, ex-serviceman, Presbyterian Dundalk, Louth McDonald, from Caithness, joined the RIC on 17 November 1920, stationed in Dundalk. Reported missing on 26 June, the RIC General Register recorded ‘no evidence to explain his disappearance’. Stephen O’Donnell recalled his father and McLoughlin, both IRA veterans, discussing the killing of the Watters brothers: McLoughlin stated that he shot one of those responsible, a Black and Tan, a few days later. This may have been McDonald.1145 SA: Watters (18Jun1921/1), Watters (18Jun 1921/2) Thomas Smith (26Jun1921/8) 40, Ex-serviceman, RC Bective, Meath Smith, one of five sons of Patrick Smith of Kilmessan, Meath, had been wounded with the Leinster Regiment at the Dardanelles. He went into Navan to inquire about his pension papers and was not seen alive again. At around 21:00 on 5 July, Thomas Plunkett of Bective was fishing in the River Boyne when he hooked a submerged body. The police recovered and identified Smith’s body on 6 July. His arms were tied behind his back, barbed wire had been tightly drawn around his feet, body and arms, and iron weights, including the axle of a cart, had been lashed to him. Decomposition had set in. He had died from drowning. His father secured £294 compensation.1146

27 JUNE 1921 Edgar Ernest Day (27Jun1921/1) RIC (77676), 23, Labourer, ex-serviceman Milltown, Galway Day, from Nottingham, enlisted in 1916. He joined the RIC on 13 January 1921, stationed

in Milltown. He was shot in the chest, and Sergeant Murren in the abdomen, at 00:45 when a five-man RIC patrol was attacked near their barracks by an IRA party under Thomas Dunleavy, O/C Tuam Battalion. By ‘firing on our position at a terrible rate’, supported by fire from the barracks, a constable prevented the IRA from capturing weapons. Buried Nottingham. His parents each secured £600 compensation.1147 RD: Murren (27Jun1921/2) James Murren (27Jun1921/2) RIC (57292), 45, Farmer, RC Milltown, Galway See Day (27Jun1921/1). Murren, from Riverstown, Sligo, joined the RIC on 15 November 1895, allocated to Galway. Promoted to sergeant in 1918, stationed in Milltown, his discharge papers had been delayed. Buried Collooney, Sligo. His two sisters and their children secured £1,260 compensation.1148 William Henderson (27Jun1921/3) 21, Chauffeur, CoI Union Hospital, The Rock, Ballyshannon, Donegal Henderson, a chauffeur for the Motor Engineering Works, Sligo, living on The Mall, was shot when he failed to halt at a roadblock near Finner Camp. In his dying deposition, Henderson, deaf since childhood, said he heard no challenge.1149 Frederick Crowther (27Jun1921/4) South Staffordshire Regiment, 25, CoE St Luke’s, Cork Crowther, from Springfields, Wolverhampton, was stationed in Cork. At 22:15 privates Crowther, Spooner and Evans were returning unarmed to Victoria Barracks from Mayfield village when attacked by nine men who jumped over a fence and ordered Spooner and Evans to put their hands up while firing. Spooner, wounded in the chest and side, was helped to the barracks by Evans. A search party found Crowther, who had stepped through a hedge to relieve himself, dead in a field next day. Buried Holy Trinity Churchyard, Heath Town, Staffordshire

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(NG. 11. 27). He is commemorated on the Springfields war memorial.1150 Walter Leo Murphy (27Jun1921/5) IRA, 20, RC Waterfall, Cork Murphy, from Ballincollig, Cork, succeeded Tim Herlihy as O/C 3rd (Ovens) Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, following Herlihy’s arrest in June 1921. He was also O/C ASU 3rd Battalion. Murphy attended a meeting of the local IRA company, under cover of a bowling match which attracted a large crowd. Afterwards, they went into Donovan’s pub in Waterfall. They left their weapons in the porch. The military raided the pub shortly after 23:00. Murphy was shot as he rushed for his rifle, most likely by Lieutenant Vining of the Manchester Regiment, who had succeeded Captain Joseph Thompson, whom Murphy had killed in November 1920, as his unit’s intelligence officer. A deserter later told the IRA that ‘Vining boasted it was himself that shot Leo Murphy’. Many arrests were made at the scene. Michael O’Regan, who succeeded Murphy as battalion O/C, claimed that Murphy’s body was identified by a policeman named O’Sullivan, and that those arrested were forced to tread on the corpse as they were loaded onto lorries for Ballincollig. O’Regan shot and wounded O’Sullivan about a fortnight before the Truce while he attended a rugby match in Cork city. The police believed that Murphy, on the run since 1919, was involved in the kidnapping of lieutenants Chambers, Green and Watts and the murders of Captain Thompson, Daniel McCarthy and Henry Bloxham. In October 1921 the Cork No. 1 Brigade captured and imprisoned a deserter from Ballincollig named Charles Kirkman, aged thirty-three, of the Manchester Regiment. His ‘knowledge of the “Leo Murphy” murder suggests a familiarity with this regrettable incident’. It is not clear whether Kirkman was released or killed. Buried SFC.1151 SA: Bloxham (21Jan1921/1), Chambers (22Nov1920/12), Green (22Nov1920/13), McCarthy (28May1921/3), Thompson (20Nov1920/3), Watts (22Nov1920/14)

28 JUNE 1921 William Horgan (28Jun1921/1) IRA, 20, Railway fireman, RC Lavitt’s Quay, Cork Horgan, of 254 Dillon’s Cross, Cork, was a GS&WR fireman. At about 02:00, he and another man were arrested near Dillon’s Cross. The Crossley tender carrying them broke down near the Opera House. While the driver was performing repairs, the officer in charge took the prisoners out to search them. When a document was found in Horgan’s pocket, he tried to grab the officer’s revolver. There was a short struggle during which Horgan was shot. The other prisoner escaped.1152 Owen Hoey (28Jun1921/2) RIC (78183), 23, Naval rating, RC St James’s Walk, Dublin Hoey, from Monaghan, had served in the DMP before joining the RIC on 25 January 1921. Stationed in Carlow, while in Dublin on business he visited his sister Mary Clancy in Dolphin’s Barn. Before leaving at around 17:00 to catch a train at Kingsbridge Station, he said he felt a marked man. Pádraig Ó Conchubhair of No. 4 Section ASU Dublin Brigade ‘followed him . . . down the narrow passage on to what is known as “the back of the pipes”. He was, however, suspicious for as we drew close to him he turned and drew a revolver and opened fire on us. We returned the fire.’ Hoey’s three killers ‘captured one short Webley and 6 rds [rounds] for same’, but overlooked dispatches he was carrying. Buried Carrickmacross, Monaghan.1153 John Crimmin (28Jun1921/3) 24, Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC Barrington’s Hospital, Limerick Crimmin, of John’s Square, was at Limerick Railway Station seeing a friend off on 27 June. At about 18:00, civilians were seen running away across a field after shots were, allegedly, fired from near a signal box. Members of H Company, Auxiliary Division, fired on them when they failed to halt. Crimmin was later found in a nearby house, wounded in the back and abdomen. An operation proved unsuccessful and he died at 08:00.1154

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Richard Crawford Warren (28Jun1921/4) Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 22, CoE Limerick Warren, born in Nainital, India, son of Colonel Percy Bliss Warren, was educated at Gresham’s School, Holt, and Sandhurst. Commissioned in the Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in 1916, he won an MC in France. In December 1918 he received a bar to his MC for ‘conspicuous gallantry in leading a party to rush an enemy machine-gun’, putting it out of action. He served in north Russia before joining the regiment in Clare, where he was said ‘on several occasions’ to have ‘acted like a brute to unarmed civilians’. Warren led an eleven-man patrol to Ballynahinch to prevent rebels from blocking roads. While returning to Tulla Workhouse at about 02:00, they were attacked at Fortane Cross in what became known as the ‘Four Roads’ ambush. An IRA party which had lain in ambush were in the process of withdrawing when O/C Mattie McGrath found himself ‘within 3 yards’ of a British officer, who ‘fired at me and missed. I . . . shot him through the chest.’ Two soldiers were wounded, and the IRA withdrew. Warren died in Limerick at 21:30. Buried St Michael’s Churchyard, Cheriton, Hampshire.1155 Charles James Daly (28Jun1921/5) IRA, 30, Clerk, RC Douglas, Cork Daly was captain D Company, 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. On 27 June, a party of the Manchester Regiment raided Donovan’s pub in Waterfall and shot Walter Leo Murphy dead. Twenty-three customers were detained as suspected members of the 3rd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. They included Daly, wanted for the murder of Leonard Hodnett on 28 February 1921. Lieutenant H. Hammond of the Dorset Regiment told a court of inquiry on 30 June that he had interrogated Daly at about 22:00 on 28 June. Daly denied murdering Hodnett, though he later said that he had been captain of D Company but had stood down two

years previously. However, he still knew the location of an arms dump. Hammond took Daly in a Crossley tender to locate the dump, warning him that he would be shot if he attempted to escape. Daly directed Hammond to take the Douglas to Carrigaline road, but then feigned uncertainty. When the tender was near Mount Vernon he indicated that he thought it was the place. When they dismounted and moved through a field, Daly dashed away. He was fired on and critically wounded in the head and abdomen, and died before medical attention could be obtained. In the absence of witnesses who might challenge this problematic account, the court ruled that Daly was lawfully killed. A medical examination disclosed extensive injuries, including bayonet wounds. These and other evidence convinced his family that he had been tortured and murdered in custody. Buried SFC.1156 SA: Hodnett (28Feb1921/13), Murphy (27Jun 1921/5) Patrick John Sheehan (28Jun1921/6) 26, Carter, RC Clonmore, Charleville, Cork In their joint BMH statement, Michael Geary and Richard Smith of Charleville recalled that Patrick John Sheehan and John ‘Slag’ O’Sullivan, both locals, came under ‘grave suspicion . . . and were acting as spies’. They were seen leaving the RIC barracks over the rear wall. When the RIC barracks was relocated to the outskirts of the town, Sheehan and O’Sullivan were spotted by Joe Nagle, a Volunteer whose harness maker’s workshop looked onto the RIC barracks and who noted all their visitors. It was alleged that O’Sullivan and Sheehan had been ‘stool-pigeons’ with IRA prisoners in Tipperary town and Buttevant. When arrested, O’Sullivan apparently admitted his guilt under questioning. Following that disappearance, Sheehan apparently did not leave his home for a fortnight. Mary Sheehan described how on 18 June a man arranged with her son to bring coal to Ballyagran Creamery in Limerick. Sheehan delivered the coal at 18:30 on 28 June, but she did not see him again.

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Sheehan and O’Sullivan were tried together in a court martial presided over by Jim Brislane, O/C 4th (Charleville) Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade. Liam Lynch† was also present. They were then killed. Lieutenant G. Pridden, MGC, deposed that he received information at 13:15 on 29 June about two bodies on the roadside. Sheehan and O’Sullivan had been shot in the head. Attached labels read: ‘Convicted spies, beware. IRA.’ The court returned a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown. The RIC reported that neither man had ever given information. Buried Limerick.1157 RD: O’Sullivan (28Jun1921/7) John O’Sullivan (28Jun1921/7) 17, Labourer, RC Clonmore, Charleville, Cork See Sheehan (28Jun1921/6). Buried Ballysally, Charleville, Cork.1158 James Doherty (alias Boland) (28Jun1921/8) 23, Ex-serviceman, Married, RC Athlunkard Bridge, Corbally, Limerick Doherty had lost an arm while in the Leinster Regiment. He had a pension of £1.4s. per week. He was abducted from his home on Mungret Street, Limerick, on 25 June. Held for two days, he was taken by boat to the Athlunkard Bridge in Corbally, the party ‘having to lie flat to avoid a military searchlight’. He was then killed by shots to the chest and head. Patrick Hayes, D Company, 2nd Battalion, Mid Limerick Brigade, later claimed involvement. His body bore a label stating: ‘Tried, convicted and duly executed by IRA. Men and women, spies and traitors beware.’ Doherty’s father believed his son came under suspicion because he was ‘chummy’ with the police. Doherty’s widow secured £700 compensation.1159 Manus O’Donnell (28Jun1921/9) 31, RC Infirmary, Lifford, Donegal O’Donnell, from Ballindrait, Lifford, died of wounds received when shot for failing to halt when challenged on 26 June by a picket of Rifle Brigade soldiers guarding a wireless station.1160

29 JUNE 1921 Hugh Newman (29Jun1921/1) 37, Ex-serviceman, farmer, Married, RC Lisdeegan, Cavan Newman and his wife lived on a smallholding at Lisdeegan, five miles from Cavan. At around 01:30 two men took him away barefooted. His body was found next day in a nearby field, blindfolded and with hands tied behind his back, shot four times. A note tied around his neck read: ‘ira, tried and convicted spy.’ About a week beforehand, Newman had applied to join the Veterans Corps in County Meath but had received no reply. Described by the RIC as ‘a man who spoke his mind freely . . . a strong opponent of S[inn] F[ein] and said so’, he was unpopular with local republicans; this increased after the arrest and internment of his neighbour Owen McCaul. Newman had received a threatening letter two months before his death.1161 John Buckley (29Jun1921/2) IRA, 21, Agricultural labourer, Married, RC Gortdrum, Tipperary, Tipperary Buckley, born in Cappawhite, Tipperary, and his pregnant wife Alice lived on the farm of Peter Moloney of Gortdrum, an uncle of Patrick Moloney. A member of E (Solohead) Company, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, he had previously been arrested but released. At 01:45 he answered his door. Unidentified men ordered him to get dressed, took him outside and shot him in the chest and abdomen 10 yards from his house. A note declared him a spy, but Tadhg Crowe maintained that the killers were police: ‘There was no doubt’ about Buckley’s integrity. Brian Shanahan, speaking in the 1960s, said he believed Buckley was killed lest he realise who had given the police information which led to the deaths of Seán Duffy and Paddy Moloney. Alice Buckley later gave birth to twins. Her son John died within a few years. She settled in the US in 1925 and remarried, leaving her daughter Mary, who only died in 2011, in the care of her family. An alternative local version is that Buckley was killed by Dan Breen and others for

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allegedly betraying the whereabouts of Duffy and Moloney.1162 SA: Duffy (1May1921/8), Moloney (1May 1921/9) Timothy Murphy (29Jun1921/3) 22, Ex-serviceman, naval rating, RC Old Market Place, Cork Murphy, formerly of the South Irish Horse, of 24 Blarney Street, had recently joined the Navy under the name ‘Jeremiah Mullane’. He was shot by a curfew patrol of the South Staffordshire Regiment for failing to halt in Old Market Place, off Cattle Lane.1163 James Grogan (29Jun1921/4) 43, Labourer, RC Feakle, Clare Grogan, from Core, Feakle, was shot by Private O. C. H. Biggs, Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, because he ‘made for some scrub bushes’ when challenged near a freshly dug trench on the road.1164 Patrick McCarthy (29Jun1921/5) IRA, Shop manager, RC Annagh, Headford, Kerry A report to GHQ described how McCarthy, of No. 5 ASU, Kerry No. 2 Brigade, accidentally shot himself in the head while dismounting from a sidecar. From College Street, Killarney, he had been on the run since November 1920. His father Cornelius failed to secure a dependent’s award in 1933, although he had received a total of £130 from the Irish White Cross because of ‘raids galore’ on his premises in 1920–21. In December 1924 Kerry No. 2 Brigade had still to reimburse Cornelius £8.10s. for funeral expenses.1165

30 JUNE 1921 Joseph H. Bourke (30Jun1921/1) RIC (71315), 21, Ex-serviceman, RC RIC Barracks, Templemore, Tipperary Bourke, born in Cork on 22 April 1900, joined the RIC on 27 April 1920, stationed in Templemore. At about 02:30 constables Bourke and Sheehan exchanged blows after Sheehan found his bedclothes disturbed.

When Sheehan reported the scuffle, the DI told him ‘that this was no time to come with a trivial complaint & if there was anything in it it would be seen to in the morning. He apologized & went away.’ Sheehan then took a revolver, went upstairs and confronted Bourke, who shouted, ‘Mercy, mercy Sheehan.’ Sheehan shot him twice in the chest. Bourke ran downstairs and collapsed in the dayroom. As a colleague lifted him, he said, ‘I am dying. God forgive you Sheehan.’ Sheehan told a superior: ‘I did it in the ordinary course . . . I will abide the consequences I would allow nobody to beat the head off me. I would shoot my brother under the circumstances if I had one.’ Sheehan was arrested. A court martial on 17 August accepted medical evidence that he ‘had constant delusions of persecution’, and had told a doctor, ‘Everybody is down on me, and I am tormented by everybody.’ His plea of insanity was accepted.1166 Edward Weir (30Jun1921/2) 32, Herdsman, Married with one child, RC Knockalaghta, Ballintober, Roscommon Weir and his pregnant wife Kate were woken at 03:00 by two masked men whom Kate thought did not sound local. They ordered Weir to accompany them. About fifteen minutes later, she heard one shot. Weir’s body was found at 05:00 about 500 yards from the house, shot in the head. Further enquiries revealed that Weir had been an active member of Sinn Féin until February 1921, when he married and apparently cut his links with the movement. Although a herdsman, he had not been concerned in any land agitation or summonses for trespass which might have created personal enemies. The Last Post claimed that he was killed by Auxiliaries. Buried Ballintober Graveyard, Roscommon. His widow secured £2,000 compensation. Her child and unborn child were each awarded £500.1167 Michael McEneaney (30Jun1921/3) IRA, 26, Agricultural labourer, RC Carrickaduff, Carnagh, Armagh ‘Mick’ McEneaney from Billeady, Annyalla, Castleblayney, Monaghan, served in the

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Annyalla Company. He died in a poorly planned and executed IRA operation. At around 06:00, eighteen Volunteers of the Clontibret and Annyalla companies occupied a railway embankment parallel to the Keady to Castleblayney road. Ten had rifles, the remainder shotguns. This position commanded the road on which a police party was expected to escort the bread van of Bernard Hughes, who was breaking the boycott on Belfast goods, as it travelled from Keady. A scout reported the convoy’s approach, but it was still half a mile away when a shout was heard: ‘The Tans are on the railway bridge.’ Auxiliaries in two Crossley tenders had been conducting searches in Derrynoose and, taking a wrong turn, came out on the bridge above the railway line. This gave them a clear view of the IRA position. They opened up with Lewis guns. The IRA had little cover as they fled through the fields. The majority retreated towards Annyalla. However, Carragher, Michael and Tom McEneaney went towards the Carnagh road. They crawled along the railway embankment but were spotted and shot. Carragher was seriously wounded and the two McEneaneys were killed. Carragher recovered after four months in hospital. DI Captain C. Thomas, F Company, Auxiliary Division, described how at 14:30 on 30 June at the turnoff for Derrynoose on the Castleblayney to Keady road his patrol spotted an armed civilian on the railway line, with another fifteen near an embankment. Fire was exchanged. Two IRA were killed and one wounded. The McEneaneys were buried in the same grave, marked by an ornamental Celtic cross, at Annyalla Churchyard, Castleblayney, Monaghan. Their father Bernard secured a gratuity of £50.1168 RD: McEneaney (30Jun1921/4) Thomas McEneaney (30Jun1921/4) IRA, 26, Agricultural labourer, RC Carrickaduff, Carnagh, Armagh See McEneaney (30Jun1921/3). McEneaney, of Corlealackagh, Castleblayney, Monaghan, was in the Annyalla Company.1169

Richard Pearson (30Jun1921/5) 24, Farmer, Protestant Coolacrease House, Cadamstown, Offaly Richard was the eldest son of William Pearson, who in 1911 had purchased a farm of 340 acres at Coolacrease, Cadamstown, four miles from Kinnitty, Offaly. This purchase may have incurred local resentment. Richard managed the farm with his brother Abraham. Michael Cordial, quartermaster 3rd Battalion, Offaly No. 2 Brigade, told the BMH that the Pearson family were ‘violently opposed to the national movement and they looked with contempt on local Volunteers’. They had challenged two Volunteers trying to block a road by felling a tree on their land in late June, ordering them to clear off. When the Volunteers would not go, the Pearsons fetched two guns and fired, wounding Mick Heaney in the stomach. They were also alleged to be in frequent contact with Crown forces, and implicated in the arrests of local IRA men. Paddy Heaney stated that military personnel were frequently seen leaving the Pearson home. Brigade staff ordered that all four male Pearsons should be killed and their house burned. The O/C Offaly wrote that ‘warning in such cases is useless. The only result in a few cases here in which suspected spies were warned was that these men joined the Black & Tans.’ Thirty IRA men from A Company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Offaly Brigade, including Michael Seery, James Owens and Joseph Scully, entered Coolacrease House at around 16:00. The family were held for about an hour in the dining room. The house was searched and the raiders took bicycles and some clothes. They then scattered hay around the house and sprinkled petrol over it before ordering everyone out. Susan Pearson described how her two brothers were placed against a wall in the yard and shot. Her father and brother Sidney were away at a wedding in Tipperary. The IRA left towards Frankford. Richard Pearson was killed outright; Abraham died the next day in hospital. The obvious sectarian and agrarian resonances of these killings were an embarrassment to the IRA in Offaly, an area of

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operations where precious little was achieved against Crown forces during the War of Independence. This is reflected in the highly stilted and formulaic justifications offered in BMH statements, and in the persistent unfounded charge that the Pearsons had been ‘promoting the Ulster Volunteer movement in their district in which there are a number of “Planters”’, and were therefore legitimate targets for assassination. Buried Ballacolla, Laois. The Pearsons were Cooneyite (a very small Protestant evangelical sect). ‘Three pigs, a cart, and a set of harnesses’ were later taken from the farm. William Pearson secured £1,000 compensation for the loss of Richard and £500 for Abraham, with £5,000 towards the restoration of the dwelling house and offices. The remaining members of the family immigrated to Australia.1170 RD: Pearson (1Jul1921/5) Hugh Gabbie (30Jun1921/6) USC, 52, Ex-serviceman, Married with five children, Presbyterian General Hospital, Newry, Down Special Constable Gabbie, formerly of the Royal Irish Rifles, lived at 105 East Street, Newtownards, Down. He was walking in plain clothes on the footpath outside the market in John Mitchel Place, Newry, at about 16:00 when two gunmen emerged from the crowd and fired at him. Wounded in the abdomen, he staggered along the street before collapsing, and died shortly afterwards. A boy named John Chambers from Newtownhamilton was hit in the knee. Following this shooting, there was considerable police and military activity in the locality: four Catholics taken from their homes during the night were later found dead. Gabbie’s widow Jane secured £800 compensation and each of his four children £400.1171 SA: Hickey (1Jul1921/2) Owen McCarron (30Jun1921/7) 64, Farmer, Married with nine children, RC Cockhill, Buncrana, Donegal McCarron lived in Hilltown, Buncrana. His children ranged in age from three to twentythree years. At about 21:00 McCarron, who was deaf, went to fetch a cow from a field. A

Dorsetshire Regiment patrol near Cockhill, Buncrana, saw him cross the railway line adjacent to his own holding. He was challenged but, beyond momentarily stopping, continued on his way. A warning shot was fired, to no effect. A second round was fired but McCarron still did not halt. A third round killed him.1172 Unknown Smith or Smyth (30Jun1921/8) Soldier Ovens, Cork In 1924, Jeremiah McCarthy of Ovens, Cork, reported that a soldier secretly buried on his land in 1921 deserved ‘a proper burial. . . . He is surely somebody’s boy.’ Garda inquiries indicated that the IRA had killed a private named Smith or Smyth, stationed at Ballincollig, around June 1921. A search yielded fragments of a British uniform and some bones. Although uncertain about identification, the British authorities took custody of the remains in 1925.1173

1 JULY 1921 William Freeney (1Jul1921/1) IRA, 25, Groom, RC Athenry, Galway Freeney, from Derrydonnell, near Athenry, Galway, was captain Derrydonnell Company IRA. Employed in the local agricultural station, he played with the local hurling club. He may possibly have been involved in the killing of Francis Shawe-Taylor in March 1920. At 01:00 the pavilion of the County Galway Tennis and Cricket Club in Athenry was set on fire by Volunteers from the Cussane and Derrydonnell companies, Galway No. 1 Brigade, because ‘the military used to play there, and so on. . . . There was an explosion. It was of petrol.’ Charred remains were discovered in the cellar. Only the trunk remained; a doctor could not even ‘identify the sex’. Three petrol cans were found, as well as a silver watch ‘stopped at 12.35 a.m.’, a buckle and a bicycle. The remains were buried unclaimed in Athenry. The Connacht Tribune stated that on 15 September 1921 Freeney’s parents

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received a letter of sympathy from the O/C Galway Brigade, IRA, on their son’s death. On 17 September, the remains were exhumed and buried in the family burial ground at Derrydonnell. The inscription on the coffin stated that Freeney died accidentally. A comrade, Thomas Kennedy, had been badly burned while ‘attempting to get to him’. The tennis club obtained £700 compensation. His mother Mary secured a £75 dependent’s gratuity.1174 SA: Shawe-Taylor (3Mar1920/1) William J. Hickey (1Jul1921/2) 28, Shop manager, RC Lisdrumgullion, Newry, Down Hickey was apparently killed in reprisal for the shooting some hours earlier in Newry of Hugh Gabbie. Born in Manchester to Irish parents, he moved to Newry in 1915 and lodged at 13 Kilmorey Street. Manager of J. J. McAreavey’s furniture shop, he was active in the shop assistants’ union but took no part in politics. He was also in the St Vincent de Paul Society and St Colman’s Hurling Club. Edward Fullerton, captain Newry Company, described how at the beginning of July disguised RIC and USC raided his house, but failed to find him. They then sought Bob Kelly, whose mother warned him in time to escape. The party next went to Kilmorey Street, where William McGuigan answered the door to an armed man with a black mask who said he was a policeman and asked for Hickey. He and another man went upstairs and pulled Hickey from his bed, driving him away in a lorry. At 08:15 next morning a boy found his body in a cattle shed on the Armagh road, just outside Newry, in the townland of Lisdrumgullion. Fullerton stated that, in addition to gunshot wounds, Hickey had been chained to the back of the lorry and dragged for some distance along the road. His clothes and portions of flesh were torn off his body: Apparently, when they left him . . . they tore his heart out and left it lying on his breast. . . . They wanted a victim that night apparently and, having failed to get either myself or Bob

Kelly, as a last resort they picked on the unfortunate William Hickey.

A post-mortem described Hickey’s injuries: he had been shot in the left chest, and had ‘puncture wounds’ on his left arm. Because a label bearing the words ‘Convicted Spy – IRA’ had been attached to the body, an inquest jury returned a verdict of murder by some unknown person or persons of the IRA. This was subsequently questioned. Fr F. J. O’Hare claimed that Hickey was murdered as a reprisal for a crime with which he had ‘neither association nor sympathy. He was murdered because he was a Catholic, and by slandering assassins who not only took his life, but stooped still further to defame his memory.’ Buried St Mary’s Old Chapel Cemetery, Newry. His mother and sisters, who lived in Manchester, secured £800 compensation.1175 SA: Gabbie (30Jun1921/5) Thomas Higgins (1Jul1921/3) RIC (62730), 37, Farmer, RC Culleens, Sligo From Caltra, Galway, Higgins joined the RIC on 1 July 1907, stationed in Dromore West. John P. Brennan, then vice-O/C 3rd Battalion, Sligo Brigade, told the BMH that in June 1921 he and other members of the ASU from Cloonacool, Sligo, helped rob a grocer, whom they knew would report the crime, drawing out a police patrol. The ruse worked. A seven-man patrol from Dunmore West was ambushed by two IRA sections. Constable Carley was wounded in both arms. Constables Higgins and John King, who were leading, were taken prisoner by the second IRA section. The four remaining constables returned fire. A passing motor car was sent to Easkey for reinforcements. The two RIC prisoners were taken away towards Gleneaskey. Police and military reinforcements from Easkey, Sligo and Ballina, under DI W. E. White, quickly arrived and pursued the IRA, who after ‘a short Council of War . . . decided to shoot’ their prisoners: ‘We gave them a short few seconds in which to say their prayers. King pleaded hard for mercy.’ Higgins, ‘who was younger . . . pleaded hard

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and he cried and again pleaded with us’. After a running fight ensued in which several IRA men were believed wounded, the police party found Higgins already dead, and King dying. The IRA believed that ‘before dying’ he said ‘it was Enniscrone men killed him’ and mounted patrols to protect that village.1176 RD: King (1Jul1921/4) John King (1Jul1921/4) RIC (63068), 36, Farmer, Married, RC Culleens, Sligo See Higgins (1Jul1921/3). King, from Roundstone, Galway, joined the RIC on 26 September 1907, serving in Cork city and Belfast before transfer to Sligo in 1915, stationed in Dromore West.1177 Abraham Pratt Pearson (1Jul1921/5) 19, Farmer’s son, Protestant Crinkle Military Barracks, Birr, Offaly See Pearson (30Jun1921/5).1178 Bernard Moynihan (1Jul1921/6) IRA, 19, Farmer’s son, RC Rathcoole, Millstreet, Cork Moynihan, US-born but living in Shankill, Kilcorney, and a comrade from the Kilcorney Company, Millstreet Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade, were ‘working a mowing machine’ in a field when approached by Auxiliaries, who opened fire when they ran. The police afterwards said there had been an ambush, a claim dismissed by the IRA as ‘a falsehood there was no attack nor contemplated one [sic]’. Moynihan was killed.1179 Joseph Shelsher (1Jul1921/7) RIC (70853), 23, Packer, ex-serviceman, Protestant Barnlough, Bansha, Tipperary Shelsher, from London, joined the RIC on 23 March 1920, stationed in Bansha. He was off duty when killed at about 22:00 at Barnlough. The authorities maintained a shotgun round had been fired into each eye from close range. His body was found next day by a labourer on his way to work. Buried England. He was posthumously awarded the constabulary medal.1180

Francis Sullivan (1Jul1921/8) 38, Labourer, RC Cahermore Road, Rosscarbery, Cork Sullivan had worked for the Whitley family of Rosscarbery for over twenty years, and lived on their premises until the IRA burned it down. He afterwards lived with Patrick Keohane. Peter Hart stated that Sullivan was president of an anti-republican branch of the Irish Land and Labour Association. At around 23:00 armed men came to Keohane’s house and took Sullivan. His body was found, shot in the head, at 05:30 next day on the Cahermore road. An attached label stated that anyone giving information to the Auxiliaries or police would meet with the same fate.1181 Edward Landers (1Jul1921/9) IRA, Shoemaker, 40, Married with four children, RC Ballykinlar Internment Camp, Down Landers, of Lismore, Waterford, a lieutenant in the Lismore Company, West Waterford Brigade, died of erysipelas while interned. He had given the name Healy, by which he was known locally, when arrested, and this appeared on his death certificate. His widow Alice secured a dependent’s weekly grant of 17s.6d., eventually increased to £250 annually, with allowances for each child.1182

2 JULY 1921 Francis Creedon (2Jul1921/1) RIC (60464), 41, Farmer, Married with two children, RC Tallow, Waterford Constable Creedon, from Millstreet, Cork, joined the RIC on 16 October 1901.1183 He served in Armagh, Kerry and Cork before transfer to Waterford in 1916. His wife was expecting their third child. At about 10:30 nine policemen under Head Constable Cornelius Sugrue were patrolling in Tallow when they came under rifle and machine-gun fire from the ASU 1st (Fermoy) Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade, which had been in position since 03:00. Creedon died in the first volley. Buried Millstreet, Cork. A court decision on his widow Hannah’s compensation application was adjourned until after the birth of the child she was carrying.1184

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Andrew Johnstone (2Jul1921/2) RIC (65864), 28 Boherdota, Oola, Limerick Johnstone, from Dublin, joined the RIC on 4 July 1911, serving in Carlow before transfer to Limerick in 1917. He was promoted to sergeant in 1921, stationed in Oola. The ASU Tipperary No. 3 Brigade under James Kilmartin held up a train about 200 yards from Boherdota Bridge. Belfast boycott goods were removed and set on fire to attract the police. The IRA took up a commanding position on the embankment, and fired on an RIC patrol investigating the burning. Johnston was killed, and Constable William Hill died within minutes. Buried Dublin. His father secured £600 compensation.1185 RD: Hill (2Jul1921/3) William Hill (2Jul1921/3) RIC (74942), 20, Labourer, Royal Marine, Married with two children, Protestant Boherdota, Oola, Limerick See Johnstone (2Jul1921/2). Hill, from Liverpool, was stationed in Oola. Buried Liverpool. His widow Alice secured £2,500 compensation.1186 Patrick Keelan (2Jul1921/4) 64, Thatcher, RC Kilmainhamwood, Meath Seán Farrelly, vice-O/C Meath Brigade, claimed that Keelan was on intimate terms with the police and the local IRA thought him an informer. Imprisoned for some weeks in a disused house, he was severely cautioned and released. According to Farrelly, this was misplaced leniency because Keelan brought the RIC to where he had been imprisoned and the building was burned to the ground. He was subsequently rearrested. He reportedly disappeared on 2 July. He was tried by court martial and killed. His body was probably buried in Bohermeen Bog.1187 Lawrence Ganley (2Jul1921/5) KOYLI, 21, RC KGVH Private Ganley died from a bullet wound to his left thigh, inflicted while en route to

Dublin on the SS Minerva. Buried Wakefield Cemetery, Yorkshire (K RC1155).1188 William Creedon (2Jul1921/6) IRA, 25, Agricultural labourer, RC CMHC Volunteer Creedon, from Sleaveen West, Macroom, of the 7th (Macroom) Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, was arrested on 28 May and sentenced to three months’ hard labour. He was badly beaten up after arrest, and upon arrival in Spike Island showed a comrade ‘his left side and stomach which were all discoloured’. He reported sick every day for three weeks, and was eventually moved to Cork Military Hospital on 1 July, where he died next day. His death certificate stated ‘peritonitis’. His mother Mary secured a £50 dependent’s gratuity, and later an allowance.1189

3 JULY 1921 Kathleen Kelleher (3Jul1921/1) 17, Embroiderer, RC Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin Kathleen Kelleher, daughter of Thomas and Bridget Kelleher, lived at 14 Muckross Parade. She was killed by Constable John McCansh (80625), newly recruited to the RIC, near the RIC depot in the Phoenix Park. He turned up a little late to meet her at 15:30. Her two friends went off, leaving her with McCansh. They sat down under some trees near a military post. He shot Kathleen in the head while removing his gun from his hip pocket. Seeking help from passing soldiers – ‘I have just shot a young girl . . . She was only a kid. What shall I do?’ – he was arrested, and Kathleen was brought to hospital in a commandeered motor car. Two RIC officers called to the Kelleher home, giving her invalid mother to understand that she had had a minor accident. She died in hospital at about 05:00 next day, and a DMP constable informed the family. A court of inquiry, about which the press were not informed, ruled that she was killed accidentally. By contrast, Colonel-Commandant R. D. F. Oldman, commanding 24th Infantry Brigade, felt that McCansh should be court martialled for

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manslaughter. McCansh was eventually remanded before a magistrate on a murder charge on 18 August. This was reduced to one of manslaughter. He swore he had only known Kathleen about a week, that they had never quarrelled, and that ‘she was a respectable girl so far as I know’. He was acquitted. Paddy Brogan later claimed that Kathleen had a boyfriend in the IRA’s F Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade, but was also friendly with Auxiliaries, and was murdered because of her IRA links. Buried GC (St Patrick’s Section: S. §. 283).1190 Samuel Lee (3Jul1921/2) 30–50, Tramp, RC Killavally, Tyrellspass, Westmeath At 08:00 the body of an unknown man, about thirty years of age and apparently a tramp, was found at Killavally, on the Tullamore road near Kilbeggan, with bullet wounds to the head and body. ‘Of strong physique’, he had ‘dark strong hair just turning grey’ and ‘a closely clipped moustache, also turning grey. . . . A white handkerchief was tied across his eyes. Rosary beads were in his right hand.’ An attached label read: ‘Spies Beware. IRA.’ His killers were Patrick Geraghty, William Kelly, Patrick Byrne and William Begley from the Tyrrellspass, Croghan and Kilclonfert companies, 1st Offaly Brigade. The body was believed to be that of Samuel Lee.1191 Joseph Murray (3Jul1921/3) 30, Labourer, RC Moneyrea, Ballymoney, Antrim Murray, from Omerbane, Ballymoney, Antrim, was challenged by a police patrol at Moneyrea. Shots were first fired over his head and when he continued to run he was shot. Thomas Fitzpatrick, O/C Antrim Brigade, termed this the killing of a ‘simpleton’ who had no connection with the IRA.1192 David Carroll (3Jul1921/4) 27, Woodcutter, RC Barrington’s Hospital, Limerick See McNamara (25Jun1921/4). Carroll, of 2 Sheep Street, Limerick, lived with his widowed mother Bridget. Buried Mount St Lawrence Cemetery.1193

Maurice Cusack (3Jul1921/5) 41, Ex-serviceman, RC Ballycotton, Cork Cusack lived on Church Road, Ballycotton. Edmond O’Brien, of C Company, 4th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, described him as a victim of indiscriminate military firing. A motor patrol of the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, under Captain R. Letters, travelled from Cloyne to Ballycotton. A landmine had earlier exploded under a lorry on the Youghal road, outside Midleton, wounding several troops. The road was also trenched at points including one just outside Ballycotton. Cusack was apparently seen signalling on the hillside with a white handkerchief by Lance-Corporal Roberts and Lieutenant F. G. Rankin. Rankin reported the matter to Letters, and then approached the man, who ran. He was shot when he refused a command to halt. ColonelCommandant H. W. Higginson thought it probable that: Cusack, who was a naval pensioner, was really a loyal man inasmuch as he took no active part in any outrage, but living as he was in the midst of rebels, he was desirous of keeping on good terms with them. When therefore he saw the troops about he was not above warning any rebels who were about. I am of opinion that no blame is attached to the Crown forces. It will, I think, be sound policy to treat the occurrence as one of those caused by the disturbed state of the country and to assume that Maurice Cusack was a loyal person who happened to be in the vicinity of persons who were acting suspiciously and was accidentally killed during the firing which ensured.

Séamus Whelan was later shot dead in Ballycotton in what appeared a reprisal for the earlier explosion. Buried Churchtown, Cork.1194 RD: Whelan (3Jul1921/6) Séamus Whelan (3Jul1921/6) RC Ballycotton, Cork See Cusack (3Jul1921/5). Whelan lived in Ballycotton.1195

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John Cameron (3Jul1921/7) RMA, 41, Married with two children Murreagh (Muiríoch), Ballydavid, Kerry Cameron, officer-in-charge of Ballydavid Coastguard Station, was a gunner in the 8th Battalion. A veteran of Gallipoli, he had been awarded the MBE. He was shot dead at 20:00 at Murreagh (Muiríoch), half a mile from the coastguard station, apparently when walking alone and unarmed. His killers were William Hurley and Patrick Moriarty, Ballydavid Company, Kerry No. 1 Brigade. Buried Ann’s Hill Cemetery, Gosport. Cameron’s widow secured £2,000 compensation and each of his children £700.1196 Daniel Francis Duffy (3Jul1921/8) 50, Fitter, Married with children, RC 12 Clanbrassil Street Upper, Dublin Duffy, of 28 John Dillon Street, worked at the Guinness Brewery. At about 22:45, a curfew patrol halted at the junction of South Circular Road and Clanbrassil Street. A private was placed on guard facing Harold’s Cross Bridge with orders to challenge three times and then fire if anyone failed to halt. Duffy, approaching from the direction of the bridge, did not stop and was shot. He died within minutes in a nearby house. Buried GC (St Patrick’s Section: J. k. 130).1197

4 JULY 1921 John Fitzgerald (4Jul1921/1) RIC (76431), 18, RC RIC Barracks, Wicklow, Wicklow Fitzgerald was reportedly from Mill Street, Galway. He had joined the RIC only on 7 December 1920, allocated to Wicklow town. GHQ organiser Matthew O’Brien had organised ‘a timed arrangement’, involving ‘a shooting up in all company areas. . . . We only shot one.’ At about 17:00 on Sunday 3 July, Fitzgerald, another off-duty constable and three girls were sitting on a bank on the Murrough, Wicklow, near the chemical factory. Both policemen were in uniform, but unarmed. They were accosted by men on bicycles: O’Brien named ‘Tom McConnell (ginger), John McEvoy & three others’. Hearing a shot, the unnamed constable turned to see a man pointing a revolver at

him. The man fired again and missed. Fitzgerald put his hands up, shouting that he was unarmed. His companion heard more shots as he fled across the railway lines. Fitzgerald was removed, unconscious, to the police barracks. He rallied briefly before dying from a chest wound at 06:00 next day. Buried Galway. His father James secured £310 compensation and his two sisters £100 each. In October 1982 his niece Phylomena Quinn was widowed when RUC Sergeant John Quinn was one of three policemen killed by an IRA bomb near Lurgan.1198 Percy Fry (4Jul1921/2) 1st Battalion, MGC, 20 Ballyvonare Military Camp, Buttevant The CFR lists the accidental death by drowning of Private Fry from Northamptonshire. Buried Coventry (London Road Cemetery).1199

5 JULY 1921 Peter Keyes (5Jul1921/1) 51, Labourer, Married with ten children, RC Rushin, Mountrath, Laois Keyes, from Rushin, Mountrath, Laois, was a labourer, gardener and auxiliary postman. Six of his children still lived at home. Edward Brennan, O/C 6th Battalion, Laois Brigade, recalled a meeting about ‘one particular man openly collaborating with the enemy early in 1921’. Brennan, brigade officers Thomas Brady and Lar Brady and ‘IRA men from Killanure and Mountrath with reports against the spy’ met and decided to kill Keyes. If Brennan’s chronology is accurate, the fact that Keyes was only killed a few days before the Truce raises the possibility that the Laois IRA were belatedly notching up a kill months after his death had been ordained on grounds of the supposed threat he posed. At about 02:10 seven masked men came to Keyes’s house. Three held Kate Keyes and her children in a room while others took her husband outside. She heard three shots: ‘I roared to the children: “They have him shot.”’ She told a court of inquiry in Mountrath on 6 July that her husband was secretary of the Land and Labour Association, but did not belong to any political organisation. She took

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in washing from the police and was consequently boycotted. Head Constable Samuel French described Keyes as a law-abiding citizen opposed to Sinn Féin. His killers were led by Fintan Breen and Denis Deegan, O/Cs of the Killenure and Mountrath companies, Laois Brigade. Brigade officers pointed out that ‘this operation was carried out within 40 perches of the RIC and Tan Barracks’. Kate Keyes secured £1,000 compensation, a similar sum being divided among her four youngest children Annie, Bridget, Emily and Patrick.1200 Teresa McAnuff (5Jul1921/2) 30, Headmistress, RC Shinn, Newry, Down Teresa McAnuff was headmistress of Bradford Corporation’s Nursing School. She was on holidays at home in Shinn, midway between Newry and Rathfriland. Following an ambush of two USC constables on 3 July, the Ardarragh USC Company was called to duty at 00:30 on 5 July at Shinn Crossroads, with orders to search the countryside for strangers and/or information. One party, under William Campbell, raided the McAnuff house, where Teresa was staying with her mother and brother. Patrick McAnuff testified that the police shouted at him to come outside, evidently believing he had been involved in the ambush. Teresa admitted three police, and he went downstairs fully expecting to be shot. When questioned by police, one of whom appeared drunk, he denied any knowledge of the ambush. He agreed to sign a form denouncing all murders. Teresa also wanted to sign. Patrick McAnuff saw one of the constables pointing his rifle towards his mother, while another tried to restrain him. A shot was discharged by Special Constable William Bell, mortally wounding Teresa. Bell deposed that he fired accidentally, and denied threatening anyone. Buried St Colman’s Church, Shinn.1201 Thomas McGowan (5Jul1921/3) 26, Agricultural labourer, RC Lack, Roosky, Roscommon McGowan lived in Lack, Roosky. At 00:30 on 4 July he, his wife and son were in bed when

men, claiming to be IRA, knocked on the door. Three masked men in long coats ordered McGowan to accompany them. He refused. The men conferred outside, during which time his mother pushed her son into a bedroom. The men repeated their request and again McGowan refused. One of the men fired a shotgun through the door, wounding McGowan, who died at about 08:00 on 5 July. Seán Leavy, O/C 3rd Battalion, North Roscommon Brigade recalled that McGowan was shot without orders because of a local feud, although the RIC reported that the intention had been to force him to help trench roads. Leavy had two men court martialled for the killing. Found guilty, they were deported to England, from where they later went to the US. Leavy ‘apologised’ to McGowan’s family, and ‘explained to them what action we had taken, and, although it was small recompense for the dead man, they were satisfied’.1202

6 JULY 1921 Peter McGinnety (6Jul1921/1) IRA, 19, Farmer’s son, RC Altnaveigh, Bessbrook, Armagh McGinnety had months previously been tied to a tree near his home. After being told to pray, shots were fired over his head. On 6 July he and three other young Catholic men were taken from their homes near Bessbrook and killed. This was most likely a reprisal for earlier IRA arms raids and other activities against unionists locally: those killed were believed to be Volunteers, although that remains uncertain. McGinnety, John Dominic O’Reilly, Thomas Francis O’Reilly and Patrick Quinn received fatal chest, throat or head wounds, inflicted by what John Grant, captain Mullaghbawn Company, later termed a ‘murder gang’ in the ‘Orange’ village of Altnaveigh in the Bessbrook district. John O’Reilly senior deposed that armed men claiming to be military came to his house in Cloghogue, Newry, between 03:00 and 04:00 on 6 July searching for arms. John and Thomas were ordered to get dressed and

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were taken away in a Ford motor car, purportedly for identification purposes. Their bodies were found next day on the roadside near McGinnety’s farm. Maggie McGinnety deposed that three men claiming to be military took away her brother Peter at around 03:45. Some minutes later, she heard shots and found him lying dead, shot through the heart, beside two other bodies. About three-quarters of an hour later, Patrick Quinn was shot by raiders claiming to be military at a house in Carnagat, Bessbrook. The court brought a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown. A fifth man, Thomas Carr, had a fortunate escape from the same gang. The two O’Reilly brothers and Peter McGinnety were interred at Killean burial ground. According to John Grant, a few days afterwards reprisals were ordered which led to the shooting dead of Draper Holmes. The notorious Altnaveigh killings and burnings of June 1922, in which five USC men were killed along with one woman accidentally shot, were a further direct reprisal for this action.1203 RD: O’Reilly (6Jul1921/2), O’Reilly (6Jul 1921/3), Quinn (6Jul1921/4). SA: Holmes (9Jul1921/2) John Dominic O’Reilly (6Jul1921/2) IRA, 24, Teacher, RC Altnaveigh, Bessbrook, Armagh See McGinnety (6Jul1921/2). O’Reilly, a son of John O’Reilly, a retired RIC sergeant and farmer of Cloghogue, Newry, Down, was educated at St Patrick’s Seminary, Armagh, and St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, qualifying as a teacher in 1917. He was an assistant teacher in Killean National School. John and his brother Thomas were said to be active Volunteers. O’Reilly’s father secured £1,500 compensation for John’s death, and £600 for Thomas’s.1204 Thomas Francis O’Reilly (6Jul1921/3) IRA, 21, Farmer’s son, RC Altnaveigh, Bessbrook, Armagh See McGinnety (6Jul1921/1). Thomas O’Reilly worked his father’s seventeen-acre farm.1205

Patrick Quinn (6Jul1921/4) IRA, 37, Manager, Engaged, RC Carnagat, Bessbrook, Armagh See McGinnety (6Jul1921/1). Patrick Quinn, a member of the 4th Northern Division from Derrybeg, Newry, Down, managed the Crowreagh Quarry Company. He normally lived with his brother Luke in Carnagat but the night he died he stayed with the McQuaid family as Luke’s wife was expecting a baby. She was delivered of twins, one stillborn and one who died within forty-eight hours. Buried St Mary’s Old Chapel Cemetery, Newry. His father Luke had been ‘a hale and hearty man but the shock occasioned by the murder . . . of his son . . . was too much for him’, and he died of ‘apoplexy’ on 14 July. Patrick’s brother Luke secured an £85 dependent’s gratuity.1206 Cyril J. H. Brewer (6Jul1921/5) RIC (75841), 26, Steward, ex-serviceman, Married with one child Union Infirmary, Kilmallock, Limerick Constable Brewer, from London, joined the RIC on 23 November 1920, stationed in Hospital, Limerick. The local Hospital Company, East Limerick Brigade, sought to avenge the death of Patrick Lynch before the Truce came into operation. On 5 July, Jer Walsh, Mick Murphy, Paddy Lavery and Paddy Meehan heard that Brewer had just alighted from the Limerick bus, in civilian clothes and unarmed. Brewer related how his wife Maud ‘turned back and walked towards the Police Barracks as I had my little daughter with me’. When she turned around, ‘the tall man in the brown suit . . . fired at me’ from about 50 feet. Brewer ran through Carroll’s shop (now Moore’s) and was shot a second time as he tried to scale a backyard wall. He told colleagues his killer was ‘Clonakilty’, a local named Thomas Walsh, ‘who usually dresses in a brown suit’ and ‘is about 6 ft in height’. He died at about 20:35 next day, after an operation in Kilmallock Union Hospital. Maud secured £1,720 compensation, including £300 for her daughter.1207 SA: Lynch (16Nov1920/1)

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Thomas Russell (6Jul1921/6) 75, Farmer, Widowed with one daughter, RC Maurices Mills, Inagh, Clare Russell, from Maurices Mills near Inagh, was shot dead by Crown forces for failing to halt. He was drawing water from a well at the time, accompanied by a three-year-old boy.1208 Patrick Smyth (6Jul1921/7) RIC (58634), Farmer, RC Tarmonbarry, Roscommon Smyth joined the RIC on 3 January 1899, based in Longford. Promoted to sergeant on 1 March 1918, he was transferred to Armagh. The RIC Register records his death from burns received from a signal rocket (these were used in RIC barracks under attack to signal for help).1209 John Haker Ramsay (6Jul1921/8) 6th Dragoon Guards, 19 Curragh, Kildare Ramsay, from Gateshead, enlisted in June 1920. He was accidentally shot by a Sergeant Davies. Buried Curragh Military Cemetery.1210

7 JULY 1921 Anthony Foody (7Jul1921/1) 48, RIC pensioner, farmer, Married, RC Carralavin, Bonniconlon, Ballina, Mayo Foody, from Mayo, joined the RIC on 15 December 1894 (service number: 56773), serving in Londonderry, Roscommon, Tipperary and Fermanagh. He married in 1910. Promoted to sergeant in 1918, he retired on 19 June 1921. John Ruane, who tended Foody’s land near Bonniconlon, was talking to him shortly before midnight on 6 July when two masked men came to the door and marched Foody away. A postman found his body at 07:00 next day on the roadside between Ballina and Bonniconlon. An attached label read: ‘Revenge for Dwyer and The Ragg.’ Foody had been stationed in Bouladuff (The Ragg), Thurles, Tipperary, where he was allegedly involved in the shooting of Thomas O’Dwyer on 28 March 1920, although, as Marnane observes, ‘that may have been a cover for a local Mayo land grab’. The IRA claimed Foody ‘made a dash

and escaped a short distance’ before being shot. His brother Patrick was killed in Limerick on 3 February 1921.1211 SA: Foody (3Feb1921/9), O’Dwyer (30Mar 1920/1) Bridget Doran (7Jul1921/2) 34, Caretaker’s wife, Married with two children, RC Moorefield, Newbridge, Kildare Bridget Doran lived in Moorefield, Newbridge, Kildare, where her husband William was caretaker of the premises of the Navy and Army Canteen Board. At about 02:00 two armed and masked men demanded the keys of the store, which Doran claimed he did not have. They then broke into the store, above which Doran’s family lived, stealing two motor cars and some petrol. At around 03:00, after the raiders had left, there was a loud explosion and the building caught fire. The Kildare Observer reported that Bridget Doran threw her ten-month-old baby from a window to her husband and was attempting to rescue her stepson John when the upper floor of the building collapsed. Durney suggested that Volunteers sprinkled the goods in the store with paraffin to render them useless and that Doran dropped a candle which started the blaze. This may be the case, or may reflect IRA embarrassment at the needless deaths of a woman and child.1212 RD: Doran (7Jul1921/3) John Doran (7Jul1921/3) 11, Schoolboy, RC Moorefield, Newbridge, Kildare See Doran (7Jul1921/2).1213 James O’Connor (7Jul1921/4) RIC (75570), 24, Labourer, ex-serviceman, Married with two children, RC Rigsdale, Ballinhassig, Cork O’Connor, from Tipperary, joined the RIC on 16 November 1920, stationed in Ballinhassig. He was killed while out walking by an IRA party which had planned to attack the barracks. His widow secured £2,000 compensation and each of his two children £1,000.1214

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Andrew Edward Knight (7Jul1921/5) 45, Ticket inspector, Married with four children, CoI Castlepark Road, Dalkey, Dublin Knight lived with his wife Lillian and family at 9 Clarinda Park East, Dún Laoghaire working for the Dublin United Tramway Company. DMP constable Patrick Mannix, an IRA informant, told the BMH that Knight was ‘a very active anti-IRA man . . . supplying information . . . to the British military’. At about 17:20, Knight inspected tickets on the Dalkey tram, alighting at Castlepark Road. Five shots were heard, but his body was only discovered the following afternoon hidden under a hedge. A court of inquiry at St Michael’s Hospital returned a verdict of wilful murder against some person or persons unknown. Andrew McDonnell, O/C 6th Battalion Dublin Brigade, stated that Billy Walsh, captain Dún Laoghaire Company, uncovered Knight’s activities. Mannix claimed that Knight was paid for his information by cheque, which seems highly unlikely. A search of his home also apparently uncovered ‘a list of names of members of the IRA’. Buried DGC (94. K. 1).1215 James R. Hewitt (7Jul1921/6) RIC (76486), 29, Policeman, Married Doolin, Clare Constable Hewitt, from Dublin, was a tram driver and policeman in Manchester before joining the RIC on 10 December 1920, stationed in Lisdoonvarna, Clare. At 22:30, he was shot dead and Constable Allan Massey seriously wounded when bathing near Doolin. When news of the attack reached Ennistymon, police fired shots at random in the streets. Hewitt’s widow Florence Mary secured £2,000 compensation.1216 William Alexander MacPherson1217 (7Jul1921/7) 42, Unemployed, ex-serviceman, Married with four children, CoE Knockpogue, Mallow, Cork MacPherson, from Dublin, had been a sergeant in the RDF and Royal Engineers. Discharged on 22 May 1916, he lived at 4 Bridge Street, Mallow. A letter intercepted in a raid on the

local mail led IRA intelligence officer Siobhán Lankford to conclude that he was ‘supplying information to the British Army I[ntelligence] O[fficer] at Buttevant’. Leo O’Callaghan and Cornelius O’Regan recalled MacPherson’s capture by Denis Barrow and other members of the Dromahane Company. Brought to Dromahane and tried in Pat O’Connor’s house, he was convicted of spying and killed outside Mallow that night. Siobhán Lankford claimed ‘his reports were not of much value but he got £40 the day he was taken away’ – if accurate, an extraordinary sum amounting to about a year’s wage for a labourer. Margaret MacPherson later said that her husband had been awaiting hospital treatment for illness contracted in India. He was unemployed, being unfit for anything but light work. Her daughter heard from other children that at 14:00 on 7 July two women had seen someone bundled into a trap on Mallow Bridge. MacPherson’s body was found at about 08:10 next day, lying in a bohereen off the main road at Knockpogue, shot in the heart. An attached label read: ‘Convicted spy, spies and informers in Mallow beware we are on your track. IRA.’ Margaret MacPherson secured £900 compensation and each of her four children £460.1218 George Walker (7Jul1921/8) 42, Ex-serviceman, farmer, Protestant Dublin Bay Walker, from Ballinvelly, Killeigh, Offaly, had left Ireland for Liverpool some days beforehand to sail for a new life in Canada. For some reason he instead took the SS Avonia back to Ireland from Holyhead. A fellow passenger said Walker was very drunk, and said he was returning to see his wife and children in Limerick. He also appeared to fear being shot. As the boat neared Dublin, he climbed up on the railings and threw himself into the sea. Although thrown a lifebelt, he swam determinedly away. Picked up within twenty minutes by another craft, he was already dead. Richard Walker told a court of inquiry in Dublin that his brother, who was single, was to have left Liverpool for Canada on 1 July. He speculated that George might have

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missed the boat and returned to Ireland to borrow money. The court concluded that he committed suicide while temporarily insane due to alcohol.1219 John Henry Groves (7Jul1921/9) KOYLI, 21, CoE Drogheda, Louth Groves, a lacemaker’s son from Carrington, Nottingham, originally enlisted in 1917. He re-enlisted for want of employment in 1921. Although his local paper stated he was shot by Sinn Féiners at 22:00 while on guard duty ‘on the top of Drogheda Castle’, no evidence of such an attack has been found in British or Irish sources. His death was most likely an accident. Buried Nottingham Church Cemetery.1220

8 JULY 1921 Thomas Waldron (8Jul1921/1) 50, Farmer, Married, RC Aghaderry, Loughglinn, Roscommon Waldron and his brother Michael were taken from their home at Aghaderry, Loughglinn, at about 00:30. A few minutes later Bridget Waldron heard three shots. The bodies of her husband Thomas and brother-in-law Michael were found behind a shed. Major Tidswell, commanding troops in Roscommon, subsequently told GHQ that a few months earlier, Thomas Waldron had married the niece of an elderly farmer named Freyne. Freyne signed his farm over to Waldron in preference to a man named Carron, active in Sinn Féin. Through the deaths of the Waldron brothers, Carron became heir to the farm. Major-General Jeudwine commented: ‘The primary motive of these murders would appear to be agrarian but the manner of carrying them out was identical with that usual in political murders by S/Féin and it is therefore probable that political motives also had an influence.’ No IRA sources have been traced.1221 RD: Waldron (8Jul1921/2) Michael Waldron (8Jul1921/2) 40, Farmer, Widowed, RC Aghaderry, Loughglinn, Roscommon See Waldron (8Jul1921/1).1222

Timothy Joseph Galvin (8Jul1921/3) RIC (67244), 26, Student, RC MIHB Galvin, from Limerick, son of a former policeman, joined the RIC on 1 August 1913, serving in Cork before transfer to Belfast on 1 June 1920, stationed in Glenravel Street Barracks. On 6 July constables Galvin and Henry Conway were on traffic duty at the junction of Union Street and Little Donegall Street at about 09:20 when four young men approached from Donegall Street and ordered ‘Hands up.’ As Conway drew his revolver, he was shot three times. Galvin managed to fire his weapon without effect before being severely wounded in the stomach. He died at 00:45. Buried Kenmare, Kerry.1223 John Maloney (8Jul1921/4) 47, Ex-serviceman, civil bills officer, Married, RC Ardykeohane, Bruff, Limerick ‘Jack’ Maloney lived in Ardykeohane, Bruff. James Maloney, captain Bruff Company, East Limerick Brigade, termed him a ‘shoneen’ and a spy. Taken from his house, he was shot at around 23:15 on 7 July. At 05:20 Patrick Carroll found him still breathing, but dead by the time Carroll returned with a priest. Local opinion was that this was a grudge killing related to Maloney’s unpopular work as a civil bills server. The officer commanding the South Limerick sub-area commented to HQ 18th Infantry Brigade, Limerick: in virtue of his office he [Maloney] might obviously become obnoxious to the rebels. Personally, he was a man who drank heavily and in consequence of his habits his family were frequently unable to live with him. The fact that he was an ex-serviceman and a process server can alone account for his murder as far as I am able to ascertain.1224

John Rossiter (8Jul1921/5) 57, Groom, Married with nine children, RC Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin Rossiter, from Redcross, Wicklow, was a groom and horse trainer for J. J. Parkinson of Maddenstown Lodge, the Curragh, Kildare.

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At 13:15, a party of the Gordon Highlanders boarded the Dublin–Cork passenger train at Kingsbridge terminus and distributed themselves throughout the train. The locomotive pulled horseboxes bringing horses home from Bellewstown races in Meath, as well as wagons containing field kitchens and other military equipment. Rossiter travelled in one of the horseboxes. At 13:30, the train was attacked by members of Nos. 3 and 4 Sections ASU Dublin Brigade at Ballyfermot Bridge, which spanned the line between Inchicore and Clondalkin, about two miles from Kingsbridge. Heavy fire was opened. The IRA used a Thompson machine gun for the first time. Bombs were also thrown. Men positioned on the bridge poured petrol on the wagons and threw down burning rags. The soldiers returned fire by leaning out the windows. The engagement was brief. None of the military or IRA were hit, but at least four civilians were injured by bullets or fragments of glass. Rossiter’s right leg was severed and his left leg badly wounded. The train continued as far as Clondalkin. Rossiter died at 17:15 after an operation. This was the last engagement by Nos. 3 and 4 Sections ASU Dublin Brigade before the Truce. Buried Redcross, Wicklow.1225 Frederick J. Cormer (8Jul1921/6) RIC (75845), 20, Footman, Protestant Rathdrum, Wicklow Cormer, born in Middlesex, joined the RIC on 23 November 1920, stationed in Rathdrum. At around 19:45, constables Cormer and Reilly went to Neary’s grocery and pub near the fair green to buy cigarettes and other items. While they were having a drink, three men came in through the bar door and opened fire. GHQ organiser Matthew O’Brien stated that ‘We went in. . . . I hit the first fellow and he made a wild rush for young [Matthew] Carroll and I could not see my way to losing Carroll so I proceeded out after this fellow and I finished him.’ This was Cormer, who was hit in the head no more than 300 yards from his barracks. Buried England. His mother secured £500 compensation.1226

Thomas Burke (8Jul1921/7) 32, Farmer’s son, RC Kilgobinet, Dungarvan, Waterford Burke was from Inchindrisla, Dungarvan. Seán Tobin, vice-O/C 2nd Battalion, West Waterford Brigade, recalled that Jack Power of Ballymacmague, Dungarvan, and a party of men dug a large trench across the road near Kilgobinet Graveyard. A day or two later, half of the trench was filled in to allow a funeral to enter the cemetery. According to Tobin, on the day after the funeral (8 July), ‘Jack Power and a few Volunteers with commandeered local helpers went to reopen the trench. It had been booby-trapped, and a large explosion occurred with the result that one Volunteer and five of the helpers were killed.’ Three men including Burke were killed outright, and two died shortly afterwards. John Quinn died on 16 July. A memorial at the site indicates he was a Volunteer. It seems likely that Burke, Dahill, the Dunford brothers and Lynch were the ‘commandeered helpers’. Three of the dead were said to have been buried secretly in sheets in Knockboy. When the Truce began two days later, all six were reburied at Kilgobinet Cemetery after Mass in St Patrick’s Church, Kilbrien.1227 RD: Dahill (8Jul1921/8), Dunford (8Jul 1921/9), Dunford (8Jul1921/10), Lynch (8Jul 1921/11), Quinn (16Jul1921/1) Thomas Dahill (8Jul1921/8) 27, Farmer’s son, RC Kilgobinet, Dungarvan, Waterford See Burke (8Jul1921/7). Dahill was from Kilnafrehan, Dungarvan.1228 James Dunford (8Jul1921/9) 34, Farmer’s son, RC Kilgobinet, Dungarvan, Waterford See Burke (8Jul1921/7). Dunford was from Kilnafrehan, Dungarvan.1229 William Dunford (8Jul1921/10) 28, Farmer’s son, RC Kilgobinet, Dungarvan, Waterford See Burke (8Jul1921/7). Dunford was from Kilnafrehan, Dungarvan.1230

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Richard Lynch (8Jul1921/11) 33, Ironmonger’s assistant, RC Kilgobinet, Dungarvan, Waterford See Burke (8Jul1921/7). Lynch was from Kilnafrehan, Dungarvan.1231 David Cummins (8Jul1921/12) 34, Ex-serviceman, chauffeur, CoI Dualla, Cashel, Tipperary Cummins, born in Donegal, was the chauffeur of Mr Armitage of Noan, Dualla. Timothy Tierney, captain F Company, 2nd Battalion, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, described how Volunteers held a convicted spy named Cummins at Meldrum House who had been captured in his employer’s stable. He had been investigated by Cumann na mBan officer Mary Breen. Seán Downey, battalion O/C, ordered Paddy Byrne to shoot Cummins, leaving the body on the road between the two pubs in Dualla, about three miles from Cashel. Captain Paul Mulcahy of the Dualla Company recalled Cummins replying ‘No’ when asked if ‘he wished to see a clergyman’, and confirmed that ‘in my presence . . . there were no other conversations with him’. His body was left with a label reading: ‘Convicted Spy. Spies and Informers Beware.’ Buried St Mary’s Church of Ireland, Tipperary town. His mother secured £600 compensation.1232 Unknown (8Jul1921/13) Cork The 5th Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, reported they ‘executed a spy’. No further information has been traced.1233

9 JULY 1921 Denis Joseph Spriggs (9Jul1921/1) IRA, 20, Slater, plasterer, RC Blarney Street, Cork Spriggs, from Strawberry Hill, was in C Company, 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. Arrested by a patrol at his home at about midnight on 8 July, he allegedly jumped from a vehicle in which he was being held on Blarney Street. The escort opened fire, shooting him dead. It has been argued that this killing precipitated those of four

unarmed soldiers two nights afterwards. Buried SFC. His mother Mary ultimately secured an allowance of £180 annually.1234 SA: Camm (10Jul1921/9) Draper Gwynne Holmes (9Jul1921/2) 48, Railway ganger, Married with two children, Presbyterian General Hospital, Newry, Down Holmes, a foreman ganger with the GNR, lived in Lisdrumliska, Newry. John Grant, captain Mullaghbawn Company, IRA, told the BMH that following the deaths of Peter McGinnety, John O’Reilly, Thomas O’Reilly and Patrick Quinn on 6 July orders were received to carry out reprisals against B Specials from Altnaveigh, some of whom were GNR linesmen. Grant and six other IRA men waited about one mile from Newry. At about 07:00, Holmes came along. It was initially intended to capture him and hold him behind a nearby wall while other linesmen were caught, but he proved a noisy prisoner. A witness told a court of inquiry in Newry that as he went to tend to his cattle he saw two civilians holding a man down on the ground, ‘one of whom had him by the throat’. Other men appeared and shouted: ‘John, choke him; don’t let him shout’, and shots were fired. As he lay dying, Holmes cried: ‘God help me.’ Grant commented: ‘It was purely accidental that the unfortunate man – Holmes – came along first and was the only victim. There was, however, ample evidence to prove that he had such an intense hatred for everything republican that he would go to extreme limits to destroy the movement.’ Holmes died at about 14:30 in hospital. His widow Anne secured £750 compensation, his son £350 and his mother £80.1235 SA: McGinnety (6Jul1921/1) Thomas Conlon (9Jul1921/3) RIC (64016), 33, Farmer, Engaged, RC Raglan Street, Belfast Conlon, from Roscommon, joined the RIC on 3 July 1908, serving in Mayo and Monaghan before transfer to Belfast in 1917, stationed in Springfield Road Barracks. Roger McCorley, O/C 1st Battalion, stated that

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around 23:00 a ‘reprisal gang’ in a Crossley tender was ambushed by the IRA on Raglan Street on the Falls Road and disabled by gunfire. According to McCorley, the IRA were ordered not to accept any surrender and the policemen’s attempts to do so were met with gunfire. McCorley claimed that all those in the lorry were killed. However, police reports indicated that only Conlon died, at about 23:15. Constable Edward Hogan and Special Constable Charles Dunn were wounded. It was generally believed that the police had been lured into a trap: the IRA had received a tip-off from within the RIC about houses to be raided. This incident occurred less than twenty-four hours before the Truce was due to come into effect at midday on 11 July. Coupled with the high feeling occasioned by the Twelfth of July celebrations, Conlon’s death sparked off a week of violence during which twenty-two people lost their lives and over two hundred homes were damaged. Buried Newtownbreda, Belfast.1236 James McSorley (9Jul1921/4) IRA, 26, Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC Dunteague, Omagh, Tyrone McSorley, who had been a prisoner of war in Germany when in the South Irish Horse, lived with his father Thomas in Newtownstewart, outside Omagh. Although supposedly visiting his girlfriend, he was in an IRA party assembling for an attack on Baronscourt Castle: ‘column leader [McSorley] was accidentally shot dead. Specials then attacked unprepared IRA.’ A party of USC, who were expecting trouble, had driven from Omagh in two Crossley tenders and a Ford car to Baronscourt via Dunteague. As they approached Dunteague Crossroads at about 23:30, they spotted signalling ahead and fired on a few men seen congregated behind a hedge. McSorley’s body was discovered during a subsequent search. Buried Dregish, Castlederg, Tyrone.1237 Eric Steadman (9Jul1921/5) c. 40, Ex-serviceman Puttaghaun, Tullamore, Offaly Steadman’s body was found near Tullamore on 10 July by Michael Buckley, an ex-serviceman

fleeing to his sister’s house after his home had been burned down by armed men. The IRA had previously arrested a man seeking work on the bogs. He escaped, but foolishly returned to Tullamore a second time and was spotted getting out of a police lorry. This ‘low, stout block of a man’ with ‘a trampish look’ carried a billy can, going ‘from house to house’ seeking odd jobs, although his hands bore few signs of ‘manual work’. The IRA captured him: ‘We questioned him and he seemed to be frank enough. . . . We decided that he was a case for the Firing Squad.’ Steadman was held prisoner for a couple of days: ‘We had a conscience about it,’ and one Volunteer ‘pointed out to him how nice it would be if he could die in a State of Grace’. They ‘explained the Catholic Church situation to him’, and sent to the Parochial House in Tullamore for a clergyman. As no priest would come, ‘begob Séamus . . . got the water and we had him baptised. Then he was shot’ by Seán McGuinness, James McGuinness, John Horan, William Rynne and William Pigott of the Tullamore Company, 1st Offaly Brigade. The body, blindfolded and bound, bore a label stating: ‘Convicted Spy. Eric Steadman, X [sic] Soldier, Birmingham: Tried, Convicted and Executed on the 9th July. Sooner or later we get them. Beware the IRA.’ It was deposited nearer Tullamore to avoid reprisals locally. In September 1921, the Birmingham chief constable reported that despite publicity no information had come to light regarding Steadman, described as ‘slightly built’, with ‘brownish hair’ and a ‘drooping moustache, slightly hooked nose and sallow complexion’.1238

10 JULY 1921 George Bernard O’Connor (10Jul1921/1) 67, Ex-serviceman, Married, CoI Rochestown, Cork O’Connor, born in London around 1854, attained the rank of major during the Boer War, and later became a JP and a member of the Cork chamber of commerce. In the January 1910 general election, he was the unsuccessful Unionist candidate for College Green, Dublin. Nominated to contest Cork

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city in the general election of 1918, he withdrew before the poll. O’Connor was prominently identified with Horace Plunkett’s Dominion Home Rule League. He lived with his wife Elizabeth in ‘Illane’ near Rochestown, Cork. Kidnapped in his night attire around midnight by armed men, his wife found his body early the next morning in a laneway (she had been badly wounded during a previous failed attempt to kill him in February 1921). Shot in the head and body, an attached label read, ‘Convicted Spy.’ This killing was carried out by members of the 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. O’Connor had been a vocal opponent of the republican movement and was said to have testified against prisoners captured at Clonmult. On the other hand, one newspaper reported that he ‘had sworn an affidavit on behalf of a prisoner under sentence of death by a military court’. His widow secured £5,000 compensation.1239 Bridget Dillon (10Jul1921/2) 15, Farmer’s daughter, RC Kilcash, Clonmel, Tipperary Bridget, daughter of Michael Dillon, a former policeman who was a caretaker for Lord Ormonde, lived on the family farm. At around 23:30, some men arrived. They asked for water for a man on the run. When this was refused they tried to break in. A shot was fired, wounding Bridget. She died about two hours later.1240 Her brothers William and Michael, one reportedly an ex-soldier, claimed the raiders refused to allow them to get a doctor and instead ordered them to stand against the wall. Although fired on, they managed to flee. James Kilmartin, vice-O/C No. 1 ASU, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, said that the IRA believed that a former RIC man’s son from Kilcash had previously alerted the authorities in Clonmel to the presence of the ASU. The IRA felt entitled to take some action. As soon as Michael Dillon saw them coming, he fired on them. Volunteers accidentally shot a girl through a window, then withdrew. Séamus Babington, brigade engineer, Tipperary No. 3 Brigade, provided a somewhat different account: the Ballyneale Company overstepped their orders to keep the Dillons

under observation by attempting to enter the house. A young girl threw a pot of dirty water out the window and one of the IRA fired his shotgun at her. Babington commented that during the Truce, John O’Shea, a native of Piltown, Kilkenny, was arrested in Blackrock, Dublin, and charged with the shooting. O’Shea was freed because several RIC men who knew the facts were willing to testify that this was a case of mistaken identity. Buried Carrickbeg, Waterford.1241 John Foley (10Jul1921/3) 38, Farm labourer, RC Coachford, Cork Foley lived in Leemount, Coachford. The census indicates that he had a twin brother, Timothy. At about 02:00, a patrol of the West Yorkshire Regiment carried out a planned search of houses in the Coachford district to arrest all males between the ages of fifteen and forty-five. When Corporal F. T. Smith knocked on Foley’s door he heard movement inside, but no one answered. The patrol broke down the door. A woman and two men were found hiding in a bedroom. They shut the door and struggled with Smith, trying to seize his rifle. Lance-Corporal Pearson pushed his way in, saw John Foley rush at Smith with a knife, and shot him. Foley died later that day. Although Foley had no known IRA links, and no explanation was offered as to why a civilian would attack an armed soldier, a court of inquiry attached no blame to Crown forces. Commenting on this, ColonelCommandant H. W. Higginson observed that Foley was to blame for having attacked Smith with a knife.1242 Alfred G. Needham (10Jul1921/4) RIC (76629), 20, Wireless telegrapher, exserviceman Infirmary, Ennis, Clare Needham, from London, joined the RIC on 14 December 1920, stationed in Ennis. At about 16:30 on 8 July, he was shot by two men on O’Connell Street, Ennis. Newspapers stated he was talking to a Miss Corry. He died from body and throat wounds at 03:00 on

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10 July. His mother Alice secured £1,200 compensation.1243 William Baxter (10Jul1921/5) 12, Presbyterian Ashmore Street, Belfast William, of 126 Argyle Street, was killed by a nationalist sniper on Ashmore Street while walking to school.1244 Henry Mulholland (10Jul1921/6) 49, Moulder, Married with three children, RC Cupar Street, Belfast Mulholland, of 5 Bombay Street, born in Philadelphia, USA, was a moulder in Combe’s Foundry until expelled by loyalist workers. At around 15:30, several armed men opened fire at the corner of Cupar Street and Clonard Gardens. Mulholland was struck in the head. According to G. B. Kenna, Mulholland was shot dead by loyalists assisted by USC. Buried Glencoe, Tyrone.1245 Richard Larter (10Jul1921/7) MGC, 20 Doneraile, Cork Private Larter, stationed in Ballyvonare Camp, Buttevant, Cork, was shot at about 19:00 while out walking, unarmed, near Doneraile. William Regan, O/C Castletownroche Battalion, mentioned the capture and execution of a British soldier in the Doneraile area. Buried Swainsthorpe (St Peter’s) Churchyard, Norfolk.1246 SA: McCarthy (10Jul1921/34) William Mullan (10Jul1921/8) 50, Tailor, Protestant RVHB Mullan, of 51 James’s Street, shot by a sniper, died around 19:30.1247 Albert George Camm (10Jul1921/9) RE, 20 Togher, Cork Camm was stationed in Victoria Barracks, Cork. Captain Horden of the South Staffordshire Regiment wrote that at about 22:30 two of his soldiers and two others, all guards in Cork male prison, were kidnapped while out on pass unarmed. By then they

were already dead. An IRA report tersely recorded, ‘We held up four soldiers (2 Royal Engineers 2 Staffs) and searched them but found no arms. We took them to a field in our area where they were executed before 9 p.m.’ They were found next day, blindfolded and shot through the head. Sappers Albert Camm and Albert Powell were Royal Engineers; Harold Daker and Henry Morris were from the South Staffordshire Regiment. Connie Neenan, O/C Cork city brigade, claimed he and an intelligence officer had, on hearing of the soldiers’ capture, ‘set out trying to find our IRA men and their four prisoners; I planned to release the soldiers right away’ for fear of reprisals. The killing of ‘the poor young fellows’ was, he said, ‘most senseless and a deeply regrettable incident, one that did considerable harm to the image of the IRA’ (Gerard Murphy argues that these were crocodile tears, intended to disguise Neenan’s involvement in the killing of three Protestant boys elsewhere the same night, but this remains a disputed surmise). Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc suggests these killings were a reprisal – hardly proportionate – for that of Denis Spriggs, and perhaps for other military wrongdoings. Buried Cork Military Cemetery.1248 RD: Daker (10Jul1921/10), Morris (10Jul 1921/11), Powell (10Jul1921/12). SA: Spriggs (9Jul1921/1) Harold Daker (10Jul1921/10) South Staffordshire Regiment, 20, Coal miner, CoE Togher, Cork See Camm (10Jul1921/9). Lance-Corporal Daker, from Chasetown, Staffordshire, had worked in the Cannock Chase Colliery. A brother had been killed in France. Buried St Ann Churchyard, Chasetown, Burntwood, Staffordshire (785).1249 Henry Alfred Morris (10Jul1921/11) South Staffordshire Regiment, 31, Widowed with three children Togher, Cork See Camm (10Jul1921/9). Private Morris, from Walsall, enlisted at fourteen years of age in the East Kent Regiment at Darlaston by

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claiming to be nineteen. Twice wounded and gassed in France, he re-enlisted in the South Staffordshire Regiment in 1920 and was stationed in Cork. Morris’s mother Lucy secured £500 compensation, his father Henry £50 and each of his three children £150. Buried Ryecroft Cemetery, Walsall (35. 5358).1250 Albert Edward Powell (10Jul1921/12) RE, 20 Togher, Cork See Camm (10Jul1921/9). Powell was from London. Buried All Saints Cemetery, Nunhead, London. His mother Jane secured £500 compensation.1251 John Lawton Davies (10Jul1921/13) Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) 36, Newspaper reporter, Married with five children Castleisland, Kerry Davies, born in Brecon, Breconshire, in 1885, enlisted at Brecon on 21 January 1903 aged eighteen. He fought in Egypt and France, and was a sergeant in the Loyal Regiment, stationed in Castleisland. Kerry No. 2 Brigade decided to attack a curfew patrol in Castleisland, using about forty Volunteers concealed in various positions. The plan went awry because one Volunteer fired prematurely. This enabled the patrol to regroup, while troops from the barracks moved to take the IRA from behind on both sides of the town. Jack Prendiville was killed along with Jack Flynn and Dick Shanahan, who ‘though wounded emptied his revolver and shot dead a military Sergeant’.1252 IRA sources stated that six soldiers were killed, in addition to the three Volunteers. However, British records indicate four fatalities: Davies and privates Kelly, Ross and Rankin. Lieutenant Sheridan and Lance-Corporal Joseph Whaley of the Loyal Regiment secured the MBE for their actions. Buried Borough Cemetery, Bear Road, Brighton. His widow secured £2,000 compensation and each of his five children £1,000.1253 RD: Flynn (10Jul1921/17), Kelly (10Jul 1921/14), Prendiville (10Jul1921/18), Rankin

(10Jul1921/15), Ross Shanahan (10Jul1921/19)

(10Jul1921/16),

William Kelly (10Jul1921/14) Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire), 21, Labourer, CE Castleisland, Kerry See Davies (10Jul1921/13). Private Kelly, from Liverpool, enlisted in August 1920 and was stationed in Castleisland. He was killed by an accidental rifle discharge during the fight. Buried Anfield Cemetery, Liverpool.1254 George Rankin (10Jul1921/15) Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire), 27, Labourer, Married with two children, CoE Castleisland, Kerry See Davies (10Jul1921/13). Private Rankin, from Salford, re-enlisted at Preston on 22 March 1919, and was stationed in Castleisland. Buried Warrington Cemetery, Cheshire (E. CE. 369). His widow secured £900 compensation and each of his two children £500.1255 William Ross (10Jul1921/16) Loyal Regiment (North Lancashire) (3847663), 34, Labourer, Married with two children Castleisland, Kerry See Davies (10Jul1921/13). Private Ross, of St Helens, Lancashire, served with the Cheshire Regiment before enlisting in the Loyal Regiment at Warrington on 3 November 1919, and was stationed in Castleisland. Buried St Helens Cemetery, Lancashire.1256 John Flynn (10Jul1921/17) IRA, 27, Farmer, RC Castleisland, Kerry See Davies (10Jul1921/13). ‘Jack’ Flynn from Gortatlea, Tralee, had taken part in the attack on Gortatlea Barracks in April 1918. Buried Rath Cemetery, Tralee. His mother Nora secured a £40 dependent’s gratuity; a sister later secured an allowance.1257 SA: Browne (13Apr1918/1)1258 John Prendiville (10Jul1921/18) IRA, 26, RC Castleisland, Kerry See Davies (10Jul1921/13). ‘Jack’ Prendiville served in Cordal Company, Kerry No. 2 Brigade. Buried Castleisland.1259

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1921

Richard Shanahan (10Jul1921/19) IRA, 21, Draper’s assistant, RC Castleisland, Kerry See Davies (10Jul1921/13). ‘Dick’ Shanahan, shot through the head and heart, apparently while covering his comrades’ withdrawal, was a captain in 7th Battalion, Kerry No. 2 Brigade. His father Richard, a drapery shop proprietor, did not secure a dependent’s allowance. Buried Castleisland.1260 William Reginald Williams (10Jul1921/20) Royal Welch Fusiliers, 20 Bunratty Bridge, Clare Williams, son of Mrs M. Williams of Chester, was a private in the Loyal Regiment. According to the battalion digest of service, he drove his motorcycle into ‘a huge hole dug in it by the IRA’ on Bunratty Bridge, fell through and drowned in the River Shannon. The military could recover neither his body nor his motorcycle. Weeks later a farmer, finding his corpse by the riverbank, buried it for fear of reprisals. The remains were discovered in 1925, but due to flooding were lost again. A memorial was erected in Bunratty Old Graveyard.1261 David McMullan (10Jul1921/21) 19, Apprentice fitter, Protestant RVHB McMullan, of 58 Lawnbrook Avenue, played football for Lawnbrook FC. Shot in the Lawnbrook Avenue area, he died in hospital. Buried Belfast City Cemetery.1262 Francis Robinson (10Jul1921/22) 65, Labourer, Married with one son, CoI 6 Brown Street, Belfast Robinson was ill in bed in 6 Brown Street when heavy firing began in the Millfield and Peter’s Hill area. He was struck in the head and killed instantly, apparently by RIC fire. Buried Belfast City Cemetery.1263 Daniel Joseph Hughes (10Jul1921/23) 50, Ex-serviceman, Married with two children, RC MIHB Hughes of 14 Durham Place had been a corporal in the Leinster Regiment. Shot by

loyalists, he died in hospital. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1264 Bernard Monaghan (10Jul1921/24) 74, Ex-serviceman, RC 69 Abyssinia Street, Belfast Monaghan, of 69 Abyssinia Street, was shot by a loyalist at his front door. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1265 James Lenaghan (10Jul1921/25) 48, Ex-serviceman, RC Derby Street, Belfast Lenaghan, formerly of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, living at 42 Locan Street, was killed at the junction of Derby Street and the Falls Road, probably by USC gunfire. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1266 Patrick Hickland (10Jul1921/26) 38, RC Boyd Street, Belfast Hickland, of Hamilton Street, was kicked and beaten by loyalists in the Boyd Street area before being shot dead. It was claimed his loyalist attackers were assisted by USC.1267 James McGuinness (10Jul1921/27) 35, Mechanic, Married with five children, RC Durham Street, Belfast McGuinness left his 27 McMillan Place home to fetch one of his children. He was shot dead at the junction with Durham Street. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1268 Alexander Hamilton (10Jul1921/28) 26, Ex-serviceman, RC Cupar Street, Belfast Hamilton, of 50 Plevna Street, had served with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in France, Suvla Bay and Palestine. An AOH member (Division No. 114), he was shot in the head on Cupar Street. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1269 Frederick Craig (10Jul1921/29) 22, Ex-serviceman, RC Clonard Street, Belfast Craig, of 23 Turin Street, was an AOH member (Division No. 181). He was shot by a sniper while walking along Clonard Street. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1270

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11 July 1921

Ernest Park (10Jul1921/30) 13, CoE Ashmore Street, Belfast Park, an English blacksmith’s son, of 32 Moyola Street, was shot dead as he brought a kitten to a friend’s house. The sniper fired from the back of a school on Ashmore Street, a loyalist district. Buried Carnmoney Cemetery, Antrim.1271 William Tierney (10Jul1921/31) 56, Labourer, Married, RC 15 Osman Street, Belfast Tierney, of 15 Osman Street, was hit in the head by a bullet which came through his living-room window. This may have been fired by the USC. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1272 Matthias Kelly (10Jul1921/32) RIC (80859), 31, Ex-serviceman, RC Spiddal, Galway Kelly joined the RIC in July 1920, stationed in Spiddal. From Goole, Yorkshire, but of Irish parentage, he was wounded while serving in the Royal Naval Division in 1914. He shot himself in the RIC barracks in Spiddal, leaving a note for Sergeant Rogers thanking him for his kindness and adding, ‘Don’t think me a coward for doing this.’ He left other notes for friends. Attended by a priest, he died within minutes.1273 William J. Nolan (10Jul1921/33) 17, Policeman’s son, RC Cork Nolan, from Annmount, Friar’s Walk, Cork, was brother of an RIC constable. At about 11:30 he left his home to post a letter. He was not seen again. Police reports suggested that it had become known locally that he had presented himself as an RIC candidate. He was abducted and killed by E Company, 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade.1274 Thomas McCarthy (10Jul1921/34) Labourer, 20, RC Kilconnor, Doneraile, Cork The CFR described the shooting by military at 22:00 of McCarthy, one of a group of young people attending a dance who

allegedly failed to halt when ordered to do so. This appears to have been a reprisal for the earlier IRA killing of an unarmed soldier in the area.1275 SA: Larter (10Jul1921/7)

11 JULY 1921 John Poynton (11Jul1921/1) 23, Farmer, CoI Kilbride, Portarlington, Laois Poynton, from Laois, joined the RIC on 6 December 1920 (service number: 76201) but resigned almost immediately to work the small family farm and support his mother after his father, a police pensioner, died suddenly. A GHQ document, presumably drawing on Laois IRA reports, claimed that ‘he was out & about after curfew being in the habit of meeting patrols at lonely points along the road’, and ‘was responsible for a large number of arrests etc. He boasted that he would shoot every member of the IRA for £1 per head’, and ignored an IRA warning ‘to leave the district’. At about 03:00 Poynton answered the door and was dragged outside by a masked armed man. Others fired five shots. His mother Emily and sister Maud brought him back into the house, where he soon died. Thomas Cullen of Deer Park, Portarlington, was charged with the murder. Emily Poynton secured £950 compensation, with £150 and £100 to his sisters Ada and Maud respectively.1276 Alexander Clarke (11Jul1921/2) RIC (52442), 52, Married, RC Townsend Street, Skibbereen, Cork Clarke, from Tipperary, joined the RIC on 25 April 1887, serving in Limerick and Skibbereen. Ada Coffey heard noise outside her shop on Townsend Street at about 08:25 and Constable Clarke staggered in. A man rushed away with a smoking revolver. Shot several times, Clarke died almost immediately. The IRA’s Neilus Connolly and Tim Sullivan ‘got him on the morn of the Truce at 9 o’clock’. Clarke had ‘accompanied the army & Tans on every raid as he knew every man in Skibb[ereen] and outlying districts’. Clarke’s widow secured £3,500 compensation.1277

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James King (11Jul1921/3) RIC (58121), 44, Married with four children, RC Patrick Street, Castlerea, Roscommon King, from O’Briensbridge, Clare, joined the RIC on 2 December 1898, serving in Galway before transfer to Castlerea in 1899. Tom Crawley claimed that King was ‘the principal man in the murder gang that was organised in the RIC in Castlerea. . . . He was badly wanted by us.’ When Edward Shannon was killed in Loughglynn, ‘the revolver was smoking in his hand’. Two hours before the Truce came into operation, King was mortally wounded in front of his eleven-year-old daughter as he left home to attend 10:00 parade in Castlerea Barracks. His killers, Ned Campion and Crawley – himself destined to serve as a Garda sergeant in the same county – escaped ‘although the chain of one bicycle broke’. King’s widow Kate and their children secured £7,000 compensation.1278 SA: Shannon (22Jun1921/1) James (Séamus) Ledlie (11Jul1921/4) IRA, 18, Riveter, RC Norfolk Street, Belfast Ledlie, of Plevna Street, was in C Company, 1st Battalion, Belfast Brigade. Roger McCorley, O/C 1st Battalion, described 10 July as Belfast’s ‘Bloody Sunday’. USC men fired indiscriminately. Eventually the IRA and RIC agreed a general two-sided withdrawal, but this later broke down. Ledlie was killed about ten minutes before the Truce came into operation at midday. Parkinson stated that he was helping to save a friend’s furniture, whereas another source claimed he was on outpost duty. The Irish News commented, ‘The hour at which the unfortunate youth met his death is a fitting commentary on the manner in which the Truce was kept by the Orange section in Belfast.’ Buried Milltown Cemetery. His father Hugh secured a £100 dependent’s gratuity.1279 Hannah Carey (11Jul1921/5) 48, Domestic servant, RC Imperial Hotel, College Street, Killarney, Kerry Hannah Carey, a hotel worker, was killed when a police driver discharged his weapon

while steering a Crossley tender around a corner, hitting her in the throat. The police were responding to the shootings nearby of sergeants Mears and Clarke.1280 RD: Mears (12Jul1921/1) John William Reynolds (11Jul1921/6) Lincolnshire Regiment (4794121), 21 Mullinahone, Tipperary Reynolds, from Streatham, was a Lincolnshire Regiment sergeant. On the night of 10 July a final attempt was made to shoot Lieutenant Litchfield (Litchford) of the Lincolnshire Regiment, an energetic officer in Tipperary. This failed, but the IRA did kill Reynolds in an attack on a curfew patrol near the national school. Commemorated Brookwood Military Cemetery, Surrey (VI. K. 4). His father secured £1,200 compensation.1281 Mary McGowan (11Jul1921/7) 13, Schoolgirl, RC Derby Street, Belfast Mary McGowan lived at 13 Derby Street. Shots were fired from a USC armoured car as she and her mother crossed Derby Street. Mary was killed and her mother wounded. An inquest jury recommended that USC ‘should not be allowed into a locality occupied by people of an opposite denomination’. At the request of DI Deigan, on 18 August they amended their original verdict to specify that USC members were responsible for the death.1282 Unknown (11Jul1921/8) Howth, Dublin After the Truce, GHQ recorded the execution on 11 July in Howth of an unknown spy. Nothing further has been traced. Howth was an extremely quiet area of north Dublin.1283 William Shields (11Jul1921/9) Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC Riverstown, Whitechurch, Cork Shields, from Boherbue, Duhallow, Cork, was permitted to join and to remain with the ASU, 5th (Kanturk) Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade, despite his dubious character and drunkenness while on duty. He was, rightly or not, identified as a key informer who

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betrayed IRA dispositions at Mourneabbey and the Nadd, resulting in major IRA losses. After the Nadd he disappeared. The Riverstown Company, Cork No. 1 Brigade, reported that at an unspecified time between 1 April and 11 July, ‘William Shields the noted spy . . . was captured, court martialled and executed . . . he confessed to having sold the planned ambush at Mourne Abbey’. Joseph Cashman told the BMH that Shields came into the area looking for labouring work, was arrested and executed. Some republicans, including the generally well-informed though dissimulating Florence O’Donoghue, maintained that Shields was never caught.1284 SA: Creedon (15Feb1921/10), Herlihy (10Mar 1921/4)

from a bullet wound to the pelvis. Newspaper accounts indicate she was shot when she answered the door around 23:15. She saw nobody, but felt a ‘sting in the side’ and fell inwards, crying out, ‘Mother, Mother, I am shot.’ She briefly rallied in hospital and made a statement saying she had no idea who shot her, before succumbing. Neighbours reported hearing the sound of footsteps running away. A more recent account suggests that she had been attempting to move arms from a dump to avoid their capture and was killed when a bullet exploded after falling into a fire. Her coffin was ‘covered with the tricolour and a beautiful collection of floral tributes’, and was followed by ‘a large number of lady friends . . . associated with Cumann na mBan’. Buried GC (St Bridget’s Section: M. I. 276).1287

Bartholomew Hegarty (11Jul1921/10) IRA, RC Vicinity of Carrignavar, County Cork Timothy Sexton, an intelligence officer in the 5th Battalion, Cork No. 2 Brigade, recalled to the BMH how, following the trenching of roads one night, Volunteer Batt Hegarty was killed by a fall.1285

13 JULY 1921

12 JULY 1921 Charles Edward Mears (12Jul1921/1) Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) (6446401), 23, Clerk CMHC See Carey (11Jul1921/5). Mears, from London, served in the London Regiment in France and Flanders, being twice wounded. He re-enlisted in the Royal Fusiliers on 19 February 1919, and was officers’ mess sergeant in Killarney. He and Sergeant Clarke, who was wounded, were unarmed when shot while buying provisions near Killarney Town Hall at 11:45, dying next day. His representatives secured £600 compensation.1286 Margaret Keogh (12Jul1921/2) Cumann na mBan, 21, Clerk, RC SPDH Margaret Keogh, a clerical assistant and captain of the Crokes camogie team, lived at 20 Stella Gardens, Irishtown. She died on 12 July, two days after admission suffering

Margaret McKinney (13Jul1921/1) 26, Mill Worker, RC Balkan Street, Belfast Margaret McKinney of 71 Balkan Street, shot while visiting a neighbour’s house, died a short time later.1288

14 JULY 1921 Margaret Ann Walsh (14Jul1921/1) 14, Schoolgirl, Protestant RVHB Shot on York Street while doing an errand by a nationalist sniper firing from Little George’s Street, Margaret Walsh, of 2 Ellis Court, died in hospital around 18:00.1289

15 JULY 1921 Patrick McKenna (15Jul1921/1) 60, RC RVHB McKenna, of 16 Lepper Street, died in hospital having been shot in the head the previous day while sitting on his window sill during disturbances in the York and North Queen Street area.1290 Thomas Devine (15Jul1921/2) RIC (74477), 35, Miner, ex-serviceman, RC Infirmary, Lifford, Donegal Constable Devine, from Manchester, joined the RIC on 15 October 1920, stationed in

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Lifford. On 29 June, he was in a lorry ambushed at Kilraine, Glenties, by Volunteers from the 1st and 3rd battalions, 3rd Brigade, 1st Northern Division, IRA, concealed behind a wall. Joined by a second lorry, the police gave chase, wounding one Volunteer. Devine, wounded in both thighs, died in hospital at 07:00. Buried New Cemetery, Strabane. Rev. E. J. Mullen, then chaplain to the county infirmary, recalled that the funeral was attended only by the dead constable’s mother, a woman friend and four policemen. His mother addressed the group: I want the Irish people to know that I did not send my son on this mission to Ireland and that I forgive the people who shot him. I have another son, and if he came on the same mission to Ireland, I should also forgive the people who would shoot him. I have the greatest sympathy with the Irish people and I wish them every success.

His parents secured £1,400 compensation.1291 Daniel Hughes (15Jul1921/3) 28, RC MIHB Hughes, of 6 McCleery Street, died from abdominal wounds received on 10 July when shot while going home by a sniper in the Spamount Street area. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1292 Bernard Mooney (15Jul1921/4) 24, Labourer, RC MIHB Mooney, of 104 Spamount Street, was shot in the abdomen by a sniper while in a friend’s house on Lepper Street. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1293 William Brown (15Jul1921/5) 45, Haulage contractor, Protestant RVHB Brown, of 30 March Street, was shot by a sniper on David Street on 11 July. The Belfast News Letter stated that he died on 15 July, whereas G. B. Kenna suggested 19 July.1294

16 JULY 1921 John Quinn (16Jul1921/1) IRA, 19, Agricultural labourer, RC Kilgobinet, Dungarvan, Waterford See Burke (8Jul1921/7). Quinn, from Ballymacmague, Dungarvan, was in the West Waterford Brigade. His mother Anastasia secured a £100 dependent’s gratuity, and later an allowance.1295 John H. Begley (16Jul1921/2) Ex-serviceman, RC Cork Begley disappeared about 11 July. Seán O’Connell, quartermaster G Company, 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, described how he and Tadhg Twohig captured Begley on Patrick Street. He was detained in a house for a day or two before being killed on the orders of the brigade staff. The 1st Battalion monthly activity report states that Begley was captured at 23:55 on 11 July, and ‘was executed on Saturday 16th’. Connie Neenan told Ernie O’Malley that Begley said that William Shields ‘got him into this mess.’ Shields, of the ASU Kanturk Battalion, was possibly captured and killed by the IRA around the same time.1296 SA: Shields (11Jul1921/9)

18 JULY 1921 Patrick McCarry (18Jul1921/1) 45, Farmer, RC Ballycastle, Antrim Although he ran for Sinn Féin in the strongly Unionist North Antrim parliamentary constituency in 1918, McCarry, a justice of the peace, was on good terms with the police and local unionists. At around 01:00 on 17 July, he and Constable William Barry, stationed in Antrim, called to Ballycastle RIC Barracks, Barry’s previous station. They were in plain clothes. Barry had called earlier to say that he would be returning, but the constable whom he informed had gone off duty. Barry tapped on the window to gain admittance, and in answer to a challenge called out his name. He ‘saw an arm appearing from behind the door with a revolver, and heard a shot’. McCarry exclaimed, ‘I am shot,’

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and collapsed, wounded in the shoulder and lung. Special Constable Steel, an inexperienced recruit, said he fired because he feared the men were raiders. Sergeant Henderson said that Steel was under orders to summon him before opening the barracks door, but that as barracks orderly he was entitled to carry a firearm.1297

19 JULY 1921 R. L. Stockdale (19Jul1921/1) ADRIC (82792), 22, Ex-serviceman Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin Stockdale, from Stockport, Cheshire, slipped as he mounted a moving police tender at North Wall, Dublin, at about 16:45. The vehicle drove over his legs, causing severe injuries. He died a few hours later.1298

20 JULY 1921 Cyrus Hunter Regnart (20Jul1921/1) ADRIC (2046), 42, Ex-serviceman, CoE Inistioge, Kilkenny The Cairo Gang records that Regnart, educated at Uppingham School, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the RMLI on 1 September 1897. An excellent linguist – he spoke Russian, Spanish, German, French and Danish – he was attached to the Naval Intelligence Department for some years, and for some time was seconded to the newly formed secret intelligence service MI6. He was placed on the retired list in 1913, apparently to facilitate employment by MI6 to develop agent networks along the German borders in Belgium and the Netherlands. Said to be an expert agent runner, he was also, apparently, a difficult colleague and subordinate. Recalled to active service in 1914 and promoted to major in 1917, he spent most of the war in command of the defences of a small navy base in northern Scotland. He joined the Auxiliary Division on 20 June 1921, just two weeks after demobilisation from the Royal Marines, assigned to A Company. A court of inquiry found that Regnart ‘was not of sound mind’ when he shot himself. His estate came to £3,093.1s.7d.1299

21 JULY 1921 George Walker (21Jul1921/1) 19, CoI Eighth Street, Belfast Walker, of 29 Eighth Street, the son of a shipyard worker, served in the ‘Blue Banner’ Orange Lodge. Shot during disturbances on 18 May 1921 while part of an Orange procession on Beverly Street, he had been treated in and discharged from the Royal Victoria Hospital. He reportedly died of pleurisy and pneumonia.1300

24 JULY 1921 Stephen Geoghegan (24Jul1921/1) Ex-serviceman, porter, 26, Married, RC Dublin Peter Keenan told a court of inquiry how he had accompanied Geoghegan, of 44 Bridgefoot Street, who was heavily in debt, in an attempted robbery. Geoghegan, formerly of the Royal Engineers, had told his wife that he was ‘going for a swim and would not be long’, afterwards remarking to a neighbour on the stairs, ‘I have squared the “mott”; I am going to a “hooley”; you can lock the door.’ Keenan supplied ‘a .45 automatic’. After using a ladder to reach a second-storey window of a farm building at Gallenstown, Old Kilmainham, Geoghegan attempted to fire at someone inside. The gun jammed: in trying to clear it he shot himself in the stomach. While seeking help at the farm, Keenan claimed to be ‘Captain Jones’ of the IRA, in command of twenty men, and said that ‘one of his men had been shot while tracking down burglars’.1301

28 JULY 1921 George Clarke Graham (28Jul1921/1) USC, 22, Ex-serviceman, Protestant General Hospital, Newry, Down Graham, born in Lisburn, Antrim, lived with his father and sister at 39 Church Street. He fought in France and spent three and a half years as a prisoner of war in Germany. Transferred to Newry from Newtownards at Easter 1921, he died from wounds sustained on 26 April while part of an eight-man USC

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1921

patrol ambushed by the IRA on Merchant’s Quay, Newry.1302 Terrance Coins Allan Steele (28Jul1921/2) Gordon Highlanders, 21 Curragh, Kildare Private Steele, who had served two years during the war, was preparing dinner in a canteen when hit in the stomach by a bullet discharged when an officer at about 50 yards’ distance dropped his revolver. Buried Balgay cemetery, Dundee.1303

29 JULY 1921 Ellen Beirne (29Jul1921/1) 44, Married with children, RC Mohill Hospital, Leitrim Ellen Beirne, a farmer’s wife from Drumdoo, near Mohill, was knocked down by a military vehicle. Driver T. Mawn, RASC, said she suddenly walked in front of his right wheel. She was apparently hard of hearing and had failing sight.1304

30 JULY 1921 Michael McInerney (30Jul1921/1) IRA, 21, Motor mechanic, RC Miller Hospital, London McInerney, of Townmead Road, was a Volunteer in A Company, London Battalion. On 28 July at about 12:45 he was severely burned in an explosion in a rented garage in South Street, Greenwich, an improvised incendiary bomb factory. He died two days later. William Leard, who lived over the garage, described at an inquest two minor explosions followed by a blast which shook his room. Geneva Mandison described how she asked McInerney, whom she saw ‘go round the corner all alight’, if she should bring him to hospital, but he ‘ran past her’ without reply. Two other young men fled the scene (these were Cecil Nolan and Michael Kelly, who left for Dublin). McInerney later presented himself at the Miller Hospital. Police sought a ‘James Edwards’, who had rented the premises. Police described finding bomb-making equipment, together with revolvers and part of a Lewis gun. McInerney’s father, who had previously complained that

he was being followed by police ‘even to Mass’, remarked that ‘you are making a h[ell] of a row about a few bombs. . . . If you go to the Crystal Palace you will see more dangerous things. These were only made of cardboard and tin.’ The inquest jury returned a verdict of ‘death by misadventure, the result of burns received while engaged in the manufacture of incendiary bombs’. GHQ’s director of chemicals Séamus O’Donovan, who was in London and in contact with the Greenwich bomb-makers when the explosion occurred, bemoaned the fact that a trained man’s ‘repeated advice about not using the same place for both factory, incendiary dump, garage and petrol store, was not heeded’.1305

31 JULY 1921 Thomas Reid (31Jul1921/1) 34, Railway signalman, Married with three children, Presbyterian RVHB Reid, from Ballygowan, Down, employed by the Belfast & County Down Railway, was shot while in a motor car with two companions. They did not hear the challenge from sentry Special Constable Morrow as they approached Newtownards USC Camp.1306

4 AUGUST 1921 Michael Kenny (4Aug1921/1) 20, Tramcar conductor, RC Merrion Gates, Dublin Kenny, of 1 Charles Street, was knocked down by a motor car driven by Driver Joseph L. T. Shilbeck, Auxiliary Division, while changing the wire for tram 126 for its return journey to the Phoenix Park. Shilbeck was acquitted of manslaughter. Witnesses differed as to whether a horn had been sounded. Kenny died from a fractured skull.1307

8 AUGUST 1921 Frederick William Morrison (8Aug1921/1) ADRIC, 23, Bank clerk, ex-serviceman, student, Presbyterian North Wall, Dublin A witness told an inquest on 10 August that he observed a one-armed man ‘drop his hat

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12 August 1921

and stick’ before entering the water at the North Wall. The man refused to grasp ropes thrown to him. This was Frederick Morrison of Bangor, Down, a one-time Bank of Ireland clerk commissioned in the North Staffordshire Regiment in 1914, who transferred to the MGC, and who had lost an arm at the Battle of Messines in 1916. In 1919 he left the army to study law at Trinity College Dublin, but, shocked by the IRA killings on Bloody Sunday (21 November 1920), he joined the ADRIC, employed as an intelligence officer in Dublin and Roscommon. Said to have performed valiant services, he regarded himself as ‘a marked man’ after he saw a reference to ‘one-armed Morrison’ in a captured IRA document in May 1921. Due to sit his final Bar examinations, he had recently returned to Dublin for ‘grinds’, and was in very good spirits. Buried New Cemetery, Bangor.1308 Thomas F. Ikin (8Aug1921/2) RIC (76402), 25, Tailor, ex-serviceman Hollywood, Wicklow Ikin, from Essex, posted to Wicklow on 17 December 1920, deliberately shot himself in the chest in his bed in Hollywood RIC Barracks at about 07:00, dying shortly before midnight.1309

12 AUGUST 1921 William Henry Russell (12Aug1921/1) Royal Navy, 26 Haulbowline, Queenstown (Cobh), Cork Crew members on the naval trawler Dee heard a shot at about 15:40. Petty Officer William Russell was found on the wireless room floor, shot through the head. The rifle used and five others were secured by ‘a wire pennant’ to a rack. A court of inquiry heard that it would have been possible for Russell to load and fire the secured weapon, on the rim of the barrel of which were some hairs. Lieutenant-Commander HallowellCarew testified that Russell had recently ‘appeared anxious about the receipt of certain news from his home in South Africa’; another shipmate said Russell had ‘appeared very worried’ about his mother’s health. The court

of inquiry found that Russell ‘not being of sound mind did kill himself ’. Buried Old Church Cemetery, Cobh.1310

14 AUGUST 1921 M. Moody (14Aug1921/1) Royal Welch Fusiliers New Barracks, Limerick Private Moody was accidentally killed when a revolver was discharged while being cleaned.1311

15 AUGUST 1921 Frederick Fox (15Aug1921/1) IRA, 19, Fitter, RC MIHB Fox, born in Lisburn, lived at 92 Durham Street. The circumstances of his death combined tragedy and farce. A keen GAA player, he was a Volunteer in B Company, 1st Battalion, Belfast Brigade. On 6 August, he and Frank Crummey were shadowing a policeman supposedly part of a curfew hours ‘murder gang’. Constable Thomas Kane came on them unexpectedly and questioned them. They shot him in the groin. Mrs Bridgman, wife of a head constable, then grabbed Fox and Crummey and ‘although badly maltreated’ held them for a time. Crummey accidentally shot Fox as the pair tried to flee. Another policeman caught Crummey as he tried to hijack a motor car. IRA liaison officer Eoin O’Duffy visited Constable Kane in hospital to explain that the Volunteers were ordered not to carry weapons and expressed ‘regret’. Fox died in hospital. Crummey was convicted of the attempted murder of Constable Kane. Buried Milltown Cemetery. His father James, who fled Belfast in 1922, received a £100 dependent’s gratuity.1312

16 AUGUST 1921 Joseph O’Neill (16Aug1921/1) 23, Labourer, RC RVHB O’Neill, a farmer’s son from Annagboe, Coalisland, Tyrone, was in a nationalist fife band, returning from a hospital fête at Donaghmore, held up by Robert Marshall, armed with a revolver, near the Green, Coalisland. Marshall was disarmed, and the

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1921

band proceeded. As they passed Marshall’s house, his nephew William, a USC constable, fired his rifle. O’Neill, wounded in the abdomen, died in hospital. William Marshall was sought for murder.1313

25 AUGUST 1921 Charles Green (25Aug1921/1) 39, Cabinet maker, Protestant RVHB Green, of 23 Lincoln Avenue, had been seriously wounded on 6 August during a robbery at his premises at College Court. He died in hospital.1314

28 AUGUST 1921 William Jacobs (28Aug1921/1) Manchester Regiment, 32 Belturbet, Cavan Corporal Jacobs was accidentally killed by a young private handling a revolver in Belturbet, who was ‘almost delirious’ at his error. Buried Church of Ireland graveyard, Belturbet.1315

29 AUGUST 1921 Thomas J. Rafter (29Aug1921/1) 18, RC North Queen Street, Belfast Rafter lived at 1 Burke Street. He was one of two people killed due to rioting in the New Lodge area. He was killed on North Queen Street, and Colin Fogg on Lepper Street. Buried Kilbeg Cemetery, Strangford, Down.1316 RD: Fogg (29Aug1921/2) Colin Fogg (29Aug1921/2) 42, Shipwright, Married with children, CoI Lepper Street, Belfast See Rafter (29Aug1921/1). Fogg lived at 35 Lawther Street. Buried City Cemetery, Belfast.1317

30 AUGUST 1921 Stephen Cash (30Aug1921/1) 56, Plater’s helper, Married, Protestant New Lodge Road, Belfast There were renewed disturbances in the York Street, North Queen Street and New Lodge Road areas. Cash was shot through

the head as he looked out of his window at 77 Sussex Street. William Kennedy died similarly. Annie Watson and William Smyth from the Old Lodge Road were fatally wounded. Later that night, as tension and disorder increased, John Coogan, Thomas McMullan and Charles Harvey, all Catholics, were killed or died of their wounds. Henry Robert Bowers was shot in York Street. Buried City Cemetery, Belfast.1318 RD: Bowers (30Aug1921/3), Coogan (30Aug 1921/6), Harvey (6Sep1921/1), Kennedy (30Aug1921/2), McMullan (30Aug1921/7), Smyth (30Aug1921/5), Watson (30Aug1921/4) William Kennedy (30Aug1921/2) 26, Ex-serviceman, Protestant Earl Street, Belfast See Cash (30Aug1921/1). Kennedy, an ex-naval rating of 9 Grove Street, shot in the lung by a sniper, died in a nearby pharmacy. Buried Dundonald Cemetery, Belfast.1319 Henry Robert Bowers (30Aug1921/3) 21, Labourer, Protestant Dale Street, Belfast See Cash (30Aug1921/1). Bowers, of 9 Cambridge Street, was shot during a riot. Buried Carnmoney.1320 Annie Watson (30Aug1921/4) 5, Schoolgirl, Protestant 177 North Queen Street, Belfast See Cash (30Aug1921/1). Annie was playing in the kitchen when fatally wounded in the head by a sniper. Buried Shankill Cemetery, Belfast.1321 William Smyth (30Aug1921/5) 28, Labourer, ex-serviceman, Married, Protestant North Queen Street, Belfast See Cash (30Aug1921/1). Smyth, of 32 Paris Street, was hit in the stomach by a rifle bullet during a riot on York Street. Buried Shankill Cemetery, Belfast.1322 John Coogan (30Aug1921/6) 47, Dock labourer, Married with children, RC North Queen Street, Belfast See Cash (30Aug1921/1). Coogan lived at Valentine Street.1323

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31 August 1921

Thomas McMullan (30Aug1921/7) 34, Bar manager, Married, RC MIHB See Cash (30Aug1921/1). McMullan, from Seskinore, Tyrone, managed and lived in a pub at 84 North Queen Street. At around 18:00 he sent his wife upstairs when Crown forces drew up in a lorry and opened fire. When she came downstairs he was lying wounded in the chest and lungs from shots fired through the window. He died at 21:00. Buried Seskinore, Tyrone.1324

31 AUGUST 1921 Richard Duffin (31Aug1921/1) 52, Turkish baths attendant, Married with children, RC North Queen Street, Belfast Duffin, of New Lodge Road, was on his way to work at about 08:00 when shot dead on North Queen Street. Buried Our Lady’s Graveyard, Belfast.1325 Thomas Finnegan (31Aug1921/2) 52, Carter, Married with children, RC Garmoyle Street, Belfast Finnegan, of 5 Keyland Place, was killed as he walked to work at the docks along Garmoyle Street. Buried Carrickmacross, Monaghan.1326 William McKeown (31Aug1921/3) 18, Labourer, RC York Street, Belfast McKeown, of 25 Lancaster Street, died from gunshot wounds to the head inflicted during a riot.1327 James McFadden (31Aug1921/4) 16, RC Wall Street, Belfast McFadden, of 107 Malvern Street, was shot in the chest at about 19:00 during disturbances on Wall Street and later died. Walter Campbell, a Protestant youth seriously wounded in the same incident, died the following day. Buried Carnmoney, Belfast.1328 RD: Campbell (1Sep1921/1)

Alice Duff (31Aug1921/5) 54, Housekeeper, Married with children, RC MIHB Alice Duff of 31 Academy Street was an English-born Catholic, evidently twice married. Her two older sons were Catholics named McCabe; her second husband William Duff, a shipyard plater, and their three children were Protestant. Shot in the stomach in her home, she died later that day. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1329 James Bradley (31Aug1921/6) 26, Labourer, Married, RC MIHB Bradley, from Londonderry, lived at 74 McCleery Street. Shot on West Street at about 20:00, he died later. Buried Granaghan Cemetery, Londonderry.1330 Samuel Ferguson (31Aug1921/7) 56, Van driver, Married with children, Presbyterian North Queen Street, Belfast Ferguson, of 352 Donegall Road, was shot dead during a riot on York Street. Buried Monaghan. The Irish News reported that many members of the Orange Order attended.1331 Thomas Lee (31Aug1921/8) 71, Corporation employee, Married, CoI MIHB Lee, of 113 Manor Street, worked thirty-one years for Belfast Corporation. Crushed by an armoured car on North Queen Street, he died in hospital. Buried City Cemetery, Belfast.1332

1 SEPTEMBER 1921 Walter Campbell (1Sep1921/1) 15, CoI MIHB See McFadden (31Aug1921/4). Campbell, of 95 Silvio Street, a member of the King William Young Defenders Orange Lodge, died from abdominal wounds received on 31 August when shot by a sniper firing into the Brown Street area of the Shankill. Buried Dundonald Cemetery, Belfast.1333

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1921

2 SEPTEMBER 1921 William Johnston (2Sep1921/1) 15, Protestant MIHB Johnston, of 19 Louisa Street, died in hospital at 02:30 from wounds received at around 21:00 on 31 August when shot in the neck by a sniper firing into the Brown Street area of the Shankill.1334 Harold Stanley Roadnight (2Sep1921/2) RAF, 20, Woodworker, CoE Corporal Roadnight, from Maidenhead, who enlisted in December 1917, died following a flying accident at Celbridge, Kildare.1335

4 SEPTEMBER 1921 John Quigley (4Sep1921/1) IRA, Servant, RC Cortial, Kilkerley, Dundalk, Louth The RIC termed Quigley, from Cortial, Dundalk, a ‘prominent IRA man’. A large Sinn Féin crowd gathered in Armagh to see Michael Collins† make his first official visit since his election in May 1921 as Sinn Féin MP for Armagh. Special trains were organised from Warrenpoint, Newry, Monaghan, Clones, Omagh and Dungannon. It was agreed that Sinn Féiners would avoid unionist districts. The rally passed off without major incident. Sinn Féin police turned traffic bound for Newry and Dundalk down Thomas Street so as to travel via Newtownhamilton, instead of taking Markethill Road. However, two vehicles disregarded these instructions. When the first reached Barrack Street, it was booed by a unionist crowd and an apple was thrown. A shot was fired from the car. Fire was returned by some of the crowd, who also shot at the second car. It was believed that two occupants of the first vehicle, including the driver, were wounded. Edward Hanna of Mill Street, Newry, was admitted with abdominal wounds to Newry Union Hospital. A second man was believed to have died in Dundalk. This seems to have been Quigley. It was freely rumoured that he met his death on his way home from Armagh. His relatives

would not discuss his death. A death notice in the Dundalk Democrat stated only that Quigley had died ‘as a result of an accident’. Buried Knockbridge Cemetery, Dundalk.1336

6 SEPTEMBER 1921 Charles Harvey (6Sep1921/1) 30, Labourer, Married, RC MIHB See Cash (30Aug1921/1). Harvey died in the early hours from wounds received at around 11:00 on 30 August when shot by a sniper in the yard of a house on Columbus Street during disturbances in the North Queen Street area.1337 Leopold Burgess Leonard (6Sep1921/2) 55, French polisher, Methodist RVHB Leonard, of 5 Dover Street, a prominent Shankill Road Orangeman, died at 23:00 from lung wounds ‘inflicted by members of the Irish Republican Army acting in concert and under general orders’ on 31 August while on his way to work, when shot at the corner of Peter’s Hill and Boyd Street.1338

8 SEPTEMBER 1921 Michael O’Brien (8Sep1921/1) Fianna Éireann, 18, Canteen worker, RC MMH O’Brien was accidentally shot in the groin during a training exercise in a field in Killester. A tailor’s son of 20 Duke Street, he served in B Company, 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, Fianna Éireann, and worked for Trinity College Dublin. A court of inquiry found that he died of shock and haemorrhage. Buried GC. Among the mourners was Countess Markieviez.1339

13 SEPTEMBER 1921 John Greene (13Sep1921/1) RIC (55256), 51, Labourer, Married with five children, RC Peter Street RIC Barracks, Waterford Greene, from Offaly, joined the RIC on 8 October 1892, serving in Waterford. Promoted to sergeant in 1913, he lived at

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14 September 1921

Gorteen, Kilkenny. Described by his DI as ‘a steady and intelligent man’, he shot himself with his Webley revolver in his bedroom in Peter Street Barracks at 15:45, dying at 03:10 next morning. Suffering from a heavy cold and upset stomach, he had been issued with a doctor’s note exempting him from work for a week. Dr James Jackman blamed ‘continuous mental strain for the past two years’. No colleagues could recall any odd behaviour prior to the shooting. Liam Walsh of the East Waterford Brigade said Greene had given him tip-offs about raids and probable arrests, and might have been shot by the British. Similar claims were made by William Keane, vice-O/C East Waterford Brigade.1340

14 SEPTEMBER 1921 John McNally (14Sep1921/1) 2, Child, RC Adavoyle, Armagh Joseph McNally, a farmer of Adavoyle, heard a motor car stop suddenly and then move away outside his house. He found John dying, his skull fractured. He had been struck by a vehicle which had then left. After hearing from Sergeant Tighe of Bessbrook Station that all in a Crossley car were ‘perfectly sober’ when they returned from patrol, an inquest on 16 and 30 September exonerated the driver, Constable John Richardson, but said vehicles should drive more slowly on narrow roads.1341

17 SEPTEMBER 1921 Thomas Shevlin (17Sep1921/1) RIC (67575), 28, Shop assistant, RC Ballyclare, Antrim Shevlin, from Carrickmacross, Monaghan, enrolled in the RIC in 1914, allocated to Antrim. He was found dead in Ballyclare RIC Barracks, where he shot himself in the mouth, at about 10:00. Described as a ‘sober, steady’ and popular officer, his colleagues noticed nothing unusual. Sergeant Hannon told an inquest jury that, since returning from leave about three weeks beforehand, Shevlin had been uneasy about the safety of his family living in Monaghan. Buried Carrickmacross.1342

18 SEPTEMBER 1921 Margaret Ardis (18Sep1921/1) 19, Mill worker, Presbyterian RVHB Margaret Ardis, of 7 Bute Street, was chatting to her friend Evelyn Blair on her doorstep at 6 Vere Street when a bullet fired from the North Queen Street end of the street passed through her head and then wounded Evelyn. Margaret died minutes after admission to hospital and Evelyn four hours later. Soldiers had exchanged shots with snipers at around 18:15, and a witness saw two men with rifles fire at the women and then run off. Francis Corr of 54 Vere Street was later charged with the double murder.1343 RD: Blair (18Sep1921/2) Evelyn Blair (18Sep1921/2) 22, Married, Protestant RVHB See Ardis (18Sep1921/1).1344

19 SEPTEMBER 1921 Joseph Rumney (19Sep1921/1) RIC (82314), 25, Coppersmith, ex-serviceman, Protestant RIC Barracks, Dundrum, Tipperary Rumney, from Durham, joined the RIC on 3 July 1921, stationed in Dundrum. He was found dead at Dundrum RIC Barracks at around 00:45, his Webley revolver beside him. A fellow constable told a court of inquiry in Tipperary Military Barracks, closed to the public, that Rumney ‘never spoke about or alluded to any trouble he was in. He had served in the army and spoke only of his experiences therein.’ He was ‘not in his usual good spirits’ on the evening of his death. The court concluded he killed himself, ‘being temporarily of unsound mind’. Buried Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne.1345

23 SEPTEMBER 1921 Samuel Robinson (23Sep1921/1) 53, Protestant Newtownards Road, Belfast Robinson, of 140 Madrid Street, was knocked down at around 22:00 by an armoured car

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1921

driving towards a crowd to disperse them on the Newtownards Road.1346 Walter Rennie (23Sep1921/2) Gordon Highlanders, 18, Church of Scotland Maryborough Hospital, Laois Private Rennie, of the 2nd Gordon Highlanders, accidentally shot by a revolver, died in hospital. Buried St Nicholas Churchyard, Aberdeen.1347 Luke Killian (23Sep1921/3) IRA, 38, Farmer, RC County Infirmary, Roscommon Killian, a lieutenant in the Knockcrogery Company, South Roscommon Brigade, died from blood poisoning contracted on 5 September when he fell from his bicycle and injured his nose while returning from the reinterment of John Scally at Cloontuskert. Buried Knockcroghery.1348 SA: Scally (21May1921/9)

24 SEPTEMBER 1921 Murtagh McAstocker (24Sep1921/1) IRA, 23, RC Newtownards Road, Belfast McAstocker lived at 5 Moira Street. According to Steele, he was a Volunteer in B Company, 2nd Battalion, Belfast Brigade. He and John Duggan were attacked as they left confession in St Matthew’s Church, Bryson Street. Duggan said that ‘bricks, stones and raw potatoes’ were thrown at them before ‘a man, about 24 years of age, in shirt sleeves’, whom he later identified to the RIC, fired at them from about 20 yards. Thomas Pentland of 14 Clonallen Street, a member of the Ulster Protestant Association, a paramilitary group, was charged with McAstocker’s murder. Pentland claimed he had only gone to help McAstocker, and was later acquitted. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1349

25 SEPTEMBER 1921 James McMinn (25Sep1921/1) 19, CoI Short Strand, Belfast McMinn lived at 8 Reids Place, Newtownards Road. Military reports stated that gunfire

broke out in Little George’s Street at around 16:50. At 18:15, sniping began from the railway embankment in the Ballymacarret area. Twenty minutes later, a crowd gathered in Wolff Street. A bomb exploded, setting fire to a spirit grocery at the corner of Seaforde Street. Nationalists retaliated by throwing a bomb at the crowd, killing McMinn and another youth named Alexander Harrison. The military estimated that eighteen people were wounded. Sniping continued until 21:30. There were other deaths. At around 20:00, Elizabeth Kelly, wounded by a stray police bullet, died in hospital at 22:45. George Berry, wounded during a bomb attack on Catholics in Milewater Street, died a few days later. Buried Belfast City Cemetery.1350 RD: Berry (10Oct1921/2), Harrison (25Sep 1921/2), Kelly (25Sep1921/3) Alexander Harrison (25Sep1921/2) 19, Methodist Short Strand, Belfast See McMinn (25Sep1921/1). Harrison, a shipyard worker’s son, lived at 20 Frazer Street.1351 Elizabeth Jane Kelly (25Sep1921/3) 32, Married with five children, RC MIHB See McMinn (25Sep1921/1). Elizabeth Kelly’s children ranged in age from one to nine years old. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1352

26 SEPTEMBER 1921 Mary Antonia Reynolds (26Sep1921/1) 19, Student, RC Posseckstown, Enfield, Meath ‘May’ Reynolds, of Baconstown, Enfield, ‘a pretty and highly accomplished young lady . . . very well known in musical circles’, was daughter of a widowed retired national school teacher. Evelyn Hudson described how at about 10:30 she and Mary had found a pistol hidden behind a post in the Hudsons’ barn, where her brother Dominic, who had previously ‘been interned in Dublin for about 3 weeks’, was threshing hay. They

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28 September 1921

both told Mary to put the gun down. Evelyn went off towards her house, but almost immediately heard a shot. She and her mother took the wounded Mary into the house while Dominic, ‘without saying a word, jumped on a bicycle & went off to fetch the doctor’. Mary died a few hours later. Evelyn Hudson later ‘saw three young strange men . . . arguing with my brother & leading him towards a waiting car on the road. It was plain to see that my brother was not going willingly. We have not seen him since nor have any idea where he is.’ He was arrested by IRA police, but evidently released after her death was deemed an accident.1353

28 SEPTEMBER 1921 Mary Esther Weldon (28Sep1921/1) 3, Child, RC MHD Mary, daughter of Christina Weldon of 119 Lower Clanbrassil Street, was struck by a military vehicle on Clanbrassil Street. The driver said he had sounded his horn, but she dashed out. She suffered a fractured skull.1354 John Orr (28Sep1921/2) 32, Plater, Married, Protestant RVHB Orr, of 84 Derwent Street, was wounded in the abdomen at around 17:00 at the junction of Donegall Road and Falls Road by shooting from Rockville Street, a nationalist area. He died soon afterwards. He was returning home from the funerals at the City Cemetery of James McMinn and Alexander Harrison. The shooting led to other incidents that evening, including assaults on Catholics, stoning of police and sniping.1355 SA: Harrison (25Sep1921/2), McMinn (25Sep 1921/1) William Corbett (28Sep1921/3) 30, Factory hand, Married, RC Military Hospital, Tipperary Corbett, from Tipperary Town, worked at the Cleeves Creamery. He returned home at 19:30. As his wife Catherine was busy, he

went on his own to the cinema. At about 20:30, shots were fired on Main Street, Tipperary. A Private Cooper was wounded, together with nineteen-year-old Helen Tierney, daughter of ‘the proprietor of the merry-go-round’, who was shot in the buttock, and Joseph Cahill, an IRA volunteer, shot in the thigh. At around 21:30 an RIC patrol encountered men standing outside Evan’s Picture Palace. Corbett aroused suspicion as his hands were in his pockets. When ordered to put his hands up, he ran inside and up the stairs. Constable Monck pursued him, firing a shot. Corbett, described by the Irish Independent as ‘an industrious, inoffensive man’ without ‘political association’, fell wounded in the head and shoulder on the landing, and died at 23:59. His wife only discovered this when summoned to take custody of his body next day. On 29 September a court of inquiry found that Monck fired lawfully ‘under extenuating circumstances’. Dan Breen suggested the earlier shootings were the work of two Black and Tans, although Joseph Cahill was convicted by court martial for attempted murder. Sentenced to penal servitude for life, he was released after the Treaty. Buried Behigullane, Dunmanway, Cork. Catherine Corbett secured £1,320 compensation.1356 Charles Dixon (28Sep1921/4) RFA, 20 Dundalk, Louth Gunner Dixon, from Northumberland, was accidentally shot by a comrade cleaning his rifle in Dundalk Barracks.1357

3 OCTOBER 1921 Geoffrey Henry Souchon1358 (3Oct1921/1) 17th (Duke of Cambridge’s Own) Lancers, 28 Town Hall, Courthouse Square, Galway Souchon, from Surrey, was gazetted to the 17th Lancers in December 1914. He served in France, and after the Armistice was a liaison officer with the Belgian and French armies in Germany. In March 1920 he was attached to B Squadron, stationed in Galway.

531

1921

At about 23:30 on 2 October, there was an altercation outside a Republican Dependents’ Fund dance in Galway Town Hall. One account said five men complained about admission prices and fired into the hall. There followed an exchange of shots between Republican police and Auxiliaries, with one Auxiliary seriously wounded. Souchon and Major Parbury were walking from the Galway County Club in Eyre Square to their barracks at Earl’s Island. Near Eglinton Street RIC Barracks, an Auxiliary officer offered them a lift. On nearing the Town Hall RIC men warned them of danger ahead, and firing broke out nearby. Only on reaching Earls Island was it discovered that Souchon had died from a shot in the forehead. He had sent in his papers, and but for a delay would already have been discharged. Michael Staines, then the IRA liaison officer for Galway and Mayo, recalled that when en route to the scene of the shooting in a police car, Auxiliaries who halted the car acknowledged that they were responsible and wanted to leave the area. Staines told his opposite number that ‘it was your men who shot him, not mine’. Buried Effingham Cemetery, Surrey.1359

4 OCTOBER 1921 James Joseph McNally (4Oct1921/1) IRA, 18, Student, RC Sperrin Mountains, Tyrone McNally, of Barrack Street, Strabane, a section commander in G Company (Strabane), No. 4 Brigade, 2nd Northern Division, had just left a lecture during a brigade training exercise at Sperrin Training Camp which included instructions on the Mauser pistol. Coming upstairs to the bedroom at about 17:15, he found such a weapon belonging to a visiting officer, Captain Jerry Kiely† of Tipperary, who had left it aside ‘in order to shave himself ’. McNally removed the magazine. A comrade, seeking to release the bolt, discharged the remaining round, shooting McNally through the wrist and stomach, the bullet passing ‘out at the back’. A priest anointed him shortly before he died around 17:45. His father James O’Connor McNally secured a gratuity of £80.1360

5 OCTOBER 1921 John Francis O’Hare (5Oct1921/1) IRA, 26, Trainee accountant, RC Needham Street, Newry, Down See Canning (13Dec1920/2). From Needham Street, Newry, O’Hare was vice-O/C A Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd (Newry) Brigade. Captured by Crown forces following the Egyptian Arch ambush on 13 December 1920, he was held for four months in Newry Military Barracks before being moved to Belfast. Patrick Casey maintained that O’Hare’s wounds were minor, and that his death was caused by the deliberate neglect of his captors. On 15 July 1921 he was brought to Newry Union Infirmary. Medical officers Dr S. E. Martin and Dr Flood ‘arrived at the conclusion that this patient while a prisoner in Newry was neglected and that when it was believed that his recovery was impossible, he was sent here with no other object than to relieve themselves [military in Belfast] of further trouble’. O’Hare asked to be moved to his parents’ house on Needham Street on 1 October, where he died four days later. The funerals of O’Hare and Peter Shields, who had been secretly buried after dying of wounds sustained at the Egyptian Arch ambush, took place in Newry Cathedral on 9 October, with burial at St Mary’s Old Chapel Cemetery, Newry. O’Hare’s mother Bridget secured a gratuity of £150.1361 SA: Shields (25Dec1920/1) Maurice Christopher Aherne (5Oct1921/2) IRA, 24, Farmer’s son, RC Rathpeacon, Cork City Aherne, from Monard, Whitechurch, and his friend Daniel Healy, from Coolowen, were held up by a gunman speaking with an ‘ordinary southern accent’ near Rathpeacon while leaving Cork city after delivering milk. Forced to dismount from the pony-drawn van, Aherne disregarded three warnings to hand over his takings and was shot through the left eye. Healy escaped in the gathering gloom; the gunman cycled away. A small sum of money was found on Aherne’s body; his watch was missing. An inquest was organised next day in Blarney by the Republican police.1362

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8 OCTOBER 1921 John James Buchanan (8Oct1921/1) 32, Farmer, Presbyterian Glendermott, Derry Buchanan, a prosperous farmer, lived in Lisglass, Glendermott, two miles from Derry. The Belfast News Letter reported that he had been master of the local Orange lodge, whereas an inquest juror said Buchanan had not even been a member. He was returning home by horse and cart after selling butter in the city when he was shot dead, his body found at 19:30. There were no signs of robbery. An RIC inspector thought that the crime was not political. A letter received by a local Presbyterian pastor ‘on notepaper bearing the printed letters “IRA”’ stating Buchanan was shot as a spy was thought to be a hoax.1363

9 OCTOBER 1921 Joseph Blakely (9Oct1921/1) 23, CoI Belfast Blakely, a railwayman’s son of 32 Campbell Street, died of injuries sustained in earlier disturbances.1364

10 OCTOBER 1921 Michael Joseph Geelan (10Oct1921/1) IRA, 22, Agricultural labourer, RC North Infirmary, Cork Geelan lived in Woodstock, Carrigtwohill, Cork. A police party in two Crossley tenders left Youghal for Cork on 8 October, stopping in Midleton to get petrol and light the lamps at around 19:00. Geelan was knocked off his motorcycle at the pump on the Midleton side of Carrigtwohill and seriously injured. The police said he had no lights and was on the wrong side of the road when the collision occurred. Geelan initially rallied after admission to hospital, but developed gangrene and died two days later at 22:45 from blood poisoning. A court of inquiry found that he was to blame. Information presented suggested ‘that the deceased was a dispatch rider of the IRA’. The RIC were commended for doing all in their power for him after the accident. Buried Church of the Holy Rosary, Midleton.1365

George Berry (10Oct1921/2) 38, Ex-serviceman, Married, Protestant MIHB See McMinn (25Sep1921/1). Berry and his wife Mary lived at 5 Shore Street. A Boer War veteran, he had also fought in France. Severely wounded in the head and neck by a bomb thrown through his window on 25 September, he died of blood poisoning and exhaustion.1366

12 OCTOBER 1921 Samuel Smith (12Oct1921/1) Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise’s), 29, Married with children Swinford, Mayo Lance-Corporal Smith enlisted in 1910 and served mainly as a signalling instructor. He was shot by a sentry at 23:00 when he and a corporal failed to heed an order to halt. Buried Edinburgh.1367

13 OCTOBER 1921 Mary Josephine Ruxton (13Oct1921/1) 7, Schoolgirl, RC Dr Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin James Ruxton, a tailor, said that his daughter ‘May’ of 3 Behan’s Cottages, Basin Lane, was ‘in the habit of going about the streets by itself [sic]. The child was going to buy an apple at Redman’s shop.’ She was struck by a motor car carrying Lieutenant L. Hodson on James’s Street at around 19:30 on 12 October as she began crossing the road. Elizabeth Keegan stated the car was going very fast and did not sound its horn, giving the child no chance. Mary died next evening. A court martial subsequently acquitted Lance-Corporal Eldred of the RASC of manslaughter. Buried GC (St Paul’s Section: N. c. 77).1368 Henry Morgan (13Oct1921/2) RIC (69962), 20, RC RIC Barracks, Keady, Armagh Morgan, from Dublin, joined the RIC on 2 December 1919, posted first to Cork and from 28 November 1920 to Armagh. He died while cleaning his revolver. The RIC Register records this ambiguously as ‘G[un]S[hot] wound. Self inflicted.’1369

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1921

16 OCTOBER 1921

22 OCTOBER 1921

Bernard Mailey (16Oct1921/1) 58, Civil bills officer, Married with children, RC Raphoe, Donegal Mailey and his wife Sarah lived in Raphoe. Soon after passing a police patrol at 18:45 as he returned from the church, he was held up by armed men. A ‘very powerful man’, witnesses said, ‘he put up a stout resistance’ before being ‘overpowered and dragged into a motor car’. At about 17:00 next day a farmer found his body in a coffin in a field near the public road at Mondooey, midway between Strabane and Letterkenny. The local IRA took charge of it. Mailey may have been kidnapped to prevent him giving evidence at Lifford Quarter Sessions of having served legal documents on individuals. An IRA inquest in the officers’ quarters at No. 2 Brigade Camp, Glenswilly, under two parish judges on 18 October, heard Dr John Maloney, medical officer at Churchill, and Dr Thomas Patterson, of Letterkenny, state that Mailey was in good health. They believed the cause of death was cardiac syncope following an assault. The coffined remains were then handed over to Mailey’s relatives. On 28 October, an official court of inquiry in Raphoe heard police evidence that Mailey had received a threatening letter ordering him to quit his work as civil bills officer. The court was critical of Dr Patterson and Dr Maloney for irregularities in carrying out an unofficial post-mortem, but acknowledged this was due to ‘intimidation from one Peter [Peadar] O’Donnell reputedly an IRA commandant’.1370

Hugh O’Hare (22Oct1921/1) IRA, 19, Labourer, RC General Hospital, Newry, Down O’Hare, of Cecil Street, Newry, shot himself in the hand while examining a revolver. His wound healed well until he developed tetanus. His father had been lost at sea some years previously. Buried St Mary’s Old Chapel Cemetery, Newry.1372

19 OCTOBER 1921

Maurice Casey (27Oct1921/1) IRA, 23, Farmer’s son, RC Tralee Union Infirmary, Kerry Casey, of Ballinoe, Milltown, Kerry, was ‘one of the most sincere & hard working Eng[ineers]’ in the 2nd Battalion, Kerry No. 2 Brigade: ‘even outside his engineering duties he was always willing & ready to do his utmost in every other dep[artmen]t of the Army’. He died ‘after five days severe suffering’ from burns received when ‘making black powder

Gilbert Fenton (19Oct1921/1) 78, Shopkeeper, farmer, Methodist Bandon, Cork This ‘aged man . . . defended’ his premises at Clonakilty Junction alongside his son Frederick between 02:00 and 03:00 on 7 February 1921, during which ‘armed men’ fired in through the windows. He succumbed to lung wounds.1371

26 OCTOBER 1921 John Arthur W. Anderson (26Oct1921/1) Cameron Highlanders, 19, Clerk Knockraha, Cork Private Anderson, born in St Paul, US, enlisted on 5 November 1920. Kidnapped while walking on the Fota Road in Cobh, he was taken to the IRA Cork No. 1 Brigade ‘prison’ at Knockraha, shot nearby and his body buried. Some years later the Department of Justice noted that Anderson was thought to have been kidnapped in error, as the IRA had sought a Lieutenant Anderson believed responsible for the murder of John O’Connell in Queenstown (Cobh) in May 1921. Alternatively, Anderson may have been the soldier whom the Queenstown [Cobh] IRA captured – it ‘had taken five men to overpower him’ – and brought to Knockraha, mistaking him for a Sergeant Major Mackintosh believed responsible for several murders. The army accepted his death for official purposes.1373 SA: O’Connell (29May1921/6)

27 OCTOBER 1921

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31 October 1921

in a farm at Molahiffe’ with seven comrades. His father Maurice and sister Mary failed to secure dependents’ awards.1374

31 OCTOBER 1921 Christopher Kelly (31Oct1921/1) Ex-serviceman, labourer, RC Upper Jetty, Waterford The ‘well-nourished’ body of Kelly, about forty years of age, from Coolroe, Graiguenamanagh, Kilkenny, was discovered in the mud at the Upper Jetty in Waterford at low tide. He had a discoloured wound over his right eye, but he had drowned. An army doctor said the wound must have been caused before death. Mary O’Shea said he quit his lodgings in her house ahead of time, taking a refund of 10d. She subsequently saw him drunk, though not incapable. The police suspected he had been stunned and ‘thrown into the water’.1375

7 NOVEMBER 1921 Henry McKigney (7Nov1921/1) IRA, 18, Apprentice engineer, RC Fathom Line, Newry, Down Harry, of The Mall, Newry, worked for McKittrick and Armour, Soho Place, and was a member of St Joseph’s Brass and Reed Band. While walking on the Omeath road at around 22:00, he produced a revolver which he had been given to repair for a comrade. Press reports vary as to whether he showed it to Joseph Keenan or ‘his sweetheart’, but the latter appears to have been the case. The weapon discharged as he put it in his pocket, shooting him above the left eye. His mother Ellen, a Scottish midwife, claimed Harry, a Volunteer, had been shot by USC after delivering a dispatch. Her income had declined rapidly thereafter as she ceased to attract Protestant clients. An IRA inquiry disclosed that he had been showing the gun to ‘a young lady’, and that there was an element of negligence in what happened. But this was not a factor in his mother’s failure to secure an award. Buried St Mary’s Old Chapel Cemetery, Newry.1376

11 NOVEMBER 1921 Thomas Ryan (11Nov1921/1) 39, House painter, Married with five children, RC RIC Barracks, Clonmel, Tipperary Ryan, of 59 Irishtown, Clonmel, was painting the interior of Clonmel RIC Barracks with Michael Maloney. At around 16:30, Maloney moved a rifle standing near a fireplace. It went off, fatally wounding Ryan.1377 Daniel Clancy (11Nov1921/2) IRA, 24, RC CMHC Volunteer Clancy, of Farrendoyle, Kanturk, an internee on Spike Island since April, died from acute appendicitis after two operations. His parents maintained his illness arose from brutal treatment – ‘the military drove the prisoners into a moat & kept them there for 24 hours without a coat’ – but failed to secure dependents’ awards. Buried Clonfert graveyard, Newmarket.1378

15 NOVEMBER 1921 Tadhg Barry (15Nov1921/1) IRA, 39, Journalist, trade unionist, RC Ballykinlar Internment Camp, Dundrum, Down Barry, from Blarney Street, Cork, was a branch secretary and full-time ITGWU organiser from 1917. Imprisoned during the ‘German Plot’ scare in 1918 in Usk, he was an alderman of Cork Corporation and a member of C Company, 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. On 30 January he was arrested in the council chamber and interned at Ballykinlar. Francis O’Duffy, also an internee, recalled that the camp commandant obtained permission to release thirty prisoners on parole. A lorry was supplied to bring these to the railway station. As they climbed into the lorry others, including Barry, were standing a few yards inside the gate of Camp 2. Michael Hartney recalled that Barry was waving goodbye to comrades when a sentry shot him dead at about 14:00. When arrested, the sentry claimed he thought Barry was attempting to escape and gave three warnings before firing. Michael Staines, then a liaison officer and a future commissioner of An Garda Síochána, who was visiting

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1921

Ballykinlar, said that Barry was waiting by the gate to speak to him when ordered to move away. Some internees swore vengeance on an NCO named Forde from Waterford, wrongly blamed for the shooting. An inquest jury was deadlocked ‘on strict Political lines’. Buried SFC. After a strong intervention by President Cosgrave, his brother Patrick secured a temporary £1 weekly allowance, on grounds of his chronic illness, rather than a one-off £100 gratuity as originally proposed.1379

21 NOVEMBER 1921 Neill McConvey (21Nov1921/1) 62, Railway guard, spirit grocer, Married, RC Thompson Street, Belfast McConvey, from Down, and his wife lived in their spirit grocery on Thompson Street. Loyalist gunmen made sustained attempts to invade Thompson Street on the night of 20 November. At one stage the military intervened, and shooting continued after their departure. Next day no one noticed that McConvey’s store remained closed. At around 14:00, people detected the smell of gas coming from the premises. On investigation, the bodies of McConvey, his wife and niece were found in the living quarters upstairs. A bullet had pierced a gas pipe causing a leak which killed the three as they slept. Buried Kilclief burial ground, Downpatrick, Down.1380 RD: Kelly (21Nov1921/2), McConvey (21Nov 1921/3) Minnie Kelly (21Nov1921/2) 20, Shop assistant, RC Thompson Street, Belfast See McConvey (21Nov1921/1). Minnie, from Draperstown, Londonderry, worked in her uncle’s spirit grocery.1381 Kathleen McConvey (21Nov1921/3) 54, Shop assistant, Married, RC Thompson Street, Belfast See McConvey (21Nov1921/1). William Hanna (21Nov1921/4) 40, Ex-serviceman, painter, Presbyterian RVHB Hanna, living on Montrose Street, worked for Harland and Wolff. He had been gassed at the Somme while in the Royal Marines. The

Irish News reported that, because he walked unchallenged past a Catholic area on his way to work, loyalist gunmen further up the road fired on him. The first shot missed. Hanna put his hands up, but was hit in the head as he ran for cover. Buried Dundonald Cemetery, Belfast.1382 James Hagan (21Nov1921/5) 22, Barman, RC MIHB See Hanna (21Nov1921/4). Hagan, from Cookstown, Tyrone, lived at 9 College Place North, and worked in the Turbine public house on the corner of Station Street and Middlepath Street. Shortly after 17:15, when the public house was practically empty, a man came in carrying a rifle, walked to the counter and ordered Hagan and his colleague to put their hands up. They ran into an adjoining storeroom. Thinking that it was a joke, Hagan came back and was shot in the head. Buried Cookstown.1383 Andrew James (21Nov1921/6) 24, Married, CoI RVHB See Hanna (21Nov1921/4). James lived at 126 Nelson Street. There was considerable shooting in York Street, North Queen Street and New Lodge Road. The military intervened and fired on loyalist gunmen. During these exchanges, James was wounded in the abdomen on Earl Street. His widow said he had been looking for their son when shot. Buried Shankill burial ground.1384

22 NOVEMBER 1921 P. J. Keating (22Nov1921/1) 28, Ex-serviceman, clerk, RC Bridge End, Belfast ‘Jack’ Keating, living on Jocelyn Avenue but originally from Lucan and youngest son of Lawrence Keating of Holles Row, Dublin, had been badly wounded while serving in the RDF in France, and had been a prisoner of war. The Newtownards Road district was relatively quiet until around 14:00 when loyalists opened fire from a railway embankment on Catholic property at the junction of Newtownards Road and Bridge End. A

536

23 November 1921

military contingent replied. Keating’s Labour Bureau colleague William McMordie was in the act of warning him of the danger when a bullet came through the window and struck both men successively in the head killing them outright. Buried Esker Cemetery, Lucan, Dublin.1385 RD: McMordie (22Nov1921/2) William McMordie (22Nov1921/2) 22, Porter, Presbyterian Bridge End, Belfast See Keating (22Nov1921/1). McMordie, of 3 Sandhurst Street, worked in the Bridge End Labour Bureau. Buried Dundonald Cemetery, Belfast. A Catholic colleague attending his funeral had to be rescued by police from ‘a number of the Roughs’.1386 William Cairnduff (22Nov1921/3) 40, Shipyard worker, Married with five children, Presbyterian Corporation Street, Belfast Cairnduff was from Comber. As the first of the tramcars conveying workers from the shipyards approached Corporation Street at about 17:45, a man stepped off the pavement on Great George’s Street and threw a device. The explosion killed Cairnduff outright. Two other passengers, James Rodgers and Robert Nesbitt, died later. Buried Comber Cemetery, Belfast.1387 RD: Nesbitt (25Nov1921/5), Rodgers (22Nov 1921/4) James Rodgers (22Nov1921/4) Shipyard worker, Widowed, Presbyterian Corporation Street, Belfast See Cairnduff (22Nov1921/3). Rodgers, from Comber, was the son of a former RIC sergeant. Buried Comber Cemetery, Belfast.1388 Patrick Malone (22Nov1921/5) Spirit grocer, RC Beersbridge Road, Belfast Malone lived on Beersbridge Road, a ‘Unionist Locality’. At about 20:00, five or six armed men walked in to his shop, ‘gave him “Hands Up” and shot him twice in the right breast’. He died an hour later.1389

23 NOVEMBER 1921 Patrick Connolly (23Nov1921/1) Grocer’s assistant, RC MIHB Connolly, from Tyrone, was an apprentice to his uncle Patrick who owned a spirit grocery at 208 Duncairn Gardens. At about 20:30 on 22 November, armed men entered. On going into the shop from a back parlour, Connolly was shot. He shouted ‘I am done’ before collapsing with an abdominal wound. He died the following evening. Buried Clogher, Tyrone.1390 Andrew Patton (23Nov1921/2) 32, Ex-serviceman, Married with four children, Presbyterian RVHB Patton, living at 93 Saunders Street, had a distinguished war record. He died from wounds received the previous night when a bomb was thrown at a crowd on the Newtownards Road. Buried Dundonald Cemetery, Belfast.1391 Ellen Bell (23Nov1921/3) 75, Old age pensioner, RC Great Patrick Street, Belfast Ellen Bell of Lepper Street was shot dead about lunchtime by a sniper on Great Patrick Street.1392 Patrick Edward Burton (23Nov1921/4) 38, Stevedores’ foreman, Married, RC Dock Street, Belfast Burton and his wife Helen lived in Vere Street. A loyalist sniper shot him through the head as he stood on Dock Street.1393 David Cunningham (23Nov1921/5) 19, Presbyterian RVHB Cunningham, an iron turner’s son of 32 Lendrick Street, died of injuries sustained in disturbances during the summer.1394 Hebert Philips (23Nov1921/6) 25, Protestant York Street, Belfast Philips, of 8 Michael Street, was shot in the chest and killed by a sniper during disturbances in the York Street area. Buried City Cemetery, Belfast.1395

537

1921

Michael Spallen (23Nov1921/7) 29, Sculptor, RC Little George’s Street, Belfast Spallen, a grocer’s son of 32 Moffet Street, was shot by a sniper on Little George’s Street as he went to help a woman in the line of fire.1396

24 NOVEMBER 1921 Richard Graham (24Nov1921/1) 42, Shipyard foreman, Married, CoI Royal Avenue, Belfast Graham, of 38 Beverly Street, worked for Harland and Wolff. At about 18:00 a bomb was thrown into a tramcar carrying shipyard workers along Royal Avenue bound for the Shankhill Road. Graham and Jeremiah Fleming were killed outright. Other passengers were wounded. Robert Johnston and Thomas Rodgers died next day. Graham’s widow Isabella secured £850 compensation. Buried Dundonald Cemetery, Belfast.1397 RD: Fleming (24Nov1921/2), Johnston (25Nov1921/3), Rodgers (25Nov1921/6) Jeremiah Fleming (24Nov1921/2) 54, Joiner, Married, RC Royal Avenue, Belfast See Graham (24Nov1921/1). Fleming lived at 4 Glenvale Street. Buried Shankill Graveyard, Belfast.1398 John Joseph Kelly (24Nov1921/3) Spirit grocer, RC Ohio Street, Belfast Kelly lived with his mother and brother on the Crumlin Road, and ran his mother’s spirit grocery at 38 Ohio Street. About 19:45, as he was chatting with Thomas Thompson, who owned the confectionery shop next door, armed men shot them both. This was one of several attacks on Catholic spirit grocers and their employees throughout the city. Kelly’s brother Eugene (his son in some accounts) was erroneously reported as a fatality.1399 RD: Thompson (24Nov1921/4) Thomas Thompson (24Nov1921/4) Shopkeeper, Protestant Ohio Street, Belfast See Kelly (24Nov1921/3).1400

John McNally (24Nov1921/5) Married with two children, RC MIHB McNally, of 7 Park Street, was shot in the abdomen while on Park Street, which was practically deserted. The shot came from a lorry containing uniformed men. He later claimed that he was neither challenged nor ordered to halt. Neighbours carried him into his house, where a military officer rendered first aid.1401 Margaret Millar (24Nov1921/6) 60, Married, RC MIHB Margaret Millar of 4 Dock Lane died from a chest wound inflicted the previous day by a loyalist sniper. Her son Joseph had been shot dead in June 1921, when she was herself wounded. A daughter lost an eye from a bomb splinter, and another daughter was shot in the thigh. Her brother William Kane had his right hand blown off in a bomb explosion.1402 SA: Millar (13Jun1921/1)

25 NOVEMBER 1921 John McHenry (25Nov1921/1) Harbour Police, 59, Married with ten children, RC Milewater Road, Belfast McHenry and his wife Selina lived at 15 Slade Street. A constable for thirty years in the Harbour Police, he left the harbour offices at 15:45 to begin his beat, which included Milewater Road and Duncrue Street. At around 18:00, he was shot dead at Milewater Gate ‘and his revolver stolen. Shipyard workers were passing in hundreds at the time, and the locality is Unionist.’ Buried Milltown Cemetery.1403 Robert Graham (25Nov1921/2) 45, Crane driver, Protestant RVHB Graham lived at 10 Beersbridge Road. He was shot and seriously wounded on 21 November in the Beersbridge Road area while going to work. Buried Dundonald Cemetery, Belfast.1404

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29 November 1921

Robert Johnston (25Nov1921/3) 45, Married with children, Protestant RVHB See Graham (24Nov1921/1). Johnston lived at 65 Westmore Street. Buried Kilroot, near Belfast.1405

through the heart by a sniper at 07:30 while walking to work at the junction of Cromac and Catherine Street. The RIC thought it ‘possibly a reprisal for last night’s bomb outrage’ which killed Annie McNamara.1410

James McIvor (25Nov1921/4) Shopkeeper, 45, Married with two children, RC Little Patrick Street, Belfast McIvor and his wife Agnes lived at 54 Little Patrick Street. He was killed by a gunman at the door of his shop, and Margaret Knocker was wounded in the foot. David Duncan, an ex-officer of the RIF, was charged with his murder, but subsequently acquitted. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1406

2 DECEMBER 1921

Robert Nesbitt (25Nov1921/5) 17, Shipyard worker, Presbyterian RVHB See Cairnduff (22Nov1921/3). Nesbitt lived at 22 Josephine Street.1407 Thomas Rodgers (25Nov1921/6) 65, Protestant RVHB See Graham (25Nov1921/1). Rodgers lived at 42 Northumberland Street.1408

29 NOVEMBER 1921 Annie McNamara (29Nov1921/1) 48, Married with eight children, RC MIHB At about 23:00 a bomb thrown over the railway wall exploded on Keegan Street, a narrow thoroughfare at the back of the Markets district. Joseph McNamara, a warehouseman, stated that he, his wife Annie and their daughter were in the kitchen at 56 Keegan Street when they heard a thud near the front door. When Annie went to investigate, there was an explosion. A bomb splinter struck her in the throat. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1409

30 NOVEMBER 1921 Alexander Reid (30Nov1921/1) 61, Shipyard worker, Married with children, Presbyterian Cromac Street, Belfast Reid, of 33 Silvergrove Street, worked for Harland and Wolff shipyard. He was shot

Michael Gorman (2Dec1921/1) RIC (59169), 45, Farmer, RC Derry Gaol, Bishop Street, Derry Gorman, from Malin Head, Donegal, joined the RIC on 2 October 1899, allocated to Antrim. From February 1909, the constable was stationed in Derry. Three IRA men arrested before the Truce who were due to be hanged in February 1922 attempted to escape from Derry Gaol between 02:00 and 03:00. Special constables Reid and Thompson observed a rope ladder being thrown over the prison wall by men on Barrack Street. A dozen prisoners in the yard were rounded up and the escape prevented. According to Daniel Kelly, two friendly warders – Gorman and Special Constable Lyttle – had been given chloroform to knock them out. However, too much was administered and they died. The press reported that Gorman was ‘trussed up with a rope’. Lyttle was found with a wound to the top of his head, manacled with his own handcuffs. Joseph Lavery, James Campbell, Joseph McGuinness, William O’Kane and others unknown were charged with the murder of Gorman and Lyttle before a special court in Derry on 9 December. Lavery, Campbell, McGuiness and O’Kane were discharged at the end of December. Buried Malin Head.1411 RD: Lyttle (2Dec1921/2) William Lyttle (2Dec1921/2) USC, 27, CoI Derry Gaol, Bishop Street, Derry See Gorman (2Dec1921/1). Buried Magherafelt Episcopalian Burial Ground.1412 Alfred Phippen (2Dec1921/3) 60, Grocer, Married, CoI MIHB Phippen, an Englishman, owned a grocery shop on North Thomas Street. He died from

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1921

wounds inflicted on 23 November, when shot in the chest as he was going upstairs in his premises.1413

7 DECEMBER 1921 Charles Henry Bradley (7Dec1921/1) 26, Mechanic Moate to Athlone Road, Westmeath From London, Bradley was a civilian fitter with 1169th Mechanised Transport Company, RASC. Shortly after midday, he and another mechanic were testing Crossley car 584048. The driver, V. H. Latter, braked sharply to avoid the oncoming car of Athlone auctioneer Michael O’Farrell. The Crossley overturned, killing Bradley.1414

9 DECEMBER 1921 Charles Emerson (9Dec1921/1) IRA, 42, Technical instructor, Married with three children, RC Clifden, Galway Emerson died in Clifden, where he had gone to recuperate after periods of imprisonment and a ten-day hunger strike. General Eoin O’Duffy, O/C of the Monaghan Brigade in 1920–1, described Emerson, a 1916 veteran, as ‘one of the first .  .  . Volunteers’ in Monaghan, who took part in ‘all the principal engagements under my command’. Arrested shortly after the successful attack on Ballytrain RIC Barracks in 1920, he was imprisoned in Dundalk, Derry and Belfast, where he joined a hunger strike: as ‘his health was not very robust previously, the hunger strike had serious effects on him mentally and otherwise’. O’Duffy advised him to ‘go off the strike’, but ‘he refused on the grounds that his death would help his comrades. . . . He never fully recovered.’ On release, ‘he was forced to take to the hillsides again’, and his condition worsened. Mary Emerson had difficulty in securing dependents’ allowances for herself and her children, finally succeeding in 1928 with an annual award of £90 with £24 for each of her three children, plus some school fees. Despite ‘the very kind and generous treatment’, her financial difficulties continued.1415

10 DECEMBER 1921 T. R. Moss (10Dec1921/1) 15th Hussars, 41, Married Marlborough Barracks, Dublin Regimental Sergeant Major T. R. Moss had only been in Ireland a short time when found dead in the sergeants’ quarters at Marlborough Barracks, clutching a revolver across his chest. A friend told a court of inquiry on 12 September that Moss was experiencing ‘domestic trouble’. Mrs Moss, in attendance, ‘was unable to give any evidence’.1416

12 DECEMBER 1921 Michael Byrne (12Dec1921/1) 20, Farmer, RC Workhouse, New Ross, Wexford The Irish Independent reported the death of a ‘youth’ named Byrne from Kiltoom, from wounds received while examining ‘a bomb’. The only other information traced is a death register entry stating that Michael Byrne died of a ‘compound fracture thigh 18 hours shock & haemorrhage’.1417

13 DECEMBER 1921 John Maher (13Dec1921/1) RIC (69137), 24, Shop assistant, RC Castle Green, Ballybunion, Kerry Maher, from Carlow, joined the RIC on 5 June 1917. Promoted to sergeant on 1 January 1921, he was stationed in Ballybunion. Thomas Carmody described how, despite the Truce, he, Patrick Cox, Michael McNamara and John Creedon ambushed Maher and Constable Gallagher on the Castle Green at about 21:30. This was in reprisal for the shooting of Edward Carmody a year earlier. Buried Carlow.1418 SA: Carmody (22Nov1920/3)

14 DECEMBER 1921 Michael Crudden (14Dec1921/1) 28, Packer, RC MIHB Crudden, of 4 Glenview Street, was shot in the neck at around 21:00 by loyalist gunmen firing at members of the Holy Family Confraternity as they left the Church of the Sacred Heart on Oldpark Road, and died

540

16 December 1921

next day. John A. Porter of 29 Ballycarry Street was later charged with the murder.1419 Thomas Enright (14Dec1921/2) RIC (71187), 31, Farmer, ex-serviceman, Married, RC Kilmallock, Limerick Enright, an ex-soldier commissioned from the ranks, from Listowel, Kerry, joined the RIC on 22 April 1920, Tipperary, stationed in Thurles, and promoted to sergeant on 1 January 1921. Enright and Constable Edward Timoney, unarmed and in civilian clothes, attended a coursing meeting in Kilmallock. At about 23:00, they were fired on as they walked towards their hotel. Although wounded, they found cover. Hit in the chest, Enright told Timoney he was done for. Jack Sharkey had discovered that it was Enright who threw a grenade at a train carriage carrying released internees at Thurles on 9 December, causing the mortal wounding of Declan Hurton. Buried Listowel, Kerry.1420 SA: Hurton (16Dec1921/2)

16 DECEMBER 1921 Bernard Shanley (16Dec1921/1) 21, Seaman, RC MIHB Shanley, of 75 Dublin Road, died at 05:15. The RIC reported that this ‘ex-seafarer’ was found wounded on Charlotte Street at 23:23 the previous night, ‘a Wembley revolver . . . beside him, loaded in 3 chambers, one empty cartridge case, and one bullet lodged in barrel’. He initially gave his correct name, but ‘later he said that it was O’Neill’. He refused to make ‘a dying declaration’. The authorities concluded that ‘he was a scout of one side sent to watch the movements of the other’. The Irish News said he was shot in the chest by an armed man near the Ormeau Road.1421 Declan Hurton (16Dec1921/2) IRA, 31, Ex-serviceman, postman, RC North Infirmary, Cork Hurton, a former Irish Guards soldier from Ardmore, Waterford, was known as ‘Patsy’ to distinguish him from his father Declan

senior. After demobilisation he joined the West Waterford Brigade. In November 1920, he and his brothers were arrested, Declan being interned at Ballykinlar, and Michael at Bere Island Internment Camp. Declan was mortally wounded on 9 December by a bomb thrown at a train carrying internees who had been released from Ballykinlar Camp as it entered Thurles railway station at 19:00. One comrade recalled how ‘I was very frightened, as I was closest to the window, and there were six other fellows in the carriage with me . . . and all six were wounded. One of them died. And I didn’t even get a scratch of glass.’ Enright was shot dead in Kilmallock, Limerick, on 14 December. Buried Ardmore, Waterford.1422 SA: Enright (14Dec1921/2)

17 DECEMBER 1921 Walter Pritchard (17Dec1921/1) 30, Labourer, Presbyterian Newtownards Road, Belfast Pritchard, of 9 Malcolm Street, was a wellknown boxer. Loyalist gunmen appeared on the Newtownards Road and opened fire into Seaforde Street, Young’s Row and Keenan Street. When the military intervened, the firing ceased. Workmen re-laying the tram track at the city end of the Newtownards Road took advantage of the cessation to begin work. Pritchard was shot dead when firing recommenced.1423

18 DECEMBER 1921 Edward Brennan (18Dec1921/1) 22, Carter, Married with one child, RC Short Strand, Belfast Brennan, of 64 Short Strand, was married less than a year; his child was only a few weeks old. East Belfast was the scene of a wild shooting outburst on the weekend beginning 16 December. The Irish News termed the violence the ‘attempted extermination of the Catholic population’. At around 15:00, Brennan left to visit his mother in the Markets district. He was about to cross Albertbridge Road to board a tram when hit. Shot through the heart, he died almost instantly. The tram service was withdrawn.

541

1921

The police and military succeeded in quietening the outbreak. However, at 22:00 the police were attacked by loyalists on the Albertbridge Road area and returned fire. John McMeekin was shot dead. Buried Milltown Cemetery.1424 RD: McMeekin (18Dec1921/2) John McMeekin (18Dec1921/2) 41, Presbyterian Lower Mount Street, Belfast See Brennan (18Dec1921/1). McMeekin lived at 35 Lower Mount Street.1425

19 DECEMBER 1921 Charles McCallion (19Dec1921/1) 30, Barman, RC RVHB McCallion, from Malin, Donegal, worked in John Burns’s Dreadnought pub on Boundary Street. During the evening, he was shot in the temple at the corner of Brown Street. Given first aid at Brown Square RIC Barracks, he died in hospital at 22:15. Buried Aughacloy, Donegal.1426 Frances Donnelly (19Dec1921/2) 40, Shopkeeper, Married with four children, RC RVHB Frances and her tailor husband Hugh lived at 109 Ravenhill Road. The Irish News reported that at about 21:00 on 17 December five loyalist gunmen entered Donnelly’s premises, finding only Frances and her little daughter. She said her husband was out, and they shot her in the abdomen at pointblank range. She died at 10:00 two days later after an operation. Buried Milltown cemetery.1427

23 DECEMBER 1921 William Armstrong (23Dec1921/1) Publican Connsbrook Avenue, Belfast Armstrong, of Ashfield House, Connsbrook Avenue, owned several pubs including the Union Jack on the Newtownards Road. He was shot dead only yards from his home at about 23:00. Robbery may have been the motive, as he carried the day’s takings. The

prompt appearance of the police meant that his killers fled empty-handed.1428

27 DECEMBER 1921 David Morrison (27Dec1921/1) IRA, 29, Ex-serviceman, RC 29 Mayfair Street, Oldpark Road, Belfast Morrison spent ten years in the army, in which his father and two of his brothers also served. He was a section commander in A Company, 3rd Battalion, Belfast Brigade. The RIC reported that that at 07:30 a patrol of special constables from Antrim Road Station under Constable Francis Hill† encountered a suspicious group at the corner of Gracehill Street and Oldpark Road. As these fled, one – allegedly Morrison – fired, wounding Hill. The police returned fire, killing Morrison as he was about to enter his house. Morrison’s relatives were adamant that he was in the kitchen preparing to attend Mass when the police were attacked and was shot when he opened his front door to see what was happening: ‘The Specials came almost abrest [sic] of him with rifles pointing at him and fired point blank killing him instantly. He fell with six bullets in the head and face.’ Constable Hill died on 19 January 1922. Buried Milltown Cemetery. His father later secured a £100 gratuity.1429

31 DECEMBER 1921 Michael McCrann (31Dec1921/1) IRA, 19, Plumber, RC Gilhooly Hall, Sligo Town McCrann, a labourer’s son from Charlotte Street, Sligo, was in the last year of his apprenticeship, earning 18s. a week. He stood to earn 48s. a week upon qualification. A Volunteer in A Company, Sligo Town Battalion since 1918, he was folding up his mattress in the guardroom of Gilhooly Hall at about 08:00 when a rifle was accidentally discharged. The bullet passed through his face, wounding another Volunteer. His remains lay in state at IRA headquarters for two days with an armed guard of honour. All businesses were closed for his funeral. His parents Rose and Michael eventually successively secured allowances under the 1953 Army Pensions Act.1430

542

TABLES AND CHARTS

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NB Population data by county was extracted from 1911 Census of Ireland.

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Table 1: 1916 Fatalities by Category Civilian

Irish Military

Police

British Military

Total

276

84

17

127

504

Table 2. 1917–21 Fatalities by County Antrim Armagh Carlow Cavan Clare Cork Donegal Down Dublin Fermanagh Galway Kerry Kildare Kilkenny Laois (Queen’s) Leitrim Limerick Londonderry Longford Louth Mayo Meath Monaghan Offaly (King’s) Roscommon Sligo Tipperary Tyrone Waterford Westmeath Wexford Wicklow Elsewhere (Britain and India)

232 27 13 12 101 557 29 31 360 9 65 139 22 24 11 15 131 43 27 28 48 17 26 22 62 18 158 15 35 21 23 11 14

Total

2,346

543

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TABLES AND CHARTS

Table 3: 1917–21 Fatalities by Category of Person Killed Civilian

Irish Military

Police

British Military

Total

919

491

523

413

2,346

Table 4: 1917–21 Responsibility for Fatalities Undetermined

Irish Military

Police and British Military

Civilian

Total

1,002

1,096

72

2,346

176

Table 5: 1917–21 Overall Fatalities by Cause

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Affray Ambush (all combatants) Armed engagement Armed incident Arson/incendiary event Assault British legal execution Execution/assassination Misadventure Prison-related death Raid Reprisal (unofficial) Riot SFTH (failing to halt) Suicide SWATE (attempting to escape) Unknown