Attached are the maps and photomontages and the link to the planning file.
The planning number is 21/40052 and for the public to share formal concerns it’s e20 with your letter (with the planning number on it), and address the letter to the planning department, City Hall.
I have lots of serious concerns about this development.
I will be submitting the comments below in a formal objection to the City Council’s Planning Director during this week coming;
– What is being proposed is a neighbourhood centre – not a local shop – but a large scale retail development but the site is not zoned for that in the current Cork City Council development plan.
– The design and excessive height of the development is out of character with the existing buildings in the area.
– The proposal creates a very dangerous traffic junction just metres from a critical road juncture of Church Road with Skehard Road. – The proposed development would have undue and unacceptable impacts on neighbouring properties due to overshadowing.- The site needs to be developed in an appropriate and sustainable manner – what is being proposed is the complete opposite of that.
– The proposed development is aesthetically out of character with the area. Its design is very poor
– in particular the brick buildings proposed facing onto the road. The development offers nothing to the overall environment of the immediate and surrounding neighbourhood.- There are two Aldi’s already within the area – one just metres from the development and another one opening in Douglas Village, just over a mile from the site. This is overkill.
– No consultation has taken place with local residents, and it has come as a surprise to them to see such a large scale proposal and their voices not asked on the proposal.
– Overall, the proposal makes a very negative contribution to the streetscape.
1094a. Glanmire Bridge, c.1910 from Kieran McCarthy and Dan’s Breen’s book, Cork Harbour Through Time.
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 8 April 2021
Journeys
to a Truce: Dug Outs and Wire Tapping
Seán Healy was Captain of A-Company of the 1st
Battalion of Cork IRA Brigade No. 1 Cork and worked in the Parcels Office at
Glanmire Road station (now Kent Station). In his Bureau of Military History
account (WS1643) he describes in detail the creation of an arms dump in
Glanmire and other reconnaissance work.
In Spring 1921 after exploring various places, A-Company
decided on a site located in Knocknahorgan Woods, Glanmire. They approached the
owner of the land whom they knew to be a staunch supporter of the IRA movement.
He readily gave them permission to use his place and assured them the necessary
assistance that he could provide in the nature of tools and digging equipment.
The chosen place was about 300 yards from the public road and was strongly
wooded. The site was also overgrown with briars and furze bushes, and there was
a running stream of fresh water nearby.
After cautious reflection, A-Company decided to
commandeer some railway sleepers and wagon covers from the Kilbarry Railway
Yard, as they had no money to purchase these requirements. The Volunteers
employed on the project, being mostly railway employees, were naturally a bit hesitant
to interfere with their employer’s property. Sean notes: “If any of us were
caught in the act of seizing the Railway Company’s property and the matter reported
to the Company we would lose our employment and the Railway Company would, no doubt,
have reported the ‘pilferage’ to the British Military authorities when we would
suffer court martial at the hands of these people with a probable sentence of a
long number of years of imprisonment”.
A-Company proceeded to Kilbarry, after making arrangements
with Mr Duggan of Dublin Pike, to have a horse and cart in waiting near the
railway yard. They commandeered about two dozen sleepers and three wagon covers
without incident and then transported the material to Knocknahorgan.
Seán describes that it was not the company’s intention to
use this dug-out as a permanent hide-out. It was to be used only for emergency
purposes, on such occasions as when it would not be safe to sleep in the City,
or when a big round-up was taking place. It was also to be used as an auxiliary
arms dump. They already had an arms dump at The Fisheries on the Lower Road.
The keeping of all their guns and ammunition in one place was unsafe.
As quite a number of A-Company men had now been deprived
of their employment, there was no shortage of manual labour. Six men took part
in the construction of the arms dump. The work had to be swiftly carried out, as
the men had to reach their homes each night before the curfew hour approached.
The work of excavation was difficult as they had to dig
into the ground to a depth of about eight feet. When completed, the dugout was
about eight feet deep by ten feet wide and ten feet in length. They used the
railway sleepers as side walls, placed one wagon sheet on top and another on
the base, a third was used to lap over the mouth. To enter and leave, it was
only necessary to raise the overlapping wagon cover, which was supported by a
frame on the inside. The mouth was well camouflaged with overhanging branches.
It took about a week to complete the job and, when it was finished, it was
reasonably comfortable and dry and able to accommodate about six men. Candles
were used for lighting.
Seán describes that A-Company often passed some hours in
this arms dump structure where they censored captured British mails, cleaned
and oiled guns, and played cards. It proved a haven of rest on nights when they
had to sleep there. He describes: “The ventilation was good as we were
fortunate in securing some broken drain pipes as ventilators. No noises from the
Curfew lorries disturbed our slumbers; no tramp, tramp, of heavy boots of the
marching hordes, and no list of names of the occupants, hung on the door by a
landlord…It was a complete change to sleeping in a city house which had to
conform to martial law regulations; but, of course, we always slept with one
eye open, so to speak, with loaded guns within reach”.
Seán also provides insights into the tapping of telephone
lines. Post Office linesman Tom Walsh ran a wire from a telegraph pole on
Albert Street, which linked up the lines leading into the Black and Tan
Headquarters Barracks at Empress Place on Summer Hill North. The pole was
adjacent to the Metropole Laundry, and close to the stables of John Wallis
Sons, in Railway Street, Cork.
The staff employed by Messrs Wallis Sons and the caretaker
in the Laundry, were all helpful. In order to avoid the vigilance of crown
enemy forces, A-Company could only operate after business hours or during weekends.
The British authorities were well aware that the IRA had some staunch workers
in the ranks of the post office staff, and therefore they were very cautious
about sending important messages over the public telephone. A-Company worked at
it in pairs, always armed and ready to fight if we were trapped, as there was
no back-door for escape.
Seán outlines of the messages; “The service messages sent
and received were usually of a routine nature. Calls for reinforcements to be sent
to different police stations passed fairly frequently. Loyalists and others
used the phone for the purpose of reporting suspicious movements of what
appeared to be IRA men”.
Caption:
1094a. Glanmire
Bridge, c.1910 from Kieran McCarthy and Dan’s Breen’s book, Cork Harbour
Through Time.
1093a. Cork Dublin Railway Terminus (now Kent Station, Cork, c,1910 (source: Cork City Through Time by Kieran McCarthy & Dan Breen).
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 1 April 2021
Journeys
to a Truce: Intelligence Work in Spring 1921
Documenting the activities of Cork IRA
Brigade No.1 in the spring of 1921 is well covered in the witness statements in
the Bureau of Military History. In Joseph Kelleher’s account (WS1675), he
describes his time Captain of E Company of 1st Battalion, Cork IRA Brigade No.1.
He carried out activities of a very varied nature against British crown forces
in Cork.
In the spring of 1921 E Company’s made
frequent raids on mails with postmen being held up and letters taken away for
censoring. Anything found of interest to the IRA intelligence service was
passed on to the battalion intelligence officer. Raids on railway premises for
military stores were carried out. Petrol lorries were held up and large
quantities of petrol captured. E Company brought the petrol by horse and car to
Killeens on the Blarney Road where it was placed in a dump for use by the company
and brigade. The dump also contained revolvers, rifles, bombs and explosive
materials.
Another important dump was located on the premises of
Messrs. Harrington, Goodlass, Wall Ltd, Paint, Oil and Chemical Merchants on
Commons Road. This dump was created in 1918 and continued until 1923. It
contained explosive materials (procured mainly on the premises) such as nitric
acid, acetone, patent turpentine, yellow phosphorus, guncotton, manganese and
other material used by the brigade for the manufacture of explosives.
On various occasions E Company waited in ambush for
military and Black and Tan patrols. On one such occasion, Joseph recalls that about
fifteen of them, armed with revolvers, rifles and grenades, remained all night
on the alert in the house of Miss Peg Duggan (a prominent member of Cumann na
mBan) at 49 Thomas Davis Street. They had received word from the brigade that a
reprisal attack by crown forces was anticipated on the house of the late Tomás McCurtain,
former Lord Mayor of Cork, and Brigadier of the Cork Brigade. Miss Duggan’s
house was almost opposite that of the McCurtain house. The family of the latter
still resided there. E Company waited all night for the coming of crown forces,
but they failed to put in an appearance and they withdrew from Peg Duggan’s the
following morning.
In May 1921, Joseph’s home was raided at night by British
military and his brother John (also a member of E Company) were taken to Cork Military
Barracks. After some time, there he was removed to Cork Gaol and from there to
Spike Island.
Seán Healy, Captain of A Company of the 1st
Battalion of Cork IRA Brigade No. 1 Cork (WS1643) worked in the Parcels Office
at Glanmire Road station (now Kent Station). During the early weeks of the
spring of 1921, Lieutenant Eamon O’Mahoney, who was then employed as a railway
clerk in the Goods Depot at the station informed him that Seán’s name, as well
as his own and the names of other members of the railway company’s staff, were
included in one of the ‘murder’ lists of crown forces.
Seánfelt that his accommodation on Alfred Street
was too exposed and too easily kept under observationby Crown agents.
This house could be watched from the Soldiers’ Home, which was situated on the
opposite side of the street. He describes: “This house was originally opened as
a place the British military forces could spend their hours of leisure, but it
was now a rendezvous for all Crown agents. Spies and informers frequented the
place at all this of the day and night. The front entrance was on the Lower
Road and it had a rear entrance from Summerhill. An attack with bombs was made
against it by the men of A Company a few months later, a couple of soldiers
being seriously wounded and the premises badly damaged”.
Seán moved to an address on the Lower Road at
the other end of the railway station. With the knowledge that the British
Intelligence Officers were now aware that he was a prominent IRA officer, he
had to take every precaution to see that he was not shadowed when going to or
coming from work at the station, or when carrying out my duties as a fighting
man.
Seán describes that sniping, decoy tactics,
tapping telephone wires and subversive activities generally were regular
features of A Company’s war efforts. They frequently received orders to carry
out decoy operations such as the interruptions of communications and blocking
of roads at places outside the city.These were usually night operations,
which meant that they could not return to the city. On hiding out near Glanmire
village Seán describes: “We would billet on some friendly household when
convenient and when there was any serious danger of getting their friends into
trouble we took shelter in outhouses or hay barns. There was a large house in
Sarsfield Court where we hid. This house was vacant for a long time and was in
a bad state of repair. A part of the upstairs floor collapsed one night, when I
got a bad fall. I suffered injury to one knee which put me out of action for
about a week”.
Caption:
1093a. Cork Dublin
Railway Terminus (now Kent Station, Cork, c,1910 (source: Cork City Through
Time by Kieran McCarthy & Dan Breen).
1092a. Pat O’Regan, Vice Chair of Clogheen/ Kerry Pike Community Association, with the Ballycannon Monument, March 2021 (picture: Jim O’Mahony).
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 25 March 2021
Journeys
to a Truce: The Ballycannon Boys
At Ballycannon, Kerrypike lies a memorial (erected
in 1945) to the memory of six young IRA men that were killed near the spot on
23 March 1921. Farmer
Cornelius O’Keeffe was witness to the killing of the six men. His detailed affidavit
appears in the appendix of the witness statement in the Bureau of Military History
of Daniel Healy, C Company, 1st Battalion, Cork IRA Brigade No.1.
Aged 21, Cornelius
O’Keeffe had a farm of 105 acres, which was situated on the northern side or
the high road leading from Cork to Blarney and was approached by a laneway
leading from main road. The farmhouse consisted of a kitchen, parlour and four
bedrooms. There were also extensive out-offices, barns, and sheds for cattle,
also stables. It was one of the safe houses for the IRA.
In his affidavit,
Cornelius remembers that on the night of Tuesday, 22 March 1921 about 11.30pm
on that night there was a knock at his door after they had all gone to bed. He asked,
“Who is there?” and a voice replied, “There are a couple or us [volunteers]
going to sleep down in the stables; give us a call at seven in the
morning”. He said “alright” and went to sleep.
About 4am, there
was a thundering knock at his door. He leapt out of bed and looked out through
the window. He saw the police outside. Before he could say anything, they
roared at him to open the door. Cornelius relates:
“Just as I rushed
downstairs to open the door it was burst open by the police and they said to me
“Why the bloody hell didn’t you open the door”? I explained that the
delay was due to the lamp not 1ighting. They then asked me if I had any man in
the house. I said there was no win there only myself. They asked me if there
were any men in the out-house. I said, ‘I can’t tell but the doors are unlocked’.
They ordered me back to bed and searched the buds and the other rooms in the
house. They then went outside, and I heard then search the out-houses”.
Cornelius was
looking out the window and suddenly saw all the police rush up to where the
lads or volunteers were sleeping. He went to bed and ten minutes later the
police came in and took him out into the yard. There they charged him with
harbouring rebels, which he denied. They then took him about 100 yards away
from the out-house and gave him in charge to a sergeant and constable of the
Royal Irish Constabulary.
One of the Black
and Tans present came up to where he was standing with the other policemen and
told them that they could find no arms in the house. He was then asked him to
tell them where the arms were, and he said he did not know. As they were
speaking to him Cornelius heard one of the boys roaring as if he was being
tortured;
“I then saw one of
the boys being pushed across the field. It was still somewhat dark, and he was
too far away to distinguish who it was. The Black and Tan then returned and
said, ‘he is showing where the arms are’. They then carried the same boy over
to the ditch and brought him back to the stables again. A few minutes after I
heard a shot. Then at intervals there were two or three shots and then a volley
of shots”.
Cornelius asked
the policeman what the shooting was about, and he replied they were only blank
cartridges. A report then came up from the other body of police that some of
the lads had escaped and to watch out for them. The police with him then
prepared to shoot in case anyone would attempt to escape. There were then
volleys fired where the boys were.
Cornelius then knelt
and said his prayers as he thought his turn would be next. The police near him
began shouting to the others not to shoot in their direction for fear they
would be shot themselves. Cornelius was sent up for then and taken down to
where the boys were. There two lines of Black and Tans in front of the stables
so that he could not see who was there. As he was being taken down the field
where the shooting took place, he saw two of the boys stretched out, on the
grass. He was then taken over the road and down to Kennedy’s public-house at
the nearby crossroads.
“There were five
police with me – three old RIC and two Black and Tans. After some conversation,
in which they accused me of keeping arms on my premises which I denied, I was
brought back to Flaherty’s gate and I then saw five bodies being removed from
my farm. They were all covered up in blankets. These bodies were placed in a
lorry. They then brought out the sixth of the boys who was then alive and as
they were throwing him into the lorry he said “Oh, my leg”. There was
a bandage around his forehead”. [The sixth volunteer was subsequently killed].
Cornelius was put
into the third lorry. They drove him in by Healy’s Bridge and the Lee Road as
far as Gale’s quarry. When they got there the first lorry in which the bodies
were want on and I did not see it again. He was taken up to the Military Barracks
where he was kept in the Detention Barracks until 17 April 1921, and then he
was released without any charge being brought against him.
The six men killed were Daniel
Crowley of Blarney Street (aged 22), William Deasy of Mount Desert, Blarney
Road (aged 20 years), Thomas Dennehy of Blarney Street (aged 21 years), Daniel
Murphy of Orrey Hill (aged 24 years), Jeremiah O’Mullane of Blarney Street
(aged 23), and Michael O’Sullivan of Blarney Street (aged 20 years).
This week the local community group of Clogheen/ Kerry Pike
Community Association will place a wreath at the monument in Kerry Pike. They
have also ordered six benches, which will have plaques dedicated to the six
young men who were murdered at the location.
My thanks to Jim O’Mahony of the Community
Association for his help and insights.
Caption:
1092a. Pat O’Regan, Vice Chair of Clogheen/ Kerry
Pike Community Association, with the Ballycannon Monument, March 2021 (picture:
Jim O’Mahony).
Cllr Kieran McCarthy has again asked the Operations Directorate of Cork City Council to re-examine the road safety measures at the junction of Ballinlough Road and Bellair Estate. Cllr McCarthy highlights: “It’s a regular issue local people have raised with me. It’s also that time of the year when funding is allocated to complete outstanding roads projects. The corner of Old Lady of Lourdes National School is a blind corner and has many people crossing this dangerous stretch of road every day”.
In response to Cllr McCarthy’s motion, the Operations Directorate of Cork City Council noted that “earlier this year improved signage and line markings have been installed on the western arm of the junction on the one-way portion of the Ballinlough Road to increase visibility and awareness that this section is a one-way road”. Notwithstanding this, the Council have said the road junction will remain on the list of areas for assessment for a traffic management project or road safety improvement scheme. The assessment will also consider which additional measures may be appropriate and feasible to improve road safety in the vicinity of the area. Concluding the operations directorate have noted to Cllr McCarthy’s motion; “Currently there is no funding available for traffic management projects. Any works deemed appropriate can be added for consideration in the future roads programme and undertaken subject to selection by the Members and available resources”.
Cllr. McCarthy stated that improved signage was welcomed but he would like details on the actual timeline for this road safety improvement scheme at the Our Lady of Lourdes junction.
20 March 2021, “Historian and Independent councillor Kieran McCarthy described the former Lord Mayor as a true ‘colossus in Cork history’. ‘His story is peppered with several aspects – amongst those that shine out are his love of his family, city, country, language, comradeship and hope – all mixed with pure tragedy’, ” Marking MacCurtain’s murder 101 years on, Marking MacCurtain’s murder 101 years on (echolive.ie)
On behalf of the European Alliance group congratulations
President Michel on your hard work, energy and enthusiasm.
On this St Patrick’s Day, my City Council
in Cork has projected onto an old concrete grain silo in my port area an old
Irish proverb. It runs –
“ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na
daoine” – which means – it is in each others shadows we live – which
invokes the sense of community and interdependence.
And it is clear in our context today that
both the member state and the local and regional authority both live in each
shadows and both are dependent on each other.
Consistently the COR asks to be partner
with the European Council and seeks to bring the idea of community back to the
top table in Brussels and Strasbourg.
Many of the priorities and challenges you
regularly outline in your briefings are common challenges for the over 95,000
local and regional authorities across Europe.
Whether you are in Cork or Corsica; Namur to Naples we have a common purpose and this is delivering for the better good of those we represent.
It is my firm belief that Cities and
regions and concepts of multi-level governance also need to be to the heart of
the priorities, and passionate narrative and story outlined by you at numerous
times in the past and reiterated by you today.
The CoR is a strong asset of Team
Europe. We are more than just the opinions we produce. We are on the frontline
in building the future of Europe.
We are the story builders, strategy
builders, the capacity builders. We build ideas from scratch and bring them to
life. We are more than the sum of our parts. If you empower the Regions the EU
will be a success.
Cities and Regions must be to the heart of
the delivery process and the CoR will continue to collaborate with the other EU
institutions in the delivery of this vision,
albeit we wish for our work, the opportunities
that go with such work, and the strong added value connected to such work, to
be recognised more by those, who lead the European Project forwards.
My final point is on Communication. The
current pandemic has turned our world upside down over the past year. Now more
than ever how we need to inform people that what the EU is delivering is
crucial.
To conclude it is in each others shadows
we live, but it’s how those shadows blend together to create solidarity, to
celebrate diversity and ultimately showing that the European project is leaving
no one behind – that are all crucial in the Europe of today.
Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy has welcomed the publishing of the draft Cork City Heritage and Biodiversity Plan (2021-2026). It is an action plan and sets out a series of realistic and practical actions to protect, conserve and manage the city’s heritage over the next five years. The Cork City Heritage and Biodiversity Plan includes actions on archaeology, built, cultural and natural heritage, so is a combination heritage and biodiversity plan.
Cllr McCarthy
commented: “Consultation is now open. There are many people who have an
interest in the city’s heritage and it is important that thoughts and
perspectives are given on the new plan. The information gathered will feed into
the final Cork City Heritage and Biodiversity Plan (2021-2026), which
will guide what heritage actions will be prioritised in Cork City over the next
five years”. The draft plan can be viewed at https://consult.corkcity.ie
Cllr McCarthy
added “Great credit is due to the Council’s Heritage Office for their hard work
on the draft plan. I think the project work that was pursued in the now expired
Heritage Plan was very worthwhile. Empowering local communities to pursue
heritage projects has been fab. I think the community and education heritage
grants and the publication grants scheme are fantastic and I hope they will be
maintained in the next heritage plan, as do I hope the focus on the city’s
archaeology story and biodiversity story will remain and grow even stronger in
their delivery”.
“There is so much heritage to mind and promote in
Cork. So a plan is very important so that relevant financial resources can be
prioritised and new ideas developed”, concluded Cllr McCarthy.
1091a. Crossbarry memorial, present day (source: Cork City Library)
Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 18 March 2021
Journeys
to a Truce: The Victory of Crossbarry
By mid-March 1921, British crown forces invariably
operated in West Cork in units of not less than three hundred. Consequently,
the 3rd
West Cork IRA Brigade flying column under
the leadership of Commandant Tom Barry was brought to its greatest possible
strength by the addition of every available rifle and the limited ammunition
they had. The column had a membership of 104 men. It was also not easy to move,
conceal, billet and feed a flying column of that strength over a long period,
in an area that was then holding down at least five thousand British troops.
Tom Barry assembled the column into seven sections
of fourteen riflemen in each section including the section commander. Those
seven sections were commanded respectively by Sean Hales, John Lordan, Mick
Crowley, Denis Lordan, Tom Kelleher, Peter Kearney and Christy O’Connell.
Barry in his book Guerilla Days in Ireland
(1949) recalls that on the morning of 16 March 2021, information reached him
that 300 British soldiers were being sent on the following day from Kinsale to
Bandon as reinforcements. That night his flying column marched to ambush them
at Shippool, half-way between Kinsale and Bandon. British crown forces had set
out as scheduled, but after a mile halted and later returned to barracks.
Barry withdrew the column to Skough, just east of
Innishannon. Meanwhile a British reconnaissance plane flying low, zoomed along
the valley, searching for the column who laid low. At 1am that evening the column
arrived at the house of John O’Leary’s, Ballyhandle, and this house became column
headquarters. The son of the house, Paddy, was a member of the column.
Two days later at 1am on the morning of 19 March,
four hundred troops left Cork, two hundred from Ballincollig, 300 from Kinsale
and 350 from Bandon. Later 120 auxiliaries left from Macroom. Still later,
troops left Clonakilty and more left Cork. They proceeded by lorries to four
points, approximately four miles north-north-east, south-east and west of
Crossbarry. They raided and closely searched every house and out house in the
countryside. They took many civilians and some unarmed volunteers as prisoners.
One of the eastern columns came to the house three miles north of Crossbarry,
where Commandant Charles Hurley was recuperating from a bullet wound arising
from the Upton ambush. He was killed fighting as he tried to break through the
cordon.
Tom Barry had no doubt that they were out-numbered
by ten to one at least. He had to determine without delay whether to fight or
to evade action. The decision to fight was made. From observations of enemy movements,
it was clear that the British force from the west would reach Crossbarry some
time before the other British columns. That would even up the opening fight,
and he was confident of being able to defeat it and thus smash one side of the
encircling wall of troops. This would leave the flying column free to pass on
to the west where it could, according to circumstances.
At 3am, Tom Barry spoke to the flying column,
giving them a summary of their situation and the strategy of attack for each of
the seven sections. He stressed that no section was to retire from its position
without orders, no matter how great the pressure and that no volunteer was, in
any circumstances, to show himself until the action started.
The column marched off to Crossbarry at 3.30am, and
positions were occupied by 4.30am. Seventy-three officers and men were deployed
for an attack. The 31 others were to protect their flanks and rear. By 5.30am
all these preparations were completed.
About 8am a long line of lorries carrying British troops
came slowly on past Christy O’Connell’s flanking section and into the main
ambush positions. Twelve lorries were between Mick Crowley’s section in the
centre and Christy O’Connell’s flankers, but many more stretched back along the
road. The leading lorry came on, but suddenly it halted and the soldiers
started shouting. Unfortunately, despite the strictest orders, a volunteer had
shown himself at a raised barn door and was seen. The British started to
scramble from their lorries, but Tom Barry had given the order to fire.
Volley after volley was fired, mostly at ranges
from five to ten yards, at those soldiers and they broke and scattered, leaving
their dead, an amount of arms and their lorries behind them. The survivors fled
towards the south.
Helping them now was a man named White of
Newcestown, who although was not a volunteer, had been arrested that morning
and carried as a hostage in the leading lorry. He had a double lucky escape
from death as, after escaping the first volley, he was nearly shot dead until he
started shouting that he was an Irishman and a prisoner of the British.
The lorries were then prepared for burning and the
British dead pulled away from their vicinity. The first three lorries were
burning when heavy rifle fire broke out on their left flank, and all volunteers
were ordered back to their original action stations. Another British column of
about 200 had advanced from the south-east. They were attacked by Denis
Lordan’s section. Peter Kearney’s men were moved up to reinforce Lordan’s, and
after heavy fighting the enemy retreated leaving a number of dead.
Tom Barry describes in his book that his men did
had not long to await the third phase of the engagement, for shortly afterwards
the sounds of rifle fire came from their right flank. Here about a platoon of
British tried to come in across country but they were met by Christy O’Connell’s
Section.
Ten minutes later the fourth development of the
action opened. Still another British column came in on their left rear.
Numbering about 200, they had entered an old boreen about a mile back, and,
keeping close to the ditch as they crept in, they were unobserved for some
time. Tom Kelleher’s riflemen were waiting for them and killed a number of them.
The remainder hurriedly retired to cover from where they continued to engage
our men but some minutes later withdrew.
It was a victory for Tom Barry’s column at
Crossbarry. He records though that three column members lay dead – Peter
Monahan, Jeremiah O’Leary, and Con Daly, and several others were wounded. The
column retired to billets at Gurranereigh, which were fourteen miles due west
of Crossbarry, Flankers would have to travel cross-country for at least twelve
miles.
Caption:
1091a. Crossbarry
memorial, present day (source: Cork City Library)
13 March 2021, “Pictures in The Echo archives underscore the joy of previous St Patrick’s Day parades in Cork, which historian and Independent councillor Kieran McCarthy said may have commenced in 1872, albeit with a different focus”, Nostalgia: St Patrick’s Day in Cork through the decades, Nostalgia: St Patrick’s Day in Cork through the decades (echolive.ie)
