Category Archives: Uncategorized

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 16 December 2021

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized
1130a. Released prisoners from Maryborough Internment Camp, Portlaoise, celebrating while standing on an engine (source: Illustrated London News, 17 December 1921).

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 16 December 2021

Journeys to a Truce: The Release of the Internees

Within forty-eight hours after the details of the Articles of Agreement were signed on 6 December 1921, the British government approved the release of all people who had been imprisoned under the Restoration of Order (Ireland) Act, known to many as the Coercion Act. The order did not extend to prisoners who had been either convicted or who were under trial. Between 3,000 and 4,000 prisoners were released from Ballykinlar Camp in County Down, the Rath Camp in the Curragh, Portlaoise Jail as well as from Waterford, Cork, Kilmainham, Mountjoy and other prisons respectively. Special train services have been arranged to transport the liberated men and women home.

At Ballykinlar, County Down, on Thursday 8 December the southern internees were up at 6am and marched from the camp to the nearest station, TullyBridge, where they connected with the Great Northern Railway. Three special trains brought the men to Dublin, from where the internees made their own way to their home counties. Their luggage was taken in military lorries. The previous night the men were allowed to wander about the camp freely.

The Cork Examiner describes that on one train Sinn Féin flags were displayed, and at Newcastle a large crowd welcomed the ex-prisoners and supplied them with tea, cigarettes and fruit. The train proceeded with its journey. At Katesbridge near Banbridge, County Down, stones and nut bearings were flung at the train by Loyalists and shots were also discharged. Two of the prisoners were slightly wounded. The last carriage had hardly passed out of Katesbridge station when a shower of stones from an unseen quarter rattled upon it. Several cars were struck, and windows broken.

In the next few hundred yards shots were fired from the left on side of the track, apparently from behind the hedge, and then shortly, two from the right came. One bullet passed through the window of a parked compartment, smashing the glass and sending splinters of the window pane over the prisoners. One was severely lacerated by the glass and the second had a very narrow escape. He was sitting by the window and a bullet passed right in front of his face and right out of the open window of the carriage door. In another compartment a John Fitzgerald of Kilbritain County Cork was struck in the head by flying glass. First aid was rendered by his companions. At Banbridge the train was again attacked after passing the station stones rattled off the carriage sides broke some windows.

The train eventually arrived at Dublin’s Amiens Street station (now Connolly Station) and crowds of people awaited the newly released interns. A mass of general public lined the platform on the station precincts and all along Talbot Street to the O’Connell Monument.

A Cork Examiner reporter spoke to a few of the released southern internees. They noted that they had no chance of reading yet the nature of the difference of opinion between the leaders as regards the Treaty terms and would not express any opinion on the matter.

The train bound for Cork City commenced its journey at 10am on Friday morning. It contained about 400 men, but of those, only about 100 came to Cork – the others having left the various stations on the way home. All along the route, the people crowded the station platforms patiently awaiting the train and the ex-internees were given a rousing welcome.

Long before the train is due in Cork City, the platform, the station precincts, and approaches were packed. Hundreds stood on the nearby bridge over the railway and many others occupied positions on the steps leading up to St Luke’s, and money were waiting along the Lower Road and MacCurtain Street.

The excited crowds on the platform gave even the passing of single engines and the lines of people increased with tears, surged to and fro, laughing and shouting, and the best of good humour. Many climbed on seats and railings to get a better view.

When the bell denoted the train approached the excitement became intense. The advent of the train a few minutes later at 2.30pm was greeted with thunderous cheers with fog signals released adding to the uproarious demonstration.

Three tricolours were fixed to the front of the engine and from every window flags were waved for the homecoming man. On each of the carriages such inscriptions and chalk, as “Up Spike”, “Sinn Féin abú”, were written, amongst other messages.

The eagerness to which the crowds rushed to the carriage doors made it impossible for the prisoners to step onto the platform, until a path had been cleared for them. Then the eagerness was replaced by conversations, laughter, congratulations, and personal welcomes. The crowd slowly left the platform. The released men left the station grounds on vehicles of all descriptions, and drove off with the relatives to the different parts of the city. Hundreds lined both sides of the road for some distance from the station entrance with the public cheering, waving hats and handkerchiefs with the ex-internees joyfully responding.

Four special carriages were dispatched out from Cork on Friday morning, 9 December on the West Cork Rail line to support the released internees from Bere Island. On Bere Island two hundred prisoners were loaded onto to War Office steamers to Bantry where the special train conveyed them to Cork. The whole Bere Island and the adjacent mainland was ablaze with bonfires on the release.

Caption:

1130a. Released prisoners from Maryborough Internment Camp, Portlaoise, celebrating while standing on an engine (source: Illustrated London News, 17 December 1921).

Kieran’s Question to CE and Motions, Cork City Council Meeting, 13 December 2021

Cork City Events, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Development

Question to the CE: 

To ask the CE for an update on the opening of Marina Park and the final cost of its completion and the sources of funding? (Cllr Kieran McCarthy).

Motion:

That City Library’s Cork Past and Present website be put back together online as soon as possible. It plays a very supportive role in the study of local history and genealogy in the city and region (Cllr Kieran McCarthy). 

McCarthy: Marina Park set to open, 13 December 2021

Cork City Events, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized, Ward Development, Ward Events

Kieran’s Comments:

“The park looks great and will add immensely to The Marina district. It’s been a long two years with construction work stopping and starting due to Covid 19. Phase one works has also comprised the construction of a new public car park at the Shandon Boat Club end of the Marina, as well as a new cycle lane and pedestrian walkway – these are all now completed and are very well used”.

“One can also see that the installation of perhaps the most eye-catching part of the project – a noticeable red steel pavilion on the site of, and replicating, the central hall of the former Munster Agricultural Showgrounds. The showgrounds at its cultural height in the twentieth century attracted tens of thousands of people, who enjoyed what the Spring and Summer shows had to offer.

The new park is a modern offering on the site, which will attract citizens from across the city and region. The sides of the pavilion reflecting the society’s former buildings will not be enclosed, and there will be possibilities for coffee pods and outdoor seating and arts and crafts. The project is a e.10m investment into the area, of which nearly e.5m came from EU Urban Sustainable Funds, which are part of the EU’s structural funds and are a crucial source of funding for cities”. The EU source of income will need to be chased once again so that phase 2 of Marina Park can be delivered”, concluded Cllr McCarthy.

11 December 2021, ” “The new park is a modern offering on the site, which will attract citizens from across the city and region. The park or project represents an estimated €10m investment into the area, of which around €5m came from EU Urban Sustainable Funds — part of the EU’s structural funds and “a crucial source of funding for cities”, Cllr McCarthy said, New park in Cork city to open to the public from Monday, New park in Cork city to open to the public from Monday (echolive.ie)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 9 December 2021

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, National, Uncategorized
1129a. An artist at the Illustrated London News captured the British and Irish Treaty negotiation teams at work (source: Illustrated London News, December 1921).
1129a. An artist at the Illustrated London News captured the British and Irish Treaty negotiation teams at work (source: Illustrated London News, December 1921).

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 9 December 2021

Journeys to a Truce: A Provisional Treaty is Signed

The first memo to the public was a short one on the outcome of the talks of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. It was hurriedly penned by Arthur Griffith, and issued to the world press directly after signing the Treaty on 6 December. It reads: “I have signed a Treaty of peace between Ireland and Great Britain. I believe that treaty will lay foundations of peace and friendship between the two Nations. What I have signed I shall stand by in the belief that the end of the conflict of centuries is at hand”.

It was a long and highly pressurised journey to an agreement for both sides. The threat of renewed violence hung over the signatories. The Treaty negotiations began in London on 11 October 1921. The British team was led by seasoned politicians Lloyd George and included Austen Chamberlain and Winston Churchill.

The Irish team was chaired by Minister for Foreign Affairs Arthur Griffith, after de Valera decided to stay in Ireland for strategic reasons. Arthur had established Sinn Féin in 1905 and nationally brought the party to the pinnacle of success in elections in 1920. Arthur was substitute president of Dáil Éireann for most of the War of Independence while de Valera was in America. With Arthur in London were Minister for Economic Affairs, Robert Barton and Minister for Finance Michael Collins. The other two Irish negotiators were solicitor Éamonn Duggan TD and Charles Gavan Duffy TD, a barrister and Dáil Éireann’s representative in Rome. The Dáil and de Valera described these representatives as ‘plenipotentiaries’, from the Latin for someone invested with full authority.

Over the seven weeks of negotiations, regional newspapers across the country reported on the tense negotiations and what was at stake between the two sides. The challenge of North Ireland and its historic loyalist base echoed throughout the myriad of news stories.

The discussions concluded in the early morning of 6 December 1921 with the signatures, by British and Irish negotiators, of ‘Articles of Agreement’ – better known as the Anglo-Irish Treaty (or the Treaty). The deal, as signed, was provisional, on consent in London’s Westminster and in Dublin’s Dáil Éireann.

The Anglo-Irish Treaty is a short document. It commences by declaring that the Irish Free State shall have the same constitutional status as the dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Union of South Africa. This was a higher status than the previously sought ‘Home Rule’ for Ireland, and an achievement that was unimaginable when Sinn Féin was founded sixteen years earlier. The representative of the king in Ireland would be appointed in the same way as the governor-general of Canada.

Under the Treaty, Ireland also remained in the British Empire. For the first time in an official UK document the term ‘Commonwealth’ was used as an alternative to ‘Empire’. The final agreement did not require Dáil deputies to swear an ‘oath of allegiance’ to the king. The oath of allegiance was to the Constitution of the Irish Free State, with an oath of faithfulness to the monarch. Nevertheless, any oath to the king in any shape or form offended many Dáil deputies in their initial thoughts to the press.

The Treaty also gave the new state financial freedom, although the Irish agreed to pay a fair share of existing UK public debt.

Until the Irish Free State could undertake its own coastal defence, article six ensured that British forces were responsible for the defence by sea of Britain and Ireland. The Free State was also to let Britain use certain named harbours and other facilities. Initial thoughts by some Dáil deputies resented that Britain would retain ‘the Treaty ports’ of Cobh (then ‘Queenstown’), Berehaven and Lough Swilly. The issue of the Treaty ports was important because it made Irish neutrality quite impractical if not impossible in the event of war.

The Irish Free State agreed to pay fair compensation to public servants who were discharged or who retired because the change of government was not to their liking. This ‘article’ did not apply to the Auxiliaries and Black and Tans.

The Treaty gave Northern Ireland the right to opt out of the new Irish state; if it did so, however, a boundary commission was to be set up to “determine in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants […] the boundaries between Northern Ireland and the rest of Ireland”. Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins believed that this would transfer counties Tyrone and Fermanagh to the Free State. But the procedure was a major sticking point for many Dáil deputies in their initial thoughts to the press. Even after 1922, however, the Boundary Commission never worked as they had hoped, and the border remained unchanged.

Overall, though in the days that followed the signing on 6 December, the Irish negotiators though not happy with the terms, were told by Lloyd George that non-acceptance would lead to a resumption of the war, which, at the point the Truce was called, was being lost by the IRA. The delegation recommended the Treaty to Dáil Éireann.

In those early days post the signing, a minority of Dáil deputies, including its president, Éamon de Valera, maintained that the Treaty did not go far enough and that the new state must be a republic outside the Empire (although perhaps associated with the Commonwealth externally). Some thought that fighting should resume, in an effort to force Northern Ireland into an all-island state. For others, an Irish Republic already existed and acceptance of the Treaty would substitute this with something less and accepting the Treaty meant voluntarily going ‘into the Empire’ for the first time.

The majority of deputies argued that the Treaty was a stepping-stone to greater independence. Between the signing of the agreement in December 1921 and its ratification in early January 1922 a series of progressively bitter debates occurred in Dáil Éireann.

Caption:

1129a. An artist at the Illustrated London News captured the British and Irish Treaty negotiation teams at work (source: Illustrated London News, December 1921).

McCarthy: Cork City Arts Strategy Open for Public Consultation, 4 December 2021

Arts, Cork City Events, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Uncategorized

Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy is calling upon the community and artistic sector across the city and especially in the south east to engage with the public consultation on the new Cork City Arts Strategy. The Arts Office of Cork City Council are now developing a new strategy to guide their work over the next five years. They want to ensure that arts and culture in Cork City is the very best it can be. To help them with thinking and planning, they would like to understand more about what people think and feel about arts and culture in Cork City now and to gather their hopes and ideas for the future. 

Cllr McCarthy noted: “Cork City Council has consistently invested in and supported the arts. There are many different tools at their disposal for the development of the arts. These include ideas generation, funding support, infrastructural support, resource and staffing support. Planning for the future, assessing the impact of our work to date and consolidating cultural infrastructure are all crucial elements to plan for going forward”.

“On Cork City’s public consultation portal under the survey section (www. consult.corkcity.ie/en/surveys) is a short survey and gives you the opportunity to share your views and inform what we do in the years ahead. The survey is confidential and contains short questions looking for public input. The survey will remain open until 6 December at 5pm”, concluded Cllr McCarthy.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 2 December 2021

Cork History, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized
1128a. Front cover of Cork City Reflections (2021, Amberley Publishing) by Kieran McCarthy and Daniel Breen.
1128a. Front cover of Cork City Reflections (2021, Amberley Publishing) by Kieran McCarthy and Daniel Breen.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 2 December 2021

Kieran’s Cork Books for Christmas

It’s only a few weeks to Christmas. There are two publications of mine, which readers of the column might be interested in. In my new book Cork City Reflections (Amberley Publishing, 2021), Dan Breen and I build on our previous Cork City Through Time (2012) publication as we continue to explore Cork Public Museum’s extensive collection of postcards.

 People have been sending, receiving and collecting postcards for well over 150 years. They have always come in a variety of forms including plain, comedic, memorial, and of course topographical. Their popularity reached its zenith in the two decades before the outbreak of First World War when people used postcards for a variety of everyday reasons from ordering shopping to making appointments. Postcards have been described as the ‘social media’ of the Edwardian period as it is estimated that about one billion penny postcards were sold annually in the United States alone between 1907 and 1915.

The old postcards within Cork City Reflections show the city of Cork to be a place of scenic contrasts. They are of times and places, that Corkonians are familiar with. Many of the postcards show or frame the River Lee and the tidal estuary and the intersection of the city and the water. The postcards show how rich the city is in its traces of its history. The various postcards also reflect upon how the city has developed in a piecemeal sense, with each century bringing another addition to the city’s landscape.

Some public spaces are well represented, emphasised and are created and arranged in a sequence to convey particular meanings. Buildings such as a City Hall, a court house or a theatre symbolise the theatrics of power. Indeed, one hundred years ago in Ireland was a time of change, the continuous rise of an Irish cultural revival, debates over Home Rule and the idea of Irish identity were continuously negotiated by all classes of society. Just like the tinting of the postcards, what the viewer sees is a world which is being contested, refined and reworked. Behind the images presented is a story of change – complex and multi-faceted.

We have grouped the postcards under thematic headings like main streets, public buildings, transport, and industry. The highlight of Edwardian Cork was the hosting of an International Exhibition in 1902 and 1903 and through the souvenir postcards we can get a glimpse of this momentous event.

The Little book of Cork Harbour has been published by The History Press (2019). Cork Harbour is a beautiful region of southern Ireland. It possesses a rich complexity of natural and cultural heritage. This is a little book about the myriad of stories within the second largest natural harbour in the world. It follows on from a series of my publications on the River Lee Valley, Cork City and complements the Little Book of Cork (History Press, 2015). It is not meant to be a full history of the harbour region but does attempt to bring some of the multitudes of historical threads under one publication. However, each thread is connected to other narratives and each thread is recorded to perhaps bring about future research on a site, person or the heritage of the wider harbour.

In the book the section, Archaeology, Antiquities and Ancient Towers explores the myriad of archaeological finds and structures, which survive from the Stone Age to post medieval times. Five thousand years ago, people made their home on the edge of cliffs and beaches surrounding the harbour. In medieval times, they strategically built castles on the ridges overlooking the harbour.

The section, Forts and Fortifications, explores the development of an impressive set of late eighteenth-century forts and nineteenth century coastal defences. All were constructed to protect the interests of merchants and the British Navy in this large and sheltered harbour.

The section, Journeys Through Coastal Villages, takes the reader on an excursion across the harbour through some of the region’s colourful towns. All occupy important positions and embody histories such as native industries, old dockyards, boat construction, market spaces, whiskey making and food granary hubs. Each add their own unique identity in making the DNA of the harbour region. 

The sections, Houses, Gentry and Estates and People, Place and Curiosities, respectively are at the heart of the book and highlight some of the myriad of people and personalities who have added to the cultural landscape of the harbour.

The section, Connecting a Harbour, describes the ways the harbour was connected up through the ages, whether that be through roads, bridges, steamships, ferries, or winch driven barges.

The eighth section, Tales of Shipping, attempts to showcase just a cross-section of centuries of shipping, which frequented the harbour; some were mundane acts of mooring and loading up goods and emigrants but some were eventful with stories ranging from convict ships and mutiny to shipwrecks and races against time and the tide.

The section entitled Industrial Harbour details from old brickworks, ship buildings to the Whitegate Oil Refinery. Every corner of the harbour has been affected by nineteenth century and twentieth century industries.

The last section Recreation and Tourism notes that despite the industrialisation, there are many corners of the harbour where GAA and rowing can be viewed as well as older cultural nuggets such as old ballrooms and fair grounds. This for me is the appropriate section to end upon. Cork Harbour is a playground of ideas about how we approach our cultural heritage, how were remember and forget it, but most of all how much heritage there is to recover and celebrate.

Both Cork City Reflections (2021) & The Little Book of Cork Harbour (2019), and Kieran’s other books are available in Waterstones, Vibes and Scribes and Nano Nagle Place.

Captions:

1128a. Front cover of Cork City Reflections (2021, Amberley Publishing) by Kieran McCarthy and Daniel Breen.

1128b. Front cover of The Little Book of Cork Harbour (The History Press, 2019) by Kieran McCarthy.

1128b. Front cover of The Little Book of Cork Harbour (The History Press, 2019) by Kieran McCarthy.
1128b. Front cover of The Little Book of Cork Harbour (The History Press, 2019) by Kieran McCarthy.

Kieran’s Statement & Press, Odlum’s Building, South Docks, Cork, 27 November 2021

Cork City Events, Cork History, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Landscapes, S.E. Ward Local History, Uncategorized

“The proposal is to be warmly welcomed. This area of South Docks has been derelict for many years and crying out for a new use. O’Callaghan Properties have proven they can deliver what they say in a timely manner and have been great to draw in large companies into Cork. And to be fair to them, they also take feedback on board. From my perspective I am appreciative so far of their notes in their press releases on their focus on blending in the old Odlum’s Building and finding a cultural use for it. I think such a building will be a very special part of this corner of South Docks – it can be the space to retain the historical memory of the docks, whilst also showcasing modern cultural life in Cork.

I am disappointed though for the grain silos – I think part of them should be retained to add character to the development. I know in my own submission I will be making, I will be focusing in on that and making general comments on the need for place-making. In the past I have been critical of the creation of non-descript glass boxes, which don’t add to any sense of place. But I am grateful that the developers in North and South Docks have done some great restoration work. There is certainly a better balance being struck in retaining the sense of place compared to previous decades. I will be reading carefully the O’Callaghan property proposal carefully once it becomes available to the general public”.

Press:

27 November 2021, “In his website about Cork city entitled Cork Heritage, Independent cork city councillor and historian Kieran McCarthy states that Odlums operated their flour mills venture at the docklands from 1965. It followed a long history of milling in Cork,  Looking back at the historic Odlums Mills in Cork, Looking back at the historic Odlums Mills in Cork (echolive.ie)

25 November 2021, “The proposal is to be generally welcomed. This area of South Docks has been derelict for many years and crying out for a new use”, said Cllr McCarthy, No glass box on our docks!, No glass box on our docks! | Cork Independent

24 November 2021, Independent councillor Kieran McCarthy said the area proposed for development had been derelict for some time and that the proposals are to be warmly welcomed. He said he believed the redevelopment of the Odlum’s Building could be “a very special part of this corner of South Docks”. South Docks development a ‘further exciting phase’ in Cork’s development, South Docks development a ‘further exciting phase’ in Cork’s development (echolive.ie)

McCarthy: Cork City Arts Strategy Open for Public Consultation, 27 November 2021

Arts, Cork City Events, Grants, Improve Your Life, Kieran's Council Work, Uncategorized, Ward Development

Independent Cllr Kieran McCarthy is calling upon the community and artistic sector across the city and especially in the south east to engage with the public consultation on the new Cork City Arts Strategy. The Arts Office of Cork City Council are now developing a new strategy to guide their work over the next five years. They want to ensure that arts and culture in Cork City is the very best it can be. To help them with thinking and planning, they would like to understand more about what people think and feel about arts and culture in Cork City now and to gather their hopes and ideas for the future. 

Cllr McCarthy noted: “Cork City Council has consistently invested in and supported the arts. There are many different tools at their disposal for the development of the arts. These include ideas generation, funding support, infrastructural support, resource and staffing support. Planning for the future, assessing the impact of our work to date and consolidating cultural infrastructure are all crucial elements to plan for going forward”.

“On Cork City’s public consultation portal under the survey section (www. consult.corkcity.ie/en/surveys) is a short survey and gives you the opportunity to share your views and inform what we do in the years ahead. The survey is confidential and contains short questions looking for public input. The survey will remain open until 6 December at 5pm”, concluded Cllr McCarthy.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town, 25 November 2021

Uncategorized
1127a. Headstone of Tadhg Barry at the Republican Plot, St Finbarr’s Cemetery, Cork, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
1127a. Headstone of Tadhg Barry at the Republican Plot, St Finbarr’s Cemetery, Cork, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 25 November 2021

Journeys to a Truce: The Green Flag of Tadhg Barry

On Saturday 19 November 1921 at 1pm the remains of Tadhg Barry were removed from Ballykinlar camp hospital, County Down where they had lain since the day of his tragic shooting, and placed into a motor car hearse and waited for transport to Dublin. The coffin, which was covered with a republican flag, was borne on the shoulders of the Lord Mayor of Cork, Donal Óg O’Callaghan, J J Walsh, Liam De Róiste, Commandant Michael Staines, Councillor Robert Day from Cork Corporation, a member representing the President of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union, and Commandant Seamus Woods, representing the 3rd Northern Division IRA. Patrick Barry, the brother of the deceased, was chief mourner.

The Cork Examiner outlines the journey of Tadhg’s body back to Cork. It outlines that there was a large contingent of laity present from Downpatrick, Newcastle, Newry, Dundrum, and surrounding districts and hundreds of the internees watched the solemn oppressive proceedings from behind the wire barbed wire position.

At the nearby Tullymurry Cross the funeral was met with motor cars of sympathisers, who accompanied it as far as Newry. Between this point and the camp a large body of armed military were met on the road. They marched past with arms reversed out of respect to the dead, but a few of them groaned and ‘boohed’ on seeing the Republican colours on the coffin. This was the only unseemly incident noticeable on the journey to Dublin. The funeral travelled onto Newry via a number of settlements. At each people lined the streets.

At Newry, the cortege passed through the town to the mournful peeling of its cathedral’s bbell. It was headed by the Sinn Féin flag and an advance party of volunteers of the Newry battalion IRA. After the advance party of the area came the Newry War Pipers band playing “Wrap the Green Flag around me” in semi-quick time. They were followed by a large body of volunteers. Behind the motor car hearse, there came a large number of priests from the parochial house and outside districts. Business was suspended within all the Roman Catholic establishments in the town.

Travelling on, the motor hearse was met at Drumcondra, Dublin by a huge procession consisting of representatives of Dáil Éireann. Irish public bodies and organisations, volunteers and trades bodies. The procession moved slowly to St Mary’s Pro Cathedral where the bodyguard of the volunteers remained until the morning. Shops closed early and train services were temporary stopped while the funeral procession passed through the area.

On the following morning after the subsequent mass in the Pro-Cathedral the remains of Tadhg were sent to Cork by train. They arrived on Saturday afternoon, 20 November at 2.55pm. Long before the train arrived at Cork’s Lower Glanmire Road terminus the area of the station was thronged with people especially members of the IRA company to which Tadhg was attached to.

Tadhg’s coffin was covered with a republican flag and was borne on the shoulders of volunteers. Companies of volunteers from various parts of the county formed up along MacCurtain Street and followed the coffin to the cathedral. As requested, the shopkeepers in McCurtain Street closed their premises when the cortege was passing. Many people wore mourning badges.

Thousands of the public lined the route. They were especially large groups of people of the various vantage points on the roof and road junctions as the cortege proceeded to Bridge Street, Camden Quay, Mulgrave Road and to the North Cathedral.

Tadhg’s remains were received by the Cathedral clergy and prayers were offered for the repose of the soul of the deceased. At the end of the requiem mass Bishop Cohalan noted that Tadhg’s death was very tragic and had evoked widespread sympathy; “I am sure that feeling is intensified and saddened with a very general conviction that we are on the eve of peace. There is a general consensus that the representatives in London – very able men – that they will secure peace, that they will soon bring to Ireland peace with honour and glory; it is tragic and pathetic to see one of the trusted leaders stricken down on the eve as we hope of peace”. After the Requiem mass, Tadhg’s coffin was then brought to be buried in the Republican Plot in St Finbarr’s Cemetery.

Tadhg’s inquest was adjourned until the middle of January 1922 by which time internees had been released for some time and the feelings aroused among the public by the tragedy had lessened. Frank O’Duffy was interned in Camp II, Ballykinlar, from January to December 1921 and was Prisoners’ Commandant in that Camp. He relates in his witness statement (WS665) in the Bureau of the Military History his disappointment with the inquest. He comments “Neither the sentry who fired the shot nor the sergeant nor the officer of the guard were present as witnesses. The only witnesses produced by the British were Colonel Little who gave evidence regarding the orders forbidding prisoners to approach the barbed wire, obeying sentries, etc…An R.E. officer gave evidence that we had made tunnels to try to escape, and a Corporal Collins whose evidence was of no importance”.

In his opinion, Frank highlights that the Coroner’s jury were equally divided on the question whether the sentry was justified in firing the fatal shot. Ultimately there was no reprimand for those involved in the shooting.

Event: Kieran gives a zoom talk on Nineteenth Century Engineer Sir John Benson on his Cork works ranging from bridges to waterworks to special sites such as the Berwick Fountain, Thursday 25 November, 6.30pm, with Engineer’s Ireland, Cork Branch, and the Friends of the Crawford. Booking details here: www.engineersireland.ie/listings/event/7906

Captions:

1127a. Headstone of Tadhg Barry at the Republican Plot, St Finbarr’s Cemetery, Cork, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

1127b. Archivists Timothy O’Connor and Brian Magee at the launch of the Tadhg Barry exhibition at the Cork City and County Archives, Blackpool, November 2021 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)

1127b. Archivists Timothy O'Connor and Brian Magee at the launch of the Tadhg Barry exhibition at the Cork City and County Archives, Blackpool, November 2021 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
1127b. Archivists Timothy O’Connor and Brian Magee at the launch of the Tadhg Barry exhibition at the Cork City and County Archives, Blackpool, November 2021 (picture: Kieran McCarthy)