Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 12 November 2020

Remembering 1920: Arise Lord Mayor O’Callaghan

On 4 November 1920, a large public crowd attended at City Hall’s Council Chamber. They were present to witness the special meeting of the Council of Cork Corporation, which was being held with the purpose of electing a successor to Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney. Councillor Donal Óg O’Callaghan, who acted in his capacity of Deputy Lord Mayor since the arrest of Terence, was unanimously elected to the vacancy.

On the night of Donal’s election, with 34 members of the 56 councilors present due to the ongoing war of Independence, Alderman Professor Stockley was moved to the chair. Fr Dominic occupied a seat alongside the Mayoral chair. On the motion of Cllr Micheál O’Cuill seconded by Alderman Edmond Coughlan, both of whom spoke in Irish, Donal was unanimously elected to the position of Lord Mayor. Some months previously on 10 March 1920 Sinn Féin‘s Donal Óg O’Callaghan emerged as a victor in the first bye-election after the January 1920 local elections for Cork Corporation. Donal was a fluent Irish speaker and was the youngest representative to have ever held the high and important office. He also occupied the Chairmanship of the Cork County Council.

Donal, who was received with applause, then signed his declaration of office and was invested with the Mayoral chain. First speaking in Irish and afterwards in English the new Lord Mayor spoke about his predecessors and the ongoing war with the British Government, and the Republican position of not backing down in their aspirations for Independence; “Our position was that one after another two Republicans who held thechair had been murdered by the British government. That same murder gang, who called themselves a Government, while the remains of Terence MacSwiney still lay over the ground, and while it was still possible for that gang to heap insult on the remains did so, and even then the same gang spread forth its tentacle to seize the next man. However, my position was, and we are are setting it forth this night as clearly and distinctly and glaringly as it could  be possibly set forth, that we absolutely refuse to be tyrannised…our demand in the country has been made, and we are not going to flinch no matter what the result or cost might be”.

Following the Lord Mayor’s speech Alderman Tadgh Barry raised the execution of 18-year-old Kevin Barry from Dublin on 1 November 1920, who became the first Republican to be executed since 1916. Kevin Barry was an IRA section Commander who partook in various raids around Dublin city. On 20 September 1920, he participated in a raid where a street gun battle ensued, and three British soldiers were killed. Hiding under a tree Kevin was discovered and brought to Mountjoy Prison, where he refused to reveal the identity of his comrades. New legislation in 1920 had given military authorities greater powers to quell increasing IRA activity. Barry had privately admitted killing one soldier in an ambush and was tried as a soldier under the legislation. He was hanged for his crime. There was vast public outrage at the execution of a young man.

Alderman Tadgh Barry proposed a resolution: “That we the Corporation of Cork place on record our condemnation of the latest abominable crime, perpetrated by the British Government in Ireland in the murder, by hanging of young Kevin Barry, and offer our respectful sympathy to his patriot mother in her sorrow, and congratulations on her support of his refusal to purchase his life by betraying his comrades to his torturer?”. Tadgh’s motion was forwarded to the next meeting of the Council.

However, the deaths of young IRA volunteers continued. On 10 November 1920, 22-year-old Christy Lucey was killed at Túirín Dubh, Ballingeary, He took an active part in his local IRA company and on one evening he slept in the rough on a hillside. As descended the hillside the following morning, Christy was cornered by a group of Auxiliaries of C Company from Macroom and shot dead as he attempted to escape. The Auxiliary who shot him was himself soon executed by the IRA. When the Black and Tan individual returned to Macroom that evening, he entered the Market Bar and began to celebrate but was fatally shot.

Formerly a resident of Pembroke Street in Cork City, Christy was a former member of B Company of the First Battalion (Cork No. 1 Brigade) in Cork city. He was given an imposing funeral in the city and was buried in the Republican Plot in St Finbarr’s Cemetery. Such an event attracted much public interest including intimidating attention from British military forces in Cork city. As the funeral cortege commenced, an armoured car, in convoy with two lorries full of armed soldiers, arrived near the church. The officer in charge served a notice on Rev. J F Murphy, which denoted that only one hundred people would be allowed to take part in the cortege. As the cortege left the South Chapel and emerged into George’s Quay, an armoured car took up a position in the procession immediately before the carriages of the mourners. The coffin was draped in the republican colours and was carried on the shoulders of 4 Volunteers. On route to the cemetery, the paths along the route were filled with spectators.

A day after Christopher Lucey’s murder on 11 November 1920, Lord Mayor O’Callaghan and Father O’Leary, CC, of the South Chapel, received messages from Arthur Griffith, declaring that the Cork Hunger strike was to be ceased at Cork Gaol. To Griffith the prisoners had “sufficiently proved their devotion and fidelity, and that they should now, as they were prepared to die for Ireland, prepare again to live for her”. A small quantity of nourishment has been taken by the hunger strikers and it was hoped that they would recover.

A new book on Lord Mayor Donal Óg O’Callaghan’s life and times by UCC’s Dr Aodh Quinlivan and entitled Forgotten Lord Mayor, Donal Óg O’Callaghan, 1920-1924, will be published by Cork City Council this month.

Captions:

1074a. Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr Donal Óg O’Callaghan 1920 (picture: Cork City Museum).

1074b. Christopher Lucey as a Cork Fianna member in 1916 (picture: Cork City Library).

10 November 2020, “The motion was met with some resistance. Independent councillor Kieran McCarthy told the meeting he couldn’t support it. I just couldn’t support four male statues on Pana,” he said. I just think that the female context is completely forgotten from that time, the Cumann na mBan and all these other elements. There are busts of Mac Curtain, MacSwiney and Collins around the city, and there are places and streets named after them, he added”. Plan for statues of revolutionary figures in Cork vetoed for not including any women, https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-40079303.html

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 5 November 2020

Remembering 1920: Terence MacSwiney’s Funeral

The SS Rathmore ploughed her way across the Irish Sea bringing back to Ireland the coffin containing the Lord Mayor’s body. During Thursday night, 28 October 1920, the mortal remains of Terence MacSwiney returned to Ireland surrounded not by friends, but by British soldiers.

The remains of the Lord Mayor of Cork arrived off Deep Water Quay, Cobh, at 1.45pm on Friday 29 October. The SS Rathmore was met inside the harbour by the Admiralty tug Hellespont. The moment the vessel was sighted, the population of Cobh gathered along the Beach, and when the SS Rathmore reached its berth hundreds of people awaited it. But nobody would take charge of the remains. The people were only complying with the wishes ofthe relatives.

So, the SS Rathmore remained beside the quay – the space full of armed men. These included Black and Tans, London Metropolitan Police, and a strong force of RIC Auxiliaries. They stood grimly on the deck. Soon after deck hands unloosed the ropes around the coffin, which was covered with sail cloth and the coffin and wreaths were transferred to Mary Tavy, an Admiralty tug. The tug, flying a black flag, moved up the river for Cork. Whilst leaving the quays of Cobh, the Bishop asked the crowd to kneel to pray whilst the bells of the Cathedral tolled.

At 4.15pm, the tug arrived at the Custom House Quay. Again, every advantage spot was taken and the crowd densely packed. Again no one chose to receive the body. It was over two hours later that the special train from Dublin conveying the relatives of the deceased Lord Mayor arrived at the Glanmire Terminus, and were driven to City Hall, the wreaths, which accompanied them, being conveyed in the Corporation ambulances. Soon after the auxiliary police removed the body from the tug and placed it on the quay.

At 9.30pm the body was carried into the City Hall on the shoulders of Volunteers, being preceded by clergymen, who recited prayers. Volunteers also preceded the coffin and they carried wreaths. The remains of the Lord Mayor lay in state in City Hall the following day, Saturday 30 October and the ensuing Sunday morning. Notwithstanding the extreme inclement rain a continuous stream of mourners flowed towards the City Hall, where the remains lay in state in a coffin with a glass lid on a catafalque in the large chamber of Cork’s City Hall. A guard of honour of six IRA men was placed standing solemnly to attention around the coffin. These were relieved at two-hour intervals during daylight, but during the night, with curfew in force, they had to remain overnight in the City Hall.

Touching scenes were to be seen as the transfer of the remains from the City Hall to the North Cathedral preparatory to the funeral on 31 October 1920. As early as 8am large crowds packed around the vicinity of City Hall. So large was the crowd that the volunteers had to draw a cordon, which extended from Parnell Bridge to Clontarf Bridge and only those with admission papers were permitted to enter. Major General Strickland had issued a proclamation prohibiting any demonstration or any procession in formation at MacSwiney’s funeral. But the proclamation was ignored.

The coffin was taken from City Hall and was enveloped in the Republican flag. It was shouldered, and on each side marched the Volunteer Guard of Honour. Immediately behind marched the MacSwiney brothers, Peter and Seán, with members of Dáil Éireann such as Arthur Griffith and the Republican Government, senior officers from General Headquarters, IRA, and his colleagues on the Cork Corporation. Heading the Volunteer columns was A-Company, 2nd Battalion – MacSwiney’s own – from University College, Cork.

At the North Cathedral, an enormous assemblage had gathered. The coffin was covered with the Republican Flag once more and Terence’s uniform hat. At midday mass Requiem Mass began led by Bishop Daniel Cohalan and Archbishop of Cashel John Harty and a large number of clergy. Owing to military restrictions, the number of mourners, public bodies had to be strictly curtailed, and Volunteers numbering over 200 tried to keep order in the vicinity of the Cathedral.

After the High Mass, the coffin was shouldered to St Finbarr’s Cemetery by relays of Volunteers, which was followed by relatives, members of Dáil Éireann, corporation bodies, Sinn Féin organisations, University professors wearing Academic robes, Trade and Labour bodies, and other bodies. Each side of the cortege walked Volunteers, each bearing a wreath. Other volunteers were tasked to keep the public on footpaths and to maintain minimum crowds. Other armoured cars and lorries loaded with Black and Tans joined at intervals, flanking the marching IRA men an along the funeral route.

As the Gaol Cross was reached, the salute “eyes left” was given to MacSwiney’s heroic fellow-strikers still in the death throes of hunger in the hospital of Cork’s grim prison a nod to the deaths of Michael Fitzgerald and Joseph Murphy.

At St Finbarr’s Cemetery, Terence’s grave was adjoining that of the late Lord Mayor Tomás MacCurtain and not more than a few yards from the burial spot of Joseph Murphy, the recently deceased hunger striker from Cork Gaol. The final absolution was given by Bishop Cohalan and a short address delivered by Arthur Griffith TD.

The wreaths were then laid on the newly-made grave, and so numerous were these floral tributes that they covered the whole of the Republican Plot. A Volunteer bugler sounded the Last Post and as a final and fitting tribute to the memory to Terence, seven volunteers then fired three rounds from revolvers over the grave. British armour and lorries were still below at the Old Ballincollig Crossroads within sight and sound, but they made no attempt to interfere. The thousands of people who had collected in the vicinity of the graveyard were then permitted to pass in the view the grave and passed out immediately using another gate. People continued to visit the grave until darkness had fallen.

Captions:

1073a. Coffin of Terence MacSwiney being taken from the North Cathedral, 31 October 1920 (source: Cork Public Museum).

1073b. Section from one side of Terence MacSwiney’s memorial card 1920 (source: Cork City Library).

31 October 2020, “Cllr McCarthy said that he was calling for more building inspectors to be brought in to assess buildings in the city, and said that a root- and-branch analysis of the buildings on South Main Street and North Main Street was needed to prevent further incidents”, City’s dereliction crisis: Call for action after surge of damaged building, incidents,https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/Citys-dereliction-crisis-Call-for-action-after-surge-of-damaged-building-incidents-f755e620-dc02-4ece-b751-340aac38ace4-ds