Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 3 September 2020

Remembering 1920: The Hunger Strikers Speak

Maurice Crowe, Adjutant 4th Battalion 3rd Tipperary Brigade, in his Bureau of Military History statement (WS517) was one of those who were on hunger strike at Cork Gaol when Terence MacSwiney stayed for short time before being relayed to Brixton Prison.Having begun on 11 August 1920, the hunger strikes began as a demand for unconditionalrelease. Maurice recalls that in Cork Gaol Cork Brigade member Tadhg Manley of Midleton was incharge of the sentenced prisoners, and member Mick Fitzgerald in complete charge of all the prisoners.

One night, when the hunger strike had been on for about fourteen days, Maurice, Con Neenan of Cork and Tom Crawford of Ballylanders were transferred on stretchers to a hospital in Cork’s Victoria Barracks, where they were to be forcibly fed. However, as the press next day came out very strongly about this, the forcible feeding did not take place. Two nights later, during curfew, they were thrown into a military lorry. Orders were clearly given by the officer in charge – should the prisoners attempt to escape, or should there be any attempt at rescue, they would be shot. They were then taken to a boat called the Heather. Other prisoners on hunger-strike arrived from Cork Prison about thirty in all. The prisoners were given mattresses but with no covering and were put into a corner of the boat.

Arriving at Pembroke at 6pm the following evening eighteen hours after they had started there was a special train waiting for them. Some struggled onto the train from the ship, helping others, but some were too weak and were taken on stretchers to the train. They left Pembroke by train at about seven o’clock that evening, with a strong military escort. The train was shoved into a siding at Reading for about three hours. They arrived at Winchester prison about ten o’clock the next morning. After a week there, the prison staff there made an attempt at forcible feeding. The prisoners from Cork Gaol were still on hunger-strike, but an order was received to go off hunger-strike. They were brought back to Cork a month later.

In Cork Maurice was tried by general court-martial and sentenced to three years’ penal servitude. Later, he was transferred to London’s Wormwood Scrubbs Prison and thence to Parkhurst Convict Prison in the Isle of Wight. In Parkhurst, there were in all forty Irish Republican prisoners, some of whom were sentenced for operating in England. He was appointed IRA Officer-in-Command of the prisoners. Fr Dominic, chaplain to the Lord Mayor of Cork, who had been sentenced to three years and who had just arrived, was appointed Vice Officer-in-Command. They were all put into prison garb and transferred into different working parties.

One morning while out at exercise, all the Irish prisoners, at a given signal, walked together out of the exercise ring, shouted, etc, causing an uproar, arid refused to associate with criminals. They were dragged by the warders into the cells where they tore off the prison garb. They were then put into what is known as the canvas dress and handcuffed to a strap of leather around the waist. Maurice notes in his account;

“We refused to submit to the prison crop but were knocked down and the hair forcibly clipped or torn off. We refused to exercise unless left together, but we were dragged out refusing to walk and dragged in again. They soon got tired of this and, after a week or so, we were all put into one wing, apart from the convicts. We exercised together and brought our own food from the cookhouse. The food baskets and boxes were numbered for the different wings, and our basket had the letters, ‘S.F.’, painted on it, meaning Sinn Féin prisoners”.

Back in Cork Gaol, Michael O’Donoghue, Engineer Officer, 2nd Battalion, Cork No.1 in his Bureau of Military History statement (WS1741) recalls that during September to October 1920, nightly, thousands assembled after 6 pm at the Gaol Cross. Outside the prison they prayed and sang to strengthen the spirits of the men refusing food within. The most generally sung piece was a religious hymn – Father Faber’s typically English composition, Faith of our Fathers. Michael notes of the song: “My own view is that it was chosen to banish any conscientious scruples or theological misgivings, which the hunger strikers within may have had about the moral rectitude of their deliberate abstention from food even to the death”.

For quite a while those outside were able to communicate directly with the hunger strikers each night. Among the crowds were many Cork Brigade No.1 men including signallers. Messages were sent in semaphore from the windows of the prison hospital where the hunger strikers were, and which faced Gaol Cross. Before dusk, white cloth handkerchiefs or pillow covers were used by the signalling prisoner at the window. After dusk, a light was employed to flash brief messages to the waiting crowds below. IRA signallers received the messages and replied in Morse. In this way each night the progress of the struggle inside was relayed in an up-to-the-minute story to the anxious citizens of Cork. The invariable question from the men within was “How is Terry Mac?”. The lads always signalled back the latest news that they had from Brixton. It was an extraordinary moving scene before the grim gates of Cork Prison each night until curfew, usually to 8pm, and earlier at weekends.

Kieran’s new book Witness to Murder, The Inquest of Tomás MacCurtain is now available to purchase online (co-authored with John O’Mahony 2020, Irish Examiner/www.examiner.ie).

Captions:

1064a. Remains of Cork Gaol at Gaol Cross, 2020 (picture: Kieran McCarthy).

1064b. Remains of Cork Gaol at Gaol Cross, 2020 (picture: Kieran McCarthy).

“To continue the pedestrianisation of The Marina is very welcome. Up to this year and for many years previously, the pedestrianisation process had been a goal of local councillors and many local residents, and in fairness to Roads officials and the Director of Operations they have responded to public calls.

 During Covid-19 lockdown, the pedestrianisation of the road as a temporary measure was the life-saver for many people who needed the outlet to walk and just take time-out during the 2km and 5km. I have had much correspondence by locals and other Corkonians calling for the continuance of the pedestrianisation beyond the phase 1 temporary measure deadline of the 31 August. Many have emphasised to me the importance of this historic tree-lined avenue to public health and recreational use. I have also received correspondence though that the pedestrianisation process, like the streets in the city centre, should go through a short public consultation process.

 I have had received many concerns about the large amount of cars parked on Blackrock Pier – many parked in an unsafe manner, and I have also had correspondence and worry about the recent flooding of the pathway around the Atlantic Pond and the need to fix the flap, which leaves tidal water in and out. There is a lot of love for The Marina, that is why I think a short public consultation is very important, so the pedestrianisation project can be tweaked if needs be”.

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 28 May 2020

Remembering 1920: Kilbrittain’s Arson Attack

As the weeks of early summer 1920 progressed, tensions escalated and violence ensued between the IRA and British forces. One additional element of force, which appears more and more in witness statements and across the newspapers of 1920, was the use of arson. It was used on both sides of the conflict especially in the destruction of buildings (and an aspect, which culminated in the Burning of Cork in December 1920).

In May 1920, the burning of old landed estate big houses began and intensified as the war of Independence progressed. Historian James Donnelly in a journal article in Éire-Ireland in 2012 records that burnings of such houses were a common occurrence in County Cork but were rare outside of the county. Fifty Big Houses and suburban villas were burned there before the Truce in July 1921. Forty of the fifty structures were burned throughout Cork from April 1921 onwards to the Truce on 11 July 1921.

On early Tuesday morning 25 May 1920 Kilbrittain Castle, a splendid ancient building, seven miles from Bandon and standing on an eminence overlooking a most scenic spot, was at midnight seriously destroyed by arson.  IRA volunteers were determined to prevent the occupation of the mansions in question by British military or police forces or sought to punish their owners for allowing or encouraging such use. The IRA’s first burning of a Cork Big House was certain to seize public attention because of the sheer size, prominence, and opulence of the Kilbrittain Castle mansion destroyed. The damage was estimated at least £100,000.

 The original Kilbrittain Castle dated from the eleventh century, but the property was extensively re-modelled in the middle ages, and later in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the Stawell family. In 1906 it was the property of Colonel William Stawell and valued at £182. There were 60 rooms in the Castle, which included a ballroom and banqueting hall. The corridors in it were extensive, and in front there was an exceptionally grand lawn and a fine kitchen garden.

From 1913 onwards the castle as residence lay idle. In 1918 the estate was auctioned in Dublin, and the purchasers were based in Cork City Mr. Denis VDoyle of Maryville, Victoria road and Mr Daniel O’Riordan of Clarence Street (now Gerald Griffin Street). They acquired it for a sum of £15,000. Neither of the purchasers, who were well-known Cork citizens, save in the summer, took over the Castle as a residence. The land surrounding the residence comprised over 500 acres of which 200 acres were woodlands and were being harvested – over 40,000 tons of timber. Of this quantity 2,000 tons or thereabouts was cut down and sold. The men, numbering over 20, engaged in this work were accommodated and their families with apartments in the Castle. Some of the felled timber went to Burren pier for shipment to Cardiff and Newport. Other quantities were carted to the nearby railway station at Bandon for transport to Cork, where it was sold. The 300 acres of the estate was good farming land, and this was let to tenants.

On 24 May 1920 the Castle was occupied by the men employed cutting the trees and their families, and it appears they were ordered to leave the Castle by the IRA volunteers and take as much as they could take within ten minutes before the building was to be set on fire.

Denis Lordan, Quarter Master with the Cork No.3  Brigade, 1919-1921, in his witness statement (WS470) held at the Bureau of Military History, outlines that tensions between the local Volunteer battalion and the local Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) were simmering and ongoing for two years previously and that the May 1920 burning should not be looked at in isolation but had a deep historical context.

 Previous to the purchase of the lands by Doyle and Riordan in 1918 a number of families in Kilbrittain village had rented on a yearly basis portions of these lands for tilling and grazing and for many of them it was their sole means of livelihood. When the lands were sold on, the tenants were outbid and felt very much aggrieved by the event. Abortive attempts were made to negotiate peaceful settlements of the dispute and finally a boycott was declared. All those working on the estate in tree felling were to cease work. A certain number of men persisted in working and one day a steam tractor used for hauling timber to Bandon was fired on and one of the workers was wounded. After the shooting affair Doyle and Riordan applied to the British authorities for police protection.

Brigade Staff Officer and member of Cork No.3 Brigade, Michael Crowley in his witness statement, now held in the Bureau of Military History (no. WS 1603), takes up the story that the RIC gave Doyle and Riordan police protection and occupied the castle. The police force sent out day and night patrols into the neighbouring countryside. But observation by Volunteers revealed a set pattern for patrols and they ambushed a patrol of eight men and officer disarming them at Rathclarin, Kilbrittain. A sergeant, however, had time to draw his bayonet and inflicted a severe head wound on Lieutenant Michael O’Neill of Maryboro, Kilbrittain. The nine RIC men though were released.

Further small ambushes ensued across 1919 and 1920. Michael Crowley records that by April and May 1920, his battalion were continually endeavouring to locate RIC patrols, which usually patrolled the countryside for some miles around their barracks. Despite being on the RIC’s most wanted list, they continued to engage and disarm RIC members. However, by August 1920 in the overall picture of County Cork as many as eight infantry battalions (20 percent of the total) and one cavalry regiment were stationed in the county or city (of Cork alone). The historical tensions had been replaced with all-out war.

Captions:

1050a. Kilbrittain House, c.1910 (source: Cork City Library).

1050b. Section of Ordnance Survey of Kilbrittain Castle estate, c.1910 (picture: Cork City Library)