Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 22 April 2021

Journeys to a Truce: The Ambush of Tadhg O’Sullivan

Targeted round ups of IRA members by the RIC and Black and Tans continued right throughout April 1921. Company Captain within the 2^nd Battalion, Cork City No.1 Brigade and Kerry native, Tadhg O’Sullivan was shot on the evening of 19 April 1921. Originally Tadhg was reared on a farm north of the village of Barraduff, County Kerry and was passionate in the study of Irish being inspired by his national school teacher. In his teens, he set off for Cork City, where he was employed on the clerical staff of Messrs Dowdall O’Mahony, butter merchants. Later he transferred to Fords.

Tadhg joined the IRB and enrolled as a Volunteer. He took an interest in the organisation of the Fianna – the youth section of the Volunteer movement. He was active in organising recruitment meetings throughout the county.

Tadhg eventually rose to becoming Captain of C Company, 2nd Battalion, Cork No.1 Brigade. He was constantly on duty and participated in many major operations in the City. He was one of the two Kerry men on the inquest jury of the murdered Lord Mayor of Cork, Tomás MacCurtain. Florence O’Donoghue was the other Kerryman. In the summer of 1920, Tadhg participated in the attack on Farran RIC Barracks and also in the Barrack Street ambush on 9 October 1920. He was again to the fore in the Parnell Bridge ambush, which took place on 5 January 1921. He was also one of the Belfast hungers strikers in 1920. Tadhg was also one of those taken in the big round-up at Cork Union hospital. However, he was released on that occasion.

Michael Murphy, Commandant, 2^nd Battalion, Cork No.1 Brigade in his witness statement to the Bureau of Military History (WS 1547), describes of Tadhg’s death on 19 April 1921:

“One of my best company captains named Tadhg Sullivan was held up in Douglas Street by two British intelligence officers in mufti. He made a dash to escape and got into a house No. 80 Douglas St. He ran upstairs and got out on the roof through a landing window, closely followed by the two British officers. Sullivan got on to the roof of the adjoining house when the officers appeared at the landing window and shot him dead. He was unarmed”.

The Cork Examiner on 20 April 1921 describes that the tragic occurrence took place in the course of a general roundup in the south and south-west side of the city, which began about 7pm. Numerous parties of police from Union quay and Tuckey street stations visited the district, which they practically enveloped up to Friar’s Walk and Barrack Street.

At 7.30pm pedestrians coming from every point converging on the district were held up, questioned and searched, and about fifteen persons were temporarily detained, one man, Liam Barry, residing in White street, was arrested.

The extensively drawn cordon gradually closed in towards Douglas Streetvicinity. There was quite a large number of passersby, and amongst them, was Tadhg. He was observed by a party of about eight or nine police. They called on him to halt, but instead he started to run away, whereupon the police pursued.

As he ran a short distance along the street Tadhg seems to have escaped the bullets of his pursuers, and then he was seen to suddenly dash into a house. The police by this time were reinforced by a second party of constables, coming from an opposite direction. Tadhg was followed into the house – the hall and stairway of which bore the marks of considerable firing. Cornered as he was, Tadhg made a desperate effort to escape, and rushing into a back room, endeavoured to get away through a back window.

Tadhg was in the act of descending into the yard below, which offered an avenue of escape, when he was overtaken by his pursuers and shot dead. His dead body with several bullet wounds was subsequently found in the yard below. Fr McSweeney, CC, St Finbarr’s South, and Fr Father Nunan, CC, were immediately summoned, but on their arrival Tadhg had already passed away.

Tadhg’s remains were then conveyed to Union Quay Barracks, and afterwards transferred in a military lorry to the Victoria Barracks, where the circumstances of his death were to be the subject of an inquiry.

On the afternoon of 22 April 1921, Tadhg’s funeral took place from the South Chapel to St Finbarr’s Cemetery where they were interred in the Republican plot. The cortege was limited in extent by order of the military and armed soldiers walking on foot at both sides of the hearse, in three lorries, and accompanied by anarmoured car. The order was served on the Administrator of the parish about one hour before the funeral was timed to start was obeyed. Despite the warnings, the streets from the church – over Parliament Bridge, along the South Mall, Grand Parade and Washington Street – were lined with people. The coffin was draped in the tricolour flag.

Have a story of relative to tell involved with the War of Independence in Cork, get in touch with Kieran at mccarthy_kieran@yahoo.com

Captions:

1096a. Portrait of Tadhg O’Sullivan, c.1921 (source: Cork City Library).

1096b. House of Tadhg O’Sullivan’s death, second from the right with plaque above front door (picture: Kieran McCarthy).

1096c. Gravestone of Tadhg O’Sullivan, St Finbarr’s Cemetery, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy).

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)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 11 March 2021

Journeys to a Truce: The Opening of the Pavilion

Against the backdrop of the ruins on St Patrick’s Street from the Burning of Cork and the unsettling tit-for-tat violence across Cork City’s streets, the opening of the decorative Pavilion Cinema in early March 1921 was a very different and positive event of that time.

Cinema was a very popular form of entertainment in the 1910s and 1920s. Up to 1921 and before the Pavilion’s construction, Cork could boast having seven cinemas– Picturedrome at the Assembly Rooms on the South Mall, Imperial Cinema on Oliver Plunkett Street, The Washington Cinema on Washington Street, Bellevue at Barrackton, Lido Cinema on Watercourse Road, Lee Cinema on Winthrop Street and the community picture drome at St Mary’s Hall opposite the North Cathedral. The Picture Palace, 40-42 Grand Parade, was also in the course of construction.

The press commentary on 7 March 1921 in the Cork Examiner described the Pavilion as a “super cinema of the very latest, rich in design and finish”. Passing through the imposing and spacious entrance in St Patrick’s Street, two flights of broad marble stairs were ascended from the centre of the hallway. Here was the café and ballroom in a colour scheme of French grey.

The Cork Examiner further elaborates on the design: “The rose du Barri with gold with a fine arrangement of French mirrors and lustre lighting effects, and the artistic workmanship of the ceiling all combine in the richest and most artistic harmony. Then there is the oak panelled smokeroom where one could sit. Here there are lanterns hanging from the oak beams. The construction, ornamental and decorative work of the cinema portion of the buildings are superb in design and colour, while the seating is made to provide the most luxurious comfort”.

Great credit was given to the Dublin architect Thomas Francis McNamara for his design. McNamara was a popular architect who received a considerable number of commissions in the early twentieth century connected with the Catholic church, particularly for buildings in the Diocese of Dromore. He had become architect to the Dublin Joint Hospital Board and was later increasingly engaged in hospital work. His pupils and assistants included Harry Clarke whom he advised to take up art rather than architecture as a profession. McNamara travelled often in France, Italy and Spain. He had a special interest in Hispano-Romanesque architecture, which is an interest he brought to the design of the Pavilion.

The capacity of the Pavilion cinema was 900 people while the tea and smoke rooms could accommodate comfortably 150 persons. The luxurious furnishing was carried out by Cork’s Munster Arcade and the decorating and painting was completed by Messrs John O’Connell, Cork. On the ground floor three shops and managerial offices were fitted in. The entrance to the chief seats were viz – balcony and back parterre is on St Patrick’s Street and the front parterre seats entrance was in Carey’s Lane.

The cinema was originally conceived by T J Moran and other investors. The contractor though was Mr Moran’s firm. Under his direction, the ornamental, decorating and furnishing the theatre and café was carried out. The resident orchestra was under the direction of Dr William George Eveleigh and Signor Grossi, leader and violinist. Dr Eveleigh was an organist in St Finbarre’s Cathedral.

Ferrouccio Grossi was a lecturer in the Cork School of Music on violin, viola, and conductor of orchestra. He was part of a small orchestra of foreign musicians of various nationalities who had been engaged for the Cork International Exhibition in 1902. In the same year, Grossi took up residence in Cork, and with his pianist wife, began a career of concert hosting and teaching, up to 1930.

The Pavilion was to be managed by Mr Fred Harford, formerly of the Abbey Theatre. There he was a long standing actor there and eventually became manager of the venue.

Opening on 10 March 1921, the programme of the new Pavilion Cinema was composed of what was deemed “highest class items” and it included a violin solo by Signor Grossi and music by Dr Eveleigh’s orchestra.

D W Griffith’s “The Greatest Question” was the principal film. Griffith was an American film director and was one of the pioneers of the financing of the feature-length movie. Circa 1919-1920 together with Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford, he established United Artists, allowing them to plan their own interests, rather than be dependent on commercial studios. By the time he made his final film he had made near 500 films.

Based upon a novel by William Hale, the silent film, The Greatest Question, had a plot about an orphan girl being given shelter by a farm family, but soon finds herself in the hands of a murderous farmer and his wife. The film also had ghostly apparitions and would have been deemed a thriller genre in its day.

The film was supported by one of Burton Holmes interesting travel pictures and also by a comedy entitled “It’s a Boy”. Burton Holmes was the first person to blend travel stories, slides shows and motion pictures into documentary travel lectures, for which he coined the word “travelogue”.  By the turn of the twentieth century Holmes was recognised as America’s leading travel lecturer. Holmes generally spent six months of each year travelling and photographing in various locations. His 1920-21 material for showing in cinemas is listed on his American archive at the US Smithsonian Institution and includes Constantinople Under Allied Control, Jerusalem – Holy City of Three Faiths, Gardens of Allah and the Barbary Coast, Spanish Cities and the Pyrenees, Vision of Venice and the Italian Lakes. Some or all of these may have been shown before the main feature at the Pavilion in Cork in the Spring of 1921.

Captions:

1090a. Pavilion Cinema, St Patrick’s Street, late 1920s from Cork City Through Time by Kieran McCarthy and Dan Breen.

1090b. Golden Discs, former Pavilion Cinema, St Patrick’s Street, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy).

4 March 2021, “Independent councillor Kieran McCarthy, who is spearheading the call for the archway to be moved, has reiterated his call to the council to come forward with a plan to bring the historic archway out of its hidden corner and into the public realm”, Call for historic Cork archway that led to offices of creators of Tanora to be relocated,
Call for historic Cork archway that led to offices of creators of Tanora to be relocated (echolive.ie)