Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 28 January 2021

Journeys to a Truce: Clogheen and the tale of Mary Bowles

P J Murphy, Company Commander with Fianna Éireann, in his witness statement for the Bureau of Military History (WS869) recalls that in January 1921 owing to the activity of police and Black and Tans, a number of C-Company of Cork IRA Brigade No.1 could not sleep at home. They were accommodated in the former Cork Lunatic Asylum on the Lee Road. The place was raided several times. A number of arrests were made, including one named Tadhg Barry who was later shot dead on 15 November 1921 by a sentry in Ballykinlar Camp).

P J Murphy’s hideouts with others comprised a number of friendly houses and barns in the Clogheen district (three miles from Blarney). There they made sure that they had sentries posted throughout the night. Flying Columns were now being organised and all necessary arrangements were being made to make sure arms and equipment were protected and in serviceable order. A number of visits had been made by C-Company members to their arms dumps. However, they also had also to contend with informers, who led crown forces to Clogheen.

On 13 January 1921, P J Murphy recalls that the C-Company party included Liam Deasy, Dan Donovan (Sandow), Tom Crofts, Pa Murray, J Dennehy, Mick Bowles, Paddy Connors, Tom Dennehy, Dan Murphy, Mick O’Sullivan, Dan Crowley, Jeremiah Mullane and Jeremiah Deasy.

P J Murphy did the last sentinel duty from 5am to 7am. When they moved out in the morning – some of them to the city to their jobs – P J remained behind with Mick Bowles and Paddy Connors and brought the guns and grenades up to the family home of the Bowles family nearby. At this time, they had the Lewis gun, which was used in the Parnell Bridge Ambush in early January 1921 and had brought it out to show it to Liam Deasy and some of the Brigade officers. They were proud of its possession.

P J Murphy describes that about 11am the place was surrounded by military and Black and Tans. The few of P J’s comrades who remained behind were in a nearby house having a cup of tea when they heard strange voices in the adjoining fields. They picked up their equipment and made their escape. The Lewis gun was lying near a fence covered with a ground sheet. Sixteen-year old Mary Bowles tried to get the gun to a place of safety. She was spotted by the Tans and arrested. Over the ensuing 24 hours, a great deal of the arms equipment, including the Lewis gun, was captured. The arms dump was discovered complete with rifles, revolvers, ammunition, gelignite, gas masks, periscopes, megaphones, and German automatics. Mary was arrested with four men and brought to the Bridewell in the city.

Shandon History Group’s book Ordinary Women in Extraordinary Times records that at the Bridewell Mary Bowles was found to be wearing under her blouse steel body armour strapped to her shoulders and fastened at the sides. She was also in possession of a service revolver and an automatic pistol, both loaded in every chamber.  Senior Cork Cumann na mBan members such as Sorcha Duggan, May Conlon and Lil Conlon approached Bishop Cohalan requesting his intervention in seeking her release but were not successful. Mary was moved to the Women’s Prison in Sunday’s Well. On 25 February 1921, she was sentenced to Roman Catholic Reformatory School. Shandon History Group have suggested that the Good Shepherd Convent may have been her detention school.

Meanwhile the capture of the arms led the Black and Tans to become more frequent visitors to the Clogheen area, with the result that C-Company members had to go further afield for sleeping quarters. P J Murphy details that they moved to the Carrignavar area where Company Officers Jerry Dennehy, Mick Bowles, Seán MacSwiney (Terence’s brother) and five or six more were arrested one night in a local house. They were captured with arms and each were sentenced varying from 10 to 15 years imprisonment. The guns were not actually captured in their possession. They were found in another part of the house.

P J Murphy highlights that curfew in Cork City in early 1921 was from 5pm to 3am on Saturdays and Sundays. Martial law was enforced and anyone caught with arms was executed. The military patrolled the streets during curfew hours, and when they withdrew the Black and Tans came out and carried on with their wholesale murders, burnings, and lootings. These activities had a discouraging effect on some of the Volunteers. They feared repercussions on their families and returned their arms to the Unit Quarter Master. P J Murphy describes: “Physically those sleeping out were in a bad way. Scabies was rampant and those who returned home infected their families. Many others contracted TB. People who were friendly to us became afraid that they would be caught harbouring the IRA. No place was safe for more than a few nights”.

As the British campaign intensified it was met by increased activity by the Volunteers. Trees were felled, trenches dug across the roads, bridges blown up and everything done to hamper their communication.

Captions:

1084a. Picture of Mary Bowles from non-recorded photographer, January 1921 (source: Cork Examiner).

1084b. Commemorative plaque in Clogheen, Cork to Mary Bowles, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy).

13 January 2021, “Cllr Kieran McCarthy who has a keen interest in history and archaeology gave a brief history of the buildings in that area of the city. ‘It is the site of an old fort called Cat Fort from the 1690s. Cat Fort was an additional barracks to Elizabeth Fort which was created around 1698. It is said that it began its life as some sort of ditch on a waterless moat on that side of Elizabeth Fort”, Councillors to seek answers on collapsed Cork city wall, Councillors to seek answers on collapsed Cork city wall (echolive.ie)

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 7 January 2021

Journeys to a Truce, 1921: Excommunication and Ambushes

Mid to late December 1920 coincided with the continued cleaning up of the burnt out ruins of St Patrick’s Street. In addition, there was fall-out from the decree issued by Bishop of Cork Daniel Cohalan on 12 December 1920, that the penalty of excommunication would be imposed on IRA men in the Cork Diocese if they continued to carry arms against the Crown forces.

Bishop Cohalan had intervened during Easter Week 1916 and was responsible then for influencing the decision of the standing down of Cork City Irish Volunteers. His actions then were believed to be motivated by concern for the peace and safety of the citizens and in December 1920 his actions were also driven by peace and safety. But the end of 1920, the Volunteers were on a full war footing and there was anger across different levels of Cork society about the Burning of Cork.

Michael O’Donoghue, Engineer, 2^nd Battalion in Cork Brigade No.1, in his witness statement in the Bureau of Military History (WS 1741) details that the reaction in Cork was immediate and emphatic to the Bishop’s decree. He notes that a large portion of the Catholic population were disappointed at it and shocked and angered as he describes it as “its anti-national bias”. More than half of the congregation walked out in protest from the North Cathedral during his Sunday sermon and decree issuing.

However instead of the decree stopping violence, it increased. Not a single member of the IRA in Cork ceased their Volunteer activities or eased off in their active military opposition to the Crown forces. On the contrary, city Volunteers pursued their offensive more than ever.

Michael O’Donoghue noted that on the Sunday afternoon of 12 December 1920 he with other Volunteers, were mobilised for republican police duty in St Patrick’s Street at the scene of the fire. They were mainly engaged in salvaging goads, damaged and undamaged, removed from the partly demolished smaller houses. These goods were stored in houses and yards on the north side of Patrick Street. Looters, too, had to be kept in check. He personally thought that these police activities by them were unwise and unnecessary as he felt it exposed them to recognition and identification as Republican forces. He notes: “The idea was to make a spectacular gesture for propaganda purposes to show the Volunteer forces of the Irish Republican Government protecting property and maintaining order in vivid contrast to the disorder and vandalism of the British forces who had run amok”.

Michael Murphy, Commandant, 2^nd Battalion, IRA Brigade No.1 in his witness statement (WS1547) takes up the story of IRA activity in the closing days of 1920. On 28 December 1920, by orders of the brigade, men of the 1^st and 2^nd Battalions entered the newspaper premises of the Cork Examiner and broke up the printing machines with sledge -hammers. Michael highlights that the offices were attacked as they were deemed by the IRAto have too much of pro-British publication output. About fifty men in all took part in this operation. The majority were on armed duty in the vicinity of the printing works, St Patrick Street while the demolition was being carried out.

On 5 January 1921, martial law edicts were intensified across Munster as General Strickland had issued another proclamation. For all breaches of martial law edict in the south, ‘Death’ was the penalty – “for being in possession of arms or ammunition or any lethal firearm, for levying war against the British Crown, for harbouring, aiding or consorting with rebels (i.e. The Irish Republican Army) for wearing military uniform, British or otherwise & or being in possession thereof, the penalty was death by shooting before a firing squad”. The edict continued – “The accused, if he was not shot out of hand on the spot, which, incidentally, was a frequent occurrence, was tried immediately by drumhead court martial, found guilty and banded over to the execution squad”.

On the same day as the Munster martial law edict was enacted, an attack by the IRA on RIC officers was conducted on Parnell Bridge near Union Quay Barracks.

Each evening, shortly after 6 o’clock, it was the custom for a party of 25 to 30 police and Black and Tans to leave the barracks at Union Quay. They would cross the River Lee at Parnell Bridge and there disperse to points in the city. Commandant Michael Murphy arranged to attack this party, using only the company officers in his battalion, the idea being to give all of them experience under fire.

On the evening of 5 January 1921, Michael Murphy, Peter Donovan of C Company, and Christy Healy went by a motor car driven by Michael Coonan to Morrison’s Island. In the car they had a Lewis gun, one of the two Michael Murphy had got in London a few weeks previously. They parked outside Moore’s Hotel, which was almost directly opposite Union Quay Barracks – the River Lee being between them and the barracks at a distance of about 50 to 60 yards. The remainder of their men were posted at Parnell Bridge, Anglesea Street and at points in the neighbourhood, covering approaches to the enemy barracks. The IRA men were armed with revolvers and grenades.

At approximately 6.15pm the police and Tans came out of Union Quay Barracks and, by the time they were ready to move off, they fixed the Lewis gun in position on the roadway outside Moore’s Hotel.

As the enemy party proceeded towards Parnell Bridge, they opened fire with the Lewis machine gun. The first burst killed seven of them and wounded others. Of those not hit some ran back to the barracks and those at the head of the party ran towards Parnell Bridge where they were met with revolver fire and grenades by IRA men stationed there. The affair lasted no more than ten minutes. None of the IRA men were wounded on the occasion.

When the RIC members had all had disappeared, either shot or gone to cover, the IRA members got their Lewis gun back into the car and made for the house of Sean Hyde, a Volunteer officer, in Ballincollig, where the gun was left for a few days before its next outing.

Caption:

1081a. Parnell Bridge, c.1900 from Cork City Through Time by Kieran McCarthy & Dan Breen

Happy new year to everyone. Stay safe.

Missed one of the 51 columns last year, check out the indices at Kieran’s heritage website, www.corkheritage.ie