Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 1 October 2020

Remembering 1920: The Barrack Street Ambush

As the War of Independence intensified, the tit-for-tat violence continued in late September and into October 1920. Engineer Officer of the 2^nd Battalion, Cork No.1 Brigade Michael O’Donoghue in his witness statement (WS1741) in the Bureau of Military History records he was twenty years of age running the intelligence, engineering and the signals and communications services. A Special Services unit was also organised and trained in Cork City. A small group of the latter group were trained in machine gun use and assembling. These skills were put to full use during the autumn of 1920.

At the end of September 1920, an attempt was made by men of the 1^st and 2^nd Battalions of Brigade No.1 to assassinate the British General Peter Strickland who, at the time, had his quarters in Cork Barracks, Cork. Occasionally at irregular tames, Strickland left the barracks in a motor car accompanied by an armed escort.

Michael Murphy, who was Commandant of the 2^nd Battalion in his witness statement (WS1547) notes that in late September 1920, he and others watched for his arrival. Every day, different Volunteers took up duty at various street corners in the vicinity of the barracks. All were armed with revolvers and some with grenades. On 25 September 1920, Strickland’s car appeared, travelling at a fast pace along King Street. Volunteers were taken somewhat by surprise but opened fire on him and his escort with revolvers and grenades. However, the attack was not a success. The convoy got through safely with Strickland.

On the night of 7 October 1920, Michael recalls a further ambush scenario on Barrack Street. He happened to be in the shop owned by sisters Nora and Sheila Wallace in Cork’s St Augustine Street. This shop was used as a clearing house for IRA dispatches and was a regular meeting place for IRA men generally. The Wallace sisters were active Cumann na mBan figures and were well respected in their collaboration with the brigade officers.

On the night in question whilst in Wallace’s with Seán Hegarty, Brigade Officer in Charge, an IRA member came into the shop. He was a civilian employee in the military barracks, Cork, where he worked as a clerk in the British Military Intelligence office. On many occasions he had passed on information of very great value. He told those present that a lorry of armed soldiers would be leaving Cork barracks the following morning about 9am and would proceed across the city to Elizabeth Fort, off Barrack Street. Michael Murphy discussed the possibility of attacking the lorry with Seán Hegarty and it was agreed that Michael himself should undertake the job on the following morning, 8 October 1920. That night, after curfew, Michael contacted about 20 men from his battalion area and told them to be at the Thomas Ashe Hall, Father Mathew Quay, the following morning about 8am. They were to come armed with revolvers and grenades.

On the morning of 8 October Michael met the men in the Hall as arranged and explained his proposed attack strategy on the military lorry. It was his intention to attack the military lorry himself along with Tadhg Sullivan, one of his company captains. They were to engage them with grenades and revolvers. The remainder of the party were then dispersed to positions covering the British military garrison at Elizabeth Fort and the police barracks at Tuckey Street and Union Quay. All of these posts were within a couple of hundred yards radius of the point in Barrack Street where the proposed attack was to take place.

Michael and Tadhg took up position at a corner on the junction of Barrack Street and Cove Street where there was a steep incline. They knew the lorry would have to slow down to get in gear when it reached that point. At about a quarter to nine the lorry came into view. As expected, the lorry slowed down, and Michael saw that it contained three soldiers in the driver’s cab and eight to ten inside in the open lorry section. He threw the first grenade, which hopped off the side of the lorry and exploded wounding Tadhg and himself but not seriously. Tadgh and Michael then hurled grenades into the cab killing one of the private officers. The third grenade got into the back of the lorry causing casualties amongst the soldiers there.

The lorry continued on up the hill and was met by a volley from revolver-men stationed further up the road. Those soldiers who were not wounded now jumped out of the lorry and took refuge in nearby houses. The ambush lasted about fifteen minutes when Michael ordered the lads to break off the attack due to a lack of ammunition and they scampered.

William Barry, Captain of D Company of the 2^nd Battalion in his witness statement (WS1708), notes that the Barrack Street action was a short one by reason of the fact that military and police garrisons were within a couple of hundred yards of us and were stationed at Elizabeth Fort, Tuckey Street RIC Barracks and Union Quay RIC barracks. He further notes that that his side suffered no casualties on that occasion and records that the arms and ammunition used by them on this occasion were kept in a large box in Hosford’s Bakery, South Terrace, Cork, where Commandant Michael Murphy and himself were engaged building the premises.

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:

1068a. Cove Street and Barrack Street junction, 2020 (picture: Kieran McCarthy).

1068b. Present day interior of Elizabeth Fort – former site of RIC Barracks 1920 (picture: Kieran McCarthy).

Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,

Cork Independent, 17 September 2020

Remembering 1920: The Anniversary of St Patrick’s Hospital

Mid-September 1920 coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of St Patrick’s Hospital on Wellington Road. The anniversary is referenced in Cork newspapers. This year 2020 marks the 150^th anniversary of the hospital’s foundation but in recent years has been relocated to Curraheen and has morphed into the name Marymount University Hospital and Hospice.

The original hospital from 1870 was the brainchild of the Sisters of Charity. They had won the admiration of Cork general practitioner Dr Patrick Murphy’s admiration from an early stage. The Sisters had visited his father and sister on their deathbeds during the cholera epidemic of 1832. Dr Murphy had owned a tan-yard and some house property. In August 1849, Dr Murphy made a will and bequeathed all he possessed (except a few small legacies) to the Sisters of Charity, on the condition of their having established within two years from his demise, a hospital or room for cancer patients. In the event of their non-compliance with this condition, his property was to be divided by the Bishop amongst the other Catholic charities of the city. Dr Murphy died in December 1867.

In October 1868, the Superior General of the Sisters of Charity Francis Magdalen McCarthy and Mother Mary Camillus came from Dublin to the Cork Convent of St Vincent’s to discuss the potential foundation of a hospital. Before leaving, both had agreed with Mother de Chantal, the Cork Superior, that a hospital was a good project to pursue, and directed that a suitable spot be sought out.

The affairs were put into the hands of two young men, brothers Edmund and Peter O’Flynn. They were builders, who by their own hard work, had worked their way up from being house carpenters to their extant position. A field was found, situated in St. Patrick’s Parish, near to Victoria Barracks (now Collins Barracks). It was on high ground, with a bright southern aspect. The contract to build the new Hospital was given to the O’Flynns.

 On 8 May 1869, the first stone of the new hospital was laid. Mother de Chantal, several Sisters from St Vincent’s Convent, a few of their secular friends, Dr Murphy’s Executors and the local Canon Browne, assembled for the occasion. The official takeover of the building took place in mid-September 1920.

In 1877, John Nicholas Murphy, Clifton, Cork, built an orphanage on Wellington Road, next to St Patrick’s Hospital for children of middle class parents who were left destitute. He invited the Mother Superior of the Sisters of Mercy, based at St Marie’s of the Isle to take charge, providing at the same time maintenance for the nuns and children, including all other expenses. In time the Sisters of Charity took over the space as residents.

The design of the Orphanage was by Mr George Goldie of the firm of Goldie and Child, London. This firm also designed the beautiful church of St. Vincent’s in Sunday’s Well, the parochial churches of Bandon and Ballincollig and Sligo Cathedral. Highly ornate in style, the material of the church was in native old red sandstone, with limestone dressings.

Fast forward to the Annual Report of St Patrick’s Hospital for 1903, there were seven wards in the Hospital. Of these, two were set apart for cancer patients (one male ward and one female ward). The remaining wards were for the reception of patients suffering from diseases pronounced incurable. The hospital report shows that several of the other patients who, though they were received as seemingly hopeless cases, lived several years in the Hospital owing to the “care received and the rest enjoyed”. More patients suffered from consumption than from any other disease. Several of these improved so much during their stay that they were able to return to their families and seek employment. Some were permanently cured, while others, a few years after they left the hospital, returned again to pass their last days within its precincts.

The visiting of the sick and poor in their own homes was still carried on. Two Sisters of Charity worked on this mission in the area. The Sisters still visited and taught catechism in the local community, Victoria Barracks military school and in St Patrick’s Hospital itself.

At the turn of the twentieth century, although the number of patients in St Patrick’s had increased, its income had not. The endowment of £300 per annum left by the Hospital’s founder, Dr Patrick Murphy, was assured. In addition, through the interest of kind friends, the Sisters received a share in the regular city-wide, Church and Hospital, Saturday Collection, which was a great financial source. Several kind benefactors of the Hospital had died by 1900. Matthew Honan, J P Sugrue and several others had generously remembered the poor incurable patients in their wills. During this period, Mrs Fitzgibbon endowed a bed as a memorial to her son, John Mary Fitzgibbon, a one-time patient of St Patrick’s.

In 1907-1908, a generous donor, Miss Isabella Honan gave finance for a new Chapel for the Hospital. The Bishop of Cork, Dr O’Callaghan laid the foundation stone on the 11 June 1908. Many of Cork’s clergy and several distinguished visitors attended the ceremony. The new Chapel was most conveniently placed, at right angles to the connecting corridor between the Convent and the Hospital. The Chapel was arranged on a cruciform plan; the crossing spanned by lofty moulded arches on handsome granite shafts bearing ornamental stone with moulded bases. The ceiling was groined and moulded in pitch pine. The walls were made of red sandstone to match existing buildings. The style of architecture was Early Decorated Gothic.

As the early twentieth century progressed, improving existing facilities, and providing more services for the patients at St Patrick’s were on-going priorities. Regular local sweepstakes, held in the city in aid of the Hospital, created much finance towards services.

The old St Patrick’s Hospital site is now occupied by Griffith College Campus.

Happy 150^th anniversary to Marymount University Hospital and Hospice.

The text above are extracts from Kieran’s book A Dream Unfolding, Portrait of St Patrick’s Hospital / Marymount Hospice Cork (2004, hospital publication, out of print).

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:

1066a. Former site of St Patrick’s Hospital, Wellington Road, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy).

1066b. Former site of St Vincent’s Orphanage, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy).