One hundred years ago this week, news reports abounded in speculation to how one of the most famous escapes from an Irish and Cork prison occurred. On 11 November 1918 Donegal-born Donnacha McNeilus, in an elaborate plan involving dozens of men on the outside, was spirited to freedom.
The only aspect remaining of the Cork County Gaol and later renamed Cork Male Prison is its architecturally perfect Doric entrance portico. It was built in 1818 off Western Road under the direction of the Inspector General of Prisons. The winner of the contract for building the “House of Correction” or the chosen architects were George and Richard Pain Brothers. It had a central block from which three, three-storey buildings stuck out from as well as two detached wings. Embedded into the prison’s architecture were ideas of surveillance, separation and silence and these were essential to the reform programme for prisoners. The centre block had also the Governor’s residence on the ground floor, a chapel for Catholics and Protestants on the second floor and an infirmary on the third floor. The radiating buildings provided a panoptical gaze and consisted of 78 cells with washing rooms in each area. Work rooms were located on the ground floor and a detached limestone church could be seen between the earlier gaol and the “house”. The gaol was constructed to keep people in and was heavily guarded.
Fast forward to 4 November 1918 five armed RIC men, under the command of Head Constable Clarke, raided the lodgings of a Cork Volunteer named Donnchadh McNeilus (a Donegal man) with a view to his arrest. He was staying in the house of a man named Denis Kelleher at 28 Leitrim Street, Cork. McNeilus resisted arrest; he was armed with a revolver and, in the struggle, he shot and badly wounded Head Constable Clarke. McNeilus was eventually overpowered and taken prisoner to the then Cork Male Prison, formerly with the name Cork County Gaol.
Commandant of the 2nd Battalion of the Cork No.1 Brigade Michael Murphy in a statement (document no WS1547) for the Bureau of Military History in 1956 detailed part of the reason for the escape plan. if Constable Clarke died MacNeilus would almost certainly be hanged, so the Cork Brigade officers took steps to bring about his rescue as soon as possible. Visits to McNeilus in gaol were made by various Volunteers and, in the course of these visits, a note was passed to him telling him to be prepared for anything’. On the afternoon of 11 November 1918, a number of Volunteers, armed with revolvers, began their prison break mission. The names of these Volunteers included Joe Murphy, Martin Donovan, Chris McSweeney, Paddy Healy, Frank McCarthy, Jerome Donovan and Paddy Varian. Frank McCarthy was dressed in clerical clothes to allay suspicion.
In 1918, Frank Hynes, Captain No.1 in the Cork Brigade at that time, was also involved in the planning of the escape plan. His witness statement in the Bureau of Military History in Collin Barracks in Dublin (document no WS446) details the actual escape plan itself. There was no limit to visitors going to see a prisoner. Inside the big wooden gate was a waiting room. Between the wooden gate and a big iron gate was a type of a hall wide enough for a lorry to pass through both gates; outside the iron gate a path led up a hill to the cells. Joe Murphy and Jerome Donovan called to see McNeilus and ten minutes later two more called. They were in the waiting room with a guard who had the keys of both gates. The plan entailed when the two visitors who were with the prisoner, when their visit was coming to an end, they were to knock out the guard. The two volunteers in the waiting room were to calculate the end of the visit at the time, knock out their man and open the gates.
A fifth man was placed outside the wooden gate to direct McNeilus round by the jail wall and onto the cross roads at Gaol Cross with Western Road where a motor car waited. On Gaol Bridge was a sixth man and his duty was to hold up any soldiers who might come to go into the jail. As luck would have it, two soldiers came along in a horse and tumbling cart. He held them up, got them down from the cart and made them stand on the bridge, He was worried that more would come, and he took the other man away from the gate to look after the soldiers, so that he would be free to watch the road. The result was that McNeilus had no one to guide him when he came out.
In the interim inside in the waiting room the warder spotted something suspicious about his two waiting visitors and he went to the ‘phone to report, but one of them broke his jaw with a sandbag and the other knocked him out with his baton. In the meantime, the visitors with McNeilus knocked out their warden, but coming down they found a soldier with a rifle marching up and down by the iron gate. They watched until he had turned back on his beat from them, then they went to the gate which the other lads had opened. McNeilus rushed out the other gate and straight up the road towards the main road where he acquired a bike and cycled rapidly on.
Kieran’s new book, Cork in Fifty Buildings (2018, Amberley Publishing) is now available in Cork bookshops.
Kieran is also showcasing some of the older column series on the River Lee on his heritage facebook page at the moment, Cork Our City, Our Town.
Captions:
971a. Photo of Donncha McNeilus in volunteer uniform (source: Cork City Library)
971b. Map of Cork County Gaol, 1872, later renamed Cork Male Prison (source: Cork City Library)
971c. Portico of former Cork County Gaol or Cork Male Prison, present day (picture: Kieran McCarthy)
During and up to the early years of the twentieth century campaigns by leading business organisations such as the two Chambers of Commerce (Incorporated and General) in Cork City and by the Cork Harbour Commissioners were ongoing for berths to be deepened at low water to keep all shipping afloat at the lowest tides. In 1918 the Cork Harbour Commissioners entered into discussion with the Board of Trade to acquire circa 155 acres of slobland at Tivoli for the purpose of pumping dredged material ashore, thus creating new land for industrial purposes. It was a project, which took many decades to come to fruition with the first ten years fraught with extra reports and land reclamation only beginning. In terms of history repeating itself in the last fortnight alone the Port of Cork has published new draft plans for the area, in light of the Port moving down river to Ringaskiddy.
On 6 November 1918 a function took place to inaugurate the Cork Harbour Improvement Scheme at Tivoli. The Chairman Mr D J Lucy and members and officials of the Cork Harbour Board, accompanied by many citizens, left the Custom House quay on board the ship Innisherrer. On arrival at Tivoli the ceremony was performed by D J Lucey. The speeches are outlined in the Cork Examiner of the day.
The proposal for reclamation of this portion of the riverside, or embankment, aimed to create a landbank, which would exclude the tidal waters from a tract of no less than 155 acres of slobland, extending from Tivoli to then existing Dunkettle Railway Station, a distance of two miles. The plans provided for the construction of quays on the foreshore at Tivoli Station, consisting of 500 feet of shallow water, berthage for trade, 700 feet of deep-water quay for the import trade, with an approach road, and with storage areas for which rents could be charged. Railway sidings were also proposed to be provided in connection with the quay, through liasing with the Great Southern and Western Railway Company, who already had a line to Youghal and a branch line to Queenstown (Cobh). The object of the extra depth at the deep-water wharf was to provide an extra 25 feet at low water – so that vessels of 16,000 tons carrying capacity could be accommodated. Vessels of 600 feet in length would also be able to swing from the wharf and then proceed to sea.
The chairman D J Lucey was excited about the proposals. He highlighted that the proposed new scheme aspired to open up an entirely new area for the development for the Port of Cork. He deemed the scheme to be of the most far-reaching importance to Cork, as it would not alone vastly improve and develop the port, but it would provide much needed employment for Cork people. He asked that the Great Southern and Western Railway Company assist, encourage and facilitate the scheme especially the new sidings required. The existing Dunkettle railway station had been overcrowded for some time, and any scheme that would improve that situation would be most welcome. It was estimated that the time occupied in the carrying out of the scheme would be about 15 years and the financial outlay of £24,000 would be provided as follows – £10,000 received from the Ford Company for the concrete wharf on the Marina, and the balance from the Cork Harbour Board’s Reserve fund.
The Chairman outlined that coal was cheap and the work could be done at a cost of 3d per ton with this expense deemed small in the overall scheme of work. The heavy coal bill of sending dredging material to sea could also be dealt with. The land could also be used for building ground after one-year post reclamation.
The Tivoli Reclamation Scheme was the brainchild of Cork Harbour Engineer James Price. In his obituaries in the Cork Examiner on 29 September 1936 and on 1 October 1936, they describe that he was born in Dublin and came to Cork when he was quite a young man with his father, who was at one time the President of the Institute of Civil Engineers. James was appointed Harbour Engineer by the Cork Harbour Commissioners in the 1890s and devoted his talents for close on forty years to the improvement of the port. Under his guidance many important changes took place. His first task on taking up his appointment was the difficult one of widening and deepening the channels of the Lee, and it was with this end in view that he recommended the purchase of the Lough Mahon dredger and the two large hoppers. Before the dredger began this project only comparatively small ships could come up the river channel to the quays at Cork.
It was James Price too who planned and built the wharf to the east of the South Jetties, which was subsequently sold to Messrs Henry Ford and Son and which was an important factor in inducing that them to set up a factory in Cork. Another important work carried out under Mr Price’s guidance was the erection of the well-known concrete wharves at the South Jetties, 1,200 feet long, of which thirty feet of water was available at low tide.
Kieran’s new book, Cork in Fifty Buildings (2018, Amberley Publishing) is now available in Cork bookshops.
Kieran is also showcasing some of the older column series on the River Lee on his heritage facebook page at the moment, Cork Our City, Our Town.
Captions:
970a. View of Lough Mahon from Tivoli, c.1840 – black and white engraving shows a view across the estuary from the city’s northern suburbs. It was produced by George K Richardson (fl.1833-1846) for the book The Scenery and Antiquities of Ireland (1840-1842).
970b. Plan of Tivoli Reclamation Scheme, 1929 by James Price & Cork Harbour Board
