Broad Street - November 17 1920

High winds and heavy rain swept through Cork city on the night of November 17th 1920 when bloodshed soaked the Marsh area. 

This working class area around the St Francis church teemed with tenements and hived with republican activity. 

At 11:45pm two RIC men left their barracks on Tuckey Street and ventured into the Marsh area to carry out a night of murder and mayhem.

                                                Broad Street in the early 20th century.


Earlier that evening Sergeant James O'Donoghue of Tuckey Street barracks was shot dead by the IRA on White Street. His enraged fellow policemen sought revenge and did so under the cover of darkness that night.  

The strange thing is, Srgt O'Donoghue often found himself at odds with his fellow RIC men, especially those newly recruited into the Auxiliary Division. He hated their thuggish behavior and he was on friendly terms with members of the local Republican movement, infact his killing was not sanctioned by the IRA and those who carried it out were condemned by senior IRA officers. 

Sergt. O'Donoghue

Due to curfew no street lamps lit the streets of Cork and the two RIC men found their way to the Broad Street tenements with flash lamps. Wearing long over coats and goggles, they burst in through the door of no.2 Broad street and began shooting in the Coleman family dwelling. Stephen Coleman was shot but survived. 

The RIC men then ran upstairs where they kicked in the door of the Hanley's home and encountered 17 year old Patrick Hanley in his bed. Young Hanley put up his hands, asked the policemen not to shoot and informed them he was the sole bread winner in his family for his widowed mother and sisters. The RIC men raised their revolvers and a bullet pierced Hanley above his heart, killing him instantly.

Memorial picture for Patrick Hanley.

Witness account from the military archives

Patrick Hanley was a member of  Fianna Eireann and he was laid out in Saint Peter and Paul's church in his uniform as his comrades formed a guard of honour for his funeral. He was laid to rest in the Republican plot in St Finbarrs cemetery.

Grave of Patrick Hanley, St Finbarr's Republican plot.

When the two RIC men finished their deed in no.2 Broad street they casually walked around the corner to no. 17 Broad Lane. They kicked in the door and shot 16 year old Charles O'Brien, another Fianna scout. 

O'Brien was hit in the face by a bullet which would leave him disfigured for life. He lost an eye, part of his jaw and recovered in secret at the nearby Mercy hospital. Upon his discharge after several months he did so in secret, leaving the hospital inside a laundry basket!

             Modern day Broad Street, very different from what it was 100 years ago.


After shooting young O'Brien the callous RIC men then encountered 28 year old Eugene O'Connell on the landing and fired at him. A bullet struck O'Connell but he managed to crawl back into his room where his wife was in bed with their baby.

O'Connell and family

 The RIC men followed O'Connell and fired more bullets into him, killing him, then one of them raised their revolver at O'Connell's wife who was screaming, along with her baby, in bed. They hesitated before deciding  to spare Mrs O'Connell her life. When leaving no.17 Broad Lane, the policemen flung a bomb into its entrance, injuring another occupant, Mr Collins.

                     unveiled in 1957 by the Lord Mayor of Cork at Hanley Buildings, Grattan Street, a plaque commemorating Patrick Hanley.


O'Connell was an IRA Volunteer with the First Cork brigade but had served with the Munster fusiliers during WWI. He was buried in St Joseph's cemetery.

Grave of Eugene O'Connell.

   Maud Gonne MacBride visiting the scene of the Broad Street Massacre.

Mural at Cork's Lee Fields, later removed by Cork Council.

Nobody was brought to account for the night of terror in the Marsh. The tenements are no more, but a plaque commemorates Patrick Hanley on the site where a November night brought murder and mayhem to the area. It is, to date, the only plaque to mark that dark night in 1920.

Bridge Street - September 14 1922

It was Thursday evening when two Liverpool lads were sauntering the streets of Cork. They were sailors freshly docked in Cork port and as they strolled up the quays towards Patrick's Bridge little did they think that one of them would not be making it back to ship that night.
Edward Williams was an 18 year old merchant sailor. He was working onboard a Cork Steam Packet ship as a wireless watcher. He and his friend, John William Cove, also 18, reached the corner of Patrick's Bridge and Bridge Street when they met some local girls.

The two Liverpool sailors, who were in uniform, were busy chatting up the girls and did not notice a man appear from a nearby pub brandishing a revolver. He fired at the two sailors before fleeing down the quays. A bullet hit 18 year old Edward Williams, killing him instantly.

Hours earlier a free state patrol had been fired on in that same area. Tension was at an all time high on the streets of Cork and perhaps through reckless youth, the two Liverpool lads did not take heed of the dangers.

Blarney Road - July 8 1921

It was just past midnight on that Summers night when soldiers of the South Staffordshire Regiment burst in the door of the Spriggs family home on Strawberry Hill. 19 year old Denis Joseph Spriggs was dragged from his bed and taken outside where he was bundled into a crossly tender. Young Spriggs was driven just yards up Blarney Road where he met his death at the hands of crown soldiers.

Denis Spriggs was, like his father, a plasterer. He was also a member of C Company, 1st Battalion of the Cork IRA No. 1 Brigade. During the War of Independence Spriggs was involved in many actions against the enemy  and as a result he had to go on the run. When the truce came in the summer of 1921 he returned home  to see his mother. His presence back on Strawberry Hill was relayed back to the authorities and they decided to arrest him.

A plaque on the wall to the right marks the spot where Spriggs was murdered.



The South Staffordshire Regiment had a reputation in Cork for their shoot to kill policy. Many civilians and IRA volunteers fell foul of their guns, including Denis Spriggs.
On the night he was taken from his home he was, according to the British troops, shot while trying to escape. The British soldiers claimed the tail board on the lorry fell down and Spriggs jumped out.

It is more likely that Spriggs was pushed out of the lorry and then shot against the wall - executed without trial. The "shot while trying to escape" story was not believed by those on living on Blarney Road or across the rebel city.

Grave of Denis Spriggs, St Finbarrs Cemetery Republican Plot.

                     

Cattle Market Street - June 29 1921

Timothy Patrick Murphy, a 22 year old unemployed ex-British sailor, was walking along Cattle Market Street making his way home to Blarney Street when he came upon soldiers from the South Staffordshire Regiment. It was a little after 11pm, Murphy was breaking curfew and when the soldiers called on him to hault he chose instead to run.

Cattle Market Street in the early 20th Century

Corporal Finch took aim and shot Murphy, thus ending his life. Murphy lived at 24 Blarney Street, the son of a shopkeeper. He joined the British Navy at the age of 15 under a fake name, Jeremiah Mullane, and saw action during World War I. Murphy's brother also served in British uniform during WWI and died in action. Timothy Patrick Murphy survived the war his brother died in but could not survive the conflict on the streets of his hometown.

24 Blarney Street.

Blarney Street - March 19 1921

It was shortly after 8:30pm when loud knocking on the door of 198 Blarney Street alerted the residents of the small dwelling. The woman of the house, Mrs Sheehan , asked through the door "Who's there?" But the response she got was a gruff "Open the door!!" 

Mrs Sheehan delayed the men at the door while her husband Con Sheehan was quickly making his way out through the back door. As 54 year old Mr Sheehan ran into the back yard he was met by men brandishing revolvers. Shots rang out and Sheehan was left dead in the yard as his assassins jumped over the wall and into the yard next door.

        The site of No. 198 Blarney Street, the home of Long Con Sheehan and his family.




Con Sheehan was known better as Long Con. The 6ft tall Sheehan was an attendant at the nearby Cork District Asylum, a place he had worked in for over 20 years. Months before his death, Sheehan was injured in a shooting not far from his home.

It was 6:30pm on January 8th 1921 when Sheehan was walking home after work. He stopped near the gates of the Good Shepard Convent to chat with Constable Carroll of the Bridewell when seven men ran up the street and shot at Sheehan and Carroll. The Constable, who was in plain clothes, was shot in the back while Sheehan was hit in his shoulder.

Perhaps Sheehan was unlucky to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time, talking to the wrong person or perhaps he was targeted along with the police man as not long before the attack an IRA arms dump in the grounds of the asylum had been discovered and Sheehan was suspected of passing on information to the police. But there could be another, more devious reason , for Sheehan's demise.

                           The Cork District Lunatic Asylum, where Long Con Sheehan worked.




Long Con Sheehan and his family had fallen into a dispute with their landlady, Mrs Walsh, who lived a few doors down at 196 Blarney Street, the same address used by Sheehan's assassins in their escape.

Mrs Walsh was renting No. 198 to the Sheehan's but she fell into dispute with them when she declared that the family were burning bits of furniture and house fittings. The Sheehans claimed Mrs Walsh wanted to increase the rent and the house was falling down. The house was nothing more than a shack, infact the Cork Corporation had declared the dwelling unfit for inhabitation.

In the inquest following Sheehan's death the RIC stated that Sheehan had never supplied them with information and suggested Mrs Walsh had set him up as an informer. Mrs Sheehan declared " The only enemy my husband had was a woman , Mrs Walsh of 196 Blarney Street, who had threatened to shoot my husband."

 Blarney Street, the Sheehan's lived where the red gate is now while their landlady lived two doors below. The brown cottage would be of a similar build to the dwelling the Sheehans lived in.

The Sheehan's depended on Saint Vincent de Paul following the death of Long Con and disputes continued with their landlady. Life for the Sheehan's became difficult on Blarney Street, Long Con had been tagged as an informer and such a title in what would have been a Republican hotbed resulted in the Sheehan's leaving the area.

With a £2,890 compensation claim, the Sheehan's left Cork in 1922. With their money claimed following Long Con's death, they set up a boarding house in London.
No action was ever taken against Mrs Walsh who, it seems, may have taken advantage of the political situation on the tense streets of Cork.

4 Belgrave Place

What is now Sheila's Hostel was once Scoil Ide. The large blue three story terraced house was built in 1840 and looks over Cork city from it's high perch on Belgrave Place.

Scoil Ide was founded in 1916 by Maire and Eithne (Annie) MacSwiney, sisters of Terence. 

The two MacSwiney sisters in their living room at Belgrave Place. 

The girls school was modeled on Pearse's St Endas where Irish culture was the main curriculum. Eithne was a teacher on the Isle of Wight before coming back to Cork in 1904 following her mother's death. Maire was a teacher at St Angela's until events of Easter 1916 saw her sacked from her position.

             Eithne (Annie) & Maire (Mary)  MacSwiney.

The MacSwiney sisters with their brother Terence, his wife Muriel and their child Maire.

Maire was one of the founder members of the Cork city branch of Cumann na mBan and during Easter Week 1916 she was one of many Cumann na mBan couriers in the Rebel County. Following the failed insurrection, RIC men unceremoniously entered her classroom one day to arrest her and thus put in motion her dismissal from her job. This act would result in the foundation of Scoil Ide.

Maire was blacklisted and so she decided with her sister Eithne to set up their own school at the MacSwiney home 4 Belgrave Place. The doors of School Ide opened on September 4th 1916.

Pupils making music outside the school.

             MacSwiney sisters with Muriel Murphy MacSwiney, widow of the martyred mayor.


During the War of Independence members of the First Cork Brigade IRA provided a round the clock guard at Belgrave Place to protect it from crown forces. 

In the aftermath of their brother's death on hunger strike, the MacSwiney sisters became more involved in the Republican movement. Maire accompanied Muriel to America where they spoke at rallies and fundraised for the cause of Irish freedom. 

                                  Maire & Muriel at the Capitol Building, Washington DC.


Maire was elected to the second Dail in 1921 as a TD for Cork city and when Civil War broke out in 1922 the MacSwineys sided with the Republicans against the Free State. It resulted in Maire being imprisoned in Mountjoy. While imprisoned, Maire went on hunger strike and so did her sister Eithne who was outside the gates!

Maire & Muriel in America with Harry Boland.

In the years after the foundation of the Free State the MacSwiney sisters continued with their school at Belgrave Place. In 1927 when De Valera founded Fianna Fail they refused to join the new party and stuck with what was left of Sinn Fein. 

Pupils enjoying play time outside the school.

Maire presented with a Basque flag in 1932 by visitors from the Basque country.

Maire attending the Treaty debates 1921.

Maire was affected by bad health most of her life, in her childhood her foot was amputated when it became infected. She died on March 8th 1942 and when Dev offered to attended her funeral, Eithne flatly declined. 

Eithne continued with School Ide until 1953 when she suffered a heart attack, she died a year later and was laid to rest with her sister in the MacSwiney grave in St Joseph's cemetery in Ballyphehane. 

With the death of Eithne came the end of Scoil Ide. It closed its doors in the summer of 1954 and today a brass plaque there signifies the importance of No. 4 Belgrave Place. 

The MacSwiney family plot, St Joseph's Cemetery.