13 Brunswick Street (4 St Augustine Street)

Today the laneway that runs at the back of St Augustine's Church connecting the Grand Parade and South Main Street is an uninviting dark corridor but during the War of Independence a small unassuming newsagents shop run by two sisters was the beating heart of the IRA's intelligence centre.

Before it was St Augustine Street, it was called Brunswick Street and at No.13 Brunswick Street was the shop run by Nora and Shelia Wallace. When the street name changed, the shop address became No.4 St Augustine Street!
The Wallace sisters sold newspapers and tobacco and political pamphlets of the republican and labour movement. The sisters were active in the revolutionary movement, spearheading the Irish Citizen Army on Leeside.

                                                         The Wallace sisters

Information board at Cork Public Museum 

The newsagents became the one stop shop for the Cork IRA Intelligence. It played the unioffical role of IRA GPO! Messages were dropped and picked up while a back room served as a meeting room for the top brass in Cork's Republican movement.
James Connolly visited the shop in January 1916. He was in Cork to deliver a lecture on street fighting at the Gaelic League HQ at No.3 Fr Matthew Street. Countess Markievicz also visited the Wallace sisters and Trade Unionist Cathal Shannon lodged in a room above the shop for some time.

                  4 St Augustine Street, before it was demolished in the 1970s.



On the night of March 19th 1920, Lord Mayor Thomas MacCurtain paid a visit to the shop before going home to Blackpool. He was murdered hours later by policemen in his home. Terence MacSwiney was also a frequent visitor to the Wallace Sisters shop and often played the role of shopkeeper if the sisters were tending to other business.

Shelia was a staff officer of the Cork No.1 Brigade, one of the very few females in Ireland to hold that title. The shop came under the eyes of the authorities in 1921 and the sisters were ordered to shut down their premises in May 1921. They were also expelled from the city.

With the truce in Summer 1921 came the reopening of the shop and on July 12th, a party was held for the grand reopening. Among those celebrating the reopening at the Wallace sisters shop was Gen. Tom Barry.

Following the bitter treaty split, the sisters remained faithful to the Republican movement and for this they paid with regular raids from Free State forces. Raids would continue well after the Civil War when it fell upon the local guards from the Bridewell to arrive at the small shop and "do it over".

            A raid on the Wallace shop in 1926 by detectives was raised in the Dail.



In later years the sisters moved from their dwelling above the shop to the Old Youghal Road but they continued to trade on St Augustine Street. Shelia died April 14th 1944. Nora continued to run the shop until bad health saw her close the premises in 1960. Nora died September 17th 1970 and was laid to rest next to her sister at St Finbarrs Cemetery.