Castle Street/Cornmarket Street - March 16 1922

Shortly before midnight on the eve of St Patrick's Day 1922, the Parnell Guards Fife & Drum Band were marching up Castle Street, heading in the direction of Cornmarket Street when they were stopped by a patrol of Irish Republican Policemen.
The Parnell Guards Band were from Fair Lane on the north side of the Lee and their loyalty lay with the pro-treaty side. When they were stopped by the anti-treaty Republican police things got heated.

At the junction of Castle street and Cornmarket street the two rival groups clashed. As stones were thrown and sticks were used, shots were fired and one man fell dead.
Patrick Horgan of Wolfe Tone Street was a member of the Parnell Guards band and died as a result of a bullet fired from the gun of a Republican policeman.
The clash between the two groups managed to make news down under where the Barrier Miner newspaper from Broken Hill, Australia, reported on the incident on its front page.

The Australian newspaper stated "A Republican police patrol attacks Parnell band." It also stated that the band telegraphed Michael Collins to request a government inquiry. Michael Collins had been in Cork just days before the incident. He was speaking at a mass rally on the Grand Parade where he was selling the treaty to the masses. The rally was marred by crowd trouble which saw rival pro and anti treaty IRA men pull guns on each other. Cork city in the spring of 1922 was entering into another phase of bloodshed, with the civil war just around the corner the rebel streets were a tinder box.