In the Spring of 1919 a brazen escape occurred from the asylum on the Lee Road. The escapee was Sean Moylan, North Cork IRA leader and future Fianna Fail Government minister.
Sean Moylan
Moylan was arrested after delivering a seditious speech in the village of Cullen, just outside Millstreet and for this 'crime' he was sent to Cork City Gaol to serve 12 months hard labour.
In Cork City Gaol Moylan went on hunger strike which affected his health and the prison doctor recommended that the IRA leader should be moved to the prison hospital. As warders were busy prepaing his bed in the hospital a fellow prisoner called Martin Beckett from Kilgarvan approached Moylan who was sitting near the fire. The two men got quietly chatting and a plan for Moylan's escape was cooked up between them.
Moylan (on the left) standing on a roadblock in North Cork.
Beckett turned to the warders and warned them to hide the pokers and tongs as Moylan was a madman. He exclaimed that Moylan was as mad as Jack the ripper and the startled warders called in the doctor and governor to determine if Beckett's claims were true. Of course they were false but, this was all part of the plan for Moylans escape
"The mad house by the Lee"
Moylan played the madman well. He snarled at the warders and it was decided to move him to the Cork lunatic asylum on the Lee Road, a place which was less guarded than Cork City Gaol! The day after Moylan was moved to "the mad house by the Lee" Thomas McCurtain paid a visit to "insane" inmate Moylan to initiate an escape.
Main gates to asylum
McCurtain informed Moylan that volunteers were ready to assist in his escape and on the evening of May 20th the escape played out. Volunteers from the Cork No.1 Brigade positioned themselves around the vicinity of the aslyum, out along the road and at the main gates. That evening Moylan calmly strolled out of the aslyum and across the yard. He climbed over a hedge and into a field from where he made his way onto the Lee Road. Moylan cooly strolled up the long Lee Road until he spotted his getaway car waiting for him.
The Lee Road today.
Moylan was whisked off in the direction of Blarney where he stayed in a safe house to recover from gastric flu he had contracted during his short stint as an insane inmate!
Cork Examiner report on the escape
The brazen escape was an embarrassment for the authorities who would later rue the day they let Sean Moylan slip from their clutches so easily!
Grave of Moylan at Kiskeam cemetery
Moylan's Escape - words by Pauline Murphy.
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