Imperial Hotel, South Mall - October 8 1922

During the Civil War Free State forces took over the Imperial Hotel as their Headquarters. It was from here that Michael Collins set off to meet his death in Beal na mBlath on the morning of August 22nd 1922. Months later a wedding and a shooting took place in the historic hotel.

Michael Collins leaving the hotel (from it's side entrance, near the GPO) during his stay there in August '22. 

                                     The Imperial Hotel in the early 20th century.


On the 8th of October 1922 Free State Major General Emmet Dalton married his fiancée Alice Shannon in the Imperial Hotel. The wedding took place in the Clarence Hall in the hotel, not in a church due to security reasons.

 Dalton's 21 year old bride was from Phibsboro Dublin. Alice had travelled to Cork by sea because  it was safer and faster due to the roads and rails which suffered disruptions due to the ongoing war.

                                                     The bride and groom

24 year old Dalton was the Free State forces military operations director and in Cork the Imperial Hotel became his headquarters after he landed troops there by sea in August 1922. 
  

A car waiting for General Dalton at the side door of the hotel.

When Michael Collins arrived in Cork in August 1922 he stayed in the Imperial Hotel and Dalton accompanied The Big Fella when he left the hotel on the morning of August 22nd. On the route back that night they met an ambush in Beal na mBlath and the rest as they say is history. 

Emmet Dalton and Michael Collins

The Dalton wedding in October 1922 was attended by several Free State officials and clergy. The wedding was for many a break from the realities of conflict but, by evening an incident in the hotel would end the day on a sour note.

The wedding of Emmet Dalton and Alice Shannon in the Clarence Hall, Imperial Hotel.

With any wedding comes a good flow of booze and this wedding was no different. The Free State soldiers based in the Imperial Hotel toasted the wedding of their general with generous amounts of alcohol and by late evenng a whiskey soaked  argument broke out between two soldiers. 

Sergeant Charles Kearns and Private Andrew Rooney had been, with the rest of the soldiers in the Imperial Hotel, enjoying the wedding day but after one too many "toasts" the two men got into an argument with each other  and had to be separated by their comrades.  

The two fueding soldiers went their separate ways and no more was thought of their drunken squabble until a few hours later a gun shot was heard in the guard room in the hotel. 

Civilians and Free Staters outside the entrance of the Imperial Hotel

Rooney and Kearns bumped into each other in the guard room where the argument re-ignited, this time with deadly consequences. 

Rooney drew his pistol and shot Kearns dead. Rooney was arrested and later court martialed. He was sentenced to death but, General Richard Mulcahy commuted the sentence to five years hard labour. 

Kearns who was originally from Crocus Street in West Belfast was buried in the Free State plot, near where Michael Collins was buried, in Glasnevin Cemetery. He was a single man and his mother was awarded a gratuity of £50 following his death in Cork's Imperial Hotel.

Grave of Emmet Dalton in Glasnevin Cemetery

General Dalton was reportedly incensed by the drink fuelled shooting on his wedding day but by then his concerns had been gathering regarding the state of affairs within the Free State Army. 

Two months after his wedding Dalton resigned from the army, dissatisfied with the executions of Republicans and the route away from Michael Collins' ideals which the Provisional Government took. Dalton would go on to work in the film industry in the US and founded Ardmore Studios in 1958.

 He died on his 80th birthday in 1978 and was buried with military honours near Michael Collins in Glasnevin Cemetery.

A silver serving tray which was gifted to Dalton and his bride by - " his brother officers IRA engaged with him on active service in Cork". 

Today the tray is in the Lord Mayor's office in Cork City Hall. 

Lower Glanmire Road - May 18 1921

Lance Corporal Arthur Wilfred Lavington Hill of the 7th Company 2nd Battalion Hampshire Regiment clocked off duty at 5:30pm at the Glanmire Road Train Station (today's Kent Station) where he worked with the railway transport staff. The 21 year old was in civilian clothes and was suspected by the IRA of being an intelligence officer. 

Hill made his way towards Tivoli where he spent the evening in the company of a female companion. At 9:30pm he left the lady's house and was walking near the Tivoli Level Crossing when a number of men fired at him from behind a stone wall. 

                                         The old level crossing as it looks today


An anonymous call was made to the Fire Brigade after the shooting to inform them of a dead body at the Tivoli Crossing on the Lower Glanmire Road. A British Army patrol were informed and they found the Portsmouth man dead with two bullets in his head. 

                                          The Irish Independent of May 20 1921 


Lance Corporal Hill was buried in Fareham Cemetery by Portsmouth Harbour in England. 

Grattan Street - April 28 1919

A three story tenenment dwelling at 33 Grattan Street served as a secret bomb making factory for the Cork No.1 Brigade. The premises was owned by Andy Ahern who ran a small shoemaking store on the ground floor. It was in the kitchen at the back of Mr Ahern's store that the IRA had set up their bomb factory. 

Grattan Street today.

               

On the evening of April 28th 1919 the RIC were searching properties in the Grattan Street and Broad Lane area. Known locally as The Marsh Area, it was a place of dark laneways and overcrowded tenements but it was also a hive of Republican activity.

Broad Lane tenements.

 Because of the searches taking place, 28 year old IRA Lieutenant Michael Tobin and his comrades decided to move their bomb making equipment. Tobin was a native of Ballineen West Cork, he was working in the city as a drapers assistant and was lodging at 15 Bachelors Quay.

                                               Bachelors Quay where Tobin lived.


An explosion occurred when Tobin and his comrades moved gunpowder from tins into coarse linen sacks. This caused a build up of heat which resulted in the powder igniting. 

The witness statement of Sean O'Connell

With Tobin at 33 Grattan Street on that evening were fellow IRA men Sean O'Connell and Dick Murphy whilst Volunteers Varian and Downey and Cumann na mBan member Bessie Moore were in a room next door. 

Cork No1 Brigade Quartermaster Sean O'Connell recalled what happened in his witness statement for the bureau of military history: " Dick and Michael were holding a bag and I was emptying one of the tins into it when all of a sudden a terrific explosion occurred."

Account from Captain Charles Meaney, H Company, 2nd Battalion.

The building was blown apart and all of it's occupants were injured, one fatally -Lieutenant Tobin was taken to the Mercy Hospital with serious burns to his face, hands and legs. He lingered in hospital until he died there on May 21st 1919. 

Removal of Lieutenant Tobin from the Mercy Hospital.

Lieutenant Michael Tobin was removed to the church of St Peter and Paul before a large funeral procession led by the Cork Volunteer Pipe Band made it's way through the streets of the rebel city. Among those providing a guard of honour were members of the IRA, Cumann na mBan, Na Fianna Eireann and the Irish Citizen Army. Thousands thronged the funeral route before it went west to Ballineen where Lieutenant Tobin was laid to rest in the cemetery there.

                                         The grave of Michael Tobin in Ballineen cemetery. 

Grand Parade - September 2 1922

It was on Saturday morning just after 10am as a group of Free State soldiers of the Curragh Reserve were gathered outside the Cork City Club on Grand Parade. The  City Club had been be taken over by Free State forces and it was here where Soldiers received their wages. The group waiting outisde the City Club on that morning were waiting to draw their pay. 

              The Cork City Club at 46 Grand Parade, now home to C.I.T Arts office.


At the same time, an anti-treaty IRA volunteer drove a motorbike with a machine gun mounted on it's side car up Sullivan's Quay and proceeded to fire at the Free Staters at the other side of the river. Two IRA rifle men were positioned in a building at the corner of Sullivan's Quay and Friary Lane while two more were positioned on a low flat roof of the building. After firing on the Free Staters, the driver of the motorbike abandoned his deadly mode of transport at South Gate Bridge and disappeared on foot up Barrack Street while the riflemen in the building on Sullivan's quay also disappeared into the laneways of South Parish. 

Sullivan's Quay on the left where the IRA launched their attack on the Free Staters outside the City Club at the opposite side of the river. Today at that spot, Nano Nagle footbridge connects Sullivan's quay and the Grand parade. 


The surprise attack left 19 wounded Free State solders and two dead on the spot.  Private Michael Francis Behan was a 21 year old from Smithfield, Dublin. He was six weeks in the army when a bullet pierced his head and killed him instantly on the Grand Parade. Behan was a member of the Third Order of St Francis who formed a guard of honour at his funeral in Glasnevin cemetery. Before joining the Free State Army he worked for the Dublin Gas Company. 

                             Free Staters outside the City Club on the Grand Parade.


Private Thomas Conway was an ex British soldier who had served in WW I. He lived wth his brother and his family in a tenement on St Augustine Street in Dublin and was killed instantly during the attack outside the Cork City Club.

Free Staters at the National Monument on the Grand Parade

Private James McCann was a Glaswegian who died from his wounds in the Mercy hospital on the 14th of September, 12 days after the attack on Grand Parade. He was a member of the Govan branch of Na Fianna Eireann in 1917 before joining the 1st Battalion Scottish Brigade IRA. The 21 year old's parents in Glasgow were awarded £180 per annum by the state pensions board following his death.  He was buried in the Free State plot in Glasnevin cemetery. 

Free Staters outside the Cork City Club. These photos were taken weeks before the attack.

Private James Yates died in the Mercy hospital on the 16th of September. Machine gun fire had obliterated his right leg and he had it amputated but, Yates did not survive the sepsis which followed.  Yates came from Capel Street in Dublin city and was a van driver for the local fruit market before joining the Free State Army. Yates was married with a three year old daughter and his widow Bridget was awarded an allowance of 17shillings 6pence throughout her widowhood. Like McCann, Yates was also buried in the plot which surrounds the grave of Michael Collins in Glasnevin cemetery. 

Grand Parade - February & March 1922

The Grand Parade was the stage for two large rallies in early 1922. It was on Sunday afternoon, February 19th 1922 when an Anti-Treaty rally drew a large crowd to two platforms, one erected near the National Monument and the other next to the Berwick Fountain. 

                                     The Grand Parade in the early 20th century.

Special trains were put on to bring people in from the country while companies of IRA Volunteers lined the South Mall, Washington Street and the Grand Parade. THe Working Mans Brass Band, The Volunteer Pipe Band and the McCurtain Memorial Band among many others provided the musical entertainment. 

Dev at the platform near the National Monument. 

The platform at the Berwick Fountain was the setting for the first part of the rally. Lord Mayor Donal O'Callaghan opened the rally with an address in Irish before introducing Eamon De Valera who started his speech with "Up The Republic!" It sent the Cork crowd wild and after the cheering died down Dev unleashed a tirade against the Anglo Irish Treaty.

 Dev on the platform near the Berwick Fountain.

The party then proceeded to the second platform at the far end of the street for another wave of speeches against the treaty. Also speaking that day were Liam Mellows, Cathal Brugha , Sean MacSwiney and Countess Markievicz. The rally ended peacefully with a band playing the Soldiers Song and everyone went on their way. The same could not be said of the Pro Treaty rally in the same place a month later.

                     Michael Collins addressing the pro treaty rally on Grand Parade.




On Sunday March 12th 1922 over 50,000 people crammed into the Grand Parade to hear Michael Collins speak in favour of the treaty he had signed in London months before. He had arrived into the city the night before and was greeted at the train station by large crowds before he and his entourage were escorted through the streets by torch bearers and a brass band to his lodgings in the Turner Hotel at 64 George's Street (today Oliver Plunket Street.)

Then and now - 64 Oliver Plunkett Street

On the morning of the rally, Collins and his entourage attended 10;15 mass at St Francis Church on Liberty Street. After that they travelled to St Finbarrs Cemetery to visit the Republican Plot but, they were met at the gates by armed men.

Collins outside St Francis Church with, from L-R, Diarmuid Fawsitt, Commandant Cooney, Padraig O'Keeffe TD, Fr Sheehan, Rev. Walsh, General Sean MacEoin. 

Collins and co met up to 30 armed ani-treaty IRA volunteers at the gates of St Finbarrs Cemetery and a heated argument erupted. They were preventing Collins and the rest from entering the cemetery to the the Republican plot and it enraged the Big Fella. 

De Valera paid a visit to the Republican Plot just a month previously with Liam Mellows, Cathal Brugha and Maire Mac Swiney.

The standoff lasted for almost half an hour as both factions exchanged words and almost came to blows when finally Patrick Barry, brother of Tadhg Barry, pushed his way past the men at the gate and visited his brothers grave. General Sean McEoin also tried to push his way past but he was pulled back by Collins who then agreed to leave the scene for fear gun fire might erupt. 

The St Finbarrs Republican Plot 1922.

          Collins being presented with flowers by local children on the Grand Parade.




Before taking to the platform for the Pro Treaty rally on that Sunday afternoon, Collins was presented with a bunch of lily flowers by a girl and boy from the tenement buildings near Grattan Street. Barry Egan presided over the rally and Liam de Roiste spoke first.

       The overcrowded platform for the pro treaty rally. It's a wonder it didnt collapse!


After de Roiste finished his speech in Irish he introduced Collins and the large crowd erupted into frenzied cheering which went on for several minutes. The Galway Observer of March 18th 1922 reported "Not since the days of Parnell has the city witnessed a meeting so enthusiastic.....in dimensions the gathering was larger than Mr de Valera's recent gathering....."

                       Collins delivering his pro treaty speech on the Grand Parade.

As Collins finished his speech a ruckus kicked off at the rear of the platform when a number of men began pushing each other and shouting insults.

                             Trouble breaking out at the rear of the platform.





One man drew his pistol while another flung his fists in the face of another. People scattered in all directions as the charged atmosphere grew out of control. When shots were fired in the air the rally came to an abrupt end.

People, including children, running away from the trouble.

The violent end to the Pro Treaty rally showed the deep division which had already been cut into Irish society early in 1922. It was just the begining of more bloodier scenes to play out on the rebel streets of Cork in the coming months.

*Newsreel footage of the pro treaty rally can be seen on YouTube or the Irish Film Institute Player*

https://youtu.be/mPqLISbpzUE