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.
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.
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.
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.
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