9 Langford Row - May 15 1921

Just shortly after 2am on the Sunday morning of May 15 1921 the landlady of No. 9 Langford Row, Miss Crowley, was woken by loud knocking on the front door. She hesitated a while before opening the door, these were tense times to be living in. She opened the door slightly and asked who was there but she never got an answer. 

    Langford Row today. This stretch of Cork City, near the South Infirmary Hospital, is named after the Langford Family who were granted land in 1666 by King Charles II. 




Four masked men pushed in the door and roughly brushed past the terrified Miss Crowley. They ran upstairs to a room occupied by Patrick Sheehan and his wife Catherine. The door was locked and as the men started kicking it Mr Sheehan called out from the other side of the door - "Who's there?" 

Patrick Sheehan and his wife Catherine.

One of the masked men asked "are you Sheehan?" To which he replied he was. Then a hail of bullets ripped through the door and into the unfortunate Mr Sheehan. 
The men left quickly as Patrick Sheehan succumbed to a number of bullets which hit his chest and neck. 

 Mr Sheehan was a newly wedded cattle dealer from Newcestown who had no affiliation to either side of the conflict. The IRA denied responsibility and the general theory was that the RIC carried out the killing as a reprisal for the shooting of constables in the area on that same weekend. 

Patrick Sheehan was brought back to his native  Newcestown where he was buried in Templemartin cemetery, leaving behind his widow Catherine. They were married just two weeks before his death on Langford row.