Just five days into the new year of 1921 an incident occurred in the Imperial Hotel which resulted in the death of a man in strange circumstances.
Finbarr D'Arcy was a 28 year old from Riverstown, he was an Alexian lay brother. His mother was the postmistress of Glanmire Post Office and by all accounts he was on sick leave from Twyford Abbey in London where he was serving in the nursing home there.
In 1918 he almost fell victim to the dreaded Spanish Flu but survived, albeit with his health somewhat damaged. However, on the night of January 5th 1921 D'Arcy had good enough health to be knocking back booze in the bar of the Imperial hotel.
Twyford Abbey where D'Arcy was an Alexian lay brother. It closed in 1988.
Apparently D'Arcy was a regular visitor to the Imperial Hotel anytime he was home in Cork. He signed the visitors book as Rev. Father D'Arcy and at 10:30pm on the night in question, D'Arcy dressed in his clerical garb was intoxicated in the hotel bar and making a bit of a scene.
Apparently D'Arcy was a regular visitor to the Imperial Hotel anytime he was home in Cork. He signed the visitors book as Rev. Father D'Arcy and at 10:30pm on the night in question, D'Arcy dressed in his clerical garb was intoxicated in the hotel bar and making a bit of a scene.
The hotel was also a regular haunt for black and tans and a group of them were in the bar that night and were annoyed by D'Arcy's drunken antics - which is rather ironic when you consider their own drunken antics in Cork! They told him to leave and D'Arcy obliged but not before snatching one of their hats and an umbrella.
The Imperial Hotel in the early 20th century.
Days before, when D'Arcy was booking into the hotel he specifically asked to stay in room 5. The GPO could be accessed through this room and at the same time D'Arcy checked in, there was a robbery in the GPO which saw the theft of £8,000.
The tans followed D'Arcy to his room where they ruffed him up and strip searched him. They took their eyes off him briefly and he suddenly dashed for the window and escaped. He scrambled down a drain pipe and managed to get into the servants quarters where he hid under a bed. It did not take long for the tans to find him and they hauled him off. They handed D'Arcy over to the curfew patrol which were the Hampshire Regiment and they had a reputation for shooting prisoners.
D'Arcy was put into a lorry in handcuffs and the Hampshire Regiment took him off in the direction of Victoria Barracks (Collins Barracks) but, he never got there alive.
Days before, when D'Arcy was booking into the hotel he specifically asked to stay in room 5. The GPO could be accessed through this room and at the same time D'Arcy checked in, there was a robbery in the GPO which saw the theft of £8,000.
The GPO in the early 20th century
The tans followed D'Arcy to his room where they ruffed him up and strip searched him. They took their eyes off him briefly and he suddenly dashed for the window and escaped. He scrambled down a drain pipe and managed to get into the servants quarters where he hid under a bed. It did not take long for the tans to find him and they hauled him off. They handed D'Arcy over to the curfew patrol which were the Hampshire Regiment and they had a reputation for shooting prisoners.
Newspaper reports on the Imperial Hotel incident.
D'Arcy was put into a lorry in handcuffs and the Hampshire Regiment took him off in the direction of Victoria Barracks (Collins Barracks) but, he never got there alive.
The officer in charge Lieutenant AR Koe ordered the vehicle to halt just before they arrived at the Barracks gate. D'Arcy was thrown from the lorry and a shot rang out. The official statement from the British authorties stated he was shot "trying to escape". This was the usual guff with curfew patrols in Cork, many people had been shot in this way.
The death of D'Arcy left many unanswered questions. Following his funeral at Saint Peter's and Paul's and his burial in St Finbarr's cemetery, rumors about this " Reverend Father" D'Arcy flooded the streets of Cork.
The most popular and possibly truthful story doing the rounds of Cork was this one: D'Arcy and two other men were involved in the theft of £8,000 from the GPO by way of Room no.5 in the Imperial Hotel. They then unwittingly gave the money to a women of illrepute to hold for them but, she made off with it and the three robbers were left fuming, frustrated and angry. D'Arcy took out his frustration through the medium of booze and this ultimately led to his downfall.
His two accomplices were supposedly an ex British soldier by the name of Kavanagh and a young student and son of a well known Cork builder, Walter Callanan. A few years later young Callanan would meet his end when he left a dance at the Arcadia Ballroom on the Lower Glanmire Road and was later found dead in the nearby railway tunnel, killed by a train.
Lieutenant Koe, the officer in charge the night D'Arcy was "Shot while trying to escape" would be in charge a month later at Clonmult when his troops surrounded an IRA safehouse and massacred most of it's occupants - "Shot trying to escape".
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