54 Grand Parade

Patrick McNestry was a Dubliner who lodged at No.54 Grand Parade. He was a veteran of 1916 and was in Cork working as a silversmith for Egan's Jewelers. He was also a staff captain in the city's IRA.

McNestry was a member of the 1st Battalion F Company Dublin Brigade and fought in the Four Courts garrison during Easter Week 1916. The Phibsboro man was sentenced to death following the Rising but it was commuted to life and he was sent to Portland Prison. 

During his stint in the English prison McNestrys health declined. He was placed in solitary confinement when he was discovered trying to break through a wall in his cell. He was released in June 1917 and, as a Silversmith by trade, he was offered a position in Cork with Egan's Jewellers where proprietor Barry Egan was a Sinn Fein member on Cork Corporation.

 McNestry found lodgings at 54 Grand Parade, just a few doors down from Cork Sinn Fein HQ at No.56 and not far from his place of work at Egan's Jewellers at 32 Patrick Street. 

Early 20th Century photo of Grand Parade, No.54 is located just on the left.

The Cork City Library sits on the site today. 

McNestry was appointed Staff Captain of C Company 1st Battalion Cork No.1 Brigade. During the day he worked at Egan's on Patrick Street and at night he helped make bomb casings at Fords Motor Factory down the Marina. It was a clandestine operation carried out in the factory in the dead of night by factory workers who were in the IRA along with the help of others like McNestry. 

Egan's Jewellers before it fell victim to the Burning of Cork in December 1920.

Following it's destruction at the hands of the Crown Forces in December 1920 Egan's was rebuilt in 1925. It closed in the 1980s and today the site is clothes store Vero Moda.

McNestry's lodgings at No.54 Grand Parade were frequently raided by the authorities. His health never fully recovered from his time in Portland Prison and during one such raid he was sick in bed when he was dragged out and roughed up by police.

Part of the papers which make up McNestrys pension claim. This one detailing his activities.

In the Autumn of 1920 McNestrys health declined rapidly and he was taken from his lodgings to the Cork Fever Hospital at St Finbarrs on the Douglas Road. He lingered for 21 days before succumbing to death on the 16th of October at the age of 32. 

His sister Margaret wrote to Dublin Lord Mayor Alfie Byrne describing her brother's decline in a letter to back up her family's pension claim for the IRA captain: " a fever broke out in Cork city owing to the water mains. He took ill and died a week before Terence MacSwiney......he had a public funeral to the the Republican plot."

McNestrys death cert.

The McNestry family tried three times to claim a pension for their dead patriot but they were refused, even though a doctor and several comrades stated his poor health was rooted in the harsh treatment he endured in Portland Prison. Even though the McNestrys were denied a pension they were awarded two service medals from President Douglas Hyde in the 1940s.

Written statement by Piaras Beaslai to back up the McNestrys pension claim.

Staff Captain Patrick McNestry still lies in St Finbarrs Cemetery Republican Plot, the silversmith Dubliner who fought in 1916 and died in the prime of his revolutionary life.