3 Marlboro Street

Just two days into the new year 1901 a group of men gathered at number 3 Marlboro Street where, in their shared interest in Irish culture, they founded the Cork Celtic Literary Society. Those present on that occasion would go on to play roles in Ireland's fight for freedom. 

Among the founders were Liam de Roiste, Terence MacSwiney, Fred Cronin and Daniel Corkery. Batt Kelleher was elected chairman, Dan Tierney was elected treasurer and De Roiste the secretary. 

De Roiste's Witness Statement on the founding of the Celtic Lit Soc.

The society held Irish classes, produced a journal called Eire Og and held lively political debates. A year into it's existence it was decided to make Maud Gonne MacBride it's honourary president. Her husband Major John MacBride was bestowed with the Vice Presidency. They attended a St Patrick's Day demonstration on the Grand Parade in 1902 and afterwards Maud Gonne delivered a fiery lecture at the Assembly Rooms on the South Mall under the banner of the Celtic Literary Society. 

Liam de Roiste

Also in 1902 the Celtic Literary Society protested at a Unionist event at the Opera House. During the protest treasurer Tierney get knocked out by a policeman's baton. 

De Roiste's account of the Opera House disturbances.

In 1902 the Cork branch of Inghinidhe na hEireann (the precursor to Cumann na mBan) was founded at the Celtic Literary Rooms at 3 Marlboro Street. They later moved to rooms at 18 Great Georges Street (Washington Street) which the RIC raided one Spring Sunday to remove green flags flying from the windows. The Inghinidhe barricaded the door but, the force of the policemen burst through it and the ladies met the brunt of their batons. During the event furniture and windows were smashed and the flags confiscated by the RIC. 

18 Washington Street

In 1903 the Celtic Literary Society established their own GAA team - Eire Og. They also set up their own choir group specifically for the singing of rebel songs! A year later the Cork Dramatic Society was founded within the Celtic Literary Society. 

Members of the Cork Dramatic Society, including Terence MacSwiney seated in centre.

The Dramatic Society would later move to 16 Fr Mathew Street to a building known as An Dun, which also served as HQ for Na Fianna Eireann. The Dramatic Society produced plays by Macroom man T.C Murray and Douglas native Lennox Robinson as well as Terence MacSwiney and Daniel Corkery. 

By 1905 membership numbers at the Celtic Literary Society had dwindled to just 15 but it's legacy would be felt in the years to follow on the Rebel streets of Cork. 

No.3 Fr Mathew Street - An Grianan

Before it was Fr Mathew Street it was known as Queen Street and ironically on this monarch's street was the cultural heartbeat of Cork's Republican movement. 
No. 3 was the headquarters of the Gaelic League Cork city branch and it was called An Grianan.  

An Grinan which is in a sad state these days.

This building bustled with activity during the revolutionary era. Terence MacSwiney held Irish language classes here and Cathal Brugha oversaw an inquiry here after the failed 1916 Rising on Leeside. That gathering of Republucan top brass was advertised as a Gaelic League Ceili just to put the authorities off the scent! 

Daniel Corkery's Cork Dramatic Society produced plays at An Grianan, in between the lectures and dances held there. It was indeed a hive of activity!

From the 1921 Cork City Directory. 

Down the street at number 19 was An Dun, another nucleus of the revolutionary movement which saw the likes of Na Fianna boys gather for lectures and drills. 

Cork Fianna Officers

Advert from the 1921 Cork City Directory "Classes every evening at 5pm"

Countess Markievicz  and Bulmer Hobson attended a large ceili at An Grianan following a Manchester Martyrs commemoration in 1915 while James Connolly delivered a lecture there to 30 people about street fighting a few months before the Easter Rising in 1916. 

Account of Connolly's lecture at An Grianan.

Account from Fianna Captain Charles Meaney

Grave of Captain Meaney, St Finbarrs Cemetery. 

As the War of Independence gathered steam from 1919 onwards the activities at No.3 Fr Mathew Street became more militarised as An Grianan turned into an important nucleus of the IRA, Cumann na mBan and Na Fianna. This also meant the building suffered from severe raids from the British authorities. 

Witness statement from Peg Duggan Cumann na mBan.

A meeting at An Grianan inspired Tom Waters to set up an Irish Volunteers company in his hometown of Bantry. He would later serve with the Tipperary Brigade. 

Grave of Tom Waters, St Finbarrs Cemetery.

An Grianan would host first aid classes and rifle practise while lectures on combat out weighed Irish language classes during the years of conflict.

Fr Mathew Street from South Mall, An Grianan just down the street on the left.

Account from Riobard Langford on activities held in An Grianan.

Grave of Riobard Langford at St. Finbarrs Cemetery. 

The building is now in neglect but over 100 years ago it was the pulse of Rebel Cork. 

Witness statement of George Hurley Na Fianna Eireann.

An Grianan in 2022.

15 Fr Mathew Quay (Charlotte Quay) - November 30 1920

Before it was Fr Mathew Quay it was known as Charlotte Quay and the Thomas Ashe Hall was at No.15. It was one of the principal bases in the city for the Republican movement and of course, it suffered from surveillance and raids.

In September 1919 up to 20 British soldiers from Victoria Barracks raided Ashe Hall. Only the caretaker was present at the time but the soldiers turned the place upside down. Doors were broken, windows smashed, furniture destroyed and the floorboards ripped up. They did not find any arms but did leave the premises with membership cards and mock wooden guns. 

Red marker-the site of the Thomas Ashe Hall

In September 1920 a clerk who worked at Victoria Barracks called John O'Callaghan was suspected of spying on the IRA. He was put under surveillance by the First Cork Brigade and his card was marked when he was found in a city pub giving information over the phone to Victoria Barracks about IRA men drinking in the same pub.

Holy Trinity Church on Fr Matthew Quay

O'Callaghan was caught and taken to Ashe Hall where members of the Active Service Unit questioned him for hours before making the decision to take him away to meet his maker. 

As O'Callaghan was led to a waiting car outside Ashe Hall he slipped from  his captors grip and ran towards the Holy Trinity Church but, an IRA Volunteer just happened to be coming out of the church at the same time and when he saw his comrades in pursuit of O'Callaghan he calmly stuck his foot out and tripped the condemned man. O'Callaghan was then taken by car to Farmers Cross where he was executed and buried. 

Today - site of the Ashe Hall, grey building on right.

In late 1920 many Sinn Fein clubs were attacked and burned across Cork. Anticipating an attack, the IRA set a booby trap mine inside the door of the Ashe  Hall. Clearing out all the essentials, the mine was placed and volunteers waited in safe houses across the river for the impending raid. 

Looking across the river at Ashe Hall.

The wait ended on the night of the 30th of November when at midnight some 20 Black and Tans arrived at the Ashe Hall and burst in the door. Commandant Michael Murphy of the Active Service Unit Cork No.1 Brigade was watching proceedings in a house across the river. He witnessed the explosion when the tans entered the building and a number of them were blown into the River Lee.  

The Witness Statement of Michael Murphy

Great Southern & Western Railway (Kent) Station - March 1 1921

Charlie Daly worked as a clerk in the Cork Railway Station. He was a member of the 2nd Battalion of the Cork No. 1 Brigade and a lover of Irish sport and culture. He came from the Lough and was a familiar face at the local Fr O'Leary Hall where he attended Gaelic League classes and played with the College Rovers Hurling Club. 

                                           14 Lough View Terrace, Charlie Daly's home.


The railway in Cork was a hotbed of Republican activity. Some 100 railway workers were members of the Republican movement while many others were sympathetic to the cause of Irish freedom. At the stroke of midnight,  March 1st 1921, Black and Tans raided Cork's main railway station with murderous intent. 

                                                                       Charlie Daly



Daly was with his fellow night workers in the parcel depot when a lorry of tans hurtled into the railway yard. 

The crown forces smashed their way through the railway station, beating anyone who got in their way, smashing windows and upturning furniture. They rounded up the workers , including Daly, and ordered them to strip before beating them. 

                               British troops in what is now the car park of  Kent Station



 Daly was singled out and taken away to the railway tunnel. There he was beaten to a pulp before he was shot dead. His body was left on the railway line for the morning mail train to destroy but when the rampaging crown forces left, Daly's co-workers went in search of him and retrieved his body from the tunnel.

The railway tunnel in 1922 with a free state solider standing on the right. And the same tunnel today. 




             Charlie Daly was buried in the Republican Plot at St Finbarrs Cemetery. 

Plaque at Kent Station unveiled on the centenary of his death in 2021

Curragh Road/Tory Top Lane - February 19 1920

The body of 25 year old Henry Timothy Quinlisk was found by a herdsman in a ditch on Tory Top Lane in Ballyphehane on a frosty February morning. He had six bullets in his head and five bullets in his body. The reason he ended up there was because he intended to double cross Michael Collins.

                                                             Henry Timothy Quinlisk.


Quinlisk came from a Wexford family steeped in service to the crown. He joined the Royal Irish Regiment and served as a Corporal in WWI. He was captured early in the war and while in a prison camp he joined Roger Casements Irish Brigade. Prior to the Easter Rising Casement had set about recruiting  Irishmen in German POW camps but it was a venture with little result. 

                         Quinlisk on the far right, with other members of Casements Irish Brigade.



Quinlisk was fluent in French and German. He was also known to be a charmer and had a great lip for the drink. By 1919 he found himself at a loose end. His funds had dried up and the British Army had him arrested for his dalliance with Casements Brigade. So, he took himself to Dublin where he decided to infiltrate Michael Colins' spy network. 

Curragh Road today. Quinlisk was brought here by car and then led by foot up a laneway on the left and through fields to Tory Top Lane.




Everyone in the Collins circle distrusted Quinlisk, including the Big Fella. Collins had men watch Quinlisk and sure enough, he was spotted paying regular visits to Dublin Castle. 

Collins had his spies in the castle suss out Quinlisk and before long he had his answer: Quinlisk was a double agent.  Ned Broy one of the Collins spies in the castle copied a letter in November 1919 which Quinlisk delivered to detectives there. In it he detailed his links to Collins and his willingness to deliver the most wanted man in Ireland into their hands. 

Collins had put out a rumour that he fled Dublin for Cork. It was all part of the plan to expose Quinlisk. Liam Archer worked in the telegraph room in Dublin Castle and was also a Collins spy. He intercepted a telegraph Quinlisk sent to detectives telling them that Collins had fled down south and that he was going down to meet him there. When Archer gave Collins the information from the telegraph the Big Fella replied "Well, that fucker has just signed his death warrant!" 

Quinlisk informed members of the Cork IRA that he was going to arrive on Leeside in the hope of meeting up with Collins. Some members of the Cork No.1 Brigade knew of Quinlisk's real intentions and on the orders of Collins they were tasked with his punishment.

 Quinlisk stayed in the Wren Hotel on Winthrop Street where he drank the bar dry and ran his mouth to anyone who would listen about his good friend Mick Collins. The RIC at King Street (MacCurtain Street) Station haunted the Wren Hotel as they had been instructed from Dublin Castle to do so because Quinlisk had informed them it was where he was to meet Michael Collins.

 After a few days the barman in the  hotel, Michael Leahy, who was also a local Volunteer, became so alarmed with Quinlisks brash behaviour that he instructed him to instead lodge with a Volunteer friend of his at Hibernian Buildings. 

Quinlisk wasn't at his new lodgings for long when he was picked up in the dead of night, February 19th, and brought to a location where he thought he was to meet Collins and inspect some machine guns.

                      Tory Top Lane was a popular execution ground for spies and informers.



Cork No.1 Brigade Commandant Michael Murphy oversaw the execution of Quinlisk. He had him picked up by car and driven to the Curragh Road. He met him there with Frank Mahony and Jimmy Nash and they set off in the direction of Tory Top Lane to where Quinlisk thought Collins was hiding in a safe house with machine guns. As they reached Tory Top Lane Murphy pulled out a revolver and pulled the trigger.

Mick Murphy

Account from Margaret Neenan (nee Riordan)

Grave of Margaret at St. Finbarrs Cemetery.

                                                        Mick Murphy's witness statement:

Soldiers came from Victoria Barracks to take Quinlisk's body the next morning and it lay unidentified in the city morgue for three days guarded by the RIC before it was removed to Carr's Hill and buried in the paupers plot there. Two weeks later Quinlisk's father who was an RIC Sergeant arrived in Cork to claim his sons body and he took him back for burial in Wexford.