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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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