64 St Patrick Street

General Tom Barry lived in a flat with his wife Leslie Price de Barra above the Woodford Bourne stores at 64 St Patrick Street from the 1940s until their deaths in the 1980s.

The flat above what is now McDonalds was once the home of Tom Barry and his wife Leslie Price.

Tom Barry was the formidable leader of the famous Third West Cork Brigade during the War of Independence and the Anti-Treaty IRA in the Civil War. Leslie was a veteran of the 1916 Rising and director of Cumann na mBan during the War of Independence.

Leslie & Tom in their later years.

In the years after the War of Independence and Civil War, Tom Barry fell into a number of important roles. In 1927 he was appointed General Superintendent at the Cork Harbour Commission, a role he held until 1965. 

From Meda Ryan's biography of Tom Barry.

He remained active in the Republican movement, in 1934 he was imprisoned for a few months on arms possesion and in 1936 he was involved in the botched kidnapping of Admiral Somerville in Castletownsend who was shot. It was claimed Somerville was recruiting local lads to the British Navy but in his later years Barry stated the whole thing was a mistake.

Tom Barry remained an active Republican and was often at the fore of protests and events.

Woodford Bourne 1940s

 In 1937 he became Chief of Staff of IRA but, it was a brief role as he clashed with those who supported a bombing campaign in Britain and he resigned his post. 

The Woodford Bourne building.

During WWII Tom Barry was appointed to head of intelligence in the southern command of the Irish Defence Forces. Leslie became chair of the Irish Red Cross and was instrumental in helping orphans and refugees from Poland and Czechoslovakia. 

Tom Barry and his wife Leslie lived in the flat of the top left window.

Tom Barry wrote articles for the Irish Defence Forces magazine which he would then mould into his famous memoir Guerilla Days in Ireland, which he wrote in his home overlooking Daunt Square. The book was released in 1949 and has never gone out of print. One such fan was Che Guevara who wrote to Barry at 64 Patrick Street in the 1960s asking him to join him in South America to train guerilla fighters, but Barry refused!

The first edition, 1949.

1956 edition

1960s edition

1980s edition

During the 60s and 70s Tom Barry was in high demand to speak at commemorative events and unveil memorials. He was vital in keeping the memory of the fight for freedom alive by making sure memorials were erected and events were held. 

Tom Barry unveiling the memorial stone to Michael Collins at Sam's Cross 1965.

While her husband was busy keeping the memory of his comrades alive, Leslie helped launch the charity Gorta and  helpled set up the Voluntary Health Insurance Company. 

The instantly recognisable figure of General Tom Barry on one of his saunters.

When not attending commemorations and giving orations, Tom Barry was a familiar figure on the streets of Cork sauntering from his home down towards the Mardyke and around Fitzgerald's Park.

Bust of General Barry in Fitzgerald's Park where he was often seen walking.

The Tom Barry collection, Cork Public Museum, Fitzgeralds Park. 

General Tom Barry died in 1980 at the age of 83 and was buried near the Republican plot in St Finbarrs Cemetery.  Leslie died four year later at the age of 91 and was laid to rest with her husband. 

Funeral of Tom Barry 1980.

Grave of the revolutionary couple at St Finbarrs Cemetery Cork.

https://youtu.be/QobuRoXfL_0

Youtube - Interview with Tom Barry at his home in the late 1970s.

1 Friars Walk

In November 1961 Mick Murphy, veteran O/C of the Cork No.1 Brigade and a fine Cork hurler, unveiled a plaque at No.1 Friars Walk in honour of the local IRA company - E Company, 2nd Battalion Cork No.1 Brigade.

Mick Murphy 1920s

Unveiling the plaque in 1961.

Those honoured on the plaque are three members of the IRA who died in a bomb explosion on Patrick Street and another who was killed by crown forces on his way home from work.

What was once known as The Corner Shop, today the plaque still sits proudly on it's gable wall.

In November 1920 Patrick Trahey, Patrick O'Donoghue and James Mehigan died when a bomb exploded where they were standing at the junction of Patrick Street and Princes Street. 

Pat Trahey

Accounts of the incident differ. Some state that a bomb was thrown at the men who were standing chatting with others. The bomb, some state, was thrown by a passing Tan. 

James Mehigan.

Other reports state that the men had come from a brigade meeting and one of them was carrying a grenade which fell from his pocket and exploded upon hitting the ground. 

Patrick O'Donoghue

The three men were from the  Friars Walk area.  Mehigan was 28 years old and came from Friars Walk, Trahey was a 30 year old shop assistant from Evergreen Buildings and O'Donoghue was a married man from St Brighids Street. 

Another name honoured on the plaque is Stephen Dorman. 

In 1921 Dorman was returning from his night shift at the Cork Examiner office where he worked and was killed by crown forces when they flung a grenade in his direction as he turned from Douglas Street to walk up Nicholas Street to his home at Evergreen Buildings.

The Corner Shop.

The end of terrace corner shop at the junction of Friars Walk and Tower Street was built in 1892 and served as a focal point for the local community, making it the ideal location for a plaque to the locals who died in the fight for freedom.

Obituary of Mick Murphy, who unveiled the plaque at Friars Walk.

5 Parliament Street

At No.5 Parliament Street the Duggan sisters Peg and Annie ran a flower shop which also served as an arms dump and rendezvous point for the Cork IRA.

The former flower shop of the Duggan sisters.

The Duggans were from Blackpool and were a family entrenched in the Republican movement on Leeside. 

49 Thomas Davis Street - former home of the Duggans.

The Duggan sisters Sara, Peg, Annie, Brighid and their brother all took active roles in the fight for freedom. In 1913 the Duggan sisters joined Cumann na mBan. Sara served as President of Cumann na mBan Cork district council, Peg was Captain of the Cumann na mBan Ceannt branch and Annie established Clann na nGael girl guides. 

Peg Duggan

The flower shop on Parliament street was an active place where messages were dropped and picked up and arms were stored. The Duggan home also served the cause but, fell victim to numerous raids. The flower shop near Parliament Bridge also suffered from a visit by the crown forces. 

The Duggan flower shop, near Parliament Bridge, just a stones throw away from the Holy Trinity Church.

In 1919 the authorities raided the flower shop and the Duggan sisters were issued with an order to close their business, even though nothing incriminating was found on their premises.

From Peg's Military Witness Statement.

Even though the flower shop remained closed for a period, Peg Duggan still had the keys and she handed them over to the 2nd Battalion of the Cork No.1 Brigade who continued to use the then vacant premises as an arms dump and secret hideout. 

Sara Duggan.

After a while the flower shop reopened and the Duggan sisters defied the authorities by continuing to provide the IRA with an arms dump at their premises. 

The former flower shop/IRA arms dump on the left of Parliament Bridge.

One evening in 1920 Padraig O'Caoimh of the Cork No. 1 Brigade paid a visit to the flower shop to pick up a hand grenade. Peg was in the shop at the time. When O'Caoimh left the shop a group of auxiliaries dressed in their civvies approached him. O'Caoimh was taken to the Union Quay RIC barracks where he was charged with having a grenade. He was sent to Parkhurst Prison to serve a 15 year sentence but he was released within a year when the truce was announced in the summer of 1921. 

O'Caoimh would go to become secretary of the GAA and today Cork's GAA stadium bears his name - Pairc ui Caoimh. 

Padraig O'Caoimh

When Lord Mayor Thomas MacCurtain was murdrered by the RIC on the night of March 20th 1920, the Duggan sisters who lived nearby were the first on the scene. 

In March 1922 the patriarch of the Duggan family, Patrick, died and Michael Collins was one of the pallbearers. Not long after the family split along treaty lines. 

From the Cork City Directory.

Annie and Peg chose the Pro-treaty side while the rest of the family went Anti-treaty. Peg would stay politically active for years after the end of the Civil War, becoming a follower of Eoin O'Duffy's blue shirts, even painting her front door blue at Thomas Davis Street! She died in 1964 and was buried in the Duggan family plot in St Finbarrs Cemetery. 

To read more about the Duggan sisters and other great rebel women of Cork look no further than this great publication from the Shandon Area History Group. 

Phairs Cross - 129 Bandon Road

Where the Bandon Road crosses through Lough Road and St Finbarrs Road you will find what was once the HQ of the 2nd Battalion of the First Cork Brigade at No.129. This cross section in the heart of the city's south side is known locally as Phairs Cross. 

No.129 was William Phair's bakery, hence the name Phairs Cross. It also served as the base for what became known the The Phairs Cross Company.

The Witness Statement of Jeremiah Keating.

Grave of Jer Keating, St Finbarrs Cemetery.

At no.129 Phairs Cross arms were hidden and wanted men were too! This cross section proved to be the beating heart of the south side Republican movement with the nearby Fr O'Leary Hall serving the cultural needs of nationalists with weekly Gaelic League classes and ceili's while important figures such as Fred Cronin lived within a stones throw of the cross. 

It was in the Cronin house where Terence Mac Swiney often found safety when the authorities were looking for him. MacSwiney was safe in the area of Phairs Cross which was proved to be a fortress protected by local IRA Volunteers. 

From the Cork City Business Directory of 1921.

In 1960 old IRA veterans gathered at Phairs Cross where a plaque was unveiled at no.129. The man tasked with the honour of unveiling the plaque was Con Neenan a leading figure with The Phairs Cross Company. In the 1920s Neenan went to the US where he served as 'Timthire', the IRA's representative in America.

Company membership

Many members of the Phairs Cross Company played GAA with St Finbarrs and in his later years Neenan helped the GAA club purchase land at Togher for their pitches and a clubhouse. Today the home of the 'Barrs is known as Neenan Park. 

In Barrs tradition, winning teams would march their silverware up Bandon Road to Phairs Cross behind the Barrack Street Band. At the crossroads they would be met with a balzing bonfire and supporters singing the praises of the gallant old blues! 

Con Neenan at the unveiling of the plaque at Phairs Cross

Neenan in the 1920s

Cork Examiner obituary of Con Neenan.

The plaque, which still sits proudly at Phairs Cross, names those of the local company who died in the struggle for freedom. 

The unveiling of the plaque 1960.

One of those honoured on the plaque is Charles Daly who was murdered by crown forces in the railway tunnel at what is now known as Kent Station. Daly was from nearby Lough Terrace. 

Charles Daly.

William Spillane is another name on the plaque and he came from where the Lough Credit Union now stands on Bandon Road. Spillane was 21 when he was shot accidentally by a comrade while fighting Free State forces in Ashford in 1922.

Spillane was an employee with Punch & Co.

Eamonn Tierney is a fascinating name on the plaque. He was originally a London born civil servant who would throw himself into the fight for Irish freedom. Tierney was one of the original members of the Irish Volunteers in London commanded by Michael Collins and like Collins he would take leave of London life and head to Dublin to take part in the 1916 Rising.

 Tierney would become known as 'The Hero of Reilly's Fort' for his staunch defence of the garrison during Easter week and during his time in Frongoch he went on hunger strike and his health suffered. He later moved to Cork, joined the Phairs Cross Company but, he died from appendicitis on the 16th of December 1920. 

The grave of Eamon Tierney at St Finbarrs Cemetery Republican Plot. 

Also mentioned is 29 year old George Bourke who , following a hunger strike as an anti treaty IRA prisoner  in Newbridge Internment Camp during the Civil War, died from peritonitis on the 22nd of December 1923. 

IRA Lieut. George Bourke

Bourke was born and reared at 93 Bandon Road, a stones throw away from Phairs Cross. He worked at Henry Ford's factory and spent time in the British merchant navy during WWI. 

From the begining of the War of Independence he joined his local IRA company and was active in the fight for freedom until he was arrested and imprisoned on Spike Island in 1921. While there he suffered food poisoning and his health was severely dented from the dire conditions in the unsanitary prison. 

Bourke's health did not recover. When he went on a 15 day hunger strike following his arrest by Free State forces in 1923 his health went into severe decline. He was released and died in the South Infirmary during the bleak Christmas of 1923.

The grave of George Bourke at the Republican Plot St Finbarrs Cemetery.

Dr Con Lucey is also mentioned on the plaque even though he did not fall in action like his younger comrades. Dr Lucey lived long after the days of conflict ended but, as medical officer of the First Cork Brigade he was honoured none the less. 

The Phairs Cross Company 1960.

Today: Fr O'Leary Hall on Bandon Road, near Phairs Cross.

'The Boys of the Old Brigade' - Veterans of the Phairs Cross Company proudly marching up Bandon Road.

The Phairs Cross Company 

(air: Brennan on the Moor, words: Pauline Murphy)

On the southside of the city where St Finbarr taught and prayed,

were a band of freedom fighters of the bold First Cork Brigade,

they were boys from Barrack Street and lads from the Lough,

fellows from Greenmount and men from Friars Walk,

Chorus: The Phairs Cross Company, 

Oh they'll set old Ireland free,

on the streets of the rebel city, 

the Phairs Cross Company. 

They took up arms and bravely took on the empire's might,

they traded hurleys for rifles and were hunted day and night,

they traded bowls for bullets and were destined to be free,

they struck that blow for freedom from the south banks of the Lee

Chorus

There were ceili's and Irish classes at the Fr O'Leary hall

instilling a sense of pride in an Ireland won for all,

and when the gallant old blues, would march their silverware 

to Phairs Cross, a bona there lit up the southside air.

Chorus 

Charles Daly came from the Lough, a soldier brave and true,

killed in the railway tunnel by a murderin' British crew,

Young Spillane from Bandon Road, fell tragic in Ashford,

fighting for the Republic he had sworn to uphold.

Chorus

The RIC and Tommies, they could not beat us down,

the black and tans and auxies , we ran them out of town, 

we flew the flag of Erin and we fought to set her free,

the bold and brave boys of the Phairs Cross Company.

Chorus