St Patrick Street - April 21 1923

It was Saturday night and a number of youths were hanging out near the ruins of the Munster Arcade, burnt by British forces three years previously. A Free State officer walked past the youths who turned on him and then, all hell broke loose. 

The Munster Arcade on the right, Cash's in the background, in 1927 after the street was rebuilt. 


As the youths attacked the Free State officer he drew his gun and let off a round of bullets. One or maybe two of the youths also had arms and they returned fire. Just as this scrap was happening, 42 year old William Murphy and his brother were approaching from Robert Street.

      Robert Street, at the side of Penney's, today. The scene of the gun fight in 1923. 




A bullet hit William Murphy in his side just as he turned the corner from Robert Street onto Patrick Street. The Murphys Brewery worker was returning back to his home on 98 Street after an evening out with his brother Jeremiah.

         Then and Now: 98 Street where William Murphy lived.


Jeremiah held his brother William and managed to carry him from the scene of the shooting up the street towards the Victoria Hotel where William then collapsed in its doorway. 

 The Victoria Hotel, with the canopy, where the Murphy brothers ran to, from the top of Robert Street (at the corner of Penney's today!) 



William was placed on a side car outside the hotel and he was taken to the Mercy Hospital where he died hours later. 

St Patrick Street - December 8 1922

December 8th was not only an important date in the church calendar but it was also a day which saw an influx of shoppers into cities to do their Christmas shopping.

 In Cork in 1922 a Civil War was in full swing and the rebel city was partially in a state of wreck since it was torched by Crown forces two years previously but - such circumstances did not deter the throngs of festive shoppers venturing into the city that day.

                View of Patrick St from Daunt Square: Thompsons Cafe seen in the middle.




That day a car of Free State officers left the County Gaol (now UCC)  and headed for Patrick Street. The car parked outside Thompson's Cafe/Liptons shop and just as the driver cut the engine a man appeared from across the street and hurled a mills bomb at the Free State car. 

                                               Liptons on Patrick Street in the 1920s.



The bomb bounced off the car mud guard and rolled towards Lipton's window where it smashed through and exploded. 

                         Boots now occupy the site of Liptons and Thompson's Cafe.



The bomb caused damage to Lipton's and Thompsons Cafe nextdoor. Ten civilians were injured and one died. 

24 year old Katherine Feehely from Bachelors Walk was in Thompsons Cafe when the bomb exploded, she died days later from injuries she received . 

Miss Feehely

St Patrick's Quay - February 7 1921

It was 6 o'clock on Sunday evening when 17 year old Patrick O'Sullivan was hanging out at Patrick's Quay with his brother and some friends. The brothers were from the tenements on Broad Lane but only one of them would return there alive. 

                  Broad Lane - tenement dwellings in the marsh area of the city, no longer there. 




A drunk man stumbled out from a public house near where the O'Sullivan brothers and their friends were hanging out by the quayside. The drunkard had been ejected out of the pub and was wildly shouting about "Bastard Tans" and how he didn't care for them. It seemed as if a ruckus in the pub had spilled out onto the street and just as it did, two plain clothes auxies were crossing Patrick's Bridge and the commotion drew their attention.

                                              St Patrick's Quay in the early 20th Century.




As the drunkard was shouting, the two plain clothes auxies sprinted in his direction with their revolvers drawn, then one of them pulled the trigger and all hell broke loose. 

                                  Harley Street pictured from the MacCurtain Street side. 



The O'Sullivan Brothers, their friends, the drunkard and anyone else unfortunate enough to be on Patrick's Quay at the time fled the rain of bullets which the auxies recklessly fired. Patrick O'Sullivan and his brother ran up Harley Street but, a bullet brought the 17 year old down. He was later pronounced dead at the North Infirmary. 

               St Patrick's Quay, Harley Street is to the left, wedged between the buildings. 




The plain clothes auxileries fired six bullets, killing one young civilian and injuring another - Patrick O'Shea from Watercourse Road. The drunkard who drew their unwanted attention somehow managed to flee the scene without a scratch.

Princes Street/Patrick Street - November 23 1920

An explosion rocked the area where Princes Street meets Patrick Street on the evening of November 23rd 1920. It resulted in the deaths of three IRA men and the injury of 16 civilians along with damage to local businesses.

                                             Today - the area where the explosion occured.

1920s: Looking at the Pavillon Cinema from Princes Street, the scene of the explosion. 

Patrick O'Donoghue was one of those killed by the explosion. He was a French Polisher by trade and lived at 2 St Brighid Street, just off Barrack Street, with his wife Mary.

                                                   St Brighid Street, off Barrack Street.



O'Donoghue was Quartermaster 2nd Battalion Cork IRA No.1 Brigade and was 31 years old when he was killed in the explosion at the top of  Princes Street. Today Patrick O'Donoghue Place near The Lough is named after him. 

                                                                Patrick O'Donoghue.



James Mehigan was from 35 Friars Walk and worked at O'Brien's Mills at Clarke's Bridge. The 29 year old was Section Leader E Company, 2nd Batt, Cork No.1 Brigade IRA.  He died in the Mercy Hospital from the injuries he received from the explosion hours after it happened.

James Mehigan's home.

                                                                     James Mehigan.



Patrick Trahy was the most senior of the three IRA men to die on that Winters evening in 1920. From 6 Friars Walk, Trahy was Vice Commandant 2nd Battalion Cork No.1 Brigade. 

                                            Trahy - standing right of Terence MacSwiney

Home of Patrick Trahy.

Trahy was married with a three year old daughter and worked as a clerk for O'Callaghan's Leather Merchants on South Main Street. He joined the Irish Volunteers at it's founding in Cork in 1913 and won a prize for rifle range practise in a volunteer camp in Carrigtwohill in 1914. Patrick Trahy Road at the Lough is named after him.

The three IRA men from South Parish were buried with military honours in the Republican Plot in St Finbarrs Cemetery. 

The explosion which killed them has two stories attached to it. 

  The men were buried together in St Finbarrs Republican Plot.

The first story goes along the lines of a bomb being thrown at the men.

 Trahy, Mehigan and O'Donoghue were standing and talking with fellow IRA men at the top of Princes Street when a figure in British military attire appeared on the roof of the Pavilion Cinema and flung a bomb down on them. 

The Pavilion where one story relates to a figure on the roof who threw a bomb.

From the roof of the Pavilion to where the men were standing.

The area where the bomb exploded. The Pavilion can be seen across the street.

Another story tells how the men had just come from a brigade meeting in a local safe house on Oliver Plunkett Street and as they lingered at the top of Princes Street chatting, one of the men had a grenade in his pocket and unfortunately it fell through the pocket and hit the pavement where it exploded upon impact.

Whatever the right story is, what is true is that the Cork Brigade lost three vital members on that November night in 1920. 

In 1961 a plaque was unveiled at Friars Walk commemorating the lads of the local company who died during the War of Independence including Trahy, Mehigan and O'Donoghue.

St Peter & Paul's Church - December 8 1920

It was the feast of the immaculate conception - December 8th, a date important for religious and shopping reasons for Irish people and on that day in Cork City the streets were swamped with shoppers and church goers alike. But, this was an incredibly tense time as the War of Independence was in full swing. 

Then and now: St Peter & Paul's Church

21 year old Michael Murphy from Tower Street was attending the triduum mass at St Peter and St Paul's Church just off Patrick Street. He was a clerk at the telegraph department in the GPO and was one of the many mass goers who attended  the church on that evening.

Tower Street - where Michael Murphy came from.

As mass ended at 9pm and the congregation were filing out of the church a group of Black & Tans fired shots at them. One bullet pierced Michael Murphy's heart and he fell on the steps by the doorway of the church. As he lay dying amid the chaotic scenes  Fr Timothy Cullinane anointed the young clerk from Tower Street.

The scene of Michael Murphys death.

 The unfortuante young man, who had no political affiliations, was taken to the North Infirmary where he was pronounced dead. 

Fr Timothy Culinane, better known as Fr Thady, was a native of Kilmichael and was chaplin at the Cork military prison before he was curate at St Peter and Paul's. Fr Thady would go on to become senior curate at the newly built Christ King Church in Turners Cross in 1931.

The North Infirmary, now the Maldron Hotel. 

That night in Cork city the crown forces ran amok threatening people and causing damage to shop fronts. 

As curfew approached they shot off their guns to hurry people off the streets and Michael Murphy coiming out of mass was the recipiant of one of those tan bullets. Three days later those same brutes would torch the rebel city. 

Michael Murphy.

46 St Patrick Street - October 3 1920

It was a Saturday night in October, 12.30am, curfew hours, when a group of Auxiliaries were walking down St Patrick Street. Just as they reached the junction with Academy Street shots rang out and one of them fell dead.

                The enemy forces hanging out on Pana in 1920. 



Constable Clarence Victor Chave was a 24 year old from North Kent, England and he was hit by a number bullets which rained down on him and his fellow Auxies from a building across the street. That building was known as Blackthorn House, a shop at 46 Patrick Street which was owned by the Ryans, a family sympathetic to the Republican cause.

Chave was with the auxies just three months, he was tailor and WWI veteran before he joined the RIC auxiliary division. Chave survived for two hours after the shooting before he succumbed to his bullet wounds in the military hospital at Victoria barracks.

An IRA shooting party had positioned themselves in the two top left windows of Blackthorn House and fired on the curfew patrol, killing one and injuring two. 

Blackthorn House, on the right, in this photo from the 1940s.

The auxiliaries were from Empress Place, the notorious HQ of 'The Murder Gang.' 

Empress Place on Summerhill.

When the IRA opened fire, it took the auxies by surprise and they ran for cover down Academy Street. When the shooting stopped, Constable Chave was found dead in a pool of blood where Academy Street meets Patrick Street.  

An old photo - the top of Academy Street, this would have been the view the IRA party had from Blackthorn House.

Constable Chave's enraged colleagues went to the source of the shooting at Blackthorn House and hurled two mills bombs through it's windows causing serious damage to the premises but not injuring anyone inside. 

Military Witness Statement of Francis Healy, 4th Batt, Cork No.1 Brigade IRA.

The proprietor of Blackthorn House was Mr M.A Ryan who served with Liam de Roiste as joint secretary of the Cork Development Association.

Blackthorn House supplied Irish made products and clothing. It supplied the Gael with costumes and the gunman with a view!

   The former Blackthorn House on the right.