It was a Saturday night in October, curfew hours, when a group of Auxiliaries were walking down Patrick Street. Just as they reached the junction with Academy Street shots rang out and one of them fell dead.
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.
An IRA shooting party had positioned themselves at the top left window 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.
Chave was a veteran of WWI and had joined the RIC Auxiliary Division just three months previously.
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.
The shooting came from Blackthorn House on the auxies near the junction with Academy Street.
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