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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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