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.