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.
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