St Patrick Street - December 11 1920

During the War of Independence Cork fought the hardest and suffered the hardest. The night of December 11th 1920 demonstrates that.

Dillons Cross

At 8pm the IRA ambushed crown forces at Dillons Cross on the north side of the city. Following this, the British forces retaliated by destroying much of the city centre.

plaque marking spot of Dillons Cross ambush

new plaque unveiled for centenary in 2020

Crown forces arrived back to the scene of the ambush at approximately 9:30pm and proceeded to burn houses in the area. From there they ventured down Summerhill and into the city for a night of looting and arson. 

On Summerhill the crown forces stopped a tram and beat everyone off it. From there they went on to King Street (MacCurtain Street) and started shooting at the crowds while breaking doors and windows and helping themselves to the contents of pubs along the street. 

The remains of a tram on Patrick Street.

The marauding crown forces headed across Patrick's Bridge shortly before 11pm  and there on the city's main thoroughfare they set a tram alight and premises along the street. 

They set the Munster Arcade on fire which then spread to Egan's Jewelers and Cudmores along with many other businesses. They set Cash's on fire which spread to the Lee Cinema and premises down Winthrop Street. 

The remains of the Munster Arcade. Today the site of Penney's.

With Patrick Street ablaze, the arsonists went towards the South Mall and over Parnell Bridge towards the City Hall at 3am. They burned it to the ground along with the Carnegie Library next to it. 

Carnegie Library before it was destroyed .

Inside the City Hall following its destruction.

The remains of Carnegie Library.

By dawn they were looting and destroying premises on Tuckey Street, Grand Parade and Washington Street. One elderly lady living on Tuckey Street got a heart attack and died when the crown forces broke down her door and smashed up her dwelling. 

The so called forces of law and order decimated five acres of Cork City, much of it on Patrick Street and left up to 2,000 people homeless or jobless. 

Crowds gather on Patrick Street the morning after.

A view of Cash's and the Lee Cinema on Winthrop Street.

Cork city, notably Patrick Street, rose from the ashes some seven years after the crown forces torched it when compensation saw the rebuilding of Cash's and other premises in the rebel city.

Part of the Burning of Cork exhibition at St Peter's North Main Street.

Patrick Street before its destruction 100 years ago.

centenary events at Patrick St and City Hall in 2020

Harley Street - July 18 1920

Chaos reigned on the streets of Cork on a hot July night in 1920 when ex-service men and soldiers of the Hampshire Regiment clashed at North Gate Bridge. The Hampshire's were on patrol and well known in the city for their less than gentlemanly behaviour. When they encountered former soldiers, WWI veterans, crossing the North Gate Bridge words were exchanged and so was gun fire. From there murder and mayhem coloured that Summers night in the city as the British soldiers ran amok.

St Patricks Quay, Harley Street marked in red. 

18 year old IRA Volunteer John O'Brien from Green Lane in Blackpool was at a blockade near Leitrim Street with other IRA volunteers. The night was a restless one across the city and members of the 1st Battalion Cork No. IRA Brigade had set up a baricade to prevent the Hampshire's from taking their mayhem to Blackpool and its surrounding area. 

Harley Street which runs up from Patrick's Quay to MacCurtain Street at the side of the Metropole Hotel. 

Vol. O'Brien left the baricade and headed up towards MacCurtain Street where there was a commotion playing out near the Metropole Hotel. An old woman , Mrs O'Donovan, had been injured in a stampede on Shandon Street caused by a bayonet charge by the Hampshires. She, and many others, managed to flee as far as MacCurtain Street where they again encountered members of the crown forces.

Modern day Harley Street - from MacCurtain Street.

Young O'Brien came upon Mrs O'Donovan who fell exhausted as she tried to run down Harley Street. As he bent down to help her two bullets were fired from the guns of British Soldiers on MacCurtain Street. O'Brien who worked as a messenger boy would die days later in the north infirmary. He was laid to rest in the Republican plot in St Finbarrs Cemetery following a large IRA funeral from his home in Blackpool. 

Harley Street which runs down the side of the Metropole Hotel connects Patrick's Quay to MacCurtain Street and has been given a new lease of life in recent years due to the new pedestrian Mary Elmes Bridge .  100 years ago it was the scene of  Vol. John O'Brien's death.

Parnell Bridge - January 4 1921

It was a cold dark Wednesday evening in January 1921 when the First Cork Brigade of the IRA launched a daring ambush in the city. The Union Quay Barracks was the city's HQ of the RIC. At 7:30pm a foot patrol left the barracks and headed in the direction of Parnell Bridge when a number of hand grenades were lobbed their way. 

Union Quay Barracks, the tall building on the right. 

The Union Quay Barracks today, now apartments. 

One sergeant and nine constables left the barracks on their usual nightly patrol which took them up the quay and across Parnell Bridge. A dozen or so IRA volunteers were waiting for them in the ruins of the city hall, burned a year previously. When their quarry came into sight they sent a number of grenades in their direction. 

The ruins of Cork City Hall. 

As the grenades exploded the ambushers then advanced with their guns. Meanwhile across the river, a car with a Lewis s gun attached, had parked up at Morrison's Island and fired across at the RIC who came out of their barracks after hearing the explosions. 

The car with the machine gun was parked at the green X. The red line indicates the patrol which came up the quay from the barracks and was hit with grenades as it turned onto Parnell bridge. 

The RIC men who escaped the grenades drew their guns and fired back at their ambushers. Unfortunately a number of civilians were hit in the crossfire. Two merchant sailors from Wales were hit on their ship in the river. Mary Mulcahy a young local girl was hit with shrapnel as she crossed the bridge. Kate Bourke was also hit and George Boucher was hit by a bullet in his knee but, they all survived and were later compensated. 

Parnell Bridge from South Mall with City hall in the background. 

The ambush at Parnell Bridge lasted approximately ten minutes. None of the IRA party were hit. When the engagement ended those on foot fled to various safe houses across the city while the car with the lewis gun sped off to a safe house in Ballincollig. 

An IRA volunteer with a Lewis machine gun, similar to the one used at the Parnell Bridge ambush. 

All of the RIC men were wounded and two were killed. Constable Francis Shortall from Tipperary was a captain in the Irish guards during WWI in which he served as an interpreter as he was fluent in French and German. He died from wounds he received three days after the ambush. 

  Constable Thomas Johnston was a Cavan man who worked as a hospital porter before joining the RIC and was posted to Cork. He died from shrapnel wounds 17 days later. 

Witness Statement of Commandant Michael Murphy. 

Cork Lord mayor Donal O'Callaghan receiving the key of Union Quay Barracks in 1922. 

St Patrick Street - February 28 1921

Following the foiled Dripsey ambush in January 1921, the IRA volunteers who were captured there by crown forces were executed a month later at Cork County Gaol (Today's UCC). 

                                  Cork County Gaol, today part of the UCC campus. 




Large crowds assembled outside the gaol near the Western Road on the morning of the executions. The widow of Tomas MacCurtain set up an altar and led the assembled in prayer. From 8am a volley of shots were heard at 15 minute intervals. 

Ballad composed in 1921

Volunteer Thomas O'Brien aged 20 from Model Village, Volunteer Dan O'Callaghan aged 22 from Dripsey, Volunteer John Lyons aged 27 from Aghabullogue, Volunteer Tim MacCarthy aged 21 from Donoughmore and Volunteer Pat O'Mahoney aged 30 from Berrings were executed and buried in the prison yard. 

Today a memorial marks the grave of those executed at Cork County Gaol now UCC.

Following the executions the First Cork Brigade carried out reprisal shootings across the city that night. The shooting party met in a premises on Oliver Plunkett Street where an accident saw the removal of one of the party. 

As the IRA men were preparing their weapons Sean Lucey was accidentally shot in the leg. He was taken to the South Infirmary where he recovered. This accident did not derail their plans and at 6pm the party set off, each man armed with a revolver and revenge.

Memorial at the Dripsey Ambush site. 

 The first shooting took place near the military barracks just after 6.30pm when Signaller Bowden of the Royal Corps of Engineers was wounded by a number of shots fired by the IRA.  Private Whitear of the Hampshire Regiment was shot on Lovers Lane and managed to get into a nearby house where he then died.

Witness Statement of Commandant Mick Murphy.

Private Thomas Wise was standing at the ruins of Cash's which had been burned a year previously by crown forces during the Burning of Cork. He was with a lady friend when a number of men with revolvers approached and fired at him.

The ruins of Cash's following the Burning of Cork in 1920. 

Private Wise was a 30 year old from Blarney Street who joined the Munster Fusiliers before joining the Royal Irish Regiment and went to France as an army driver during the end of  WWI. In 1919 he was back in Cork with the Motor Transport Company at Victoria Barracks. When he was shot he managed to run down a nearby  laneway known as Conkleys Lane where he then collapsed and died. 

Thomas Wise

Cash's following its rebuilding in the late 1920s.

The shooting party then moved up Pana and shot Private William Alfred Gill and private Bettesworth at the top of Academy Street. Gill was a 21 year old Londoner and a member of the Hampshire Regiment who served in Germany at the end of WWI. He and Bettesworth were killed instantly as they stood in their uniform at the junction of Academy Street and Patrick Street. 

Private Gill.

More shots were fired at British uniforms on the Grand Parade and South Mall as the IRA shooting party moved through the city. On Infirmary Road Lance Corporal Beattie was shot dead while Corporal Hodnett of the Royal Army Service Corps was killed by shooters on the Douglas Road. 

Pana in the early 20th century.

The shootings ended sometime after 10pm.