Tower Street - July 12 1920

 Tower Street was once the site of Cat Fort, an old British militia barracks built in the 17th century as a twin defence barracks to Elizabeth Fort on Barrack Street. In 1920 it was being used by the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) as their store depot. This organisation was Unionist in it's inclinations and the Cork IRA suspected a spy network was working within its fold to decimate the Republican movement on Leeside. 

Old map showing Elizabeth Fort on Barrack St and Cat Fort on Cat Lane which was later renamed Tower Street. 

The YMCA became a target of the Cork No.1 Brigade and on the night of July 12th 1920 it's store depot at Cat Fort was raided by members of the First Brigade but, in the process a woman died.

Mary Anne Ward was a 61 year old who was living in the main guard house in the grounds of Cat Fort with her husband Arthur who worked there as YMCA caretaker. Mary, who gave birth to 15 children of 9 survived, previously lived with her family at No. 42 Douglas Street. When her husband retired from his work as an auctioneer they moved to Cat Fort when he took up what was to be a light position as YMCA caretaker. 

The Ward home on Douglas Street, the green house on the left.

It was Sunday night just before midnight when approximately 20 volunteers raided Cat Fort. They took items such as a cinema projector and some British Army issued provisions. Before setting alight to the sheds and outhouses the Volunteers ordered the Wards to vacate the premises. As they were crossing the barrack square Mary Ward became distressed and collapsed. She was taken with the aid of her husband and some volunteers from Cat Fort to the public house across the street where she took her last breath. 

"Cat Fort Car Park" across from Ma Dulleas pub now occupies the site of the long demolished Cat Fort. 

In the inquest which followed Mrs Ward's death it was discovered she was suffering from heart disease and her cause of death was a cardiac attack.

Free Staters outside the YMCA office on South Mall.

Tower street was previously known as Cat Lane after the fort there. In 1865 local merchant Michael Callanan built the tower which now gives the street its name. His intentions were to have the tower as a focal point in a grand garden and race track in the area but, his plans were never fully realised and all that remains today are the stone walled gates and the tower which oversaw the raid on Cat Fort that Summer night in 1920. 

Sundays Well - May 15 1921

Father James O'Callaghan was a native of Templemartin Parish near Bandon, West Cork. He was ordained in 1908 and was an influential figure in the Irish language movement in Cork. In 1921 he was a newly appointed curate at the Church of the Most Precious Blood Clogheen when he was murdered by members of the crown forces. 

Fr O'Callaghan was lodging at the home of Sinn Fein TD Liam de Roiste at No. 2 Upper Janemount Sundays Well. He was staying in de Roiste's home, along with his house keeper Kate McSweeney, while waiting for his own accommodation in Clogheen to be built. 

The steep Buckston hill which leads to Upper Janemount, off Sundays Well Road.

It was around 4 o'clock on the Sunday morning of May 15th 1921 when a group of masked RIC Auxiliaries made their way up the steep Buckston Hill with murder in mind. 

De Roiste's home at Upper Janemount.

Days previously the RIC had raided de Roiste's home. They met Fr O'Callaghan and knew he was the only man in the house as de Roiste was on the run and the only other occupants were De Roiste's wife and the priest's housekeeper Kate McSweeney. 

Liam de Roiste

In the early hours of May 15th those three individuals were in the house when a loud knocking at the front door woke them. When there was a delay in answering the door the glass panels on the door were smashed and masked men burst into the house. Kate McSweeney rushed down the hall in a panic and as Fr O'Callaghan appeared on the landing the masked men produced their arms and fired. 

Liam de Roiste was elected Sinn Fein TD for mid Cork.

One bullet grazed the hand of Kate while other bullets hit Fr O'Callaghan. The masked RIC Auxileries left the scene and casually went back down into the darkened Sundays Well leaving behind a dead man of the cloth.

Today a plaque marks the home of Liam de Roiste.

Grave of Liam de Roiste at St Joseph Cemetery, Ballyphehane. 

Due to the steep incline of the area, an ambulance found it difficult to get up to de Roiste's home so with the help of neighbours the slain priest was wrapped in a blanket and carried down Buckstons Hill to where the ambulance waited. Fr O'Callaghan was taken to the North Infirmary where he later died. 

Fr James O'Callaghan was one of three priests killed by crown forces during the War of Independence. Canon Magnier was murdered by out of control British soldiers in West Cork as was Fr Griffin in Co. Galway.

The funeral of Fr James O'Callaghan was a large one, the procession included several organisations and bands as well as clergy. He was buried in the grounds of Clogheen church. Fr O'Callaghan was originally supposed to be buried in St Joseph's Cemetery in Ballyphehane but at the behest of the Clogheen people he was laid to rest there.

Grave of Fr O'Callaghan, Clogheen Church.

Liam De Roiste would go on to become a Cumann na nGaedheal TD and later lead the Cork branch of the Irish Christian Front which supported the Fascist General Franco in Spain in the 1930s. He died in 1959 and he was buried in St Joseph's Cemetery.

50th anniversary of Fr O'Callaghans death marked at his graveside in Clogheen 1971. 

20 Sheares Street

Today the street known as Sheares Street, near the Mardyke, was once known as Nile Street, named in 1798 after an Admiral Nelson victory. Decades later the street was renamed after the Sheares Brothers from Glasheen who were martyred for Ireland after the United Irishmen Rebellion in 1798. Those continuing the struggle of the United Irishmen moved into  No.20 Sheares Street in the early 20th century. 

The St Francis Total Abstinence Society was founded in 1900 and had its premises at No. 20 Sheares Street. In February 1915 the Irish Volunteers signed a lease on the hall. 

The Volunteer Hall at No.20 Sheares Street.

The Cork brigade of the Irish Volunteers was established following a rowdy meeting in Cork City Hall in December 1913. They had their HQ at No. 19 Fisher Street until the movement was split between those who favoured fighting in WWI and those who did not. 

Irish Volunteers membership card.

Those who favoured the fight in Flanders rather than the fight at home became known as the National Volunteers and they kicked out the members who opposed them from Fisher Street. Those who remained as The Irish Volunteers went and  set up their HQ at Sheares Street which became known as The Volunteer Hall. 

The large rooms in the building  proved a perfect place for the volunteers to practise drilling, hold lectures and conduct first aid classes.

Rifle used for drilling in the Sheares Street hall.

 On Easter Sunday 1916 163 Volunteers gathered at the hall for what was to be a rising across the rebel county. From Sheares Street they set off with their leader Tomas Mac Curtain for the train to Crookstown and from there the plan was to meet up with other battalions but, conflicting orders marred their plans. 

Military Witness Statement of Patrick Harris.

The Volunteers went back to their hall on Sheares Street and for the week they stayed there. After a peaceful negotiation involving the Lord Mayor and the Bishop, the volunteers surrendered to the authorities at the end of the week and they were all shipped off to different prisons across Britain.

In 2016 the hall was brought back to life with a centenary commemoration and the unveiling of a plaque on the building while across the street information plaques were placed on a wall. In 1966 34 survivors of the 163 who gathered there on Easter Sunday 1916 assembled for a 50th anniversary commemoration there. By then it had reverted back to being known as St Francis Hall, a place which held dances and plays. 

Group of Irish Volunteers at the Volunteer Hall, Sheares  Street. 

Grave of William Horan, St Josephs Cemetery. He was the caretaker of the hall. The father of 7 died in 1918.

The Cork Volunteer Pipe Band also used No. 20 Sheares Street as their base and continued to use it up to the 1930s. Following the Easter Rising the Republican movement on Leeside had grown and had many different premises across the city. When the War of Independence began the Volunteer Hall on Sheares Street was by then playing second fiddle to the Ashe Hall on Morrisons Quay which became the HQ of the IRA in the city. 

Sean MacDiarmada seated in civvies next to MacCurtain at front.

80 South Mall - July 17 1920

What is now a regional office for the Department of Agriculture was once the scene of one the IRA's most audacious assassinations. Known now as Hibernian House, No. 80 South Mall was the County Club, an elite premises built in 1829 which was frequented by the city's upper classes, members of the landed gentry, merchant families and unionist politicians. One person who frequented the County Club was Lieutenant  Colonel Gerard Bryce Ferguson Smith, R.I.C Divisional Commander for Munster. 

                                  No. 80 South Mall, once the home of the County Club.




34 year old Smith from Banbridge Co. Down was a one armed veteran of the World War. When he was appointed Divisional Commander of the RIC in Munster he delivered a speech to members of the constabulary in Listowel Co. Kerry where he told constables to dish out a 'shoot to kill' policy on people whether civilian or not. It led to a number of constables resigning their posts in what became known as The Listowel Mutiny, but it also led to Smith's demise exactly a month later. 

On the evening of July 17th 1920 Smith was drinking with a fellow officer in the County Club. The First Cork Brigade had been tracking his movements for weeks and knew their only chance to get him was in the place he frequented the most -  the County Club on the Mall. 

South Mall in the early 20th Century, the County Club is at the far end of the street on the left.

Sean Culhane, Intelligence Officer with the First Cork Brigade, headed the task of 'getting' Smith. It was with the aid of a friendly waiter that the difficult task was pulled off. Ned Fitzgerald from Ballyhooley worked as a waiter in the County Club and was able to tell Culhane when and where Smith was in the County Club. Ned was known as "Bally" and with his help, the Cork IRA got their target. 

On that Summers night about a dozen members of the First Cork Brigade gathered on South Mall. Culhane walked up to the door of the County Club alone. There at approximately 10:30pm "Bally" met Culhane to inform him that Smith was inside. Culhane then took off his cap and ran his fingers through his hair which was a signal to the other IRA men across the street that the job was on.

The IRA men then rushed for the County Club and with 'Bally'' held at "gun point" he guided them upstairs to where Smith was drinking in the smoking room. When the IRA party entered the smoking room they identified Smith straight away due to his one arm and he received a number of bullets which killed him instantly.   Smith was sitting with RIC County Inspector Craig who got a bullet in his leg but survived. 

Craig recovering from his wound with wife at side.

Witness Statement of Sean Culhane.

It was all over in a matter of minutes. With the mission accomplished, the IRA party ran out onto the street and had timed it accordingly as they mingled with crowds streaming out from the nearby Assembly Rooms Cinema. 

The grave of Smith in Co Down. 

Smith was buried in Banbridge where three days of rioting carried out by loyalist mobs followed. There was also rioting in Belfast which resulted in attacks on Catholic homes by loyalist mobs. 

Smiths brother George was serving with the British Army in Egypt  and when he heard of his brothers killing he immediately asked for a transfer to Ireland to avenge his brothers death but, he also faced the same fate. In October 1920 George Smith was killed by Dan Breen during a shootout in Drumcondra. 

South Mall from the Parnell Bridge, the County Club is up the street on the right.

None of the IRA party were apprehended following the killing of Smith in the County Club, and suspicion never fell on "Bally" who managed to keep his role a secret until his later years. The authorities cracked down after the killing and a harsh martial law was put in place in which curfew was enforced on the rebel streets.