Shandon Street - May 22 1921

It was a Sunday night in May when a curfew patrol from the Hampshire Regiment came across 24 year old Patrick Keating walking up Shandon Street. They fired their weapons at him and he fell with a bullet in his abdomen. 

Keating was taken to the North Infirmary where he died three days later. From St Patrick's Arch off Gerald Griffin Street, Keating was an ex-soldier who served with the Munster Fusiliers. He ended up being yet another victim of a curfew patrol which went about the city shooting at anyone without any qualms. He was buried in St Joseph's Cemetery.

                          The bottom of Shandon Street in the early 20th century.

The Shandon Street area was an active area for republicans even though a large RIC barracks was situated at the bottom of it. Shandon saw its far share of bloodshed during the era of revolution and was a favourite place for the crown forces to dish out their punishment to "curfew breakers" and " Sinn Fein sympathisers".

                                                Modern day Shandon street.




The Shandon Street RIC Barracks had 13 constables headed by Sergeant Stephen Henry Chance, better known in Cork as Charlie Chance, a notorious figure in the city who was feared for his sadistic behaviour. He was responsible for the deaths of the Ballycannon Boys, six young IRA volunteers and other killings with what was locally known as "The Charlie Chance Murder Gang."

The notorius Sergeant Chance was a WWI veteran from London. He had served in the Royal Navy and the Wiltshire Regiment during the war. 

He was stationed in Shandon Street Barracks in February 1920 as a constable and it is thought that he was involved in the killing of Lord Mayor Thomas MacCurtain a month later. It was around this same time that Chance was promoted from Constable to Sergeant. 

Chance would wear two revolvers strapped to each leg and patrolled the city streets in a small armoured car named "The Fiend". Although the IRA made numerous attempts to kill or kidnap him, he survived the War of Independence and retired back to England after his reign of terror in Cork was over. He lived a long life in Devon where he died at the age of 90. 

In June 1921 the IRA did however manage to cause an upset to the workings of the Shandon RIC when they bombed the barracks there and caused damage.

The Hampshire Regiment leaving Cork after the 1921 truce. Finished killing and maiming in the name of "law & order" in the rebel city.

The IRA took over the bombed out barracks following the departure of the crown forces and held it as a Republican garrison during the tense period before the Civil War. 

On the 27th of April 1922 IRA Volunteer Sean Bulman was killed in the barracks following the accidental discharge of his own revolver. 

Bulman who came from the Shandon area was an active member of the Republican movement since 1919. The 20 year old was buried in the Republican Plot at St Finbarrs Cemetery.