Turners Cross

Across the road from the Church of Christ the King at Turners Cross you will find a large white plaque dedicated to the IRA Volunteers of D Company, 2nd Battalion First Cork Brigade and two D Company members who lost their lives - Charles Daly and John O'Brien.

Witness Statement of D Company Vol. Robert Ahern

There are two other similar plaques located on the south side of the city - at Phairs Cross and at Friars Walk. These plaques were erected by old comrades of the 2nd Battalion Cork IRA in the decades after the war. 

The plaque is on the grey house on the right, directly across from the church. 

31 year old Charles Daly was residing at 5 Glenview Terrace South Douglas road at the time of his death. In June 1921 he was captured at O'Sheas pub in Waterfall. Captain Leo Murphy was shot dead during the round up there and Daly was taken prisoner to Victoria (Collins) Barracks. 

O'Shea's Pub Waterfall after the roundup.

Daly was tortured in the barracks and his body was later dumped in the woods at Vernon Mount.

He had six bullets in his body, five bayonet wounds, a broken eye socket, crushed skull, broken ribs, broken fingers, broken arm and broken leg. Daly worked as a clerk at the Cork Gas Office on South Mall and was buried at the Republican plot in St Finebarrs Cemetery. 

John (Jaçk) O'Brien came from 34 Maiville Terrace Evergreen road and was shot dead fighting against Free State forces outside Blarney village in September 1922. 

21 year old O'Brien worked as an engineer at Rushbrook docks and was buried in the Republican Plot St Finbarrs cemetery. 

Aerial view of Turners Cross 1930s.

Washington Street - April 12 1921

At 10 o'clock on the morning of April 12th 1921 William Kenefic was standing at the corner of Anne Street and Washington Street. He was a 49 year old married man from Morris's Lane on the city's northside and worked as a cabman for Lynch & Sons which was based on Hanover Street. 

Today: Anne Street/Washington Street. 

Today: Morris Lane, which ran between Blarney Street (next to the Post Office) and Boyces Street. 

Unfortunately for Mr Kenefic he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Just as he stepped out from Anne Street making his way across the road to his place of work on Hanover Street, two lorries of British Soldiers drove by and an explosion occurred. 

                      The junction of Anne Street, on the left, and Washington Street.




A grenade was hurled at the passing lorries by an IRA Volunteer on foot. The grenade did not land in any of the lorries, instead it bounced off them and exploded on the footpath injuring five people. One of them was Mr Kenefic who sustained severe shrapnel wounds to his chest. 

Modern day Anne Street/Washington Street. 

The wounded civilian was taken to the nearby Mercy Hospital but, he died a day later. Mr Kenefic's widow and five children were later compensated £500. 

Union Quay - February 22 1921

The Headquarters of the Royal Irish Constabulary in Cork City was based in a big brooding building on Union Quay. From here the rule of the crown was administered over the rebel streets of Cork. 

The Union Quay RIC barracks, later Garda barracks. 

In January 1921 the IRA launched an ambush on a patrol which marched out from the barracks and over nearby Parnell Bridge. The barracks also became the destination for many an IRA prisoner. One was Tomas O' Maoileoin alias Sean Forde. After escaping from East Clare he was caught in Cork and sent to Union Quay barracks where the constables used him as a football. His time in the dreaded Union Quay Barracks saw him lose not only consciousness but also his teeth. 

Union Quay today. The barracks, marked, now the site of an apartment block. 

There were a few good natured and friendly RIC men in Union Quay such as constables Carroll, McNamara, Sinnott and Kelly who passed on information to the First  Cork Brigade intelligence unit. 

The "men of law" posing on Union Quay. 

Group of RIC men outside Union Quay Barracks. Picture taken during the Truce period in 1921. 

In February 1921 a tragedy in the barracks saw the life of a young local lad ended  through the recklessness of a new recruit.

 17 year old George Fletcher lived with his grandmother and aunts at 21 Kyle Street. His grandmother Sarah Carey and his aunts were dressmakers and young George worked as a messenger boy in the Union Quay barracks. 

The home George lived in is now demolished, it was located where the green fence is on the right. 

On the night of February 22nd 1921 George was collecting washing from the sleeping quarters. As he then entered the guardroom he was shot by constable Joseph Prendergast. 

Aerial view of Union Quay, the barracks on the bottom left.  

The Union Quay barracks on the bottom left. 

The young messenger boy was hit in his groin and was moved to the North Infirmary where he died three days later. 
Constable Prendergast was court martialled and acquitted. Prendergast was a new recruit from Belfast. He was prepping his lee enfiled rifle before going out on patrol. When George Fletcher entered the room Prendergast recklessly let off his loaded rifle, thus ending the life of the teenager from Kyle Street.  He was buried in St Josephs Cemetery, Ballyphehane. 

Lord Mayor O'Callaghan receiving the keys to the barracks in 1922. 

The Union Quay Barracks were transferred to the Free State following the 1921 treaty and later was used as a garda barracks. Today, the building is no more, it is a block of apartments where residents have over the years seen a ghostly figure of a teenage boy.....

Victoria (Kennedy) Quay - September 3 1920

Commandant Michael Murphy led 50 volunteers of the IRA First Brigade on an all night raid on the American Oil Company depot at Cork's docklands in September 1920. 

Victoria Quay in the early 20th century.

The raid began on that autumn night at 8pm when Commandant Murphy led his men in the operation which saw the removal of gallons upon gallons of petrol. The petrol would be used for bombs in ambushes etc.

Witness Statement of Comd. Michael Murphy. 

Men were posted at sections of the quay and on Albert road and Centre park road to keep watch while others busied themselves in the oil depot filling barrels and tins with their bounty. 

Today it is known as Kennedy Quay.

Volunteers in cars, vans and even donkey and carts came to collect the filled tins and barrels which were then taken to the nearby Ashe Grounds, which was the Cork IRA's biggest arms dump located within the Cork Showgrounds! 

The operation ended just before 7am. It was done successfully and all volunteers got away just before a lorry of tans appeared on the scene! 

Irish Navy's L.E Eithne at Kennedy (Victoria) Quay.