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.....