Victoria Cross - RIC Barracks

 

The Royal Irish Constabulary Barracks at Victoria Cross formed part of the Cork City South District Policing. It sat at a prime position at Victoria Cross which served as the main entry point into the city from the west.

Then and now: Victoria Cross in the 1920s and what it looks like today. 

The site of the RIC barracks is the yellow building on the left. 

A lot of incidents occured right under the nose of the Victoria Cross RIC. An arms dump was discovered in a quarry close by and the brothers Owen and Robert Jackson lived near the barracks. They were both active members of the IRA Cork No.1 Brigade who served time in Ballykinlar Prisoner Camp. 

Dennehys Cross and the witness statement of Sean Healy. 

In 1920 members of H Company 2nd Battalion Cork No. 1 Brigade ambushed two British military lorries at Dennehys Cross which is just a stones throw up the road from the Victoria Cross RIC Barracks! 

St Finbarrs Cemetery, grave of H Company member James Prendergast

One of the lorries was broken down and was being towed by another when the IRA pounced as the vehicles slowed down approaching Dennehys Cross. The IRA Volunteers jumped on the leading lorry and let the British Soldiers run off into the nearby fields. They then set fire to the two lorries and made off before the constables in the barracks down the road noticed what was going on!

           Witness statement of Edward Horgan.

In March 1921 the Victoria Cross RIC Barracks was put out of business by the Cork IRA when seven Volunteers from G Company petrol bombed it. The "peelers" never returned to Victoria Cross after that.