Douglas Street - April 19 1921

Placed high on a house at 82 Douglas Street there is a stone plaque. It's inscription:
"In loving memory of Captain Tadhg O'Sullivan C Company 2nd Battalion 1st Brigade of the IRA in Cork who was murdered in this house on the 19th April 1921.
Irish police of the King of England did the treacherous deed.
May his soul be on the right hand of god."

  Tadhg O'Sullivan was a 28 year old from Annagh Beg, Rathmore, Co. Kerry. He was in Cork working at Fords and was active in the Republican movement on Leeside. 

The Republican monument in O'Sullivans native Rathmore. 

In 1920 he was sent to jail in Belfast where he went on hunger strike. When he was released he came back to Cork where he resumed his IRA activities which marked him out as a wanted man by the British authorities.

On the evening of April 19th 1921 O'Sullivan was walking back to his lodgings on Douglas Street when he spotted plain clothes detectives searching people near the top of White Street.

 Unfortunately for the Kerryman, he was spotted slipping into No. 82 Douglas Street by the notorious Sergeant Hollywood.
Sergeant Hollywood blew his whistle and led his men in pursuit of O'Sullivan. The young IRA Captain was pursued up stairs and as he was fleeing out through a window to escape onto the roof Sergeant Hollywood aimed and fired.

O'Sullivan surrounded by his grieving family. 

O'Sullivan's bullet riddled body fell out onto the backyard. Witnesses claimed Sergeant Hollywood had unloaded his whole chamber of bullets into the Kerryman.
Sergeant Hollywood was a prime target of the Cork IRA, he was responsible for many upsets, including the killing of O'Sullivan. Despite numerous attempts to 'get' Hollywood, the IRA never did. Making him one of the very few who survived the guns of the Cork Brigade.

The funeral of Captain Tadgh O'Sullivan took placec on April 22nd. From St Finbarrs chapel, not far from the scene of his death, O'Sullivan was taken to St Finbarrs cemetery where he was laid to rest in the Republican plot.

St Finbarrs South Chapel, Dunbar Street.

 Much to the distress of his family and comrades, Captain O'Sullivan's coffin was escorted by heavily armed British Soldiers.

Grave of Cpt O'Sullivan at St Finbarrs Cemetery. 

College Road - RIC Barracks

College Road RIC Barracks sat in a prominent position at the junction of Gillabbey Street, Connacht Avenue and St Finbarrs Road. It was one of 9 substations forming part of the RIC's South District in Cork city. The HQ Station was located at Union Quay.

The tower like building contained six constables. When the auxiliaries arrived in Cork in 1920 a handful of them took up residency at the College Road Barracks. Because of its close proximity to the County Gaol, (now UCC), the College Road Barracks did not come under serious attack from the Cork Brigade. Although some small incidents did occur.

Today - the former RIC Barracks on College Rd.

On armistice day 1918 Volunteers of the First Cork Brigade broke a comrade out of the gaol so, they cut the telephone lines connecting the College Road Barracks to the jail up the road!

The rear of the old barracks, stone wall still intact. Red stone pillar of old back gate still visable. 

 

In February 1921 a Black & Tan from the College Road Barracks fell victim to an IRA ambush party as he was leaving the County Gaol to head back to his fortress on College Road with his fellow tans.

An active IRA Company worked in the midst of the College Road Barracks. "A" Company, 2nd Battalion , Cork No.1 Brigade was better known as The College Company. It consisted of students from the Queens College Cork, now known as UCC. 

The revolutionaries in UCC were right under the nose of the crown forces yet their activities went unoticed. On one side of the campus was the County Gaol while on the other side was the College Road Barracks!

Witness statement of Michael O'Donoghue.

The College Company consisted mostly of medical and engineering students. Their meeting place was in the clock tower of The Quad. There they planned and prepared and even hid arms and uniforms and never were they discovered by either the British authorties or the college authorties!

St Augustine's on Washington St. The College Company church.

Military Witness Statement of Peter Kearney of the College Company.

During the Civil War the College Road Barracks was taken over by the Free State. It became the scene of a fierce firefight in 1922 when Anti-treaty IRA attacked it. Surrounding buildings still bear the scars from that time. 

Castle Street/Cornmarket Street - March 16 1922

Shortly before midnight on the eve of St Patrick's Day 1922, the Parnell Guards Fife & Drum Band were marching up Castle Street, heading in the direction of Cornmarket Street when they were stopped by a patrol of Irish Republican Policemen.
The Parnell Guards Band were from Fair Lane on the north side of the Lee and their loyalty lay with the pro-treaty side. When they were stopped by the anti-treaty Republican police things got heated.

At the junction of Castle street and Cornmarket street the two rival groups clashed. As stones were thrown and sticks were used, shots were fired and one man fell dead.
Patrick Horgan of Wolfe Tone Street was a member of the Parnell Guards band and died as a result of a bullet fired from the gun of a Republican policeman.
The clash between the two groups managed to make news down under where the Barrier Miner newspaper from Broken Hill, Australia, reported on the incident on its front page.

The Australian newspaper stated "A Republican police patrol attacks Parnell band." It also stated that the band telegraphed Michael Collins to request a government inquiry. Michael Collins had been in Cork just days before the incident. He was speaking at a mass rally on the Grand Parade where he was selling the treaty to the masses. The rally was marred by crowd trouble which saw rival pro and anti treaty IRA men pull guns on each other. Cork city in the spring of 1922 was entering into another phase of bloodshed, with the civil war just around the corner the rebel streets were a tinder box.

Castle Street - March 2 1921

70 year old Denis O'Brien, who worked as a coachman was trying to make his way back to his lodgings at 397 Blarney Street on the night of March 2nd 1921. Cork was under martial law and unfortunately for Mr O'Brien he was on the streets during curfew hours.

Castle Street today.

As he was making his way down Castle Street, heading towards North Main Street, a patrol of soldiers from the Hampshire Regiment emerged from Paul Street and upon spotting the hunched figure trudging up Castle Street they called on him to halt.

Either Denis O'Brien failed to hear the order or perhaps he just ignored it but what is certain is that a young private took aim and shot at O'Brien who fell dead on the spot. The Hampshires were notorious for their behaviour on the streets of Cork. Many civilians fell to their bullets, including the unfortunate Mr O'Brien. 

The Hampshire Regiment leaving Cork (Collins) Barracks at the end of the War of Independence.

Caroline Street - March 1 1921

On the first day of March 1921 Lieutenant Hammond from Victoria Barracks was searching people outside the door of the General Post Office at 4pm on George Street (today Oliver Plunkett Street.) Hammond, who was an Inteligience Officer, noticed five men run past. He pursued the men up Caroline Street where he saw them run around the back of No. 13.

Hammond entered a building next to No.13 and got up to the roof from where he could spy the five men hiding in the yard next door. Hammond fired on the men who in turn fired back.

The five men then entered the back door of No.13 Caroline Street which was serving as a boarding house and Hammond continued shooting at them. One of those lodging there was 30 year old Daniel Casey, an unmarried man who worked as a docker. Casey came out of his room to see what all the commotion was and just as he did, a bullet from the gun of Hammond smashed through a window and hit Casey in his chest. The docker stumbled back into his room and from there he was taken to the North Infirmary where he died.

The landlady of No. 13 Caroline Street later recalled in a military inquiry that she heard gun fire and smashing of glass. She stated how she heard Casey shout out "I'm shot! I'm shot!!" She also claimed that she saw Casey's shooter, Hammond, on the roof of a store opposit the back yard of her house. The inquiry came to the conclusion that Casey's death was "as a result of misadventure."

13 Brunswick Street (4 St Augustine Street)

Today the laneway that runs at the back of St Augustine's Church connecting the Grand Parade and South Main Street is an uninviting dark corridor but during the War of Independence a small unassuming newsagents shop run by two sisters was the beating heart of the IRA's intelligence centre.

Before it was St Augustine Street, it was called Brunswick Street and at No.13 Brunswick Street was the shop run by Nora and Shelia Wallace. When the street name changed, the shop address became No.4 St Augustine Street!
The Wallace sisters sold newspapers and tobacco and political pamphlets of the republican and labour movement. The sisters were active in the revolutionary movement, spearheading the Irish Citizen Army on Leeside.

                                        The Wallace sisters

Information board at Cork Public Museum 

The newsagents became the one stop shop for the Cork IRA Intelligence. It played the unioffical role of IRA GPO! Messages were dropped and picked up while a back room served as a meeting room for the top brass in Cork's Republican movement.
James Connolly visited the shop in January 1916. He was in Cork to deliver a lecture on street fighting at the Gaelic League HQ at No.3 Fr Matthew Street. Countess Markievicz also visited the Wallace sisters and Trade Unionist Cathal Shannon lodged in a room above the shop for some time.

                  4 St Augustine Street, before it was demolished in the 1970s.



On the night of March 19th 1920, Lord Mayor Thomas MacCurtain paid a visit to the shop before going home to Blackpool. He was murdered hours later by policemen in his home. Terence MacSwiney was also a frequent visitor to the Wallace Sisters shop and often played the role of shopkeeper if the sisters were tending to other business.

Shelia was a staff officer of the Cork No.1 Brigade, one of the very few females in Ireland to hold that title. The shop came under the eyes of the authorities in 1921 and the sisters were ordered to shut down their premises in May 1921. They were also expelled from the city.

With the truce in Summer 1921 came the reopening of the shop and on July 12th, a party was held for the grand reopening. Among those celebrating the reopening at the Wallace sisters shop was Gen. Tom Barry.

Following the bitter treaty split, the sisters remained faithful to the Republican movement and for this they paid with regular raids from Free State forces. Raids would continue well after the Civil War when it fell upon the local guards from the Bridewell to arrive at the small shop and "do it over".

A Garda raid on the Wallace shop in April 1926 was raised in the Dail.

In later years the sisters moved from their dwelling above the shop to the Old Youghal Road but they continued to trade on St Augustine Street. Shelia died April 14th 1944. Nora continued to run the shop until bad health saw her close the premises in 1960. Nora died September 17th 1970 and was laid to rest next to her sister at St Finbarrs Cemetery.