Kyle Street - June 26 1921

Shortly after 8pm on a warm June night, Captain Sean Twomey, B Company 1st Battalion Cork No.1 Brigade IRA, was being transferred from the Bridewell on Cornmarket Street to a military lorry, his destination Victoria Barracks (today's Collins Barracks.) The 23 year old IRA captain took a chance as he was being led from the door of the Bridewell to the lorry and he made a dash for freedom. 

Looking at Kyle St from Cornmarket St (Coal Quay) 1930s

Twomey had been arrested on the Grand Parade a few nights previously and when he made his escape he ran, still handcuffed, up Kyle Street in the direction of North Main Street where he lived.

Kyle Street was a busy thoroughfare, even at 8 o'clock at night, people were coming and going. When Twomey ran towards Kyle Street a hail of bullets followed him. 

                            Kyle Street, in the 1960s and now.




Twomey was hit and stumbled into the first open door he saw - Anne Bradleys pub. With a busy street and a hail of bullets there was of course a civilian casualty - Mary Parnell, a war widow in her early 30s with two children. She was standing in the doorway of Bradleys pub when she was hit by a number of bullets.

 Today the site of Anne Bradley's pub where Mrs Parnell was shot to death in the doorway.



Twomey was recaptured as he lay wounded behind the bar in Bradleys pub. He was taken to the military hospital where he recovered just in time to be released for the truce. 

Mary Parnell lived at 11 Kyrls Quay and was known as a supporter of the crown. Her husband Victor was a corporal in the Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry Regiment. He fell in action in France in 1914. 

The inquest into her death found that 12 shots had been fired on that summers night on Kyle Street and Mrs Parnell stood in by the doorway of Bradley's pub when she heard the commotion. Unfortunately for her, she stood in the direct line of fire. A soldier testified: "most of her face and the top of her head were shot away."

Imperial Hotel, South Mall - January 5 1921

Just five days into the new year of 1921 an incident occurred in the Imperial Hotel which resulted in the death of a man in strange circumstances.

 Finbarr D'Arcy was a 28 year old from Riverstown, he was an Alexian lay brother. His mother was the postmistress of Glanmire Post Office and by all accounts he was on sick leave from Twyford Abbey in London where he was serving in the nursing home there.

 In 1918 he almost fell victim to the dreaded Spanish Flu but  survived, albeit with his health somewhat damaged. However, on the night of January 5th 1921 D'Arcy had good enough health to be knocking back booze in the bar of the Imperial hotel. 

          Twyford Abbey where D'Arcy was an Alexian lay brother. It closed in 1988. 



Apparently D'Arcy was a regular visitor to the Imperial Hotel anytime he was home in Cork. He signed the visitors book as Rev. Father D'Arcy and at 10:30pm on the night in question, D'Arcy dressed in his clerical garb was intoxicated in the hotel bar and making a bit of a scene.

 The hotel was also a regular haunt for black and tans and  a group of them were in the bar that night and were annoyed by D'Arcy's drunken antics - which is rather ironic when you consider their own drunken antics in Cork!  They told him to leave and D'Arcy obliged but not before snatching one of their hats and an umbrella.

                                     The Imperial Hotel in the early 20th century.


Days before, when D'Arcy was booking into the hotel he specifically asked to stay in room 5.  The GPO could be accessed through this room and at the same time D'Arcy checked in, there was a robbery in the GPO which saw the theft of £8,000.

The GPO in the early 20th century

The tans followed D'Arcy to his room where they ruffed him up and strip searched him. They took their eyes off him briefly and he suddenly dashed for the window and escaped. He scrambled down a drain pipe and managed to get into the servants quarters where he hid under a bed. It did not take long for the tans to find him and they hauled him off. They handed D'Arcy over to the curfew patrol which were the Hampshire Regiment and they had a reputation for shooting prisoners.

Newspaper reports on the Imperial Hotel incident.

D'Arcy was put into a lorry in handcuffs and the Hampshire Regiment took him off in the direction of Victoria Barracks (Collins Barracks) but, he never got there alive.

 The officer in charge Lieutenant AR Koe ordered the vehicle to halt just before they arrived at the Barracks gate. D'Arcy was thrown from the lorry and a shot rang out. The official statement from the British authorties stated he was shot "trying to escape". This was the usual guff with curfew patrols in Cork, many people had been shot in this way. 

The death of D'Arcy left many unanswered questions. Following his funeral at Saint Peter's and Paul's and his burial in St Finbarr's cemetery, rumors about this " Reverend Father" D'Arcy flooded the streets of Cork. 

                                 Witness statement from Barrister Eoin O'Mahoney



 The most popular and possibly truthful story doing the rounds of Cork was this one: D'Arcy and two other men were involved in the theft of £8,000 from the GPO by way of Room no.5 in the Imperial Hotel. They then unwittingly gave the money to a women of illrepute to hold for them but, she made off with it and the three robbers were left fuming, frustrated and angry. D'Arcy took out his frustration through the medium of booze and this ultimately led to his downfall.

 His two accomplices were supposedly an ex British soldier by the name of  Kavanagh and a young student and son of a well known Cork builder, Walter Callanan. A few years later young Callanan would meet his end when he left a dance at the Arcadia Ballroom on the Lower Glanmire Road and was later found dead in the nearby railway tunnel, killed by a train. 

Lieutenant Koe, the officer in charge the night D'Arcy was "Shot while trying to escape"  would be in charge a month later at Clonmult when his troops surrounded an IRA safehouse and massacred most of it's occupants - "Shot trying to escape".  

Imperial Hotel, South Mall - October 8 1922

During the Civil War Free State forces took over the Imperial Hotel as their Headquarters. It was from here that Michael Collins set off to meet his death in Beal na mBlath on the morning of August 22nd 1922. Months later a wedding and a shooting took place in the historic hotel.

Michael Collins leaving the hotel (from it's side entrance, near the GPO) during his stay there in August '22. 

                                     The Imperial Hotel in the early 20th century.


On the 8th of October 1922 Free State Major General Emmet Dalton married his fiancée Alice Shannon in the Imperial Hotel. The wedding took place in the Clarence Hall in the hotel, not in a church due to security reasons.

 Dalton's 21 year old bride was from Phibsboro Dublin. Alice had travelled to Cork by sea because  it was safer and faster due to the roads and rails which suffered disruptions due to the ongoing war.

                                                     The bride and groom

24 year old Dalton was the Free State forces military operations director and in Cork the Imperial Hotel became his headquarters after he landed troops there by sea in August 1922. 
  

A car waiting for General Dalton at the side door of the hotel.

When Michael Collins arrived in Cork in August 1922 he stayed in the Imperial Hotel and Dalton accompanied The Big Fella when he left the hotel on the morning of August 22nd. On the route back that night they met an ambush in Beal na mBlath and the rest as they say is history. 

Emmet Dalton and Michael Collins

The Dalton wedding in October 1922 was attended by several Free State officials and clergy. The wedding was for many a break from the realities of conflict but, by evening an incident in the hotel would end the day on a sour note.

The wedding of Emmet Dalton and Alice Shannon in the Clarence Hall, Imperial Hotel.

With any wedding comes a good flow of booze and this wedding was no different. The Free State soldiers based in the Imperial Hotel toasted the wedding of their general with generous amounts of alcohol and by late evenng a whiskey soaked  argument broke out between two soldiers. 

Sergeant Charles Kearns and Private Andrew Rooney had been, with the rest of the soldiers in the Imperial Hotel, enjoying the wedding day but after one too many "toasts" the two men got into an argument with each other  and had to be separated by their comrades.  

The two fueding soldiers went their separate ways and no more was thought of their drunken squabble until a few hours later a gun shot was heard in the guard room in the hotel. 

Civilians and Free Staters outside the entrance of the Imperial Hotel

Rooney and Kearns bumped into each other in the guard room where the argument re-ignited, this time with deadly consequences. 

Rooney drew his pistol and shot Kearns dead. Rooney was arrested and later court martialed. He was sentenced to death but, General Richard Mulcahy commuted the sentence to five years hard labour. 

Kearns who was originally from Crocus Street in West Belfast was buried in the Free State plot, near where Michael Collins was buried, in Glasnevin Cemetery. He was a single man and his mother was awarded a gratuity of £50 following his death in Cork's Imperial Hotel.

Grave of Emmet Dalton in Glasnevin Cemetery

General Dalton was reportedly incensed by the drink fuelled shooting on his wedding day but by then his concerns had been gathering regarding the state of affairs within the Free State Army. 

Two months after his wedding Dalton resigned from the army, dissatisfied with the executions of Republicans and the route away from Michael Collins' ideals which the Provisional Government took. Dalton would go on to work in the film industry in the US and founded Ardmore Studios in 1958.

 He died on his 80th birthday in 1978 and was buried with military honours near Michael Collins in Glasnevin Cemetery.

A silver serving tray which was gifted to Dalton and his bride by - " his brother officers IRA engaged with him on active service in Cork". 

Today the tray is in the Lord Mayor's office in Cork City Hall. 

Lower Glanmire Road - May 18 1921

Lance Corporal Arthur Wilfred Lavington Hill of the 7th Company 2nd Battalion Hampshire Regiment clocked off duty at 5:30pm at the Glanmire Road Train Station (today's Kent Station). He worked with the railway transport staff. The 21 year old was in civilian clothes and was suspected by the IRA of being an intelligence officer. 

Hill made his way towards Tivoli where he spent the evening at the house of a female companion. At 9:30pm he left the lady's house and was walking near the Tivoli Level Crossing when a number of men fired at him from behind a stone wall. 

                       The old level crossing as it looks today.


An anonymous call was made to the Fire Brigade after the shooting to inform them of a dead body at the Tivoli Crossing on the Lower Glanmire Road. A British Army patrol were informed and they found the Portsmouth man dead with two bullets in his head. 

                      The Irish Independent of May 20 1921. 


Lance Corporal Hill was buried in Fareham Cemetery by Portsmouth Harbour in England. 

Grattan Street - April 28 1919

A three story tenenment dwelling at 33 Grattan Street served as a secret bomb making factory for the Cork No.1 Brigade. The premises was owned by Andy Ahern who ran a small shoemaking store on the ground floor. It was in the kitchen at the back of Mr Ahern's store that the IRA had set up their bomb factory. 

Grattan Street today.

               

On the evening of April 28th 1919 the RIC were searching properties in the Grattan Street and Broad Lane area. Known locally as The Marsh Area, it was a place of dark laneways and overcrowded tenements but it was also a hive of Republican activity.

Broad Lane tenements.

 Because of the searches taking place, 28 year old IRA Lieutenant Michael Tobin and his comrades decided to move their bomb making equipment. Tobin was a native of Ballineen West Cork, he was working in the city as a drapers assistant and was lodging at 15 Bachelors Quay.

                                               Bachelors Quay where Tobin lived.


An explosion occurred when Tobin and his comrades moved gunpowder from tins into coarse linen sacks. This caused a build up of heat which resulted in the powder igniting. 

The witness statement of Sean O'Connell

With Tobin at 33 Grattan Street on that evening were fellow IRA men Sean O'Connell and Dick Murphy whilst Volunteers Varian and Downey and Cumann na mBan member Bessie Moore were in a room next door. 

Cork No1 Brigade Quartermaster Sean O'Connell recalled what happened in his witness statement for the bureau of military history: " Dick and Michael were holding a bag and I was emptying one of the tins into it when all of a sudden a terrific explosion occurred."

Account from Captain Charles Meaney, H Company, 2nd Battalion.

The building was blown apart and all of it's occupants were injured, one fatally -Lieutenant Tobin was taken to the Mercy Hospital with serious burns to his face, hands and legs. He lingered in hospital until he died there on May 21st 1919. 

Removal of Lieutenant Tobin from the Mercy Hospital.

Lieutenant Michael Tobin was removed to the church of St Peter and Paul before a large funeral procession led by the Cork Volunteer Pipe Band made it's way through the streets of the rebel city. Among those providing a guard of honour were members of the IRA, Cumann na mBan, Na Fianna Eireann and the Irish Citizen Army. Thousands thronged the funeral route before it went west to Ballineen where Lieutenant Tobin was laid to rest in the cemetery there.

                                         The grave of Michael Tobin in Ballineen cemetery.