Popes Quay - March 19 1920

Detective Constable Joseph Murtagh had left the Palace Theatre on King Street (MacCurtain Street) and was walking down Popes Quay shortly before 11pm when two men from the First Cork Brigade shot him dead on the footpath directly across from St Marys Church.

                                       Popes Quay & St Marys Dominican Church.





Murtagh was a 46 year old widower from Westmeath who had served 23 years in the Royal Irish Constabulary.

Witness Statement of Michael O'Donoghue

 Earlier that day he attended the funeral of a colleague, Constable Healy, before then going to a play at the Palace Theatre (Everyman Theatre). Murtagh was making his way back to Sundays Well RIC Barracks when he was shot.

                      Sundays Well RIC Barracks, across from St Vincent's Church. 




The killing of Murtagh was not offically sanctioned by the IRA but he was known to have tortured Volunteer Martin Condon in custody. 

Murtagh was buried in Lismore County Waterford where his wife was buried some years previously. 

Det. Const. Murtagh.

Witness Statement of Pa Murray.

Just two hours following the shooting of Murtagh, masked RIC men shot dead  Sinn Fein Lord Mayor Tomas MacCurtain in his Blackpool home. There is strong indications the two incidents , Murtagh and MacCurtain , were not connected. The killing of MacCurtain had been preplanned for some time.

Popes Quay, the scene of Murtagh's shooting.

23 North Main Street

Terence James MacSwiney was born at No. 23 North Main Street on the 28th of March 1879. The fourth of 8 children born to John MacSwiney and Mary Wilkinson. 

John MacSwiney was a teacher in London when he met and married Mary Wilkinson. He had a rebellious streak and she was a devout Catholic, these attributes would be passed onto their offspring. 

The MacSwiney Family.

John went to Italy to defend Rome from Garibaldi and after these exploits he went back to his native Cork with his wife Mary and family where he set up a tabbacco factory and settled at 23 North Main Street where Terence was born in the four story town house. 

John's factory was a short lived venture and after it went bust he went to Australia, leaving Mary and the children behind in Cork. The patriarch of the MacSwiney family never returned to Leeside, he died down under in 1895.

News report from Australia in 1932 about the commemoration held at the grave of John McSwiney.

Wedding of Terence MacSwiney and Muriel Murphy in 1917.

Young Terence was educated at North Mon but left at the age of 15 to financially support his mother and siblings. He was employed at Dwyer & Co but continued his education with night classes, later enrolling at UCC and graduated with a degree in Moral Science in 1907.

Mural near North Main Street.

A lover of literature, Terence wrote pamphlets and plays. He co founded the Celtic Literary Society and the Cork Dramatic Society. This romantic rebel was also a serious revolutionary, helping to establish the Cork branch of the Irish Volunteers in 1913. 

The MacSwiney clan lived at 4 Grand View Tce on Victoria Road in 1916. Terence was arrested from here following the Easter Rising. 

He was interned in Bromyard Internment Camp in Britain in 1917 when he married Muriel Murphy, a daughter of the famous Murphy's Stout brewing family. 

Mural on Grattan Street Cork City of Mr & Mrs MacSwiney

The newly weds lived at 5 Eldred Tce, on the front Douglas Road in 1917.

In 1918 he was elected Sinn Fein MP for Cork and following the murder of Lord Mayor Tomas MacCurtain in 1920 he took up his chain of office. 

Terence and Muriel with their daughter Marie in 1919.

His time as Cork Lord Mayor was cut short in August 1920 when British troops raided the city hall and arrested him there. At his trial that September he was found guilty and declared after the verdict "I shall be free alive or dead within a month."

Terence MacSwiney died on day 74 of his hunger strike in Brixton Prison on the 25th of October 1920.

The remains of the martyred Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney being carried from Cork City Hall by his brothers Peter and Sean. 

MacSwiney's grave at Cork's Republican Plot in St. Finbarrs Cemetery.

Nicholas Street / Douglas Street - May 23 1921

In the early hours of May 23rd 1921, 24 year old Stephen Dorman was walking home with some of his work colleagues when they were attacked with a grenade and rifle fire. 

Stephen Dorman (or Dormon as it also spelled.)

Stephen Dorman worked at the Readers & Compositors Department of the Cork Examiner and finished night work at 3am. He was walking back to his home at Evergreen Buildings with fellow work colleagues Fred Murphy, Christopher Walsh and James Collins when masked men in the uniform of the crown forces ambushed them at the junction of Douglas Street and Nicholas Street.

Evergreen Buildings, just off Barrack Street, home to Mr Dorman.

Stephen Dorman was a member of E Company, 2nd Battalion, First Cork Brigade IRA. It was around 3:15am when Dorman and his work colleagues reached Douglas Street and just as he and Christopher Walsh turned to head up the steep Nicholas Street a grenade was thrown at them followed by a hail of bullets. 

The scene of the attack on Dorman and his work colleagues.

Walsh was wounded but survived. Dorman's leg was almost blown off and locals ran out to aid the stricken men. A priest hastily brought Dorman to the South Infirmary where doctors amputated his leg but, severe blood loss and shock resulted in his death hours later. 

Stephen Dorman's remains were brought from St Finbarrs South Chapel to the Republican Plot at St Finbarrs Cemetery. He is remembered today on a plaque on Tower Street which commemorates the local battalion of the Cork No.1 Brigade. 

53 North Main Street - November 27 1920

At 2:20am a young girl was banging on the door of Sullivan's Quay Fire Station. When a fireman answered the door she informed him of a raging fire near her home on North Main Street. 

What was once the Sullivan's Quay Fire Station.

No.53 North Main Street was ablaze by the time the fire brigade got there and because there was no one in the building at the time, the firemen had no other choice but to let it burn out. Their main priority was to stop the spread of the fire to neighbouring buildings, which they successfully did. 

The large building on the left, The Sullivan's Quay Fire Station.

No:53 North Main Street was set on fire by members of the Anti-Sinn Fein Society. On the ground floor there was McGurks Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe while the floors above it were occupied by Sinn Fein, and served as one of their City HQ's.

The one time Sinn Fein HQ.

On the same night that No:53 was attacked, the Douglas Recreational Hall and the St Michaels Parochial Hall in Blackrock were also burned by the Anti-Sinn Fein Society who were a band of local loyalists with Black and Tan backing.

These fires formed part of a week long spate of loyalist arson attacks across the city and suburbs in late November 1920. Arson attacks carried out by the Anti Sinn Fein Society also took place on Cook Street and St Patrick's Street. 

Just days before the arson attack on No:53 North Main Street a letter was delivered to the premises addressed to "The occupiers" which read:

"FINAL WARNING!

You are hereby notified to evacuate the premises herein mentioned, No.53 North Main Street Cork.

Ignore this note and you take the consequences.

Policemen and soldiers are being murdered every day and their barracks blown up without one word of protest from any in Cork, with the exception of the loyal population.

Signed, 

Black and Tans.

God Save The King." 

North Mall - December 12 1922

20 year old Free State Private Thomas Mooney was a passenger in a lorry that was making its way down North Mall on the evening of December 12th 1922.

North Mall, early 20th century

 The driver was a Cobh man who failed to stop at a checkpoint and for this mistake a hail of bullets were fired at the lorry.

                                     Pension application form of Thomas Mooney's family

The driver thought there was no need to stop at the Free State checkpoint as he and his passengers were all in Free State uniform but, he was wrong. 

North Mall today

A sentry panicked and fired at the lorry as it drove through the checkpoint and then other soldiers at the checkpoint followed suit and fired their weapons at the lorry and its occupants.

                                                                  The Mercy Hospital

The driver was shot but survived. Mooney was shot too but he was less fortunate. A bullet pierced through his tigh and he was taken to the nearby  Mercy Hospital where he died the following morning from severe blood loss. 

                                             Pension application from Thomas Mooney's family.




Thomas Mooney was a native of North Strand Dublin and worked as a hackney driver before joining the Free State Army Mechanical Transport Corps in August 1922. Following his death in Cork city he was taken back to his native Dublin where he was buried in the Free State Plot at Glasnevin Cemetery. 

                                     Part of the Free State Plot at Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery.

13 North Mall - November 18 1920

It was 3:15am when heavy knocking on the door of No.13 North Mall woke it's occupants. 45 year old James Coleman answered the door to five men in police attire. 

"Are you Coleman?" They asked. 

When Mr Coleman replied that he was, they pointed their guns and fired, shooting him dead on his door step. 

James Coleman was the proprietor of the Franciscan Well Mineral Water Company which was next door to his dwelling on North Mall. He also owned a pub on Cook Street and was a member of the Cork Chamber of Commerce and treasurer of The Cork Industrial Development Association. Mr Coleman was also a supporter of the Republican movement on Leeside. 

Mr Coleman's residence and business, The Franciscan Well. He was shot dead at the door of his home, (the white door next to the Franciscan Well.)

A military court of inquiry stated that armed civilians had shot Mr Coleman but his family strongly disagreed and his wife confirmed it was members of the police and military. 

The night of November 17/18 had  been a night of terror in Cork City. 

It began with the shooting of an RIC constable by the IRA on White Street. His enraged colleagues then went on a shooting and fire bombing spree in the marsh area of the city. 

After killing two on Broad Lane and injuring many others by throwing grenades in a tenement building, the attackers then headed across the river to Mr Coleman's residence on the North Mall. 

North Mall in the early 20th Century. Mr Coleman's business and residence can be seen down the street.

James Coleman's funeral took place two days after his murder. The military issued an order that only 100 mourners were allowed to attend the funeral. 

They knew Mr Coleman was a well respected figure in the city and his funeral would be a large gathering. 

Two armoured cars and military lorries escorted the remains of Mr Coleman to his final resting place at St Finbarrs Cemetery where his gravestone reads "murdered by the army of occupation."