| HIST |
The Strange Case of 'Cruxy' O'Connor
MARK BULIK tells the peculiar story of a freedom fighter, spy, and informer all wrapped-up in one during the War of Independence.
THE next-door neighbours were far from neighbourly. In fact, the relationship between the O'Connors and the Deasys often amounted to a feud at 50 yards - the distance between their cottages in Mount Desert, on the edge of Cork.
How it all began is uncertain, but we know how matters ended - with the Deasy's mourning their son Willie, killed in a 1921 police raid in nearby Ballycannon, along with five other local members of the Irish Republican Army. And the O'Connors wound up exiled to America, their son Paddy stalked through three nations by relentless IRA avengers who finally gunned him down in New York in 1922.
It was Paddy, you see, who got Willie and the other men killed on Kerry Pike in Ballycannon.
Their two families had been at it since at least 1895, when the head of the Deasy clan, William, was charged with trying to break into the O'Connor home (the name was often shortened to Connors). Four years later, they were all back in the court, with Deasy describing a dispute between the families. In 1908, William Deasy accused Paddy's father, John, of slamming him over the head with a blunt instrument.
It was the flat of my hand, O'Connor replied.
Despite the feud, the families sometimes cooperated. In 1899, just months before their husbands landed in Blarney petty sessions, the two wives were desperately trying to save the life of young Eliza Deasy. A bedtime accident with a candle had set her ablaze, and Hannah O'Connor rushed over to help, applying balm. Then she helped move the girl to the hospital, where Eliza died the next day.
By 1920, the two neighbour boys, Willie Deasy and Paddy O'Connor, were now comrades in the IRA, members of C Company, 1st Battalion, on the western fringe of Cork, where Blarney Road bleeds into the fields of Clogheen north of the River Lee.
Willie had been a member of the Volunteers since at least April 1918. Paddy joined later, as the War for Independence from Britain was heating up.
In one of his first recorded actions, in December 1920, O'Connor executed a suspected spy. It must have been a wrenching experience, for O'Connor had a secret - he himself had been a paid spy for the crown, earning two pounds 10 a week. But after joining the IRA, he "ceased to provide information," according to a British army report.
The situation in Cork that December was dire - the city centre had been torched by members of the Auxiliary Division of the RIC. Crown forces regularly raided the homes of IRA members. It was time for O'Connor and several active members of C Company - Willie Deasy, Jeremiah Mullane, and Patrick A "Pa" Murray among them - to get out of town. They headed to Ballyvourney, where the IRA's Cork No. 1 Brigade flying column was being formed.
This may well be when O'Connor got his enduring nickname: Cruxy.
There are two theories about its origin. One holds that he won the Croix de Guerre as a British army sergeant-major in the First World War. But there are no records of him in the military, and his family says he never served in the war. Other accounts say O'Connor's comrades mockingly tagged "Cruxy" because he boasted that he'd won the medal, mispronouncing it as "Crux na Gurra". In Ballyvourney about 60 IRA men drilled and trained, and the country boys cast a cold eye on O'Connor, who liked to ask questions and jot things down nightly in a diary. "Over-inquisitive" was the word that came to mind for one IRA man.
Soon it was time to go to war.
The ambush site lay at a crossroads on the Macroom-Killarney Road, in an area variously identified as Coolavokig, Paulnabro and, in the local tradition, as Coolnacaheragh. A convoy of Auxiliaries would be approaching from Macroom in the east. Two machine guns were placed at either end of the quarter-mile-long ambush site - steel jaws that would snap shut, pinning the convoy while rebel riflemen along the road raked it with volleys. O'Connor was given a crucial job: manning the eastern machine gun.
For days that February, the column waited in the rocky outcrops and damp fields for the Auxiliaries. The harsh conditions took a toll on the city men - Pa Murray, Willie Deasy, and Jerry Mullane were all pulled back.
On the morning of Friday, February 25, a convoy carrying an estimated 50 Auxiliaries finally showed up, an hour early, and with a nasty surprise - civilian hostages they carried as human shields. The vehicles advanced slowly, because they had heard of the ambush, and then spotted an out-of-position IRA man dash across the road. The convoy had not fully entered the ambush zone when the shooting began.
The British commander Major James Seafield Grant was killed early on, and the Auxiliaries retreated toward two cottages alongside the road. O'Connor fired a burst from the Lewis gun, but then it fell silent - he claimed that it jammed. In fact, all along the line, IRA gunfire slackened because the Auxiliaries and the hostages were jumbled together in a scramble for cover, while IRA riflemen redeployed to cover the Auxiliaries' unexpected position.
The siege of the cottages went on for hours, and much of the action took place right in front of O'Connor's position - the Lewis gun could have been devastating. But it stayed silent, and eventually British reinforcements arrived.
The flying column pulled out without loss, and evaded an attempted British round-up. They had killed three police and wounded 10 more, without suffering any losses. However, many column members were bitter that the Coolnacaheragh ambush wasn't a bigger success. Some blamed O'Connor.
"He fired a few rounds and then abandoned the gun, falsely stating that it was jammed," one complained. "It lay idle for the rest of the fight." Cruxy returned in disgrace to Cork, where just weeks later the police caught him with a gun.
Facing execution in a city under martial law, O'Connor switched sides again, claiming to be a British secret agent. His old spymaster denied it, and with the threat of a firing squad hanging over his head, Cruxy broke down after hours of interrogation. As Willie Deasy's brother, Jerry, put it: "He was a rather unstable, emotional type and, no doubt, could not take the treatment."
O'Connor gave away a lot of information, including the location of a hideout at a farm on Kerry Pike. The police raided the Ballycannon farm on March 23, 1921. It was Wednesday of Holy Week - or Spy Wednesday, for the day that Judas betrayed Jesus.
Six men of O'Connor's comrades from C Company had bedded down at the farm. At least two had served with Cruxy in the flying column -Willie Deasy, his neighbour; and Jeremiah Mullane, along with Dan Crowley, Tom Dennehy, Mick O'Sullivan, and Danny Murphy. Caught unaware, they never had a chance.
Neighbours heard cries of "run for it" then volleys of gunfire. All six men died riddled with bullets.
As a grieving Cork prepared a funeral for the six "Ballycannon Boys" on Easter Sunday, the fifth anniversary of the Easter Rising, Cork IRA commanders learned that O'Connor had talked. On Easter, a long funeral cortege wound through Cork to the cathedral, under the nervous eyes of the British army.
As Cork mourned, the IRA sought to arrange one more funeral: Cruxy's. It sent a woman disguised as his mother to bring him a poisoned meal at the Victoria Barracks. That failed when his real mother showed up at the barracks moments later - Mrs O'Connor proved too much to handle for the IRA squad detaining her during the operation.
An attempt to track O'Connor down in London also failed - he knew he was being stalked, and sailed for America. It was there, in New York, that three gunmen from C Company - Pa Murray, Danny Healy and Martin Donovan - finally caught up with Cruxy, in what appears to be the IRA's only authorised attack on American soil.
On the evening of April 13, 1922, O'Connor left his apartment on the Upper West Side for a walk along nearby Central Park. Healy was waiting near 84th Street.
He stepped from behind a tree, said something like "Got you," and fired. O'Connor dashed into the intersection and ducked around a trolley, as Healy followed, firing.
Finally, Cruxy went down, and Healy shot him twice more, then made his getaway. O'Connor, hit five times, was rushed to a hospital.
Decades later, Healy noted the significance of the timing: "It was Holy Thursday night, 1922, and almost a year exactly since the Ballycannon murders."
Incredibly, O'Connor managed to recover from his wounds. He moved to Canada, married an Irish immigrant and had a daughter. He died in 1952, at age 60.
For some relatives of the Ballycannon boys, there was no recovering.
The shock of the massacre left Michael O'Sullivan's sister hospitalised for months - she never worked again. Jeremiah Mullane's father had to give up his job, too, and took to bed, ill and dispirited. He died in 1924.
Dan Healy, Pa Murray and Martin Donovan made it back to Cork, possibly aided in their escape by one more change of heart from the mercurial O'Connor. Fading in and out of consciousness after the ambush, the wounded man refused to tell the New York City police detectives who had shot him, though he certainly knew.
Then and later, whenever asked, Cruxy would resolutely shake his head.
And so the spy who stopped spying and the gunman who stopped shooting became the informer who stopped informing.
Coolnacaheragh ambush changed British strategy
DESPITE the "deplorable actions" of a spy who abandoned his key position in charge of an IRA machine-gun, the ambush at Coolnacaheragh succeeded in forcing a change in British strategy and was a factor in achieving the Truce of 1921.
The ambush of a convoy of Auxiliaries travelling from Macroom on February 25, 1921, was led by Seâan O'Hegarty and involved the 1st Cork's Flying Column, with volunteers from companies across mid-Cork.
Auxiliary commandant major James Seafield-Grant, who led the convoy, was killed early in the four-hour engagement. RIC constable Arthur Cane later died of injuries received, as did Lieutenant Cleve/Clive Soady, who was shot in the mouth, and whose grave is at Macroom's Protestant churchyard, one of the few non-Irish Auxiliaries to be buried in Ireland.
There are conflicting reports as to the numbers of dead and wounded, with 10 members of the Auxiliary Division later making compensation claims, while a republican monument at the site puts British casualties at 28. The IRA reported no casualties. A century after the ambush, no official British casualty figures have yet been released.
the steps to one of the houses reportedly "covered in blood that flowed from the cottage"
Much of the action took place in two cottages at the eastern edge of the Coolnacaheragh ambush site in which Auxiliaries came under siege from IRA fire.
The Auxiliaries had taken cover in the cottages, beside the Cork-Killarney road, making "loopholes" in the walls, through which to fire their guns.
Once inside, they came under further IRA fire, the steps to one of the houses reportedly "covered in blood that flowed from the cottage".
Lieutenant Cleve Soady is believed to have been mortally wounded in this cottage.
The occupants of the two cottages, the Twomey and Cronin families, were told to leave their homes under cover of darkness before the ambush began, on February 25. Gerard Lynch's grandparents, Hannah and Patrick Cronin, were living with Hannah's elderly father Diarmuid Kelleher and their three young daughters, in the cottage that saw most of the action.
"What I know from my mother and my aunt was that coming up to the time of the ambush they were tipped off by the 'boys' that the ambush was going to happen but they were sworn to absolute secrecy.
"They could only leave the house in the dead of night because if there was any unusual activity it could tip off the British forces. So my granduncle from Cill na Martra borrowed a horse and cart and came to Coolnacaheragh and moved my grandparents and their three children and my great grandfather, Diarmuid Kelleher, over to Dundareirke [Cill na Martra], which was my grandfather's homeplace," said Mr Lynch.
His great grandfather, then in his early 80s, "was bedridden and they had to take a door off downstairs and put him on the door to bring him down the stairs and put him on the cart in the middle of the night", said Mr Lynch.
During the ambush, he said, "the British retreated back to the cottage and dragged their injured in there".
"Most of them were trapped under fire inside the cottage that I was born into. There were four steps from the door of the cottage to the road and it was said that the steps were covered in blood that flowed from the cottage. There were so many injured in the cottage that the blood was running out the door and along the steps and out onto the road."
Both cottages, along with several neighbouring outbuildings, were subsequently burned by the Auxiliaries, whose retaliation for Coolnacaheragh also included the wounding of volunteer Jeremiah Lucey in Baile Mhâuirne, the shooting of livestock, and a donkey being "used for bayonet practice".
Mr Lynch's grandparents and their family were to spend the next six years living with their in-laws in Cill na Martra before their house was repaired under a government scheme. The house, he said, had been "burned in retaliation" but in reality his family had little choice but to leave their home. "It was thought at the time that the occupants of the cottages were in cahoots with the ambush, but to stay would have been to have been slaughtered," he said.
He recalls also an event that occurred 40 years after the ambush, when his mother Pauline received a surprise visitor to her home in Coolnacaheragh.
"Major Seafield-Grant, who was killed in the ambush, had a three-year-old son at the time that he died, and that son visited Coolnacaheragh in 1964-65 and called to my mother," he said. "He was looking for the actual spot where his father had been killed. My mother showed him as best she could and then she realised who he was and he actually came in and had tea in the cottage.
"She always thought it was very sad on a human level that a three-year-old child was left without his father, and I think he was his only child."
Cruxy O'Connor and the Central Park Ambush
New York Times - 13 April 2022 By Mark Bulik
Cruxy O'Connor and the Central Park Ambush
One hundred years ago this week, the British spy was caught in what appears to be the Irish Republican Army's only authorized attack on American soil.
It was a few minutes to 8 o'clock on the evening of April 13, 1922. When Patrick Joseph O'Connor came down the steps of his apartment building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, three of the Irish Republican Army's top gunmen were lying in wait.
Two of them - Danny Healy and Martin Donovan - stood near the corner of 83rd and Columbus Avenue, staking out the apartment at 483 Columbus. Patrick A. Murray, an I.R.A. commander who went by "Pa," was a block north.
Their target, known as Cruxy O'Connor, was a former comrade who switched sides repeatedly in Ireland's fight for independence from Britain. His last change of allegiance got six I.R.A. men killed when he told the police the location of their safe house outside Cork. After the raid, O'Connor fled Ireland by boat, first to London, then to America, pursued the whole way by the I.R.A.
He knew the gunmen were out there somewhere in the mild New York night, just itching to avenge the dead. He had to quit his job as an accountant at B. Altman after he'd spotted them stalking the vast department store. That was weeks ago. Now he needed a walk and a smoke, and the spring evening beckoned.
O'Connor headed along 83rd Street toward Central Park, Danny Healy later told an Irish government historian. "When I saw him take this turn I told Martin to tell Pa." The plan was for them to head down 84th Street and cut off their quarry, surrounding the informer on Central Park West.
Right at the intersection, O'Connor spotted the gunmen, whom he knew from Cork. Puffing on a cigarette, he made a dash for the park. Then he switched directions, did a U-turn and came face to face with Danny Healy, who was pointing a gun straight at him.
Cruxy O'Connor had just walked into what appears to be the Irish Republican Army's only authorized attack on American soil.
The New York of a century ago in at least one way resembled the New York of today; it was a bustling magnet for immigrants. The city's biggest collection of first- and second-generation Americans came from the Russian empire, including Poland and Ukraine. Italy and Ireland placed second and third.
It was a volatile era, around the world and around metropolitan New York. Fledgling nations like Ukraine and Ireland were fighting for independence, and a fascist movement was rising in Italy. Sometimes Old World struggles spilled into New World streets; pro-fascist and antifascist Italian Americans fought a bloody battle in Newark in 1925.
In New York, Irish American longshoremen went on strike in 1920, refusing to handle goods from British ships, to support Ireland's fight for Irish independence. The latest chapter in that struggle opened with a failed Easter 1916 uprising against Britain; two years later, Irish separatists won a sweeping electoral victory. On the day they declared independence from Britain, the shooting began. Some of the rebels' weapons came from an Irish American union leader (and gunrunner) named Jimmy McGee, who played a crucial role in the 1920 dock strike.
A year later, McGee masterminded a plot to smuggle 500 Tommy guns to Ireland aboard a freighter docked in Hoboken - the scheme was foiled after an assistant cook slit open a burlap sack and found instead of potatoes the muzzle of a Thompson submachine gun. Just months after that, McGee handed revolvers to the three Irishmen who came to America to kill the traitor Cruxy O'Connor.
From Spy to Rebel to Informer
O'Connor grew up in a working-class family on the western fringe of Cork city. A bookkeeper at Roches Stores, an emporium in the city center, he had a side hustle - as a paid spy for the British, whose army and police force were trying to hold the island for the crown. His neighbourhood, a bastion of the Irish republican movement, bristled with targets - Pa Murray, Danny Healy and Martin Donovan all called it home. Two other I.R.A. activists, Willie and Jerry Deasy, lived right next door, and the O'Connors and the Deasys had feuded for years.
It's not clear why O'Connor turned into a government spy - maybe it was the money, or maybe it was another way to pursue the feud with the Deasy's.
What is clear is that O'Connor eventually stopped reporting in to the British and joined his neighbours, the Deasy's, in the local unit of the I.R.A. His first recorded action, in December 1920, must have carried the sour taste of grim irony - he killed a suspected government spy.
By January 1921, O'Connor was on the run from the authorities. He, Willie Deasy and Pa Murray joined a flying column of rebels who roamed the Irish countryside, living off the land and lying in wait to ambush British forces.
This is probably when he developed his nickname. A history of the revolution in Cork says that he boasted he would earn the Croix de Guerre, mangling the medal's pronunciation so badly that his comrades teased him as "Crux na Gurra," later shortened to Cruxy.
His performance in battle didn't live up to his boasts. In a February ambush of a British convoy, Cruxy was assigned a crucial job, manning one of two machine guns.
When the convoy halted right in front of him, he fired a short burst, but then his gun fell silent - he later would claim that it jammed. The I.R.A. managed to kill several of the British, including their commander, then pulled out as reinforcements arrived. But the failure of the plan embittered some rebels, who suspected Cruxy was a coward, or possibly a traitor.
O'Connor returned home to Cork, which was now under martial law. He was soon scooped up at a police cordon, and he was carrying a gun, which meant he faced execution by the British Army. He promptly told the police he was a secret agent for the British Army, which was news to the army - he hadn't reported in for a long time. After an interrogation that lasted days, an army dispatch said, he gave up the names of "three known murderers" and a safe house in a rural area called Ballycannon.
The Ballycannon Bloodbath
Bedded for the night in a stable on the farm of Con O'Keeffe, an I.R.A. comrade, were six young rebels: Danny Murphy, 24; Jeremiah Mullane Jr., 22; Dan Crowley, 22, Tom Dennehy, 21; and Mick O'Sullivan, 19. With them was Willie Deasy, O'Connor's neighbour.
Acting on O'Connor's information, police officers raided the O'Keeffe farm at 4 a.m. "I heard a shot," O'Keeffe said in a sworn affidavit. "Then at intervals there were two or three shots, and then a volley of shots."
The police claimed the rebels started a gun battle, but the accounts of neighbours who saw and heard what happened suggested that the six had been caught sleeping, ordered to run, then shot "trying to escape." All were killed; most of the entry wounds were in the rear of the bodies.
Thus dawned the Wednesday before Easter, or as the Irish sometimes called it, Spy Wednesday - for the day Judas betrayed Jesus.
An outraged Cork planned a great, grand funeral for the six on Easter Sunday, five years after that great, doomed Easter uprising in Dublin. The authorities fully grasped the symbolism and ordered that attendance be limited to 150 people. They put trucks full of troops at the head of the funeral cortege. But if the British thought they could dam a sea of tears, they quickly discovered they were battling an invulnerable tide of grief.
Mourners massed along the route to the cemetery. "As the procession filed slowly along in the brilliant sunshine, no sound was heard but the dull tread of those marching, the solemn tolling of the church bells and the burring noise of the heavy lorries," The Irish Independent newspaper reported.
When it was all over, the leadership of the I.R.A. learned from rebel sympathizers in the constabulary who had talked.
It was time to arrange another funeral - for Cruxy O'Connor.
But the informer was now ensconced in the most secure British facility in Cork, the army's Victoria Barracks. So the I.R.A. cooked up a plan involving a basket of food and enough strychnine to "poison a regiment," as one plotter put it.
The Poison Plot
Cruxy's mother, Hannah O'Connor, regularly delivered meals to him in his cell. So the I.R.A. found a basket just like the one she used and recruited Ethel Condon, a hard-core activist, to impersonate Mrs. O'Connor and deliver a poisoned version.
"I was disguised in old shoes and a shawl, dressed just like his mother would have been," she recalled in a pension application to the Irish government. The plan worked perfectly, except for one thing. The I.R.A. gunmen assigned to detain the real Mrs. O'Connor while the fake Mrs. O'Connor delivered the fatal meal proved no match for a protective 62-year-old mother. "The men were supposed to have kept up this woman and kept her tied," recalled Nora Martin, who organized the plot. "She began to yell and roar, with the result that they let her loose. She must have suspected something; she made for the jail."
And there the two Mrs. O'Connors nearly met. "I had only got outside the barrack gate when I saw Mrs. O'Connor going in," recalled Ethel Condon, by then Ethel Cuthbert. "If she had arrived a few minutes sooner, it would have almost certainly cost me my life."
The British moved their informer to London, but they soon learned that the I.R.A. was on his trail. So in August 1921, Cruxy shipped off to New York City.
It didn't take long for the I.R.A. to learn of his whereabouts. An immigrant who knew O'Connor reported that he was working at a department store on 34th Street.
The Streets of New York
In early 1922, the Cork gunmen arrived in New York. But the trio's detective skills left a bit to be desired. They were spotted by Cruxy as they staked out B. Altman, and so he stopped going to work. They checked out his last known address, but he wasn't there. It took weeks before it dawned on them that maybe they should go back and see if anyone there had a forwarding address.
Finally they tracked O'Connor to Columbus Avenue. The timing of the ensuing ambush was no coincidence. The Cork police raid came on the Wednesday of Easter week, 1921. They would gun down the informer on the Thursday of Easter week, 1922. Danny Healy, using the church calendar, noted the date with grim satisfaction: "Almost a year exactly since the Ballycannon murders."
O'Connor never saw Healy coming. "I was shaded by a tree, consequently he was on me before he was aware of my presence," Healy said. "I fired at him."
He thought he got Cruxy in the chest, but his prey dashed into the intersection. Healy followed, blazing away, and two bullets found their target. But O'Connor kept going, ducking around a trolley and nearly running into Martin Donovan - whose pistol misfired when he took aim.
But the wounded victim was already slumping to the sidewalk.
"I caught up with him and fired twice more at him, hitting him," Healy recalled.
As he emptied his gun, the getaway car roared into the intersection. The triggerman knew he was supposed to get in it, but he just stood there, frozen, as a horde of pedestrians gawked at him. One thought kept going through his head, he recalled: "No chance of escape."
Then Donovan's voice sliced through his mental fog: "Run for it, Danny. Run!"
Healy snapped out of it, but instead of getting into the car with Donovan, he walked casually for a while, then broke into a run. And the crowd of stunned pedestrians formed into a posse, dozens of them giving chase.
Donovan realized that if he didn't stop the pursuit, nobody would. And he'd tossed his revolver after it misfired, so he'd have to bluff his way through this - one man against close to 50.
He confronted the crowd that was now just 15 feet away, sliding a hand into his coat pocket, as if to pull a gun.
"What do you want - trouble?" he asked the man at the front of the posse.
"No."
"Well," Donovan demanded, "where are you going?"
"I'm going right back to where I came from." The man turned on his heels and did just that, The New York Times reported the next day. Much of the crowd followed his lead.
As the car pulled away with Donovan, Healy continued on foot toward the 79th Street subway station, still pursued by a lone tail. As he entered the station, he would recount to a historian decades later, a train was departing - and Healy leaped aboard, leaving his pursuer on the platform.
Back at the scene of the shooting, onlookers lifted the gravely wounded victim to the steps of the Semple School for Girls. Shot in the back, the side, the stomach and the jaw, he was rushed off to a hospital. In the immediate aftermath, the police considered various theories: that it was a dispute about a girl, or bootlegging.
But the real motive emerged when a member of the O'Connor family arrived on the scene and told investigators that the victim had served in the I.R.A. and had fled Cork the previous fall "because of threats of death."
That revelation landed the story on the front pages of the next day's newspapers. "Man Shot at Central Park Involved in Irish Plot," read a banner headline in The Evening World. "Link Shooting Here With Irish Warfare," said a Times headline.
All the publicity convinced the I.R.A. men to get out of New York. In time, Jimmy McGee, the dockside fixer, helped ship the three back to Ireland - two as stowaways and one under a false name. Britannia may have ruled the waves, but the Irish ran the New York waterfront.
To the amazement of nearly everyone, Cruxy survived his four bullet wounds. And he refused to tell New York detectives who had shot him. Whenever he was asked, he would adamantly shake his head. Perhaps it's not surprising that a spy who gave up spying and a rebel who stopped rebelling became an informer who ceased informing.
When he recovered from his wounds, Cruxy O'Connor moved to Canada, where he married and had a child. O'Connor led his family through a wandering life, moving from Canada to New York, from New York to England, and from England back to Canada, where he died in the early 1950s.
For years after Ireland won independence, veterans of the struggle debated Cruxy's motives. In an interview in the 1960s, Pa Murray offered a surprising take on the ambush in New York. "I was sorry after," he said with a sigh. "We heard later that the poor devil had been tortured to make him talk" after his arrest in Cork.
But another I.R.A. veteran who knew Cruxy well, Stan Barry, was convinced that his arrest was faked - to bring in from the cold a man who had been spying for Britain all along. And a rebel spy who witnessed Cruxy's interrogation agreed. "It was a process of kindness, this interrogation," recalled Part Margetts, a former British soldier. "He had a furtive look in his eye and he looked at you from under his eyelashes, but he had not been ill-treated."
Though the veterans differed, Cruxy remains the Benedict Arnold of Cork in popular memory. A local ballad offers an unequivocal verdict:
But curse that Cruxy Connors, treacherous turncoat and spy
Who sold away on that fateful day the Ballycannon Boys.
Mark Bulik is a senior editor at The New York Times and the author of "The Sons of Molly Maguire: The Irish Roots of America's First Labor War." This article is adapted from an upcoming book.
IRA shot a British spy in Central Park 100 years ago
IrishCentral Staff @IrishCentral Apr 17, 2022
Patrick Joseph O'Connor, commonly known as "Cruxy", had performed a dual role in the Irish War of Independence, first working as a British spy to keep tabs on the prominent republican movement.
One hundred years ago this week, three IRA gunmen shot and gravely wounded a British spy in Central Park after tracking him across the Atlantic.
Patrick Joseph O'Connor, commonly known as "Cruxy", had performed a dual role in the Irish War of Independence, first working as a British spy to keep tabs on the prominent republican movement in the working-class Cork City neighbourhood where he grew up.
He later joined a local unit of the IRA in late 1920 and ironically assassinated an alleged British Government spy in his first recorded action as an Irish soldier.
In February 1921, O'Connor manned a machine gun in an ambush of a British convoy but claimed that the gun jammed when the convoy was right in front of him.
The IRA managed to inflict heavy casualties during the attack, but the ambush was ultimately a failure, leading some rebels to suspect O'Connor of being a coward or a traitor.
O'Connor was arrested shortly after returning to Cork and faced execution for carrying a firearm.
He told the police that he was working as a spy for the British Army and, after three days of interrogation, revealed the names of three "known murderers" hiding in a safe house in the rural area of Ballycannon.
Police officers acted on O'Connor's information raided the farm of Con O'Keefe, which housed six young rebels, including Danny Murphy, 24; Jeremiah Mullane Jr., 22; Dan Crowley, 22, Tom Dennehy, 21; and Mick O'Sullivan, 19, and O'Connor's neighbour Willie Deasy.
Police said the rebels started a gun battle, but eyewitnesses claimed the men were caught sleeping, ordered to run, and then shot in the back to make it appear that they were trying to escape, according to the New York Times.
All six men were killed, with most of the entry wounds found in the rear of their bodies.
IRA leaders later learned from sympathetic Royal Irish Constabulary officers that Cruxy O'Connor was responsible for the leaked information that led to the deaths of the six men.
The IRA initially planned to poison O'Connor with strychnine while he was under protection at the heavily fortified Victoria Barracks in Cork.
O'Connor's mother Hannah used to deliver food to her son in a basket, so the IRA devised a plot to impersonate her and deliver poisoned food. They found a similar basket and employed local republican Ethel Condon to dress in old shoes and a shawl just as Hannah O'Connor would have been.
Condon managed to deliver the fatal meal, but the real Hannah O'Connor reached the barracks just in time to alert soldiers of the plot.
With the IRA on his trail, the British authorities moved Cruxy to New York via London, but he was soon recognized working in a department store on 34th Street.
Pa Murray, Danny Healy, and Martin Donovan, three IRA men who lived in the same area of western Cork City as O'Connor, traveled to New York in early 1922 and received revolvers from Irish-American union leader Jimmy McGee, who was sympathetic to the IRA's cause.
On April 13, 1922, almost exactly a year after the Ballycannon massacre, the three gunmen tracked O'Connor to Columbus Avenue.
The gunmen followed O'Connor along 83rd Street, intending to cut him off as he reached the intersection of 84th Street and Central Park West. However, O'Connor caught sight of the gunmen and ran towards the park before making a U-turn and running right into Danny Healy, who was pointing his gun right at him.
Healy fired and thought he hit O'Connor in the chest. O'Connor, however, sprinted away before Healy found the target twice.
The British spy kept running until Healy caught up with him and shot him twice more.
Instead of getting into the getaway car with Murray and Donovan, Healy walked away casually on foot before breaking into a run with dozens of bystanders giving chase.
Donovan, whose gun misfired during the initial ambush, confronted the crowd with one hand in his coat pocket, bluffing that he had a gun. The bluff worked and most of the crowd turned away.
One person continued to track Healy, however, until the gunman finally lost him in the 79th Street Subway station.
New York police considered a number of theories before the true motive of the attack was revealed, making the front page news in New York newspapers.
The three gunmen managed to escape New York with the help of Jimmy McGee, who helped all three board a ship back to Ireland, with two boarding as stowaways and one boarding under a fake name.
Astonishingly, O'Connor survived the four gunshot wounds and refused to give up the men who had shot him.
O'Connor later moved to Canada where he married and had a child. He moved his family to New York and then to England before finally returning to Canada, where he died in the 1950s. [1] |
| MILI |
Evening Herald - Dublin - Thursday, March 24, 1921; Front page, Page: 1
Gruesome Sights at Scene of County Cork Tragedies
GRUESOME SIGHT
Scene in Field Where Tragedies Took Place
A Cork message dealing with the shootings at Kerry Pike says:-
The corner of the field in which the tragedies took place presented a gruesome sight yesterday.
There were four large pools of blood within 5 or 6 yards of each other, leading from the outhouses in the direction of the road. Pieces of bones, flesh, and what was evidently brain-matter, were spattered about. One large piece of flesh, like portion of a human tongue, was near a low stone wall.
AT CLOSE RANGE.
Several empty rifle and revolver cartridges were picked up. Jagged spinners of bullets, with pieces of cloth, food and flesh, adhering to them, were also found.
Near each pool of blood the ground was ploughed with bullet marks.
The brass portion of a man's braces, and pieces of broken buttons, were also discovered.
Everything indicated that the shots were fired at close range.
The track of the bodies across the field could be clearly traced.
FARM SURROUNDED
It appears that six young men from Cork City, aged from 19 to 22 years, who had been "on the run" for some time, were sleeping in an outhouse on a farm belonging to Mr Cornelius O'Keeffe, Kerry Pike. Their names given as:
Daniel Crowley
Jeremiah Mullane
Michael Quinlan
Thomas Dennehy
Jeremiah Deasy
Michel Sullivan
About 4.40 yesterday morning, Crown forces were seen surrounding the farm, Mr O'Keeffe's house, which is situated in an open countryside, standing three fields in from the road, from which it can clearly be seen, was entered by a number of armed men, who took Mr O'Keeffe away with them.
THREE VOLLEYS
His whereabouts are not at present known.
A short time later an order was heard given "Come run for it".
A man was seen to run a short distance. A volley rang out, and he fell. about 13 minutes later another volley was heard, followed 10 minutes afterwards by a third. After the second discharge another man was seen to run and fall.
In all there were about 50 or 60 shots. About 5 o'clock the bodies of 3 men ever taken across the fields to the roadway, placed in motor vehicles and driven away.
This account states that Mullane, Crowley and Quinlan were killed. Dennehy and Deasy seriously wounded, and the sixth escaped across the fields.
WIFE DISTRACTED
When she heard the reports Mrs O'Keeffe thought the husband had been shot, and she her mother-in-law, and three young children were in a dreadful state of terror.
The children began to cry, and she was so distracted she did not know what to do.
The men, however, again entered the house, and one of them told her not to have any fears, adding that her husband would return safe.
Mr O'Keeffe was later seen being driven away in a motor vehicle.
After the shooting it is stated. Mr O'Keeffe was taken to a public house in the neighbourhood and given a drink.
At 10.30 on Tuesday night Mr O'Keeffe and his mother went to the shed, and at that time there was no one there was no one in it.
OTHER ACCOUNTS
the Cork "Echo" says"- Four young men were shot dead, one was arrested, the remainder escaping. Accounts as to how the actuals shooting took place vary. The man arrested is O'Keeffe son of the man on whose farm the shooting occurred. Two young men are said to have escaped.
Six bodies according to another message, have been brought to Cork barracks mortuary awaiting an inquiry.
The Dublin Castle report say:-
"Six Armed civilians were killed during a hand-to-hand fight with the R.I.C. at 4.45am
"The Police were searching for three-(men)- who were in hiding in the neighbourhood of a farm at Ballycannon, occupied by a man names O'Keeffe. These 3 men with 3 others were discovered hiding in a shed on the farm, which was promptly surrounded.
CORDON DRAWN
"The occupants, becoming aware of the cordon around them, opened fire with revolvers and both sides became hotly engaged. The occupants find the outhouses untenable made a dash for the open and ran right into the police cordon. a number of individual combats took place and all these men were killed.
"They have been identified as Jer. Mullane, Danl Murphy, Dan. Crowley, Wm. Deasy, Ml. Sullivan and Thos. Dennehy.
They carried not rifles, but were armed with bombs and revolvers, together with supplies of dum dum bullets and ammunition all of which has been captured.
The shed appears to have been used as a hiding place for men 'on the run'. There were no police casualties."
Evening Echo - Cork - Friday, March 25, 1921; Front page, Page: 1
CLOGHEEN TRAGEDY
FURTHER DETAILS
Our reporter writes:-The shooting dead of six men near the village of Clogheen in the early hours of Wednesday morning has created the greatest sensation.
Visiting the scene, our representative saw the field in which the six men were shot.
It is marshy land, sloping down to a valley, to rise on the other side on the Clogheen road. The configuration of the country should be understood. One drives along over the valley, of the Lee on the Clogheen road to a point, the Kerry Pike, and then can turn round to roads leading back to White's Cross or on to Blarney
From the Pike road, as the point of a peninsula, one traces back to a farm house on the north side and to the Clogheen National Schools on the left. The wide expanse of fields here, by a straight line from south to north, is the base. It is along this line one has to associate the dread tragedies enacted, for the men killed on one, slope, were dragged down to the valley and up to the roadway, where the bodies were put into lorries, closing on to 7 o'clock on Wednesday morning, and conveyed, presumably to the mortuary at Cork Barracks.
This little geographical sketch, helping a picture of the country, it now remains to describe the place in which the men were sheltering, resting for the night, fearing apprehension if they slept in their own homes.
At the apex of the hill to the north is the farm house of Mr. Cornelius O'Keeffe. It is a two-storeyed house, from which the usual outhouses stretch away to distance of sixty yards. These outhouses, in the main, are to the left of the entrance to the farm house, and a low tar wooded structure, divided into compartments, and used as a stables and stores. It is in the second of these compartments that the ill-fated men settled for the night, and, as will be shown, came to that decision at least after half past ten. This space is given over to a heap of hay and straw, a, bin of oats, and horse-tackling suspended here and there, and a stack of mangolds thrown in a corner.
Tho outhouses, or stables, face a field with a sharp decline, and pacing 20 to 50 paces one meets the places in which they fell dead, riddled with bullets. All the spots are marked with blood pools, and near by the turf is cut up with the narrow, sharp defiles of rifle bullets.
There are two such spots close together, a third a little away to the right towards the division of the fields, and a fourth is a large pool in which there lies pieces of flesh, and stuck on to the stone fence near at hand is a piece of human tongue.
Then one goes over to the next field, from which there is a defined passage to the Clogheen road, with the exit near the schoolhouse. The bodies were dragged along this way to the road, where they were put into lorries and taken away an hour or two later. Everyone in the neighbourhood spoken to on the tragic events of the night shudders at the awful ordeal through which they passed.
Mrs O'Keeffe, who lives at her farm, Ballycannon, Kerry Pike, in a conversation with our representative, told of a number of men in police uniform knocking loudly at her door after four o'clock in the morning. While going to get a lighted candle to answer the knocks the battering at the door became more insistent until it ultimately gave away.
As her husband and herself reached the door they were met by uniformed men, who intimated that they were about to search the house. They did so. and, she adds, with courtesy. They then ordered them all, the household. back to bed, and left. taking Mr O'Keeffe with them.
A few minutes elapsed, and the noise of much firing was heard.
At this time there were seven or eight lorries of Crown forces in the neighbourhood. They moved off with Mr. O'Keeffe and the dead bodies towards Cork. Nothing has since been heard of Mr. O'Keeffe, and it was a distressing experience at his homestead on Wednesday, to see his wife naturally greatly agitated after her night's trying experiences, his three little children-two girls and a boy-innocent of the moment of the events that had passed his aged, mother bravely bearing up under the frightful strain, and farm hands and relatives nervous with fear from the impress of all the dreadful tragedies that had just taken place and filled with anxiety as to what may come. They all spoke with a hushed terror-stricken voice, of what had passed.
Some folk had been engaged during the morning in making close examination of the scene, and a young girl was met who had in a handkerchief spent bullets, to which were attached pieces of flesh, human hair, and clothing. The clothing was of flannel, suggesting that the men had settled down for a few hours rest, and only removed jackets, and probably vests.
Part of the clasp of a pair of braces was also picked up. The scene in the field where the men were shot, outside the stable, is revolting.
One views it with a shudder, and sympathy must extend to Mrs. O'Keeffe, whose homestead has been the centre of events that are the most sensational that have yet occurred near Cork city.
She has had many visitors during the day, but one of the earliest was Rev. father O'Callaghan. C.C.. who came to console her in the great trial through which she had passed.
No Newspaper copy - newspaper image is split down the middle of article}
Evening Echo - Cork - Friday 25 March 1921
CROWLEY- ON March 23rd, 1921, Daniel Crowley second son of Patrick and Elizabeth Crowley Blarney Street, aged 22 years, shot dead at Ballycannon, Clogheen. Deeply regretted by his sorrowing father, mother, brothers and sisters, and a large circle of friends. Sweet Jesus have mercy on his soul. Funeral arrangements later.-(American papers please copy).
DEASY-On March 23rd, 1921, William Deasy. second son of William Deasy, Mount Desert, Blarney Road, aged 20 years, shot dead at Ballycannon, Clogheen. Deeply mourned by hit sorrowing father, mother, and brothers, and a large circle of friends. Sweet Jesus have mercy on his soul. Funeral arrangements later.-(American papers please copy).
DENNEHY-On March 23rd, 1921, Thomas Dennehy, sixth son of Kate and the late Patrick Dennehy. 161 Blarney Street, aged 21 years, shot dead at Ballycannon, Clogheen. Deeply regretted by his sorrowing mother, brothers and sister and relatives, and a large circle of friends. Sweet Jesus have mercy on his soul. R.I.P. Funeral arrangements later.
MURPHY-On March 23rd, 1921 Daniel Murphy, second son of the late Edward Murphy, pig-buyer, Orrery Hill, off Blarney Street, aged 24 years, shot dead at Ballycannon, Clogheen. deeply regretted by his sorrowing sisters and brothers, and a large circle of friends. Sweet Jesus have merry on his soul. Funeral arrangements later.-(American papers please copy).
O'MULLANE-On March 23rd, 1921, Jeremiah O'Mullane, eldest son of Jeremiah and Nora O'Mullane, 227 Blarney Street, aged 23 years, shot dead at Ballycannon, Clogheen. Deeply regretted by his sorrowing father, mother. brother, and sisters, and a large circle of friends. Sweet Jesus have mercy on his soul. Funeral arrangements later.
O'SULLIVAN-On March 23rd. 1921, Michael O'Sullivan. aged 20 years, eldest son of. Stephen and Margaret O'Sullivan, 281 Blarney street. shot dead At Ballycannon, Clogheen, Deeply regretted by his sorrowing father, mother, brothers and sisters and a large circle of friends. Sweet Jesus have mercy on his soul. R.I.P. Funeral arrangements later.
The Freeman's Journal - Saturday 26 March 1921; Page 5
MOURNING SCENES IN CORK
Remains of the Kerry Pike Victims in Cathedral
IMPRESSIVE - TRIBUTE
Crowds Throng Church to Pay Last Respects
(From Our Special Representative.)
Cork, Good Friday.
The bodies of the six young men who were shot, by the police at Kerry Pike, in the townland of Ballycannon, five miles from Cork, early on Wednesday morning, were removed from the military barracks to Cork Cathedral at 8 o'clock last evening.
Their names are:-Jeremiah Mullane, Daniel Murphy, Daniel Crowley, William Denny; Michael Sullivan, and Thomas Dennehy.
For a considerable time before the funeral left the barracks large numbers of people lined the route along which the cortege would have to pass. Many walked behind the coffins, which were borne on six-hearses, and as the funeral passed slowly through the streets the crowds who lined both sides stood bareheaded.
UNINTERFERED WITH.
There was no interference by the military, some of whom were, however, on the streets
as usual.
To-day the church was crowded with a reverent congregation, the members of which paid their respects to the dead during the afternoon. The coffins' enclosing the remains of the dead men were in the church during the sacred ceremonies of Good Friday and prayers were offered up for their spiritual welfare.
The coffins, as they lay in the church, were uncovered, and the people in the church could see the faces of the dead men, with one exception, that of one of the victims whose face was so frightfully disfigured that a cloth was kept over it.
The funerals will take place on Sunday.
At a meeting of the Cork Corporation yesterday, Mr. Good moved the adjournment of the Council as a mark of sympathy with the relatives of the men who had been killed at Kerry Pike the previous morning.
Mr. Kelleher seconded the motion, and the Deputy Lord Mayor (Mr. Barry Egan), in declaring the motion passed, said in view of the uncertainty attached to the whole matter he desired the Council to empower him to write to General Strickland asking that an independent inspection of the bodies by made by an independent medical man.
The Council then adjourned.
GENERAL STRICKLAND'S SILENCE.
Up to the present no reply has been received from General Strickland in response to the Corporation's request by resolution for an independent medical inspection of the bodies. The removal, however, of the bodies from the military barracks to the Cathedral renders a reply from the General unnecessary, inasmuch as the Corporation can now, it is presumed, authorise a post mortem examination as the remains have been removed from military custody.
COLLEAGUES AND A VICTIM.
At a specially convened meeting of the executive. Committee of the Prudential Staff Association today a resolution of sympathy on behalf of the entire staff in Munster was passed with the relatives of their late colleague, Thomas Dennehy, who, the resolution went on, "met his death in such a cruel manner."
"We, his colleagues of the insurance profession, shall always remember him, as a loyal, true, upright and honest comrade and a credit to the profession, in which such a brilliant future was in store for him."
Sympathy was also tendered to the relatives of the other five young men.
FOUR ARRESTS BY POLICE.
Searches were made on Thursday by police in the Killens district, not far from the scene of Wednesday's shootings at Clogheen. Four arrests were made. It is stated that a quantity of arms, ammunition, explosives, and documents were discovered, as well as two motor cars and a motor bicycle with sidecar attachment taken from their owners by, it is alleged, armed civilians.
Skibbereen Eagle - Saturday, March 26, 1921; Page: 6
TRAGEDIES NEAR CORK
SEVERAL MEN SHOT DEAD
WHILE ATTEMPTING TO ESCAPE
Clogheen, a few miles from Cork, which created a sensation some months ago by the discovery of a machine gun and other war material, and a girl wearing a steel armour, was the scene of a quadruple tragedy on Wednesday morning.
The details are somewhat obscure, but it appears that a number of men "on the run" from the police and military visited the house, of a farmer named Cors. O'Keeffe on Tuesday night, fearing to sleep in their own homes lest they should come within reach of the arm of the law.
It has been impossible to ascertain the names of these men with any degree of certainty, but it was fairly certain that they were Sinn Feiners.
Mr. O'Keeffe's house appears to be on the summit of a hill in the Clogheen district. It was a two-storeyed house, the usual type occupied by farmers. In close proximity to the residence are a number of out-houses, which are principally to the left of the dwelling, and there is a low wooden structure, tarred, and divided into compartments, which are used as a stable and stores.
It appears to be in the second of these compartments that the men settled for the night, and that they retired to enjoy the best rest they could under the circumstances, about 10.30. There was a heap of hay and straw, some cats and horse harness suspended here and there, and a heap of mangolds piled up in the corner for food for the horses and cattle.
Shortly before dawn on Wednesday morning a number of Crown forces proceeded to this farmstead. The exact nature of what occurred subsequently is not known, but it is stated that as the police approached the premises, one or more shots were fired at them, and that the fire was returned with such deadly effect that four of the men in the outhouse were shot dead.
Another rumour is that on the approach of the Crown forces the men ran away, and were shot while doing so, as they would not halt.
But whatever theory is correct, the fact remains that four of the men were immediately killed.
The land in the district is, to a large extent, marshy, rising on to the Clogheen road, and the bodies of the men were brought down this slope put into the lorries, and conveyed to the Cork Military Barracks.
The outhouses, or stables, face a field with a sharp decline, and about fifty yards distant is slated to be the place where the men fell. The place bears traces of blood marks, and the turf is penetrated with bullets.
In one of the spots pieces of flesh were visible, and adhering to a stone fence near by was a piece of human tongue.
The people of the district were terrified at the reports of firearms, about 60 shots having been altogether discharged.
The six men killed were :-Jeremiah Mullane, Daniel Murphy, Daniel CrowIey, Wm. Deasy, Michael Sullivan, and Thos. Dennehy.
Interviewed by a Press representative, Mrs. O'Keeffe, who lives at her farm, Ballycannon, Kerry Pike, stated that a number of men in uniform knocked Ioudly at the door about 4 o'clock in the morning. She endeavoured to get a lighted candle, and while doing so there was loud battering at the door, which gave away.
The men intimated that they were about to search the house. This they did in a courteous manner. They took Mr. O'Keeffe with them, and ordered the others back to bed. Very shortly afterwards the noise of much firing was heard and Mrs. O'Keeffe was terrified as to her husband's safety.
Her husband and some other members of the family were in the outhouse the previous night at 10.30, attending to a sick horse, and there was then no one in the house, or any signs of any persons loitering about.
The terrible tragedies of the early morning, therefore, caused her a great shock. Her husband was allowed to dress, and get on his overcoat, and was then removed in the lorries.
At a publichouse at Kerry Pike the policemen knocked, were admitted, and served with refreshments, of which Mr. O'Keeffe also partook. Afterwards he was taken by the Crown forces to Cork.
ANOTHER ACCOUNT
Another account states that the struggle at Clogheen on Wednesday morning was a desperate one. It appears that the police were on the look-out for three wanted men, and visited Mr. O'Keeffe's farm at Ballycannon.
The three men, with three others, were in a shed, or outhouse, near the dwellinghouse.
The police appear to have surrounded the shed, and it is stated that the six civilians opened fire on them with revolvers. A fierce engagement followed, the men having the advantage of cover, but the fire from the Crown forces became so hot that the position for the men within the building was made untenable, and they determined to make a dash for liberty.
They had not gone many yards, however, when all six were killed. It is reported that they were armed with revolvers and expanding bullets.
Tho bodies were removed to Cork Military Barracks, where a court of inquiry, in lieu of inquest, will be held.
Evening Echo - Cork - Monday, March 28, 1921; Page: 3
CLOGHEEN TRAGEDY
FUNERAL OF VICTIMS
IMPRESSIVE SCENE
For some time past Cork City has been accustomed to many striking scenes of mourning, but it is doubtful if in recent years a parallel could be found for the demonstration of grief witnessed yesterday on the occasion of the interment of the six young men killed in such tragic circumstances at Ballycannon, near Clogheen, in the early hours of last Wednesday.
The names of the deceased were Jeremiah O'Mullane, 227 Blarney Street, aged 23; Daniel Crowley, 171 Blarney Street, 22 years; William Deasy, Mount Desert, Blarney road, 20 years; Thomas Dennehy, 104 Blarney Street, 21 years; Daniel Murphy, Orrery Hill, 24 years, and Michael Sullivan, 281 Blarney Street, 20 years.
The extreme youth of the deceased, coupled with the appallingly tragic conditions in which they met their deaths, served to heighten the poignant sadness of the occasion, and the funeral scenes yesterday had associated with them a degree of appealing impressiveness that was touching in the extreme.
Since their removal from the military barracks to the Cathedral on Thursday evening, the remains of the deceased lay in the mortuary attached to the church, and were here visited by thousands of mourners until yesterday, when the funeral took place to the Republican plot in the New Cemetery.
The scenes associated with the sad cortege were both solemn and affecting, and mirrored not alone the intense and widespread sense of sorrow which the tragedy evoked, but also supplied abiding attestation of the feeling of condolence entertained for the bereaved relatives.
Notwithstanding the military restrictions, the precincts of the Cathedral was thronged with people anxious to pay a sympathetic tribute to the memory of the deceased, as well as to illustrate their condolence with the afflicted families, and friends.
The customary military display at these funerals was, on this occasion, considerably increased, and at an early hour seven lorries and two armoured cars arrived in the vicinity of the Cathedral and took up positions, one party at the top of Roman street, and the other in Gerald Griffin street, near St. Mary's Hall.
The following notice was served on his Lordship Most Rev. Dr. Cohalan, Bishop of Cork, and on Very Rev. Canon O'Sullivan. Adm.:-
Headquarters 17th Infantry Brigade, 27th March, 1921: Dear Sir-In accordance with instructions issued by the Irish Government concerning the restrictions to be placed on the number of persons allowed to attend funerals, the military Governor has decided that not more than 150 persons will be permitted to take part in the funeral procession. of Jeremiah Mullane and others today. These persons will be required to conform to the following regulations.
(a) They will not be allowed to march in military formation, or allowed to carry out any military exercise;
(b) no demonstrations of a kind likely to case a disturbance will be allowed;
(c) no Republican flags or I.R.A. badges will be displayed.
The Republican flag will not be permitted on the coffins. The funeral procession is to proceed via Washington street and Patrick street.
It is requested that you will inform all concerned and do all in your power to see that these orders are carried out. A copy of this letter has been sent to the Lord Bishop of Cork.
-Yours truly, B. L.. Montgomery, Major, Brigade Major, 17th Infantry Brigade.
This notification was duly communicated to those in charge of the funerals, and a far as could be seen there was no feature of the procession that did not conform to these regulations.
Owning to the Easter ceremonies, there being High Mass at all the churches, the start of the funeral was considerably delayed; as priests from distant churches in the city had to be convenienced as regards their arrival.
It was not then till about 2 o'clock that the first of the coffins were borne from the Cathedral mortuary on the shoulders of the deceased's companions, and preceded by a bier in each instance, were shouldered the whole way to St Finbarr's Cemetery.
The order in which the coffins were borne in the cortege was, Thomas Dennehy, Jerh. O"Mullane, Wm. Deasy, Daniel Murphy, Daniel Crowley, Ml. O'Sullivan.
There was no military interference with the course of the sad procession, with the exception, perhaps, that, as the last coffin containing the remains of Ml. O'Sullivan was being borne on the shoulders of his friends, the officer. commanding the military detachments present Interfered just behind the bier and refused to allow what he presumably regarded as military formation. People were, however, permitted to walk on the footpaths on either side. and the cordon was soon after withdrawn.
The officiating clergymen were-Very Rev Canon MI. O'Sullivan, Adm., Cathedral; Rev. J. C. O'Flynn, C.C.. Cathedral; Rev. James McDonnell, C.M., St Vincent's- Rev. A. Boyle, do.; Rev. J. Boyle, do.; Rev T Kelly. do.
Amongst the clergymen _present were-Rev. J _O'Callaghan, C.C., Cathedral; Rev Dr. Cohalan, University College , Cork: Rev. P Cahalane. M.A., C.C, St. Finbarr's, West; Rev. Wm. O'Brien, C.C., Cathedral; Rev. P. Moylan, A.M., Blackrock road; Rev. Father Glendon, O.P.. St. Mary's, Rev Fr Breen, do; Rev Father Barrett do; Rev Father Matthew, O .F.M; Rev. Fr. O'Shea C.C., Cathedral; Rev Father McSwiney, C.C., Clifton; Rev. Fr. McGuckin. Diocesan Inspector; Rev Fr. Fehilly, C.C. SS Peter and Paul's: Rev. Fr. KIerks Sacred Heart College; Rev. E. Fitzgerald, C.C. Chaplain, Cork Male Prison; Rev. John Ahern, C.C. Cathedral: Rev. Fr. Vincent Murphy, Farranferris; Rev. Fr. Dempsey. O.S.A.; Rev. Fr. Jones, CM. .St. Vincents; Rev. Fr. O'Connor, Rockhampton. Australia; Fr. W. Butler, A.M.. Blackrock road; Fr. Ml. Collins. A.M.. do.: Fr. P Harmon, A.M., Wilton, Fr. J; McDonnell, A.M . do.; Fr. Bernardine, O.S.F.C.. Holy Trinity; Rev Dr Edwin, Provincial, O.S.F.C. . St. Bonaventure's: Rev. Dr. Cyril, O.S.F.C.. do.; Fr. P. McSweeney, C.C, St. Finbarr's (South); Rev. T. O'Leary. C.C., do.; Rev. P. Fitzgibbon, M.C.S.. Sacred Heart College.
As the cortege proceeded through the city there were numerous manifestations of popular sympathy. The streets were thronged with people who reverently saluted the remains as the six coffins, draped in the Republican flag, followed immediately by the mourners in each instance, passed by.
The church bells tolled, blinds were drawn in every shop and house, and the sombre surroundings of the pathetic demonstration had, perhaps. a sadly marked contrast when a beautiful sun glinted on the shining helmets of the soldiers in the Iorries, as they interspersed the mourning carriages containing the bereaved relatives.
The Corporation, the County Council, the Board of Guardians, and several outside county bodies, were represented and the whole was a demonstration seldom equalled in its imposing impressiveness in Cork.
The military officer halted the procession once in Washington street, and informed Canon O'Sullivan that the regulations of the order were not being observed. Considerably more than 150 persons were marching, and most of those were compelled to follow on the footpaths.
Arriving at the cemetery. the six coffins were laid side by side in two large graves, and about 50 priests chanted the Benedictus. Very Rev. Canon O'Sullivan read the last prayers, and three coffins were placed in each large grave. The cemetery was surrounded by military and police, and three amateur photographers, who were taking snapshots, were arrested.
All men leaving the cemetery were searched, and several more arrests were made. The customary grave side honours were, however, imparted.
Kilkenny People - Saturday, April 02, 1921; Page: 4
The Kerry Pike Shootings.
VICTIMS BURIED IN REPUBLICAN PLOT.
IMPRESSIVE SCENES.
The special representative of the " Freeman's Journal", writing from Cork on Easter Sunday, says-
Scenes of an impressive and solemn character marked the interment of the six Cork men who were killed in a field in Kerry Pike early on Wednesday morning.
Following the celebration on Easter Sunday High Mass at the North Cathedral at 12 o'clock, the coffins were borne upon the shoulders of Volunteers to be taken to St Finbarr's Cemetery, where they were buried in the Republican Plot beside the bodies of Tomas MacCurtain, Terence MacSwiney, and other Republicans
Prior to the start of the cortege a large party of fully equipped troops in lorries, supported by armoured cars, drew up outside the Cathedral, in charge of a lieutenant-colonel who handed to the parish priest an order relating to the composition of the procession.
The document stated that in accordance with instructions issued by the Irish Government concerning restrictions to be placed on the number of persons attending funerals the Military Governor had decided not to allow more than 150 persons to take part in the funeral procession of James Mullane and others.
THE MILITARY RESTRICTIONS
Those persons the order proceeded, would be required to conform to the following regulations - -They would not be allowed to march in military formation or carry out any military exercise.
-No demonstration of a kind likely to cause disturbance would be allowed.
-No Republican flags or I.R.A. badges were to be displayed
The document a copy of which was sent to the Lord Bishop of Cork, concluded with a request to the parish priest that he would inform all concerned and do all in his power to see that these orders were carried out.
Neither the officer in charge of the troops nor his men were officious in enforcing the edict when the funeral started, but in several instances later there was some interference.
A party of young men who marched in military formation behind the coffin of Michael O'Sullivan were informed shortly after they left the Cathedral that they were transgressing that portion of the regulations prohibiting military exercises, and were obliged to disband
MILITARY ADVANCE GUARD
It was generally believed that the Lieut Colonel carried out his instructions during the initial stages with courtesy and consideration and inflicted as little inconvenience as possible upon the mourners.
The head of the procession, which consisted of an armoured car and two lorries of troops descended into Patrick street shortly after 2 o'clock.
Immediately behind those came two enclosed carriages containing several priests.
Then came an empty hearse, another contingent of priests regular and secular, and a coffin enclosing the remains of Thomas Dennehy.
The chief mourners in carriages were next in order, followed by parties of young men and representatives of the Cumann na mBan.
The coffin of Jeremiah Mullane was borne an the shoulders of four young men, and those of William Deasy, Daniel Murphy, Daniel Crowley and Michael O'Sullivan followed at regular intervals, borne on the shoulders of young men.
The coffins were covered with the Republican colours.
Four lorries with troops completed the procession
SPECTATORS DEEPLY MOVED.
Along St. Patrick street, Washington street and the Western road large crowds of reverent spectators stood uncovered as the coffins passed. Strangers in the city watching the cortege as it moved towards the cemetery were deeply moved by the sight, the poignancy of which was accentuated by the display of armed forces and the grief and anguish of the bereaved relatives on the other.
In addition to the troops who accompanied the procession in front and behind an armoured car, with machine gun in position drove along the thoroughfares through which the funeral passed.
No untoward incident happened to mar the solemnity of the proceedings until Washington street was reached, when several tenders containing Crown forces broke through the procession.
AN INTERRUPTION.
On the Western road the cortege was halted and Canon O'Sullivan, the parish priest from the Cathedral was informed that the regulations were not being complied with, there being, considerably more than 150 persons following the coffins at this stage The people, therefore were compelled to follow on the footpaths.
At the graveside the six coffins were laid side by side near two large graves. The burial service was chanted by about 50 priests.
Canon O'Sullivan read the last prayers and three coffins were then placed in each grave.
While the last ceremonies were being conducted the troops surrounded the cemetery and three photographers were placed under arrest. All males leaving the last resting place of the dead were searched, and several further arrests were made.
CASE FOR INVESTIGATION.
Reference was made to the tragedy at Clogheen at the Cathedral on Easter Sunday by his Lordship the Most Rev Dr. Cohalan, who said that that day should be one of unmixed joy, but unfortunately that was not so. The presence of the military on the streets and the dead in the mortuary were sufficient justification to warrant the statement that it was not a day of unmixed joy.
In the official report it was stated that the police were searching for " three known murderers." He considered that statement was very unjust. Nobody should be called a murderer who had not been tried and convicted.
These men were not tried and had not been convicted, and it was very wrong to say that the police were looking for three known murderers.
If the view held by many people was true, that these boys had not used firearms or bombs or violence, then the shooting of these boys, without trial and without being convicted, should be regarded as murder.
As to whether these boys had arms or bombs he could offer no opinion, but to satisfy the public conscience the case should be investigated. Speaking from the altar, he knew the public conscience was terribly shocked by the news of the tragedies.
If the official view was correct these men should have been arrested and put on trial.
Cork Examiner - Cork - Friday, December 30, 1921; Page: 4
MICEAL O AONGUSA. Uactaran
PROPOSED MEMORIAL.
Sir,-Now that I see the Corporation have seen fit to beautify the much neglected little park at the foot of Shandon street by the planting of shrubs etc,. I think the time is opportune when the residents of the "North West Ward" should come together, and by united action, erect a memorial therein, in the form of a suitable monument to the memories of the late first Republican Lord Mayor of Cork, Aid. Thomas MacCurtan, The Very Rev. Father O'Callaghan, Thadg Barry, and those six brave boys who were so cruelly done to death at Ballycannon, Kerry Pike: all of whom have so nobly shed their blood in the cause that Ireland may stand independent among the nations of the earth. I feel sure if the Corporation are waited upon, they will do everything to promote this laudable project. -Yours faithfully.
NORTH WEST WARD RESIDENT 29th Dec. 1921.
WS1656DanielHealyStatement_IncludingBallycannonWitnessSatements.pdf
APPENDIX,
I Jeremiah O'Flaherty of Kerry Pike, Carrigrohane, in the County of Cork, National School Teacher, aged twenty-one years and upwards, make oath and say as follows: -
1. I live in the School Teacher's house at. Kerry Pike at the eastern side of the school and the windows of my house overlook the farm of Cornelius O'Keeffe which is situate on the north-east side thereof.
2. I remember the morning of Wednesday the 23rd March, 1921. About 4.30 a.m. on that morning I was awakened by a volley of shots. I jumped out of bed and went over to the window. It was then quite dark. I looked out and then called to my brother Morgan O'Flaherty who was sleeping in another bed next to mine. I said "There's shots somewhere", and he replied "You're dreaming about it", and I said I did not think so. My reason for saying that was because I saw lights in Cornelius O Keeffe's house and around his yard. I asked my brother what time it was and he looked at his watch and said "It is 4.30 a.m." I then said "What the Hell is up?" He said "They are probably Volunteers and may be preparing for an ambush." He got, out of bed and looked out for a moment, but I continued at the window. I could hear a lot of talk over in the field and men moving about with lights. I heard a man screaming, and then I heard another voice saying "Run for it. It was then somewhat lighter and I could see a man run away from the crowd at the corner of the shed outside Cornelius O'Keeffe's house,
He ran for about 20 yards and then a volley of shots were fired. I then saw men moving from the crowd carrying light and observed them (Page 2) looking at a man's body in the field. I said to my brother "Come out of bed quick because if they are Volunteers they must be shooting spies; they have just shot a man now". My brother then came to the window and looked out for five or six minutes with me. Ten minutes after the first shot another volley was fired, but I did not see anybody running away.
My brother went back to bed again and told me I had better get away from the window, as I might get one of the bullets passing. I remained at the window, however. Another volley rang out, after about ten minutes and I saw another man shot by portion of the same body of men that I saw originally. I then left the window as I was getting nervous. A few minutes afterwards another volley went off. It was then nearly light, and I could see they were Policemen by their uniforms and caps.
I called my sisters and told them if the police came to open the door quickly and let them search the place. By that time I had gone back to the window and saw the Police bring bodies down in blankets up the lane and left them outside our door in the lane which leads up to Cornelius O' Keeffe's place and within about 40 yards of the public road.
It was then 5.30 a.m. Motor lorries came about 6.30 a.m. and the bodies were removed to them.
The foregoing statement and facts are of my own knowledge, Jeremiah O'Flaherty
Sworn before me this fourteenth day of April, 1921 Lacaduv, Cork in the County of Cork. A Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Judicature in Ireland, and I know the Deponent.
John J. Morgan, Solr. Comm.
BUREAU OF MILITARY HISTORY 1913-21
BURO STAIRE MILEATA 1913-21
No W.S. 1656
I Jeremiah Deasy of Clogheen, Blarney Road, Cork, aged 18 year and upwards make oath and say as follows:-
1. I reside at (Clogheen, Blarney Road, Cork, and am a Clerk by occupation,
2. I am a brother of the late William Deasy, Junior, and knew and was well acquainted with Jerome Mullane, of Blarney Street, Cork, Thomas Dennehy, Blarney Street, Cork, Daniel Murphy, Orrery Hill, Cork, Michael O'Sullivan, of Blarney Street, Cork, and Daniel Crowley, Blarney Street, Cork.
3. I attended at the Victoria Barracks, Cork, on the evening of Thursday, 24th March, 1921, and was taken down to the mortuary shed in the said barracks where I identified the bodies of the said William Deasy, Junior, (my brother), Jerome Mullane, Thomas Dennehy, Daniel Murphy, Michael O'Sullivan, and Daniel Crowley.
4. From the appearance of the bodies I could see that all the deceased, viz. William Deasy, Junior (my brother), Jerome Mullane, Thomas Dennehy, Daniel Murphy, Michael O'Sullivan and Daniel Crowley, had died from bullet wounds inflicted by shooting.
I was present when the bodies of the deceased were conveyed and removed from the said Barracks, and I accompanied them to the Cathedral, Cork, where they were examined by the Doctors.
6. The foregoing affidavit is made from facts of my own knowledge
Jeremiah Deasy.
SWORN before me this Twenty-seventh day of April, 1921, at South Mall in the City of Cork, A Commissioner for Affidavits for the Supreme Court of Judicature in Ireland, and I know the Deponent.
John J. Morgan, Solr. Corn,
BUREAU OF MILITARY HISTORY 1913-21
BURO STAIRE MILEATA 1913-21
No W.S. 1656
I Morgan O'Flaherty residing At Kerry Pike, Carrigrohane, in the county of Cork, Fitter, aged 21 years and upwards, make oath and say as follows :-
1. I reside with my brother, Jeremiah O'Flaherty, who is a School Teacher, at Kerry Pike, Carrigrohane,
2. I remember the morning of the 23rd March 1921. About 4.30 a.m of that morning I was awakened by my brother who told me that somebody was firing, over in O'Keeffe's farm. I said he was dreaming about it. He replied that he was not; that he had heard shots. I then got up and came to the window with him. We were standing at the window about ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, and I was just going to go to bed again when a volley of shots rang out in the field near O'Keeffe's farm. I thought it was some of the Volunteers practising. It was a fairly bright night and I could see about 30 or 40 men in O'Keeffe's field. After another quarter of an hour I heard a voice saying "Run for it" or words to that effect and someone screamed. I then heard another volley fired in the same place. I went back to bed for safety and two or three volleys were fired between that time and 5.30 a.m. when my brother called me again and told me to come out of bed and have a look at the people coming down the field as they looked very much like police. I then saw three policemen coming down the field and afterwards saw four more policemen carrying something in a white blanket. Another lot of policemen then came along with something wrapped in a blanket, which I saw when they were putting them into Motor Lorries were dead bodies.
About six Motor lorries came at 6.30 a.m, and the bodies were put into one of these. As the lorries were coming the Police on the road who had been at O'Keeffe's farm started cheering.
The foregoing statement and facts are of my own knowledge.
Morgan O' Flaherty
Sworn before me this fourteenth day of April, 1921, at South Mall In the City of Cork, a Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Judicature In Ireland, and I know the Deponent
John J. Morgan, Solr. Comm.
BUREAU OF MILITARY HISTORY 1913-21
BURO STAIRE MILEATA 1913-21
No W.S. 1656
I GEORGE FRANCIS HEGARTY of 9A. Morrison Island in the City of Cork, Medical Doctor, aged 21 years and upwards make oath and say as follows:-
1. In conjunction with Doctor A.M. Moore I attended at the North Cathedral. Mortuary Chapel, Cork, on the 26th March 1921 for the purpose of making a post mortem examination on the bodies of Daniel Murphy, Daniel Crowley, Michael O'Sullivan, Thomas Dennehy, William Deasy, and Jeremiah Mullane.
2. On examination of the body of a young man, which I was informed was that of Daniel Murphy, I found wounds in the back and chest. These wounds were bullet wounds, and were the cause of death. A bullet was extracted from one of the wounds,
3. On examination of the body of a young man, which, I was informed, was that of Daniel Crowley, I found four entrance wounds, and four exit wounds in the trunk of the body, one of them being in the neck. These wounds were also caused by bullets, and were the cause of death.
4. On examination of the body of a young man which I was informed was that of Michael O'Sullivan, I found a wound on his left thigh which was an exit wound, another in the back, and another wound in the front of his abdomen where I found a bullet, which, I think, came from the lower portion of his back. There were three entrance wounds on the back and some exit wounds on the front. He had an entrance wound in the centre of his forehead, and the skin around it was black as if the shot were fired at close range. At the back of his head I removed a bullet. All these wounds were bullet wounds, and were the cause of death.
5. On examination of the body of a young man, which I was informed was that of Thomas Dennehy I found bullet wounds all over his back, chest and legs.
Page 2
6. On examination of the body of a young man which I was informed was that, of William Deasy I found entrance wounds in the back of his head, and these wounds practically blew away the whole front of his face, a gaping wound in his leg, and five entrance with exit wounds in his back.
7. On examination of the body of a young man which I was informed was that of Jeremiah Mullane I found this body was riddled with bullets - more so than any of the others. There were twelve or thirteen seperate entrance wounds, and eleven exit wounds. I found two bullets on the body. There were two gaping wounds in his chest and gaping wounds in front of his abdomen with intestines protruding. A large wound on his thigh, and another wound on his left leg which blew away part of his foot. His left arm was also smashed. All these wounds were due to bullets, and were the cause of death.
8. The bullets found by us in the course of the post mortem examination were either revolver bullets, or sharp-pointed nickle-coated rifle bullets.
I make the foregoing affidavit, from facts within my own knowledge.
George F. Hegarty.
SWORN this Eighteenth day of May 1921 at South Mall in the City of Cork, before me a Commissioner for oaths for the Supreme Court of judicature in Ireland, and I know the Deponent.
John J. Morgan, Solr. Comm.
BUREAU OF MILITARY HISTORY 1913-21:
BURO STAIRE MILEATA 1913-21
No. W.S. 1656
I NELLIE MULCAHY of Ballycannon, Kerry Pike, in the county of Cork, Domestic Servant, aged 21 years and upwards make oath and say as follows:-
1. I am employed as domestic servant in the house of Mr. Cornelius O'Keeffe of Ballycannon, Kerry Pike, in the County of Cork.
2. I remember the morning of the 23rd March, 1921. About 4 a.m. on that morning I heard knocking at the farm-house door which woke me up. I heard police shouting and breaking in the door. They came into my bedroom and asked me if I had any men in the room. They then looked under the bed and searched the room. They went out, then and I heard them outside the bedroom door searching the remainder of the house. After about a quarter of an hour I heard men running in the yard. I looked out and saw one of the boys standing below the stable yard gate. His back was turned towards me. He had no coat or waistcoat on. The police were standing near him and had a flash lamp at his face. A few minutes later a man roared, and after a little time I heard someone call out "O Sacred Heart". I then heard two shots fired. After another few minutes I heard three or four shots fired and then I heard a terrible report as of a loud volley being fired. Afterwards the police passed backwards and forwards shouting and singing. I also saw something white like a blanket brought out on the field, and I saw something black near it. I then saw Mr. O' Keeffe being taken down the road by some police. I saw the police bringing up some sheets and throwing them over the wall. Afterwards I saw them throwing some bundles over the wall and dragging them down the field. I then dressed and came downstairs. The Police called me a terrible name. They also said they would burn us out of our beds. We came downstairs afterwards and heard noise in the parlour. He missed 8 silver articles, Teapots, silver jugs and ¹1 note. I heard an officer come in whilst the police were
Page 2
downstairs and asked them did they want to get a bad name to the R.I.C. They said they just got a bomb here. He said he searched the house himself before and found nothing.
3. I make the foregoing affidavit from facts within my own knowledge.
Nellie Mulcahy,
SWORN before me this 26 day of April 1921, at South Mall in the City of Cork, a Commissioner for Affidavits for the High Court of Justice in Ireland and I know the Deponent.
John J. Morgan.
BUREAU OF MILITARY HISTORY 1913-21
BURO STAIRE MILEATA 1013-21
No. W.S. 1656
I Denis Sullivan of Kerry Pike, Carrigrohane, in the County of Cork, Asylum Attendant, aged 21 years and upwards, make oath and say as follows :-
1. I reside at Kerry Pike aforesaid in the county of Cork, and am an Attendant at the Cork District Lunatic Asylum.
2. I remember the morning of the 23rd March, 1921. About 4.30 a.m. on that morning I heard a volley of shots fired in the direction of Cornelius O' Keeffe's farm which is at the back of my house. I did not not out of bed. I then heard two more volleys at intervals of about ten minutes fired in the same direction.
3. As I was going to my work, about 6.30 a.m. I saw about eight Police Motor Lorries on the road. They passed me and were going In the direction of Kerry Pike.
The foregoing statement and facts are of my own knowledge.
Denis Sullivan
Sworn before me this fourteenth day of April, 1921, at Lacaduv, Cork in the County of Cork, a Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Judicature in Ireland, and I know the Deponent.
John J. Morgan, Solr. Comm.
BUREAU OF MILITARY HISTORY 1913-21
BURO STAIRE MILEATA 1913-21
No. W.S. 1656
I CORNELIUS O'KEEFFE of Ballycannon, Kerry Pike, in the County of Cork, Farmer, aged 21, years and upwards, make oath and say as follows:.
1. I reside at Ballycannon, Kerry Pike, in the County of Cork, where I have a farm of 105 acres. This farm is situated on the northern side of the high road leadinf from Cork to Blarney, and is approached by a laneway leading from said road. The farm house consists of a kitchen, parlour and four bedrooms. There are also extensive out-offices, barns, and sheds for cattle, also stables.
2. I remember the night of Tuesday the 22nd March, 1921. About 11.30 p.m. on that night there was a knock at my door after we had all gone to bed. I asked "Who is there?" and a voice replied "There are a couple of us going to sleep down in the stables; give us a call at 7 in the morning". I said "Alright" and went to sleep.
About. 4 a.m. next morning. (Wednesday the 23rd March, 1921) there was a terrible thundering knock at my door. I leaped out of bed and looked out through the window. I saw the police outside. Before I could say anything they roared at me to open the door. I tried to light a lamp on the table but failed to do so. One of the police then roared up at me to open the door if I didn't want to get a bullet.
Just as I rushed downstairs to open the door it was burst open by the police and they said to me "Why the bloody hell didn't you open the door"? I explained that the delay was due to the lamp not lighting. They then asked me if I had any man in the house. I said there was no man there only myself. They asked me if there were any man in the out-house. I said "I can't tell but the doors are unlocked." They ordered me back to bed and searched the beds and the other roos in the house.
They then went outside and I heard them search the out-houses. I was looking out the
Page 2
window and suddenly saw all the police rush up to where the lads were sleeping. I went into bed then and in about ten minutes time the police came in and took me out into the yard. They then charged me with harbouring Rebels which I denied. They then took me about 100 yards away from the out-house and gave me in charge to a Sergeant and Constable of the Royal Irish Constabulary. One of the Black and Tans came up to where I was standing with the other policemen and told them that, they could find no arms in the house. The Police then asked me to tell them where the arms were, and I said I did not know.
As they were speaking to me I heard one of the boys roaring as if he was being tortured. I then saw one of the boys being pushed across the field. It. was still somewhat dark and he was too far away to distinguish who it was. The Black and Tan then returned and said "He is showing where the arms are". They then carried the same boy over to the ditch and brought him back to the stables again.
A few minutes after I heard a shot. Then at intervals there were two or three shots and then a volley of shots. I asked the policeman what the shooting was about, and he replied they they were only blank cartridges. I said "My God, the people in the house will go mad". And he said "What did the people do the other day when they fired into the train at Headford Junction?"
A report then came up from the other body of police that one of the lads had escaped and to watch out for them. The police with me then prepared to shoot in case anyone would attempt to escape. There were them some terrible volleys fired where the boys were. I then knelt down and said my prayers as I thought my turn would be next.
The police near me were shouting to the others not to shoot in our direction for fear they would be shot themselves. I was sent up for then and taken down to where the
Page 3
boys were. There two lines of Black and Tans in front of the stables so that I could not see who was there. As I was being taken down the field where the shooting was I saw two of the boys stretched out, on the grass.
I was then taken over the road and down to Kennedy's public-house at the Cross. After some conversation, in which they accused me of keeping arms on my premises which I denied, I was brought back to Flaherty's gate and I then saw five bodies being removed from my farm. They were all covered up in blankets. These bodies were placed in a lorry.
They then brought out the sixth of the boys who was then alive and as they were throwing him into the lorry he said "Oh, my leg". There was a bandage around his forehead.
They put me into the third lorry. They drove me in by Healy's Bridge and the Lee Road as far as Cale's quarry. When they got there the first lorry in which the bodies were went on and I did not see it again.
I was taken up to the Military Barracks where I was kept in the Detention Barracks until the 17th April, 1921, and then released without any charge being brought against me.
3. I make the foregoing statement from facts within my own knowledge.
Cornelius O'Keeffe
Sworn before me this 25th day of April, 1921, at South Mall, in the City of Cork, a Commissioner for Affidavits the Supreme Court, of Judicature In Ireland, and I know the Deponent.
John J. Morgan, Solr. Comm.
BUREAU OF MILITARY HISTORY 1913-21
BURO STARE MILEATA 1913-21
No. W.S. 1656 [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] |
1900 - 1921 (20 years)
: Address
: Location
: City/Town
: County/Shire
: State/Province
: Country
: Not Set
