Cork City Revolution Trail

2. Collins (Victoria) Barracks

During the Irish Revolution, Victoria Barracks was the largest and most significant British Army installation in Munster. Following the 1916 Rising, Commandant Thomas Kent of the of the Irish Volunteers was court-martialled, executed and buried in the Detention Barracks. In 1921, thirteen members of the IRA were executed in the barracks and buried in the grounds of Cork Male Prison. From 1919-1922, the barracks contained the headquarters of the British Army’s 6 ^th  Division, which had Munster as its area of operations and the 17 ^th  Infantry Brigade which was responsible for Cork city and county.  Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney was court-martialled there on 16 August 1920. Members of K Company of the Auxiliary Division of the RIC, the unit primarily responsible for the Burning of Cork, were also based in the barracks. After the Treaty, the barracks was occupied by Cork No. 1 Brigade. It was burned by anti-Treaty IRA forces during the Civil War in August 1922.

3. No. 40 Thomas Davis Street, Blackpool

20 March 1920: In the early hours of the morning masked members of the RIC forced their way into the shop and home of Tomás Mac Curtáin, the Lord Mayor of Cork and Officer Commanding, Cork No. 1 Brigade of the IRA, and shot him dead.

4. Broad Street/ Broad Lane

17 November 1920:  In what became known as the ‘Broad Street Massacre’ on the night of 17 November, a number of RIC constables entered No. 2 Broad Street where they shot dead Patrick Hanley, a seventeen-year-old member of Na Fianna Éireann and wounded Stephen Coleman. The constables then forced their way into nearby 17 Broad Lane where they shot and wounded Charlie O’Brien, who was also a member of Fianna Éireann and IRA member Eugene O’Connell. The shootings were probably a reprisal for the IRA killing of RIC Sergeant James O’Donoghue at White Street earlier that evening.

5. No. 58 Mac Curtáin Street – RIC Barracks

1 July 1920: An IRA unit comprised of members of the 1 ^st  Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, attacked and seriously damaged the RIC barracks on what was then King Street. A bomb detonation next door failed to destroy the barracks, but did lead to its evacuation and eventual destruction by fire.  The barracks had housed RIC members who were likely participants in the assassination of Lord Mayor Tomas Mac Curtáin.

6. Cork City Hall

14 December 1913: Inaugural meeting of the Cork City Corps of Óglaigh na hÉireann (Irish Volunteers) 

30 January 1920: First meeting of the Republican Corporation and election of Tomás Mac Curtáin as Lord Mayor of Cork 

30 March 1920: Election of Terence MacSwiney as Lord Mayor of Cork 

11/12 December 1920: City Hall was burned by Crown forces, during a night of police arson in the city known as ‘The Burning of Cork’.

7. Parnell Bridge

4 January 1921: During ‘The Parnell Bridge Ambush-, an IRA unit from the 2 ^nd  Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, led by Mick Murphy, ambushed a ten-man RIC patrol as it walked along Union Quay. All ten policemen were wounded in the ambush, two mortally, with a number of civilians also injured.  Additional IRA units fired at police reinforcements coming from Elizabeth Fort on Barrack Street.

8. Site of Carnegie Free Library

12 December 1920: In the early hours of the morning, Crown forces set fire the Carnegie Free Library and nearby City Hall. At that moment most members of the Cork City Fire Brigade were struggling to combat the fires that had been set in buildings in St. Patrick Street earlier that night. Because of this, Superintendent Alfred Hutson could only spare a small number to fight these fires. Like their comrades in the city centre they too, where harassed and threatened by Crown forces and despite their best efforts, both the library and City Hall were consumed by flames.

9. No. 3 & 19 Fr Mathew Street (formerly Queen Street)

No. 3 Queen Street was the address of An Grianan. It was a centre of advanced nationalism in Cork city, as it once held the headquarters of the Cork Cumann na mBan, the O’Growney Branch of the Gaelic League, and Na Fianna Éireann. It also hosted concerts and lectures. Among those who spoke there were James Connolly and Countess Markievicz.

No. 19 Queen Street was the location of a building known as An Dún. This was used as an early meeting place and drill hall for Na Fianna Éireann and the Cork City Corps of Irish Volunteers, and to stage productions of Daniel Corkery’s Cork Dramatic Society.

10. South Mall - Cork County Club

17 July 1920: An IRA unit from Cork No. 1 Brigade entered the Cork County Club on the South Mall and shot dead Lieutenant Colonel Gerald Bryce Ferguson Smyth, the RIC Divisional Commissioner for South Munster. Smyth was associated with the incident in Listowel RIC Barracks known as the ‘Listowel Mutiny’. RIC County Inspector George Craig was also wounded in the attack, which took place in the club lounge.

11. No. 28 Marlboro Street

5 December 1914: In 1914 this building held the offices of the Cork Industrial Development Authority. It was here, on the night of 5 December 1914, that Diarmuid Fawsitt, a member of the authority; J. J. Walsh, the secretary of the Cork County Board of the GAA; Liam de Róiste, a prominent member of the Gaelic League and Maurice O’Connor, a nationalist law student in UCC met and decided to organise a public meeting to establish a cork City Corps of Irish Volunteers.

12. Sullivans Quay

Headquarters of the Cork City Fire Brigade led by Captain Alfred Hutson. In the later stages of the War of Independence, fire brigade members worked heroically to fight the numerous fires caused by the Crown forces’ official and unofficial reprisal attacks, as well as RIC barracks and government buildings burned by the IRA. Fire Brigade members here assisted the IRA throughout the War of Independence by hiding weapons and transporting IRA leaders.

13. National Monument/Grand Parade

From 1914, the Cork City Irish Volunteers paraded to the National Monument on a number of occasions. The Grand Parade was also used for a number of political meetings such as the one held during the 1918 Conscription Crisis and those held in 1922 for and against the Anglo-Irish Treaty that were addressed by Michael Collins and Éamon de Valera.

14. Lower Barrack Street

9 October 1920: During the ‘Barrack Street Ambush’, an IRA unit from the 2 ^nd  Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade, (including Capt. Tadhg O’Sullivan) ambushed a lorry carrying British soldiers near the junction of Cobh Street and Barrack Street. One soldier was killed in the ambush. Three other soldiers, one IRA Volunteer, and a number of civilians were also wounded.

15. No 86 and 92 Douglas Street

92 Douglas Street: Drapery shop owned by Cumman na mBan member Mary Clifford, was used as an office by the intelligence officer of the IRA’s 2 ^nd  Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade. Republican couriers dropped and collected messages there, while Clifford hid sensitive records and fugitives there. 

86 Douglas Street: Drapery shop owned by Mary Collins, President of the Saint Brigid’s Branch of Cumann na mBan. This premises was used to collect funds for numerous republican organisations and to store weapons for the IRA’s 2 ^nd  Battalion of the Cork No. 1 Brigade. From early 1921 it also functioned as a battalion headquarters.

16. No 82 Douglas Street

19 April 1921: Captain Tadhg O’Sullivan of the IRA’s 2 ^nd  Battalion, Cork No.1 Brigade was shot dead by Crown forces while trying to escape from arrest. He had fled from a British roadblock outside, was chased into the building, and shot dead as he climbed out a window.  O’Sullivan was a senior member of the 2 ^nd  Battalion who was involved in many of the unit’s armed operations.

(Image – Captain Tadhg O’Sullivan around 1921. (source: Cork City Library)

17. Debenham’s Building on St. Patrick’s Street

11/12 December 1920: At around 9 pm., two hours after the IRA ambushed a patrol of Auxiliaries at Dillon’s Cross, the largest the largest arson attack committed by the Crown forces during the War of Independence took place in the centre of Cork. Known as ‘The Burning of Cork’, it resulted in the destruction of the eastern side of St. Patrick Street, the City Hall and the Carnegie Free Library. £2,000,000 worth of damage was done and around 2,000 people were made unemployed

18. Corner of Prince’s Street and St. Patrick’s Street

23 November 1920: Volunteers James Mehigan, Patrick O’Donoghue and Patrick Trahy, all members of the 2nd Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade of the IRA, were killed by a bomb explosion while standing at the junction of Princes Street.

19. St Augustine Street

1919-1921: Site of the shop belonging to Nora and Shelia Wallace. From 1919 to 1921 this shop served as a secret communications centre and headquarters for the IRA’s Cork No. 1 Brigade.  Sheila served as the Brigade Communications Officer, while Nora acted as a courier and intelligence agent. The sisters also organized Irish Citizen Army branches in the city.

20. No. 53 North Main Street

This building contained McGurk’s Bar and a Sinn Féin office overhead. It also served as a headquarters of Na Fianna Éireann (the republican boy scouts) in the city.  Following a warning in the local newspapers signed by ‘B & Ts’, it was destroyed by an arson attack on the night of 27 November 1920.

21. No. 23 North Main Street

The birth place of Terence MacSwiney. A poet, author and playwright, at the time of his death by hunger strike on 25 October 1920, MacSwiney was also the Commanding Officer of Cork No. 1 Brigade of the IRA and Lord Mayor of Cork.

22 No. 20 Sheares Street

From February 1915 to June 1917 this building was known as the Volunteer Hall and was the headquarters of the Cork Brigade of Irish Volunteers. During the Easter Rising, Tomás Mac Curtáin, Terence MacSwiney and members of the Cork City Battalion of Irish Volunteers occupied the hall which was surrounded and observed by members of the Crown forces.

23. No. 15 North Mall

18 November 1920: Around 3.15am on 18 November 1920, a few hours after the RIC retaliation attack known as known as ‘The Broad Street Massacre’, masked men wearing police uniforms, knocked on the door of 15 North Mall, the home of James Coleman, the proprietor of the Franciscan Well Mineral Water Company (at 13 South Mall). When he opened the door, they shot him dead on his doorstep.

24. North Gate Bridge

18 July 1920: On the evening of 18 July 1920, a group of ex-servicemen coming from a boxing match in the Opera House had an altercation with British soldiers on the Shandon Street side of the North Gate Bridge. During this incident, James Bourke, a former member of the Royal Field Artillery received a fatal bayonet wound.

Following Bourke’s funeral, street clashes erupted between Cork ex-servicemen and British soldier around the city centre. During this incident, William McGrath, a former member of the Leinster Regiment who had lost an arm in the Great War, was shot dead by British soldiers near Angel Lane on North Main Street. Prior to being shot, McGrath had rescued a young girl who had been huddling in a doorway to avoid indiscriminate machinegun fire that was coming from a British Army armoured car

25. Pope’s Quay

19 March 1920: Around 11 pm, the IRA shot dead RIC Constable Joseph Murtagh as he was walking along Pope’s Quay towards his home on Sunday’s Well.  The stated reason for his killing was that Murtagh had illtreated Republican prisoners during interrogation. This incident led to the RIC killing of Lord Mayor Tomás Mac Curtáin two hours later.

26. University College Cork

Cork Male Prison played a major role during and before the War of Indepedence. The most notable events associated with the prison at that time are:

11 November 1918: Members of the Cork No. 1 Brigade mounted a daring and successful operation to rescue Volunteer Donnchadh McNeilus from the prison. On 4 November MacNeilus had shot and seriously wounded Head Constable Clarke of the RIC while the police were searching MacNelius’s lodgings at the home of Denis Kelleher at 28 Leitrim Street.

11 August 1920: Republican prisoners in the prison commence a hunger strike. Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney joins this strike after his arrest in City Hall the following day. While MacSwiney would die in Brixton Prison in London on 25 October 1920, the following two Volunteers would die in Cork Prison as a result of their protest:

Commandant Michael Fitzgerald (17 October 1920)

Volunteer Joe Murphy (25 October 1920)

Nine men survived the above Hunger Strike. It lasted 94 days and is still an Irish record. Seven died after release at a young age from the illnesses they endured while on strike. They are known as" The Nine Survivors": Joseph (Joe) Kenny, Grenagh; Chris Upton, Ballylanders; John (Jack) Crowley, Ballylanders; Peter Crowley, Ballylanders; Michael O’ Reilly, Ballylanders; Sean Hennessy, Carey’s Rd., Limerick; Michael Burke, Foulkstown, Co. Tipperary; Thomas Donovan, Emly, Co. Tipperary;John Power, Rosegreen, Co. Tipperary

In 1921, thirteen members of the IRA were executed by British Army firing squad in Victoria Barracks. These men were buried in a mass grave on the grounds of the prison (now on the campus of UCC).

27. Cork Women’s Prison

When it first opened in 1824, this prison housed both male and female inmates and the Cork Fenian, Brian Dillon was held there after his arrest in 1865. After the 1878 General Prisons (Ireland) Act reorganised the prisons in Cork, only female prisoners were detained there. During the War of Independence, a number of female republicans were held in the prison. Among those were Countess Constance Markievicz and Mary Bowles. Countess Markievicz was sentenced to four months after being found guilty of making a ‘seditious speech’ at Kiskeam, Co. Cork in May 1919. Sixteen-year-old Mary Bowles was detained there in January 1921 after being arrested while trying to hide IRA weapons at Clogheen, Co. Cork. She was subsequently sent to a reform school. During the Civil War, the prison held both male and female republican prisoners.  Among those held there at this time was the well known Cork author, Frank O’Connor.

28. The Ballycannon Memorial, Clogheen

23 April 1921: At 4 am a party of Black and Tans surrounded the home of famer Cornelius O’Keeffe at Ballycannon. The O’Keeffe home was a safe house’ that was unsed by members of the IRA to rest or to store arms and ammunition. That morning, Volunteers Jeremiah O’Mullane, Daniel Crowley, William Deasy, Thomas Dennehy, Daniel Murphy & Michael O’Sullivan of C Company, 1st Battalion, Cork No. 1 Brigade were asleep in one of the outhouses. During the search of the farm all of the Volunteers were shot. Five died and one was wounded. He was taken into custody but was later shot dead’ while trying to escape’.

Image: The funeral of Jeremiah O'Mullane, Daniel Crowley, William Deasy, Thomas Dennehy, Daniel Murphy, and Michael O'Sullivan who were killed in a fight with the RIC in Ballycannon

29. Blarney RIC Barracks

1 June 1920: Members of Cork No.1 Brigade of the IRA attacked and seriously damaged the RIC Barracks in Blarney. The barracks targeted by the IRA as it threatened the lines of communication from Cork city to units at Donoughmore, Macroom and Kilnamartyra respectively. Scores of IRA members traded gunfire with the RIC garrison after a bomb in an attached premises failed to destroy the barracks.  Hundreds of IRA Volunteers were involved in road blocking and holding actions around the village.  Following the failed attack, the RIC evacuated the barracks, and it was set afire by the IRA.

30. Site of the Military Barracks in Ballincollig

During the War of Independence,6 ^th  Division the barracks in Ballincollig was garrisoned by the 1 ^st  Battalion, Manchester Regiment. This unit took part in a number of operations against the IRA most notably the Dripsey Ambush (28 February 1921) and the Crossbarry Ambush (19 March 1921). During the Civil War, the barracks was burned by anti-Treaty forces during their withdrawal to West Cork after the the National Army occupied Cork city on 11 August 1922.