Massacre in West Cork (31 page)

85
Donal Hales states that Seán Hales burned Castle Bernard in reprisal for the burning of the Hales house at Knocknacurra by the Auxiliaries, BMH WS 292. See
Cork & County Eagle
, 12 March 1921, for a report of the Hales burning.

86
She died in 1925. For more information on her life see Ó Loinsigh, P., 1997,
Gobnait Ní Bhruadair: the Hon. Albinia Lucy Brodrick: beathaisnéis
(Baile Átha Cliath, Coiscéim). See also Hochschild, A., 2011, ‘John French and Charlotte Despard: the odd couple’,
History Toda
y 61, no. 6, pp. 30–40; Despard is buried in the Republican Plot in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.

87
Morrissey, C. J., 2011, ‘The Earl of Bandon and the burning of Castle Bernard, 1921’, Bandon Historical Journal 27, pp. 32–43. For further detail on this story see Morrissey, C. J., 2012, ‘The Bernards of Bandon: a County Cork landed family and their estate, 1639–1921’,
Bandon Historical Journal
28, pp. 49–65.

88
Sheehan (2005), p. 131.

89
BMH WS 540, Mrs Anna-Hurley O’Mahony (née Walsh), pp. 4–5.

90
The actual date was 14 June and this is correctly identified by Richard Russell, BMH WS 1591, p. 23.

91
BMH WS 470, Denis Lordan, pp. 28–9; the telegraph office in Mallow was also infiltrated by the IRA, BMH WS 1133. Annie Barrett’s statement gives a detailed description of how British Army codes were broken, and how messages got out to the IRA.

92
BMH WS 1422, Thomas Reidy, p. 6.

93
BMH WS 1575, Ted Hayes, p. 4.

94
BMH WS 873, Charles Browne, pp. 46–7.

95
BMH WS 812, Patrick O’Brien.

96
BMH WS 810, Tim Herlihy and seven others, p. 13.

97
It must be noted that a majority of those who were shot as spies in West Cork were Roman Catholic.

98
In British military parlance, a spy was one of its members sent out to find out information about the enemy. An informer was someone who gave information for money, and an informant was someone who gave information willingly or had it extracted from them.

99
In a secret meeting in April 1921 Birkenhead stated that the British sources of information had increased and this had brought an inevitable response from the IRA: National Archives, Kew, CAB 24/122/83.

100
Reference in an essay by Thomas Earls Fitzgerald:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/104308089/Who-were-the-people-killed-as-‘spies’-and-‘informers’-by-the-I-R-A-in-west-Cork-in-early–1921-and-why-were-they-targeted
(accessed 22 August 2013); ‘County Inspector for Bandon’s Confidential Monthly report for January 1921’, No. 2.2.1921 in Townshend, C. (ed.),
The British in Ireland. Part 4, Police Reports, 1914–1921
(Brighton: Harvester Press Microform Publications). Copy held on microfilm in the Berkeley Library, Trinity College, Dublin.

101
This includes the Civil War.

102
See Ryan, M., 2005,
Tom Barry: IRA freedom fighter
(Cork, Mercier Press), pp. 122–9.

103
See Barry (1949); ‘Memories of Childhood and the Old IRA: Burned homes of Knockavilla’,
Southern Star
, 18 October 1986, p. 7, for a detailed and sympathetic account of the effect of the burnings on both sides.

104
See BMH WS 1603, Michael J. Crowley; BMH WS 1643, Seán Healy, p. 18.

105
Ó Broin, L., 1985,
Protestant Nationalists in Revolutionary Ireland: the Stopford connection
(Dublin, Gill & Macmillan), pp. 176–7. This story also appears in Hart, P., 1998,
The I.R.A. and Its Enemies: violence and community in Cork 1916–1923
(Oxford, Clarendon Press), p. 305. See also BMH WS 470, Denis Lordan, p. 14, where he also discusses this event.

106
Cork Constitution
, 27 January 1921, p. 5.

107
Rev. Lord remained as rector of Kilbrogan long after the War of Independence as shown by the
Bandon Postal Directory
of 1933:
http://www.bandon-genealogy.com/local-postal-directory–1933.htm
(accessed 12 January 2013).

108
BMH WS 1684, James Murphy, pp. 12–13.

109
BMH WS 470, Denis Lordan, p. 16, tells this story. Thomas Kingston, the owner of Burgatia, and his staff were held under house arrest while the IRA engineers produced a mine for the attack on Rosscarbery barracks. The local postman happened on the scene and was told he would be shot if he warned the RIC two kilometres away in Rosscarbery. However, once released, he went straight to the barracks and the column was lucky to escape as the house was quickly approached by British forces.

110
Cork Constitution
, 27 January 1921.

111
Cork Constitution
, 15 February 1921;
Cork & County Eagle
, 16 April 1921.

112
Cork & County Eagle
, 16 April 1921. The only type of bullet that could inflict this type of wound was a dum-dum or soft-tip bullet. Vide means see.

113
Southern Star
, 25 June 1921, p. 7. It also deals with the Good shootings discussed in the next paragraph.

114
Southern Star
, 29 May 1926, p. 4. At the time of the 1926 case Elizabeth was living, the court report stated, in ‘Upper Copcourt, Tetworth [sic], Oxford’. Another report in the
Southern Star
, 8 May 1926, deals with the case of Thomas J. Bradfield, whose widow had to pay rates on his farm even though it was still unused five years after his death.

115
Irish Medals.com:
http://irishmedals.org/gpage49.html
(accessed 18 December 2012);
Cork & County Eagle
, 29 January 1921.

116
The Sweetnam family resettled in Chew Magna, Somerset, where the youngest daughter, Agusta, was married in 1924;
Southern Star
, 3 May 1924, p. 4. The Skibbereen farm was sold in October 1923.

117
Kingston, W., ‘From Victorian Boyhood to the Troubles: a Skibbereen Memoir’. Available at:
http://durrushistory.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/memoir-of-willie-kingston-1885-1975-skibbereen-solicitor-and-historian1.pdf
(accessed 28 September 2012). He states that Connell had been given a warning to leave, but had not taken it. He also says that before their shooting, George Jennings came to him with information that the IRA were at Lug, and that the two men were in danger. Local JP E. A. Swanton had laughed at the idea when Kingston asked his advice, suggesting it was an attempted land-grab. That night the two men were shot, p. 32.

118
The Irish Times
, 28 February 1921. Aged thirty-five, he was shot at 9.15 p.m.

119
BMH WS 1234, Jack Hennessy, p. 12.

120
BMH WS 1275, Timothy Warren, pp. 6–7.

121
Southern Star
, 16 October 1920, p. 2; O’Leary, D., 1975, K
ilmeen and Castleventry Parish, Co. Cork
(self published), p. 89: ‘A Ballineen baker supplied bread to the British soldiers stationed [at Oak-mount], and one of the bread van drivers was believed to be supplying information on the volunteers … two members of the Kilmeen Company shot the unfortunate horse … This served as a warning to the driver who was allowed to depart alive.’ We know, from BMH WS 1275 and WS 812, p. 9, that this was Cotter, who was boycotted throughout 1920 and was protected by the eighty members of the Essex Regiment,
Southern Star
, 16 October 1920, p. 2.

122
House of Commons debate, 2 June 1921, vol. 142, cols 1221–3,
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1921/jun/02/murder-colonel-peacocke
(accessed 31 January 2012).

123
The Irish Unionist Alliance was the Southern unionist party. It was hardline in the sense that it was not willing to countenance Home Rule in any circumstance and had split with the Anti-Partition League led by Lord Midleton on this issue.

124
Barry (1949), p. 110.

125
The news reports and the British records state that one RIC officer was guarding him.

126
This litany included her son’s murder, the burning of her home at Skevanish, the theft of livestock and the auctioning by the IRA of her machinery after the Truce without interference from the British government. Ethel Peacocke had been rewarded in the 1920 New Year’s Honours List for her work as Honorary Secretary, Cork Women’s Association for Prisoners of War Fund,
London Gazette
, 26 March 1920:
http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/31840/supplements/3853
(accessed 18 December 2012). The Peacocke estate was offered for sale on 18 July 1931 by the owner, who is not identified.

127
BMH WS 1591, Richard Russell, pp. 22–3 for the investigation and pp. 25–6 for the shooting of Colonel Peacocke.

128
The IRA confiscation of his crops and those of Mathew Sweetnam of Skibbereen in August 1921 were regarded as Truce violations by the British Secretary of State for War, who said that ‘this sort of thing would lead to a collision’,
Southern Star
, 12 November 1921, p. 1, col. 2.

129
On 7 June 1921 a circular was issued for use with a ‘person associating with the military’. Final Notice – Part (4): ‘You are hereby warned that if after this final notice has been served on you it is found that you continue this association you will be regarded as a spy and dealt with accordingly.’ From the file it appears that three previous warnings would have been issued, CCCAU169 21–30.

130
See Sheehan (2005), pp. 133–6 and p. 140, where Percival explains, ‘On one occasion the secretary of the Demobilised Soldiers and Sailors Federation asked for an interview with me.’ After several interviews it was discovered that this man was the battalion commandant of the IRA. If these interviews were conducted in Percival’s office then the commandant would have seen the map.