Page 20 - Irish Examiner USA
P. 20
20 historyexaminer
IRISH EXAMINER | May 10th, 2017Fenian
Dead
Tomas MacCurtain Irishman, dispersed the Cork wrote: “I find it difficult to say Royal Irish Constabulary) Frongoch, wrote to Terence
(1884-1920) were a daily occurrence. MacSwiney, the man who
contingent without them hav- goodbye. We have talked so would soon take over for
When a British District MacCurtain in Cork, and who
By Jack McGrath ing had a chance to rise. much, laughed so much and Inspector named MacDonagh would become an Irish Martyr
was shot dead by the IRA, the in his own right: “I have not
Tomas MacCurtain, of Picked up by British forces got so well acquainted that am police reacted immediately very much heart in what I am
Cork, who would have and took out their anger on doing today, thinking of poor
been regarded a true during the countrywide afraid if I were to say all I feel, any Sinn Fein supporters they Tomas. It is surely the most
could find. appalling thing that has been
roundup in the aftermath of you would consider it exag- done yet.â€
MacCurtain, who had been
Irish Patriot in any age and at the ’16 Rising, MacCurtain, gerated.†especially critical of the behav- At MacCurtain’s funeral,
ior of the police in general, Irish Volunteers, who had
any point in Irish history, along with a group of other A Dubliner, Thomas became a target himself, per- stood guard over his body as it
haps in retaliation for the mur- lay in state in the cathedral
was born on March 20, 1884, well-known Cork rebels, was Boylan, another fellow prison- der, in Cork, of a constable during the night, made all the
named Murtagh, a veteran of arrangements and organized
at Ballyknockane, Co. Cork. brought up to Dublin for er, wrote: “Not being a man of 24 years on the force, who had the huge horse drawn carriage
just returned from the funeral procession through the streets
He attended the National deportment to Frongoch, The many words I cannot say all of another RIC constable shot of Cork, where thousands
dead in Tipperary. Since turned out, to his final resting
School at Burnfort as well as “University of Revolutionâ€, that I should wish to say to MacCurtain was both Lord place in St. Finbarr’s
Mayor of Cork and command- Cemetery.
the North Monastery School, the new Irish prison camp in you but from my heart of er of the local IRA, he was
held responsible. At the cemetery, there was
before his family moved to Wales. hearts I wish you God Speed. a roll of muffled drums and
By accounts, on the night three volleys were fired by
Blackpool on the northside of On May 30th, 1916, on the My constant prayer shall be of March 20, 1920 (the day of Volunteers over the grave,
his 36th birthday), an armed sending, in the words of the
the city, where he became way to the cattle boats that for you that you be imbued party of men with blackened Freeman’s Journal: “their
faces, wearing civilian clothes, message of defiance in ringing
involved in the early efforts of would transport them all to with fortitude and to bear well a RIC assassination squad led tones through the Glen of
by District Inspector Swanzy, Glasheen.â€
the Gaelic Revival/Nationalist the land of their ancient and bravely whatever be forced their way into
MacCurtain’s home and shot Michael Collins’ intelli-
Movement at the turn of the enemy, he noted: “Crowds inflicted on you, and that you him dead, in his pajamas, in gence network traced
front of his wife, Eilish. Inspector Swanzy to Lisburn,
19th Century. had gathered, shouting angrily soon again be restored to County Antrim, where he was
At the official inquest into shot dead, in August 22, in
He joined the Blackpool at the (British) soldiers.†Friends and Liberty.†MacCurtain’s murder that fol- revenge for MacCurtain’s
lowed, evidence was heard killing (and supposedly with
branch of the Conradh na Although it is generally Clearly a well-liked and that the RIC had assisted the MacCurtain’s personal hand-
assassins by cordoning off the gun).
Gaeilge (The Gaelic League), accepted that, at that time, the well-respected man on a per- area around the clothing shop
where MacCurtain lived and As Collins later explained:
and became its secretary in Dublin civilian population sonal level alone, MacCurtain worked. “Inspector Swanzy and his
associates put Lord Mayor
1902. was outwardly hostile to the returned to Cork, after the For what it was worth, the MacCurtain away, so I got
coroner’s jury returned a ver- Swanzy and all of his associ-
A man of many interests rebels, MacCurtain’s com- Christmas amnesty of that dict of murder against Lloyd ates wiped out, one by one, in
George, Prime Minister of all parts of Ireland to which
(Music, World History, ment casts a different light on year, soon to become a figure Great Britain, as well as other they had been secretly dis-
members of the British admin- persed.†C
Poetry, Archaeology, Irish that subject, perhaps since the of note in the growing istration, including Inspector
Swanzy. Sources: Frongoch: University
History), Mac Curtain, executions of the Rising’s Independence movement. of Revolution - Sean O Mahoney;
An Irish Times editorial Michael Collins-The Man Who
worked as a clerk and taught leaders at Kilmainham Gaol In January, 1919, after the observed: “That the chief citi- Won The War - T Ryle Dwyer;
zen of one of our great cities The Black and Tans-The British
the Irish language on the side (with the exception of Roger IRA ambush of RIC police- should be shot in his own Special Police In Ireland -
home, and that the murderers Richard Bennett; The Green Flag
to whomever wanted to learn Casement, who would be the man at Soloheadbeg, County should escape, provide a terri- - Robert Kee; Ireland’s
ble commentary on the state Unfinished Revolution - Kenneth
the ancient tongue. In 1907 he last, executed in England, in Tipperary, In which two of this unhappy island.†Griffith and Timothy O’Grady;
Internet.
joined the Cork branch of the August) had already taken policemen were killed while Michael Collins, who had
been friends with MacCurtain
National Council of Sinn Fein place and Irish attitudes by escorting a consignment of since their days together in
and also became a member of then had taken a decidedly gelignite explosive to a mine,
the IRB. anti-British turn. an incident that is generally
He met his future wife, At Frongoch, along with considered to be the begin-
Eilish Walsh, at a Gaelic Collins, McKee, Mulcahy, ning of the Anglo-Irish War of
League meeting and they O’Conner, O’Sullivan, 1919-1921, MacCurtain
married in 1908. They had six O’Connell, Price, Russell, became an officer in the newly
children, five of whom sur- MacMahon, O’Reilly, Hales, formed Cork Brigade of the
vived into adulthood. O’Muirthile, Brennan, Staines, IRA.
He joined the Irish Gay and MacSwiney, as well Whatever his involvement
Volunteers in 1914 and con- as many others who would be in that organization was over-
tributed to Fianna Fail, a instrumental in changing the shadowed by his election to
weekly newspaper published course of Irish history in the the City Council of Cork City,
by another prominent 20th Century, MacCurtain Sinn Fein party, where he was
Nationalist Corkman, would become part of the chosen by his fellow coun-
Terence MacSwiney (who core group that would form cilors to be the Lord Mayor of
would also die a martyr’s the nucleus of the IRA that Cork, His term in office would
death for Ireland). would lead the fight in the be short-lived.
During the 1916 Easter upcoming War of Cork City, by 1920, was not
Rebellion, in Cork City, along Independence. a peaceful place. Routine
with MacSwiney, Not much is known of killings of Crown (British) ser-
MacCurtain, in the confusion MacCurtain’s time in vants by the IRA, as well as
of the countermanding order Frongoch, but, from two those of innocent civilians by
from Eoin MacNeill, the accounts, which later the “Black and Tans†(the spe-
Commanding Officer of the appeared in MacCurtain’s cial British police force turned
Volunteers, who was hoping papers, Mr. Paul Dawson loose on the population, sent
to avoid what he thought Cusack, of Granard, Co. into Ireland as reinforcement
would be a slaughter of Longford, a fellow prisoner, to the regular police force, the
