Attacks, robberies and mayhem across Cork
THERE was an attack on the aerodrome at Fermoy at 3am this morning, the Echo reported on Saturday, April 16, 1921.
A Hotchkiss gun was deployed and about 40 rounds were fired at the buildings, the aeroplane hangars and the aerodrome wireless apparatus. There were no casualties.
Another early morning attack was on the goods train from Cork to Youghal. It leaves Cork at 5am and had just steamed into Carrigtwohill station when armed men came on to the platform and held up staff in the station and on board the train. All the mail bags were taken off, the men left, and the train proceeded.
Another daring robbery took place in Cork this morning when a horse and covered car was stopped by two men armed with revolvers on Angelsea Street. The wage roll of Munster Laundry amounting to over £170 was taken.
But there was good news on the curfew front. Immediately after 10pm last night, the curfew lorries drove through Patrick Street but the people were as punctual in their observance as the troops were in its enforcement. There was nobody on the streets when they passed.
Dear Sir, May I ask a little space in the Echo? Would it be possible for picture houses to give Sunday performances for the White Cross Fund, including the new Pavilion? I am sure that Mr Everley, Mr. Collins and Mr. Pitt, cinema managers, would be only too willing to help. Money is far more use to a widow than old clothes.
Yours truly, Annie Murphy, 5 Henry Street.
(The White Cross had been established in February to distribute funds raised by the American Committee for Relief in Ireland).
Major MacKinnon, Commandant of the Auxiliary forces, Tralee (‘H’ Company) was playing golf with two others at Tralee links yesterday evening when he was fired at from behind a hedge about 15 yards distant.
The Major was wounded in the head and back and died 45 minutes later in hospital. The shops stayed closed in Tralee and people stayed indoors.
Our Tralee correspondent has ‘phoned in the news that about a dozen houses were burned down in Ballymacelligott last night.
These include the Presbytery where Fathers Trant and MacDonnell reside and the Creamery previously burned and rebuilt).
The Field General Court Martial of five men in connection with events in Ballymacelligott last November is currently being heard at Victoria Barracks, Cork.
Flying Officer Pierce J. Cox, Royal Air Force, was killed in an aeroplane accident in Egypt.
The deceased was the son of the late James C. Cox, Tramore and Mrs Dorgan, Mall House, Cork.
Two large dwelling houses, the property of Michael Sullivan, a farmer near Snave, Bantry, were set on fire and burnt to the ground. The Bantry-Glengarriff road was trenched near Reendesert and a bridge was blown up in the Kealkil direction.
Two horses belonging to Philip O’Neill, Trallybane were stabbed a few nights ago. One has since died.
Henry Jackson, a compensation claimant at Wicklow Quarter Sessions, mentioned he was a Unionist, prompting Judge Dromgoole to say he did not know exactly what a Unionist was nowadays.
After evidence was given about the burning of hay on applicant’s farm near Baltinglas, the Judge awarded £100.
Of the Echo’s eight front page columns on April 16, 1921, two were devoted in their entirety to the serious miners’ strikes and associated civic and industrial disruption in Britain. A third was occupied entirely by horse racing.
The weather was fine but so bitterly cold with snow.
At 8.30pm in Dublin yesterday, an armoured car accompanied by a military touring car was ambushed on the North Circular Road and a soldier was wounded in the leg. There did not appear to be any return fire from the armoured car.
The only other casualties were a woman with abrasions to the shoulder and a man who had a big piece torn out of his trousers but only sustained a scratch.
