Superstar Cillian Murphy’s family link to Cork victim of Black and Tans

IT’S a heart-breaking tragedy that wouldn’t look out of place in a film or TV drama: A boy of 18 shot and killed fighting for his country’s independence against the might of the British empire.

Except the death of Michael John O’Mahony in Passage West in 1921 is sadly all too true.

Furthermore, Michael has a close family connection to one of the great Cork stars of modern times - Cillian Murphy: He was a first cousin of the acclaimed actor’s grandfather.

Murphy, whose roles have included Irish Civil War drama The Wind That Shakes The Barley, is famously reticent about his private life, but has alluded to his family’s links to the War of Independence.

Now, we can tell the story of those roots for the first time...

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In an interview in 2006, when The Wind That Shakes The Barley was released, Murphy said: “My family had someone shot by the Black and Tans at Passage West. It was talked about now and again, but we were not a politicised family.

“There’s not many families around who weren’t touched by the War of Independence or the Civil War, but it’s still hard to get people to talk about it.

“I had to do my research (for the film). I read the books, knew how principled these men were, and how ruthless they had to be.

“Even acting it, you get some idea of what life was like, how ordinary men were changed utterly by the things they had to do in a war.”

Here, Murphy was referring to the tragic death of his grandfather’s cousin, Volunteer Michael John O’Mahony, of Railway Street in Passage West.

He was shot on active service for the IRA on February 20, 1921, while ambushing a party of Black and Tans in the town.

O’Mahony was hiding alongside Gerald Barry, Paddy Healy, Daniel Spillane, Chris Spillane and Captain Jack Twomey, they had taken up position between the Wesleyan chapel and Lucia Place in order to surprise the British on their return from Glenbrook.

As darkness set in, the Black and Tans arrived at the ambush site, but either they had been tipped off or they spotted something awry. Suddenly, without warning, one of them drew his revolver and fired in the direction of the concealed ambushers. There was a brief exchange of fire and the British retreated towards Glenbrook.

O’Mahony was badly wounded in the thigh, possibly from a ricocheting bullet, and taken to a safe house at Glenbrook Glen.

He was initially attended to by Dr Crowley of Passage West and taken to the South Infirmary, where he was operated on by Dr Crosbie, who removed the bullet.

A Military Archive statement two years later stated: “Owing to the military being on his track, he was removed from South Infirmary and attended to by Dr O’Mahony in Passage.”

Some reports state he was moved around various places while wounded to evade detection by the British.

Both Dr O’Mahony and a Canon Barrett of St Finbarr’s were present when Michael John died of septicaemia on February 28, aged 18. He was buried in the Old Church graveyard in Passage.

He was single and in the last year of his apprenticeship in the workyard at the Dry Docks and Engineering Company in Passage West.

In 1923, his father, Thomas O’Mahony, made a pension application regarding his son’s death, which revealed that Michael John had four younger brothers and a younger sister.

Thomas was later a Passage West town commissioner.

Although the tragedy went unmarked at the time, a marble plaque in Michael John’s memory was later unveiled by Passage West Town Commissioner Daniel Spillane - who had fought alongside him that day - at the ambush site.

Michael John was also a first cousin of Henry O’Mahony, who became deputy commandant of the 1st Cork Brigade, IRA. He was arrested in 1921 and jailed on Spike Island, but was part of a daring escape with six others.

Henry was elected chairman of Cork GAA County Board in 1937.

The O’Mahony’s Fenian and republican ties went deep. Michael John’s uncle James O’Mahony is said to have welcomed Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa to Passage, while many of the women in the family were members of Cumman Na mBan.

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Meanwhile, Cillian Murphy’s grandfather, Jim O’Mahony, made his own mark in the life of Passage West, teaching generations of children at the local Passage West Boys National School.

It was founded in 1866, and became known as Jones’s School, after a long-serving early headmaster Tommy Jones, appointed in 1899.

In 1937, when Jones retired, William Micklejohn replaced him and a young local man who had just graduated from teacher training in De La Salle, Waterford, was appointed to the teaching staff - Jim O’Mahony.

In 1949, he was appointed head teacher which meant he was also given the house adjoining the school. It was here that his children, Mary - mother of Cillian Murphy - Barry, Eileen and Noreen were born and reared.

Mary and Noreen also became teachers, with the latter doing a stint in Passage.

Ahead of the Passage school’s centenary in 1965, a new building was proposed, but by 1975, a decade later, local parents were organising protests because it still had not come about.

In 1978, Jones’s School finally closed and both Jim O’Mahony and Tom Cotter - another long-serving teacher of more than 40 years at the school - moved to the new building in Horsehead in Passage. They did a short stint teaching here before retiring.

Jim was my headmaster at Jones’s School in the 1950s, and was a friend of my father’s.

I also became a good friend of Jim’s when my school days were over. Of course, I never called him anything only Mr O’Mahony!

When he was teaching, he was a chain smoker, which was allowed in class at that time, but soon after he retired he had a stroke from which, unfortunately, he lost the use of his legs.

Jim was in hospital for eight years and I used to visit him regularly. He realised then the folly of all his years smoking. He was a really lovely man.

Jim O’Mahony died in 1990, aged 75, and passed on a lot of the family’s history to his young grandson, Cillian Murphy. The actor’s research and role in The Wind That Shakes The Barley would surely have evoked personal memories for him of his grandfather’s stories.

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Cillian was born in Douglas in 1976. His mother, Mary, taught French while his father, Brendan, worked for the Department of Education and Skills. His grandfather, aunts, and uncles were also teachers.

He was raised in Ballintemple alongside his younger brother Páidi and younger sisters Síle and Orla.

Cillian attended Presentation Brothers College, where the renowned novelist William Wall taught him English and encouraged him to pursue acting.

Wall told the Examiner in 2021: “Cillian did a school play. I could see he was a natural. It just jumped out at you that this guy can act. He didn’t need training of any kind. And he’s a lovely person as well who, despite his fame, has retained his affection for Ireland and Cork.”

Cillian became a Holly Bough cover star in 2016, when Marvel artist Will Sliney included him in his artwork among other Cork luminaries.