Member Nick Folley has sent in the following pics – all comments welcome. Thanks again, Nick.
I have attached some pics that you asked me for at the last Irish Volunteers talk (about the Truce). I sent them previously, but you said you couldn’t open them, so hopefully these versions will work. I took these from my late mother’s photo album. One shows a group of three unknown Volunteers, but there are names are on the back of the postcard, it might be the same men as in the picture. The other photo is of the ambush memorial at Leemount Cross, Cork which was set up to remember Sec. Comm Murphy who was shot by Free State troops in 1922. It was later replaced by a stone cross which is still there. I think this photo dates from the 1940s or 1950s. The stone cross might have been put up in 1966 during the jubilee year.
Irish Volunteers
Reverse of the above card/photo, note the names and the R.I.P. after them, does anybody know who they were?
Leemount ambush memorial 1950s
That very well could be Paddy Trahey standing on the left. He is my Great Uncle, was killed in a explosion in Cork in 1921. I’ll show this picture to my Grandmother and she will know. The picture has a very strong resemblance to one of Trahey with Terrance MacSwiney and Tomas MacCurtain that in the Rebel Cork Fighting Story book. This New York times article mentions the explosion that killed Trahey https://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9C07EFDD163CE533A25756C2A9679D946195D6CF
Hi Ollie,
The Patrick Trahey you refer to is my Grandfather. We have an original of the photo of him with Terrance MacSwiney and Tomas MacCurtain and also one of him on his own in his uniform. From stories my grandmother told us as children Patrick Trahey was an intelligence officer. My brother has the clock that Patrick received from the battalion on the occasion of his marriage. i would love to get in contact with you to share other bits of info.
Hi Peter, is it possible to get copies of the photos of Patrick Trahey and other memorabilia belonging to him? Also, do you have more history on him? Tomás
Hi Ollie, there is a commemorative event for Patrick Trahey and five other Irish Volunteers in St. Finbarr’s cemetery on Saturday 28th November 2020.
In The Last Post Patrick Trahey was killed in accidental explosion in Princes St also killed in the same explosion Patrick O Donoghue and James Mehigan on the 23-11-20
The first name on the back of the postcard would appear to be Denis Hegarty. Not sure if it’s the same man, but there was a Denis Hegarty attached to the Cork city Intelligence Squad around the end of 1920 (see page 24 in old edition of Rebel Cork’s Fighting Story).
The second name may be Trahey? If so could it possibly refer to Patrick Trahey of the 2nd. Cork city battalion, who was shot dead in November 1920.