April 1920 started with the largest scale IRA activity to date in the War of Independence with the systematic targeting of abandoned RIC barracks and other buildings. It was a month during which the issue of Irish independence would be brought to an international audience, while it continued to be time of terror in Ireland. The RIC remained the open target of the IRA, but on a number of occasions in April, the RIC would claim victory. Elsewhere, land-related issues continued to flare as anarchy set in across the country.
In mid-April 1920 a large crowd of Sinn Fein demonstration at Balbriggan county Dublin was under the careful watch of the RIC. The Republican gathering was to celebrate the release of hunger strikers from Mountjoy jail some days previously. As the crowd began to move down Clonard Street and as the police looked on, Sergeant Patrick Finnerty was shot. A military inquest would later reveal that he had been shot by a revolver. Lingering for two days, Finnerty died in the Mater Hospital. Aged 51, Finnerty was unmarried and had given over twenty-five years of service to the RIC. Given evidence, his fellow officers stated that they had not seen the assassin and that visibility was poor owing to the darkness and heavy rainfall. They were praised for their calmness in the situation and no fire was returned. In his book,
We Bled Together: Michael Collins, The Squad and the Dublin Brigade, Dominic Price recounts the killing of Finnerty as told by Captain John Gaynor, of the Balbriggan Company of the 1
st Battalion Fingal Brigade who fired the fatal shot. According to Gaynor he anticipated that Finnerty would try and remove a tricolour flag which was on display. In his own words: ‘Finnerty made a dash to seize the flag, which was in the center of the procession. I immediately pulled a revolver from my pocket and dropped him’. Patrick Finnerty was buried in his native Athenry, County Galway.
Download Source: Belfast Newsletter, 19 April 1920, page 5; See also Irish Examiner, April 17, 1920; Page: 11
Irish Examiner 1841-current, Saturday, April 17,
1920 Belfast Newsletter 1738-1938, Monday, April 19, 1920
April 1920 started with the largest scale IRA activity to date in the War of Independence with the systematic targeting of abandoned RIC barracks and other buildings. It was a month during which the issue of Irish independence would be brought to an international audience, while it continued to be time of terror in Ireland. The RIC remained the open target of the IRA, but on a number of occasions in April, the RIC would claim victory. Elsewhere, land-related issues continued to flare as anarchy set in across the country.
In mid-April 1920 a large crowd of Sinn Fein demonstration at Balbriggan county Dublin was under the careful watch of the RIC. The Republican gathering was to celebrate the release of hunger strikers from Mountjoy jail some days previously. As the crowd began to move down Clonard Street and as the police looked on, Sergeant Patrick Finnerty was shot. A military inquest would later reveal that he had been shot by a revolver. Lingering for two days, Finnerty died in the Mater Hospital. Aged 51, Finnerty was unmarried and had given over twenty-five years of service to the RIC. Given evidence, his fellow officers stated that they had not seen the assassin and that visibility was poor owing to the darkness and heavy rainfall. They were praised for their calmness in the situation and no fire was returned. In his book, We Bled Together: Michael Collins, The Squad and the Dublin Brigade, Dominic Price recounts the killing of Finnerty as told by Captain John Gaynor, of the Balbriggan Company of the 1st Battalion Fingal Brigade who fired the fatal shot. According to Gaynor he anticipated that Finnerty would try and remove a tricolour flag which was on display. In his own words: ‘Finnerty made a dash to seize the flag, which was in the center of the procession. I immediately pulled a revolver from my pocket and dropped him’. Patrick Finnerty was buried in his native Athenry, County Galway.
Download Source: Belfast Newsletter, 19 April 1920, page 5; See also Irish Examiner, April 17, 1920; Page: 11