The recent publication of the book, The Dead of the Irish Revolution catalogues the deaths of over 2,300 people in Ireland between the years, 1917-1921.

  Among them were several civilians who were killed during the month of December 1920. Some of these deaths were included in the newspaper Eire Og: Young Ireland and other radical journals who were keen to highlight at every opportunity cases of British injustice. The dead included Michael Murphy of Tower Street, Cork shot dead as he was leaving SS Peter and Paul’s Church on 8 December; Thomas Crotty of Cragahock, shot an arbitration court hearing; John Fleming shot dead on the 6 December on the corner of Water Street and Lower Road, Cork. The latter had served for over twenty years in the British navy and had survived the Battle of Jutland. At Ballyshannon, a man named Thomas Rooney was shot dead by the military when he failed to halt. A young labourer named Bernard Doyle was found dead in the graveyard of the Protestant church in Dunboyne, county Meath. He had been shot in the head and through the body. Denis Regan was found dead midway between Clonakilty and Timoleague with a bullet wound to the head. William Owned, aged 24 died of wounds received during a military raid near Bray, county Wicklow. This was just some of the terrors inflicted upon civilians that month. Such was life in Ireland during December 1920.  

Source: Eire Og: Young Ireland, 18 December 1920, page 1

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