#OnThisDay 1920 Kevin Barry, an 18 year old medical student was hanged for his role in an ambush in Dublin that saw the death of three British soldiers. Barry was the first republican executed since Roger Casement after the 1916 Rising.
#OnThisDay 1940 The Battle of Britain ended. Over 30 Irish men flew with ‘The Few”, perhaps most famously Brendan Finucane. John Hemingway from Dublin (below), was one of those pilots & despite being shot down four times, John is the last known surviving pilot of the Battle of Britain.
#OnThisDay 1920 Two Black and Tans (Patrick Waters, from Galway & Ernest Bright, from London-not in picture below) were abducted & disappeared in Tralee by the IRA. RIC gave two days for their return before reprisals would take place, known as the ‘Siege of Tralee’.
#OnThisDay 1920 Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney’s funeral took place in the Cathedral of St Mary and St Anne, Cork & was attended by thousands. Bishop Cohalan said ‘MacSwiney takes his place among the martyrs in the sacred cause of the freedom of Ireland”.
#OnThisDay 1921 May Burke (left), Eithne Coyle (centre), Linda Kearns (right) & a fourth woman, Aileen Keogh, break out of Mountjoy Prison having organised a football match as a distraction. A rope ladder from outside was used to climb the walls to freedom.
The Irish at War 