Our next lecture is as follows (see link to register below):

Utter Disloyalist

Tadhg Barry and the Irish Revolution

Zoom Lecture

by

Dr Donal Ó Drisceoil

on

Thurs November 25

at

8pm

Tadhg Barry, the last high-profile victim of the Crown forces during the Irish War of Independence, was shot dead in Ballykinlar internment camp, Co. Down, on 15 November 1921. Half the population of Dublin lined the streets as his body was borne through the capital, and his funeral in his native Cork dwarfed even those of his fallen comrades, Tomás MacCurtain and Terence MacSwiney. Who was this man and why has he since been largely forgotten?

Barry was a fascinating activist, trade union official, journalist, poet, Irish Volunteer, GAA official and author of the first book on the rules of hurling. He was described by his British enemies as an ‘utter disloyalist’ and by a comrade as ‘a characteristic product of Rebel Cork – courageous, kindly, generous to a fault, bold and daring, and independent in speech and action’.  

Barry had many connections with West Cork: Coláiste na Mumhan in Ballingeary was a home from home, he organised workers across West Cork for the ITGWU, and he wrote a column on Cork City affairs for both the Skibbereen Eagle and, later, its nationalist competitor, the Southern Star. Among those interned with Barry in Ballykinlar was John Flyer Nyhan of Clonakilty, who was among those Barry was waving goodbye to when he was shot dead by a sentry. 

To mark the 100th anniversary of Tadhg Barry’s death, Dr Donal Ó Drisceoil of the School of History, UCC has produced a new biography, published by Mercier Press: Utter Disloyalist: Tadhg Barry and the Irish Revolution Copies of his book are available in Clonakilty bookshops.