Volunteer Timothy Crowley

Volunteer Timothy Crowley (aged 24) of Kilbarry, Dublin Hill, Cork city (near railway tunnel, Cork city)

Date of incident: 26 Nov. 1920

Sources: CE, 27 Nov. 1920; CWN, 4 Dec. 1920; Military Inquests, WO 35/148/53 (TNA); IRA Roll of Honour, Cork No. 1 Brigade (Cork Museum, Fitzgerald Park, Cork); Last Post (1976), 75.

Note: A member of the First Battalion of the Cork No. 1 Brigade, Crowley has sometimes been mistakenly identified as one of the IRA victims of the premature explosion in Watercourse Road in Cork city. See Last Post (1976), 75. A fireman in the employment of the Great Southern and Western Railway, Crowley was found dead on 26 November 1920 near the railway tunnel in the city. A military court of inquiry concluded that his death was an accident. His body was found about 200 yards north of the railway tunnel, with his leg torn off above the ankle and with other injuries. See CWN, 4 Dec. 1920. His death seems to have been caused by a passing train, though there was no conclusive evidence to show how Crowley had gotten to the place of his death or exactly how his fatal injuries had occurred. See Military Inquests, WO 35/148/53 (TNA).

According to a report in the Cork Examiner, Crowley ‘was proceeding on an outward bound train some time after midday [on Friday, 26 November] when he fell or slipped off the engine. One of his legs was badly mangled, and he sustained other severe injuries. The Corporation ambulance was summoned, and he was taken to the North Infirmary but died before he reached there.’ See CE, 27 Nov. 1920. He was buried in the Republican Plot in St Finbarr’s Cemetery in Cork.