Volunteer Richard Newman Jr

Volunteer Richard Newman Jr (aged about 29) of Cloan, Coulagh (Allihies)

Date of incident: 13 March 1921

Sources: CE, 14, 15 March 1921; CCE, 19 March 1921; Military Inquests, WO 35/156/25 (TNA); MSPC/DP2641 (Military Archives).

Note: Newman was wounded through the loins and in the stomach by British forces at Allihies on 13 March 1921. A subsequent military court of inquiry concluded that Newman had been justifiably shot by Private Reid at about 2 p.m. that day when he sought to flee out the back of his home while pursued by troops who had just arrived in a lorry and arrested him. See Military Inquests, WO 35/156/25 (TNA). Newman was removed to the hospital in Castletownbere, where he died at about 2 a.m. on the following morning. His funeral on 14 March at Allihies parish church witnessed ‘a large attendance of the people of Castletown’. See CE, 15 March 1921. A later pension claim made by Newman’s mother implies that he had been serving in 1920-21 as a republican scout/messenger with the Castletownbere IRA Company. His mother’s insistence on his IRA membership was supported by John Cronin, captain of the Castletownbere Company. See MSPC/DP2641 (Military Archives).

In 1911 Richard Newman was one of the nine living children (ten born) of the Cloan (Coulagh) farmer Richard Newman Sr and his wife Bridget. In that year seven children (three sons and four daughters) co-resided with them; these seven children ranged in age from 2 to 17. The 1901 census recorded the young Richard Newman’s age as 9, so that he must have been about 29 years old at his death.