Civilian Daniel Lyons

Civilian Daniel Lyons (aged about 26) of Castle Road, Bandon (Castle Bernard Park, Bandon)

Date of incident: 22 March 1921 (ex-soldier killed by crown forces)

Sources: CE, 24 March, 4 May 1921; II, 24 March 1921; FJ, 24 March 1921; CCE, 26 March, 7 May 1921; CWN, 2 April 1921; Register of Compensation Commission (Ireland) Cases of Private Persons (CO 905/15); Military Inquests, WO 35/153A/57 (TNA); Application of Margaret M. Keighary to Irish Grants Committee (CO 762/109/15).

Note: ‘About midday on Tuesday [22 March 1921] a military patrol was on duty in Castle Bernard Park, Bandon. Three young men, one of whom had a fishing rod, were near the river bank in the park, when there was a call, and later a shot rang out. One of the men—Daniel Lyons, an ex-soldier—was seen to fall, having received a bullet wound in the calf of the leg, which bled profusely. Some time afterwards a police lorry arrived, and the young man was removed to hospital. At seven o’clock the same evening he succumbed to his injuries. From the outset no hope of his recovery was entertained.’ Lyons had served for some years with the Irish Rifles Regiment; he was a local labourer who had taken no part in the current conflict. See CCE, 26 March 1921. It was argued at a subsequent military inquiry that Lyons had been approaching one military post in order to make himself known when he was shot by a soldier of the South Staffordshire Regiment at another military post who thought that Lyons was evading him. See CCE, 7 May 1921; Military Inquests, WO 35/153A/57 (TNA).

In 1911 Lyons appears to have been one of the five living children (eleven born) of the butcher and tinsmith Thomas Lyons and his wife Margaret of 9 Chapel Street in Ballymodan, a parish adjacent to Bandon. Daniel was the oldest (aged 16) of the four children (two sons and two daughters) who were then co-resident with their parents.