Volunteer Daniel Crowley

Volunteer Daniel Crowley (aged 22) of 171 Blarney Street, Cork (Ballycannon near Clogheen)

Date of incident: 23 March 1921

Sources: Death Certificate, 23 March 1921; CE, 24, 25, 26 March 1921; II, 24, 29 March 1921; FJ, 24, 26 March 1921; CC, 25, 28 March 1921; CCE, 26 March 1921; Military Inquests, WO 35/149A/1 (TNA); Felix O’Doherty’s WS 739, 48-49 (BMH); P. J. Murphy’s WS 869, 27 (BMH); Michael Murphy’s WS 1547, 40 (BMH); Daniel Healy’s WS 1656, 13, 15-25, with attached affidavits (BMH); Seámus Fitzgerald’s WS 1737, 28-29 (BMH); Roll of Honour, Cork No. 1 Brigade (Cork Public Museum, Fitzgerald Park, Cork); Last Post (1976), 83; ‘The Irish Rebellion in the 6th Division Area’, Irish Sword, 27 (Spring 2010), 144; Borgonovo (2007), 86, 89-90, 101, 112-13, 128, 180; Clogheen Ambush Memorial; http://theauxiliaries.com/INCIDENTS/ballycannon-ambush/ballycannon.html (accessed 23 March 2016). 

Note: Following a raid at the house of farmer Cornelius O’Keefe by a large party of crown forces, O’Keefe’s son was arrested and six others (including Daniel Crowley)—all members of the IRA—were shot dead in British custody on 23 March 1921. These killings became known as the ‘Kerry Pike Murders’ among republicans.

Volunteer Crowley was in 1911 one of the six children (four sons and two daughters) of the Cork city plasterer Patrick Crowley and his wife Elizabeth of 171 Blarney Street. All six children, ranging in age from 3 to 14, co-resided with their parents in that year. Daniel Crowley was the second son and, like his father, was a plasterer by occupation. He was interred in the Republican Plot in St Finbarr’s Cemetery in Cork city.