Civilian Patrick Hickey

Civilian Patrick Hickey (aged about 46) of Laravoolta near Enniskeen (Laravoolta)

Date of incident: 24 May 1921

Sources: CE, 26 May, 24 June 1921; FJ, 26 May 1921; CCE, 28 May 1921, 21 Jan. 1922; Military Inquests, WO 35/150/70 (TNA); Register of Compensation Commission (Ireland) Cases of Private Persons (CO 905/15).

Note: A farmer and ex-soldier, Hickey was shot dead while cutting turf in a bog at Laravoolta near Enniskeen. A court of military inquiry found that Hickey ‘was accidentally shot by the military during a conflict with rebels who had refused to halt when called upon, and [who] were endeavouring to escape across the bog where the unfortunate man was turf-cutting’. See CE, 24 June 1921. Evidence at the military court indicated that a party of the King’s Own Scotch Borderers Regiment had killed Hickey when he threw himself on the ground in response to a soldier’s shout and made for a hole in the bog but was fatally struck by a bullet in the chest. See Military Inquests, WO 35/150/70 (TNA).

The victim’s widow Mary Hickey claimed £6,000 in compensation at the Bandon quarter sessions in January 1922 for the death of her husband at the hands of British troops in the previous May. County Court Judge Hynes granted her £1,400 and an additional £1,600 to be divided equally among her four children. See CCE, 21 Jan. 1922.

Patrick Hickey was in 1911 one of the eight children (nine born) of the elderly farmer and widow Ellen Hickey (aged 72) of Laravoolta (Bengour) in the Enniskeen district. Four of her unmarried adult children co-resided with her in that year. Her son Patrick (then aged 36) was among the three unmarried sons still at home. He subsequently found a wife and raised a family with her before his tragic death in May 1921. ‘Deeply regretted by his wife and family and a wide circle of friends’, he was interred in Kinneigh Graveyard. See CE, 26 May 1921.