Civilian Joseph Greensmyth

Civilian Joseph Greensmyth (aged about 68) of 167 Davis Street, Mallow (Mallow)

Date of incident: 31 Jan. 1921

Sources: Death Certificate, 25 June 1921; CE, 1, 2, 15 Feb., 30 March, 30 April, 2 May 1921; II, 2 Feb. 1921; CC, 3 Feb. 1921; FJ, 3 Feb. 1921; Nenagh News, 5 Feb. 1921; Military Inquests, WO 35/149A/15 (TNA); Report of the Mallow Court of Enquiry, p. 336, H.C. 1921, xv [1220]; Leo O’Callaghan’s WS 978, 9-11 (BMH); Jeremiah Daly’s WS 1015, 5 (BMH); Joseph P. Morgan’s WS 1097, 11-12 (BMH); Seán Healy’s WS 1643, 10 (BMH); O’Donoghue (1954, 1986), 132-33; Lankford (1980), 185; Gyves (2010), 33-52; Keane (2017), 55-57, 176, 386; http://theauxiliaries.com/INCIDENTS/mallow-1921-jan/mallow-shooting.html (accessed 5 Oct. 2016).

Note: Joseph Greensmyth was one of four railway workers killed or mortally wounded by British forces in the reprisals that followed the IRA attack on RIC County Inspector William King and his wife at Mallow railway station. Two of these railway workers died instantly, a third succumbed a few days later, and Greensmyth became the fourth casualty. Employed as a signalman by the Great Southern and Western Railway, Greensmyth was severely injured when roughly thrown down a set of stairs by British soldiers responding to gunfire at the station on 31 January 1921. He struggled to recover but eventually succumbed to his injuries about five months later on 25 June at West End in Mallow. His death certificate indicates that the cause of death was ‘shock and injury to [the] spinal column’ and ‘cardiac failure’. See Death Certificate, 25 June 1921. See also Keane (2017), 55-57, 176, 386.

Joseph Greensmyth was a resident of Mallow in 1911 and was then aged 58. He and his wife Catherine were the parents of five living children (six born) who had left the family household. The senior Greensmyths kept a boardinghouse. Apart from two female relatives, their dwelling was occupied in that year by three boarders and another three lodgers.