Civilian Timothy Murphy

Civilian Timothy Murphy (aged about 22) of 24 Blarney Street, Cork city (Cattle Lane, Blackpool, Cork)

Date of incident: 29 June 1921

Sources: Death Certificate, 29 June 1921; CE, 1 July 1921; SS, 2 July 1921; Irish Bulletin, 6 July 1921; Military Inquests, WO 35/156/14 (TNA); Last Post (1976), 90.

Note: The unemployed Timothy Murphy was returning home to 24 Blarney Street in Cork between 10 and 10:30 p.m. on 29 June 1921 when he was shot and killed by curfew troops because he had failed to hear or to heed their challenge. The shooting took place at Cattle Lane or nearby Market Place in Blackpool. It was Corporal Finch of the South Staffordshire Regiment’s 2nd Battalion who fired the fatal shot. Murphy had reportedly served in the British navy under the alias of Jeremiah Mullane; during the first year of the Great War he had joined the South Irish Horse Regiment. See Military Inquests, WO 35/156/14 (TNA). Murphy’s ‘only brother’, who had also served at sea, had been killed in a naval encounter during the Great War. Timothy Murphy was the son of Maurice Murphy of Blarney Street. See CE, 1 July 1921.

Timothy Murphy did not have only one brother. His father Maurice and mother Bridget Murphy of 24 Blarney Street were in fact the parents of eight living children (ten born), with four sons and three daughters living at home with them in 1911. Timothy (then aged 12) seems to have been their youngest son. His father was a shopkeeper in the provisions trade.