Civilian John Sisk

Civilian John Sisk (aged about 48) of Ballymurphy near Upton (Upton train ambush)

Date of incident: 15 Feb. 1921

Sources: CE, 16, 17, 18, 19 Feb., 31 March 1921; CC, 16 Feb., 31 March 1921; FJ, 16 Feb., 3 June 1921; CCE, 19, 26 Feb. 1921; IT, 21 Feb. 1921, 31 March 1921; CWN, 26 Feb. 1921; Florence O’Donoghue Papers, MS 31,301/1, 3 (NLI); Military Inquests, WO 35/159B/12 (TNA); Malicious Injury Claims, Box 16/76, Cork County Secretary Files (CCCA); Frank Neville’s WS 443, 12-14 (BMH); Deasy (1973), 222-23.

Note: A railway signalman aged about 48, Sisk was one of eight civilians who were killed or died of their wounds in the Upton train ambush on 15 February 1921. In reporting Sisk’s death on 17 February at the South Infirmary from wounds in the thigh and the abdomen, the Cork Examiner of 18 February remarked that this was ‘the ninth death caused by the affair’. The newspaper also noted that ‘the other four civilians wounded, who are at the South Infirmary, are all in a critical condition, particularly Mr Richard Arthurs [who soon died too] and Mrs Whitley. . .’. See CE, 18 Feb. 1921.

In 1911 John Sisk and his wife Mary were the parents of five children (two sons and three daughters) ranging in age from 2 to 10 years old.