Civilian Patrick Clancy

Civilian Patrick Clancy (aged 31) of 10 Cemetery Row, Old Youghal Road, Cork (Leitrim Street, Cork city)

Date of incident: 13 Oct. 1922

Sources: Death Certificate (Cork Urban District No. 4, Union of Cork), 13 Oct. 1922; CE, 14, 16 Oct. 1922; Evening Herald, 15 Oct. 1922; SS, 21 Oct. 1922; MSP34/REF53273; Murphy (2010), Appendix 2, 338.

Note: Patrick Clancy was an ex-RIC man from Kilrush, Co. Clare. He was shot and fatally wounded at about 1:30 on the afternoon of 13 October 1922 on Leitrim Street in Cork city by three men armed with revolvers. He died at the North Infirmary about an hour after admission. Prior to his disbandment in July 1922 he had been stationed at Dublin Castle and at Gormanstown Camp. Earlier, he had been posted to Dunmanway, but he had never worked as a constable in Cork city. He had been living in Cork city for three months at the time of his murder. He had been shot four times at close range. According to the medical officer who testified at the coroner’s inquest, ‘there was laceration of the brain, and the left lung must probably have been pierced’. Clancy had withdrawn £30 from the bank just before the murder, and the coroner’s jury was told that ‘his assailants knew he had this money in his possession. There could have been only one motive.’ See CE, 16 Oct. 1922. Robbery, however, was probably not the main motive—or not the only one. The report of this incident in the Southern Star stated that Clancy was a resident of Burke’s Avenue, off Gerald Griffin Street. See SS, 21 Oct. 1922.  There is evidence that Clancy was suspected as a spy. Anne Barry (who later became Anne Wright) revealed in a pension claim that she had subsequently carried the weapon of a man named Twohig on 14 October 1922, after the shooting of ‘Clancy, spy’, from Leitrim Street to the Ballyhooly Road. See MSP34/REF 53273).

According to the Evening Herald, Patrick Clancy, a native of County Clare, had ‘served in the R.I.C. for 12 years and was disbanded from the force in July last. During his period of service he was stationed for some time in the city [Cork], and was up to the time of his death living at Old Youghal Road. [The] deceased was only recently married. The shooting took place in Leitrim St. He was fired on by three men carrying revolvers. The scene of the tragedy was marked by a pool of blood near a tram standard on the pathway just opposite to where John St runs into Leitrim St. The assailants apparently lay in wait near the tram standard for their victim, and immediately he passed a few feet away from them, they fired at him and he fell with wounds in the back. There were not many people about at the time, and his assailants made good their escape by John St.’ Clancy was taken to the North Infirmary. He had three bullet wounds, two in back and one in the arm; one bullet had passed ‘right through’ the lung. He died ‘shortly after admission’. See Evening Herald, 15 Oct. 1922.