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1922-162

Civilian Samuel Jones

 

Civilian Samuel Jones (aged 15) of the Ketch Isabella from Gloucester, England (Youghal)

Date of incident: 4 Nov. 1922

Sources: CE, 6, 7 Nov. 1922; FJ, 7 Nov. 1922; II, 7, 10 Nov. 1922; SS, 11 Nov. 1922; Keane (2017), 321, 419.

 

Note: During their off-duty time on 4 November 1922, the visiting English seamen Samuel Jones and his shipmate James Lacy, followed by Captain Arthur Jones, young Samuel’s father, were proceeding up Grattan Street in Youghal when they were challenged by the Free State sentry at the ‘Constabulary Barracks’. If they heard the challenge, they did not think that it was intended for them. The sentry fired, hitting both Samuel Jones and Lacy apparently with the same bullet. Lacy died instantly and Samuel Jones very soon afterwards in the hospital. At the subsequent military court of inquiry Captain Jones testified that they did stop after hearing the sentry’s command to halt, but that the shot rang out at about the same time. The sentry asserted that he had challenged a group of three or four men ‘at 40 yards to halt. They refused. He challenged five times in all but they kept on. He fired not to kill but to stop them. He heard some one saying “he’s dead”. That was all he knew about it.’ The court accepted that the sentry had indeed issued five challenges to halt and found that no blame attached to him in the deaths. See CE, 7 Nov. 1922.

The Irish Revolution Project

Scoil na Staire /Tíreolaíocht

University College Cork, Cork,

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