Civilian Daniel O’Meara or O’Mearagh

Civilian Daniel O’Meara or O’Mearagh (aged 30) of 4 Model Cottages, Bishopstown (Strawberry Hill, Cork city)

Date of incident: 18 Nov. 1922

Sources: Death Certificate (Cork Urban District No. 6, Union of Cork), 26 Nov. 1922; SS, 25 Nov. 1922; CE, 30 Nov., 1 Dec. 1922; Keane (2017), 330, 419.

Note: On his way home, O’Meara was badly wounded at the top of Strawberry Hill in Cork city on 18 November 1922, when he failed to respond to a reputed challenge to halt from a Free State sentry posted at the City Gaol in Sunday’s Well. O’Meara was a milkman in the employment of Timothy Corcoran of Leemount House, Cork; he delivered milk to Corcoran’s customers by means of a pony and cart. He was hard of hearing, and the empty churns on his cart made much noise. Both of these circumstances made it difficult if not impossible for him to hear any sentry’s calls to halt. Though he was brought to the Mercy Hospital on the day of the incident, his wounds were such that his recovery was considered hopeless, and he died on 29 November ‘from secondary hemorrhage caused by bullet wounds’. While still alive and fully coherent, O’Meara gave a statement making clear that he had heard no calls to halt ‘on account of the rattling of the car’ he was driving, and that he had seen no military even after he had been wounded. Another civilian wounded on the same occasion was recovering. A court of military inquiry ‘exonerated the military from all blame and recommended the father of the deceased to the consideration of the military authorities’. See CE, 1 Dec. 1922.