National Army Soldier Jeremiah Desmond

National Army Soldier Jeremiah Desmond (aged 19) of Pouladuff Road, Cork (Macroom)

Date of incident: 16 Dec. 1922

Sources: Death Certificate (Cork Urban District No. 6, Union of Cork), 22 Dec. 1922; MSPC/2D345 (Military Archives); Keane (2017), 342, 421.

Note: A member of the First Cork Brigade in the National Army, Private Patrick Desmond was badly wounded in Macroom on 16 December 1922. He had been shot in one of his legs below the knee, and owing to infection, the doctors at the Mercy Hospital decided to amputate the wounded leg. Four days after the amputation, he died from septicaemia on 22 December. See Death Certificate (Cork Urban District No. 6, Union of Cork), 22 Dec. 1922; MSPC/2D345 (Military Archives).

Before joining the National Army, he had worked as a steward for the Cork Steampacket Company on its vessel the SS. Bandon at an average weekly wage of £3. One of his four brothers was a merchant sailor. Another brother was said in May 1924 to be a resident of the Cork District Asylum owing to shell shock during his service in the British army during the Great War. The Army Pensions Board awarded Jeremiah Desmond’s sister Hannah a gratuity of £60 in July 1924, which was later increased to £100 on appeal. She had previously been receiving a weekly dependant’s allowance of 21s. See MSPC/2D345.