Civilian Anna Mary Curtin

Civilian Anna Mary Curtin (aged 23) of Bridgeland East near Rathcormack (‘Greenhall’ at Bridgeland East)

Date of incident: 14 Aug. 1922

Sources: Death Certificate (Rathcormack District, Union of Fermoy), 18 Aug. 1922; Inquest Book No. 2, Midleton District (INA); CE, 17, 19, 21, 24, 25 Aug. 1922; Keane (2017), 294-95, 416.

Note: The anti-Treaty IRA attacked a body of National Army troops headed from Cork city to take control of Fermoy on Monday, 14 August 1922. The ambush occurred about 1 mile from Rathcormack. The National Army troops repulsed the attack and forced the IRA party to retreat ‘in disorder’ to a position at the rear of farmer Bartholomew Curtin’s house at ‘Greenhall’. Anna Mary Curtin, who lived there with her parents, was struck by a stray bullet. The bullet ‘entered the house through a window’, grazed the shoulder of Dr Kiely of the South Infirmary in Cork city, who was visiting the Curtins at the time, and struck Anna Mary Curtin in the head, inflicting a serious wound (laceration of the brain). Despite the medical attention that she received from Kiely and three other accessible doctors, she succumbed to her injuries on Friday, 18 August 1922. She was buried at Gortroe. She was the only reported casualty of the encounter. ‘None of the National troops was injured’, and the anti-Treaty IRA forces made good their retreat immediately after the tragic incident. See CE, 21 Aug. 1922.

Curtin’s funeral became something of a demonstration: ‘On Sunday last [20 August 1922], amidst manifestations of deepest sympathy and regret, the earthly remains of Miss Anna Mary Curtin, beloved daughter of Bartholomew and Mrs Curtin, Greenhall, Rathcormac, were laid to rest in the family burial ground at Gortroe. The funeral cortege from the Rathcormac Catholic church, despite all the difficulties of travelling, was of imposing dimensions, a truly striking tribute to the esteem and respect entertained for the deceased young lady and her family, not alone in Rathcormac and district, but over a wide area in the County Cork.’ See CE, 25 Aug. 1922. 

Anna Mary Curtin was in 1911 one of the eight children (seven daughters and one son—the youngest child) of the Bridgeland East (Rathcormack) farmer Bartholomew Curtin and his wife Ellen. Their children ranged in age from 3 to 15. Anna Mary (or simply Mary as she was listed in the census) was then 11 years old.