Anti-Treaty Soldier (Captain) Timothy Kenefick or Kennefick

Anti-Treaty Soldier (Captain) Timothy Kenefick or Kennefick (aged about 29) of 1 Lady’s Well Hill, Blackpool, Cork (Nadrid near Coachford)

Date of incident: 8 Sept. 1922

Sources: II, 11 Sept. 1922; CE, 12, 13 Sept. 1922; FJ, 14 Sept. 1922; Connaught Tribune, 16 Sept. 1922; MSPC/DP7329 (Military Archives); Florence O’Donoghue Papers, MS 31,444/7 (NLI); List of IRA Interments (Boole Library, UCC); Rebel Cork’s Fighting Story, 25; Cork One Brigade (1963), Roll of Honour; Commemorative Brochure for Captain Timothy Kenefick/Kennefick (2005), (copy available among the collections of the Cork City and County Archives (IE/CCCA/SM698); Dalton (2015), 182-83; Keane (2017), 303-4, 417; http://irishvolunteers.org/captain-timothy-kennefick-cork-ira/ (accessed on 7 July 2017); http://www.irishmedals.ie/Anti-Treaty-Killed.php (accessed 13 July 2017); http://irishvolunteers.org/bulletin-november-2017-info-required-captain-kennefick-monument/ (accessed 1 April 2018). 

Note: Timothy Kenefick’s body ‘was found in a field near Coachford’ on Friday, 8 September 1922. Papers found on the body disclosed his identity; he had obviously met a violent death. He was buried four days later in the Republican Plot in St Finbarr’s Cemetery. His funeral ‘was of large dimensions, and the coffin was borne through the streets [of Cork city] on the shoulders of the deceased’s comrades’. Kenefick, ‘who was a barman by occupation, was very popular in his district [of Blackpool], and much sympathy is felt with his young widow, child, and other relatives in their sad bereavement’. See CE, 13 Sept. 1922. He had been a lieutenant of A Company of the First Battalion of the Cork No. 1 Brigade. He was the Company Signaller. During the Civil War he was again Company Signaller in the Cork No. 5 Brigade under the command of Ted Sullivan. He had joined the Volunteers in 1917 and had served with the IRA from then until his death on 8 September 1922. See MSPC/DP7329 (Military Archives).

The Freeman’s Journal provided the following account of his death: ‘Another shooting affray is reported from Coachford, which is situate[d] in Mid-Cork, where a young man named Timothy Kennefick of 1 Lady’s Well Place, Cork, described as being prominent in the Irregulars, died as a result of wounds on Friday [8 September]. Kennefick . . . was returning to Cork from Ballingeary by motor-car from Macroom and was arrested by National troops. Later in the evening the dead body of Kennefick was found in some briars on the land of Mr O’Sullivan, Galgey [sic], Nadrid, with two bullet wounds in the body. It is believed that he was shot while attempting to escape. The remains were subsequently removed to Cork and were interred in the Republican Plot in the cemetery to-day.’ See FJ, 14 Sept. 1922. The claim that Kennefick had been ‘shot while attempting to escape’ is not credible.  

According to a republican source, Captain Kenefick ‘was killed by the Free State Army on the 8th September 1922 while on the way to his mother’s funeral. He received a horrific death under the orders of General [Emmet] Dalton, who had him dragged behind the back of a Free State truck while his hands were tied together. He was then beaten with rifle butts in the face and on his body, losing several teeth and incurring vicious wounds, and was eventually shot twice in the head and his body dumped behind a wall just outside Coachford village, Co. Cork. The new monument [unveiled on 1 October 2006 by Rooves Bridge in Coachford] is a Celtic Cross erected by members of the Tadhg Kennefick Commemoration Committee.’ His gravestone in St Finbarr’s Cemetery renders his surname as Kennefick and records that he had been ‘murdered in defence of the Republic’ on 8 September 1922. See http://irishvolunteers.org/captain-timothy-kennefick-cork-ira/ (accessed 7 July 2017); http://www.irishmedals.org/anti-treaty-killed.html (accessed 12 July 2017). 

The Irish Independent of 11 September 1922 reported that on Saturday, 9 September, National Army troops ‘under the personal direction’ of Major General Emmet Dalton had carried out ‘a big drive over an extremely wide area’. In this drive ‘Blarney, Coachford, Donoughmore, and all the surrounding districts were combed out and large quantities of material were discovered. During the drive up to fifteen land mines were discovered and lifted. Ten machine-gun “drums” fully loaded and a large number of hand and rifle grenades were also found. No opposition whatever was experienced. The party returned to Cork [city] on Saturday evening.’ See II, 11 Sept. 1922. See also Connaught Tribune, 16 Sept. 1922.

An inquest into Kenefick’s death was held on 11 September 1922 at Coachford before the coroner John Joseph Horgan and a jury. The jury brought in a charge of wilful murder against the officers in charge of the National Army forces at Coachford and against Minister of Defence Richard Mulcahy. An application by the victim’s wife Ellen Kenefick to the Compensation (Personal Injuries) Committee in relation to her husband’s death was rejected by the Minister for Finance on the grounds that on 8 September 1922 her husband ‘was an active Irregular and the leader of an Irregular column’. Ellen Kenefick did not relent, however. In 1934 she and her two children were awarded dependants’ allowances under the Army Pensions Acts—allowances that continued until 1941, when she remarried. In addition, in 1962 she received a posthumous Service Medal (1917-21) honouring her first husband’s service with the Volunteers and the IRA before and during the War of independence. See MSPC/DP7329 (Military Archives).

Sean Boyne discusses the controversial inquest and its aftermath in his recent biography of Emmet Dalton: ‘An inquest was held at Mr Gilligan’s house, Coachford. One of the witnesses claimed that the Free State convoy that captured Kenefick was commanded by Dalton, but this was not corroborated and has to be treated with caution. The coroner was pro-Treaty solicitor J. J. Horgan, formerly a prominent Redmondite. A verdict of “wilful murder” was returned against the National troops. The Provisional Government hit back at the verdict, claiming that the inquest was held under the auspices of “armed irregulars”. Dalton placed a notice in the Cork press stating that “owing to acts of terrorism to the civil population, and more particularly to jurors, no inquests are to be held in future in the county unless written authority for the holding of same shall have been first given by him [Dalton]. This move by Dalton to regulate the holding of inquests was condemned by the IRA publication War News, which claimed that murder “may go unchecked’’’.

‘Labour Deputy Tomás de Nógla raised Kenefick’s death in the Dáil. He said that the verdict of “wilful murder” had been recorded against National troops and asked if any attempts had been made to bring the guilty ones to justice. Defence Minister Mulcahy replied: “I have ascertained that the inquest was held under the auspices of Irregulars armed to the teeth, and before a jury that was apparently selected by Irregulars. The coroner, in directing the jury, pointed out that they had heard only one side of the case. This was inevitable under the conditions. An adjournment was suggested but not agreed to. Under the circumstances no action has been taken to bring the so-called guilty troops to justice. . . .”’ See Dalton (2015), 182-83.

Timothy Kenefick was in 1911 one of the nine children of the brewery worker Michael Kenefick and his wife Kate. Six of their nine children co-resided with them in that year at 1 Lady’s Well Hill in Cork city. Among the six children (two daughters and four sons) living at home, Tim Kenefick (then aged 18) was the third eldest. He was then working as a ‘carman’. The 1911 census renders his surname and that of his family as Kenefick. 

The latest monument erected near Coachford in memory of Captain Timothy Kennefick of the anti-Treaty Cork No. 1 Brigade declares on its face that Kennefick was ‘murdered in defence of the Republic’ on 8 September 1922 at the age of 29. A memorial placque standing nearby states that Captain Tagdh [sic] Kennefick was ‘murdered by imperial Free State forces on Sept. 8th, 1922’. Underneath this statement is a short poem: ‘By a traitor’s hand/was his life blood shed/all crimson he dyed the sod/may angels watch over this/martyr’s bed and his soul/find peace with God.’ See http://irishvolunteers.org/bulletin-november-2017-info-required-captain-kennefick-monument/ (accessed 1 April 2018). The Tadhg Kennefick Commemoration Committee has written and published a booklet in honour of his IRA career and death. See Commemorative Brochure for Captain Timothy Kenefick/Kennefick (2005). A copy is available among the collections of the Cork City and County Archives (IE/CCCA/SM698).