National Army Soldier Michael Aherne or Ahern

National Army Soldier Michael Aherne or Ahern (aged about 21) of Knockariddera, Knocknagoshel, Co. Kerry (Castledonovan near Skibbereen)

Date of incident: 16 February 1923

Sources: CE, 22 Feb. 1923; SS, 24 Feb. 1923; MSPC/3D306 (Military Archives); Farrell, Who’s Who, 201; Keane (2017), 350, 421; Langton (2019), 29.

Note: Attached to the Cork City Column of the National Army, Private Michael Aherne was mortally wounded at Castledonovan in Dromdaleague parish in the Skibbereen district on Friday, 16 February 1923. He died from a gunshot wound in the abdomen at the Mercy Hospital in Cork city two days later. His pension file gave the place of death (with one exception) as Drimoleague, but this appears to be incorrect. See MSPC/3D306 (Military Archives). As an ambulance was carrying his remains to Knocknagoshel for burial, it was attacked by Irregulars: ‘An ambulance conveying the remains of Volunteer Aherne, who was fatally wounded in the Castledonovan ambush [in Dromdaleague parish] last week-end, was ambushed on the road between Rathmore and Barraduff.’ Nevertheless, the ambulance arrived safely at its destination. See CE, 22 Feb. 1923.

Michael Aherne was in 1911 one of the seven children of the small Knockariddera farmer Patrick Aherne and his wife Julia. Living with them in that year were five of their seven children (three daughters and two sons). Michael Aherne (then aged 9) was the older of the two sons still at home.

Born in 1902, Michael Aherne had been a farm labourer in civilian life. His father Patrick Ahern was awarded a gratuity of £50 in December 1924. He had a farm of about 28 acres, but with a poor-law valuation of only £2. His children were mostly ‘farm workers’. See MSPC/3D306.