National Army Soldier John Hurley

National Army Soldier John Hurley (aged 39), (Monard Bridge near Whitechurch)

Date of incident: 27 May 1923

Sources: Death Certificate (Whitechurch District, Union of Cork), 27 May 1923; CE, 29, 30 May 1923; II, 29 May 1923. 

Note: A member of the Railway Protection and Maintenance Corps of the National Army, John Hurley died from a rifle bullet wound that was self-inflicted accidentally at Monard Bridge at about 11 p.m. on 27 May 1923. At an inquest into his death fellow soldiers reported finding Hurley ‘lying on his face, with a gaping wound in the back of the skull. He was quite dead. The muzzle of his rifle was covered with blood, and there was an expended cartridge in the breach.’ Hurley had been acting as a sentry when the fatality occurred. ‘The medical evidence was that the whole back of the skull had been blow away. The bullet had entered through the mouth, and some of the teeth had been carried away. Death was instantaneous and was due to laceration of the brain. In the doctor’s opinion the wound could have been self-inflicted. The shot had been fired only a short distance from the face. The bullet was a rifle bullet. The court found that the deceased died from a bullet wound, self-inflicted, and caused by the accidental discharge of the deceased’s rifle.’ See CE, 30 May 1923.