National Army Sergeant James Conway

National Army Sergeant James Conway  (aged 23) of Baltinglass, Co. Wicklow (Clancy Steeet, Fermoy)

Date of incident: 18 May 1923

Sources: Death Certificate (Fermoy District, Union of Fermoy), 18 May 1923; CE, 26 May 1923; Langton (2019), 333.

Note: Sergeant Conway (aged 23) was shot to death accidently by his wife Ellie Conway at their residence—19 Clancy Street in Fermoy, on Friday, 18 May 1923. They had been married for only three weeks at the time of this tragic incident. Thinking that Sergeant Conway's service revolver was unloaded, his wife pulled the trigger and shot him in the face. He died instantly. There had been no quarrel of any sort between them, according to her testimony at the coroner's inquest on 19 May. Sergeant Conway was reportedly acting against recently promulgated military orders of 2 May in having the revolver in his possession under the circumstances. The only solace for his wife, family, and comrades was that he had been attending an onging Catholic mission in Fermoy every day and received the last rites from a local priest. See CE, 18 May 1923. 

Sergeant Conway was in 1911 one of the six resident children of the agricultural labourer Peter Conway and his wife Anne, who were then the parents of 13 children (12 still living) and who resided at house 5 in the Deerpark section of Baltinglass.