1920-166

Civilian Harriet King Meara

Civilian Harriet King Meara (aged about 74) of 1 Wellington Avenue, College Road (Grand Parade, Cork city)

Date of incident: 8 Dec. 1920

Sources: CE, 9, 13, 14 Dec. 1920; CCE, 11 Dec. 1920; II, 13 Dec. 1920; CWN, 18 Dec. 1920; Military Inquests, WO 35/155A/19 (TNA).

 

Note: An old woman aged about 83 who was ‘slightly deaf’, Meara was run down and killed by the driver of an Auxiliary Division Crossley tender on 8 December 1920 on the Grand Parade. She had a single scalp wound on the back of her head. The driver claimed that it had been impossible to avoid hitting her because she had moved back into the line of his vehicle as he sought to take evasive action. See CCE, 11 Dec. 1920. She was killed on the same day as another civilian (Michael J. Murphy), and on the day following the shooting death of a third civilian (John Fleming). See II, 13 Dec. 1920. The verdict of a military court of inquiry was that Meara’s death was accidental, and that ‘no blame was attachable to anyone’. See CE, 14 Dec. 1920. In 1911 the unmarried Harriet Meara (then aged 65) lived with her spinster cousins Amelia and Susanna Meara in house 109.1 in Gurteenaspig in Bishopstown.  

The Irish Revolution Project

Scoil na Staire /Tíreolaíocht

University College Cork, Cork,

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