Civilian Richard Henry Barry

Civilian Richard Henry Barry (aged 23) of Whitegate House, Knockgriffin, near Midleton (Knockgriffin)

Date of incident: night of 14-15 May 1921 (death recorded 15 May 1921)

Sources: Death Certificate (Midleton District 2, Union of Midleton), 15 May 1921; CE, 16, 17, 24 May, 24 June 1921; FJ, 28 May; CWN, 4 June 1921; Irish Bulletin, 5:5 (7 June 1921); Lieutenant-Colonel John M. McCarthy’s WS 883, Appendix, 11-12 (BMH); John Kelleher’s WS 1456, 27 (BMH); Francis Healy’s WS 1694, 5, 17-21 (BMH); Rebel Cork’s FS, 192, 197; Last Post (1976), 87; ‘Irish Rebellion in the 6th Division Area’, Irish Sword, 27 (Spring 2010), 147; http://irishmedals.org/ira-killed.html (accessed 12 Nov. 2014); Midleton IRA Memorial, Main Street, Midleton.

Note: Barry was killed by soldiers of the Cameron Highlanders who claimed that he had been trying to escape by running out his back door. The IRA maintained that he and two Volunteers had been killed in reprisal for the IRA’s killing of members of the crown forces in Midleton on the previous day. See CE, 16, 17, 24 May 1921. Barry was one of the five living children (three sons and two daughters) of the Knockgriffin farmer David Barry and his wife Kate. Richard Barry, their second son, was buried at Holy Rosary Cemetery in Midleton. A gravestone for the Barry family adjacent to the Republican Plot in Holy Rosary Cemetery records that Richard Henry Barry (aged 23) of Knockgriffin was ‘shot by British forces’ on 15 May 1921. Though Barry’s name appears on the Midleton IRA Memorial at the north end of Main Street in Midleton, it does not appear on the Roll of Honour of the Cork No. 1 Brigade deposited in the Cork Public Museum in Fitzgerald Park in Cork city.