Volunteer Section Commander Daniel (Sonny) Buckley

Volunteer Section Commander Daniel (Sonny) Buckley (aged 18) of Gortacurrig near Tooms or Toames (Tooms near Macroom)

Date of incident: 8 June 1921

Sources: CE, 10 June 1921; FJ, 11 June 1921; CCE, 11 June 1921; CWN, 18 June 1921; Military Inquests, WO 35/147A/2 (TNA); Jeremiah Murphy’s WS 772, 8-9 (BMH); Michael O’Sullivan’s WS 793, 27 (BMH); Charles Browne’s WS 873, 47-48 (BMH); Denis Murphy’s WS 1318, 7-8 (BMH); James Murphy’s WS 1633, 13 (BMH); Roll of Honour, Cork No. 1 Brigade (Cork Public Museum, Fitzgerald Park, Cork); Ó Suílleabhaín (1965), 128-38; Last Post (1976), 89; Twohig (1979 ed.); Ó hÉalaithe (2014), 275; IRA Monument, The Square, Macroom.

Note: Buckley, the son of a farmer residing at Gortacurrig, ‘was shot dead by Auxiliary cadets as he was proceeding to a well for water’ at about 7 p.m. on 8 June 1921. It was officially stated that he had been shot ‘for refusing to halt’. See CCE, 11 June 1921.

Charlie Browne, adjutant of the Macroom Battalion of the Cork No. 1 Brigade, recalled how ‘Sonny’ Buckley met his death at the hands of ‘Major Percival’s Flying Column of 140 men of the Essex Regiment stationed at Bandon’: ‘This column operated with field kitchens and travelled on foot, often crossing country with one platoon of forty men mounted by cycles. These acted as flankers, using parallel roads to the main body. They arrived at Toames about 6 p.m. on the 8th [of June] and opened fire at Sonny Buckley, a Volunteer of “J” Company, who was running to warn Battalion H.Q. of their proximity. He was killed. . . .’ See Charles Browne’s WS 873, 47-48. Buckley was shot by a ‘flying column’ of the Essex Regiment under the command of Captain T. A. Lowe. See Military Inquests, WO 35/147A/2 (TNA).

Volunteer Daniel Buckley was the youngest son of the Gortacurrig farmer Michael Buckley and his wife Margaret; they were the parents in 1911 of eight children (ten born). Seven of these children (four sons and three daughters) co-resided with them in that year. Dannie Buckley (then aged 9) was apparently their youngest child overall. A decade later, on 10 June 1921, he was buried in the graveyard of Macloneigh parish near Macroom. See CE, 10 June 1921. Buckley’s name appears on the Republican Monument in The Square of Macroom, where he is listed as a section commander. See Twohig (1979 ed.), photo between p. 32 and p. 33.