Volunteer Section Commander Jeremiah Ahern

Volunteer Section Commander Jeremiah Ahern (aged about 24) of College View, Midleton (Clonmult)

Date of incident: 20 Feb. 1921 (killed after surrender)

Sources: CE, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 Feb. 1921; II, 24, 25 Feb. 1921; Military Inquests, WO 35/155A/53 (TNA); Seán O’Mahony Papers, MS 44,047/3 (NLI); Joseph Aherne’s WS 1367, 52-58 (BMH); Michael Kearney’s WS 1418, 21-23 (BMH); Patrick J. Whelan’s WS 1449, 51-58 (BMH); John P. O’Connell’s WS 1444, 15 (BMH); John Kelleher’s WS 1456, 23-24 (BMH); Patrick J. Higgins’s WS 1467, 3-7 (BMH); Diarmuid O’Leary’s WS 1589, 4-8 (BMH); Roll of Honour, Cork No. 1 Brigade (Cork Public Museum, Fitzgerald Park, Cork); Last Post (1976), 81; O’Neill (2006), 62, 96-100; Borgonovo (2007), 88; ‘The Irish Rebellion in the 6th Division Area’, Irish Sword, 27 (Spring 2010), 84-85, 143; Rebel Cork’s FS, 190-95; Sheehan (2011), 125; Midleton IRA Memorial, Main Street, Midleton; Cork No. 1 Brigade Memorial, Holy Rosary Cemetery, Midleton; Clonmult Ambush Site Memorial; Clonmult Village Memorial; http://midletonheritage.com/2015/12/11/few-families-suffered-as-we-did-war-of-independence-pension-files-associated-with-midleton/ (accessed 13 March 2016).  

Note: Volunteer Jeremiah Ahern was killed after surrendering at Clonmult. In 1911 he was one of the eight living children (ten born) of labourer Patrick Ahern and his wife Mary of 13 Free-School Lane in Midleton. Seven of these eight children (four sons and three daughters) were co-resident with their parents in 1911. Then aged 14, Jeremiah was the second oldest of the seven at home. He was buried in the Republican Plot of Holy Rosary Cemetery in Midleton. He was the first cousin of the killed Volunteer Liam Ahern.

Prior to his death Volunteer Jeremiah Ahern had worked as a mechanic at Hallinan’s Garage in Midleton, earning about £4 a week and contributing about £2 a week to the maintenance of the household. His siblings at the time of his death included Thomas (Tommy) Ahern, aged about 25 and employed as a postman; William Ahern, a schoolboy aged 15 who delivered telegrams for 15s. a week; Bartholomew (Bart) Ahern, aged 4; and ‘one other boy [Patrick] in delicate health who never worked, also two girls [Mary and Bridget], one aged 16 going to school and the other at home unemployed’. One older daughter was married and living away, while still another daughter [probably Ellen] was employed in a local pub. With numerous chidren to support, and with earnings of only 36s. a week as a labourer, the father Patrick Ahern was ‘in poor circumstances’; he was about 70 years old in February 1924, ‘not in very good health’, and sorely missed the contribution to family income formerly provided by deceased Volunteer Jeremiah Ahern. See Garda Sergeant A. Beirne to Chief Superintendent, Cork city, 8 Feb. 1924, at http://midletonheritage.com/2015/12/11/few-families-suffered-as-we-did-war-of-independence-pension-files-associated-with-midleton/ (accessed 13 March 2016).