1921-96

Civilian George Fletcher

Civilian George Fletcher (aged 17) of 21 Kyle Street, Cork city (Union Quay Barracks, Cork)

Date on incident: 22 Feb. 1921

Sources: FJ, 31 March 1921; CE, 31 March 1921; CC, 31 March 1921; Military Inquests, WO 35/149B/17 (TNA).

Note: A canteen messenger boy employed at the Union Quay Barracks in Cork, Fletcher was shot with a Lee Enfield rifle and seriously wounded by an RIC constable named Joseph Prendergast in the barrack sleeping quarters on 22 February 1921. Fletcher was shot while collecting his washing. He died of his wounds on 25 February. In late March Constable Prendergast was tried for manslaughter in this death before a military court-martial, but the evidence showed that the discharge of a rifle in the guardroom of Union Quay Barracks had been ‘quite accidental’, and Prendergast was acquitted. See CE, 31 March 1921.

The 1911 census indicates that George Fletcher (then aged 8) was living with his widowed grandmother Sarah Carey, an unemployed dressmaker, and her three daughters at 21 Kyle Street, Cork.  

The Irish Revolution Project

Scoil na Staire /Tíreolaíocht

University College Cork, Cork,

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