1922-102

National Army Soldier Raphael (Ralph) Conway

 

National Army Soldier Raphael (Ralph) Conway (aged about 20) of St Mary’s Terrace, Athlone, Co. Westmeath (Carrigaphooca Bridge near Macroom)

Date of death: 16 Sept. 1922

Sources: Death Certificate (Slieveragh District, Union of Macroom), 16 Sept. 1922; CE, 18, 22 Sept. 1922; FJ, 18, 19, 20, 21 Sept. 1922; Evening Herald, 18, 20 Sept. 1922; Belfast Newsletter, 18 Sept. 1922; Derry Journal, 20 Sept. 1922; II, 21 Sept. 1922; SS, 23 Sept. 1922; Kilkenny People, 23 Sept. 1922; Longford Leader, 23 Sept. 1922; Connaught Telegraph, 23 Sept. 1922; Connacht Tribune, 23 Sept. 1922; Ulster Herald, 23 Sept. 1922; Fermanagh Herald, 23 Sept. 1922; Strabane Chronicle, 23 Sept. 1922; MSPC/2D28 (Military Archives); O’Farrell, Who’s Who, 203; Boyne (2015), 185-86; Keane (2017), 99-101, 306, 394; http://www.irishmedals.ie/National-Army-Killed.php (accessed 7 July 2017); Carrigaphooca Bridge Memorial.

 

Note: Six soldiers of the National Army including Raphael (Ralph) Conway were killed on the spot and a seventh was mortally wounded when a powerful road mine exploded as they were in the process of trying to disable and remove it a short distance from Carrigaphooca Bridge near Macroom on Saturday, 16 September 1922. See CE, 18 Sept. 1922; http://www.irishmedals.ie/National-Army-Killed.php (accessed 7 July 2017).

Raphael Conway was in 1911 one of the six living children (seven born) of the railway engine driver Thomas Conway and his wife Bridget. Five of their children (three sons and two daughters) co-resided with them in that year at 4 Ankersbower Road in Athlone. Of the three sons living at home, Raphael (then aged 9) was the eldest. Like his father, he later became a railroad worker.   

Private Raphael Conway had served as a company engineer with the IRA during the War of Independence. He later joined the Fifth Infantry Battalion of the Athlone Command in the National Army under Commandant Peadar O’Conlon. In civilian life he had been an employee of the Midland Great Western Railway Company. His mother Bridget Conway was awarded a dependant’s allowance or gratuity of £100 under the 1923 Army Pensions Act. See MSPC/2D28 (Military Archives). 

The Irish Revolution Project

Scoil na Staire /Tíreolaíocht

University College Cork, Cork,

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