1922-105

National Army Soldier John Riordan Jr

 

National Army Soldier John Riordan Jr (aged about 21) of Bawnmore near Macroom (Carrigaphooca Bridge near Macroom)

Date of incident: 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/2D143 (Military Archives); O’Farrell, Who’s Who, 210; 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 Riordan 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).

John Riordan Jr was in 1911 one of the seven children of the Bawnmore farmer John Riordan Sr and his wife Kate. All seven (three daughters and four sons) were co-resident with their parents; they ranged in age from under 1 to 11. John Jr (then aged 10) was their second child and eldest son.   

Born in 1900, John Riordan Jr was a member of G Company of the 32nd Infantry Battalion in the National Army under Commandant Peadar O’Conlon. In civilian life Riordan had been a farm labourer. In February 1924 his father John Riordan Sr was described as a rather elderly small farmer who had been partly dependent on his deceased eldest son, especially for help in managing the family farm. The farm was about 30 acres, with a poor-law valuation of £16 10s. All of the six surviving children worked on the farm and had no other source of income. John Riordan Sr was granted a gratuity of £40 in consideration of the death of his son John Jr.

The Irish Revolution Project

Scoil na Staire /Tíreolaíocht

University College Cork, Cork,

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