1922-151

Civilian Daniel Griffin

 

Civilian Daniel Griffin (aged 28) of 55 Roche’s Buildings, Cork (Patrick’s Bridge, Cork city)

Date of incident: 28 Oct. 1922

Sources: CE, 30 Oct., 14, 16, 17 Nov. 1922; II, 30 Oct., 16 Nov. 1922; FJ, 30 Oct. 1922; SS, 4 Nov. 1922; Leinster Leader, 4 Nov. 1922; Death Certificate (Cork Urban District No. 4, Union of Cork), 13 Nov. 1922; Keane (2017), 319, 418. 

 

Note: An employee at the Ford factory in Cork city, Griffin was shot on 28 October 1922 on Patrick’s Bridge as he was returning home from Ford’s in the company of a workmate. The gunshot wound in the right buttock became infected, and Griffin died at the North Infirmary on 13 November of ‘septicaemia and blood poisoning’. At the subsequent court of military inquiry witnesses noted that the streets were crowded at the time of the shooting, as it was a Saturday evening. No National Army troops were seen in the vicinity of the shooting, though at the time the shot rang out, a Free State military car with only a driver had just passed. A principal witness (who was unnamed as usual in such cases) asserted that he did not believe that the shot came from the military driver; he also stated his belief that ‘the shot was intended for himself’. The court found that there was insufficient evidence to determine ‘whether or not the bullet was discharged deliberately or accidentally’, but that the shooter was a civilian. It confirmed that Griffin had died of septicaemia resulting from his wound. See CE, 16 Nov. 1922.

According to a report on Griffin’s death in the Irish Independent, ‘Attacks on troops in Cork city during the last eight or ten days have resulted in the deaths of four civilians (one a little child) and the wounding of five others (including two children). An extraordinary feature of the attacks, which have occurred with tragic frequency in the past 10 days, is that the National troops have not suffered a single casualty. A civilian, Daniel Griffin (29), single, was shot and seriously wounded, says the [Press] Exchange, in Patrick St, Cork, at 6 o’clock on Saturday evening  [28 October], when shots were fired at a passing military car. No casualties are reported among the troops.’ See II, 30 Oct. 1922.

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