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1923-15
IRA Captain Laurence (Lar) Cunningham
IRA Captain Laurence (Lar) Cunningham (aged about 29) of Asna and Baylor Streets, Clonakilty (Lyre near Clonakilty)
Date of incident: 11 Feb. 1923
Sources: Death Certificate (Cork Urban District No. 6, Union of Cork), 15 Feb. 1923; CE, 12, 16 Feb. 1923, 15 Feb. 1924; Evening Herald, 12 Feb. 1923; SS, 17 Feb. 1923; MSPC/DP3917 (Military Archives); Rebel Cork’s Fighting Story, 208; Last Post (1976 ed.), 104; Keane (2017), 350, 421.
Note: A prominent Volunteer during the War of Independence and a well-known anti-Treaty fighter, Laurence Cunningham was fatally wounded on 11 February 1923 when cornered by a party of Free State troops who had surrounded a public house in the village of Lyre near Clonakilty. Fire was opened on the National Army Soldiers as they closed in on the pub. A ‘fierce engagement’ followed. Cunningham was found lying on the floor of the pub when the Free State troops stormed in. He was removed first to Clonakilty Hospital and then to the Mercy Hospital in Cork city. He admitted to his captors that he and other Irregulars in the pub had been ‘caught napping’. It was soon learned that the equally prominent anti-Treaty IRA man James ‘Spud’ Murphy (formerly a leading member of the West Cork Brigade) had also been in the pub during the fight and had been wounded but escaped with help. See CE, 12 Feb. 1923. Cunningham died of his wounds at the Mercy Hospital on 15 February 1923. See CE, 16 Feb. 1923. He was buried at Timoleague Abbey. See Last Post (1976 ed.), 104.
Laurence Cunningham had a distinguished career with the IRA, which he first joined as a member of its Clonakilty Company. He went on to serve as captain of this company in the Clonakilty Battalion of the Cork No. 3 Brigade and later as vice-commandant of the Second (Clonakilty) Battalion. During the War of Independence he was arrested and imprisoned by British forces. Cunningham’s pension file includes a statement that the Lyre incident in which he was mortally wounded had occurred on 10 February 1923. See MSPC/DP3917 (Military Archives.
Laurence Cunningham was in 1911 one of the six living children (seven born) of the Clonakilty harness maker Michael Cunningham and his wife Kate. Living with them in that year at 5 Boyle Street in Clonakilty were their five sons and one daughter. Laurence Cunningham (then aged 17) was their fourth son. He worked in the Clonakilty bottling stores of the brewery establishment Deasy and Co., Ltd
