War in St. Patrick Street (A memory of childhood)

The British Empire was England's enterprise.

Ireland it's nearest source of wealth and taxes;

Thirty two thousand square miles

Of hills and dales for 800 years.

In 1920 the game was up.

Sinn Fein rose in secret struggle.

Protest rife as rebellion spread.

Republican Ireland declared itself free.

British Army's revenge was brutal.

Lord Mayor MacCurtain was shot at home at dawn.

Replacement, MacSweeney, a hunger striker died in Brixton Goal.

The mayhem of war; curfew followed.

December 1920 came Black and Tans, many were drunk,

With petrol and paraffin cans in their Crossley tenders.

Twenty four hours of destruction began.

St. Patrick Street in Cork city was burned.

Fire hoses were deliberately cut;

It was a night of arson, and the shooting did not end until dawn.

14 acres of the city centre were on fire; City Hall razed;

Gone too the Carnegie library of priceless books.

57 businesses were looted.

Thousands were made unemployed just before Christmas.

In a public house my future father-in-law's head

Was fatally struck by a soldiers gun.

3rd March 2007

Footnote

There was ample military force that night in Cork

To have prevented the destruction of Cork.

But Strickland's Auxiliary Division

Had been exasperated by earlier losses.

Subsequently intercepted letters

Showed &-company's part in events.

British press hoodwinked; Parliamentary report was suppressed

But British rule ended in July 1922.