How Kealkill’s RIC barracks escaped Volunteer attack

SEÁN O’Hegarty had charge of 30 Volunteers who marched from different directions to Kealkill, where the plan had been to take control of the local Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) barracks.

But the allotted time of 4pm — by when O’Hegarty was told to expect the orders to attack — came and passed, with no news from his fellow IRB member, Tomás MacCurtain. In fact, O’Hegarty was the most senior IRB man in Cork at the time, and was probably more in the picture about the bigger plan for Easter weekend than most others in the county.

The men with him from Ballingeary and Bantry were armed with four rifles, 10 shotguns, and 11 revolvers, but he decided to dismiss them at 6pm when there were no orders sanctioning the attack on police.