Military archives: Mum got award after IRA teen’s death

It took the intervention of his brother to make sure that the mother of a teenage IRA officer killed in the infamous 1920 Kilmichael ambush received a financial award.

The active service of 16-year-old Pat Deasy was not in question, and it was certified by the Military Service Registration Board on November 28, 1934 — the 14th anniversary of his death. He was wounded in the stomach and died hours later, following an engagement that has been the subject of heated historical debate over differing accounts of what happened.

Deasy and two other IRA members — Michael McCarthy and Jim O’Sullivan — died in the exchange that also left 17 Royal Irish Constabulary Auxiliaries dead on the road between Macroom and Dunmanway, Co Cork.