Family links on both sides of a tragic ambush in West Cork

The stories of two men in West Cork intertwined in the War of Independence. Unlikely to have ever met, one was involved in the killing of the other in the IRA attack on the RIC barracks in Rosscarbery. Decades later, their families were linked through marriage and the war was forgotten. Dan and Flor MacCarthy relate their family’s extraordinary story

Dan MacCarthy outside the RIC barracks in Rosscarbery where one of his granduncles was involved in the siege that saw his other granduncle killed. Picture Denis Minihane

At the back of a drawer in an imposing teak bookcase in the family living room in Skibbereen, Co Cork in the 1970s, nestled among old family photographs and yellowing newspapers, my hand touched something made of steel. 

My childish curiosity piqued, I withdrew the oily brown paper in which the object was wrapped, and opened it up. It was a revolver — a Webley.