1916 letter: Plaque commemorates Volunteers in Kinsale

Cork played its part in 1916 when 1,000 Volunteers were organised under Commandant Tomás MacCurtain and Terence MacSwiney.

MacCurtain, who was killed in cold blood by the RIC in 1920, had organised 4 00 men to march to Kerry to collect guns from German ship The Aud, which was to land the weapons at Fenit, and marched to Kilmurray on the first leg of the journey. But MacCurtain, after getting mixed messages that the rebellion had been cancelled, sent his men home.

When the word came again on the Monday, he again summoned his men to arms and took on the forces of occupation on Sheares St, which lasted a week before a peace deal was brokered. MacCurtain was then arrested and detained in the Frongoch prison camp in Wales. The stand-off at Volunteers Hall, now St Francis’s Hall, has been commemorated with a plaque. Kinsale Historical Society also unveiled one to the local Volunteers .