Assignment Local History

1
Introduction
This piece of work will focus on Constable Thomas Johnston, who joined the Royal Irish
Constabulary, in 1920 and died as a result of injuries sustained, whilst on duty in Cork City in
January 1921. My reason for choosing to research this topic, simply lies in the fact that
Thomas Johnston was my great grand uncle, however within my family very little is now
known about the death of Thomas. This work will look briefly at factors which may have
influenced his decision to follow this career path, including his family background and
economic conditions of 1920’s Ireland. In addition I also hope to have a greater
understanding of what occurred on the evening which Thomas was wounded by consulting
newspaper reports of the incident and also through the Bureau of Military History Witness
statements of republicans involved on that night.
Copyright © 2015 Laura Johnston

2
Appendix
Birth Cert of Thomas Johnston p.7
1901 Census of Ireland, County Cavan, Canningstown, Drumhillagh,Household no.4.
Form A. Household Return p.8
1901 Census of Ireland, County Cavan, Canningstown, Drumhillagh,Household no.4.
Form B.1. - House & Building Return p.9
RIC Recruitment Poster p.10
RIC Service Register p.11
The Freeman’s Journal, 5 January 1921 p.13
Irish Independent, 6 January 1921 p.14
Cork County Eagle and Munster Advertiser, 8 January 1921 p.15
Death Record of Thomas Johnston p.16

3
Thomas Robert Johnston was born on 17th May 1901, in the townland of Drumhillagh in the
parish of Knockbride, Co.Cavan.1 Born to parents James & Sarah Johnston, in a rural and
predominantly agricultural parish, James unsurprisingly was employed in this industry, listed
as a farmer on Thomas’ birth certificate. On 31st March 1901,only weeks before Thomas was
born, a Census of Ireland was taken, on which James is listed as a caretaker 2 suggesting that
he was part of the labourer class, renting a home for his family & working as hired help for a
local farmer as a means of earning a wage. This is substantiated from Census Form B.1. -
House & Building return where the property inhabited by James and Sarah is described as a
second class house with 2 rooms, situated on the land of Henry Graham.3
Cavan as a whole was an agriculturally based economy in the early 1900s, with farming
being described as being at a ‘subsistence level and extremely labour intensive’ in 1912.4
However the war period of 1914- 1916 brought opportunity to agriculturists; agriculture
prices were rising due to the war demands and in the month of October 1914, the County
Inspector of Cavan observed; ‘There has been a plentiful harvest, and the crops have been
well saved’.5
However the economic gains associated with the wartime period were short lived;
unemployment figures soared following the end of World War 1, in 1920s Ireland 53% of
the population was employed in the agricultural sector and there was a high degree of
poverty.6
With this backdrop, the conditions of a wage of 10 shillings per day along with keep and a
uniform7, as offered by the RIC were attractive to many, as these conditions were much
better than those to be found elsewhere8. In particular Irish men living and working in
mainland Britain were attracted to these RIC posts as a means of returning home to Ireland
with secured employment and RIC Recruiting offices were set up in cities in mainland Britain
such as London, Liverpool & Glasgow in late 1919.9
1
General Registers Office, Dublin, Birth Registration of Thomas Robert Johnston.
2
National Archives of Ireland 1901 Census Of Ireland, County Cavan, Canningstown, Drumhillagh,Household
no.4. http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Cavan/Canningstown/Drumhillagh/1047848/.
3
Ibid.
4
Oliver Patrick McCaul, The divided political landscape of County Cavan 1912-1922. Masters thesis, National
University of Ireland Maynooth 2002. Available http://eprints.maynoothuniversity.ie/5195/ (accessed 3 April
2015).
5
County Inspector’s Confidential Monthly Report, October, 1914, cited in Mc Caul, 2002.
6
Diarmuid Ferriter, Ireland in the Twentieth Century. http://www.gov.ie/en/essays/twentieth.html (accessed
29 April 2015).
7
Royal Irish Constabulary Recruitment Poster, Ireland In Schools, The Black and Tans and Auxiliaries Images.
Available; www.iisresource.org/Documents/0A4_Black_Tans_Images_NXP.ppt (accessed 30 May 2015).
8
John Burrowes, Irish: The Remarkable Saga of a Nation and a City. Edinburgh 2004.
9
Joseph McKenna. Guerilla Warfare in the Irish War of Independence 1919-1921. Jefferson;2011 p.120.

4
One individual to join the RIC from a mainland Britain recruiting office was Thomas R.
Johnston. It is in Glasgow, on 20 October 1920 where Thomas at 19 years of age enlisted to
the RIC. 10 Thomas’ first appointment within the RIC was to Cork City.
Between the years 1919-1921, a War of Independence raged in Ireland, during which the
Irish Volunteers, later known as The Irish Republican Army (IRA), adopted a guerrilla warfare
system believing that a republic could only be achieved using force. The RIC were the
principle target of the republican movement from the outset; the first act in this war
occurred on 2 January 1919, with an attack on members of the RIC, by Irish Volunteers in
Co.Tipperary, in which two policemen were killed.11 The RIC were the principle target of the
republican movement, as they were symbols of British Rule, and the symbol most readily
seen by and interacted with by Irish society;
‘The Irish war for independence, at the very least, was a struggle to
remove any meaningful British presence from the daily lives of Irish citizens’.12
493 police casualties were recorded in Ireland between the years 1919 – 1922, and the year
1921 saw the greatest number of casualties with 241 recorded13. Attacks against the RIC
occurred predominately in eleven counties namely Clare, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kerry,
Limerick, Longford, Mayo, Roscommon, Sligo, and Tipperary; with two-thirds of all incidents
against the RIC and about three-quarters of the police casualties (7I percent of the wounded
and 79 percent of those killed) occurring in these counties.14 During the War of
Independence , Cork was one of the main centres of resistance to British rule and ranked as
both the most violent county overall and the most aggressive against the police, with 276
incidents occurring, which constituted 14 percent of the total incidents for the whole
country, and within which 119 policemen were wounded and 90 killed.15
Less than 3 months after joining the RIC, in January 1921, Thomas was one of a group of
policemen attacked by the IRA. Accounts of the actual events of this incident vary. Some
discrepancies are evident in witness statements of the Bureau of Military History 1913-
1921, as varying information is given on items such as the date on which the event occurred,
the numbers involved and the extent of the injuries inflicted. This may be attributed to the
fact the witness statements were not taken until the years 1947-1957 and the inevitable
loss of accuracy which can occur with the passage of time. Newspaper reports from the time
also provide details of the evening, including the injuries sustained by innocent civilians.
10
Royal Irish Constabulary Service Records, National Archives of Ireland: MFA 24/1–21.
11
W. J Lowe, “The War against the R.I.C., 1919-21” Eire-Ireland 37, (2002) p.79.
12
Ibid.
13
Richard Abbott, Police Casualties in Ireland, 1919-1922, Cork 2000.
14
Lowe, “The War against the R.I.C., 1919-21,p.94.
15
Ibid.

5
Based on the information gathered from these, the details of what occurred on that evening
would appear as follows; on an evening in early January 1921, between 6 – 7:30 pm, a party
of policemen moved across the city as was customary. A number of the witness statements
highlight the routine nature of this, including P.J. Murphy, Company Commander of Fianna
Eireann in Cork between the years 1912 – 1921;
‘Each evening a party of R.I.C. (on foot) left Union Quay R.I.C. Barracks for duty in
Empress Place R.I.C. Barracks’.16
And Michael Murphy, Commandant of 2nd Battalion Cork No. 1 Brigade;
‘Each evening, shortly after 6 o'clock, it was the custom for a party of from 25 to 30
police and Black and Tans to leave the barracks at Union Quay, cross the River Lee at
Parnell Bridge and there disperse to points in the city’.17
On crossing Parnell Bridge the party of police were ambushed by members of the IRA, who
were awaiting their arrival and were well armed with a Lewis Machine gun, revolvers &
grenades, with a number travelling in a motor car. Michael Walsh, Captain C Company
remembers;
‘as they approached the bridge, we opened fire on them with all we had. They were
taken completely by surprise and those not killed or wounded ran helter-skelter back
to Union Quay Barracks firing wildly from rifles as they ran. Some took cover and
replied to our fire.’18
Michael Murphy outlines the weapons used;
‘Our lads were armed with revolvers and grenades … As the enemy party proceeded
towards Parnell Bridge we opened fire with the Lewis gun.’19
Newspaper reports which cover the events of the evening suggest that the party of police
were travelling in the opposite direction than indicated in the witness statements;
‘it appears that a party of eight or ten policeman were proceeding from Empress
Place Barracks to Union Quay Headquarters … The police were completely taken by
surprise, bombs were hurled at them, and revolver shots rang out.’20
16
Bureau of Military History Witness Statement, P.J.Murphy, WS 869. http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/
(accessed 4 April 2015)
17
Bureau of Military History Witness Statement, Michael Murphy, WS 1547.
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/ (accessed 4 April2015)
18
Bureau of Military History Witness Statement, Michael Walsh, WS 1521
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/ (accessed 4 April2015)
19
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/ (accessed 4 April 2015)
20
Cork County Eagle and Munster Advertiser, 8 January 1921

6
This is concurrent with the official report from Dublin Castle quoted in the Irish Independent
on 6 January 1921;
‘At 7 p.m. last night 8 policemen left Empress R.I.C. barracks to proceed to Union
Barracks, Cork … they were attacked … with guns and revolver shots’. 21
A number of the policemen were injured in the initial attack, whilst the uninjured police and
reinforcements from the nearby barracks, fired in the direction of the attacking party.
Michael Murphy describes how events proceeded;
‘The first burst killed seven of them and wounded others. Of those not hit some ran
back to the barracks and those at the head of the party ran towards Parnell Bridge
where they were met with revolver fire and grenades by our lads stationed there…
there must have been at least ten killed and as many wounded. The affair lasted no
more than ten minutes. None of our lads was even wounded.’ 22
In comparison to the figure quoted by Michael Murphy, newspaper reports indicate that 6
wounded policemen were taken to Cork Military Hospital whilst a number of civilians were
also wounded in the incident;
‘The police reinforcements … were horrified at finding their comrades lying wounded
and … the victims of the ambush, who were conveyed to the Military Hospital.’23
The disparity in the accounts given of the evening is summed up by a quote from The
Freemans Journal of January 5 1921;
‘There was quite a large number of people about at the time and great excitement
prevailed, which made it rather difficult to obtain anything like a connected story of the
affair’.
Thomas Johnston died two weeks later on 21 January 1921 at the Central Military Hospital
as a result of the injuries he sustained, aged just 19 years old. His cause of death is listed as
‘death by haemorrhage caused by wounds of left shin, right knee and ankle caused by bomb
wilful murder’.24
21
Irish Independent, 6 January 1921
22
http://www.bureauofmilitaryhistory.ie/
23
The Freeman’s Journal, 5 January 1921
24
General Registers Office, Dublin, Death registration of Thomas Robert Johnston

11
↓ RIC Record for Service number 74669 Thomas Johnston

13

14
Irish Independent, 6 January 1921

15

17
Bibliography
Abbott, R. Police Casualties in Ireland 1919- 1922. Cork; Mercier Press, 2000.
Burrowes, J., Irish: The Remarkable Saga of a Nation and a City. Edinburgh: Mainstream
Publishing, 2004
Ferriter, D. Ireland in the Twentieth Century. Available;
http://www.gov.ie/en/essays/twentieth.html (accessed 13/05/15)
Lowe, W.J. “The War against the R.I.C., 1919-21” Eire-Ireland 37, (2002).
Mc Caul O. The Divided Political landscape of County Cavan 1912- 1922. Masters thesis,
National University of Ireland Maynooth 2002. Available
http://eprints.maynoothuniversity.ie/5195/ (accessed 3 April 2015).
McKenna, J. Guerilla Warfare in the Irish War of Independence 1919-1921. Jefferson: Mc
Farland & Co. 2011

18
Sources
Primary Sources;
Bureau of Military History Witness Statements, Available;
Copy Birth and Death Registrations, General Register Office, Werburgh Street, Dublin 2.
Census of Ireland, 1901, Available;
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Cavan/Canningstown/Drumhillagh/104
7848/.
Royal Irish Constabulary Service Records, National Archives of Ireland: MFA 24/1–21.
Secondary Sources;
Newspapers;
Irish Independent, 5 January 1921 & 6 January 1921
Online Sources;
Bureau of Military History Witness Statements, Available;
1901 Census of Ireland, Available;
http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1901/Cavan/Canningstown/Drumhillagh/104
7848/.

Assignment Local History

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