(Author Sam McGrath has previously examined the fatal shooting of IRA member Peter McCarthy on Lower Clanbrassil Street in 1937 and the killing of another young republican Jackie Griffith near Merrion Square in 1943)
Introduction
On 24 May 1950, 17-year-old Patrick Murray was accidentally shot dead in the backyard of the headquarters of the Republican Prisoners’ Release Association in Dublin. At his funeral in Glasnevin Cemetery the teenager’s coffin was “draped with a tricolour” and was “accompanied by a guard of honour of the deceased’s former comrades”. His recently restored headstone describes him as “Vol. Padraíg Murray” attached to the Dublin IRA.
However, his name is not included any republican roll of honour including a list of 1936-1963 deaths published by Sinn Féin in 1966 or The Last Post (1972 edition). There is also no mention of his death in any of the major studies of the IRA in the period (J Bower Bell, Donnacha Ó Beacháin etc.), any of the books which cover the Border Campaign era (Barry Flynn, Matt Treacy etc.) or any of the memoirs from Dublin IRA men who were active in the early 1950s (Mick Ryan, Éamonn Boyce).
Background
Patrick Mary Lorenzo Murray, also known as Pádraig Murray, was born in Dublin in 1933. His father, John Murray, a 37-year-old carpenter, had died on 18 September 1932 in the Richmond Hospital of “bronchiectasis pneumococcal meningitis” according to his death certificate. His address at the time was 54 Walsh Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9.
By the 1940s, the Murray family was living at 51 St Joseph’s Place in the Dorset Street area of the North Inner City. Patrick lived with his mother Mary, two brothers Sean and Philip and two sisters Maura/Máire and Ellen [tbc]. St Joseph’s Place comprises of seven parallel rows of redbrick terraced cottages (one or two bedrooms) within a U-shaped perimeter avenue. They are accessible via Nelson Street, Blessington Street and Upper Dorset Street (beside the Findlater public house). Built by the Dublin Artisan’s Dwellings Company in the 1890s for renting to working-class tradesmen, they were bought out by Dublin Corporation in the 1920s.
In April 1946, Belfast man James McCorry (or McCurry) (25) was sentenced to six months imprisonment for firearms offences in the Special Criminal Court. He gave his Dublin address as 51 St Joseph’s Place which indicates that the Murray home was a safe house for Belfast IRA men who were involved in IRA re-organising work in the capital. A Mrs J McCurry was listed as a sister of Patrick Murray in a 1950 report on his funeral which suggests that James McCurry later married Patrick Murray’s sister. A 13-year-old Patrick Murray would have been undoubtedly affected by the republcian activities of his future brother-in-law and may have helped shape his own politics.
Republican Prisoners’ Release Association, 9 North Frederick Street
The Republican Prisoners’ Release Association (RPRA) was established in October 1945 to campaign for the release of republicans prisoners. In that period there were 80 in Belfast, 40 in England and 30 in the 26 Counties. Its founding members included long-standing IRA veterans including Maurice Twomey, Jim Killeen and Simon Donnelly (who had been inactive since the Civil War). Other figures associated with the group included Peadar Cowan, Sean MacBride and Con Lehane. The organisation had 29 branches across the island by early 1948 as reported in the Dublin Evening Mail (30 January 1948).
The organisation had offices at 9 North Frederick Street from at least 1946 which it shared with other groups (sharing a overlaping membership and support base) including the Easter Commemoration Committee (1946), the Harry White Defence Fund (1946) and the National Commemoration Committee (1949). By mid 1950, there were only a very small number of IRA prisoners left in Belfast jails (including Liam Burke and Jimmy Steele) which left the release and welfare organisations largely defunct.
IRA activity
The death of Patrick Murray in 1950 occurred in a decade long gap of major IRA activity between the end of the Northern Campaign (1942 – 1946) and start of The Border Campaign (1956 – 1962). Due to state harassment, arrests, emigration and internal infighting, the Republican movement was at one of its lowest ebbs. According to Bowyer Bell in The Secret Army (pg 296), the Dublin IRA was the “strongest” unit in the country in 1950 but only had 40 members, divided into two companies which could seldom parade more than a dozen men each. (The IRA did re-organise in late 1950 and grow under the direction of Tony Magan but this did not start until after Murray’s death.)
Although the Dublin IRA was small in the late 1940s and early 1950s period, there was still a turnover of membership of young men from overwhelmingly working-class backgrounds. They included Tom Mitchell (later MP etc), of Inverness Road in Fairview who joined the IRA in 1949, Éamonn Mac Thomáis, of Goldenbridge in Inchciore, who joined in c. 1950; Eamonn Boyce, of Galtymore Road in Drimnagh, who joined in 1952 and Mick Ryan, of East Wall, who joined in 1954.
Who was in charge of the Dublin IRA Patrick Murray was active in its orbit in early 1950? J Bowyer Bell (pg 286) states that Sean Sheehy replaced William McGuinness when the latter was promoted to Chief of Staff in 1947. Gearóid Ó Broin presumably took the place of Sheehy as Ó Broin was described as “O/C of the Dublin unit of the IRA in the early 1950s” in Éamon Boyce’s Insider (pg 11). He was replaced by Éamonn Mac Thomáis who held the position from 1952 to mid-1956 according to Insider. So it’s likely that Sean Sheehy or Gearóid Ó Broin were head of the IRA’s Dublin in summer 1950.
In mid 1950, Patrick Murray was 17 and a half and worked as a carpenter’s apprentice. His best friend and close neighbour was Éamon Deegan who lived at 2 Brennan’s Cottages, rere of 114 Upper Dorset Street, which was about five minutes walk (400m) from Murray’s home. The pair both lived less than a five-minute walk from 9 North Frederick Street which was an important social hub and meeting point for republicans in the city.
What events did Patrick Murray possibly attend in the year or so before his death? He might have been one of the 500 revellers at a cèilidh in the Mansion House on 11 February 1949 organised by the Republican Prisoners’ Release Association. The two most important republican commemorations in the year were to mark the anniversary of Easter Rising (April) and Wolfe Tone in Bodenstown (June). The National Commemoration Committee’s 1916 Easter Commemoration took place on 17 April 1949. A procession with a colour party and pipe bands marched from St Stephen’s Green to Glasnevin Cemetery headed by the “Dublin Battalion IRA” followed by contingents from Cumann na mBan, Clan na Gaedheal (Republican Girl Guides), Na Fianna Éireann, Sinn Féin, the National Graves Association and Cumann na Poblachta. A wreath was laid on the republican plot by J Dunne (Chairman, NCC) and a decade of the rosary was recited in Irish by Michael O’Neill. A statement from the IRA was read by Cristóir O’Neill (Christy O’Neill) and the main oration was given by Sean McGrath who told the crowd: “The Army and the physical force movement … appeal to all young men and women to come again into the ranks and carry on the fight begun in 1916 which carried on in 1919 and 1922 and bring it to fruition”. (The Irish Press, 18 April 1949).
The NCC were also the organisers of the Wolfe Tone commemoration at Bodenstown Cemetery, Sallins, County Kildare on 19 June 1949. Wreaths were laid by Micheál Mac Conbuidhe (Michael Conway) (Secretary, NCC) and Margaret Buckley (Sinn Féin). Thousands listened to the main oration by Cristóir O’Neill (Christy O’Neill) who appealed to the crowd:
“I appeal to all the young men who are willing to fight for their country’s freedom and their own salvation to come into the IRA … take the your stand with the men who have never ceased to resit the invader … there are some people … unsuited to a military organisation by reason of sex, age or temperament. Sinn Féin, the Republican civil organisation, caters for these”. A meeting was held afterwards addressed by Emmett McGinn (Clann na nGaedhel, Philadelphia) with J Dunne (Chairman, NCC) acting as chief steward.
Just six weeks before Patrick Murray’s death, the NCC’s 1916 Easter Commemoration parade on 09 April 1950 at Glasnevin Cemetery was addressed outside the gates by Tomas Óg MacCurtain (1915-1994) who was a member of the IRA Army Council. Murray may have been part of the 1,000 strong who were told by MacCurtain that the IRA “stood for the aims and objects for which those who had died in arms had stood. It was not their duty to pay attention to politicians who thought that paragraphs in American or French Press would free Ireland. The struggle would be a struggle in Ireland by Irishmen with guns in their hands”. (The Irish Press, 10 April 1950). Anthony McGann [Magan] (1910-1981), IRA Chief of Staff from 1948 to 1957, read a statement issued by IRA General Headquarters (GHQ) which reminded the crowd that: “It is for the ordinary people to Ireland to ensure that those who are pledged to freedom by force of arms are not misled by the politicians who are bankrupt of everything except promises” (The Belfast Newsletter, 10 April 1950).
Evening of shooting
On the evening of 24 May 1950, Patrick Murray and Éamon Deegan had a few drinks in a local pub before going to 9 North Frederick Street at about 10pm. In subsequent testimony and statements, it transpired that the pair were in the toilet in the yard in the rear of the building examing a .38 automatic pistol. Deegan later said that he believed the safety catch was on when he pulled the trigger of the weapon. At about 10.25pm, witnesses heard the gun go off and Murray was accidentally shot at close range. It was reported by the Irish Press (25 May 1950) that there were “three other young men with Murray at the time of the shooting” but no further information about the identities of the men – besides Deegan – was subsequently revealed.
Deegan admitted in a later statement that he lifted Murray from the yard into the hall and then dumped the gun in a nearby laneway. He claimed that he returned to try to help his friend but saw an ambulance outside and left the scene in a frenzied state Miss Nancy Berry, of 151 Mount Pleasant Buildings in Ranelagh, ran an Irish dance class in one of the back rooms of the building which was in progress at the time of the shooting. Her students heard a loud bang and came out of the room to investigate. Maureen McNamara, of 8 Annamoe Terrace in Cabra, saw:
“…. a man [Murray] coming from the toilet in the yard. He came into her view, but stepped out of view again. She then saw him coming towards her again and she noticed him falling. Later she saw another man [Eamonn] coming from the same direction … this second man knelt down beside the man on the ground and then dragged [him] … towards the house.” – The Evening Herald, 22 June 1950
The classes’ piano player Thomas Dullaghan, of 13 McKee Barracks, found Murray “lying on his back” and “groaning” in the hallway. He asked Murray what had happened but received no reply. Dullaghan telephoned for an ambulance and the police at Fitzgibbon Street. He also picked up one of Murray’s shoes which had fallen off while he was being dragged into the building.
The Irish Press reported that Murray was “shot through the back under the left shoulder” and the body was found “lying face down in a pool of blood in the hallway leading from the yard to the hall door”. Patrick Murray was taken to the Mater Hospital in a Dublin Fire Brigade ambulance and was pronounced dead on arrival at 10.40pm by Dr Joseph Greenan.
The building at 9 North Frederick Street was searched by a large number of police under the command of Chief Superintendent Jim O’Neill and they interviewed numerous people who were in the premises or attending the Irish dance lesson. During the search of the building, they found an empty cartridge case in the garden area.
At about 2.30am in the morning, Station Sergeant Timothy Hurley of Fitzgibbon Street Police Station stated that Eamonn Deegan walked into the station and placed a pistol on the counter. (This suggests that he retrieved the firearm which he said he had dumped in a laneway or that he possibly never got rid of the gun in the first place.) Hurley described the scene:
“There was an unnatural flush on his face. He was restless and turned his head from side to side. He then turned to face me and I took up the pistol. The safety catch was off and I pulled back the elector but there was no bullet in the breech. I emptied the magazine and found three live bullets in it. When I removed the last bullet the elector got caught in the platform of the magazine and I handed the gun to [Deegan] who took out the magazine”.
Deegan was charged with unlawful possession of a .38 automatic pistol and five rounds of .38 ammunition with intent to endanger life and possession of the firearm without a licence. After being cautioned, he gave a verbal statement which a Garda put in writing but Deegan did not sign it. Inspector R Kingston said that he took possession of a bloodstained jacket and trousers worn by Deegan.
The police searched the body of Patrick Murray in the accident ward of the Mater Hospital and found three live rounds of ammunition in the hip pocket of his trousers.
Deegan was represented by solicitor Captain Peadar Cowan who said that the young man was “very badly shocked” by the “regrettable accident” and there was no request for bail. (Peadar Cowan had taken the pro-Treaty side in the Civil War but while studying to become a solicitor, joined the left-wing republican group Saor Éire (1931) and was associated with the Republican Congress movement (1934). He was active with the left-wing republican party Clann na Poblachta from its foundation 1946 until he was expelled in 1948. It has been reported that Cowan tried to mobile a new armed group in early 1950 to “take Northern Ireland by force, but he failed to win popular support and the plan came to nothing”.)
Funeral
The newspaper death notice stated that Murray was “accidentally shot dead”. His funeral mass took place at St Joseph’s Catholic Church, Berkeley Road on Saturday 27 May 1950. The Evening Herald reported a “large attendance” at the funeral in Glasnevin Cemetery including chief mourners Mrs Mary Murray (mother), Sean and Philip (brothers), Maura/Máire (sister), Mrs J McCorry (sister) and Mrs S Murray (sister in law). A Mrs M Hickey and Miss M Hickey were also in attendance. Patrick Murray was buried at grave EJ 248.5 in the St Patrick’s Section, Glasnevin Cemetery.
The Dublin Evening Mail was the only newspaper which reported on the obvious republican trappings of the funeral. They said that Murray’s coffin was “draped with a tricolour” and was “accompanied by a guard of honour of the deceased’s former comrades”. There was also a large procession of the public, Na Fianna Éireann and “Girl Guides” [Clann na nGael Republican Girl Scouts]. The same newspaper suggested that a “dance was being held on the premises” but they probably are referring to the Irish dance class which was taking place on the evening. However, it is true the building did also host social events and cèilidh’s.
Inquest
The inquest, held on 01 June 1950, was opened and adjourned by Dr DA MacErlean, Dublin City Coroner. Philip Murray, brother of the deceased, identified the body. Dr John McGrath, State Pathologist, said the post-mortem revealed that the bullet entered Murray’s back and was fired at close range. The bullet hit his left lung and penetrated the heart resulting in death due to shock and haemorrhage. The bullet was removed and handed it over to the police. Mr Walter Carroll, Chief State Solicitor’s Office, asked for an adjournment due to the fact that Deegan was being held in custody.
Conviction
On 26 June 1950 at the Dublin District Court, solicitor Peadar Cowan agreed that “there was evidence that the deceased died as a result of a bullet wound fired from an automatic pistol” in Deegan’s possession but there was “no evidence in the case to substantiate culpable negligence, or criminality or recklessness” on Deegan’s part.
At some stage over the next six months, Eamon changed his representation from Peadar Cowan to The O’Rahilly of the solicitors firm of Con Lehane. Richard ‘Mac’ O’Rahilly was a son of The O’Rahilly who was killed in action in 1916. He was a founder member of the Clann na Poblachta, became its treasurer and stood twice unsuccessfully in elections in 1951 and 1952. Lehane was also associated with Clann na Poblachta and was a leading Dublin IRA member in the 1930s.
Evidence was given in Central Criminal Court in December 1950 that Deegan had been convicted in February 1946 of two cases of larceny and heartbreaking and sentenced to two years in St. Conleth’s Reformatory School in Daingean, County Offaly. Upon release, he had worked for two years as a moulder’s apprentice but had been unemployed since Christmas 1949.
Deegan changed his plea to guilty and the State said they would enter a ‘nolle proseque’ “on the charge of having the pistol and ammunition with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury to property”. Justice Dixon said he “found it a difficult case to deal with because conduct of this kind should be punished and people had to be deterred from behaving in this reckless and careless manner.” In the hope that he might do Deegan more good than sending him to prison, Judge Dixon imposed a suspended sentence of twelve months imprisonment on the manslaughter charge and two months on the illegal possession of the pistol and ammunition. Deegan entered into a bond on personal bail of £50 of good behaviour for two years and was discharged from the court.
Legacy and postscript
Presumably to avoid giving the Republican movement any publicity, the police and the state’s legal team in court seemed to downplay any political connections to the shooting and the two young men involved. One of the few references comes buried in an article in the Irish Independent (23 June 1950) when Mrs Margaret Coughlan, of 9 North Frederick Street, told the Dublin District Court at Deegan’s first trial that she knew both men and said that they attended meetings of the National Commemoration Committee together. Coughlan said they “were on friendly terms … and were always together”. Patrick Coughlan, husband of Margaret, agreed that the two youths “were very pally”.
In a short piece titled “Boy Who Shot Best Friend” in the Irish Independent (01 Dec 1950), Mr Justice Dixon was quoted as saying that the “tragic” case was a result of “the accused’s best friend … play-acting or fooling … with a loaded pistol”. While this is generally a truthful description, the language used stresses an angle of two silly young boys acting foolishly with a gun. The incident could have equally been framed by others as two young Republicans examing a weapon when it went off accidentally.
The facts remain Patrick Muray was killed while handling firearms in the premises of the Republican Prisoners’ Release Association which had close associations to the wider republican movement. The evidence available suggests this was likely not an official arms training class of any sort as the two young men had been in the pub together earlier and a toilet would have been an inadequate and small space for such important and potentially dangerous activity.
Regarding the political dimensions to the shooting, it is crucial that the Dublin Evening Press reported that the coffin at the funeral was draped with a tricolour and that there was a “guard of honour” of his “former comrades”. The same piece described that units of Na Fianna Éireann and “Girl Guides” [Clann na nGael Republican Girl Scouts] were present at the burial. This was clearly the funeral of a young active republican. Although it should also be noted there were no reports of an oration, the Last Post being sounded or any volleys being fired into the air over the grave. While there were reports of a large attendance it is unclear which Republican leaders (if any) attended the funeral.
One important bit of evidence to verify Patick Muray’s IRA connections is that his family were very comfortable in calling him a “Volunteer” on his headstone and a member of the Dublin IRA. The fresh-looking gravestone was probably erected following the death of Patrick’s sister Máire in 2011. It would be very interesting to see any photographs of the former headstone from the time of Patrick’s death in 1950.
The only missing ‘link’ is the absence of memorial notices in any of the newspapers in the years after the death from his family or former comrades. He is also not listed in any republican rolls of honour as “accidentally shot while training” (or something similar) like in the case of IRA Volunteer Christy Bird who died in Dublin in May 1939. A friend was able to check the June 1950 issue of The United Irishman newspaper and there is mention of Patrick Murray. As he died in late May 1950, you would imagine that the June 1950 issue would be the edition where there would have been a memorial notice or funeral report. The United Irishman was the only Irish republican newspaper published in the 1950 period.
Another bit of corroboration that the two young men were associated with the IRA was the fact that Éamonn Degan was legally represented by Captain Peadar Cowan and later The O’Rahilly (Richard ‘Mac’ O’Rahilly) of the Con Lehane solicitors firm. As previously mentioned, Cowan and Lehane had strong IRA associations in the 1930s and 1940s. Both men, as well as the O’Rahilly, were active with Clann na Poblachta.
Eamonn Deegan continued his connections with the IRA and it is important to note that he was listed as one of the 64 “active” members of the Dublin Brigade IRA in attendance at the September 1951 unveiling of the Sean Russell statue in Fairview Park. This certainly proves Deegan’s IRA status and gives a lot of credibility to any claim that Murray was an IRA member or, at the very least, a close associate. In March 1953, Eamon Deegan was found not guilty to charges of firearms possessions. His brother, John, took responsibility for a cache of arms found in his workshop which was next door the family cottage. The haul included a .300 American service rifle, a .32 revolver, an automatic pistol, 37 rounds of ammunition, five Mills hand grenades, two pistol holsters, one ammunition pouch, gun powder, gelignite, detonators and fuses. John Deegan gave evidence that he did not know that the material was in the workshop and when they were found by the police “thought that this brother might have had something to do with them and accepted responsibility in order to protect him” as reported the Irish Press (29 April 1953). He was sentenced to nine months imprisonment.
The building at 9 North Frederick Street continued to be an important address for the Republican Movement in Dublin. In the 1950s it was the address for the Sean Russell Memorial Committee (that erected the Fairview statue), the Jackie Griffith Cumann of Sinn Féin (1955) and republican prisoner relief organisations after the Omagh Barracks Raid in 1954. The building was host to the Na Fianna Éireann ardfheis in May 1955. John O’Neill (Treason of Felony blog) has checked the report in the June 1955 issue of The United Irishman but there was no mention or acknowledgement of the fifth anniversary of Patrick Murray’s death.
Patrick Murray was the first Irish republican in Dublin who was killed in action, or while handling arms, since Jackie Griffith in 1943. The next individuals were Liam Walsh (Saor Éire) in October 1970 in a premature explosion; Peter Graham (Saor Éire) shot dead in an internal dispute in October 1971 and Jack McCabe (Provisional IRA) in a premature explosion in December 1971. The coroner ruled it as an accident but some believe that Paddy McLogan’s death in July 1964 was suspicious. He was found shot dead in his garden in Blanchardstown with a Walther 9mm pistol and a spent cartridge beside his body.
If you have any further information on Patrick Murray or any of other people, organisations or events mentioned in this piece, please email me at matchgrams@gmail.com.
References:
Belfast Newsletter, The Irish Press, the Irish Independent, Dublin Evening Mail, the Evenign Herald, The Irish Times
Further reading:
Browne, David Sean. Joining the Movement: Tradition and Ideology in the IRA 1948 – 1962 (2013)
Rynne, James P. Border States: Destroying Partition and Defending the Realm, 1949-1961 (2020)
Boyce, Eamonn. The Insider: The Belfast Prison Diaries of Eamonn Boyce, 1956–1962, ed. Anna Bryson (Dublin, 2007)
Bowyer Bell, J. The Secret Army: A History of the IRA, 1916-1970. (London, 1972)
Flynn, Barry. Soldiers of folly (Cork, 2009)
Foley, Conor. Legion of the rearguard: the IRA and the modern Irish state (London, 1992)
Hanley Brian. Millar Scott, The lost revolution: the story of the official IRA and the Worker’s Party (Dublin, 2009)
Kelly Stephen. Fianna Fáil, partition and Northern Ireland, 1926-1971 (Dublin, 2014)
MacEoin, Uinseann. The IRA in the twilight years , 1923 – 1948 (Dublin , 1997)
Nic Dháibhéid, Caoimhe. Seán MacBride: A Republican Life 1904–1946 (Liverpool, 2011)
O’Neill, John. Belfast Battalion: A History of the Belfast I.R.A., 1922-1969. (Wexford, 2018)
Thanks to: John O’Neill (Treason of Felony blog)