100 YEARS AGO
he died for Irish freedom GREG MAHONY, FROM BRISBANE, QUEENSLAND, CONTACTED IRISH SCENE MAGAZINE WITH THE FOLLOWING REQUEST. Greg is a grandson of Mary Hurley, who came to Australia from Ireland. Her brother, Captain Frank Hurley, 3rd West Cork Brigade, IRA, was shot by the Essex Regiment and killed on 9 May 1921. Before his death in Ireland, he was in a London prison from where he wrote to his sister Mary in Australia, whom he had never met. Greg said the descendants of Cpt. Hurley in Australia and America had planned to travel to Ireland to join family to honour and remember their Irish ancestor at a memorial to him in Bandon. Co. Cork, but of course have been unable to do that due to the pandemic and travel restrictions. “Frank Hurley's descendants would greatly appreciate any assistance Irish Scene can give in our desire to honour him for giving his life for freedom in Ireland,” Greg said. He inherited letters and photographs of Frank Hurley passed down after the death of his grandmother and produced this article. On 9 May 1921 while in custody of the Essex Regiment, he met his death, making a gallant bid to escape into the woods at Castle Mahon/Bernard, Bandon, Co Cork, Ireland. An account of his death is mentioned in ‘Towards Ireland Free - The West Cork Brigade in the War of Independence 1917-1921’ by Liam Deasy and other books on Ireland’s War of Independence, including ‘Guerilla Days in Ireland’ by Tom Barry. John Francis (Frank) Hurley lived at Laragh, outside Bandon, with his parents on a small farm. He was the youngest of 11 children to Daniel Hurley and Julia Lynch. He was born in 1891, some 25 years after the eldest, Mary, my grandmother, was born. Mary came to Australia when she was 171/2 years old, following 10 | THE IRISH SCENE
Captain Frank Hurley (1891-1921), 3rd West Cork Brigade Irish Republican Army Timothy (Tim) Mahony, my grandfather from Murragh, near Bandon. Tim was a labourer and may have been working on the Hurley farm. They married in 1888 in Brisbane, Queensland. Later in that year, they came to Yangan, near Warwick in Queensland where Tim was working on re-erecting the railway bridge that was washed away in the 1887 floods. Mary and Tim had 11 children, of which one died as a baby. They purchased land at Swanfels, near Yangan, where they eventually established a modest sized farm. When they died, their eldest son, Timothy, inherited the farm and on his death the youngest son Thomas (Tom) inherited it. On his death, Tom’s eldest son Timothy inherited the farm and today his son Stephen and family have the farm. Frank and some of his siblings never met their sister Mary, being born after she immigrated. Mary died in
