Why was Uncle Michael Shot? A tragedy of the War of Independence.
An unspoken family tragedy
Author: Margaret Franklin
Growing up as a child in Enniscorthy, the shooting dead of my father’s Uncle Michael was never spoken about in the family circle. Occasionally, I would overhear an adult making a passing reference to ‘poor Michael’, but I didn’t know who he was or why he was described as ‘poor’. Eventually, I asked my mother, who told me, quietly, that he had been shot dead a long time ago, but she gave me no details. I quickly got the message that it was better not to ask any questions. From the age of about eight years old, I used to spend a good deal of time with my Granny Franklin, MIchael’s older sister. My mother was often busy with my younger sister, so I was allowed to visit Granny on summer afternoons in her home in Parnell Avenue, where I would help her to gather raspberries in her garden and she would allow me to eat as many as I liked. Then she would often treat me to what she called ‘a huggery-muggery tea’, with toast, made with a long toasting fork in front of the turf fire. But she never ever mentioned the tragic death of her brother Michael.
This framed portrait of Michael O’Dempsey came from the family home in Parkton, Enniscorthy.
Michael & the O’Dempsey Family
Plaque on the old Enniscorthy courthouse
Michael was the eldest son of a family of eleven. There were four boys and seven girls. My grandmother, Mary, was the eldest of them all. Their father Thomas, was a solicitor (at that time, known as ‘an Attorney at Law’) and Michael, following a brilliant academic career at Clongowes Wood College and then at UCD, qualified as a solicitor and joined his father in the practice. They would both have been very familiar with the old courthouse in Enniscorthy, which is no longer in use as a courthouse, but now carries this plaque, due to its connections with the 1916 rising.
The O’Dempsey family originally lived on the Millpark Road, but as the family grew, the ‘Torney O’Dempsey’ (as he was known in Enniscorthy) built a bigger home, on the Lymington Road. The house was named ‘Parkton’ and they all moved there in 1890. Tom O’Dempsey died, aged 65, in 1912, whereupon his son Michael, took over the legal practice. On the death of his father, Michael became the main breadwinner for his mother and her large family. In due course, Michael’s brother Tom emigrated to America and got married over there, but had no children. Another brother, Fitzpatrick (who was given his mother’s maiden name) had a career in journalism and became a foreign correspondent for the BBC and was sent to exotic places such as India and Iraq. He never married. The youngest of the four boys, Robert, became a Jesuit priest. My granny and her sister Bridget were the only two girls who married. Eily and Sally went to England and remained ‘spinsters’, while the three youngest, Dorothy, Katty & Steenie, became religious Loreto Sisters. 2
Parkton, the O’Dempsey family home. The picture above shows the O’Dempsey family home, named Parkton, before it had two extra wings added and was converted into apartments.
Important Documents Discovered among the family papers My granny Franklin died in 1960, when I was sixteen, taking her sad secret memories of her brother’s death with her to the grave. Following this, when my parents were going through her papers, they found a document that was to shed light on the motivation behind the shooting dead of my father’s Uncle Michael. I was in boarding school at the time and as far as I remember, I was shown this document when I was at home for the Christmas holidays that year. It was a nine days’ wonder in our family. The handwritten document, in very neat copper plate script, was entitled ‘Personal Memorandum’ and was signed by the late Michael O’Dempsey. It described an incident that had occurred in January 1921, over two months before the fatal shooting. In it, Michael described being held up at gunpoint, as he made his way through the Blackstairs Mountains, en route between Graiguenamanagh and Enniscorthy. His Tamplin motorcar had broken down and was being towed by a taxi. The memorandum recounted how he and the taxi driver were taken to a derelict cottage on the side of a mountain, where Michael was interrogated and intimidated and warned to have nothing more to do with a court case in which he was representing a client who was apparently unpopular with the republican volunteers. We concluded that the handwritten document had been entrusted, in a sealed envelope, to his secretary, to be opened in the event of his death. At the time, we were not in a position to pursue the matter any further and the Personal Memorandum was filed away among my father’s papers. It was not until after my father’s death, in 1992, that I saw the document again, when my mother turned over to me a file of documents, including Michael’s personal testimony, as well as contemporary newspaper cuttings about the incident. By then, I was busy rearing a family of four and did not follow up on the tragic story. My mother died in 2010 and when my sister and I were going through her papers afterwards, we found more documents, which shed further light on the sad saga. It was during the following year that I became aware that the Bureau of Military History had a collection of Witness Statements, which were being digitized and made available for historical research. I visited the reading room at Cathal Brugha Barracks in 2011 and came across a number of documents of interest. I was also put in touch with journalists and local historians in Co. Wexford and Co. Kilkenny, who provided me with valuable information. As the centenary of his death approaches, I have been going through the many documents in my possession, relating to the incident. I am trying to piece together the chain of events which led to the tragic fatal shooting of my Great Uncle Michael. The shooting took place on March 15 th 1921. Michael died in the early hours of St. Patrick’s Day and his death was announced, to shocked congregations, at all Masses in Enniscorthy Cathedral on that day.
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The last resting place of Michael O’Dempsey My Granny never showed me the grave of her brother, neither did my father show me where his uncle Michael had been buried. It was not until after my mother died in 2010, and I began my research, that a journalist named Sean Whelan, who wrote for The Echo local paper (sadly no longer being published) showed me the grave of Michael O’Dempsey. It is in the old cemetery in Enniscorthy, behind the Cathedral. I was distressed to see that it was neglected and its cross was broken. It seemed Enniscorthy had forgotten this man, who had died in such tragic circumstances. I had the cross repaired; I felt that was the least I could do in memory of my late great uncle Michael.
Michael O’Demosey’s Grave in 2010 My quest for Answers I was of course aware that many Irish volunteers and British soldiers had been killed during the War of Independence. Sadly, in times of conflict, there are always casualties on both sides, each one a tragedy for the family concerned. However, I wanted to know why a civilian, who had taken no part in the armed conflict, had been ambushed and shot dead, apparently because he had ignored the warning he had received in January and was simply fulfilling his professional duty to represent his client in a civil case.
The repaired cross at the grave of Michael O’Dempsey 4