Digital Kevin Barry by UCD Library

“You are the mother, my dear Mrs. Barry, of one of the bravest and best boys I have ever known, his death was one of the most holy, and your dear boy is waiting for you now, beyond the reach of sorrow or trial.”

Below: Copy of birth certificate of Kevin Gerard Barry, 8 Fleet Street, Dublin (born 20 January 1902), giving his parents’ names, Mary Barry, née Dowling, and Thomas Barry, dairy owner (died 1908). Issued by St. James Street registry office.

Top: The Matriculation Certificate awarded to Barry for passing the prerequisite subjects of Latin, Irish, French, English and Mathematics. Dated 16th July 1919.

Extract from a letter to Kevin Barry’s mother from Canon John Waters of Holy Cross College, Clonliffe, Dublin, written on November 1st 1920.

Kevin Barry

1902 – 1920

Kevin Barry was born on 20 January 1902 at Fleet Street, Dublin, the fourth of seven children and son of Thomas, a dairyman, and Mary Dowling, both originally from Carlow. Kevin was educated at several schools in Dublin and Carlow, including Belvedere College after which he entered UCD in 1919 to study medicine.

While still at Belvedere, he had joined the Irish Volunteers, established in 1913, initially to ensure the implementation of home rule, but which evolved into the IRA after the commencement of the War of Independence that began in 1919. Kevin was a member of the first battalion of the Dublin Brigade and took part in two successful raids for arms in Dublin and Wicklow in June and July 1920. The third raid he was involved in occurred on 20 September 1920; it was an attack on British troops at Church Street in Dublin city, aimed at seizing arms. During this unsuccessful raid, firing broke out and three British soldiers of roughly the same age as Barry were killed or fatally wounded and Barry became the first Volunteer to be captured in an armed attack since 1916.

Interrogated and mistreated while in custody, he subsequently refused to recognise the court martial that tried him. He was condemned to death on 20 October for murdering the three soldiers and was hanged in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, on 1 November 1920. He was the first person to be tried and executed for a capital offence under the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act, passed 12 weeks before his death, and the first to be executed since May 1916, in the aftermath of the Easter Rising. Barry’s execution occurred towards the end of a violent and emotive year in Ireland, as the IRA and British army intensified their war against each other. The military conflict between British armed forces and the IRA consisted

Right: Kevin Barry’s blue and white athletic suit from Belvedere College.

of sporadic guerrilla fighting and was paralleled by the efforts of the selfproclaimed government of the Irish republic – the first Dáil (Irish parliament) assembled in January 1919 – to achieve an independent Irish Republic. By the end of 1919, there were over 40,000 British Army troops in Ireland. The British Chief Secretary, Hamar Greenwood, insisted that Britain had Ireland under control. The British Prime Minister David Lloyd George disingenuously referred to the IRA as “a small murder gang”, and in November 1920 announced “we have murder by the throat”, but the truth was that law and order had long ceased in Ireland and the conduct of the war from the British side was increasingly inept.

Dublin Castle, the headquarters of British rule in Ireland, could not put together an effective, unified security command. In March 1920, the Royal Irish Constabulary was reinforced by the recruitment of British ex-soldiers and sailors (some were Irish-born), known as the Black and Tans due to their distinctive uniforms. By November 1921 there were almost 10,000 of them in Ireland as well as a new auxiliary division of the RIC, created in July 1920. Although it is difficult to be precise about the numerical strength of the IRA, it is unlikely that more than 3,000 members were active as combatants. By the end of 1920, the republican movement also faced difficulties in relation to effective, centralised co-ordination of its campaign and shortage of arms.

Left: An exercise copy book used by Barry covering a range of subjects, including English and History essays. Some of the essays include reference to republican ideals. Includes the statement ‘Up the Republic’ written several times on a Latin exercise and cartoon drawings of Barry’s sisters ‘Kathy when she’s 50’ and ‘Sheila when she’s 48’. Below: Copy of the Belvederian annual with references to and photographs of Barry, then a senior student at the college. He is pictured here with the hurling team. © Keogh Brothers Limited

“His courage all the time was superhuman and rested I am sure on his simple goodness and innocence of conscience.” Extract from a letter to Kevin Barry’s mother from Canon John Waters of Holy Cross College, Clonliffe, Dublin, written on November 1st 1920.

UCD Library wishes to thank the following people – Professor Diarmaid Ferriter for providing the text and academic direction for the accompanying exhibition, UCD Archives and UCD Communications for their support with the project.

Collection held by University College Dublin, UCD Archives. Images ©University College Dublin, National University of Ireland, Dublin. Published by UCD Digital Library.

“Fr Mc Mahon and I were summoned to bury him at 1.30pm. We found the coffin already closed, fastened down, placed in the centre of a large workshop not far from the place chosen for the grave.”

Left: Barry’s charge sheet dated 15th October 1920. Below: A Typescript copy of a letter from Barry sent to ‘A---’ (all names deleted except for the initial), a fellow student at UCD from Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, commenting on the progress of his friends in their studies and sending his regards. ‘Now remember me to B--- and gradh mor to F---. tell her give the said gradh from me to all the girls in UCD.’

KEVIN BARRY

Right: Sgt. Archer Banks’ sworn statement, detailing his detention of Barry. © Archer Banks

AND HIS TIME

Extract from a letter to Kevin Barry’s mother from Canon John Waters of Holy Cross College, Clonliffe, Dublin, written on November 3rd 1920.

In March 1920, the mayor of Cork, Tomás Mac Curtain had been killed in his home, while a week before Barry’s hanging Terence MacSwiney, who had replaced MacCurtain as Mayor of Cork, died on hunger strike at Brixton Prison, an event that attracted worldwide attention. Three weeks after Barry’s death 14 British officers were assassinated by the IRA and 12 civilians were killed in revenge in Croke Park at a GAA match on Bloody Sunday. A week later the IRA killed 18 auxiliaries in an ambush at Kilmichael, County Cork. The sentencing of Kevin Barry also attracted widespread attention because he was only 18 years of age. There

were numerous appeals for his life to be spared, but the cabinet in London and officials in Dublin Castle, the seat of British power in Ireland, decided against a reprieve, pointing out that the victims of the raid were also young. The Archbishop of Dublin, William Walsh, though in ailing heath, made vigorous appeals for Barry’s life to be spared. John Anderson, the under secretary, recalled “I had to tell him to my sorrow that to do what he asked would be to proclaim the helplessness of the law”. Barry displayed remarkable maturity, fortitude and good humour in the face of death. The final letter he wrote to his friends the night before his

execution included the line “I have always considered myself lucky to have such a crowd of pals. It’s the only thing which makes it hard to go”. His killing also had a profound impact on his fellow students. One of them, Celia Shaw, recorded in her diary “I never experienced anything like the surging fury which the news produced in everyone”. Some of his fellow UCD students went to Mountjoy on the day before the execution and knelt and prayed, where a priest brought out Barry’s last message to the students, “an exhortation to fight for the cause for which he was dying”. UCD’s governing body passed a

resolution after his death that stated it “desires in union with the Irish nation, to express its appreciation of the courage and dignity with which Mr Barry met his untimely death”. As a republican martyr, he was subsequently celebrated in many ballads and verses; the best-known was recorded by the American singer Paul Robeson, among others. Barry, along with all those executed in Mountjoy during 1920-21 was buried within the prison, but following a long campaign by the relatives his remains, along with remains of nine others, were exhumed and given a state funeral in Glasnevin Cemetery on 14 October 2001.

By Diarmaid Ferriter Professor of Modern Irish History UCD School of History & Archives Left: A letter of sympathy from Fr. John Doyle writing from Manila. © John Doyle

Right: Photostat copy of a sworn statement made by Barry at Mountjoy Prison, before Myles Keogh, a Justice of the Peace, outlining in detail alleged ill-treatment during his initial interrogation after arrest on 20 September 1920.

Kevin Barry collections held by UCD Archives are now available online digital.ucd.ie