The Martyred Five

This song comes from a handwritten manuscript of songs in the possession of Phil and Paud Collins of Loher. The songs were written down circa 1923 by Denis/Jack Clifford the uncle of Michael Courtney of the Kerry III Brigade, who was mined by Free-State troops at Baghaghs, 12th March 1923. This song refers to the killing of five anti-Treaty men by Free State soldiers on ‘a bleak spring morning on March 12th’ 1923. The men were first shot and then strapped to a mine at Bahagh,s near Cahirciveen. Mike Courtney, Spunkane, Dan O‘ Shea, Islandboy, John Sugrue, Ballinskelligs, Eugene Dwyer, Reenieragh and Willie Riordan, an eighteen year old who also had two other brothers, interred as a result of Republican activities. The men were arrested at a wake at Correvoola, following a day of intense searching by the Free State army in the hills around Waterville. The prisoners were taken to the Bahaghs workhouse. ‘The five men taken at the wake were called to some kind of court-martial on the 9th, yet no sentence was pronounced.’ The official line on the deaths of the five men was that it was through an attempted ambush on Free State soldiers that the Irregulars had lost their lives. The official report signed by the O/C of the Kerry No.3 Brigade contradicted this stating that there was no ambush in the vicinity as all troops had been removed from the vicinity of Cahirciveen and the workhouse. ‘There was no barricade, no mine laid there by us.’

A statement by Lieutenant McCarthy, himself a Free State officer, contended that the men were ‘murdered’ on the road. ‘The fellows that killed them were some of the Dublin Guard who were at the workhouse on Sunday evening. One of them was a divisional officer. There was no attempt to escape as the prisoners were shot first and then put over a mine and blown up. It was a Free State mine, laid by them.’ A request for the release of the men’s bodies was initially refused by the military, but the intervention of Fr Sheehan of Dromod effected the release eventually. Two of the bodies were unrecognisable.

Source: Dorothy Macardle, Tragedies of Kerry (Irish Freedom Press, 1924)

Sinéad Joy

Come listen comrades while I sing and breathe a silent prayer,

To the memories of five comrades brave now mouldering in the clay,

In a churchyard swept by oceans spray near the town of Caherciveen,

Those true and noble warriors sleep so silent and serene.

In a bleak spring morning on March 12th those heroes nobly died,

Being blown to fragments in the air all by a Free-state mine,

To make their peace to meet their God those heroes were denied,

May God have mercy on their souls for they were true and tried.

When Ireland called for brave men and appealed to one and all,

Those men were foremost in the band that answers freedom’s call,

They served her country faithfully and to her cause were true,

What more could we expect from them what more did brave men do.

When Collins signed the treaty and accepted English gold,

And other faithless Irishmen likewise their country sold,

Those heroes swore they would stand true and never more be slaves,

They’d gain their country’s freedoms or fill a martyr’s grave.

When the free-state declared war on us and shelled our Irish towns,

Those heroes they fought bravely for to beat the traitors down,

But England sent her men and guns to aid the free-state foe,

And they forced us to the mountains like the tans had done before.

It was down in famed Killmallock those heroes proved their skill,

It was there you know the free-state foe of fighting had their fill,

For two long months to take the town the free-state foe had failed,

For the garrison were soldiers of the Kerry 3rd Brigade.

Farewell, farewell brave Sugrue, O’Reardon and Dwyer,

Likewise O’Shea and Courteney may glory on you shine,

Without fear or hesitation your young lives you gladly gave,

Like all the heroes of Easter week your native land to save.

All over famed South-Kerry the memory will live long,

Of the tragic death our comrades met by the murdering Free-state gang,

Far from their friends and comrades those manly hearts did fall,

So my countrymen remember them and pray for one and all.

May we our comrades think of them and be as well resigned,

As well prepared to meet our God when we leave this world behind,

God grant that we may meet again upon that heavenly shore,

Where Free-state traitors hold no sway and partings are no more.