1920: Kevin Barry
November 1st, 2007 Headsman
On this date in 1920, 18-year-old Irish Republican Army Section Commander Kevin Barry was hanged in Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison for the murder of English Private Harold Whitehead in an IRA ambush just six weeks prior to the execution.
Denying the authority of the British (civilian) court, the young medical student went undefended, insouciantly reading the newspaper in court as the government built its case against him. His was the first execution of the Irish War of Independence, and stoked Irish nationalist sentiment on the island and abroad.
Refused a request to be shot as a soldier, Barry nevertheless went jauntily to his fate, his bearing making great gains for IRA recruitment and fixing his own name in the firmament of Irish independence martyrs. Britain’s insistence on treating him as a murderer rather than a prisoner of war was widely received as an insult to the movement he represented.
It was not until 1989 that Barry’s short life received a biographical treatment, Kevin Barry and His Times, by the hanged man’s nephew. But a 1920’s song celebrating Barry has survived since that time as a popular hymn of Irish Republicanism.
On this day..
- 1939: Edmund Jankowski, Olympic rower - 2020
- 1842: William Caffee, Mineral Point spook - 2019
- 1946: Arthur Robert Boyce, the king's housekeeper's lover - 2018
- 1922: Francisco Murguia - 2017
- 1929: Habibullah Kalakani, Tajik bandit-king - 2016
- 1833: Ira West Gardner, creepy stepfather - 2015
- 1938: George Brain, Wimbledon murderer - 2014
- 1822: David Lamphier - 2013
- 1912: George Redding, making Emile Gauvreau's career - 2012
- 1943: Not Anatoly Kuznetsov, insignificant little chap - 2011
- 1943: Six POWs, inscribed on a ouija board - 2010
- 1463: David of Trebizond and his heirs - 2009
- 1615: Kate McNiven, the Witch of Monzie - 2008
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Doctors,England,Execution,Famous,Guerrillas,Hanged,History,Ireland,Martyrs,Murder,Occupation and Colonialism,Popular Culture,Separatists,Soldiers,Wartime Executions
Tags: 1920, 1920s, dublin, irish republican army, irish war of independence, kevin barry, mountjoy prison, november 1
We should still execute terrorists.
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Excellent site. Just one correction: Kevin Barry was tried by a military court – British Army officers, under the presidency of Brigadier-General C.C. Onslow. The Courtmartial was held in Marlborough Barracks (now McKee Barracks) not far from Mountjoy Jail where Kevin Barry was held and subsequently executed. The scaffold on which he died is today preserved in the prison.
Excellent one, Jason!!
What is interesting about Kevin Barry is that he was firstly tortured, in order to extract information from him. He did not give in and had to be treated afterwards by a military doctor. After his execution, the British refused to give his body to his family and only during October 2001 was his and other’s bodies exhumed and buried with full military honors.
Thank you for an excellent post!!!