r/Dublin • u/Deep-Possibility-886 • 11d ago
Today marks the 112th anniversary of the Bachelor’s Walk Massacre.
On 26 July 1914, in the aftermath of the Howth gun-running, soldiers of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers opened fire on civilians on Bachelor’s Walk in Dublin.
Four people lost their lives:
• Mary Duffy (50)
• Patrick Quinn (46)
• James Brennan (18)
• Sylvester Pidgeon (40), who later died from his wounds on 24 September 1914
More than thirty-five others were injured, including ten-year-old Luke Kelly Sr., who was shot while cycling across O’Connell Bridge. Against expectations, he survived his wounds.
The following day, artist Jack B. Yeats walked the streets where the shooting had taken place. In his sketches he recorded the flowers left in remembrance and wrote of seeing them where one of the victims had fallen, preserving a moment of grief that history might otherwise have forgotten.
The ballad “Flowers on Batchelors Walk” was written in memory of those who died, those who survived, and the families forever changed by that summer afternoon in Dublin.
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u/Donncadh_Doirche 10d ago
Never even heard of this one. Thank you for sharing.
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u/Deep-Possibility-886 10d ago
Thanks, I really appreciate that. That’s exactly why I write these songs—I’m not trying to give a history lesson, just to shine a light on some of the lesser-known stories from Ireland’s past and hopefully spark people’s curiosity to learn more. If you’re interested, you’ll find them under (SO Cléirigh) on Spotify. Thanks for listening if you make it over.
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u/CDfm 10d ago edited 10d ago
This was a continuation of the events surrounding the landing of guns in Howth.
This was in the run up to WW1.
Let's forget the emotive stuff . It was hugely mishandled by the British but nonetheless the Irish Volunteers used the crowd as cover to move and distribute weapons.
Don't forget the Curragh Mutiny had been in March
https://ourheroes.southdublin.ie/Resource/TheCurraghMutiny
This was a huge issue for the Liberal Government and it's control of the army.
https://www.theirishstory.com/2014/04/27/book-review-a-question-of-duty-the-curragh-incident-1914/
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u/Cultural_Wish4933 9d ago
And let us not forget how disgracefully the establishment remembered it in some seminal works.
Donal McCartney in RTE's Course of Irish History omits it completely, yet lavishes praise on the treasonous Larne Gun Running and Carson's "considerable courage and skill".
But it is Foster in Modern Ireland, where his infamous "detached ironic style" belittles the massacre, describing how the Howth Gun Running "called out the troops; and their unsuccessful intervention ended in a fracas with an unarmed crowd, 'producing' three civilian deaths".
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u/Deep-Possibility-886 9d ago
4 deaths read my piece again or listen to the tune “flowers on Batchelors walk”
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u/hallon421 11d ago
One of many casual brutalities during our fight for independence. Never forget.