The Year of Disappearances: Political Killings in Cork 1921-1922

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Gill & Macmillan Ltd, Oct 29, 2010 - History - 432 pages
'Every spy who was shot in Cork was buried so that nothing was known about them. They just disappeared.' These are the words of an IRA commander recalling the War of Independence in Cork city. The Year of Disappearances examines this claim and others like it. It uncovers a web of suspicion and paranoia that led to scores of men and boys being abducted from their homes before being executed as 'enemies of the Republic' and their bodies buried. While some of this took place during the War of Independence, most of it happened the following year, during the so-called 'Cork Republic'. The net result was to change the demographic of the south-eastern corner of the city for ever, with hundreds of families fleeing and up to fifty individuals buried in unmarked graves in surrounding areas. Using a wide range of previously untapped sources, Murphy shines new light on one of the darker episodes of twentieth-century Irish history.
 

Contents

Porte of Cork
He Knows Us All Well
The Shooting of William Goff Beale
A Boulogne Mystery
Old Friends and Older Enemies
Part VIII
The Many Gangs of General Tudor
The Cork Murder Gang

Help Comes from an Unexpected Source
Knockraha was the Place for Spies
Part II
The Dead of the ReaTruth or Exaggeration?
A City of Spies
How Intelligent was British Intelligence?
IRA Intelligence in Cork
Love in a City of Intrigue
Who Were the Spies?
Part III
The Myth of the AntiSinn Féin League
The Real AntiSinn Féin League
The November Abductions
Yet Another Spy Circle
Part IV
The Cork YMCA
On the
The Deaths of James and Fred Blemens
Death of an Organist
A Sorrower Writes
Some Undercover Connections
Part V
A Tale of Two Spies
Through the Eye of a Needle
A Compendium of Victimhood
Dumping Stores
Another Missing Teenager
Part VI
Sgt Major Mackintosh and Michael Williams Chapter 30 Missing Soldiers
A Murderous Postscript
Part VII
The Disappearance of Edward Parsons
The Story of the Roycrofts
The Hornibrooks Revisited
The Dunmanway Murdersa Reassessment
Warren Peacocke
Clerical Errors
Part IX
Life in Protestant Cork 1922
The Year of Disappearances
Weekly Surveys
Beware the Ides of March
A Time for Revenge
St Patricks Day Parade
The Missing Masons
Reactions and Responsibilities
Part X
Prepare for Execution
On Active Service
A Private Band of Avengers
Saying Goodbye to the House
With God on our Side
Appendices Appendix I
Appendix II
Appendix III
Appendix IV
Appendix V
Appendix VI
Appendix VII
Appendix VIII
Appendix IX
Appendix X
Notes
Appendix XI
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Copyright About the Author
About Gill Macmillan

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About the author (2010)

Gerard Murphy was born in Cork in 1956. Educated at Sacred Heart College, Carrignavar, and later at UCC, he graduated with a PhD in 1983. He subsequently worked in industry and academia and currently lectures at the Institute of Technology, Carlow. He is the author of two critically acclaimed novels. The Year of Disappearances is his first work of non-fiction.

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