Local history: Castlebar man murdered in Dublin on Blood Sunday

By Tom Gillespie

BLOODY Sunday was a day of violence in Dublin on November 21, 1920, during the War of Independence. Thirty-two people were killed or fatally wounded - 13 British soldiers and police, 16 Irish civilians, and three Irish Republican prisoners.

The day began with an IRA operation, organised by Michael Collins, to assassinate the ‘Cairo Gang’ - a team of allegedly undercover British intelligence agents working and living in Dublin.

IRA members went to a number of addresses and killed or fatally wounded 15 people: nine British Army officers, a Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) officer, two members of the Auxiliary Division, two civilians, and another man, from Castlebar, who was believed to have been an intelligence agent.

Later that afternoon, members of the Auxiliary Division and RIC opened fire on the crowd at a GAA match in Croke Park, killing or fatally wounding 14 civilians and wounding at least 60 others. That evening, three Irish Republican suspects being held in Dublin Castle were beaten and killed by their captors, who said they were trying to escape.

Overall, Bloody Sunday was considered a victory for the IRA, as Collins's operation severely damaged British intelligence, while the later reprisals did no real harm to the guerrillas but increased support for the IRA at home and abroad.

Captain Patrick J. Mac Cormack’s parents ran a drapery premises at Market Street, Castlebar. Patrick qualified as a veterinary surgeon and worked with the Agricultural Department in Castlebar.

During the War of Independence he was commissioned and served with the British Veterinary Corps in the Curragh and later in Egypt and after being decommissioned was appointed starter at the Alexandra Turf Club in Cairo. He had travelled back to Ireland to purchase horses here and was staying in the Gresham Hotel in Dublin.

On that ill-fated morning an IRA unit gained access to the rooms in the hotel of Mac Cormack and Lt. L. Wilde by pretending to be British soldiers with important dispatches. When the men opened their doors they were shot and killed.

Captain Mac Cormack was having breakfast in his bedroom and was reading The Irish Field. Lt. L. Wilde was in another room and he was also murdered. Mac Cormack was shot through the head, in the neck, in the wrist, and in the groin. The racing paper was still in his hand and the blankets were singed from the closeness of the firing.

James Doyle, manager of the Gresham Hotel at the time, gave his statement on what he saw: “At about nine o'clock on the morning of Bloody Sunday I was in bed in my room and awakened by noise. It was a muffled kind of thing like the beating of a carpet.

“The porter called up to my room afterwards and I asked him what the noise I had heard was. He said that Captain Mac Cormack, who was occupying a room quite close to me, had been shot dead. I got out of bed and entered Captain Mac Cormack's room and I saw that he was then dead. The worker also told me that another man had been shot dead in a room on the next floor over Captain Mac Cormack's. I went to this room also and saw the dead man. His surname was Wilde.

“I was totally ignorant of what took place or why these men were shot at the time. I questioned the porter and he told me that a number of armed men had entered the hotel and asked to be shown to the rooms occupied by these two men.”

The Gresham's manager said that Mac Cormack had been staying in the hotel since September and had been buying race horses.

He added: “He had booked his passage back to Egypt for December on the Holt Line. Although he had been a veterinary surgeon with the British Army there would appear to have been grave doubt as to his being associated with British intelligence. While he was here I never saw him receiving any guests. He slept well into the afternoon and only got up early when a race meeting was on. When I found him shot in his room, the Irish Field was lying beside him.”

It was reported that a group of 15 to 20 IRA men under Paddy Moran raided the Gresham.

One report of the murders reads: Gresham Hotel, Sackville Street. Two murders. Here a party of 15 to 20 men entered the open door of the hotel, held up the boots and the head-porter with revolvers and forced the latter, Hugh Callaghan, to lead them to rooms occupied by Ex-Captain Patrick Mac Cormack, formerly a captain in the Army Veterinary Corps, and Lieutenant L. E. Wilde.

The party, one of whom carried a huge hammer, knocked first at room 14 occupied by Mr. Wilde. He opened the door and asked, “What do you want?” By way of answer three shots were fired into his chest simultaneously.

The party then moved to room 24, which they entered and found Mr. Mac Cormack sitting in bed reading the paper. Without any communication five shots were fired into his body and head as he sat there. The bed was saturated, and the body, especially the head, was horribly disfigured. It is possible that the hammer was used as well as revolver shots to finish off the victim.

When Mac Cormack was killed, his father was already dead and his mother, Kate, had moved to live in Dublin. Patrick was nephew of Rev. Dr. Mac Cormack, Bishop of Achonry and later of Galway, Charles and Thomas Mac Cormack, Castlebar. He was cousin of Miss Marge Feeney of Marsh House, Castlebar, Mrs. Coughlan, National Bank House, Castlebar, and Mrs. Dr. Moran, Westport.