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1922-45

National Army Soldier William Nevin

 

National Army Soldier William Nevin (aged 38) of Marietta Lodge, Sandycove, Co. Dublin (Passage West) 

Date of incident: 8 Aug. 1922

Sources: Irish Times, 14 Aug. 1922; II, 15 Aug. 1922; CE, 17 Aug. 1922; List of FSS Cork Civil War Deaths; O’Farrell, Who’s Who, 209; Borgonovo (2011), 147, fn. 28; Keane (2017), 292-94, 416; http://www.irishmedals.ie/National-Army-Killed.php (accessed 30 June 2017).  

 

Note: Private William Nevin died on 8 August at Passage West where Free State forces landed with the aim of capturing Cork city. He was among a group of National Army Soldiers ‘killed at Cork’ who were buried on Monday, 14 August 1922, in the National Army Plot at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. See Irish Times, 14 Aug. 1922; II, 15 Aug. 1922; List of FSS Cork Civil War Deaths.

A detailed account of this collective funeral appeared in the Cork Examiner: ‘A sad spectacle was witnessed in Dublin on Monday [14 August], when . . . eight National soldiers who were killed in Cork were buried in Glasnevin. The funeral took place after 11 o’clock Mass at Portobello Barracks, [with] each coffin being draped with the tri-colour. The funeral was headed by a fife and drum band, followed by the eight hearses, each accompanied by a military guard of honour. After the hearses came officers of the Headquarters Staff, followed by a pipers’ band and 200 men from headquarters. The chief mourners and public occupied a number of mourning carriages. Tremendous crowds lined the streets, and as the coffins passed, hats were raised in respectful reverence to the dead.’ There followed the names of seven soldiers who were interred in the National Army Plot at Glasnevin: Private Patrick Perry (aged 24); Private William Nevin (aged 38); Private Gerald McKenna (aged 18); Private P. Lynch; Private C. O’Toole; Private Terence Maguire [recte Patrick Maguire]; and Sergeant William Purdy (aged 18), ‘killed accidentally in Co. Limerick’. See CE, 17 Aug. 1922.

The removal of Purdy’s name reduces the number of specified County Cork victims to six, and the inclusion of ‘Private P. Lynch’ in this collective funeral was a mistake. The absent names of Privates Frederick McKenna (brother of Gerald McKenna), James Madden, and Henry Quinn Jr belong on this list. See II, 15 Aug. 1922. 

The Irish Revolution Project

Scoil na Staire /Tíreolaíocht

University College Cork, Cork,

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