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1922-80

Anti-Treaty Soldier (Lieutenant) Michael John Crowley Jr

 

Anti-Treaty Soldier (Lieutenant) Michael John Crowley Jr (aged 23) of Reenogrena near Glandore (Bantry)

Date of incident: 29-30 Aug. 1922

Source: FJ, 31 Aug., 5 Sept. 1922; Belfast Newsletter, 1 Sept. 1922; Derry Journal, 1 Sept. 1922; CE, 1, 5, 25 Sept. 1922, 30 Aug. 1923; SS, 2 Sept. 1922; II, 5 Sept. 1922; MSPC/DP2354 (Military Archives); Rebel Cork’s Fighting Story, 208; Last Post (1976 ed.), 97; Hopkinson (1988), 203; Keane (2017), 300, 417; http://www.irishmedals.org/anti-treaty-killed.html (accessed 12 July 2017). 

 

Note: IRA Lieutenant Michael J. Crowley was killed on High Street in Bantry on 30 August 1922 during an abortive attack on that town launched in an effort to dislodge the Free State garrison there. The attack was carried out under orders from IRA brigade and divisional headquarters; it resulted in four fatalities on the anti-Treaty side. Born on 1 July 1899, Crowley was a farmer’s son whose family occupied a 32-acre holding at Reenogrena near Glandore. His death at the age of 23 was not registered. See MSPC/DP2354 (Military Archives). An officer in the active-service unit of the Cork No. 5 Brigade, Crowley was interred in Rosscarbery. See CE, 5 Sept. 1922; Last Post (1976 ed.), 97. His name appears on the memorial of the Cork No. 5 Brigade in the middle of Bantry. During the War of Independence Michael Crowley had served with the Cork No. 3 Brigade.

The victim’s mother Ellen Crowley was finally awarded a partial-dependant’s gratuity of £50 in 1934 under the Army Pensions Acts. But because she died before the Minister for Finance gave his sanction for this award, it was never made or paid. A series of pension applications by the victim’s sister Alice Crowley O’Callaghan between 1936 and 1955 were unsuccessful. See MSPC/DP2354 (Military Archives). 

Michael J. Crowley Jr was in 1911 one of the seven living children (eight born) of the Reenogrena National Teacher and farmer Michael Crowley Sr and his wife Ellen. Six of their seven children (four sons and two daughters) alive in that year co-resided with them. Among these six was Michael J. Crowley, then aged 11.

The Irish Revolution Project

Scoil na Staire /Tíreolaíocht

University College Cork, Cork,

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