Lecture on ‘wilful ­murder’ in Miltown

Disperse: the anatomy of the Canada Cross shootings in Miltown Malbay in April 1920, is the title of the second lecture in the Old Kilfarboy Society’s 2012-2013 series. The talk will be delivered by local historian John Treacy in the Malbay on Tuesday, November 13 at 8pm.

On April 14 1920, Miltown Malbay celebrated the release of the hunger strikers from Mountjoy Prison.
The hunger strikers victory against the Crown was celebrated at the Canada Cross in Miltown by burning a tar barrel bonfire, singing songs and telling republican stories.

A planned patrol by a joint RIC and Royal Highland Infantry Regiment unit left the RIC barracks at the Square in Miltown.

The patrol made its way in the direction of the celebration at the end of the Main Street. The soldiers fixed bayonets and the leader of the patrol, Sergeant James Hampson, made his way to the corner, ordering the crowd to disperse.

In the dim light of the April night shots rang out. The soldiers mistook these shots for hostile fire and, in panic, the patrol opened fire into the crowd. When the shooting stopped, two or three minutes later, three men lay dead and 11 others were wounded.

The coroner’s inquest, held a fortnight later, heard comprehensive evidence from many witnesses.

This inquest concluded that nine members of the patrol were guilty of ‘wilful murder’ and directed that warrants be issued for these soldiers to stand trial. The warrants were never fulfilled and the patrol went largely unpunished.

The aim of this lecture is to analyse the testimony, to search the archives for further evidence, to challenge popular ­perceptions of these events and to piece together the chain of events that led to this atrocity. In addition, the coroner’s inquest finding, that the nine patrol members were in fact guilty of ‘wilful murder’, may be tested.

John Treacy is a PhD student of history at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick. Lectures take place on the second Tuesday of each month until March 2013.