Appeal to help solve mystery of mid Cork killings

BODIES OF THREE MEN HAVE NEVER BEEN FOUND

A Cork historian has appealed to the public for help in solving a near 100 year old mystery regarding the killing and secret burial of three Protestant men by the IRA in Mid- Cork between the end of the War of Independence and the start of the Civil War.

History teacher, Barry Keane has unearthed new material which suggests that the Irish State colluded with the Church of Ireland to cover up the exhumation and reburial of the three Protestant men from Ballygroman near Killumney.

Mr Keane, who last year published “Massacre in West Cork – The Dunmanway and Ballygroman Killings” has found new documentation on the killings of Thomas Hornibrook, his son, Samuel and Capt Herbert Woods MC on April 26th 1922 during the Truce.

It is generally accepted that the three men were abducted and shot by the anti-Treaty IRA unit in retaliation for the shooting dead of IRA Commandant, Michael O’Neill as he led an IRA party seeking to commandeer a car at the Hornibrook home, said Mr Keane

According to Mr Keane, it was also generally believed that the three men were buried in a bog hole in Newcestown following their execution but new information has now come to light which suggests the bodies were later exhumed and reburied.

Last month, Mr Keane was contacted by Dublin Diocesan Archivist, Noelle Dowling after she found a letter written in 1948 by a Cork solicitor, John Stanton to a firm of Dublin solicitors about the Ballygroman killings.

“The letter found in a property file stated that the Hornibrooks’ family solicitor, Barry O’Meara & Co on the South Mall had been contacted some time previously – ie sometime prior to 1948 - by An Garda Siochana about the killings,” said Mr Keane.

“The gardai told Mr O’Meara the bodies had been found in a bog and they wanted to know if Captain Woods’s widow, who was living in the UK, should be informed about the discovery of their remains.

“Mr O’Meara contacted the Protestant rector in the locality and it was decided, to quote Mr Stanton’s letter, that ‘ there was no good raking up the whole matter so the bodies were quietly buried in a Protestant cemetery’.

“Unfortunately the letter doesn’t say which Protestant cemetery the bodies were buried in so the mystery remains as to where these men are buried - it seems incredible that this collusion between church and state was allowed to happen,” he added.

Mr Keane, who has been in touch with Thomas Hornibrook’s great-grandson, Dr Martin Midgely Reeves in the UK, believes there may be people alive with information about the exhumations.

“The discovery of this letter has resulted in one of the great mysteries of the War of Independence and the Civil War taking a step closer to resolution but we still don’t know where the bodies are buried.

“Common decency demands that we should try and solve this mystery – an appeal I made last year’s appeal led to the discovery of this letter and I would appeal to anyone with any shred of information on the exhumation and reburials to contact me,” he said.

Anyone with any information can contact Mr Keane via email at bkeanefg@ yahoo.com