The Little Shop of Secrets of Cork’s spymaster sisters
IN a narrow alley a stone’s throw from the Grand Parade in Cork City and, during the War of Independence, not to far from the RIC’s Bridewell Station on the Coal Quay and a British Army Barracks on Tuckey Street lay Cork’s own military intelligence hub.
Except that of course it didn’t say that over the door. What it did say over the door was Wallace, referring to Nora and Sheila Wallace, the two North Cork sisters who had moved to Cork city in the early 1900s to set up shop.
Sheila and Nora Wallace grew up in Donoughmore, before coming to live and work in the city in the 1900s where they rented the premises on Brunswick Street (now St Augustine’s Street) in the centre of the city.
On the very narrow street in the shadow of the large St Augustine’s Church, the shop sold newspapers, sweets, cigarettes, magazines and religious items such as statues and rosary beads.
In and out of the shop came and went the leading figures of Cork City’s republican movement of the time - Terence McSwiney, the city’s future Lord Mayor often served behind the counter, another Lord Mayor Tomás McCurtain was there earlier on the day he was murdered by the Black and Tans.
The full story of Sheila and Nora Wallace’s roles as the spymasters supreme for Cork’s No. 1 Brigade of the IRA is to be told in a radio documentary produced by their grandnephew, Bill Murphy, for RTÉ Radio 1.
In ‘ The Little Shop of Secrets’, Bill – who has penned dramas for the BBC as well as a number of novels – pieces together the remarkable story of two young women who placed their lives in grave danger by running an intelligence centre, safe house and spy network from their little shop in the centre of Cork City during the War of Independence.
All right under the noses of the Royal Irish Constabulary and British Crown forces.
Bill acknowledges that what his grandaunts were involved in was like something out of a spy novel.
“It was very, very risky - Sheila was often up near Victoria Barracks talking to an informer she was extracting information from and they had numerous narrow escapes.
“At one point the shop was closed down after a couple of men were found on the premises whose names weren’t on the list posted outside the door during curfew.”
Over the shop the sisters lived in a small and meagre quarters.
Interested in nationalist and socialist ideals, Sheila and Nora became friendly with figures such and James Connolly and Countess Markievicz.
Because of their deep-rooted sense of nationalism, they also came to know prominent local nationalist figures in Cork such as McCurtain and MacSwiney, Florence O’Donoghue, Seán O’Hegarty, as well as Michael Collins.
As the nationalist movement gained more popularity throughout Ireland, the Wallace Sisters became deeply involved with the Irish Volunteers. After the shutting down of the Cork Volunteers headquarters in Sheares Street in 1917, the Wallaces’ small shop became more than a meeting place for the leadership of the Cork Volunteers. It was essentially the Brigade headquarters where the intelligence and communications activities in the city and county were co-ordinated during the War of Independence.
Records show that Sheila became a Staff Officer in the IRA, making her one of the highest female rank holders in the organisation at the time.
Meetings of Cork No. 1 Brigade leadership were held in the kitchen at the back of the shop, where raids and ambushes were planned.
Dispatches went through the shop for IRA operations.
Spies in the Crown forces were recruited and handled by the Wallaces and British Army codes were deciphered by them.
They also kept meticulous records of the armaments and equipment held by the Brigade, effectively acting in the role as quartermasters.
In the hour long documentary to be broadcast on Saturday Bill talks to local historians, academics and consults the archives to uncover as much as possible of the story of what happened in his grandaunts’ shop during the War of Independence.
“I wish I had talked to my mother about it - Máire Murphy - as she worked in the shop for a number of years during the 1940s.
“Síle died around that time and it was a measure of the respect she was held by the people of Cork that her coffin was shouldered all the way from St Peter and Paul’s Church to St Finbarr’s Cemetery.
“The shop itself closed in the 1960s we believe.”
Now there are no traces of the shop on Augustine Street but Saturday’s fascinating documentary may stir some memories of what was probably one of the most dangerous streets in the city during the most perilous period in its history.
The Little Shop of Secrets, co-produced by Bill Murphy and Sarah Blake will be broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1 at 1pm on Saturday, July 18, and repeated on Sunday at 7pm. It will also be available as a downloadable podcast.
Bill is hopeful that this will be the first of many documentaries from him to be broadcast on RTE.
“I’m already working on a number of other ideas which I hope to pitch to RTÉ in the near future.”