Heritage society presents ‘Policing Hong Kong - An Irish History’
The next in Mitchelstown Heritage Society’s series of free online heritage talks is on Wednesday, 28th April at 8pm. These online talks are open to all and are hosted on the Zoom meeting platform.
This talk, on the men from county Cork who emigrated to Hong Kong and served with distinction on its police force, will be delivered by writer and historian Patricia O’Sullivan, whose relatives were amongst these men. This topic is a little unusual, but will shine a light on the Irish experience abroad in a unique way. It promises to be as enjoyable as the other recently held talks by the society.
When it came to finding a job that paid a reasonable salary but might not involve leaving Ireland for good, the police forces of the British Empire were an attractive option for adventurous and hard-working young men. At sixweeks sea voyage distance from home, Hong Kong was almost as far away as they could go, but throughout its 156 year history as a British colony, its police force recruited from County Cork. A high proportion of these men had notably successful careers.
One small County Cork town, though, has produced far more than its fair share of such officers. Between 1864 and 1950, Newmarket saw no less than 17 of its sons enlist as policemen in Hong Kong. These men came from two family strands - quite independent of each other, but with nephew followed uncle, and brother joined brother. During their 9 month leave back in Ireland, they would marry a local girl, and their little family then joined the growing Newmarket diaspora in a Chinese setting.
Two succumbed to disease, a handful served just a single term, but the majority progressed to the top ranks of both the uniformed and detective branches of the force. Detective Inspector Mortimor O’Sullivan, along with four of his men, lost their lives during a shooting in a tenement in 1918. ‘The Gresson St. Affray’, as it was called, sent shock-waves through the colony, with an estimated 250,000 lining the streets for the funeral processions.
In her talk, Patricia O’Sullivan will give some of the background to the place and the force in which these men served, as well as the stories of cases with which they were involved. From mysterious murders to major fraud investigations, or tackling vicious killers to rescuing small girls from kidnappers, intent on selling them into prostitution, the life of Newmarket’s policemen ‘out East’ was rarely dull. And alongside them, their wives and families built homes and a community in a world so very different from their north Cork home.
Patricia O’Sullivan is the granddaughter of Newmarket man, Inspector Patrick O’Sullivan, Hong Kong Police and great-niece of Mortimor O’Sullivan. It was following a request by her 90 year-old aunt made in 2009, to ‘ get on that googly thing and find out about Uncle Murt’ that she started her quest in earnest. The result, Policing Hong Kong - an Irish History was published in Hong Kong in 2017.
She now writes fulltime on aspects of social history in the former British colony, both for journals and newspapers, and her second book Women, Crime and the Courts: Hong Kong 18411941 has recently been published. Prior to her writing career, O’Sullivan taught for Hertfordshire Music Service in the UK. Now, in non-Covid years, she spends about onethird of the year in Hong Kong.
For those wishing to join us for this talk. First go to the Soom website, click on ‘join meeting’. You will be asked for a meeting id and passcode, these are as follows: Meeting ID 811 1837 4301, passcode: 033716.
The meeting will open 15 minutes before the talk, everyone is asked to mute their microphones during the talk to prevent background noise interrupting the speaker. Questions and answers will be dealt with at the end of the talk. If anyone has any other questions or has issues connecting to this meeting, please e-mail andrewdineen1@ gmail.com