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Archiver > MAYO > 2001-04 > 0987542494


From: "conaught" <>
Subject: [MAYO] Easter Week Series #5
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 14:21:34 -0700


Kevin Barry - Kevin Barry was an 18-year-old medical student at UCD. He was
the fourth of a family of two boys and five girls. He was born January 20,
1902 at 8 Fleet Street, Dublin. He was baptized in St. Andrew's Church,
Westland Row. His parents were Thomas Barry and Mary Dowling Barry. The
family had a farm in Tombeagh, Hacketstown, County Carlow.

During the War of Independence (1917-1921) the streets of Dubin were in the
middle of a war zone. Young Barry was captured after a street battle. He
was sentenced to hang. The Irish demanded that Barry be treated as a
prisoner of war. Women marched in the streets of Dublin carrying banners
"England Executes Prisoners of War". The War of Independence was not an
ordinary conventional war.

Because of Kevin's Barry age most people had hoped that he would not be
executed. He was tried in military court under a new act called the
Restoration of Order in Ireland Act (1920). It granted wide sweeping power
to the military - arrest without charge, detention without trial, secret
court martials, and suppression of coroners reports.

The Barry family believed that young Kevin's life would be spared because a
close family friend, Ernest Aston, a Dublin engineer and Protestant Home
Ruler went to see Lloyd George in London and had been promised that a
reprieve would be issued.

There was a big movement in Ireland and England to save young Barry. The
Westminster Gazette wrote -" We hope the prerogative of mercy will be used
in the case of the lad Kevin Barry, who lies under sentence of death in
Dublin. He is only 18, and his execution would be a painful and distressing
act.".*

There were a couple of escapes planned but were aborted because of the
massive presence of Black and Tans and Auxiliaries present in Mountjoy Jail
and some other reasons. Michael Collins was anguished because he could not
free Kevin Barry when he had helped so many others escape from prison. He
was tortured in jail and refused to name the others who were in his group
or his commander.

Kevin Barry's plight focused attention on the fight for Irish independence.

Erskine Childers wrote a powerful and moving letter to the Westminster
Gazzette protesting the verdict and sentence of Kevin Barry. In the letter
he demanded fair treatment of captured Volunteers. " He also put the Irish
struggle for independence in proper perspective for the English people when
he wrote:

This lad, Barry was doing precisely what Englishmen would be doing under the
same circumstances and with the same bitter and intolerable provocation -
the suppression by military force of their country's liberty. To hand him
for murder is an insulting outrage, and it is more: it is an abuse of power;
an unworthy act of vengeance, contrasting ill with the forbearance and
humanity invariably shown by the Irish Volunteers towards the prisoners
captured by them when they have been successful in encounters similar to
this one."**

The hanging of Kevin Barry gave Ireland a powerful martyr. The Lord Mayor
of Cork, Terence MacSwiney was buried the day before Kevin Barry's
execution. Some believe this was the turning point for the national
movement. After Kevin Barry's death hundreds of youths joined the Irish
Republican Army to fight for Irish independence.

© 2001
Margaret Kristich

All rights reserved

According to Seamus de Burca (letter to Irish Press August 5, 1951 the
following song about Kevin Barry was written by an
Irishman living in Glasgow, Scotland around the time of the execution of
Kevin Barry. De Burca protested against the using of the melody for other
songs. He wrote "The melody, like the words, belongs to the man who wrote
it, who gave both to the Irish nations without any reward. Let us preserve
this song about a gallant soldier inviolate".
Taken from Kevin Barry by Sean Cronin;National Publications Committee, Cork,
1971

In Mountjoy Jail one Monday morning
High upon the gallows tree
Kevin Barry gave his young life
For the cause of liberty.
But a lad of eighteen summers,
Yet no once can deny,
As he walked to death that morning
He proudly held his head on high.

Why not shoot me like a soldier,
Do not hang me like a dog,
For I fought to free old Ireland,
On that bright September morn.
All round that little bakery,
Where we fought them hand to hand.
Why not shoot me like a soldier
For I fought to free Ireland.

Just before he faced the hangman
In his dreary prison cell.
British soldiers tortured Barry
Just because he would not tell
The names of his brave companions,
And other things they wished to know.
'Turn informer or we'll kill you!'
Kevin Barry answered "No!'

Calmly standing to attention,
While he bade his last farewell
To his broken-hearted mother,
Whose sad grief on one can tell.

For the cause he proudly cherished
This sad parting had to be;
That old Ireland might be free."

The song continues for another two verses. There were many songs written
about Kevin Barry, including one written by Contstance Markievicz

References:
* and ** both taken from Kevin Barry by Sean Cronin; National Publications
Committee, Cork,1971

Michael Collins The Lost Leader by Margery Forester; Sphere Books Limited,
London; 1972

Ireland A History by Robert Kee;Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London; 1981

A Dictionary of Irish Biography by Henry Boylan; Roberts Rinehart; 1998;
Niwot, Colorado



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