City Councillor Alderman Barry
(1880-1921) Tadhg Barry
The first meeting of the republican-led Cork Corporation, 30 January 1920, which elected Tomás MacCurtain Lord Mayor. (10) Tadhg Barry; (1) Tomás MacCurtain; (2) Denis Lucey; (3) Michael O’Callaghan; (4) John Fitzpatrick; (5) Stephen O’Riordan; (6) Seán French; (7) John Good; (8) Alfred O’Rahilly; (9) Terence MacSwiney; (11) William Stockley; (12) M.J. O’Riordan; (13) Liam de Róiste; (14) Richard H. Beamish; (15) William Fleming; (16) Michael Egan; (17) William Desmond; (18) William Ellis; (19) Patrick Higgins; (20) Gerald Byrne; (21) Thomas Forde; (22) Timothy O’Neill; (23) Robert Day; (24) Daniel Williams; (25) John Arnott; (26) Maurice Walsh; (27) J.T. Mulligan. (Cork Public Museum).
Outside the north-east, political opinion in Ireland was heavily supportive of Sinn Féin by early 1920, no more so than in the trade union movement. The municipal elections of 15 January 1920 provided an opportunity to showcase this transformation. In Cork, as elsewhere, the ITGWU ran on a joint ticket with Sinn Féin and against the Labour Party. The coalition won a majority on the Corporation, heralding a new era in Cork politics. Tadhg topped the poll in the North-West No.1 Ward (Sunday’s Well/Blarney Street area), making him Alderman Tadhg Barry.
On 30 January, he took his seat at City Hall for the historic election of Tomás MacCurtain as Lord Mayor and to formally pledge Cork Corporation’s allegiances to the Dáil and the revolutionary government of the Irish Republic. He made a passionate speech condemning the presence of an ‘alien government’ in Ireland and the Corporation passed his motion to not nominate a High Sheriff of Cork. A fortnight later, the Corporation adopted his motion condemning the authorities for their treatment of his fellow councillor Alderman Fred Murray, who was on the run on a dubious charge of wounding a policeman. Tadhg served on several Corporation committees, including Public Works, Public Health, Technical Instruction, Allotments, Tolls and Markets, and Working-Class Dwellings. He was also appointed to the management committees of the Port Sanitary Authority, the North Charitable Infirmary and (his old employer) the Cork District Lunatic Asylum, where he adopted a more empathetic and compassionate approach to mental health and illness than was common at the time. As a doctor there put it, ‘his first thoughts were always for the patients, and next for the staff.’
The burned-out shell of the old City Hall after the Burning of Cork. ( Irish Examiner Archive)
Tadhg had a similar concern for the workers of Cork. At a Corporation meeting in March 1920, he seconded the motion that established a Cost- of-Living Commission – made up of Corporation, labour and employer representatives – to ascertain the true cost of living in Cork and to determine a suitable living wage. Its report, which became a benchmark for the unions, advocated a weekly wage of 70 shillings, approximately €120 in today’s money. At Tadhg’s instigation, the Corporation resolved to only employ recognised trade union labour. He also spearheaded wage increases for Corporation employees, including clerks. Despite constant harassment from the authorities, the republican-led Corporation conducted its business with remarkable competence. For example, an outbreak of typhoid fever in September 1920 had been successfully contained by that December. This was due to the implementation of several public health measures by the Public Health Committee of which Tadhg was a member. Tadhg’s brief but eventful time on the Corporation coincided with the intensification of the War of Independence. Some of his closest comrades
‘Mug shot’ of those arrested on 31 January 1921, including Tadhg Barry. (Imperial War Museum, London).
would become its victims, like successive Lord Mayors Tomás MacCurtain and Terence McSwiney. Tadhg was one of the last to see MacCurtain alive. Having heard that the Lord Mayor would be killed as a reprisal if another policeman was shot, he advised MacCurtain to lay low. A constable was indeed assassinated by the IRA that night, 20 March 1920. Hours later, the RIC stormed MacCurtain’s house in Blackpool and murdered him in front of his family. On 30 March, Tadhg seconded McSwiney’s election as Lord Mayor. After a raid on City Hall in August, McSwiney was arrested for possessing ‘seditious’ literature. He immediately began a hunger strike and died on 25 October 1920. Cork lost two of its most popular politicians that year, and Tadhg Barry lost two of his dearest friends.
The charred remains of Patrick’s Street following the Burning of Cork by K Company of the Auxiliary Division (better known as the Auxiliaries or Auxies) on the night of 11 December 1920. ( Irish Times Archive)
G
Powered by FlippingBook