Remembering this week On 15 December 1920, an Auxiliary shot dead the local priest, Canon Magner, allegedly for refusing to toll his churchs bells on Armistice Day; a local boy, Tadhg Crowley, was also killed. On the 1920 Dec 15. An Black and Tan (auxillary) officer, Section Leader Hart , killed a boy and a priest, Fr. Magner, in an apparently motiveless attack at Dunmanway, County Cork. He was discharged from ADRIC and declared insane by the British authorities. 1 p.m. on December 15, 1920, about thirty auxiliary police left Dunmanway, in two Crossley tenders, with Hart in charge of one tender and a DI in charge of the other, to go to Cork to attend the funeral of Chapman who had been killed in the Dillons Cross Ambush About a mile along the road they met Canon Magner, the 73 year old parish priest of Dunmanway, and Timothy Crowley, aged twenty-four, a farmers son. Canon Magner had been walking along the main road. He came across a car broken down on the road and stopped to help. The man driving the car was called Mr. P Brady a Resident Magistrate from Rosebank, Skibbereen. Timothy Crowley also stopped to help. Canon Magner and Crowley pushed the car. Just then the two Crossleys full of Auxiliaries passed them, went on about 100 metres and then backed back. They were coming from the workhouse in Dunmanway. The cadet in charge stopped the lorries, walked up to Timothy Crowley, asked him for a permit, and then shot him dead with his revolver. He then turned to the priest, and, according to the evidence of one of the police, started talking to him. Two other cadets went towards him, but Hart turned round, waving his revolver. They withdrew, Hart seized the hat from the priests head and threw it on the ground and made him kneel down. He fired, and wounded him, and then fired again, killing him. Mr. P Brady, the resident magistrate, who was a witness of the murder, was also threatened with death, but took cover and escaped. Hart was arrested and court-martialled: at his trial, it was revealed that he had been a particular friend of TC Chapman, and had been drinking heavily since 11 December. A number of expert medical witness testified that Hart was insane at the time of the murders and the Courtmartial concluded that he was guilty of the offenses with which he was charged, but was insane at the time of their commission. 1921 Jan 5. He was discharged from the ADRIC. He was sentenced to be detained during his Majestys pleasure and was committed to a criminal lunatic asylum. Harte was later released and he lived the rest of his life in South Africa.
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 01:25:50 +0000
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