The Year of Disappearances
Description
'Every spy who was shot in Cork was buried so that nothing was known about them. They just disappeared.' These are the words of an IRA commander recalling the War of Independence in Cork city. The Year of Disappearances examines this claim and others like it. It uncovers a web of suspicion and paranoia that led to scores of men and boys being abducted from their homes before being executed as 'enemies of the Republic' and their bodies buried. While some of this took place during the War of Independence, most of it happened the following year, during the so-called 'Cork Republic'. The net result was to change the demographic of the south-eastern corner of the city for ever, with hundreds of families fleeing and up to fifty individuals buried in unmarked graves in surrounding areas. Using a wide range of previously untapped sources, Murphy shines new light on one of the darker episodes of twentieth-century Irish history.
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Content
- Cover
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface to the Second Edition
- Preface to the First Edition
- Epigraph
- Part I
- Chapter 1: The Mysterious Death of George Tilson
- Chapter 2: The Story of Sing Sing
- Chapter 3: The War in Cork
- Chapter 4: The Political Landscape
- Chapter 5: Martin Corry's Ireland
- Chapter 6: Help Comes from an Unexpected Source
- Chapter 7: Knockraha was the Place for Spies
- Part II
- Chapter 8: The Dead of the Rea-Truth or Exaggeration?
- Chapter 9: A City of Spies
- Chapter 10: How Intelligent was British Intelligence?
- Chapter 11: IRA Intelligence in Cork
- Chapter 12: Love in a City of Intrigue
- Chapter 13: Who Were the Spies?
- Part III
- Chapter 14: The Myth of the Anti-Sinn Féin League
- Chapter 15: The Real Anti-Sinn Féin League
- Chapter 16: The November Abductions
- Chapter 17: Yet Another Spy Circle
- Part IV
- Chapter 18: The Cork YMCA
- Chapter 19: On the Run
- Chapter 20: The Deaths of James and Fred Blemens
- Chapter 21: Death of an Organist
- Chapter 22: A Sorrower Writes
- Chapter 23: Some Undercover Connections
- Part V
- Chapter 24: A Tale of Two Spies
- Chapter 25: Through the Eye of a Needle
- Chapter 26: A Compendium of Victimhood
- Chapter 27: Dumping Stores
- Chapter 28: Another Missing Teenager
- Part VI
- Chapter 29: Sgt Major Mackintosh and Michael Williams
- Chapter 30: Missing Soldiers
- Chapter 31: A Murderous Postscript
- Part VII
- Chapter 32: The Disappearance of Edward Parsons
- Chapter 33: The Story of the Roycrofts
- Chapter 34: The Hornibrooks Revisited
- Chapter 35: The Dunmanway Murders-a Reassessment
- Chapter 36: Porte of Cork
- Chapter 37: He Knows Us All Well
- Chapter 38: The Shooting of William Goff Beale
- Chapter 39: A Boulogne Mystery
- Chapter 40: Old Friends and Older Enemies
- Part VIII
- Chapter 41: The Many Gangs of General Tudor
- Chapter 42: The Cork 'Murder Gang'
- Chapter 43: Warren Peacocke
- Chapter 44: Clerical Errors
- Part IX
- Chapter 45: Life in Protestant Cork, 1922
- Chapter 46: The Year of Disappearances
- Chapter 47: Weekly Surveys
- Chapter 48: Beware the Ides of March
- Chapter 49: A Time for Revenge
- Chapter 50: St Patrick's Day Parade
- Chapter 51: The Missing Masons
- Chapter 52: Reactions and Responsibilities
- Chapter 53: Claims and Counter-Claims
- Part X
- Chapter 54: 'Prepare for Execution'
- Chapter 55: On Active Service
- Chapter 56: A Private Band of Avengers
- Chapter 57: Saying Goodbye to the House
- Chapter 58: With God on our Side
- Appendices
- Appendix I
- Appendix II
- Appendix III
- Appendix IV
- Appendix V
- Appendix VI
- Appendix VII
- Appendix VIII
- Appendix IX
- Appendix X
- Appendix XI
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Copyright
- About the Author
- About Gill & Macmillan
