RIC Constable Shot Dead Near Youghal

The metal bridge over the River Blackwater - linking counties Cork and Waterford - where Constable Prendeville lost his life. The bridge has since been replaced by a more modern structure.

At about noon on 3 December 1920, a patrol of six RIC men from Youghal crossed to the Waterford side of the Blackwater Bridge to deliver a pension payment to an ex-policeman in charge of operating the swing bridge. Eight men of the Ardmore battalion of the IRA, armed with rifles, took up position on the hill overlooking the bridge. When the RIC patrol appeared on the bridge, the IRA men opened fire, killing one RIC man and wounding two others. British army soldiers from the Hampshire regiment based in Youghal were quickly dispatched to the scene but the attackers had already withdrawn.

The dead man was Constable Prendiville, a forty-five-year-old married man with five children, who originally hailed from Kerry. He had twenty-five years police service and was a farmer before joining the RIC. He was brought by pony and trap to a pharmacy in Youghal, where he was treated by a local doctor, and then transferred to a hospital in Cork city. He died from his wounds later that night, a bullet having penetrated his abdomen. A month before his death he was captured but subsequently released by the IRA, having promised them that he would resign from the RIC.