Following
the September, 1919 attack on a British armed party
outside the Wesleyan church at Fermoy in which one
soldier was killed, a number of local volunteers
were arrested and detained. However,
despite the
threat of heavy penalties, no jury could be
empowered to try the prisoners and they remained in custody at Cork Jail. On August 11, 1920 Michael Fitzgerald, together with a number of other untried prisoners, began a hunger strike for
release, which ended in his death sixty-seven days later.
Michael Fitzgerald was secretary of the local branch of the Irish Transport and General Workers Union. He joined the Volunteers in Fermoy in March, 1914
and at the time of his arrest he was O/C First Battalion, Second Cork
Brigade. He had previously been imprisoned
after his successful capture of Araglen police barrack on April 20, 1919, when he was arrested at Clondulane. Some ammunition was found in the house in which he lived and he
was sentenced to two months imprisonment. He
was released at the end of August, in
time to take part in the action at Fermoy.
Monument
to Michael
Fitzgerald at Fermoy. When he died in Cork Jail on October 17, 1920 his remains were borne
by his comrades to the Church
of S.S. Peter and Paul in the city centre. His funeral next day was occasioned by an arrogant display of
force and disregard for the people who had come to pay their last tributes. After the mass, British
military wearing steel helmets
and carrying fixed bayonets, invaded the church and walked over the seats to the altar rails. An officer with a drawn
revolver handed a notice to the priest
to the effect that only a limited number of persons would be allowed to take part in the funeral. A machine gun was mounted at the church gates and armoured cars
toured the vicinity. Notwithstanding the threats and the menacing attitude of
the military, thousands took part in the funeral procession. Armoured cars and
lorries carrying heavily equipped
forces shadowed the cortege to the city boundary.
His
body lay in St. Patrick's Church, Fermoy overnight,
and on the following day
the huge crowds attending the funeral at Kilcrumper were threatened by
the same type of intimidation as was displayed in
Cork. Barbed
wire entanglements were set up by the British and machine guns were mounted on the bridge. His comrades assembled that afternoon paid a last tribute
of
three volleys to the first IRA volunteer to be buried at the republican plot
at Kilcrumper Cemetery in Fermoy.
The
grave at Kilcrumper Cemetery where the bodies of Michael
Fitzgerald and Liam Lynch are buried side by side.
General
Liam Lynch had a particular friendship with and admiration for
Michael Fitzgerald.
When Lynch lay dying, after being shot by Free State forces in the Knockmealdown Mountains on April 10, 1923, his final request was
to be buried with Michael
Fitzgerald in Kilcrumper. That last wish of his was fulfilled and their graves have now become a place of
national pilgrimage.
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