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Volunteer Patrick Joseph Murphy, who died on hunger
strike on October 25, 1920, was educated at Togher National School, Cork. He
was an avid sportsman who played hurling for the
old Plunketts club in Togher and also enjoyed a game
of road bowling on most Sunday mornings. His life changed dramatically when he, along with many of his friends, joined the local
company of the Irish Republican Army in the early stages of the War of Independence.
Following a raid on his home on the
night of July 15, 1920 he
was arrested and imprisoned at Cork County Jail.
The
house at Togher, Cork where Joe Murphy was born
and lived in before his arrest and death on hunger
strike.
Two months later, he
was one of a group of sixty Cork
republicans - including Terence MacSwiney -
who embarked on hunger strike.
The mass protest captured the sympathy of the general public and large crowds
congregated outside the jail gates each day,
many reciting the rosary. However, after a fast lasting seventy-six days, twenty
four year old Joe Murphy died. Thousands
attended his removal to the Lough Chapel.
The funeral ceremonies were dominated by a strong British military presence and no more than a hundred people were allowed to follow the hearse to St. Finbarr’s Cemetery.
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