Black and Tan Shot Dead at Cove Street

Cove Street, off Barrack Street, Cork, where John McDonald was shot dead in April, 1921.

On April 17, 1921, Constable John Cyril MacDonald, a twenty-eight year old single man from 31, Whirring Stone Road, Fulham, London was walking with a female friend along Cove Street when two men approached them, heading towards Barrack Street.

As they passed, one of the men jumped on McDonald and pinned his arms behind him. The other pointed a revolver at him which he tried to knock away but was shot in the face. As he lay on the ground he was again fired at a number of times.

As the men then ran off down Cove Street, the girl rushed to the fire station on nearby Sullivan's Quay to summon an ambulance for the dying man. However, he succumbed to his wounds five days later.

McDonald had been a soldier prior to joining the Black and Tans and had been in Ireland for four months at the time of his shooting.