Bomb and Gun Attack on RIC at Parnell Bridge

Parnell Bridge, near Cork city centre.

At seven in the evening on the fourth of January, 1921 a party of ten R.I.C. men were returning to Union Quay Headquarters, then the main police barracks in Cork city.  As they crossed Parnell Bridge they came under gun and bomb attack from members of the first battalion of Cork No. 1 Brigade who were waiting in a disused public house.

Upon their arrival police reinforcements found that six R.I.C. had been wounded. They were removed to Union Quay barracks and from there to the Military Hospital at Victoria Barracks. Five civilians had also been injured by stray gunfire and bomb fragments.

Thirty eight year old Constable Francis Shortall succumbed to his wounds in Cork Military Hospital on 7 January 1921. Originally from Co. Tipperary, he had eleven years police service, having been a soldier before joining the RIC.  He held the rank of captain in the Irish Guards during world war one and had joined the RIC on 21st., February 1919. Two weeks later nineteen year old Constable Thomas Johnston, a single man from Co. Cavan, died from injuries received in the ambush.