Tom Kehoe

On 16th September 1922, a National Army convoy of the Dublin Guard led by Kehoe, encountered a mine in the centre of the road at the bridge at Carrigaphooca, while travelling from Macroom to Killarney. While they attempted to dismantle it, a second mine detonated, severely wounding Kehoe and killing six other soldiers, Captain Dan O’Brien, Sgt William Murphy, Volunteers Thomas Manning, John O’Riordan, Patrick O’Rourke and Ralph Conway.^[2][3][6][7]

Kehoe was transported to Mercy Hospital, Cork, where he died some hours later.^[6] Mary Collins Powell, sister of Michael Collins, tended to him there. She wrote to his mother:

I was present when Tom died, he died like a tired child going to sleep, he just closed his eyes and his mouth, and all was over... God loved him and I am sure after his brave fights, took him to join the Big Fellow.^[1][4]

Kehoe's body was transported from Cork to Dublin abord the Helga, and he was later buried in Knockananna Cemetery.^[1][2][3]

In reprisal for Kehoe's death, a Republican who was in custody, James Buckley, was taken out and killed by the Dublin Guard in Macroom, and his beaten and bullet-riddled body left in the crater where Kehoe and his comrades had been blown up.^[8]

Kehoe and his comrades killed at Carrigaphooca are memorialised by a cross and plaque at Carrigaphooca bridge, near the site of the explosion.^[6][7] A monument at Knockananna was unveiled in the presence of the surviving members of the Squad in 1924.^[9] Two other monuments commemorate the time in Carrigaphooca, one to Tom Kehoe and his comrades and the other to James Buckley, the prisoner killed in reprisal for his death.

Fabric, service stripes and buttons from Kehoe's uniform, kept by Vinny Byrne and displayed in his home until after his death, are now in the Michael Collins Centre Museum, Ballinoroher, Clonakilty, County Cork.^[6][10]