The Unknown Commandant: The Life and Times of Denis Barry 1883-1923 by Denis Barry

Author:Denis Barry [Barry, Denis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical, Ireland, Europe, Modern, Biography & Autobiography, 20th Century, Wars & Conflicts (Other), Military, Political, History, General
ISBN: 9781848890299
Google: AQiWDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 8660451
Publisher: Collins Press
Published: 2010-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

Later that day, 26 November 1923, the authorities relented and the mortal remains of Denis Barry were exhumed from the site near ‘the Glasshouse’ in the Curragh Camp where he had been buried and were handed over to his family. They were removed to a mortuary in Naas, from where his body would be brought back to his native city.

The funeral arrangements were to be as follows: Denis’ body was to be taken to his Parish church, St Finbarr’s South in Dunbar Street, Cork. After reception prayers and overnight in the mortuary, solemn requiem Mass would be said and his funeral would take place to the Republican Plot in St Finbarr’s Cemetery where he would be buried next to his fellow brigade Officers, Tomás MacCurtain, murdered Lord Mayor of Cork, and his successor in that office, Terence MacSwiney, who had died in Brixton Prison in 1920 after a prolonged hunger strike.

The remains of Denis Barry arrived in Cork on Tuesday afternoon, 27 November. However, the then Bishop Daniel Cohalan would not under any circumstances permit Denis’ remains to be brought into any church in his diocese nor allow any of his priests to officiate at any religious ceremonies normally held when someone dies. He had publicly decreed this in a letter published in the Cork Examiner that morning:

Dear Sir – I am not allowing the religious exercises, which constitute Christian Burial, to take place at the burial of Denis Barry. I regret very much to feel obliged to adopt this course. I knew the deceased; I knew him to be very interested in and to have a great knowledge of the social and moral question of the dangers that beset girls in Cork and all through Munster. I knew him to be a very good man. But if it were my brother that had taken the course that Denis Barry chose to take, I would treat his burial in the same way.

Dr Cohalan seemed to be much less assured of the moral rectitude of his treatment of Denis Barry than his stern public utterance suggested. He wrote to the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, Dr Patrick Foley, in whose diocese Denis had died. He wanted to know whether Denis had received the last sacraments, as he felt he was unable to trust a Republican statement that he had. Fr Doyle, who was prison chaplain for Newbridge Barracks confirmed in writing on 27 November that he had administered the last rites of the Church to Denis prior to his death. For that reason alone it is difficult to understand the Bishop’s decision.

We can also contrast the Bishop’s attitude to the one he had adopted on the occasion of the death of Terence MacSwiney when he wrote to the Cork Examiner as follows:

Dear Sir. – I ask the favour of a little space to welcome home to the city he laboured for so zealously the hallowed remains of Lord Mayor Terence MacSwiney.

For the moment it might appear that he has died in deficit.

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