The American grandsons of an anti-Treaty IRA officer killed in the Civil War a week before the birth of his son have called on the Irish State to issue an apology for his murder 103 years ago today.
Brothers Tim (74) and Tom Kennefick (71) travelled from the United States to Cork this weekend to mark the 103rd anniversary of the killing of their grandfather, Capt Timothy Kennefick (29), by a party of National Army soldiers in Coachford in mid-Cork on September 8th, 1922.
Capt Kennefick was travelling unarmed from Ballingeary back to Cork city to attend his mother’s funeral when he was captured on the morning of September 8th by National Army soldiers at Peake. His body was found some hours later at Nadrid, 2km from Coachford.
An inquest was held three days later in Coachford by Cork county coroner John J Horgan. A jury returned “a verdict of wilful murder against the officer in charge of the Free State troops in Coachford on the morning in question and Richard Mulcahy as minister for defence”.
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Dr W O’Riordan of Peake told the inquest: “I saw the face all battered ... shock and haemorrhage due to lacerations caused by bullet wounds in the head, one an entrance wound over the right eye and an exit wound in the left temple, several marks on the face and two teeth broken.”
[ ‘One of the worst unofficial killings’ of the Civil War remembered 100 years onOpens in new window ]
Just a week after the murder, Capt Kennefick’s widow, Ellen, gave birth to the Kenneficks’ father (also Timothy). After her husband’s death, Ellen emigrated to America, later bringing both her children Timothy and his older sister, Kathleen, to join her, with the family settling in New York.
Capt Kennefick’s son, Timothy, a second World War US army veteran, visited the monument in 2002. He hoped, to return for the centenary in 2022, aged 99, but was unable to do so. He died last year in the US, just a few months short of his 102nd birthday.
This past weekend, Tim and Tom visited the memorial to the grandfather at Nadrid. They lay a wreath at the Celtic cross that stands beneath a towering ancient beech tree that witnessed the killing. They reiterated the family’s wish that the Irish State issue an apology for his killing.
Tim Kennefick said: “People get killed in wars, but this wasn’t a firefight. Our grandfather was captured and executed illegally, and a jury returned a verdict of wilful murder, so an apology would be an admission by the Irish State that wrong was done. It would close a chapter for us as a family.”
Tom Kennefick added: “When you look at it, our grandma and Aunt Kay and our father, they didn’t just lose their husband and father, they lost their country and Grandma spent 40 years trying to get a pension from the State. An apology would let us know, officially, that we are welcome here.”
The Kenneficks also attended a commemoration at Capt Kennefick’s grave at the republican plot at St Finbarr’s Cemetery in Cork where Cork North Central Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould paid tribute to their grandfather. .
