An Irish Diary

‘She never blinked an eye’ – An Irishman’s Diary on the IRA’s killing of Mary Lindsay in 1921

Lindsay was killed along with her chauffeur James Clarke

Mary (Maria Georgina) Lindsay was abducted and executed by the IRA in 1921

Ronan McGreevy's face
Ronan McGreevy
Mon Jan 25 2021 - 19:01

Mary (Maria Georgina) Lindsay was just 60 when she executed by the IRA in March 1921, yet in the loyal press in Ireland and Britain she was a “gallant old woman” and a widow to boot.

Mrs Lindsay was killed along with her loyal chauffeur and manservant, James Clarke, on March 11th, 1921. Clarke (50) had worked for Mrs Lindsay and her late husband since boyhood.

By all accounts she was a small, plump woman, talkative, but, above all fiercely loyal. Born into a well-off Presbyterian family in Co Wicklow, she married John Lindsay from Co Down and they lived in a large house, Leemount, in Coachford, Co Cork. The couple had no children.

She wasn't co-operative, notwithstanding the fact that she was sentenced to death. I told her she was going to die

She was part of that vanished tribe of Cork loyalists, so numerous that they once had their own newspaper, the Cork Constitution.

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She went to her death as she had lived, loyal to the end, earning a backhanded compliment from her executioner and fellow Cork Protestant, Capt Frank Busteed.

“The impression I got of her was that she was a stubborn woman, that you would not get any information from her. She wasn’t co-operative, notwithstanding the fact that she was sentenced to death. I told her she was going to die. She never blinked an eye. I will say this for her bravery, she was excellent.

“But when I issued the sentence of death to Clarke he collapsed completely. I don’t know what you have there, is it two different cultures, weak human nature, or what.”

Mrs Lindsay's crime in the eyes of the local IRA was informing on a planned IRA ambush at Godfrey's Cross, between the villages of Coachford and Dripsey.

She had heard about the proposed ambush from a local grocer who told her not to take the road through Dripsey to Ballincollig because a company of IRA men were hiding out in anticipation of the military passing that way on the morning of January 28th, 1921.

She not only informed the military in Ballincollig Barracks, but also told the local parish priest Fr Ned Shinnick, who had made an enemy of himself among local republicans by repeatedly denouncing the IRA from the altar.

Shinnick in turn informed Busteed, but the priest’s reputation meant that his warning was not heeded. Consequently the ambush party were taken by surprise when a detachment from the Manchester Regiment arrived on the scene as darkness was falling on the afternoon of January 28th.

They divided into five sections as to surround the ambush party which numbered 68 men.

I am a prisoner as I am sure you will know and I have been told that it will be a very serious matter for me if these men are executed

Using their knowledge of the local area, 60 of them got away but eight were captured, along with two local men who were not involved in the ambush.

What happened next would eventually lead to the deaths of 14, including Mrs Lindsay and Clarke.

The men were taken to Victoria Barracks in Cork and were subject to a hastily assembled military trial. Five of them were sentenced to death – Daniel O'Callaghan, Patrick O'Mahony, Timothy McCarthy, and Thomas O'Brien.

When news reached the IRA men, they proceeded to Mrs Lindsay’s home and kidnapped her and Clarke.

They also burned her house to the ground.

A few days later a messenger dropped a letter outside Victoria Barracks in Cork.

The letter was stark in its import. It was in Mrs Lindsay’s own hand and was accompanied by a covering letter from the IRA confirming its authenticity.

It was addressed to Lieut-Gen Peter Strickland, the officer commanding British forces in Cork.

“I am a prisoner as I am sure you will know and I have been told that it will be a very serious matter for me if these men are executed. I have been told that my life will be forfeited for theirs as they believe that I was the direct cause of their capture. I implore you to spare these men for my sake.”

Strickland discussed the matter with Gen Nevil Macready who was the commander-in-chief of British forces in Ireland.

The two men agreed to proceed with the executions, perhaps calculating that the IRA would never shoot a woman.

They are among 64 people in Cork who were 'disappeared' by the IRA during the War of Independence

The executions proceeded on February 28th as planned. The men were executed at 15-minute intervals, along with a sixth prisoner Sean Allen, who was not involved at Dripsey.

That evening the IRA in Cork killed six British soldiers in revenge for the executions. On March 11th, Lindsay and Clarke were shot most likely by Busteed himself.

Clarke was trembling so much that he had to be tied to two spades driven into the ground to keep him upright. Mrs Lindsay was defiant to the end.

Both victims fell into a pit two metres long and a metre deep. Their bodies have never been found. They are among 64 people in Cork who were “disappeared” by the IRA during the War of Independence.

There were 98 women killed in the war, according to the newly published The Dead of the Irish Revolution by Eunan O'Halpin and Daithí Ó Corráin, 4 per cent of the total. At least three were killed deliberately by the IRA as spies. The two others were Bridget Noble, killed in Co Cork four days after Mrs Lindsay, and Kate Carroll in Co Monaghan in the following month.

In the strictly gendered world in 1920s Ireland, the deliberate killing of women provoked outrage, and Mrs Lindsay’s death provoked a backlash, with the Morning Post devoting a page of letters in tribute to her.

The authors of the Dead of the Irish Revolution concluded: “In general, females were not regarded as legitimate targets for any of the contending forces. The deliberate killing of women even as spies aroused criticism within the revolutionary movement and caused particular unease in IRA GHQ.”

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