Killarney waitress struck by stray bullet a few minutes before the Truce on 11 July 1921
The very final victim of Ireland’s War of Independence was a 48-year-old waitress who had stepped onto the street outside the Killarney hotel in which she worked and was fatally wounded by a stray bullet fired by an RIC officer.
Hannah Carey of Killarney was killed when the unidentified policeman accidentally discharged his revolver as he drove through the streets of the town and shortly after an IRA attack on two British soldiers near the town centre.
Hannah was standing at the door of the Imperial Hotel on College Street when she sustained a bullet wound to the neck just a few minutes before noon on Monday, 11 July 1921, when the agreed cessation of hostilities was to come into effect. The centenary of her death occurs on Sunday next.
Carey lay dying for two hours on the floor of the hotel on College Street, where she worked as a waitress, before succumbing to her injury and despite the intervention of two local doctors. As she stumbled off the street after being shot, she mumbled to her employer, ‘I am done’ before collapsing to the ground.
The unmarried native of Killarney died a short time after the shooting of two British soldiers at High Street and as the Crown Forces and the IRA continued to exchange fire as the clock ticked down to the official ceasefire at noon on 11 July.
Carey – described by a colleague who worked with her in the Imperial Hotel as ‘a most harmless woman’ – tragically holds the unenviable honour of being the last person to die during the War of Independence.
Just minutes before Carey was shot, the local IRA launched their final attack on the Crown Forces in Kerry. Sergeants Edward Mears and FG Clarke of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers were attacked on High Street on the orders of IRA leaders, John Joe Rice and Humphrey Murphy. Mears later died of his injuries.
Official reports and several newspapers suggested Hannah died during the attack on Mears and Clarke but this was not true. Instead she met her fate as an RIC vehicle travelled along College Street in the aftermath of that incident. The unidentified driver of the Crossley Tender lorry later told the inquiry into Carey’s death that he was driving the truck with his loaded revolver in his hand.
As he “gripped the wheel tighter,” the revolver went off. He didn’t realise anyone had been shot, telling a fellow officer, “it went off by mistake.”
“I suppose I must have pressed the trigger,” he claimed, “it was quite unintentional. We were all rather excited at the time.”
In her statement to the Court of Inquiry which followed three days later, 45 year-old hotel proprietor, Marie Slattery, recounted how Hannah Carey ran in from the door and collapsed into her arms:
‘I noticed that she was looking dazed and I went to her assistance … I saw a bullet fall on the floor which I picked up and gave to an officer afterwards … the deceased spoke a few words and said “I am done. ” She was not in a condition to say much … Everything possible was done for her but she died about 2 hours afterwards … Just about the time the deceased was hit, I heard lorries passing in the street.’
Evidence of Marie Slattery of the Imperial Hotel to the Court of Inquiry (British National Archives)
The hotel cook described how he loosened Hannah’s clothes to discover the bullet wound in her neck. Two doctors administered aid but she bled to death and was buried the following day.
The inquiry concluded that Hannah Carey died of ‘asphyxia, following [a] gun shot wound in [the] thorax, and that she died about two hours after.’ The only rebuke from the Court of Inquiry for the unnamed RIC officer who killed her was that he had ‘contravened all instructions on the subject of handling and using arms.’
At its meeting the following week, the members of Killarney Urban District Council passed a vote of sympathy to the family of ‘Miss Hannah Carey of Killarney.’
Note:
There is no known photograph of Hannah Carey nor have I been able to trace any descendants. I would love to hear from anyone who might be descended from Hannah Carey or who might have a photograph of her. My email is [email protected]
In his book on the Truce, Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc refers to Carey as being the last person killed in the war as does T Ryle Dwyer in ‘Tans, Terror and Troubles’ and Tim Horgan in ‘Fighting for the Cause.’ She is also listed in the recently published ‘Dead of the Irish Revolution’ by Dáithí Ó Corráin and Eunan O’Halpin.
Just passed through castlemain and picked up a copy of Ballymacandy ambush. Excellent researched & written like a novel, was able to read the whole story in a few lazy summer days in Glenbeigh.