Brutal murder of two mayors of Limerick 100 years ago remembered

On this day, 7th March 1921 two Limerick (Irish: Luimneach) mayors were brutally murdered by RIC Auxiliaries. The mayor of the city, George Clancy, was shot at his home in front of his wife in Castleview Gardens, close to the River Shannon. At around the same time, his predecessor as mayor, Michael O'Callaghan, was also shot dead at his home nearby. Both men were aged in their early 40s, nationalists, Irish speakers, volunteers, and GAA members.

Earlier on the same day, another volunteer, 24-year-old Joseph O'Donoghue, was taken from the house he was lodging in at Janesboro Limerick and also shot dead. The atrocities happened during the Irish War of Independence. The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when the country was under British rule. The 100th anniversary of the murders is being marked today by the city council of Limerick and the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). 

The British refusal to accept the democratic vote of the Irish people was to lead to the Irish War of Independence between 1919 - 1921.  A conflict during which the British government faced severe criticism at home and abroad for the brutal actions of British forces in Ireland. Not least being the behaviour of the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries. The British government had bolstered the RIC with recruits from Britain—the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries—who became notorious for ill-discipline and reprisal attacks on civilians. There are many incidents of these reprisal attacks on civilians and civilian property as well as extrajudicial killings, arson and looting. Some of which were authorised by the British government. 

Image: Funeral of the murdered mayors.