One of the most iconic events of the War of Independence in West Cork was the burial of Brigadier Charlie Hurley, O/C of the Third Cork Brigade IRA, by the Brigade Flying Column under the Command of Tom Barry.
The burial took place at the remote churchyard of Clogagh in the early hours of the morning of Wednesday March 23rd 1921, after prayers in the local church.
Charlie Hurley had been shot dead on the previous Saturday in a shootout with British forces in the townland of Ballymurphy, northeast of Bandon.
It was also the morning of Crossbarry ambush which unfolded nearby.
Tom Barry later wrote the following account of Charlie Hurley’s funeral in his book Guerilla Days in Ireland.
‘It was two o’clock on Wednesday morning when we arrived in Clogagh village. Armed sentries were thrown out, the priest was called and a hundred riflemen filed into the church to pray that their comrade would have eternal piece.
After a short time, the column formed up outside the church and slow marched to the graveyard with Charlie’s body in their midst.
I have experienced many pathetic scenes in a not uneventful life, but the memory of the burial that night remains foremost.
The dirge of the war pipes played by Flor Begley, the slow march of the Brigade Flying Column, the small group of only six other mourners, the rain-soaked earth and the wintry moon that shone through cloud, vanished and shone again, as we bore him to his grave, the present arms, the three volleys and the last post ringing clear in the night.
It is all vivid still.
The final tribute was given in an oration by the Column leader and we turned from the grave and marched away towards the west to cross the main Bandon - Clonakilty road before dawn.’
The local sacristan Jane O’Donovan, who hid arms and ammunition in Clogagh church during the War of Independence, prepared the church that night for Charlie Hurley’s funeral.
One of her jobs was to place the wooden coffin trestles in position in front of the altar on which the coffin was placed. The coffin trestles were removed from Clogagh Church in 1963 when the Church was been renovated and were re-discovered recently.
Patrick and Betty Hennessy have donated the coffin stands to the Michael Collins Centre Museum in Castleview and they are now on display as part of the Museum’s extensive collection.
The Michael Collins Centre Museum is located just three kilometres from Clogagh graveyard where Charlie Hurley is buried.
