Family pays tribute to man shot on their land

A BALLINGEARY family recently took to repainting a Celtic Cross monument erected in the memory of a young man who was shot dead by the Black and Tans on their land 100 years ago.

At the young age of 22, Criostóir Ó Luasaigh from Pembroke Street in Cork city was unarmed when he was shot dead at Carrig in Ballingeary on November 10th 1920.  He was a section commander of  B Company of the First Battalion of the Cork No 1 Brigade.

A student of medicine at UCC  and a former pupil of Christian Brothers College, he had been in hiding in the area when the Black and Tans arrived and while trying to escape heavy gunfire, he was shot dead while crossing open ground in Carrig.

A monument was erected on the Carrig lands of Donie Cotter who, with his family, restored and refurbished the monument in 1997 and have maintained it since and recently re-painted it for the commemoration.

Christóir is buried in the Republican plot along with other members of the First Brigade in St Finbarr’s Cemetery in Cork city and his funeral received hostile attention from Crown forces who stipulated that only 100 people would be allowed to participate in the funeral cortege.

Cristóir’s shooting came just weeks before the Kilmichael Ambush took place nearby, which saw Tom Barry’s Third West Cork Brigade kill 11 Auxiliaries in what was one of the heaviest defeats for Crown forces and came within days of Bloody Sunday in Dublin where 14 unarmed civilians were gunned down by crown forces at Croke Park while attending a match between Dublin and Tipperary.