About Kevin

Kevin Barry was born in Dublin on 20 January 1902. Kevin was first introduced to the Republican movement at a Manchester Martyr Commemoration concert, after which he joined Fianna hÉireann. After hungerstriker Thomas Ashe died from being force-fed at Mountjoy prison, Kevin joined the First Battalion of the Dublin Brigade of the Irish Volunteers. During the War of Independence, he became an active member.

On 1 June 1920, Kevin took part in a raid for arms at the King's Inn. In July he was dispatched to the third battalion of the Carlow Brigade. He was involved in the burning of Hackettstown Barracks — one of the first concerted IRA efforts to drive out the RIC.

On 20 September, Kevin, and 11 comrades, were involved in an ambush at the junction of Church Street and North King Street in Dublin. The target for that ambush was a military escort guarding bread collected from Monk's Bakery to distribute to the military camp at Collinstown (now Dublin Airport). A shoot-out ensued, two soldiers of the crown were killed, and Kevin was wounded and captured. His comrades managed to escape.

On 20 October, Kevin was escorted from Mountjoy Prison to his court martial at Marlborough Barracks. He was charged with "feloniously wounding and killing Private Matthew Whitehead." As a soldier of Ireland, Kevin Barry refused to recognise the court and did not put forward a defence.

On 1 November 1920, Kevin Barry was hanged in Mountjoy's hanghouse. He was buried on the prison grounds, and no family members or 'outsiders' were permitted to attend.

The prison chaplain, Canon Waters, later described to Mrs Barry the funeral of her son:
The grave appeared to me to be about 3 ½ feet. There we laid all that was mortal of poor Kevin in blessed clay and with all Catholic prayer and rites.
The warders covered in the grave and we said the De Profundis. Some half-dozen soldiers who came to the door of the barracks close by, and some matrons who were looking on from a neighbouring window, were the only spectators.

It was a sad funeral indeed but I hope to live to see him removed from this and to receive from his countrymen the honours due his heroic virtues.

—by Míchealín Ní Dhochartaigh

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