Killings at Coolacrease

The Killings at Coolacrease refer to an incident in the Irish War of Independence which happened in County Offaly in 1921. The Pearsons of Coolacrease were a family loyal to the British government, living in Coolacrease, near Cadamstown, about halfway between Birr and Tullamore in County Offaly. On 30 June 1921, eleven days before the Truce which ended the Irish War of Independence, brothers Richard and Abraham Pearson were shot by a firing squad of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), and their house was burnt.

The Pearsons of Coolacrease

In 1911 the Pearsons moved from neighbouring County Laois to Coolacrease, where they purchased a convert|341|acre|km2|sing=on farm which they worked successfully.cite news | title = 'I met Murder on the way'| author = Alan Stanley| work = Sunday Independent Magazine | date = 9 October 2005 ] They belonged to a religious movement commonly referred to as Cooneyites or Christian Conventionscite news | title = 'I met Murder on the way'| author = Alan Stanley| work = Sunday Independent Magazine | date = 9 October 2005 ] cite news | title = This tree has rotten roots and bitter fruit | author = Eoghan Harris | work = Sunday Independent | date = 9 October 2005 ] which, though evolved out of Protestantism, is considered to be distinct from the main Christian groupings such as Protestantism and Roman Catholicism.cite book | last = Parker | first = Doug & Helen | title = 'The Secret Sect' | publisher = Macarthur Press | year = 1982 | pages = | isbn = ] Initially, the Pearsons integrated well into the local community, and their children attended the local Catholic school in Cadamstown, where one of them was a member of the hurling team.cite news | title = Coolacrease: A Place with a Tragic History | author = Paddy Heaney | pages = 220-225 | work = Offaly Heritage | date = 2006 ] Following the Sinn Féin electoral successes in the elections of December 1918 [ [http://www.ark.ac.uk/elections/h1918.htm 1918 election results] ] a majority of the elected representatives implemented their election manifestocite book | last = Laffan | first = Michael | title = 'The Resurrection of Ireland – The Sinn Féin Party, 1916-1923' | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1999 | pages = | isbn = 0 521 65073 9] by establishing the First Dail on 21 January 1919. In a conflict called the Irish War of Independence military hostilities between the affiliated Irish Volunteers and the British forces in Ireland developed into a bitter guerrilla conflict in 1920 and 1921.

In County Offaly, where the Pearsons had their farm at Coolacrease, the military conflict was slow to develop,cite news | title = The Pearsons of Coolacrease, pt. 1 | author = Philip McConway | work = Tullamore Tribune | date = 7 November 2007 ] but it intensified in the course of 1921.cite news | title = The Pearsons of Coolacrease, pt. 1 | author = Philip McConway | work = Tullamore Tribune | date = 7 November 2007 ] A number of Catholics, classified by the Irish Volunteers or Irish Republican Army (IRA) as spies and informers, were executed and in Kinnitty, about five miles (8 km) from Coolacrease, and two men of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, the militarized police force which was the principal agency of the British state in Ireland) were killed in an ambush by the IRA on 17 May 1921.cite news | title = [http://www.offalyhistory.com/attachments/1_philip_mcconway_pearsons_coolacrease_1.pdf The Pearsons of Coolacrease, pt. 1] | author = Philip McConway | work = Tullamore Tribune | date = 7 November 2007 + *cite news | title = The Pearsons of Coolacrease, pt. 1 | author = Philip McConway | work = Tullamore Tribune | date = 7 November 2007 ] cite news | title = The Pearsons of Coolacrease, pt. 2 | author = Philip McConway | work = Tullamore Tribune | date = 14 November 2007 ] [http://www.offalyhistory.com/articles/130/1/The-Pearsons-of-Coolacrease/Page1.html Philip McConway articles] ] Following a dispute between the Pearsons and local Catholics over a mass path running through the Pearsons’ land, two local IRA men, John Dillon and J. J. Horan, were arrested and jailed.

The Shootings

In June 1921 the local Kinnitty Company of the South Offaly No. 2 Brigade IRA was ordered to construct a roadblock as part of county-wide military manoeuvres. At around midnight the Pearsons came to the roadblock and fired a shot or shots.cite news | title = 'I met Murder on the way'| author = Alan Stanley| work = Sunday Independent Magazine | date = 9 October 2005 ] According to one account,cite news | title = 'I met Murder on the way'| author = Alan Stanley| work = Sunday Independent Magazine | date = 9 October 2005 ] the Pearsons fired a single shotgun cartridge in the air as a warning to rebels who were damaging their property.

An eight-man IRA road-block party selected a tree for a roadblock on the Birr to Tullamore road, about half way between the Pearsons’ house and the village of Cadamstown.cite book | last = Pey (ed.) | first = | title = Eglish & Drumcullen - A Parish in Firceall | publisher = | date = | pages = isbn = ] The roadside tree was at the point of boundary between the Pearsons’ and a neighbouring farm about half a mile from the Pearsons’ house. Two men were posted as sentries on the road to either side of the planned road-block. At about midnight steps were heard approaching along the road from the direction of Pearsons’ house. Sentry Mick Heaney issued the verbal challenge “Halt! Who goes there?”. In response shots were fired at him, wounding him in the abdomen, arm and neck. The other sentry ran to his assistance and both sentries returned fire. The other sentry Tom Donnelly was shot in the head. A retired RIC man who had been detained by them was also shot by the attackers. The abdominal injuries of Mick Heaney were serious and he died a few years later. The retired RIC man was seriously injured in the back and legs, and lost a lung. In this version, the Pearsons had, as staunch loyalists, become hostile to the local community as the war intensified, leading to their participation as combatants in the war.

Following official investigation [Béaslaí Papers, National Library of Ireland, Ms. 33, 913 (4)] [http://www.offalyhistory.com/articles/130/1/The-Pearsons-of-Coolacrease/Page1.html Philip McConway articles] in Officers’ Battalion Council, into the identity of the men who attacked the road-block, Thomas Burke, the IRA Officer Commanding South Offaly No. 2 Brigade, ordered that the three brothers Richard, Abraham, and Sidney Pearson were to be executed and their houses destroyed. The orders to shoot the Pearsons would have come directly from IRA headquarters, and not made locally. [Brian Hanley, History Ireland, Vol 16 no.1 2008, pg.5 (Brian Hanley lectures in history at NUI Maynooth)]

On 30 June 1921, about a week after the roadblock shootings, a party of about thirty IRA men arrested Richard and Abraham Pearson [Michael Cordial, Witness Statement, W.S. 1712, Bureau of Military History, Dublin] [NAUK (British Public Records Office) CO 762/24/5 William Sidney Pearson, King’s County, No. 324 1926-1927] They were taken to their house and held under guard there with other members of the family (their mother, three sisters, younger brother, and two female cousins) while the house was prepared to be burned. Their father William Pearson and brother Sidney were away from home at the time. The brothers Richard and Abraham Pearson were shot by a firing squad of about ten men, and the house was burned. Richard and Abraham Pearson died after six hours and fourteen hours, respectively. The medical reports [NAUK (British Public Records Office), WO 35/57A Court of Enquiry] declare that the death of Richard Pearson was due to haemorrhage and shock caused by gunshot wounds to the left shoulder, right groin, right buttock, left lower leg and to the back; the most serious being the wound to the right groin. And in the case of Abraham Pearson, death was declared to be the result of shock from gunshot wounds to the left cheek, left shoulder, left thigh, lower third of left leg and through the abdomen.

Atrocity Claims

On 9 July 1921 the British Government in Dublin Castle issued a statement [ Dublin Castle Statement 1029 July 9 1921] claiming that an atrocity had been committed against the Pearsons. Claims of murder and atrocity were made by William Stanley, a friend and relative of the Pearsons who was living with them, under an assumed name “Jimmy Bradley”, at the time of the roadblock incident and who escaped from arrest by the IRA by running away when the Pearson brothers were arrested. His son, Alan Stanley argued that the Pearsons were innocent farmers, that they did not shoot anybody at the road-block, and that they were murdered by people who wanted to take their land.cite news | title = This tree has rotten roots and bitter fruit | author = Eoghan Harris | work = Sunday Independent | date = 9 October 2005 ] cite news | title = 'I met Murder on the way'| author = Alan Stanley| work = Sunday Independent Magazine | date = 9 October 2005 ]

These claims have been challenged.cite book | last = Bew | first = Paul | title = 'The Politics of Enmity 1789-2006' | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2007 | pages = | isbn = 978-0198205555]

A controversial [TV review: When history and hearsay collide, The Sunday Business Post, October 28, 2007, by Emmanuel Kehoe [http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2007/10/28/story27629.asp] ] television programme [ [http://tvsales.rte.ie/autumn/content/factual/hidden-history.html RTÉ programme announcement] ] about the incident was broadcast by the Irish broadcaster RTÉ on 23 October2007. Formal complaints against the programme were rejected by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission.cite web |url=http://www.bcc.ie/decisions/feb_08_decisions.html |title=Decisions - February 2008 |work=Broadcasting Complaints Commission website |accessdate=2004-04-24]

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