Throughout the 1920’s the
newspapers reported deaths and murders primarily of a political nature whether
inflicted by the Irish on the British forces or visa versa but occasionally a
traditional murder, a murder investigation and trial took place in those
turbulent times. One such fatal occurrence took place in the early hours of
October 27th 1920. The previous night had seen serious disturbances
in the Dame Street and a British military curfew enforced to clear the streets.
Depending on the newspaper report in competing publications either the cries of
a desperate woman alerted a passing policeman or a phone call to Great
Brunswick Street police station (now Pearse Street Garda station) from a local
directed the police to Dame Lane.
When Sergeant John Nelson
arrived in Dame Lane at 2.15am he found the body of thirty one year old
Elizabeth Carberry. Known locally as Bessie, the unmarried Ms. Carberry lived
at 8 Vicar Street and her lifeless body showed signs of a violent assault and
strangulation. A woman Mrs. Eustace who lived overlooking the lane reported
that she heard raised voices in the lane some time between 11pm and midnight
with a man’s voice screaming ‘I’ll punch the head off you’. Her body with his
blouse and upper garment torn was transported by ambulance to Mercer’s Hopsital
where a post mortem took place and a murder investigation launched.
A clue to the culprit was
immediately discovered close to the body, a soldiers cap badge that indicated
that it belonged to a soldier in the King’s Own Lancashire Regiment based at
the Richmond Barracks. A Lance Corporal was seen in the area that night and
when his colleagues were questioned including the front gate sentry the
informed investigators that the solider had come back to barracks late and that
indeed his cap badge was missing. Within days a Lance Corporal was arrested and
charged with the murder of Elizabeth Carberry.
During that late period
of 1920, a number of IRA men were arrested and tried by military court martial
often on very circumstantial evidence or on the evidence of spies. These men
were named in the newspapers and often found themselves at the end of rough
justice and a death sentence. But when it came to the military court martial
case against the Lance Corporal, he was never named in the newspapers and
despite a serious of witnesses and compelling evidence in January 1921 he was
found not guilty and released back to his barracks.
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