Murder in Dame Lane

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 27^th 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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