Connie Byrd and John Joe Kavanagh 1st Battalion, Cork Brigade Irish Republican Army.

 

“Another victim of the Free State Regime. IRA Volunteer John Joe Kavanagh of Cork City, killed by police on 3rd August 1940. He was one of a number of IRA Volunteers who were digging a tunnel into Cork Prison, in an attempt to release prisoners who were awaiting transfer to the Curragh Internment Camp in the Curragh of Kildare. All of the Volunteers were unarmed when shot at by the police. Along with Kavanagh being killed, Roger Ryan was badly wounded (Connie Byrd was injured). It is important that I mention that an Inquest was never held into the circumstance of the death of John Joe Kavanagh. Often requested, but never given—Never! “ Socialist Republican Jim Lane.  John Joe Kavanagh is buried in the Republican plot at St, Finbarr’s Cemetery, Cork City.