Peter O’Carroll
ON THIS DAY
16 October
1920. Peter O’Carroll is shot at his door
At about two in the morning of 16 October 1920, Peter O’Carroll was shot dead at his shop on Manor Street in Dublin. He was sixty-two, a shopkeeper, married, with seven children. He answered a knock. A raiding party was outside. He was shot in the head. His wife, Annie, heard no shot. She found him in a pool of blood. A note on the body reportedly read: “Traitor to Ireland — shot by the IRA.”
His sons were Volunteers, and they were on the run. The family did not believe the note. David Neligan, who worked inside Dublin Castle and reported to Michael Collins, later named Major Jocelyn Lee Hardy, an intelligence officer, as the man who organised the killing. That identifies a suspect. It does not prove which man fired. The premises had been raided before.
This was two days after Seán Treacy was killed on Talbot Street. Terence MacSwiney was still alive in Brixton, more than two months into his hunger strike. He would die on 25 October. Those facts show the pressure of that week. They are not this day’s event. This day’s event is a civilian shot at his own door, and a note that blamed the other side.
Major Jocelyn Hoppy Hardy
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