Kevin Barry, the Incident at Monk’s Bakery and the Making of an Irish Republican Legend

Kevin Barry remains a popular figure in Irish republican folklore, as a victim of British injustice and a martyr for Ireland. As a member of the Dublin Brigade of the Irish Republican Army, he had taken an active part in a surprise attack on a British army ration party at Patrick Monk’s Bakery on 20 September 1920, which resulted in the deaths of three young British soldiers and Barry’s capture. After being tried by court–martial, convicted and then executed for the murder of one of the three young soldiers, he became the subject of a propaganda campaign directed by Sinn Fein in the world press to characterize the British as brutal, merciless and uncivilized in comparison with IRA fighters like Barry, who were portrayed typically as young, courageous and gallantly devoted to their cause. Yet Barry had been captured in the civilian disguise of a guerrilla fighter rather than as a uniformed soldier, with flat–nosed ammunition in his pistol, and in circumstances where both ballistic evidence and eye–witness testimony proved his culpability beyond any doubt. While these were factors that could and should have been used to challenge Sinn Fein’s propaganda initiatives, the British failed to mount any semblance of a counter–propaganda campaign. The reasons for and the consequences of this mute response on the British side are issues explored in considering how Kevin Barry became and still remains a figure of legend among Irish nationalists.