Formation
of (West) Cork No. 3 Brigade
Introduction from Chronology
Following an earlier decision to break
the large Cork Brigade of the Irish Volunteers (which covered all of Co. Cork)
into three brigades, on this night the (West) Cork No. 3 Brigade was formed at
a meeting Kilnadur, Dunmanway
presided over by Michael Collins.
More Detail
According
to O’Donnoghue, at the meeting the following were
elected officers of the Cork No. 3: Tom Hales (from Ballinadee
and brother of Sean, Robert, Donal and William),
Brigade Commandant; Sean Hayes, Vice-Commandant; Michael McCarthy (Dunmanway), Adjutant; and Denis O'Shea,
Quartermaster.
Liam Deasy also gives an account of this meeting and he says that Hugh Thornton (Bandon, and previously Dublin) was made Vice-Commandant and not Sean Hayes. As O'Donnoghue was at the meeting (as then Cork Brigade Adjutant), it was probable that his account is more accurate.
Deasy mentions that Tomás MacCurtin (then Cork Brigade Commandant and soon to be
Commandant of Cork No. 1 Brigade) was also at the meeting.
The six battalions of the (West) Cork No. 3 Brigade are Bandon (1st); Clonakilty (2nd); Dummanway (3rd); Skibereen (4th); Bantry (5th) and Castletownbere (6th).