Killing of Peter O’Carroll

Introduction from Chronology

Sixty-two year old Peter O’Carroll [or Carroll] is shot dead by British forces (probably Auxiliaries) after answering the door of his shop/home at 92 Manor St, Dublin at 2.00am. The British were looking for his sons (Liam, Michael and Sean) who were members of the 1^st Battalion, Dublin Brigade, IRA.

More Detail and Discussion

One source (O’Halpin and Ó Corráin) says that his wife did not hear a shot and found her husband lying in a pool of blood. However another source (Molyneux and Kelly) says that she gave a detailed description of a “tall well-spoken officer, walking with a pronounced limp”. It would appear that this killing was carried out by the notorious Auxiliary Cadet Captain Lee ‘Hoppy’ Hardy. Michael Collins believed that this was the case.

David Grant in his website on the Auxiliaries (www.theauxiliaries.com) has written on the killing of O’Carroll (See Here). Grant reviews the various sources and comes to the view that “Peter O’Carroll had in fact been murdered by members of the Auxiliary Division of the RIC”. However, he also points out that O’Carroll was a member of the IRB and had bought guns and other contraband from soldiers in the BA. (The source of this information was the BMH witness statements of O’Carroll son, Liam O’Carroll – see Here and Here.) Grant concludes that, while O’Carroll was killed by the Auxiliaries, “Nor can one say that Peter O'Carroll was a blameless invalid given his membership of the IRB and his trading in guns.” This is a strange statement because, as written and without qualification, it can easily be interpreted as excusing the killing of O’Carroll by the Auxiliaries. Even if he was not a completely “blameless invalid”, does Grant believe that O’Carroll deserved to be summarily executed with the Auxiliaries acting a judge, jury and executioner?

Why was O’Carroll not arrested and interned, if Crown Forces had suspicions about him? Why did the Auxiliaries decide to kill an unarmed 62-year old man with one bullet to the head at his front door? Along with killing of Lynch (see Sep-23-20/1), it would seem obvious that elements within the Crown Forces in Dublin (specifically BA Intelligence agents and the Auxiliaries) were of the belief that they could kill with impunity. How did such a culture arise within sections of the Crown Forces? Also, the fact that these first two targeted killings (Lynch and O’Carroll) were not even active members of the IRA would seem to indicate that the Crown Forces had either a lack of intelligence on their enemy or, perhaps, they had a preference for ‘soft targets’?

The next likely killing by the murder squad within the Crown Forces in Dublin occurs the following day – see Oct-15-20/2. On the face of it, this killing looks like it was particularly random.

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