OTD – Nov 1 1920 – 18 year old UCD Medical student Kevin Barry is executed by the british government for the murder of British soldiers, who died from .45 calibre bullets even though the gun carried by Barry, Mauser Parabellum, could only discharge .38 calibre bullets.

Kevin Barry was born on 20 January 1902, at 8 Fleet Street, Dublin. He attended Belvedere College, where he won a merit-based scholarship given annually by Dublin Corporation, which allowed him to become a student of medicine at University College Dublin.

In October 1917, during his second year at Belvedere, aged 15, he joined Company C, 1st Battalion of the Dublin Brigade of the Irish Volunteers. When Company C was later reorganized he was reassigned to the newly formed Company H, under the command of Captain Seamus Kavanagh. He was attached to Company C, of the 3rd Battalion of the Carlow Brigade during his vacations from school in Tombeagh.

Barry entered UCD as a first-year medical student in October 1919 and remained a student for the next year. He has friendships with Gerry McAleer from Tyrone who he had studied with in Belvedere , as well as former schoolmate Frank Flood.

Barry's medical studies competed with other attractions, including dancing, drinking, gambling, and cinema as well as being a member of the Irish Volunteers. As a result, he only managed to attend about three-quarters of his medical school lectures.

On the morning of 20 September 1920, Barry went to Mass, then joined a party of IRA volunteers on Bolton Street in Dublin. Their orders were to ambush a British army lorry as it picked up a delivery of bread from the bakery and capture their weapons. The ambush was scheduled for 11:00 am, which gave him enough time to take part in the operation and return to class in time for an examination he had at 2:00 pm.

Barry and members of C Company were to surround the lorry, disarm the soldiers, take the weapons and escape. He covered the back of the vehicle and, when challenged, the five soldiers complied with the order to lay down their weapons. A shot was fired which resulted in Barry and the rest of the ambush party then opening fire. His gun jammed twice and he dived for cover under the vehicle. His comrades fled and he was left behind. He was then spotted and arrested by the soldiers. One British soldier was killed and two more would later die from the injuries sustained.

Barry then provided a statement to Sinn Fein outlining how he was tortured "He tried to persuade me to give the names, and I persisted in refusing. He then sent the sergeant out of the room for a bayonet. When it was brought in the sergeant was ordered by the same officer to point the bayonet at my stomach … The sergeant then said that he would run the bayonet into me if I did not tell … The same officer then said to me that if I persisted in my attitude he would turn me out to the men in the barrack square, and he supposed I knew what that meant with the men in their present temper. I said nothing. He ordered the sergeants to put me face down on the floor and twist my arm … When I lay on the floor, one of the sergeants knelt on my back, the other two placed one foot each on my back and left shoulder, and the man who knelt on me twisted my right arm, holding it by the wrist with one hand, while he held my hair with the other to pull back my head. The arm was twisted from the elbow joint. This continued, to the best of my judgment, for five minutes. It was very painful … I still persisted in refusing to answer these questions… A civilian came in and repeated the questions, with the same result. He informed me that if I gave all the information I knew I could get off"

Barry was tried by court martial on October 20th. Kevin Barry was brought into the room by a military escort. Then Seán Ó hUadhaigh sought a short adjournment to consult his client. The court granted this request. After the short adjournment Barry announced, "As a soldier of the Irish Republic, I refuse to recognise the court". Brigadier Onslow explained the prisoner's "perilous situation" and that he was being tried on a capital charge. He did not reply. Ó hUadhaigh then rose to tell the court that since his client did not recognise the authority of the court he himself could take no further part in the proceedings.

Barry was charged with three counts of the murder of Private Marshall Whitehead. One of the bullets taken from Whitehead's body was of .45 calibre, while all witnesses stated that Barry was armed with a .38 Mauser Parabellum. The Judge Advocate General informed the court that the Crown had only to prove that the accused was one of the party that killed three British soldiers, and every member of the party was technically guilty of murder. Barry was sentenced to death by Hanging.

Barry joked about his death with his sister Kathy. "Well, they are not going to let me like a soldier fall… But I must say they are going to hang me like a gentleman."

Kevin Barry was hanged on 1 November, after hearing two Masses in his cell. Barry's body was buried at 1.30 p.m., in a plot near the women's prison. His comrade and fellow student Frank Flood was buried alongside him four months later. 8 others were buried alongside them in unconsecrated ground on the jail property and their graves went unidentified until 1934. On 14 October 2001, the remains of these ten men were given a state funeral and moved from Mountjoy Prison to be re-interred at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.

Prior to his death it is purported that Barry told a visiting friend

"It is nothing, to give one's life for Ireland. I'm not the first and maybe I won't be the last. What's my life compared with the cause?"