Category: People

There’s an interesting article on the RIC Facebook page  on one RIC member Thomas Deegan who was the last Sergeant in  Millstreet when it was disbanded. He had arrived as a constable in 1915, and was promoted to Sergeant on March 1st 1921 [RD]:

“After years of wanting to visit the archive centre at Kew I eventually did it yesterday. My grand father and great grandfather were RIC constables. My great grandfather Thomas Deegan 29408 was appointed 12.4.1864. He was 5ft 111/2ins, from Queens County and aged 20. He was pensioned off 1st Aug. 1879 at the age of 35 after 15 years 3 month service in the Dublin Docks. After being pensioned off Thomas Deegan became a bank messenger and later lived above a bank on the North Wall, Dublin.
Thomas James Deegan 63563 was born in Common Street, Dublin 4th Nov 1881. He was appointed to the RIC on 16 Dec 1907 and discharged by being pronounced unfit by the Surgeon on 18 Dec 1907. He was appointed again on 23 April 1908. He was initially stationed in Wexford. The RIC stayed in a large house/post office near to Bridgetown. On the 1/10/1915 he was moved to Cork W.R. and he worked and lived in Millstreet. He remained there until the RIC was disbanded 07/04/1922. Because of the hostility towards the RIC at this time he was moved to Stamford, England and lived in Rutland Road. My father recalls other former RIC constables living in the same street.”

It was posted by James’ grandson Ron Deegan, who also posted a photo of James with his wife Ellen (Walsh from Sweet Mount, Bridgetown, Wexford), and their four children [ref].

“A photograph of my Grandfather Thomas James Deegan and his family.This would have been taken a couple of years after the RIC were disbanded. My father Harold Deegan was the boy on the right standing next to his mother. Her maiden name was Ellen Walsh from Sweet Mount, Bridgetown, Wexford” [rd]

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Another of Thomas Deegan’s grandchildren Holly Andreosso “Journeyed to Ireland from Canada, in 2015 to find my mother’s actual place of birth, March 13, 1918…this house, known as ‘The Barracks’, Millstreet, Co Cork….”. She posted photos on the Forgotten Ireland FB page.

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“A group of Royan Irish Constabulary (R.I.C.) stationed in Millstreet c. 1921” – from Millstreet Museum. The little girl in front is Patricia Deegan, with her father Sergeant Thomas J Deegan.

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Birth of Thomas James Deegan on fourth November 1881 at 21 Common Street, North Dublin – father: Thomas Deegan 32 Commin Street, Port and Docks Constable – mother: Anne Deegan née O’Reilly.

Marriage of Thomas Deegan and Ellen Walsh on 24 May 1915 in Wexford

Birth of Harold Francis Deegan on 27th June 1915 at Sweet Mount, Bridgetown – to Thomas James Deegan, Bridgetown, Constable RIC, and Ellen Deegan (Walsh)

Patricia Deegan: born 13th March 1918 at the Barrack Millstreet – Eveline Gertrude Patricia – Female – father: Thomas James Deegan, The Barracks Millstreet, Constable Royal Irish Constabulary – mother: Ellen Teresa Deegan née Walsh – Michael Fitzgerald assistant registrar. (She was born in the day room at the Barracks)

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Read More: Deegan Family RIC Members remembered – “… In 1995 I went with my father to Ireland and visited the places he remembered as a child. He pointed out the large house just outside Bridgetown where the RIC where posted. We also went on an interesting journey around Millstreet. We found the remains of the barracks at the rear of a shop that had been built on the spot where the barracks were. At the rear of the shop we were shown a large gate that was leaning against a wall. We also saw the remains of what my father referred to as the day room. A room that he had been taken to and spent time there where he had seen what ever went of in the barracks yard.”