Ryan shot by IRA in Hyne's/Shanahan's pub

[schneider]

Came across two possible meanings re Shankers.
Lazy fellow who by skulking around throw their proportion of labour on the shoulders of their comrades in the army are called scrim shankers.
The other ulcers associated with clap.
Have a nice day

[corisande]

The other ulcers

I rather feared that it might be something like that when I asked the question!

[corisande]

For completeness I am adding this link to The Squad thread. One of the men who shot Ryan was Eddie Byrne.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=406100.msg3465485#msg3465485

See post #68 on that thread. There was me thinking that all I had to do was find the exact pub. It now turns out that there are conflicting Witness Statements from members of the Squad claiming to have done the shooting

Was it Bill Stapleton, Eddie Byrnes and Paddy Kennedy
Dwyer's The Squad (p210) draws on Witness Statements of Paddy Kennedy and Bill Stapleton. A hit squad of Bill Stapleton, Eddie Byrnes and Paddy Kennedy walked into Hynes' pub on the corner of Old Glouchester Place and Lower Sean Macdermott St and shot Ryan dead. They left Jimmy Conroy outside on guard. Ryan had entered the pub with his brother in law (I assume husband of Becky Cooper, but he is not named). Ryan was standing facing counter and reading the morning newspaper. The barman had meantime made himself scarce. They held him up, and searched him, but he had no guns or papers on him. They asked him his name, he said "Ryan" and they then shot him and left the pub in the direction of the Gloucester Diamond.

Or was it Tom Keogh and Bernard Byrne
Bernard C Byrne covers the shooting of John Ryan, British Spy, shot 5th February,1921 in his Witness Statement. He says that Headquarters informed the Squad that they had located Ryan and that he could be found around mid-day practically any day drinking in a public house in Gloucester Diamond, on the opposite corner to the small church then known as the Tin Chapel. It was decided that Tom Keogh and Bernard Byrne should check out the pub. They were accompanied by Slattery. Eddie Byrne, Vincent Byrne, Frank Bolster, Jimmy Conroy, Stapleton, Leonard, Mick Kennedy and Mick Reilly. Keogh and Bernard Byrne had a good description of Ryan. The rest of the group were the covering party. Tom Keogh and Bernard Byrne entered the public-house by a door on the right hand side, called for two drinks, surveyed the customers. They narrowed their choice of target down to one man who was sitting on their immediate right deeply immersed in a study of The Early Bird, a racing paper. They were unable to see his features, but believed from his general build that he was the man in whom we were interested. Keogh nudged Byrne to make a move, and Byrne approached the man and asked him what they were tipping for some particular race. The man had to lower the paper. Immediately he did so they knew it was Ryan. Without any delay Keogh fired on him, with Bernard Byrne doing likewise. Ryan was dead immediately.

[IrishMedals]

There was me thinking that all I had to do was find the exact pub. It now turns out that there are conflicting Witness Statements from members of the Squad claiming to have done the shooting

If you are relying on the Witness Statements for your research then you are going to encounter this problem a lot. I did a lot of research into Frank Thornton a few years ago and found the Witness Statements so contradictory I gave up using them.

[corisande]

If you are relying on the Witness Statements

I never said I rely exclusively on Witness Statements. But I do use them to try to draw a story together. It would be extremely foolish to disregard Witness Statements altogether.

And just because one man's WS shows him being economical with the truth, does not mean to say they all are. One uses newspaper reports, books, British Nat Archives and so on to try to get at what happened.

It is somewhat pointless getting involved in a discussion on the general validity of witness statements, you need to start another thread for that. I would like to keep this specific thread on track by trying to draw out any specific evidence on the shooting of John Ryan

[Abhanliath]

Phil Shanahan's pub on the corner of Foley Street and Corporation Street was where McKee and Clancy were the night before they were killed. it was a constant meeting place for Michael Collins and his senior men. Shanahan had fought in Jacob's in the 1916 Rising, and in 1918 would be elected in the Dublin Harbour constituency.
They left the pub and went to the place they were sleeping for the night (they were on the run and sleeping in different houses every night). They were followed by Shankers Ryan, who hotfooted it off to grass them up. They were murdered next day in Dublin Castle.
A contract was then put out on Shankers Ryan, and he was killed while drinking in Hynes' pub in the Gloucester Diamond.

[Bob Frewen]

There is much more info, photos, etc on Shanahan's including my 2018 comment https://comeheretome.com/2017/07/13/phil-shanahans-monto-pub/

[Abhanliath]

Lovely piece - though the person who says the RIC didn't have barracks in Dublin is incorrect - here are a few photos from the Irish Constabulary forum; there were RIC barracks ringing outer Dublin in what are now suburbs but were then farmland:
https://irishconstabulary.com/dublin-t1618.html

I'm still baffled by the constantly repeated story that Shankers Ryan was the brother of the prostitute Becky Cooper. Can't link them anywhere.