Kevin Barry: UCD Student, Irish Republican Hero

Copy of the Belvederian annual with references to and photographs of Barry, then a senior student at the college. He is pictured here with the hurling team. © Keogh Brothers Limited

While
still at Belvedere, Barry joined the Irish Volunteers, established in 1913, which evolved into the
IRA after the commencement of the War of Independence in 1919.  Kevin was a member of the first battalion of
the Dublin Brigade and took part in two successful raids for arms in Dublin and
Wicklow in June and July 1920.

The third raid he was involved in occurred on 20 September 1920; it was an attack on British troops at Church Street in Dublin city, aimed at seizing arms. During this unsuccessful raid, firing broke out and three British soldiers of roughly the same age as Barry were killed or fatally wounded and Barry became the first Volunteer to be captured in an armed attack since 1916. Interrogated and mistreated while in custody, he subsequently refused to recognise the court martial that tried him.

Photostat copy of sworn statement made by Barry at Mountjoy Prison, before Myles Keogh, a Justice of the Peace, outlining in detail alleged ill treatment during his initial interrogation after arrest.

He was condemned to death on 20 October and was hanged in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, on 1 November 1920. He was the first person to be tried and executed for a capital offence under the Restoration of Order in Ireland Act, passed 12 weeks before his death, and the first to be executed since May 1916, in the aftermath of the Easter Rising. 

The sentence attracted widespread attention because he was only 18. There were numerous appeals for his life to be spared, but the cabinet in London and officials in Dublin decided against a reprieve.

A letter from Canon John Waters, Holy Cross College, Clonliffe, Dublin, to Mrs Mary Barry describing his administration of the final blessings to Barry, and the moments before he went to the scaffold

Following Barry’s death, the Students' Representative Council of University College
Dublin agreed that a memorial should be erected in his honour. The University Governing Body
proposed a motion in 1932 that would grant permission to erect a stained glass window in University College
­­Dublin.

The design by Richard King,principal designer of the Harry Clarke Studios, features eight scenes from Irish history and the struggle for independence. The window was unveiled in Earlsfort Terrace on 1/11/34, the 14th anniversity of Barry’s death. It became one of Earlsfort Terrace’s best loved features.