Charlie Hurley (IRA)

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Charles "Charlie" Hurley was Officer Commanding of the Third Cork Brigade (West Cork) of the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921). In his adolescence Hurley became a clerk working for the government. In 1905 he was offered a promotion and a transfer to Haulbowline Island. He declined on the grounds that this entailed enlisting in the Royal Navy albeit in a purely administrative role.

He was killed in action by British troops at the Crossbarry Ambush in March 1921. Hurley was staying in a house with a pro-republican family. When he realised that he was surrounded by the British forces he fled the house, as Tom Barry comments in his book, to reduce the danger to those in the house. Barry remarks that Hurley, 'went to meet his death like a true Irishman.'

A ballad exists that commemorates him.