The Square in Bantry, scene of many incidents of violence during 1910
(Source: http://www.bantry.ie)

Main St., Bantry c. 1900. James Gilhooly’s drapery store was located on the right of the photograph.
(Source: http://www.bantry.ie)

The campaigns in North-East and South-East Cork were relatively quiet
affairs in comparison with the turbulent campaigns in the three other contested
Cork constituencies. West Cork, which saw James Gilhooly challenged by Bantry
solicitor Daniel O’Leary, did not conform to these peaceable standards. Personal,
political and generational tensions combined to produce a catalogue of physical
and verbal violence. Many apparently neutral meetings condemned O’Leary for
foisting a contest on the constituency, or more pertinently damned the IPP
leadership for selecting O’Leary in spite of advice from local Nationalist
notables. The Bantry solicitor, it was argued, was the clerical choice, in
order to unseat Gilhooly and what he had come to represent. Not all clergy toed
this particular…