Volunteer John Mark Stokes (aged 17) of Tullylease (Knockearagh near Kanturk)
Date of incident: 5 May 1921
Sources: Death Certificate (Milford District, Union of Kanturk), 5 May 1921; MSPC/RO/59 (Military Archives); Limerick Leader, 6 May 1921; FJ, 7 May 1921.
Note: A farmer’s son and farm labourer, Stokes died at Knockearagh near Kanturk of shock and haemorrhage caused by gunshot wounds inflicted by crown forces. His IRA pension service claim indicates that he was killed while scouting for an Active Service Unit near Tullylease in the Charleville district on 5 May 1921. He was a member of A Company of Second Battalion of the Cork No. 4 Brigade. See MSPC/RO/59 (Military Archives). British soldiers were conducting searches with the aid of aeroplanes in the Broadford district of County Limerick on that morning, when Stokes of Tullylease and some comrades failed to obey an order to halt. Stokes’s body was brought to Newcastle West Military Barracks. One of his companions was wounded. See Limerick Leader, 6 May 1921.
John Mark Stokes was one of the nine living children (ten born) of the farmer Mark Stokes (aged 58 in 1911) and his wife Margaret (aged 48) of Gortnagark (Tullylease). Six of their nine children (three daughters and three sons) co-resided with their parents in that year, including John, their youngest son (then aged 6).
