James Francis Bernard, 4th Earl of Bandon, KP (12 September 1850 – 18 May 1924), was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Deputy Lieutenant in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and

Representative Peer In the United Kingdom, representative peers were those peers elected by the members of the Peerage of Scotland and the Peerage of Ireland to sit in the British House of Lords. Until 1999, all members of the Peerage of England held the right to ...

. Lord Bandon was a cousin of the Earl of Midleton, who was head of the southern

Irish Unionist Alliance The Irish Unionist Alliance (IUA), also known as the Irish Unionist Party, Irish Unionists or simply the Unionists, was a unionist political party founded in Ireland in 1891 from a merger of the Irish Conservative Party and the Irish Loyal and ...

at the time of the

Anglo-Irish War The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...

, 1919–21.

Estate

He reorganised his various

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns are ...

estates by way of settlement in 1876 and further in 1895 and 1896 including the mortgaging of the lands to his agents Richard Wheeler Doherty, and the appointment of George and John Jones and Doherty as his attorneys. He was appointed

High Sheriff of County Cork The High Sheriff of County Cork was the Sovereign's judicial representative in County Cork. Initially an office for lifetime, assigned by the Sovereign, the High Sheriff became an annual appointment following the Provisions of Oxford in 1258. B ...

for 1875.

IRA hostilities

The family seat, Castle Bernard, near

Bandon, County Cork Bandon (; ) is a town in County Cork, Ireland. It lies on the River Bandon between two hills. The name in Irish means 'Bridge of the Bandon', a reference to the origin of the town as a crossing point on the river. In 2004 Bandon celebrated its ...

, was one of the great houses burned during the

in the early 1920s by the

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief tha ...

under

Sean Hales Seán Hales (30 March 1880 – 7 December 1922) was an Irish political activist and member of Dáil Éireann from May 1921 to December 1922. Biography Hales was born in Ballinadee, Bandon, County Cork as John Hales, one of nine children of R ...

on 21 June 1921. The home was burned as a counter-reprisal measure against British policy of burning the homes of suspected Irish republicans. Lord Bandon was

kidnap In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...

ped and held hostage for three weeks being released on 12 July. The IRA threatened to have him executed if the British went ahead with executing IRA prisoners. During his captivity, Bandon reportedly coolly played cards with his captors, who seem to have treated him fairly well. Reportedly, Lord Bandon would give one of his captors, Daniel (Dan) O'Leary (also known an ''Leabhair'', Irish for 'Book', based on the fact he was so well read), money each day for Leabhair to travel from the house in Kilcolman townland, to Slatterys pub in Ahiohill to purchase Clonakilty Wrastler (a local beer).

References

1850 births 1920s missing person cases 1924 deaths Earls of Bandon Formerly missing people High Sheriffs of County Cork Irish representative peers Kidnapped British people Kidnapped politicians Knights of St Patrick Lord-Lieutenants of Cork People of the Irish War of Independence Politicians from County Cork {{Ireland-earl-stub

Estate

IRA hostilities

See also

References

References