Difficult to be certain, but it appears that the shots were fired by Auxiliaries
Hansard 8 Dec 1920 Mr. T. P. O'CONNOR (by Private Notice) asked the Chief Secretary whether he has seen the statement that on Monday and Tuesday last a large force of Auxiliaries held up the main streets of Cork, searching every passer-by and relieving some of them of money; whether it is true that the Auxiliaries rushed into three shops on Monday night, looted them, smashed their contents and the furniture in the houses attached; whether one of the shopkeepers who went to protest to the Labour Commission was arrested by an officer of the Auxiliaries; whether a party of Auxiliaries in Washington Street rushed into the shop of Mr. J. Cudmorc, rifled the till, smashed up the place generally, breaking plate-glass windows and glass shelves; whether they afterwards went up to the living rooms, destroying mirrors, chairs, and pictures, and throwing loose articles of furniture about; whether in the tobacco and sweet shop of Mr. Kenny, an invalid man, the Auxiliaries ransacked the till and took tobacco, and then went upstairs and ransacked the living rooms; whether on Monday afternoon, in Lower Glanmire Road, John Fleming, who was returning from work with two brothers and a friend, was shot in the abdomen by police in lorries; whether the Chief Secretary can say when the incendiary fires and the other forms of terrorism in Cork will be brought to an end?
Mr. HENRY I have communicated with the Police Authorities who informed me that the Auxiliaries conducted a general search of people in the streets of Cork on Monday and Tuesday, but that the allegation of theft of money, or any other property, is entirely untrue. The three shops which were raided on Monday night were raided because the police had been fired upon in the vicinity, and were endeavouring to find and arrest their assailants. The allegations of looting and of wanton destruction of property in this case, and in the other cases referred to, are absolutely unfounded. The shopkeeper who was arrested while on his way to complain to the Labour Commission was arrested on account of his using insulting and inflammatory language to the Auxiliary officers in question. Mr. Fleming was not shot by the police, who have been unable up to the present to ascertain by whom he was shot. Three police lorries passed at the time, but the sergeants in charge deny that any one of their men fired, and the ammunition was carefully checked on their return to barracks and found to be correct. The locality is a very bad one, and it is not unlikely that the shot was intended for the police and hit Fleming by mistake. As regards the last part of the question, the district inspector states that there have been no incendiary fires in Cork City this week.
1883 Jan 28. Born
1901 Jan 29 Joined Royal Navy
