Riobard O Dwyer, 'The Dream': his uncle Robert and the four men drowned with him off Pointe Ranna, 12 Nov 1918

# The "Dream", by Riobard O'Dwyer *An abstract, not a transcription. The story is Riobard O Dwyer's copyright (1999, 2000) and the page that carries it asks that it not be duplicated, so the text is not reproduced here. Names, dates and places are given as he prints them; the rest is in the editor's words. Read on 26 September and 4 October 2026.* **Where to read it** - RootsWeb, IRL-KERRY pages, "Stories as told by Riobard O'Dwyer": https://sites.rootsweb.com/~irlker/riobard.html (the third story). The page opens in a browser; it refuses scripted requests. - The same page mirrored by Ireland Genealogy Projects: https://www.igp-web.com/Kerry/riobard.html - In print: his postings to the mailing lists are held as "Stories from Beara" in the Riobard O'Dwyer Papers, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Mss 1097, folder 327 (box 23). The guide to the papers does not list the titles, so whether this story is in the folder is not confirmed. - His book's account of the same drowning is in the Annals of Beara, volume II, p. 412, under his own family at Caolrua. **What it says** | | As he gives it | |---|---| | Date | November 12th 1918 | | Place | a submerged rock outside Pointe Ranna, off the Kilcatherine district mainland | | How | on the way home from a night's seine fishing for mackerel, a sea broke over the rock and flung the boat up | | Drowned | Sean (a Choill) O'Sullivan of Caolrua | | | Jer (Murt) McCarthy of Faunkil | | | two Murphy brothers, John and Patie, from Ballycrovane | | | "my uncle Robert O'Dwyer", the eldest of a family of 12, from Caolrua | | Survivor | Patie Healy of Faunkil, who did not live long afterwards | - Robert O'Dwyer was an athlete (hop, step and jump, sprinting, weights) and captain of the Ballycrovane company of the Republican Army. - The first anyone ashore knew of it was that Robert appeared to his friend Con Dwyer and told him. Con raised the alarm, and was himself dead within six weeks. - The bodies were missing for some days. The narrator's grandmother sent his father to the priest. The priest prayed in a field near the Point and pointed out rocks where three bodies, Robert's among them, were found lying side by side under water in a sandy inlet. The other two were found soon after. Robert had a gash on his forehead. - Soon afterwards the narrator's father, Liam, the next brother after Robert, saw a light come towards him at night and heard Robert promise to protect him. - Later, as commandant of the Beara battalion of the West Cork brigade with a price on his head, Liam slept one night at Mrs. Healy's house at Faunkil, the survivor's mother's. Three times he dreamed of three lorry-loads of Black and Tans coming from Castletownbere, each time nearer. He woke, saw the lorries' lights going out near the house, and escaped by the back door to the hill as the house was raided. He believed the dream was Robert's warning. The Black and Tans later burned his father's house. **What it does not say** Nothing about the Murphy brothers beyond their names and townland: not their parents, and not any relations in America.