Tommie Ketterick

Extract from Kitterick’s Witness Statement concerning that visit to Shanleys, one Saturday night, late November 1920.

Here is the gun Tommie Kitterick carried into Shanleys when he blew his knee cap off. It was the “latest” Colt .45, 1911 semi-automatic. 1911 is the model number not the year, but it did first appear about 1911. Tommie’s mistake was to carry the gun “cocked and loaded” with the safety catch “off” in his pocket! He felt the gun tumble in the pocket while taking “IRA dispatches” from shop assistant and fellow IRA member, Jim Rush. He “righted” the gun his pocket but put his finger on the “hair trigger” of the Colt 1911…

(From Daithi Ceitinn)