This plaque commemorates Jerome O’Leary who, at 10 years old, was the youngest of those killed at Croke Park on Bloody Sunday, 21 November 1920.
Find this plaque on Google maps.
The plaque reads:
JEROME O’LEARY
1910-1920
A Maraíodh i bPáirc an Chrócaigh ar Domhnach na Fola
A CHÓNAIGH ANSEO
Killed at Croke Park on Bloody Sunday
LIVED HERE
On the morning of 21 November 1920 fourteen suspected British intelligence personnel were killed, and one fatally injured, by the IRA.
That afternoon, as a reprisal, a force of Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), including the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries, opened fire on the crowd attending a Gaelic football match between Dublin and Tipperary at Croke Park. 14 civilians were killed in the attack.
The second or third bullet fired killed 10-year-old Jerome O’Leary from Blessington Street. The boy was sitting on the wall at the Canal end of the pitch and was shot through the right side of his head.
Jerome was buried in Glasnevin where for many years his grave went unmarked. As part of its Bloody Sunday Graves project in 2019 the GAA erected a headstone for Jerome in Glasnevin.
Jerome O’Leary lived at 69 Blessington Street, where the plaque was unveiled by the Lord Mayor on 20 November 2023. The plaque was proposed by Mr Pearse Turner.
A detailed account of Bloody Sunday may be found in History on Your Doorstep volume 3, written by Dublin City Council historians-in-residence and available from any branch of Dublin City Libraries, or online at https://www.dublincity.ie/library/blog/history-your-doorstep-volume-3.