None of the newspaper reports of the wedding mentioned the fatal altercation resulting in the death of Sergeant Kearns. Dr Scannell, Chaplain to the Forces in Cork.’ The ‘best man’ at their wedding was Commandant-General Charles Dalton of the Intelligence Department of the National Army and brother of the bridegroom. The nuptial Mass was celebrated by the Very Rev. General Dalton married Miss Alice Shannon of St Benedict’s Gardens, North Circular Road, Phibsboro, Dublin, on 9 October 1921 in the Clarence Hall of the Imperial Hotel, ‘where a beautiful altar had been erected. This recent account of the episode appears in Sean Boyne, Emmet Dalton: Somme Soldier, Irish General, Film Pioneer (2015), 191-92. At a court-martial held on 27 October 1922, Rooney was sentenced to death, though this sentence was later commuted to a term of five years in jail. Although the two soldiers were initially separated, Rooney subsequently shot Kearns in the guardroom of the military barracks. This special occasion took a decided turn for the worse when two National Army Soldiers-Sergeant Kearns and Andrew Rooney-got into a serious altercation. For security reasons the wedding occurred in the closely guarded Imperial Hotel and not in a church. Kearns took place in connection with the wedding of Major General Emmet Dalton in Cork city on 9 October 1922.
This newspaper account and certain other sources appear to be at variance with the facts. The Newsletter claimed that Kearns had been ‘killed in an ambush in Cork a few days ago’. The Belfast Newsletter of 14 October 1922 took note of the death and burial of this former Belfast resident, whose address was given as 28 Crocus Street. He was buried with full military honours. According to the Cork Examiner, Private Charles Kearns of the First Company of Dublin Guards, ‘recently killed in County Cork’, was interred in Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin on 13 October 1922. O’Farrell states that there are ‘discrepancies in sources as to cause’. Note: Sargeant Charles Kearns died of gunshot wounds inflicted on 8 October 1922 at the Imperial Hotel in Cork. 1922 MSPC/2D298 (Military Archives) O’Farrell, Who’s Who, 206 National Army Census, 12-13 Nov. Antrim (Imperial Hotel, Grand Parade, Cork city)
National Army Soldier (Sergeant) Charles J. Centre for Continuing Professional Development.Sustainable Development Goals in UCC Research.
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