Alice Daly (née Clarke) (b. 1903) (part 1)

Alice Daly was reared in Skibbereen where her father, Alexander Clarke, was a constable in the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). At the advanced age of 103, when she was recorded at her home in Portlaw, County Waterford, she has remarkably clear memories of a fateful day in July 1921 when her father was shot, the last formal victim of the Troubles 1919-1921. Constable Clarke was executed as the last seconds to the truce ticked by. For security reasons, he had been sleeping at night at the barracks and that morning, knowing the truce was imminent, he was walking unarmed from the Barracks to his home. A local Republican stepped forward and shot the constable at close range. Alexander Clarke died at the scene.