GIBSON BEQUEST MEETING
On the night of 18 April 1923, armed men entered the home of Frank J. Pitt* and, attempting to burn it down, ‘soaked the house and furniture in petrol.’ Fortunately, only the contents burned.
It is likely that this was an action of the Anti-Treaty IRA, possibly in retaliation for Pitt holding a National Army (or Pro-Treaty) charity boxing tournament the previous month, and the reliance on British performers and programmes presented at Cork Opera House in the previous years.
*Frank J. Pitt (1877-1938) was an actor and impresario from Acton Beauchamp, Herefordshire. From 1912 until 1938, he was the manager and secretary of Cork Opera House. A member of the Grafton Club, situated at 11 Emmet Place (currently Starbucks), he lived at 1 Victoria Avenue in 1921 with his wife, Margaret Davies (d.1928), and their daughter, Kathleen Elizabeth (b.1917). He returned to England in 1938, the year of his death.
