http://theirishrevolution.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/CorkSpyFiles-Database-27.08.2016.pdf
The commoness of names makes identification here difficult
1. A Soldier Private J Walsh in the Cameron Highlanders went missing in Aug 1920. His whose name appeared on a list of pre-Truce absentee British soldiers in Ireland held by the Irish Department of Defence; on this list J. Walsh was returned as a Cameron Highlander.
2. The John Joseph Walsh, exhumed in 1927, is probably not the Private J. Walsh Within the Walsh family there were conflicting dates of his disappearance, with an aunt dating it to June 1920 instead of June 1921—the date given at the 1927 inquest by his brother.
So who was the body in the bog near Midleton, if it was not Private J Walsh of the Camerons.The inquest on the exhumed body seems to show
1891 Mar 13. Born Midleton
1911 census Living at Chapel Rd, Midleton. His mother has now died, and his father has remarried.
1921 Jun 7 Last seen by his brother
1921 Jun . An IRA source at the time (in June 1921) had noted the execution of Walsh and a second suspected spy. In the Diary of Activities of the Fourth (Midleton) Battalion of the Cork No. 1 Brigade for June 1921, there appeared the following notation about B and D Companies of that battalion: ‘2 enemy spies, J. J. Walsh, Midleton, and M[ichae]l Callaghan, Carrigtwohill, shot. Latter believed to be of importance.’ See Richard Mulcahy Papers, P7/A/23 (UCDA).
1927 Oct 15. Body exhumed. Testimony given at the coroner’s inquest held at the Midleton courthouse on 18 October indicated that on 15 October 1927 a farm labourer named John Sinclair, who had been opening a drain at Ballyvodock near Midleton, had found a human skull above ground and then other human bones. He and the owner of the land initially covered up the bones, but on Sunday morning, 16 October, they reported their discovery to the Civic Guard, who quickly exhumed the remains and ‘found portions of clothing in a rotting condition. They also found a rosary beads attached to the clothes, the case of a revolver bullet, a comb, [and] a pair of boots, out of which the bones were protruding.’ The victim’s brother Timothy Walsh of Dickinson’s Lane, Midleton, also identified the clothing, belt, and boots (with rubber heels) as those of his brother John Joseph Walsh (a labourer aged ‘about 30’ at death), whom he had last seen (he said) on 7 or 8 June 1921, when his brother had disappeared from the Midleton house of his aunt Bridget Morrison. [Bridget Morrison and her husband Patrick resided at 3 Dickinson’s Lane in Midleton in 1911.] The coroner’s jury accepted the evidence of Timothy Walsh as accurate in identifying the deceased as John Joseph Walsh. See Cork Examiner, 19 Oct. 1927.
1928 Feb . Patrick Walsh (aged 24), of Dickinson’s Lane, Midleton, a brother of the victim, sought £250 from the IGC in relation to the killing of John J. Walsh in June 1921. He stated that John J. Walsh had ‘supported applicant and two ] brothers who are not yet in employment [and] also an aunt [Bridget Morrison] who was living in the house [from which John J. Walsh had been abducted]. The aunt’s husband [Patrick Morrison] gets six months work in the year as corn store keeper in season at £2 a week; he is idle for remaining moiety. The deceased earned £3 a week as mal[s]ter in the local distillery, also 1/- [one shilling] a day [British military] reserve pay. He was residing with & supporting the [Morrison/Walsh] family.’