Joseph Traynor from Ballymount on the edge of Dublin city worked as a labourer, spending his spare time between playing football for Young Emmets and his duties as an IRA Volunteer. He left on his bicycle for Croke Park on Bloody Sunday just after midday with his friend PJ Ryan.

When the shooting started, Joseph was among a knot of people attempting to escape over the wall running along the back of the goal at the canal end of the ground. He was shot twice in the back and slumped over the other side.

When the shooting stopped, families from the streets around Croke Park emerged from their houses and ran to help. Members of the Ring family carried Joseph to their house on Sackville Gardens near Croke Park and laid him on the table in their parlour. They went outside to look for an ambulance but worried what trouble might follow if the police saw a victim being removed from their house.

Instead of bringing the ambulance to their door, they carried Joseph around the back of the house down a lane onto Sackville Avenue, where an ambulance collected him. He died soon after arriving at Jervis Street hospital.

Word reached his father around 5pm that Joseph had been hurt in the shootings. At 9pm he was told Joseph had died. He was buried in Bluebell cemetery, aged 20.