Dunmanway Massacre
Encyclopedia
The Dunmanway killings were the killings of ten Protestant men in and around Dunmanway
, County Cork
, between 26–28 April 1922. This happened in a period of truce after the end of the Irish War of Independence
(in July 1921) and before the outbreak of the Irish Civil War
in June 1922. Eight of those killed were suspected informers
to British forces, while two more were relatives of suspected informers. Three more men were kidnapped and were presumed to have been killed. All the dead and missing were Protestant
. which has led to the killings being described as sectarian and a massacre.
It is not clear who ordered the attacks or carried them out. Sinn Féin
and IRA representatives, from both the pro-Treaty side, which controlled the Provisional Government in Dublin and the anti-Treaty side, which controlled the area the killings took place, immediately condemned the killings.
The motivation of the killers has generated differences of opinion among historians. It is generally agreed that they were "sparked" by the fatal shooting of IRA commandant Michael O'Neill by a local loyalist whose house was being raided on 26 April. There is no consensus on why the ten killed and three disappeared were targeted. Some historians have claimed that there were sectarian motives; others claim that those killed were targeted only because they were suspected to have informed on the Irish Republican Army
during the recent War of Independence. They argue that the dead were associated with the Murragh 'Loyalist Action Group' and that their names appeared in captured British military intelligence files which listed them as "helpful citizens" in the 1919-1921 conflict.
political leaders. Under the terms, British units were withdrawn to barracks and their commanders committed to 'no movements for military purposes' and 'no [use of] secret agents noting descriptions of movements'. For its part, the IRA agreed that, 'attacks on Crown forces and civilians [were] to cease', and to 'no interference with British Government or private property'.
The Anglo-Irish Treaty
was signed on 6 December 1921, after negotiations between British and Irish leaders. On 7 January the Dáil (Irish Parliament established in January 1919) narrowly accepted the Treaty. The Dáil was split into two factions, those who accepted and those who rejected the Treaty. Under the terms of the treaty, a Provisional Government was set up to transfer power from the British regime to the Irish Free State
. British troops began to be withdrawn from the Free State in January 1922, though they retained the option to intervene in Irish affairs should the Treaty be rejected and the Irish Republic
re-established.
On 26 March 1922, most of the IRA repudiated the authority of the Provisional Government on the basis that it had accepted the Treaty and disestablished the Irish Republic
declared in 1919. April saw the first armed clashes between pro and anti-Treaty IRA units.
According to historian Michael Hopkinson, "the transitional [Free State] government lacked the resources and the necessary acceptance to supply effective government". In this situation, some IRA anti-Treaty units continued attacks on the remaining British forces. Between December 1921 and February 1922, there were 80 recorded attacks by IRA elements on the Royal Irish Constabulary
(RIC), leaving 12 dead. Between January and June 1922, twenty-three RIC men, eight British soldiers and eighteen civilians would be killed in the territory of the Irish Free State.
. It was the scene of many of the conflict's major actions, such as the Kilmichael Ambush
and Crossbarry Ambush
. It contained a strong Irish Republican Army
(IRA) Brigade (the 3rd Cork Brigade) and also a sizable Protestant population – roughly 16%, some of whom were loyalists
and affiliated to a loyalist vigilante group. The local IRA killed fifteen suspected informers in 1919-1921, including nine Catholics and six Protestants They responded to the British burning of republican homes by burning those of local loyalists. British intelligence wrote that "many" of their informers in West Cork "were murdered and almost all the remainder suffered grave material loss".
Republicans suspected the involvement of a local "Loyalists civil wing" in the killing of two republicans, the Coffey brothers, in Enniskeane during the first weekend in January 1921. The discovery of documents in Dunmanway by Republicans later confirmed the existence of this espionage group in the area, which resulted in many informers getting protection and safe passage to England.
British forces were withdrawn from the West Cork area in February 1922. The only British forces left in county Cork was two battalions of the British Army in Cork city. The local IRA was almost unanimously Anti-Treaty and therefore not under the control of the Provisional Government in Dublin in April 1922. At the time of the Dunmanway killings, none of the leaders of the Anti-Treaty Cork IRA were in the county. Tom Hales
and Sean Moylan
were in Limerick
, along with much of the Third and Fourth Cork IRA Brigades, trying to prevent the occupation of that city's military barracks by Pro-Treaty troops. Tom Barry
and Liam Deasy
were in Dublin attending an Anti-Treaty IRA meeting. They returned to Cork on 28 April, partly with a view to stopping any more killings.
Historian Paul McMahon has noted that the British Government authorised £2,000 to re-establish intelligence in southern Ireland, especially in Cork, in early April 1922. On 26 April, the same day as the raid on Hornibrook's house, three British intelligence officers (Lts Hendy, Drove and Henderson and a driver) drove to Macroom
with the intention of gathering intelligence in west Cork, where they entered an inn. There they were drugged and taken prisoner by IRA men, then taken to Macroom Castle where they were held for four days and then shot and their bodies dumped. The subsequent killings of alleged informers occurred while the officers were being held and interrogated.
evacuated their barracks in the workhouse
. The IRA found confidential documents and a diary they left behind: these included a list of names. The information – according to historian Meda Ryan – was so precise "only a very well informed spy system could account for some of the entries in the book." Flor Crowley who analysed the diary concluded that "it was the work of a man who had many useful ‘contacts’ not merely in one part of the area but all over it."
Ryan writes that the Auxiliaries' files showed that some Protestants in Dunmanway had formed a group known as the "Loyalist Action Group" or "Protestant Action Group", affiliated to the Anti-Sinn Féin League and the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland. The IRA suspected this group of passing information to the British forces during the War of Independence. These included a Black and Tans
military intelligence
diary. This diary was reproduced with names excised in The Southern Star newspaper, from 23 October to 27 November 1971, in consecutive editions. Photographs of the diary were also published in The Southern Star, which published them again with another article on the intelligence haul in its Centenary Supplement in 1989.
, in the Bandon
area, seeking to seize his car.
Thomas Hornibrook was in the house at the time along with his son, Samuel Hornibrook, and his son-in-law Herbert Woods (a former Captain in the British Army and MC
). Thomas Hornibrook was a former magistrate
, and his daughter Matilda was married to Herbert Woods. Matilda would later describe herself and her husband as "staunch Loyalists".
Michael O'Neill demanded a part of the engine mechanism (the magneto
) that had been removed by Thomas Hornibrook to prevent such theft. Hornibrook refused to give them the part, and after further efforts, some of the IRA party entered through a window. Herbert Woods then shot O'Neill, wounding him fatally. O'Neill's companion Charlie O'Donoghue took him to a local priest who pronounced him dead. The next morning O'Donoghue left for Bandon
to report the incident to his superiors, returning with "four military men," meeting with the Hornibrooks and Woods, who admitted to shooting O'Neill.
A local jury found Woods responsible and said that O'Neill had been "brutally murdered in the execution of his duty". Charlie O'Donoghue and Stephen O'Neill, who were present on the night of the killing, both attended the inquest. Some days later, Herbert Woods, Thomas Hornibrook and his son Samuel went missing, and in time were presumed killed. The Morning Post
newspaper reported that "about 100" IRA men returned from Bandon with O'Neill's comrades and surrounded the house. It reported that a shootout then ensued until the Hornibrooks and Woods ran out of ammunition and surrendered. This report in the Morning Post is described by Meda Ryan as "exaggerated". Peter Hart writes that the Hornibrooks and Woods surrendered on condition their lives would be spared. When Woods admitted it was he who fired the shot that killed O'Neil, he was beaten unconscious and all three were "driven south into hill country" where they were shot and killed. Some time later Hornibrook's house was burned, the plantation cut down and the land was seized.
Alice Hodder, a local Protestant of Crosshaven
, wrote to her mother shortly afterwards of Herbert Woods that,
Next evening, 28 April, in the parish of Kinneigh, Robert Howe and John Chinnery were both shot dead. In the nearby village of Ballineen, sixteen-year-old Alexander McKinley was shot dead in his home. In Murragh, Reverend Ralph Harbord was shot dead; he was the son of Reverend Richard C M Harbord, also from the Murragh area. Later, west of Ballineen, John Buttimer and his farm servant Jim Greenfield were both shot dead.
The same night, sixteen-year-old Robert Nagle was shot dead in his home on MacCurtain Hill in Clonakilty, ten miles south. Nagle had been shot in place of his father Tom, whose name was on a list of informers and who had gone into hiding along with the uncle of Alexander McKinley. John Bradfield was shot in place of his brother Henry. Henry had been 'wanted' by the IRA for providing information resulting in IRA "arrests, torture and deaths".
One Cork correspondent of The Irish Times who saw the refugees go through the city noted that, "so hurried was their flight that many had neither a handbag nor an overcoat." Hodder also alleged that Protestants in the area were being forcibly evicted from their farms by republicans on behalf of the Irish Transport Union
, on the basis that they were bringing down wages, although she conceded that the local Pro-Treaty IRA reinstated them when it was informed Tom Hales, Commandant of O'Neill's Brigade (3rd Cork), ordered all arms be brought under control while issuing a statement promising that "all citizens in this area, irrespective of creed or class, every protection within my power." Arthur Griffith
echoed Hales' sentiments though Hales was actively engaged in armed defiance of Griffith's government at this time. Speaking on 28 April in the Dáil Griffith, President of the Pro-Treaty Irish Provisional Government, stated:
Speaking immediately afterward, Seán T. O'Kelly
said he wished to associate the "anti-treaty side" in the Dáil with Griffith's sentiments. Speaking in Mullingar
on 30 April, the Anti-Treaty leader Éamon de Valera
also condemned the killings. A general convention of Irish Protestant churches in Dublin released a statement saying that:
The incident provoked long-held fears on the part of Loyalists in southern Ireland. A deputation of Irish Loyalists which met Winston Churchill
in May 1922 told him that there was, "nothing to prevent the peasants expropriating [the lands of] every last Protestant loyalist" and that they feared a repeat of the massacres that Protestants had suffered in the Irish Rebellion of 1641
and the 1798 Rebellion. Churchill himself remarked that the events were "little short of a massacre."
Local IRA commanders Tom Barry
, Liam Deasy
and Seán Moylan
, returned to the county and ordered that armed guards be put on the homes of Protestants to prevent further violence. Tom Barry, who had returned immediately from Dublin on hearing of the killings, ensured that some who attempted to take advantage of the situation by stealing livestock owned by Protestants were firmly discouraged.
were responsible, in an attempt to provoke Britain to re-occupy the 26 counties.
At the time the press, including the Belfast Newsletter (1 May 1922), the Irish Times (29 April 1922), and The New York Times
, stated that the killings at Dunmanway were in reprisal for the ongoing killings of Catholics in Belfast, such as the McMahon Murders
and the Arnon Street Massacre
. Tim Pat Coogan suggests that O'Neill's death precipitated the murders. Hart has also written that the killing of O'Neill "provided the spark" which was inflamed by the "Belfast pogrom
s" Meda Ryan also writes, "The outrages were 'sparked' when Capt. Woods shot IRA man Michael O'Neill in the hallway of Thomas Hornibrooke's house".
The motive for the victims being targeted remains a point of contention between historians. Brian Murphy and Niall Meehan each write that victims were killed because they were informers on behalf of Crown forces, citing the intelligence diary left by Auxiliaries as they evacuated Dunmanway.
Peter Hart writes that they were primarily revenge killings, perpetrated without a clear rationale by "angry and frightened young men acting on impulse." He suggests the targets were local Protestant men whose status as enemies in the eyes of the killers was codified in "political language of the day... landlord, landgrabber, loyalist, imperialist, Orangeman, Freemason, Free Stater, spy, and informer." He continues, "these blanket categories made the victims' individual identities... irrelevant." Tim Pat Coogan
concurs, writing, "the latent sectarianism of centuries of ballads and landlordism claimed ten Protestant lives" that week.
According to Meda Ryan, All of those killed were described as "committed loyalists" and "extremely anti-Republican". The three had been in contact with the Essex Regiment
based in Bandon during the conflict, supplying information on the local IRA. She writes it was "firmly established" later that Fitzmaurice and Gray had been informers, and that their information had done a great deal of damage to the IRA. In Gray's case (as a ten-year-old girl averred to Meda Ryan) he sought out "information from children in their innocence" and hence children were warned against chatting with Gray despite his kindness. Ryan writes that Fitzmaurice, Gray, Buttimer, and Harbord were associated with the Murragh "Loyalist Action Group" known locally as the "Protestant Action Group," and all were involved in espionage. All the surnames of those shot in this period were listed as "helpful citizens" in Auxiliaries' documents found in Dunmanway; in two cases, only last names were given. Peter Hart disputes that the men had informed on the IRA. He writes that the term informer was used a form of "generic abuse" and he finds "no evidence whatsoever" that they had been active in opposing the IRA.
Meehan writes that the killings were not "motivated by either land agitation or by sectarian considerations." Brian Murphy agrees, citing a British document A Record of the Rebellion in Ireland in 1920-1921:
He concludes that "the IRA killings in the Bandon area were motivated by political and not sectarian considerations. Possibly, military considerations, rather than political, would have been a more fitting way to describe the reason for the IRA response to those who informed."
Dunmanway
Dunmanway is a town in County Cork, in the southwest of Ireland. It is the geographical centre of the region known as West Cork. It is probably best known as the birthplace of Sam Maguire, an Irish Protestant republican, for whom the trophy of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship is...
, County Cork
County Cork
County Cork is a county in Ireland. It is located in the South-West Region and is also part of the province of Munster. It is named after the city of Cork . Cork County Council is the local authority for the county...
, between 26–28 April 1922. This happened in a period of truce after the end of the Irish War of Independence
Irish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...
(in July 1921) and before the outbreak of the Irish Civil War
Irish Civil War
The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....
in June 1922. Eight of those killed were suspected informers
Informant
An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...
to British forces, while two more were relatives of suspected informers. Three more men were kidnapped and were presumed to have been killed. All the dead and missing were Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
. which has led to the killings being described as sectarian and a massacre.
It is not clear who ordered the attacks or carried them out. Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
and IRA representatives, from both the pro-Treaty side, which controlled the Provisional Government in Dublin and the anti-Treaty side, which controlled the area the killings took place, immediately condemned the killings.
The motivation of the killers has generated differences of opinion among historians. It is generally agreed that they were "sparked" by the fatal shooting of IRA commandant Michael O'Neill by a local loyalist whose house was being raided on 26 April. There is no consensus on why the ten killed and three disappeared were targeted. Some historians have claimed that there were sectarian motives; others claim that those killed were targeted only because they were suspected to have informed on the Irish Republican Army
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
during the recent War of Independence. They argue that the dead were associated with the Murragh 'Loyalist Action Group' and that their names appeared in captured British military intelligence files which listed them as "helpful citizens" in the 1919-1921 conflict.
Background
Political context
The Irish War of Independence was brought to an uneasy end by negotiation in mid-1921. The truce between British Forces and the IRA came into effect on 11 July 1921, after talks between the British and IrishFirst Dáil
The First Dáil was Dáil Éireann as it convened from 1919–1921. In 1919 candidates who had been elected in the Westminster elections of 1918 refused to recognise the Parliament of the United Kingdom and instead assembled as a unicameral, revolutionary parliament called "Dáil Éireann"...
political leaders. Under the terms, British units were withdrawn to barracks and their commanders committed to 'no movements for military purposes' and 'no [use of] secret agents noting descriptions of movements'. For its part, the IRA agreed that, 'attacks on Crown forces and civilians [were] to cease', and to 'no interference with British Government or private property'.
The Anglo-Irish Treaty
Anglo-Irish Treaty
The Anglo-Irish Treaty , officially called the Articles of Agreement for a Treaty Between Great Britain and Ireland, was a treaty between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and representatives of the secessionist Irish Republic that concluded the Irish War of...
was signed on 6 December 1921, after negotiations between British and Irish leaders. On 7 January the Dáil (Irish Parliament established in January 1919) narrowly accepted the Treaty. The Dáil was split into two factions, those who accepted and those who rejected the Treaty. Under the terms of the treaty, a Provisional Government was set up to transfer power from the British regime to the Irish Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...
. British troops began to be withdrawn from the Free State in January 1922, though they retained the option to intervene in Irish affairs should the Treaty be rejected and the Irish Republic
Irish Republic
The Irish Republic was a revolutionary state that declared its independence from Great Britain in January 1919. It established a legislature , a government , a court system and a police force...
re-established.
On 26 March 1922, most of the IRA repudiated the authority of the Provisional Government on the basis that it had accepted the Treaty and disestablished the Irish Republic
Irish Republic
The Irish Republic was a revolutionary state that declared its independence from Great Britain in January 1919. It established a legislature , a government , a court system and a police force...
declared in 1919. April saw the first armed clashes between pro and anti-Treaty IRA units.
According to historian Michael Hopkinson, "the transitional [Free State] government lacked the resources and the necessary acceptance to supply effective government". In this situation, some IRA anti-Treaty units continued attacks on the remaining British forces. Between December 1921 and February 1922, there were 80 recorded attacks by IRA elements on the Royal Irish Constabulary
Royal Irish Constabulary
The armed Royal Irish Constabulary was Ireland's major police force for most of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries. A separate civic police force, the unarmed Dublin Metropolitan Police controlled the capital, and the cities of Derry and Belfast, originally with their own police...
(RIC), leaving 12 dead. Between January and June 1922, twenty-three RIC men, eight British soldiers and eighteen civilians would be killed in the territory of the Irish Free State.
In County Cork
West Cork, where these killings took place, had been one of the most violent parts of Ireland during the Irish War of IndependenceIrish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...
. It was the scene of many of the conflict's major actions, such as the Kilmichael Ambush
Kilmichael Ambush
The Kilmichael Ambush was an ambush near the village of Kilmichael in County Cork on 28 November 1920 carried out by the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence. Thirty-six local IRA volunteers commanded by Tom Barry killed seventeen members of the RIC Auxiliary Division...
and Crossbarry Ambush
Crossbarry Ambush
The Crossbarry Ambush occurred on 19 March 1921 and was one of the largest engagements of the Irish War of Independence. It took place at the rural crossroads of Crossbarry, County Cork, around 20 km south west of Cork city. About a hundred Irish Republican Army volunteers escaped an attempt...
. It contained a strong Irish Republican Army
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
(IRA) Brigade (the 3rd Cork Brigade) and also a sizable Protestant population – roughly 16%, some of whom were loyalists
Ulster loyalism
Ulster loyalism is an ideology that is opposed to a united Ireland. It can mean either support for upholding Northern Ireland's status as a constituent part of the United Kingdom , support for Northern Ireland independence, or support for loyalist paramilitaries...
and affiliated to a loyalist vigilante group. The local IRA killed fifteen suspected informers in 1919-1921, including nine Catholics and six Protestants They responded to the British burning of republican homes by burning those of local loyalists. British intelligence wrote that "many" of their informers in West Cork "were murdered and almost all the remainder suffered grave material loss".
Republicans suspected the involvement of a local "Loyalists civil wing" in the killing of two republicans, the Coffey brothers, in Enniskeane during the first weekend in January 1921. The discovery of documents in Dunmanway by Republicans later confirmed the existence of this espionage group in the area, which resulted in many informers getting protection and safe passage to England.
British forces were withdrawn from the West Cork area in February 1922. The only British forces left in county Cork was two battalions of the British Army in Cork city. The local IRA was almost unanimously Anti-Treaty and therefore not under the control of the Provisional Government in Dublin in April 1922. At the time of the Dunmanway killings, none of the leaders of the Anti-Treaty Cork IRA were in the county. Tom Hales
Tom Hales
Thomas "Tom" Hales was an IRA volunteer and politician from West Cork. He was a friend of Michael Collins.Born at Knocknacurra, Ballinadee, near Bandon on a family farm owned by his father Robert who was an activist in the Land War and a reputed member of the Fenian Brotherhood.Tom Hales and his...
and Sean Moylan
Seán Moylan
Seán Moylan was a Commandant of the Irish Republican Army and later a Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil politician...
were in Limerick
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
, along with much of the Third and Fourth Cork IRA Brigades, trying to prevent the occupation of that city's military barracks by Pro-Treaty troops. Tom Barry
Tom Barry
Thomas Barry was one of the most prominent guerrilla leaders in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence.-Early life:...
and Liam Deasy
Liam Deasy
Liam Deasy was an Irish Republican Army officer in the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War of the 1920s.Deasy was born in Bandon in County Cork in 1898....
were in Dublin attending an Anti-Treaty IRA meeting. They returned to Cork on 28 April, partly with a view to stopping any more killings.
Historian Paul McMahon has noted that the British Government authorised £2,000 to re-establish intelligence in southern Ireland, especially in Cork, in early April 1922. On 26 April, the same day as the raid on Hornibrook's house, three British intelligence officers (Lts Hendy, Drove and Henderson and a driver) drove to Macroom
Macroom
Macroom is a market town in Ireland located in a valley on the River Sullane, a tributary of the River Lee, between Cork and Killarney. It is one of the key gateways to the tourist region of West Cork. The town recorded a population on 3,553 in the 2006 national census...
with the intention of gathering intelligence in west Cork, where they entered an inn. There they were drugged and taken prisoner by IRA men, then taken to Macroom Castle where they were held for four days and then shot and their bodies dumped. The subsequent killings of alleged informers occurred while the officers were being held and interrogated.
In Dunmanway
In Dunmanway itself, a company of the Auxiliary DivisionAuxiliary Division
The Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary , generally known as the Auxiliaries or Auxies, was a paramilitary organization within the Royal Irish Constabulary during the Irish War of Independence....
evacuated their barracks in the workhouse
Workhouse
In England and Wales a workhouse, colloquially known as a spike, was a place where those unable to support themselves were offered accommodation and employment...
. The IRA found confidential documents and a diary they left behind: these included a list of names. The information – according to historian Meda Ryan – was so precise "only a very well informed spy system could account for some of the entries in the book." Flor Crowley who analysed the diary concluded that "it was the work of a man who had many useful ‘contacts’ not merely in one part of the area but all over it."
Ryan writes that the Auxiliaries' files showed that some Protestants in Dunmanway had formed a group known as the "Loyalist Action Group" or "Protestant Action Group", affiliated to the Anti-Sinn Féin League and the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland. The IRA suspected this group of passing information to the British forces during the War of Independence. These included a Black and Tans
Black and Tans
The Black and Tans was one of two newly recruited bodies, composed largely of British World War I veterans, employed by the Royal Irish Constabulary as Temporary Constables from 1920 to 1921 to suppress revolution in Ireland...
military intelligence
Military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that exploits a number of information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to commanders in support of their decisions....
diary. This diary was reproduced with names excised in The Southern Star newspaper, from 23 October to 27 November 1971, in consecutive editions. Photographs of the diary were also published in The Southern Star, which published them again with another article on the intelligence haul in its Centenary Supplement in 1989.
Killings in Ballygroman
On 26 April 1922, a group of IRA men, led by Michael O'Neill, arrived at the house of Thomas Hornibrook at Ballygroman, near BallincolligBallincollig
Ballincollig is a satellite town in County Cork, Ireland, approximately 9 km west of Cork city. It is located beside the River Lee on the R608 regional road. In 2006 the population of Ballincollig DED was 16,308. The nearest towns include: Ballinora, Ovens, Killumney, Inniscarra, Blarney ,...
, in the Bandon
Bandon
Bandon is the name of several places*Bandon, County Cork, Ireland*the River Bandon in Ireland*Bandon , former constituency in Ireland*Bandon, the old name of Surat Thani in Thailand**the Bandon Bay near Surat Thani...
area, seeking to seize his car.
Thomas Hornibrook was in the house at the time along with his son, Samuel Hornibrook, and his son-in-law Herbert Woods (a former Captain in the British Army and MC
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
). Thomas Hornibrook was a former magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
, and his daughter Matilda was married to Herbert Woods. Matilda would later describe herself and her husband as "staunch Loyalists".
Michael O'Neill demanded a part of the engine mechanism (the magneto
Magneto (electrical)
A magneto is an electrical generator that uses permanent magnets to produce alternating current.Magnetos adapted to produce pulses of high voltage are used in the ignition systems of some gasoline-powered internal combustion engines to provide power to the spark plugs...
) that had been removed by Thomas Hornibrook to prevent such theft. Hornibrook refused to give them the part, and after further efforts, some of the IRA party entered through a window. Herbert Woods then shot O'Neill, wounding him fatally. O'Neill's companion Charlie O'Donoghue took him to a local priest who pronounced him dead. The next morning O'Donoghue left for Bandon
Bandon
Bandon is the name of several places*Bandon, County Cork, Ireland*the River Bandon in Ireland*Bandon , former constituency in Ireland*Bandon, the old name of Surat Thani in Thailand**the Bandon Bay near Surat Thani...
to report the incident to his superiors, returning with "four military men," meeting with the Hornibrooks and Woods, who admitted to shooting O'Neill.
A local jury found Woods responsible and said that O'Neill had been "brutally murdered in the execution of his duty". Charlie O'Donoghue and Stephen O'Neill, who were present on the night of the killing, both attended the inquest. Some days later, Herbert Woods, Thomas Hornibrook and his son Samuel went missing, and in time were presumed killed. The Morning Post
Morning Post
The Morning Post, as the paper was named on its masthead, was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by The Daily Telegraph.- History :...
newspaper reported that "about 100" IRA men returned from Bandon with O'Neill's comrades and surrounded the house. It reported that a shootout then ensued until the Hornibrooks and Woods ran out of ammunition and surrendered. This report in the Morning Post is described by Meda Ryan as "exaggerated". Peter Hart writes that the Hornibrooks and Woods surrendered on condition their lives would be spared. When Woods admitted it was he who fired the shot that killed O'Neil, he was beaten unconscious and all three were "driven south into hill country" where they were shot and killed. Some time later Hornibrook's house was burned, the plantation cut down and the land was seized.
Alice Hodder, a local Protestant of Crosshaven
Crosshaven
Crosshaven is a village in County Cork, Ireland. Origins of the Irish name of Crosshaven include; - mouth of the river Sabhrann , and . The village is located in a scenic area with views of Wood, and Cork Harbour.-Transport:...
, wrote to her mother shortly afterwards of Herbert Woods that,
His aunt and uncle had been subject to a lot of persecution and feared an attack, so young Woods went to stay with them. At 2:30am armed men ... broke in ... Woods fired on the leader and shot him ... They caught Woods, tried him by mock court martial and sentenced him to be hanged ... The brothers of the murdered man then gouged out his eyes while he was alive and then hanged him ... When will the British Government realise that they are really dealing with savages and not ordinary normal human beings?The letter was forwarded to Lionel Curtis, Secretary of the Cabinet's Irish Committee, on which he appended the comment "this is rather obsolete". Matilda Woods later testified before the Grants Committee, while applying for £5,000 compensation in 1927, that her husband was drawn and quartered before being killed and that the Hornibrooks were taken to a remote location, forced to dig their own graves and shot dead. Both Ryan and Hart note that Matilda Woods was not in Ireland when her husband disappeared and there is no record of their bodies being located.
Killings in Dunmanway, Ballineen Enniskeane and Clonakilty
Over the next two days, ten Protestant men were shot dead in the Dunmanway, Ballineen and Murragh area. In Dunmanway on 27 April, Francis Fitzmaurice (a solicitor and land agent) was shot dead. Also that night, David Gray (a chemist) and James Buttimer (a retired draper) were shot in the doorways of their homes in Dunmanway.Next evening, 28 April, in the parish of Kinneigh, Robert Howe and John Chinnery were both shot dead. In the nearby village of Ballineen, sixteen-year-old Alexander McKinley was shot dead in his home. In Murragh, Reverend Ralph Harbord was shot dead; he was the son of Reverend Richard C M Harbord, also from the Murragh area. Later, west of Ballineen, John Buttimer and his farm servant Jim Greenfield were both shot dead.
The same night, sixteen-year-old Robert Nagle was shot dead in his home on MacCurtain Hill in Clonakilty, ten miles south. Nagle had been shot in place of his father Tom, whose name was on a list of informers and who had gone into hiding along with the uncle of Alexander McKinley. John Bradfield was shot in place of his brother Henry. Henry had been 'wanted' by the IRA for providing information resulting in IRA "arrests, torture and deaths".
Aftermath
According to Niall Harrington – a Pro-Treaty IRA officer at the time – over 100 Protestant families fled West Cork in the aftermath of the killings, in fear of further attacks. Alice Hodder in the same letter cited above wroteFor two weeks there wasn't standing room on any of the boats or mail trains leaving Cork for England. All loyalist refugees who were either fleeing in terror or had been ordered out of the country...none of the people who did these things, though they were reported as the rebel IRA faction, were ever brought to book by the Provisional Government.
One Cork correspondent of The Irish Times who saw the refugees go through the city noted that, "so hurried was their flight that many had neither a handbag nor an overcoat." Hodder also alleged that Protestants in the area were being forcibly evicted from their farms by republicans on behalf of the Irish Transport Union
Irish Transport and General Workers' Union
The Irish Transport and General Workers Union, an Irish trade union, was founded by James Larkin in 1908 as a general union. Initially drawing its membership from branches of the Liverpool-based National Union of Dock Labourers, from which Larkin had been expelled, it grew to include workers in a...
, on the basis that they were bringing down wages, although she conceded that the local Pro-Treaty IRA reinstated them when it was informed Tom Hales, Commandant of O'Neill's Brigade (3rd Cork), ordered all arms be brought under control while issuing a statement promising that "all citizens in this area, irrespective of creed or class, every protection within my power." Arthur Griffith
Arthur Griffith
Arthur Griffith was the founder and third leader of Sinn Féin. He served as President of Dáil Éireann from January to August 1922, and was head of the Irish delegation at the negotiations in London that produced the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921.-Early life:...
echoed Hales' sentiments though Hales was actively engaged in armed defiance of Griffith's government at this time. Speaking on 28 April in the Dáil Griffith, President of the Pro-Treaty Irish Provisional Government, stated:
Events, such as the terrible murders at Dunmanway ..., require the exercise of the utmost strength and authority of Dáil Éireann. Dáil Éireann, so far as its powers extend, will uphold, to the fullest extent, the protection of life and property of all classes and sections of the community. It does not know and cannot know, as a National Government, any distinction of class or creed. In its name, I express the horror of the Irish nation at the Dunmanway murders.
Speaking immediately afterward, Seán T. O'Kelly
Sean T. O'Kelly
Seán Thomas O'Kelly was the second President of Ireland . He was a member of Dáil Éireann from 1918 until his election as President. During this time he served as Minister for Local Government and Minister for Finance...
said he wished to associate the "anti-treaty side" in the Dáil with Griffith's sentiments. Speaking in Mullingar
Mullingar
Mullingar is the county town of County Westmeath in Ireland. The Counties of Meath and Westmeath Act of 1542, proclaimed Westmeath a county, separating it from Meath. Mullingar became the administrative centre for County Westmeath...
on 30 April, the Anti-Treaty leader Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera
Éamon de Valera was one of the dominant political figures in twentieth century Ireland, serving as head of government of the Irish Free State and head of government and head of state of Ireland...
also condemned the killings. A general convention of Irish Protestant churches in Dublin released a statement saying that:
Apart from this incident, hostility to Protestants by reason of their religion, has been almost, if not wholly unknown, in the 26 counties in which they are a minority.
The incident provoked long-held fears on the part of Loyalists in southern Ireland. A deputation of Irish Loyalists which met Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
in May 1922 told him that there was, "nothing to prevent the peasants expropriating [the lands of] every last Protestant loyalist" and that they feared a repeat of the massacres that Protestants had suffered in the Irish Rebellion of 1641
Irish Rebellion of 1641
The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry, who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland to force concessions for the Catholics living under English rule...
and the 1798 Rebellion. Churchill himself remarked that the events were "little short of a massacre."
Local IRA commanders Tom Barry
Tom Barry
Thomas Barry was one of the most prominent guerrilla leaders in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence.-Early life:...
, Liam Deasy
Liam Deasy
Liam Deasy was an Irish Republican Army officer in the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War of the 1920s.Deasy was born in Bandon in County Cork in 1898....
and Seán Moylan
Seán Moylan
Seán Moylan was a Commandant of the Irish Republican Army and later a Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil politician...
, returned to the county and ordered that armed guards be put on the homes of Protestants to prevent further violence. Tom Barry, who had returned immediately from Dublin on hearing of the killings, ensured that some who attempted to take advantage of the situation by stealing livestock owned by Protestants were firmly discouraged.
Conflicting conclusions
It is not clear who ordered the attacks or carried them out and no faction or member of the IRA ever claimed responsibility. Historian Peter Hart has written that the killers were identified by several eyewitness sources as local IRA men. He concludes that from two to five separate groups must have done the killing, and writes that they were likely "acting on their own initiative - but with the connivance or acquiescence of local units." Hart's analysis of the identity of the killers has been challenged by other historians, including Brian Murphy, Niall Meehan and John Borgonovo. Jack Lane suggests the possibility that British agents provocateurAgent provocateur
Traditionally, an agent provocateur is a person employed by the police or other entity to act undercover to entice or provoke another person to commit an illegal act...
were responsible, in an attempt to provoke Britain to re-occupy the 26 counties.
At the time the press, including the Belfast Newsletter (1 May 1922), the Irish Times (29 April 1922), and The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, stated that the killings at Dunmanway were in reprisal for the ongoing killings of Catholics in Belfast, such as the McMahon Murders
McMahon Murders
The McMahon murders occurred on 24 March 1922 in Belfast, Northern Ireland when six Catholic civilians were shot dead and two injured by members of the Ulster Special Constabulary or Royal Irish Constabulary . The dead were aged between 15 and 50 and all but one were members of the McMahon family....
and the Arnon Street Massacre
Arnon Street Massacre
The Arnon Street killings, also referred to as the Arnon Street murders or Arnon Street massacre, took place on 1 April 1922 in Belfast, Northern Ireland...
. Tim Pat Coogan suggests that O'Neill's death precipitated the murders. Hart has also written that the killing of O'Neill "provided the spark" which was inflamed by the "Belfast pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...
s" Meda Ryan also writes, "The outrages were 'sparked' when Capt. Woods shot IRA man Michael O'Neill in the hallway of Thomas Hornibrooke's house".
The motive for the victims being targeted remains a point of contention between historians. Brian Murphy and Niall Meehan each write that victims were killed because they were informers on behalf of Crown forces, citing the intelligence diary left by Auxiliaries as they evacuated Dunmanway.
Peter Hart writes that they were primarily revenge killings, perpetrated without a clear rationale by "angry and frightened young men acting on impulse." He suggests the targets were local Protestant men whose status as enemies in the eyes of the killers was codified in "political language of the day... landlord, landgrabber, loyalist, imperialist, Orangeman, Freemason, Free Stater, spy, and informer." He continues, "these blanket categories made the victims' individual identities... irrelevant." Tim Pat Coogan
Tim Pat Coogan
Timothy Patrick Coogan is an Irish historical writer, broadcaster and newspaper columnist. He served as editor of the Irish Press newspaper from 1968 to 1987...
concurs, writing, "the latent sectarianism of centuries of ballads and landlordism claimed ten Protestant lives" that week.
According to Meda Ryan, All of those killed were described as "committed loyalists" and "extremely anti-Republican". The three had been in contact with the Essex Regiment
Essex Regiment
The Essex Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army that saw active service from 1881 to 1958. Members of the regiment were recruited from across Essex county. Its lineage is continued by the Royal Anglian Regiment.-Origins:...
based in Bandon during the conflict, supplying information on the local IRA. She writes it was "firmly established" later that Fitzmaurice and Gray had been informers, and that their information had done a great deal of damage to the IRA. In Gray's case (as a ten-year-old girl averred to Meda Ryan) he sought out "information from children in their innocence" and hence children were warned against chatting with Gray despite his kindness. Ryan writes that Fitzmaurice, Gray, Buttimer, and Harbord were associated with the Murragh "Loyalist Action Group" known locally as the "Protestant Action Group," and all were involved in espionage. All the surnames of those shot in this period were listed as "helpful citizens" in Auxiliaries' documents found in Dunmanway; in two cases, only last names were given. Peter Hart disputes that the men had informed on the IRA. He writes that the term informer was used a form of "generic abuse" and he finds "no evidence whatsoever" that they had been active in opposing the IRA.
Meehan writes that the killings were not "motivated by either land agitation or by sectarian considerations." Brian Murphy agrees, citing a British document A Record of the Rebellion in Ireland in 1920-1921:
the truth was that, as British intelligence officers recognised in the south, the Protestants and those who that supported the [UK] Government rarely gave much information because, except by chance, they had not got it to give. An exception to this was in the Bandon area where there were many Protestant farmers who gave information. Although the Intelligence Officer of the area was exceptionally experienced and although the troops were most active it proved almost impossible to protect those brave men, many of whom were murdered while almost all the remainder suffered grave material loss.
He concludes that "the IRA killings in the Bandon area were motivated by political and not sectarian considerations. Possibly, military considerations, rather than political, would have been a more fitting way to describe the reason for the IRA response to those who informed."