Dunmanway Massacre

Infobox terrorist attack
title=Dunmanway massacre
location= Dunmanway,
Ireland
target=Protestant loyalists
date=26 April - 28 April, 1922
type=Shooting
fatalities=10
perps=Elements of the local Irish Republican Army

The Dunmanway Massacre refers to the killings of ten Protestant civilians, allegedly by maverick elements of the Irish Republican Army, in and around Dunmanway, County Cork between 26 April and 28 April, 1922, apparently triggered by the killing of a member of the IRA, Michael O'Neill, Acting Officer Commanding of the Bandon Battalion by one of those subsequently killed. The IRA, plus pro- and anti-Treaty Sinn Féin representatives, immediately and vociferously condemned the killings.

Background

The killings took place after the acceptance of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and before the outbreak of the Irish Civil War in June 1922. During this period, the IRA was left in effective control over much of Ireland due to the withdrawal of British troops and the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) to barracks and the absence of any Irish authority to fill the power vacuum. In this situation, several IRA units continued attacks in spite of the truce ordered by their headquarters in Dublin. Between December 1921 and February of the next year, there were 80 recorded attacks by the IRA on the soon to be disbanded RIC, leaving 12 dead. [Niall C Harrington, "Kerry Landing, August 1922: An Episode of the Civil War", Anvil Books, 1992:8. ISBN: 0947962700] The killings at Dunmanway led historian Peter Hart to conclude that sectarian conflict between Catholics and Protestants was a central part of Ireland's war of independence - his findings have been challenged and contradicted by Meda Ryan (2003), Brian Murphy (2006), and John Borgonovo (2007).

Dunmanway had been garrisoned during the 1919–1921 conflict by a company of the Auxiliary Division. When they evacuated their barracks, situated in the old workhouse, in early 1922, the IRA discovered intelligence documents that were left behind, including a list of local loyalist activists and informers. 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 group was suspected of passing information to the British forces during the fighting. [Meda Ryan, "Tom Barry, IRA Freedom Fighter", Mercier, 2003:157. ISBN-13: 978-1856354806] Those killed in the massacre were all named as formerly active loyalists in the Auxiliary intelligence documents, that included a 'Black and Tan [intelligence] Diary' - reproduced with informers' names excised in "The Southern Star" newspaper, from October 23 to November 27, 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.

However, any information given by the dead men would have been given before the Truce signed in July 1921, seven months earlier. There was no provision in the Truce, nor any instruction from any Irish authority after it, that such former spies were to be killed.

The killings

On April 26, a group of IRA men, led by Michael O'Neill, arrived at the house of Thomas Hornibrook, a former magistrate and Protestant loyalist, seeking to seize his car. They demanded a part of the engine mechanism that had been removed, presumably to prevent such commandeering. Hornibrook refused, after further efforts some of the IRA party entered through a window. There was a dispute in the hall of the Hornibrook's home and Herbert Woods, another loyalist and former British soldier, shot O'Neill, wounding him fatally. O'Neill's companions took him to a local priest before he died and then left for Bandon to report the incident to their superiors.

According to Ryan (2003), "Some days later (though it is not reported in the Irish daily newspapers) Capt Woods, Thomas Hornibrook and his son Samuel went missing, unaccounted for, and in time presumed killed. Although an exaggerated account is given in the "Morning Post" of, 'about 100' IRA men who 'surrounded the house and smashed in the door', definite records are not available to confirm their deaths. Their house was burned sometime after the incident." [Ryan 2003:158]

A spate of what are assumed to be revenge killings of Protestant loyalists took place over the next two days. In the late hours of 26th and the early hours of the 27th, David Gray, Francis Fitzmaurice and James Buttimer were shot dead in the doorways of their homes on the Main St. in Dunmanway and a number of other Protestants in Dunmanway were attacked. Next evening, two men (Robert Howe and John Chinnery) were shot dead at their farms in Ballaghanure, east of Dunmanway. In the nearby village of Ballineen, a 16 year-old, Alexander McKinley was shot dead. In the nearby Murragh rectory, the son of the rector (Robert Harbord who was himself a curate) was shot dead on the doorstep). In a house in Caher (to the west of Ballineen) John Buttimer and Jim Greenfield were shot dead. Ten miles away, Robert Nagle was shot in his home in MacCurtain Hill in Clonakilty. Other houses in Clonakilty were raided. The following night (28 April), John Bradfield was shot dead in his home in Killowen, east of Murragh and other Protestant homes raided.

The men targeted had been named in the British intelligence files referred to above. However in two cases, the brother and son of those named were killed. In their case, exceptionally, the British Auxiliary intelligence document had listed surnames only, without first names. [Ryan 2003:159]

In the aftermath of the attacks, over 100 Protestant families fled West Cork. [Harrington 1992:8]

Aftermath

The perpetrators of the massacre were never identified or prosecuted. It is not clear who ordered the attack or carried it out. Local IRA commanders, Tom Barry, Liam Deasy and Seán Moylan, ordered that armed guards be put on the homes of other known former loyalists 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. For this he earned a friendship and respect of Protestant families in the area lasting until his death in 1980. [Ryan, 2003:161]

The Dunmanway massacre was condemned on 28 April in the Dáil by Arthur Griffith, President of the Irish Provisional Government, who stated::"Events, such as the terrible murders at Dunmanway and the seizure of Customs and Excise at Clonmel, 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 and the reprobation of the unlawful attempt to seize the Customs and Excise of the Irish nation". [ [http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204280003.html Debate of 28 April, see pp.332-333.] ]

Speaking immediately afterwards Seán T. O'Kelly said he wished to associate the "anti-treaty side" in the Dáil with Griffith's sentiments. [Ryan 2003:161 ] Speaking in Mullingar on April 30th, the Anti-Treaty leader Éamon de Valera also condemned the killings. [ Dorothy Macardle, The Irish Republic, 1999:705] This confirms that the murders were planned and committed locally on an ad-hoc basis without orders from any authority, and also that the later justification that the dead were spies was an attempt to minimise the reality of the murders. 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." [Ryan, 2003:161]

References

External links

* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C06E4D71E3CE533A2575AC2A9629C946395D6CF New York Times report on the killings]
* [http://www.dcu.ie/~foxs/irhist/April%201922%20-%2026-28%20-%20dunmanway_massacre.htm The Dunmanway Massacre]
* [http://www.reform.org/TheReformMovement_files/article_files/articles/southernunis.htm book review of R B McDowell's Crisis and Decline: The Fate of the Southern Unionists by Geoffrey Wheatcroft]
* [http://www.corkfpc.com/ltbscork.html Cork Free Presbyterian Church]
* [http://www.counterpunch.org/meehan11112006.html Article on Ken Loach's "The Wind that Shakes the Barley", comments on attacks on Protestants by British forces: reference to Dunmanway.]
* [http://www.atholbooks.org/magazines/cands/distress.php Church & State magazine critique of the 'Irish Distress Committee'] , also [http://www.atholbooks.org/magazines/cands/kennedy.php report of debate on refugees] and reports to "The Times" in 1920 by [http://www.atholbooks.org/magazines/cands/kennedy.php J Annan Bryce of Bantry]