Dunmanway killings 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 . However no list with the Protestants ' names is available for verification only one largely consisting of names and descriptions of IRA suspects in the Bureau of Military History . 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 Irish 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 Under the terms , British units were withdrawn to barracks and their commanders committed to ' no movements for military purposes ' and ' no [ use of ] secret agents noting descriptions of movements ' .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 . 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 Independence . 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 sizeable 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 . In Dunmanway . In Dunmanway itself , a company of the Auxiliary Division 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 . 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 Ballincollig , on the outskirts of Cork city , seeking to seize his car . Thomas Hornibrook was in the house at the time along with his son , Samuel Hornibrook , and Herbert Woods ( a former Captain in the British Army and MC ) . Thomas Hornibrook was a former magistrate . His daughter Matilda later described 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 some 23 miles to the south east , 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 Herbert Woods 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 wrote For 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 , 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 : 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 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 : 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 and in the north . The Belfast News - Letter on 28 April under the headline " Protestants Slain " spoke of " ghastly crimes of the night " and the existence of an appalling state of affairs in the south and west Cork area " where a general massacre of Protestants appears to be in progress " . The Northern Whig on 1 May said " it is a matter of notoriety that the murders , far from being unprecedented , are only the last in a long series which began as far back as 1641 . " 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 . 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 provocateur " 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 pogroms " 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 . That list was in 2013 located in the Florence Begley collection in the Bureau of Military History . 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 " : 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 . " Most recently , historian John Regan , in his paper , The Bandon Valley Massacre Revisited , has argued the incident is most likely best understood in the light of IRA fears that the British were planning a reoccupation of the south of Ireland and was a preemptive move against people believed to have been informers . He has argued that the selective use of evidence by Peter Hart to emphasise the sectarian dimension to the killings highlights a wider problem in the politicisation of Irish history . TV programme on RTÉ . " Cork ’ s Bloody Secret " shown on RTÉ on 5 October 2009 dealt with the Dunmanway killings . The programme was produced by Sean O Mealoid , and included interviews with two descendants of two of the Protestant victims . It included a dialogue between two local historians , Donald Woods and Colum Cronin and featured Professor John A . Murphy and Eoghan Harris ( who later debated the issue in the Irish Times , alongside UCC historian Andy Bielenberg . ) . 978 - 1 - 84383 - 376 - 5