IRISH EXECUTIONS

Evening Star, Issue 18230, 21 March 1923, Page 7

IRISH EXECUTIONS

FATE OF BANDIT HAND. SEVEN BAY DEATH PENALTY. Seven men were executed in Dublin on, December Id for being found improperly in possession of arms, making a, total of nineteen executions during t.he month. In announcing the carrying nut of the sentences, Dublin military headquarters, in an official communique, said that the seven men were charged before a military committee with boing’in possession without, proper authority of ten rifles, four bomb detonators, 200 rounds of ammunition, and one exploder. They were found guilty and sentenced to death. The sentence was duly executed at 8.30. Before they were executed the condemned men were attended by Father Donnelly, chaplain to the troops" and allowed In communicate with their friends.

The seven men belonged to a ” flying column ” of ten who for some time bad been active in the vicinity of Kildare, and who were all captured by the National troops. They were found in an ingeniously constructed dug-out beneath the floor of a farmhouse at Moore's Bridge, close to the Curragh Camp. The proprietress of the farm was herself in possession of a fullv-loaded Webley revolver.

The gang evidently used the dug-out as their headquarters. Stored in it were about three tons of food supplies and the arms and ammunition for being in possession of which they have paid the extreme penalty. One of the ten was shot dead by a sentry when trying to make his escane by removing the sasli from (lie window of the hut in which ho was detained at the Currngh. Therefore, only two of the whole party to-day remain alive. An interesting light upon the depredations carried out by (lie gang is thrown by the nature of the goods stored in their dug-out-. They consisted of articles looted from shops in the district and from goods trains. They included men’s overcoats, pants, boots, trench coats, ladies’ hats, knitting wool, large quantities of groceries, and three sacks of flour. It is staled that the activities of the gang were also directed against the railway in the neighborhood. Five of them were concerned in the derailment of engines at Cherryville Junction when an attempt was made to dislocate the whole service of the Great Southern and Western Hallway. The “column” is also stated in have been responsible for an ambush of National troops at the Curragli on November 25.