IRISH OUTRAGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18334, 26 February 1923, Page 5

IRISH OUTRAGES.

BRUTALITY TO SOLDIER.

TIED TO TREE IN STORM.

Another instance of the impunity with j which outrage may be committed in Dub-! lin isjtho kidnapping of a Free State soldier, which took place on a Sunday night. Private Patrick Donegan was on leave from the Curragh. He was passing along Parnell Square when three armed men held him up. He was forced into a public conveyance, and one of the armed men got in beside him. The jarvey was ordered to drive to Drumcondra.' The other two men followed in a motor-car. Donegan was taken into a lane at Drumcondra and was urged ito give information about military arrangements at the Curragh. He refused to speak, and was then blindfolded and driven away in jthe motor-car. When the car stopped he found he was in the heart of a plantation. He was hauled from the car and tied to a tree. '" Are you going to shoot me?" he asked; "Not yet,", his captors answered. ■'■■ 1„ Sunday .night was a nighfc of , bitter frost, and through the dark, cold hours Donegan remained fastened to the tree. On the Monday morning his tormentors, returned to see if a night.'s freezing and hunger had made him more pliable. Again Donegan refused; to give away any information. Again ; the irregulars, whose spokespeople denounce ; the Government as torturers, left him unable 'to move hand or foot, frozen almost stiff against the tree. All through Monday he \ stayed there, cold and hungry. In the evening a terrible storm of wind and rain arose, and he was blown and drenched all night. It was not till two o'clock on the Tuesday afternoon that a passer-by , beard his shouts and cut his bonds. Donegan was sent 'to St. Vincent's Hospital in a state of nervous exhaustion.