The Terror in County Mayo

New Zealand Tablet, 27 April 1922, Page 13

The Terror in County Mayo

Further stories of brutal treatment of Mayo people by British military forces were told at Swinford Sessions (says the Irish Independent of recent date). The uncontradicted and unchallenged testimony on oath of the victims of such savagery leaves a painful impression. In one case a woman was shot at and disabled; in another a man was flung naked on broken bottles; another was pulled through barbed wire; others were flogged and flung into a river. SHOCKING BRUTALITY. William Shuron, Jas. Smyth, and John Smyth were taken from the fair of Straide to the river outside the town and thrown in. Shuron was stripped naked, and four soldiers took him by the hands and legs, swung him like a blanket, and tossed him through the air into the water. He fell on a heap of broken stones and bottles, over which there were only two or three inches of water, and sprained his wrist. He was all cut. The other two were flung in the same way, and John Smyth broke his hand. They were injured, and had to remain under the arch of the bridge for 20 minutes. Awards—Wm. Shuron, £140; Jas. Smyth, £150; and John Smyth, £l4O. Kate O'Malley was awarded £IOOO. She was sitting in the garden with some lady friends when five or six soldiers appeared. Two shots rang out, and she was hit in the wrist and side. Her left hand (Dr. McCarthy stated) was useless. She had a miraculous escape. The second bullet entered the left breast just under the skin, and came out the other side. For the murder of her son, a discharged soldier, Bridget Duffy, Kilmoon, was awarded £650, and his sister £450. Patrick Reidy stated that the military threw him on to their barbed wire entanglements at the huts, and dragged him through it, tearing his clothes and flesh; that they led him through the streets with the thong of a whip in a noose round his neck, choking him at every step, how they beat him on the head and shoulders with rifles and crop whips, and threw him into a sink and slashed him—Award, £9O. James Clark stated that the soldiers burst into his house, and knocked down his father and pulled claimant out of bed and hurled him into a thorn hedge. They threw him into a river, slashed him with whips, and made him take the grass on the banks of the river in his teeth. Dr. Staunton said he never saw a man so disfigured ; he was blood and dirt and black and blue from bruises. Award—£l2s. Mr. P. J. Henry, assistant clerk, Swinford, R.D.C., stated that after he had been taken to the huts he and two other prisoners were taken on the road and flogged by three officers and beaten with clubs as far as the river, He was told to take off his clothes, but refused, and one big fellow hit him under the chin and felled him, then jumped on him, and tore his clothes off, nearly choking him. They tossed him into the river, and while he was in : the water slashed him with their whips; took him out and threw him in again, firing his boots and clothes after him. He had to go on the run and could not return to his home till the truce was signed. Award—£llo. Dominick Grogan and Anthony Harrison were dragged on the public road and thrown into thorn hedges. Rifle muzzles were put into their mouths; they were asked to smell powder, and shots were fired over them, the soldiers crying out: "That's the stuff to give them." They were each beaten into a state of unconsciousness. Award—£loo'. each. Thomas Tarpey, who received similar treatment, was on the border of insanity (said Dr. Lyons). He was handcuffed over the head and dragged through the mire. He was cut and marked, and could not live at home till after the truce. Award —£225. Mr. F. P. Quinn, N.T., Kiltimagh, was taken from his door and marched through the streets with other young men. They got the order, "You swine, get on your knees." They were made lie flat on the street and rub their faces in the gutter, the soldiers and officers slashing them and using the foulest language. They marched them to the river, made them join hands, and threw them in, beating them down in the water with their rifle ends. They then

made them run towards the brow of a hill and fired volleys after them. He contracted double pneumonia and was still suffering. Award—£3Bo; Ed. Jordon, Kiltimagh, a disabled soldier, who received similar treatment, was awarded £3OO. Thos. Murphy, Patrick Moloney, Jos. Carroll, N.T., Kiltimagh; Thos. Costello, Thos. Haron, M. Mulloney, John and Wm. McDonogh, who were subjected to the same treatment, were awarded' sums from £SOO to £SO, according to the gravity of the effects left by their ill-treatment. Jos. Curry, of Swinford, was beaten in his own house and placed against the wall Avith a revolver to his head. Blood fell from his head to his vest. The officers and men were drunk. They pulled down his sister's cloak and told him to dry the blood in it. He protested that he would not desecrate the garment, as it was a Child of Mary's. They said they did not care a d if it was God's cloak, that he should obey. They put the cloak round him, took him out, and said that he would get a grand death. They slashed him and kicked him, but he dashed away, and they fired after him. Award —£75. Martin Dunleavy, a law clerk, and his brother, Peter, told how their house was raided, and everything torn down and smashed. Some of the articles they took they packed up in his sister's (a Child of Mary) cloak, and made them sign a statement that they took nothing. At the huts they beat and kicked them, and made them lie on a cold concrete floor. They were marched through the streets and beaten with revolvers and whips. They were taken out on the road bare-footed, and thrown into deep gripes, when they refused to give information about the I.R.A. One officer, addressing Morton, asked: "Are you intellectual?" He replied : "Fairly." And the next ue3tion AA-as: "Are you an R.C. ?" "Yes," he answered. "If you are," said the officer, "you cannot be intellectual." ' His Honor (Judge Doyle)—"That was his opinion, I suppose." Award—£9o each.