Dunmanway killings

The Dunmanway killings, also known as the Bandon Valley Killings, the Dunmanway murders or the Dunmanway massacre, refers to the killing (and in some cases, disappearances) of fourteen males in and around Dunmanway, County Cork and Bandon Valley, 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. Of the fourteen dead and missing, thirteen were Protestants including one Methodist and one was Roman Catholic,^[4][5] which has led to the killings being described as sectarian. Six were killed as purported British informers and loyalists,^[6][7] while four others were relatives killed in the absence of the target. Three other men were kidnapped and executed in Bandon as revenge for the killing of an IRA officer Michael O'Neill during an armed raid. One man was shot and survived his injuries.^[2][8] Recent evidence confirms that the killings were carried out by local IRA members.^[9]

It is not clear who ordered the attacks or carried them out.^[2][10][11] However, in 2014 the Irish Times released a confidential memo from the then-Director of Intelligence Colonel Michael Joe Costello (later managing director of the Irish Sugar Company) in September 1925 in relation to a pension claim by former Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer Daniel O'Neill of Enniskeane^[12] County Cork, stating: "O'Neill is stated to be a very unscrupulous individual and to have taken part in such operations as lotting [looting] of Post Offices, robbing of Postmen and the murder of several Protestants in West Cork in May 1922. A brother of his was shot dead by two of the latter named, Woods and Hornbrooke [sic], who were subsequently murdered."^[13]

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 in, immediately condemned the killings.^[14]

The motivation of the killers remains unclear. It is generally agreed that they were provoked by the fatal shooting of IRA man Michael O'Neill by a loyalist whose house was being raided on 26 April.^[15] Some historians have claimed there were sectarian motives;^[4] others claim that those killed were targeted only because they were suspected of having been informers during the Anglo-Irish War, and argue that the dead were associated with the so-called "Murragh Loyalist Action Group", and that their names may have appeared in captured British military intelligence files which listed "helpful citizens" during the Anglo-Irish War (1919–1921).^[16][17]