Our Ballina Correspondent writes: - Extraordinary destruction was done by a mine washed ashore near Belmullet. A new pier erected a few years ago by the Congested Districts Board was blown to pieces, and some fishing boats lying beside it were so damaged as to be useless.
Fortunately, no person was close at hand at the time, but a man working 500 yards away was lifted into the air and thrown down violently. His left leg was badly cut by splinters, and his clothes were torn to rags. He is suffering from severe shock. Oats and potato crops along the shore were blackened. The explosion was heard many miles away, and fragments of the mine resembling delicate clockwork were picked up in all directions.
The Irish Times,
October 7th, 1918.