Madam, - The Bandon area massacre on April 27-29th, 1922 occurred more than nine months after the Truce, and four months after the Treaty had been signed. Any hair-splitting over whether or not the victims were previously "informers" is at least a red herring and more like an insulting justification for murder. The Truce orders of July 9th, 1921 were clear enough: "All hostilities cease at 12 noon on Monday the 11th July. . .All spies of whom you may have already been advised of are to be executed also before said hour on Monday".
After the Truce, the Dáil did not vote to allow former agents to be shot on sight. In the second quarter of 1922 the IRA murdered 41 people in Munster alone. To whom were the Bandon victims providing information in 1922, if they were agents? The answer must be: to nobody. They were no threat to anyone.
The salient fact is that it took the Dáil some two years after the Truce to control the armed men that it had supported. Bandon was not a pogrom, but many of the survivors felt that they could expect no protection from the new government. Thousands of people with savings and skills, of all religions, left the anarchic new Free State for a quieter life.
Needless events such as Bandon caused enormous loss to the country's economy. - Yours, etc,
PATRICK GUINNESS, Furness, Naas, Co Kildare.