IRON HAND METHODS.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 December 1922, Page 5

IRON HAND METHODS.

DEATH SENTENCES. TERMS OF SUSPENSION. FARMER SHOT DEAD. By Telegraphy-Press Assn.—Copyright. Received Dec. 20, 8.40 p.m. London, Dec. 19. It is officially announced at Dublin that four men, who were found guilty of being in unlawful possession of rifles and ammunition, were sentenced to death. In view of the favorable reports from General Murphy, who is commanding at Kerry, the execution of the sentences has been suspended, but if-, after Thursday next, National troops arc ambushed, railways or roadways interfered with, or private property damaged, the sentences of death will forthwith be carried out. A young Protestant farmer named Wolfe, in the Kinsale district, wan found dead on the roadside with five bullets in his body. He was a wellknown steeplechase rider. Whether he entered an ambush or was deliberately murdered ie not known.

The seven men executed on Thursday morning brought the total to nineteen since the Southern Government introduced ‘lron Hand” methods. Arrested with them was a woman armed with a revolver, described as the proprietress of a farmhouse near Curragh, where the arrests were made, and rifles, revolvers and bombs were found with a ton of goods looted from trains. Another of the gang of ten was shot dead while trying to escape, so only two are alive. The seven executed were allowed to send farewell messages to their relatives and friends, but were tried and the sentences carried out quickly, under the terms of the proclamation of Mr. Mulcahy on the day that Rory O’Connor was executed. Received Dec. 20, 7.30 p.m. London, Dec. 19. The men executed at Dublin belonged to a column of 10 men who operated against a goods train and property in the Kildare district. FIRST ACT PASSED. London, Dec. 18. The first Irish Act of Parliament for 123 years was passed in the Senate at Dublin, being a technical measure entitled the Adaptation Enactments Bill.