Dunmanway Killings

The Dunmanway killings were the killings of ten Protestant men in and around Dunmanway, County Cork, 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. Eight of those killed were suspected informers to British forces, while two more were relatives of suspected informers. Three more men were kidnapped and were presumed to have been killed. All the dead and missing were Protestant. which has led to the killings being described as sectarian and a massacre.

It is not clear who ordered the attacks or carried them out. 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, immediately condemned the killings.

The motivation of the killers has generated differences of opinion among historians. It is generally agreed that they were "sparked" by the fatal shooting of IRA commandant Michael O'Neill by a local loyalist whose house was being raided on 26 April. There is no consensus on why the ten killed and three disappeared were targeted. Some historians have claimed that there were sectarian motives; others claim that those killed were targeted only because they were suspected to have informed on the Irish Republican Army during the recent War of Independence. They argue that the dead were associated with the Murragh 'Loyalist Action Group' and that their names appeared in captured British military intelligence files which listed them as "helpful citizens" in the 1919-1921 conflict.