asked the Minister for Defence if his attention had been drawn to the serious state of affairs at present existing in the South County Dublin, and particularly in the neighbourhood of Foxrock and Carrickmines; to ask whether it is not a fact that the inhabitants of these places so near Dublin are terrorised nightly and daily; and to ask what steps he purposes to take in the matter.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. - CONDITION OF CO. DUBLIN.
The state of affairs in this neighbourhood has come under the notice of the military authorities. It suffers from the operation of the general activity carried on by the Irregulars all over the country and from the operation, under cover of these disturbances, of a number of criminals. The remedying of this state of affairs is part of the general objective of the National Forces.
I would like to supplement that question; is it not known to the Ministry, as it is very well known in the district, who exactly these people are who are conducting these nightly raids?
For some weeks back a small band of Irregulars created a state of terror in Foxrock district. Their activities were not alone confined to outrages against the Government, but were also directed against private property. Robbery under arms and the plundering of private houses were rampant in Foxrock district up to last week. This gang attacked the late Commander-in-Chief's car from the very cottage in which last week two of them were killed and two captured. These fired on the troops that went to arrest them, and two of them were killed in the subsequent firing, on whom a jury yesterday returned the verdict, “Killed by troops in the execution of their duty.” On the 14th of August a National soldier, who was on leave from the Curragh, was visiting his home in Dean's Grange. He was held up in Kill Lane by men in a motor car. They asked him was he armed, and he replied that he was not. Then one of this gang fired a shot, seriously wounding the soldier. While this soldier was in a critical condition in a hospital in Dun Laoghaire, he signed a statement, saying that the men who shot him were “locals,” and it transpired later that they were the same men that occupied New Park Lodge on the night of the fatal raid in which two of them lost their lives. Order has been restored in Foxrock district for the past week, and we have established a post there.