Throughout the month of February 1920, a number of outrages were committed across the country, the motives for which were not always clear.

At Ballylongford, county Kerry a young man named Heaphy was shot through the shoulder as he left his house, the shot alleged to have been fired by a policeman. The injured man was removed to hospital in Limerick and said to have been in a precarious condition. In the same week, a soldier in Ballyshannon, county Donegal fired several rounds of his weapon in the air before being overpowered by other soldiers who took the gun from him. In county Westmeath, at a place called Tubber, a shot was fired through the window of a house, narrowly missing the occupant. Land was said to have been the issue in this incident. In Limerick City a man named James Dalton, who was employed in the Limerick Gas Works was fired at, as he made his way home from work. Four revolver shots were fired, one of which hit Dalton in the hand, fracturing a finger. Two men were observed in a lane way after the incident but made their escape, although one it was claimed had been identified. Dalton took an active part in the election of Eamon de Valera in East Clare and Count Plunkett in Roscommon. According to Dalton he had dismissed rumours concerning him in the Sinn Fein movement, but he had declined to bring slander charges. In light of the number of outrages across the country, it was little wonder that the Irish bishops in their Lenten Pastorals delivered the same week, called on people to desist from joining secret societies or carrying out these outrages.

Download Source: Freemans Journal, 16 February 1920; Page: 3; See also Limerick Leader, 16 February 1920, page 3.