May 1920 ended with a number of crimes and outrages committed as part of ongoing land disputes throughout the country.

  In Ballinrobe county Mayo the first Dail Eireann Land Court had met in May presided over by Arthur O’Connor and Kevin O’Sheil. One of the first cases before them involved nine people from Kilmaine who sought the division of land owned by the Magdalene Asylum in Galway. Every hope was displayed that they could come to an agreement and that it would be done speedily. However, towards the end of the month land disputes in other parts of the country were no so amicable. In county Clare shots were fired into the home of an elderly farmer named Thomas Killeen at Inch, near Ennis. Injuring Killeen, but not seriously, the attack was said to have had its origins in a land dispute. Likewise, at Lisdoonvarna the home of John Kerin was attacked and shots fired which wounded him in the chest and abdomen. These incidents occurred at the time when Brian O’Higgins, a founding member of the Irish Volunteers in 1913 was actively trying to organise republican courts in county Clare. Significantly, O’Higgins claimed that many of the claims for land in the county were ‘frivolous and unjust, and without foundation’ and called on the people to put trust in Dail Eireann to settle all aspects of the land question. Those who continued to send threatening letters and use violent methods would be doing so in opposition to the Dail and would have to forfeit any claim to the land.     Download Source: Freemans Journal 1763-1924, 27.05.1920, page 5   FreemansJournal_27May1920_page5