In an effort to control the narrative of the war and to snuff out all opposition to the republican movement, on 13 May 1920 an attack was made on the home of Mr Sheehy, a solicitor and editor of the County Eagle newspaper in Skibbereen, county Cork.

  Answering a knock to the door shortly before midnight a number of armed and masked men rushed into the hall. Knocking him down, he was bound in ropes and his body, head and face were smeared with tar. No one witnessed the attack on the quiet Market Street in the town. Ms Sheehy, his sister who was out visiting, made the horrific discovery when she returned and quickly raised the alarm. Attended to by Dr O’Meara, it was said that Sheehy was severely traumatised by the incident. The cause of the outrage was presumed to be the fact that the Eagle newspaper was strongly anti-Sinn Fein in its stance. Within days Sheehy had lodged a claim for compensation for £1,000. Hitting back at the attack on Sheehy, the Eagle responded in its next issue condemning the assault. In addition, it vowed to continue to practice the principles of free speech claiming it would not be intimidated by the Sinn Fein movement. The editorial finished by stating that: ‘So the editor of the Eagle will continue, as ever, to challenge and combat this monstrous many headed enemy of individual freedom’.  

Download Source: Irish Examiner 1841-current, 14.05.1920, page 5; see also Irish Examiner 1841-current, Monday, May 17, 1920; Page: 5; See also Skibbereen Eagle 1882-1922, Saturday, May 22, 1920; Page: 4

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