Attacks on women continued during May 1920, with county Galway accounting for a further one before the end of the month.

  On the night of the 23 May about five miles from Tuam at a place called Cuslough, Castlemoyle a party of five men visited a house called Mannions at 11.30pm demanding to know where Anne Devine was. Strangers in the area the men presented themselves in a menacing manner and entered her bedroom after pointing a gun at one of Mannion’s sons. There they produced a latter which was said to have been captured in the mail bags which were stolen between Bantry and Bandon in county Cork. It was addressed to her from an RIC constable named Edward Daly, who hailed from the Tuam area. The men told her that she should have nothing to do with Ireland’s sworn enemies and then proceeded to shear her hair, almost to the skin. These savage attacks on women would continue during the remainder of the war. In June 1920 in county Kerry two girls were dragged from their house and were beaten by a gang of upwards of twenty men who sheared their hair. Not content with this they poured tar over the girls heads. On the following evening two more girls were subjected to the same treatment near Cahirciveen but escaped being tarred. The following month a young woman was taken from her home in Dungarvan county Waterford and her hair sheared from her head because she was deemed to have beeen ‘too friendly’ with soldiers.  

Download Source: Connacht Tribune 1909-current, Saturday, May 22, 1920; Page: 5; See also Leitrim Observer 1904-current, 29.05.1920, page 3

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