The sinister nature of the War of Independence was evident in Limerick in the summer of 1920 with the execution of a spy at Drumcollogher, near Newcastle West.

Remarkably, it took several weeks to identify the man as Patrick Daly, a farm labourer as described by the Belfast Newsletter in September. However, the report on the identification of Daly on 18 September highlights the need to check multiple sources when examining this or any other period of history. The newspaper claimed that Daly had been kidnapped on 30 August and shot on 1 September and found with several bullet wounds and the word spy on him. This may have been a genuine error as it appears from other sources that Daly had been shot on the first of August and the inquest took place a few days later. The body had been discovered by a young man who was delivering milk to the local creamery. He found the man in a ditch, blindfolded and his hands tied behind his back. He had been shot several times. The identification process took a number of weeks. An ITGWU card, dated from 1919 gave the biggest clue as to who the man was. From Ballyvolane, county Cork without anybody to claim the body, Daly was interred in the local workhouse cemetery, another victim of the War of Independence. The newspapers of the time did not elaborate on his supposed crime.  

Source: Belfast Newsletter 1738-1938, 18.09.1920, page 5

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