The town of Thurles, county Tipperary began December 1920 reeling from the news of the murderous attack made on two young men who had been playing cards in the a house at a place called Mullaunbrack.

  In total, four young men, all known in local GAA circles assembled in the house of Patrick Ryan, a farmer. The card players heard a military lorry approaching and when a man dressed in civilian clothes called to the door a shot rang out, hitting one man named Leahy in the shoulder. The shooter entered the house declaring ‘Tom O’Loughlin, you’re the man I want’ and fired a shot at him wounding him in the arm. Attacking his assailant, O’Loughlin was hit several times. Both men were transferred to Thurles Hospital after the attack. Dr Harty, Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, preaching the next morning strongly denounced the attack. About the same time as the attack at Mullaunabrack, another house was raided at Ballycahill. On this occasion, and not for the first time, Edward Maher was dragged from his house and threatened to be shot. As it had been in the past, Tipperary was proving troublesome. Of course, these events may well have been in recompense as news filtered through of the ambush of Kilmichael, county Cork on 28 November. Indeed, in the same edition of The Nationalist newspaper in which the Thurles attacks featured, news of Kilmichael, described as ‘awful’ by the newspaper was carried.  

Source: The Nationalist (Tipperary) 1889-current, Wednesday, December 01, 1920; Page: 3

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