September 13 1922

ACCORDING to a Cork message, an aeroplane was forced to land, owing to defective oil pressure, near Macroom [County Cork] on Friday.

Becoming aware of the mishap, local Irregulars, in the absence of the pilot, fired shots into the machine which caught fire. Shortly afterwards there was a loud explosion.

The aeroplane was completely wrecked. Meanwhile a party of CID men, motoring in Dublin, were bombed in Lower Dorset Street shortly after one o’clock yesterday afternoon.

The bomber, however, missed their mark but Miss Kathleen Moyles, dress-maker, who was passing by on her way home, was struck by bomb splinters and wounded in the leg. A surprise movement by National troops operating in the western angle of the Silvermines Mountains [County Tipperary] brought about the capture of an entire Irregular flying column numbering seventeen.

Mr John O’Hare of Carlingford and two passengers with whom he was motoring from Dundalk on Sunday night had a narrow escape as a result of running into the zone occupied by a band of Irregulars who were engaged in the blowing up of bridges.

No sooner had the machine passed the armed party than it was followed by a shower of bullets which ripped the tyres from the wheels and almost immediately the occupants found themselves overturned on the roadside.

Creeping through a hedge into the darkness, they made for places of safety and several hours elapsed before they were able to walk home.

Serious Difficulties: Editorial

All Ireland outside the six northeastern counties is ‘cut off’ from communication by letter, telegraph and telephone from the rest of the world and the peoples of different districts… cannot get into touch with one another.

Industry, internal trade and commerce with other countries have been hampered to the verge of suspension by the destructive activities of the Irregulars…

Meanwhile the Irregulars are prosecuting their campaign as zealously as they know; each day’s performances add some tens or hundreds of thousands to the grim total of the damage inflicted on the nation. Ambushes are reported from many places and much of the harvest will not be saved.

The new government’s path is beset with difficulties more serious than outsiders can realise, but if they are men of genuine grit they will win at the end for the people will follow if they are resolutely led.

THIS digest of reports from various parts of Ireland shows the extent and devastating impact of the civil war on the south. The pro-Treaty Irish News laid the blame squarely on De Valera and the Irregulars who had ‘demanded a grim sacrifice from the Irish people’.