As I said, the three detachments met at Mountain Stage and they had about 200 prisoners. Some of them were only rounded up going to Mass. This boy O'Grady was unknown to the officer who arrested him, and he had given the name of O'Shea because he was very well known in the district and he knew that if he gave his own name he would be arrested and, if he did not, he might possibly get off. When he was brought to Mountain Stage the people naturally all said: "There is O'Grady," and that identified him. A certain officer walked up to Frank O'Grady, put out his hand to him, and said: "How are you, Frank?" and as Frank put out his hand this officer struck him with a Peter the Painter on the head. The second officer remarked: "Why dirty your hands on the——?" calling him an offensive name, and the first officer again pulled his Peter the Painter and fired at O'Grady point blank, shooting him, and again when on the ground he fired a second bullet into him which killed him. Afterwards one member of the party, who was not an officer, fired from a rifle as O'Grady was on the ground, but missed him. At any rate, the officer who shot him asked if there was first aid about and one of the prisoners stepped forward but found that nothing could be done for O'Grady, that he was practically dead. He was brought into a house where he was found to be dead, and the Free State officers and soldiers marched away with the remaining prisoners, not taking them all, but taking certain prisoners to Killorglin.
It would be no harm, at any rate, to mention the names of witnesses and their addresses, witnesses who are prepared to swear to a certain officer shooting Frank O'Grady, an unarmed prisoner, without any provocation whatsoever. In fact, as I mentioned, while Frank O'Grady was putting out his hand to shake hands with the same officer he was hit, knocked down and then shot. The witnesses who are prepared to testify to that are:—Michael O'Connor, Railway Cottage, Curragh, Glenbeigh, Kerry; Michael Cahill, Glenbeigh, Kerry; Maurice Burke, Mountain Stage, Glenbeigh, Kerry; Mrs. Johanna Digges, Mountain Stage, Glenbeigh, Kerry; Michael Digges, Mountain Stage, Glenbeigh, Kerry, and Mrs. Bridget Sugrue, the same address. Unfortunately, most of the witnesses who, however, might not be considered as impartial witnesses by the Minister for Defence—that is, the prisoners who were with him—are now in America, but those I have mentioned were in the vicinity at the time going to Mass and they saw this being done.
Those names are available for the Minister for Defence, and he can get statements from these people if he wants them with regard to this crime. I am not sure but that the Minister may say he is powerless to act in the matter as the amnesty may cover it. I I do not know whether he is powerless or not. At any rate, he is not powerless to act with regard to the second part of the question, in which I asked if compensation would be paid to the relatives of this man. Frank O'Grady was an only son. His father, mother, two sisters and himself lived on a small farm near Glenbeigh. One of the sisters is married, and the other is at home at present with her father and mother, both of whom are old. They have no one to look after the little bit of land they have, and they are very poor. I think this is a case in which the Minister for Defence might consider giving them something as compensation for depriving them of their only son. I know, or at least I can make a fair guess, that when the Minister replies he is going to talk about anarchy and men being in arms against the Government. He will perhaps say to me as he said yesterday: "Can you prove that he was not in arms against the State?" He was not armed when he was arrested, but I think that he would possibly have taken up arms, or had taken up arms perhaps against the National Army. I am not sure about that. I have no doubt about this, that he was a well-known figure in the Anglo-Irish war, and a well-known fighting man in Kerry against the British. He may not have thought it right to change his opinions when the Treaty came along and take his side with the Minister for Defence. He may have thought, like many another young person at that time, that he was bound to abide by the oath that he had taken, saying, "I will support and defend the Irish Republic and the Government of the Irish Republic, which is Dáil Eireann, against all enemies, foreign and domestic." That is all I have to say on the case. Personally I am not out for vengeance in this matter now that the case has gone so far, but I would appeal to the Minister for Defence to see that these people are not left in poverty as a result of their loss.