This was in the autumn of 1920. We had now been a year and a half on the run with a price on our heads. But I was becoming more reckless. The war was going on with greater intensity every day. I saw that the struggle of the Irish people was taking the shape I had always hoped. The British soldiers and police, particularly the Black and Tans and the Auxiliaries—the latter were all ex-officers of the British Army, and were the garrison’s gentlemen murderers—were day and night looting shops, burning private houses, and murdering prisoners and torturing youths. But the more savage became their methods of repression the more determined the Irish people became to fight to the bitter end. Practically the whole country was now on our side, helping us with food and information when they could not give us more active assistance. Men who had not the same views as we had on active warfare were being driven into our ranks because if they stayed at home in their beds they would be murdered by the British in the dead of night. In fact, their only hope of safety was to get “on the run.” If anybody not intimately acquainted with the events of that period thinks I am accusing the British too much I can only refer him to the Irish newspapers of the time. These newspapers were bitterly opposed to our policy and our methods, so they were not likely to exaggerate on our behalf. Moreover if they dared to suggest any charge that could not be sustained against the British they knew they would be at once suppressed. Yet, day after day for a year and a half these papers reported the murder of scores of prisoners, the shooting of men in their beds, the looting of towns and the burning of whole streets. The historian will yet calculate the millions of pounds worth of damage they committed and the hundreds of murders they perpetrated. It is a well-known fact that dozens of these Black and Tans have since committed suicide or gone mad because of the horrors for which they were responsible. And all this time the I.R.A. was every day becoming a vaster and more perfect military machine. My prophecy to Sean Treacy of 1918 was being fulfilled. Once the fight for freedom started in earnest, as I had said, it was being kept up with renewed vigour. During this visit to Dublin I put a novel proposal before Headquarters, the adoption of which changed the whole nature of the struggle. I shall outline my proposal in the next chapter.