Ireland -- History -- 1910-1921; Ireland. Royal Irish Constabulary
During the late war extraordinary cases were known of men shot through
the head, even through the brain, living for hours afterwards, though
generally unable to speak; and Mayne, though paralysed, was quite
conscious when his murderers came up to where he was lying.
For some time the murderers argued whether they should finish him off,
or remove him as he was. In the end they put him into his own car,
unlocked the far gate, and drove off in the direction of Ballyrick.
After proceeding about a mile they came to a lane, which led up to a
lonely farm close to the sea. After driving up to the farm they threw
Mayne—still alive and conscious—on to a manure heap at the back of the
farmhouse, and then drove off. It was afterwards found that they then
took the car to a high cliff and ran it over the edge, to be broken up
on the rocks below in the sea.
Mayne spent the rest of that day lying on the manure heap, and so
terrorised were the inhabitants of the farm that not one of them dared
go near him. To give poor Mayne even a cup of cold water would have
meant certain death to the giver.
Late that evening the murderers returned, expecting to find Mayne dead
by now; but he was still alive, though in a pitiable state. Again they
argued among themselves whether they would finish him off or not, and
again for some unknown reason they decided not to. And these are the men
who, according to an English paper (thank God! not an Irish one), are
“entitled to the treatment which, in _civilised_ countries, is given to
prisoners of war.”
After some time an ass was harnessed to a cart, into which they threw
Mayne’s body, and then proceeded to the seashore below the farm. Here,
after another discussion, they buried him—still alive, though quite
paralysed—up to his neck in the sand, at a place where they thought the
incoming tide would just reach him and slowly drown him during the
night-time. It was now several hours since Mayne had been shot, and one
can only hope that, though he was still alive, his senses had become
numbed.
The following morning these fiends returned again to find that they had
miscalculated the height of the tide, which had only reached the level
of poor Mayne’s chin, and that he was _still alive_, though probably by
now quite mad. They then dug him up, and this time made no mistake, but
buried him where the tide was bound to drown him. And the next flood
tide put an end to a torture the like of which Lenin and Trotsky could
hardly exceed for sheer malignant devilry.
Blake and a strong escort of police had motored out to Ballyrick ahead
of Mayne, in case there might be an ambush on the road. The Court was
due to begin at twelve, and when by two there was no sign of the R.M.,
Blake left for Ballybor, making inquiries on the way, but could get no
tidings of him anywhere.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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