Two engines had been taken from a shed at Kildare and one of them had been sent down the line into an obstruction at Cherryville, thereby blocking the line. It was also alleged that goods trains had been looted and shops robbed in the locality. The same column was also reported to have taken part in an ambush of Free State troops at the Curragh siding on 25 November. On 13 December the men were surprised in a dug-out at a farmhouse at Moore's Bridge, on the edge of the Curragh plains, by Free State troops. In the dug-out were ten men, ten rifles, a quantity of ammunition, and other supplies. The men were arrested and conveyed to the Curragh. The proprietress of the farmhouse was also arrested and lodged in Mountjoy Prison. Controversy surrounds the circumstances of the death of Thomas Behan, one of the men. One version has it that his arm was broken when he was being apprehended and he was subsequently killed by a blow of a rifle butt on the head at the scene of the raid when he was unable to climb on the truck that conveyed the men to the Curragh. The official version was that he was shot when attempting to escape from a hut in which he was detained in the Curragh Camp. Those that were executed: Stephen White (18) Abbey Street, Kildare Joseph Johnston (18) Station Road, Kildare Patrick Mangan (22) Fair Green, Kildare Patrick Nolan (34) Rathbride, Kildare Brian Moore (37) Rathbride, Kildare James O’Connor (24) Bansha, Co. Tipperary Patrick Bagnall (19) Fair Green, Kildare A memorial to the executed men can be found in Kildare Town. During the Irish Civil War, at least two men died in the Curragh Camp while in custody: Owen Boyle on 13 November 1923 and Frank O'Keefe also in 1923 (day of year not stated). During this time Irish Republican prisoners in Mountjoy Prison began the 1923 Irish Hunger Strikes, protesting being interned without charges or trial and poor prison conditions. The strike quickly spread to other camps and prisons nationwide with the Curragh having the largest number of strikers - 3,390. Three prisoners died in the Curragh as the result of hunger-strikes - Joseph Whitty, aged 19 (while on Hunger strike) on 2 September 1923, Dan Downey (who died in Curragh's Hospital Wing on 10 June 1923 due the effects of an