John Borgonovo in '' Spies , informers and the ' Anti-Sinn Féin Society ' , the Intelligence War in Cork City , 1920 – 21 '' , comments that Hart could " not offer any evidence of the IRA 's motivations " for the killings of suspected informers in Cork other than their occupation . Meehan notes Borgonovo 's detailed analysis of the IRA in Cork , and that Borgonovo disagreed profoundly with Hart 's discounting the IRA 's intelligence gathering capability . Borgonovo described it as " irresponsible " of Hart to discount IRA claims of the Dunmanway victims ' guilt in the killing of suspected or known informers without offering an analysis of IRA intelligence-gathering operations . Commenting on Hart 's work on the IRA in Cork , he wrote that " While Dr. Hart 's conclusions can be suspected , I do not believe they can be sufficiently documented . " At the time the press , including the '' Belfast Newsletter '' ( 1 May 1922 ) , the '' Irish Times '' ( 29 April 1922 ) , and '' The New York Times '' , stated that the killings at Dunmanway were in reprisal for the ongoing killings of Catholics in Belfast , such as the McMahon and the Arnon Street killings . Tim Pat Coogan suggests that O'Neill 's death precipitated the Dunmanway murders . Hart wrote that the killing of O'Neill " provided the spark " which was inflamed by the " Belfast pogroms " Ryan wrote " The outrages were ' sparked ' when Capt. Woods shot IRA man Michael O'Neill in the hallway of Thomas Hornibrooke 's house "
McMahon
McMahon killings
Dunmanway killings