Misplaced Pages

Talk:Dunmanway killings: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 18:30, 8 November 2009 editRockpocket (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users24,891 edits Article rework: reply← Previous edit Latest revision as of 21:39, 13 February 2024 edit undoCewbot (talk | contribs)Bots7,671,239 editsm Maintain {{WPBS}}: 2 WikiProject templates. Keep majority rating "C" in {{WPBS}}. Remove 1 same rating as {{WPBS}} in {{WikiProject Ireland}}.Tag: Talk banner shell conversion 
(275 intermediate revisions by 35 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{WikiProject banner shell|class=C|
{{WikiProject Ireland |small= |nested= |class=c|importance= low|attention= |peer-review= |old-peer-review= |image-needed=yes |needs-infobox=no }}
{{WikiProject Ireland|importance= low|needs-infobox=no }}
{{WPMILHIST|class=B|British=no<!-- B-Class checklist -->
{{WikiProject Military history|class=B<!-- B-Class checklist -->
<!-- 1. It is suitably referenced, and all major points are appropriately cited. --> <!-- 1. It is suitably referenced, and all major points are appropriately cited. -->
|B-Class-1= yes |B-Class-1= yes
Line 11: Line 12:
<!-- 5. It contains appropriate supporting materials, such as an infobox, images, or diagrams. --> <!-- 5. It contains appropriate supporting materials, such as an infobox, images, or diagrams. -->
|B-Class-5= yes |B-Class-5= yes
|British=yes
}} }}
}}
{{Image requested|in=County Cork‎‎}}


{{Troubles restriction}} {{Troubles restriction}}


{{archive box| {{Archive box|
] <small>(Nov 2006—July 2008)</small><br> * ] <small>(2006—2008)</small>
] <small>(January 2009)</small><br> * ] <small>(January 2009)</small>
] <small>(Feb—September 2009)</small><br> * ] <small>(Feb—September 2009)</small>
] <small>(Sept—early October 2009)</small><br> * ] <small>(Sept—October 2009)</small>
* ] <small>(Oct—November 2009)</small>
}} }}
__TOC__
{{Clear}}


== Civilians == ==Summary==
This seems an easier issue than most such issues to resolve:

(1) There is evidence and statements that some people in or connected to the IRA regarded them as informers based on what they thought was evidence.
So now we are disputing that they were civilians? Why? ] (]) 20:54, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
(2) This evidence would not hold up in a modern court of law as it appears to be based on a list no longer available.

(3) To jump from that and assert the there was no list or evidence ''at all'', and that the victims were merely randomly selected is speculation or ].
:The sources do. Civilians implies non-combatant, as some were at least alleged to be members of the Loyalist Action Group (and thus combatants) civilian is inappropriate. That is before taking into account whether informers should be described as civilians or not. ] (]) 21:17, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
(4) So, "suspected informers" is the closest fit to the limited evidence we have available.

Nobody can be sure of what the exact truth was - or at least I cannot see how anyone could be sure. ] (]) 22:56, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
::Informers - this means someone who gave information to the British forces. Is this not a civilian? Would the same logic justify, for example, the Auxiliary's shooting of Cork civilians who gave information to the IRA (which they did)? Were they combatants too? I wouldn't argue this and I'm sure you wouldn't either. Re the Loyalist Action group. First of all, Ryan says that all of those named were "associated with the Murrgah Loyalist Action Group". Were they members? Was the Loyalist Action Group a combatant organisation in the first place? ] (]) 22:11, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
: Yes, very nicely put, Sarah. ]<span style="color:black;">e</span>] 22:58, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
:::According to Hart, "The West Cork guerrillas were convinced that 'the loyalists had a group called the Protestant Action Group', a counter-revolutionary underground, and that this organization had assassinated a number of Volunteers in 1920 and 1921, most notably the Coffey brothers of Enniskeane", and prior to that he says the Hornibrooks were believed to be involved in the loyalist conspiracy by veterans of the Bandon and Dunmanway IRA. Ryan says that is an alternate name for the Loyalist Action Group, and also links it to the Coffey shootings. ] (]) 22:31, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
::Yes, absolutely right. --] (]) 23:01, 14 November 2009 (UTC)

:::Agreed. And that's three things Sarah and I agree on! Wonders will never cease! ]<sup>]</sup> 23:03, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
:::As to your other point, there is a grey area between combatant and non-combatant, they are not black and white. For more information see ]. ] (]) 22:39, 14 October 2009 (UTC)
:Afirmative. ] (]) 23:05, 14 November 2009 (UTC)

::::On the first point. Hart also says, "There is no evidence whatsoever that such a conspiracy existed...In fact the murders of the Coffeys and others in 1921, for which local loyalist were blamed, appear to have been the work of an RIC 'special squad' who worked undercover, 'all dressed like old farmers'" (p285) Interestingly enough, Tom Barry agrees. (Guerrilla Days in Ireland, p 98), "The third and fourth deaths of that dark twelve day period ] ] were brothers, Patrick and James Coffey of Breaghna Enniskeane, who were murdered in their beds by Auxiliaries and Black and Tans on February 14". So linking that killing with Dunmanway is highly speculative. On top of that two of the killed were 16 years old, one was 59, two more were in their 60s, one was 70 and the other 89 (Hart p284). That leaves a maximum of three of military age. And re "unprivileged combatants", they are accused of passing information to Crown forces, during a conflict that was over since July of the previous year. That makes them civilians. ] (]) 00:18, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

:::::How am I linking anything with Dunmanway? You asked for evidence that the LAG was a combatant organisation, there are sources that say yes they were. And if Hart says there is no evidence it is true is it, despite the sources cited by Ryan that say the exact opposite? It is well documented how if evidence does not fit his pre-conceived theory he left it out, such as the sentence beginning "An exception to this rule was in the Bandon area.." from the "Record of the Rebellion in Ireland" and a similar claim by Hart of "no evidence" despite the Sir Jeudwide Papers saying there was. It seems to me that when Peter Hart says there is "no evidence" of anything that is really a euphemism for "I have ignored the evidence". And since violence related to the War of Independence was still ongoing in April 1922, your other argument is specious. I do not advocate describing them as anything other than "men", since that is indisputably the most neutral description. Almost every reader would assume since it does not say "Protestant soldier" that "Protestant men" refers to (so-called) civilians, so I do not see the point of this discussion, unless you are intent on pushing your bias into this article. ] (]) 00:37, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

:::::::So you can cite Hart when you like what he says but the rest of the time he's a liar? And what about Tom Barry? Was he in on it too? The link made to Dunmanway is clear, the argument was that they were not civilians because they were linked with the loyalist action group. But linking this group with any killings is highly speculative and lnking those killed with those killing is more speculative again, especially given their ages. Re the other argument, not specious considring the British were in the process of evacuating the area at the time. ] (]) 00:53, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

::::::::Since Hart is your preferred source and Ryan is seemingly some untrustworthy person who makes up evidence, I decided to cite a source you could not question. I am not suggesting linking this group with any killings, but my point remains that with (bare minimum) accusations of membership of a combatant group, they should not be described as civilians. You failed to address my point that any reader seeing the phrase "Protestant men" would not think of anything else but civlians surely? ] (]) 00:57, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

:::::::::That makes no sense. You cited Hart to say the opposite of what he actually said. On the other point, because there were "accusations" that means they were guilty of something? Stretching it a bit. Finally, "men" is ok, but why not include civilians if that's what they were? Why leave the reader to make the connection? ] (]) 10:21, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

::::::::::Because combatants and informers are not civlians? ] (]) 20:06, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

:::::::::::We're going round in circles here. But to clarify, those killed were not combatants (outlined above) and informers are not combatants.] (]) 20:55, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

::::::::::::No, you're going round in circles because you don't listen. Members of the loyalist group were not civlians, you are ignoring the evidence that some of them were. Informers are not civilians either, try reading will you? Also please do not add duplicate information to the lead. ] (]) 21:04, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

:::::::::::::I am listening. The loyalist group was not a combatant group (evidence above). Disagreeing is not the same as not reading. Informers are not combatants. Not to mention that assertion that they were informers being highly disputed. And, as pointed out above, two were 16 and five were old men. Are re the info in the lede which you keep removing, what I'm trying to do is get all the victims in there, which includes IRA comdt O'Neill and three British soldiers. 22:12, 21 October 2009 (UTC)
::::::::::::::Who says that informers are "combatants"? Seems an odd thing to say. If they are "informing" (which means passing on information either to the military or civilian authorities) then, by definition, surely they cannot be combatants. If they were, in fact, a "combatant" they would just be intelligence-gathering and passing the information either from one branch of the military to another, or from the military to the civilian authorities with which the military is connected. That is not "informing". If a member of the IRA passed information about someone to another member of the IRA or to a branch of the Dáil, would he have been "informing"? On the other hand, a civilian who passed information to the IRA about, say, the whereabouts of a policeman, he ''would'' be informing. Just some thoughts. ] (]) 08:28, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
:::::::::::::::Actually, informers are a form of spy. And spies are treated as people without any rights in military law. ] (]) 18:23, 25 October 2009 (UTC)
::::::::::::::::Says who? ] (]) 09:28, 26 October 2009 (UTC)
:::::::::::::::::Neither Hart nor Coogan calls them civilians, at least not that I can see. It is not a neutral term for informers and/or members of the LAG. ] (]) 10:05, 26 October 2009 (UTC)
::::::::::::::::::Very interesting, but unfortunately doesn't answer the question. ] (]) 10:15, 26 October 2009 (UTC)
:::::::::::::::::::You assume I was answering your question, I was not. ] (]) 10:17, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

== order of intro ==

I re-arranged the intro ] after it had been previously changed.
*First, the intro was repeating itself. It said the killings took place in Cork in April 1922, then in and around Dunmanway on Paril 26-28. So I put all this info into line.
*Also the phrase "the killings took place" was repeated twice. So I deleted one mention.
*I put the context ,ie in the truce period before the informer info. It's significant that this did not happen during the war of independence but after it. And that this was not an IRA operation against informers. In fact it was condemned by them and guards were posted to prevent a repeat. ] (]) 12:46, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

:Looking over the history of the lede I have to say I think it has generally improved significantly over where it was when I came in to help out; you guys have done a very good job making it both more informative and more neutral. I'm very encouraged by what I see here and I think that, if possible, it might be good to keep it generally stable as it is currently. ] (]) 15:15, 17 October 2009 (UTC)

By suggesting that because this did not happen during the war of independence but after it that this was therefore not an IRA operation against informers is simple ]. Please provide a source which offers this view. Again in the lead, without any supporting sources it says that the killings took place in an area controlled by the Anti-Treaty IRA. Which author has noted this information in relation to the killings? Editors who take two unrelated sources of information to offer a conclusion are only offering the reader with their ] of the information. The lead is trying to offer conlusions which are not attempted in the article, or supported by the article content. I've removed the ], and will address other issues lated. I have provided correctly sourced information with the correct page numbers in the last sentence. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 11:26, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
:I've restored the reference to the killings taking place in a period of truce. This is significant and is covered in the article. It is a simple statement of fact and stating this does not in any way imply anything about whether or not the killings were an IRA operation against informers. The last sentence of the lede is shockingly drafted in terms of the grammar, and I'm not sure that consensus was sought for its inclusion, but I haven't touched it at this stage. ] (]) 11:57, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
Offer suggestions on changes with the grammer to the last sentence if you wish. The replacement of the text which is attempting to lead the reader to a conclusion which even the article does not attempt to do and is not supported by the article text however must be removed. The editor who introduced the text outlined above their rational for adding it stating "''It's significant that this did not happen during the war of independence but after it. And that this was not an IRA operation against informers''." It is the editor above who has suggested how significant this information is in the lead, and that their rational for adding it is prompted by their POV, that those killed were not killed because they were informers. The editor had and offered a clear intension for the text. If however, this view is supported by a reference it would offer us the oppertunity to discuss it here, but since it is only significant in the lead because an editor states that it supports their personal opinion, it can not stay. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 13:00, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
:::It is patently obvious that the fact that these acts of violence took place during a period of cessation of hostilities is significant. Stating this does not lead the reader to any conclusions about the motivation for the killings. ] (]) 14:55, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
Please address the points I raised above. The editor who added the text clearly stated above what the conclusions to be drawn from the texts inclusion are, and those conclusions are not supported by the article or a supporting reference. Now provide a rational other than the above editors attempt to insert their unsupported ], and please provide a reference which supports the context in which the text is being used or the text gets removed. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 15:59, 22 October 2009 (UTC)
:::::There is no OR in the lede, nor any unsupported views. The editor is entitled to express his or her views on the Talk page. My concern is the article, not any editor's personal views. ] (]) 10:03, 23 October 2009 (UTC)
Per my previous request above. The editor took their personal view from the talk page and placed it in the lead. Now address the issues I've raised above, or the text is removed. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 12:14, 23 October 2009 (UTC)
:::::::Which part of the lead is an expression of Jdorney's personal view? ] (]) 12:35, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

:::::::Domer you do not have final say on what goes into the article. This is done by consenus. per request, sources: Re the killings taking place in the Truce, no pov here, simple fact. The British had evacuated the area in early 1922. See Ryan p156, Hart, p112. Re the Anti-Treaty IRA being in control of the area, see Hart p277, Ryan p153-155, Coogan p 358-359. Re being an IRA operation again, no OR. Plain fact is that it was not ordered by any of the 3rd Cork Brigade leaders, who returned to Cork to stop further killings. See Ryan p160-161, Coogan p359. May have involved IRA members (probably did), but was not an ordered IRA operation. ] (]) 00:19, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

You'll have to provide quotes to support your edits. I have the books and have been unable to find the text to support your conclusions or the context in which it is presented. With your record of edit warring to add completly misleading information to articles , and claiming that your edits are "''clearly factual''" I consider my request reasonable under the circumstances. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 09:04, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

:Sources have been clearly provided. ] (]) 10:23, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

::Having checked the sources, they do not support your use of the text, and considering your use of wild accusations (noted above) and misleading and incorrect edit summaries () you were asked to provide quoted references, which you have still not done. Now either you have the page numbers wrong, are citing a different edition or you are trying to use ] to put forward your personal POV. As you have clearly stated above that it is you who has put forward "the context" to support your view that "this was not an IRA operation against informers" you have been asked to support this with more than just your own opinion. I'll once again allow you the oppertunity to address the issue before I once again remove what is currently ]. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 11:30, 24 October 2009 (UTC)


:::::Oh! Excellent. So maybe we could appoint Rock to lighten the Hart influence a wee bit as he suggested and write a version based on the facts we seem to be agreed on. (Pretty similar to the existing version I'd imagine). Then maybe we can take this off the list of "disputes" and insist on ''very good sources '' for any future re-interpretations? ] (]) 23:11, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
:::Re page no's. My editions are are as follows, Ryan, Tom Bary, IRA Freedom Fighter. Mercier 2003 (hardback edition). Coogan, Michael Collins, Arrow 1991, (paperback). Hart, IRA and its Enemies, Clarendon 1999 (paperback).
:::::: My problem is that I don't have access to Ryan's book, so I'm struggling to give better coverage to her conclusions. Almost all the stuff cited to her previously was criticisms of Hart's conclusions culled from various pamphlets (which is not what we want) instead of her own conclusions (which we do want). If anyone else could come up with some sourced material that illustrates how Ryan interpreted the event, it would be most helpful. O Fenian appears to be familiar with her writing, but he has gone awol recently. ]<span style="color:black;">e</span>] 23:18, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
:::::::Is Domer not familiar with that material? ] (]) 23:22, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
:::::::: I don't know. Any input he has on this matter would be welcome, of course, though we could do without revisiting the ''Hart is discredited'' arguments again. ]<span style="color:black;">e</span>] 23:26, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
:::::::::I thought that was resolved? The text covers his revisionism/alleged revisionism fairly I think. No need to reopen that issue. ] (]) 23:32, 14 November 2009 (UTC)


::::::::::Good work on the summary Sarah. Credit where it's due. Re Ryan she doesn't have an awful lot in the way of conclusions on the actual incident in ''Tom Barry, IRA Freedom Fighter''. The whole chapter is more or less devoted to rebutting Hart. The closest I can find to a conclusion on the events is (158-159),
:::Use of extensive quotes is not appropriate in the lede. But; re the anti Treaty IRA being in control of the area. Ryan p154, "Since the handing over of Dublin Castle to the Provisional Government in Dublin, local IRA units around the country had been taking over British evacuated positions" p156, "In west Cork the British military had evacuated all premises held during the war". Hart, p112,"Most police and Army detachments were withdrawn towards the end of 1922, their barracks grudgingly handed over to local IRA units". futher down, "The staffs of the First southern Division and all five Cork Brigades unanimously declared theri rejection of the deal ", p113, "Although most Cork guerrillas opposed the settlement, they were its immediate benificiaries. For the first seven months of 1922 they constituted the only real authority in the county". p277, The Provisional Government and the Dail condemned the killings and promised to 'bring the culprits to justice', but did nothing. At the time, with only a small nascent army in Dublin and the dissident IRA in control of nearly the whole of Cork, there was little they could do". Coogan, p359, Tom Hales of O'Neills Brigade (3rd Cork) ordered all arms brought under cotrol" "Hales, who was engaged at the time in armed oppossition to Griffith's government".


::::::::::"Peter Hart concludes the motives were 'sectarian' rather than disloyalty to the Republican cause by informing on their fight for freedom activities. According to Peter Hart, when the men of the Cork IRA used the term 'informer' it simply meant 'enemy'...Yet all of the surnames (in the Dunmanway/Ballineen/Enniskeane district) of those shot in the closing days of April 1922, were listed as 'helpful citiizens' in the Dunmanway 'find'. But the names of two of those fatally shot are not on the list - only last names are there. In one case a son was shot when his father was not at home. An elderly man was shot instead of his brother, who ahd been wanted by the IRA and he had been, 'one of the men' who 'fingered' IRA men resulting in their arrest torture and deaths. Those who saw the document knew the anems of he 'helpful citizens' - some of whom escaped. (Only one loyalist was listed in the diary. The others were in separate dossiers)." ] (]) 11:20, 15 November 2009 (UTC)
:::The other line you are deleting is, ''However there is no consensus on why the ten killed and three disappeared were targeted''. A summary of the evidence cited in the lede. In the following two sentences it is demonstrated that there are two competing interpretations.] (]) 12:57, 24 October 2009 (UTC)


:::::::::::It seems ''nobody'' is claiming the son and the elderly man shot, either in error or deliberately, were actually themselves informers. Thus describing all 10 simply as informers would be inaccurate. As per facts we are all agreed on? ] (]) 09:27, 16 November 2009 (UTC)
::::Without even having to check the sources your own quotes above illustrate your very obvious ]. "''It is not clear who ordered the attacks or carried them out''" that is supported and referenced but your addition is not. Your addition to the text is to offer the reader an inference which is not supported by the sources or the article. I've already addressed your ] about it not being an IRA operation against informers and you have offered no supporting reference. You really must stop this disruptive editing. Now again, being reasonable, I'll again allow you the oppertunity to address both your ] and ]. You provide sources which clearly support the ] you wish to push, or you remove the text. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 15:29, 24 October 2009 (UTC)


:::::::::::: Collateral casualties aside, you won't address the point above. Informer or suspected informer are both pejorative terms as those done to death were at the time proper law-abiding citizens whose duty it was to tell the aurhorities of activities that would otherwise lead to people being killed.--] (]) 21:27, 18 November 2009 (UTC)
:::::No synthesis. Only referenced material has been provided. No more comment necessary here. ] (]) 16:48, 24 October 2009 (UTC)
::::::Still waiting for Domer48 to explain how a statement that the killings took place after the truce was in place is OR. ] (]) 16:54, 24 October 2009 (UTC)


:::::::::::::Fynire, with respect you seem to be ploughing a lonely furrow here. People on all sides seem to feel that "suspected informers" is neutral and not pejorative. Nobody is suggesting that the dead were traitors, and nobody but you seems to be drawing that inference, ] (]) 23:20, 19 November 2009 (UTC)
I’ve gone ahead and removed the editors ] and ] from the Lead. The use of obfuscation, vacillation and complete inability to support what can now only be described as disruptive POV editing despite repeated efforts provided to them to allow them the opportunity to address the issues have been ignored. Should they wish to return to the issue, it would be hoped their attitude will be one which is more conducive to constructive discussion. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 13:32, 25 October 2009 (UTC)


:::::::::::::: Not that lonely I suspect Scolaire.
:Sorry but you have not demonstrated your concerns, nor have you reached any consensus. Sources including extensive quotes have clearly been provided. ] (]) 17:22, 25 October 2009 (UTC)
Traitor is a better epithet than informer which is usually an epithet for low lifes.
::I agree. Doesn't seem like OR to me either. --] (]) 18:13, 25 October 2009 (UTC)
How would you like to be murdered and have it written into the historical record that you were a 'suspected rapist' or some such when the thought had never crossed your mind nor the concept imagined? This is victor's language not neutral (NPOV).
And 'suspected' implies possible innocence to boot, yet few using the term have the slightest doubt you deserved your fate, suspected or otherwise. If your father or brother's name was on the bullet it is all the same in their eyes. Listen to the tone. --] (]) 00:06, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
:"Traitor" is better than "informer"?!! Not on this planet! ] (]) 01:28, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
::: Treason never prospers for if it does none dare call it treason but 'informers' don't become 'agents' so easily. --] (]) 23:50, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
::::Nottatall! By your own reckoning a traitor could now be regarded as a "decent law-abiding citizen" if the outcome had favoured the occupiers! Imagine had the fight for independence ''failed'' what they'd be calling the "rebels" today?! (Given that history is written by the winners). ] (]) 02:57, 25 November 2009 (UTC)


:::Domer is correct. JD, you appear to be unaware of the Arbcom ruling against ] and synthesis ''regardless of how blindingly obvious the conclusions might be''. And in this case your conclusions are far from obvious and more a product of political perspective than objective evaluation of the evidence. ] (]) 18:16, 25 October 2009 (UTC)


::: Calling them men rather than Protestants is absurd. It is also accurate and germane so don't revert it again Sarah. Given that you changed the name of the article without discussion I don't think you can use lack of discussion as a reason. The matter has been discussed at length anyway. --] (]) 10:11, 25 November 2009 (UTC)
Yes Sarah it is an obvious case of both ] and ] and obvious also is the Admin's and editors who come along to support it. Now, why does the Admin and editors who support the use of ] and ] bring the issue to the OR notice board? --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 18:30, 25 October 2009 (UTC)
: Agree there is definite synthesis here in the article. <span style="border:1px solid green;padding:0px;">]</span> 18:36, 25 October 2009 (UTC)


::Yeah, where exactly is the alleged synthesis and OR? Sources and quotes were asked for and were provided. Dispute now listed at Third opinion. ] (]) 20:42, 25 October 2009 (UTC) ::::Fynire, for the record, Peter Hart also suggests that they were singled out because they were men. The killers deliberately would not shoot women ("we don't want you" they told one) but asked for the men by name. I'm not saying this is good or bad, but their sex was clearly a significant factor in their targeting. ] (]) 00:23, 26 November 2009 (UTC)
:::Domer, BigDunc and Sarah, what is supposed to be OR about this? Are you disputing the sources? --] (]) 03:18, 26 October 2009 (UTC) ::::: That may be so but hardly significant unless we are writing some sort of gender-related article. I would be happy to change it to ten male Protestants, and will. --] (]) 21:31, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
::::It would be helpful if those alleging OR and synthesis (are these not the same thing, anyway?) could be less vague and state clearly which parts of the lede they are referring to, and why they think they are OR. ] (]) 09:30, 26 October 2009 (UTC) ::::::Unfortunately as the root cause is disputed, that information is best left to later in the lead where it is currently. ] (]) 21:39, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
:::::Not really. Original research would include "I know this is true because an old guy in Dunmanway told me there was ethnic cleansing in 1921". Synthesis would be to describe the events, even if referenced, as "ethnic cleansing" unless a reliable source, ''at the time '', had used that exact phrase. Daft of course, but that's Arbcom for ya. ] (]) 15:16, 26 October 2009 (UTC)


::::::: O Fenian - you reverted the sentence that said Meda Ryan's references were unavailable writing "removed commentary on Ryan, there is no equivalent for Hart saying "however his source is anonymous and probably fake"" This is tendentious. The remark about Ryan's sources is a quote from her. Your remark about Hart is incomparable and silly. Readers have a right to know her information is not checkable especially as it is used constantly in the article. Leave it be. Nobody else objects so you are on your own. --] (]) 18:51, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
:::::::And all that is in the article where? ] (]) 15:44, 26 October 2009 (UTC)


::::::::No, it is your commentary/observation on Ryan which is not being applied equally to all sources used. Hart relies on anonymous interviews that are completely uncheckable, at least one of which was not an interview with a Kilmichael veteran. The source for Hart interviewing anonymous people is Hart himself, what is the difference? Hart's sources are uncheckable, since Hart won't tell anyone who his sources are! ] (]) 18:56, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
::::::::Nowhere. I was helping Mooretwin to understand the nuances of Wiki-policies. For the good of the project. ] (]) 21:10, 26 October 2009 (UTC)


== Still needs work ==
I've outlined the issue above! I'm not going to go through it again so read this discussion! --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 13:25, 27 October 2009 (UTC)


This article still needs substantial work. Most of the more glaring POV problems have been dealt with, but there are still a few remaining.
::Sorry but you haven't explained even once where the OR and SYN is. ] (]) 18:58, 27 October 2009 (UTC)
:::No, I don't see it either. Where do you believe the material is which contravenes policy, please? --] (]) 01:30, 28 October 2009 (UTC)
::::Domer, I know it is tedious, but could you do a bullet point summary of the issues here for those who appear unable to understand them? ] (]) 02:41, 28 October 2009 (UTC)


*The most glaring is in what should be the main section of the article - "Killings in Dunmanway, Balneen, Ennsikeane and Clonakilty". This section needs to be re-written. First of all, after each of the dead mentioned is a kind of character assassination -"this one was an informer", that one was "preying on the children's innocence". Taken straight from Meda Ryan. It's ok to have this interpretation in the article, but giving right after the killings is giving it undue weight and ascribing a motive for the killings which is disputed.
That I have raised the issues above and pointed out how the issues were being ignored and still being ignored. Sarah. I'll provide you with a bullet point summary of the issues, but it is not that the editors are unable to understand them, they simply don't want to.


*Secondly, aside from the POV angle, the article is too long and clumsy. The problem here is that competing editors have, in the absence of discussion, been adding more and more referenced facts. This is a bit out of control now - so that article is lopsided. Basically the content in the background section is ok, but the presentation is not. It needs to be condensed right down so it's a clear and concise intro to someone who doesn't know anything about the subject.
*“''in a period of truce after the end of the ] and before the outbreak of the ] in June''.”


Thoughts please. ] (]) 11:52, 21 November 2009 (UTC)
The editor above , therefore the killings could not have been because they were informers. This is their attempt to add information to support their POV and is not supported by any referenced source. No author has offered this view of the killings and it is therefore based on the editors own ]. That they try to use two unrelated facts to support this is ].


:The fact that they were informers should be mentioned regardless whether is before or after each name is mentioned. Giving undue weight and ascribing a motive for the killings other than they were informers should not be given undue weight because of the lack of supporting evidence. I see nothing wrong with adding more referenced facts as long as its informative and relevant. --<span style="font-family:Celtic;">]'']''</span> 13:53, 22 November 2009 (UTC)
*“''but they took place in an area controlled by the ]''”


::OK - should we give explicit reference where the facts indicate that the person shot was ''not'' an informer? Like: "Though the old man was not the informer they came looking for they shot him anyway" type of thing? ] (]) 14:06, 22 November 2009 (UTC)
As with the points made above, we have the exact same use of ] to support the editors own POV and ]. That “It is not clear who ordered the attacks or carried them out” is referenced to add the above information, (which is not supported by the references) is to present information in an attempt to promote a view that only the editor is making. No source has linked these two pieces of information together or attempted to make the inference being suggested. It is plain old ] using ].


:::It should be; "They were shot." Next paragraph. "This one was alleged to have been an informer. This may have been the reason he was shot". ] (]) 14:53, 22 November 2009 (UTC)
* “''The motivation behind the killings has generated differences of opinion among historians. It is generally agreed that they were "sparked" by the fatal shooting of IRA commandant Michael O'Neill by a local loyalist on April 26 whose house was being raided. There is no consensus, however, on why the ten killed and three disappeared were targeted.''”


::::Is there a verifiable claim that ''all'' 10 were alleged informers? ] (]) 16:19, 22 November 2009 (UTC)
This is offering contradictory information, and it is not “generally agreed” this again is just the editors opinion. Yet again, the references do not support the information and is another attempt at ]. There is no source offered which challenges the fact that those killed were informers. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 10:53, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
::::::Re. “''in a period of truce after the end of the ] and before the outbreak of the ] in June''.” This is a statement of fact. There is no OR involved. I have therefore restored it. The article does not say, or imply, as claimed by Domer that "therefore the killings could not have been because they were informers". (On the contrary, the article actually says that they ''were'' informers!) ] (]) 11:51, 29 October 2009 (UTC)


==Requested move==
As I pointed out above Sarah, despite the fact that I pointed out how the editor who added the text stated that and that this was pure ] based on ] you'll still get an edit warrior who will ignore this and add it back regardless . --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 13:12, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
<div class="boilerplate" style="background-color: #efe; margin: 2em 0 0 0; padding: 0 10px 0 10px; border: 1px dotted #aaa;"><!-- Template:polltop -->
::::::::As previously explained, what matters is what the article says: not what an editor states on the Talk page. Please refrain from name-calling against other editors. ] (]) 13:50, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
:''The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. <span style="color:red">'''Please do not modify it.'''</span> Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. ''


The result of the proposal was '''Not moved.''' No consensus on any better name. There is some consensus that "killings" is not strongly POV, and by weight of discussion there is strong evidence that other options do have some POV. I am making no judgment on previous move actions (neither of the move itself nor of the procedural issues surrounding it). ] (]) 09:34, 11 December 2009 (UTC)
Domer, thanks for your analysis. I do not agree with it, and I think most editors here would not. --] (]) 23:25, 29 October 2009 (UTC)


:Those contributing to this requested move discussion are respectfully reminded that it is a discussion, not a vote. Evidence and considered arguments outweigh unsupported assertions. Good reasons to move the article would include things like "so-and-so said whatever-it-was at the time" and "so-and-so says whatever-it-is here in this book". Good reasons not to move would be similar. Sniping at other editors helps not at all. And if it should be the case that other pages are badly named it will be better to rename them rather than this one. ] ] 23:43, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
::Yeh, thats all well and good, now provide a rational because most editors agree that it is both ] and ]. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 15:03, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
:::I certainly agree with Domer's excellent exposure of ] at work - so I'm a bit puzzled at the conclusion that "most" editors don't. Unless John is operating on the basis of the known bias of the Anglo wiki community. But most of those are not represented here, so I'm not sure we should be making assumptions about them. ] (]) 13:47, 31 October 2009 (UTC)


] → ]
:::So, the problem here is the inference that ''might'' be taken. First, "generally agreed". Not my opinion. Listed (and clearly referenced) in each and every source about the incident. So please stop removing it. Re the other two, it took place in the truce (fact and referenced) and it took place in an area area cotnrolled by the anti- Treaty IRA (again referenced). No other inference is made in the article. The other pieces quoted are from the talk page. So in the article there is no OR and no SYN. So can you plase stop removing referenced material? Thanks. Fuinally which editros agree it is OR or SYN? Domer, Sarah and BIgDunc. Not a majority ] (]) 02:43, 31 October 2009 (UTC)
* ''']''' - the name of this article was originally ]. The name was changed by a cabal of pro-republican editors without any authorization as far as I can tell. (Did they request making the move here as I was advised to do?) I am willing to compromise as far as ''']''', which is justified in the text of the article itself by none other than ] himself. There is also a serious '''double standard''', which can only be cured by a disinterested administrator, as the other "killings" at the same historical time are referred to as ] and the ], for instance. ] (]) 02:56, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
*'''Comment''' Discussion is needed at ]. ''']<sup>]</sup>''' 03:02, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
* the name of this article was originally ]. The name was changed by a cabal of pro-republican editors without any authorization as far as I can tell. (Did they request making the move here as I was advised to do?) I am willing to compromise as far as ''']''', which is justified in the text of the article itself by none other than ] himself. There is also a serious '''double standard''', which can only be cured by a disinterested administrator, as the other "killings" at the same historical time are referred to as ] and the ], for instance. ] (]) 03:14, 3 December 2009 (UTC)


::Either name is fine with me. ] (]) 12:16, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
==Out of order?==
Is the WoI template out of place? Should it be across the bottom? It is visually challenged where it is, to say the least. I see, btw, that former Stickie, tabloid journalist and now Fianna Failer Eoghan Harris is trolling here under some handle. What's the betting wherever there is truth on IrlWiki he is seeking to revise it? (He being a huge and self-confessed fan of political censorship). ] (]) 18:11, 25 October 2009 (UTC)
: Oh he is around alright Sarah, even mentioning editors in his bigoted rants in the rag he spouts bile for. {{cn}}<span style="border:1px solid green;padding:0px;">]</span> 18:18, 25 October 2009 (UTC)


*Where is the evidence that any name of the article is the correct one? I see abuse and attempts to own the article, but no reasoning. A quote from a politican is little compared to how sources name the event. ] (]) 18:42, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
== move ==
'''Oppose'''I oppose this move from the present NPOV name] (]) 19:12, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
:: Then why, ], don't you oppose such POV articles as ] and the ]? I am going to submit them for name moves as well, just to let you know. There is supposed to be ]!! ] (]) 20:33, 3 December 2009 (UTC)


:::'''Comment''' Stop commenting on contributors. Throwing stones is not a good enough guideline for content. Either discuss the sources and meanings of ], ], and ] or finish discussing. In my view, massacre is usually used to describe killing in number in a single event esp. of those for who there is no "excuse". Use of murder is often frowned upon again when matters of "excuse" are alleged. Look Rms, they managed to pick off the commanding officer on the approach. That's pretty resourceful! The world you are poking your head into was a nightmare. The one you live in, do you have scented shampoo? The one you live in is a bed of roses as is the one I live in. Comment on content and not contributors. Throw stones in a pond. Base input on reliable sources and solid definitions, not your new stone throwing manual which you made up one day. If you hadn't noticed, the stones have all but stopped being thrown. That's righet! Stone throwing is not a sufficient reason to move this article '''request denied''' <span style="font-size:small; font-family:Impact;">~ ].].]</span> 21:36, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
There was no consensus, actually no discussion at all, of a move. So it's been moved back from Dunmanway Killings to Dunmanway Massacre. People can discuss a possible move but the article can't just be shifted on a whim. ] (]) 18:44, 28 October 2009 (UTC)
:I agree that the move should have been discussed first, although I've no preference for either title. I'll support whichever is the most common name for the event. ] (]) 20:43, 28 October 2009 (UTC)
::I too have no preference, but procedurally Sarah knows perfectly well that moves need to be discussed beforehand. I don't know what she was playing at. --] (]) 23:43, 28 October 2009 (UTC)
*The move was correct per ]. End of, so leave it as is.--] (]) 00:09, 29 October 2009 (UTC)


:: Whoa. ''"Look Rms, they managed to pick off the commanding officer on the approach. That's pretty resourceful!"''. '''Who did?''' The three men who disappeared or the eleven (ten fatally) who were shot over a period of two days. Also, "'''request denied'''": are you an administrator closing this debate or are you just expressing an opinion. I suspect the latter in which case you are no one to be saying '''request denied''' in an effort to stifle commentary.
::It was correct if it's established that "killings" is the common name. If it is then no problem, but no one has established this. ] (]) 09:28, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
::"''The world you are poking your head into was a nightmare."'' - I agree, presuming you are referring to the plight of Protestants and Unionists in most of the 26 counties; I guess that's why the 12% to 16% of the population they once constituted stands at 2% or so, not including failed refugee seekers and recent British transplants. Does that status of near extinction apply to nationalists in Northern Ireland?
::: I would support it being kept at killings, less emotive, i'm sure Sarah will give her reasoning too. <span style="border:1px solid green;padding:0px;">]</span> 14:35, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
::I have no idea who you are and your userpage is empty, so I am sure that you are not an administrator and not in any position to be denying requests. You clearly make no effort at objectivity, so neither have I. Just because you accuse me, ], of "throwing stones", doesn't mean that this unauthorized, sneaky move on October 28 by ] should be allowed to stand. I have no intention of debating the meaning of words in a dictionary. Words can be meant to mean more than one thing by whomever is talking and listening. For example, were the various Bloody Sundays massacres, ambushes, killings, murders, collateral damage? Or were they all of those things at the same time? An encyclopaedia is supposed to be objective and should not refer to incidents of bloodshed by differing standards (killing, murder, massacre(!)), based on subjective, visceral feelings and folklore. ] (]) 22:37, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
::::Agree, less emotive. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 15:06, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
:::::We would do better to focus on what term our reliable sources use, not what editors here assert is a common name or less emotive (though clearly it is that). What do the sources call it? --] (]) 23:22, 29 October 2009 (UTC)
::::::The onus is on the edit warriors to show that "massacre" is the common name; not a Wiki-creation. Under policy, until then it must be moved to the ] title of killings. I most certainly will not hesitate to move this to a title consistent with ] pending a full discussion on the legitimacy of the title. Not ''after'' a discussion. ''Before'' a discussion. ] (]) 02:01, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
<s>:::::::I would also ask John to consider recusing himself from using his tools on Ireland related articles as he is clearly now a party to ''numerous'' disputes in this area. ] (]) 02:04, 30 October 2009 (UTC)</s>
::::::::Ooops - that was JD not John. Apologies. And I note that JD has over a long period removed many references I have made to "massacres" of nationalists/natives in various articles on the grounds that though they may indeed be massacres they are not commonly called that. Same applies in this case. Though I was long aware of the incidents in and near Dunmanway the first time I ever heard the killings described as the "Dunmanway massacre" was when this article was created by JD. ] (]) 02:09, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
:::::::::Just wondering why you made "many references" to "massacres" in other articles if you accept here that it is not an NPOV description? ] (]) 09:25, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
::::::::::Sounds a bit POINTy to me. Please try to bring some NPOV to this. --] (]) 18:46, 30 October 2009 (UTC)


:::'''Oppose''', obviously. The name "massacre" was blatant ] and breach of ]. The use of "murders" is not only possibly inaccurate but again a breach of ]. Policy ( and ]) makes clear that we use neutral terms unless there is a well verified name in near universal use. I suggest you look at the criteria for inclusion of an articles in "]". ] (]) 23:08, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
:::::::::::So has anyone established which is the common name? ] (]) 02:46, 31 October 2009 (UTC)


::::And the proposer of this move to restore the article to a POV title might note that I moved it, alone. And he might also note that I am a single individual, not a "republican cabal". ] (]) 23:13, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
::::::::::::Consistency across related articles is an intrinsic part of NPOV. You might as well declare that changing references to the 26 counties as "Ireland" to "Republic of Ireland" is "pointy"; or that enforcing the MOS is "pointy". Clearly the credibility and NPOVness of Wiki is being brought into question when a conflict spanning centuries of colonialism and physical and cultural genocide produces numerous articles about "massacres" by the victims but hardly any by the settlers and their heirs. I don't really want to drag this article into a greater debate about the nature and NPOVness of "reliable" sources or Anglo bias; but one will not shirk that important debate if needs be. Wiki needs folk who can think holistically and place events in perspective and context. I hereby offer my services. ] (]) 12:18, 31 October 2009 (UTC)


::Sarah - a) if the use of "murders" "is not only possibly inaccurate but again a breach of ]", then why is it OK with ]?
:::::::::::::In fact given the '''acknowledged''' problem of systematic Anglo-American bias on En:Wiki the bar should be set ''much higher'' for claims of "massacre" of people identified with the Anglo establishment in it's various manifestations through history. NPOV would be better served by referring ''only '' to killings by the Anglo side of the dispute in pejorative terms. Though, as a generous compromise, I'll accept a spurious neutrality between the victim and the coloniser. ] (]) 12:25, 31 October 2009 (UTC)
::b) The ] is necessarily subjective and finite. Certain agenda-driven groups on Misplaced Pages, such as the pro-IRA cabal, have proved very adept at forcing their will and their agenda. One of Misplaced Pages's sad weaknesses. Whoever screams loudest and longest wins out, all too often. And as far as your having "moved it, alone", let me tell you that if I had been onwiki and spotted it I would have instantaneously reverted your unauthorized, sneaky, sleazy action. Now, because of others' lack of vigilance, I have to deal with it as a ]. ] (]) 23:48, 3 December 2009 (UTC)


*(1) I have no idea whether McMahon ''Murders'' is correct or not - it depends on whether it meets the naming criteria I referred you to.
:::::::::::::::So have you established the common name or not? I notice no such controversey over ] or ]. ] (]) 12:47, 31 October 2009 (UTC)
*(2) The criteria at ] are not the least bit subjective. They are ''terrible'', but they follow a clear set of rules.
*(3) You would not have "instantaneously reverted" my action, because unless you are an Administrator you would have been unable to do so.
*(4)The attempted "Fait accompli" was the original naming of the article using such a contra-policy title.
*(5) That move didn't require authorization as policy overwhelmingly supports the move I made.
*(6) My action was neither sneaky nor sleazy. If you continue commenting on me in this vein I may form a negative opinion of you.
*] (]) 00:05, 4 December 2009 (UTC)


::I am not going to respond any further on this page, Sarah, although I have a response I very much want to post. With my luck I'll get blocked, something you are quite familiar with yourself, so, I am sure you understand. Suffice to say I have reviewed ] (]) 00:42, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
::::::::::::::::Common name is Dunmanway killings. I must visit the articles you refer to and check for breaches of ]. ] (]) 13:35, 31 October 2009 (UTC)


:::::::::::::::::Checked. I think the naming of these articles is consistent with the principles I outlined above. I'm happy enough with them. ] (]) 13:38, 31 October 2009 (UTC) :::JD's move was a "copy & paste" move - this is not the procedure for moving articles on Wiki. Whether I'd sympathize with you for the blocks would rather depend on whether the blocks were merited. In my case none of them were. ] (]) 00:56, 4 December 2009 (UTC)


::::::::::::::::::Are you going to show us evidence of this? ] (]) 13:51, 31 October 2009 (UTC) ::::For the record ] (]) 02:22, 4 December 2009 (UTC)


:::::::::::::::::::No. It's original research. And I'm trying to wean you off that. ] (]) 13:53, 31 October 2009 (UTC) *'''Oppose''' Although I criticized Sarah's move at the time on procedural grounds, I agree with the actual move. --] (]) 02:26, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
*'''Oppose''' Per ] and also per NPOV. <span style="border:1px solid green;padding:0px;">]</span> 11:02, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
*'''Oppose''' ] (]) 11:09, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
*'''Support''' Dunmanway Massacre has been the name for a number of years and accepted until Sarah777 chose unilaterally to change it because she was checked for describing isolated murders of Catholics in Belfast as massacres. It is meaningful for a number of key reasons: the number of dead was unusually high and they were picked out; they were all southern Protestants again unusual especially in a war we were told was non-sectarian; and there are other more minor 'massacres' on Misplaced Pages. --] (]) 21:50, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
:: Fynire is correct that the article was created in 2006 as ] and not changed until Sarah's unilateral action three years later. Quite amazing that given the extreme attention paid to articles in this field/category. I would point out that the following external sources refer to the Dunmanway "killings" as "]" (, , , , ), however my main point is that the editors on this page are, for the most part, divided viscerally, not rationally. Some refuse to accept that even authorized actions by the Provisional IRA against "informers" are still murders, since there is nothing approaching ]-like regulations in guerrilla warfare. As ] -- whatever happened to the proscription against provocative usernames on Misplaced Pages, by the way; maybe I should change my name to Nazibullah or Binladen -- points out ''"Where is the evidence that any name of the article is the correct one?"'' If that is the case then there should be no problem finding a compromise, except that those who are ideologues (on either side of the fence) do not compromise, by nature. And it is the responsibility of disinterested admins to ensure that articles are properly named by encyclopaedic standards, not Irish republican folklore which declares, for example, that ] was a massacre but not ]. To enshrine ideological folkloric naming conventions and honorifics on Misplaced Pages diminishes Misplaced Pages as an encyclopaedia and that is what upsets me. I have been advised by an admin. of long-standing that I have been calling people names or been insulting to them. Aside from referring to Sarah as part of the pro-republican "]", I am unaware of having done so, but I apologize so that those who are open-minded and want the best for Misplaced Pages will not discount the possibility of having cordial relations with me. There are those for whom that was discounted long ago, but that needn't include everyone who disagrees with me. ] (]) 02:03, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
:::Thanks Rms125a. I am an admin who is completely neutral on the ethnic divide thing, although I am very well informed and experienced in the whole thing in real life and here. I too hate the sectarian bickering on both "sides"; I believe nationalisms on Wiki to be really damaging, divisive and dangerous to the project. We've certainly had our troubles (pun fully intended) in this area. However, since the Arbcom case there's a been a better level of admin support and we are now on the verge of real progress. A lot of this is down to the selfless work of ]. We must all be especially careful to rely on ] on these contentious issues, avoid wiki-lawyering, grandstanding, ethnic or imperialist needling, forum-shopping, and cleave to our ]. Thanks for starting the ball rolling with some sources. --] (]) 03:01, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
::::Well, John, we all are against "sectarian" and "nationalist" bickering I'm sure. The point you seem to keep missing is that your "neutrality" is someone else's "nationalism". Thus we get the editor above saying " ''Some refuse to accept that even authorized actions by the Provisional IRA against "informers" are still murders"'' - as if calling them "murders" is a simple statement of fact. When it is a matter of opinion. The only ''facts'' we have is that they were killed and the UK legal system regards them as "murder". Which is an artificial concept. It is equally a fact that the British Army in NI are/were "occupation forces" but we wouldn't be allowed describe them as 'occupiers' in Wiki articles. Though I could find dozens of references for that. And I might add that we should revert any attempts to use political branding of articles (as per Dunmanway "Massacre") where the title isn't '''the''' common and well-known term for the incident. Without any "procedure" except adherence to policy. (And if you check the archives you'll find I questioned this title years ago - it was when I realised part of the agenda here was to create a political handle by ] that change became necessary. ] (]) 04:13, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
:::::Also Rms is self-depicting (and John apparently agreeing) that he is in some way "above" the sectarian/nationalist 'bickering'. Apart from his remarks about the nature of murder above the fact that he'd consider "Nazibullah" a provocative name is a bit of a giveaway. Those of us more in touch with the fundamentals of ] (as written, not as enforced) might think "GW Bush" or Netanyahu might be much better examples of provocative handles that OFenian or Nazibullah. But as we are all claiming to be the true neutrals here, may I add my claim. I can understand, whereas John apparently cannot, that what we have here isn't bickering between two sides in a sectarian dispute (the classical imperialist claim, from Ireland to Iraq!); but rather those upholding ] against the onslaught of systemic Anglo-bias. ] (]) 04:25, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
::::::And finally, might I record my respectful but strong disagreement with John's depiction of the efforts of Elonka in relation to "troubles related" issues. ] (]) 04:40, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
*'''Neutral'''. Both 'Dunmanway killings' and 'Dunmanway massacre' are used (see my post in the 'External support?' section below for references to the latter). I don't see a clear ] winner, so see no benefit in flipping around between titles. However, I would note that this is not the first time that ] has unilaterally moved a controversial article to a new title without going through ] ''first''. Sarah, you should know better. ]<sup>]</sup> 10:49, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
*<s>'''Support''' as ''..killings'' is too weak a descriptive & the move wasn't discussed. ] (]) 18:41, 5 December 2009 (UTC)</s>
::Hmmm. So you think "killings" is to weak? Too week to describe...eh....''killings''! ] (]) 23:11, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
:::Go easy on me, I'm a Canadian. ] (]) 23:33, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
::::Elk or Moose? ] (]) 23:46, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
:::::Neither, I'm human. ] (]) 23:51, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
*'''Oppose''' I thought it was proposed to move back to ''Dunmanway massacre'', my blunder. ] (]) 00:06, 6 December 2009 (UTC)
*'''Oppose''' Per ] and also per NPOV. No sources to support alternative. --<span style="font-family:Celtic;">]'']''</span> 20:09, 5 December 2009 (UTC)


===External support?===
::::::::::::::::::::I also know something more important: the common name is '''not''' "massacre". ] (]) 13:55, 31 October 2009 (UTC)
Anyway, to get to the meat of this issue. Rms cites 5 "external sources" which refer to the killings as "massacres":
::::''I would point out that the following external sources refer to the Dunmanway "killings" as "]" (, , , , )''
*The first is Loyalist newspaper which refers to the "treachery" of the "inhabitants" (aka the Irish).
*The second is a copy of the Wiki article.
*The third is a dead link.
*The fourth is another copy of the Wiki article (see what I mean by creationism through ]!)
*The fifth link appears to have been removed.


*So, we are left with the equivalent of a single headline in '']'' to support the political title.
Let me see if I understand. You have some mysterious evidence that says the massacre is not the common name but you can't show us it because that would be OR? The mind boggles. ] (]) 14:27, 31 October 2009 (UTC)
*] (]) 04:54, 5 December 2009 (UTC)


Sarah, on the first reference used, it is actually an article about the ] and nothing to do with this article at all. The source of information in the article was the "''official''" account issued by Dublin Castle at the time of the attack in the form of a press release. This report can now be found in ''The Irish Rebellion in the 6th Division Area'' (Strickland Papers, p32, Imperial War Museum) and the "official" report into British Army intelligence in Ireland recorded in ''A Record of the Rebellion in Ireland in 1920-1921'' (Jeudwine Papers, 72/82/2, Imperial War Museum). To say its reliability is questionable is an understatement but we do have sources to support the view that it was pure propaganda.
== Conflicting conclusions ==
The entire conflicting conclusions section is needs a overhaul. Much like the ] article this section is little more than a coat-rack to attack and undermine Hart's work. Different academics have different interpretations of historical events. It happens. The right way to address these in articles is to state the cogent findings that are shared and in conflict, in a neutral manner without implying preference or validity. Here we have writing in the following format:


I’d suggest you ignore the ] contained in the posts above and just deal with what we can cite and reference. So there has been no references provided to support the title "''The Dunmanway Massacre''". --<span style="font-family:Celtic;">]'']''</span> 10:03, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
''Peter Hart '''claims''' X, Y, Z. However, according to Ryan he got this wrong. Meehan points out he ignored this. Fr. Brian Murphy OSB (yet notice no "Prof. Peter Hart, Ph.D"?), notes that he says X in one book and Y in another book, therefore, according to Murphy, Hart '''must''' be wrong....''


:How about these ones:
Surely it is obvious that this is not a nuanced, balanced way of addressing historical conclusions? It is fundamentally lacking neutrality to set up a position and then to attack it, irrespective if the attacks are hidden behind "according to...". Is it not highly likely that Hart (or others) has similar criticisms of the other historians work, yet nowhere are their interpretations pulled apart in that manner? I'm left with the strong impression that this section is all about furthering a position, rather than documenting the notable opinions.
:http://www.dcu.ie/~foxs/irhist/April%201922%20-%2026-28%20-%20dunmanway_massacre.htm Dublin City University
:http://www.reform.org/TheReformMovement_files/article_files/articles/southernunis.htm reprint of a book review from New Statesman
:http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/exorcising-the-dark-bloody--secrets-of-ira--in-west-cork-1903733.html Article by Eoghan Harris. Ironically, also mentioning this page...
:http://www.irelandbyways.com/ireland-routes/byroute-3/byroute-3-co-cork/8/ "The Dunmanway Massacre is the name given to the killing of 12 men in the spring of 1922, all of whom were Protestants."
:http://www.corkfpc.com/ltbscork.html
:So it does seem to be in reasonably common usage. ]<sup>]</sup> 10:40, 5 December 2009 (UTC)


I'd also note our NPOV champion, Sarah777, seems to be discounting a "Loyalist newspaper" as a reliable source (presumably because its promoting Imperialist British POV?), while in the same post, Sarah accepts that a Republican newspaper ''is'' a reliable source (presumably because its promoting an Irish Republican POV). Not in the least bit biased, our Sarah. ]<sup>]</sup> 10:56, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
I'm happy to tackle this in the same way I rewrote the Hart article (compare to and I hope it should be obvious I'm not out to defend Hart, simply treat him fairly.) However, I would prefer some consensus on the need for a rewrite first, as I have little stomach for another tedious line-by-line edit war over it. ]<font color="black">e</font>] 02:47, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
:Bastun you are using ], ] an e-learning lecturer from DCU and a non notable website registered to Francis Barrett in Spain who quotes this article and another non notable website registered to the Cork Free Presbyterian Church the first 2 you wouldn't expect anything else and the others I could bang up a couple of websites myself that would hold as much weight as they do. <span style="border:1px solid green;padding:0px;">]</span> 11:10, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
:Are you really surprised, RP? Happy for you to attempt a rewrite. ] (]) 09:24, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
:: Actually, after reading through the article in greater detail, there appears a bigger problem. Meda Ryan's interpretations on the motive for the killings are reported as fact throughout the text, e.g.
::: ''Also that night, David Gray (a chemist) and James Buttimer (a retired draper) were shot in the doorways of their homes in Dunmanway. It was "firmly established" later that they had been informers, and that their information had done a great deal of damage to the IRA. (cited:Meda Ryan Pg.213)'')
:: Its not written as "Meda Ryan ''claims''..." or "Meda Ryan ''writes''...". It appears we only question Hart's work in the article. Why? ]<font color="black">e</font>] 16:49, 30 October 2009 (UTC)


Agree Dunc, a bit more infor.
We only question Hart's work in the article because his work is questioned, Ryan's is not. Harts work has been comprehensively challenged and proved to be deliberately misleading with conclusions dependant on omissions and distortions. In addition, no source has said that those killed were not informers. Based on referenced sources it was "firmly established" that they had been informers, and no sources has questioned this. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 18:41, 30 October 2009 (UTC)


#. Fox according to ] is not .
:Rock makes a valid point. Writers who have a very strong POV on this matter need to respect our absolute requirement for NPOV. Domer, weren't you just talking about WP:SYN and WP:OR in another thread? Do you see how incongruous that is when you say what you just said above? --] (]) 18:49, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
#. are looking for Ireland to re-join the British Common Wealth and considered to be revisionist. At the very least it is a questionable source or considered only with caution. Now I notice that they use the term without explanation but do cite Peter Hart.
#. Eoghan Harris a member of The Reform Movement is discussing the wiki article.
#. Irelandbyways.com is citing Wiki
#. ''LET THE BIBLE SPEAK MAGAZINE'' from the Free Presbyterian Church. We could check it out at ]?


So all in all, very questionable sources. This would not support the view that it would be in reasonably common usage.--<span style="font-family:Celtic;">]'']''</span> 11:24, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
::: That doesn't make sense, Domer. If Hart's comes to fundamentally different conclusions that Ryan, then by definition they are challenging each other's findings. Hart is questioning Ryan's findings as much as Ryan is questioning Hart's. The difference, of course, might be that Hart keeps his findings focused on the actual history, while Ryan et al appear to focus their criticisms on the person and his writings. But this isn't an article about Hart or his works, its an article about the killings. Unless there is an academic consensus that Hart's work is wrong, then we simply cannot choose sides, as you appear content to do. Here we should be reporting, with due weight, the published interpretations and leave the reader to make up their own minds. Don't get me wrong, I think its clear that Hart's work is not widely accepted and there is strong disagreement from some of his peers (but not all, as reviews of his books by other historians show), and that should also be reflected when giving due weight to his interpretations. But we should not be picking apart one academic's findings using the arguments of another. That is simply not neutral writing. ]<font color="black">e</font>] 19:22, 30 October 2009 (UTC)


When one of you provides a source to challange the information then there will be something to talk about. No sourece = no discussion, not intrested in your opinions or analysis. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 20:02, 30 October 2009 (UTC) Again, I would caution editors not to respond to the comments directed at them by editors. It is a poor attempt to deflect the discussion and should be ignored. --<span style="font-family:Celtic;">]'']''</span> 11:38, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
:::::Is there a reason why the fact that they were informers was "firmly established" rather than merely "established"? ] (]) 20:37, 30 October 2009 (UTC)
: Its not about sourcing the material, its about representing the sources accurately and fairly, giving due weight to the notable opinions, and avoiding using sources selectively to promote an editorial position. This needs to be addressed by someone who has no horse in the race, not discussed by those that clearly do (and I say that based on your unambiguous statement of disregard for Hart's analysis). ]<font color="black">e</font>] 20:46, 30 October 2009 (UTC)


:Sorry, didn't realise the DCU one was a personal site hosted by them rather than the college itself. As regards the others, though - personally, I've no time for and am no supporter of Harris or the Reform Movement, but dismissing them as you are because of the views they espouse appears to be a case of ]. Similarly, why ''wouldn't'' a magazine of a recognised church be a legitimate source? The counter-argument that could be used on countless pages (not that I will!) is that ''An Phoblacht'', for example, espouse or espoused extremist Republican views and therefore shouldn't be counted. The bottom line, I think, is that ''both'' terms are used by different sources. Personally, I've no strong feelings about which is used as the article title, which is reflected in my '''neutral''' vote above. ]<sup>]</sup> 13:05, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
::Finally. If we can get past this we might eventually get to an npov article. This is going to need a lot of admin work however. ] (]) 02:45, 31 October 2009 (UTC)


::Like Bastun, I have no strong opinions about the name. There is a wider issue here though of people to trying to eliminate the use of sources that they don't like or agree with. A source with a political bias can be used but with the qualification that their bias is acknowledged. ] (]) 13:23, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
When sources are provided to support editors opinions or analysis there will be something to talk about. Unless Rockpocket provides diff's to support their baseless accusations, they will be ignored. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 09:49, 31 October 2009 (UTC)
::: I am not saying dismiss the sources but they have to get taken with a grain of salt the same way AP is taken on this site. <span style="border:1px solid green;padding:0px;">]</span> 13:32, 5 December 2009 (UTC)


::::::Hey, Dunc. Could you get one of your pals in ] to use the term "Dunmanway killings" several times in some articles attacking the neo-Unionists? It seems those type of refs will henceforth be "reliable references" per Bastun, JD and Eoghan Harris (under whatever name he's trolling here). Move it Dunc. I have a ''list'' - OK? ] (]) 23:18, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
:Sources have already been provided. ] (]) 09:59, 31 October 2009 (UTC)


Per above. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 13:41, 1 November 2009 (UTC) I would again caution editors not to respond to comments which attempt to personalise the discussion. Editors who attempt to turn talk pages into battlefields should be ignored. No editor has said we dismiss the sources above and to suggest otherwise is disruptive. Now no source has been provided to support the view that "''The Dunmanway Massacre''" would be in reasonably common usage. Therefore using ] we should use the current title. --<span style="font-family:Celtic;">]'']''</span> 13:36, 5 December 2009 (UTC)


::::(ec) BigDunc: Which is fair enough. What seems to be the issue is how the grain of salt is applied ;-)
: I'm hoping to tackle the rest of the article this weekend, on the same basis as I did the lead (below). It may take a few days and I may add a "undergoing a major edit" template to the article while I'm working. I'm prefer editors let me finish before the inevitable criticisms begin, as it may take a while to ensure the requisite balance. ]<font color="black">e</font>] 02:05, 7 November 2009 (UTC)
::::Domer, above you dismiss Irelandbyways.com as "citing WP" - it doesn't, it just links to this article. It even disagrees on the number of dead and gives information not present here. ]<sup>]</sup> 13:41, 5 December 2009 (UTC)


:Alas as we see from several of the preceding comments immediately following my last comment, there are those who have no interest in compromise, because the true ideologue cannot, by nature compromise. I have not stated that I am above the visceral nature of these endless squirmishes and my sympathies should be clear. I have also decided that rather than update my talk page whenever I interrupt my leave of absence I will follow the tactic of a (former?) editor and just edit and then threaten, hollowly, to leave whenever I don't get my way, cursing and spewing venom and being welcomed back with open arms. (Well, I won't do the latter part, because I am a better person.) If ] was a massacre then so were the ], the ], in which two female civilians were machine gunned on the street, and, of course, Enniskillen, which is generally known as the ] (a term discounted by fiat apparently). None of those are labeled on Misplaced Pages as "massacres". Sarah above states ''... as if calling them "murders" is a simple statement of fact. When it is a matter of opinion. The only ''facts'' we have is that they were killed and the UK legal system regards them as "murder". Which is an artificial concept.'' Ah yes, ] as an artifical concept. Well, British law has determined that ] was murdered and the ] were framed, so I guess those legal rulings should be rubbished. ] (]) 14:16, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
==The lead==
::'''I would still like to know whatever happended to Misplaced Pages's original ] on provocative and/or disturbing usernames (such as ]). I guess it is enforced selectively. If I wished to change my username to Najibullah or Binladin, I strongly suspect I would not be allowed to do so. Yet again, a double standard.''' Were bombing Clerkenwell or murdering D'Arcy McGee for expressing his opinions or trying to blow up London Bridge morally superior to the World Trade Center bombings or the almost daily bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan? Aside from the difference in the scope of casualties, the answer is no. Terrorism is terrorism and begets terrorism. By the way, although I can not claim to be an admirer, the following is ] (more than a mere politician)'s comments re Dunmanway <blockquote><small>" does not know and cannot know as the National Government, any distinction of class or creed. In its name I express the horror of the Irish nation at the Dunmanway murders."</small>
I'll simply note that the proof of the pudding is in the eating. The lead is currently written a hell of a let more neutrally than it was before (with thanks for help from Jdorney). Here is why:
</blockquote>
* By describing the dead as "Protestant males" in the opening sentence we were directly implying their religion is relevant to their killing. This has not been established, and thus such leading language is not appropriate. We get around it by simply describing them as "men" and stating their religion independently later.
:No one present at that Dáil disputed his terminology. If that was good enough for them it should be good enough for us, and I move that this article's name be changed to the ] according to the basic definition of "murder" in any dictionary. The victims at Dunmanway's lives were not worth less than those of the McMahons or Arnon Street and Misplaced Pages should not accomodate those who would have anyone think otherwise. ] (]) 14:05, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
* Likewise, previously we noted anti-treaty side "controlled the area the killings took place" in isolation, a clear implication of responsibility. We now describe the geo-political relevance of both sides, which justifies why both are mentioned and why both were keen to distance themselves from the killings.
* Before we set up one historian's claim and then undermined it with the suggestion it is "unsupported by the evidence". Its not our place to decide which historians analysis is correct and which is not. So now we state historians disagree on motive. Then state what they agree on and what the disagree on. Note that ''"Some historians have claimed that there were sectarian motives; others claim that those killed were targeted only for their role as informers during the War of Independence."'' Clear, factual, neutral and without editorial endorsement.
* Finally, because of due weight consideration and because we have already noted the fact that all who were killed were Protestant, its fair to provide some documented justification for why it is thought they were killed only as informers, hence: ''"They argue that the dead were associated with the Murragh 'Loyalist Action Group' and that their names all appeared in captured British intelligence files which listed them as "helpful citizens" in the 1919-1921 conflict".''
It should be clear that neutrality is not about ensuring an equal amount of bias for either perspective, its about removing '''all''' editorial bias and reflecting all notable POVs fairly and with balance. It could still be improved further, though (for example, the fact that all those killed were Protestant may be better noted alongside the belief that the killings had a sectarian motive, since this provides better context. I'm also not happy with the position of the ''This happened in a period of truce...'' sentence. I think it would better better positioned immediately prior to the Sinn Féin and IRA representatives condemnation of the killings. This would give some context of the political state of Ireland at the time).


Could someone explain how a report published can be used to source the name of an event which did not occur until 1922? Thank you. ] (]) 14:31, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Now we should continue and re-write the whole article in the same way. The involvement of many people as possible would be good, but if editors instead choose ignorance, there is little the rest of us can do about that. ]<font color="black">e</font>] 20:57, 31 October 2009 (UTC)


I a chara! LOL. --<span style="font-family:Celtic;">]'']''</span> 14:44, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
:Nice work Rock. More of the same please! --] (]) 21:27, 31 October 2009 (UTC)


:Rms I think you need to calm down a little your post above goes on about usernames which have nothing to do with this move and you are using incorrect sources to back up your point, maybe chill out and look again at this issue other stuff exists you know and it is not a reason for anything. <span style="border:1px solid green;padding:0px;">]</span> 15:01, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
No problem with the first two points. However as to the rest, it needs to be addressed.
*'''Neutral'''. I'm not seeing a convincing collection of sources that establish ''either'' title as common usage. But we have to call it something, and the current title is perfectly acceptable. My feeling the the amount of effort spent arguing over titles on Misplaced Pages is a tremendous waste of time, given we have redirects at alternative titles. Please go and write some content rather than use this as an excuse to continue personal disputes. ]<span style="color:black;">e</span>] 18:06, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
*Please cite the sources that Hart/Coogan have used to support there conclusions “that there were sectarian motives.” The sources cited who say that their conclusions are "unsupported by the evidence" can and have provided sources to support their conclusions. The authors who say they were targeted because they were informers provide ample evidence for this. So suggesting that their conclusions are just “claims” is misleading.
*The above also addresses the final point you make on due weight considerations. The religion of those killed is circumstantial, and yet is being given undue weight. The preponderance of citable sources to support this makes the claims of Hart/Coogan almost fringe.


::'''Note to Rock''' - "Dunmanway killings" requires no support as it is clearly ]; they were definitely killed. Don't imply equivalence; that is the same blindness to your own POV that John displays. It is the term "massacre" that needs to be justified as the ]. The rather limp efforts by Bastun etc to establish this indicate that there is no such common name for the events; just an on-going campaign by people of a particular political outlook to use Wiki to establish one. And note to Bastun: should I encounter any other such blatant attempts at POV labeling as this again, you will see ''another'' example of termination with extreme prejudice. ] (]) 23:00, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Based on the citable sources available the article should reflect that those killed were targeted because they were informers, and that it has been claimed that there were sectarian motives but this is unsupported by the evidence. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 13:40, 1 November 2009 (UTC)
:::Good work, Rock. Much improved. As for Domer's point, I've no difficulty if the informers theory is mentioned first before the sectarian theory. (I note Domer appears no longer to be objecting to the inclusion of the fact that the killings took place during a truce, despite launching personal attacks on me previously for restoring said fact to the lead.) ] (]) 20:07, 1 November 2009 (UTC)


:::'''Note to Sarah'''. Since you are now so familiar with our (re)naming policies, remember them next time you decide to circumvent ] and impose your own preference with a unilateral move. That way we can avoid these retrospective, recriminatory discussions. ]<span style="color:black;">e</span>] 23:58, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
: I think this shows a fundamental misunderstanding of ].
*We don't need to cite the sources that that Hart/Coogan used. Misplaced Pages articles are not scholarly treatises, where the primary sources are debated and dissected. Our job is to report the what the notable treatises find. Hart certainly (I'm not familiar with Coogan) is a respected, published academic who has written a notable treatise. Our job is to note that, and also note that other notable historians disagreed with his findings and have a different interpretation of the primary sources. The reader can draw their own conclusion about who is right and who is wrong based by reading those treatises.
* You say that the "religion of those killed is circumstantial" and it is "unsupported by the evidence". Who says? You say that (which is neither here not there). Ryan, Meehan et al also say that. That is fine, because we have noted their dissenting opinion and noted how their interpret the data.
: So again, it is not our job to show editorial favor for one set of historical analysis over the other. All we do is report their conclusions.
: Now. I have a question for you. Do you not think it odd that you are perfectly fine to accept ''only'' the modifications to address one POV (the one you disagree with), but not willing to accept modifications that remove the other (which you do agree with)? The fact that you have personally expressed your dismissal of Hart's work rather puts you in a conflict of interest with regards to reporting his work fairly. Given you believe his work is "deliberately misleading with conclusions dependant on omissions and distortions". Do your really think you are the right person to be judging whether our coverage of him is fair? ]<font color="black">e</font>] 20:11, 1 November 2009 (UTC)


There may be things within the article that could be improved. That is the important thing. Why doesn't Rms try to add a section of various media reaction to the incidents where it might not be covered? That would be something that often happens. To add some dignity and justice to each personality, as Rms seems to be requesting, a series of individual articles could possibly be created rather than just increasing the weight of the title for political impact. The idea that some massive injustice can be seen on this article, without apparently checking the content of it, is hardly substantiating. Concentrating on the fact and completion of the article is what every article needs, adding more "cruel" and "brutal" words for impact alone is editorial artwork which is of questionable use to us if not approached neutrally. Feelings that are not neutral do not sway the need for neutrality, they increase it, duh! It is inconsqequential if this upsets anyone - those executed in Dunmanway were considered with little dispute to be spys and combatants all bar a possible one so comparing those incidents to Enniskillen, McMahon murders and Arnon street killings is reaching poor taste at the best of faith. Beleiving that murders are sometimes thought of as tea partys is not something that Misplaced Pages should be able to help us with, deal with that, it does not prevent an editor revealing the history that is important to them only from colouring it in the manner, at times, that pleases them. Checking the article piece by piece for accuracy and completion is much more important and equally more likely to be acted on. I would roll out support for improving the article just for the sake of it but complaining that we are not guided in our distaste for the incident, a category of incidents I already have distaste for, really doesn't do it for me. I do not see any playing down of brutality or massive injustice caused by this article and similarly I should not expect to see any playing up either lest I start to distrust its nature. To add the reactions of various media where it is missing, do that. It is a moving story in a series of moving stories. To move people by ''design'', I am sorry, it is best not to. If the article truly interests you and you think you can improve it, start doing or discussing that also. The sources do not indicate a widely accepted title and NPOV has the high ground. <span style="font-size:small; font-family:Impact;">~ ].].]</span> 20:40, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
You have been asked to cite the sources Hart uses which support their conclusions “''that there were sectarian motives''.” The reason I asked is because as I pointed out above, the authors who say there were no sectarian motives provide quite a number of sources to support this. There is no question that they simply have a different interpretation of the primary sources because as far as I know, Hart does not use any of the sources they do? I have not ''personally'' expressed my dismissal of Hart's work I simply point to the fact that his work has been comprehensively challenged and proved to be deliberately misleading with conclusions dependant on omissions and distortions. Now if Hart like Coogan is simply expressing an opinion which is not based on any source documents that's fine, but it should not be given the same weight as the conclusions of authors which are based on detailed research supported by cited sources. The fact that their research has not been challenged, unlike Hart would also support the view I have suggested.


*'''Rename to "Dunmanway Xfgshjxddekkdkwcdkldlflff"''' (or something else equally meaningless). Like Rockpocket, I don't see enough sources to establish ''either'' title as common usage, and in the absence of a definitive answer, I believe that NPOV requires us to use the neutral term "killings", but .... but but but.<br />The but is that the naming of articles such as this (and their content too) is a battleground between two very small but deeply-entrenched sets of ideologically-driven single-minded editors who determinedly set out to erase from wikipedia materual supportive of the perspectives with which they disagree. Each side takes the same approach, albeit in applied in polar-opposite direction: killings ''of'' people on "our side" were "murder" or "massacre", but killings ''by'' our side were either "killing" or legitimate "execution", and the results in each particular case depend more on who turns up than on any consistent approach. Each side uses bloc-voting and huge combinations of ] and ] to "disprove" (and therefore downgrade) sources from perspectives with which they disagree, and emits howls of anguished outrage when the "other" side does the same thing. The argument about "spies" illustrates the dilemma perfectly: from a Republican perspective, those giving info into the Crown forces were spies for a foreign army waging war against the lawfully-established government of Ireland, but from another perspective the informers were responsible citizens giving information to the forces of the law. Neither perspective is "right" or "correct" or "neutral", and neither is stupid or mendacious or wrong; both are coherent views capable of being held in good faith by intelligent, well-informed and honest people ... but both sides here set out to treat the other perspective as contemptibly partisan.<br />Renaming articles such as this to something meaningless and self-evidently silly serves as a prominent warning to readers that the text of the article they are about to read is not the product of the ] which wikipedia advertises as one of its fundamental principles, but rather the product of a long-running dispute between two sets of editors who believe that NPOV is what ''they'' believe, and everyone else is biased. In any other project seeking neutrality, they would all have been shown the door long ago ... but since they haven't been, the partisan products of their propaganda campaigns should be labelled appropriately. --] <small>] • (])</small> 21:26, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
As to your insinuations and accusations as to my views and motivation, they can just be ignored as irrelevant. Now Mooretwin can provide a reference which supports the sentence “This happened in a period of truce after the end of the Irish War of Independence (in July 1921) and before the outbreak of the Irish Civil War in June 1922.” Or simply tell us which author has noted this information in relation to the killings otherwise it is an editor, taking two unrelated facts to the killings and leading the reader to make conclusions which are based on the editors ] and ]. That the editor who originally added it readily admits that this was their intension prompts the need for sources. Rock can also provide a source which supports the view that “It is generally agreed that they were "sparked" by the fatal shooting of IRA commandant Michael O'Neill.” I my have missed it from reading the sources provided, but I can’t see it stated anywhere that it is generally agreed that the killing of O’Neill "sparked” the killing. Rock could you do likewise with “''There is no consensus, however, on why the ten killed and three disappeared were targeted''.” I ask in light of my comments above. Could you also provide a source that says ''it was only during'' “the 1919-1921 conflict” that they acted as informers? --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 21:00, 1 November 2009 (UTC)
: Rock is not going to provide sources for O'Neill, because Rock did not add that to the article. Regarding the lack of a consensus on why they were targeted, I didn't add that either, but it appears to me to be appropriate, summary style, coverage of the the different historians' analysis. If you wish to challenge that content, you know the process. I'll happily cite any of Hart's analysis to his published works. That is what we call a reliable source. ]<font color="black">e</font>] 21:49, 1 November 2009 (UTC)
:: Further to your point that "I have not ''personally'' expressed my dismissal of Hart's work I simply point to the fact that his work has been comprehensively challenged and proved to be deliberately misleading". Has it, really? You neglect to point out this "proof" is based on the work of other, competing historians who hold radically different views, and who are largely focused on discrediting Hart. Well, let me quote to you an independent historian (John Regan at the University of Dundee) in a published review of Hart's work:


I would again caution editors not to respond to comments which attempt to personalise the discussion. Editors who attempt to turn talk pages into battlefields should be ignored. --<span style="font-family:Celtic;">]'']''</span> 21:32, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
''His exploration of the plight of Protestants in the Free State illuminates the sectarian underbelly of the revolution that a nationalist historiography prefers to ignore. In escalating violence in Cork, Tipperary, or Dublin could Michael Collins, Harry Boland, or Ernie O’Malley be held accountable for raising sectarian tensions in Antrim, Down or Belfast? Was the cost of a southern state the institutionalisation of ethno-religious tensions in a compressed and reactionary northern state? Could revolutionary violence in 1922 and 1968 conceivably be part of one grotesque, protracted process? To accept this argument would, however, be to shatter nationalist icons important to a southern nationalist identity still rooted in its own glorious revolution. That open sectarian conflict was intrinsic to any war of ‘national liberation’ will remain a matter of embarrassment to those who conceive of the Irish Revolution as having wholly positive outcomes. In placing sectarianism at the centre of the Revolution, Hart does an incalculable service, retrieving his subject from the preserve of professional nationalists. ''
:Nice try, Domer, but please read what I wrote. I am not trying "to turn talk pages into battlefields", quite the contrary. I am commentmg on the deplorable fact that this talk page has for a long time been a battlefield between two sets of determined POV-warriors. --] <small>] • (])</small> 21:42, 5 December 2009 (UTC)


::Not sure what you think Domer was trying BHG. But if I may be so forward as to summarize your comment above: "We should stick to policy and use neutral words like "killing" rather than loaded words like massacre". The rest was basically waffle in the name of balance. Am I right? ] (]) 23:09, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
:: Now this provides a slightly different perspective than you would have us believe. An expert historian says he "illuminates the sectarian underbelly of the revolution that a nationalist historiography prefers to ignore" and retrieves the "subject from the preserve of professional nationalists." That is hardly consistent with "proved to be deliberately misleading" is it?
:::Domer was trying a deflection gambit, though not very effecively.
:: So, is Regan's analysis correct or are you correct, presumably referring to the allegations of Ryan et al? Who knows. But we don't need to know because we are not in the business of picking sides in academic disagreements. We documents what the reliable sources say, and let the reader decide who is right and who is wrong. ]<font color="black">e</font>] 22:29, 1 November 2009 (UTC)
:::And no Sarah, you're not right. My point is that ''in normal circumstances'', neutral words such as "killing" should be used ... but that when an article is of one of a series which have been abused by partisans who apply NPOV selectively (i.e. only when it suits their purposes), the article should be given a meaningless name to reflect the nonsense that that has gone on in its construction.
:::I would be equally happy for the article to be given a name which says this explicitly, such as ]. --] <small>] • (])</small> 23:22, 5 December 2009 (UTC)


::::Reads like a John/Rock style cop-out to me. ] (]) 23:33, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Please, ] Are you now saying that you are not going to support the changes which ''you made''! Now, since there is no "''coverage of the the different historians' analysis''" how could it possibly be an appropriate, summary style. I asked for the information above which could have supported this, but you have refused to provide it. Now I have asked for additional information on some other points, on the information ''you added'', will that be forth coming or was that a blanket refusal above. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 22:07, 1 November 2009 (UTC)
:::::No, the cop-out is amongst those who don't want to mention the ] of months (or is it years?) of partisan wars-of-attrition over this article, which have made it a no go zone for editors who haven't signed up in blood to one or other of the two warring camps. --] <small>] • (])</small> 00:30, 6 December 2009 (UTC)
: Check the history before lecturing others. ]<font color="black">e</font>] 22:31, 1 November 2009 (UTC)


::I just want to add, good informants are ''honoured'' as spys. Unless a person was spying on those they considered "their own", applying some sort of shame to that doesn't apply. If a new militia seizes power in your area and you walk into the middle of them to shoot the leader dead you must be quite brave and certainly don't want misguided alteration to portray you as a poor misfortunate. That would negate all that you stood and died for. I had something a bit more angry to say but that's why NPOV is important, angry nonesense shouldn't come into it. <span style="font-size:small; font-family:Impact;">~ ].].]</span> 23:30, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Rock I'm not lecturing anyone! Your the one with the attitude not me. Could you please explain to us what you mean by "An expert historian"? Who are these "professional nationalists" that John Regan talks about and what is a "professional nationalists." To answer your question, yes Harts work has been comprehensively challenged and proved to be deliberately misleading! So please take responcibility for your edits and and having offered your support in this tread for the edits to the Lead, your being asked to back it up. Now you said above you'll "''happily cite any of Hart's analysis''" and that is all I've asked you to do. Please cite the sources that Hart used to support his analysis? --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 23:16, 1 November 2009 (UTC)
:::::::That's a neat little distortion of who did the walking. The article refers to the "the fatal shooting of IRA commandant Michael O'Neill by a local loyalist whose house was being raided on 26 April" (]). But hey, why let any of the agreed facts get in the way of using articles like this as a coatrack for a POV? --] <small>] • (])</small> 00:48, 6 December 2009 (UTC)
: For the first diff: Peter Hart, 1999, ''Taking it out on the Protestants'' in "The I.R.A. and its enemies: violence and community in Cork, 1916-1923", pp 273-93. The chapter title alone, should provide you with the thrust of his findings, but if you want more try, "Behind the killings lay a jumble of individual histories and possible motives. In the end, however, the fact of the victims religion is inescapable. These men were shot because there were Protestant... The sectarian antagonism that drove this massacre was interwoven with political hysteria and local vendettas, but it was sectarian none the less. 'Our fellas took it out on the Protestants' (quoting Denis Lordan in O'Broin, ''Protestant Nationalists'' 177)". This should be sufficient for supporting the claim of sectarianism. I take it you don't need a source for the claims of Ryan et al, which you've recounted on this page. ]<font color="black">e</font>] 23:41, 1 November 2009 (UTC)
: For the second diff. What do you want exactly, a source that a "male" is a "man" or would you like a source for the merging of two sentences? ]<font color="black">e</font>] 23:41, 1 November 2009 (UTC)


:::So you are saying the deceased would be '''proud''' to be called informers? I agree. ] (]) 23:33, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Ok, so Hart bases his whole analysis on one comment by one person 'Our fellas took it out on the Protestants' (quoting Denis Lordan in O'Broin, Protestant Nationalists 177)". So if a number of authors provide a number of citable sources to contradict this analysis, then more weight must be given to them. Was Denis Lordan talking about the incidents in the article? Now having supported the edits made to the Lead, are you going to address the issues I have raised, or are you, as you seem to be suggesting only be responding to edits you make despite your defence of the edits above. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 10:20, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
::::More of the pointless POV which makes editing these articles such a tedious battleground. If you're right, there will be testimony from their families to that effect, but that'll need references. Without the references, that's just POV speculation about one of many possible explanations of the reason people passed info to the RIC. (Off the top of my head, other possible reasons include blackmail, personal ties, a lesser-of-two-evils choice ... all of these speculative explanations are just as plausible/implausible as the unreferenced simplistic certainties trotted out by editors who claim to be following NPOV). --] <small>] • (])</small> 00:38, 6 December 2009 (UTC)
::::: ''Was Denis Lordan talking about the incidents in the article?'' A reliable source appears to say so. If you are skeptical, ] ]<font color="black">e</font>] 21:20, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
:::Domer's critique of the inadequacies of Peter Hart is fascinating, but not really relevant to this article. The purpose of the article is not to critique Hart or any other historian, but to record what he and other historians say about the killings. If other historians have criticised Hart, then that goes into the article, too. ] (]) 11:25, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
::::Relevant to this article when balance and weight is being considered. Now provide the references you were asked for a number of times now. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 11:47, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
:::::Sorry to rain on your parade, but the critique of an anonymous Misplaced Pages editor is never going to be relevant. Only reliable sources are relevant. And you want "references" to support a statement that the killings took place during the truce? Why? ] (]) 12:42, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
Agreed! That is why I'm looking to have editors ] and ] removed. Now I have outlined the issues above a number of times now, and have had nothing but stonewalling, so the best thing for me to do is re-write the Lead and reference it to the point of overkill to stop the nonsence after all only reliable sources are relevant. Thanks --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 20:46, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
: No, Domer. Hart provides plenty of other sources that support the same conclusion. But that isn't relevant because we are sourcing Hart's ''conclusion'' based on his scholarly analyses, we are not critiquing his analysis. Other historians also provide sources that lead them to a different ''conclusion''; we mention and source their conclusions too, we do not critique their analysis either. You seem to be of the opinion that Ryan and Meehan's analyses go unchallenged while Hart's has been "proved" wrong. Not so, Hart has critiqued their use of sources and the conclusions they draw, just as much as they have his. So why do you think one historian is correct and the other isn't? And, even if you have a reason to endorse one over the other, why should your person opinion be reflected in a Misplaced Pages article?
: The back and forth between Hart and Ryan et al can be expanded in further detail in the body of the text (again, without editorial endorsement of either position), but within the constraints of the lead, the two contrasting conclusions are what is important. Those have been sourced perfectly well. So lets move on from this and tackle the rest of the article. ]<font color="black">e</font>] 21:15, 2 November 2009 (UTC)


Folks, I guarentee ya'll, no matter what the article ends up being named, the Earth will continue to revolve around the sun. Therefore, let's stay cool & enjoy the ride. ] (]) 23:35, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
"''Hart provides plenty of other sources that support the same conclusion''." That is exactly what you were asked to provide, and which you said said above you'll "''happily cite''" yet you only provide one, and even that is without any context at all. This is not about critiquing their analysis, it as you yourself said "balance" and "weight" and that can only be known by reviewing the sources. Now I'm asking reasonable questions and all I'm getting is stonewalling, so I'll be re-writing the Lead and referencing it up to the gills. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 22:40, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
:::If you "review the sources" you'll find some sources say informers and others say sectarian. The article should reflect this. ] (]) 23:24, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
: How many times do I need to write this: ''We are not critiquing Hart, therefore we don't need to investigate his sources for that statement. He is a notable academic who has published a number of books on the subject, therefore he is a reliable source for his own conclusions.'' As for re-writing the lead. I would suggest you get consensus for that, because at the moment you appear to be the exception among editors on this issue. ]<font color="black">e</font>] 07:06, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
::Domer, I know you are a good guy, but you need urgently to listen to Rock and the rest of us. Why not help improve the article rather than trying to point it in a particular direction? This article is not a place to be making points about which historian rubbished which other historian. We report the reliable sources and we summarize them. That's all an encyclopedia is. Rock has made good edits and explained them here. --] (]) 07:32, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
:::Get off Domers back John, I agree with his stance. Rockpockets lead is inaccurate and misleading.--] (]) 09:48, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
::::I don't think anyone will be surprised that Vintagekits agrees with fellow nationalist Domer. In what way does Vintagekits think that the lead is inaccurate and misleading? (This should be interesting.) ] (]) 10:14, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
Vin no worries re: John, I'll simply ignore their drive by remarks, likewise Mooretwin's attempt to turn this talk page into another battlefield. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 12:18, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
::::::There would be no "battlefield" if you chose to collaborate with editors rather than attempting to ignore them in an apparently relentless pursuit of POV. Your remarks about John are quite revealing as they indicate (a) a disregard for the views of other editors, and (b) a confidence that he and other editors will soon become bored of arguing with the Tribal Patrol, eventually leaving the article alone for you and your colleagues to edit as you choose, and (c) a realisation that your success in controlling an article is largely dependent on restricting the number of editors involved (because the wider the discussion, the more likely the article is to achieve NPOV). ] (]) 12:36, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
Please cop onto yourself, that nonsense will not change the fact, that you have refused to address the issues I've raised. Now, I'm working on a Lead which is based on ] and is ]. It will be free of the ] and ] that is currently there, so pandering to the above nonsense is only encouraging the like of you. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 13:53, 3 November 2009 (UTC)
::::::::There are no issues to address. The fact that the killings took place during the truce is sourced in the main article. I suggest to you that a collaborative approach is more likely to improve the article than a hostile one. Remember that the aim is to provide a good summary of the article, and that the article itself should adhere to NPOV. That means that interpretations other than those of nationalist historians also need to be reflected and given due weight. Try to take an objective look at things. ] (]) 14:08, 3 November 2009 (UTC)


:''The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. <span style="color:red">'''Please do not modify it.'''</span> Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.''</div><!-- Template:pollbottom -->
:I've now had a chance to read some of the writings of those historian's who dispute Hart's findings. Of particular interest to this page is an article by Niall Meehan in the ''Irish Political Review'' Vol 23, No.3, 2008. The general thrust of the article is to forensically question Hart's analysis, which drew him to the conclusion that there was sectarian motive's behind much of the War of Independence. However, what is interesting about Meehan's writing is the following section:
Does that template stop people from modifying the discussion? I thought you weren't allowed to modify discussions anyway. <span style="font-size:small; font-family:Impact;">~ ].].]</span> 09:55, 11 December 2009 (UTC)
::''The April killings were exceptional. This was recognised by those assumed at the time to be the intended targets, Irish Protestants. A highly significant Irish Protestant Convention was held on May 11 1922 in Dublin’s Mansion House. It resolved, ‘apart from this incident, hostility to Protestants by reason of their religion, has been almost, if not wholly unknown, in the 26 counties in which they are a minority’ (The Irish Independent, The Irish Times, May 12 1922; also, see The Irish Independent May 3 1922).''
:It only tells you not to modify, it does not technically enforce it. ] (]) 10:20, 11 December 2009 (UTC)
: Now to be fair Meehan still refutes a sectarian motive for the killings:
::''The killings in late April 1922 in West Cork were not motivated by either land agitation or by sectarian considerations.''
: My point is simply that there are other historians cite primary evidence that supports the opinion there was a sectarian motive ('''apart from this incident, hostility to Protestants by reason of their religion, has been almost, if not wholly unknown''') and clearly - given the fact Meehan cites it - this is not disputed by those who routinely question Hart's sources. I'm struggling to see how Meehan can consider these killings both "exceptional" in their sectarian nature (and cite support for it) and yet he still conclude they were "not motivated by... sectarian considerations", but that doesn't really matter. ]<font color="black">e</font>] 20:19, 7 November 2009 (UTC)


::Bit of a flaw in the system if we can't tell pre from post template offerings. I was going to reply (robustly) to Rock and BHG but there seems to be no point at this stage. I'll merely repeat that this isn't a sectarian tit-for-tat issue; this is the defence of ] against the systematic pro-British bias in the MSM in relation to Irish matters concerning what we used to call The National Question. This is THE problem and it is the same problem that causes much of the drama on other "nationalist" disputes across Wiki. To my mind at least three reasonable Admin editors have demonstrated an inability to grasp this. I guess it's like trying to describe the colour blue to someone blind from birth. And then there's Bastun! ] (]) 13:09, 12 December 2009 (UTC)
== No Republic?==
JD, I have reverted your last edit. It implies the Republic ceased to exist ''before'' the Dail vote on the Treaty. You can only "re-establish" something that has already been "dis-established". ] (]) 12:05, 31 October 2009 (UTC) :::However, when claiming a pro-British bias, could there not also be a claim of pro-Irish bias in these types of discussions? I'd argue that the potential of there being ''both'', creates a balanced discussion. ] (]) 19:33, 12 December 2009 (UTC)


GoodDay is on the right track here, but I'd go further: the ongoing efforts by some editors to squeeze complex situations into a simplistic choice between "pro-British" or "pro-Irish" boxes is precisely what creates the sterile time-wasting battlegrounds on these talk pages. For a start there were not just two sides in Dunmanway, but three main sets of forces: British, pro-Treaty Irish, and Anti-Treaty Irish. That simple fact alone demolishes the crude sloganising about a "pro-British POV" being the only hazard here, but the big problem here is that some editors persist in viewing this incident (and many others like it) as if all the characters in the story fit neatly into one or other of those boxes. Quite apart from the fact that pro- and anti-Treaty elements were not fixed, rigid groupings like clearly-coloured armies in some diagram of a pitched battle, the central question in these events is to what extent the individuals at the centre of this story identified with any of the forces in question. People who are not directly engaged in a conflict frequently have confused, divided or uncertain loyalties ... yet we have two polarised groups of editors trying to reduce the dead people to nice simple cardboard cut-outs of one hue or the other. The simplistic narratives offered by our two sets of POV-pushing editors are that they were either a) all innocent civilians murdered by out-of-control elements, ''or'' b) ideologically-driven spies legitimately executed like any other spies in wartime.
:Dail vote was on January 7. Treaty accepted, Provisional Government established. Republic dis-established. Troop withdrawals in question were February to April, ''after'' the Dail vote. ] (]) 12:45, 31 October 2009 (UTC)


There seems to be only major undisputed fact here: that the killings took place. Nearly all the other crucial elements are based on incomplete or unreliable evidence:
::Never was good at dates. Perhaps if you explained your reverts in future we'd not confuse them with your edit warring? ] (]) 13:36, 31 October 2009 (UTC)
*With the exception of the shooting of the IRA officer shot whilst commandeering the car, the accounts of how the killings happened are vague and second-hand (or even third-hand)
*there are scant details of the crucial bit of evidence, viz. contents of the list of informers. The critical questions of what sort of information was passed on, for how long, and by whom -- all unanswered.
*There are allegations of an organised loyalist cell in the area, but nothing in the article which expands the scope or significance of that potentially central issue. What exactly did this loyalist group do? Which of the dead were part of it, and what were their roles in it?


These massive uncertainties underly the historiographical dispute in the secondary sources. Yet despite that, we have an editor here insisting (without reliable sources to support the claim) that "the deceased would be proud to be called informers", and then insisting seven days later that she is engaged in "the defence of WP:NPOV against the systematic pro-British bias". The notion NPOV consists of parading simolistic certainties on one side or the other stacks up about as well as a tower made out of freshly-boiled spaghetti. --] <small>] • (])</small> 13:23, 14 December 2009 (UTC)
:::Perhaps you shouldn't change facts you're not so familiar with? ] (]) 13:50, 31 October 2009 (UTC)


:''"I guess it's like trying to describe the colour blue to someone blind from birth. And then there's Bastun!"'' Aye, there is me. Someone who has voted 'neutral' in the above RM debate, even though it was moved out-of-process by you, Sarah. And in the past I've posted to delete some articles on non-notable IRA members, and voted to retain others I believed were clearly notable. I've reported people such as you and Vintagekits to the appropriate noticeboards when I've though it's been warranted - and I've spoken out against bans for you and he when I thought they weren't warranted. I think your problem with me may be I don't quite fit any of your predefined stereotypes. Hence the odd snide comments. Oh well. As I mentioned on your own talk page fairly recently, Oscar Wilde was right... By the way - any response to my earlier point and Rockpocket's above about you not moving controversial articles outside of the RM process? A simple "Yup, I won't do it again" would suffice... ]<sup>]</sup> 17:02, 15 December 2009 (UTC)
::::I believe it is up to the reverter to furnish the explanation. ] (]) 13:56, 31 October 2009 (UTC)


==Where are the files now?==
::Actually, I would not agree that the Republic was "dis-established" in January 1922. A vote is only a vote, not an act. It is well known that after January two governments existed in Ireland with almost, but not quite, total overlap. Until their respective deaths Griffith was head of the Dáil Government, Collins head of the Provisional Government; it was Cosgrave who effectively unified the two. The Republic was not officially "dis-established" until 6 December 1922 (and according to modern republicans was never dis-established at all). ] (]) 15:02, 6 November 2009 (UTC)
Where are the "captured British military intelligence files" now?] (]) 17:45, 23 November 2011 (UTC)


==Diffs==
:::Agreed it was a murky business, but in reality, the authority being established was that of the Provisional Government. Certainly the British were insistent that a 'Republic' would be counter to the terms of the Treaty and that is the point being made in the relevant sentence. ] (]) 22:31, 7 November 2009 (UTC)
I am not sure if @Gob Lofa intended to delete the sourced text that was deleted (see ), so I restored. If it's deletable just explain why in the edit summary. ] 23:42, 9 September 2015 (UTC)
:I did. It's a straw man. ] (]) 00:10, 10 September 2015 (UTC)
:: @Gob Lofa: I removed part and did a lot of rewording. See what you think and fix as you see fit. Yours, ] 00:27, 10 September 2015 (UTC)
:::I'd rather leave the reference to the list out of the lede, since the same source seems to go on to say the list never existed. ] (]) 12:22, 10 September 2015 (UTC)


== Title of article == == External links modified ==


Hello fellow Wikipedians,
On October 28 the title of this article was unilaterally changed, without consensus let alone discussion, from 'Dunmanway Massacre' to 'Dunmanway Killings'. This was a spiteful gaming tactic by Sarah777 who had been denied use of the word Massacre in a different context. The article under its previous name is referenced all over the web for some three years and should not be changed without due cause, else confusion results.
According to Misplaced Pages a massacre is "the intentional killing of a considerable number of human beings, under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty, or contrary to the usages of civilized people." This is appropriate here and is usually the case if killings are in double figures e.g. Bloody Sunday when 13 people also died. I shall change it back shortly now that I know how.
--] (]) 21:39, 6 November 2009 (UTC)


I have just modified one external link on ]. Please take a moment to review . If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit ] for additional information. I made the following changes:
:Remove the ]. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 21:41, 6 November 2009 (UTC)
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110607140701/http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204280003.html to http://historical-debates.oireachtas.ie/D/DT/D.S.192204280003.html
:: What do you mean 'personalattacks' and why rewmoce from Talk? You've never been averse to same.--] (]) 23:12, 6 November 2009 (UTC)
::: {{user|Fynire}} has been blocked for one week, for the above and other comments. Anyone else who's thinking about making negative comments towards other editors: Cut it out. Instead, keep this talkpage for one purpose and one purpose only, discussion of the ''article''. That's the best and most productive way to proceed. --]]] 00:45, 7 November 2009 (UTC)
: Per Elonka, rather than speculate on the motive of those involved in changing the title, could we have some representations about ''why'' one or the other should be the preferred title (ideally with references to sources and policies)? ]<font color="black">e</font>] 02:07, 7 November 2009 (UTC)


When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
::"Dunmanway massacre" should be the name if and only if that is how it is widely known. Now, I don't know one way or the other, so I looked at Google Books. returns plenty of books dealing with the incident, none of which seem to call it the "Dunmanway massacre". returns only two books: one by Mary Kenny, whose POV is obvious from the quote on the search results page; the other by Kingsmill Moore. I offer you these results without further comment. ] (]) 18:03, 7 November 2009 (UTC)


{{sourcecheck|checked=false|needhelp=}}
:::Well I didn't wish to get anyone blocked but to address the points made by Fynire: The fact that the Wiki article is the main source of the name is itself an illustration of why the ] policy is taken so seriously. (To an extreme degree as I have discovered in a row over description of the Great Famine). We are not supposed to make up names here and when I did a simple google for "Dunmanway massacre" I realised this article was the main source. Per our policy that is actually a very good reason to move to a more neutral name. I am not disputing (or claiming) that the events described here would today be described as a massacre. ] (]) 18:59, 7 November 2009 (UTC)
:::: My reading today doesn't find any significant usage of ''massacre''. The most common descriptions seems to be "the killings at Dunmanway" or "the killings in Co Cork." In that basis I would suggest "Dunmanway killings" would probably be the most appropriate title. ]<font color="black">e</font>] 20:23, 7 November 2009 (UTC)
:::::In fact an interesting issue may well arise here: it is clear that this article is being watched (or even edited) by one or more prominent Irish journalists (term used loosely). If one or more of them decide to use the term "Dunmanway massacre" in their rags do they then become ''reliable sources''? Could I then get my pal in the Irish Times to slip in a reference to the Great Famine as genocide somewhere and then use that??? ] (]) 20:37, 7 November 2009 (UTC)
::::::If you mean the "journalist" whose piece on the RTÉ programme is linked to from this article, I certainly would not regard him as a reliable source :-) ] (]) 21:16, 7 November 2009 (UTC)
:::::::I know he isn't! But per Wiki guidelines would he not constitute a "reliable source" - being a well-paid hack of the MSM? ] (]) 00:24, 8 November 2009 (UTC)


Cheers.—] <span style="color:green;font-family:Rockwell">(])</span> 23:06, 4 May 2017 (UTC)
== Article rework ==
I have started to rework the article into what I hope will be a more neutral description of what the sources tell us, with less editorial endorsement. I've hidden two sentences that I don't understand the relevance of. If someone wants to retain them, could they explain why there are relevant? ]<font color="black">e</font>] 00:15, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
:They appear to be contemporaneous claims that the killings were anti-British rather than sectarian. What is the problem with that? ] (]) 00:27, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
:: I'm not sure I follow. The hidden material is:


== External links modified ==
:::''The IRA's Third Cork Brigade had killed 15 informers during the 1919-1921 conflict according to Tom Barry, "for those who are bigots" he said, nine were Catholics and six Protestants.<ref>Meda Ryan Pg.219</ref>''


Hello fellow Wikipedians,
:::''Before this incident, on 13 April, ] had voiced concern about newspaper reports alleging attacks on Protestants in Ireland (particularly those of the ''Morning Post'') to ]. He said that while some of its coverage was "fair newspaper comment," the "strain of certain parts is very objectionable".<ref>Tim Pat Coogan, Pg.360</ref>''
:: One is about killings during the war, the other is about some other attacks. How does either claim "the killings were anti-British rather than sectarian"? ]<font color="black">e</font>] 01:13, 8 November 2009 (UTC)


I have just modified one external link on ]. Please take a moment to review . If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit ] for additional information. I made the following changes:
I reverting these edits per ] and ]. Information was removed which added context and clarity. Put forward suggestions here, and discuss the changes first. The alternative is reverting or re-writing the re-write followed by reverting, this should be avoided. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 12:50, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
*Added archive https://archive.is/20130904222214/http://westcorktimes.com/home/?p=15898 to http://westcorktimes.com/home/?p=15898
: Sorry, Domer. That was 5 hours worth of work which you reverted, ] doesn't cut it as a justifiable reason. The only significant material that has been removed is that reproduced above and the lengthy critique of Hart's work by other historians. I have already explained why that is inappropriate in the sections above, and yourself excepted, there appears to be significant agreement on that. The rest of the content provided nuance and balance to what was, previously, an article crafted towards the promotion of a particular POV. Reading the article now, we have all significant POVs presented without endorsement of any. ]<font color="black">e</font>] 18:12, 8 November 2009 (UTC)


When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
::And how is adding your own commentary to what sources say not an attempt to create "an article crafted towards the promotion of a particular POV"? People confirmed as informers in documents captured from the very people they informed for are not "suspected informers", they are informers. ] (]) 18:18, 8 November 2009 (UTC)


{{sourcecheck|checked=false|needhelp=}}
:I'll be re-writing this whole section to address the serious problem of ]. --<font face="Celtic">]<sub>'']''</sub></font> 18:17, 8 November 2009 (UTC)


Cheers.—] <span style="color:green;font-family:Rockwell">(])</span> 21:42, 14 September 2017 (UTC)
:: Actually, its not my own commentary but at all. Here is the problem with calling them "informers" in our lead: Ryan et al are quite clear that, in their opinion, the men informed on the IRA. Hart et al don't dispute that the IRA ''considered'' them informers, but their analysis of the evidence does not support that they ''were'' informers. So we have different historians coming do different conclusions. Ultimately, the men were not proven to be informers by any judicial or pseudo-judical process and (as far as I am aware) none of them or their families admitted to informing. So we have no objective standard with which to label them. Instead we are left with points of view. Therefore the best way to summarize this in the lead, appears to me to call them "suspected informers" (in the eyes of the IRA). This is widely agreed on by all scholars and explains why they were killed. Whether they were informers or not can be decided on by the reader by reading the evidence in the article. Our articles should be descriptive, not proscriptive. Its not for us to proscribe what these men were, simply describe how there were considered. We don't call the killings "sectarian" because that is simply the analysis of some historians, so we shouldn't call them "informers" either, as that too is the analysis of some historians.
:: Now I'm now going to revert, and I would urge that others do not revert O Fenian's edit either. Instead, I would prefer editors offer and opinion here and we can come to some sort of educated consensus. ]<font color="black">e</font>] 18:30, 8 November 2009 (UTC)


==Executed/killed?==
==Background==
The article currently says that "Three other men were kidnapped and executed" and "the killings were carried out by the IRA even if it is not clear who precisely ordered their execution". The use of the words 'executed' and 'execution' may imply that the men in question had committed crimes or were being punished. I suggest that saying "Three other men were kidnapped and killed" and "the killings were carried out by the IRA even if it is not clear who precisely ordered them" would be more neutral. ] (]) 21:26, 11 April 2022 (UTC)


It's not really disputed that the killings were punishment. ] (]) 08:11, 21 April 2022 (UTC)
Should the stuff on Cork in the War of Independence not be moved into the subsection "in Cork" and out of the "political context section"? It would make things a lot clearer. Aside from that, very good work so far Rocket. ] (]) 09:38, 8 November 2009 (UTC)
: No objection to that. I was struggling to put all the background information in a format that was logical and semi-chronological. If you think you can improve on it, please do so. ]<font color="black">e</font>] 18:15, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

Latest revision as of 21:39, 13 February 2024

This article is rated C-class on Misplaced Pages's content assessment scale.
It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:
WikiProject iconIreland Low‑importance
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of WikiProject Ireland, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Ireland on Misplaced Pages. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.IrelandWikipedia:WikiProject IrelandTemplate:WikiProject IrelandIreland
LowThis article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
WikiProject iconMilitary history: British / European B‑class
WikiProject iconThis article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.Military historyWikipedia:WikiProject Military historyTemplate:WikiProject Military historymilitary history
BThis article has been rated as B-class on the project's quality scale.
B checklist
This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-class status:
  1. Referencing and citation: criterion met
  2. Coverage and accuracy: criterion met
  3. Structure: criterion met
  4. Grammar and style: criterion met
  5. Supporting materials: criterion met
Associated task forces:
Taskforce icon
British military history task force
Taskforce icon
European military history task force
It is requested that an image or photograph of Dunmanway killings be included in this article to improve its quality. Please replace this template with a more specific media request template where possible.The Free Image Search Tool or Openverse Creative Commons Search may be able to locate suitable images on Flickr and other web sites.Upload
Warning: active arbitration remedies

The contentious topics procedure applies to this article. This article is related to the Troubles, which is a contentious topic. Furthermore, the following rules apply when editing this article:

  • You may not make more than 1 revert within 24 hours on this article (except in limited circumstances)
  • Neutrality: All editors on Troubles-related articles are directed to get the advice of neutral parties via means such as outside opinions.

Editors who repeatedly or seriously fail to adhere to the purpose of Misplaced Pages, any expected standards of behaviour, or any normal editorial process may be blocked or restricted by an administrator. Editors are advised to familiarise themselves with the contentious topics procedures before editing this page.

Archiving icon
Archives

Summary

This seems an easier issue than most such issues to resolve: (1) There is evidence and statements that some people in or connected to the IRA regarded them as informers based on what they thought was evidence. (2) This evidence would not hold up in a modern court of law as it appears to be based on a list no longer available. (3) To jump from that and assert the there was no list or evidence at all, and that the victims were merely randomly selected is speculation or WP:OR. (4) So, "suspected informers" is the closest fit to the limited evidence we have available. Nobody can be sure of what the exact truth was - or at least I cannot see how anyone could be sure. Sarah777 (talk) 22:56, 14 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, very nicely put, Sarah. Rockpocket 22:58, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
Yes, absolutely right. --John (talk) 23:01, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
Agreed. And that's three things Sarah and I agree on! Wonders will never cease! Bastun 23:03, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
Afirmative. GoodDay (talk) 23:05, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
Oh! Excellent. So maybe we could appoint Rock to lighten the Hart influence a wee bit as he suggested and write a version based on the facts we seem to be agreed on. (Pretty similar to the existing version I'd imagine). Then maybe we can take this off the list of "disputes" and insist on very good sources for any future re-interpretations? Sarah777 (talk) 23:11, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
My problem is that I don't have access to Ryan's book, so I'm struggling to give better coverage to her conclusions. Almost all the stuff cited to her previously was criticisms of Hart's conclusions culled from various pamphlets (which is not what we want) instead of her own conclusions (which we do want). If anyone else could come up with some sourced material that illustrates how Ryan interpreted the event, it would be most helpful. O Fenian appears to be familiar with her writing, but he has gone awol recently. Rockpocket 23:18, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
Is Domer not familiar with that material? Sarah777 (talk) 23:22, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
I don't know. Any input he has on this matter would be welcome, of course, though we could do without revisiting the Hart is discredited arguments again. Rockpocket 23:26, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
I thought that was resolved? The text covers his revisionism/alleged revisionism fairly I think. No need to reopen that issue. Sarah777 (talk) 23:32, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
Good work on the summary Sarah. Credit where it's due. Re Ryan she doesn't have an awful lot in the way of conclusions on the actual incident in Tom Barry, IRA Freedom Fighter. The whole chapter is more or less devoted to rebutting Hart. The closest I can find to a conclusion on the events is (158-159),
"Peter Hart concludes the motives were 'sectarian' rather than disloyalty to the Republican cause by informing on their fight for freedom activities. According to Peter Hart, when the men of the Cork IRA used the term 'informer' it simply meant 'enemy'...Yet all of the surnames (in the Dunmanway/Ballineen/Enniskeane district) of those shot in the closing days of April 1922, were listed as 'helpful citiizens' in the Dunmanway 'find'. But the names of two of those fatally shot are not on the list - only last names are there. In one case a son was shot when his father was not at home. An elderly man was shot instead of his brother, who ahd been wanted by the IRA and he had been, 'one of the men' who 'fingered' IRA men resulting in their arrest torture and deaths. Those who saw the document knew the anems of he 'helpful citizens' - some of whom escaped. (Only one loyalist was listed in the diary. The others were in separate dossiers)." Jdorney (talk) 11:20, 15 November 2009 (UTC)
It seems nobody is claiming the son and the elderly man shot, either in error or deliberately, were actually themselves informers. Thus describing all 10 simply as informers would be inaccurate. As per facts we are all agreed on? Sarah777 (talk) 09:27, 16 November 2009 (UTC)
Collateral casualties aside, you won't address the point above. Informer or suspected informer are both pejorative terms as those done to death were at the time proper law-abiding citizens whose duty it was to tell the aurhorities of activities that would otherwise lead to people being killed.--Fynire (talk) 21:27, 18 November 2009 (UTC)
Fynire, with respect you seem to be ploughing a lonely furrow here. People on all sides seem to feel that "suspected informers" is neutral and not pejorative. Nobody is suggesting that the dead were traitors, and nobody but you seems to be drawing that inference, Scolaire (talk) 23:20, 19 November 2009 (UTC)
Not that lonely I suspect Scolaire.

Traitor is a better epithet than informer which is usually an epithet for low lifes. How would you like to be murdered and have it written into the historical record that you were a 'suspected rapist' or some such when the thought had never crossed your mind nor the concept imagined? This is victor's language not neutral (NPOV). And 'suspected' implies possible innocence to boot, yet few using the term have the slightest doubt you deserved your fate, suspected or otherwise. If your father or brother's name was on the bullet it is all the same in their eyes. Listen to the tone. --Fynire (talk) 00:06, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

"Traitor" is better than "informer"?!! Not on this planet! Sarah777 (talk) 01:28, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
Treason never prospers for if it does none dare call it treason but 'informers' don't become 'agents' so easily. --Fynire (talk) 23:50, 24 November 2009 (UTC)
Nottatall! By your own reckoning a traitor could now be regarded as a "decent law-abiding citizen" if the outcome had favoured the occupiers! Imagine had the fight for independence failed what they'd be calling the "rebels" today?! (Given that history is written by the winners). Sarah777 (talk) 02:57, 25 November 2009 (UTC)


Calling them men rather than Protestants is absurd. It is also accurate and germane so don't revert it again Sarah. Given that you changed the name of the article without discussion I don't think you can use lack of discussion as a reason. The matter has been discussed at length anyway. --Fynire (talk) 10:11, 25 November 2009 (UTC)
Fynire, for the record, Peter Hart also suggests that they were singled out because they were men. The killers deliberately would not shoot women ("we don't want you" they told one) but asked for the men by name. I'm not saying this is good or bad, but their sex was clearly a significant factor in their targeting. Jdorney (talk) 00:23, 26 November 2009 (UTC)
That may be so but hardly significant unless we are writing some sort of gender-related article. I would be happy to change it to ten male Protestants, and will. --Fynire (talk) 21:31, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
Unfortunately as the root cause is disputed, that information is best left to later in the lead where it is currently. O Fenian (talk) 21:39, 30 November 2009 (UTC)
O Fenian - you reverted the sentence that said Meda Ryan's references were unavailable writing "removed commentary on Ryan, there is no equivalent for Hart saying "however his source is anonymous and probably fake"" This is tendentious. The remark about Ryan's sources is a quote from her. Your remark about Hart is incomparable and silly. Readers have a right to know her information is not checkable especially as it is used constantly in the article. Leave it be. Nobody else objects so you are on your own. --Fynire (talk) 18:51, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
No, it is your commentary/observation on Ryan which is not being applied equally to all sources used. Hart relies on anonymous interviews that are completely uncheckable, at least one of which was not an interview with a Kilmichael veteran. The source for Hart interviewing anonymous people is Hart himself, what is the difference? Hart's sources are uncheckable, since Hart won't tell anyone who his sources are! O Fenian (talk) 18:56, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

Still needs work

This article still needs substantial work. Most of the more glaring POV problems have been dealt with, but there are still a few remaining.

  • The most glaring is in what should be the main section of the article - "Killings in Dunmanway, Balneen, Ennsikeane and Clonakilty". This section needs to be re-written. First of all, after each of the dead mentioned is a kind of character assassination -"this one was an informer", that one was "preying on the children's innocence". Taken straight from Meda Ryan. It's ok to have this interpretation in the article, but giving right after the killings is giving it undue weight and ascribing a motive for the killings which is disputed.
  • Secondly, aside from the POV angle, the article is too long and clumsy. The problem here is that competing editors have, in the absence of discussion, been adding more and more referenced facts. This is a bit out of control now - so that article is lopsided. Basically the content in the background section is ok, but the presentation is not. It needs to be condensed right down so it's a clear and concise intro to someone who doesn't know anything about the subject.

Thoughts please. Jdorney (talk) 11:52, 21 November 2009 (UTC)

The fact that they were informers should be mentioned regardless whether is before or after each name is mentioned. Giving undue weight and ascribing a motive for the killings other than they were informers should not be given undue weight because of the lack of supporting evidence. I see nothing wrong with adding more referenced facts as long as its informative and relevant. --Domer48'fenian' 13:53, 22 November 2009 (UTC)
OK - should we give explicit reference where the facts indicate that the person shot was not an informer? Like: "Though the old man was not the informer they came looking for they shot him anyway" type of thing? Sarah777 (talk) 14:06, 22 November 2009 (UTC)
It should be; "They were shot." Next paragraph. "This one was alleged to have been an informer. This may have been the reason he was shot". Jdorney (talk) 14:53, 22 November 2009 (UTC)
Is there a verifiable claim that all 10 were alleged informers? Sarah777 (talk) 16:19, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the proposal was Not moved. No consensus on any better name. There is some consensus that "killings" is not strongly POV, and by weight of discussion there is strong evidence that other options do have some POV. I am making no judgment on previous move actions (neither of the move itself nor of the procedural issues surrounding it). DMacks (talk) 09:34, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Those contributing to this requested move discussion are respectfully reminded that it is a discussion, not a vote. Evidence and considered arguments outweigh unsupported assertions. Good reasons to move the article would include things like "so-and-so said whatever-it-was at the time" and "so-and-so says whatever-it-is here in this book". Good reasons not to move would be similar. Sniping at other editors helps not at all. And if it should be the case that other pages are badly named it will be better to rename them rather than this one. Angus McLellan (Talk) 23:43, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

Dunmanway killingsDunmanway murders

Either name is fine with me. Jdorney (talk) 12:16, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
  • Where is the evidence that any name of the article is the correct one? I see abuse and attempts to own the article, but no reasoning. A quote from a politican is little compared to how sources name the event. O Fenian (talk) 18:42, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

OpposeI oppose this move from the present NPOV nameCathar11 (talk) 19:12, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

Then why, Cathar11, don't you oppose such POV articles as McMahon Murders and the Arnon Street Massacre? I am going to submit them for name moves as well, just to let you know. There is supposed to be parity of esteem!! Rms125a@hotmail.com (talk) 20:33, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
Comment Stop commenting on contributors. Throwing stones is not a good enough guideline for content. Either discuss the sources and meanings of wikt:killing, wikt:murder, and wikt:massacre or finish discussing. In my view, massacre is usually used to describe killing in number in a single event esp. of those for who there is no "excuse". Use of murder is often frowned upon again when matters of "excuse" are alleged. Look Rms, they managed to pick off the commanding officer on the approach. That's pretty resourceful! The world you are poking your head into was a nightmare. The one you live in, do you have scented shampoo? The one you live in is a bed of roses as is the one I live in. Comment on content and not contributors. Throw stones in a pond. Base input on reliable sources and solid definitions, not your new stone throwing manual which you made up one day. If you hadn't noticed, the stones have all but stopped being thrown. That's righet! Stone throwing is not a sufficient reason to move this article request denied ~ R.T.G 21:36, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
Whoa. "Look Rms, they managed to pick off the commanding officer on the approach. That's pretty resourceful!". Who did? The three men who disappeared or the eleven (ten fatally) who were shot over a period of two days. Also, "request denied": are you an administrator closing this debate or are you just expressing an opinion. I suspect the latter in which case you are no one to be saying request denied in an effort to stifle commentary.
"The world you are poking your head into was a nightmare." - I agree, presuming you are referring to the plight of Protestants and Unionists in most of the 26 counties; I guess that's why the 12% to 16% of the population they once constituted stands at 2% or so, not including failed refugee seekers and recent British transplants. Does that status of near extinction apply to nationalists in Northern Ireland?
I have no idea who you are and your userpage is empty, so I am sure that you are not an administrator and not in any position to be denying requests. You clearly make no effort at objectivity, so neither have I. Just because you accuse me, ad nauseum, of "throwing stones", doesn't mean that this unauthorized, sneaky move on October 28 by User:Sarah777 should be allowed to stand. I have no intention of debating the meaning of words in a dictionary. Words can be meant to mean more than one thing by whomever is talking and listening. For example, were the various Bloody Sundays massacres, ambushes, killings, murders, collateral damage? Or were they all of those things at the same time? An encyclopaedia is supposed to be objective and should not refer to incidents of bloodshed by differing standards (killing, murder, massacre(!)), based on subjective, visceral feelings and folklore. Rms125a@hotmail.com (talk) 22:37, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
Oppose, obviously. The name "massacre" was blatant WP:OR and breach of WP:NPOV. The use of "murders" is not only possibly inaccurate but again a breach of WP:NPOV. Policy ( and WP:COMMONNAME) makes clear that we use neutral terms unless there is a well verified name in near universal use. I suggest you look at the criteria for inclusion of an articles in "List of events named massacres". Sarah777 (talk) 23:08, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
And the proposer of this move to restore the article to a POV title might note that I moved it, alone. And he might also note that I am a single individual, not a "republican cabal". Sarah777 (talk) 23:13, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
Sarah - a) if the use of "murders" "is not only possibly inaccurate but again a breach of WP:NPOV", then why is it OK with McMahon Murders?
b) The List of events named massacres is necessarily subjective and finite. Certain agenda-driven groups on Misplaced Pages, such as the pro-IRA cabal, have proved very adept at forcing their will and their agenda. One of Misplaced Pages's sad weaknesses. Whoever screams loudest and longest wins out, all too often. And as far as your having "moved it, alone", let me tell you that if I had been onwiki and spotted it I would have instantaneously reverted your unauthorized, sneaky, sleazy action. Now, because of others' lack of vigilance, I have to deal with it as a fait accompli. Rms125a@hotmail.com (talk) 23:48, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
  • (1) I have no idea whether McMahon Murders is correct or not - it depends on whether it meets the naming criteria I referred you to.
  • (2) The criteria at List of events named massacres are not the least bit subjective. They are terrible, but they follow a clear set of rules.
  • (3) You would not have "instantaneously reverted" my action, because unless you are an Administrator you would have been unable to do so.
  • (4)The attempted "Fait accompli" was the original naming of the article using such a contra-policy title.
  • (5) That move didn't require authorization as policy overwhelmingly supports the move I made.
  • (6) My action was neither sneaky nor sleazy. If you continue commenting on me in this vein I may form a negative opinion of you.
  • Sarah777 (talk) 00:05, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
I am not going to respond any further on this page, Sarah, although I have a response I very much want to post. With my luck I'll get blocked, something you are quite familiar with yourself, so, I am sure you understand. Suffice to say I have reviewed the record of transactions on October 28, 2009 regarding this page Rms125a@hotmail.com (talk) 00:42, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
JD's move was a "copy & paste" move - this is not the procedure for moving articles on Wiki. Whether I'd sympathize with you for the blocks would rather depend on whether the blocks were merited. In my case none of them were. Sarah777 (talk) 00:56, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
For the record talk on October move Jdorney (talk) 02:22, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
  • Oppose Although I criticized Sarah's move at the time on procedural grounds, I agree with the actual move. --John (talk) 02:26, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
  • Oppose Per WP:COMMONNAME and also per NPOV. BigDunc 11:02, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
  • Oppose Mooretwin (talk) 11:09, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
  • Support Dunmanway Massacre has been the name for a number of years and accepted until Sarah777 chose unilaterally to change it because she was checked for describing isolated murders of Catholics in Belfast as massacres. It is meaningful for a number of key reasons: the number of dead was unusually high and they were picked out; they were all southern Protestants again unusual especially in a war we were told was non-sectarian; and there are other more minor 'massacres' on Misplaced Pages. --Fynire (talk) 21:50, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
Fynire is correct that the article was created in 2006 as The Dunmanway Massacre and not changed until Sarah's unilateral action three years later. Quite amazing that given the extreme attention paid to articles in this field/category. I would point out that the following external sources refer to the Dunmanway "killings" as "The Dunmanway Massacre" (, , , , ), however my main point is that the editors on this page are, for the most part, divided viscerally, not rationally. Some refuse to accept that even authorized actions by the Provisional IRA against "informers" are still murders, since there is nothing approaching Geneva Convention-like regulations in guerrilla warfare. As O Fenian -- whatever happened to the proscription against provocative usernames on Misplaced Pages, by the way; maybe I should change my name to Nazibullah or Binladen -- points out "Where is the evidence that any name of the article is the correct one?" If that is the case then there should be no problem finding a compromise, except that those who are ideologues (on either side of the fence) do not compromise, by nature. And it is the responsibility of disinterested admins to ensure that articles are properly named by encyclopaedic standards, not Irish republican folklore which declares, for example, that Greysteel was a massacre but not Enniskillen. To enshrine ideological folkloric naming conventions and honorifics on Misplaced Pages diminishes Misplaced Pages as an encyclopaedia and that is what upsets me. I have been advised by an admin. of long-standing that I have been calling people names or been insulting to them. Aside from referring to Sarah as part of the pro-republican "cabal", I am unaware of having done so, but I apologize so that those who are open-minded and want the best for Misplaced Pages will not discount the possibility of having cordial relations with me. There are those for whom that was discounted long ago, but that needn't include everyone who disagrees with me. Rms125a@hotmail.com (talk) 02:03, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Thanks Rms125a. I am an admin who is completely neutral on the ethnic divide thing, although I am very well informed and experienced in the whole thing in real life and here. I too hate the sectarian bickering on both "sides"; I believe nationalisms on Wiki to be really damaging, divisive and dangerous to the project. We've certainly had our troubles (pun fully intended) in this area. However, since the Arbcom case there's a been a better level of admin support and we are now on the verge of real progress. A lot of this is down to the selfless work of User:Elonka. We must all be especially careful to rely on reliable sources on these contentious issues, avoid wiki-lawyering, grandstanding, ethnic or imperialist needling, forum-shopping, and cleave to our neutral point of view. Thanks for starting the ball rolling with some sources. --John (talk) 03:01, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Well, John, we all are against "sectarian" and "nationalist" bickering I'm sure. The point you seem to keep missing is that your "neutrality" is someone else's "nationalism". Thus we get the editor above saying " Some refuse to accept that even authorized actions by the Provisional IRA against "informers" are still murders" - as if calling them "murders" is a simple statement of fact. When it is a matter of opinion. The only facts we have is that they were killed and the UK legal system regards them as "murder". Which is an artificial concept. It is equally a fact that the British Army in NI are/were "occupation forces" but we wouldn't be allowed describe them as 'occupiers' in Wiki articles. Though I could find dozens of references for that. And I might add that we should revert any attempts to use political branding of articles (as per Dunmanway "Massacre") where the title isn't the common and well-known term for the incident. Without any "procedure" except adherence to policy. (And if you check the archives you'll find I questioned this title years ago - it was when I realised part of the agenda here was to create a political handle by WP:OR that change became necessary. Sarah777 (talk) 04:13, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Also Rms is self-depicting (and John apparently agreeing) that he is in some way "above" the sectarian/nationalist 'bickering'. Apart from his remarks about the nature of murder above the fact that he'd consider "Nazibullah" a provocative name is a bit of a giveaway. Those of us more in touch with the fundamentals of WP:NPOV (as written, not as enforced) might think "GW Bush" or Netanyahu might be much better examples of provocative handles that OFenian or Nazibullah. But as we are all claiming to be the true neutrals here, may I add my claim. I can understand, whereas John apparently cannot, that what we have here isn't bickering between two sides in a sectarian dispute (the classical imperialist claim, from Ireland to Iraq!); but rather those upholding WP:NPOV against the onslaught of systemic Anglo-bias. Sarah777 (talk) 04:25, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
And finally, might I record my respectful but strong disagreement with John's depiction of the efforts of Elonka in relation to "troubles related" issues. Sarah777 (talk) 04:40, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
  • Neutral. Both 'Dunmanway killings' and 'Dunmanway massacre' are used (see my post in the 'External support?' section below for references to the latter). I don't see a clear WP:COMMONNAME winner, so see no benefit in flipping around between titles. However, I would note that this is not the first time that User:Sarah777 has unilaterally moved a controversial article to a new title without going through WP:RM first. Sarah, you should know better. Bastun 10:49, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
  • Support as ..killings is too weak a descriptive & the move wasn't discussed. GoodDay (talk) 18:41, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Hmmm. So you think "killings" is to weak? Too week to describe...eh....killings! Sarah777 (talk) 23:11, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Go easy on me, I'm a Canadian. GoodDay (talk) 23:33, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Elk or Moose? Sarah777 (talk) 23:46, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Neither, I'm human. GoodDay (talk) 23:51, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

External support?

Anyway, to get to the meat of this issue. Rms cites 5 "external sources" which refer to the killings as "massacres":

I would point out that the following external sources refer to the Dunmanway "killings" as "The Dunmanway Massacre" (, , , , )
  • The first is Loyalist newspaper which refers to the "treachery" of the "inhabitants" (aka the Irish).
  • The second is a copy of the Wiki article.
  • The third is a dead link.
  • The fourth is another copy of the Wiki article (see what I mean by creationism through WP:OR!)
  • The fifth link appears to have been removed.

Sarah, on the first reference used, it is actually an article about the Kilmichael Ambush and nothing to do with this article at all. The source of information in the New York Times article was the "official" account issued by Dublin Castle at the time of the attack in the form of a press release. This report can now be found in The Irish Rebellion in the 6th Division Area (Strickland Papers, p32, Imperial War Museum) and the "official" report into British Army intelligence in Ireland recorded in A Record of the Rebellion in Ireland in 1920-1921 (Jeudwine Papers, 72/82/2, Imperial War Museum). To say its reliability is questionable is an understatement but we do have sources to support the view that it was pure propaganda.

I’d suggest you ignore the personal attacks contained in the posts above and just deal with what we can cite and reference. So there has been no references provided to support the title "The Dunmanway Massacre". --Domer48'fenian' 10:03, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

How about these ones:
http://www.dcu.ie/~foxs/irhist/April%201922%20-%2026-28%20-%20dunmanway_massacre.htm Dublin City University
http://www.reform.org/TheReformMovement_files/article_files/articles/southernunis.htm reprint of a book review from New Statesman
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/exorcising-the-dark-bloody--secrets-of-ira--in-west-cork-1903733.html Article by Eoghan Harris. Ironically, also mentioning this page...
http://www.irelandbyways.com/ireland-routes/byroute-3/byroute-3-co-cork/8/ "The Dunmanway Massacre is the name given to the killing of 12 men in the spring of 1922, all of whom were Protestants."
http://www.corkfpc.com/ltbscork.html
So it does seem to be in reasonably common usage. Bastun 10:40, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

I'd also note our NPOV champion, Sarah777, seems to be discounting a "Loyalist newspaper" as a reliable source (presumably because its promoting Imperialist British POV?), while in the same post, Sarah accepts that a Republican newspaper is a reliable source (presumably because its promoting an Irish Republican POV). Not in the least bit biased, our Sarah. Bastun 10:56, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Bastun you are using Peter Hart, Eoghan Harris an e-learning lecturer from DCU and a non notable website registered to Francis Barrett in Spain who quotes this article and another non notable website registered to the Cork Free Presbyterian Church the first 2 you wouldn't expect anything else and the others I could bang up a couple of websites myself that would hold as much weight as they do. BigDunc 11:10, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Agree Dunc, a bit more infor.

  1. . Fox according to Misplaced Pages:Reliable sources/Noticeboard is not a relilable source.
  2. . The Reform Movement are looking for Ireland to re-join the British Common Wealth and considered to be revisionist. At the very least it is a questionable source or considered only with caution. Now I notice that they use the term without explanation but do cite Peter Hart.
  3. . Eoghan Harris a member of The Reform Movement is discussing the wiki article.
  4. . Irelandbyways.com is citing Wiki
  5. . LET THE BIBLE SPEAK MAGAZINE from the Free Presbyterian Church. We could check it out at Misplaced Pages:Reliable sources/Noticeboard?

So all in all, very questionable sources. This would not support the view that it would be in reasonably common usage.--Domer48'fenian' 11:24, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Again, I would caution editors not to respond to the comments directed at them by editors. It is a poor attempt to deflect the discussion and should be ignored. --Domer48'fenian' 11:38, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, didn't realise the DCU one was a personal site hosted by them rather than the college itself. As regards the others, though - personally, I've no time for and am no supporter of Harris or the Reform Movement, but dismissing them as you are because of the views they espouse appears to be a case of WP:IDONTLIKEIT. Similarly, why wouldn't a magazine of a recognised church be a legitimate source? The counter-argument that could be used on countless pages (not that I will!) is that An Phoblacht, for example, espouse or espoused extremist Republican views and therefore shouldn't be counted. The bottom line, I think, is that both terms are used by different sources. Personally, I've no strong feelings about which is used as the article title, which is reflected in my neutral vote above. Bastun 13:05, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Like Bastun, I have no strong opinions about the name. There is a wider issue here though of people to trying to eliminate the use of sources that they don't like or agree with. A source with a political bias can be used but with the qualification that their bias is acknowledged. Jdorney (talk) 13:23, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
I am not saying dismiss the sources but they have to get taken with a grain of salt the same way AP is taken on this site. BigDunc 13:32, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Hey, Dunc. Could you get one of your pals in An Phoblacht to use the term "Dunmanway killings" several times in some articles attacking the neo-Unionists? It seems those type of refs will henceforth be "reliable references" per Bastun, JD and Eoghan Harris (under whatever name he's trolling here). Move it Dunc. I have a list - OK? Sarah777 (talk) 23:18, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

I would again caution editors not to respond to comments which attempt to personalise the discussion. Editors who attempt to turn talk pages into battlefields should be ignored. No editor has said we dismiss the sources above and to suggest otherwise is disruptive. Now no source has been provided to support the view that "The Dunmanway Massacre" would be in reasonably common usage. Therefore using WP:NPOV we should use the current title. --Domer48'fenian' 13:36, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

(ec) BigDunc: Which is fair enough. What seems to be the issue is how the grain of salt is applied ;-)
Domer, above you dismiss Irelandbyways.com as "citing WP" - it doesn't, it just links to this article. It even disagrees on the number of dead and gives information not present here. Bastun 13:41, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Alas as we see from several of the preceding comments immediately following my last comment, there are those who have no interest in compromise, because the true ideologue cannot, by nature compromise. I have not stated that I am above the visceral nature of these endless squirmishes and my sympathies should be clear. I have also decided that rather than update my talk page whenever I interrupt my leave of absence I will follow the tactic of a (former?) editor and just edit and then threaten, hollowly, to leave whenever I don't get my way, cursing and spewing venom and being welcomed back with open arms. (Well, I won't do the latter part, because I am a better person.) If Greysteel was a massacre then so were the La Mon, the Bayardo's bar attack, in which two female civilians were machine gunned on the street, and, of course, Enniskillen, which is generally known as the Remembrance Day Massacre (a term discounted by fiat apparently). None of those are labeled on Misplaced Pages as "massacres". Sarah above states ... as if calling them "murders" is a simple statement of fact. When it is a matter of opinion. The only facts we have is that they were killed and the UK legal system regards them as "murder". Which is an artificial concept. Ah yes, murder as an artifical concept. Well, British law has determined that Pat Finucane was murdered and the Guildford Four were framed, so I guess those legal rulings should be rubbished. Rms125a@hotmail.com (talk) 14:16, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
I would still like to know whatever happended to Misplaced Pages's original proscription on provocative and/or disturbing usernames (such as O Fenian). I guess it is enforced selectively. If I wished to change my username to Najibullah or Binladin, I strongly suspect I would not be allowed to do so. Yet again, a double standard. Were bombing Clerkenwell or murdering D'Arcy McGee for expressing his opinions or trying to blow up London Bridge morally superior to the World Trade Center bombings or the almost daily bombings in Iraq and Afghanistan? Aside from the difference in the scope of casualties, the answer is no. Terrorism is terrorism and begets terrorism. By the way, although I can not claim to be an admirer, the following is Arthur Griffith (more than a mere politician)'s comments re Dunmanway

" does not know and cannot know as the National Government, any distinction of class or creed. In its name I express the horror of the Irish nation at the Dunmanway murders."

No one present at that Dáil disputed his terminology. If that was good enough for them it should be good enough for us, and I move that this article's name be changed to the Dunmanway Murders according to the basic definition of "murder" in any dictionary. The victims at Dunmanway's lives were not worth less than those of the McMahons or Arnon Street and Misplaced Pages should not accomodate those who would have anyone think otherwise. Rms125a@hotmail.com (talk) 14:05, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Could someone explain how a report published 2 December 1920 can be used to source the name of an event which did not occur until 1922? Thank you. O Fenian (talk) 14:31, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

I addressed that above a chara! LOL. --Domer48'fenian' 14:44, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Rms I think you need to calm down a little your post above goes on about usernames which have nothing to do with this move and you are using incorrect sources to back up your point, maybe chill out and look again at this issue other stuff exists you know and it is not a reason for anything. BigDunc 15:01, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
  • Neutral. I'm not seeing a convincing collection of sources that establish either title as common usage. But we have to call it something, and the current title is perfectly acceptable. My feeling the the amount of effort spent arguing over titles on Misplaced Pages is a tremendous waste of time, given we have redirects at alternative titles. Please go and write some content rather than use this as an excuse to continue personal disputes. Rockpocket 18:06, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Note to Rock - "Dunmanway killings" requires no support as it is clearly WP:NPOV; they were definitely killed. Don't imply equivalence; that is the same blindness to your own POV that John displays. It is the term "massacre" that needs to be justified as the WP:COMMONNAME. The rather limp efforts by Bastun etc to establish this indicate that there is no such common name for the events; just an on-going campaign by people of a particular political outlook to use Wiki to establish one. And note to Bastun: should I encounter any other such blatant attempts at POV labeling as this again, you will see another example of termination with extreme prejudice. Sarah777 (talk) 23:00, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Note to Sarah. Since you are now so familiar with our (re)naming policies, remember them next time you decide to circumvent WP:RM and impose your own preference with a unilateral move. That way we can avoid these retrospective, recriminatory discussions. Rockpocket 23:58, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

There may be things within the article that could be improved. That is the important thing. Why doesn't Rms try to add a section of various media reaction to the incidents where it might not be covered? That would be something that often happens. To add some dignity and justice to each personality, as Rms seems to be requesting, a series of individual articles could possibly be created rather than just increasing the weight of the title for political impact. The idea that some massive injustice can be seen on this article, without apparently checking the content of it, is hardly substantiating. Concentrating on the fact and completion of the article is what every article needs, adding more "cruel" and "brutal" words for impact alone is editorial artwork which is of questionable use to us if not approached neutrally. Feelings that are not neutral do not sway the need for neutrality, they increase it, duh! It is inconsqequential if this upsets anyone - those executed in Dunmanway were considered with little dispute to be spys and combatants all bar a possible one so comparing those incidents to Enniskillen, McMahon murders and Arnon street killings is reaching poor taste at the best of faith. Beleiving that murders are sometimes thought of as tea partys is not something that Misplaced Pages should be able to help us with, deal with that, it does not prevent an editor revealing the history that is important to them only from colouring it in the manner, at times, that pleases them. Checking the article piece by piece for accuracy and completion is much more important and equally more likely to be acted on. I would roll out support for improving the article just for the sake of it but complaining that we are not guided in our distaste for the incident, a category of incidents I already have distaste for, really doesn't do it for me. I do not see any playing down of brutality or massive injustice caused by this article and similarly I should not expect to see any playing up either lest I start to distrust its nature. To add the reactions of various media where it is missing, do that. It is a moving story in a series of moving stories. To move people by design, I am sorry, it is best not to. If the article truly interests you and you think you can improve it, start doing or discussing that also. The sources do not indicate a widely accepted title and NPOV has the high ground. ~ R.T.G 20:40, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

  • Rename to "Dunmanway Xfgshjxddekkdkwcdkldlflff" (or something else equally meaningless). Like Rockpocket, I don't see enough sources to establish either title as common usage, and in the absence of a definitive answer, I believe that NPOV requires us to use the neutral term "killings", but .... but but but.
    The but is that the naming of articles such as this (and their content too) is a battleground between two very small but deeply-entrenched sets of ideologically-driven single-minded editors who determinedly set out to erase from wikipedia materual supportive of the perspectives with which they disagree. Each side takes the same approach, albeit in applied in polar-opposite direction: killings of people on "our side" were "murder" or "massacre", but killings by our side were either "killing" or legitimate "execution", and the results in each particular case depend more on who turns up than on any consistent approach. Each side uses bloc-voting and huge combinations of WP:SYN and WP:OR to "disprove" (and therefore downgrade) sources from perspectives with which they disagree, and emits howls of anguished outrage when the "other" side does the same thing. The argument about "spies" illustrates the dilemma perfectly: from a Republican perspective, those giving info into the Crown forces were spies for a foreign army waging war against the lawfully-established government of Ireland, but from another perspective the informers were responsible citizens giving information to the forces of the law. Neither perspective is "right" or "correct" or "neutral", and neither is stupid or mendacious or wrong; both are coherent views capable of being held in good faith by intelligent, well-informed and honest people ... but both sides here set out to treat the other perspective as contemptibly partisan.
    Renaming articles such as this to something meaningless and self-evidently silly serves as a prominent warning to readers that the text of the article they are about to read is not the product of the NPOV which wikipedia advertises as one of its fundamental principles, but rather the product of a long-running dispute between two sets of editors who believe that NPOV is what they believe, and everyone else is biased. In any other project seeking neutrality, they would all have been shown the door long ago ... but since they haven't been, the partisan products of their propaganda campaigns should be labelled appropriately. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 21:26, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

I would again caution editors not to respond to comments which attempt to personalise the discussion. Editors who attempt to turn talk pages into battlefields should be ignored. --Domer48'fenian' 21:32, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

Nice try, Domer, but please read what I wrote. I am not trying "to turn talk pages into battlefields", quite the contrary. I am commentmg on the deplorable fact that this talk page has for a long time been a battlefield between two sets of determined POV-warriors. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 21:42, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Not sure what you think Domer was trying BHG. But if I may be so forward as to summarize your comment above: "We should stick to policy and use neutral words like "killing" rather than loaded words like massacre". The rest was basically waffle in the name of balance. Am I right? Sarah777 (talk) 23:09, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Domer was trying a deflection gambit, though not very effecively.
And no Sarah, you're not right. My point is that in normal circumstances, neutral words such as "killing" should be used ... but that when an article is of one of a series which have been abused by partisans who apply NPOV selectively (i.e. only when it suits their purposes), the article should be given a meaningless name to reflect the nonsense that that has gone on in its construction.
I would be equally happy for the article to be given a name which says this explicitly, such as Dodgy article on events near Dunmanway created during yet another exercise by the tendentiously censoring POV-warriors who turn so many Ireland-related articles into a battleground of partisan obstructionism. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 23:22, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
Reads like a John/Rock style cop-out to me. Sarah777 (talk) 23:33, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
No, the cop-out is amongst those who don't want to mention the elephant in the room of months (or is it years?) of partisan wars-of-attrition over this article, which have made it a no go zone for editors who haven't signed up in blood to one or other of the two warring camps. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 00:30, 6 December 2009 (UTC)
I just want to add, good informants are honoured as spys. Unless a person was spying on those they considered "their own", applying some sort of shame to that doesn't apply. If a new militia seizes power in your area and you walk into the middle of them to shoot the leader dead you must be quite brave and certainly don't want misguided alteration to portray you as a poor misfortunate. That would negate all that you stood and died for. I had something a bit more angry to say but that's why NPOV is important, angry nonesense shouldn't come into it. ~ R.T.G 23:30, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
That's a neat little distortion of who did the walking. The article refers to the "the fatal shooting of IRA commandant Michael O'Neill by a local loyalist whose house was being raided on 26 April" (ref New York Times). But hey, why let any of the agreed facts get in the way of using articles like this as a coatrack for a POV? --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 00:48, 6 December 2009 (UTC)
So you are saying the deceased would be proud to be called informers? I agree. Sarah777 (talk) 23:33, 5 December 2009 (UTC)
More of the pointless POV which makes editing these articles such a tedious battleground. If you're right, there will be testimony from their families to that effect, but that'll need references. Without the references, that's just POV speculation about one of many possible explanations of the reason people passed info to the RIC. (Off the top of my head, other possible reasons include blackmail, personal ties, a lesser-of-two-evils choice ... all of these speculative explanations are just as plausible/implausible as the unreferenced simplistic certainties trotted out by editors who claim to be following NPOV). --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 00:38, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

Folks, I guarentee ya'll, no matter what the article ends up being named, the Earth will continue to revolve around the sun. Therefore, let's stay cool & enjoy the ride. GoodDay (talk) 23:35, 5 December 2009 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Does that template stop people from modifying the discussion? I thought you weren't allowed to modify discussions anyway. ~ R.T.G 09:55, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

It only tells you not to modify, it does not technically enforce it. DMacks (talk) 10:20, 11 December 2009 (UTC)
Bit of a flaw in the system if we can't tell pre from post template offerings. I was going to reply (robustly) to Rock and BHG but there seems to be no point at this stage. I'll merely repeat that this isn't a sectarian tit-for-tat issue; this is the defence of WP:NPOV against the systematic pro-British bias in the MSM in relation to Irish matters concerning what we used to call The National Question. This is THE problem and it is the same problem that causes much of the drama on other "nationalist" disputes across Wiki. To my mind at least three reasonable Admin editors have demonstrated an inability to grasp this. I guess it's like trying to describe the colour blue to someone blind from birth. And then there's Bastun! Sarah777 (talk) 13:09, 12 December 2009 (UTC)
However, when claiming a pro-British bias, could there not also be a claim of pro-Irish bias in these types of discussions? I'd argue that the potential of there being both, creates a balanced discussion. GoodDay (talk) 19:33, 12 December 2009 (UTC)

GoodDay is on the right track here, but I'd go further: the ongoing efforts by some editors to squeeze complex situations into a simplistic choice between "pro-British" or "pro-Irish" boxes is precisely what creates the sterile time-wasting battlegrounds on these talk pages. For a start there were not just two sides in Dunmanway, but three main sets of forces: British, pro-Treaty Irish, and Anti-Treaty Irish. That simple fact alone demolishes the crude sloganising about a "pro-British POV" being the only hazard here, but the big problem here is that some editors persist in viewing this incident (and many others like it) as if all the characters in the story fit neatly into one or other of those boxes. Quite apart from the fact that pro- and anti-Treaty elements were not fixed, rigid groupings like clearly-coloured armies in some diagram of a pitched battle, the central question in these events is to what extent the individuals at the centre of this story identified with any of the forces in question. People who are not directly engaged in a conflict frequently have confused, divided or uncertain loyalties ... yet we have two polarised groups of editors trying to reduce the dead people to nice simple cardboard cut-outs of one hue or the other. The simplistic narratives offered by our two sets of POV-pushing editors are that they were either a) all innocent civilians murdered by out-of-control elements, or b) ideologically-driven spies legitimately executed like any other spies in wartime.

There seems to be only major undisputed fact here: that the killings took place. Nearly all the other crucial elements are based on incomplete or unreliable evidence:

  • With the exception of the shooting of the IRA officer shot whilst commandeering the car, the accounts of how the killings happened are vague and second-hand (or even third-hand)
  • there are scant details of the crucial bit of evidence, viz. contents of the list of informers. The critical questions of what sort of information was passed on, for how long, and by whom -- all unanswered.
  • There are allegations of an organised loyalist cell in the area, but nothing in the article which expands the scope or significance of that potentially central issue. What exactly did this loyalist group do? Which of the dead were part of it, and what were their roles in it?

These massive uncertainties underly the historiographical dispute in the secondary sources. Yet despite that, we have an editor here insisting (without reliable sources to support the claim) that "the deceased would be proud to be called informers", and then insisting seven days later that she is engaged in "the defence of WP:NPOV against the systematic pro-British bias". The notion NPOV consists of parading simolistic certainties on one side or the other stacks up about as well as a tower made out of freshly-boiled spaghetti. --BrownHairedGirl (talk) • (contribs) 13:23, 14 December 2009 (UTC)

"I guess it's like trying to describe the colour blue to someone blind from birth. And then there's Bastun!" Aye, there is me. Someone who has voted 'neutral' in the above RM debate, even though it was moved out-of-process by you, Sarah. And in the past I've posted to delete some articles on non-notable IRA members, and voted to retain others I believed were clearly notable. I've reported people such as you and Vintagekits to the appropriate noticeboards when I've though it's been warranted - and I've spoken out against bans for you and he when I thought they weren't warranted. I think your problem with me may be I don't quite fit any of your predefined stereotypes. Hence the odd snide comments. Oh well. As I mentioned on your own talk page fairly recently, Oscar Wilde was right... By the way - any response to my earlier point and Rockpocket's above about you not moving controversial articles outside of the RM process? A simple "Yup, I won't do it again" would suffice... Bastun 17:02, 15 December 2009 (UTC)

Where are the files now?

Where are the "captured British military intelligence files" now?86.42.210.90 (talk) 17:45, 23 November 2011 (UTC)

Diffs

I am not sure if @Gob Lofa intended to delete the sourced text that was deleted (see ), so I restored. If it's deletable just explain why in the edit summary. Quis separabit? 23:42, 9 September 2015 (UTC)

I did. It's a straw man. Gob Lofa (talk) 00:10, 10 September 2015 (UTC)
@Gob Lofa: I removed part and did a lot of rewording. See what you think and fix as you see fit. Yours, Quis separabit? 00:27, 10 September 2015 (UTC)
I'd rather leave the reference to the list out of the lede, since the same source seems to go on to say the list never existed. Gob Lofa (talk) 12:22, 10 September 2015 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Dunmanway killings. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

  • If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
  • If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 23:06, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Dunmanway killings. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

  • If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
  • If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 21:42, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

Executed/killed?

The article currently says that "Three other men were kidnapped and executed" and "the killings were carried out by the IRA even if it is not clear who precisely ordered their execution". The use of the words 'executed' and 'execution' may imply that the men in question had committed crimes or were being punished. I suggest that saying "Three other men were kidnapped and killed" and "the killings were carried out by the IRA even if it is not clear who precisely ordered them" would be more neutral. Alekksandr (talk) 21:26, 11 April 2022 (UTC)

It's not really disputed that the killings were punishment. StairySky (talk) 08:11, 21 April 2022 (UTC)

Categories: