Many killings were both brutal and unprovoked

IF Michael Collins hoped the Northern Offensive would concentrate the political focus on Northern Ireland, he must have been sorely disappointed, because the orgy of murder was not confined to the North.

Former policemen were targeted throughout the country.

“Many of the greatest successes we gained were gained entirely by true men who stood for us in the enemy service,” Collins declared in April. But all the police appeared to become targets for those sunshine patriots known as “the Trucileers”.