October 17 1924
The Free State Government Publicity Department has said the following letter was sent by two military authorities to the relatives of men executed during the period 1922-23:
“A chara, I am to inform you that the Executive Council has decided that the bodies of all men executed during the period 1922-23 may be handed over to their relatives.
”If you wish to claim the remains of ---- executed on ----- you will please notify me immediately.
“Kindly note that unless I receive notification to this effect on or before the 20th inst, the military authorities will make the necessary arrangements to bury these remains in sanctified grounds.”
Free State Army Adjutant-General Hugo MacNeill, nephew of Boundary Commissioner Eoin MacNeill, issued a statement allowing the bodies of the 81 republicans who were officially executed during the Civil War to be handed over to their families.
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Free State Soldiers Cross Border
A peculiar affair is reported from the Derry-Donegal border, where yesterday evening a Free State military Crossley car was discovered abandoned in a trench on a racecourse road some distance inside the northern border.
It is surmised that the car was used by a small party of troops who were evidently proceeding from one centre to another, for bedding was discovered in the Crossley.
The troops apparently missed their way, and the vehicle crashed into a trench which had been dug two years ago by Specials on the border.
It is learned that the Free State soldiers in the lorry made inquiries in the neighbourhood as to what locality they were in, and when informed that they had come to grief in northern territory they hurried away across the fields towards Donegal, carrying their rifles, ammunition and kit. The Crossley was later discovered by Specials, a party of whom remained in charge. The incident created a sensation in Derry.
The following statement has been issued from Military Headquarters in Dublin: “The presence of troops near the border has no connection whatever with the boundary issue. The troops have been detailed to assist the customs officials in preventing smuggling.”
With tensions high over the boundary issue, the Free State army had to quickly explain the reasons for some of its troops ending up on the wrong side of the border.
