General Maxwell attributes the failure of the Sinn Fein movement
outside Dublin mainly to the activity of Brigadier-Generals Stafford and Hackett Pain, commanding at Queenstown and in Ulster respectively. A body of rebels at Ashbourne, in County Meath, ambushed a party of Royal Irish Constabulary, of whom twenty- four were killed or wounded. Save for this, the provincial risings were few and trivial in their results. He defends his troops very warmly against the monstrous charges since made against them, sometimes by persons who should have a sense of responsibility for their words. They " behaved with the greatest restraint and carried out their disagreeable and distasteful duties in a manner which reflects the greatest credit on their discipline." The Sinn Feiners killed many unarmed persons, three of whom the General names. They destroyed the best part of Dublin, and their object was to co-operate with the Germane against us at the crisis of our destiny. There can be no two opinions as to their criminal treason.
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