One theory of the murder of Mr. MacCurtain is that
it was a reprisal ; and certainly, after the awful provocation which has been given to loyalists in Ireland, it would not be surprising if there should be reprisals. But, on the whole, judging by experience, we are inclined to believe that Mr. MacCurtain was murdered by the agents of Shur Feiners themselves. It inevitably happens that when murders are carried out bsr secret eocieties the point is reached where the murderers, or the abettors of murder, begin to murder one another. Plans go astray and secrets leak out. It is then whispered that the members of the secret societies are being betrayed. Evidence, rightly or wrongly—very often wrongly—points in a particular direction, and the object of the suspicion is marked down to be removed." In much the same way the history of Irish crime is full of the names of the informers who have saved themselves at the expense of their fellow-criminals. It may be that the phase of suspicion, with its accompanying internal panic, has now begun to visit the secret societies of Ireland.
