On 20th July 1920, Seamus McMahon was one of a party who had been given the job of shooting a Black and Tan named Hoynes, whom he says had been making himself very objectionable by his truculent behavior in Ennistymon

Over a period of eleven months, RIC barracks situated in country districts had been experiencing attacks by members of our different units…The coming of June found the police sheltering behind their steel shuttered and sand bagged windows, watchful

In early 1920 the IRA and Dáil courts had begun to take control of large parts of Clare and the country as the British administration was losing the battle of two governments to Dáil Eireann. Fearing continued attack the R.I.C