A TERRIBLE tragedy took place at Clones railway station on Saturday evening on the arrival there of the Down (Dundalk) train at 5.45.

With cruel treachery, machine gun and rifle fire was opened on Special Police who had left the Belfast train and were on the platform waiting to join the train for Enniskillen, when four police were murdered, the leader of the IRA – a man named Fitzpatrick – was killed by reply fire, and eight constables were wounded.

A party of 18 Special Constables (of whom only six were armed) travelling from Newtownards to Enniskillen had arrived at Clones railway station by the Belfast train, and were, like all passengers, awaiting quietly on the down platform the arrival of the Dublin train.

Information as to the arrival was communicated to scouts by Commandant Fitzpatrick of the IRA (of Kilgarrow), and he with 11 men and two machine guns went to the stations, at which there is a wait of some 20 or 25 minutes at the junction for the crossing trains.

The Specials were about to enter the Enniskillen train, and some had taken their seat, when one of them was shot by a man in the uniform of the IRA; they were called upon to put up their hands, and some did so, others did not hear any command; but one of the Specials fired at Fitzpatrick, shooting him through the head, the body falling between two of the carriages.

The machine guns, one placed on the bridge, and the other at the waiting room door, were then turned on the unsuspecting victims of the treachery.

There followed rifle fire, machine gun fire, screams from frightened women passengers in the train while others rushed to the waiting rooms, where they stayed for three quarters of an hour til some time afterwards the train restarted on its journey.

The prisoners were taken from the train by the IRA, and ordered to the front of the stations, and, being helpless and powerstricken they yielded, the men formed up in two lines, the civilians on one side and the Special Police on the other.

The whole company having been searched for arms, the civilians were ordered back into the train, and the unwounded Specials were conveyed to an unknown destination.