Kidnapping of Loyalists
The three men due to be hung in Derry – Pat Leonard, Thomas O’Shea and Patrick Johnstone – had their sentences commuted to 15 penal servitude through the intervention of the Lord Lieutenant but this news had come too late to stop the kidnappings. This was the work of the ‘Ulster Council’ set up under chair of Frank Aiken with the sanction of Collins, Mulcahy and O’Duffy. There is a furious unionist reaction to the kidnappings. They complain to London and Churchill complains to Collins who says that he had made every effort to prevent such acts and that he would make every effort to get the kidnapped released. However, according to a memo later written by Ernst Blythe, the plans for the kidnappings had been submitted and approved by O’Duffy, Mulcahy and Collins.