The Informer by Liam O’Flaherty — Read

During the previous autumn a terrific sensation had been caused all over Ireland by the farm-labourers' strike in the M -- -- district. The sensation was brought to a crisis by the murder of the Farmers' Union Secretary. For the first time it was discovered that the Revolutionary Organization had spread its influence among the farm-labourers and over the whole country. Something had been discovered. A Government secret organization had overlapped the Communist organization and there was a little effervescence, which was immediately suppressed by the Government. Very little leaked out publicly. The newspapers were forbidden to talk about it. The Conservative organs in Dublin had timid editorials demanding that the Government should take the people into its confidence. What really was the extent of this "conspiracy against the national safety"?

Then immediately Commandant Dan Gallagher became a public figure and a general topic of conversation. He came out of obscurity in a night as it were. People suddenly discovered that he was a power in the country. He was photographed and interviewed and his photographs appeared in all the newspapers both in this country and in England and in America. He promptly denounced the murder as a "foul crime against the honour of the working class and the whole revolutionary movement. " He began to be feared intensely in official quarters as a "slippery customer. " This phrase was used at a Government Cabinet meeting.