The analysis of the violence and intimidation directed towards ex-servicemen contained in Chapters 1 and 2 is based on the records of the victims and the perpetrators in contrast to most other research, which has used newspaper articles and police reports. The perspective of the victims is based on the files of the Irish Grants Committee (IGC), which convened in the second half of the 1920s, and represent the most comprehensively documented archive of violence and intimidation by republicans against loyalists. It was established to provide compensation for the victims. The perspective of the perpetrators is derived from the Irish Military Archives, Bureau of Military History (IMA/BMH) files, which contains 1,773 witness statements by republicans recording their experiences during the period from 1913 to the end of the War of Independence. IGC claims were mostly made for reasons other than killings, whereas in contrast the IMA/BMH files provide details of executions for spying. The two repositories therefore cover the full spectrum of violence and intimidation.

The IGC files represent the ‘voice of the victim’, and provide first-hand accounts of incidents of violence and intimidation, in some cases over a long period of time. The majority of the files contain substantial records, including confirmatory evidence from witnesses, testimonials from local people in authority, and the IGC commentary on the submissions. They provide background details on the victim and his circumstances, including in many cases his family situation and the reactions of the community. They ‘bring alive’ the period in terms of personal experiences and local sentiment in a manner perhaps lacking in official reports. Perhaps two caveats are needed; it appears that an industry developed around the submission of claims with, in some cases, the same solicitors representing claimants and inevitably managing the process to optimise the possibility of compensation.