Three local sisters walked with a girl friend from their home near the Edenappa Road, over the March Wall and into the south, to meet their other sister, who was coming from Newry. The outward journey was uneventful.

As they crossed a stile in the March Wall on their return trip, a party of the Royal Sussex Regiment – stationed at Jonesborough Police Barracks – opened fire on them!

Two of the girls were killed outright. A third girl was injured and the fourth escaped unhurt. The dead girls were aged just twelve and twenty years respectively. The injured girl was eighteen.

One of the dead girls was wearing a new frock. On her departure that morning her mother had pinned a flower to it.

When her body was returned to the house, the flower was still attached to the blood-stained dress.