The "shot them in pairs" lines, and indeed the song, refer to the 12 October 1920 raid on Fernside, the house of John Carolan, Professor of Science and the Art of Teaching in the nearby St Patrick's [teacher] Training College, not to the Republican Outfitters.

During that first raid, after Breen and Treacy had escaped, Professor Carolan was shoved up against the wall and the British soldiers shot him twice in the back of the neck, in their favourite execution style; he died some days later. The British and the British-aligned newspapers said he had been wounded during the firing…

A British officer, Major GOS Smyth, who was a former RIC District Inspector, was shot dead during the gun-battle, another British officer, Captain AP Whyte, died later, and a third was injured.

At the inquest "a member of the search party" describes threatening the dying Carolan to get the names of Breen and Treacy.

Professor Carolan died on the 27th of October 1920.

Meanwhile Sean Treacy was gunned down by a raiding party outside the Republican Outfitters on 14 October 1920, Peadar Clancy, Conor Clune and Dick McKee were "shot while attempting to escape" in Dublin Castle (ie tortured to death) on 20 November 1920, and on 21 November 1920 a group of British assassins brought to Ireland to kill Republicans were executed en masse by Michael Collins' '12 Apostles'.

Another mass killing designed to kill all British agents in Ireland is said to have been planned but was overtaken by the Truce which began the end of the War of Independence.