"RARE TIPPERARY."

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 24, 28 January 1911, Page 15

"RARE TIPPERARY."

(From Our Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, DECEMBER 0. It 'has been sadd that nowadays 'the Irisrti people do not conduct tihjeir elec-

tiona wiiifch the same fervour as in the

good old days, and that theifigMing ;instinct which used to be s6"nruoh'in evidence at election times is fast dying out. It may toe so, but the "old Adam" has peeped out more than once during the present election, and at Thurles. County Tipperary, last Friday, there were ructions fhat roust have rejoiced the iheart iof the "fighting Ryans" whose country ■Tipperary was; and is. ' A meeting was held in support of the Redmondite candidate, whom Mr. John Dillon, the principal speaker, was pleased to term the chosen of " the free and open eonvemtaon of delegates." This description offended Mr. Martin O'Dwyer, the O'Briantite candidate, who promptly, loudly, and in the fewest and most emphatic words possible, described Mr. Dillon as a lineal descendant of Anandas. In less *han ten seconds the Redmondi'tes were playing football with Mr. O'Dwyer, and it was a badly battered and utterly disreputable looking object that the police rescued from the mob after a very liberal and vigorous di3jplay ot baton exencise.

But the fiery spirit of the O"Dwyer was not quelled, and in a few minutes he was back again in the crowd hurling hot Words and biblng sa/rcasrn at Mr. Dillon. This time the Redmondites— : every one armed with a stick or a brick-—set about Mr. CDwyer in real earnest, but, fighting like fury, he contrived to extricate himself, and took shelter from the howling mob in a house near by. '

The meeting proceeded, and When it was over, Mr, O'Dwyer started to go back to his hotel. He was nearly there when'he was seen by a Redmondite, who, acting,on the celebrated Tipperary principle of hitting a head when you see it, promptly felled him.

The police rushed at the assailant and held him while the Redmondites and O , - Brianlites rushed up. In a few minutes Mr. CDwyer appeared on -the balcony of the hotel, bleeding freely from a wound on the -head, Ills face and clothes smcitlhered in. blood and dirt, and pluckily begaji to' address the crowd. As he conehKleil, a party of RedmondStes, headed by a brass band, marched up to the police cordon which surrounded M*r. O'Dwyer's hotel. They refused to obey tie order to halt, whereupon the police mode a determined charge with tiheir batons.

Some of Mr. O'Dwyer's sympathisers followed in the wake of the police, and proceeded to put the finishing touches to the Redinondites, who 'had been placed hors de combat by the police charge. One O'BriaJiate picked up the bassoon whiioh had been dropped by a -musician, and did great execution among "the Red'-nondfltes. Happily no one was killed or seriously injured dairing these " most illigant ructions," though a good many had to be picked up and carried home, and there were mlore sore heads and aching bodies in Thurles that night than there ihad been for many a weary day.