MURDER IN BELFAST.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 72, 25 March 1922, Page 7

MURDER IN BELFAST.

FAMILY SHOT DOWN. FIVE KILLED IN GOLO BLOOD. INNKEEPER'S HOME RUSHED. JIACHINE-GUNS ON FRONTIER. (By Cable.—Tress Association.—Cip.vrij.-lit.) -X h .'•] ln.::n .1.111.1 l.i IN" DON. March 24. A gang "' armed men broke into the residence of Mr. Owen MncMahon. a well known UelfaM saloon-keeper, nt 1.20 this morning, ""d murdered him. three of his sons, and a barman. Avhile two other sons were mi dangerously wounded that they arc not exneetcd to survive. ITip assailants rushed upstairs, pulled the male occupants from their beds, took them doAvujUairs to a sitting-room, lined them against Ihe wall, and sliot them. Mrs. .Mn.Malii.ii and her daughter were place.l in another room Avhile the .hooting was proceeding. - iA. and N.Z.i BRUTAL MURDER OF POLICE. SHOT FROM BEHIND. I.O.N"DON. Marcli 2-1. Six murders were committed in Belfast -.icday, and yiosi appalling conditioncontinue in County Tyrone. Eight men in a motor car drove through May Street, in the heart of Belfast. The car stopped and the men tired, killing twn policemen. Constables t'arniluff and Cunningham. The assassins then drove oil' and escaped. The crime was committeil in broad" daylight. The two poli.enieii Avere on heat duty Avlien the gang came up behind them, and discharged revolvers into them. Carnduff was killed instantly, and his comrade mortally wounded, but the assassins fired further shots into them. They then ran to the motor car and drove off furiously. Civilians pursued the car. but it escaped into the Sinn Fein district, where a search Avas made for it without result. The angry erOAVtl AVOitld lynch the murderer- if they A\-cre caught.

A bomb Avtis Hung into a house in Rkringa Street, and dangerously wounded the son and daughter of the occupants, aged Hi and 17. At Carrickmore. in County Tyrone, intensive buildings owned bA" Patrick Daly, a- prominent Sinn Feiner. were destroyed by tire, it is believed that this was a reprisal for the destruction of loyalist houses. The position at C'aledon and Atigliiiacbloy. near the border of Monaghau. is more acute. Mai bine-guns were brought into action by a force in the Free State, close to Bridge. Avhich is in ruins. On the motion of the Attorney-General the Northern Irish Parliament added the death penalty for bomb-throwing and the manufacture of bombs. The Attor-ney-General added thai if these powers were not sufficient he was prepared to advise the Government to impose the ileath penalty for carrying arms. In the House of Commons, on a A-ote of U,300,000 for miscellaneous services to be administered by the provisional Government of Ireland. Colonel -T. K. P. Newman (Unionist), complained that the. financial arrangements Avith the Sinn Tein GoA-ernment bar! been detrimental to loyalists in Southern Ireland in relation to a settlement of compensation claims. Mr. Winston Churchill replied: "We ■shall not pay for damage done by our people if the bargain to pay for damage ilone to our people is not observed." The vote was agreed to. In the House of Lords. Viscount Peel moved an amendment to make it clear that Ihe month in Avhich Northern Ireland can contract out of the Trish Free State .-hall operate from the sanctioning of the Kree Stat" Constitution, not from the passing of the bill. The amendment was agreed to. and the report stage of the bill concluded. The third rending ivas adjourned fill Monday at Lord Carson's request. He Avishes to consult his friends in Ulster retarding Viscount Peel's amendment, which, he says. Avill have very griwe results.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.)