OUR IRISH LETTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 220, 16 September 1924, Page 7

OUR IRISH LETTER.

— , CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY. | CAUSE FOR THANKFULNESS. < A GUNMAN'S STORY. « (From Our Own Correspondent.) BELFAST, August 15. "Hello, Tim." ~ Whatever .else Mr. John Devoy, exFenian leader and Clan 11a Gael operator, may or may not be, he is no respectot of persons. At the opening of the Tail- ( teanii Games at Dublin, his Excellency the Governor of Southern Ireland (Mr. Timothy M. Healy, K.C.) was present. Jigged up as became his eminent position and attended by a gorgeous staff. , Mr. Devoy, who had come across all the way from the States to witness the games, was not one little bit impressed' j by the Governor's exalted position, and . showed it by his brusque "Hello, Tim," j to the Governor. His Majesty's repre-sentative-was visibly moved by the familiarity of tho ex-Fenian. 1 His Excellency's staff gasped, and for ' a moment it looked as if an "off with his head" order would be carried into immediate execution. His Excellency recovered and greeted the ex-Fenian as if he found a long lost friend. Fancy any relative of the King shouting at a public function, "Hello, Georgie!" A More Hopeful Outlook. Dr. Day, Protestant Bishop of Ossorry, ' Ferns, and Loughlin, son of the late ' Bishop of Cloghcr, when addressing his ' synod, said:— ■"Looking back over the past year," said the Bishop, "we can surely find much cause for thankfulness and encouragement as we consider the condition of our country and our church. The country is now settled and peaceful. The Government have faced great difli- ; culties with courage and firmness and have won the admiration of all classes by the way they have clone their work. LTnder more settled conditions the prosperity of the country lias begun to revive, and such isolated instances of lawlessness and outrage as may occur here and there are being dealt with by a strong and drastic hand. And among our own people, especially in the farming community, one is thankful to find a growing spirit of confidence and hove. Of course, we are not as many as we werv. Some of our people have left the country. ' Some have been driven out, and their ' loss has been felt in many ways. But I hear that many arc anxious to return. They find they cannot settle down; they cannot make themselves ' happy outside their native land, and in ' spite of what they have suffered tliey ' would rather live in Ireland than anywhere else. (Applause). After all, we ' Irish Churchmen are real Irishmen, with ! deep patriotic love of our country and ! its people which nothing can destroy, and we believe- we have a place iv the ' life and service of our country, and " and that jt would be vastly the poorer ' by our loss." — Gunman Writes Book. , The notorious gunman, Daniel Brccn, J on whose head tlie British Government set a price in 1920, and who was supposed to have been killed about half a dozen times, has just published a book entitled "My Fight for Irish Freedom," in which he purposes to give in detail the various plots for the assassination of Lord French, when he was Lord Lieutenant of Brcen, who became notorious for his performances as a gunman, styles himself"Commander-General of the Third Tipperary Brigade." His personality, however, did not impress itself favourably on "the British Government, of which Mr. Lloyd George was ' then the head, for in the "Hue-and-Cry" ' describing him, he is limned as "uncouth and down-looking, and looks like a blacksmith returning from the forge." According to Dan's account, the would-be murderers lay in wait in various places for three months. With shame- ' less effrontery, Breen writes of the hair- ' breadth escapes wliich the hero of Ypres had. He says; " ' "Twice or three times we missed him by a street —the altering of his route by one-corner. . . Once we missed him by ■; barely one minute. During .'. . the last months of 1919 we had no fewer that twelve different ambushes planned to intercept him. But each time he' : either failed to come or-arrived too late or too early. .. . The first occasion that we were lying in wait Mick Collins was with us." Breen describes how once they waited at Grattan Bridge to bomb Lord French's car The' men had actually drawn and thrown away the pins from their bombs. I But Lord French never came. Again, while they were waiting a friend brought them information, and the gunmen ran away just before the military arrived. Finally, they heard of a secret arrangement for Lord French to alight at the isolated station of Ash town, from French Park, Boyle. Eleven of them cycled unobtrusively to a little inn , near the" station. It was arranged that 1 Breen and another man should draw a farm cart on the road and obstruct the '. Governor's car, while the others opened an attack upon Lord French with bombs 1 and grenades. But a "stupid" Dublin , Metropolitan policeman interfered witli~'i the pushing of the cart on to the road, 1 and had a bomb thrown at him for doing his job. Fortunately it had no serious effects. The first motor car dashed along and fire was opened on the occupants. The object of the ambushers was to frighten the first car off so that they could deal with the second ear, in which it was expected Lord French would travel. The second- car was greeted with shots and bombs, and at ' once'returned the fire, killing one o.f the attackers and wounding Brcen. The gunmen 'were certain that they had ' killed Lord French, but Lord French was in the first car and had escaped unhurt! '