OUR IRISH LETTER.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 162, 10 July 1926, Page 17

OUR IRISH LETTER.

ENGLISH MAILS HELD UPTAINTED LABOUR ON TRAIN. FIREBRANDS TRY MONKEY-TRICKS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) DUBLIN, May 8. Until the dispatch of this letter, nothing of a startling nature has taken place in Ireland in connection with the strike. When the Holy head steamer came iv here las* night, the dockers refused to clear the mails and cargo, as the couuecting'train trom London had been run by "tainted labour/ The passengers shifted their own luggage, and to-day the mails were cleared by postal employees. This strike, however, applies to Kingstown i>nly. Some lirc-lirauds tried m create trouble in the Belfast i-hipyardp. They were told to clear out, before they were kicked out, a- employment is so s?eare that the men cannot ulTorii to take any risks. Lust, niehi :i Ing "pay-off" took place, owing to tin; u%int of supplies '- "i the other side, Hurlaiid and WoHT. f ising with nbout .".00 men, till i times :is supplies come forward. This has not madr the IWmM workers Rympathetic with the eon] miifvrs. To Stop Profiteering. Both of Ireiund have taken ample precautions to conserve, and, if necessary, distribute, food supplies, should the strike bo prolonged beyond a month. T'tiere tire ample supplies in I lie I'iMinirj for llmt )>criod and linger, mid si* ('2>j», liiitii-r. poultry, tisli. potnti.es and other liDini' product* arc I being tliriiwn on the local markets — tin re lwing m> ciiiss-haiHicl irimsj'ort available — pn.-cs have gone wit'i n bang. i '■'■'t'K at k\ per dn/.en is something to j mack one's lip.- over, and siilnion at 10d 1 ■■'■]• ll)—from ;>/t; -is giving a inucil"'ecded luxury to many. I In tli<; north, tin: Government pro- ] •■'n ; med a stilts of emersuncy followinar :• bill rusher! throirrh Purlin ment. and J 'vrry precaution lms been '•iktn. Prr'Heerin-' forbid-'en under i 'vavv iT'PaUics. iind, if neeessarv. everyj h<Ti" w : M he rationed. Already u<">;il is i>,.in" ■■it;.).".d. at ">o per cent. Kxtrn •"\vi>rs l'f.ve been "iven th" Gove-nmcut I -\ rW 1 with any conlingcnoy that may -ise. Tn tl'p turf nrodueiiT* eountips every-—t,,-r> e t'TTo is- "'He l ' act'vHv in the hexjh, - n -p we.iti'er b" : n" very favo'ini v '!c. in •••utint peat supplies to meet coal shortGlut in Sa'mon. '•It's a bad strike that does nobody good." , is a remark that might bo heard j in r.'ulway amongst, the queues of people 1 who await their turn to purchase cheap i Palrnnn in the pounds bwiile 'be salmon fishery on the Corrib. As v result of ; the coal strike there is a pint of salmon in Oalwi'.y. and poor people who have never before enjoyed the luxury of the kingly fish muy now purchase it at 1/ per lb. Tn the ordinary course the fifOi would bo railed daily for transhipment to cross-Channel markets. The cost locally, heretofore, on the rare occasions when salmon was procurable I i in Oalway, m> 2/0 and 3/ti per lb. ' Oati-lves on t-bf- Corrib on an unprecedented- -?cale. are. reported daily. On ■' Wednesday employees- of the fishery, with -a'drafr net. landed JOS salmon, the i'whole of a gehool maturinfr .for the i : upper xeachee of the river. The fisherniPTj,- too. of which there are a, number fronr-.many parts of Ireland. Entrland, and' fSeotland are rnakinfr iinusnally big catches, which also find their way to the pounds for disposal. ' - ■ IRISH "OLD BHOYS." ■ With all its troubles, past and present, and possibly to come, the "distressful country" has many long livers. There is the case of William Smith, Dromara, County Down, who says he is 125, and looks it, though I have heard some of the neighbours say he "may want a year or two of that.' . There is a Lough Neaeh fisherman of 102, who is still jauntily pursuing Ins calling, and at least three Donegal men claim to be 103. 104 and lOfi. respectively. Now we are told that another County i Down man. Mr. George Edmonds, who I is residing in Jlepb"rn-on-Tyne, England. has entered on his 00th year. Edmonds was a soldier in the Indian Mutiny, r ISijT-.'iO, and took part in no fewer thun ! 27 battles, fictions and minor affairs, being present at the bedside of Sir Henry Havclock when he died. A Great National Industry's Decay. At Thursday's meeting of Standing Committee of the Irish Fieberrnen's Association, the llowth representatives said that the report recently published in iihe Press regarding improvements made at Howth Harbour, by the Fishery Department, was calculated to give the , impre-ssion that the Department had ! done almost all that was ne to 1 make Howth a first-class fishing port. In fact, there was yet no water lmd on either pier, and the port entirely lacked I ' a slip for large boats. Mr. F. Rickard complained that his boat was recently in great danger of being wrecked for want of such a slip as was to be found at every cross-Channel fishing- port worthy of the name. It was agreed by the comI mittec that, before the fishery estimate ! came up for discussion, the deputies I representing maritime constHuencies 1 should be invited to form a Dail committee, to co-operate with the association in furthering the interests of the fishing industry. It was coneide-ed that such a committee could do much to secure for the industry effective attention, and support, from the Government. A Midnight Attack. When Mr. W. J. Ilynee, an ex-officer jf the Free State a:m>. and 1 it<;rly a licenced publ.can in Athlone, op.ned hi? , lace on the night of Deconbj. 15 la^t ' ,ie accosted by a ma i who said he wanted some whisky. Hynea ai mitted the m.in, ,vho reo en g ;he •->■' a mitted four othe men, who we:a ma ' ed an 1 anne i. L" .0 s ,i o. ..• ed : ho d v Hynis. cove i.ig him w tii c r re>oive.s. till he put up hs h.in U Leaving one man w.th his r-jvj a. Hynes' head, the other s->r" kl d the place with petrol and eet it on fire. I Seeing his place burning, Hyn_>- suddenly sprang at the man who was holding , him up, and tore off his mask. The fellow fired and shot Hynes in the shoulder. The raiders then decamped. Such w-as the story Hynes told on Friday, at Moatc Circuit Court, when he claimed £330 for malicious damage. The Court allowed him £193, with expenses, to be.lc.viod off the county at large. It was alleged against Mr. Hynes, that his place was used as a rendezvous for National army men. and that that had roused the ire of the Republican gentry. Historically Criminal Country. The lawless condition of County Clare is very bad, indeed. The ordinary law is openly set at defiance, and matters are somewhat similar to those supposed to exist in the traditional Central

American Republics. The law is not strong enough, and something stronger —very much stronger —is required to bring an historically criminal part of the county into something approaching civilisation. The Tree State Minister of Justice roused the ire of Clare members in the Dail yesterday when he denounced lawlessness in North Glare. On a previous occasion, he spoke of it being, "As bad as bad can be; the condition there very bad from a point of view of crime." You won't find the equal of it in any other county in Ireland. "The people stand apart from the police, in an antisocial, anti-civilised kind of way.' . Then he was taunted with the Malahide murders in his own constituency, and he retorted: "That is an entirely different matter; it ia not a ea-Fo of one out-stand-ing crime in North Clare, it is a criminal tradition, and a criminal outlook, on the part of a large section of the people." The Minister is doubtless rijrht, but what a hue mid cry there would have been in the old days if a judge of Assize, in his charge to the grand jury, had said anything half s-o strong! Mr. O'lfitrgins lias out rivalled the niopt objectionable judge that cvrr Fat in Clare, or any other part of the country. Fought For the Pope. There is living at Ballymacadam. Cahir, 0110 Edward Tobin, who is in his 98th your. Tobin is supposed to "no the lust surviving Irishman of the Papal Brigade, who fought against Garibaldi when Italy gained its freedom.