IRELAND'S NEW PARTY,

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 258, 30 October 1926, Page 11

IRELAND'S NEW PARTY,

BOMBSHELL TO GOVERNMENT* ENTHUSIASM AT WATERFOBD, THE PATH TO UNITY. (Prom Our Own Correspondent.) DUBLIN, September -10. THE NEW IRISH PARTY. The formation of the new Irish Free State National party, under the leadership of Captain William A. Redmond, D.S.C.,*on of the late Mr. John E. Redmond, M.P., for many years "Leader of ' the' Irish People at Home and Abroad," has come as a bombshell to the Irish Free State Government, which was confidently looking forward to the general election of next year. That President Cosgrave was startled by the new movement was made manifest last night, when speaking at Listowel, he said that the splitting up of Irishmen into small groups would end democratic government. In the past six months many influences "have been at work to upset the Southern Government by constitutional means, but the new departure is the only one that promises any meed ot" success. ? The scenes at Waterford on Sunday, where the new party was formally inaugurated, recalled the days of "The Uncrowned King" for enthusiasm and display. Waterford Avas en fete on Saturday night to receive the son of the old Irish leader, in the constituency for which his father so long sat, and which he sits for in the Dail. Bands played, bonfires blazed and arches and streamers spanned the principal streets, and on Sunday the display was repeated. Thousands of people poured in by special trains from all parts ot" the country Ho the Ballybricken rendezvous, and the reception which Captain Redmond received was equal to anything accorded to his father.

Addressing the meeting, he had to stand several minutes before the cheering ceased, Captain Redmond said that the time had how come to 'make a fresh start in Irish politics, and for Ireland to revive her patriotism in order to provide something of an alternative government to the present Government —an alternative in the national, not a sectional sense. The best and only alternative was the patriotism with which Charles Stewart Parnell and John E. Redmond had inspired the country. From his experience in the Dail he had concluded that no independent party, however strong, could take the place of a strong, comprehensive and cohesive opposition, prepared strictly to scrutinise the policy of the present Government, and alive to the responsibility at some future date of taking up the reins of government themselves. For the purpose of a Constitutional Government and to secure equilibrium in the Free State such an opposition was a recognised necessity. It was not the intention of the initiators of the movement to revive old controversies between the old Nationalist party and Sinn Fein. He did not minimise or disparage the independence secured by the establishment of the Free State. The consummation of the national desire to establish Ireland a nation could not be achieved until Irish unity was restored and the nation reconstituted. The only road to success lay in achieving good government in the Free State and demonstrating to Northern Ireland the true value of their Irish national birthright. Not only do the present Government not represent the bulk of public opinion, he said, but they have treated the public with an utter disregard, amounting to disdain, in legislatijn, administration, and public discussion to a degree unparalleled in any democratic country. Its most conspicuous features were its failures to encourage production, and its positive fatuous inability to grapple with problems of internal transport. In 1914, under the British regime, the cost of governing all Ireland was 3/ in the £. Now it was 1-1/, in the £.

THE GREATEST CRIME. Mr. B. C Hackett, who is acting as secretary to the new party, said that all the crimes committed by England against Ireland sank into insignificance compared with the partition of Ireland, a sentiment which was greeted with prolonged applause. The new party wished to restore the failed fortunes of the race and nation. The poorest State in Europe, he continued, was rapidly becoming poorer. "We are taxed", he declared, "to the extent of £10 or £11 per head, or £50 per family." The president (Mr. Cosgrave) had told them they were taxed to the utmost limit, and his colleague, Mr. Blythe had said that there can be no remission or relief. With bitter irony, Mr. Hackett pointed out that the Hessians (the Germans, some of whose ancestors were among the Hessian troops which were accused of "atrocities" in the South and West during the suppression of the Rebellion, of 1798) had established a thriving colony in Limerick in connection with the electrical scheme (boohing and groaning) at a cost of £4,000,000 sterling. Frenchmen were cleaning the streets of Dublin, Dutchmen were being subsidised for teaching Irishmen their business, while tens of thousands it their own kith and kin were starving in the cities, towns, villages and conutryside. The cost of living was rising, the people were in starvation, winter was approaching and garden parties and the multiplication of German bands would not appease hunger, cold and destitution. "We say to those responsible for this expensive torn-? foolery, 'give us back our country.'" Other speakers having pointed out in glowing terms the wrongs under which the people were groaning, a formal resolution to found the new party was put to the meeting and carried by long and vehement acclamation and fierce shouts of "Down with Cosgrave."

ROYAL ULSTER CONSTABULARY. County-Inspector K. H. Heggart has been appointed County Inspector of Armagh, in succession to County-Inspec-tor Moore (who retired a short time ago), and took up the duties of his new position on the Ist September. CountyInspector R. Dunlop, C.8.E., has been appointed County-Inspector. P. A. Britten, C.8.E., was recently appointed City Commissioner, Belfast, and County Inspector H. B. W. B. Lenthall, 0.8.E, has been appointed to County Derry, a position which lias been vacant since the formation of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. County-Inspector Lanthall was born in Dublin in 1887, and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he seemed his B.A. degree. In 1908 he joined the Royal Irish Constabulary as a cadet and his promotion was rapid. In 1920, he was appointed acting County-Inspector and Assistant to the Divisional Commissioner in Ulster. During his services in thq Royal Irish Constabulary he was sta* tioned in Tipperary (North and South)j. Waterford, Londonderry and Belfast. "