UNPROTECTED

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 238, 9 October 1933, Page 7

UNPROTECTED

IRISH LEADER.

AT MERCY OF CROWDS. General O'Duffy Alleges Civic Guard Negligence. RIOTING AT TRALEE. (United P.A.—Electric Telegraph-Copyright) (Beceived 12 noon.) DUBLIN, October 8. General O'Duffy, speaking of the Tralee riot, said: "I was left completely at the mercy of the mob by the police. Twenty men entered the street and one depraved looking , creature with a hammer in his hand walked up and struck me on the head from behind.

"Then I was struck again. I can identify thte man, as can my associates. The Civic Guards did not arrest or interfere' with my assailant. I saw nothing of tlie military. The attack obviously was premeditated and intended to prevent a lawful meeting of one political party.

"The Government seized my revolver so I was not armed, but now I am taking stops to protect myself. I prefer to be sentenced by a military tribunal to being assassinated."

The disorder continued long after General O'Duffy's departure. Angry crowds paraded Tralee and occasional shots were fired.

The climax came in the early hours of this morning when rifles, revolvers and machine-guns were used for 10 minutes against the police barracks, where the crowd believed General jD'Duffy had hidden. Intensely Bitter Feeling. Stone throwers shouted: "We want O'Duffy, dead or alive." They were dispersed finally by the military with tear gas "bombs. Tho cvenis are arousing great concern owing to the intensity of the political feeling.

However, 50 armed troops and 100 police attended the meeting at Castlebar and quickly quelled attempts to create disturbances without inflicting serious injury. General O'Duffy, with his head bandaged, was given a great ovation when he declared that efforts were necessary to suppress mob. law.

The "Sunday Graphic" states that 1000 troops in battle order and additional police have been drafted to Castlebar to prevent attacks on General O'Duffy at the Blue Shirts' meeting to-day.

The leader of an Irish Republican Army parade during the commotion appealed for order.

General O'Duffy spent the night in Killarney. He told a representative of the ''Central News" he was struck twice on the head by the man with a hammer. He believed the Republican Army was not concerned in the attack, but that it was organised by the Fianna Fail party. Obviously it was planned in advance. The mob held the Tralee police practically powerless. BANNED BY ULSTER. PARADE OF DUBLIN WORKLESS BELFAST, October 8. The Government of Northern Ireland has banned a proposed march by 60 Free State unemployed from Dublin to Belfast, declaring that it would be likely to provoke disorders.