AN INSULT FROM IRELAND.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14099, 19 July 1911, Page 12

AN INSULT FROM IRELAND.

NEW ZEALAND FLAGS BURNED.

(FKOM O-CB COBKESFONTIENT.) . LONDON, June 9. "While the deputation of silverytongued Irifih orators was making tho welkin ring in New Zealand on behalf of the cause of Irish freedom, another knot of strenuous Irishmen was busy in Wexford county in an allied cause. It was Whit Monday, or somethiag similar, and all the streets and squares of New Ross, County Wexford, were decorated with bunting in honour of tiie holiday. As the day wore on the fun waxed merry, and when dusk fe:l, a band of merry men fell upon the ftVf.s and bunting, and became horribly furious whenever they saw anything suggestive of the Union with Grea-J, Britain. Now, it happened, for some unexplained reason, that amongst these flags were several samples of the Xew Zealand ensign, or so it is alleged by those who would minimise tbe importance of the affair. These 60 enraged the Irishmen that they tore them down from the 1798 monument and burned them. Police and public opinion wero alike helpless. The promoters of the carnival, when they heard of the outrage, wept copiously. Great Britain was somewhat appeased when it heard that the flags were not Union Jacks, as was nt first reported. It remains to be seen whether New Zealand will make the matter one for diplomacy. Possibly not, inasmuch as the Town Council of New Ross have also wept in council, and havo decided that, the outrage having been committed by mere outsiders who came to the town looking for cheap notoriety, the matter should be ignored. Here endeth. I presume.