Caution, Gaiety In Ireland

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31031, 11 April 1966, Page 10

Caution, Gaiety In Ireland

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright) DUBLIN, April 10. Police precautions were at their height as Irishmen gathered to honour the dead heroes of the 1916 Easter rebellion against England.

A “hot line” linked police chiefs on both sides of the border separating the Republic from the partitioned six Northern Counties. Troops were on a “stand-to” alert inside barracks as authorities tried to outguess the intentions of a hard core of extremists bent on a renewal of violence. Tension was high along the border. Police border huts, customs posts and barracks have been sandbagged and circled with barbed wire fencing. Tracker dogs have been sent to selected points on the border under the control of speci-ally-picked police squads trained in commando-type tactics. Mobilisation has been declared for the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Reserves have been called up, all leave was cancelled and the operation was on an emergency basis

throughout Northern Ireland. Crossed Border In Dublin Irishmen chuckled wryly at an official disclosure that a crack unit of patrolling British troops had moved across the border from the North for the first time in half a century. Two armoured cars carrying men of the Queen’s Dragoon Guards crossed the border by mistake and penetrated about a mile and a half into County Monaghan. Realising their mistake, they beat a hasty retreat. Festivities began on a passive note yesterday, with only one incident of violence reported from the two sides of

the border. Plastic explosives wrecked a telephone booth in Belfast just before dawn, and police later arrested a 19-year-old British soldier and another youth. No one was hurt in the blast

Two days of ceremonies are planned for Dublin and Belfast, the two capitals, with

thousands of police and sec-

unity forces standing by in case of violence. In the predominantly Protestant Northern Ireland, 15,000 police are being reinforced by British troops for mass parades planned by Republican supporters. Members of the Sinn Fem —the political wing of the Irish Republican Army—have threatened to march Into Belfast with Republican flags flying. In spite of a Government order against it, the Easter lily emblem of the I.R.A. is to be sold on Dublin streets and Irish tricolours of green, white and orange will fly from a hundred poles. In Dublin’s famous O’Connell street, the s~ene of bitter fighting in 1916, about 900 elderly survivors of the rebellion will be among thousands taking part today in an anniversary ceremony. The proclamation of independence—first read from the Post Office steps as 70 rebels battled with British troops—will be read again.

Germans In Parade Five Germans will be in the Dublin parade. They will be led by Captain Raimund Weishbach, aged 80, who first saw Tralee Bay, Southern Ireland, from the conning tower of a German U-boat on Good Friday 50 years ago. It was fom his ship that Sir Roger Casement, the Irish patriot, was put ashore to join the Easter rebellion after seeking aid in Germany. Dublin is ablaze with colour for the celebrations. Flags, bunting, pennants, streamers and large portraits of executed leaders festoon the capital, towns and villages of the

republic. Thousands of visitors from the United States, Europe and the Commonwealth swelled the huge throngs of Dubliners in the capital for the spectacular two-week golden jubilee ceremonies.