REBEL COUNTESS SENTENCED

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2766, 9 May 1916, Page 5

REBEL COUNTESS SENTENCED

DEATH.PENALTY COMMUTED TO SERVITUDE FOR: LIFE . 1 t OTHER LEADERS SHOWN MERCY By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright London, May 7. The court-martial at Dublin sentenced Countess Markievicz to death, but the'eentence was commuted to penal servitude for life. •The sentence of death on Count Georgo Plunkett has been commuted to ten years' imprisonment. Other death sentences commuted include Henry ShanahaSi, to imprison-, ment for life; John Plunkett ten years, Philip Cosgrove five years. The sentences on thirteen others wero commuted to three years' imprisonment. .

M'Bride, the rebel, was known as Major M'Bride. He organised tho Irish corps which fought against the British in the Boer' war. He has since been inspector of waterworks at Dublin. Ho used his-inftuence to nullify the recruiting campaign. His wife, wlio has Fenian sympathies, obtained a separation in Franco in 1905, describing her husband. as an incorrigible drunkard and rake. M'Bride habitually referred to his son as 1 tho future President of Independent Ireland. Two hundred rebel prisoners have left' Galway, and another batch has been brought in: Dublin is normal. The hotels remain closed miti!, Tuesday. There is distress among soldiers' wives who are unable to obtain .their allowance owing to tho documents being burned at the barracks. ,It is expected' that a grant of several thousand pounds from the Prince of Wales's Fund will givo prompt relief. SINN FEIN DISLOYALTY. WOMAN'S VIOLENT SPEECH AT CORK. Countess Markievicz addressed a public meeting in the City. Hall, Cork, oil March .6, under tlio auspices of the women's branch of tho Sinn Fein party. She said she wa3 "proud that there'was to-day an Irishman in another "country who was making treaties for 7" Ireland with England's enemies. (Cheers.) Today the men of Ireland were alive, and realised that.the only way to speak to England was with guns in tlieir hands. They had not dared to havo conscription in Ireland because the volunteers had guns in Ireland to-day. The authorities knew they were disloyal, and they were afraid of them. (A voice: "Down with Redmond," and cheers.) They had seen' tho letter in the papers from Mr. Skefiington saying the reason no Zeppelins had dropped bombs in Ireland was because they had an ambassador at tho Court in Berlin. Robert Emmet's epitaph could only be written in the blood of England with swords in the hands of Irishmen.

At an Emmet Commemoration in St. Mary's Hall, on March 2—all the cloors being guarded, by men armed with rifles and bayonets, and the platform similarly protected — Commandant Pearse, 8.A., 8.L., of Hhc Irish Volunteers', said in every generation except the generation that was growing old they renewed their fight against England, and when England thought she had trampled them down in blood or had purchased them with bribes some strong man arose and redeemed them by his sacrifice. Ireland's demand all through the centuries had been freedom, and there was only one'sort of freedoifi, which was not to be found on the 'Statute Book of a nation's enemies,\but on the hooks of a nation's fathers. Irish freedom had been defined to them by their fathers—first of all, by Tone, who said, "To break tho connection with England—the never-failing source of our political 'evil&—and to assert tho independence of my country: that is my object." That definition was accepted and amplified by Davis, Lawlor, ondi Mitchell, tho last of whom looked through apocalyptic flame to the day when Ireland.' would tako its stand beneath her own immortal queen and strike for sovereignty.

DUBLIN'S LOSSES SHOULD BE MADE GOOD RESOLUTION BY THE MERCHANTS. (Rec. May 9, 0.35 a.m.) London, May 8. - Tho Dublin Chamber of Commerce has adopted a resolution stating that the recent outbreak would have been impossible but for the gross and unpardonable laxity oF-tlie Government, and that therefore the Imperial Treasury should provide for the rcstqration of the buildings . and the losses of the citizens.' 1

DISTRESSING SCENES" BURIALS OF THE VICTIMS. (Rec. May 9, 0.35 a.m.) London, May 8. Two hundred victims lave been buried since Easter Monday, of whom 25 per cent, ice re not identified. Thero were distressing scones at the funerals. Owing to the difficulty of obtaining coffins, ' a number were buried in shrouds. Only one mourner was permitted to follow the remains, and sometimes the police would open and search tlio coffins to prevent the smuggling of arms out of the city.

TWO THOUSAND REBELS DEPORTED. (Rec. May 8, 8.5 p.m.) London, May 7. The total number of Irish rebels who have- 1 been deported to England is two < thousand.