IRISH ARMY TROUBLE

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 152, 21 March 1924, Page 7

IRISH ARMY TROUBLE

OFFICERS ARRESTED ON ROOF OF HOTEL AFTER ELEVEN HOURS’ SIEGE OPERATIONS WITHOUT AUTHORITY A Dublin hotel, where forty mutinous officers were holding a meeting, was besieged by troops and several arrests made. The Home Minister announced In the Dail later that the Defence Minister had resigned, and the Government had demanded the resignation or a number of leading military officers because the previous night's operations were unauthorised. By Telegraph —Press Association. Copy-tight. London, March 19. Late at night troops surrounded a public-house in Parnell Square, Dublin, where it was reported that 30 to 40 wanted men were assembled, including General Tobin and Colonel Dalton. A grave situation, Miesed to bo the sequel to the recent army trouble, Is indicated by the fact that several Ministers visited the scene or operations. * , . It is officially announced that ten officers who left their posts wet e arrested on the roof of a public-house. The siege, in which a large force of military with armoured cars and machine-guns participated, was raised at 10.30 this morning. There were no further arrests. The arrested men include Colonel O’Maliy, three other colonels and four commandants. General Tobin escaped. Colonel Dalton was not present. —Reuter. IRec. March 20, 5.5 p.m.) London, March 19.

A Dublin message states that news reached the military headquarters at 9 o’clock on Tuesday night tnat a meeting of 40 mutinous officers was being held in Devlin’s public-house, which faces the Rotunda Hospital, within fifty yards of the -Parnell monument, a well-known Sinn Fein meeting-place in Mike Collins’s days. When tho troops arrived they searched the custamers’ bar and then attempted to go upstairs, but were suddenly warned to stand biack. The searchers withdrew, but were quickly reinforced by ten lorries, loaded with troops, uho surrounded tho block of buildings and guarded the streets with armoured cars. There was considerable firing throughout the eleven hours of the siege, recalling the terrors of the revolutionary period, though it was bloodless. Most of those captured were found on the roof, from which they could not escape owing to the bright moonlight, so surrendered without firing a shot. Colonel Slattery, one of the prisoners, jumped from a lorry while being taken to prison, and raced along the quay, pursued by soldiers, firing as they ran. Finally Slattery surrendered. It is believed that General Tobin and Colonel Dhiton, with twenty or more other officers, previously escaped over tho roofs in the darkness, while their comrades kept the troops at bay.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn. (

RESIGNATION OF DEFENCE MINISTER OFFICERS ORDERED TO RESIGN (Rec. March 20. 9.30 p.m.) Dublin, March 19. Mr. O’Higgins announced in tho Dail that the Defence Minister, General Mulenbv, had resigned. The Government had demanded the resignation of Adjutant-General O’Sullivan, the Chief of Staff. General McMahon, and the Quartermaster-General. General O’Muirthile. The Home Minister stated that last night’s operations were undertaken without the authority or consultation twith the Executive Council. The Government recognised that the present 'state of things and tho resignation of two Ministers constituted a problem which needed the gravest consideration. They hoped by beginning next week to be in a position to tell the people the action thev proposed to pursue in regard to the whole matter. —Reuter. . London, March 20. President Cosgravo is undertaking the duties of Minister of Defence.— Router. CAHER HEALY,RELEASED (Rec. March 20, 5.5 p.m.) London, March 19. Mr. Caller Healy, Sinn Fein member for Tyrone and Fermanagh, whose continued detention by the Government of Northern Ireland, without charge or trial, was the subject of a protest at the opening of Parliament, has taken his seat in tho House of Com-mons.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.