THE IRISH IMBROGLIO

Evening Star, Issue 18047, 15 August 1922, Page 6

THE IRISH IMBROGLIO

SIDELIGHTS ON TERRORISM. fFaoM Ode London Correspondent.] July 6. A friend just back from the Dublin battle -area, fells mo that a feature of tho situation is the sharply-contrasted types engaged in tho fighting. Tho Free State troops, officers, and men are extremely smart in appearance, and usually impressively good-looking. Tho rank and file, as veil as the officers, strike tho observer, however, as rather youthful soldiers. Tho smooth faces of mere boys are of frequent occurrence. Tho Republicans are also on tho youthful side commonly enough, and Rory O’Connor’s men in the Four Courts were mostly swaggering youths, who got tho wind up directly tho artillery entered into tho argument, and were actually moving to give themselves up before tho surrender took place. But tho irregular leaders are middle-aged men frequently enough, with black hair turning grey, and very dour looks. Tho Frco State junior “ sub ” manages to combine a notably smart style of get-up with the equipment of a wes'tern train robber. Some of them have beautifully-tailored tunics, and smart riding breeches, with a revolver carefully strapped down the outside of each leg, handy for either hand. I note that one of the picture papers describes Free State officers as “of tho Regular I.R.A. Even Fleet Street ought to know by that tho I.R.A. are Irregulars, and agin’ tho Government, andi that such a thing as a regular Republican is, under tho express terms of the treaty, impossible. IRISH FANATICS. Modern Irish fanatics appear to present a, "curiously distinctive type. De Valera and Rorv'O’Connor both come within its gambit. “Pale (esthetic faces, deep-set eyes, with an unhealthy sparkle, intense seventy of features, and black hair prematurely turning grey, together with a tun monastic habit of body, are the salient characteristics. Perhaps these are the outward signs in Irishmen of that peculiar temperament which is the stun that fanatics are made of. But 111 the mental background invariably there lurks one verv marked trait—a supremo and overmastering vanity or egoism. Perhaps this, too, is an essential component ot those whose politics admit no possibility of compromise, and whoso minds aie incapable of recognising either any weak points in their own or strong ones in their opponents’ armor. They lack that genius of compromise which is_ tho saving grace of the Englishman in his politics. And, according to all reports, this personal egoism is immensely inflamed by the hero-worship of feminine extremists in Ireland. _ Women are playing a remarkable role in Irish affairs to-day, and the gunmen are recruited by scores of romantic idiots, as their brilliant countryman Mr G. B. Shaw would call thorn, whoso heads have been completely turned by some colleen with brighter eyes than intelligence. THE MURDER, GANG. Sensational revelations may be made at the trial of the two miserable men charged with murdering Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson. Scotland Yard expects to secure important information as tho result of searching investigations into this case, which will throw some light on the secret murder gangs operating within the sinister ramifications of tho Irish Republican Brotherhood. The police are making especially close inquiries after one man, whose name and photograph have more than onco appeared in the newspapers, and of whom nothing has been heard or seen for some months. This individual is undoubtedly one of the chief ringleaders in the most dangerous criminal organisations connected with the Irish conspiracy. Recent developments over in Dublin may render tho task of tracking this man, and others of a similar genre, a good deal easier. Neither of the two assassins who shot down Sir Henry Wilson gave his right name. Both are London Irishmen who served in tho war, one with the Royal Fusiliers, and tho other with the Irish Guards, and they are merely wretched pawns in the hands of those who control murder gangs. Terrorism is at tho back of their crime, but the greater terror of the gallows may induce them to reveal such facts as they know. It is a tolerably safe deduction that tho man with tho wooden leg, who remained at his post as doorkeeper at the Labor Ministry until noon on tho day of tho crime, received his “instructions” the same afternoon.