IRISH TRAGEDIES

Evening Star, Issue 19127, 19 December 1925, Page 18

IRISH TRAGEDIES

DEATH OF DAKGING GIRL DARBELL FIPS'S EHD (From Onr Dublin Com\q>o!idcnt.) DUBLIN, October 23. Everyone who knows anything abont tho fashionable dances hi this country know tho charming young Dublin dancing mistress, Miss Rita North, the star of tho Metropole Ballroom, ono of the finest ballrooms in Europe. Just tho other day (October 21), under distressing circumstances, sho died in Hendon Cottage Hospital, Middlesex. Her death involves a very prominent member of the Dad (Irish Free State Parliament), Mr Darrell Figgis, the well-known journalist, author, politician, and one-time gun-runner. , For some time prior to 1914 Mr Figgis was behind the scenes in tho growing Sinn Fein movement. It was life who procured tho rifles that were landed in Howth in that year, and which led to bloodshed on Burgh quay, Dublin. As a result of the rebellion of IDIG he, with others, spent some time in an English prison, where he was, faithfully visited by his wife. When the treaty came he supported it, and was elected to tho Da LI. He was rc-elccted at the last elections as an “ Independent.” in the recent election for tho Senate ho was nominated as a candidate, but failed to got the quota. Towards the end of last year Mrs Darrell Figgis was found shot one night in a cab in the streets of Dublin. Tho poor lady had shot herself. Tho weapon used was ono given by the late General Collins to Mr Figgis for purposes of protection during the AngloIrish trouble.

These preliminary remarks will help to introduce tho prominence of tho two principals in the latest sad sensation that agitates all Dublin. By the way, iu addition to being a successful author, .Jlr Figgis was the Dublin correi spondent for tho London ‘ Times.’ i Yesterday the inquest on bliss Rita I North opened at Hendon. I Francis North, Thomas street, Dub- ' lin, said he last saw his daughter alive three weeks ago. He had no idea sho was expecting to become a mother. She went for a motor tour in Devon(shire in April last. I Mr Darrell Figgis, journalist, Dubilin, said he had known Miss North ; for two years, and first knew she was ! expecting to become a mother on Oc--1 tober 5. She would not let him tell ; her parents, but later consented to her i sister being told. Sho consulted Dr ' Sraorko Zarchi, Shaftesbury avenue, i London, W., whose name had been mentioned to witness by a fellow member of the Royal Automobile Club, and in a letter deceased informed him that she was going to g. nursing homo, but would return to her hotel, the Astoria. An operation was performed at the Hendon Cottage Hospital. Deceased had told the hospital authorities that i witness was her husband. When he 'suggested that her uncle should bo, ini formed, sip urged him to do nothing inf the kind, saying sho would ho well ; in a few days and they could get married. Owing to her condition another operation was necessary, but sho died, i Questioned by the coroner, Dr Co- ! hen, witness said that he gave his ! name to tho hospital as “South,” and ■ deceased had registered in that name; j but to Dr Lake the surgeon there, ho ! gave his correct name. He told the doctor that he never sailed under false colors in his life. Miss North’s ago was twenty-one. The inquest was adjourned to November 5 for further medical evidence.

DARREL FIGGIS’S DEATH. a Sensational end. DUBLIN, October 28. Mr Darrell Figgis was found dead in his apartments in Bloomsbury, Jrm- ! don, yesterday. Tho room w;is filled ! with gas from a jet that had been : fully turned on. Ills death was the i third tragic occurrence within twelve I months, in connection with which his name has figured prominently. At tho inquest concerning tho death of Mr Darrell Figgis nothing of ason- | Rational nature ■ carao out in tho evidence, Frank Maurice, an engineer, who | had known Figgis for many years, i said he had soon deceased every day during the past week, and he seemed I very sad and depressed. Ho oft en rcI ferred to his wife. Deceased did not I appear to have any financial worries. ' Ho was a man of temperate habits, but very temperamental. Mr Harry Gordon Watney, _ a distiller, London, said ho know/ Figgis as ; a member of his club. Ho saw linn | the evening previous to his death. lie was extremely unhappy. “He called mo out,” said tho witne.es, “to the ' gallery outside the chess room. He said lie was as unhappy as a man could ■ho. He pointed to his head, and I I gathered that it was mental trouble, f think he had soon somebody in (he evening. Something had happened to , him in tho evening.” F Tho medical evidence was that death ' was due to poisoning by carbon mon- | oxide from coal gas. Certain letters left by deceased were not read. The inquest was adjourned. AN ADVENTURER. Darrell Figgis w*as brilliantly versa- ! tile, but above ail he was eminently ian adventurer. He was Irish by birth 1 only. Many of Ids associations were i English and Indian. Though one of the j chief forces behind tho _ Sum hem i movement, like Arthur Griffith, he did 1 not espouse violence or hate. Ho was I eccentric, many-sided, and individual- \ istic. The Sum Fein movement was so 1 young, enthusiastic, and romantic that : sheer lust of excitement drew Figgis ! and several others into its meshes. Though wholly unversed as to the Gaelic spirit, ho sensed the storm in 1911, and plunged headlong into tho movement, giving it bis intellect and ! his means, which, by the way, were considerable. As indicating the keenness of his intellect, ho grappled with the Irish language and every fundivI mental depth underlying the age-long I Irish unrest. In a bricl space ho ah- ' sorbed all, and, like Erskine Childers (another very brilliant and wayward | man, whoso Irish sympathies led bun to I his doom before the riiles of tho people j whose cause he had made his own), he 1 became “ more Irish than the Irish l themselves.” His sympathies and loves ■ ran riot, and vanity and excitement led him off the prudent trail. _Ho was horn in Ra.thmines, Dublin, in 1882. His father was an Indian tea planter, and still resides in India. Darrel began as a tea buyer and broker in London and Calcutta, a vocation he followed until 1910. For the next four years he was a successful free lance journalist and dramatic critic. He first became publicly identified with Sinu Fein in 1914 as a commandant in the Irish Volunteers. In all he was three years in prison. When the I treaty came he accepted it, and was chairman of the committee that drew | up the Constitution of the Free State. He was elected in 1922 as a pro-treaty member of tho Dail, being returned at the head of the poll in Dublin. During the civil strife a party of young men adverse to the treaty invaded his house and cut off one side of his beard. Mr Figgis was always very vain about the beauty of his beard 1 The incident worried him more than a bullet wound, but Dublin, and even his many friends, were merely amused. It was the one and only amusing incident in tho tragic civil war—“poor Darrell’s beard.” In the Dail Figgis opposed the now famous Shannon scheme, but associated .himself

with a rival scheme for tho electrification of the Liffcy, Mr Figgis was a prolific writer of poetry, novels, plays, literary criticism, and ' general essays. Mr Stephen M'Kemia acclaimed him as “ one of our most distinguished intellects.”