AN IRISH RABBLE

Northern Advocate, 19 July 1935, Page 7

AN IRISH RABBLE

MORE DISTURBANCES BELFAST FACTIONS. MELEES AT A FUNERAL. Wnited Press Association— By Electric Telegraph. — Copyright.! (Received 1.30 p.m.) BELFAST, July 17. Despite ample military and police precautions, trouble again broke out during the funeral of Thomas McDowell, a victim of the week-end rioting. Thousands attended the funeral. Shots from a side street threw the crowd into confusion. Loyalists attacked the Nationalists, who promptly retaliated, and the procession, despite police efforts, became a series of melees all the way to the cemetery, culminating in a fight with stones, compelling constables to fire over the heads of the crowd until the riot was quelled. This enabled the minister to complete the burial service. Further disturbances marked the return journey, in which thousands of youths, headed by their leader with a wounded arm, maintained a rough military formation until shots were fired, transforming them into a rabble, which eventually was dispersed. The death roll has reached six. A man succumbed in the street to a bullet wound in the head. Fire brigades suppressed further outbreaks of incendiarism. , Troops were renforced with fresh contingents, who were compelled to fire machine guns over the heads of the crowd.' This quelled the disturbances. LORD MAYOR’S APPEAL FOR MUTUAL TOLERANCE (Received 12.30 p.m.) BELFAST, July 17. The centre of trouble in the city moved west to districts where Protestants and Catholics received anonymous warnings to leave their homes. Many moved their furniture, protected by armed police. The furniture was set on fire in some streets, where crowds of both factions gathered. , The Lord Mayor, at the instance of leaders of religious denominations, political, business and trade union organisations appealed fo.r peace. He urged the citizens not to gather in the streets and to refrain from offensive language. He also asked all to resume their work and to adopt a conciliatory spirit to their fellow workers of different religion and politics. MORE INCENDIARISM. SCHOOL DESTROYED. (Received 2 p.m.) BELFAST, July 18. The worst fire this week occurred in Conway Street school, where incendiaries worked so thoroughly that .the fii’e brigade was helpless. Andrews, who was shot on Monday, died in hospital, bringing the death roll to seven.