TEE BLUE SHITS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 21 August 1933, Page 5

TEE BLUE SHITS

PARADES ON SUNDAY DESPITE GOVERNMENT THREATS MR DE VALERA CONDEMNS NEW ORGANISATION (United Press Association—By Elect,rio Telegraph—Copyright) (Received 21st August, 12.0 p.m.) DUBLIN, 20th August. Despite the Government’s threats the National Guard paraded throughout the country. It declined to disclose details of various assembles. Dublin was uneasy all day, and everything possible was done to frustrate General O’Duffy’s plans. Civic Guards were stationed at all street corners, police guarded the approaches to the city, and military police Guarding Government buildings were reinforced by Mr de Valera’s new army. Crowds gathered at the Blue Shirts’ headquarters, where the police were especially strong. Two Blue Shirt parades arranged to be held in Dublin actually assembled, one three miles south of the city and the other a little noth. The commanding of- j ficers read a special message exhorting i all to tribute the dead by continuing 1 their work. “No good for Ireland will ever come from the frantic squabbles of warring parties. If politics mean such squabbles the time has come to abolisli politics. We are the vanguard of a new era in Ireland, and nothing is going to halt our march until we have attained a united, prosperous, free and peaceful state.” The police arrived after the parades had dispersed. They met several Blue Shirts but did not attempt to stop them as the Government instructed the police to give the fullest protection and escort Blue Shirts home, even if the parades were held. A minor scuffle occurred at Cork, where following a parade outside the Blue Shirt headquarters, where the National Guard flag was hung at half-mast, young men wearing I.R.A. badges seized it. Blue Shirts intervened and the flag was torn during the contest. The Republicans burned the portion they captured. General O’Duffy, interviewed, said: “If despite the National Guard’s legal and constitutional character the Government declares it unlawful, it will be a positive act of tyranny. Its declaration will be devoid of moral foice, consequently the Guard will neither dissolve nor allow itself to be driven underground.” Mr Aiken, Minister of Defence, speaking at Tullamore, said the Government has forces to control any disorderly force arising in Ireland. Mr Ruttledge, Minister of Lands, addressing a police festival at Phoenix Park, said: “We only ask the police to serve a Government elected by the people. We don’t want to establish either police or army as a partisan force. 1 don’t refer to anything like an attempted coup d’etat or fools who think they can copy the methods, of other countries and use them in Ireland.” It is understood no parades were held in Northern Ireland.

Mr de Valera, speaking at Thurles, said: “I received reports that uniformed farades of Blue Shirts had been held. he Government will certainly proclaim the organisation illegal, and members will be subject -to penalties under the Public Safety Act. I regret General O’Duffy’s intentions and deplore the definite attempt to rake the embers of civil war. The fundamental point of our, programme'is to unite the people and oblite-i rate the memories of past dissensions.-; General O’Duffy’s tactics have stopped our progress. Though I say General O’Duffy, I believe he is only a cat’s-paw. If General O’Duffy wants to know the Irish opinion of dictators he had better read history. We could ordinarily afford to laugh at such antics, but when he tries to organise ex-soldiers and adopt symbols and methods associated with dictatorships abroad, the time has come to cry a halt. We must accept either democratic rule or force, because we see in the Blue Shirts the beginning of a force. We will never permit such a body to organise and become the menace I believe it could be. General O’Duffy declares the organisation is necessary to combat Communism, but Communism is fast disappearing in consequence of our policy.” Mr de Valera emphasised that there was no necessitv for an early election. He was satisfied with the solidarity of the Government. “We are winning all along the line,” he declared.