IRISH SOLDIERS' RIOT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9401, 6 January 1894, Page 2 (Supplement)

IRISH SOLDIERS' RIOT.

A TRAVELLING PANDEMONIUM. A most extraordinary series of scenes of violence and disorder took place in the train which left Cork at three o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, November 15, and arrived in Dublin at ten o'clock at night. The disturbance, which was unique in its character, was caused by the behaviour of a large number of soldiers of the Munster Fusiliers between 50 and 60 in number were returning to Dublin from furlough, and who, besides doing a great deal of damage to the train, caused the utmost consternation among the ordinary passengers, who were greatly alarmed by the outrageous conduct of the soldiers. It appears that the men incriminated are about to be drafted to India, and they had, as is usual in such cases, been allowed home on furlough to the different places in the South of Ireland, from which—the members of the regiment being mostly Irish—they had come. A large number of them started from Cork, but others got in at different stations, particularly at the Limerick Junction, where those who came from the neighbourhood of Limerick joined the train. Shortly after leaving Cork, the soldiers began to get very noisy. At first this did not give any great concern to the officials, as they supposed it was only tbo outcome of intoxicated hilarity ; but the party grew more disorderly as time wont on. At Emly, a station before Limerick Junction, the really serious part of the affair became observable. Here tickets are checked, and the railway officials soon found that they had more ugly customers to deal with than merely boisterous or semi - drunken soldiers. The greater part of them refused to give up their tickets ; some of them, who had apparently bought no tickets, tried to conceal themselves under the seats. The guard of the train, a man named Molloy, was assaulted, and his lamp was broken. The assistant guard, Lenehan, was also molested when he asked for the tickets, and they threatened to take his life, at the same time using the most fearful language. This unseemly behaviour, of course, caused a good deal of excitement, and, of course, the officials were altogether unable to cope with the rowdy military.

ACCIDENT TO A SOLDIER. Here also a terrible accident happened to one of the soldiers. Whether he was pushed out of the train in the course of an altercation, or got oat of his own accord, is nob quite clear, but at any rate he was at the back of the passenger train standing on the rails when a goods train came up and passed over the side of one of his feet. Some of his comrades cams to his assistance, and carried him back into one of the carriages. Ib is stated that their object was apparently to try to hide, for the time, the fact of his having been injured, bub if that was their intenb they did not succeed in carryiug it out. At Limerick Junction some'of the soldiers called out that their comrade was destroyed, and the officials observed that they had taken off the man's boot, and that his foot was terribly crushed. Dr. Ryan, of Limerick, happened to be on the spot, and he did what he could for the unfortunate fellow. By his directions the injured soldier was detained at this station for the purpose of being sent on to the infirmary. FURTHER SCENES, OF VIOLENCE.

At Limerick Junction matters took a very decided turn for the worse. Undeterred by the misfortune which had happened to one of their number, the riotous soldiers became more and more violent. Here their numbers were increased by a party of their own regiment coming from the direction of Limerick, and the advent of the newcomers, judging from the results that followed, only tended to increase the tumult and blackguardism which had been manifested up to this. The fresh arrivals made for a firstclass carrriago, into which they forced their way despite the protest of the porters and other officials of the railway company, who were numerically powerless to restrain them. Fortunately there were no first-class passengers in this part of the train, and the crowd of soldiers had the carriage to themselves. They soon proceeded to give them a taste of their quality. They smashed the two windows, destroyed all the scenic photographs, shattered the mirrors, tore off some of the arms which divide the seats, and while the train was in motion they threw two of the cushions out of the windows. Other carriages, in addition to the first-class compartment, which had been almost wrecked, suffered considerably. The windows of several third-class compartments were smashed, heedless to say, this disgraceful conduct), the smashing of gloss, the shouting and swearing, and' all the acts of violence that were perpetrated, made the train during the greater part of the journey more like a travelling pandemonium than a means of ordinary locomotion, and, as was natural under the circumstances, many of the passengers—particularly the women were thoroughly frightened, dreading that the mad violence of the soldiers might take some really dangerous form. THE SOLDIERS ARRESTED. When the news of the disturbance reached the King's Bridge by wire sent up by the stationmaater, the officials ab once communicated with the military at the Royal Barracks. The military authorities certainly took the matter up promptly and acted with commendable energy. Pickets of military police and detachments of the Kifles and Grenadier Guards were despatched at once to Inchicore Station, where the arriving trains stop for the purpose of having the tickets taken' up. They remained there in waiting for the Cork train, and when it came in they were drawn up on both sides of it, so as to guard against the possibility of any of the rioters escaping. The latter were apparently much astonished at the reception that was in store for them. Their destructive and aggressive ardour seemed to be altogether damped, and they submitted in most cases very tamely to their arrest. Some of them, however, tried to evade their captors by seeking refuge under the seats, but they were speedily dragged out. It was certainly an extraordinary spectacle, and such as has most likely never been witnessed on the line before, to see so large a body as fifty or sixty soldiers taken into custody and marched off in this curious fashion. "