FAREWELL TO IRELAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18168, 14 August 1922, Page 3

FAREWELL TO IRELAND.

YOUTHS FOR NEW ZEALAND. Three Irish youths, all apparently ' under 20, have reached Sydney. They had hidden farewell to their native land foF eve®. Aa they stood on the deck .of &e 'ship, they sot-mod happy enough, but when on© was asked whether few intended ever returning he betrayed considerable emotion. "No," he saidl, "sore it brofca my heart, to say, 'Good-bye, ould Ireland,' but I knew I couldn't stay at all." Two, from County Antrim, are travelling to New Zealand to join relatives The other is from Dublin", and he intends settling in New South Wales, ne has bitter memories of the last few years o his life in Dublin, where, being a loyalist, his life was often in danger, and where h« saw his imcle fatally shot in cold blood during the busy mid-day hour. "No," he replied to a query, with a little fire ia hie voice, "I was not afraid to stay I wsis not afraid of the Sinn ieraere, but it would break your heart to stay. 1 think that it would have been all right if the British Government bad only been sirens enough. They would have finished all opposition if they had hung on a little longer, and Sinn Fein would have been beaten forever. "Now things are terrible—at least they were when I came away. The disloyalists cany firearms without any complaint being made. The loyalists are not allowed to carry weapons. Consequently wo &r© terrorised, but I might tell you that I often carried a revolver just the same. They would have 'potted' me if they had the chance. Yes, I know I'm young, but thev shot a lot that were younger than I. Do you think that the Free State will make for better feeling! he was asked. "No," he replied "I think—we all think at home, all the it is going to be a wash-out. It will not have th© confidence of the North of Ireland, and it will certainly never have the confidence of the loyalists in the South. Loyalists don't want Michael Collins, we know what he is. And when I say that De Valera is a mongrel, you will mak'j allowance for what I have seen at home. "I am surprised," he added, as if by aij afterthought, "that you allow Sinn Feiners to come out here. One got off this boat at Melbourne. If yon allow them to come here you are going to have trouble; yon may bo sure that they will spread fchei* Bolshevik propaganda.