THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 1934 CONFLICT IN IRELAND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21881, 17 August 1934, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 1934 CONFLICT IN IRELAND

The Irish Free State is living so much on its nerves just now that even a small clash is fraught with serious risk. From the rioting at Cork on Monday last, therefore, grave consequences are feared. It was not a trivial affair. Goaded into action by the Government's seizing and selling of their cattle because land annuities had not been paid at its demand, farmers demonstrated violently at the Cork saleyards. Anticipating trouble, for some distrained cattle were to be offered for sale there that day, the Government had placed a large cordon of its Civic Guard and special detective force round the saleyards, and shots fired by them injured a number of people, one of them, Michael Lynch, dying of his wounds. As » result, bitter resentment is dangerously abroad. It is reported that the funeral of Michael Lynch was marked by no incidents, but the phrase is hardly appropriate. Blueshirted members of the League of Youth, an organisation opposed to the Government, guarded the body in a mortuary chapel until the burial; tens of thousands lined the streets for the funeral, business in the city being suspended for two hours; and General O'Duffy, leader of the United Ireland Party now combining Mr. de Valera's political opponents in a strong league, delivered a funeral oration in which he charged the Government with deliberately firing, apparently intending to kill, on unarmed people. These are incidents enough to awaken fear of further disturbances, as precautions taken at Cork and Dublin by the Government plainly show. At smaller provocation than the sequel of this riot, Irish animosities blazed furiously, and the present situation is so tense that a major crisis may ensue. Its arising has been neither solitary nor sudden. Back of it is a long period of agricultural grievances, these created by Mr. de Valera's infatuation for republican independence. At the outset of his declared campaign he warned Irishmen that they must be prepared to suffer for the sacred cause. As a call to heroism, this was good tactics; as an explanation of hii3 treatment of these Irish farmers, it is now failing to arouse anything except anger at his exposed folly.

In this instance, 14 cattle were to be offered for sale after seizure from their defaulting owners. After the riot was quelled, they "were sold for £lB to a bidder who has bought all the cattle at similar sales." His identity is not difficult to discover, and knowledge of it is likely to increase the farmers' anger. Not very long ago six heifers were seized for non-payment of rates and succession duty from a farmer near Clonmel. No buyers were found for them locally, so they were taken to Dublin, where their sale caused great excitement. No bona-fide bids were forthcoming, because at Dublin also there was sympathy with their unfortunate owner, but finally they were knocked down for £l4 to a detective disguised under the name of John Brown, who was roughly handled by the infuriated farmers. He escaped with his life, but lost his trousers in the attempt, and now it is said that "John Brown's trousers" are likely to become as famous as "John Brown's body." Before a military tribunal, three of his alleged assailants —one a member of the United Ireland Party, another one of its secretaries, and the third a prominent gentleman farmer of Kildare —were each fined £25, with £25 costs. Apparently, "John Brown" has been in evidence yet again. For one of Mr. de Valera's detective force to act in this way is bound to multiply and intensify opposition to the Government. General O'Duffy's demand for the disbanding of the special detective force, the armed body enrolled by Mr. de Valera and nicknamed the "Broy Harriers'" with special reference to Colonel Broy, the new head of the Civic Guard, seems likely to attract -vehement support.

With the support of Labour, more or less conditional, the Government has a working majority in the Dail, and the hostility of the Senate is unable, under the constitution, to press its cause to victory. Doubtless Mr. do Valera's intention to abolish the Senate, and thus remove the only effective brake on his legislative and administrative programme, will soon be given effect. Ho seems to be unwilling now to test the feeling of the country by means of a general election, although he was earlier determined to do this. He has forfeited the support of the Irish Republican Army by what it regards as his weak and unsatisfactory policy toward British imports. It would go in that direction farther and faster than he has gone, yet it must be reckoned among the factors at present embarrassing him. Its denunciations of him have been pointed with bitter comments on his failure to practise in power what he preached when striving to attain it. *Then he refused to conform to "the will of the people" because it was not to his liking, and recklessly fomented dissension and anarchy;

now he is chiding the I.R-A. with bringing ruin on the country by weakening the Government for the meanest of partisan motives. His general inconsistency, indeed, is too evident to escape notice: he complains of a conspiracy not to pay dues to the Government, yet he has not scrupled to repudiate obligations. Whether it be a conspirfffcy or a spontaneous general objection to suffer injustice, the attitude of the farmers is firmly against him, and the disturbance at Cork is only the latest instanfe of a series of actions of defiance. It may have no immediate sequel of widespread revulsion of feeling against the Government. There are complexities in Free State politics that may continue to keep it in office. Nevertheless, blame of the Government for the "martyrdom" of Michael Lynch has been boldly uttered, and the cause of the United Ireland Party may easily become as sacred as Mr. de Valera's cause of an independent republic. If so, an increase of violent propaganda, leading to outbreaks less easily controlled, may add a new chapter, pathetic and tragic, to the unhappy story of the Free State.