RIOTING IN BELFAST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22161, 15 July 1935, Page 10

RIOTING IN BELFAST

TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES MOBS CLASH WITH POLICE EXCHANGE OF FIRE ENSUES By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received July 14. ti.35 p.m.) BELFAST. July 13 Hardly had Viscount Craigavon, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, told Orangemen at Gilford that the prospects in Northern Ireland were bright and hopeful than a lierce riot broke out in Belfast, necessitating the proclamation of martial law. Lord Craigavon said the recent conversations between the Prime Ministers of the Dominions had made him realise the importance of Ulster as a factor in Imperial affairs, in which Orangemen were destined to play an important part. The disturbance was precipitated in the dockland quarter, where stones were thrown and revolvers fired from upper windows at a Scottish band returning in a procession from the celebration of the battle of the Boyne. The pipers and drummers scornfully continued their march and their music. Police reinforcements were rushed to the scene, and from an armoured car fired over the heads of the mob, thousands of whom stampeded for refuge in the nearest buildings. Mrs. Margaret Rodgcrs was killed, and Mrs. Margaret Lang was wounded and is not expected to recover. A constable, a detective and nearly 40 other* were wounded by revolver shots. . The firing was believed to have been more widely spread than was actually the case, owing to the volley-like sound of the traditional Lambeg drums, which are deafeninglv beaten with the hands as part of ceremonies until blood streams from the performers' thumbs and discolours the drumheads. There was a recrudescence of shooting in the evening when Ellen Connor, a septuagenarian, was found dying in a street from wounds in her head. A volley f fired into a public house injured a customer. Occasional shots fired in the daytime wounded a watchman and a boy. Armoured cars are patrolling dockland now, and the curfew has been introduced. Parades in 17 other centres passed off quietly. PROLONGED CONFLICT DESTRUCTION OF HOUSES SERIOUS CASUALTY LIST (Received July 14. 11.15 p.m.) BELFAST. July 14 The fighting in Belfast continued until after midnight. A frenzied crowd wrecked and burned a number of houses in the York Street area. The police used batons, rifles and armoured cars. Finally the military was called out and numbers of men of the Border Regiment, wearing steel helmets, arrived in lorries. The casualties were:' —Four killed, 20 injured and sent to hospital, including a policeman who was shot in one shoulder, and 30 or 40 treated for minor injuries. The police state that the trouble began with a rush from the market area at the Orange procession.