CHANGING IRELAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18467, 31 January 1922, Page 5

CHANGING IRELAND.

DUBLIN CASTLE TRANSFER, A STUDY IN CONTRASTS, LONDON, January 17. The members of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State received the surrender of Dublin Castle to-day. “This is now in the hands of the nation,” was th<y wording of an official notice posted at the Mansion House, Dublin, the temporary seat of the Provisional Government. The ceremony of handing over the castle ■was a study in contrasts. Members of the Irish Government arrived regardless of decorum, in a straggling procession of motor cars, and were dressed in every-day attire, whereas tho Viceroy, Lord Fitzalan, attended with .every circumstance of dignity. He welcomed Mr Collins ceremoniously in the brocaded Privy Council room. Mr Collins’s previous visit to tho castle was in tho guise of a driver of a coal cart, when there was a price on his head. Later ho sent an ironical letter complimenting the castle on the smart appearance of the guard. He now leaped from , his taxi-cab, and rushed indoors over the red carpets laid specially for the' occasion. Lord Fitzalan, after the formal handing over of. the castle, presented the heads of departments to Mr Collins, who soon squeezed into his taxi-cab again, remarking, “1 Always was optimistic, wasn’t I?”