IRISH AFFAIRS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3442, 2 March 1920, Page 21

IRISH AFFAIRS.

(By Cable.). VATICAN AND REVOLUTIONARIES. PARIS, February 24. 'lt is stated that the Vatican is making representations to the Catholic episcopacies in Ireland and at Washington insisting that all clergy with Sinn Fein sympathies must dissociate themselves from the revolutionary movement and work for pacification, or, at least, a return to legal methods. HUNT FOR SINN FEINERS. LONDON, February 20. A tank, some armoured cars, and military motor cars made a raid on premises in Aungier street, Dublin, and arrested seven men and seized rifles and a quantity of am munition. February 21. A hundred police and fully-armed soldiers were employed in the Aungier street raid upon a window-blind factory. In addition to the tank and motor lorries, two armoured cars were engaged, from the turrets of which machine guns were turned on the crowd watching operations. Soldiers with fixed bayonets lined the streets, while the police tore up all the flooring of the factory, and after two hours brought out two brothers of M'Grath, the civilian who was wounded in Westmoreland street. The crowd gave the prisoners a thunderous cheer, and hissed the soldiers and police. Soldiers are guarding Mercers' Hospital, where the other M'Grath is lying. The Dublin authorities believe that today's arrests will disperse the secret society responsible for many recent crimes. The soldiers and police are using tanks and armoured cars in Dublin, hunting down the perpetrators, of the latest murders. Seven armed men have been arrested. SINN FEIN RAIDS. LONDON, February 20. It is believed that the civilian wounded in the Westmoreland street affair was connected with the premises now raided. The civilian, although in a' critical condition, refused to give his name. Apparently his fleeing comrades deserted him when in a state of collapse, and he is not expected to recover. Mystery surrounds the . finding of the body of an unidentified man in a field outside Cork, whose head and body were riddled with bullets, suggesting execution and instantaneous death. A rosary of beads lay beside the body, indicating that the man had been shot while praying in expectation of death. Farmers in the neighbourhood heard the shots, but were afraid to venture out to investigate. February 23. It has been ascertained that Quinlisk (formerly a follower of Sir Roger Casement, joining the Sinn Feiners after returning from Germany where he was a prisoner of war) was the name of the man whose body was found in a field near Cork riddled with bullets, suggesting that he had been executed by a firing party. Sinn Feiners bungled an attempt to blowup the constabulary barracks at Ballynahinch, in County Down. Gelignite wa3 inserted in holes drilled in the walls, but the charges failed to explode. The town had previously been isolated, the telegraph lines being cut and the roads blocked with felled trees. February 25. A gang raided Mr John Curran's Farmhouse at Meenaling (Donegal). They tied the farmer to a tree while they ransacked the farmhouse, stealing £3OO. As the result of a raid on the police barracks at Timoleague three attackers were killed and eight wounded. No police were injured. SINN FEIN M.P. IMPRISONED. LONDON, February 23. A court-martial, at Dublin sentenced R. C. Barton, Sinn Feiner M.P. for West Wicklow, to three years' penal • servitude for seditious speeches, wherein he urged his hearers to make reprisals against Lord French if a certain Sinn Fein prisoner died or sickened in prison. NO NIGHT PROWLERS. DUBLIN, February 21. The army authorities have ordered all persons after February 28 to remain within their doors between midnight and 5 a.m., except nurses, clergy, and doctors, who will be provided with passes. All others will be liable to be challenged if they do not obey, and will do so at their own peril. LONDON, February 24. Retorting against the military order forbidding persons to be abroad m Dublin without a pass after midnight, the Dublin City Council has given orders to extinguish street lighting after 11.30 p.m. The council has forbidden the performance* of any municipal services after that hour as being dangerous in the absence of lighting. The council also refused to allow municipal employees to apply for military permits to be abroad; also, if permits are obtained regardless of the council's injunction, the council will refuse to pay wages for work done during lightless hours. February 25. Dublin's first experience of the midnight curfew passed off without incident, saving the detention of a dozen travellers without passes. The streets were unlighted.