IRISH REBELLION

Otago Witness, Issue 3594, 30 January 1923, Page 17

IRISH REBELLION

ELEVEN MORE EXECUTIONS. LONDON, January 21. lhe Free State Government announces five executions in Athlone and two in Limerick, making 11 yesterday. TUNNEL UNDER MOUNTJOY. LONDON, January 21. An Irish Army communique says that troops discovered’ a tunnel being built between Mountjoy Prison and the parade ground. The tunnel was already 70ft long. Several men were taken prisoner. RAILWAY VIADUCT DESTROYED. LONDON, January 21. Armed men raided a number of subpost offices in Cork. They burnt the offices and the books, stationery, and stamps, and stole sums of money. The Malahide. viaduct, one of the most important bridges on the Great Northern Railway in Ireland, has been blown up by a land mine. General Ennis, commanding the West Cork area, was walking in Cork in mufti with two other officers, when they were ordered to halt by three plain-clothes policemen. Each party, mistaking the other for rebels, opened fire. One plainclothes man was seriously wounded before the error was discovered. FARMER’S TERRIBLE DISCOVERY. LONDON, January 21. Advices from Dublin state that four masked men entered the home of a farmer at Portumna, Galway, and demanded £4O, which they knew he had just received from the market. As they were leaving, the fanner’s son, enraged at the loss of the money, struck one of the raiders with an axe, practically decapitating him, and the others fled. The son tore off the dead man’s mask, and found that he was his own brother. ARISTOCRACY OF CRIME. LONDON, January 21. The Dublin correspondent of the Sunday Express says: “The Irish rebels are no longer mostly illiterate people who are only eager for pillage. The hidden terror of the rebellion nermeates every class of society. Cultured men and women -meet in saloons to discuss the most recent outrages and plan others. Rich, well-dressed women hold meetings in drawing rooms and dugouts, and receive donations from the United States. Reports made b.v secret emissaries from Liverpool and Glasgow, whence arms are shipped, show that these people form the aristocracy of the rebellion and provide its high command. They never carry arms or bring themselves within the law, but they organise all the plots and train and educate youths, engineers, medical men, and students in the use of arms and explosives. Girls are also trained to act as secret messengers. “Dail Eireann has given the Army Council the widest powers. The death penalty may be imposed on anyone inciting, assisting, or counselling murder, or possessing drawings or writings against the interests of the State. “Then there are numerous passive or Jackal’: rebels. These never appear in the £ghting-line, but stedfastlv refuse to pay anv rates or taxes to the Free State authorities. “The Free State’s problem is to stamp out the. directors of the rebellion, which is a much more difficult matter than the

execution of the actual perpetrators of out rages or the possessors of arms.” IM PORT ANT CA PTURES. LONDON, January 22. Free Staters at Kilbrittain captured Hurley, the Commandant of the Irregulars. After firing on the troops he swam two rivers while attempting to escape. Official: The whole of the Divisional Staff of the First Southern Division of Irish Irregulars has been captured near Macroom, with the past six months’ records. A SURPRISE FIGHT. LONDON, January 22. Irregulars surprised a cycle patrol of 12 Free State soldiers at Clonakilty (Cork). Two of the soldiers escaped and procured reinforcements, and a five hours’ fight followed, in which one soldier was killed. A Dublin policeman was about to arrest a young woman who was painting a Republican inscription on a wall at Trinity College, when two other young women presented revolvers at him, and ordered him away. The policeman was compelled to go, and the young woman completed the inscription. MORE EXECUTIONS. LONDON, January 22. Two men have been executed at Dundalk for the unlawful possession of arms. There have been three more executions at Dundalk of rebels who were found in possession of arms and ammunition. MAIL TRAIN WRECKED. LONDON, January 22. The mail train between Athlone and Westport encountered a land mine near Kiltoom. The engine was blown to bits, but there were no fatalities. ROSARY FOR EXECUTED REBELS. LONDON, January 24. The Daily Mail’s Dublin correspondent states that a number of women and girls demonstrated outside Dundalk Gaol, with the object of reciting the rosary for those who were executed. They refused to leave, so revolvers and machine-guns were fired over their heads, whereupon they dispersed. There has been much (Pitting of telephone and telegraph wires in the neighbourhood of Dublin and Dundalk, and communication southward has been interrupted. REBEL OUTRAGES. LONDON, January 24. Armed men shot two engine-drivers outside Tralee station. One died. Irregulars attacked the Castlemain barracks, burned the railway station, and blew up the bridge. Thev were eventually repulsed bv the barracks-garrison. Three irregulars attacked Lieutenant Spain (Free State army), while he was walking in the street in Waterford with Lady Spain. He returned their fire. Lady Spain was dangerously wounded. Two of the attackers were wounded and arrested. FURTHER EXECUTIONS. RAIDS ON POST 'OFFICES. LONDON, January 25. Two men named O’Reilly and Fitzgerald were executed at Waterford Barracks, having been convicted of being in possession of arms. All the rural post offices within a radius of 20 miles of Macroom have been raided during the past few days. Stamps, documents, and money orders were burnt, and

telegraph and telephone instruments smashed. NEW ARMY BEING RECRUITED. DUBLIN, January 26. General Mulcahv, commander of Ihs Free .State forces, has called for recruits tor a year's srevice against the rebels. I here was a wonderful response, long queues of volunteers waiting for hours. The Government hopes with these troops to deal with the nomadic gangs who are reducing the western regions to desolation. ADDITIONAL EXECUTIONS. * LONDON, January 27. An official statement from Dublin says that at lullamore three armed burglars were executed after a court-martial on charges of being in possession of arms and burglariously entering the houses of several residents at Ttiliainore and stealing therefrom. Fifty-three persons have been executed by the Free State authorities in the task three months. SOUTH WEST IP, ELA NT*. LONDON, January 26. Practically the whole of South west Ireland ha* been cut off from telegraphio communication with Dublin. The affected area is served by a railway which recently suffered intensely. Consequently parts of the area are now inaccessible by rail, and the cutting of the telegraphs has increased the alarm. The Civil Guard barracks at Dunran has been destroyed by fire. TRAIN OUTRAGES. I.ONDON, January 26. When the main line train reached} Durmniree (County Meath), armed met} gave the passengers five minutes to cleaf out with their luggage. They sprinkled the carriages with petrol, ignited them, and after uncoupling the engine it without a driver towards Cavan, The train was completely destroyed. The National Union of Railway-men of Ireland has issued a solemn protest, in the name of the railwaymen of all grades, and in the name of the grief-stricken widows and penniless orphans created by recent awful deeds, against the murdetf of an engine driver in County Kerry.