IRELAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 3615, 26 June 1923, Page 28

IRELAND.

ALLEGED SEDITIOUS CONSPIRACY. LONDON, June 17. Art O’Brien and eight other Irish deportees were committed for trial on a charge of seditious conspiracy Galvin was committed on a further charge of illegal possession of firearms. The accused men all reserved their defence. Bail was refused. Joyce was remanded for six months to enable him to enter a sanatorium.

PROHIBITION IN IRELAND. LONDON, June 17. Belfast has had its first dry Sunday under the Licensing Act, which, was passed on E riday and put into immediate operation to general surprise. Reference to the closing of the public houses was made in many churches with the singing of the doxology. When news of the Act being passed was announced to the Methodist Conference, which was in session, the 3000 persons present rose to their feet and cheered for five minutes. The members of clubs, which are exempt from the ojieration of the Licensing Act, were besieged outside their clubs by people asking them to smuggle out bottles of liquor, but the police were keenly on the look-out for bulging pockets. THE COMING ELECTIONS. LONDON, June 18. The Times’s Dublin correspondent says that the Republican leaders have abandoned all hope of capturing more than a negligible minority of seats during the coming General Elections. It- is a confession which emerges from Mr de Valera’s lofty and, in the circumstances, rather ridiculous manifesto. The correspondent adds: : The resurrection of Republicanism is not visible to the naked eye. On the contrary, the Free State appears to have consolidated ito authority more firmly than ever in every part of the 26 counties. Within the last three weeks Mr Cosgrave was heartily welcomed in Kilkenny, Cork, and Limerick. LIVERPOOL REPUBLICANS. LONDON, June 18. William Horan was sentenced to five years’ and John Finn to three years’ imprisonment. The men were arrested during a raid in Liverpool last month, when the police secured large quantities of machine-gun parts, revolvers, and ammunition. Horan, who is 20 years of age, bore documents showing that he was commander of the Irish Republican army in Liverpool. PLOT AGAINST LONDON. LONDON, June 20. The Northern Whig, Belfast, states that the Irish rebels before the recent round-up in London had carefully planned a scheme for blowing up Buckingham Palace. Women spies had made themselves conversant with every’ movement of the palace guard. The police on duty were to be rushed at a given signal, and selected parties were to blow. up the Thames bridges, while others were to set fire to the main railway .stations. AUSTRALIAN VISITOR'S IMPRESSIONS. LONDON, June 21. Mr W. IL. Edgar, a member of the Victorian Legislative Council, who spent three weeks in North and South Ireland and visited both Parliaments. He was the guest of the Government in Belfast and of the Speaker of the Free State Parliament in Dublin. He found the conditions in the South chaotic. The Ministers practically lived continuously in the Parliamentary buildinc which was guarded by the military day and night. The banks and publicbuildings were also protected by armed guards. Belfast, on the other hand, was quiet, peaceful, and prosperous, and even the prohibition of Sunday trading by the hotels was not resented. THE IRISH DEPORTEES. SYDNEY, June 19. No announcement has yet been made respecting the deportation of the Irish envoys. O’Kelly is still in gaol, and O’Flanagan is staying with friends on bail.