AN IRISH ELECTION.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 22, Issue 91, 24 November 1911, Page 2

AN IRISH ELECTION.

PLENTY OP PUN AT SMALL COST

We In Ireland get far more fun for far less money out of an election than do our neighbours in England, says Stephen Gwynne, M.P., in the “Comhill Magazine.” There is, to begin with, none of that groundbaiting (so to say) which goes so far in England (if I am correctly informed) to prejudge the Issue. There is very little of the printers’ bill; few candidates issue even an election address, still fewer trouble the electors with argumentative “literature.” You rely for persuasion upon native eloquence, supplemented by processions, torches, tar-barrels, and above all, by music. To run an Irish election without a band is indeed an uphill and depressing business —as I found at my first, plunge into politics. One’s early experience has always a certain sharpness, but I have never seen an election so rich in incident as was this of which I speak. It began with an Instantaneous extinguishing of all the town’s electric lights at the moment when I alighted on the platform, coming as a stranger selected that day at a convention, and confidently anticipating an unopposed return. No experienced speaker would be upset by a trifle of this kind, but I was not experienced ; my first address, delivered in total darkness, suffered ; and when I found that my( room in the hotel was numbered thirteen I grew more uneasy, if possible. But the key of our opponent’s strategy was the control of the bands. One band they possessed and utilised to the full, drawing crowds after it irresistibly. Another they paralysed. It was always on the point of coming out, but one day instruments were out of gear ; another day, when musicians and all were established in a waggonette, something happened to the linch-pin.

We foil back on -importation from a neighbouring town, but in a rash moment this band was left standing unsupported in a street some distance) from our crowd. A swoop was made by a strong party of the enemy, and in two minutes- all instruments were captured and borne off. So began the fiercest street riot that I ever witnessed ; so fierce that providentially it enabled us to dispense for the remainder of the contest with the moral effect of music.

One section of my supporters, small farmers outside the town, thought it wise to come to the poll in a regiment, marching in column, each man carrying, not a blackthorn, which in the West is considered excessive, but a small ash-plant, generally with a knotted butt. In this array they halted outside the polling-booth, and ib was my duty, along with a young priest, to persuade them to remain there till the last man had voted ; it was his part then to induce them to march peaceably home. To his credit and theirs he succeeded almost perfectly. But the day was cold and wintery, and at one moment half a dozen lads slipped away up a side alley. A few minutes later I saw brandished sticks coming down the street, and a fugitive doubled like a hare, into the railings outside a chapel. They were on him in an instant, like terriers, and an old .monk and I dashed in and began to drag them off. The last thing we came to in the struggling! mass was a woman who 1 had immediately knelt across the fngative’s head, knowing well where ash-plants might be applied with serious effect. Fortunate town, I thought, where the women were so well instructed in first aid to those who, if not wounded, might be.