IRISH COMEDY

Southland Times, Issue 22106, 29 August 1933, Page 5

IRISH COMEDY

POLICE OUTWITTED

BLUE SHIRTS HOLD A MEETING

A QUIET SUNDAY

(United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) London, August 27. Outwitting the Government forces which had been concentrated to enforce the prohibition of the memorial meeting at Bealnablagh where Collins was ambushed, General O Duffy succeeded in addressing 5000 Blue Shirts at Bandon. Five hundred police, a detachment of military and an armoured car threw a cordon round the prescribed area in a wild and desolate stretch of moorland and mountain. General O’Duffy left Bandon at high speed in a car, being accompanied by the Blue Shirt leaders in a second. Two car loads of detectives followed but the Blue Shirts’ second car slowed down in a narrow mountain lane, preventing the detectives’ cars passing, while General O’Duffy raced ahead and detoured, eluding his pursuers to return to Bandon where he addressed his supporters unmolested. He said: “Collins’s murderers are now preventing the National Guard paying a tribute to one of Ireland’s greatest statesmen and gentlemen.” . . The day passed quietly in Dublin. Mr de Valera at Ennes said the Government was determined to prevent disturbances. Speaking at Limerick, Mr de Valera said: “We are firmly in the saddle and shall ride to victory, which is before the Irish people. I believe our progress in industry and commerce will enable us at election time to show that everything we have attempted has been practically completed. Our opponents would not welcome an election because they would get a bigger beating than before.” , . The crowd attacked several mterjectors whom the Civil Guards rescued. Reynolds News discloses a sensational gun-running conspiracy between Belgium and Ireland, and states that thousands of rifles have been »anded at Mizenhead by a trawler from Antwerp during the past few days, and more are coming.

QUIET ANNIVERSARY

NO PARADE IN DUBLIN.

(United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright.) (Rec. 5.5 p.m.) London, August 28. While General O’Duffy’s ruse at Bandon furnished one of the richest comedies in Irish political history, Dublin saw the anniversary of Michael Collins’s death pass without a parade. At Dealnablagh in addition to 4000 Blue Shirts, including Mr Ernest Blythe, a former Minister, many members of the public attempting to visit the monument were blocked by the police. Mrs Powell, a sister of Collins, was refused permission to pass the cordon. HOTELS RAIDED REPUBLICAN ARMY GROUPS. (United Press Assn.— Telegraph Copyright.) London, August 27. Groups of armed men declaring that they were members of the Republican Army simultaneously raided twenty public houses in various parts of Dublin city. They jumped on the counters, produced hammers and smashed every bottle of Bass ale on the premises. The proprietor of one well-known hotel says the raiders destroyed twenty dozen and that they told him the Republican Army had decreed to boycott Bass ale and would not allow a bottle to be seen nr Dublin.