BID TO RESTART I.R.A. .

Southland Times, Issue 25538, 5 December 1944, Page 5

BID TO RESTART I.R.A. .

Demonstrations In Dublin (Rec. 7.25 p.m.) LONDON, December 3. Mr Eamon de Valera is facing a new determined bid in Eire to reorganize the outlawed Irish Republican Army, states The Daily Mail. Members of the I.R.A. recently obtained £15,000 from the robbery of a post office and a British tobacco firm, both in Dublin. The Eire Civil Guards, who are hunting I.R.A. leaders, have already arrested 20 key men who were attempting to organize demonstrations in Dublin. It is feared that the movement has secret arms dumps and also is endeavouring to secure’ Tommy guns. Members of the Eire Cabinet believe that efforts to obtain a reprive for Charles Kerins, who was sentenced to death for the murder of Detective Sergeant Denis O’Brien, are a cloak for I.R.A. recruiting. The police moved on people who knelt in the heart of Dublin to pray for Kerins. The police broke up a demonstration in one Dublin street by a baton charge in which a number was injured. APPEAL TO PARENTS Mr de Valera has meanwhile appealed to parents not to allow children to join the I.R.A. He warned that once they enrolled they would find it diffi-

cult to get out because they would be threatened by guns. He recalled releasing a member of the I.R.A. who was near death as a result of hunger-strik-ing. The man recovered and killed six persons within a year. “I then learned the lesson which I am not forgetting as long as I am an executive,” he said. “Let there be reprisals if there will, but while we are here we will carry out the law fairly and justly.” MONETARY GIFT TO ITALY Dail Votes £lOO,OOO For Relief Of Distress (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) DUBLIN, December 3. The Dail voted £lOO,OOO as a gift to Italy from Eire for the relief of distress. Only one member of Parliament dissented, and he was suspended for persistently interrupting Mr Eamon De Valera. Replying to one interruption, Mr De Valera said, amid applause, “Taking all in all, this country is the most fortunate in the world.”