IRELAND’S MELODRAMA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 20076, 12 October 1920, Page 7

IRELAND’S MELODRAMA.

TRAGEDY OF LISBURN. ANGRY MOB FIRES TOWN. North-east Ulster shifts the theatre of Ireland’s terrible melodrama, writes a correspondent from London. In the streets of Lisburn a police officer was shot dead as he walked homo from church. In revenge, the mob fired the district m which the Catholics dwell, causing immense loss of property. The Catholic population were obliged to fly for their lives. Jls the orgy of arson spread, the property of Protestant residents also became involved. The loss is estimated at £500,000. The officer murdered in the street was District-Inspector Swanzy. He was local officer of the Royal Irish Constabulary, and had been transferred to Lisburn from Cork city after t] lo shootmg of Lord Mayor Mac Curtain. Deceased was shot dead on his way home from the Protestant Cathedral, with his mother and sister, in the presence of largo numbers of people returning from worship, several of whom endeavoured to seise the murderers, but. being unarmed, had little or no chance. 'J.he assassins escaped in a waiting motor-car. and, despite the most careful search for miles round, have not been traced. The story of the crime is a brief one. The ill-fated officer was proceeding homo along Railway Street after the morning service, accompanied by his mother and sister, when he was fired upon outside the Northern Bank, at the corner of Market Square and Railway Street, by three men, who carried service rifles. The first shot look effect, and the district-inspector fell. When ho was lying on the ground other shots were fired into him. The murderers then ran away along Castle Street, passed the congregation emerging from the cathedral, and continued by the. Town Hall to a waiting, taxi. The assassins entered the car, which was driven rapidly along Castle Street ami Seymour Street towards Belfast, While the assailants were running away, several civilians tried to stop them. Captain Alexander Woods, Commandant of the Ulster Volunteer Force in Lisburn, in endeavouring to catch one of them, had the walking-stick lie was carrying shattered by a bullet. Mr T. J. English, Clerk of Petty Sessions, Lisburn, while coining from the cathedral, noticed the men running with riflos, and ho, too, tried to stop their progress. Che of the fugitives fired, and the bullet narrowly missed him, and passed through the largo plate-glass window' of the hoot department of the Lisburn Co-operative Society’s shop. HOSTILITY TO CATHOLICS. . Immediately after the murder of Mr Swanzy became known, a crowd gathered in the Market Square, and an ominous demand began to be hoard for reprisals. The people were held in check for a time by the police. But presently they began to tako matters into iheir.own hands. A number of houses wore attacked and looted. The movement assumed a sectarian tone, and great hostility was manifested to all Catholics. The position rapidly w'ent Umii. bad to worse. With the coming of night, arson became the rule, and at one time the central part of tho town burned like a great bonfire, biiops wore burned wholesale, and tho goods and furniture either destroyed or set alight, in tho street. A tragic feature is that the fire brigade were obliged to look on impotently, owing to tho frequency with rii ires ro^e over a wide area, bully forty premises woro allowed ten burn themselves out, Concerted attacks were first made on tho public houses, and in one case the proprietor was wounded by a bullet in trying to escape. An ambulance was brought by some of his friends, bub the crowd refused to allow him to enter it. Finally he had to bo removed to hospital in a blanket. The rioters broko all the windows of the house with stones and_ then burst open the doors. Oil was quickly procured, and soon the entire house_ was a seething mass of? flame. Within an hour only the smouldering shell was'loft standing. VENGEANCE ON SINN FEINER. Vengeance was also wreaked on Mr bliaw, a Sinn Feiuer, who was at the top of tho poll at tho last municipal elections. The crowd pulled him into the street, arid otter knocking him down mid kicking him, piled all hie furniture m the street. They then! in r & i '^’ s aCeno occurred m tile bmithfield area, where two mib-ho-houses and the Hibernian Hall wore burned down, 'I ho spectacle in Bow btreet was both beautiful and terrible. Aumtirous houses burned fiercely, and groat tongues of flame leaped up into the blackness of tho night The spirits in tho public-houses woro fuel to tho lire, and to outside observers it seemed as if the tow'u were ablaze from end to end. Large crowds added an additional touch of terror ns they paraded the streets singing and cheering. These terrible scenes continued for between two and three days, As they proceeded attacks were made on promises in Chapel Hill, a Nationalist area, in which is situated the Roman Catholic church and St Joseph’s Hall, After tho contents of the shops had been looted a light was placed to a. general dealer’s store, and at tho same time a tobacconist’s shop on the opposite side of tho street was wrecked, looted and set on fire. MANY BUILDINGS DESTROYED. A crowd then began working at a public-house, and after several unsuccessful attempts an outbreak commenced at tho real. This was one of tho. worst fires in tho town, and it spread so rapidly that several ebbin' buildings became involved, and the flames from both sides of tho street cut off Longstono, a continuation of Chapel Hill and a Unionist thoroughfare, from Bow Street. Two recently erected villas at Causeway-end were demolished, and at the other aide of the town tho County Down Arms was destroyed. The contents of several houses and shops were stolen. A strong military picket had to be requisitioned, tho police being utterly powerless. While ai number of men were searching tho ruins of Donaghy’s boot factory in. Graham Gtardens, they came upon tho charred remains of a man lying in the smouldering debris. Tho head and a leg were missing, and the body could not be identified. Tho value of the machinery destroyed in this factory is estimated at about £IO,OOO. A raid was made upon a house in Dublin Road, and a man was arrested by tho military. Tho business part of tuo town was partially wiped out, those of Protestants as well us Catholics being involved in tho end in the general destruction.' About a hundred business premises altogether were destroyed. Tlio Catholic Presbytery wna also burned down.