IRISH HUMOR UNDER FIRE.

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13269, 26 August 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

IRISH HUMOR UNDER FIRE.

COMEDY BEHIND TRAGEDY IN DUBLIN.

(Dailv Express Correspondent.) V ' Belfast

Comedv and tragedy are curiously intermingled jn Irish affairs. Even m the midst of the blood and misery of tins latest Irish rebellion, the Irishman's peculiar souse of humor, and the quizzical satiric recklessness, came to his When an armed squad of green-clad Sinn Winers entered a Dublin hotel and ordered everybody to clear out, one of the guests went to rouse a friend who wiis still between the blankets. "(iet up, Jemmy," said he, "you have only five minutes to leave the hotel." . , , x, , "Who says so?" inquired the startled Jemmy. . •'I don't know who the deuce he is, was the replv, "but he has a gun." "In that" case," said Jemmy, "I supnose I had better be going, but do you think he would lend us the gun while we are paving the bill?" , Whether or not the Sinn Feiner obliged I cannot say, but the Ulstermoi" who were in that hotel, winch was in Sackville street, presently found themselves housed with refugees from other hotels in the North Star, which is directlv onnosite the Great Northern terminus'. That was as far as they mild get towards home on Easter Tuesday

THE SNIPERS. There wore no trains running, and one could not even enter the station without a military permit. Over the clock in the station facade a Lewis rifle spat all dav, and all night up Talbot street at the Nelson Pillar, where some Sinn Fein snipers were ensconced, other soldiers maintained a brisk duel with the rebels on the surrounding housetops. The refugees in the hotel opposite dined and slept, played cards and bil'iards, conducted political discussions, 1 had nightly sing-songs to the incessant crackle of rifle fire in the streets without. They were a curiously assorted col'ection; some Carsonite Volunteers from Belfast, National Volunteers from Clones, clergymen of warring ('reeds, professional men, clerks, cattle dealers, "acing men. and mill managers. Every in was out for half an hour n cli dav with a soldier on either side •f him. and his peregrinations were nevery circumscribed. With fine sense of satire, the favor>e item at the nightly concerts was a ~.on<r which proclaimed, "A Little Bit of Heaven, that'is Ireland." On Friday 'ono of the party was observed sidling across to the railway sta•on with his suitcase. Within five minutes the other Ulstermen streamed -liter him, and discovered him comfortiblv seated, in a special train just about -o leave for Drogheda, where it would meet another train from Belfast? There was barely room for all, and it is said that some made the journey sitting on -offins which were occupied.

Other Ulster folk who found themselves stranded in Dublm made their ny to Drogheda, some thirty miles distant, oh" foot, or, in the later days, when the rebels had,been cleared out:of the country districts, by motor-car. On Monday night and Tuesday ' the insurgents held the .roads around Dublin, and commandeered every motor Vehicle they,encountered. j One Belfast motorist, who was held up outside Dnndalk, was forced at-the revolver's.point to drive parties of Sinn Seiners to various towns, where they looted proviskm was .fpUfew>d by aistririgofihackhey>ears bearing cases of ainntunition. * In. the darkness 'ie Sinn Feiner»2,lo«t their leader, but Id it did not matter much;*«Jie'knew •hey were going to. Tara, ..;■> seat of Government in ancient Ire- ,.-* ' =TARA - Artivk-ato* fcHj*:§Njittn»g v lg^. was sent up i* : &&w'M' **a*M_ ■mtiT&Me&fSr! ;#e#^»ufc#gliey {■snorted, laconically hut. emphatically, :*?**'* •3p'.«s ."*"" <|? •*«« •»'-■ >»I

tody until friends identified him as. a most lo£al and law-abiding TJlsterman For oool\effrßntert, "howerer, it would be bard to belt the young -woman who acted as cook for the rebels in the Dublin Post Office. She entered the place after it had been captured on Monday On Wednesday she emerged, and strolled calmly across Sackville street towards a party of soldiers. She was promptly arrested and taken before the officer. "Where are you coming from? he asked. "The Post Office," replied the unperturbed maiden. "What were you doing there?" he demanded. "Cooking," said she, but she was careful to add that she did the work under compulsion. "Then how is it that they let you go now?" inquired the officer. "Oh," 1 said the maid with a tos9 of her head, I "the men complained of my cooking,' J and she proceeded to say at great length what she thought of their uncultured padates. . - She was allowed to pass, but when she reappeared later in the evening, and with bland innocence asked to be allowed to go back to the Post Office, her request was, needless to say, peremptorily refused. The looters who have been active in I Dublin throughout the lighting, risking their lives between opposing fires in the hope of getting something for nothing, have done incalculable damage, vet in characteristic fashion have grumbled at the spoils. One old man who sent his wife out to raid tobacco, complained grievously that she had brought him back nothing but a box of first-class cigars. "What good are cigars to me.' he grumbled. "Sun# 1 had to cut them up To ?-moke them in the pipe." A bare-footed urchin who had made his way home with a prodigious armful of expensive boots wept on the kerbstone because none of them fitted him.