IRELAND AN ARMED CAMP.

New Zealand Tablet, 19 June 1919, Page 39

IRELAND AN ARMED CAMP.

. Among the arrivals of the past week on the transports from France (says the Boston Pilot of April 12) was Rev. Michael J. O'Connor, Divisional Chaplain of the 26th Division, former chaplain of the old Ninth Regiment. To a reporter of the daily press Father O'Connor said in reply to questions : - ' "I did not kill any Germans and I only did my duty as a priest. They are a great bunch of men (referring to his regiment). Their like I shall never look on again. I got back to the division on St. Patrick's Day after a short visit to my old Irish home. I am surely glad to get back to good old Boston." '"What were conditions in Ireland?" he was asked. He smiled and; said : "That's a long story. I'd like to tell you. Briefly, I can say that conditions there are somewhat disturbed. Ireland is an armed camp. It seemed to me that there were as many soldiers there as there are in France. Everywhere one goes one sees soldiers. The country is under martial law. It is honeycombed with Sinn Feinism. The young men and the young women are breathing a more intensely patriotic spirit than I have ever seen before. There is no bragging. It is a passive resistance to British rule. There are very few disturbances except those fostered and engineered by the British soldiers and officials. I heard of several cases of disorder egged on by the military and Castle.authorities. There is an attempt: on the. part of Englishmen to misrepresent things in. Ireland. I was crossing with ah English captain to Ireland, and he began to fill me up about what, the Irish: were doing in Ireland. When X corrected him in a few of his flagrant misstatements, he stopped said he guessed i that. I knew something about : Irish affairs. . When I told him that I was born there he quit me, "saying curtly ? ' Good day, sir.' " '-