IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 27 November 1919, Page 31

IRISH NEWS

ujUrii ■' —» ) n'-i-f.w/:■ A- - GENERAL. ■ ■; ■ Mrs. Michael Cudahy, widow of Michael Cudahy, one of the pioneers in the packing industry, who was the last of two American women made Countesses by Papal decree, has died, aged 77 years. She-was born in Ireland, and in infancy was taken. to , Cedarsburg, Wis., U.S.A., where her parents settled. In recognition of the Cudahy family’s generosity to the Church, Mrs. Cudahy was given the title of Countess by Pope Benedict XV. in 1917. Countess Leary, of New York, who received her title from Pope Leo XIII., died about a year ago. ~ In the course of a telling letter from Mr. J. C. O’Donnell in a recent issue of the Daily News, the repeal of the Act* of Union is urged as the best method of settling the Irish difficulty. Some effective quotations from Unionist writers regarding the Act of Union are introduced. Professor Dicey described it as “a contract hopelessly tainted with fraud and corruption.” Lecky 7 , the Unionist historian, referred to the Union as “a great crime” and “a great blunder,” saying that it was “carried in opposition to the great preponderance of the 'unbribed intellects of the land.” Gladstone in referring to it said “l know no blacker or fouler transaction in the history 7 of man.” The cogent argument of the letter is capped by recalling the fact that when the Act of Union was passed in 1800 the Orange Lodges in Ireland unanimously expressed “their detestation of a legislative union with Great Britain.”

MONSTROUS ABUSE OF POWER. We cannot say whether the conjectures in the press that Lord French and Mr. Ma horse n will forthwith retire arc correct or ill-founded (says the. London < r a fholic Times of recent date). We only know thatby authority of the Government, no doubt — discredit has been brought on this country during their administration than in any similar period within living memory. The appointment of liOrd French as Lord Lieutenant was against every canon of democratic government, every prospect of success. 'Who was responsible for it The people of Ireland were opposed to it. Of that there could have been no doubt. 11 is cultivation of the good graces of Belfast suggests that the choice must have been made or endorsed by that despiser of law and order, Sir Edward Carson. Whoever made the selection must have known that Lord French’s limitations utterly unfitted him for the office. He was a military man, whose knowledge of Irish affairs and civil administration was slight. His idea of law, of the rights of peoples, was elementary. His remedy for every trouble encountered by Dublin Castle was repression. And now the country has been brought to the brink of revolution and the Catholic clergy have to exercise all their moral force to prevent a rising, it is a monstrous abuse of power that a Government should permit any man to treat a nation as Lord French is treating Ireland. Mr. Macpherson is reported to be ill. Is he sick of the part he has been playing at Dublin Castle? If so, we are not surprised. THE SHOOTING OF FRANCIS MURPHY: VERDICT OF MURDER AGAINST THE MILITARY. On the night of August 13, at Glaun, near Ennistymon, in the Co. Clare, the house of Mr. John Murphy, farmer, was subjected to a fusillade of shots and Francis Murphy, his son, aged 15 years, a Fianna (Sinn Fein) boy scout, was killed. The affair caused a thrill of horror over the whole country, and much sympathy was expressed for the Murphy family. The funeral, which took place during the inquest, was attended by a cortege over a mile in length. At the inquest, which was held on August 21, the police evidence showed that at least a dozen shots had been fired, two of which passed through the deceased’s body. Police-Inspector Meara produced a bullet which he said was a military bullet. He stated the lad’s mother told him her son was murdered by the military. There were no empty cases found by the police. Mr. Lynch, K.C., who appeared for the ■ next-of-kin, said the shots were fired apparently from a machine gun which did not drop the cases. Miss Agnes Murphy, sister of deceased, deposed that Francis remained reading at the kitchen fire when the other members of the family went to their bedrooms. She heard three or four shots after midnight and rushed to the kitchen, -where she found her brother in a pool of blood. She then shouted for her father. She looked through the window and saw three mien going in the direction of Ennis. She believed they were military and told her father so. Patrick Cohole, a railway night-watchman, deposed to hearing shots. He saw three men coming towards him from the direction of Murphy’s house. • They

were soldiers. Police Inspector Meara . asked - for an adjournment in order that the - military might be represented. Mr. Kelly, K.C., , opposed. ..The military knew they would .be charged with this murder and had ample • time to employ counsel.R The inquest cohld not be legally adjourned. Inspector Meara said that in a few minutes he could bring up the military officer in charge of the district; and this the coroner allowed. Captain Forbes on arriving, on being sworn, stated he knew nothing . about military representation. It had. nothing to do .■ with him. ' Mr. Lynch in addressing ..the court said they , charged the military, as : part of .the army of occupation with the murder of the boy. This murder was one of the pretexts for placing the county under martial law. They had a body of military in the county and they had no military police to keep them in control, or to look after their night expeditions. If the evidence produced against the soldiers was produced against civilians they would be hanged. . They lived under a government which was really the Provisional Government of Ulster. But they would flourish when the government went down in obloquy. The government knew av ell their request for an adjournment could not be entertained legally. It was made for newspaper, for propagandist purposes. The jury should bring in a verdict of wilful murder against the military—in God’s name let them do their duty. The jury found the following verdict:—“Francis Murphy, of Glaun, Ennistymon, was unlawfully and wilfully murdered at Glaun, on August 14, by a bullet unlawfully and wilfully fired by members of the military unknown to us, into the house of the father, John Murphy, which bullet caused immediate death.”

The London press ignored the evidence given at the inquest, but published the verdict, as a peg on which to hang a. justification of the military, procured apparently from military sources. America has been supplied with full details of the tragedy and the finding of the jury. The Dublin Evening Telegraph says the facts of the case and the verdict of the jury create a very unpleasant feeling. Crimes like this have been used to blacken the character of the Irish people. It asks if some of the murders which have shocked the country were not really committed by the guardians of the law. The military authorities could not afford to allow the verdict to pass unnoticed. AMERICA AND IRELAND. Rev. R. Roberts, minister of the Church of Pilgrims, and formerly 7 of Crouch End Presbyterian Church, London, writing in the Daily News, says anti-British feeling (on the Irish question) “has been growing by leaps and bounds during recent weeks,” and as showing how intense it is he mentions that New York is conferring its Freedom (as Chicago has already done) on Mr. de Valera, and that Chicago University is giving him a degree. The Government’s Irish policy is, in Mr, Roberts’ view, “playing directly into the hands of those who are interested in fomenting anti-British feeling in America. And to those of us who believe that the pacification of the world and the working of a League of Nations depend chiefly on AngloAmerican co-operation, the situation seems unspeakably ominous.”

Accounts gathered from Irish newspapers indicate to this gentleman, who was a recent visitor to Ireland, that “the military and police operations are conceived and carried out with a singular ineptitude and in a manner calculated To drive the Irish people to exasperation. What they say is that England is making war upon, a defenceless people. To say that there is crime in Ireland is no justification for the present policy, for the policy itself invites crime and more crime. It only creates a vicious circle, from which it becomes every day more difficult to escape.”