IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 1 July 1920, Page 31

IRISH NEWS

IN MOUNTJOY GAOL: THE EIGHT FOR JUSTICE. On April 1 some 80 prisoners in Mount joy Gaol protested at the treatment accorded to them by the prison authorities. Those of the prisoners who were undergoing sentences on charges under D.O.R.A. demanded the treatment due to them as prisoners convicted on political charges, whilst the others, who had been arrested during military midnight raids, and against whom no charge had been brought, demanded that they should be treated as prisoners of war or released. Having received no reply, the prisoners went on hunger strike at 1 a.m. on the sth.

On the 11thsix days later—the Governor of the prison intimated that the military had agreed to deport eight of the hunger strikers as soon as they were physically fit to be deported. The prisoners, whose numbers had meanwhile been augmented to 104, replied through their leaders that the demand extended to the whole body of prisoners concerned, and that no settlement could be come to which did not extend to all of them either , pris-oner-of-war treatment or release. If, however, simultaneous deportation were impracticable, a settlement might be arrived at if prisoner-of-war treatment were extended to those who remain, or, if they were released, and that a. written guarantee be given that those deported should receive prisoner-of-war treatment. The Governor did not reply. Meanwhile the hunger strike continued, and the mop grow gradually weaker.

Lord French’s Reply.

On April 12 Mr. T. Clarke, chairman of the Visiting Justices of the Prison, appealed to Lord French to save the lives of the men by granting to them political treatment. Lord French, replying through Sir John Taylor, the Assistant Under-Secretary, declined to modify the rules or to accord to the prisoners the treatment to which they were entitled, adding that the prisoners had been forewarned as to the result of their action. Thereupon Mr. Clarke resigned his Commission of the Peace and his chairmanship as a protest. Dr. Cooke, a prison medical officer, also handed in his resignation. In answer to appeals the Prisons Board stated that they had no authority to intervene, the Castle having deprived them of all powers. Alderman O’Neill, the Acting Lord Mayor of Dublin, was refused admission to the prisoners. He Wired to Lord French informing him of this, and stating that to prevent another Ashe tragedy the prisoners should be immediately released, or else granted the ameliorative treatment to which they were entitled, and to which the Government had been pledged by Mr. Shortt, the previous Chief Secretary, in his agreement made with the Bishop of Down and Connor and himself (the Lord Mayor). Sir John Taylor replied in the same terms as those in which he had previously answered Mr. Clarke. Replying to another request of the Lord Mffyor and the High Sheriff of Dublin, Lord French refused to see them, and for the final answer of the Government referred them to Mr. Bonar Law’s statement in the House in the case of Alderman O’Brien.

Labor Declares a General Strike.

On Monday, April 12, the Irish Trades Union Congress and Labor Party called a. general strike throughout Ireland. Their manifesto stated : To the Workers of Ireland — You are called upon to act swiftly and suddenly to save a hundred dauntless men. At this hour their lives are hanging by a thread in a Bastille. These men, for the greater part our fellowworkers and comrades in our trade unions, have been forsibly - taken from their homes and their families and imprisoned , without charge; or, if charged, tried under exceptonal laws for alleged offences of a political character, in outrageous defiance of every canon of justice. They are suspected of loving Ireland and hating her suppressors; a heinous crime in the sight of tyrants, but one of which hundreds of thousands of Irish working men and women proudly acclaim their guilt. No one, therefore, is guaranteed his freedom; no one dare be confident that he or she is safe from molestation or can rely upon protection by law or justice. Our fellow-workerq now in Mountjoy, Wormwood Scrubs, and other' prisons have adopted the only metnou remaining to them against the injustice of their imprisonment and against being treated as criminals. They have for eight days been on hunger strike. To-day, though many, are at the point of death, their titled gaolers venomously shriek: “Let them die.” We workers dare not allow this

tragedy to come to pass. Verbal protests are' vain. Resolutions, votes, .constitutional practices have been worn to shreds. They are cast aside as useless. r

■<: As - Trade '. Unionists we have only one weapon left — a General Strike : a weapon that may be used but seldom and only in times of supreme crisis. Such an occasion has now arisen. -The call is urgent. There is 'no time to gather your delegates into conference. Workers! Let your response to this sudden call be so unanimous as will impress the people of other lands with your determination to put an end to tyranny " and oppression.

Notwithstanding the suddenness of the - announcement of the strike, the Labor Party’s appeal was responded to unanimously, for on Tuesday morning, April 13, all work vas at a standstill. Shops, factories, trades, post offices, and all places of business were closed- All carrier services stopped; there were no trams or trains, and even funerals were curtailed to a hearse and two mourning carriages. All places of amusement were closed. In the provinces the strike was observed with the same spirit. All Ireland downed tools.

At the Gaol Gates.

News came out that the ' prisoners were dying, and their relatives were sent for. Hie gaol gates were closely guarded, and all ‘approaches were occupied by troops with drawn bayonets. Military and police cordons held the adjacent streets, tanks, armored cars, and machine guns- were posted at all points, and in many cases entrained on the crowds who kept vigil around the prison behind the barbed wire barricades of the military. All-night searchlights from the Castle were flung over the city and prison. y bile the members of the Government showed an unrelenting spirit in the House of Commons, the Executive nl the Irish Hierarchy, including Cardinal Logue and the our Aichbishops, passed a resolution denouncing the attitude of the Government, upon whom they placed entire responsibility. Wednesday, April 14, was the tenth day of the hunger stiiko. It was known that some of the prisoners could not possibly live, another day. The national strike continued. Huge crowds gathered outside the prison. Restraint and order was everywhere observed, the citizens themselves patrolling the streets and regulating the vast masses of the people. British military aeroplanes flew low over the heads of the people as they recited prayers for the dying. -

The Prisoners’ Victory. In the afternoon the Lord Mayor of Dublin was invited to a conference at the Viceregal Lodge. After an interview Lord French gave orders that the medical officers of the prison should be free to release the prisoners. I lie Lord Mayor returned to the prison with the news of unconditional release, but no sooner had he done so than the Castle issued - a communique imposing conditions. The premiers, about to be carried into ambulances, refused to give guarantees, and re-entered their cells. Another consultation with the Castle resulted in the announcement that the release of the men would be proceeded with at once, and would not be conditional upon any undertaking being given.

' A BELATED DISCOVERY. The journalists whose eternal remedy for every shortcoming in Ireland is more coercion never learn anything (says the Loudon Catholic, Times). If a man is supposed to be of a harsh disposition and inclined to acts of brutal repression, they require no other evidence of fitness for his appointment to a position of administrative power in Ireland. It is no use to tell them that coercion is sure to fail. It is only when it has failed after having caused immense suffering to the people and done mischief to the relations between Great Britain and Ireland that they acknowledge their error and folly. All the organs of coercion in this country were enthusiastic when Lord French was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland and would listen to no criticism of him. Now that he has proved a hopeless failure, they turn on him and rebuke him in the frankest manner. The Spectator, finding that the Irish situation is “thoroughly discouraging and discreditable,” says; “When confusion appears on every side and hardly anybody engaged in governing Ireland seems to be wholly free, from it, it is essential that the Lord Lieutenant should himself he a man of quick and clear judgment. Unfortunately we cannot believe that Lord French has this necessary qualification. The inaccurate statements in his book about the war, his contradictory charges - against both Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien and Mr. Asquith, and the very unwise interviews which he has given to newspaper correspondents in Ireland, make us feel strongly that his brain v is not fitted for the government of Ireland.” If the editor _of the Spectator were not a hardened enemy of popular- freedom in Ireland he would long since have made this discovery.