IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 26 August 1920, Page 31

IRISH NEWS

STILL THEY COME

Aft Dungannon, Queenstown! Last week the world—or that portion of it which takes the trouble to read the ,Dublin Castle bulletins of outrages “attributed to” the Irish people— treated to a graphic story of an attack on the wireless station at Fort Carlisle in Queenstown Harbor by armed Irish Republicans, and their, repulse by the Cameron Highlanders after three hours’ desperate fighting (says the London Catholic Times of June 19). But now comes the sequel, and the sequel is that the story, instead of the fort, has been blown sky-high, not by Republicans, but by a Whitegate fisherman, Thomas Brest, who has never had anything to do with Republicanism, and who, with a recklessness of consequences that is truly lordly, declares himself to be “the person that made the attempt to capture Carlisle Fort,” and thanks Providence that “ I am alive to-day, considering the way I was repulsed by the Cameron Highlanders.” Mr. Brest says: “ I was out fishing in a small sailing boat, accompanied by two young boys, when suddenly we were spied by Fort Carlisle sentry, who shouted ‘Sinn Feiners landing !’ and instantly, without a moment warning, we three unfortunate beings were made targets for the rifles and. artillery bullets of Foit lisle. Amid a shower of bullets that ruined my boat we had to fly for refuge.” If Mr. Brest is not ashamed of himself for spoiling a good story by this brutal telling-of the truth, surely he ought to be. But he can find consolation m the knowledge that, if the attack which was nob made on Fort Carlisle, and the doughty deeds which the Camerons did not perform, are not enshrined in history, they are pretty certain to find a fitting place in the records of the Castle propaganda department, together with other tales of terrorand imagination.

"LET IRELAND GO." Mr. Jerome K. Jerome, writing in Common Sense, asks why England should be frightened at ''the independence of Ireland, and why it is that England is "the only country that dare not live side "by side with a free people." "If," he continues, "the Frenoh were a little people, I suppose we should be arguing the same way, declaring that we must conquer France and hold her down, because she happens to be only 20 miles from Dover. France is as near to us" as is Ireland. France really could be a clanger to us. One cannot forget that there have been times when she has been. Every argument used to justify British rule in Ireland could be used with tenfold force to justify our conquering and holding France. Except this one fact: That we can't do it. ■ France is not a little nation, helpless to resist us. If America argued as we do, she would conquer and annex Canada, as she easily could do." "Why," inquires Mr. Jerome, "do we foam at the mouth because of the mere suggestion that a little free and independent nation should rise out of the Atlantic Ocean some 20 or 50 miles from our shores? Sooner or later it will have to come to that. The sooner the British public faces the fact and gains control over its nerves, the better for Great Britain "Other nations than the Irish, left to themselves, have overcome difficulties greater than the Ulster problem _ Ulster could take care of herself as well within the. Irish Parliament as outside it. In every country outside Ireland the Irish have proved themselves practical politicians, capable of government. Let "Ireland go, with God's blessing and a shake of the hand. And the hate and evil of a thousand years will be drowned "

: THE ENGLISH CAMPAIGN OF SLANDER,. The latest feature of the campaign of slander against Ireland is the charge of bad treatment by the

people of. ex-Service men (says, the New Witness). The charge, repeated in : explicit terms by Mr. Long in the House of Commons .on June 2, is a' ; wilful and miserable perversion of the truth,, designed to brihg dishonor on the. name of .Ireland in countries which still accept the statements of British Ministers. 'On the same day on which Mr. Long made this statement a delegation of ex-Service men appeared before the predominating Unionist Corporation of Belfast. In spite of the desire of Nationalist • members that the men's complaints of the lack of housing and employment should be placed before the Corporation, the majority refused to give them a hearing. This is the only' instance of what Mr. Long* calls the “hounding-down” of ex-Service men in Ireland. Of the 112 men' arrested up to date for criminal offences by Republican police; in the. districts over which these’ police have- complete control, only four were ex-soldiers, : all of whom pleaded guilty to the criminal charge brought against them. If there were any desire on; the part of the supporters of the Republican movement to “hounddown” ex-Service men in Ireland, they have in these districts an absolutely free hand to do so. They have not only not done so, but they have accepted gladly the assistance of ex-Service men in preserving order and preventing crime. There is nothing surprising in this. Ex-Service men in Ireland are men enlisted from the people. They fought for four years against Prussianism. They return to Ireland to find their own people under a Prussianism as bitter as any “they helped to defeat, and they naturally join the people in the struggle against oppression. . y r ...

SINN FEIN ACTIVITIES. Our (New Witness of June 17) Irish correspondent writes: Mr. Lloyd George's harangue to the:-depu-tation from the National Union of ' Railwaymen repeats the lurid picture of an Ireland populated by assassins whose revolvers interfere with the police in the discharge of their duties. The sufficient answer to it is that in the greater part of Ireland the-police have no duties except the political duty of harrying the evil population. Sinn Fein Headquarters has just issued a list of the activities of the Irish Republican police and the sessions of the Republican; land and criminal courts from April 15 to date. It j shows that m 21 Irish counties the preservation of law and order is being successfully carried out, not by British police and British troops, but by peace officers and judges of the Irish Republic. It shows .further that the decisions of these Republican Courts are being almost unanimously respected by the' public, and, in the few instances in which decisions of the courts ■-have been ignored, the offenders have been taught £ that respect for Republican law can be enforced. ' ; * The increasing number of cases being daily / submitted to the land and criminal courts is the measure of < the Irish people's determination to sustain the Republican Government in spite, of any measures England may take against it. A growing number of barristers are practising in the Republican instead of the Imperial Courts. Republican Courts are being establishes in the other 11 counties of Ireland. A. point worthy of note is the Republican conception ,of the function of Courts of law. It aims, in the first .place at reparation for the wrong done, and. in the next place at the moral reform of the offender. Merely punitive sentences are very,rare.. In extreme cases the punishment inflicted is banishment from: the parish or province. . ; ,-v;i *