MILITARY RULE IN IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, 18 November 1920, Page 7

MILITARY RULE IN IRELAND

(By Ebskinb Childers).

(Continued from last week). III—LOOTING. Looting by soldiers and police in Ireland grew out of wanton sabotage; and both grew out of the procedure adopted in raids, which, I repeat, is that of war. I did not fully understand this until I was able to observe for myself the attitude and behaviour of two officers who, at the head of a large force, including a tank, raided my house at 1 a.m. and made themselves as insolently at home there as in a section of a captured enemy trench. Looting, together with other abuses, is also’ facilitated by the common practice of confining occupants apart, even ladies living alone with infant children, while their rooms are searched. I select from a long list nine cases, all in Dublin, the city I am living in, all of recent date, and all verified by written statements obtained after rigorously careful inquiry. It will be seen that in nearly all these cases the sufferers, as before, are women. , : ■' ■■ "•'■•••' No Apology; No Redress. Dr. Kathleen Lynn lives (and practises) at 9, Belgrave; Road, with her friend, Miss ffrench Mullen, and a maid; three women in all. She herself was out attending a case of sickness when at 1.30 a.m. on February 28 last the soldiers charged in, refusing her friend time to dress. Miss ffrench Mullen, in spite of strong protests, and the maid were both kept isolated under guard : while the house was searched. Dr. Lynn returned to find a scene" of disgraceful disorder, and the following articles missing: A 41b. box of chocolates emptied, cigarettes taken, and a hypodermic record syringe, a small hot-water bottle in velvet csae, and an embroidered lace collar stolen. This may be called a mild case of hungry soldiers pilfering and curio-hunting. A claim was lodged in vain; no redress. Nothing incriminating found; no apology. Four officers were present. . : I; . Mrs. Lynch, of Richmond Road, raided on March 5 last, deposes to the loss of £5 7s 9d from two purses, and two ladies (whose names, at their express request, I give only in confidence to the Editor), living at Park Avenue, Sandy mount, to the theft from a trunk of a silver powder case and three necklaces of a value of £5 in a raid made at 1.15 a.m. on February 26 last. These ladies, who are Unionists,- were not detained, but state that they “were so terrified that we did not attempt to follow’ them (the soldiers), and remained standing in the hall.” Mr. Sean Byrne, however, a Councillor of the Corporation, raided and arrested under lettre de cachet at 2 a.m. on March 26 last, was shut up, barefooted and half-dressed, in a small, cold room while his house as searched. His sister, Miss Lily Byrne, who lives with him, lost an old silver bangle—a family heirloom, from a bag hanging on her bed. The case of Miss Gavan Duffy, sister of the Irish Republican representative at Paris, who keeps a well-known school at 70, Stephen’s Green, is that of an: empty house raided on April 3 during the Easter holidays. The soldiers, acting precisely like a gang of house-breakers, forced the front door, searched the house, and left by the back door, not empty-handed, for a gold watch and chain and rings and bracelets to the value of £25, together with a wrist-watch, a kitchen clock, a silk hand-bag, and some sugar and other provisions, were stolen. Drawers, presses, and boxes were opened indiscriminately; papers, after being ransacked and read, were found heaped up in piles, and a bill of £5 had to be paid by Miss Duffy for damage to hall-door, floor, planks, wall-panels and electric wires. On the same night another lady, Mrs. Humphreys, of 14, Herbert Park, whose son was subjected to cruel and causeless arrest, had a valuable diamond and sapphire ring stolen from her dressing-table. The Fate of “Law-abiding Persons.” Listen next to three extraordinary cases, in all of which the victims are absolutely unconnected with the politics of the hour. They illuminate Mr. Macpherson’s favorite formula that “law-abiding” persons have nothing to fear in Ireland. Miss Hickey is a school teacher, living at 15, Tivoli Terrace, Kingstown, with her sister Mrs. Longmore, whose husband is in the Government service as Chief Steward in the Irish Lights steamer. Mr. Cooke, an elderly gentleman and a Unionist, also lodges in the house. A Castle spy had apparently told some fantastic story about Mr. Longmore’s being addicted to “drilling” on his brief periods of leave from his ship. Hence the raid, at 1.10 a.m. on March 31 last, Mr. Longmore being absent at Birkenhead." ‘ " '

" I wish I could quote in full Miss Hickey’s account of the scene; of the revolver covering her when the raiders entered, of the exhaustive search for four hoursfloors torn up, garden dug up—of her cross-examination, grotesque if it were not scandalously insulting, of . the reading of private letters, and. of the tale of plunder when the party at last decamped, leaving her faint •’with fatigue and cold; £3 6s in ; cash, a ring, a bangle, and a chain, all of gold; a dinner-knife, six collars, and tobacco and cigarettes; a bottle of whisky and some cheese and apples on the premises.” , (After all, a four hours’ search requires refreshment.) Note also, not under the heading of loot, that the police took away a tiny revolver —a souvenir gift-and some topical pamphlets bought as curiosities, because these articles under the name of “arms and seditious documents,” may be pleaded by the Castle as justification for the raid. Four Times in Two Months. Mrs. Salkeld, who is the widow of an Indian civil servant, and is wholly unconnected with politics, living in a flat at Cullenswood House, Rathmines, has been raided four times in two 'months —on January 31, March 26 and 27, and April — apparently because some suspected person resided in the same block of flats. On the second occasion she lost fish knives and forks and small valuables worth £5, and at the fourth raid, which lasted eight hours, her boy, aged 15, was arrested, incredible as it may seem ; though such cases of capricious and promiscuous arrest are now becoming common. The Experience of an Italian Professor Lastly, the case of Signor Simonetti, Italian professor of music at the Irish Academy, renting a furnished house at 5, Leeson Park Avenue, from Mr. Anthony Mackay, who owns to the crime of believing in Irish Independence. Innocently enough, the professor-takes time to put on some clothes before answering the rain of knocks at 2.30 a.m. on March 6. Crash goes his door with crowbars. He protests in his imperfect English, and is rated for Eis dilatory conduct* He remarks that if his door can be forced at dead of night without warrant or credentials, it may as well be left open for the entry of any housebreaker, and the remark is not without point, for after the raid, which terrifies his children into screams that awake the neighbors, he misses a wrist-watch, the contents of a purse, some silver-mounted hair-brushes and some articles of clothing. He has claimed compensation and, as an Italian subject, he will no doubt get it. Meanwhile it is not surprising to learn that he has left Dublin in disgust. April 12, 1920. IV.—PILLAGE, SABOTAGE AND TERROR. The looting described in my last article is the natural outcome of the licence accorded’ by the authorities to organised sabotage and “frightfulness” by soldiers and Constabulary—a licence fatal to discipline and productive of excesses which may yet reach appalling dimensions. Again I disclaim personal charges, and insist on the manifest sequence of cause and effect. If you endeavor to stamp out, in Ireland or anywhere else, every manifestation of the strongest sentiment that can influence the human mind ; if to accomplish this you' force your police to act as armed spies upon their fellow-citizens and your army to act as a political police; if you give them these abhorrent tasks, and train them to regard any man, woman or child as a person they can search or kidnap on suspicion only, and every dwelling ns enemy territory they can ransack at pleasure; if you do these things you declare war and create war, and not only war but horrible vendettas; reprisals against your agents and counter reprisals by your agents; a war in which, as the statistics prove the people suffer most. The First Sack of Fermoy. On the night of September 8 last, the small garrison town of Fermoy w T as methodically sacked by a large body of soldiers armed with crowbars and trench-tools, the principal shops and business premises being more or less wrecked, and the contents in some cases strewed about the streets or looted. The work met with no interference from 8.30 to 10 p.m., though the barracks were close at hand. There is no dispute about the facts or the cause. The outbreak was a reprisal for the death of a soldier on the day before in a surprise attack by some civilians, armed with revolvers and sticks, upon a party of 15 soldiers on their way to church, with the ’object, which was effected, of seizing their rifles. A further grievance was the omission of the word “murder” from the verdict at the inquest. The Colonel at a public inquiry regretted, but virtually justified, the reprisal, the Tory press did the same, and Mr. Churchill, on March 23 last, in the. House” of Commons,

did the same. It is the case, on a, small scale, of Louvain, destroyed because Belgian civilians fired on German troops. * \ ' . Note that this was the first casualty experienced by the army of occupation in Ireland since the rising of April, 1916, a period of three years and five months of intensely exasperating military repression. Terror in Cork and Thurles. The regiment which recked Fermoy should have been transferred from Ireland. It was moved to Cork, where political feeling was intense, and on November 10, with no provocation, again rioted, smashing shop-windows over a wide area and wrecking and looting the Shandon Company's premises. At Kinsale and Athlone similar events, occurred. . The contagion spread to the Constabulary. In the town of Thurles, at 10.30 p.m. on January 20 last, a constable was fired at and wounded by some unknown person. At 11.15 p.m., as though under a pre-arranged scheme, the sack of Thurles began, some soldiers assisting the police. The houses of prominent Republicans and the office of the local paper were specially selected for attack. Bombs were freely used, houses burst into and furniture knocked about, and — a new feature —volleys were fired promiscuously into bedroom and other windows. There was a curious pause at 12.5 a.m., and another outburst from 1.15 to 1.40. Though Thurles* has a large garrison, no effort was made to check the riot, which would have led to great loss of life if the terrified inhabitants had not hidden in cellars and outhouses. Here, again, there is no dispute about the facts. In awarding compensation for losses, which under the Irish law relating to malicious injuries (a law whose absurd and demoralising results would fill a chapter) must be paid by the inhabitants of the district itself, Judge Moore declared on March 8 last that the damage had been admittedly done by the police, and should be paid for by the Crown. So far as the public know, no disciplinary action has been taken. At any rate, the terror continued in Thurles. Windows were sporadically smashed at hours of the night when police and soldiers only were abroad, and threatening notices were chalked on the doors of prominent Republicans. The predicted riot occurred on the night of February 27-28, when soldiers wrecked some of these very houses and the Sinn Fein Hall. Similar incidents occurred on March 4 and 5, and on March ,27 Mr. James McCarthy, a well-known Sinn Feiner, was murdered, according to the verdict at the inquest, by men dressed in the uniform of police. Terror in Cork and Dublin. Cork duly responded. In the small hours of March 11 last, soldiers rioted through the streets, shooting and window-breaking. The contents of the Sinn Fein headquarters and the Thomas Ashe Club were thoroughly demolished, and private houses suffered wanton injury. Sinister omens these for more terrible events a week later. Dublin was already callous, and the last incidents I have space for comprise the sacking, on the night of February 27 last, of Nos. 76, 6, and 3, Harcourt Street, formerly occupied by the Dail Eireann staff, the Sinn Fein organisation, and the Sinn Fein Bank respectively. Nos. 76 and 6 had been closed down and boarded up by the police some time before. No. 76 was now broken into purely for *The complacent attitude of the Government and the Unionist press toward this reprisal bore fruit in the second and still more thorough sack of Fermoy on June 28 1920. At midnight on the 27th, 400 soldiers broke out of barracks and in two-and-a-half hours did £40,000 worth of damage in wrecking and looting about 70 shops and other houses. Part of the plunder consisted of the contents of a jeweller’s shop and of wine and other liquors from some licensed premises. A precisely similar outbreak occurred on the same night and at the same hour at Lismore, a town 15 miles from Fermoy. Bombs were freely used, houses fixed, shops looted, and (enormous damage done. The simultaneous sacks of these two towns was a direct reprisal for the capture, by Republicans, of the District Commander, General Lucas, and two colonels at their fishing-lodge at Castletownroche on June 2d. The two colonels were released, after one of them Colonel Danford, in an attempt to escape, had been shot at and wounded. General Lucas is still a prisoner at the time of writing. “Sympathetic” reprisals, in the shape of less serious outbreaks, occurred, on the same night, at Newcastle West, where the offices of the Weekly Observer were wrecked: at Limerick, where the police bombed the Railway Hotel; at Swords, which was “shot up” by soldiers and police; and on the following day at Kilcoramon, .Limerick, and Bally notit, which were all “shot up.

purposes of sabotage furniture, pictures, and even electric bulbs' being smashed to pieces with ape-like fury. -■’ Similarly with No. 3, which, although untenanted at night, contained the Sinn Fein Bank, a, registered cooperative concern founded in 1908. Here, the safe was forced and £1,040 in cash abstracted, together with securities of the value of £l,lOO and all books and documents. At the same time, so careful was the attention to details, that even inkbottles and penholders were destroyed. t What War means in Ireland. Lastly, if you doubt what war means in Ireland, consider the history of No. 6, disused, but still occupied (in an upper floor) by Mr. and Airs. Joseph Clarke. Air. Clarke, being a recently-elected Sinn Fein member of the Corporation, was due for arrest; and one object of the raid was to find him. I send Airs. Clarke’s full signed statement of what occurred to the Editor. He will agree with me that it describes a scene of repulsive brutality, all the mote so in that officers set the example. Oaths, insults and threats directed at the unfortunate lady, who is kept below shivering in night attire while the ground floor is searched. Her little boy begins to scream, but she is turned back with a bayonet from going to him. A mahogany door is wantonly smashed in, though she offers the key for it, and other vandalism perpetrated. Then to the living rooms, where even the children’s beds are searched. Then to the skylight leading to the roof, where she is forced to remain while one officer hands a revolver to another, saying; “If he’s there, use it on him.” At length away, leaving her exhausted and struggling to close the jammed hall-door. “That woman can’t close the door" now,” is the genial farewell, as the lorry rattles away. All this in your name. April 14, 1920.

’‘‘The attempt to murder Professor Stockley, a prominent Sinn Feiucr, on March IS, and the murder of the young and universally popular Sinn Fein Lord Mayor Thomas Mac Curtain, on the night of March 20. The evidence at the inquest, which lasted till April 17, was strong against the police and a verdict of Murder was eventually returned against them and higher responsible officials, including the Prime Minister. On March 30, during the progress of the inquest, several London Unionist journals, notably The limes and Daily Mail , published a statement “from official sources,’ that the Lord Mayor had been murdered by members of his own organisation, and on April 6, Lord French, the Viceroy, dragging his high office deeper in the mud than ever before, said in a widelypublished interview with a representative of the London Daily Express that the evidence at the inquest would confirm this allegation. As it turned out, no evidence of any kind was brought forward, or attempted to be brought forward, in support of it. Lord French and a high Castle official were summoned to appear and substantiate the allegation. They refused. Meanwhile the concocted calumny had received world-wide 'publicity through the powerful anti-Irish press in America and Europe. There can be no question that it was. deliberately put into circulation by a Castle official in order to forestall the inevitable verdict at the inquest. A typical example of Castle methods. tAn action was brought to recover the funds. On June 15 without waiting for the decision of the Court, the Government voluntarily returned the money. (To be Continued).