The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1920. BASHI BAZOUK GOVERNMENT IN IRELAND: MURDER, FIRE, LOOT

New Zealand Tablet, 25 November 1920, Page 25

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1920. BASH I BAZOUK GOVERNMENT IN IRELAND: MURDER, FIRE, LOOT

IE newspapers to hand for the last week in September show that the state of affairs in Ireland is gradually growing worse and that the English masters of the country are governing to all appearances by .-.murder, incendiarism and pillage. Important English newspapers, like the Times and Manchester Guardian which cannot be sns-

* peeled of favoring the Republican idea, are denouncing the continued military violence which they assert is destroying the good name of the Empire. Foreign papers look with cynical interest on a spectacle •< that proves to the world that England’s professed interest in the freedom of small nationalities is just what continental newspaper tradition always believed it to be thinly-veiled hypocrisy. The present position strongly resembles that.of 1798, after the Rebellion. It certainly is not better than the condition of things in Bulgaria when Gladstone denounced the Hash! Bazouk atrocities of the unspeakable Turk. The Manchester Guardian gives currency to the view that the English auxiliaries of the police (the Black and lans have got completely out of control, and have become the masters of the Government which iafraid to interfere with their murderous activities, but Genera] Sir Hubert Gough in a letter to the English press says he has evidence that causes him to “strongly suspect that actual murder is organised as a method of Irish government.’’ The following items are condensed from the Irish papers of the last few days in September. They cover the events of (roughly) a single week, but include only those of serious importance; Police Inspector Burke and his brother, both of whom had taken drink, visited a public house at Balbnggan , Co, Dublin. The proprietor sent for the local police, and afterwards for the Volunteers, to remove them. During an altercation Burke was shot In reprisal the “Black and Tans” fired the town, burning down 50 houses. Terrified women and children fled to the fields where they remained all night long. The *

great hosiery factory of Messrs. Deedes, Templer and Co. was destroyed. ■ Two men named Gibbon and Lawless were taken from their homes and butchered. It may be added the men who shot Burke were strangers. The Manchester Guardian says that Balbriggan and Louvain are together in everybody’s mouth, and the “comparison is only too painfully complete.” ‘ Mr. John Lynch of Fantstown, Kilmallock, a member of the Limerick County Council, was murdered in an unknown manner at the Exchange Hotel, Dublin, by the “Black and Jans.” A party of armed men dressed in trench coats and khaki caps called at the hotel and held up the porter. A few went upstairs and returned after some minutes. No noise of shooting was heard. Some time after the intruders left, police called and. asked for the body of Mr. Lynch, which no person was allowed to see. The coroner was not permitted to hold an inquest and at the military inquiry no press representative was allowed to attend. Mr. Lynch was a most inoffensive man, and the cause of his murder is unknown.

Jeremiah D. Healy, a blacksmith, aged 18 and Patrick J. Hartnett, a postman, were murdered. The victims were seen last at 6.30 p.m. walking from Abbeyfeale, Co. Limerick, into the country. Shortly afterwards three shots were heard. The military admit these poor- fellows were killed by a “Black and Tan” who confessed he shot them when they refused to halt. J

An old man named James Connolly, aged 70, was murdered by the military at Kinlough, The evidence at the coroner’s inquest showed that deceased was shot by a military captain whilst raiding Connolly’s house, in an effort to capture Connolly’s son. The old man made no resistance to the raid. Following an attack on the police near Rineen, Co. Clare, reprisals were made on the nearest towns, Miltown-Malbay, Lahinch and Ennistymon. these places were visited by large parties of armed, uniformed men, who by firing building.s and looting did damage estimated at thousands of pounds. Eight houses were destroyed at Miltown, six at Lahinch, and five at Ennistymon. At this latter place two men named Linnane and Connole were shot dead. Linnane was attempting to save a burning house. Connole, according to the t'o.rlc r. .rammer, was bound, shot, and thrown into the names of his burning house. Daniel Lehane, a cattle dealer, was shot through the throat. One of Connole’s children is .missing, and may have been burned alive.

At Belfast the police shot John Gaynor, a wellknown Sinn Feiner, at his own house, and John Mchad den was also shot at his own door. The cause of these murders is unknown. A military enquiry was held at Galway into the deaths ot a soldier and two civilians. A soldier and civilian were shot during a disturbance at the railway station. The soldier apparently shot John Mulvey in the first instance, and was then shot himself. Some time after the “Black and Tans” proceeded to “shoot up the town.” The office of the Galway n.repress was wrecked and the valuable print-in** machinery destroyed. Several houses were also wrecked by bombs. James Quirke, a matchmaker, was taken from his bed and barbarously murdered, no'less than ten rifle bullets being fired into his body. Another party of police auxiliaries took Joseph Cummins -from his home and placed him against a wall. When the order to fire was given he dropped to the ground severely wounded, and was left to die. He managed to escape with his life. U r , M a?' M TV r , lam ? the wife of the murdered Loid Mayor ot Cork, was shot at by the military but escaped. She was walking in her garden at the'time . Ihe military barracks at Mallow were attacked o-y a party of men which arrived in motor lorries. hey carried off rifles, revolvers, ammunition, and a machine gun One shot only was fired by the raiders and a soldier was fatally wounded. In' reprisal the Town Hall Cleeve s factory, Willaims’s flour nils, and about fifty houses were destroyed. The tmrk ire Brigade was summoned but could not at—

teiid owing to the curfew law. All women and children have left the town. The 17th Lancers, Lord Haig’s old regiment, were responsible for the burning of Mallow. The local police, all Irishmen, helped to save some buildings, and to prevent looting. The village of Ardrahan, Co. Galway, was the scene of ' a reprisal for what the Irsih Independent calls an “alleged attack on policemen.” At midnight the town was invaded by four lorries filled with uniformed armed men. The principal sufferers were Patrick Joyce—house and furniture burned M’l —house furniture and out office burned Mr. Mclnerneyhouse and furniture burned; John Higginscorn burned; St. -Teresa’s Parochial Hall (the gift of Mr. Edward Martyn the well known Irish litterateur), burned. In every case the houses were sprinkled with petrol amid then bombed to set them on fire. The inhabitants were in many cases taken from their homes naked into the country and terrified by bogus attempts at assassination. ■ s The town of Trim, Co. Meath, following on the attack on and capture of the police barracks, was the scene of a reprisal. The Town Hall, market buildings, and several merchants’ premises were burnt. All the town records, extending back 600 years, were destroyed and the ancient silver mace looted. The police raided Kilkee, Co. Clare, creating a reign of terror. They burned houses and hay along the road to Uunbeg, Beahala and Kilkee. At Salt-hill, Co. Galway, the house of Mr. Joseph Greehan was fired into and bombed by the “Black and Tans.” They afterwards looted the place, taking .£ls in money, silver knives and forks, some whisky, six dozen bottles of port wine, and a quantity of tobacco valued at LlO. The house of Mr. John Lee, P.L.G., was also looted. * Owning to almost nightly acts of terrorism in Tuara the women and children have had to fly from the town. The Archbishop, Most Rev. Dr. Gil martin, has expressed his sympathy with the people in their suffering, and particularly with those who have been “unjustly and barbarously maltreated,” by the military and police. A body of uniformed men broke into the house of Mr. John Walsh at Ballylanders, Co. Limerick, after midnight and ordered the family out of the house. They were not allowed time to dress and fled into the country practically naked. The house was then bombed and burned to the ground. Some time before, Mr. Crowley’s extensive drapery ' establishment was destroyed by the military in a similar manner. In connection with the terror in the West of Ireland it may be mentioned that corn and hay is everywhere being burned, the object being to create a famine. It must be noted that attacks on police and barracks are always made by outsiders who come in motors, etc. The reprisals are suffered by people who have no connection with the attacks.

More recent laurels have to be added to the Basin Bazouk Government in Ireland. Sinn Fein or other organisations killed officers for crimes against the Irish people. In retaliation, the Bashi Bazouks opened fire with machine guns on thousands of innocent men, and women assembled in Croke Park. Again, when Mr. Devlin asked a question concerning this great victory of the Bull Dog Breed, he was almost strangled by brave British soldiers, who outnumbered him by hundreds to one, in the House of Commons. “Six hundred to one !’’ cried Mi. Devlin. .“This is British chivalry.” We note how much the hirelings on our daily press make of the killing of the perpetrators of atrocities against a small nation and how silent they are concerning the machine gun fire into unarmed crowds. Our press has forgotten that it once denounced men who would not fight for small nations. It now is more Hunnish than was ever any organ of Prussian ism. The editors of such papers apparently never read the English papers nowadays. Even' the London Times is as strong against British murders in Ireland as the Dun-

edin Star is against a small nation fighting to be free. But people who have "watched the Star’s stunts for some time know exactly how much its views are worth on any subject.