A WEEK IN IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, 24 February 1921, Page 28

A WEEK IN IRELAND

The Irish landlord with whom we (London Nation) have been in correspondence sends us further extracts from the diary from which we have previously* quoted: Nov. To-day's paper tells of the fires at Liverpool. Ireland in disgrace again, and no wonder. Yet we were brought up to revere Moses and his handling of the ten Plagues. • Dec. 3.—There is anxiety, F. tells me, about the two Shanaglish boys who were taken away last Friday week and have not been heard of. "The men who took them, ' Black-and-Tans,' stopped at G and left another boy at the barracks there, and bought a rope at R's shop, and took these boys away." I had already heard whispers on the countryside about this, and had said I didn't see reason for anxiety, for I have often seen letters in the papers from the kinsfolk of prisoners taken away and not heard of for a while, and who have been heard from later, perhaps from an Nnglish gaol.

“The bewildered and amazed 'passivity of the civil population, the state as of people surprised by sudden ruffians, murderers, and thieves in the dead of night and hurled out, terrified and half-clad, snatching at the few scant household gods nearest at hand, into a darkness mitigated but by flaring incendiary torches—this has been the experience stamped upon”—one would think in reading this it was a description of B. and his children, whose house and harvest were burned at dead of night, or our village smith, who saved but an Irish dictionary from his burning holise and forge. But it was written by Henry James in an appeal for the refugees from Belgium. , Dec. 4.T0-day C. tells me it is feared there has been “bad work, and that the two Shanaglish boys were done away with. A man, one Z., took notice where a lorry had turned on the road where it was narrow and had knocked down a part of the wall, and he wondered to see it broken and looked behind it, and there were two boys lying, their heads near one another, and dark clothes on them. He went home, and it was three days before he could' rise from his bed. And when he told about it some went to look for them, but the bodies were gone and no word of them.”

Dec. 5.T. was here, says the "B-and-T.'s" came back to Shanaglish after two days, asking for the Loughnanes, said they had escaped, and everyone believes they were done away with. Dec. 6.8. says there was news brought last night that the bodies .of those two Loughnane boys were found "near Murty Sheehan's cross-road," in a pond that is back from it towards Ballinderreen. It is said they had no clothes on them, and had the appearance of being choked. It looks very bad, but these "Blackand Tans" can do what they lfke, and no check on them. Look how the Head Constable was afraid to take a deposition from Mrs. Quinn before she died, and he in the house.

The Connacht Tribune has an advertisement of "German toys in great variety at lowest prices," to be had from an agent in— Belfast. Later in the day B. tells me, "it is true about the Loughnanes. I met two boys from Shanaglish. They had gone to the place where they were found and saw the bodies and they knew them, though they could not say what way they met their death. The flesh was as if torn off the bones. God,help the -poor mother ! There is one sister, but no boy left in the house." , Dec. 7.—F. hears the Loughnane boys could nob be recognisedthat "the bodies looked as if they had been dragged after the lorry. f When the men bringing them away in the lorry came to B.'s shop for a rope they took a bottle of whisky, too, and when he asked for payment all they did was to point a revolver at him. The bodies were brought home last night. When they passed through,G-——at.6 o'clock the dead ells were ringing.\* God help the poor mother, that is a widow I*.! >-. .»■.,.. Another says: "The two funerals -passed last-night going to Shanaglish. I don't know was the mother

there, but the sister went to see the bodies after they were found. She could not recognise one of them, but when she saw the other she cried out that it was her youngest brother. It is not known for certain how they came by their death. There are some, say they were burned. For a boy, N., went into the pond after they were' found to bring them in, and when he took a hold of the hand of one of them it came off in his hand. ''lt will never be known what way they died. There is no one dare ask a.question. But the work that is being done will never be forgotten in Ireland." Dec. 8 (a Holy Day).—N. says: "While we were going to Mass there were lorries packed with military passing the road. Those boys were winnowing at their mother's house when they were taken. It is said they dragged the eldest boy out and beat him, and the other took his part, and then they beat him too, and the mother looking at them. It is said that the mother went to G Barracks and asked where they were, and was told they were safe in prison." Dec. 9.—A farmer coming on business says: "B.'s house that was burned down and rebuilt by the neighbors has been raided again in the night by the "Black-and-Tans." I hear they threatened to burn it again, but that the old police have said that if this is done by the Castle police the whole of them will resign." K. says: "It would break your heart to see that funeral, the two hearses and the poor mother between them. She came from her home, but she could not recognise her sons. She had come to the barracks before that looking for tidings of them, and some say she got none and some say they were at Kenmore Barracks. And the next day she got tidings they were found." Old Y. says: "Some say that one of them was bayoneted through the heart. Sure such a thing could hardly happen in savage lands, out in Turkey." Then: "There was an inquiry at the barracks yesterday, but we heard nothing since. It is hard to know what happened. There is no one dare trace or tell."

The Independent gives Mr. Denis Henry's "printed reply" in Parliament to a question by Mr. Devlin about these brothers; "he was informed they escaped from custody and had not since been heard of."

Dec. 10. The inquiry is reported in the Independent. "The sentry who was on guard on the night of the escape said the men were in prison on the ground floor. About 11 p.m. one of them asked to be allowed out. As the sentry imagined he heard voices in a barn close by, he thought it might be some of the men's comrades who were coming to rescue them. He left the prisoners to investigate the noise, and when he came back he found they had escaped. He reported the matter, and a search party was organised, but the men could not be traced. He had never acted as sentry on any prisoners before."

The Independent says also: "Before the, funeral R.I.C. men, with two military officers and a doctor, arrived at the church. The coffins were unscrewed.

. . . The doctor's evidence was that the body of one was "all charred and most of the skull badly fractured, part of it being missing. The flesh was hanging on the legs and arms. Death was due to the laceration of the skull and brain. The skull of the second body was also badly fractured, but not to the same extent as the other.' The two priests who were present were in tears. Father N. asked the officers again and again to look upon the remains and say if such a. thing could happen in a Christian country in the twentieth century?" . . ■-. '-.*-%