IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 17 March 1921, Page 31

IRISH NEWS

FATHER DOMINIC’S TRIA’L. Father Dominic, na n n former .chaplain to the x wnuxvi lyuumuu, v.u.x ,v., lunuci CHlctjjldlil LL> LlitJ late Lord Mayor of Cork, Alderman Mac Sweeney, was tried by court martial at Kilrnainham recently on charges of making and spreading statements likely to cause disaffection, and of being in possession of a memorandum the publication of which would be likely to cause disaffection. The memorandum mentioned was stated by Father Dominic to be one which he wrote at the dictation of the late Lord Mayor of Cork, while flip latter was dying in Brixton Prison. The statements referred’ to in the first charge were contained •in a letter which Father Dominic was alleged to have written to a friend in London.

Father Dominic declined, both on ecclesiastical and national grounds, to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the court. The trial was open to the public. All civilians, including pressmen, had to go through the process of a search by the military before being admitted. ' b

The prosecutor indicated that the letter in the first case was found Jby the police in the course of a search at the house of a man named Murphy, 16 Effra Road, Brixton. It contained the following*: ' "I have not been back to Cork since the Provincial heard about a note that was left bv the military during a night raid threatening to throw me into the Lee. . . He has given out down south that I am away ' resting.' I am fed up myself, as I'd far prefer to be back in Cork and take any risk that's going, with the rest of the bovs.

“Sunday was a terrible but wonderful day. The boys got the leaders of the B. and T. reprisals. Those who are getting the public funeral to-day in London were the people who ordered the reprisals and murders through the country, and some of them accompanied the reprisal gang in turn. One of them was concerned in the torturing of poor little Kevin Barry. One of the poor boys was badly # wounded at Mount Street, two wounds in the back and one in the abdomen. lie was taken prisoner. He was operated on in George V. Hospital, but is not expected to recover. God grant he doesn’t, for they’d torture and hang him. “The action at Croke Park was ordered as a reprisal by Macready, Tudor, and the remnant of the Reprisal Committee. There was no shooting by any civilian, nor was it necessary to provoke the B. and T. s. They had their orders. It was decided, too, to assassinate Larry O’Neill that night, but the boys conveyed word to him, and he spoiled Macreadv’s game by asking for protection from the Mansion House. “The shooting of the three on Monday morning was an act of revenge pure and simple. They were subjected to severe treatment by a Captain Hardy, or Harding, another of the torturers of Kevin Barry. I don’t know what’s happening in Cork except what I see in the papers. The B. and T.’s and Crown forces generally are as mad there as here with the certainty the boys display in their knowledge of the evildoers.” Evidence was taken to the effect that when arrested in Dublin a notebook was found in the accused’s room containing statements likely to cause disaffection. The accused said he saw no reason why his private correspondence should be made the subject of a criminal charge. The statements in the notebook had been taken down by him from the lips of the Lord Mayor of Cork in Brixton Gaol, as he would take statements from a dying soldier in the field. The decision on both charges will be announced. FRIGHTFULNESS IN IRELAND. Mr. E. J. O’Riordan, secretary of the Irish Industrial Association, and a very prominent figure in Dublin,, writing to a friend under date December 10, says: “No one here is showing any anxiety about a truce. One never hears the subject discussed now. The feeling almost generally possessed by the people throughout the country is that if the Government want to get

out of the horrible mess they have got themselves into, they know quite well the course they must adopt. "Until they adopt that course, the Irish people are content to ' hold tight ' and let the Government pursue their suicidal ' strategy.' Time is on the side *of Ireland, not on theirs, in- this adventure. Don't let any of you feel despondent about this little country. No "one over here is but, on the contrary, everyone's 'merry and bright '—even those who have suffered severely in Cork. If you have any tears you want to shed, hold on to them a little longer, and you can let them fall on the grave of the Lloyd George Government."' Mr. O'Riordan (says the Catholic Press) is a bro-ther-in-law of the Very Rev. Dr. O'Reilly, Rector of St. John's College, within the Sydney University. In the course of a letter to Dr. O'Reilly, he says: "I don't know what the condition of affairs in Ireland will be like when you receive this, but at the moment of writing, ' hot ' would not describe them. The reconquest of the country is -being worked at top speed. The Anglo-Hun Government? has shed its veneer of civilisation, and is displaying its savage nature without reserve. Nothing could exaggerate the atrocities wliich its agents are indulging in in Ireland. ' Frightfillness,' unadulterated, is their war-cry. Cromwell was a suck-ing-babe compared to them. But as psychologists t hey are hopeless. Their policy has driven practically every crusted old Irish Tory into the Sinn Fein camp. Three of these latter—of ages-long Irish Unionist stock, one of them an H.M.L. —uttered more sedition in 'my presence in a quarter of an hour's talk a few weeks ago than I had heard from Sinn Feiners in a month. The upshot of it all is that our people, with the rarest exceptions, are nrepared to sacrifice everything rather than continue to bear the present yoke. You know, only too well, how fearless of death Irishmen are. Today no Irishman, 'or woman for that matter, cares one straw about their individual comfort or material interests; they will risk everything rather than submit to a.continuance of Castle rule in Ireland. The more "pressure" that is exercised to force them to submit, the more determined thev are to resist. This is an exact description of the spirit of the people. Can you imagine such people failing in their purpose ? The thought of submission never enters anyone's mind. Consequently, have no fear for Ireland." '

A FRANCISCAN PEACEMAKER. Limerick trade unionists have acknowledged the capabilities of Father Philip, 0.F.M., as a peacemaker, and elected him honorary president of their council, bather Philip grappled with many Labor troubles'with such success that even, beyond the bounds of Limerick he is-known as “the peacemaker.” As a friend to the city his energies in other directions are also well-known, lie is chairman of the Conciliation Board. When the trades Council appointed Father Philip honorary president the chairman* paid him high tribute. Father Philip, in reply, said the Conciliation Board was out to make honorable peace and prevent strikes, n had been commonly said by those across the water that the Irish trouble was due to the fact that the people were too much under the domination of the priests. There was no necessity to refute that charge in Limerick. It was not the priests that had tried to Wot out the industries of the country