IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 14 April 1921, Page 31

IRISH NEWS

OUTRAGES BY CROWN FORCES. A party of armed men forced an entrance into the Monastery of De la Salle at Dunmanway and shot at Brother Cormac, who was severely wounded in both hands He had to flee for his life and take refuge in a postman’s house some distance away, bleeding profusely all the time. Rev. Father T. Mannix, C.C., Ballyhea, Charleville, lias been arrested by military and taken in a lorry to Buttevant military barracks, where he is detained. He is a first cousin to Archbishop Mannix and is very popular with all classes locally. Military and police visited the residence of Dr. Irwin, Presbyterian minister at Killead, Antrim, and after a search of the house removed him in a motor to Antrim Barracks. The Rev. Dr. Irwin is a, leading Irish Presbyterian minister. Rev. Wm. Bentley, Protestant rector, Fealebridge, Abbeyfeale, has been taken from, the rectory by Crown forces, who arrived in a lorry from Tralee. GREENWOOD’S “HEROES. Ballina is a Mayo town of about 5000 inhabitants. It is away in the far north of the county, and neither the town nor the district around it has figured in the public gaze during the past two years— indicates comparatively peaceful conditions there. The people of Ballina were provided recently with a spectacle which the chronicler mildly describes as “extraordinary” (says the Belfast Irish Weekly). Five well-known citizens were, it is alleged, taken prisoners by the auxiliary police; two of the prisoners were public representatives: all were leading members of the little community. They were not accused of any offence; they were not brought before a magistrate, or a courtmartial, nor were they destined for an internment camp; their captors put them on the public street, provided them with a Union Jack to be waved and a Sinn Fein flag to be dragged in the gutter, and asked them to walk along in the rear of someone who played a banjo, while “a motor-load of armed auxiliary police” followed — just to see that the programme of the evening was carried into effect. At the end of their progress through their own town and amongst their relatives and neighbors in this fashion, the five citizens were induced “to kneel in the gutter and kiss the Union Jack, the Sinn Fein flag being at the same time burned.” So the press correspondent stated in the daily papers; he has since been requested by the Commander of the Auxiliaries to explain that_ the five men were voluntary, if not really , quite enthusiastic, performers on the occasion. The official version should not be omitted. But whoever regards these incidents as trivial, or subjects for laughter, makes a fatal mistake.

. These are the things that sink into men’s hearts and minds, that make peaceable people angry, vengeful, and reckless, that justify the wildest and most terrible excesses in the eyes of folks who would ordinarily regard such deeds with horror and reprobation. Ballina had been a quiet district for a long time past — far as the world outside it knew, at least, and certainly so in comparison with other areas. Indeed, we are told that a majority of the people remained supporters of the Constitutional Movement. Was it too peaceable? How can the authorities really defend the happenings of that evening in the far-away Mayo town? It is within the boundaries of Southern Ireland” under the new dispensation. Were these things done to make the “Southern Ireland” of which the remotest North of Mayo is part better disposed to accept the gift of Partition from the Government? Whatever the motive may have been, it was a stupid utterly bad affair, FRUITS OF BIGOTRY. The boycott of Belfast industries following the .cruel campaign of bigotry against Catholic workers in Belfast, is apparently having a grave effect on business in that city, and several firms are threatened with bankruptcy. , So seriously are some of the firms being affected that they are resorting to ingenious schemes to evade the embargo. A prominent 1 Dublin business man told an Irish Independent representative recently that after the war English wholesale houses ceased sending travellers to the South and West of Ireland, and many Belfast firms opened up a large trade in, those ■ areas. Since the introduction of the boycott these houses had lost their entire connectmn. They had . bought their goods at the highest prices, and their commitments both in Great Britain and Ireland were very large. These goods had now been delivered, but they found it impossible to dispose of them.

The Latest Ruse. One firm had sent circulars to retailers stating that goods could be forwarded from addresses in Bangor (Co. Down), London, Glasgow, and Edinburgh. The proprietors of these firms express the keenest anxiety to recover their lost trade, and say they regret the present state of affairs. ; ,j, ~ These might be their individual opinions, but, unfortunately for themselves, they are so tied up, either by political or other organisations, that they cannot come out into the open and criticise the methods of those politicians whose policy has landed them in the present morass. The most extreme Belfast Unionist business men (added our informant) object to Partition, as they regard it as spelling ruin to their trade, especially at present, when cross-Channel houses are offering their goods at almost any price for a quick clearance. Many Belfast travellers are at present in the South and West of Ireland trying to do business, and one of their methods is to • carry a certain amount of stock which they offer to shopkeepers on the spot at a reduced price. U.S. and Ulster Linen. Ulster linen (added our informant) was at present vigorously boycotted in New York and other parts of the United States which are now refusing goods from Ulster at any terms. If this policy is persisted in it will mean absolute ruin to the linen trade. Practically all the spring orders had been cancelled by leading U.S. importers. “THE CASE OF WOLFE TONE.” In the case of the unhappy man, Joseph Murphy, condemned to death by an English court-martial in Cork, a rule was granted by the Court postponing the execution, (says the Edinburgh Catholic Herald). Y lion the matter was being argued one of the English judges said: “What did the Court do in the case of Wolfe Tone ?” There are always “precedents”, for any course that England’s representatives may follow in Ireland. Til’s was done in Henry VIII.’s time. This in the days of Elizabeth. This in 1649. This in 1798. This in 1867. And this and this in 1920. And so on. The long roll of oppression, murder, arson, torture, confiscation, pillage, and infamy stretches back into the dim past. There are always precedents. And to-day it is as bad or worse than ever! Hero and now the devil’s work goes on. And then the Irish “live in the past,” they have “such long memories” ! “Why can’t they forget the past?” Because there is no “past” for Ireland at the hands of her brutal foe. It is an ever-present, living, active, damnable atrocity. STRICKLAND REPORT: MUST GREENWOOD GO? Some of the leading London papers, the Times among others, speak out very bluntly about the delay in publishing the Strickland report regarding the burning of Cork city. The Daily News of recent date says that though the report reached London “it remains secreted in the Irish Office.” Discussing the reasons why the report is withheld from publication, the Daily News writes: One suggestion is that the report is so damning to the Irish Government that public opinion would demand the removal of Sir. Ha mar Greenwood from office. . . ' Another suggestion, emanating from semi-official sources, is that as the report implicates the “Black-and-Tans ” publication must have unfortunate effects upon discipline. The same paper says that after the Cabinet meeting at which the report was considered Greenwood went to Dublin to consult the Dublin Castle officials, and that as a result it is rumored now “that the disagreeable report of General Strickland’s military enquiry is to be suppressed and a new enquiry by civilians instituted.” Suppression of the Strickland report will create a worse impression, especially in America and in Continental countries, than publication would entail.