IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 4 August 1921, Page 31

IRISH NEWS

EVIDENCE OF BRITISH MISRULE: PROTESTANT CONDEMNATION. Three testimonies—all appearing by a coincidence on one day—are all evidence given by English people, people o nigh character and trained intelligence, who have all visited Ireland to see its condition for themselves (writes Historicus” in the Methodist Times, London). They represent all English parties Dr. Cripps is a Conservative, Mrs. lethick Lawrence belongs to the Labor Party, and the other three are Liberals. The darkness and the horror o the •picture they paint is not surpassed by anything that the Germans did in Belgium, or that Abdul the Damned did in Armenia. The responsibility for it rests, on the Emdish people; on everyone-for such is democracy-who supported the present Government or supports it now. On every member of every majority which votes for a Government candidate, each takes his or her share, and will answer for it m due time And England will answer as Germany has answered, and as Turkey has answered, so surely as there is a God i-n Heaven ! “The mills of God grind slowly, But they grind exceeding small.”

When I look back seven years I feel how utterly foolish anyone would have looked who would have said: "Seven p Le Gen T n and th 6 Austrian and Turkish and the Russian Empires will all be overthrown " The thing was impossible; but it has happened. England

was one of the' instruments in the hands' of Providence for working out His will. But her share in the victory has ruined her. She is blinded with the lust of power, and is making straight for damnation, exactly as Germany did after her victory over France in 1871.

“A BRAID OF HAIR: THE SENTENCE ON KEVIN BARRY’S BROTHER. - Mr. M. F. Healy, writing to the Westminster Gazette in reference to the case of Michael Barry, brother of the late Keyin Barry, recently arrested, says; This boy has, after a trial conducted without any notice to his family or friends, been sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment upon charges which deserve some further investigation. The charges against Michael were: “(1) Being in possession of arms (not in a martial law area; (2) being in possession of uniform; (3) cutting off a girl’s hair. /q. As he first two charges referred to (1) two cartridges, (4) two little Celtic caps that Michael and Kevin used to wear when they were ten and eight years old. It is to be hoped that the real animus lay behind the third. As to t us, it is true that there had been a hair-cutting outrage some lo miles away, but the only incriminating evidence against Michael Barry was a braid of girl’s hair found in his house. But what was the true explanation of this braid? Many years ago Michael Barry’s aunt entered a community o nuns, to whose charitable and skilful nursing the sick ot all parts of Ireland owe an unlimited gratitude. As is known to everybody except military courts, when a lady takes the vows admitting her to such an Order, she sacrifices, amongst other things, her hair, which is cut off and m many cases is kept by her family as one of the few mementoes left to them of a relative who is as if dead to the world. , It happens that . one of ray own relatives is at present under the care of this very lady, and it’is thus the facts have come to my knowledge. Of course this good nun cannot testify to anything except the one incident— Here is an 11 accent explanation of the braid of hair ” The relatives of Michael Barry (aged 20) have learned ! ’.d tl 6 ;* at , P T nt at Bererford Barrack, Curragh Camp, and that he has been sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment

SIR HAMAR GREENWOOD’S DOUBT. To counterbalance the unanimous vote of “Southern” Ireland for Sinn Fein, the Unionists of the six counties are now able to claim a substantial victory in the North (says the Manchester Guardian) The result of the elections there shows 40 members out of 52 who are prepared to work the artition Act, though the conditions under which polling took place go far to discount the value of the returns. Intimidation and personation appear to have been rampant on both sides, and when polling districts can be found m winch as many as 95, and in one case 99.5 per cent, of the electors “voted,” on a nine months’ old register, the number of dead men whose voices were thrown into the balance can be realised. In all the bigger centres, and particularly the Orange quarters of Belfast, the Unionists lad naturally the best of an election so conducted, but the effect is no more than to increase by two or three the membership of the Op'positionless Parliament which Sir James Craig will lead. The further meeting between Sir James am Mr. de Valera, which it was taken for granted would follow the elections, is now looked for as the most hopeful * next step. Meanwhile the Government replies to the increasing violence of Sinn Fein in the South by closing a number of creameries— an extension of the doctrine of vicarious punishment which it is sought to justify on the ground that the farmers who use them have failed to fill up the trenches dug by the I.R.A.— to the efforts of the moderates,” by forbidding the sale of the Freeman’s Journal in eight southern counties. More troops, too are to be sent over, to ensure Ireland’s further enjoyment of what Sir Hamar Greenwood describes as “the happy heritage of the present Act.” But it is significant that in a mated Irish debate in the House he has at last admitted that it is open to question whether repriasls are successful or not. May that doubt spread!