IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 15 September 1921, Page 35

IRISH NEWS

SHOCKING TREATMENT OF IRISH: VICTIM'S SWORN STATEMENT. On May 3 John Sullivan, an untried prisoner of Kill, Co. Kildare, died in Ballykinlar Camp. In a statement sworn on March 23 Sullivan described the conditions under which he was imprisoned at Naas, Co. Kildare, before his transfer to Ballykinlar: "... I was then put into the cell. The cell was filthy. There was another prisoner, Patrick Domican, with me, and there was only space for one to lie down. We had no covering and each of us had to lie down in turn on the concrete floor. The floor was wet and filthy. There was no latrine, and the cell had been used previously as a latrine. Any time we knocked to get out to relieve nature we were told if we made a noise we would get a bullet. They gave us nothing to eat." WIDOW'S SON SHOT DEAD: ANOTHER "REFUSAL TO HALT." Up to last week-end (May 21) 85 persons had been killed in Ireland by forces of the invader for "failing to halt" or "attempting to escape." The latest victim is John Sheahan of Colce, Listowel, shot dead a short distance from bis own home. It is alleged he failed to halt when called upon. The body was brought to the station in a lorry, and was subsequently handed to his friends for burial. Deceased, who is the son of a widow, was, it is said, proceeding to the residence of his uncle when he met his death. Greenwood, with all his customary brazen effrontery, says the Crown forces are not deserving of censure when they fire upon "persons found in suspicious circumstances who refuso to halt."

"PLEASURE" AS IT IS SEEN IN YAHOOLAND : "LADIES" AND OTHERS. The rejoicings over the Belfast elections took shape in open insult to Catholics. "Half-respectables, in some' cases, dressed up as nuns and priests, and paraded the thoroughfares for hours. Others constructed effigies of noted Catholic and non-Catholic leaders, and burned them in bonfires. At Sandy Row, a bier for Sinn Fein was covered with the Tricolor, and the letters "1.H.5." were printed on this, in mockery of Catholic observances. Four lighted candles were placed at tho four corners, and all this contrivance was borne through tho streets by four "ladies" dressed in boys' clothes. All that tho Orange press had to say of this ribaldry was that the merriment and gaiety consequent on the successful elections showed itself in "divers pleasant ways."

WORST EDUCATED CITY IN THE WORLD: HOW BELFAST COUNCILLORS HELP THE RIOTS. Speaking in Stevenson Square, Manchester, England, on Sunday, May 29, at a meeting called by the Independent Labor Party to help the Belfast expelled workers,, Mrs. Anna E. Robinson had some interesting accounts to give of the capital of the pogroms. Belfast, she said, was the worst-educated city in the world. Every day of the week thousands of young children are to be seen idling in the streets, the majority of whom were Protestants. The children, therefore, grew up t in ignorance, and very many of them never learned to either read or write. In fact, thousands of these people were the most ignorant citizens in any part of the British Empire. One way to teach the uneducated was by means of pictures, and this was done very much in Belfast. In all parts of the city there were pictures on the walls and gable-ends representing King William crossing the Boyne on a white horse. This was always held out to the Belfast worker as the one great event in the history -of the world, and his ignorant bigotry thus kept alive.'

WHAT IRELAND SEEKS. In a letter from Ireland, where, on behalf of the United Cable Service (Australasia) he has talked with Mr. de Valera, Mr. C. O'Sullivan, an Australian journalist, says: I drew attention to Mr. Lloyd George's recent speech at Portmadoc. On this Mr. de Valera said:"The British Premier's admission that two-thirds of the Irish people desired an independent republic ought to end finally the pretence that the republic was demanded only by a handful of violent extremists. Ireland has never voluntarily, by the will of its people, become a partner in either the so-called United Kingdom or in the British Empire. The only union between Britain and Ireland has been that of tho grappling hook. If Mr. Lloyd George wants a parallel from American history for our fight for the republic, he will find it, not in the civil war, but in the War of Independence following 1776." r When I asked why Ireland would not accept a status like that of the British overseas Dominions, Mr. de Valera replied:—"No such status has ever been offered to Ireland, and until it becomes possible to translate Ireland to the antipodes, or to another hemisphere, no such status is realisable." What solution do you propose? "A neutral Irish state," said Mr. de Valera, "whose inviolability would be guaranteed by, say, the United States and the States of the British Empire, and any others that could be secured as signatories. A free Ireland would never allow its territories or its harbors to be made the base of an attack upon England by an outside power." "Do you hope for anything from the Imperial Conference "Only this, the English Government is waging a cruel and unjust war upon our people, not in her own name alone, but in that of the whole British Empire. I cannot believe that the peoples of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa, who had themselves to fight for the freedom they now enjoy, and who would fight to the last against any attempt on the part of Britain to circumscribe it, would willingly join in the suppression of liberty here. The Conference gives an opportunity for repudiating any share in the British Government's barbarous warfaro upon us." "Do you expect to achieve your aim?" "Yes. With the will to endure all things rather than abandon their ideal, the Irish people are unconquerable."

CROWN .COLONY GOVERNMENT. The Southern Unionists elected to the Irish Senate of the South have no idea of helping Mr. George if the present negotiations fail. The London Press Association states that the following memorial has been sent to Mr. Lloyd George by the Senators of the Parliament of Southern Ireland:''We, the undersigned, having been elected to serve in tho Senate of Southern Ireland, desire to place it on record that in accepting such appointment we do so with the intention of exercising the fullest freedom, of action as to. the powers to be hereafter granted to the Parliament and Government of Southern Ireland. "We are of opinion that, the powers given under the present Act are insufficient to enable the Government of Southern Ireland to be carried on with any prospect of success, and, having regard to the speech of the Lord Lieutenant at Belfast on June 7, we urge that the earliest possible steps should be taken to recast the Act. "We desire, further, to make it clear that we are ready to act in a Second Chamber with a Lower House, sitting constitutionally, as representing a majority of the electors, but we are not prepared to exercise functions in connection with any body nominated by the Lord Lieutenant to replace an elected Lower House." The statement is signed by Lords Desart, Do Freyne, Donoughmore, and Dunraven; Sir Wm. Goulding, Lords Granard, ; Holmpatrick, Inchiquin ; Mr. W. " McMurrough Kavanagh, Lord Kenmare, Sir Bryan Mahon, Lords Mayo, Midleton, Cranmore, and Browne, Powerscourt, Rathdonnell, Sligo, Sir Thos. Stafford, and Lord Wicklow. }