What Happened in Belfast

New Zealand Tablet, 29 December 1921, Page 22

What Happened in Belfast

A Londoner, writing in the Catholic Times, gives an intimate survey of his experiences in the capital city of Carsonia: Outrage by an Orange Mob In the summer of last year the nuns had to seek refuge elsewhere, and the Blessed Sacrament from their beautiful chapel upstairs was taken away to a place of safety. Hardly were they gone when the Orange mob forced an entrance, poured petrol on the floor, and set the place on fire. There was an attempt to stop the fire-engine, but it fought its way through the crowd, and the flames "were put ' out. We stood in the parlor and saw the burnt piano and the partition wall black and charred from floor to ceiling, with holes for panels. A rampart of earth holds up the wooden gates where the mob broke in. Stones came through the upper lights of the stained windows in the chapels, and apparently-- the Sisters -have had to keep mending their front windows ever since. Their work is to teach in the elementary schools and to visit and comfort the poor. One would think the most bitter mind could find no cause against those gentle Sisters of the Cross and Passion. But they cannot go through Protestant streets even on an errand of love and mercy; and the little children coming to their schools are apt to be molested and “ragged” by grown-up men for being Catholics. This is Ulster freedom. The Disposition of the People “Is that the priest’s house?” we ask a ’strapping daughter of Belfast, who strides along the middle of the street with swinging arms and the usual factory shouldershawl. “But what has happened to break the priest’s windows?” “They do be fightin’ round about here,” she says with a comfortable defiance. We remonstrate: “But isn’t it a queer thing to see the priest’s windows broken like that?” Then the daughter of Belfast jerks the shawl closer about her broad shoulders with strong fists. “Air ye coom dcon heeyar,” she says, “to give ; us a slop in the face?” She looks quite ready to give a real “slop in the face” in return for a figurative one. Repartee like that is apt to silence the enquiring mind. Brave and Generous. Minority. At the last census the Catholics of Belfast were over 93,000 among population of more- than 293,000. But they are no insignificant minority. They have done great things. Mostly poor, hated by Orange bigotry, and kept out of the jobs, they have still built'and maintained for their children the finest schools in the: place—schools that are coveted by V the Orange party, who advocate the - education of all alike

in : the non-religious schools of the State. The Catholic 93,000 have also built churches ; that testify -to their faith ' and -fervor—Gothic churches about twice the size of. those rw we see in London, complete -with carved. altars; spacious seating, stained | glass -windows, and. perfectly • 'proportioned spire. The stained windows are - well protected with wire outside not without need. In the summer of last year relays of men held St. ' Matthew’s in Newtownards Road, day and night for weeks. They did the same: at other churches, and are doing, it J now whenever necessity arises; a few attempts at wrecking were met and frustrated, and the churches have been guarded and kept safe from sacrilege. To enter one of them and see the people make their visits, the workman with no work coming in to kneel, the mother taking her child to pray where clusters of votive candles burn, one would think there was no trouble in Belfast. yy■ Damage to Catholic Shops As one traverses Newtownards Road and its immediate neighborhood, countless small shops are to be seen under repair, or badly damaged, or altogether boarded up. These are the premises of Catholic tradespeople who had their shops cleared out and their goods looted and burned. In the Orange riots from July to September last year houses in this part of the town were set on fire with utter disregard for human life. At a moment’s notice old bedridden people had to be dragged into the street; mothers, children,- invalids, all had to clear out or be burned alive. In one case the lower part of a house was already on fire while an old, helpless person was being carried down from the top. The furniture and beds were piled in the streets to burn among a pitiless mob, and while, the bonfires raged the British Forces of the Crown often looked on as idle witnesses. Catholic Homes Ruined Now let us go back again to the centre of the city, the Belfast of public buildings, broad streets, and fine shops. . From the centre we travel away along the Falls Road. We alight at a region of workmen’s houses, where every human dwelling as partially or completely ruined by Orange wreckers, only a few weeks ago. Here, last July, a hundred and sixty Catholic homes were pillaged or ; burn- ■ ed We go in amazement upythe middle of a street, which, from the smallness of the houses, appears to he of interminable length and everywhere there are panels kicked out of doors, lower windows barricaded or mended, upper windows with glass and sashes smashed -gaps two and two, like the empty eye-holes of a skull. Some of these houses were bombed and completely burnt out. Looking into one of these through* the open square that once was a window, one sees among the rubbish the broken mangle that earned a few pence; in another, portions of iron bedsteads twisted and bent, that came down through the flames when the upper floor gave way. Some of the sidestreets have a wall at one side, and a , wall across the end,' and in each of these there must have been a veritable hell of terror in the blocked cul-de-sac, unless the ejected families fled over back walls. The side wall of one of these short by-streets bears the chalked inscription “No Pope here”; and one reads in huge letters across the end Avail, where nine houses have been destroyed. “This is the King’s Roe.” The Spelling at the Orange Schools seems to leave something to be desired. Union Jack and Smashed Windows Next we explore a little street, a high wall to the left, six houses to the right; and every one of those six Avorkmen’s dwellings has had the Avindows smashed out, sashes and all. The lower ones are covered with white boards nailed fast, and from each of the upper empty holes there Kangs out on a stick a Union Jack, little or big. When are English people going to wake up to the disgrace of their flag in Belfast .- Numbers s of families and ruinous hovels. They try to pay the rent. .. They don’t, Avant the Catholic to be exterminated from ; Belfast. Here is a typical example. The long street is deserted, but there are groups at some doors. We see a thin woman holding a baby in her arms; a boy of nineteen, . still thinner, leans against the door-posta straight, well-set-up lad that would he glad to be working; and ; there is a girl ' about fifteen • who looks as; if she could. work, too. They are at the door for air, timid, disinclined* to speak. -When

one says, “I am a Catholic..: Why have] they done this tor your houses?’’ the fear of the strangers disappears} and they say* “Come in and look!” There is a black floot and an empty rooiri, a 4 little staircase up by the back wall is strewn with the debris of a torn partition where the laths grin through the plaster above. Not a stick of furniture was left to these people. The woman takes the baby with her to a hired bed somewhere else, and the others have got in two bundles of straw, which are the whole furniture of the upper storey. Since the wrecking, by some incredible luck they have bought a table, which is below in the kitchen window, and a chair that stands in the middle of the floor and supports the whole wardrobe of the family. The lower window is mended and a screen strung across it. The table is well scrubbed and holds their half-loaf, two enamelled cups, and the baby’s bottle. They have a little fire, and the black cat has come back to sit at it. Their broken statues are on the chimney-piece. In fact, they are trying to keep a home. Now, what happened? How the Wreckers do their Evil Work On the Saturday there was some story of an ambush, with the result that the noise of riot kept these people awake the whole night long. They had good iron bedsteads upstairs then, with blankets and bedding, where the straw bundles are now on the floors of the two cup-board-like rooms. Not 'having dared to go to bed, they were able at least to take the clothes they stood in when, at six o’clock on the Sunday morning, the rioters, who had undoubtedly been up all night, riotously came sweeping in a mob up the street, and everybody had to run out for their lives. The second-next house was bombed and set blazing furiously, like several more, here and there. The destroyers broke in front and back, passed out furniture and beds to the crowd, and smashed to pieces what they could not take. “Look at my pictures,” says the poor woman; and from the rubbish swept to -the wall she lifts part of an oleograph of the “Descent from the Cross,” glass and frame splintered, paper torn in two. “We were in this house fourteen years,” she said, “and we had it consecrated to the Sacred Heart; and — up there!” The only picture that has survived, the only fragile hometreasure that was pot shivered to pieces, is a little colored picture of the Sacred Heart hanging near the window. It is ‘perfect, frame, glass, and all; and the woman’s hand has found a few artificial flowers to put above it. Children Bombed Only a few days after our visit, in another Catholic street, when the children were playing about the doors, and night was falling, a bomb was exploded. One Protestant family living near had received' warning to retreat in safety. This bomb serioulsy injured two . children of nine and five and three grown-up persons, including a girl who was removed dying. Such is Catholic life in Belfast under Orange rule. Such is the position of a minority of 93,000 in one city alone where an Ulster Government leans upon England, instead of being a local body responsible to Ireland. Events move fast. - Since the beginning of - this visit the trouble has developed into open war on the Catholics.