Irish Republicans’ Campaign of Fire

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 15, 19 April 1923, Page 17

Irish Republicans’ Campaign of Fire

The Irish Irregulars have for the time being (says the Manchester Guardian for February 9) abandoned attacks on the armed forces of the State as their chief weapon of strategy, and are concentrating more and more upon the civilian population, burning private houses, offices, and stores, shooting and threantening citizens. A village in county Cavan was shot up on Tuesday as a reprisal for the death of an Irregular who was killed by a soldier during a previous raid on the village. The Republicans killed, two of the villagers, injured another, and burned and bombed several houses and shops. They engaged in an orgy of looting. During the week-end a train was wrecked in the south, one set on fire and destroyed in Mayo, and another partly destroyed in county Dublin. Colonel Guinness's house in county Louth has been burned down, as was also the Mayo home of Colonel Maurice Moore, and birthplace of his brother, Mr. George Moore. The country residence of Mr. John Russell, subsheriff of county Louth, and the Wicklow scat of Colonel Eustace Maude have been destroyed. Dr. Sigerson, the oldest member of the Free State Senate, a supporter* of every left-wing movement for Irish freedom from Fenian days onward, and distinguished for his scientific and literary work, has resigned in consequence of the threats by Irregulars to burn his house. ' The offices and stores of a film company in Dublin were burned down on Tuesday and about one million feet of film destroyed. Eight people were injured. A convention of ex-I.R.A. men who had retired from active .politics was held in Dublin on Sunday to consider means of bringing the civil war to an end.

A Wild Reprisal Raid. The little town of Ballyconnell. this morning suffered, a raid in which two of the inhabitants were shot dead and a third was wounded. Ballyconnell is in county Cavan, not far from the northern border of the Free State, though the experiences it has lately undergone suggest that a more appropriate setting for it would be the Wild West of the pioneering days. The raiders swooped down upon the town like Redskins at 8.15 this morning from their lair in the Arigna Mountains. They were under the command of an Irregular leader well known in the district named Bolfin. A month ago the town was raided in a similar way by a band of Irregulars whose leader, Cull, was shot during the affray by a soldier. To-day Bolfin announced that his men had come to wreck vengeance on the town for the death of Cull. Entering the long main street they bombed and set fire to the house of a merchant named Dolphan and that of his cousin next door, and smashed all the plate-glass, windows in the street. They attacked Foster's business premises and shot dead an assistant named Ryan and wounded Owen, a partner in the firm, in the leg. The other man they killed was McGrath, an Irish teacher from Gal way. The raid lasted only a short time, and the marauders departed twenty minutes before the arrival of the National troops, who had been summoned from Belturbet, six miles away, and Cavan. The fires were soon extinguished, and the troops have remained to guard the town against further attack. A telephone message from Belturbet to-night says that none of the raiders has been captured yet. The Irregulars numbered 50 or 60. Ex-I.R.A. Convention. The meeting in Dublin of the Ex-I.R.A. Men's Associa-. tion brings with it a faint ray of hope, though it is much too early to assume that it will necessarily bring peace between the Free State and its enemies any nearer. The meeting, which was attended by delegates from many parts of the country, assembled to discuss the possibility of intervention with a view to ending the struggle. Its main value lies in this, that the Association is composed of men who, though they were all members of the I.R.A. before the truce, are professedly neutral in the present campaign of violence, refusing to serve on either side in the civil war that has succeeded the settlement with Britain. It is understood that the Association includes some men who, though neutral at this moment, have been fighting on one side or the other since the Free State was set up,, but notwithstanding this there are certainly several genuine and consistent seekers after peace in its ranks, some of whom held responsible offices in the I.R.A. before the truce. Perhaps the best tribute to the potentialities for peace at the movement is the alarm with which the militant republicans look upon the meeting. They declared it in advance to be an attempt to spring upon the delegates "terms of settlement which would guarantee the functioning of the Free State and which would be utterly impossible for Republicans to accept." . 44,4. _

Hibernian Society, Waimate There was a good attendance at the recent quarterly meeting of the Waimate branch of the Hibernian Society, at which Bro. J. Hughes presided. The balance sheet showed the finances of the branch to be very satisfactory, and it was adopted unanimously. At the termination of the routine business the meeting resolved itself into a social gathering. These* functions are intended to be held at the close of each quarterly meeting to afford members an opportunity of meeting' in social intercourse, and at the same time keeping in touch with the affairs of the society. The idea also is that by the -,medium of such gatherings the young members have an opportunity of practising the art of public speaking. A welcome was extended to Mr. Keyes, a young business man who lately came to reside in Waimate.