IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 30, 2 August 1923, Page 43

IRISH NEWS

BOUNDARY PROBLEM AND OTHER MATTERS. Mr. Kevin. O’Higgins (Minister for Home Affairs), speaking recently at open-air meeting in Bray under the auspices of Cnmann na nGaedheal, referred to the coming elections, and said this country had big problems ahead of it political problems that would call for a comprehensive outlook. It had the problem of the North-Eastern Boundary Commission to deal with and handle; and it would have to be handled with delicacy and with skill, and with a knowledge of the real position, and a knowledge of all the under-currents ; and they (the Free State Government) said that, as a group apart from the particular personnel, they knew the undercurrents, and they were better qualified to handle a problem of that kind arising out of the conditions of the last lour or five years than a new party would be that was returned simply oh sectional interests. (Applause.) Referring to the struggle of the past year, Air. O’Higgins said there were certain broad principles upon which civilisation rested; there were certain democratic principles which were necessary for order in every country, and one of those was a recognition that the people, fit or unfit, wise or unwise, must rule; and it was to be regretted that principle had been challenged there and had cost the people and Ireland a year of bitter struggle and a debt of twenty millions of pounds. But the vindication of that principle was worth a year of bitter struggle and worth a debt of twenty millions of pounds —(applause)—for unless and until that principle was definitely vindicated there would be no progress, no peace, no order in Ireland. They had had a year of bitter struggle, a year of citizen against citizen, a year of divisions in every hamlet and almost in every home in the country, but the principle bad been vindicated, and this country could now go forward in peace and order and reconstruction, and no responsible person in this country had any desire to be vindictive. It was not pleasant to remember that a section of their own countrymen went out with bomb and torch to make war upon their own people. About these bidden arms, these dumped arms, he wanted to say this; Why were they hidden? Why were they dumped? Was it .to use them against their own citizens? They (the Ministers) would come before the people in a few mouths simply as men who with a great responsibility upon them did their best for the plain people of this country, and wore prepared to continue to do so. LARKIN’ ACTIVITIES. Mr. Jim Larkin appears to have organised a new kind of irregnlarism in Ireland (writes the Dublin correspondent of the Manchester Guardian for June 15). It is not an attack upon the body politic, but an attempt to establish by force majeure his old ascendancy over the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union. According to a statement which has been issued to the press by members of the Executive Committee of the Union, Air. Larkin and other persons acting with him, some of whom are not members of the Union, have taken possession of the head offices of the Union and of Liberty Hall and refused admittance to the president, the treasurer, and other members of the Executive Committee, who were prevented by force, under Air. Larkin’s personal direction, from entering tho head office premises. . That is the official story of Air. Larkin’s little coup. A more circumstantial account of the. incident states that on Monday about 100 members of the Union marched through the streets, accompanied by Air. Larkin, and took possession of the head offices of the Union in Parnell Square and of Liberty Hall, and when members of the Executive Committee arrived some time later they were pitched out without ceremony, and told they had been suspended. The Executive Committee met later in the day and suspended Mr. Larkin from his office of general secretary of the Union. When Air. Larkin returned to Ireland it was quite expected that his forcible personality would cause an

ebullition in the trade union movement. He found circumstances greatly changed, and did not easily get into touch with them. As time went on it became clear that he meant to recover his old authority among the transport and general workers, and those who do not love him say that, having failed by constitutional means, he has adopted the method, rather admired in some quarters, of Signor Mussolini. According to the Executive Committee of the Union, he appears to have spent Sunday in visiting Dublin branches making wholesale charges of corruption, fraud, and jobbery, and declaring the Executive Committee suspended, and, regardless of rules, announcing himself as controller of the Union. If one reads the omens aright, he is fighting a losing battle. In the Chancery Court on Monday the trustees sought an injunction against him. Mr. Justice Powell said they were not entitled to an injunction pending an action, but he would give an interim injunction pending service of a notice of motion for next Monday in order to give Mr. Larkin an opportunity to appear. His Obscure Politics. In national politics Mr. Larkin is obscure. Before his arrival be was heralded as an out-and-out Republican. His name was coupled with that of Mr. de Valera by the extreme element in Waterford when it was engaged in shouting down the leader of the Labor Party in . the Bail. He has advised submission to the Government nationally but denial of the oath. At Obarleville last week ho said that if he stood for the Bail he would stand as a Rapubbean refusing to take the oath. Before the real fight for freedom began, they must, he said, “deliver up the guns » I here was no shame in doing so, and they could then carry on Republican propaganda on ordinary sane lines. Mr. Larkin must have something in his mind. Is it Mr. de Valera and a Republican party busily engaged in peaceful persuasion, or is that conception only one of Mr. de Valera’s ideas m which Mr. Larkin has been embroidered as a leading motive? IRREGULARS’ PROPAGANDA REPUTED. The following are taken from amongst hundreds of prisoners letters dated mostly April and May, 1923. Thev prove, out of the mouths of the prisoners themselves, how false and malicious is the propaganda of the Irregulars und Mr. de Valera’s other agents regarding the treatment) ", these men. fins propaganda is as cruel to the relatives ° f .‘" 6 P ns ™ as it is discreditable to the persons who assist it. One of the prisoners writes ; —“Don’t mind the rumors you. hear about ns. You ought to lie up to those raise rumors by now. We are 0.K.” It should lie remembered that the prisoners who have boon treated so well by the elected National Government lave a von part in a treasonable revolt, have destroyed millions of pounds worth of public and private property, and have shot down National soldiers. AI. ii Fr r om i?j C^oo° akley (Cnrra S ll) t 0 Mr - William Coakley, a on . 17/0/23. . . . “I want nothing more at present, as we have everything here we want.” . From Michael McAnliffe (Curragli) to Mr. Denis McAnhffe, Macro™ 17/5/23. . . “This is a. good place. \\ e have plenty of room for exercise and good air ” 11/r ,;; m ' Sean Gormley (Tintown) to Mrs. B. Gormlev. i /o/Zd. ' . -I have nothing to complain of and am enjoying the best of good health.” From Eamonn Enright ’(Tintown) to his brother. ,; ' * ” e have some acres of ground about which from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. .1500 gentlemen of various sorts and conditions may be seen promenading.” , 4i ‘n ■ * i “Beyond the wires stretches the broad plain of the Curragh with Wicklow mountains rising fold on fold along the eastern border. Here and there are scattered stables from which clouds of racehorses issue in the early morning and canter in long' strings all over the plain.” “Inside the huts. are two long rows of spring beds, 50 on each side, with the bedclothes neatly folded on each and four stoves round which we .sit each , night till 10 p.m., when the lights go out.” ■ (( From John McElligott (Tralee Prison) to Miss . “We have plenty of everything, so don’t mind sending anything more.” ty ■, ty From Jeremiah O’Shea. (Tralee Prison) to Miss- ■- “We have a. grand time here. It is like no prison life and plenty of company.”