PALMY DAYS FOR GUNRUNNERS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1966, 24 January 1914, Page 8

PALMY DAYS FOR GUNRUNNERS.

... IRELAND IX THE EARLY 'SO's. .If arms should be confiscated in IDs'W as a result of the new proclamation tho Irish Executive is not likely to blunder as badly .in disposing of them as it did in the early 'eighties, during tile first stages of the Land \V ar. At that time the c&untr.y was swept bare, and largo quantities of rifles and shotguns for which owners hud no licenses were forfeited, and those wero stored at Pigeon House Fort, Dublin, and after nn interval offered for sale outside Ireland. A French contractor bought the lot at something less than a shilling, apiece, loader) thorn on to a brig, and sailed out of Dublin Bay. Shortly afterwards alarming reports reached the Castle that gun-running was in full swing along iho western seaboard. .. A couple- of cruisers wero sent to in- ' vestigate and the commander of one of these discovered tho brig, which'should have been well on her way to France, lying in « creek near the mouth of ■Shannon. As she was flying French colours, she could not lie. dealt with .ill as summary a fashion as a• British vessel, and tho captain when questioned blandly declared he had come some hundreds of miles out of his course to Im.v provisions. The cruisers escorted iho brig back to France, but for months afterwards troops and constabulary had a busy time recovering for Dublin Capita the arms with which it had parted so easily. The most famous organiser of gunrunning at this period was the. Sate Michael Davitt. Tinder the guise of acommercial'traveller in firearms Davitt shipped thousands of rifles into Ireland, from I!rent Britain. Davitt was caught at- last, and paid a heavy price. On tho chargfl of procuring anus and animuni- ■ lion for seditions purposes lie was seii.tenced ta fifteen years' penal servitude.