COMMISSION'S REPORT

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2271, 3 October 1914, Page 7

COMMISSION'S REPORT

THE DUBLIN TRAGEDY). By Telegraph—Press Association—Oopyrißht (Rec. Ocober 3, 0.40 a.ni) ■ -London, October 1. The Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the circumstances attending the riot in Dublin following upon the guu : runnisig incident at Howth bj tho Nationalist Volunteers, has issued its report. The commission found that military intervention was not warranted; that _ Mr. Harrell, Assistant Police Commissioner, was responsible for_ calling out the military and the police; that Sir James Dougherty, • T «dor-SecretaTy to tho Lord. Lieutou- • ant, was blameless; that General Cuthbert should have considered whether the seizure of arms was marked by the proper authority, and his compliance with Mr. Han-ell's call was wrong.. On Sunday, July 26, a thousand volunteers marched out of Dublin, accompanied by signalling corps,- ambulance and four food wagons, and reached Howth at noon. Simultaneously, a fifty-ton yacht, steered by a woman, approached the quay. , A company of volunteers, armed with long oak batons, seized the harbour, and covered tho i coa.stguardsmen with revolvers, arid I within 'half an hour 2600 rifles were landed on the quays, each in two pieces, I and wero hastily put togothor, until a thousand volunteers - secured a riilo apieco. The rest were loaded into motor-cars and convoyed north to the country above Dublin. Tlie ammunition was placed in .the food wagons'. Directly the coastguards regained their freedom they telephoned to Dublin, and three hundred police'went ■ out and mot the volunteers marching back at Clontarf. Tho police took up positions on either side of the road, and simultaneously ,a tramload of the Scottish Borderers .arrived. 'Thoy were ordered to fix bayonets and were doubled up to meet the volunteers. The latter sought to take another road, hoping to reach Dublin without interruption, but the police momentarily prevented their escape, when a conflict ensued, the volunteers firing revolvers and slightly wounding two soldiers.

As tlio Scottish Borderers ■' reached Dublin from Olontarf a hostile crowd met thorn at Bachelors' Walk, and made a Gerco and determined attack. The soldiers made several efforts to persuade the crowd to desist stoning, ancl eventually twenty were dqtailed to oheck the onward rush by firing a volley, which tho .soldiers followed up by charging with fixed bayonets and scattered the crowd. The troops fired another volley in Ship Street, where they wounded three men. Another hostile crowd met the soldiers at O'Connel Bridge, where another, volley ; was fired, several being wounded. Two vdlleys wore fired at the metal bridge, where fifteen were shot, and three volleys at the Wellington Bridge, where a' number were shot. The'excitement in Dublin increased in the .evening. ■ The mob tried to enter the barracks whore the Scottish Borderers were confined. They fired revolvers and hooted the other troops. A crowd wrecked a tramcar in which a soldier was seated, and savagely kicked and beat him. Other isolated soldiers, including two Scottish Borderers, who W6ro pulled from their . cycles, Vero beaten, and the cycles thrown into tho Liffey.