HOW "REBEL CORK" WAS QUELLED

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2801, 20 June 1916, Page 5

HOW "REBEL CORK" WAS QUELLED

v THE TERRIBLE SERGEANT. The "Daily Mail's" special correspondent at Cork during the recent Sinn Fein rebellion, tells the following entertaining'story of an incident of the aftermath"There was a rare row in Cork round about midnight last night. Had not tho rebels already 'surrendered their ■anus, and had not their accepted leadeTs been away on the poaco mission, and had not the Royal -Irish Constabulary acted with, supreme tact,, strength, -and wisdom, thero would have been bloodshed and murder in 'rebel Cork.' A number of Sinn Fein prisoners arrived, at the barracks from tho country. They wero in turn pelted with rubbish and hooted by. tho loyalists, and cheered by the still /smouldering Sinn Feiners. These latter—a crowd o{ smooth-chinned youngsters in a very evil temper—trooped down into the town. From street corner to street corner the. news'spread, and to a rallentando roar of 'Up, Dublin!' a thousand men swept tho streets, carrying all before them. In fierce, sharp rushes they set about all manner ot mischief.

"Matters got so desperate that at last the soldiers were sent for. A couplo ot hundred of them marched down from the barracks with fixed bayonets and six rounds of. ball cartridge in their pouches. ,A tremendous Irish sergeant with a face and a jaw -of absolute ter-ror-inspiring ferocity led them, planted lines of them, five paces apart, across the road, gave them tho order to load, and climbing upon a handy tramwaycar, addressed the mob in a great voice oi brass:

. thin, ye dam fools. Dhrop all mis - nonsense, and go homo quiet. And as tor you, Molly—(he addressed a tall woman standing near with a black shawl picturesquely .wrapped across her head) ye ought, to be ashamed o' versol to be a Sinn Feinerl Go home, Molly, and take the children wid ye!' . Iu dead' silence the crowd wavered for a moment, the line of naked bayonets gleaming under tho sizzle ,of the tall electric lights.. The crowd saw that the soldiers meant business. Somebodv *- 0 thistle 'Who Fears to Speak of ?' A follow Sinn Feiner at his side silenced him with a Wow m the mouth—and that seemed to finish the trouble. The rebel ranks of 'Rebel Lork -wavered, broke, and speedily melted away, and I am pretty sure that that s the last we shall have of rebellion in Cork. ,