IRISH LOYALISTS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 114, 11 February 1928, Page 10

IRISH LOYALISTS

SUFFERINGS AT HANDS OF REPUBLICANS INADEQUATE PAYMENTS AS COMPENSATION CHARGES AGAINST BRITISH GOVERNMENT Bi Telegraph.—Pkess Association. Copyright (Rec. February 10, 10.35 p.m.) London, February 9. Nine Irishmen, who desire to remain anonymous, because publicity would endanger their lives, recounted to the Southern Irish Loyalists’ Relief Association their sufferings due to the treaty. They emphasised that the British Government had betrayed them, drastically curtailing the compensation awarded, entailing the ruin of hundreds. A prominent Dublin man said he was burned out and raided twice, and kidnapped once. He rebuilt at a cost of £7500, for which purpose the Free State granted him £6OOO, and the Irish Grants Committee £l5OO, which did not enable him to furnish.. For this reason he liaji to leave liis house as “a memorial to the fool who believed in the pledges of the British Cabinet Minister.” Another stated that his house was burned! down and two sons, aged 14 years and 19, shot dead in the presence of their mother. He escaped to England. His cattle were not sold, his horses went unshod, and his pastures were flooded by the Republicans, who murderously hunted him to the mountains. He managed eventually to take his family overseas. The committee awarded him £7OOO and paid 30 per cent, of that amount. A business man asserted that the Republicans fired volleys through his door and windows and hunted him througnout the country. The payment of £'2050 did not compensate him for the loss of his business, worth £7OO a year. A Tipperary farmer said that because he helped a fugitve to escape the Republicans wrecked his motor-car, shot dead two companions, robbed his house and turned the family out, stole his cattle and furniture ,and kidnapped his son. A Republican court ordered him to pay £l4OO compensation. He borrowed £14,000 to go surety for friends. The committee awarded him £6OOO and paid £2125. Field Marshal Wilson’s brother asserted that the committee cut down his claim for £6750 to £2350.—A.P.A. and “Sun.”