THE BELFAST RIOTS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1282, 24 September 1886, Page 3

THE BELFAST RIOTS.

Rioting commenced again in Belfast on July 31. It was caused by a band of musio and an accompanying crowd on their way to meet a Sunday school excursion. The crowd hooted a knot of catholics assembled on Garrick Hill, and they replied with stones. Soon a large mob of Orangemen assembled, and the fight became general. A large tavern, owned by a Catholic named M'Kenna, was wrecked, and also a number of houses believed to be inhabitated by Catholics, The police were ordered to file buckshot, which they did, killing an errand boy named Knox, and seriously wounding many of the rioters. The military were also called out. The fighting continued more or less severe till August 6, when affairs assumed a very grave aspect. The city was placarded with the Mayor’s proclamation forbidding assemblies on the street, which was pretty much unheeded. In response to urgent telegrams sent from Belfast to Dublin on the Bth, 400 soldiers were summoned by bugle in the streets, and were despatched in hot haste to the scene of the riots. They were followed by a body of 200 dragoons and infantry next morning The rioting on the morning of the Bth August was severe and sanguinary. It broke out in the old Lodge road, were the police fired on the mob, and in the evening it was'renewed with greater, violence in the same locality, as woli as on the flrosveiior and Springfield roads. Many persons with gunshot wounds were sent to Iho hospitals.' Eleven deaths wff° reported, and the number of wounded put down at 200. The In • sector-general was surrounded by a mob on Lodge street, and was obliged to run for his life. On the 9th hostilities were renewed by a fierce encounter between the soldiers and the mob, in which a number of the latter were wounded. A soldier at close quarters fired at a boy and shattered his hand, for which the soldier was arrested. One thousand two hundred troops arrived on the 9th, but the attempts to stop the rioting were unsuccessful The violence of the mob had rather inc-eased. Thirty rioters were wounded during the morning by the merciless fire kept up by the police. The hospitals were taxed to the utmost to accommodate the great number of wounded persons in need of assistance. A painful feature was the number of children wounded, while bands of youths and girls indulged in every kind of rowdyism. The shops and business places in the city remained open as usual, but the authorities ordered all taverns to be closed till the evening of the 10th, at the same time notifying to the wholesale and beer dealers that a penalty of LlO would be inflicted for selling drink for consumption in the vicinity of their premises. The heaviest lighting was on Sunday night, the Bth, and occuired at Springfield. Here a battle was waged in regular guerilla fashion. The Catholics held the field, protected by the trees, while Protestants occupied an embrasure opposite, in which they lay down. The contestants aimed with remarkable coolness, picking each other off as if they were so many tar< gets. They were not interfered with by the police or soldiers, who were fully occupied in the city. It is sail that in this affair sixty rioters were shot, many fatally. Throughout the day and evening of the 10th sullen crowds gathered in the streets. A desire to renew the fighting was evident, but fear of the troops prevented fresh outbreaks. Tbo Queen s Island men rejected the Magistrate’s appeal to return to their homes in small bodies instead of in compact crowds. They carried a good supply of missiles for use in the event of being attacked. The Magistrates dealt severely with the rioters, who were tried on the 10th. About fivef o’clock in the afternoon two men were shot by disorderly persons in different parts of the city. One while attending the funeral of a victim of the riots. Owing to the wreck and ruin of houses the city presented a deplorable aspect. Its appearance was similar to tint of Paris after the Commune. The London • Daiiy News’ attributes the sole responsibility of these scones of bloodshed to Lord Randolph Churchill. The bitterness of feeling was most intense, and the presence of the police tended to increase rather than diminish the disorder. The Protestants declare that the Catholics were the aggressors by wrecking the houses of the P otestant*, while Catholics were equally' certain that the Protestants were the aggressors. Of one thing there is no doubt, viz,, never did two mobs of different religions display a more bloodthirsty desire to kill or maim each other During the fighting on Sunday, the Bth, and next day, whenever the powder ran short the viragoes on both sides, with flatirons'or other implements, ground large-grained blasting powder into a size suitable for small arms, while boys of tender age melted lead into bullets and slugs. While the rioters were firing youths and women stood behind them busily loading spare guns, in order to prevent any waste of time. The fusillade lasted two day's, when the ammunition gave out and a tacit truce ensued, sides removing their dead and wounded to their homes. Both Catholics and Protcs tants studiously concealed their losses. On Monday the Protestants received twentyfive rifles and ranch ammunition from Rally Maccarett sympathers, while the Bally Mahirch Nationalists sent the Catholics a supply of ammunition and many revolvers of a type called the “ sweetheart.” This plentifulness of weapons causes alarm for the future, and there is a general demand in the city for a house-to-house search for arms. The city was reported qn : et on the llth, and that the wounded were gradually improving. A numerously signed petition was banned to the Mayor on that day demanding the appointment of a Royal Commission to investigate and report upon the causes of the disorders which have occurred in Belfast since June last. The Cabinet decided oh the 13rh to appoint such a Commission. The Irish newspapers have expressed great gratification at this. The police have not dared to venture into the Shankhall road direct for fear of the mob. Rioting was resumed on the 15th From midnight till 4 o’clock a.m. a fight was kept up on Shankhail and Old Falls roads. One person was killed and many wounded. The town seethed with excitement, and a recurrence of the sectarian strife was carried on in the bloodiest fashion. Expert riflemen joined in conducting the shooting from the rooftops, chimney stacks, and street corners. Immense crowds of partisans, who carefully kept out of range, assisted by supplying ammunition and removing tho wounded. Sides were equally divided. Wherever the military appeared the combatants shifted their ground. Finally, at 5 p.m., after the Riot Act had been read, the troops charged upon the crowds and cleared the streets temporarily. The mob repeatedly charged the police, and the order instructing the latter to use buckshot instead of bullets was cancelled. An old man and two women, inmates of a house in Conway street from which many shots had been fired, were arrested and taken to prison, escorted by a howling mob. The Orangemen admitted that in this fight one of their men named M’Parlane was killed, and two others named Smith and Johnson were mortally wounded , also that there were a number of minor casualties on their side. They claim that they killed and wounded many Catholics, but the latter deny this. Many houses were riddled with bullets. Scores of prisoners have been brought to Kilmainham

Gaol at Dublin to await trial, the.lqcal Belfast prisons being full. While the men from Queen’s Island were returning home, they were met, tarred, and feathered. The military, in charging the mob on the 15th, bayoneted Magistrate Burke, who was in plain clothes, and assisting the wounded rioters. Mr Burke had to oe taken to the hospital. Despatches dated the 18th say that the workmen have been warned off Queen’s Island. Prior to the disorders hundreds were at work there. In many large establishments the Catholic employes have been forced to quit. Nine policemen, who have been indicted for murder in unnecessarily firing upon the. citizans of Belfast, have applied to the Court of Queen’s Bench for permission to get bail, and their request was granted. On the evening of the 23rd the police made an attempt to disperse the mob in the Orange district of Sbankhall. The mob growing infuriated threw volley after volley of stones at the police and routed them, finishing up by wrecking the barracks, which were defondedj.'by twenty men.