UNION JACK AT LONGFORD

Hokitika Guardian, 20 July 1917, Page 4

UNION JACK AT LONGFORD

ELECTION THAT IS “ALMOST LIKE OLE TIMES.” Dubinin, May 9 Longfowl is, in /ordinary c ircumstances, a quiet Irish country town, the market town of a smiling and prosperous countryside, where the topic of the hour is the price of cattle and of sheep, and where the great world war, which makes so formidable a noise in other places, seems a remote and incredible business. It .is true that I/mgford. like most of the Irish country towns, has sent many men—and very good men, too—to the trenches. But the £V£ii tenor of life continues almost, undisturbed iu their absence andfails at times into an almost dreary lupnotPny. » ' 1 Just no\y, however, times are not , normal iu Longford. It is the scene and centre of a. fierce political' struggle: the hottest by-election contest that Ireland lias witnessedlor a long time. Last Sunday I saw in the streets of Longford the ugly rush of partisan against partisan and heard the crack of the ’ blackthorn stick on the skull of a contumacious opponent. As a veiteran campaigner said to me, quite .cheerfully, it was “almost like old times.” 4. DK.CISiyp BATTI.H. For Longford is the scene of what the strategists would call a decisive battle between the two .sides ip Irish politics which.to- day are striving for the mastery. In this constituency the issue is knit between the Sinn Feiners, or Irish Republicans, and the Irish Nationalist Party, the Parliamentarians, or Constitutional Nationalists. The struggle is the sequel to North Roscommon, where Count idunkett, the leader pf the Sinn Feiners, wop a remarkable victory a few months ago. But at North Roscommon, the Nationalists.will tell -yoji,’ the issue was not knit. Count JPlunkett, they will tell you, was returned as a sort pf personal vote of sympathy because lie was the father Q? a "soil >y}p was executed after the Easter Rebellion. It was supposed, they s*y, that after he was returned he would go. to Parliament and comprise the parliamentary arniy> pf wjijch Mr Ginnell is the leader. Since then he has developed a policy of his own, a policy- of abstention frppi Parliament and of carrying pi) the Irish political tight by boycottfng Westminster and demanding the settlement of Irish grievances at the forthcoming Peace Conference. If that policy is accepted by the Irish people, the old'school of Parliamentarians, the well-known figures in Irish public lite, will find themselves with tfieir occupation gone. Hence the interest and excitement in South Lpngiord. Wo.mkn’s dki'ianck. Mr John Dillon, M.P., the leader, iu the absence of Mr John Redmond, had come over from London to face tlife is.su?, f|nd l 1? was accpnjpanied by Mr Joseph Devlin, one of the oratorical spellbinders of the Nationalist movement. And ‘-the two great men were at the moment visible in the windows oi tlie local hotel. Outside, the motor pars of thgir supporters, adorned with Green Flags, the emblem of their chosen candidate, Mr McKenna, were lined along one side of the street. 011 the other side were a crpwd pf their enthusiast ic men —and women —waving Green Flags and the Stars and Stripes—and, one looked again to see if it could be true, the Union Jack ! Here truly was a portent. I have seen tlie Union Jack torn down by excited Nationalists. Here I saw it joyously waved in company with the Green . Flag and the Stars and Stripes. The explanation was simple. Many of these women had sons and brothers fighting at the front and the Union Jack was worn and flourished in their honour. It was the women’s defiance and challenge to Sitin Feiners, Irish Republicans, and rebels, call themselves what they may.

Wlpte I Jpokecl a procession of ntptor-pars came down the hill and past thp bqtpl that was the headquarters of the Party. These cars carried the colours of the Irish Republicans, the Sinn Feiu emblem, and contained some of the leaders of the\ Sinn Fein Party, though fhpir candidate, Mr McGuipness, was not present, for the sufficient reason that he is in gaol. It is the Sinn Fein policy to put up candidates who are.in gaol serving sentences in connection with the Rebellion. “Vote for McGuimiess,” said tneir placards, ‘‘the man in gaol for Ireland.’’ (THE GIRL’S/.I^AGKTHORN.

As the cars came level with the hotel the crowd converged on them and the processi<& was stopped. A man rnshed forward and tore down a Sinn Fein flag, and, pulling matches from his pocket set it

alight. Then the fray grew fast and furious. Thpse in the cars tried to keep their flags. Those outside tried to seize,them. In a few seconds the battle .was engaged all along the line. The- honours, or at least the, triumphs, bekmgedto the women. I saw one girl rush at the back of a motor-car and belabour a Sinn Feiner over the skull with doughty blows from a blackthorn stick.’ Then she rail to the nextt car and repeated the attack. A motor-car in an impeded thoroughfare is not a Siegfried line. It is an untenable position. The advantages of mobility lie with the attacking force. Outflanking * js tqo. easy, a manoeuvre. - i In a minutes the police had ' intervened and the affray was over. I heard of only one man being 1 much hurt. The chrs were passed along and took up their positions, ~ with tlie police between the two sets of protagonists. A truce had been imposed—aild some of the police carried carbines, which, gave a look of finality to the truce that it might have been rash to .challenge. Alter that I saw less of the brave flourishing of Sinn Fein emblems in Longford town, and I was told that I had seen the test of strength and tlie triumph of parliamentarianism over republicanism in Longford. It was all over, said the par- . liamentariaus, except the voting. MR JOHN DIU.ON’s POTATOES. Later on, in the market square, Mr Dillon'and Mr Devlin, gave a reasoned defence of parliamentarianism. They pointed out,what it had done for the Irish tenaut farmer and for the Irish labourer, and for the Irish school teacher. Mr Devlin, indeed, at one time laboured the fact that he had struggled to get the salaries of the teachers raised. “Sure, they’re,all Sinn Fein,erg,” said a disconcertingvoice. _„-Mr Dillon reached a note of vehement indignation when he denounced as. a cowardly .slander th,e charge that h.e and his colleagues had cheered in the House of Commons when the execution of Sip 11 Fein prisoners was announced after the Rebellion. So far from that being sb, he said, he and his col- »• leagues,.by their streiuious representations, had saved tl>e lives of a large number ot prisoner by their timely intervention. , It was urged, too, that it was to tlie elforls of the party that Ireland owed its exemption from,the ponscriptjqn measures that had beep in force iu Great Britain. Even the hujuble potato is playing its part iu this - fierce election. Mr Dillon explained that if it had not been for tlie efforts pf the Irish Party the export ot potatoes from Ireland to England would pot have been stopped. And jie ’ clinched the matter jvi.th a personal illustration. “At my dinner in the hotel to-day,” he said, “ I had as good a dish of potatoes as any'man'could wish to sit tlowu to. In England for the last three weeks I have not seen a single potato.”.

I think that the crowd were considerably impressed. *