IN IRELAND.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 November 1920, Page 1

IN IRELAND.

(Reuter’s Telegf am.,' HIE COMMONS SCENE. LONDON, Nov 23. thoHouso of Commons did not suspend the sitting even though the Speaker left the chamber. The members continued angrily to discuss the incident, somo continuing to surround Mr Delvin; but quiet was eventually restored. I A quarter of an hour later the sitting was formally resumed. Major Moison then apologised for his notion. He said that ho had allowed his feelings to get the better of himself. Mr Devlin accepted the apology. He then repeated his request that tho details of the murder of civilians should bo given. Si r Hamar Greenwood then detailed the official account of tho occurrences concerning the Croko Park football shooting sensation. DETAILS OF SHOOTING. LONDON, Nov 23. Details arc now being published in regard to the shooting bjv the soldiers at the crowd at the football match on Sunday at Croko. Park in Dublin. Tho football playing area- was surrounded by a ten foot fence, a grandstand taking" up the entire length of one side, with high banks on the three other sides. One side was blocked by a thirty foot wall. An examination'has revealed pools of blood on tho banks and also in the grandstand. There were trails of blood where the wounded people crawled along after being shot. When the firing began, thousands of people fled hither and thither along the hanks from the bullets. Many swarmed into the field. Tho women and children screamed, and they were trampled underfoot in the stampede. Many men and women fainted. Others prayed as they ran from tho bullets. Dublin Castles official version asserts that it had been arranged, when the ground was surrounded, that an officer should proceed to tho centre of the field a,ml megaphone to tho crowd, announcing a search would be made, and that there woul he no danger if all the people stood still. It is stated armed pickets fired on the military forces before the latter were able to approach the ground. Firing caused a stampede. This account sajvs it was also believed persons within tho ground fired shots to provoke the stampede, hoping to escape during the confusion. ANOTHER ACCOUNT. LONDON, Nov 23. The accounts other than that of Dublin Castle show that tho Croko Par) shooting as being unprovoked. Tin spectators deny that lhere was any firing until the “Black and Tans” entered tho grounds. The club officials deny that any pu b ots wero posted. One account states that the thirty foot wall was simply pitted with bullets—marks up to a man’s height. The football players were subject to a severe fire. The bullets have chipped the field. • The players crawled to cover. One player who was killed was found with his body covering two others. Tho policemen says some shots were fired outside before the auxiliary troops appeared. A woman living at the entrance to the grounds says that sheheard Shouts' “They’re coming.” Then she saw the roadway was filled with rushing Black and Tan auxiliary soldiers. She watched the Black and Tans as they scrambled over the turnstiles. She did not hear any shots until they enter© the Park. The woman declares that a cadet told her at the time that tho raid was a reprisal for the morning murders. The ground official states that when he saw the auxiliary troops he and others warned the crowd. Ihen the auxiliaries lined up along the top of the bank, and fired volleys at the panic-stricken crowd. Of the people some swarmed over the palings at tho back of the ground. Most" of the people became confused. As thev were struggling in a mass .along the high wall, they made an easy target for the soldiers. It is estimated that tho crowd numbered no fewer than fifteen thousand. The father of a dead boy says lie died of a bayonet wound.

more shootings. LONDN, November 23. There have been! widespread raids in Ireland . Scores of people have been arrested. The military have altered the curfew law, by ordering people to be indoors at 10 p.m., instead of udnirrht as before. . The shooting of a policeman and a military officer is reported from lieland. Chief Constable Kearney was fatally shot at Newry while returning

from Church, while Captain Thomson was shot dead on ji road near Cork. Fifty men ambushed a police paliy leaving a hotel at Lacp. Two assailants wero killed. A shot fired front a passing motor c ;i r severely injtued ft Constable Rue while talking to a fj'rl in the doorway of her house in Cappoquin.