THE IRISH ENIGMA.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 January 1923, Page 4

THE IRISH ENIGMA.

A I KEN Cl I WOMAN'S PEEP AT CLOSE QCAKTERS.

(15v And rue Yiollisi. LONDON. Nov. 29

When, nearly a month ago, l boarded the boat lor Ireland, the Customs oliieer who examined my baggage, instead of asking me the elassie question : "Toimeeo, spirits, stent,'” said brusquely, with an air of suspicion: •'Arms;' Have you any arm-,:'" J felt in very truth that I was entering a new and tragic atmosphere. Nevertheless at first glance there is nothing of romantic drama or of kinema film in the appearance ol Dublin: streets, broad and light, modern houses correctly aligned, tramway.*, numeiotis and convenient ; the crowd lively, gieetul, elegant, dotted with pretty faces, doll-like pink cheeks, blue eyes, and black lashes. Only at lirsl sight, for you soon have to notice motor-cyclists with revolvers in their hands, begrimed with sweat ami dust, dashing about unceasingly, m ilie nerve-racking rattle of their hurrying machines: Ked Cross ambulances, in which one catches glimpses of out-stretched hgures. draw up outside the hospitals. .Motor-lorries, armoured ears, bristling with machine guns, laden with p.vramide of green-clad soldiers of the National Army, rilie-- tit tile ready, rumble iiiee.-san: ly cm! loekiessly through the streets. Itiil look! A lorr.v stops. One li.v one the .soldiers jump tiotvn, heads and guiis thrust forward, liounding towards a door, which the oliieer hursts open with a kick, they are swallowed 111 > with him. Three other*, leaning like gargoyles over the wagon side, hands on the handles of their machine gtllls. are peeping lien My over I lie edge, ii is a raid: every day houses are ion inly entered where it i* thought aries or munitions will la- found. The eruv. I looks on. passive and interest'd. There are even linbios in the arms of their parents. What of it? It has I celt going oil fix so molly years that cue :.s no longer at.aid. As for ambushes. Ihcv have tieeeme a feature of daily life. for example, one .Sun lay morning J got into a trninway-ear. All at once ill one of the busiest streets near I lie (('Council bridge, one of my neighbour* lump- up, cries out, ami everyone lull' prostrate between the seats I hear a double and terrible explosion. SI, ■t- are tired. Through, the *m he I just catch a glimpse of a motor I ill of i.dheers rushing off, then men in i reach can's running away. One u luoin res ii’i'ins lying on the ground: ilie dool of the house opposite I* opened. lie is soviod. lifted up. carried in. The door is shut. And there you are! In the twinkling id an eve it is all over. That i.- an ainlni sh ! lie,uruing in ley bolel alter my lir.-l i‘\p. ' i'-i:i e, I tell the pli ter all about, it. "Why." he says. smiling, “that'I'ethiiia! Only a roup!' of lismhs! We go: them once or twice a day.' And he adds, with a whimsical nod: ' Oh. >■. r live a live!, life here!" Public I lit i! * It" g- and walls of the town every'.'here a re. plastered with inscript urns ill 1 1 ; a• red or white letters: Cries : "Uo ih• • le'P'.ihlie !” “C» tile 7.R.A.!” Irene: "The Till Newbridge | ri .on.': s that escaped have blown no v 11 r pros la a, poor Dick!” Ihreats: •■.Shame to the murderer- who *hoot rwnrmoil men!" Again: "Beware, .M.ideahy. the women are up!"’ t»:c!i.!o t | .M’.ib i by, the young .Minister of Deieiieo. who Inis the re*;:- w-ibilitv of repre.-sioM. e:.ire's also ihe si'll I caviar burden of anger and lull re I. It is !be wr.meil and \ ouiig .;ri - wlm hiiri ,g the , write llin-o insi-rip* ■if ns. The fi* '' ai nearly all those I ho :me I dor '■ : !m I'l.oa..ab lan days have pie- cd o: or to the R-pidd:-e:n side 'I heir associnl um. ihe Cumiiiiu mi Nil.au, wliioh group- ■'.soeiel •, " e.ime i ae in the most native t ei, : »es M D •h'!"t l 'ii< an struggle. It is those v. ho transport am! i iii'iv:'! arms, idda the ro! o' —. print ibe prupiigauda liter, '.lire, and distri'mte it wi.li ime ■ sent ami passionate devotion. They :d'u org-niisa denmust iatmu > a., in . i: i o i lea t men t i: llicn-i on pole Uc i pri.—mors. I a:te. uoi telv! one in these proeossioiis. t os i ad Mr* .Maud (.'onae ileelirid-. v. I: husband v.as killed in the labi'lliou of it : 1 and v. cose son is mov, in .Mount joy Prison, ! I.a a lragio mu-e in her long mourning w 'j-, ; (he venerable and bellicose .Mrs Dcspard ; .Mi*.* Afahniy. secretary oi ti.e ins.: Union (i i Women Workers; and tlien a long herd of women, their leal tires 'lined by grief, sleeplessness, and privations, all having a loved one, husband, .-on. lather, bro-her. in tin l prisons of the free .Slate. Nobody talks. They walk in silence holding al. fi |.o-l- r- deiMimeiiig .Ministers wlm t o i ure prisoners. offering them sob. es up as victims. Suddenly opposite the Bank i notice, on . (:*• eiriuiar ge.iiory ivhich cron ns the Uiuii. soldier* kneeling, rill.'* sighted, 'ihe iviini'ii o' them al-o. Raising beads and iiints. jeeritiglythev shriek: | !■ ire, murderer* ! Kill vour * : .:i r-. ; y. or i*o)i ’; 1 ”s !" If one oi ihe young','l's on lien- lose* his bead tragedy j ioliow s. I Ev.'ii i'l the cemetery of t'h sucviii i.n j r p- acfiil wooded iuli crowned with i ]■■ mist, one finds signs of the terrible j crisis which is shaking Ireland. j i’i a photograph dated barely tour ! mouths ago. I had s'.'oii Alicl.aol ( oihim aiid llari'v Boland, both young, handsome, robust, smiling at each other affectionately: saw they he ill this <c■ yravevii'••.!. both killed, but in opposite camps. If the Free State plot counts perhaps mere vi-itors. the Republican plot has also its pious pilgrims, and on the Iresh tombs of soldier:- who fall each day on both sides can read; "lie died for Ireland.'’. This is, alas, perhaps the greatest t ragedy. Nevertheless the Government continues ils task. I vas present at a sitting of Bail Kircnmi and was struck by the good will, the earnestness, the sense of responsibility which «eould he rend oil the faces of these men ol varied types who, in such painful circumstances, have to dill'' l fie affairs of their country. Brief speeds'-, businesslike. Discussions keen but courteous. Records precisely kept. Ibis Parliament, with about oiie-thir.l 'if its members cut off, the Republicans not silting, seems till tin' more anxious to

make good. Mere. I have seen the members of the Government, 1 have talked with them ; young—several u"t yet thirty rears ef age—they nearly all have an heroic past, and inn'r*'-** one with their precocious and fortviui maturity. There i* President Cosgrave. conseiontious and lioiiest : Ivevin !A Higgins. a man of robust mind, in whom lbs party *ee Hie man of the future: Richard Afulealiy. the energetic chief, revered and loved by hi* friend* :Desinoiiii Fitzgerald, writer and poet, who has all the ardent and many-shaded son! of Ireland. These men work 10 or 1? hours a dav : thev have to resolve the most

dimcu!t political and economic problems. They sleep and take their meals in their offices because they cannot go out; surrounded by invisible enemies, they await death which might crush them at any moment. Their revolvers are always lying before them on the table or in their pockets when they have t" leave Leinster House. All this is nothing. The hardest part of their task is that they are lighting against persons even dearer to them. Dim of them no longer sees hi* young wife—who has remained a Republican. Others their sisters, brothers, sometimes their mother herself, refuse to receive. These loved ones tuey must imprison : when I left Dublin for the south of Ireland they had not yet arrived at the ]Kiint of condemning or executing them, hut one felt that the time was drawing near. •■Will you have the courage to do so?” f asked one of them. "We shall have to.” lie replied- AW' have signed the Treaty. The people by the elections have signified to us their will to curry out this Treaty. Me will light to the end, to the death. . . . for Ireland," he added alter a silence. But is it not also for Ireland that tlie Republicans say they are lighting.