IRISH VENGEANCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 276, 11 February 1928, Page 1

IRISH VENGEANCE

LOYALISTS RECOUNT SUFFERINGS FAMILIES KILLED: HOUSES BURNED By Cable. —Preu Association.— Copyright. LONDON, Thursday. NINE Irishmen, who desire to remain anonymous because publicity could endanger their lives, have recounted to the Southern Irish Loyalists’ Relief Association their sufferings, which they allege to have been due to the Irish treaty.

tpHEY asserted that the British "*■ Government had betrayed them and had drastically curtailed compensation awarded, entailing the ruin of hundreds of prominent people. A Dublin man said he was burned out and raided twice, and kidnapped once. He rebuilt his home at a cost of £7,500, for which purpose the Free State Government granted him £6,000 and the Irish Grants Committee £1,500. This did not enable him to furnish the house, and for that reason 1 he had to leave it as a “memorial of a fool who had believed in the pledges of a British Cabinet Minister."

his family overseas. The committee awarded him £7,000 and paid him 30 per cent, of that amount. A business man asserted that the Republicans fired volleys through his door and windows and hunted him throughout the country. A payment of £2,050 did not compensate him for the loss of his business, which was worth £7OO a year. A Tipperary farmer said that because he helped a fugitive to escape from the Republicans the latter wrecked his motor-car, shot dead two of his companions, robbed his house and turned his family out, stole his cattle and furniture, and kidnapped his son. A Republican Court ordered him to pay £1,400 in compensation. He borrowed £14,000 to go surety for his friends. The committee awarded him £6,000 and paid him £2,125. Field Marshal Wilson’s brother asserted that the committee had cat down his claim for £6,750 to £2,350. —A. and N.Z.-Sun.

Another man said his house was burned down and his two sons, aged 14 and 19, were 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