LEAGUE OF GHOSTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 632, 8 April 1929, Page 9

LEAGUE OF GHOSTS

IRELAND TERRORISED BY GUNMEN POLITICAL DESPERADOES (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) LONDON. Friday. Despite the apparent quiet in Ireland, the “Daily Express's” special Dublin correspondent declares that not since 1922, when the Four Courts were laid waste, has the public mind in Southern Ireland been stirred to such a pitch of nervous tension. “There is grim anxiety in the air,” he says, “and dark, mysterious fore-bodings,-strangely akin to the days when every man carried a loaded revolver in his pocket. “There is the gravest concern for the safety of hundreds of individual citizens who, on one account or another, have incurred the disfavour of a dangerous band of political desperadoes, which has recently sprung into existence. “They are known as Ireland's ‘League Of Ghosts.' The surviving remnant of the irregular gunmen are among them, and also countless women. “Meetings are held regularly on the ! top floor of one of the oldest mansion 1 houses in Dublin and the league’s ; agents are established all over Ire-! land. “In recent weeks thousands of letters have been circulated, threatening instant death. The most frequent victims are jurymen impanelled in cases concerning ex-Republican prisoners. They are warned that unless the prisoners are acquitted they must suffer the aonsequences.” The correspondent instances several cases of cold-blooded murder, and then proceeds: “More than a score of Dublin citizens have left the country during the past fortnight in fear of their lives. “Women are among the most aggressive members of the league. This is constituting one of the greatest problems for the authorities. Leaflets and placards are being broadcast all over the Free State. The Government claims to be maintaining close contact with the movement, and hundreds of raids are being carried out. “Meanwhile public alarm is increasing. People are genuinely afraid. Never have Irishmen been more cautious In their conversation. One high Government official told me that the whole country has become a vast whispering gallery. You never know who is peering through the nearest keyhole.”