IRISH AFFAIRS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3487, 15 May 1920, Page 5

IRISH AFFAIRS.

NEW SERIES BEGUN.

LONDON, May 13.

A new series of outrages, apparently concerted, in many parts of Ireland, include the destruction of the police barracks at Ballybrack, Bessborough, Killogrange, Carrickbeg, Carrigan, and Camlough .It is noteWol‘thY that eßssb'orough is only half: a mile distant from the Vice-regal lodge. The attackers cut the telegraphs, dislocating communication with Dulblin and the provincial centres. Other parties burned down the Bantry Customs Oflices. Armed and maskeid men held up the KilcomxnonNeaugh mail and seized the police correspondence. ' Another party seized and tarred Mr P. Sheeny, the editor of a paper published at Skibber—een, County Cork. The Income Tax Office, housed in the Scottish Provident Buildings at Belfast, was raided by masked men. The clerks working overtime were overpowered and bound. The raiders emptied the shevles and desks, and piled the income tax documents on the floor, where they were saturated with petrol and set on fire. The raiders then decamped. No arrests have been effected.

NEW PHASE OF IRISH TROUBLE. GUERILLA WARFARE BRE-A.KS *’ OUT_ . TAXING OFFICES BURNED DOWN. LONDON, Mav 13. Police barracks at Carrigard, in Donegal, and K-olleter, .in Tyrone, were destroyed. Masked raiders, who held up the clerks in the Belfast income tax office, destroyed all papers, but the fire brigade saved the building. The Customs oifice at Bantry was completely destroyed, after the books and documents had been piled in a bonfire. .A * «

Similar outrages were perpetrated at the Old Age Pensions ofiice at Newton Stewart, the Inscome Tax office at Londonderry, and the Inland Revenue office at Enniskill‘en_ Eight masked men raided the Downpatrick Excise office and stole a quantity of, documents. A clergyman living next door was shot in the thigh while assisting the caretaker. Irish outrages include the burning of police ‘ba.l-racks in the suburbs of Cork. Explosives were used to complete the destruction. Rev. Vvilkinson, Canon of Down Cathedral, was the clergyman shot in the thigh when endeavouring to stop a raid on the Downpatrick excise office.

Masked men captuied the mail between Nonagh and Thurles, seizing :1 number of police documents‘. A mail train was raided at Middleton, and :1 Constabulary mail captured.

It is understood the Government has decided upon a military guard of one or two soldiers for every policemari in order to end the campaign of anarchy and murder in‘ Ireland_

A TOUCHING STORY. LONDON, May 14. A touching story was told at Belfast at an inquest on a. boy who was shot in a field. His father -stated that he found the boy lying beside his two horses, which had also been shot dead. The boy said neighbours, whose names he would not disclose, committed the outrage. The father went to a neighbourfsl house and asked for water, which was refused. Two men in a field, when asked for assistance, turned their backs upon him. Others declined to fetch a priest. The father later procured help and carried the boy to his house, where he died. A verdict of “murder by persons unknown” was returned.

Yesterd.ay’s outbreak of guerilla warfare in Ireland recalls the Easter outrages Bombs were used in a number of cases. A human hand was found near the scene of one raid, having apparently lbeen accidentally blown off .a, Sinn Feiner

I Most of the police barreicks were [unoccupied and the destruction was quite wanton The cost will fall on th local ratepayers, many of whom are Sinn‘ Feiners. Where barracks were occupied by sergeants, their families Were bundled out in the small ‘hours of the morning by armed maskled men. The children were terrified gto see their homes 'burning_

GOVERNMENT TURNS ON MURDERERS.

! PATIENCNE EXHAUSTED. LONDON, May 14. Lord Birkenhead, speaking at a NeWSD3Der Press Fund dinner, said the Government had just taken special and wholly exceptional steps to reinforce the Irish Constabulary force, ‘Whose’ moral had‘ never faltered. “They well know,,” he added, ‘that when the men go upon a most danger-

ous task to-night the Government; is adding to their number men who have already fought for the Empire, and are now going to devote themselves to the task of determination whether murderers in Ireland are. strong enough to destroy the Empire. .