DUBLIN'S BLACK SUNDAY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3635, 23 November 1920, Page 5

DUBLIN'S BLACK SUNDAY.

A WIDESPREAD PLOT. RAIDS AND MURDERS. GREAT MILITARY ACTIVITY. REINFORCEMENTS NECESSARY. ROTING SPREADS TO BELFAST. f LONDON, Nov. 21. The Dublin murders began about the time when the city was enjoying the customary Sunday morning , repose. Most people were still in bed. The whole was accomplished in half an hour. Several gangs operated simjnJtaneousJby and* chose a time when they were all able to find the majority of the victims practically defenceless in bed. Of fourteen dead two weTe killed in the streets while hurrying to the barracks to obtain assistance. Four men believed to be implicated nave been arrested. One was wounded. Several other officers hno. miraculous escapes. Never since the 1916 rising was the capita,! so filled "With horror and consternation. The greatest apprehension felt previously was. heightened by the news about Cork park which is believed to be the first outcome of.the murders. * An official message states thar twelve officers and two civilians were killed and three officers and one civilian wounded by the murder gangs. They were all associated with tne court-martials. The official theory is the assassins)' object was to paralyse the legal machinery, as many recent arrests were persons belonging to the inner cicle of the milder gang, and others wera impending. The authorities learned that the Sinn Fein gunmen had come to Dublin ostensibly to attend a hurling match, but really to ■commit murders. The authorities decided to surround the grounds and search for gunmen. A Sinn Fein picket fired on the troops entering the ground. The troops then returned the fire, killing 10 and Injuring others. A woman and a man were killed in the stampede. Three thousand were searched. Thirty discarded revolvers were found, r;

Captain Crawford owes his life to the coolness of his wife, who was in bed. He was dressing in the bedroom . and heard a knock "at" the door. He thought it was his own men and r>T>---n?d fho door. Three revolvers were aimed at him. The men refused to brieve; ho- was connected with! iihe army service, and accused him of being a secret service agent. The men searched the loom and became threatening. Crawford said his wife was not very well. He saMd: *'lf yon are to shoot me tak"e me downstairs, asttMt would be unpleasant' for my wife." The leader of the gang realised that he was spending overmuch time and the gang quitted in a hurry after warning Crawford to leave the country in twenty-four hours. Tn another case four men entered

the way to Captain Fitzgerald's room. Two remained on guard, while tho leader and another the maifd. Fitzgerald was shot dead. Twenty men rushed into the hall of a house in Lower Mount Street when the door was opened. They followed a servant into Lieut. Mahone's rooms and fired five shots which proved fatal. Then they demanded another officer's room. The officer refused to open the door, which was locked. The gang fired seventeen, shots through the door. The occupants of a neighbouring house beckoned passing auxiliaries,, who opened a fusilade on the house. The gang rushed through 'the back doors. One was captured. The officer who was locked in was unharmed. Fifteen men entered the Gresham Hotel and held up the staff with revolvers. They examined the register and compelled the porter at the point of a revolver to lead the Jway to Captain McCorniaek's room. He was sitting up in bed reading a newspaper, and received four bullets with fatal results.

Wilde, a civilian in another room, hearing the firing, jumped from his bed and rushed to lock the door. He- fell dead before he reached the door.. While this gang was escaping through Upper Mount Street they encountered auxiliaries. A brisk exchange of shots occurred. One assassin was wounded and three others captured. Twenty. men rushed into a house occupied by a civilian named Smith, and ordered Captain McLean and a civilian (Caldon) out of their beds: They took them to a spare room at the back of the house, Smith being ordered to accompany them, and shot the tree, McLean and 'Smith being killed and Caldon grievously wounded. Ten men called at a house in Lower Baggot Street *and" proceeded to Captain. Newbury's flat. They knocked and his wife answered. When she saw the men she slammed and locked the 'Soor in their faces. The gang later burst the sitting-room door and then forced the bedroom nearby. His wife resisted without avail. The gang wounded Newbury, who fled through the window, his M'ife vainly clinging to the assassin's arm. Seven shots were fired Newbury being killed in the window, the body falling across the window ledge, Dublin Castle, in a statement, says the assassins all employed revolvers and operated in gangs of from four to twenty. The Gresham Hotel and •seven dwellings wefe" Visited, with one or more nyirders in every case. The procedure was the same in almost every instance. * It {seem Hhat the murder gang was greatly concerned lately, owing to the increased pressure of the machinery of justice. They were acutely conscious of the fact that the Crown recently gained intimate knowledge of their methods and plans, also of the names, whereabouts and history of the criminals. As prospects of dispersing the gang were greater than ever, they launched an attack upon the machinery of justice. It is officially stated*that the murderers succeeded in destroying a quantity of valuable documentary evidence. Only one assailant was captured. He was severely wounded by an officer, who immediately fell dead, shot by others of the gang. There was no news until a nurse arrived at the barracks announcing that two officers lay dead in her garden.

Considerable promiscuous shooting occurred in various parts of the city during the day. There* was extraordinary military activity, aeroplanes flying ever, the city. in official quarters that the policy of the assassins was the murder of officers connected with the military machine, and those engaged in preparing evidence for a number of court-martials. The authorities recently received information ■implicating criminals -through the discovery of importMit documents, which had already led to notable results. ADout a score of men were arrested owing to the evidence in captured documents. They apparently belong to the inner circle of the Republican murder gang. This view is confirmed in official circles in London. Nearly all ,the officers and civilians killed were engaged in the Court-martial side of the administration. It is pointed out that the assassins searched the premises in all cases, hoping to thus arrest the machinery of justice and safeguard Sinn Fein extremists from capture. There were a number of other arrests impending.

The official list shows .thai a major, six captains, threte lieutenants, two cadets and two civilians were killed, and two colonels, a captain, a lieutenant and! a civilian wounded. In one. instance seventeen cadets of the auxiliary were passing Street on a lorry when a woman shouted from a window, "An officer has been murdered." The officer in charge sent two cadets to get help, and the remainder surrounded or entered the house and arrested a man within, also two others in the neighbourhood. All were armed with revolvers. The soldiers found two officers whom the assassins, in their'haste, had failed to injure. A woman saicT a gang had' obtained admission by saying they had a letter to deliver. They proceeded to

a bedroom where two officers were in bed. They fired four shots/ killing Lieut Mahon, of tho tanK corps. They missed another officer who, warned by the firing, hid oehind a door. When the men entered he dropped on a knee. The men fired about a dozen shots and fled. All the shots missed. The auxiliaries who went to help were shot dead in the street, evidently by.men who saw the lorry stop. The authorities have arranged to despatch large military reinforcement's to Ireland if necessary. Mr. Lloyd George was spending the week-end in the country, and Mr. Churchill remained in telegraphic communication with Dublin Castle (luring the whole of Sunday. ■ ~ Riots commenced in Belfast.- Some shooting occurred, several being wounded.