DUBLIN POLICE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 223, 20 March 1914, Page 6

DUBLIN POLICE.

AMAZING ACCUSATIONS. London, January 21. The inquiries into the conduct of the Dublin police during the riots which occurred in the Irish capital at the end of last August is producing some of the most serious allegations against the officers and men of the force.

It is very hard to believe that the amazing charges made aginst the police can be substantiated, but if the complainants' allegations are proved to be true no mere words will suffice to express the civilised world's opinion of these "guardians of the peace." Imagination baulks at the notion of the policemen of a British city breaking into •peaceful homes, smashing furniture, and clubbing women, children and invalids promiscuously. Yet if wc can ulace any reliance on the evidence of dwellers in Corporation Street, these things were done in Dublin on August 31, 19T3 Three or four days have been spent in hearing evidence concerning police brutalities on that eventful day. Most of the witnesses were noorly-clad l women and here are some typical bits of their testimony:— Mrs. Lennon: "When the w>lice broke in they said, ' We'll have men or blood.' My daughter took refuge in the lavatory. The police broke in and dragged her out by her hair. I ran to help her but they flung me aside. Then they picked up chairs and a trunk and thrr* them over the balcony into the streeet. They smashed all the pictures and knocked the altar over."

Mrs. Callaghan: "They sm?shed the fanlight, burst open the door, and nine or ten constables rushed in. One shouted 'We are the 'boys,' and another said, 'Men or Wood!' My hssbud was ill. Hs sat by the fireside. A constable struck him on the head. Mv little girl put up her hand and said, 'Oh, don't kill dada.' A constable struck her on the back of the hand and it was swollen for days. We were going to have dinner, and they knocked our bit of meat under the grate. My husband went to, the hospital and had sax stitchc3 put in his head." Mrs. Dempsey, a widow: "We were at dinner. They rushed in and batoned my son. It's hard to see your own boy murdered, so I siczed the baton, and the boy escaped by the window witn two more blows on the hip. Then the police swept my dinner on the floor." Mrs. MTtonagh: "After beating my son they turned to my husband, who was in bed with paralysis. Thev spared him, b*ut lie got very ill next day. (Here the witness burst into tears, and counsel said her husband had 3ince died in hospital.) They struck me and I was laid up for two weeks." Mrs. Hill: "They cc.oke twenty-five of my pictures. I hid in the lavatory. All my chairs disappeared." Mrs. Thompson: "They climbed up my spout and broke in. They broke everything—the altar and the light burning before the Blessed Virgin. I went to the the police station to complain. They said, 'Go to Liberty Hall and see what Jim Larkin will say!'" The police vigorously deny that these things happened, and point to the fact that many of their accusers, or near relatives of them, have been in trouble with the police for assaults, shebeen keeping, and other offences against the law. In other words the police declare that the charges levelled against them have been " trumped up " in revenge.