IRISH UNREST.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 February 1922, Page 5

IRISH UNREST.

HAIDERS STILL ACTIVE PRISONERS RELEASED. A GRAVE REVOLT. Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright. ' Received Feb. 20, 5.5 p.m. London, Feb. 20. Lord Fitzalan (the Viceroy) has ordered the immediate release of the captured footballers and Mr. M. Collins has ordered the release of eighteen more kidnapped persona. Irish Repulican Army contingents are raiding various parte of the south and the west, stripping those who refused to pay the original demands for military purposes. The revolt of the Tipperary and Limerick brigades is causing the gravest anxiety in Belfast, which believes the movement will spread to other districts and lead to a dash across the frontier. De Valera, in an inflammatory speech in Cork, declared he and his party demanded that the people should assert that Ireland is no part of the British Empire and that they will not allow any foreign Government to rule in Ireland. I I.R.A. PROCLAMATION. RESISTANCE TO FREE STATE. London, Feb. 19. The division in the Irish Republican Army is emphasised by the proclamation issued by the South Tipperary Brigade: “The army was established to maintain the republic and is determined to resist every power inimical thereto. The establishment of the Free State Government is inimical, the majority of Dail Eireann and general headquarters of the army having connived at its creation. The Government has forfeited the allegiance of citizens and the soldiers of the I.R.A. are determined to raise the nation to resist the treacherous inclusion of Ireland in the British possessions. The orders and decrees of the Free State Government are not binding on the people.” The Mid-Limerick Brigade has pro•feimed a similar repudiation. MR. COLLINS’ ATTITUDE. London, Feb. 18. Mr. Collins, , interviewed regarding Mr. Churchill’s statement that, by establishing the Free State, the Irish people would disestablish the republic, said that nothing that would ever be proposed to the Irish people should tie the Bation’s feet finally. BELFAST MORE PEACEFUL. London. Feb. 19. The Mid-Limerick and South Tipperary Brigades of the Irish Republican Army have proclaimed their repudiation of the Free State and the renewal of their allegiance to the Republic. Belfast is more peaceful, though shooting occurred on a restricted scale. The | victims included a butcher shot in Jjis shop by armed raiders, a publican seriously wounded- by a bomb, which wrecked an alehouse and a girl of 12 wounded by a bullet fired through the window Ba she sat- in the kitehexfl Five men stopped a man in the street, asked for a match, and then shot him, inflicting a dangerous wound. The Northern Government has decided to caneel the prosecution of the Monaghan footballers, though they save already been committed for trial, ft is hoped the southern authorities will I sow apply for bail, thus securing their immediate release, otherwise the footballers must remain in custody until formally discharged at the assizes. Border commissioners accepted by both Governments have been operating iuring the week end and continually Batrolling the frontier in order to avoid iause of friction.