IRISH EXTREMISTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 May 1939, Page 5

IRISH EXTREMISTS

PARTIES BURN GAS MASKS IN BELFAST FOLLOWING ON RADIO ANNOUNCEMENT. LAWBREAKERS SCATTERED BY POLICE. By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright. LONDON, May 30. The “Daily Mail” says that a pirate radio station somewhere in Ireland announced that 1000 gas masks would be burnt in the streets in Belfast as a symbol of British rule. Irish Republican Army members within' an hour assembled, and 500 men burnt a heap of 500 and another of 200 petrolsoaked gas masks in two districts in Belfast. They also made a house-to-house search in Cyprus Street and hurried to a point in the street prepared to burn more masks, when a policeman on a bicycle exchanged shots and alarmed the nearby barracks, from which police poured to the scene. Armoured cars, motor-lorries, and police flying-squad cars scattered the republicans. Fist fights and chases followed, but many of the masks were not recovered. BOMBS IN BIRMINGHAM. NO CASUALTIES IN CINEMA AUDIENCE. LONDON, May 30. Seven magnesium bombs exploded in Birmingham’s largest cinema. The audience numbered only 300, and there were no casualties. The police discovered an unexploded bomb in another cinema.