GAOL MUTINY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 December 1939, Page 5

GAOL MUTINY

REBELS SURRENDER AFTER SIEGE FIRE BRIGADE HOSE PROVES EFFECTIVE. I.R.A. SUSPECTS OVERPOWER WARDERS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, December 25. Mutiny broke out in Londonderry Gaol, where 60 Irish Republican Army suspects are interned for the duration of the war. Forty-five, who had volunteered for exercise in the morning overpowered five warders and locked them in cells. They also locked two steel doors in a corridor and then set fire to bedding, smashed furniture, and demonstrated from windows overlooking the street, displaying the two Republican flags. Police and soldiers arrived and released the imprisoned warders. Plumbers reopened the steel doors with acetylene burners. The prisoners made a final stand in a cell, armed with bottles and boards with nails in them. Police stormed the cell vainly, then the fire brigade turned on a hose and compelled surrender after a five hours’ siege. Raiding the Eire army's magazine fort at Phoenix Park, Dublin, on Sunday night, Irish Republican Army supporters secured a large quantity of arms, ammunition, and equipment. The raiders overpowered the guard and filled up lorries, of which no trace can be found. Four men alleged to have been concerned in the raid have been detained. It is officially stated that a man in a military uniform approached the main gates of the fort and handed in a parcel addressed to the commander. The gate having been opened, armed men overpowered the sentry and held up the guard. Shots were fired at a military policeman in a nearby park, causing soldiers to be rushed to the spot. Four men carrying revolvers were arrested. It is estimated that between 50 and 100 raiders took part in the attack on the fort.