WHAT CAUSED THE BELFAST RIOTS?

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2229, 21 October 1886, Page 2

WHAT CAUSED THE BELFAST RIOTS?

W ITU a view to dctenuine the oii^in and cause ot the recent nuts in Belfast th< Executive Committee of tiie Irish Koyal and Pati iotio Union despatched t\\u connni&sionei •*, a, bim&ter and a medical m in, to enquire into the circumstances. The following is the concluding portion ot the report of ttio legal commission* 1, Mr A. t'.itton, ■which appears in Tht Tinges of the 3rd September: — It is the. universal feeing in Belfast that nothing contnhuted «c> much to the fvais and li.id feeling which commenced the lints as a speech attnbuted to Mr John Morley, who, in the House of Co:nm >ns, is iepo,ted to have sml that the police could put down the Piotestants in the North in 24 lioiim, and th.it they would ielish the job. I mentioned tin-. n>t has giv ing any opinion of my own, but dimply because 1 haveheatd it reiterated countless times m Belfast. It may aUo be interesting to know that the entne detective foico of West Belfast is stated to bn Roman Citholic, with the e\ception of one man, v. ho is con'.ned to clerk's duties. Dunns; my visit to B»lf.i-t 1 hid a loiu inteiview with a prominent olhcial con nected with the constabulary in refeiuice to the uots. On that oce isiou [asked him a considerable number of Questions which, together with his replies, i \entureto sum marise below : — What in your opinion was fho eau a c of tiots ''—There are two cnivs-nno guvial, and the other particul.ir. The geneial c.vise is the fieice religious animosity <>n both sides, which I lu\e to say is funud perpetually into flame bv the pulpit and Pics*. In tiiis both parties are to blame. The particular eiu*e was no doubt the Home Rule Bill, which enraged the Piotestant paity \ery much, while it» i ejection enraged the Catholics. We hpar from some paitios the entire blame thrown on the Protestants, fioin others thrown on the Koinaa Catholics, while others blame the police. What in your opinion is the proper party on w hich to throw blame?— We Ime had gieat tumble both with Prote.sLauts and Roman Catholics. T don't believe the police acted as paitis.ins but of couisc I was not here till lately. Since T aimed we have had most difficulty with th >Oi inpremen. They .up much moip indignant w ith the police than the Catholics aie. Why is thi.s so ?— Partly owing to some accidents which have occuned, but still more owing to the hallucination of the Orangemen that Mr Moiley picked out Catholic policemen to go to Be!f>-t t<> exterminate them. To my certain knowledge, there is no truth whatever in the idea, but at the same time it is the universal belief of the Protestant democracy. Do you attribute the commencement of the seiious noting to any specific eiicumstance?—Piobably the drowning of Cunan began it, but I don't think any one intended to cause hi.s death. It is alleged against the police that they charged and batoned the Protestants coining out of _ Combe's Foundiy, on June (>j and that this caused immense' bitterness. Can you tell me anything of this?— Well, [ wasnotheie at the time, but I have made inquiries since. I believe from what I know that what you say is quite true, but it was a mistake. The men coming out of the tact->ry were well behaved, but th-u-o were noters in the street at the time who were tin owing .stones, The police wi»ie about tochaige them, and at this point, unfortunately, the workmen came out from vvoik. The police, being all st ration to the town, thought a reinfoi cement to the rioters had arrived, and charged. The leal rioters fled, expecting the chaisjt-, while the woikmen, who did not expect it, were batoned. What is your opinion as to the filing from M'Kpnna's pubhehouso, foi which the policeman have been returned for tiial?— Theie is no doubt the police thought their lives in imminent peul. Thfy believed the intention of the mob was to set tiie to the house, and that would have cost them their lives. Do you know the actual facts in lefeience to theatt\ck on Dr. H anna's r\cuision ?— 1 do not, but in my opinion in, the state of feeling pievalent here, no bands of the, kind ought to go out on foot. Let them take dt igs ot cais, but vvh.ifc w is done — \i/., matching in ordei— is veiy foolish. Tt is fiequently siM that the police tired in the stieets wheie theie was no mob at all, and that innocent people were killed '•* —This is a most difficult point. I ka »w IV! fast, veiy well, and ha\e often seen a not pi.tctically K'omg on without iiofcis. As an lllustiatioii I may mention last Sunday when 1 was mysplf in a not. Stones wei" flyinv in all dnection«, yet no one was ] Msiblc. They came over houses, round

cdiih'm, and ft « >m eveiy possible coign of vantage, while to ail appearance the utreet was marly empty. Do you think the entiie numbers of those killed on both side-, aio known 7— Xo, Tdo not; many deaths are snppie«,M rf. At the saniD time, this extent of this suppie-sion is now exaggerated. The Protestants, wishi ig fo appeal victorious allege many more Catholic deaths than really occurred, while they minimize their own. The Catholics do exactly the same. in addition to these questions, I may state that thib official expressed himself in high t<3ims of the conduct of the Mayor of lielhst, w ho, ho said, acted splendidly during the tumbles. The allegations made against the police, and which .^eetn to me to be thoroughly substantiated, are the following: — (a) The unprovoked attack, probably aii-oiig from the ignorance of a strange police, on the men coming out of Comle's foundry. (b) The firing into the street and on tho pt\s«crs-by, not in the open after the Riot Act was read, but from under co\er, on the two occasions already specified. (c) The frequent expies.sions of bitter hatred towards the Orange party which numeious credible witnesses aver have fallen f mm the lips of the rank and file. (d) The way in which houses wtre fired into, and the people standing in windows and dooiwa>> aimed at. (c) The coui^e of conduct alleged to have occurred on .several occasions, but notably proved to have occurred on the evidence of Dr. Hanna and Mr De Cobain, M.P., and many others on July 31, when the police allowed the Nationalist mob l>ingiii wait to continue throwing stones at Dr. Hanna'.s excursion party while they themselves charged the excutsiouists instead of thcnoteih. Summing up the conclusions at which I have felt compelled to an lye, I must . state them as follows :—: — 1. The June riots commenced in provocation given by the Nationalists on June 3. This was followed by an incident for which the Protest mts aic to blame— viz., the pursuit of the na\ vies by the rivet boys on June 1. One episode ltd to another, but thus the rioting began. 2. The noting would probably have died out about June 7, but then came the rejecti >» of the Government of Ireland Bill. At thi-, the Protestants were jubilant, the Roman Catholics indignant. Still, on this occasion, as the Protestants celebrated their delight in a perfectly legal manner, or did not attempt to carry their rejoicings into any Roman Catholic quarter, there would have been no rioting but for the .shots fired by Roman Catholics on an orderly Protestant crowd from O'H are's. The intenention of the police against the crowd thua fired on provoked much bitter feeling. 3. The solid grievance of the Protestant party against the polite dates from June f J. The monstrous mistake made by the sliange police, and which never could have been committed by a local body, of chaining Protestant workmen coming peaceably out of ;i large factory, has excited more ill-v, ill than will easily be appeastd. •1. The police hardly ever during the not-, ,is f-xi as I can ascertain, after much pptient_ investigation, fired on a notous mob. They selected another plan, that of deliberately taking aim at isolated individual-. Tt was m> on June 0, when McComiick nnd Mary Reilly were killed, and when 1~0 shots were fired one by one. It was Mi on August 7, when ">, .Skankillioad, was uddled with !>0 b.illets, fired, not in a volley, but singly, from Dianiondstieet. as people passed by the house. "). The riots of July 12 and 13 tpnng out of impious by Nationalist mobs into Protestant qimteis to take down Orange fl.ig-. It muat be caiefully borne in nnnd fhit in Wesr Jjelftst Protestants and Itoinin Catholics have almost regular quarters. AVhole streets are entirely Protestant— otheis entirely Roman Catholic. Sunn tunes a lino maiked by no external indication will nm acioss €l street; north of tint line Protestants dwell, .-ouch of it liwin.in Catholics. Thus, m a street of 50 hous'-s, whue the odd numbers count a3 one shio of the t'eet, and even on the other. Nos. Ito J!> and 2to 20 will be occupied hv Pf(.tr.-t,u:ts, and the remainder of Hie -tieet bv X »m m C ithohc*. b". On all occasion-* (md they were rmny) in winch N..tion,iii-ts moK commenced not by coming mt > Piot'>ta-it districts, eithei t) in -ult ProtP-t tut sentiment (a NCiyeasy matter m JVlfust), or to v\reck hosi-es, th'^ ui'im^nt th ' ; olice appeared they sided with the jggie--, >r>, who retired in high natuial s\ti-favt;on v\ith the result, whilj th >se who had been defending them>K w pre Hied uji. 7. In n>> c i»" v\h ite\m lul a Prote-tant inobc >nnnence a not by mv, ding a. Catholic 'listri(t. S. Notwitl.stand'ng tlie facts in 7 and b, it is haidly possible to discover that the loiue iv t r hsed on oi wouncled a single Xation.ihst or Roman C ithclic. The hospital and medical repotts cortob rite this. i>. The animus of the lank and file of the policG foice vv is not concealed by Mieni Soinf instances have aheadv been n it'eed. Jiefoie any firing at all had oeg.in. or. indeed, any verj- seiioi:s trouble, Inspector told Mr 1' , of 1j -tipef. " V, p v ill turn up «</me f t/ieu in JJ t > to-m^ht, all-iding to hi.-> Mitention to chastise the Oiangemen. 10 As to the number of the killed and vauudod it is difhuilt t> a-ceitain the tJ nth In the M ,ter Infirnioiuni Hospital I Roman Citholio ten cases were rrceived ; none g,in-sh<.t. At the R yal Hospital, 120 cas.'s.— no gun-shot, thntv"biuisc«.,, ten cuts or sf.tbs— ill, I bohe\c, Piote.stant. Vt the I'ni.n Ho-pit J, 12 c.x-^— four Imllit, si v biuisijs. two cuts. ]',ut the^e iv- only tlicciMs ti -at(d in public nistitu 1 i0.,5. T-.e ,I'tients pi i\. itely treated are i far larger class. Two well-known surireons of Shuikhill load tieatfd S7 and b0 ias.'s ie-[) c Mv ely, 11 Theie i- n i doubt thnt much rioting w .is indulged in by the Pr >testant mob, and that many houses weie w recked by them. It iloes n.>t appeal, however, thnt in any cMse such c.nduct was indulged in until gteat provocation had been received. There is no doubt, either, that on several occji-ions they tlnew .stones in large qu unities at the police; not, however, until those accidents aheady Jdwelt on had occurred.

Tm ki- Xim !- Two tiu\l.ns chanced to hilt by thp i > nl -Kj i n» xr Cambridge for .1 bi iff ie-t pi-t ,b a gioup „f ln-h labourers weie passing on their way home from unik \tti,n.t(>d l>v the * l,i icrlit new machine, two of the men pau-ed a monvnt to look at thtin. "If jmi only hid a tucyle, Pat," said (»no the cyders to the neo-io-t of the men, "■> on could tulc t<« and fioin your mnplo\ merit. " " Kkll to the (mil '".said L'al, with a contemptuous look at the combination of uum and wh'.cls. " Do >c thmk I c une fiom the ould countiy to dme a donkey cait, Uedad, and borne own hoise"'" Tmk sen-e of -h ime is a friend to be cherished. Is anyone' e< melons, of hawng violated a right, or miured a fnend, or tikeii an uuf.ui- advantage, or jialteied with tiutli? L.-t him be thankful th it he i> ashamed of it, and let him h i«=ton to e\[>ii>s that shame by confis^ion and lostitutmn. The one thing that l- \\ellniffh hopeless >- tliu wiong-d'ung tint is followed by no shame. All attempt- to "bear up "and to appe ir eithei innocent of th(> fault or deiiant of the confluences lead duectly to the load of nvnal mm. Too LL 1 \M>in C/urKisM.--fhe fan -e\- -\re occibionallv placed in embarrassing situations, caused by their unthinking comment*. Kngli>hmin tiurlling bv ti ui< in the principality of Wale-, found him^lf m a C' mpaitniont in wlr^htuo Wel-h joun^ worn mi and hmw;h «eie the -o!e occnp'nts.^ Xevei imagining for a UKuu^nt th it the Knglish stranger understood Wel>li almost as well as a natn?, they amused themselves by finely commenting on the j'ersonal aiipoaianen and pi ol, able enlhng ot then fellow fri\ellcr. " Xot bad looking, if it wasn't for his nose, ' -aid une. "[ think Ins mouth is the uorst," remaiked the othei, with equal pohtenets. "lfather, 'loud' suit of clothes," was the ne\t comment. l '\Ve!l, he's only a cattle dealei-, T e\peot," returned cutic number two. The subject of these lemarks go >d ti'inpeiedly [ire^etved his self-possession by the help of a friendly newspaper, and when he had undergone a further scatching fire of cnticisin, laid clown his ]iaper and ob-eived in excellent \Velsh : "Since your liberal and witty criticism of myself and my affairs, U o\v seems somewhat exhausted, may 1 enquire where yom young la. lies conic from, and what may bo your names ! To u.se th» narrator's own word* --he ne\er knew till then what blu.-hing scarlet meant, as he watched a\ ith amusement the dreadful confu&ion of his fair detractor*. Mi T. Trewheellar announces in another c -lumn that m c >n— quence of illne-s he is unable to vi-it his patioiis tluoughout Waikato this month. We bog to di uv .tUntion to A[ r I>. balmon's advertisement appearing m another column.