About that 'Ruction '

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXI, Issue 27, 2 July 1903, Page 19

About that 'Ruction '

Some weeks ago the cableman announced what somebody has .described as ' a rale purty bit of a fight ' at a Nationalist meeting in Dublin The facts of the case have at last lumbered along in the hold of a tramp on passenger steamer. And the facts are sufficiently unploasant. Briefly : A meeting was being held in the Rotunda, Dublin, in furtherance of the Irish Parliamentary Fund The Lord Mayor (Mr Harrington) presided, and Mr Redmond, the leader of tho Irish Party, was present as the principal speaker. The ringleader of the disturbing element was Mrs. Major Mcßride,, better known by her maiden name of Miss Maud Gonne This lady, aided and abetted by a nondescript following, endea\ ored to take chaige of the meeting and resolve it into an assembly to pt event the Lord Mayor, in his official capacity, piesenting an address of welcome to the King on the occasion ol his Majesty's approaching \ isit to Dublin Alter a briel and strenuous peiio-d, the combative, dame was politely but firmly shown out thiough Ihe back dooi her awkward squad of n reconcileables were ' fued ' with considei able -emphasis , and the mteirupted meeting pin sued once more the even tenor of its wav

Mrs Mcßride (Miss Maud Conne) is an Englishwoman, the daughter oi an English officer, the sister-in-law of another, and all her relatives are connected with the Government so.vvice She has herself travelled extensively on the Continent, but in what capacity we are unable to state. For several years she has posed as an extreme Irish revolutionist, and an unp-ateVnal Oo\ eminent has permitted— if it has not encouraged— her to shnek all soits of ficrv stuff to suth audiences as would tolerate her, while at the same time the elected representatives of the people were ha\ ing their crowns cracked by the police for daring to attempt to address their constituents at legal, peaceful, and, constitutional gatherings, and were sent time after time to the plank, bed and durance \ ile for the 'ciime' for referring, oven in the mildest way. to the open, notorious, and admitted fact of jury-packing We do not say that this obstreperous Englishwoman is, like Le Caron, Talbot, and others, an ' ngent-provocateur ' of the Government to encourage revolutionary movements in Ireland. But her connection with the small and extreme set in the count iy is a puzzle to many, and the lady herself has ne\er, so far as we are aware, gi\en a satisr factory explanation of it