'Irish Outrages': XVI 'Faking' and Exaggeration(7)

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 31, Issue 44, 31 October 1907, Page 10

' Irish Outrages': XVI 'Faking' and Exaggeration(7)

The inscription on the first gate of Busyrane was : 'Be bold ' ; on the second : 'Be bold, be biold, and evermore be bold • ; on the thud : ' Be not too bold ! r The frontier-line between journalistic boldness and the '.too-boldness ' of criminal audacity was surely passed in a- news paragraph which* was supplied t>y a London correspondent to 'Le Journal ,—a Paris newspaper of enormous circulation. We take the translation from the ■ • Glasgow Observer ' of .September 13, 1907. The news ' item in question was headed : ' L' Agitation Agraire en " Irlande '(' The Agrarian Agitation in Ireland '). A sub-heading-, being interpreted; ran as follows : ' The Peasamtry, in Order to ufotain Ihe Lands and Pasturage, Mutilate the. Cattle '. The paragraph ran as follows :— ' ' Agrarian troubles multiply themselves in Ireland and it seems that the population follow to the letter the advjee given them by the politicians in order to compel the Liberal Government to grant full Home Rule to the country. I n the district of Great Wyrlevno day . passes without constant mutilation of cattle, and the pO ! lCe c - never able to P ut tlieir ha *ds on the- crimi- : nals. 'ihis morning at Walsall a valuable horse was tt e eaS g ii t L?r nist ' "*;'■» reMnt "' ■ ™ Tins whole story of ' Irish outrages ' is as the reader is aware, a highly-colored picture *of the mysterious caUle-maiming sensations that took place at teat Wyrley and Walsall, in Staffordshire, England ! a \** letter l ° hiS Thiriot, Voltaire described conscious - prevarication as « a very great

virtue when it does good '. 'Ihis son. of virtue seems to flourish exceedingly among those who undertake the unwholesome task of maligning the Irish people in order to. serve the passing purposes of their political friends. Like the Cork cab-driver in ' Irish Life and Character', they appear to nave ' a great dale more regard for truth than to be draggin' her out on .every pal tihry occasion '. There are, according - to. Mark Twain, eight hundred arid sixty-nine ways of conveying ■ a false statement, or impression. One' of the boldest of these. is, undoubtedly, the deepening of the criminal tints of one country by atrocities borrowed from another.. The Irish outrage-mongers have had such long and assiduous practice in the ungentle art and craft of misrepresentation, of the land of their birth, that there are apparently few of' its myriad forms which they have failed to discover, ana apply./ Thus, in our investigation of the wiles and [\ ways jof the 'carrion crows ', we have come across the unwarranted innuendo" ;t; t the false suggestion of evil motive ;' the placing, , misplacing, or displacing of important incidents.; the. deepening 1 of shadows; the intrusion of some element which alters the whole drift and purport of- a, narrative ; but, far more frequently, the .coarsev -exaggeration which runs like me trail of a serpent <through . whole stories, and the outright inven-tions-that, like 'drearr-s, are • . 1 The children of , an idle brain, Begot of nothing' but vain phantasy \ y :. ; It. would ieaiTus mucjh further afield than we are prepared to go, if we were to- -set forth in detail the tenth part oL the. ' Irish outrages ' that" were • clearly *shown, on -official and other -evidence, to have been 'adapted', invented, or exaggerated during, the OrangeTory campaign of 1906-7. A few, picked more or less at random from the catalogue, will suffice to manifest the spirit and to disclose ' the methods of this deplorable parTy -scheme, for blackening the character of the most moral and law-abiding people of the British Isles. It is, indeed, a bankrupt, cause' that, with, Machiavelli, finds the secret of power in the secret of lying.* * The real crime records of the country were, as we shall see at the proper time, a distinct disappointment, so/far as the purpose of the Orange-Tory-Unionist campaigners and their allies was concerned. Hence their resort to the ungentle arts described in the second last paragraph above. Most of the real or alleged outrages on which they aepended were given to the world through the. meSiuna of questions in the" House of Commons as well as through the columns of the periodical publications of the Irish Unionist Alliance and the Union Defence- League. Questions were even put by them regarding cases which were at the time sub judice, although it was pointed out by the Chief Secretary for Ireland tfiat such a proceeding was calculated to interfere with the course of justice. On June .19.,. 1907, the following question was put to the' 3 Chief Secretary, after it had occupied a prominent place for several days, on Uie, notice paper :—: — c ' Capt. Faber—To ask the Chief Secretary whether his attention has been drawn to the offer of a £2 reward for the discovery of persons who laid poison all over Mr. MacTernan's land at Lyonstown, with the effect that air his- dogs, some "cats", and : uucks, '- were killed -; whether 4he police have reported a/ny reason for this - outrage ; and whether any persons" have" been arrested in connection therewith. ' ' 'Mr. Bifrell - replica— The hon. "member is misinformed.. No reward ha;s been publicly offered in this cas?. Capt. MacTernan recently poisoned his lands, which are used' for sporting purposes, and gave the usual statutory notice of the .fact. Certain domestic animals belonging to persons in theY locality were poisoned on the. land, but none of them, belonged to Capt. -HacTernan. No outrage was committed, so, consequently, no arrest has been made.' . In connection with fhe alleged agrarian outrage at Lord Ashtown's shooting lodge at Glenaheiry, Mr..

James O'nelly asked the following question (we _ quote from the ' Glasgow Observer ' of Septenr/ber 7., 1907) :— • Mr. James O 'Kelly— To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland if the principal police officers who inquired into the alleged outrage at Drum-, doe have teen recently rewarded -by the police authorities for ftieir exertions in this case ; whether they proved that the outrage was committed by somebody within tlie house ; and whether he can see his way to recommend the appointment of ~these same officers to inquire into and report on the recent occurrence- at Lord Ashtown^s house in County Tipperary.' . . • Mr. Birrell ', says the ' Observer ', • -professed himself unable to give any further answer than he had previously 'given on the subject.' ~ Mrv Birrell 's previous answer stated that the police investigation revealed the fact that the shots at Drumdoe were fired, not' into, but out of, the house that was, the' scene ."of the alleged outrage, A sensational 5 report of the * incident was cabled" to tne claiiy press of Australasia. ''"' Ttie results of the investigation' were, however, never niaSe the subject; ol a* cable message. . " Here- is another question (this*- time, by .a- Nationalist member) regarding an ' agrarian outrage '. which was ,reported_by. the Dublin i' Daily Express ' of 2.U, fiR)7, and laid by that journal to the charge of the Abbeyleix branch of the United Irish League (we quote from the * Weekly Freeman ' of August 10,, 1907) :— » . _ , ■'' , ' In the House of Commons on Wednesday, ,; 4 Mr. Meeh'an asked the Chief : Secretary whether his attention had been called to the* report of an outrage at Afobeyleix, Queen's County, .in which iu,.was siated.that a . two-year-old filly was disembowelled, and leTt to <Ue in agony ; whether a claim for malicious injury was maae by the owner of the anirr-al ; and, if the iclaim was investigated by the county Court Judge on the 20th June last,- could he say what was vne result of the investigation. • Mr. Birrell— The alleged malicious injury referred to in the question was investigated by the. local police, who formed the opinion that the injury had probably resulted from an accident. The owner made a claim for compensation for malicious injury, but the County Court Judge disallowed it, as he, too, came to the conclusion that the horse was accidentally killed.' In reply to a supplementary question, Mr. Birrell (Chief Secretary for Ireland) expressed the hope that the • Express ' would give the same publicity to his denial as it Had given to the story of the alleged outrage. , •'.-•- ♦ On March 20, 1907, Captain , Craig (one of the Irish Orange members who took the pleading part in the outrage campaign both in anS out "of the, House) had the following question upon the notice paper ,: — 1 To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, wliether the Koyal Irish Constabulary authorities have yet ascertained if a dynamite outrage was recently perpetrated near Cloghroe, in the Parliamentary Division of Mid-Cork.' - • When, the question was put, Mr. Birrell replied : • TBe police authorities have not yet completed .their investigation, of the matter. The question was* repeated by Captain Craig on April 17. Mr. liirrell replied :— -„... • The police .authorities have; carefully, investigated this case and have come --to the conclusion that no explosion by dynamite or any other agency took -place. '-: On June 3, ISO 7- the following, question- stood . on the order paper of the House of. Commons, in- the name of Captain Craig :-^_ , 'To ask the Prime Minister whether his attention had been directed to the statement' of Mn—Justice Curran at the opening of the Quarter_Sessions for King's County on the 29th of May, that though officially reported as peacea-bJe, it was his emphatic declaration that the King's County was never in a worse Estate of disorder an-d disruption than "at present ; *and whether the Government will withdraw their recent

official instruction to the Royal Irish Constabulary authorities limiting prosecutions to such , eases of outrage as were witnessed by independent persons ; or will the Prime Minister inform the House what course the Cabinet intend to pursue to vindicate justice in the South and west oflrelandi' . (County Court Judge Curran was erroneously styled • Mr. Justice Curran ' in' the questkm). Before captain Craig had put tHe. question, however, Judge Curran, although a strong Tory placeman, had declared the statement attributed to. him a fabrication. We ;qjuote in, point the following paragraph which' went the rounds of the IrishOpress early in June, 1907 :—: — ' At the Birr Quarter Sessions, County Court Judge Curran repudiated as wholly untrue the reports of a speech by him, in which he was represented as speaking of the prevalence of crime in King's County. His Honor's repudiation was endorsed by the county Crown and sessional solicitors, and applauded by a crowded court. The judge said it was clear that there was 'some underhand work in the matter.' An article by; JVlr. William J. ulynn in the 'Weekly Freeman' of June 29, 190.7, records the' fate of the question put by Captain Craig :—: — 1 ' Captain Craig, like the gallant soldier- he is, executed a strategic movement to the rear by not. putting ..the 'question when the time came f or, . doing so. This fqul .libel on the King's County, and its inhabitants, and, "indeed, ' upon .the "learned judge, was freely circulated to- members of- , the House of Commons, and to the- members of the^Press, and even to the \isitors to the Galleries of the House, on the 3rd of June; -but. no. word of explanation or apology was ever \ made-.- Tpe Attorney-General for Ireland was ready wiih-^ari'ansii^fc:- -& The question, however, not having been formally pulf,""" his mouth was shut. But the matter did not resV^' there, for actually the very next day, in the - debate raised in the House of Lor*ds by Lord Londonderry, Lord Dunboyne repeated the exactly same libel.' - _ • The cabled story of Judge Curran's fao'Jed pronounce- | ment appeared in the daily papers of Australia, New Zealand on May 31, 1907. But, true to its customary policy, the Press Association never announces^ or even hinted" at, the strong denial tha-t was :made^. v/ few days later at Birr. - v ' '"'' *** In our next issue we will deal with a further 'charming .variety ' of other ' Irish outrages ' that were ' discovered ', ' adapted ', or invented by the OrangeTory, ascendancy party.