“IRELAND AS I SAW IT”

New Zealand Tablet, 11 August 1921, Page 22

“IRELAND AS I SAW IT”

LECTURE BY DEAN HYLAND.

“The trouble in Ireland will end only when Ireland gets what it wants and not an hour sooner. I doubt if the present Coalition Cabinet will ever give Ireland that, but if the Coalition Cabinet hands over its power to a Liberal or a Labor Government in 24 hours Ireland will be occupying its place among the nations of the earth.” This opinion was expressed by the Very Rev. Dean Hyland, of Rangiora, in the course of a lecture on “Ireland as I Saw It,” delivered before a crowded audience at the Catholic schoolroom at Addington the other night. Rev. Father 0 Connor presided, and in introducing the lecturer traversed the history of recent events in Ireland.

Dean Hyland was received with prolonged applause on rising to speak. He said it was only a few weeks since he had arrived at Auckland, after a sojourn of 15 or 16 months jn America and Ireland. To understand the Irish question one must go to Ireland, and must live 'in Ireland, i and move ■ about • amongst the Irish people. It was useless depending on the cables and reports in the newspapers, because they were tainted with untruths, and all the hews from Ireland was severely censored by Dublin Castle before it was allowed to be published. He was not many hours in Ireland before he knew that the country was in a state of war. The trains were . crowded with soldiers and the ordinary train services were practically suspended. When he reached his home town

t he found it crowded with military lorries and “Black-and-

Tans.” The British Government had ransacked the gaols of Ireland, England, and Scotland, and sent the denizens of those gaols to act as police in Ireland, and because there was a shortage of uniforms had clothed them in a mixture of black-and tan, hence the name “Black-and-Tans.” While on his way from Clonmel to Limerick, said Dean Hyland, he was arrested, a soldier (a rough character) going through his pockets and searching the luggage and car while another held a gun at his head. When the soldiers found nothing, they told Dean Hyland’s party to “get.”

While he was in Ireland he noticed many of the people from the villages leaving their homes at night and going to the fields, and he learned that they did this because they were afraid the “Black-and-Tans” would raid their houses during the night and burn them. Every night the sky was lit up with the flames from the burning homes of the Irish peasants, and altogether one hundred and seven million pounds worth of damage had been done to the property of the Irish people up to last February by the Crown forces. He had passed through dairy country and found every dairy had been burned to the ground and every creamery destroyed, so that the people had to give their milk to the pigs. That was what he saw when he landed last September, and naturally the question cropped up, “What led to this awful state of affairs?” The genesis of the present trouble was in 1911-1912. The Liberal Party assumed office under Mr. Asquith on a promise that it would give the Irish people a generous measure of Home Rule, (Applause.) However, a Crown lawyer, Sir Edward Carson, when he found the Government determined to give the Irish a measure of self-determination, went to Ireland and organised the Ulster Volunteers, imported German officers to drill them, and told them they must be prepared to fight to resist Home Rule. Sir Edward Carson went over to Germany and bought 40,000 rifles in defiance of British law, and these rifles were landed on the coast of Antrim. Major Cranford, one of Carson’s satellites, said at the time that if Ireland was going to be taken out of the Union, it would be infinitely better to change their allegiance tof Germany. Captain Craig, who was now the Premier of the farcial Ulster Parliament also said in 1913; “We have the offer of aid from a powerful Continental monarch.” Dean Hyland said that these actions on the part of the Ulster volunteers were really the genesis of the present trouble, because in self-defence the people of the South of Ireland also had to.arm themselves. When Mr. Asquith decided in 1915 to form a Coalition Cabinet he selected from the Unionist side, Sir Edward Carson, Sir Frederick Smith and . Mr. Bonar Law, three of the very men who had previously violated the British laws. One of the first acts of the Coalition Government was to disarm the people of the South of Ireland who had taken up arms to defend constitutional government and that really was the cause of the rebellion of 1916.

Dean Hyland then quoted figures to prove that the Sinn Feiners did not retaliate on the police until they were practically forced to. In 1917, he said, there were no police killed, but 350 civilians were arrested and imprisoned for political offences, thirty-five were deported to England, 100 were wounded in battles, two were killed and one died in prison. In 1918, 1100 were arrested for alleged political offences, eighty were deported to England, five were killed, one died in prison, and 250 houses were raided by the Crown forces but no police were killed. In 1919 there were 480 armed. attacks by the Crown forces on peaceful meetings, 260 were wounded, 1000 were arrested for alleged political offences, eight were killed • and sixteen police were killed while searching for arms. ' Then commenced the saturnalia of. terror and the “Black-and-Tans” were given full sway. Several instances where

priests were killed were quoted by Dean Hyland. The terrorism to all walks of life and even the advertisements in the newspapers had to be censored by Government officials before they could be printed. Churches and taber-

nacles were searched for arms, and one painful case was at a convent where ~ a nun had died and the “Black-and-Tans” came along and ; searched the grave in case it should contain the body of a dead Sinn Feiner, and they did not desist until they discovered the sex of the corpse. . (Cries of shame.) ■

There were some people in New Zealand who looked upon the Sinn Feiners as a pack of murderers, but he knew for a fact that all the twelve policemen who were dead in Belfast recently were shot because they were implicated in the death of Mayor O’Callaghan. The Irish secret service found out those twelve men and because they had caused the death of Mayor O’Callaghan, the Sinn Feiners shot them. For that action the Sinn Feiners were called murderers, yet two hundred “Black-and-Tans” attended a football match in Dublin and fired machine guns among a crowd of about 7000 people, fourteen being killed outright and forty wounded. It was the sheer brutality of the Crown forces that was filling the ranks of the republican army which had come into existence to defend Irish liberty. At present the republican army consisted of a force of 68,000 men, 60,000 of whom had seen service in Palestine, Salonika, or France. The army had no commissariat but it was welcomed in every Irish home because it was the only defence the people had against the savageries of "the “Black-and-Tans” and the auxiliary cadets. They had no difficulty in getting arms and ammunition so long as they had the money.

“When is it all going to end?” asked the speaker. “I will tell you. When Ireland gets what it wants and not an hour sooner. (Applause.) The young men of Ireland are determined to settle this matter now and forever, even if it means the extermination of the nation. They would rather do that than desist before they get what they want.” (Prolonged applause.)

Mr. M. Grimes, in moving a vote of thanks to Dean Hyland for his address, urged that all present should join the New Zealand branch of the Irish Self-Determination League.

Mr. S. Ryan, Mr. M. Mannix, and Father McEvoy also spoke in support of the motion, which was carried unanimously.

The meeting terminated with cheers for Ireland and the singing of “God Save Ireland.”