THE AMERICAN COMMISSION ON CONDITIONS IN IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLVIII, Issue 35, 1 September 1921, Page 7

THE AMERICAN COMMISSION ON CONDITIONS IN IRELAND

INTERIM REPORT

(Continued from last week.)

CHAPTER IV —(Continued.)

Reprisals

“Atempt to escape” and “refusal to halt” are used by the Imperial British Government in explanation of the killing of Irish citizens by persons directly identified as members of the Imperial British forces! In other cases, where the identity of these agents of outrage against the Irish people was likewise irrefutably established, we encountered the term “reprisal,” used in the excusatory sense of a justifiable retaliation, ' spontaneously carried out, by members of the Imperial British forces, naturally incensed by the murder of a cherished comrade.

Galway Reprisal, September 17, 1920.—Galway had been quiet before this date. In the police barracks were some 50 constables and one “Black-and-Tan” who was there temporarily from another town getting a motor car repaired. Krumm was the man’s name, and he was described to us by former Constable John Joseph Caddan, who was stationed there at the time, as “a reckless fellow who drank a lot.” Caddan testified that on the night in question Krumm had been drinking heavily, and along towards midnight he strolled down to the railway station announcing that he would be back presently with a fresh bottle of whisky. He was in plain clothes. A crowd was gathered at the railway station at that time waiting for the evening papers from Cork. Two American witnesses, the Reverend Dr. James H. Cotter, of Ironton, Ohio, and Mrs. Agnes B. King, of Ironton, Ohio, were eye-witnesses to the following incident. In the words of Mrs. King:

Murder of Unnamed Boy.“ There was a man on the platform to whom I paid little attention. He wore what I think was a loose cap. He did not appear to me to be a regular soldier, nor did he seem to be the customary “Black-and-Tan.” There was a woman on the platform with three or four children. There was an English officer, and there were many civilians. Suddenly the man in the cap whipped out a revolver. He was standing with another man in ordinary attire. And he slashed the revolver around and, began shooting. One shot hit a boy in the leg. That boy was not killed instantly, - but fell at once. He later died, and the next day I saw him in death. Then another young man jumped from the back and caught the soldier about the body, so that he had only one hand free. And then a fresh shot rang out and this soldier, or whatever he was, fell to the ground.” Rev. Father Cotter gave a similar account. Back in the barracks Constable Caddan had gone to bed. “The next thing I knew,” he testified, “one of the

constables came up and gave the alarm, and said one of the constables was shot. We all had to get up and dress and get our carbines. There were about 50 men in the barracks, and they ran amok then. The whole 50 came out in the streets.” District Inspector Cruise rushed out with the men.

The members of the R.I.C. proceeded to shoot up the town, to loot public houses, to burn residences and smash up business places, and we have the testimony of several persons, including Constable Caddan, that they took three men from their homes to shoot them. The firing squads were so drunk that two of these men escaped by 'promptly falling on their faces when the order to fire was given.

They went to the house of a man called Broderick. There they found an old woman, about 70 years of age, shut her in a small room, poured gasoline in the room and set fire to the house. The woman was rescued by neighbors.

Murder of Quirk. —From Broderick’s they went to a house where a man named Quirk was lodging. He was taken by them at 4.30 a.m. Quirk was not at the station when the original shooting occurred. Thomas Nolan, a witness, testified that he was walking toward the station with Quirk to get the newspapers when they noticed a crowd rushing toward them, and after they were informed that there had been shooting they immediately went home. Nolan bade Quirk good night at 12.10 and at 7 the nextmorning he saw him lying at his home, with seven bullet wounds through his stomach.

Murderers Commended. —The further testimony of former Constable Caddan is as follows:—“The next day a British general came down and spoke to us in the day room. He had two motor-lorries of soldiers there to guard him. He had two other officers with him. The county inspector was there and two district inspectors, and all the men in the barracks were there. And he started to talk about this business.' He said : “This country is ruled by gunmen, and they must be put down.” He talked about giving Home Rule to Ireland, and he said Home Rule could not be given until all of these gunmen were put down, and he called on the R.I.C. to put them down. Ho asked them what they required in the barracks, and said that whatever they wanted he would, give them, and that they were also going to get a raise in pay. And they said they needed machine-guns, and he said that they would get them, and also tanks and more men, men who had been in the army during the war and who knew how to shoot to kill; and he said they would be the right men in the right place.”

Murder of Councillor Walsh. —An aftermath of this incident was the killing of Walsh, an urban councillor of Galway, one of a considerable number of elected officials of Republican sympathies on whose killing we have direct testimony. Walsh was killed in the middle of October. He was the proprietor of a public house. He was the father of eight small children. Five men in civilian clothes, supposed to be “Black-and-Tans,” entered his public house about 10 o’clock at night, ordered the crowd out, and announced to Walsh that he would be a dead man within an hour. He asked permission to summon a priest, and their leader replied; “To hell with the priest!” Then they took him out and his body was found floating in the harbor the next morning. No motive for - this crime, except the Republican connections of the victim, could be discovered. Two witnesses Miss Nellie Craven, of Washington, D.C., a cousin of Walsh’s, who had been visiting relations in Galway, and Thomas Nolan, who had been sleeping at Walsh’s house, and was present when the armed men entered his establishment, gave testimony on this affair.

Balbriggan; Murder of Gibbons and Lawless.— Balbriggan was shot up and burned in reprisal for the, killing of a sergeant, in a drunken brawl, on the night of September 20, 1920, two men, James Lawless and John Gibbons, were taken from their homes to the police barracks, and after being held there through the night and subjected to repeated threats, were finally bayoneted to death at five o’clock in the morning, their bodies being left on the principal street. Urban Councillor John Derham, who gave testimony on this affair, saw the bodies early in the morning. His own house was burned down, and one N of his sons, who had been beaten until he was

unconscious by the raiding party, was left inside when the house was set fire to. The young man recovered consciousness in time to crawl to safety. Virtually the whole population of Balbriggan was driven to take refuge in the open fields. Councillor Derhain testified that three old people and two children subsequently died as the result of terror and exposure.

Croke Park, November 21, 1920.—0 n November 21, 14 officers of the Imperial British forces were assassinated under conditions hereafter to be referred to in Dublin hotels and boarding-houses. That afternoon the Croke Park reprisal occurred. Mr. Nolan testified that he was one of 8000 persons present at a football match at Croke Park, Dublin, on November 21, 1920, when the Imperial British forces surrounded the field, and, without provocation or warning, fired with rifles and machine-guns among the spectators, killing ten men, one woman, and three children and wounding about 62 others; 200 more were injured in the resulting panic. The firing lasted 10 or 12 minutes. He saw the Imperial British forces fire and rush and fire. And he saw the slain and wounded players and spectators fall. No shot was fired from the crow<? either before or after the massacre and no member of the Imperial British forces was injured.*

What is a “Reprisal”?—The evidence would seem to show that the term “reprisal” may be used to cover any case in which wholesale damage is inflicted upon property or life in Ireland. Reprisals consist sometimes in promiscuous killing of unarmed men, women, and children, as in the case of the football crowd at Croke Park ; but, usually, in the burning, looting, and “shooting up” of Irish towns, such as Thurles, Balbriggan, Galway, Mallow, Templemore, Cork, Tuam, Hospital, Limerick, Granard, Tubercurry, Achonry, Tipperary, Ballylorby, and scores more.

Mallow.—ln Mallow barracks were a troop of the 17th Lancers and a detachment of the “Black-and-Tans.” Mr. Dempsey, the chairman of the Urban Council of that city, testified that on September 27, 1920, Irish Republicans raided the barracks: —

“To my knowledge, in the' actual raid on the barracks there was no person from Mallow, with the possible exception of one or two. About 25 of them held up the barracks, and about 25 more kept a lookout and waited for them in automobiles. They did this while a number of the men were out with their horses exercising them outside of the town. So the raiding party surprised them and held them up and compelled them to hold up their hands, with the exception of five or six— were not in the barracks square at the time. These five or six ran out with rifles and revolvers and began firing, with the result that in the melee the sergeant-major, who wasn’t in the barracks, and who was out with the other men, was shot, unfortunately. They took all the arms they had on them and all the arms in the barracks, and they sent out for a doctor and a priest for this man who was injured.” And the Republicans departed without burning the barracks or taking prisoners. In Mallow Town:

“Everybody knew what was coming, from what had happened in other towns The senior officer at Buttevant is in charge of the district that Mallow is in. He and some officers came to Mallow by motor immediately to see

what had happened. The three ministers of the town waited on this colonel, and they asked for protection of the town from reprisals. The officer in cahrge of the troops gave a guarantee that no reprisals would take place. He gave a guarantee to the Roman Catholic priest, to the Protestant rector, Canon Hermon, and the Presbyterian minister, Rev. W. Bakes. I forgot to' mention that the clergymen in consultation had also wired General Macready, who was commander of the forces in Ireland at this time.” “About four o’clock in the afternoon an aeroplane came from Fermoy, the second largest military station in Ireland, and dropped a communication in the barrack yard. After that it flew to Buttevant, and then flew back to Fermoy. We concluded in the town that it was some sort of agreement between the forces.”

“About half-past ten a lorry of troops arrived in Mallow from Buttevant, and about five minutes after two more lorries arrived with troops from Fermoy. Fermoy is about sixteen miles east of Mallow and Buttevant about seven miles north.”

The first thing they did was to fire revolver and rifle shots and scream and fire around the town. The first thing after that they did was to raid some of the publichouses and loot them and get' drunk. And then they marched to the town hall, the seat of the town council. It was a fine old. building—about 150 years old. The stairways of the hall and the doors and the ceilings, of course, were all timber. They were sprinkled all over with petrol! and some incendiary bombs thrown into it, and it was all set afire.”

In the Mallow “reprisal” the soldier killed was not assassinated or “ambushed,” but was shot in the course of a raid for arms, after he had attempted to shoot members of the attacking force. The Republican forces that conducted the raid were not residents of Mallow, The citizens of the town appealed to the Imperial High Command at Dublin and to the competent local military authority for protection ; and a deputation was assured by the officer in command of the district that they would receive protection. The burning and sacking of the town did not take place while the soldiers were in a fever of passion aroused by the sight of their dead comrade, but many hours after his death. Furthermore, the burning of the town was carried out, not by the troops of the local barracks, only a small number of whom participated, but by soldiers who came in lorries from Fermoy and Buttevant, many miles distant. Finally, the numerous circumstances, such as,the dropping of messages at Mallow and Buttevant by an aeroplane sent out from headquarters at Fermoy, the complete equipment of the lorries with incendiary bombs and gasoline sprays, and the simultaneous arrival of the lorries from distant parts, all indicate that the burning and sacking of this town was planned in cold blood and executed with full knowledge of the military authorities in command of the Imperial forces. The term “reprisal” would seem to us.to connote, sometimes, a retaliation appropriate neither in kind nor, in degree;

It appears that the town or village doomed to “reprisal” was usually the actual seat of an attack upon a member of the British forces, as in the case of Galway, Balbriggan, and Mallow. But the source of the reprisal at Tipperary on November 1, 1920, seems to have been an ambush at Thomastown, six miles away. In another instance no known attack was said to have been made on the British forces within a radius of twenty miles of the reprisal. In such cases the use of the term “reprisal” would seem to extend to anticipatory retaliation.

Testimony has been submitted to us which purports to show- that during 1917 Imperial British Forces perpetrated in Ireland seven murders, eighteen armed assaults on unarmed men, and eleven raids on private houses; arrested 349 civilians, court-marti ailed thirty-six, and deported twenty-four; forcibly dispersed two public meetings; and suppressed three newspapers.

During the year 1917 the testimony shows that not a * single member of the Imperial British forces was slain in lieland, except a member of the R.I.C. who was struck while leading a baton charge and afterwards died of his - injury. In 1917 the Irish citizens are alleged to have endured 450 outrages, including seven murders, and refrained from retaliation. 1

Testimony before us further purports to show that in 1918 Imperial British forces perpetrated in Ireland six murders, sixty-one armed assaults on unarmed civilians, and sixty raids on private houses; arrested 1,107, courtmartialled sixty-two, and deported ninety-one; proclaimed and broke up by baton and bayonet thirty-two public assemblies; and suppressed twelve newspapers. In 1918 Irish citizens are alleged to have endured 1,651 outrages. No officer of the Imperial British forces, “policeman” or soldier, was killed in retaliation.

During this period, free speech and civil liberty seem to have been practically suspended in Ireland. The perpetrators of the outrages upon the people apparently went unpunished, even the murderers. The whole force of the Irish Republic seems to have been directed towards restraining the Irish people to endure in patience the increasing terrorism to which they were subjected by the Imperial British forces. Miss Mac Sweeney testified both to the increasing vigour of British repression and to these efforts of- the Irish leaders to persuade the citizenry to patient endurance. During 1919 the Imperial British forces are alleged to have sacked and burned four towns, perpetrated eight murders, 476 armed assaults on unarmed civilians, and 13,782 raids on private houses; arrested 959 men, women, and children, court-martialled 309, and deported twenty; dispersed 959 public meetings; and suppressed twenty-five newspapers.

During 1919, the Irish citizens began to defend themselves against the Imperial British forces. The evidence would show that those assassinated were popularly believed to be spies or other special instruments of the British terror.

During 1919, the British “reprisal” policy was instituted. It demonstrably consisted in an acute intensification of the already long prevailing British terror. That terror was not initiated by the assassination of British military, was not confined to areas in which these assassinations occurred, and was not absent from areas in which there had been no assassinations. It was, therefore, not in the nature of a retaliation, either justifiable or unjustifiable, on the part of the party l first attacked. The official use of the term “reprisal” would consequently seem to us the stereotyped ruse de guerre, intended to lead the British and other people into condoning an aggravation of the Imperial British terrorism in Ireland.

* Major Barnes (House of Commons, November 24, 1920) asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland what were the total deaths, men, women, and children, respectively, occasioned by firing on the crowd at the Croke Park football ground on November 21; how many men, women, and children, respectively, were wounded; whether a 'child was bayoneted; whether the military and auxiliary police suffered any casualties; and, if so, what were the number of dead and wounded, respectively? , Sir H. Greenwood : Ten men, one woman, and three children (under fourteen) were killed, or have died as the result of their injuries, these figures include the case of a woman who was crushed to death and of a man who apparently died from shock.. Twelve men have been detained in hospital for treatment of wounds and injuries Fifty persons were treated in hospital, but not detained. I have no information as to how many of these' cases were those of men, women, or children, respectively. No child was bayoneted. There were no police or military casualties. {hoc. cit., vol. 135, cols. 453, 457.)

(To be continued.)