IRISH NEWS
GENERAL.
Amongst the priests recently ordained at Maynooth was the Rev. Denis Lorden for Christchurch, New Zealand.
. The number (up to June 25) whe were killed for “refusing to halt” when challenged by the military or for “attempting to escape,” was 96. In Ireland no one believes the official statements relating to these killings.
The National Peace Congress at Birmingham declared its conviction that —“The first step to peace with Ireland is the recognition, by the British Government, of the Irish Republic. It urges the Government to have the courage to take this step as an act of essential justice.”
Very considerable damage was done at the office of the Dundalk Examine,)', a well-known and vigorous Sinn Fein organ. Entry was forced at 2 a.m. on Monday, June 20, a linotype, all the printing machinery, and type being smashed to pieces, apparently with a sledge. The raiders also emptied the contents of ink drums on the floor and dismantled the electrical fittings.
Answering Mr. Mosley, Mr. Henry said there were 35 attacks on Crown forces in Ireland during the week ended June 11. The casualties were 5 police killed and 35 wounded; 2 military killed and 1 wounded. So far as was known 7 civilians were killed, and not fewer than 7 wounded. When Commander Kenworthy inquired if, in view .of this appalling statement, the Government persisted in saying their methods were succeeding, Mr. Henry, amidst laughter, replied, “Yes, sir,”
Mr. Jas. E. Murray, Butte, Montana, inherits twenty million dollars by of his uncle, Jas. A. Murray, a Clareman, whose parents emigrated when he was ■ very young. He first went to California, and settled subsequently in Butte, where he became one of the richest men in the State, rising to the position, as a miner, waterworks contractor, banker, property owner, from being a penniless prospector. He is survived by a widow and a stepson, Stewart Haldorn. The heir to his millions is vice-president of the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic.
ULSTER PROTESTANTS AND ORANGE ISM.
“A Thinking Protestant,” writing from Co. Antrim to the Nation and Athenaeum, says:—“As to the real attitude of thinking Protestants in the North towards Orangeism, I should say at least 50 per cent, of the whole would transfer, if possible, with infinite pleasure and a sigh of relief, the whole Orange organisation to the wilds of Central Africa, the only place on earth for which' its demonstrations were ever suited. They would be glad thus to shift the greatest blot from Protestantism and at the same time rid Ireland from the greatest power for retarding progress that ever held sway in any civilised country.”
VILLAGE DESTROYED. Three or four houses only remain of Knockcroghery village, which armed, disguised, men burned down. The unfortunate inhabitants, who had to fly during fusillades of rifle and revolver fire, are now without home or belongings. An attempt to fire the presbytery failed. Dublin Castle states the armed men came “from Athlone direction,” and gives the number of dwellings destroyed as 15.
This is the latest official “Black-and-Tan” reprisal, perpetrated after midnight Avhen the people Avere in bed.
SQUANDERMANIA; MONEY WASTED ON MALTREATMENT OF IRELAND. English statesmen say (writes Mr. Robert Lynd in the Daily News), that they can no longer afford to guarantee decent wages to agricultural laborers. They cannot afford .to build houses for English workingmen, but they can afford to burn down Irish creameries. They cannot afford to do what the miners ask, but they can afford to do what Dublin. Castle - asks. It is as though Crippen had cut
down the wages of his housemaid on the ground that he had to spend so much money on poisons. There is a growing movement in England just now to prevent the Government from pouring money, as it were, down a drain. But there is no English money that is being wasted more ludicrously than the money wasted on the maltreatment of Ireland. -
“The Irish problem is a problem that could have been solved perfectly easily without the expenditure of a single penny. All that was needed was to withdraw the armed forces and to leave the Irish to pay their own bills. The Government has preferred to treat it as a disease that required most expensive operations. But the operation does not even give promise of a cure. It has not only not cured the original disease, but it has added an infinitely more virulent disease to it.
The Government have pursued a policy of converting Irish friendship into enmity and of destroying Ireland as a market for English goods. *lt is surely squandermania of the worst sort for a manufacturer to kill his best customer, or even his second best customer. Ireland is one of England’s best customers, yet the British Government is doing its utmost to ruin her.”
“As a matter of fact, the only economical form of national security, is to be surrounded by free peoples whom you treat justly and who are therefore your friends. Every Englishman naturally wishes to see his country safe. But the Government policy in Ireland is purchasing, not national safety, but national danger. And it is doing this at an immense cost in money, and human life. English lives are being squandered; Irish lives are being squandered; Irish money is being squandered. There never was madder extravagance in history.”
THE CASE OF MR. J. J. McKEON, T.D. .1 he case of Mr. J. J. McKeon, who was charged with the murder of Inspector McGrath (really killed in chance medley), attracted considerable attention in Great Britain as well as in Ireland. It will be remembered he was tried by a military court but no sentence was promulgated, though sentence of death was expected. Lately the cables have informed us that being a member of the Dai-1 Eireann he was released to participate in the consideration of the Lloyd George communications to the Republican party. M e are not informed whether he was released on parole or indefinitely.
When his execution seemed imminent, Mr. John Me Grath, father of the late Inspector, Mrs. M. McGrath, mother, and Messrs. John, Patrick, and Joseph McGrath, brothers, addressed a letter from Groom to Lord Fitzalan, Sir Nevil Macready, and Sir H. Greenwood regarding the fate of the prisoner.
Mrs. McGrath referred to Mr. McKeon’s last act by the side of her dying son as truly Christian. Deceased’s father and brother “do not ask for vengeance,” but they request “that the man who spared and protected his prisoners should be spared and protected Avhen a prisoner, himself.”
“War must be Avar,” writes Mr. Garvin in the Ob'server. “This feud will be prolonged for ever if combatants are to be treated’ as murderers.” Having reviewed the trial of Mr. McKeon and the incidents in his career, ho proceeds:—•
“There is no use in asking any plain man to believe that this admitted rebel stands accused of anything which a rebel may not justly be proud of. We have the highest legal authority for the view that rebellion per se is not morally heinous. What is going to be the moral or the political effect of hanging such a man ? He asked in court, first, to be treated as he would have treated one of his soldier judges if he had taken him prisoner; failing this, that his dead body should be restored to his relatives and not treated as a common felon! Can this latter request bo decently refused, and if it is conceded, what implications follow !”
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New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLVIII, Issue 35, 1 September 1921, Page 35
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1,258IRISH NEWS New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLVIII, Issue 35, 1 September 1921, Page 35
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