The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-16 00:00:00

FOOD RIOTS IN DU'ELIN.

Before eight o'clock on Friday morning, a mob, con-
sisting of between forty and fifty persons, many of them
mere boa s, commenced an attack upon the bakers' shops
in the neighbourhood of Summer-hill, Britain-street,
and Abbey-street. Owing to the early hoar and the
unexpectedness of the outbreak, they were enabled to
carry on their depredations without let or hindrance.
The rioters had the appearance of country people, and
came from the northern outlets of the city. When they
had reached Abbey-street two policemen interfered, and
endeavoured to disperse the crowd, but without any
effect, several men exclaiming that they had been with-
out food for twenty-four hours, and that bread they
should have. They surrounded a bread cart belonging
to Mr. Walsh, baker, of No. 3, Dorset-street, and at
once commenced rifling its contents. In spite of the
resistance of the driver, they succeeded in taking away
forcibly twenty loaves of bread and about a dozen
rolls, value about ten or eleven shillings. They then
went off, some devouring the bread with evident vora-
city. Afterwards, between one and two o'clock, a body
of twelve persants assembled in Marlborough-street, in
front of the house of a provision-dealer named M'Cr,y,
living at No. 20, in that st:eet, and afterwards at the
houseA Nos. 91 and 92 in the same street, tenanted by
Mr. Cavanagh and Mr. Fitzharris, bakers, and demanded
tlmbread.ee lnl ;a sms ing men
were relieved at each place, and some
g
by at the 'time also gave them some
money. Inspector AVM:than despatched acting- seageant
Petit after them, with four police constables, who fol-
lowed them, to watch their movements. They pro-
ceeded down Marlborough-street to Eden-quay, and
again stopped before Mr. Coyne, the bread and biscuit
baktr, residing there, and repeated their demand for
bread •, but on seeing the police approaching, they re-
tired, and passed over Carlisle-bridge, in the direction
of Westmoreland-street. A mob surrounded the shop
of Mr. Jeffers, baker, of Church-street, but the police
being in the vicinity, they were called on, and succeeded
in dispersing the mob. Several bread carts were stopped
in the outlets of the city, and their contents taken.
The rioters continued their depredations up to ten
o'clock on Friday night, and owing either to the
inequality of numbers or want of energy in the police,
succeeded in plundering a great number of bakeries in
the neighbourhood of the liberty, as well as in the
northern ends of the city. So formidable had the ap-
pearance of the mob become towards evening that the
inhabitants of Nicholas-street, Thomas-street, and the
streets adjacent, closed their shops and suspended busi-
ness by the advice of the police authorities. In Patrick-
street the crowd came into collision with the constabu-

lary, the result of which was that two of the latter were
beaten, one, it is said, very severely. The alarm created
by the outbreak was considerably heightened by a re-
port that some of the ringleaders were possessed of fire-
arms; and on making inquiry of spectators of the riots
the statement was repeated in the most positive terms,
although it is not alleged that that there was any disposi-
tion evinced to pnt them into use, and it is thought
they were displayed solely for the purpose of intimidat-
ing such as might feel disposed to resist their demands.
The Weekly Register contains the following account of
the renewed rioting which took place on Saturday morn-
ing :—" About half-past six o'clock this morning (at
which time the bakers' carts are sent out), a large body
of people from the surrounding country assembled on
Essex- bridge, and, separating, stopped and rifled an
immense number of bread-carts of their contents. All
the bread shops in Capel-street were then visited, and
completely emptied. A party marched down Britain-
street, in which the shops shared a similar fate. All the
carts, also, which were not protected by the police, were
despoiled of their contents. At this hour (eleven o'clock)
the few bakers' carts passing the streets have police
mounted on them to protect them from plunder. The
horse police are patrolling the neighbourhoods most
liable to attack. The state of the liberties—at the best
of times a sink of destitution—is described to us as truly
frightful, the people dying of disease and famine un-
heeded and untalked of. All the bread shops in Patrick-
street, Francis-street, &c., were visited this morning,
and more or less of their contents carried off by a vast
number of country people who came down from the
Dublin mountains and neighbourhood. It is expected
that all the shops will be closed at an early hour this
evening, as it is feared a vast concourse of strangers
will come into town to-night, to renew more ex-
tensively the scenes of plunder which took place this
morning.
" I may add to this, what I myself know to be a fact,
that parties of two and three sturdy fellows are now
visiting the houses in the suburbs, whose male inhabi-
tants they suppose to be absent, and knocking at the
doors, force an entrance as soon as it is opened, and
then by menaces compel the female inmates to give
them money. Several of the rioters have been brought
before the police magistrates during the day, and when
charges were substantiated against them they have been
committed for trial; in other instances they have been
sent to hard labour in the penitentiaries in default of
bail to keep the peace. The parties thus arrested are
not destitute, but idle, profligate fellows, who could pro-
cure labour if they were willing to work. Some of
them are butcher's boys. The leader is said to have
recently drove a baker's cart—but the great majority
are from the outlets of the city, known as the haunts
of dishonest and dangerous characters."

FIRE AND DEPLORABLE ACCI-

DENT AT AN IRON FOUNDRY.

Last night, shortly before ten o'clock, a frightful oc-
currence took place in the extensive iron foundry belong-
ing to Messrs. Ainger and Co., Upper Ground-street,
Bra.ckfriars. It appears that a number of persons were
engaged in casting a heavy piece of metal, and they had
just succeeded in filling a pan with molten iron, which
was attached to a crane. The weight of the iron was
upwards of seventy hundred pounds. The persons en-
gaged in the work had succeeded in shifting the hot
metal to about the middle of the spake between the fur-
nace and mould, when the ladle toppled over, and the
whole of the hot liquid iron was scattered over the floor
of the foundry, running amongst the men, and firing
sundry portions of the building, and then rushed through
the windows and doors like a discharge of a thousand
rockets. For some time, the utmost excitement pre-
vailed in the neighbourhood, and it was feared that
every man on the premises had been burned to
death. Such was the power of the fire, that
no one could enter for some time to render assist-
ance, and intelligence was forthwith sent to the engine-
stations. In the course of a few minutes Mr. Connorton
reached the scene, with the West of England engine, and
was followed by Mr. Hambleton, with the Brigade en-
gine from Waterloo-road, and the escape belonging to
the Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire.
With buckets of water the firemen succeeded in putting
the fire out, and the hot metal on the floors cooled, when
a dreadful sight presented itself. One of the workmen,
named George Richardson, was found in a corner of the
foundry, burnt in a most shocking manner. His shoes
and portions of his dress were stripped by the action of
the fire from his person, and the injuries he received
were of such a nature that no hopes were entertained of
his recovery. He was placed in a cab and removed to
the hospital. Two other persons, named Thomas Hobbe
and Martin Ryan, were also extensively burned about
their bodies, and were likewise obliged to be removed to
the hospital. Two children, belonging to Mr. Billing-
hurst, one of the partners, were also injured, but not to
any great extent. At eleven o'clock the fire was extin-
guished; but it was expected that one person, if not more,
would die during the night.