The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-15 00:00:00

THE ORANGE ANNIVERSABIES.

There are now to hand some further accounts of the
Belfast riotingr. Some Roman Catholics broke the panes
of glass on Monday evening in a Protestant school, and
the Orangemen, it seems, determined to retaliate. Shoitly
before nine o'clock a crowd of persons, numbering between
400 and 500, issued from the direction of Wilton-street,
off Shankhill-road, and the streets adjoining, and
entered Conway-street. where they attacked the
Roman Catholic school buildings situated in that
street, near the corner of Nixon-street. The windows
having been smashed in, an entrance was effected into the
building through the broken panes. The door was imme-
diately burst open, and the seat; torn from the floor to
which they were attached, pitched out into the street and
smashed. The police knew nothing of this outrage
until after its commission. It soon became
known throughout Belfast, and the Roman Catho-
lics became greatly excited. A little after ten
o'clock the denizens of Hamill-street and Barrack-
street, which is exclusively Roman Catholic, made an
assault on some of the houses of the Protestants in Galway-
street. Fortunately a large body of constabulary, under
Mr. Commissioner Bailey, had been stationed at the
end of Galway-street and the corner of Durham-
street, and seeing the mob they immediately charged
and drove them back. Hamill-street presented a
very strange appearance. The police, on entering,
found the pavements all ripped up, and the paving stones
piled in heaps, round which crowds of roughs were congre-
gated ready for action. When the charge was made by
the police three arrests were made by Acting-constable
Collins, Sub-constable Moore, and Sub-constable Kelly,
of the Detective force ; and nine other arrests were subse-
quently effected. In the scuffle which ensued between
the constabulary and the mobs a policeman named David
Watt was badly injured by a blow of s, stone thrown by
some person in the crowd.
All the police force was now called out ; but other dis-
tricts were rising. The Belfast News Letter says: " About
twelve o'clock, a large Roman Catholic mob congregated
in a passage off Millfleld, where they held a kind of de-
liberative assembly, and elected a chairman. An indi-
vidual in the mob was heard to use the expression, Come,
boys, the resolution passed ; let us attack Brown-street'
—a well-known Protestant district. The police, however,
frustrated the efforts of this mob."

The Belfast News Letter says little of the outrages of
the Orangemen. They paraded the streets all night pre-
ceded by fife bands. The processions were several times
charged by the police. Shortly before twelve o'clock a
small party of about twelve proceeded up the Shankhill-
road from the direction of Dover-street, and on reaching
Bower's-hill commenced to cheer and make use of party
expressions. Sub-constable Moloughney, afraid that they
would attack the barrack, brought the only available men
outside for appearance' sake, and the crowd, which had by
this time increased to about 100, proceeded up the road,
and stopped outside a public•house. It is stated that
stones were thrown against the shutters, but no windows
were broken. A cry of police was raised and the crowd
scattered, but while dispersing a party of police appeared
upon the scene, and arrested ten persons. They were
taken to Shankhill Police Barrack, and when quietness
had been restored they were conveyed by an armed
escort to the Police-office, where they were lodged for the
night.

The rioting in Newry was somewhat serious also. From
eight o'clock p.m. a crowd, mainly composed of the oppo-
site party, began to assemble in the vicinity of the Orange
Hall, where a supper was being held in commemoration of
the day. At about nine o'clock a number of the crowd
forced their way in the direction of the Orange quarter,
with the apparent intention of fighting. They were
quickly followed by a large party of the constabulary,
who had only sidearms on. They came up with the parties
just a.s a skirmish was commencing. Someof the Orangemen
were armed with scythes and pitchforks, which they wielded
round their heads with every apparent determination to
use them. Owing to the judicious interference of the
head-constables, they got each party to disperse. In the
interim a large body of the constabulary, fully armed,
took up a position in front of the Orange Hall, where
the crowd had now assumed a very threatening
aspect. The mob commenced to throw stones at
the windows of the ball, and large stones were made to
rebound off the roof. In a short. time several panes of
glass were broken in the windows, and almost at the same
instant the two windows over the watering dam, and
facing Trevor-bill in the direction of the town, were
thrown up, and several shots Here red indiscriminately
among the crowd. '1 liree of the shots took effect— one in
the leg of a lad named John O'Hare, of Canal-street, who
was at the Bank of Ireland at the time, a distance of
about two hundred yards. Still further on, a
distance of twenty yards, a servant girl of
Mr. Hutchison Boyd, sub-sheriff, named Ellen Rafter,
who was merely standing on the steps at her master's hall-
door, was hit by a slug in the fleshy part of the arm ; and
a man named Blake was shot in the cheek and ear, his
whole face being covered with blood in a moment. Some
injuries from stone-throwing are also reported.
The latest news from Belfast and Newry is, all quiet.