Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-08-19
THE BELFAST MONSTROSITY.

The unprecedented horror and brutal
ity attending the bloody riots in the
North OF Ireland, and particularly at
Belfast, for the past month, has caused |
readers on this side of the ocean to won
der what could have made any class of
civilized beings to so unman themselves
and turn murderers Of their countrymen,
women and children. Our regular cable
reports are lacking in giving the true
causes, therefore we give place to the
following special to the New York Sun,
which plainly points out the origin OF the
trouble, and brands the class who lit the
fires Of discord as among the most des-
picable of Gods creatures:
The Right Rev. Patrick McAllister,
Roman Catholic Bishop of the diocese of
Down, being interviewed on the subject of
the Belfast riots, said to Gable News cor
respondent to day: "The Belfast riots are
due to the incitement of the Orangemen to
acts of violence by the so-called Loyalist
press and the incendiary fulminations of
the lecturers and parsons who call them
selves Loyalists, and use the platform and
the pulpit for the purpose of convincing
their hearers that Catholicism is disloyalty.
These utterances have led to unprovoked at
tacks by Orangemen upon Catholics, which,
OF course, the latter have resisted. Cite any
case of rioting in Belfast, and l will show
that the Orangemen have been the aggres-
sors, and that the Catholics have risen
against them only when provoked to violent
resistance, and then only when compelled to
do so in defense of their lives and homes.
| The Protestants in purely Catholic
districts have never been molested
| and being in the minority they, of course,
haven't molested the Catholics. The police,
too, have been treated very unjustly. In no
case have they fired upon the crowds, un-
less they were compelled to, and in every
case where they have fired upon the mob,
Orangemen have been the sufferers, because
| only Orangemen were resisting their author
ity. The Catholics, when engaged in de-
Tending themselves against Orangemen,
| police, but the Orangemen, when similarly
ordered, have hurled defiance at the police
and following up this defiance have boldly
attacked the officers of the law and at
tempted to drive them from their posts of
duty.
them, l believe the police are absolutely un-
biased, and am satisfied they would fire
upon Catholics without hesitation If it should
be necessary to stop rioting Let the police
manage matters and the rioting will be sup
pressed in short order, and permanently, too.
|
and let Justice be exercised by the stipendi-
| ary magistrates, who are responsible to the
Government, and you will soon see a cess6-
tion of violence and the restoration of order.
The local magistrates are partial to Orange
| men; the stipendiaries are partial to nobody.
If the Mayor chose to do SO, he could induce
his own worlSmen to refrain from attacking
Catholics, but he closes his eyes to their out
rageous conduct If the complaints against
the police are well founded, which l deny,
4.
sale attack upon Catholics. The priests
have used their influence with their people
to the utmost, and have in this way con-
tributed large measure of assistance to the
police in preserving order, but it has not
been at all times possible for them to restrain
their tlocks from avenging unprovoked in
iuries."
1t is but a few weeks since Lord Sails
bury, in his reply to the structures made
on him by the Jingo statesman, spoke
sneeringly of American political methods
and left his hearers to infer they were
low in the scale OF honesty. If anyth lg
in all the political history Of America
can be truthfully compared to the fore
going action OF the Orange officials, in
cited thereto by partisan press, we dc
not know it. Politics in America is full
OF tricks, and cases are recorded where
men have lost their lives, but such whole
sale butchery as that at Belfast over
shadows anything that ever occurred
in this country, and can be likened
only to the actions OF the Paris Commune.
The year 1856 seems to be peculiarly Q
year of punishment to evil-doers in all
lands, hence it is possible that the bloody
work in Belfast will yet come home tc
punish its real authors, and the punish
ment will be so full and far-reaching
that never again can humanity be called
ON to stand by and witness such cowardly
brutality, in nation that prides itself on
circling its throne with the spirit oi
Christ and the halo OF the Holy Ghost.
Perjured officials and bloodthirsty min
ions have had their day in Ireland, and
the common voice Of civilized humanity
calls halt in this murderous crusade
: against unoffending men.
|