The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1912-07-26


Imagine the policemen the natural protectors
of life and property, being hated by the people!
That is the condition in Ireland yet and has been
so almost from the beginning That does not
mean that the Irish do not want to have life and
property protected 1t means that they have SO
long seen the policeman identified with the pro-
lection of a particular kind Of life to-wit: the
landlords and baflins, and particular kind of
property, to-wit: the landlords property in land
that they overlook his other useful public sery-
ices. 1t is a most unfortunate state of things
Inc policeman has been made the buffer between
tie English Government and the Irish people, and
the efficient instrument of coercion of the latter
and between the two his lot has not been happy
one. When home rule becomes an accomplished
fact the Royal Irish Constabuary will be dis
banded 1t will no longer be necessary to keep
an English garrison" in Ireland.
The estrangement between the police and the
people is indeed remarkable In the lawless dis
tricts of which there still too many, the people
who could give information to the police will not
do so. Hence, there is good deal Of UNPUBLISHED
crime in those districts One of the worst coun-
ties in this respect is the county Of Clare, the
historic constituency that first elected OConnelI
to Parliament. Here the old wounds of the agra
rtan war have never closed up. During my stay
/ saw in one of the papers a pastoral letter Of
the Most Rev DR.. Fogarty, Bishop of Killaloe Civ
ing blood-curdng description If outrages which
continued to be committed with impunity against
life and property in Clare | visited Ennis the
capital OF the county. | told that in one week
no less than three shooting outrages had been
perpetrated on unoffending men. One of the vic
Tins was ex-solder who was acting letter
carrier and who shot in the highway in open
day Although many people passed his wounded
body on the road, not one would comfort
lieve him till the police several hours after
wards. These passers by doubtless felt that if
they gave any help to the victim they might meet
the same fate himself. So helpless has British
law become in the county of Glare.
Sauntering round the narrow streets l fell in
with old who did not object to conversa-
ton. He proved to be ex-polceman. This
man did not mince matters in detailing his views
and expeISences Glare was the most peaceable
county in Ireland said he when l joined the
force, but the cursed Land League upon US
and since then things have been different. Most
of the men you meet the road are Fenans or
Ribbonmen, and many of them criminals"
/ told him l thought this was too strong de-
scription of his Countrymen. He, however, stuck
to his opinion, and took to an elevated spot at
the back of the Court House, from which he
pointed out the scenes of many seventeen
assassinations, all more or less successful but
for which only one brought TO
Justice
1t is not alone the malcontents and the secret
society men that refuse to tell the police what
they know about outrages. Even the relatives of
the injured persons are often known to adopt a
similarly communicative attitude. To give in
formation to the police is to be branded
informer," which is the most offensive epithet in
the Irishman's vocabulary, being worse than that
of "hangman." The stigma descends from father
to son, while there is any of the family left to
endure it. My ex-policeman friend told me that
he himself had heard Glare mother whose son
was shot before her eyes, make the aYowal that
she would rather see all her sons lying dead be-
side her than become hated "informer" She
brought the secret to the grave with her
l asked my friend for his opinion as to why the
force was so unpopular. He laid the blame I'M
hesitatingly upon the English Government The
Government have employed the police almost ex
clushivey at evictions and other such unpopular
tasks, when they might have employed the regu-
lar soldiers or the militia The result is that the