The Green Forest tribune., 1912-07-26

Imagine the policemen the natural protectors of life and property. being hated by the peoDle, 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. It means that they have so long seen the policeman identified with the nro lection of a particular kind of life to-wit: the landlords and balfs. and a particular kind of property, to-wit: the landlords property in land that they overlook his other useful pubIie sarv Ices It Is a most unfortunate state of things The policeman has been made the buffer betweer tne English Government and the Irish people, and the efficient instrument of coercion of the latter ana petFeen the two his lot has not been hannv one. When home rule becomes an accomplisbad fact, the Royal Irish Constabulary will be dis banded It will no longer be necessary to keen an English garrison" in Ireland
 The estrangement between the police and tho people is indeed remarkable. In the lawless dis. tr1cts of which there still too many the people who could give information to the police will not do so Hence there is a good deal of unpunished crime in those districts. One of the worst conn. ties In this respect is the county of Clare the historic constituency that first elected O'Connell 70 Parliament Here the old wounds of the agra r1an war have never closed up During my stay saw Tn one or the papers a pastoral letter of the Most Rev. Dr. Fogarty, Bishop of Killaloe giv ing bloodcurdling description of outrages which icontlnued to be committed with impunity against life and property in Clare. visited Ennis the capital of the county. I was told that in one week DO less than three shooting outrages had been ,perpetrated on unoffending men, One of the vic tins was ex-soldier, who acting letter. carrier, and who was shot in the highway in open day. Although many people passed his wounded body the road, not one would comfort or re- lieve him till the police came 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 Clare.
 Sauntering round the narrow streets I fell in with old who did not object to conversa- tion He proved to be ex-policeman. This did not mince matters in detailing his views and experiences. Glare the most peaceable county in Ireland" said he, when I 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 Fenians or Ribbonmen, and many of them criminals" I told him I thought this too strong a de- scription of his countrymen He, however stuck to his opinion, and took me to elevated spot at the back of the Court House, from which he pointed out the of many as seventeen assassnations, all less successful, but for which only brought to justice
 It Ia 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 often known to adopt similarly uncommunicatye attitude To give n- formation to the police is to be branded 'fnformer" which is the most offensive epithet in the Irishmans vocabulary, being worse than that of "hangma1." The stigma descends from father to son, wnile there Is any of the family left to endure it. My ex-poceman friend told me that he himself had heard Clare mother. whose son vas shot before her eyes, make the avowal that she would rather all her lying dead be- side her than become hated "informer." She brought the secret to the grave with her.
 asked my friend for his opinion as to why the force was SO unpopular. He laid the blame un hesitatingly upon the English Government The Government have employed the police Almost clushively at evfctions and other such unpopular tasks, when they might have employed the regu lar soldiers the militia. The result Is that the