Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1912-08-07

Imagine the policemen. the natural protectors
OF life and property, being hated by the peonle,
That is the condition In Ireland yet and has baen
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 particular kind OF llfe to-wit; the
landlords and bailns, and a particular kind or
property, to-wit: the landlords property in land
that they overlook his other useful public sarv
ices. IL Is most unfortunate state of things
the policeman has been made the buffer between
the English Government and the Irish peonle and
the ethcient instrument of coercion of the latter
and between the two his lot has not been hannv
one, When home rule becomes an Accomplished
TACT, the Royal Irish 'Constabulary will be dis
banded. 1t will no longer be necessary to keen
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 peonla
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 Hence there is good deal of unpublished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 conn.
ties in this respect Is the county Of Clare the
historic constituency that first elected O'Connell
so Parliament. Here the old wounds of the agra.
rian 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 boodcurdling description of outrages which
continued to be committed with mpunity against
life and property in Clare / visited Ennis the
capital Of the county. was told that in one week
no less than three shooting outrages had been
perpetrated> on unoffending men. One of the vic
Tins was an ex-soldier, who was acting letter
carrier, and who was shot in the highway in open
day. Although many people passed his wounded
body on the road not one would comfort or re-
lieve him till the police came several hours after
wards. These passers by doubtless felt that IL
they gave any help to the victim they might meet
the same fate as himself, So helpless has British
law become in the county of Glare.
SCATTERING round the narrow streets fell in
with an old man who did not object to conversa-
ton. He proved to be expoliceman This
man did not minCe matters in detailing his views
and experiences. Glare the most peaceable
county in Ireland" said he, when l Joined the
force, but the cursed Land League came upon us,
and since then things have been different. Most
of the men you meet on the road are Fenians or
Ribbonmen and many of them are criminals" "
told him l thought this too strong de-
scription of his countrymen. He however, stuck
to his opinion and took me to an elevated spot at
the back of the Court House. from which he
poirted out the scenes of as many as seventeen
assassinations, all more or less successful, but
for which only one man was ever brought to
Justice.
It Ia not alone the macontents 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 uncommuncatiye attitude. To give IN
formation to the police is to be branded as an
Dinformer" which is the most offensive epithet in
the Irishman's vocabulary, being worse than that
Of "hangman." The stigma descends from father
10 son, while there is any of the family left to
endure It, My ex-policeman friend told me that
he himself had heard a Clare mother, whose son
was shot before her eyes, make the avowal 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.
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 ex
clushvely at evctions and other such unpopular
tasks when they might have employed the regu
lar soldiers or the militia. The result is that tn,