The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-02-02
SEVERE PENAL LAWS
REVIVED IN IRELAND
Infamous Old ''WhitebOys
Act" Enforced
BOY SENT TO PRISON
Given Seven Years Penal Seryitude
for Trivial 0ffense--All Ireland
Joining in Movement to Have
Him Released
BOY SENT TO PRISON
BY +. \. CULLEN

buDllIls fsDIuafH l4--topttieii.i a. -
Atkins of County Glare is today the
most discussed man in Ireland and il the
agitation of which he is the center sue
cceds, his name may go down in history
with that OF Parneli, Davitt Redmond
and other Irish patriots
Atkins position as the center of a
great agitation is purely accidental. II
is to be presumed that he is a patriotic
Irishman Most Glare peasants are pa
triotic, but it is doubtful If Atkins, who
is only 10 years old ever gave much
thought TO anything outside the problems
of his fathers little farm or an occasional
dance with the other boys and girls at the
cross roads or in the village hall
In August last Atkins had been at
tending night school at the village and
was on his way home when he came
across stone wall, seven yards of which
had been thrown down. Atkins stopped
to look at the breach in the wall and two
policemen who happened to come along
pounced on him and marched him off to
the lookup. In due time he was charged
under the infamous old ''Whiteboys. Act
with, 'in company with other persons un-
known destroying the wall. The wall,
1t seems, surrounded field belonging to
man whose politics were unpopular in
the district and this made its destruc-
tion an agrarian and political crime.
The above statement comprises abso-
lutely all the facts that were brought out
at Arkins' trial, which took place be-
! fore a Liberal judge and at which
he was prosecuted by the County Glare
crown prosecutor, a leading Nationalist
I IL tx.to nod
O'Shaughnessy, with bitterness when
could not have been exceeded by the
most bigoted creature of an Orange land
| lord. Atkins stoutly denied his guilt and
| the first jury that tried him was so dis
satisfied with the evidence that it dis
| agreed. e~
! In the ordinary course of events, after
disagreement In trivial case like this,
| the crown would have entered "nolle
| proseque' aud there the matter would
| have ended, but for some reason or other
| the crown prosecutor, imbued perhaps
| with a stern sense OF duty, was deter
| mined that some one should pay the PEN
atty of the heineus crime that had been
committed. He approached Atkins in
prison and told him shat If he would re-
veal the names of his 'confederates'' he
would be released. To this Atkins re-
piled Indignantly that he was no informs
er. This reply Is not Inconsistent with
Atkins innocence, for in most Irish coun-
try districts the names of the perpetra-
tors of such offenses as that with which
Atkins was charged are pretty well
known to everyone but the authorities; so
repugnant Is the role OF informer to the
Irish peasant, however, that they are
seldom betrayed.
Every effortlwas made to induce Ar
kins to inform. even his aged moth
cr was asked to iniiuence him, but she
refused as promptly as her son had
done so and Atkins was put on trial
again. The crown exhausted all its
challenges in the selection Of a jury
and succeeded in getting IL men to its
liking. Atkins was found guilty and in
sentencing him to the terrible punish
ment of seven years penal servitude
the Judge emphasized the point that
the sentence was not so much for the
offense itself as for Atkins contu-
macy in refusing to betray his associ-
ates
Perhaps the fact that the sternly vir-
tuous crown prosecutor was nation
alist and the judge liberal accounted
for the strange apathy of the Irish
press in regard TO the case. None of
the daily papers paid any attention
to 1t until it was taken up by the
weekly journal Sim Fein, which or
ganized a great campaign for Atkins
release. Finally the regular national
list newspapers were forced by the re-
ceipt of thousands of letters from their
eaders to take the matter up and now
the Irish Independent and the Free
mans Journal have joined in the agi-
tation The United Irish league has
taken the matter up and the Lord
Mayor of Dublin has been asked to call
a meeting at the mansion house to
organize an Atkins release COMMITTEES.
Petitions to the lord lieutenant for n
free pardon for Atkins are being cir
culated and eagerly signed.
Far more important than the injus-
tlce to Atkins himself is the demand
for u repeal of the act under which the
hoy was sentenced. IT is a relic OF the
penal days in Ireland and everyone
thought it had been decently buried
and FORGOTTEN. That Ut should be re-
vived by a nationalist official against
a man accused of a. trivial political
offense is one of those things which
suggest that the incidents of comic
opera are not so unreal after all.