Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1919-06-28
BRUTALITY EXPOSED
of Offenders
Lowest Assaults Public
StreetsW and dubbed Rifles


a parsonage as the Prime Minister
of England, though he stated that
he was acting on orders from the
Government officials n Dublin.
Many of the persons we met in
the vicinity corroborated the stories
of brutal treatment to which pris-
oners in the Westport Jail were be-
ing subjected, the details being hor
rible beyond belief.
During our visit to Ireland we
witnessed numerous assaults in
public streets and highways with
bayonets and dubbed rifles, upon
men and women known to be Re-
publicans, or suspected of being in
favor of a republican form of gov
eminent. Many of the outraged
persons were men and women of
exemplary character, and occupy
ing high positions in the business
and professional life of the country
We took statements covering hun
dreds of cases of outrage and VIC
fence committed by the officers and
representatives of the British Gov
eminent in Ireland, the details of
which we set forth herein. The ex-
cesses and atrocities detailed are
either being actually committed at
the present time or have been COM
mitted within the recent past, as a
part of "a scheme and plan to crush
out and repress the effort of the
Irish people to establish a republic
can form of government in Ireland.
Among the leaders of the Re-
publican movement in Ireland,
many of whom have had these at
rocities practiced upon their per-
sons, are lawyers, such as Edward
Duggan, George Nichols and John
Hanrahan, who rank relatively with
such men in the United States as
Morgan j O'Brien, John B. Stanch-
field, Levi Mayer, or A. Mitchell
Palmer. Some of the men whom
we actually saw in jail, in pitia-
Bile condition, we're newspaper men
who rank with Henry Watterson,
or the late Col William r. Nelson,
of Kansas City This comparison
Is made because two of the prison
ers in Mountioy, Messrs, Pierce
Beasley and William Sears, are
the owners or principal stockholders
of papers which they edit them
SELVES. Many others we actually
saw in prison are working newspa-
per men and correspondents of
I high class publications, such as
| Charles H. Grasty, Frank H. ST.
monds and Herbert Bayard Swope.
Among the men we saw n prison
are stock-raisers and farmers, bus
mess men of affairs, and literary
men of brilliant parts and of the
highest character.
1--WE witnessed while in Ireland
brutal and unprovoked assault
by an English colonel and crowd
of soldiers upon the person of Pro
lessor John MacNeill. Professor
MacNeill is a member of the faculty
of the National University, is an
educator and publcist of the high
est type, and occupies relatively
the same position in Ireland that
| william Howard Taft or Nicholas
Murray Butler does in the United
States. If England ever had an
educational system in Ireland it
has completely broken down. The
Irish people are taxed more for the
support Of the people and constab-
although the country is prac-
ltically crimeless in the ordinary
sense-than they are for the main
| tenance of the whole educational
system of Ireland, including the
upkeep of the National University
and Trinity College, as well as all
the primary and other schools in the
land. School teachers in the pri-
mary schools are paid as low as "a
per week. No system of hygiene or
sanitation has been installed. The
teeth of practically all the children
are in decay, and respiratory and
throat troubles exist to AN alarming
| degree. Lack of decent clothing
and under-nourishment is keeping
thousands of children out of school.
school.
'In the City of Dublin alone
there are 10000 families, on an
average of five to each family, liv-
ing in one room tenements. In
FAINT mortality is appalling. Desti-
tuition and hunger is rife. Munich
pal bodies and private persons are
attempting to extend relief, but all
} such activities must have the
sanction of the British Govern
; ment, which is difficult, if not inn
possible, to obtain.
1--WE sincerely urge that If the
Peace Conference refuses a hearing
TO the people of Ireland, in these
circumstances, the guilt for the
commission of these monstrous
; crimes and atrocities. as well as fcl
, the bloody revolution which RAY
follow, must, from this time for
, ward, be shared with Great Britain
by the members of the Peace Con
, ference, If not by the peoples wnon
/ they represent.
; Respectfully submitted,
"AMERICAN COMMISSIONS or
, IpIcII INIDEPENNrDENCE %