The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-07-30
By JAMES M. TUOHY.

Limerick City, July 2s. - Fol lowing the trail of martial law in Ireland necessarily brought me to Limerick but before going into the circumstances in which this city came to be proclaimed in a state of siege, must relate one incident, trivial in itself, but very eloquent of the spirit in which this law is enforced. In the course of my inquiries I called upon the Catholic Bishop of the diocese' Dr. Hallinan.
 When martial law was proclaimed bodies of soldiers, fully equipped as usual for trench warfare, were placed on the entrances to the bridges lead ing into the city, to imprison the popuIation The wall-a high, sub stantial stone wall-surrounding the land on which the Bishops residence stands abuts on one of these bridges.
 When the soldiery took up their positions or the road outside, one of the first things they did was to knock down a section of this wall so that they might pitch their tents inside it. This was done without asking the Bishops leave, or without giving him any notice whatever. The act was not only insolent. but entirely gratui- tious for the soldiers could have en- tered his land through the gate couple of hundred yards further along. But of course 1t would have been absurd to consider the rights of a mere Catholic Bishop where the convenience of a batch of soldiers was concerned.
 Latrine Dug Near House.
 But that was not all. That evening as the Bishop was at his dinner he noticed soldiers moving about in the field, without about fifty yards of his window He sent out to inquire what they were doing there. and learned that they had dug latrine right un- der the windows of his house. l saw the remains of the trench, and l also noticed that there were many spots in the f1eld-one of some acres in extent far away from the house, equally far from where the soldiers had en- camped, out of view of his windows, where the latrine could have been dug concealed by trees.
 The Bishop protested to the com manding officer of the siege. and after n delay of a couple of days, the la Urine was transferred elsewhere. Now | the mere fact that some understrap- ping officer or non-commissioned ofi- cor should have thought himself safe i as he proved to be - in offering these contemptible acts of deliberate offense to the Bishop of the diocese. I throws flashlight on the tone of feeling they imbibe from their su- periors.
 Now as to the crime that supplied the pretext for subjecting the City of I,tnnerick-a place of over 10000 in habitants-to the tyranny of martial law.
 Adopts Hunger Strike.
 A young man named Byrne was sentenced by court martial to twelve months Imprisonment for being found in possession of revolver He adopted the hunger strike as protest against the military sem tence and his treatment as an or dinary criminal, and became so Ill that he had to be removed in serious condition to the Wordhouse Hospital. One evening a gang Of men entered the workhouse and made their way to the ward where Byrne was abed guarded by a policeman, and set out to rescue him. shots were fired, both by the police and the rescuers one policeman was killed and one wounded. Byrne was also wounded in the melee and subse- ouently died. The Sim Feiners as sert that the police and military have orders to shoot their prisoners when attempt IS 1Il1ue lo IeSSuo eAiSiA' and point to the case of Bryne at Limerick and Hogan at Knocklong Station. in proof of the existence Of this order.
 Following upon the perpetration of this crime Lord French proclaimed Limerick City a military area, with all the disabilities, provocations and punishments of innocent people in- volved in that method of govern ment.
 The British Army of Occupation paraded the streets in the full pan oply of war, pickets were placed on the bridges across the Shannon. tanks