New-York tribune., 1920-10-10

.
ing green hills on one side and blue
bays interlined with fishing nets on
the other down to Belfast.
Orange Intolerance
"Drive you down York Street?
Where there's shootin'? Not for
ten pound"
declined to put temptation in the
jarvey's way. A streetcar at the
station door took US down for a
penny-and there was no "shootin'." i"
The sectarian intolerance of that
fateful September week end had
spent itself, leaving the Ulster CAPT
tai, With its -streWn streets,
ruined shops and disrupted indus
tries, to face death roll Of thirty
and a bill for damages amounting
to over S6,000,000.
1t would be impertinent for an
observer Of Irish affairs to ascribe
the recent Belfast riots to intol-
erance on the part of Protestant en-
ployers and workers alike if it were
not their proud boast that this is
the case.
Sure, we meant to drive them
out" said a Unionist foreman in
Harlan & Wolff's shipyards, "they're
rebels and murderers." He didn't
i'd "and Catholics" but the test Of
Il mans right to work and live in
peace outside the Catholic quarter
that red week end was his willing
ness to Course the Pope"
listers Holiday
The trouble in Belfast, I learned,
was fostered on the wTwelfth. :"
listers holiday, apparently by
speech Of Sir Edward Carson's. 1t
blazed out embryonically late in
July, but it was not until August
20 that the most recent and terrible
carnage began.
From then or, for five days, the
sky was red Of nighos with the re-
Election Of burning houses, and
every day life was disrupted, while
mobs fought with sticks and stones
and bottles and murderous Belfast
butterflies (steel rivets from the
shipyards); then firearms came into
play, and troops were rushed in to
hight both mobs and stem the rising
tide OF what was almost anarchy. 1t
was not anarchy against govern
ment; only wanton destruction of
mems right to work and live where
they chose, despite their religion.
The Catholics were largely segre-
gated by the fighting into three dis
tricts, the boundaries of which be-
came No Mans Land for battlers
and spectators alike. Three thou
sand Catholics were rendered home
less; as many more lost their Jobs.
They were not slow to reprisals
and casualties were heavy on both
sides. Women fought like tigers
alongside men. All the advantages
Of battle lay with the aggressors, and
the majority of the property de-
stroyed was Catholic shops; a church
and monastery were not spared.
Onlonlsts enjoyed the advantage of
lighting under the Union Jack, upon
which the soldiers would not fire.
The military established cordons
around the disaffected areas and
gradually the trouble died down.
The hate is still there and the Cath
olc homes are still in ruins; thou
sand have emigrated southwark
across the Boyne; for the moment
there is quiet.
1t is now proposed to enroll and
arm we'll disposed. loyal citizens to
assist the authorities in Ulster.
This in itself sounds harmless
enough. But a loyal citizen is in
evitably a Unionist, Protestant,
and large majority OF those who
qualify for arms are Carson volun-
teers," who themselves threatened
rebellion upon a previous occasion.
They harbor bitter hatred of the
Catholic Nationalist element in VI
ster; they are known to possess
much of the ruthless spirit of their
leader; the proposal to arm them is
a proceeding viewed in many quar-
ters with profound alarm.
apparently" says one Belfast