Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1920-11-20

ed blessings on me for coming to
see them. The word went around
like wildfire that an American was
making an investigation of the de-
/ struction, and the cry of the people
who gathered round me was, what
Is America doing? Is America go
ing to help us? If we don't get help
from America we are lost!" And In
fact America was their hope In most
places l visited.
From Balbriggan went to
Drogheda by way of Gormanstown,
and found for miles round the peo-
gle were terror stricken.
l visited the counties of Upper
airy, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Clare
and Kerry. The towns in Tippera y
which got the worst wrecking were
Menagh. Tipperary and Templemore.
The BLACK and Tans" arrived on
motor trucks In Templemore about
IL O'clock at might and, as usual,
first attacked liquor store. A bar
rel of whisky was rolled into the
street, the head knocked In and the
boys" drank their fill. Then the
yell was raised, up and at them,
Black and Tans."
Within one hour the main street
of the city was wrecked from end to
end. Mr.. Kiely's dry goods store,
one of the best equipped in Ireland
of its kind, was destroyed. Wreckers
were dressed in women's wearing
apIarel and danced in the street to
the music of guitar. They visited
house where a woman had been
walked; marched round the coffin
playing the guitar and singing.
Many towns in the county of Cork
have been wrecked, the worst dam
age having been done in Mallow,
Bandon, Fermoy and Cork city.
When Queenstown was attacked the
British Admiral put marines ashore,
threatening the wreckers that If they
did not desist from destruction he
would turn his guns on them. The
Admiral undoubtedly saved Queens
town from destruction.
On the evening of November /,
about O'Clock, Mrs. Ellen Quinn,
twenty-three years of age, wife Of
farmer living in Gorth, County
Galway. sitting at the front Of her
house playing with her baby, nine
months old, was shot from a mill
tary motor truck passing along the
road. She was the mother of three
children, and again about to become
mother.
When she called out that she was
shot, a young man started to run
across the fields for a doctor and he
was shot from another military
motor truck and badly wounded.
When the doctor arrived, nearly
four hours after, the woman had al
most bled to death.
In Clare, among the towns badly
wrecked were Ennistimon, Lehinch
and Midtown Malbay.
In Ennist.mon mans house had
been set on fire and as the man
came out he was shot dead, after
being questioned by the 'Blaek and
Tans.'' They picked up the body
and threw 1t into the flames, where
| II was burned to crisp.
The following figures speak for
themselves:
| In the first nine months of 1920
the Government made 1000 arrests
and ra!ded, and in some cases loot
ed and destroyed, over $4,000
houses, while eighty-nine towns had
been sacked and upward OF one hun
dred creameries and other industrial
plants destroyed.
That Is what brought about the
assassination of policemen and sol
diers. Where Is the man who Is
going to stand down and see his
home destroyed or see his father or
brother assassinated II he has a
wear on to defend them with.
Mrs. O'Dwyer, whose two sons had
been pulled out of bed and assassi-
mated by the military, was standing
with her blind husband by the bodies
of the boys when the newspapermen
arrived, and her comment was:
Thank God They died for their
country"
From the above it can be seen
that ireland is in a deplorable con-
dition. and it is liable to be worse
The Government, being unable to
break the national spirit, has lnow
resorted to the shutting down of the
railroads, so as to starve the people
into submission.
| If the United States and other
civilized peoples do not call a halt
on Lloyd George and his present
Cabinet, Ireland, I fear, is doomed
to destruction.