The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1921-11-24
IRELAND


authorities in Dublin we're warned
that a revolt was impending, but no
attention was paid to the warning,
so that when trouble broke out they
were not ready. The 1916 Rebellion
is a sad story. The center Of Dub
lin was so badly wrecked that we
were told IL looked like one of the
towns in France or Flanders.
Since then things have gone from
bad to worse; Sim Fem has tyran-
nized the island to such an extent
that In the South and West people
are afraid to speak of what Is going
on. Newspaper correspondents have
been threatened with death II they
inform their papers Of the deeds IN
their neighborhood. There are thou
sands who would be gladly rid Of
Sim Fem, but they are terrorized.
Raids are common all over Ireland,
and in country districts In the North
they are part of the Sim Fein
scheme for making Ulster submit
In isolated farmhouses men, women,
and children live in constant dread,
not knowing what moment in the
night they may awake to find their
homes surrounded by raiders, who Of
ten kill the men.
Our police force, the Royal Irish
Constabulary, Is one of the finest
bodies Of men in the world; they have
been very faithful to the Government,
tho the greater number are Roman
Catholics. Many have been killed in
different ways, but there were no
reprisals until forty had been assas-
sinated. All these things have tend
ed to great bitterness on both sides,
and God only knows what the out.
come will be.
The Sim Feiners talk of all the
outrages which have been committed
by the soldiers and police. Outrages
indeed! when they have murdered
hundreds of innocent men and women;
the reprisals in comparison have been
few. An Inspector of Police was
killed last February, fighting against
a force Of rebels. He had been COM
mander of a mine-sweeper in the
Irish Sea during the war and had
saved an American transport with
600 soldiers on board from being
sunk by German submarine.
Belfast kept very quiet up to the
summer Of 1920 and the annual holt
days in July passed of quietly, but
the following week came news from
Cork Of the murder of one of our
bravest Ulster officers, who had been
badly wounded during the war. At
ter the war was over, ne was given
a high position over the police in
Cork. He was assassinated in a pub
lie room in the city because he had
given the policemen some orders
which were offensive to the Sim
Fein leaders. When his relatives
went to Cork to bring his body home
to the North, no man would drive
them from the railway station to the
Barracks, no undertaken would sup
ply coffin (the soldiers had to take
one) and finally the engine driver re-
fused to drive the train in which the
coffin was placed. 1t had to be taken
by automobile all the way to Dublin,
and then there was no further trouble
on the journey. Is it any wonder
that when this was known, the Prot
estant shipyard workers of Belfast
turned the Roman Catholic men out
of the shipyards and would not let
them work? It was wrong, but
there were extenuating circumstan.
ces. Many Of these men had come
from the south during the war and
taken the places Of those who had
gone to fight our battles. They
would not vght themselves, and then
they had often provoked their fellow
workers by saying, Cup the Rebels"
up Sim Fein." 1t was hard for
human nature to bear, and the re.
suit was bitter riots and fighting.
Do you wonder that we in Ulster
do not trust the Sim Fein leaders :?
De Valera said, two or three years
ago, that if Ulster would not yield,
the province would be coerced. As
he found his threat had no effect on
the northerners, he tried persuasion,
also without avail. Then about two
months ago one Of his foremost men,
in a speech at Armagh, said that if
Ulster did not submit, they would
use lead! These utterances do not
make for peace, and yet we are
blamed by many for not giving in to
the Sin Fem proposals. They nat
urally desire to rule the northern
nro,y;,,oa as - ;o tha .uooltL.o.t