The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1922-06-05

IL
nearly half a year after the crea-
ton of the Irish Free State.
"A bitter religious war RACES in
Ulster, while South Ireland sits on
the volcano edge of civil war. And
Belfast is a city of murder, bomb
ing and incendiarism.
Will peace. ever come? Ireland
awaits a miracle while factional
leaders-Arthur Griffith, Michael
Collins, Eamonn de Valera, Sir
James Craig and David Lloyd
George-strive for a settlement.
Politics and religion were stir
red into an explosive mixture in
Ulster when Dali Eireann, repre-
senting twenty-six counties of
South Ireland approved the treaty
creating these counties into the
Irish Free State, an independent
government within the British
Empire, similar to Canada and
Australia.
Orangemen in North Ireland
out Armed men clashed on the
frontier between Ulster and South
Ireland. Belfast, which is three
fourths Protestant and one-fourtn
Catholic, became the boiling pot.
Division is Religious
Most Protestants are Unionists,
desiring Ulster either to remain a
part of Great Britain, or become
self-governinS independent of
South Ireland. Most Catholics
there are Nationalist, desiring
either a free Irish republic, or an
Irish Free State, such as has been
set up.
Homes have been raided, men
and women shot in their beds,
crowds bombed, houses burned.
Murder and battle are worst every
interval from Saturday night until
Monday morning when the fac
tories are closed leach weekend is
a bloody holiday.
On a recent enthusiastically
IL persons were killed and nine
wounded in Belfast alone.
Who is to blame for the afro
cities? Each side accuses the
other.
The Ulster Unionist government
b1ames members of the Sim Fein,
party and claims members of the
Irish Republican army are trying
to intimidate the people and the
government in Ulster.
Dali Eireann, the parliament of
South Ireland, offers statistics to
support its contention that Ulster
ties are the aggressors and Cath
olics the chief victims.
They list 337 persons killed and
1883 wounded in Belfast from
July, 1920, when several thousand
Catholic workmen were expelled
from the Belfast shipyards, up to
May IS, 1922. They give these
figures for four weeks of last
Ill A
wounded; II: Protestants killed.
, 4 wounded; rs houses burned, 3
houses bombed.
Civil War in South
No such loss of life has occur
red in South Ireland. But the
differences between De Valera, adj
vocate of a republic, and Griffith.
and Collins, advocates of the Free
State, caused a cleavage not only
in Dali Eireann, but also in the
Sim Fem organization and in the
Irist Republican Army.
Republican and Free State
troops have been at swords points,
the Dublin courts were seized by
the former "a newspaper office was
wrecked and banks were Graided in
12 southern cities. Policemen. and
citizens have been killed, and in
April Brig. Gen. Adamson was
killed by armed men after putting
his hands up as ordered. And in
the same month Michael Collins
was shot at.
And last month, while Collins
and De Valera were trying to ar
range a coalition government to
prevent civil war in South Ireland,
the transport workers union seiz-
ed n great number of creamerieS5
and hoisted the@red flag.