The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1922-01-05
IRELAND BOOMS
WITH FREEDOM
Air of Liberty Pervades
Everywhere as Business
BOoms in Dublin.
ENGLAND IS SUSPICIOUS
By Milton Bronner.


Dublin.-The moment the visitor to
Dublin steps off the train he shifts
something that no man in our time
has ever shifted here before-the sweet
air of liberty.
There is no mistaking it.
Irishmen are holding their heads up
as freemen, as citizens of a self-gov-
erning state, even though the actual
machinery for this purpose has not yet
been set up and started going.
The last time was in the Irish cap
ital it was a sad city, sober city,
gray city, a sinister city. Men and
women, even boys and girls, seemed to
have lost the art of laughing. How
could one laugh when Death stalked
in every street?
Spies Everywhere.
There were spies everywhere. There
was the espionage of the hated Castle
fortress of the foreign governing
power. And there was the counter and
far more effective espionage of Sim
Fem. The waiter who brought your
soup, the porter who shined your shoes,
the coax room attendant who handed
you your overcoat-all were watching
you, listening to what you said, and
duly reporting somewhere.
For there was war in Ireland. And
Dublin was as city captured by the
enemy in wartime. The Castle,
Phoenix Park and other points of van
tage were armed camps. Regular
troops, Black and Tans, Auxiliaries
held the city. Armored cars, huge
army tories with steel screene, even
tanks, patrolled the city. The citizen
had to be off thee streets at eight
o'clock.
Business Booms.
But now everything is changed. Cur
few is thing of the past O'Con-
nell street and Grafton street and the
other great avenues are thronged at
night with people. The theaters and
the movies and the candy shops are
doing roaring business.
And about every third man on the
streets is British soldier. One be-.
gins to get an idea of what an armed
camp Dublin has been. Before, the
soldiers did not venture on the streets
except with arms.
And most significant of all-the
Irish people are smiling again. With
characteristic buoyancy and optimism
they are looking forward to the bright
future. They are living not only in
the happier today, but they are pre-
pairing to build for the better tomor-
row.
Not rainbow stuff. These people are
talking of Irish industries and Irish
business and more and bigger Irish
farms
England Suspicious.
Ireland is free. Yet England, de-
spite the peace agreement, does not
trust her fully yet.
Here is a sample: The traveller
blithely purchases a. ticket from Lon
don to Dublin. When his train arrives
at Holyhead, he expects to go right
aboard the vessel that is to carry him
across the stormy Irish Sea.
Nothing doing.
Everybody is herded towards an en-
closure where grim looking British of
ficials of the police department require
that every person open his baggage
for inspection.
England is still holding up the trav-
eler, lest he may be seeking to carry
into Ireland pistols, cartridges, high
explosives.
Nor is that all The old Irish Par
lament House is now occupied by the
Bank Of Ireland. All during the con-
test between Sim Fem and England,
heavy guard of British soldiers was
maintained at this bank. Guns and
soldiers and barbed wire are still there.
Nor has England as yet done much
towards taking away the thousands of
troops. These men viii probably be
kept CHARTERED here until all the neces-
sary protocols for peace have been
signed.