The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1933-09-09
irish FACING
INTERNECINE
STRIFE SOON
Blue Shirts Defy Com
mands of President
de Valera
By w. G. QUISENBERRY
United Press Staff Correspondent
Copyright, 1888, by U. P.

DUBLIN, Sept. 9.-(UP).-A
middle-aged man of soldlerly
bearing, with penetrating blue
eyes and a determined mouth,
strobe into the crowded Metro
pole ballroom on O'Conneli
street.
Abruptly the music ceased and
hundreds of right hands went
aloft in the Fascist salute. Then
a great cheer broke over the
hall as the blue-shirted legions
of Europe's newest private army
and their womenfolk wearing
the cornflower insignia of its
auxiliary-greeted their leader.
General Eoin (Owen) O'Duffy,
who earned the name of Give
'em-the-lead" O'Duffy in the
civil war of 1921, acknowledged
the salute. He nodded to several
former cabinet ministers, dressed
in their new blue shirts to ex-
President Cosgrave, to King
Georges ousted governor gen.
eral, James McNeill, and others
of Dublin's social elite. The
music and dancing resumed
STONES SKATER
WINDOWS
Suddenly a fusillade of stones
shattered the plate glass windows
of the ballroom. Women dane
ers screamed. Their escorts
rushed forward to find a howl
ing, ragged mob outside. Break
ing through the police Gordon. it
smashed the automobiles of the
dancers, attacked and stunned
several Blueshirts, who ventured
outside, and gleefully kept the
dancers imprisoned in the ball
room until civic guard reinforce
ment sarrived.
"Up de Valera" the mob
shouted as it dispersed. |
That incident. which occurred
August 8, only two weeks after
formation of the Blueshirts. is
only a taste of what will come II
the Fascist movement thrives half
as we'll on the Irish scene as in
Italy and Germany.
DE VALERA AGAINST
BLUESHIRTS
President de Valera does not
mean to let it thrive. Civil war
that fill with dread the
heart of every Irishman who liv-
ed through the bloody days Of
1922 - is unacceptable, he
warns, if the rival armies Of the
Blueshirts and the Republican ex-
tremists are not restricted.
The Blueshirts, which have
adopted the somewhat mislead-
ing name national guards, so far
claim to have enrolled $4,000
men. They aim to be 100000
strong by the end of the year.
blue tunics, black neck
ties and black berets. they ex..
clude Jews from their ranks, and
appear to have adopted many of
Hitler's ideas. Their leaders
come from the weather. class,
the Cosgrave regime and others
sympathetic to Republican ideals.
Their bitter-and stronger-rl-
walls of the Irish Republican
army have drawn their strength
from Ireland's proletariat and
the small almost poverty-stricken
farmers and fishermen. Forty
thousand strong, and with that
MANY more in the boys and wo-
mems auxiliaries, they have large
of arms and ammuni-
tion, including machine guns, hid
den throughout the lonely Irish
countryside. -
BRITAIN'S LAST GARRISON
The Irish Republican army re-
cards the Blueshirts as "Britain's
last garrison" in the Free State.
increasingly impatient with their
former chief, de Valera. these
men demand he stop wandering
to the Imperialists" and drive out
every vestige of British influ-
ence.
Thus de Valera stands between
two fires. He could, most agree,
ignore the newly-formed Fascist
hut for one factor. That is their
leader, one of the sternest, most
fearless men to emerge from the
bloodshed of the Easter rebellion
and civil war-"Give-' em-the-
lead" O'Duffy. Between these
two men who dominate the trou-
bled Irish scene of today is
vendetta.
And O'Duffy, who smashed de
Valera's power in 1922, now has
another score to settle with his
old enemy.