The Northern Guardian. — 1894-12-07 (Hartlepool, Cleveland, England)

THZ BELFAST CALAMITY.  FURTHER DETAILS.  Further particulars respecting the fatal panic at a school entertainment near Belfast state that when the audience got jammed together the majority of those in front fell headlong to the bottom of the staircase and °there came pell.mell on the top of them. The smaller children were trampled upon in the attempt ta reach the exit, which was found tole closed. When an entrance was effected by another (Icor it was seen that four of the children were already dead, while a large number were in an utterly exhausted state. The names of the children who were suffocated are Dennis Dwyer, aged six years; Kady McKeown, ten years; John Connor, eight ; Annie Campbell, seven. Another little girl was terribly injured, her life being despaired of. William Killough, ThomasTalloon, John Doherty, and Joseph Cassidy, seriously injured, were all taken to the Royal Hospital, where they remain under treatment. . . .  Mr Peter Cassidy, of 55, Cyprus Street, who took his little girl, four years old, to the show, says : There was a rush by the people behind for the door, and then the children in front got terrifitd, and scrambled over everything, trying to get to the door too. I was towards the front, and I picked up my little girl and put her in the room behind out of the rush, and went the length of the stairs to try if I could find a light anyhow. There must have been a horrible crush on the stairs at the time, though I could not see. The women and the poor children were shrieking and screaming. At the time the gas went out I did not hear anyone shouting "Murder," or "Ghost," or "Fire," but there V, as plenty of shrieking " Murder" and " Help" afterwards. The children ran over each other, and tumbled over tho forms to get to the door, and some of the glass in the windows wa.s smashed; but I don't think that any one was hurt in the room. It was when they got to the stairs that the mischief began. . .  The children and others who had been able to struggle to the bottom of the stairs were thrown down and trampled on, and they became heaped in a mass at the door, piled one on the top of the other. It was at this part that the poor children were suffocated, whilst those at the turn of the stairs were badly crushed. Several heartrending scenes were witnessed after the occurrence. A little girl named Annie Campbell was brought into the house of a woman named Trainor, close to the schoolhonse, and pronounced shortly after to be dead. The mother was summoned, and when approaching the house in which the body lay, she hesitated some time before going in, presenting a most pitiable appearance of doubt and anxiety. On entering the kitchen her grief was distressing in the extreme when she found that her little girl was dead. She ended her wailing by declaring that she would take her little girl home. This was speedily done by those around, scho assisted as gently as possible in the sad work.  The authorities are closely investigating the aff.tir, and it is more than probable that some arrests will bs made. The inquest will be held today. Moat of the injured are doing well, but two little girls, Taggart and Eirlie, remain in a precarious state.  A telegram laat night atates that the injured children in the Royal Hospital were able to proceed to their homes.  VENL'd bOAP for hard, soft, cold, or hot water.—