19143 A Dangerous Incident 



example, told me that she was against it "because of Aristo- 

 the violence of Irish factions." She also opposed "!'^'' 

 agricultural development, land ownership, and the "'''"' 

 like "because they crowded out people of quality." 

 "There are no longer openings of a semi-genteel 

 order for young men and women. The farms belong 

 to peasants, who spend no money for butlers and 

 ladies' maids." This attitude, widespread among 

 "people of quality" the world over, gives point to 

 Hackett's sharp retort: "I would not wear a Norman 

 coronet in Ireland and sit in the wind of antipathy 

 for all the revenues of the land." 



Shortly after we drove down Amiens Street to the 

 railway station en route to Drogheda and Belfast, 

 a company of soldiers, followed by an unfriendly 

 mob, passed the same way. Soon stones were thrown 

 by the populace, after which some shots were fired 

 by the soldiers, and a few persons were killed or 

 wounded — "a regrettable incident" for which no- 

 body seemed really to blame. But the affair was 

 bitterly resented. People said: "In Belfast the AnemUt- 

 soldiers would not have fired; the Belfast police ''^""^ 

 cleared the streets for the march of the Ulster Volun- 

 teers. There is one law for Leinster and another for 

 Ulster!" 



In Drogheda, County Meath, a very Irish town, 

 scene of the Battle of the Boyne, the memories 

 of William III and his Orangemen were still distress- 

 ingly vivid after the lapse of more than two hundred 

 years. 



Belfast bustles witn enterprise, being comparable B^sy 

 in that respect to Toronto, Detroit, or Melbourne, ^''-^''" 

 cities of approximately the same size and business 



1:621 3 



