GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



403 





Riots in Belfast. An agitation was started 

 among the Protestants of tllster, soon after an 

 unauthorized disclosure of Mr. Gladstone's con- 

 version to the home-rule scheme startled the 

 conservative circles of political society in Eng- 

 land, shortly after the general election of 1885. 

 The feeling in that province was made one of 

 the chief arguments against the Irish Govern- 

 ment bill in Parliament. The Unionists cried 

 out against a remedy for the coercion of the dis- 

 loyal Irish Nationalists which would necessi- 

 tate the coercion by the latter of the loyal in- 

 habitants of Ulster, who ostentatiously armed 

 themselves and declared that they would resist 

 by force the decrees of an Irish Parliament. 

 Mr. Morley, in asking for the renewal of the 

 arms act, said that its provisions applied to Ul- 

 ster as well as to other parts of Ireland. The 

 Tories prophesied that home-rule would lead 

 to civil war, and asked if the British army was 

 to be used to compel men who took up arms 

 in defense of the Union to submit to the rule 

 of a foreign government. The Liberals blamed 

 severely the action of some of their opponents, 

 especially Lord Randolph Churchill, in stirring 

 up the spirit of civil strife and rekindling re- 

 ligious feuds. 



When the question of home-rule was ap- 

 proaching a decision in Parliament, the hatred 

 between the Orange and Catholic factions in 

 Belfast began to vent itself in riot and blood- 

 shed. On the 4th of June a succession of dis- 

 turbances began, which lasted a week. A 

 number of " rivet-boys " attacked Catholic la- 

 borers who were working on one of the docks. 

 A youth named Curran was driven by his as- 

 sailants into the water, and was drowned. 

 This occurrence stirred up the intense indigna- 

 tion of the Roman Catholics of the city. The 

 funeral on June 6 was made the occasion of a 

 party demonstration. The procession was at- 

 tacked by Orangemen, who stoned the coffin, 

 and stabbed a man and a girl. They were 

 driven off with stones, some of which broke 

 the windows of a factory, but returned to the 

 attack with re-enforcements, and were finally 

 dispersed by the police. Stone-throwing was 

 renewed the next day, and the mob was again 

 scattered by the police, whom the Protestants 

 accused of acting only against their party. On 

 June 8, while the Protestants were celebrating 

 with bonfires the rejection of the home-rule 

 bill, they stoned the public house of a Catholic 

 named O'Hare, and were answered with shots, 

 one of which wounded a young man. The 

 police in clearing the streets fractured the 

 skull of one of the rioters. A guard was 

 posted at 0' Hare's house, which was again at- 

 tacked the next day. The disturbers were 

 driven back, and with them about 2,000 Prot- 

 estant workmen, who were returning from 

 work, and who took no active part in the 

 disturbance. Protestants afterward gathered 

 in great numbers, assaulted the police, and 

 compelled them to take refuge in their bar- 

 racks, from which they fired on the mob ; and 



when the people fell back, they issued forth, 

 firing toward the places where the stone- 

 throwers made a stand. Five men and two 

 women were killed, and when the coroner's 

 jury investigated their deaths they delivered 

 verdicts of willful murder against the police. 

 The same day a number of houses and a 

 church were stoned by Catholics. 



The Protestant press violently denounced 

 the police for their conduct during the June 

 riots, and at Orange election meetings inflam- 

 matory speeches were delivered. The election 

 of Mr. Sexton as member of Parliament for 

 West Belfast was the cause of bitter feelings 

 on the part of the Loyalists, and an occasion 

 for public rejoicing for the Nationalists. Yet 

 no further outbreak occurred till July 12. 

 Early in the morning of the Orange anniver- 

 sary a mob of Protestants made a raid into the 

 adjacent Catholic district, and were resisted 

 by the inhabitants till the arrival of the police. 

 During the day Catholics attempted to take 

 down Orange arches, and were repelled by the 

 Protestants. The next morning the "Morn- 

 ing News " published a rumor that the Prot- 

 estants planned an attack on a Catholic church. 

 A crowd of Protestants attacked the workmen 

 in the establishment of a Catholic employer, 

 and afterward wrecked and plundered three 

 liquor-shops belonging to Catholics. Rioting 

 and stone-throwing occurred during the day. 

 At night an officer .and a private of the police 

 force were shot by two men who stole into 

 the Catholic district with murderous inten- 

 tions. The same evening an Orangeman was 

 killed by the police. 



On July 31 the rioting was renewed. A 

 crowd of Loyalists, headed by a band of mu- 

 sicians who had returned from a Sunday-school 

 excursion, after stoning the windows of a 

 Catholic citizen, were charged by the police. 

 Col. Forbes and District Inspector Townsend 

 were attacked by the mob and severely wound- 

 ed. On the following day, which was Sunday, 

 mobs of both parties sallied forth from their 

 respective quarters and fought a pitched bat- 

 tle on the border district, using fire-arms as 

 well as stones. About thirty persons were 

 killed. On August 2 a Protestant mob, number- 

 ing over 3,000, attacked a Catholic sodality, 

 and were fired upon by the police, who killed 

 one of them, and they were finally dispersed 

 by a bayonet charge. During the disturb- 

 ance the houses of several Catholics and that 

 of a Protestant Home-Ruler were wrecked. 

 On August 4 the fights began again, and the 

 police used their rifles, wounding five people. 

 A repetition of these occurrences happened on 

 the 6th, and on the 7th houses were attacked 

 by both factions and several people were killed 

 by the police. Attacks on houses were re- 

 newed the following day. The police, in de- 

 fending a public-house, which the mob threat- 

 ened to burn, fired from the windows, and 

 killed a woman and three men. On the : 10th 

 there was a fight between a Catholic band and. 



