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NEWS BULLETIN
Friends of Irish Freedom National Bureau of Information
WRIGHT McCORMICK, Acting Director £2336 1051 Munsey Building, Washington, D. C.
Release Immediately
No. 66
The following letter, written by an
Irishwoman, a survivor of the English
raid on the Irish town of Lahinch,
County ‘Clare, gives an arresting pic-
ture not only of the terrorization to
which life and property in Ireland are
now subjected by the English occu-
pation, but also an excellent example
of the high courage of the Irish peo-
ple under the English reign of terror.
The letter, originally published by
the Irish Bulletin, the official organ
of Dail Eireann, is as follows:
Well, you want a description of that
terrible night, and as I am now get-
ting an opportunity of sending it I'll
give you as detailed an account as I
can. On Wednesday night a great:
many: people expected trouble, and
Joe came out to be with us if anything
happened. We said the Rosary and
went to bed, and I must have fallen
asleep almost immediately. At about
2:30 a. m. I was awakaned by a sound
of shots and the most fiendish yelling _
I slipped on my dress-*‘
imaginable.
ing gown and shoes and went out to
call Aunt Nora.
She was terrified. and wanted to
get up, but I persuaded her that on
account of the shots flying in all, di-
rections that-she would be safer in
bed for the present. You see, I was
afraid that if she got up she would
awaken Mary and that Mary’s cries
would attract the attention of the po-
lice, I never dreamt that they would
burn a house where there were two
defenseless women and a baby, but I
assured her that if the worst came [
_ would give her word in time,
went down then-and -called -Mr.
and Joe and told
them the trouble had started. In the
meantime they °had roken into
Tommy Flanagan’s and drank all the
whisky they could find—raw—in pint
glassfuls. They then went down to
Paddy Walshe’s, yelling for the men
now and bring their
Here they shot.a young man
named Salmon, from: Feakle—a mar-
ried man with two children—who was
here on holidays and was at the time
Mrs, Pearson
helping an old man of 75 years to.
escape. ‘
Houses in Flames.
The next thing I saw was Tommy
Flanagan's, Susan Flanagan’s, Paddy
Walshe’s and Mat Reynolds’ houses
in a mass of flames, and above all the
din could be heard the hellish laughter
and shouts of revenge from the raid-
ers. I got the holy water and sprin-
kled it all over the house and prayed
to the Sacred Heart (to whom I had
the house dedicated)
Every time I passed a window I had
to crawl along the ground on account
of the bullets.
The next thing was that they rushed
up the street, breaking windows, kick-
ing doors, etc., on the way. They
stopped at Mick Vaughan’s, yelled to
them to come out, and then set the
place on fire. By this time Aunt Nora
had managed to dress herself without
awakening Mary. The next thing we
heard was a bomb exploding in the
shop, and in less than half a minute
the house was in flames. When the
bomb exploded Joe ran into the room
the drawing-room for his shoes,
but already the flames were coming
He and Aunt Nora rushed
up to the top of the house to rescue
Mary. I ran down to see which way
was clear for us to escape. I opened
the hall door, peeped out, and saw
that we had a good chance of escap-
ing that way unnoticed.
By this time Aunt Nora, Mary and
Joe had reached the first landing, but
the fumes were so suffocating that
Aunt Nora fell and said she could not
go any farther, I ran up the stairs,
shouted to Aunt Nora to throw me
the baby, and called to Joe to drag
Aunt Nora In this way we es-
caped with our lives. We ran over
the Barrack Lane, and had only
reached Pat O’Donnell’s when the
staircase where we had been standing
fell. We had only gone another few
steps when they came around the cor-
ner, saw us escaping, yelled something
at us and fired a shot, which missed
us,
Terrified Child.
We ran down the promenade, and
as I was climbing the second barri-
cade at the end, Miss Baker’s dog,
seemingly gone mad with fright, bit
me in the leg.. However, we struggled
on, down the rocks, Joe and I carry-
ing Mary in turn. She awoke coming
down the stairs, but was too terrified
to cry. The poor little thing. I will
never forget the grip she caught on
me, and ever since she is so fright-
ened that she cries whenever she loses
sight of me. .
We never stopped until we reached
the middle of the sandhills. About
half-way down unt Nora, whose
heart is not at all good, gave up, and
“Joe had practically to carry her. We
spent three and a half hours lying flat
on the wet grass in’our nightdresses,
terrified to move for fear they would
_ See us with their searchlights, follow
us, and make their vengeancé com-
plete by murdering us. . ‘
During all this time God alone
knows all we suffered. We were cer-
tain that Auburn House would be the
next place they would. attack, and
knowing that mother slept in the front
of the house, we feared that she was
burned in her bed. Mother also suf-
-..fered_terrible agony, for. she believed
that we were burned ‘alive. The
knocked at the doors and gave the,
people from four to seven minutes to
escape in every house they burned ex-
cept ours. When we tried to escape
they’ fired a shot after us. They
burned all the other houses with pe-
trol only, but they bombed us first
and sprayed the house with petrol.
Man Burned Alive.
When they left our house they
burned Halpin’s and Howard’s. Then
they lit their cigarettes and ran up
the hill shouting for the Lehans.
They dragged poor eld Dan Lehan
out of his bed, brought him out on
the hill, and in the presence of his
poor wife’shot him in the head be-
cause he wouldn’t tell where his sons
were, At that time poor Pake was
burned alive in Flanagan’s house.
R, I. P. But neither Dan nor the
wife know of it yet. Poor Pake got
no time to prepare for death, but he
was present at a public Mass we had
here for the Lord Mayor on the Tues-
day previous. Nobody dared try to
save any of the houses, because they
kicked, shot, and burned Micky Lin-
nane’s son in Ennistymon for attempt-
me save his neighbour’s house.
_ Nora, we haven’t a stitch of cloth-
ing, house linen, ware, anything, ex-
cept what kind neighbours are lending
us, and they, poor creatures, can ill
afford to lend to anybody, because
they have hardly enough for them-
selves, and all the well-to-do people,
are burned out. All I saved from the
flames .was a nightdress, dressing-
gown, slippers and Rosary beads.
Everything else I possessed is gone,
every keepsake I held dear, my jew-
elry, clothes, autographs, antiques,
books, music, Feis medals, and prize
home “first-aid” outfit — everything;
but I will be forever grateful to Al.
mighty, God for saving our lives and
leaving us our senses. Since it was
His adorable will and the cause de-
manded that we should lose all, we
willingly lay our humble sacrifice at
the feet of God and Dark Rosaleen,
and once again, more fervently than
ever, we pledges our life’s ®
God and Ireland. ods
You never saw anything) so sad as
the sights on the sandhills hat morn-
ing. Nora, groups of men and wom-
en, some of them over 70 ygars, prac-
tically naked, cold, wet, worn-look-
ing and terrified, huddled gn groups
on the wet grass. met tw) mothers
with babies not yet three weeks old,
little boys partly naked! leading
horses that had gone mad in their
stables with the heat; and then when
we got near the village, a group of
men standing around the ; unrecog-
nizable corpse of poor’ Salmon
(R. I. P.); distracted people running
in all directions looking for their
friends, . with the awful. thought
haunting them that the burnt corpse
might be some relative of their own.
Oh, it was awful.
A Sorrowful Procession.
Every evening since then:there is
a_ sorrowful procession out of the
village—the people, too terrified to
stay in their homes, sleep out in the
fields. Last night was the first night
we slept here, and we wereionly in
bed about an hour when the report
went around that there were four
burnings in the direction of Ennis-
tymon.. Of course, we thought we
were in for a repetition of Wednes-
day night’s happenings, so we took
to the hills again. This morning we
heard that it was hay they were burn-
ing last night. They also shot some
cattle and horses. Rs
Mother is bearing up wonderfully,
D. It is a greater blowsto
than to anybody to see the fruits of
her life’s slaving deliberately burned
to the ground. Poor mother!
never had any comfort or pleasure in
this life. She worked early: and late,
slaved, when . other people: were in
their beds to make a comfortable
home for us, and now it is all gone—
£20,000 worth at the lowest calcula-
tion. Of course, I needn’t, mention
that we wouldn’t on any account ac-
cept compensation if it were levied
on the county, As far as we are con-
cerned, we can “carry on” for the
present, but there are other ‘unfortu-
nate families who are absolutely des-
titute.and.-homeless. .
up in Moy all the time since. The
military were up there all day Yester-
day searching the houses.
would have been very much fright-
ened only that Nora was thert.‘ Mary
doesn’t like living in the county “be-
cause there are no shops! \ You
should have heard her pray#g that
morning when we were flyitg with
her down the sandhills—“Litle. Baby
Jesus, save Auntie Mary ané Auntie
Mary’s house; save our courty and
save my _teddy-bear.
them all, little Baby Jesus, because
you love little children ani}you'll
a whys
Mary Walshe and Aunt af are
always do what they ask. yitt,” etc.
She is heartbroken after all lef toys,
her Irish colleen doll, her dols! pram,
etc., and’ can not understaid why
little Baby Jesus didn’t sa‘é them
when she asked Him.
, Begged for Invalid Sis‘er.
, Poor Dan Lehan is doing séry well
in the workhouse, but can{not be
said to be out of danger ‘pr nine
days. He made his will yepterday,
leaving most of his propert¥ to his
favorite son, Pake. Isn't it awfully
sad? r. Halpin has taken the two
children away. When little Danny
was flying for his life that morning
dhe saw Glenville House in! flames,
and I believe kept saying, “Poor lit-
tle Mary Walshe will be burned, I’m
afraid.” He and Mary wefe great
friends, and used to have little chats
at the corner when nobody was
looking, I
I believe when the “Black and
Tans” broke into Susan Flanagan’s
she went on her knees to them and
begged of them in the honor of God
not to burn the-house, as she had an
invalid sister whom she couldn’t re-
move. hey said they didn’t care if
she had five invalid sisters there, and
immediately proceeded with the
burning. She had to run upstairs,
drag Bridgie out of bed, carry her on
her back downstairs and run with
her to the end of the yard‘and leave
her there to escape as best,she could.’
Bridgie is in the workhouse now, and
Susan is homeless and destitute,
Youll: save.
Poor Susan! She intended going
‘to America last spring, but then she
‘decided to make a big effort to make
a living in Ireland, I belfeve before
they burned Mick Vaughan’s they
started to burn the Post Office, but
the officer came running up the street
shouting, “D—— you! Put out that
Te at once, Can't you see that is
the Post Office?” [haven't time to
write any more now.
MEN KILLED AT ENNISTYMON.
The following is the signed state-
ment of Joseph Connole, of Ennisty-
mon, County Clare, brother of Thom-
as Connole, who, with three other in-
nocent men, was murdered by Eng-
lish troops on September 22:
On the night of Wednesday, Sep-
tember 22, hell was let loose in En-
nistymon. The deadly work began
at 9 o’clock, when the. Town Hall was
set on fire. Shortly after, about 10
o’clock,'a party of some two dozen
British soldiers, with an officer, ar-
rived at the house of Tom Connole,
on the outskirts of the town. Tom _
Connole was reading the paper. His
wife was rocking the cradle, in which
was a child: ef about four months.
Another child of about two- years
was in bed. ere was a knock, and
Tom Connole opened the door. He
was asked if he was Tom Connole,
and, having answered in the affirma-
tive, was told to “come along,” that
he was wanted. His wife asked them
to allow him to bring his coat, but
the officer roughly said, “No.” Fear-
ing by their demeanor that. they
meant no good, she fell on her knees
and begged the officer and soldiers
in turn to do no harm to her hus-
band, who was as innocent as the
‘child in the cradle.. They threatened
to put the bayonet through her if
she didn’t leave the house immedi-
ately, which she did, carrying her
baby in her arms.
She asked to be allowed to return
to the cottage for a shawl to cover
her half-naked child, who had just
got out of bed, but this also was
roughly refused, and she was driven
at the bayonet’s point along a boreen
.to.a neighbor's house, where-she got ~~~
shelter for the night, his house
was about 50 or 60 yards away. Im-
mediately she saw her cottage on
fire and heard two shots. These two
shots sent Tom Connole to eternity.
Charred Remains Found.
All that night Ennistymon was in
agony—houses in flames, bullet-swept
streets, men, women and_ children
fleeing in terror. And all that night
the wife of Tom Connole prayed
and sighed and wept and hoped that
her husband was alive. Yes, notwith-
standing these two shots and the
sight of her cottage in flames, she «
still hoped and believed that her
husband was safe, for how could they
do anything to him, she argued, who
never harmed anybody?
Next morning brought the sad
truth,, Somebody who ventured out
early noticed blood and a piece of a
skull on the footpath about twenty
yards from Connole’s house. Later
his charred ‘remains were unearthed
from the debris of his burned cot-
tage. Evidently they had thrown
him, dead or dying, and had left the
flames to complete their hellish work.
These are the wunvarnished facts,
which can be attested on oath.
‘om Connole made his living as an
insurance agent. He belonged to
none of the political associations la-
beled “Dangerous.” He. was inter-
ested in fishing and that was his
hobby. Every man, woman and child
in the district knew him to be a quiet,
gentle, inoffensive man who wouldn’t
say an unkind word of, much less do
any injury to, anyone. ut he was
secretary of the Ennistymon branch
of the Irish Transport and General
Workers’: Union, and therein, pre-
sumably, lay his crime. For that
crime he was singled out for death.
These were no drunken soldiers who
broke loose from barracks, but disci-
plined men who knew what they were
about, and, acting under the orders
of their brutish officer, did it only too
effectually. Tom Connole, with the
other victim, young Linnane, was
buried without even a pretence of a
military inquiry.