To-day I addressed a question to the Minister for Defence which, on looking at the Order Paper, I found had been altered to the Minister for Justice. The question was:—
"If he is aware that considerable uneasiness exists in the minds of the people throughout the country as a consequence of his action in ordering the Great Southern Railway Company to cancel all trains scheduled to run to Bodenstown for the Wolfe Tone Commemoration on Sunday, June 21st, and of the appearance in the streets on that day of a large body of troops with full war-kit; and if he will state the reasons for his action in so interfering with a ceremony of this nature."
The answer to the question was:—
"The answer to the first part of the Deputy's question is in the negative. The reason for the interference with the ceremony was that a parade of an organisation purporting to be a military force not established and maintained by law was about to take place, and that the holding of such a parade is contrary to law."
Such an unprecedented action and unwarranted interference with a peaceful demonstration of the adherence of the people of this country to the principles of the father of Republicanism certainly calls for more than usual comment in the Parliament which controls the destinies of the Twentysix counties. I asked the President to-day whether it would be possible to give more than the ordinary half-hour that is allowed on the adjournment for a discussion on this matter, because I believed there would be other Deputies sufficiently interested who would want to enter their protest, together with mine, against this unconstitutional interference with a peaceful demonstration, and it is regrettable to note that nobody else seemed to have sufficient interest in the matter to take any notice of the reply which the President gave to my question.
Coming back to Sunday, 21st June, the clearest way in which I can convey to Deputies the occurrence which took place will be to quote from various newspapers in regard to the answer given to the first part of the question. The Minister denied that there was any uneasiness in the minds of the public in regard to the action taken on that day. The following is an extract from the "Irish Independent" of 22nd June:—"The cancelling of the special trains to Sallins in connection with the celebration had led many people to expect excitement and Sallins itself was on tiptoe." Further on the same paper says:—"Outside the station (that is, Kingsbridge) a detachment of troops in full service kit were stationed, and with them was Commandant Smith, O.C. of the Signalling Corps, who had one of the new Army motor wireless cars with him, and was in direct communication with Command Headquarters at the Curragh." In the "Cork Examiner" of the same day, we had the following report:—"The news of the cancellation of the special trains, which was made known at an early hour on Sunday morning caused something of a sensation." Further on the same paper says:—"As a Republican muster at Tone's grave, it was expected to have been the largest held for many years, and preparations on a large scale had been made at Sallins to cater for the wants of the thousands of excursionists to Bodenstown." Making inquiries afterwards from a reliable source, I was able to form an estimate of the number of people who had purchased tickets, and who would, through the Railway Company's service, have availed of the excursion fares to Bodenstown, and that number stands at 17,000. Further on, in the same account, "The Cork Examiner" of the 22nd June, we find it stated:—"Special trains were to run from Cork, Kerry, Waterford, Limerick, Galway, Sligo, Dublin, Belfast and other places. At the several points large crowds had prepared to avail of the railway facilities." We find it stated in the same issue of the same paper: "It must be mentioned that the anniversary celebrations of Wolfe Tone have, for the last eight years, been observed by at least three distinct bodies of public opinion. There has never been any clash, and it, therefore, came in the nature of a sensation this morning, when it was learned that the authorities had issued orders to the Railway Company to cancel all the special trains that had been scheduled for the event." Further on, we find this bald statement:—"Wild rumours spread throughout the city."
The Minister in the course of his reply stated that there was no uneasiness in the minds of the public. Yet responsible papers such as "The Cork Examiner," which is a consistent and unadulterated supporter of the Government, states on the authority of its correspondent, that "wild rumours spread throughout the city."
At 9 a.m. on Sunday morning, Mr. Floyd, Manager of the Great Southern Railways, informed Mr. MacBride, Acting Secretary to the Committee, that they had received instructions from the Government, late on Saturday night, to cancel all special trains scheduled to run from all parts of the Free State to Bodenstown. Mr. Floyd, at that time, refused to accept any responsibility for doing that, and informed the Government that it would leave him open to legal proceedings. At 11 o'clock that night he received a written order, signed by the Minister for Defence, ordering him to obey the order which was issued before that over the telephone. For three weeks prior to the issue of the order by the Minister for Defence, full details of the celebration that was proposed to be held in Bodenstown were printed in the weekly Press in Dublin. A map, giving full details of the points of assembly of the different contingents expected to take part, was printed in at least two weekly papers in Dublin. Although they realised, quite as keenly as they did on the night before the celebrations, that such a large concourse of people would assemble at Bodenstown no action whatever was taken.
People were allowed to purchase tickets and all arrangements were permitted to continue. No arrests were made and a feeling of confidence in the achievement of the event was allowed to permeate the minds of the people throughout the country. Then came this sensation. According to the Press we further find that the cancellation of the special trains, it appears, was the result of conferences between the Gárda Síochána authorities and the Government. But strange to say no such notification of this cancellation of trains was received by members, or by the Secretary of the Wolfe Tone Commemoration Committee, until 9 a.m. on the following morning, Sunday, June 21st. The first notification that was received by the people in the city, generally, was in the issue of "The Sunday Independent" of that morning, which contained in a small square in the front page a notice that all special trains to Sallins were cancelled. The Honorary Secretary, Michael Price, and Seán Russell, who was to deliver the oration, were arrested on Saturday night and the charge, as we are given to understand by the Press report, of being about to commit or being suspected of being about to commit a felony was preferred against them.
Other Press accounts stated that no charge was made against them. The "Irish Times" on 22nd June contained the following:—"Outside the station at Kingsbridge were thirty I.O.C. buses which took on board numbers of people with railway tickets and conveyed them to Bodenstown." The Government by orders issued by the Minister for Defence banned the running of trains to Bodenstown and at the same time, at 1 o'clock on Sunday, 21st June, stultified themselves and contradicted their own order and held themselves up to ridicule by permitting a fleet of buses run by the very same company whose trains they had banned, to transport the people from the city of Dublin to the celebrations at Bodenstown. Surely the Minister in charge of these comic opera operations sees something ridiculous, if he is not lost to all sense of humour, in the situation in attempting to interfere with the success of the commemoration in Bodenstown by banning trains but eventually forgot that there was such a thing as motor transport. Thirty-five buses run by the Great Southern Railways accepted tickets issued by the railway company and transported over 1,000 people to Bodenstown at 1 o'clock on Sunday, the trains for 1 o'clock and 1.15 having been previously banned by the authorities. The Minister denies there was any uneasiness in the minds of the people.
I went to Kingsbridge on Sunday morning at 11 a.m. and the first thing I discovered was that all troops had been confined to barracks in the city of Dublin since Saturday night. About five minutes after I arrived at Kingsbridge some sixty police with batons arrived and took up positions in sections at different points at the station. Shortly after the arrival of the Gárda Síochána something like 100 troops equipped with full war outfit and wearing trench helmets, which I have never seen in the Free State before, arrived.
They made a pretty impressive display. Troops lined the streets on one side and police lined the streets on the other. A very strange thing occurred which it would be interesting for the Minister to know. A religious pilgrimage, consisting of about 1,000 people, arrived from Waterford under the charge of a priest. As this pilgrimage reached the gate at Kingsbridge Station about 1 p.m., 100 troops with steel helmets, with machine-guns in front and machine-guns in the rear, arrived at the same gate. On the orders of the military officer the pilgrimage, which was under the charge of a priest, was put aside, and told to get over until the troops took over the station. Certainly it was a very fine reception for a pilgrimage coming up to the Grotto at Dublin to honour Christ, their King, to be met with a war-like array of the Irish Free State Army.
Another extraordinary thing which bears out the uneasiness which existed in the minds of the people was that this parade of troops, composed of 100 soldiers with trench helmets and all the other accoutrements of war, arrived at Kingsbridge and reported to Superintendent O'Connell, of the Gárda Síochána. Superintendent O'Connell advanced to the front of the parade. The military officer in charge of the parade saluted. Superintendent O'Connell returned the salute, and the parade of troops with steel helmets and machine-guns placed itself at the disposal of the officer in charge of the non-political police force of the Irish Free State. Superintendent O'Connell did not find any use for the troops, since the only people at Kingsbridge were a few men and a small collection of women. He decided that the troops would serve a better purpose, so they went to the other gate, and took up position in the interior of the station. I have yet to learn that this non-political police force of ours can receive from the military authorities of this Free State the honours accorded to a military officer. Yet these same honours in the nature of salutes and placing themselves at the disposal of the police were accorded to the officer in charge of the police at Kingsbridge on Sunday. Superintendent O'Connell, of the Gárda Síochána, Dublin——