I raised with the Minister for Justice to-day a question with regard to incitements to violence publicly distributed in the Dublin streets on the 20th and 21st October; violent attacks made on persons in the Dublin streets particularly on the 4th November; the neglect of the police authorities to intervene satisfactorily on these occasions to prevent the breaking of the law, and to protect persons carrying out their legal rights on the streets of the City of Dublin. The answer given to the question to-day by the Minister for Justice raises a very important question. I raise this matter now to give the Minister an opportunity of further clarifying to the House and to the people generally what he is going to do to prevent a continuance of this type of disorder and to prevent its development; the failure of the State to prevent the distribution of leaflets inciting to disorder; the failure to stop these incitements to disorder; the failure of the police to prevent the subsequent attacks on citizens and their failure to deal with the persons carrying on this disorder so much so that it indicates the abdication by the Minister for Justice of that primary duty which falls on him as Minister for Justice and the failure of the police to carry out their primary function. The facts are that on the 24th September the police authorities gave a permit, which had been applied for, to hold a flag day collection for the Fine Gael Party. Copies of the following leaflet were then distributed:—
Dublin Workers! Fellow Republicans ! Remember the 77.
The murder gang of 1922— Cosgrave, Mulcahy, Blythe and their rancher allies—are holding a flag day in Dublin this week-end. The men who obeyed British orders and attacked the Republic in '22, the men who murdered the 77, now dare to ask you to subscribe to their funds. They want funds to organise the Fascist dictatorship, to renew their campaign of murder. Off the streets with the Blueshirt-Fascists! Not a penny must be given to traitors. support the united front of Republican and working class forces. Forward to the Republic. Join the Republican Congress. Issued by the Dublin Council, Republican Congress.
Now I want to ask the Minister for Justice is he going to allow public incitements of that kind to violence against persons to continue on the streets of Dublin? He must be aware that following his non-intervention in the distribution of leaflets inciting to violence on the 20th and 21st October similar incitements to violence against other persons have since been distributed on the streets of Dublin. An explicit answer is due to this House and to the people generally. Is the Government going to allow incitements to violence in the streets of Dublin and elsewhere to continue? If the Minister is determined that acts of that kind will not be allowed, these acts can be stopped.
Again, on Sunday, 4th November, persons selling flags and wearing flags in O'Connell Street were attacked. The attacks began in a small way at 12 o'clock when two men were attacked by a small body. There was no interference on the part of the police with the attackers. The result was that the disturbance grew and continued, and by two o'clock, the centre of the city was an area of disturbance. There were small attacks around Phibsboro' and attacks and disturbance took place at Fairview. But the centre of the city was made a scene of pandemonium. A mob of 200 attacked a number of people and beat them badly. Quite a number of those attacked had to be attended to in the hospitals and, as I told the Minister to-day, and he must know it himself, nine men and ten women were injured very severely in these attacks.
Subsequently the headquarters of the Fine Gael organisation at 5 Parnell Square had for the fourth time its windows broken by a stone-throwing mob. At no time in O'Connell Street was there any serious attempt made to give protection either to the people wearing the flags or selling the flags. There was no arrest made in O'Connell Street. One of the victims of the attackers, a girl, who while not selling flags was wearing a flag, went to the assistance of other flag sellers. This girl got a blow on the side of her face and had her teeth broken. she held on to her attacker until she put him safely into the arms of a policeman only to have him released.
I want a clear statement from the Minister as to whether he is going to see that persons who are carrying out work which they are legally entitled to carry out on the streets of Dublin, are going to get the protection of the police? In my opinion it is not necessary to mobilise a large force of police or to throw any special burden upon the Gárdaí in order to prevent attacks of this particular kind. What is wanted is a clear understanding that the Government is not going to tolerate these attacks, and that they are going to punish persons guilty of them. We want to know from the Minister, too, whether the Government is going to allow a group of persons, known to the police under the name of the "Dublin Council Republican Congress," to issue inflammatory statements of this kind, to organise persons to distribute them through the City of Dublin, and to organise mobs to carry out violence on Dublin citizens? The Minister is responsible for giving the people, carrying out their lawful work on the streets of the city, the protection that they claim. If the Minister is not going to see that that violence is stopped, then the Minister is neglecting his responsibility. He is neglecting his responsibility knowing full well to what his neglect in this matter is going to lead. The Minister has already had his attention drawn to statements made on this matter by the President, following a long series of destructive raids carried out by the I.R.A. The President's Press, the Irish Press, of the 18th September, 1933, had this statement in its leading article:—
"One of the fundamental rights of every citizen is the protection of himself and his property against violence. If those chosen by the people to govern fail in giving that protection they fail in everything; they cease to perform the first duty given them by the community..."
"...And if any Government were to say to any section of the people: `We regret we must deny you the protection to which you have a right,' it would at that moment cease to govern, and the community whom the Administration had thus failed would have no alternative but to set up private defence forces of its own."
The President himself goes even further, and, in connection with violent disorder organised against members of the United Ireland Party in Tralee some time ago, he is reported in his own Press as declaring:
"The Government could not permit such conduct to go on. Any failure on its part to maintain order and to punish persons guilty of disorderly acts would inevitably result in anarchy and civil war."
The Minister was dealing yesterday with a case in which a number of farmers violently asserted their rights to be present at a public auction, and he had no hesitation in declaring that the police were perfectly within their rights in shooting down these men. Here we have a body of men in Dublin, known to the police, organising violent attacks on persons lawfully carrying on certain activities in the city, and no action is taken by him to prevent these acts being organised or to prevent them being carried out when organised. His reply to-day on the question of incitement to violence was that he did not think any useful purpose would be served by instituting prosecutions against persons who publicly incited to violence on the streets or who organised violence from their offices. And turmoil in the centre of the City of Dublin—which lasted for over two hours, from 12 noon to 2 o'clock on a Sunday —is described as "isolated attacks here and there" and that "nobody was seriously injured!" As I say, arising out of none of the disorders on that Sunday was any arrest made nor were any charges brought against anybody.
The Minister must realise where this is leading to. I speak not only on behalf of the Party that was organising this collection, but on behalf of any other organisation in the city or in this country that wants to carry out lawful business publicly. It is interesting to recall, however, with regard to the Party that was organising this collection in the North and the South City, that at the last elections they gained in the South City 28,700 votes as against 31,900 votes for the Minister's Party, and that in the North City the Fianna Fáil Party and its Labour allies had 39,326 votes and the anti-Fianna Fáil vote was 36,689. So that here we have a political organisation, representing nearly 50 per cent, of the population of the city, being attacked violently and in an organised way in the city, and the Minister has nothing to say to-day but that it was an isolated thing; that the police did their best to stop it; and that no useful purpose would be served by taking any steps to prevent persons organising violence of this type.
The Minister knows what this is leading to. If he does not, he ought to consult the people who write these articles in the Irish Press, and he ought to consult the President, who says that
"any failure on the part of the Government to maintain order and to punish persons guilty of disorderly acts would inevitably result in anarchy and civil war."
The Minister must understand that those of us who consider that it is our duty to carry on political work in the City of Dublin in connection with our Party are not going to be beaten off the streets by any mob of this kind. We want to know where we stand with regard to the police if we are driven to take steps to protect ourselves against violence of this kind, and we want to know whether the Minister is going to shoulder his responsibility in the matter and relieve us of the responsibility of organising our own protection against violence of this kind.
