Hurlers at Cootehill

Word spread through Catholic Ireland last week that Orangemen in the north of the Free State were going to hold a big demonstration. The Royal Black Preceptories, an Orangemen's Association, had rented a hall in Cootehill to celebrate the 242nd anniversary of the lifting of the siege of Deny by Orangemen in the rebellion of "The '89."

In Cootehill, all over County Cavan, mysterious posters appeared:

"Headquarters Cavan Brigade.

"An imperialist-led Orange Demonstration has been arranged for Cootehill tomorrow. Its organizers are imperialist agents of Britain whose purpose is to perpetuate the sectarian division of the mass of common people in this area. . . . "There is conflict between the Irish Republic and British imperialism and imperialist displays won't be tolerated. . . ."

Worried police officers telephoned word of the posters to Dublin. Not only were the Orangemen gathering, but the "Irish Republican Army", that die-hard minority which has never accepted the Free State government of President Cosgrave, was taking a hand.

Things looked so serious to Dublin that a detachment of grey-green Free State troops was sent to Cootehill. Speaking nothing but Gaelic, they were considered safe from the propaganda of Orangemen and Republicans both. General Owen O'Duffy, head of the Irish Army and Chief Commissioner of the Civic Guard, rushed north to take charge at Cootehill in person.

The Republicans got there first. Some 800 of them, scowling young men from the hills of Leitrim and neighboring counties, came into town with slouch hats pinned up on one side and formidable tape-wound hurleys in their hands. They went systematically about the business of keeping the Orangemen out of Cootehill. One squad wrecked the meeting hall. Others tore up the railway lines between Coote hill and Ballybay, and near Clones. Tele phone and telegraph wires were cut, barricades of felled trees laid, trenches dug across the roads. When General O'Duffy and his faithful troops arrived (hopping the ditches), they found the Irish Republicans in command of the town, marching and countermarching in the streets, directing traffic with a flourish of their hurleys.* Inspector Neville of the Civic Guards chased out the Republicans with a baton charge.

General O'Duffy was at home in the North. He was born in County Monaghan. In 1919 between guerilla skirmishes with the British, he varied his military career with the prosaic duties of an auctioneer and valuator. More important, he can handle a hurley with the best of the Republican Army. Hurlers consider his monograph, "The Ethics of Hurling," a standard authority.

Morning after the baton charge, the General telegraphed Dublin: EASIER ALTHOUGH A TENSE FEELING PREVAILS.

Dublin did not feel easier; neither did the Royal Black Preceptories who were kept out of Cootehill. In the south Irish Minister of Justice Fitzgerald-Kenney spoke earnestly at Ballyhaunis. In his pocket were details of a number of terrorist crimes by Irish Republicans. Said he:

"The Government knows of a body of men engaged in drilling, calling themselves the Irish Republican Army, who are determined to establish by means of gun rule a small minority over the great majority.

"Recent history of the Free State is blackened by murders as bad as ever blackened the history of any country, but the Government is determined to hold the murder gang in check. ... It is likely that provision will be made for the establishment of a special tribunal to try certain cases, this body to be vested with powers to impose a capital sentence."

The Orangemen were not long in waiting for their revenge for Cootehill. Saturday the Ancient Order of Hibernians (Catholic) were to meet at Armagh. This time it was the Orangemen who felled trees, pulled up rails. Henry Bell, engineer of a freight train, was stopped by sullen gunmen, made to wreck his locomotive at an open gap in the rails. At Portadown, County Armagh, Orangemen and Republicans fought in the streets for two days with stones and bottles of Guinness's Stout. Orangemen rallied to the tune of "Dolly's Brae" and "Derry's Walls," and attempted to batter down the gates of a convent with an old pushcart for a battering ram. A well-flung whiskey bottle laid out the chief constable.

*Hurling is Ireland's ancient version of Hockey. Hurling sticks (Hurleys) are shorter and thicker than hockey sticks, with flat bottomed blades as in ice hockey. There are 15 men on a team, seven backs, eight forwards. The field is 140 yards long with a crossbarred goal at each end. A shot over the bar counts 1 point or A of a goal. A goal is a shot beneath the bar. An official game consists of two periods of 30 minutes each. Of hurling says W. P. Clifford, President of the Gaelic Athletic Association:

"Daredevil pluck, ultra rapidity of thought and movement, cool calculation and reckless abandon, honor blended with determination-- these are some of the demands and features of the great, clean national game. Through the long Dark Ages of serfdom, hurling remained with us as a bulwark second only to our national language in preserving our subdued and suppressed individuality."

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