“THE BALLINA FLAG INCIDENT”
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COMPELLED TO PARADE WITH UNION JACK
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DASTARDLY TREATMENT OF BALLINA MERCHANTS
BY AUXILIARIES
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(Similar report
which appeared in the Ballina Herald of 2nd February, 1922,
and in Western
People of 4th February)
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T
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HE
full story of the circumstances under which six prominent Ballina merchants
were publicly paraded with Union Jacks by Auxiliaries in January of last year,
while one of them was compelled trail a Sinn Fein flag, afterwards burned, in
the mud, was told at Ballina Quarter Sessions on Friday, before his Honor
County Court Judge Doyle, when the six merchants concerned – Messrs. Michael
and Patrick Beirne, John and Michael Moylett, Dominick Molloy, D.C., and Martin
Corcoran, U.D.C., claimed £2,000 each, from this episode known as “The Ballina
Flag Incident.”
Mr.
Price,
K.C. (instructed by Mr. Mulligan)
appeared for the applicants.
The courthouse was crowded during the hearing
of the application.
Other headings which the “Western People”
attached to their report read: Extraordinary Stories in Court; “Piece of
Calculated Blackguardism and Savagery.”
Mr. Price, opening the case, said they were
all concerned with the same transaction and would have inevitably to be heard
together. These occurrences took place on the 13th and 14th
January last. Before that date the town of Ballina had been comparatively
quiet, having regard to the state of the country generally. On the 13th
January, for the first time in the lamentable history of the last few years the
town was visited by a party of Auxiliaries, he supposed with the intention of
bringing peace and good will to the inhabitants, but they celebrated their
visit by what he could only describe as a piece of calculated blackguardism and
savagery, which even in these times it was hard to surprise. He knew it was
hard to compare things with pre-war standards, for blackguardism as well as
prices, had gone up; but even by the standards now set it would be hard to
surpass for sheer blackguardism and rascality the performances of some of the Auxiliaries
on the 14th January. On the 13th they came to the town,
and apparently they had planned a regular show, which was to come off on the 14th,
and which was to be carried out with insult and humiliation to some of the most
prominent and well-known citizens of the town. They were evidently on the
look-out for his clients, or some of them, because in the middle of the day on
the 13th they visited Mr. Michael Moylett. It was unnecessary for
him to tell his Lordship the position Mr. Moylett occupied in the town. Moylett
Brothers were as well known a firm and as prominent a firm as any other in the
West of Ireland. Two of the brothers, against whom these injuries, insults and
humiliations were levelled, lived in Ballina, but there were also branches of the
firm in Ballyhaunis and Galway. The third brother lived in Galway, and for some
reason or other they had got a bad name with the Auxiliaries. On visiting Mr.
M. Moylett they told him that he had better find when they next train left the
town, and practically threatened his life if he didn’t leave the town. It
appeared they were also on the look-out for Mr. Molloy. He did no sleep in his
own house on the night of the 13th owing to terror, but at 10 a.m.
next morning they called on him, armed with revolvers, and asked him where he
had been the night before. They told him not to leave the town on that day 914th0.
The other men they apparently didn’t visit, but it would be apparent from facts
which afterwards transpired that they had gone round stating they were about to
have a real show. About two o’clock next day brought Messrs. Moylett, Corcoran,
Molloy, and Beirne severally to the barrack. What made the treatment of Mr.
Michael Beirne particularly abominable and savage was that he had recently been
extremely ill. His life was thought in danger, and he was suffering from an
affection of the head. Notwithstanding that, he was dragged off to the hotel.
While the five men were in the hotel they were jeered at, insulted, and their
lives were threatened. Mr. P. Beirne heard of his brother—whom he knew had been
very ill, and who, perhaps, had not been quite so prominent politically as he
himself—being taken away, and very gallantly and in a brotherly spirit he went
down to tell these men. Perhaps he didn’t expect such ruffianly treatment as he
afterwards got, as he went down they captured him and gave him the same class
of treatment they had given the others. They had then these six men in their
power, and they told them they would give them a walk round the town of Ballina,
as it was the last time they would ever see it. The crowd which they had
evidently arranged for had then collected, and the six men were brought out of
the hotel. They were lined up in pairs, and it showed how callously they had
rehearsed for this farce, which was in some respects a tragedy, when they had
Union Jacks tied on heavy poles, and they made each of these men carry these
flags. These men were not young men, and they had to carry these flags aloft,
and if any man for a moment allowed his hand to drop he was subjected to a kick
in the ribs or a blow from a revolver and made hold it up again. They thought
this treatment not sufficient humiliation, and in the presence of his
neighbours they forced one of the Moyletts – John – to trail a Sinn Fein flag,
which they had prepared for the ceremony, in the mud; compelled him to keep in
stooping position all the time.
It might be a subject of amusement, counsel
continued, to see a man trail a flag that he himself honoured in the dirt, but
he thought that they, by their conduct, trailed their own flag more in the dust
than the Sinn Fein flag on that occasion. The men were marched up Knox Street,
King Street, and were then brought back to Tyler’s Cross by John Street, Hill
Street and Bridge Street. Here they were ordered to kneel down in the mud and
kiss the Union Jack. If they objected they were thrust down and beaten down.
Mr. Corcoran was struck in the back of the head with a revolver so as to force
his face against the pole of the flag. It was then suggested by one person who
called himself and officer that they should burn the Sinn Fein flag publicly,
but another officer stepped in and said it was not to be done there. They were
then marched down again to the Imperial Hotel and up again to Laings, where
they were arranged in a circle for the ceremony of the burning of the flag. One
man, who tried to preserve a nonchalant air, pulled out a cigarette to smoke,
and he was struck in the mouth for doing so. The men were afterwards made sing
“God Save the King.”
He did not know what form of respect anybody
could have in singing under such circumstances a song which was after all only
a hymn. It was nice reverence for either God or the King. If they didn’t know
it they were made grunt out something about the King. They were brought back
eventually to the Moy Hotel again and given a lecture on loyalty. As he
(counsel) understood loyalty it meant obedient and adherence to the law of the
land. There men themselves had organised an unlawful assembly, and were
transgressing every law of decency and loyalty. The scenes on the street were
photographed by some people who come there with cameras. Mr. Michael Beirne, as
a result of the treatment he received, had been very ill and was not yet
recovered. He was ordered away by his doctor. His head was still very much
upset and he suffered from sleeplessness. The others had suffered great indignity
and great pain on that occasion.
Counsel submitted that his Honor could give
compensation for the humiliation they had undergone as well as the actual
physical pain, and developing his argument at length, pointed to the analogy of
a girl who had her hair forcibly cut. Large amounts, based on the humiliation
inflicted on them, had been awarded to such persons.
Michael Moylett was then examined
and deposed, in reply to Mr. Price, that he was living in Ballina since 1902.
Down to the 13th January things were partly quiet in Ballina, and on
that day a number of Auxiliaries came to town. He was visited by two
Auxiliaries and a Black and Tan that day. They asked him for his brother’s
address, and he could not tell them. They then abused him and cuffed him and
said he was a member of the murder gang and threatened him and told to clear
away by the next train if he valued his life. On the following day an Auxiliary
officer came into the room where witness was eating his dinner. He said: “You
are the man we want; come on.” Witness said if he could not get his coat and
cap, and the officer said he did not need them where he was going—that he would
be in hell shortly. Witness, however, managed to get his cap and coat in the
hall as he was passing out. There was another Auxiliary outside the shop, and
they both took him down to the Moy Hotel. There they met what appeared to be a
superior officer. One of them said: “this is Moylett, and what are we going to
do with him?” and the officer replied: “Put him into the room until we dispatch
him.”
“A very superior officer,” Mr. Price
commented.
Moylett continued: “There were five or six
drunken Auxiliaries at the bar”. He was then put into a room. They mentioned
his brother’s name in Galway and said he escaped them, but that witness would
pay for it all. They accused him of being a gunman, and said he would a
gunman’s fate and that he should be prepared for it. Shortly afterwards his
brother John, Martin Corcoran and Dominick Molloy were brought in and they were
all lined up outside the hotel. They said they would claimants a walk round the
town for the last time to bid farewell. They were lined up in pairs, he and his
brother, John being behind. While they were standing in front of the hotel they
were joined by Mr. P. Beirne. Five of them were given Union Jacks on poles and
a remnant of a Sinn Fein was given to his brother who was compelled to trail it
along the ground. They were kept about twenty minutes standing on the street
before they were marched, and there was an “unusual” crowd there at the time..
They were made to hold the Union Jacks aloft in their hands. Each time their
hands dropped they were punched in the ribs with a revolver or a fist and made
to hold them aloft again. The majority of the Auxiliaries had their revolvers
drawn. After being about ten or fifteen minutes standing in front of the hotel
they were brought in again, as the Auxiliaries were apparently waiting for some
people to turn up. Witness described the parade through the town. They were
marched towards the Post Office and down Hill Street towards the bridge. It was
difficult to carry the flag aloft owing to the weight of the poles, and at
Tyler’s cross they were formed in a circle and made kiss the Union Jack in the
gutter. Mr. Molloy was punched with revolvers and knocked down and made kiss
the flag. When they were made kneel down one of the Auxiliaries held the flag
and punched them in the face with it. Mr. Corcoran was punched in the mouth
with a revolver and put bleeding. Afterwards they were marched down Knox
Street, and they were brought back again towards the Pawn Office lane, where
petrol was poured on the Sinn Fein flag which his brother held and it was
burned. After the flag was burned they had to sing “God Save the King.” None of
them would start the sing, and Auxiliaries started it. Applicants were punched
to sing, and when they could not get anything from them like music they
stopped.
His Honor—It was not harmonious (laughter).
They were then marched back to the Moy Hotel,
where the listened to a sermon from one of the Auxiliaries.
Mr. Price—What was his text?
“Loyalty to the King and Empire,” witness
answered. They were told how well off they would be if they were loyal and
obedient like all the other loyalists. When the lecturer was finished he,
lecturer, got a bit excited, and he said that they were the traders, and if
anything happened to the loyalists or members of the Crown forces in the town
they would be held responsible, their places would go up and they would come
down. They were then told they could go and be careful to remember what they
had been told.
Mr. Price asked were there people taking
snapshots on the occasion and his Honor remarked that that could only be
remotely connected to the case.
Mr. Price—It shows the nature of the insult
and the publicity of it.
Witness said that he was still suffering from
nervousness and sleeplessness as a result of the treatment he received on that
occasion. He was very much upset as he believed the Auxiliaries would carry out
their threats, and he was told they came to town to have revenge on his family.
On the following day two armed Auxiliaries visited him in his private room and
wanted him to contradict a report of the previous day’s occurrence which appeared
in the Dublin papers, and to state that they marched voluntarily. He said he
could not do that, and one of them produced a revolver and said life was sweet
and advised him to do as he was told. They said he would have to sign a paper
to that effect, but he did not sign it.
His Honor—Was it voluntarily?—Not at all, my
lord.
John Moylett, a brother of the
last witness, gave somewhat similar evidence. He described how the Auxiliaries
came to his shop at 2 o’clock and said that his brother in Galway “had gone
west.” He was taken down to the Moy Hotel without being allowed to see his wife
or put on an overcoat. Witness was compelled to trail the Sinn Fein flag and as
it was small piece of cloth he had to stoop down to keep it trailed. During the
march he got several punches of a revolver in the ribs. At the Cross he was hit
on the back of the neck and the ribs with a revolver. They threatened his life
as well as the others. When they were asked to sing “God Save the King” he got
a punch in the mouth when he did not know the words. He also got a “kidney
punch”, which was very painful. He was very nervous since and he was shook up
to the present day. He was very sore and stiff for some time. Subsequently he
was asked to say that the thing was done voluntarily.
Martin Corcoran generally corroborated. He
was brought to the bar of the Moy Hotel, where were a lot of drunken
Auxiliaries, who flourished revolvers. He was asked was he a ‘Shinner’ and he
replied that he was, and the Auxiliary replied—“You will pay for that.” They
also punched him in the stomach, and one of them said, “I will knock that big
stomach off you.” He was afterwards paraded around the town with the rest and
assaulted as stated by the other witnesses. When he protested against kissing
the Union Jack he was struck several times and once in the mouth with a
revolver and put bleeding. When he did not sing “God Save the King” he was also
assaulted. His whole side was black for a few months. He could not sleep
afterwards at night owing to the affair. He still jumped up in bed if he heard
a noise on the street. He was visited by
Auxiliaries next day, who tried to extract a statement from him that he joined
in the parade voluntarily.
His Honor—That was
silly. Even if they did get such a statement shouldn’t they know that nobody
would believe it?
Mr. Price—They would believe anything in the
House of Commons or in England anyway (laughter). They would publish this all
over England, and the innocent people there would believe it.
Dominick
Molloy gave evidence as to the treatment meted out to him on the occasion.
The Auxiliaries visited his house the night before the affair, but he was not
at home. They visited the house again the next morning and told him not to
leave it until 6 o’clock p.m. At 2.30 he was brought to the Moy Hotel and
paraded as already stated by the previous witnesses. Witness was badly punched
and struck with revolvers. He was also asked to state that he paraded the town
voluntarily. He was sore for a couple of months afterwards, and was still
suffering from shock.
Mr. Price, in reply to his Honor as to why
these cases were not brought sooner, said that having regard to the nature of
them the claimants were afraid to bring on the cases while the Black and Tans
were in the town.
Michael Beirne was also examined, and gave
evidence as to the treatment he received on the occasion. Previous to the
affair he had a serious illness (pneumonia) and his heart was affected. They
told him they would soon put him out of pain. One of the Auxiliaries threatened
to blow his brains out. There was a motor lorry after them while they were
being paraded, and they were told that if they made a move they would be shot
down by the machine gun that was trained on them. When he got home he was in a
state of collapse. He had to leave the town the following day and remained away
in London for six or seven months, on medical advice, and as a result one of
his shops had to be closed up. There was a drop in his turnover during that
period of between £6.000 and £7,000. His expenses while away were about £200.
Mr. P. Beirne said he had to
leave the country with his brother afterwards, as he got a message that they
were going to assassinate him. He had to remain away about six months and lost
three stone in weight.
Dr. Walsh, who attended Mr.
Beirne afterwards, said the state of his health at the time of the occurrence
could not be worse. Witness saw the whole ludicrous performance himself, and he
would not have been surprised had Mr. Beirne dropped dead. He saw Mr. Beirne
that evening and he was in a very shaken state, his heart being very weak.
His Honor—Is he worse now than before that
happened?—He is; in fact he could not be much worse.
Recalled, Mr. Moylett said all the claimants
intended to lodge claims immediately but it was owing to the presence of the
Auxiliaries they did not file them.
His Honor, delivering judgment on Monday,
referred to the fact that the majority of the claims with which he had dealt
with were instituted later than was originally fixed by the statute—he was
dealing with cases of personal injuries mainly. Under the statute of 1919 any
claim for personal injury coming under that statute should be made within three
months of the occurrence of the injury. Later, however, it was found that for
one reason or another in several cases it might mean a great hardship and
injustice to hold to that limit, and therefore another Act of Parliament was
passed in the year 1920 giving a judge a very great latitude, to the extent
that he was entitled to extend the time, if he was satisfied for any reason it
was just and reasonable to do so. In the present cases he was at first rather
disposed to take the view that there was no particular reason for allowing
these applicants to come in so long after the occurrence having regard to the
fact that some applicants at least had come there at previous sessions and
successfully maintained their claims arising out of transactions which occurred
at the same period. However, on further consideration he came to the conclusion
that it would not be fair to test the amount of resolution or determination
another man had. Therefore, he felt that he should ignore the fact that some
men had come forward at the earlier opportunity, even while the Auxiliaries
were still in town, and simply have regard to the evidence given him in the
various cases. Speaking of the cases as a whole, he was satisfied on the
evidence the applicants were deterred from bringing forward their claims within
what would otherwise have been a reasonable and necessary time by the
apprehension they felt of which might occur if they did make a public complaint
with reference to their injuries. He had, therefore, come to the conclusion
that he should entertain the various claims on the books, but it was right to
say that, whereas that state of thing applied, in his opinion, to all the
claims brought before him, it did not all follow that a similar extension would
be granted as a matter of course, or perhaps even granted at all, with regard
to future claims, because he wanted to discourage the possibility of claims
being brought as a afterthought, with a view to reducing the court to hold that
they had been postponed for a legitimate reason.
The next point on which he wished to say a
word was the principle on which he conceived compensation should be awarded by
a judge in case of personal injury. He was limited by the statute to three
things—murder, maiming, and malicious injury to person. It was the last phase
that applied to all the cases he had dealt with—malicious injury to the person.
These personal injuries might be physical or mental, and they might involve
consequences which in turn might be physical, mental or pecuniary, but he could
give no compensation for the attendant circumstances under which the injury was
committed, except in so far as they entered into the injury itself as an
element. That was what Mr. Price characterised as a metaphysical distinction,
but he could not take the view Mr. Price submitted. He thought it was a sound
and necessary distinction, and he must exclude all attendant circumstances of
humiliation in so far as they did not constitute part of the injury itself. He
could give no compensation for the necessary humiliation that was thrown upon
the applicant by coming there to detail the circumstances of the case. He could
give no compensation—and this was, perhaps, the most important point of all—for
loss of business that results from apprehension of future injuries.
He had explained that he could give
compensation for loss that followed from the injury inflicted, but he could not
give compensation for losses that arise from apprehension of future injuries.
He thought it right to state that, inasmuch as he saw that materially in many
cases the amount claimed by way of compensation was based on what would be a
perfectly proper claim if the perpetrators were there before the court. He
expressed the same views already in regard to some terrible cases in Foxford,
where he felt bound to give very moderate sums, stating at the same time that
no sum would have been excessive if he were dealing with the perpetrators of
the injury. The sums he would award in these cases would, therefore, fall far
short of the amounts claimed, as he was dealing with the ratepayers of the
county. As to the character of the injuries inflicted and the circumstances
under which they were inflicted by person who claimed to be the champions of
law and order and the defenders of person and property, he took the earliest
opportunity in that court, as at previous Sessions, of expressing his views,
and he felt that anything he might now say in reference to this matter would
only be a repetition of the observations he had made from time to time.
“There
is no reason for repeating them,” his Honor concluded, “but this much I will
say, if there is any town in existence which, in my opinion, called for respect
and honourable consideration at the hands of these visitors, it was the town of
Ballina.”
His
Honor then awarded Mr. M. Beirne £200; Mr. M. Corcoran £105, and £100 each to
Messrs. Moylett, D. Molloy and P. Beirne, with costs and expenses.
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