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25 March 2016

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Police attack on Tullamore Volunteers

OFFICIAL ACCOUNT

The crowd poured volleys of stones and bottles in through the windows of the Volunteer premises

The Irish Volunteer,  25 March 1916, Volume 2, Number 68

Interviewed by a newspaper representative on Tuesday, Mr Bulmer Hobson, Hon Secretary of the Irish Volunteers, stated that, according to the reports received by Headquarters from the Irish Volunteer officers at Tullamore, the facts of the situation were as follows:-

Last night, about 8 o'clock, a large crowd, principally from the Barrack Street quarter of Tullamore, assembled outside the rooms occupied by the local Volunteers. Several Volunteers and also several ladies who were believed to be in sympathy with the Volunteer movement, were assaulted by the mob, several being repeatedly knocked down and kicked.

The police assisted in protecting the ladies who were assaulted but made no attempt whatever to disperse the crowd. The crowd poured volleys of stones and bottles in through the windows of the Volunteer premises but fortunately the few Volunteers who were inside were not injured.

This state of affairs lasted about half an hour and during that time no effort to disperse the crowd or to put an end to the affair was made by the police.

Bulmer-Hobson

Bulmer Hobson

As the crowd became more threatening, the Volunteers fired a couple of shots, which were deliberately aimed high, and passed over their heads, with the object of frightening the crowd and preventing the building being rushed. At this juncture the police, who had hitherto remained almost completely inactive, demanded admission to the Volunteer premises and, on being admitted, the County Inspector, to the complete surprise of the Volunteers, suddenly ordered the police to search for arms.

The police were followed into the building by the mob and the Volunteers were simultaneously attacked by police searching for arms and by members of the hostile crowd. In the scuffle which ensued, a couple of revolvers went off, with the result that Sergeant Aherne was injured.

Several of the Volunteers were maltreated by the police and the crowd in a shocking manner.

The whole affair could easily have been prevented by the police if they had dispersed the crowd, who were smashing the windows of the Volunteer premises, but the police seemed bent upon taking action against no one but the Volunteers, who were defending themselves as best they could from the assaults of a hostile mob.

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