Black and Tans fired on the DI!
The Peter Casey column
ARE the vandalising curs of Drogheda trying to emulate the Black-and-Tans?
The first and only people ever to previously vandalise our town clock which crowns the Thosel building in the very centre of Drogheda were the ex jail-birds in black tunics and kaki trousers from their camp in Gormanston.
That was on the night during the Ttuce in the early ‘20s when the Tans came to Drogheda in lorry loads as a reprisal dor the murder of an unarmed member of the force who came to collect the Rector of St. Mary’s Protestant parish to conduct a religious service in the camp. It was denounced as a cowardly deed by responsible Irish politicians of all shades especially since not a single shot had ever been fired at a black-and-tan in Drogheda before the Truce when they were strutting along the streets in pairs armed to the teeth.
It was the night the Central Hotel was burned to the ground and as the lorries moved from Dublin Gate to the town centre at least one bullet was fired through every shop window in James Street and Shop Street.
The office of this newspaper was no exception and the rifle bullet that pierced the front window performed a freakish feat. It cut the telephone wire in the front office and continued on through an inside door to cut it again on a staircase further back.
Some of the Tans went up Peter Street and made a cockshot of the Thosel clock face looking northwards. Drunk as they were by all accounts of people peeping out windows, some of the bullets hit the clock face and disfigured it for some years afterwards.
Mayor Fergus O’Dowd, intends calling a public meeting to consider what could be done to curb and if possible put an end to the wilful and senseless destruction of property privately owned and that belonging to the community such as schools etc. The Isle of Man had the answer for years and so had we a long time ago before the letter writers to the daily papers became so squeamish about the flogging of blatant enemies of the people — in other words teenagers who roam about after dark seeking something to destroy. Even our churches are not safe from these hooligans who are blistering the ratepayers of Counties Louth and Meath.