The Morning Post of Monday contains a striking account of
the terrorism exercised in the Athenry district by the United Irish League. Their special correspondent visited Mr. Blake, of Hollypark House, and heard from him a full account of his recent experiences. Mr. Blake is a Galway landowner who rents from Lord Ardilaun a grass farm which adjoins his estate and runs into his demesne. He had offered to give up a large portion of his farm, reserving only the part close to his own property, but was informed by the secretary of the local branch last May that no settlement made outside the League could be recognised by them. He was then strictly boycotted, and on the night of Sunday, June 23rd, a fusillade of shots was fired into his house. His servants were all threatened, and most of them left. Since then he and his mother have been under close police protection, and on Sunday, November 17th, while returning from chapel under the escort of two policemen, he and his mother—an old lady of sixty-eight—were fired at and wounded in broad daylight. The people who witnessed the attack hooted, jeered, and refused to lend any help.. Since then Mr. Blake and his mother have been practically prisoners in their own house, protected night and day by police, and only able to get provisions from a long distance and surreptitiously. " No one in Athenry would sell us a loaf of bread even if we were starving." No one has been arrested in connexion with either of these outrages, and we are not inclined to dispute .Mr. Blake's statement that " there is absolutely no law in this part of Ireland at the present time except the law of the United Irish League." And yet we are told that, except for "cattle-driving," the condition of Ireland is quite satisfactory.
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