July 15 1924
The Belturbet correspondent of the “Dublin Evening Telegraph” states: “At Belturbet, on the eve of ‘The Twelfth’, as three National soldiers were on their way to barracks, they met three band boys coming from the Orange Hall.
“Some words having being exchanged, it is alleged the soldiers assaulted them with their canes. Next morning, as the bands and banners were leaving the Orange Hall for Killeshandra, one of the soldiers from the barracks, which is close by, shouted, ‘We are the men from Galway, and we’ll meet you later’, and the tricolour was hoisted from the wall. A girl from the Orange crowd replied in an uncomplimentary manner.
“On the return that evening ten or fifteen soldiers are alleged to have tried to rush the Orange Hall, but the timely appearance of the OC and an armed picket prevented an entry. Failing to carry out their object they smashed all the windows in the hall with stones, despite the efforts of the Civic Guards and the military”.
While marches did take place on July 12 in some parts of the Free State, as with the incidents in Belturbet in Cavan, they were occasionally met with attacks from opponents.
The Lane Pictures
Lord Arnold’s amendment in the House of Lords as to the intentions of the government regarding the disposal of the Lane Pictures now in the National Gallery in London brings a prolonged controversy within reach of satisfactory settlement.
Sir Hugh Lane originally intended these thirty-nine pictures for Dublin. The Dublin Corporation disagreeing with his ideas as to the site for a gallery, he withdrew his offer, and in his will bequeathed the collection to the National Gallery, London.
Afterwards, when he had thought the matter over, he added a codicil to the will leaving the pictures to Dublin, but he went down with the Lusitania without having it witnessed.
The position, therefore, is that while the collection legally belongs to the English gallery, it is morally a legacy to the Irish capital.
