On This Day / July 28, 1921
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
July 28, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 28th July 1921, American relief delegates witnessed the devastation of Belfast’s sectarian violence and pledged support for families driven from their homes. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
US Delegates’ Shock | On This Day – 28th July 1921
AMERICAN delegates from the White Cross Association arrived in Belfast yesterday for the purpose of holding consultations with leading Catholic citizens regarding the shocking state of affairs arising out of the unemployment and lack of accommodation caused by the Pogrom and the recent extensive burning of dwellings.
The deputation, consisting of Mr C J France and Dr Harry Kennedy, arrived by the 11.45 a.m. train from Dublin and were received by Bishop MacRory.
Mr France is a prominent citizen of the US and has been a lifelong sympathiser with Irish aspirations.
He was one of the pioneers of the White Cross in America which has performed magnificent service on behalf of distress in Ireland.
On their arrival at the Great Victoria Street terminus, the delegates, accompanied by the Bishop, proceeded by motor to the scenes of the recent burnings.
They first visited Cupar Street where forty-one houses had been either gutted or partially wrecked.
In Norfolk Street thirty- six ruined dwellings were inspected and in the same area nine houses in Lower Urney Street, seventeen in Argyle Street, sixteen in Lower Wilton Street and sixteen in Conway Street were noted by the delegation.
In all the visitors saw 161 houses that had been wrecked or burned in a single day by the Orange mobs.
The visitors afterwards accompanied the bishop to the schoolhouses where the unfortunate victims of the recent outrages are housed and fed.
Later the delegates held a conference at St Mary’s Hall with representative gentlemen. Interviewed by the Irish News, Mr France said:
‘It is a very terrible thing to contemplate that people should be burned out of their homes and left without anything but their clothes on their backs.’
At an important meeting of the Irish White Cross in Dublin on Thursday, the position of the Catholic people driven from their homes and the general unemployment arising out of the riots last year was considered.
A sum of £2,000 was voted towards the cost of repairing the dwelling-houses destroyed.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: AROUND half of the £11 million raised for the cause of Irish independence during 1919-21 was by the American Committee for Relief in Ireland (AMCOMRI) through the US-based White Cross Fund.
It was founded by Dr William Malone, an Irish American and friend of the US IRB leader Joe McGarrity, ‘to investigate British atrocities in Ireland’ and assist families who had suffered hardship including the Belfast ‘expelled workers’.
Endorsed by President Harding, US politicians and church leaders, the funders included the Irish tenor John McCormack who gave concerts for Irish relief.
Amcomri Street in west Belfast was built with US funds.)
On This Day – 28th July 1921
Further Reading on Irish History:
List of other On This Day columns
Other resources: National Library of Ireland Irish News CAIN Archive
On This Day is a daily column in the Irish News looking back either 50 or 100 years. The column was compiled by Dr Éamon Phoenix from the mid 1980s until autumn, 2022. The Foundation is very grateful to the Irish News for giving permission to reproduce Eamon’s columns. Funding gratefully received from Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs and the Magill Trust.
* The Foundation has worked hard to recreate Eamon’s distinctive voice through AI. Since this is an emerging technology, occasional imperfections may be audible.