On This Day / September 23, 1921
Go BackReproduced with permission from The Irish News.
September 23, 2021
Publication Date
Listen Along in Éamons Voice *
Summary: On This Day – 23rd September 1921, Catholic ex-servicemen working on Belfast’s Newtownards Road were subjected to a brutal sectarian attack, leaving four men requiring hospital treatment. Edited by Éamon Phoenix.
Outbreak of Brutality | On This Day – 23rd September 1921
A SERIOUS disturbance took place on the Newtownards Road shortly after noon today and for about a quarter of an hour an ugly situation presented itself but peace was quickly restored.
Large bodies of workmen are at present engaged in re-laying the tramlines in that district and it appears a sudden attack was made on them by gangs of men who congregated in the vicinity.
Several were badly beaten and kicked and numbers had to take refuge in the police barracks. Police were quickly on the scene.
The above simple narrative appeared inconspicuously in yesterday’s Belfast Evening Telegraph. Unsophisticated readers must have been puzzled.
Not a hint of the reasons for the attack was conveyed: Catholic ex-servicemen to the number of about thirty who, with other workmen, are engaged in re-laying the tram track on the Newtownards Road were subjected yesterday afternoon to attacks of the most brutal character by an Orange mob which suddenly descended without warning.
As a result of the savage onslaught, four men had to be removed to hospital while others sustained minor injuries.
A stringent rule of employment in the tram track re-laying operations is that only ex-servicemen should be engaged and, consequently, amongst the batch of men there is a percentage of Catholics.
Up to yesterday the work had proceeded without interference. …About one o’clock a descent was made on the unoffending workmen by an Orange mob of at least a couple of thousand, armed with every conceivable kind of weapon.
It was evident that the Catholics had been ’spotted’, as in the majority of cases they were instantly singled out. It did not matter that their victims had faced the Germans for three or four years…
Taken by surprise, the Catholics were trapped and became defenceless victims in the hands of a brutal mob of savages….
They were felled with iron bars and sticks and in cases and kicked along the streets. One policeman drew his revolver but did not fire as the mob was of too great dimensions.
A visit to the Newtownards Road at about three o’clock revealed an amazing state of affairs. The mob, many thousand strong, held the thoroughfare without interference…. Youngsters were playing with the tools left behind by the hunted Catholics.
(Éamon Phoenix editor’s note: THIS report highlights how the different Belfast papers chose to report sectarian attacks during the 1920s Troubles.
In this case the victims were nationalist ex-servicemen who had been working on a relief scheme in loyalist east Belfast.
However, Protestants were not immune to sectarian attacks in nationalist districts at this time.)
On This Day – 23rd September 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.