Freeman’s Journal suppressed in ‘outrageous abuse of law’
Dublin, 16 December 1919 - The Freeman’s Journal newspaper has been suppressed by the Dublin Castle authorities. The clampdown is a response to the alleged publication yesterday of seditious material that was considered to interfere with recruiting. The action was taken using Defence of the Realm regulations.
All copies of the newspaper from Monday, 15 December, were ordered to be seized, while the type and plant for the production of the paper were also handed over to the military authority.
Around 11pm last night, police took up position in the streets in the vicinity of the Freeman’s offices, with cordons cutting Townsend Street off from the thousands of members of the public who assembled once news of the raid spread throughout the city. Constables and detectives, under the direction of the DMP’s Superintendent Willoughby, entered the premises of the paper with a warrant.
The proprieters of the Freeman's Journal, R. Hamilton Edwards (left) and Martin Fitzgerald maintain that they have committed no offence to justify military action. Right: the police receipt for the items confiscated from the Freeman's premises (Image: Evening Telegraph, 16 December 1919)
The proprietors and the editor insist that they have committed no offence to justify the military action. They have called for the support of all newspapers in the United Kingdom ‘to protest against the outrageous abuse of the law’.
Today in the House of Commons the Irish Party MP, T.P. O’Connor has said the suppression involved not only the destruction of property, but the stifling of an important voice in public discourse.
Furthermore, he read into the record of the house the text of the offending leading article regarding plans for the civil service members to be conscripted into a supplementary police force, saying that he did not consider it an ‘immoderate statement of the case.’
Mr O’Connor added that the source of the current ‘horrible and deplorable outbreak of crime in Ireland is the Government and the policy of the Government.’ He continued:
‘There have been more murders since the policy of drastic repression, for which [the Chief Secretary] is the official spokesman in this house, than there ever was before … My complaint against the policy of the Government is not that it pursues crime, but that it creates crime.’
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
