6 JULY 1912, Page 11

In the House of Commons on Tuesday Mr. Birrell was

asked, and could not answer very satisfactorily, several questions about an attack by a body of Hibernians on a party of Presbyterian school children. Last Saturday, at Castle- dawson, the children, carrying, according to their custom, the Scriptural banners of their Sunday-school and a Union Jack, were returning from an excursion when they met the Hibernians, who were marching back from aNationalist demon- stration at Maghera. According to the Presbyterian minister who was with the children, the Hibernians attacked them with- out any provocation. The Hibernians used pikes, bludgeons, and stones. The proportion of grown-up persons with the children was not large, but they bravely defended their banners. Protestants from Castledawson quickly joined in the struggle. The police did their best to end it, but many persons were injured.