14 AUGUST 1886, Page 2

A significant revolt of Irish labourers against the National League

occurred in Cork last Sunday, when, at a meeting of a branch of the League, with a Catholic priest in the chair, some labourers were bitterly reproached for accepting work from the Cork Defence Union, in cutting and carrying the hay off thirty acres of laud at Douglas, about four miles from Cork. The labourers replied that they would work for any person who would pay them as fair wages, and they asked whether any one present would guarantee them a week's work. As no one made them an offer, the labourers declared that they would continue in the service of the Defence Union, and the meeting broke up in con- fusion. That is the first symptom that this National League, in its supreme selfishness, may strain its authority until it breaks.