Serious rioting occurred at Belfast on Saturday afternoon, during the
course of a football match, on the Celtic football ground, between the Celtic and the Linfield clubs, the first a Roman Catholic and the second a mainly Protestant organiza- tion. Some 10,000 persons were present, and all went smoothly till the half-time interval. While the teams were in the pavilion a disturbance arose among spectators in the unre- served part of the ground, and a fierce faction fight at once broke out, the crowd splitting into two sections, one carrying the Union Jack and the other the Celtic colours. Stones and other missiles were freely used, revolver shots were fired,• hundreds of people were knocked down and trampled on, and police, though aided by some of the spectators, were quite, unable to cope with the rioters. In all, nearly a hundred persons were injured, thirteen, including two constables, seriously. It is not clearly established who were the aggressors; faction fights are endemic in Belfast, and sectarian 'violence is utterly to be reprobated, but the political tension, due in the first instance to the Home Rule proposals of the Govern- ment, has undoubtedly inflamed the temper of the Belfast mobs, and further rioting took place in the Sandy Row district on Wednesday night, when the followers of a Unionist Club procession wrecked a number of shops.
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