Dublin has been free from rioting during the week, but
public opinion has been painfully stirred by a disaster in the slums. Two houses suddenly collapsed in Church Street on Tuesday night, killing eight people outright, injuring twenty others, and rendering many families homeless. The rescue work was carried out by the fire brigade, assisted by a gang of labourers, who worked most gallantly throughout the night at great risk to their own lives. The Dublin slums have an evil reputation : no fewer than twenty thousand families, or nearly a third of the population, live in one-room tenements. The Dublin Corporation, it may be added, are responsible for their regular inspection and for insisting on necessary repairs, and the owner of the houses which collapsed has informed the press that she bad recently complied with the demand of the Corporation inspector in regard to certain repairs, which he had subsequently passed as satisfactory.
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