1920 SWANZY RIOTS: ‘It was like a scene from Dante’s Inferno’

The Lisburn Standard published on Friday, August 27, 1920 gave an eyewitness account of the killing of DI Swanzy by Major G V Ewart.

The general recalled: “My father and myself had just come out church, and were walking on the footpath in company with District Inspector Swanzy. When we came to the Northern Bank in Market Square and corner of Railway Street there was a considerable crowd of people gathered there, as is always the case on a Sunday at this hour.

“Suddenly my father and myself were pushed violently aside. l myself was thrust up against the doorway of the bank by someone from behind. I turned round instantly and saw a number of young men, I am almost certain there were five, with revolvers in their hands. One of them fired a shot at Mr Swanzy from behind. He fell to the ground, and the shot, I think, killed him instantly, but the others of the men bent over and fired more shots, l believe five or six, into his body as he lay. I saw my father staggering, and thinking he had been shot went to his assistance, but found he was unwounded.

“They were young men of about 22 or 23 years of age and respectably dressed young men that you might see in a crowd anywhere and observe nothing to call your attention to them particularly. They evidently knew Mr Swanzy, for they came direct for him, pushing me to one side and my father to the other. I do not know whether they followed us from the church or whether they were standing, waiting for their victim. All I know is that the attack was made from behind.”

On Monday, August 23, 1920, the News Letter detailed: “As darkness fell upon the scene the flames of burning houses lit the sky, and the efforts of the local fire brigade made but little effect on the conflagration. In many instances the buildings were gutted before midnight, and in these places smouldering fires were seen with fitful tongues of flame bursting forth and running along the windows and walls; but in Bow Street several establishments were a seething mass of fire, while great clouds of red smoke hung overhead, and as roofs and floors fell in the air was filled with sparks falling to the ground like thick showers of crimson snow. It looked a veritable inferno.

“Everywhere there were signs of destruction. The roadway was strewn with broken glass and the debris incident to such occurrence, while jets of water spouted from lines of hose cut and slashed here and there throughout their length.

“Crowds of people were watching the progress of the fire, which was fanned by amoderate breeze, and the strange spectacle of a one-legged man, with bag over his head and holding the nozzle of hose-pipe in his hands, created good deal aroused interest. His sterner aide the scene was presented by the military duty, the bayonets of the sentries glittering in the firelight.”

The reported continued: “The full fury of the crowd found vent in the afternoon, shortly after the murder, and a number of persons said to have sympathy with Sinn Fein were injured and were treated in the County Antrim Infirmary. There was a great deal of looting, and reports were to be heard of bursting barrels of liquor burning licensed premises. Altogether, the scene was weird in the extreme, flames and smoke giving to it a realistic touch as from an episode in Dante’s Inferno.”