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-THE
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- :E~DITED BY EOIN MAC NEILL. VoL 2.
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No. 12.
Se,ries.)
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1915.
English Commission~ "am such a patient 'people, they expect to be better treated · in the other wo.r ld to make up for it." _,__________________.· In my ignorance, I was wondering where
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of government from London. Mea.uwhil0 their able representatives in Ireland have gj..ven gracious permission to the National Volu_nt()ers to relieve the armed police of our share was to come frorn . Mr. Lough the ~i'duous duty of guarding the Closetl also said that "Ireland . was. a very 'im- ' Gat,~, : and to act. as '' special eon , ta bies '' portant country, but thei'e was nobody ·witf{out arms. · * * * to say a word for her." ' Nobody! . We , · .Si1: J:ames ·Long, Chairman of the Cork have heard that title - lately. Hut who Harbbur Board; told the same Commiscan Mr.Lough mean by Nobody? Surely siOQ: that " it was perfectly usele ·s going not---? to Parliament and having a contract * *. * Mr. Lough ;lso said that "Ireland entered into, 'if it had to be abandoned. " wants to be decently treated and not put This te;x.t is of wider application, and off with rubbish." All Ireland. wants is sounds like downright Sinn-Feinism. to . be let alone, to be rid ~of Imperial in- ·when did ever Imperialism keep any conterference . It may sound like a gross tract with us that stood in the way" of material doctrine for people who expect our I mperial exploitation? bett~r things in the next world, but ·it is rlearn that Cardinal Merc.ier's coui·agethe incontestable truth that Irish wellpastoral on the sacreclnes; aml duty · ous being and Irish prosperity are bound up . of patriotism is being made kno\vn with with thoroughgoing · Irish Nationality, good effect in some parts of Ireland .· I and that Whiggery and I mperialism in , doubt if the scourge of war and invasion every form and guise, old and ri.ew, never has reduced the population of any district did and never will ma.ke anythi!}g thrive in Belgium from 240,000 to 90,000-as Ure in Ireland but officialism, poorhouses, scourge of I mperial peace has done . in prisons, bai'.rack~·,. a~d l~natic asylums . Co_ u nty Cavan . But let me quote again . ·:t< • * * When Ulster, after four cen.t uries of the "Catholfo l'imes" : "So far . as is stout resistance,' went down under Im- known, the Catholic Archbishop of Lemperial force and guiie, "the Queen's berg is still in p1·,ison " -he was imO'Reilly" was allowed to be possessor prisoned by the Russians when they inof the grea.t er ,part of Ca-van county. H0 vaCl~d Galicia at the outbreak of the war ·fell in battle fighting for the Empire. - "for no crime except _that of urging His daughter and heiress received the clue his flock to be. loyal to t4ei:t>' legitimate Irish reward for Imperialism, she was sovereign the Austrian Emperor: '' It is set as1de by English legal chicanery, and suggested that "a 'ivord :fro.m Sir ·E dward the county became the property of .the Grey 'to the Russian Ambassador-:i;ri.ig'ht Crown. It was then "transmuted into get tlie Catholic Archbishop 6f :Lemberg the seat of a great British colony ." At o·u t of prison ." * * * the time of the Union, Cavan contained But suppose the Russian Ambassador a large and thriYing Protestant population, the desce:p.dants of the British were to reply that Irishmen have been colonists. 'Where are they now? Even deprived of their li velihoocl . and hunted "a great British colony" could not thrive from their .homes for no crinie, but the crime of adhering to the Qrig'inal policy in Ireland under Imperial Govei·nment. ailcl programme of the Irish Yolunteers? • • Mr. I . ough told the English Commis- I al.~o note a Press report that :a. high sion that "most of the American com- Russian official avo>vs the purpose-of Rusmodities 'vhich Ireland bought were got sia is to get possessicin of the' Bospliorns through England . You, would think," and the Dardanelles, from which it has he added, '' there . was Ro Ireland for been the constant policy of England since navigation purposes." We are not in.,. before the Crimean war to exdude her: formed how_ the g'entlemen in London ex- .Sir Edwa_rd Gi'ey may h~ve more ahxio11s pressed their satisfaction at this result cares than the ma~ing of a _v.en much
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Again th~ questjon of the closed Gateway to Mr. Winston Churchill's Greatest Tra<ie Route in t lle World has been raised. 1£ we cannot open our gate.ways to the world's trad!l, in deference to . Imperial interests, still we have the consolation that w_e ca11 open discussions . . Mr . Devlin on a. celebrated occasion declared that the mailed fist of Prussia ~ould never be . allowed to close on the throat of Ireland . .Quite right. Ireland's throat is only of a moderate size, and has room for only one ironclad fist . Mr. Thomas Lough, M.P . for an Englisl1 c9nstituency, gave evidence last Fxiday in London before the Commission regarding . the Queenstown . call. " I reland," he said, " is the oaj.y unfortunate country in the world which is an orphan child which nobody takes care of." Mr. Lough forgets that we have now got Home Rule on the Statute Book, and that having achieved that independence, some-= thing far better than Grattan's Parliament, the orphan child is now in a position to tl}ke charge 0£ the affairs 0£ Europe. Honour a-nd duty demand it. Mr. Lough informed the English gentlemen of the Committee that the county of Cavan, \Yith which he is connected, has · had its population rechrc·ed, .under two generations of Imperial government, from 240,000 _to 90,000. It was not the Turks that did it. T'here has been no war ill. Gavan, at least no wnr of the ordinary -kind. Cavan is an Ulster county." At the time of the Union, its chief industry was the wea.v ing and bleaching of linen, and its bleaching es-ta blishments dealt with 91,000 webs of linen-at a time. In 1845, the Cavan linen hacle had " experienced prolonged and comparatively ' great declension .'" In 1915 - - - , Mr. Devlin is again the authority, Cavan is waiting for a. further share in the tTiurnphs of the Empire. "The Irish," said Mr. Lough to the
Price One Penny.