EDITED -B Y . EOIN MAC NEILL. Vol . 2.
No~
~ATURDAY,
66-(New Series).
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these terms. ·He has never been able to state on. what occasion .any body of Irishmen bound themselves by .a ny such understandincr. He has since ._._i:. - been foi:~d ~o- go filrthe_-T- a:nd t~ lay _dolv.n that The Home Rule cheque was ·s igned a year and Ireland is bound by an honourable understanding a half ago. '1 ne story or what went on about it t<? send every av~ilable man to fight for the Embetween the outbreak of the war and the signing pirE'., _because Home ~ule has reached its, present of the cheque has not beeri revealed to the people position. The truth is that not even the English of Ireland by those who took upon themselves to people understood,, until the war was upo.n them. act as Ireland's plenipotentiaries,- a power that_ they would' ~e asked to ral.se an army on ; which was never conferred on them. There were con~mental s?ale m order_ that they might satisfy private meetings and Cabinet meetings. The the_ expectat10ns of thell' allies and still keep ~pponents of Home Rule carried the day, except ~heu- naval strength unimpaired. Therefore it rn so far as the Home Rule Bill was not com- is ui;itrue to everybody's knowledge and cannot pletely abandoned. The cheque was signed and . possi_bly _·be _true that lre~and understood any postdated for t"welve months. Then the self- such ob,ligation, express or implied, even upon constituted pl~nipotentiaries, having been forced the full concession of her national rio:hts ne't to to ;y:ield because they took it on themselves to put speak of the present ignominious poiritioft of the their cause at. the mercy of secret negotiations . Home Rule Act. * * * and_ kept the knowledge of what was going on The cheque for Home Rule was post-dated to from the people of Ireland, were forced to come out in public and declare that th.e ir demands had September 17th, 1915~and the new terms were been conceded- when they had not been con~ forced upon ML Redmond. In September, 1915, ceded. . Irelan~, they declared, must now pay lVIr . .A.sqmth haa not Jiet ·reached Berlin and the the pnce; a pnce that Ireland had never before cheque -was again post-dated to St . -Patrick's heard of, for that which was hers by right, and· Day, _1916. St. Patrick's Day is coming,_ and Mr. .A.sqmth does p.ot expect to be in Berlin by then. which these same men had always claimed as a S~ the English Priv:y Council met som_e days ago, nationai right and a measure of justice. Kmg George ' presided, and the Home Rule .. * * * "Justice shall not be denied or sold or de- cheque was post -dat~- to September, 1916. But layed.'' The chief offende:rs are those British .. the day_ of our. National. Apostle is to be celeMinister.s who had pledged their honour to carry brated m Dublm by an Imperial flag collection, through this measure of justice, and had already a~~d by that da:f twelvemon_th the Imperial accepted on that faith the support of the Irish tubute collectors m Ireland W!ll be expected to Party and of the electorate behind the Irish have raked in an additional -Eicrht Millions of Par:ty. .Already they had partly gone back on war taxes. They will also h ave t~ rake in whattheU: pledges, '8,nd their s].lccess in_ forcing a . e_v_zr ~res~ taxes will be imposed under the Biidcret pai-tial surrend~-i· on their Irish allies encoura<Yed · now rn ptepltration. J. h ' loo1ts as~ if the pl"incipal ·· them to go farther in the same path of dis- duty of an Irish Gov11rnment 1;l.nder the Home honour. It was these men, Mr. Birrell and his Rule Act is to be the collection of Imperial taxes. colleagues, that delayed justice and held it up Never was such a legislative mess contrived as the present position of Home Rule. for sale.
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What, let us ask, would have .happened if withi? the first _tw.o months of the war, Mr'. :Asqmth, Mr. Birrell, and the other Liberal Ministers who were not secretly opposed to Home Rule, had said: "Our honour is pleP,ged to ~r. Redmond, our terms of agreement are public, they are embodied in the Home Rule Bill, they are not a Hypocritical Sham, the British Democracy supports them ; and now in this unparalleled Imperial crisis we, who claim to be devoted not· only to the British Empire but also to the cause of European liberty and of the smaller nations, insist on the fulfilment of oU:r contract without further conditions and withou.t further . delay.?" Who could have preventet:' them? Would the Unionists have venturea either to renew the conflict in Great Britain or to have carried out their threat of violence in Ireland, in the midst of the Imperial crisis ? Could they have denounced Mr. Redmond for claimincr at least the immediate fulfilment of the acrree".'. ment by compromise embodied in the Home Rule Bill?
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What these men did, who talk to us of honour and loyalty, was to make a compact with the enemies of Home Rule, and to force that compact upon Mr. Redmond. They said in effect to Mr. R~dmond , '' We will not fulfil our agreement with you. You .are powerless to insist upon it. In three months' time, or six months or nine months at the outside, we shall be ~ittincr in Berlin dictating our will to the world . You"'and your puny nation are in no position to demand anything, even though it has been already acrreed upon. That agreement no loncrer holds. "'The conditions we now offer you are these : the Home Rule ~ill w!J.l receive the royal assegt, but its operation will be suspended until we come back from Berlin. Before 1t can come into effect your opponents, the Unionists, will have full ~ppor tuni~y of alt~ring the t erms of the .A.ct by means of ~n amendmg .A.ct. I n. the meantime, you shall assist us to the utmost m the prosecution of the war. Y:ou shall do your '.ltmost to_raise an army for us m Ireland, to stifle the di content that these terms will naturally arouse in Ireland and to aid u s in imposing fresh taxes upon Ir~land for _the purpose of the war. Otherwise, you must plamly understand that the Home Rule Bill "'ill have to be abandoned."
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Mr. Re~moi;id yielded to the defenders of trea~y o~ligations and of small nationalities. Havmg yielded, he tried to make the case that he was bound and that the Irish electorate wel:e bound by some previous understanding to accept
PRICE ON E PENNY.
MARCH 11th, 1916.
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.A. crowded meeting held last week in the Dublin Ma11sion House to protest acrainst the plunder of Ireland was practically boyMtted by the " Irish " -daily papers, which make a harvest out 9f war advertisements. The state of funk to which the Unionist Press is reduced on the taxatioi;i question is. attested by the "Irish Times," which was afraid to tell its readers that such a meeting was held .. The Unionists have managed to hold an extra big share of all the crood thino-s that. Imperial government has left u~, and it is a slight offset to the robbery of the nation to know that the hangers-on of Predominant Partnership stand in danger of. being the most severe!! flee_ced . The big whigs that pretend to be Nationalists of a sort are in the same case If it was n.o t for the Nation's loss, we might. say "Devil's cure to them ."
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" Can the Empire spare this man to the parish p~mp_ politics of a single nation l' Why narrow. his mmd,_ and to Ireland give up what was meant for mankmd ?" These are the words of the Home Rule Liberal "Review of Reviews " for March, 1_9 ll .. They represe~1t the sympathy of the English Liberals for Insh nationality and for Irish self-government. They are. ·the last words of a long and highly eulogistic " character sketch " of an Irish politician. The Empire is for mankind. Ireland for. the parish pump. Remark the flattery and the well-laid t emptation. "This man" then seemed a danger, he was an unknown quantity. Mr. Redmond and Mr. 'Dillon are handled in t he same article, but the Liberals knew all about them. They are no lono-er anxious · about Mr. Devlin, for he is the man whom in 1911 ~heJ·. were _trying to St;)cure for the Empire and to mspire w1tJ: conte_mpt. for the parish pump politics of Irish Nat10nality. They now have him ?nd Mr. Redmond and ¥r. Dillon with him, help'. mg them to plunder; rum 'and depopulate Ireland · - for the benefit of mankind!
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I pointed out recently that, since ''Ireland will be eternally disgraced" and will be " unworthy · of Home Rule" and double taxation " unless the gaps in Irish regiments are filled up by Irishmen," then the bigger the gaps are made the greater will be Ireland's disgrace and her unworthiness for Home Rule. .At a recruiting meeting the other day the Earl of Fingall q1,1oted a letter he had received from an Irish officer, who said that of 1,000 men he took out to the war there were only 100 left. The things that Mr. Redmond has to say seem a bit ha.rel on the other 900.
The London " Times " of last Saturday had another inspired article -on the Irish Volunteers \Vho, says the insp ired wtiter, are drawn fro~ thTee gxoup.s: /t a small nucleus of bitter, sincere, ana 'clever malcoi'itents; a much larger immbei;who say, and perhaps believe, that this is not Ireland's · war, because they have been dis• appointed about Home Rule ; and a still i:arg~ number who profess the · doctrines of Sinn Fein as -an excuse for Le selfishness or apathy that ke~ps them from joining the Colours.'' Therewere thought to be Irish Volunteers before the war, but that may have been a mistake. "The best Irish opinion," says the inspired writer," is uneasy about the Government's policy of "laisser faire." The best Irish opinion, then, must be a yeTy hole-and-corner sort of.thing with a particular love of anonymity. If it wants tl).e Governm~mt to __d~clare w?r in Ireland, why is the best Insh opm1011 afraid to put its name to its demand? The '' Times '' would not refuse its. columns to a list of names of those who constitute its best Irish opinion, and would thus relieve thE'.m of the stigma cast upon them -by its special writer.
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. Du?lin Castle instructed its legal representative m Cork to suggest a charge of inciting to the murder of Mr. Redmond against an Irish V ?.lunteei: organiser, but failed to produce any eyi.~ence m support of the charge. The game iS' , obvious enough. The Castle wants the Irish question to take the convenient form of a .faction figh.t'. It played that game in Limerick and 0crot· a specii!-1 :eport for it in the English pa'.pers. It played· it m Tyrone. Its recruiting officers played it all over Kerry, and Sir Morgan O'Connell sayi:f that llQW " ~very vill!Lge in Kerry is rotten with: Sein Fein-'.'- the printer will please leave Sir: Morgan's Germai1 uncorrected. So in order to !>lood up M!·· ~edmond's supporter~, the Castle> mvents an mcitement to murder Mr. Redmond trusting that they will not notice that no witnes~ c~uld be got to swear to the invention. Mr. Birrell may make up his mind that the Irish Vo~unteers will not lay a finger on Mr. Redmond. · It is the Burglar that they are looking out for. Mr. Redmond may even stand on his masters' platform and insult us to .please them to further their game of faction makino- and t~ encourage their '.'Defence of the Real~ " performances. The Insh Volunteers will not lose sight of thei:rone and only purpose. * * * The inspired writer in the " Times " does not fail to take a hand in the crame . The "Times " gives him a heading in capitals, "FURY WITH MR. REDMOND," and this o-ood Unionist says~ "~~r: Redmo1~d's ~trong ha;cl in favour of recrmtmg has mfunated the Sinn Feiners." I must admit that I have heard a chorus of · youngsters in Dublin publicly singincr their intention to " hang John Redmona on ~ sour apple tree," and that the "infuriated Sinn Feiners ,,. several thousand of them, actually laucrhed hear this doom pronounced . " The wrath of the Sinn ,¥einers i:;; unboun~ed," says the inspired' one1 and he is abused m nearly every issue of their .weekly newspapers with all the tropical luxuriance of Celtic imagery." The sneer at the Celt shows us in what circle the writer cratherS' "the best Irish opinion." It follows a s~ntence in which he praises Mr. Redmond's sincerity and' courage. At the same time the Best Irish Opinion is thin~ing - !-J-ight and day about giving, Mr. Redmond L1menck when there is no further· use for him, and is counting confidentlv on thehelp of the ;Best English Opinion. Wait and see! There is another sneer of the Best Irish Opinion at " the impish tendencies of the Celticcharacter," and another sneer · at " the Irish peasant," the farmer's son. Very sincere and courageous is the anonymo'u s admirer of Mr. Red~ond's sincerity and courage, as he waits for· . the time to ·sandbag Mr. Redmond . . EoIN MAC NEILL.
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T HE DUBLIN
BRIC~DE .
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ORD ERS FOR - WE.EK EN-DING 12th MAR CH, 1916. 1. The Musketry Class will not be held thfa week. Other Classes as usual. · 2. Lecture for Officers on Saturday, 8 p.m. _3. On St. Patrick's :Qay, March 17th, there will be a Church Parade and Inspection o:li· Brigade. · E. DE VALERA, Brigade ·Adjt.