EDITED BY--EOIN MAC NEILL. Vol. 2.
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No. 69 (N ew $eries).
NOTES
SATUR DAY, A PRIL 1st, 1916.
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In December 1913, a few days after the first Irish Voluntee{. meeting in Dublin, the Liberal " Home Rule " Govei'nment issued two illegal proclamations to prevent the arming of the Irish V-olunteers. The "Freeman's Journal" of that time was innocent enough to tell its readers that the proclamations were aimed against the arming of the opponents of Home Rule. As soon as possible the Irish Volunteers b~gan to buy arms and ammunition. When the Lib~r~l Hon_ie R ule Government o-ot the chance, it stole their arms and ammunition. All this time there was no European war and no Pretence of the Realm Act . Some mdnths after the Proclamations were issued and in apparent defiance of the Government, 'but really with the com~ivance of some _of its members, a cargo of arms was purchased with Engli"sh money and shipped to Ireland. The purchasers intended these arms to ):le used by Irishmen against Irishmen for the disgrace and degradation of Irelan<:! ~nd to supply the world with proof that- a con~mu'.1-nce _of humane and -civilised English dommat1on m Irela?d was necessary in the interests o~ humamty and civilisation. The voyage of thi~ cargo o! arms -w as announced in the Press while the ship that ·carried the cargo 'was still in the North: Sea o_n its way from Germany. Notwit!istandmg this announcement and the Proclamations, the carj?;O ·arrived safely in Belfast Lough, and was discharo-ed without interference at Larne and B a n;"or. Any offioials of the .Govermnent who wer: thought likely to int~rfere or to be undesirable witnesses were held m custody . The aqns weie afterwards distributed without any show of interferen ce in various parts of Ulster. M~an while, so far a s the Government could contrrv:e, the Irish Volunteers were prevented f.rom acqmring_arms.
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conduct as the cover for a direct onslaught on a handful of Volunteers, and as the occasion for an attempt to disarm .the Volunteers. His conduct, to my knowledge, has been .condemned not only by supporters of Mr. Redmond but by 'Unionists. Of course, any legal trial of tHe County Inspector conducted by the protectors of Mr. Walter Harrell would be only more of the hypocritical sham, and we may content crurselves with the educative effect _on the public if this man is not put in the dock, where he .ought to be. His untainted testimony can be added by Mr. Birrell to the nist of the voluminous evidence. * * When the Government ordei·ed the Volunteer organisers out of Ireland and sent them to jail for refusing to go,- its action was condemned by N atiorialists of . all shades of opinion all over ·Ireland, and was not commended~which was significant enough- brany body of Irish Unionist opinion. Since I wrote last week, the Government has again pounced on two of our organisers, Liam Mellows and Ernest Blythe, and imprisoned them, on what pretext it has not yet announced. Ernest Blythe is particularly objectionable because he is an Ulster Protestant. There is also a special reason in the case of Liam Mellows. <!(·
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The "Connaught Tribune" belo1igs to Mr. William O'Malley, lVI.P., brother-in-law to Mr. T. P: O'Connor, lVI.P., both being producers of the sort of jourl'lalism that pleases a not too fastidious crowd beyond the Irish Sea. Another M.P . comes into the performance. On March the 4th, the " Connaught Tribune " printed a leading artiele :pa:r tly for the -glorifical;:ion of Mr. W. J. Duffy; M.P. From this article it appe'a rs that Mr . Duffy, besides £400 a year for his services in a ssisting the Government to impose on Ireland eight millions a yea r of war taxes and whatever more they demand ; holds a fa!·m at a place -called Close token, near Loughrea. We are not told that it is a grass farm. But Mr. O'Malley's paper shows us what a great and disinterested patriot Mr. Duffy is. Referring to this farn:i, it asks: "Is there a· case on record where a tenant restored to an evicted holding immediately g·a ve the Committee of the League the right to divide the best nalf of it amongst the small holders?" Before going farther, I
"PRICE ONE PENNY. 1rhe principal organ bf faction, the subsidised, , the Great Unread, I .ltm credibly inf_ormed, has discovered two reasons' for not honestly facing the question of the ruin of Ireland by taxation. One reason is that the "Independent ~ ' has shown that the chief problem of · Irish government under the Home Rule Act now won, achieved, accomplished, and assured, would be the raisin,g of an Impe1'ial tribute equal to the entire cost of Irish administration .. · The other reason is that the prote's t against the robbery and r uin of Ireland is associated' with such persons as Mr. John Sweetman and myself. Since Mr. Sweetman and I are in the habit of going to Mass on Sundays, I suggest that the editor of the Gr eat Unread should advise his unreaders ~P d6 otherwise, and thereby prove their thorough Imperial affection and add to the debt of gratitude. The view universally taken of his editorial counsel would deprive the advice of all immediate significance, and Mr. T. P. O'Connor could use the occasion to prove that Ireland will go any length to atone for her ungrateful and disloyal past. In any case, better far that Ireland should pay eight or ten millions a year for nothing at all, than that any advantage to her should be associated with Mr. Sweetman or Mr. MacNeilI or the "Independent ." Can faction go ·any , farther ? * Mr. Kilbride, lVI.P., has written to tlie Athy Diatrict Council on the taxation question. He says " the Irish Party have watched over Ireland's interests and. will continue to watch over them." This beats even the generosity of ·Mr. Duffy, M .P . On the model of the "Connaught Tribune," I demand, is t here a case on Tecord· where the firing party, having done the duty expected of them by the competent military authority, sat up night after night to wake the corpse? Question in arithmetic : If the watching; fro.m the beginning ef the wa,r till now has resulted -in Eight Millions of additional taxes, what will be the result of the watching till Mr. Asquith is in Berlin? The more thoroughly decomposed the Party herring is, the more attractive it becomes to the nose of faction, and at the las£ meeting of the Dublin County Council,. Mr. Thomas Clarke, on the subject of the ruin of Ireland by taxation, persuaded his hearers to " leave it to the Irish Party. " So ''ell they
· · I i·emind the reader of these facts bec:p~se of the lying pretence that th~ present hostih~y of the Government to the Insh Volunteers is on account of the present war. For my own part, as a quiet student of the_spirit and ~ethods of English Government, Whig and Tory, m Ireland during my time, I have long been fre".l from ·express the hope that somebody from Loughrea might! Three short years ago, Mr. Clarke would illusion on this matter. When I first decided to have called his own advice treason to Ireland. will let us know for a fact whether Mr. Duffy, take part in oi:ganising Irish ~ olunte.e rs, ~ felt · M.P., was really a tenant restored to this hold* perfectly certa,m that the pr~Ject would mcur ing; and secondly, before he got the .land into !'warn Irish Volunteers to keep all agents of as much hostility from the Wlug ~9vernment as bis possession, was the condition made tha t t]le Dublin Castle at arm's leno-th. I am informed that Government "ll' ould deem politic and oppor- rest of it was to be sub-divided. The article in - - that Mr. MacDonagh, of Moycullen, now in jail tune. forms us that', on the night of the 26th February · on a bogus charge, was inveigled into an appa* * the walls round lVIr. Duffy's land were knocked rently friend!Y conversation a t the police barrack If the p.r esent war had no~ broken ou~, the down, " More recently," the honest editor goes and there pounced ·upon and arrested. In Government would have done its best to kill the on to say, "more recently Mr. lVIellows, the Sinn some instances, men have not received the usual Irish Volunteer movement . As a matter of fact, Fein organiser, has been brought to the parish- caution when arrested, and have made statefor months before the war broke out, the Govern- for what purpose we know not. The fight of the which were afterwards produced against · -ment was akeady doing its best. For what the people has been won, etc. Intelligen t readers ments them in a distorted form . Irish VolunteersGovernment is now doing, the war and the who study these two sets of circumstances will should make no statements to the . police whO' " Defence of the Realm " are just a convenient have no difficulty in arriving at the reasons why arrest them, as they are guilty of no crime .. pretext . * * *Mr. Duffy' s walls were razed to the ground." There are decent men among the police, but the That is not enough. The patriot editor adds: corruption of the Irish police has always been Irish Volunteers without arms, and without " Let there be no mistake about it, these people one of the methods of Dublin Castle, which has the firm purpose to get _arms and have ar~s , are who try to lead the young men of the country never yet discouraged perjury by Crown wita manifest humbug. Either we hl!-ve no ngJ:it to against the P a,rty that rescued their f.a thers in political prosecutions . When· Mr. be Irish Volunteers at all, or havmg that nght , from bondage, are seeking trouble. Up to . now nesses Birrell makes a public demand for ..a particular and being Irish Volunteers, it is our right and they have been treated with a tolerance almost of evidence against Irish Volunteers, we our· duty to arm ourselves as best we can, and a kin to weakness. " Accordingly Mr. Mellows, class can only guess what" sort of demand is likely to to keep and defend our arms when we have got having been in jail before, is now in jail again. be made in private. Du.b lin' Castle has no use them. If our arms are demanded from us, we * * * for either honour or honesty. shall refuse to surrender them. If force is used Can anyone wonder, reading such things, that ·• to take them from us, we shall make the most the Irish Parliamentary Party has now become While Mr. Birrell is engaged in various ateffective resistance in our power. Let there be powerless and contemptible in the hands of Engtempts to deprive the Irish Volunteers of arms no mistake or misunderstanding on that point . lish politicians? The writer of that article knew and to prevent them getting arms, he is permitAs I said last week, we may be taken unawares that he was lying and he was conscious of the ting armament to proceed among those whose here aiid there, but when we are not taken un- . effect · his lying might have. W e .shall see in purpose has been announced to be " to send Home awares we shall defend our arms with our lives. time what charge Dublin Castle, thus plainly set Rule to the Devil." That, however, is merely a ~ ' * * * on, . will substitute for the deliberately false natural consequence of the doctrine that "the If there was law, justice, or civilised gove~ri charge :made by this organ of faction on behalf coercion of Ulster " - always excepting the ment in Ireland, the County Inspector of Pohce of Mr. W. J. Duffy, lVI.P. Nationalists of Ulster-'~ is unthinkable." who led the attack on the 'Irish Volunteers at * * ~Tullamore would now be on his trial. The Press Repulsive as such incidents are, let me once Now that the . Government,. has renewed its reports are of one a:ccord in stating tha~ he >l'.as more remind the Irish Volunteers and the everpresent during a disorderly outbreak, m which increa.sing number of those who are being en- campaign of prosecution and imprisonment the ao-o-ressors were a small rabble, who were lightened by this sort of thing as to the realities against Irish Voluntee.rs, I have to ask for repr evio;°;;ly supplied with a quantity of Uni_on of the present political ffeituation in Ireland, let newed subscriptions to thP Irish ' Volunteer DeJacks, presumab!y not to. blow their noses. m. me remind them that one of the objects of Dublin fence Fund. I suggest that collectors be apThis rabbfe, vanolJ.sly estrmated at from sixty Castle is to divide the people 9f Ireland into pointed in every locality, and that individual to a hundred individuals, does not represent the violent opposing factions. · We have no indigna- sul:iscribers should ask their friends for subscrippeople of Tullamore. That this small rabble tion to spai·e for the Duff:irs and O'lVIalleys who tions and forward these along with their own to were entirely the aggressors against a few men are now making the running for Dublin Castle. I . V . Headquarters . Only moderate subscrip" and women, is· the universal testimony of the What we have to aim at is to end the whole tions are expected for this purpose, . not on the newspapers. The County Inspector, according -system that imposes such barbarous degradation scale required for the arming of the Volunteers, to the news.papers, instead of preserving the on the public life · of Ireland. Don't stop the but the ·defence of those who are victimised by peace by removing the peacebreakers, used their car for the barking of the dogs. (Contin ued on page 3.)
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