The Irish republic. Why? : non-official statement prepared for submission to the Peace conference

Front matter

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

Foreword

To Revised Edition

Early in 1918 the Coisde Comhairle, Sinn Fein, appointed a special committee to draft Ireland's Case for Independence to be presented to the Peace Conference. While engaged in this work, leaders of the Irish people, including the members of that Committee, were arrested and imprisoned by the British Government without legal charges being preferred against them, and held almost a year without trial. The Committee was thus prevented from accomplishing its task at the time and in the manner desired.

One member of the Committee, Mr. Laurence Ginnell, while incarcerated in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, July, 1918, as a "political" prisoner, completed the document herein presented — the Governor of the prison being unaware of the nature of Mr. Ginnell's literary work.

Subsequent to its despatch from Ireland, the Dail Eireann assembled in Dublin, January 21, 1919, and drafted the official statement of Ireland's Case for presentation to the Peace Conference by the official delegates of the Irish Republic — De Valera, Griffith and Plunkett. This statement and Ireland's Declaration of Independence are included in the present edition of "The Irish Republic. Why?"

DIARMUID LYNCH.

New York, June 20, 1919.

JfL-

Ireland's Case for Independence

Adopted by Dail Eireann for Presentation to the Peace Conference

(Translation)

Ireland is a Nation not merely for the reason, which in the case of other countries has been taken as sufficient, that she has claimed at all times and still claims to be a nation, but also because, even though no claim were put forward on her behalf, history shows her to be a distinct nation from remotely ancient times.

For over a thousand years Ireland possessed and fully exercised Sovereign Independence, and was recognized through Europe as a distinct Sovereign State.

The usurpation of the foreigner has always been disputed and resisted by the mass of the Irish people.

At various times since the coming of the English the Irish Nation has exercised its sovereign rights as opportunity offered.

The hope of recovering its full and permanent sovereignty has always been in the breasts of the Irish people, and has been the inspiration and the mainspring of their political activities, abroad as well as at home.

English statecraft has long and persistently striven in vain to force the Irish people to abandon hope. The English policy of repression, spiritually and materially, has never been at rest from the first intrusion of English power until the present day.

English policy has always aimed at keeping every new accretion of population from without separate from the rest of the Nation and a cause of distraction and weakness in its midst.

Nevertheless the Irish Nation has remained one, with a vigorous consciousness of its nationality, and has always succeeded sooner or later in assimilating every new element of population.

The Irish People has never been intolerant towards its minorities and has never harbored the spirit of persecution. Such barbarities as punishment by torture, witch-burning, capital punishment for minor offences, etc., so frequent in the judicial systems of other countries, found no recognition in Irish law or custom. Twice in the seventeenth century, in 1642-8 and in 1689, when, after periods of terrible persecution and deprivation of lands and liberty, the Irish People recovered for a time a dominant political power, they worked out in laws and treaties a policy of full religious equality for all dwellers in the Island. On each of the two occasions, the English policy, becoming again dominant, subjected the Irish people to further large confiscations of land and property, restrictions of liberty, and religious persecutions. And when, notwithstanding the English policy of maintaining as complete a severance as possible, Irish Protestants became attracted to the support of the National cause, the Catholic; of Ireland accorded political leadership to a succession of Protestant leaders.

The Irish have long been a thoroughly democratic people. Through their chosen leaders, from O'Connell to Parnell, they have provided the world with a model of democratic organization in opposition to the domination af privileged classes.

If Ireland, on the grounds of National right, is entitled to recover her sovereign independence — and that is her demand — the recognition of her right is due from other nations for the following' reasons:

1. Because England's claim to withhold independence from Ireland is based on a_ principle which is a negation of national liberty and subversive of international peace and order. England resists Ireland's demand on the ground that the independence of Ireland would be, as alleged, incompatible with the security of England or of Great Britain, or of the British Empire. Whether this contention is well or illfounded, if it is admitted, then any State is justified in suppressing the independence of any nation whose liberty that State declares to be incompatible with its own security. An endless prospect of future wars is the natural consequence.

2. Because England's government of Ireland has been at all times, and is conspicuously at the present time, an outrage to the conscience of mankind.

Such a government, especially in its quasi-democratic form, is essentially vicious. Its character at the best is sufficiently described by a noted' English writer, John Stuart Mill (Representative Government (1861) Chapter 18): "The Government by itself has a meaning and a reality: but such a thing as government of one people by another does not and cannot exist. One people may keep another as a warren or preserve for its own use, a place to make money -in, a human cattle farm to be worked for the profit of its own inhabitants. But if the good of the governed is the proper business of a government, it is utterly impossible that a people should directly attend to it." Consequently the people of England devolve the power which they hold over Ireland upon a succession of satraps, military and civil, who represent no interest of the Irish people; and recent events show that the essential vices of the government are as active now as in former times.

3. Because the English temper towards the cause of Irish national liberty produces atrocious and intolerable results in Ireland. Among the results are: A depopulation unexampled in any other country, however badly governed; wholesale destruction of industries and commerce; over-taxation on an enormous scale; diversion of rents, savings and surplus incomes from Ireland to England; opposition to the utilization by the Irish people of the economic resources of their country, and to economic development and social improvement; exploitation of Ireland for the benefit of English capitalists; fomentation of religious animosities; repression of the national culture; maintenance of a monstrous system of police rule, by which in the words of an English minister, all Ireland is kept under the microscope; perversion of justice, by making political service and political subservience almost the sole qualification for judicial positions; by an elaborate corruption of the jury system, by the organization of police espionage and perjury, and the encouragement of agents provocateurs, and recently and at present by using for the purpose of political oppression in Ireland the exceptional powers created for the purposes of the European war. Under these powers military government is established, some areas being treated as hostile territory occupied in ordinary warfare; a war censorship is maintained over the press and over publications generally; printing offices are invaded and dismantled; the police and military are empowered to confiscate the property of vendors of literature without any legal process; persons are imprisoned without trial and deported from, Ireland; Irish regiments in the English army are removed from Ireland, and a large military force, larger than at any previous time, with full equipment for modern warfare, has been maintained in Ireland; civilians are daily arrested and tried by court-martial, and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.

What are England's objections to Ireland's independence? The one objection in which English statesmen are sincere is that which has been already mentioned — that the domination of Ireland by England is necessary for the security of England. Ireland, according to the English Navy League, is "the Heligoland of the Atlantic,' a naval outpost to be governed for the sole benefit of its foreign masters. This claim, if it is valid, justifies not only the suppression of national liberty but also the weakening of Ireland by depopulation, repression of industry and commerce and culture,' maintenance of internal discord, etc. It can also be held to justify the subjugation of any small nation by a neighboring great power.

The proximity of Ireland to England furnishes another plea. But Ireland is not as near to England as Belgium, Holland, Denmark, etc., are to Germany, Norway to Sweden, Portugal to Spain. In fact, it is this very proximity that makes independence necessary for Ireland, as the only condition of security against the sacrifice of Irish rights to English interests.

Another plea is that, Engl nd being a maritime power, her safety depending on her navy, and her prosperity depending on maritime commerce, the domination of Ireland is for her a practical necessity. This may explain why Ireland's harbors, the best in Europe, are empty of mercantile shipping except for such shipping as carries on the restricted trade between Great Britain and Ireland.

Once more, Ireland protests that the interests of one country, be they what they may, cannot be allowed to annul the natural rights of another country. If that claim be admitted, then there is an end to national rights and all the world must prepare to submit to armed interest or to make war against them. We in Ireland are determined not to submit.

We may expect to find the plea insinuated, in some specious form, if not definitely and clearly made, that the English rule in Ireland has been and is favorable to peace, progress and civilization in Ireland. We answer that, on the contrary, English rule has never been for the benefit of Ireland an'd has never been intended for the benefit of Ireland; that it has isolated Ireland from Europe, prevented her development and done everything in its power to deprive her of a national civilization. So far as Ireland at present is lacking in internal peace, is behind other countries in education and material progress, is unable to contribute notably to the common civilization of mankind, these defects are the visible consequences of English intrusion and domination.

The Irish people have never believed in- the sincerity of the public declarations of English Statesmen in regard to their "war aims" except in so far as those declarations avowed England's part in the war to have been undertaken for England's particular and imperial interests. They have never believed that England went to war for the sake of France or Belgium or Serbia, or for the protection or liberation of small nationalities, or to make right prevail against armed might. If English statesmen wish to be regarded as sincere they can prove to the world by abandoning, not in words but in act, the claim to subordinate Ireland's liberty' to England's security.

Ireland's complete liberation must follow upon the application of President Wilson's principles. It has not resulted from the verbal acceptance of those principles; and their rejection is implied in the refusal to recognize for Ireland the right of self-determination. Among the principles declared by President Wilson before and since America entered the war, and accepted by the spokesmen of the chief allied powers, we cite the following: "No peace can rest securely on political or economic restrictions, meant to benefit some nations and crippie or embarrass others." "Peace should rest upon the rights of peoples, not on the rights of governments — the rights of peoples, great and small, weak or powerful; their equal right to freedom and security and self-government, and to participation, upon fair terms, in the economic opportunities of the world." "What we demand in this war is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and safe to live in and particularly that it be made safe for every peaceloving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine its own institutions, be assured of justice and fair dealing by other peoples of the world, as against force and selfish aggression." "An evident principle runs through the whole of the program I have outlined. It is the principle of justice to all peoples and nationalities, and their right to live on equal terms of liberty and safety with one another, whether they be strong or weak. Unless this principle be made the foundation, no part of the structure of international justice can stand."

Speaking on behalf of the American people at New York, on the 27th of September, 1918, President Wilson said: "We accepted the issues of the war as facts, not as any group of men either here or elsewhere had defined them, and we can accept no outcome which does not squarely meet and settle them. The issues are these: 'Shall the military power of any nation or group of nations be suffered to determine the fortunes of peoples over whom they have no right to rule, except the right of force?' 'Shall strong nations be free to wrong weak nations and make them subject to their purpose and interest?' 'Shall peoples be ruled and dominated, even in their own internal affairs, by arbitrary and irresponsible force, or by their own will and choice?' 'Shall there be a common standard of right and privilege for all peoples and nations, or shall the strong do as they will, and the weak suffer without redress?' 'Shall the assertion of right be haphazard and by casual alliance, or shall there be a common concert to oblige the observance of common rights?' No man, no group of men, chose these to be the issues of the struggle. They are the issues of it, and they must be settled — by no arrangement or compromise or adjustment of interests, but definitely and once for all, and with a full and unequivocal acceptance of the principle that the interest- of the weakest is as safe as the interest of the strongest. . . The impartial justice meted out must involve no discrimination between those to whom we wish to be just and those to whom we do not wish to be just. It must be a justice that plays no favorites and knows no standards but the equal rights of the several peoples concerned."

If England objects to the application of these principles to the settlement of the ancient quarrel between herself and Ireland, she thereby testifies: (1) That her international policy is entirely based on her own selfish interest, not on the recognition of rights in others, notwithstanding any professions to the contrary; (2) That in her future dealings with other nations she may be expected, when the opportunity arises, to use her power in order to make her own interest prevail over their rights; (3) That her paticular object in keeping possession of Ireland is to secure naval and mercantile domination over the seas, and in particular over the North Atlantic and the nations which have legitimate maritime interests therein; ruling Ireland at the same time on a plan of thoroughgoing exploitation for her own sole profit, to the great material detriment of Ireland, and preventing the establishment of beneficial intercourse, through commerce and otherwise, between Ireland and other countries.

It is evident that, while Ireland is denied the right to choose freely and establish that form of government which the Irish people desire, no international order can be founded on the basis of national right and international justice; the claim of the stronger to dominate the weaker will once more be successfully asserted; and there will be no true peace.

It must be recognized that Ireland has already clearly demonstrated her will. At the recent general election out of 104 constituencies (Trinity College, Dublin, having the power to elect tw» representatives) 73 returned Republican candidates, and 6 returned representatives who, though* not Republicans, will not oppose the free exercise of self-determination by the Irish people. Nor is there the slightest likelihood that this right will at any time be relinquished.

Here it may be necessary to anticipate special pleas that may be put forward to the effect that Irish independence may properly be conceded gradually, or as it is called, a "breathing space ought to intervene." The Irish people will regard any proposal of this character as deceptive and dangerous. They are thoroughly capable of taking immediate charge of their national and international affairs, not less capable than any of the new states which have been recognized since the beginning of the war or which are about to be recognized.

The effect on the world of the restoration of Ireland to the society of free nations cannot fail to be beneficial. On the part of the nations in general, this fact will be a guarantee of the new international order and a reassurance to all the smaller nations. On the part of England, if justice to Ireland be "not denied or sold or delayed," the fact will be an earnest to other peoples, especially to those whose commerce is borne upon the Atlantic Ocean, that England's naval power is not hostile to the rights and legitimate interests of other countries.

Ireland's voice in the councils of the nations will be wholly in favor of peace and justice. Ireland will have no possessions and no territorial claims outside of her own well-defined geographical bounds. Her liberty cannot infringe on that of any other people. She will not make any war or aggression or favor any. In remembrance of her unexampled progress and prosperity during a brief period of legislative but not executive independence (1782-1798), she looks forward confidently to the time when she will again be free to contribute to the prosperity of all countries in commercial relation with her.

The longest agony suffered by any people in history will be ended, the oldest standing enmity between two peoples will be removed. England will be relieved of the disgrace she bears in the eyes of all peoples, a disgrace not less evident to the remote Armenian than to her nearest Continental neighbors. In proportion as England gives earnest of disinterestedness and good will, in like proportion shall Ireland show her readiness to join with England in allowing the past to pass into history. The international ambition of Ireland will be to recreate in some new way that period of her ancient independence of which she is proudest, when she gave freely of her greatest treasures to every nation within her reach, and entertained no thought of recompense or of selfish advantage.

A Non-Official Statement of Ireland's Case for Freedom for Submission to the International Peace Congress in Fourteen Propositions.

SYNOPSIS

The ancient sovereign State of Ireland, one of the primary sovereign States of Christendom, claims resumption of her sovereign independence, recognition of her status by the International Peace Congress, and intervention on her behalf by way of international guarantee of future respect for her independence; and submits in support of her claim the subjoined fourteen Propositions, prefaced by a brief Synopsis of them, respectively :

I. The Irish Nation earnestly desires the International Peace Congress to be pure and impartial in its constitution and proceedings, beyond the reach of the power and contamination of States guilty of entering into secret treaties in conflict with their public professions and with the rights and interests of peoples subject to them and of peoples subject to other States ; beyond the reach of all influences save those of authentic history and justice ; in order that it may inspire confidence in all nations, small as well as great, to be affected by its decisions ; and that those decisions may be of a character fitting for the beginning of a new era of amity among nations and peaceful progress throughout the world.

II. Ireland is historically entitled to independence as one of the primary sovereign States of Christendom, never having forfeited or lost her sovereign status or consciously recognized sovereignty over her in any other country; always having so resented and resisted the usurpation of foreign military force that the continual presence of an army of occupation has always been, and still is, essential to the maintenance of foreign rule ; having always venerated, and still venerating as her truest patriots the purest and best of her sons who, treated by England as criminals, have, generation after generation, off ered their lives in open insurrection for her freedom ; still adhering to her right of sovereignty with matchless fidelity and tenacity at immeasurable sacrifice of life and property. Of all this, the presence of England's army of occupation is England's practical admission. All Irish national characteristics, especially love of freedom, are acknowledged by EfTglish legislation and English statesmen. Nor can England have acquired any right over Ireland by prescription, because (a) prescription is a domestic principle not applicable between nations; and (b) there can be no prescription of what is unjust: Grotius. A further historical basis, sufficient in itself, is, that at present a vast majority of the Irish population, of every race of which it is composed, regard foreign rule as slavery, and are animated by a reasoned determination never to yield a willing allegiance to foreign rule, to destroy it at the earliest possible moment, and to continue resistance to it until Ireland's sovereign independence is re-established and secured.

III. Ireland's constitutional right is supported by her meritorious record when independent. The public profession of anxiety for civilization as a justification of the Great War gives special force to this claim. Ireland's unique services to civilization from the sixth to the twelfth centuries, especially during the eighth, ninth and tenth, when history shows that the services were most opportune and important, strengthen her constitutional right and constitute an additional special claim upon Europe to enable her to resume her independence. The distinctions won by Irishmen in strange lands in those early times, as shown in this Statement, were triumphs for herself and benefits to mankind as noble as ever nation achieved ; and not to the Continent alone, but to England also, as acknowledged by the Venerable Bede, in marked contrast with England's subsequent treatment of Irishmen in England, and English laws against religion and civilization in Ireland. And throughout her agony of subjection and persecution Ireland has shown the permanence of that spirit and attitude by never practising persecution and by always maintaining intimacy with the pure and noble. She has to-day no feeling for the peoples of other lands but reciprocal friendship, respect and a desire to co-operate with them towards increasing and securing happiness and peace amongst nations, by, as in the time of her independence, commercial and industrial as well as intellectual intercourse. All this constitutes an additional title to independence, an additional claim upon European nations, and an additional reason against leaving Ireland in subjection to the usurped power of a state guilty of the abuses of power exemplified in this Statement.

IV. Ireland is inherently entitled to sovereign independence and international recognition. For nation as for in-

S dividual, the right of self-determination is indefeasible. Endowed with all the qualities, properties and faculties essential to a State, she is entitled to exercise them. Ireland being replete with distinct national individuality and animated with an inextinguishable desire to realize the purposes of her being, she has never learned, from morality, Or constitutional law, or the course of history, any valid reason why she should not be, now as in the past, in the full enjoyment of sovereign independence; and she confidently submits that no valid reason exists; that her national endowments, which even England reluctantly admits in making them a pretext for persecution, are for Ireland's own purposes ; and that foreign usurpation of power over her is an outrage upon her and a breach of international law, aggravated by the manner of its exercise and by the policy of defamation; that it is her duty and her interest to throw off this foreign yoke; and that in doing this she is entitled to international support. The inherent right of free intercourse with the outside world, now denied her, is also indestructible. We would ask the Peace Congress to note in connection with this proposition, that as a slanderous person is dangerous to society, so a slanderous State is dangerous to international peace, and that abuse of a country by those who are profiting by that country is suspicious.

V. Ireland possesses adequate potential manpower to maintain sovereign independence once 'established. General proof of this appears in the fact that the Irish nation still exists, in spite of the policy of extermination carried on persistently for 360 years, including, as will be found in this Statement, murder by Act of Parliament; "extermination preached by gospel;" State-created famine; sale of Irish youths into slavery in the West Indies at 25 pounds each; death of millions from famine and plague, culminating in the Great Famine in Queen Victoria's reign, and the exultation of the English press. This policy of extermination, adopted by Henry VIII, practiced by his daughters — Mary and Elizabeth, and expanded by James I, was brought to logical perfection of iniquity and the reduction of the population to one-third by Cromwell; the murderers of the people being commonly rewarded out of the property of their victims. A nation that has survived that, the severest test of a nation's manpower of which there is record, must be indestructible. And yet within forty years of the Cromwellian massacres, the nation was once more able and generous enough to make a brave fight for an undeserving king, James II. English legislation against Irish industries and trade threw the people onto the land ; the Penal Laws and laws hostile to agriculture cleared them off the land again; the consequential State-created famine and plague overtook each other almost continually during the eighteenth century. The misery resulting from the Union and from hostile legislation and culpable neglect pi official reports on the condition of the people perpetuated famine from 1815 till 1845. The Great Famine of 1846-7-8 was caused by carrying away the food grown by the Irish people to feed the English people, subjecting more than a million people to the most terrible of all deaths, and forcing nearly two millions into exile. Victoria, whom many of us have seen in the flesh, surpassed Cromwell in cruelty. The same policy of extermination was continued in milder but equally effective form down to 1914, when the population of Ireland was only half what it had been seventy years before, while that of England' had more than doubled in the same period. The Irish race is now estimated at 30,000,000, less than one-seventh of that number being in Ireland ; a situation showing at once the fertility of the race and the necessity for freedom to enable them to live in their own country.

VI. Ireland is apt for industries and trade as an independent State.- When independent she had her industries and trade in the measure customary at that time; manufactured her own requirements ; used them with great profusion, as will be found set forth in this Statement, and exported a considerable surplus of commodities in exchange for wines and silks. Her industries and trade underwent normal growth until the beginning of Elizabeth's reign. By the end of that reign there was little of them left. Thenceforward wars and English legislation combined in hostility to Irish industries, chiefly by destroying the export trade on which they depended, a typical law, for example, peremptorily prohibiting the export of glass of Irish manufacture to any country whatever. After the Irish woolen industry had been destroyed by legislation in that spirit, and large numbers of people in the south of Ireland, thrown out of employment, the Government peremptorily forbade the founding of linen industry in the south of Ireland, although William III and the English Lords and Commons had publicly pledged "the utmost support in their power" to a linen industry in Ireland on the discontinuance of the woolen. Every manufacturing industry founded with a prospect of success was deliberately crushed, and the people reduced to the land as their sole industry; whereupon Irish agriculture was similarly thwarted. Vast areas were cleared of people and turned to grass. A situation was created leaving no use for Irish people in Ireland. The number and stringency of the hostile statutes afford the most conclusive evidence of the persistent efforts of the Irish to practice almost any industry, and England's persistent determination not to allow them. The section of this Statement dealing with this matter needs to be read throughout, because the character ot the legislation was such as would otherwise be incredible. Such statutes are not now necessary; they did their work too well. Their unspent force and unbroken pursuance of the policy make their effect permanent as if enacted yesterday. Independence alone can ever open industries and trade for the Irish people in Ireland as they are open to free peoples.

VII. Ireland is financially able to discharge the duties of an independent State. England affords proof of this which even she cannot attempt to refute, by the amount of money she has abstracted from Ireland ; and the prospect of abstracting more is one of her reasons for retaining control as long as she can. A country from which England has, on the findings of her own financial experts, abstracted,, from the year 1800 to 1914, 400,000,000 pounds in excessive taxes, in addition to what the government of Ireland cost in that time, possesses natural wealth which many an independent State might envy. A country from which Englishmen resident in England abstracted through the various public and private channels during the nineteenth century 1,300,000,000 pounds, without any return whatever, is represented by English statesmen and press as poor. If she be poor and England rich, there can be no doubt as to the cause. There may possibly be doubt whether the system of government should be regarded as an imperial license to plunder, or as a new species of fine art. We ask the Peace Congress to note that the same English government which alleges that this country is poor is at the present time extracting from Ireland an annual tax revenue at the rate of 40,000,000 pounds, spending less than 13,000,000 pounds on the government and defence of Ireland, and appropriating to itself, without our consent, a net profit of 27,000,000 pounds ; all out of the country which it alleges to be poor. Although these facts show that Ireland has ample financial strength to discharge the duties of an independent State, they in no way weaken her claim to the common justice of restitution of the excessive charges and reparation of wanton damage inflicted upon Ireland, in accordance with international law and the practice of great States. Ireland is entitled to all that is due to her. The amount is more than England can conveniently pay. On obtaining independence and an international guarantee that it will be respected in future, Ireland is willing, for the sake of peace, to accept an immediate payment of 500,000,000 pounds to help her undo the wreckage England has wrought and recover the due commercial and industrial position of which England has deprived her.