On the threshold of home rule

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Preface

For much of the correspondence in the following pages, and for some of the data, I am indebted to the Irish World and its late lamented editor, Patrick Ford.

Mr. Ford, by the tremendous fight which he has waged on behalf of Ireland for the last forty years, has done as much to place the Irish cause in its present glorious position as any other person, living or dead.

The Irish race owes his memory undying gratitude which I am sure it will repay a hundred fold.

Dedication

This work is dedicated to all lovers of liberty the world over; but in a special manner to the scattered children of the "sea divided Gael," whose undying loyalty to the National Ideal: Ireland a Nation, and whose ceaseless and untiring devotion to Motherland, lasting all down the centuries, in good report and evil report, has brought us in sight of the Promised Land, to the "Threshold of Home Rule."

Page

Chapter I. How is Old Ireland

and How Does She Stand ? 1

II. The Fight is On 14

III. The Fight Continued 32

IV. The Great Derry Victory 47

V. How it Appears to Outsiders . 61

VI. Complete Account of the Great Fight. .. . 75

VII. A New Daniel come to Judgment 85

VIII. English Taxation in Ireland 95

IX. English Efforts for an American Alliance. 101

X. Ireland's Struggle for National Life 115

XI. Prejudice Injected 128

XII. Destruction of Irish Industries 141

XIII. England Destroys the Irish Parliament. . 148

XIV. Ancient Tenure of Land in Ireland 155

XV. Irish Services to America 167

XVI. England's Diplomacy Checkmated 179

XVII. Ireland an Ancient Nation 188

XVIII. Ireland the Christianizer and Civilizer. . 196

XIX. The Dawning of Liberty 202

Chapter I.

ON THE THRESHOLD OF HOME RULE.

How is Old Ireland and how does she stand}

As the dawning of the day of Ireland's redemption seems near at hand, the coming of Home Rule, the day for which the Irish people have hoped and prayed , and for which so many of them for long and weary centuries have suffered and died, in the prison, on the scaffold and on the field, it is fitting we should ask the old question found at the beginning of this chapter: —

How is Old Ireland and how does she standi

It is a great, a momentous question , especially at this time, when, thank God, the light of liberty is already shining on her beaming face, so long alas bedewed with tears!

To-day, it looks indeed as if almost all her fondest hopes were soon to be realized; as if peace and good will, justice and fair play, for the Irish people of every class and creed, were about to descend on the dear Old Land, and thus enable her to renew her youth, and her standing among her sister nations of the world.

At such a time then, with hope beckoning us on, lovers of Ireland may well, I repeat, ask the old question, so often asked by our fathers in the olden days!

We Irish exiles can say with Mr Con. O'Leary in a recent number of the Irish World:—

"Though he should be thousands of miles away from the cradle-land of his race, the waves will bear her the message of a hungering heart — will bring to us a question that was Napper Tandy's question and the question of the generations since then.

"How eager with passionate longing it sounds, that cry, ever old, ever new; it is inarticulate in the throbbing of the exile's heart whenever green fields, turf fires and the faces of the old folks throng, like risen dead, before his mind's vision. It accompanies the snatches of old melody that he finds himself humming in moments of solitude. It is present with him above all in moods of gentle calm; in his prayers he sends the question right into Heaven, and he teaches the little Yankee-Irish who cling around his knees to ask the question too.

"It is the text of every "American letter" read aloud at the fireside gatherings in the farmhouses of Ireland. It is a question older than Napper Tandy, and one that will outlive his memory — a question as old as emigration ; yea, as old as the English occupation.

"May we doubt that it was asked on the first coffin ship? Was it not asked in the Irish camp before Fontenoy? Two rival armies united in asking it in the American Civil War. It comes to children of exiles with the dawning of reason, and it will be blent with their dying prayers.

"Prisoner O' Meagher Condon, when the hangman's fatal rope dangled before you, and you uttered your passionate prayer, undaunted by the frown of an alien judge whose fingers clutched at the cap of death, you little thought that you were bequeathing to your people an immortal anthem of liberty.

"And brave Tandy, when you took an obscure poet by the hand, had you any inkling at all that the sobbing words you uttered would live forever on the mouths of your countrymen and keep your memory greener than gravestone or monument.

"A question this that springs from a hundred questions, the postcript to our history, and the beginning of our catechism of nationality, and the passport to our destined future.

"Cry, ever old, ever new, question asked at the rising and setting of the sun, question confronting 1913 on the threshold of her new tenancy :

"How is poor Old Ireland and how does she stand?"

"Parliament has risen for a brief Christmas vacation of ten days, and there is a temporary lull in the war-bustle that for many months has centered round the future fate of Ireland. We may take advantage of the breathing-space to attempt an answer to the favorite question of our race. Where has the past year brought Ireland or left her? Does she still stand unmoved above the sea? What does the new year hide as it peeps through the haze of futurity — is sunshine or sorrow to be her destiny?

"But undying hope was always the beacon on the hill, and time after time she rose triumphant over despair, over what seemed inexorable fate.

"And so it is that if today our outlook were not laden with the ripe fruit of promise, and the skies above our island were fringed with leaden tints, she would nevertheless be big with hope and secure in the belief that the dawn of her destiny only awaited the bursting forth of the sun of victory, which lay hidden somewhere behind the dark canopy. But happily, victory and pride are her handmaidens today.

"In the year now dying she has passed the novitiate to her freedom, in the year coming to birth, 1914, the great work of emancipation will be completed. Wherever we look about our fields, the eyes seem to catch the first unfolding of an eternal springtime of which God Himself has been the gardener.

JOHN E. REDMOND, M. P.

Leader Irish Party.

"The music of freedom is singing in our hearts, the hightide of victory is swelling in our souls. What hope, what strength, what destiny lie behind the great optimism of the nation. Only a little time and the land shall rise, smiling in her freedom, to take her place as a respected rival in the comity of nations.

"1912 was a remarkable year in the history of the Home Rule movement. It saw the introduction of the third Home Rule Bill, the fullest, most generous and most comprehensive measure of Irish amelioration ever sponsored by a British ministry.

"In spite of an opposition of unprecedented violence and malignity it passed its second reading by a majority of over a hundred, and clause by clause on the committee stage the Government forces fought and conquered.

"The truth is that Home Rule has made a real appeal to the reason and conscience of the English democracy and in support of the Government proposals they are convinced, unanimous and enthusiastic."

Dear intensely Irish and patriotic Fanny Parnell , how she longed and hoped and prayed to see this day, and died broken hearted because she didn't see it, as the reader may judge by the following exquisite poem, written by her a short time before her death.

POST MORTEM

(By Fannie Parnell.)

Shall mine eyes behold thy glory, O my country?

Shall mine eyes behold thy glory? Or shall the darkness close around them, ere the sunblaze

Break at last upon thy story?

When the nations ope for thee their queenly circle,

As a sweet new sister hail thee, Shall these lips be sealed in callous death and silence

That have known but to bewail thee?

Shall the ear be deaf that only loved thy praises When all men their tribute bring thee?

Shall the mouth be clay that sang thee in thy squalor When all poets' mouths shall sing thee?

Ah! the harpings and the salvos and the shoutings

Of thy exiled sons returning I should hear, though dead and moldered, and the grave damps

Should not chill my bosom's burning.

Ah! the tramp of feet victorious! I should hear them

'Mid the shamrocks and the mosses, And my heart should toss within the shroud and quiver

I should turn and rend the cere clothes 'round me,

Giant-sinews I should borrow, Crying, "O my brothers I have also loved her,

In her lowliness and sorrow.

"Let me join with you the jubilant procession,

Let me chant with you her story; Then contented I shall go back to the shamrocks

Now mine eyes have seen her glory."

In the presence of the glorious army of Irish Protestants, who have for centuries fought and died to make Ireland a Nation, of whom Fanny Parnell was not the least, how mean, how despicable, is the contention of the little Orange faction of Ulster, who claim that under Home Rule the Irish Catholics would be unjust to, and persecute their friends and neighbors of the Protestant faith!

Not only was Miss Parnell herself a Protestant, but her whole family, including, of course her famous, brother, the late Charles Stewart Parnell, the one time leader of the Irish National Party.

As every intelligent student of Irish history knows, a very large proportion of Ireland's heroic and martyred dead for two centuries or more were Protestants, including Emmet, Wolf Tone, Curran, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Grattan, John Mitchell, William Smith O'Brien, and so on, almost without end.

These men had no fear that Home Rule for their motherland would bring ruin to them and all they held dear!

Thomas Davis, one of Ireland's most patriotic sons, though a non-Catholic, had no thought of, or fear of persecution, or ill treatment, when he penned his stirring and immortal poem "Our Own Again."

OUR OWN AGAIN.

(By Thomas Davis.)

Let the coward shrink aside.

We'll have our own again; Let the brawling slave deride,

Here's for our own again — Let the tyrant bribe and lie, March, threaten, fortify.

Loose his lawyer and his spy,

Yet we'll have our own again. Let him soothe in silken tone, Scold from a foreign throne; Let him come with bugles blown,

We shall have our own again, Let us to our purpose bide,

We'll have our own again — Let the game be fairly tried,

We'll have our own again.

Send the cry throughout the land,

"Who's for our own again?"

Summon all men to our band,

Why not our own again?

Rich and poor, and old, and young, Sharpsword, and fiery tongue — Soul and sinew firmly strung,

All to get our own again.

Shan't we have our own again? Munster's woe is Ulster's bane!

Join for our own again — Tyrants rob, as well as reign,

We'll have our own again.

Oft our father's hearts it stirr'd,

"Rise for your own again!"

Often pass'd the signal word,

"Strike for your own again!" Rudely, rashly, and untaught, Uprose they, ere they ought. Failing, though they nobly fought,

Dying for their own again.

Mind will rule and music yield, In senate, ship and field — When we've our strength to wield,

Let us take our own again.

By the slave, his chain is wrought,

Strive for our own again.

Thunder is less strong than thought,

We'll have our own again.

Calm as granite to our foes,

Stand for our own again, Till his wrath to madness grows —

Firm for our own again.

Bravely hope, and wisely wait, Toil, join, and educate: Man is master of his fate;

We'll enjoy our own again.

With a keen constrained thirst — Powder's calm ere it burst — Making ready for the worst,

So we'll get our own again.

Let us to our purpose bide,

We'll have our own again, God is on the righteous side,

We'll have our own again.

The pretended fear of Catholic intolerance by the Tories and especially by the Orangemen of Ulster, is so absurd as to be ridiculous especially when we recall the fact, so well known to all honest students of history, namely, that the Irish Catholic people have never been known, in all their checkered career, to persecute for conscience sake; never once; and all writers on Irish history, Protestants, as well as Catholics, bear cheerful testimony to that fact, Leckie, the Irish Protestant writer, among them.

Besides nearly all that great body of Irishmen who at the head of the patriot Volunteer Army of 100,000 men, who wrung from Great Britain, in 1782, the restoration of Ireland's native Parliament, and who during the life of said parliament made Ireland great and prosperous were almost to a man Protestants: as were nine tenths of the Volunteers!

As the Catholics possessed no civic rights at the time and could not of course bear arms, they could only aid the patriotic movement with such means as lay within their reach, sympathy and material aid, and these they gave lavishly, according to their means.

At the beginning of the Volunteer movement, the Catholics were rigidly excluded from their ranks, but as the people became more and more aroused, a broader spirit of tolerance, justice and patriotism took possession of them, and this gradually extended to the Volunteers themselves, so much so that in a short time, between 1787 and 1780, we find them at their different conventions passing resolutions of sympathy for Catholics: and in some instances demanding their rights!

About this time Catholics were, here and there, gradually admitted into the ranks, but always grudgingly and jealously. Irish Catholics being naturally of a warlike race, as soon as they were at liberty to do so, threw themselves into the Volunteer movement with all the ardor of a long suffering people, a people who were now, after such long and awful oppression, about to get a glimpse of the promised land.

It was only a very short glimpse however, for in a few years the Volunteers began to return to their long inherited spirit of intolerance and hatred, and again shut out the Catholics.

By this act the Volunteers signed their own death warrant, and in a very few short years nothing remained of this one time splendid body of soldiers, a body that had been the pride and the glory as well as the hope of Ireland, Protestants and Catholics, but a memory! And with them departed, in less than twenty years, the Parliament they had been the chief means of establishing.

England, quick to see that the exclusion of the Catholics from among the Volunteers had prepared the ground for her old and long used policy of sowing dissension among the people, proceeded to do so at once; and its first fruit was the overthrow of the Volunteers themselves, and without the firing of a gun!

The Catholics were not as yet citizens, and in the words of John Mitchell, Irish historian and patriot, "if Catholics were permitted to breathe in Ireland, it was by connivance; and against the law! Plunged in poverty, and ignorance; barred from all education, both at home, and abroad ; a price set on the head of the priest and the schoolmaster; despoiled of arms, rank and votes; excluded from all offices, high and low; shut out from the professions; unable to own land, or hold mortgages, their condition was indeed a pitiable one; so dreadful that a distinguished writer says it was worse than that of the early Christians during the ten persecutions of the pagan Roman emperors!

And yet they had an instinctive feeling that the independence of their country, even when gained by the agency of the English colonists among them, who had been their bitterest oppressors — backed up always by the might of England — meant their own emancipation, sooner or later.

Perhaps one of the most generous acts of forgiveness of injuries to be found in the history of nations, and the return of good for evil, is the incident told of the Catholics of Limerick about this time. Being refused admission to the ranks of the Volunteers, they, to show their intense practical sympathy and interest with the movement, subscribed four thousand dollars for the Volunteer treasury.

Notwithstanding the terribly fierce and bitter opposition to home Rule by the Orangemen and a comparatively small number of factionists and office holders in the northeast corner of Ulster, it can truly be said of Ulster, as a whole, that she is the mother of an army of Irish patriots and martyrs, and a very large number of them Protestants, men and women, who gave up everything that people

ON THE THRESHOLD OF HOME RULE IS

value, life itself in many cases, for Ireland. If further proof of the broad and tolerant spirit of the Catholic Irish were needed, it is found in the fact that of the 85 nationalist members of the British parliament, 8 are non-Catholics, and all chosen by Catholic constituents!

They talk of intolerance ! Here is a sample not of Catholic intolerance however, but of Protestant intolerance, and in the North East corner, in Belfast!

"From the salary lists of public boards in Belfast, Catholics are rigidly excluded, and 983^ per cent of all salaries go to Protestants. The following are the figures for 1911:

"Board of Guardians, out of $83,950 salaries, Catholics get $3,400.

"Harbor Board, out of $56,345 salaries, Catholics get $1,250.

"Water Board, out of $26,980 salaries, Catholics get $325.

"Corporation, out of $343,615 salaries Catholics get $3,840.

"And among the twenty-five doctors employed by the City Council there is not one Catholic."

And these are people who preach about "Catholic intolerance" in Ireland and pretend to fear "Catholic persecution" under Home Rule.

Chapter II THE FIGHT IS ON

After months of bitter and tumultuous debate, of charges and counter charges and of threatened rebellion, often repeated by the Unionists, but especially by the Orange portion of the party, the Home Rule Bill was passed in the House of Commons, January 16, 1913, and by the great majority of 110! As the total Irish National vote is but 85, and on this occasion, owing to sickness and death, only 82 were able to vote, it is evident the bill would have had a majority of nearly thirty votes, made up, of course, of English, Scotch, and Welsh votes, even if none of the Irish had voted!

It was an epoch marking occasion; one of the great historic days that will stand out for all time, especially in Irish and English annals!

The English Prime Minister seemed to fully realize that fact, and as a consequence he spoke, not to the Commons only, but to the world ! Here I give a brief summary of the great speech, as I find it in the columns of the Irish World: —

"The deep feeling that ran like a strong current through his speech emphasized the fact that the emancipation of Ireland has become the master passion in Asquith's life.

"Parnell's Deathless Words."

"He pointed out that Balfour misinterpreted Irish history when he thought that the terminus from which discussion should be begun was the Act of Union, as if before then there was no such thing at all as Ireland. The Irish question stretched far behind the Act of Union, and was the direct sequel of the old story of conquest and reconquest, of plantation, of devastation and expropriation. "The Irish National movement," declared the honorable gentleman, "has passed from the stage of sentiment and of aspiration and of abortive thought into what it is today — an organized, practical, inevitable reality — the reality which has confronted us ever since we enfranchised the democracy of Ireland thirty years ago, and which confronted our predecessors, and which we cannot ignore. "If you were to reject this Bill you would find still standing in your path what is and remains with undiminished vitality the organized, articulate and permanent expression of the political demands of the vast majority of the Irish people. In face of these demands, persisted in through the lifetime of a whole generation with unwavering strength and power, what are you going; to do?" Asquith courageously quoted the deathless words of Parnell: "No man has a right to set bounds to the march of a nation."

"ASQUITH AND ULSTER'S DISCONTENT."

"Defending the retention of forty-two members at Westminster after Home Rule is granted, Asquith remarked that the exclusion of the Irish members by Gladstone was the rock on which the Home Rule Bill of 1886 foundered. With regard to the discontent in Ulster, he insisted that to allow a minority of the Irish people to over-ride a majority would be to make democratic government impossible.

"Referring to Balfour's predictions that evils would flow from the grant of Self- Government to Ireland, the Prime Minister, recalled hearing Balfour predict, with equal confidence and in equally lurid Ian guage, the consequences that would follow from what the Tory leader then described as the most reckless experiment that political folly ever conceived, namely the grant of Self -Government to the Transvaal !

"The Spell of a Malignant Curse."

"His peroration was a passionate appeal for the closing of the long-standing quarrel between Ireland and Great Britain. "It is no use now," said the Premier,

"to analyze the shortcomings of the past, or to attempt exactly to apportion, as though you were weighing it in a balance, the burden of blame on both sides, Not only upon one side, but upon both sides, bitter words have been spoken, bad things have been done.

"What has seemed almost from the first an unkindly fate has brooded over these two islands to frustrate their common life and to sever their natural unity. Time after time, when they were coming together, the web which seemed about to be woven of reciprocal interests and affections has been unraveled and torn asunder as though under the spell of some malignant curse. Let it be our part to exorcise once and for all these baneful influences, and to join two peoples meant to be one, whom the chances of history, the seeming caprice of fortune, and the follies and passions of men have kept apart, in a fruitful and endearing union."

It is needless to add that the speech of John Redmond, the distinguished leader of the Nationalist party, was as worthy of him as of the cause which he so gloriously represents, and of the occasion. The following are a few extracts from his memorable speech on that occasion: —

MR. REDMOND'S SPEECH.

"Undoubtedly the speech of the debate was that of John Redmond. He spoke under the influence of strong emotion, and the solemn beauty of his peroration affected his audience like glorious music swelling forth from an organ in some majestic Cathedral.

He declared that there was not a people or a country in the whole civilized world that would not welcome as glad tidings of great joy the announcement that the British nation had been magnanimous enough and brave enough and wise enough to undo an old national wrong. He made special reference to the desire with which this measure was awaited by the Irish in America, who believed they were driven out of their own country by misgovernment and oppression, and who had cherished in their hearts an admitted hostility to the British Empire, and the present Bill might go far to reconcile them.

"In the words of Mr. Gladstone, "the long period of time has once more run out, and the star of Ireland is mounting the heavens." An extraordinary scene of enthusiasm took place on the announcement of the figures, cheers being given for Asquith, Redmond and Parnell. When at length the demonstration subsided, the distant sound of cheering was heard — it was the London Irish, half delirious with joy, cheering the rending of their fetters.

Mr. Redmond reiterated what he had stated during the debate on the First Reading of the Bill, namely, that the Nationalists accepted the Bill. He thought it would lead to the reconciliation of all the interests at stake, between the North and the South of Ireland. He declared that the Nationalists refused to regard Ulstermen as anything but brothers, and invited them to join with the Nationalists in the emancipation and the government of their common country. He went on:

"I believe that in spite of the House of Lords the Home Rule Bill is going to pass into law within the lifetime of this Parliament. The House of Lords, we know, is going to throw it out, but, although the Lords still have teeth, they cannot bite.

"For my colleagues and myself this is a very serious and solemn moment. Many of us have sat in this House with one single object in view for more than thirty years. We have met with disaster, defeat and discouragement, but never, even when faced with the tragedy and the loss of our great and incomparable leader, Parnell, did we despair of the arrival of this day."

"The Long Fight Nearly Ended."

"Then Mr Redmond indulged in a retrospect of modern Irish history, with its discouragements, its gleams of victory, its tragedies and its baffled hopes. Four generations of his own family, he said, had been sent to the House of Commons to fight for Ireland's rights, and now the end of the long struggle was in view. Centred in the Bill were the hopes and aspirations not only of the Irish in Ireland, but the hopes of millions of Irishmen in every part of the United States. His reference to the millions of the Irish race in America who were driven out by misgovernment at home and were hostile to the British, was loudly cheered.

"I believe, he continued, "there is not a people or a country in the civilized world which will not welcome as glad tidings of great joy the announcement that the British Nation has at last undone an old National wrong. In the words of the late William E. Gladstone, 'the tide has once more run out and the star of Ireland has mounted in the heavens.'

"This peroration was received with a sustained roar of applause, which was none the less fervent for the adroit insertion of the name of Gladstone in its concluding sentences."

"A Union of all Classes and Creeds."

"Although the financial provisions of the Bill are less liberal than expected, they have come automatically to an end, and there will be no opportunity of revising them. We oppose the exclusion of Ulster from the Home Rule Bill on several grounds but the supreme objection is that nothing would compensate the Nationalists for the mutilation of their country. The Nationalists refuse to regard Ulstermen as anything but brothers and I invite them to join with the Nationalists in the emancipation and the government of their common country. ' '

Perhaps the importance of Ireland's great victory will be better understood and appreciated from the following article in a recent number of the Irish World: —

The majority of one hundred and ten for the Home Rule Bill has a significance which will be better understood by comparing it with the votes given for the two previous Home Rule measures. In 1886 Mr. Gladstone's first attempt at securing an instalment of justice for Ireland was defeated by a majority of 30. Seven years later, in 1893, he made a second effort which was more successful, so far as the House of Commons was concerned. In that year the House of Commons, by a majority of 34, declared that Ireland should be invested with the right of managing her own affairs.

That is the condensed history of the two previous Bills. From a minority to a majority vote of 34 showed the rising tide in favor of Home Rule twenty years ago. It is still mounting, as is demonstrated by the increasing vote at the different stages of the Bill just passed in the House of Commons. When it was first introduced last Spring, it had a majority of 94, which was increased to 100 on the Second Reading. The 110 majority on the Third Reading, carries with it a notification to the Orangemen of Ulster that their threats have not frightened the parliamentary representatives of the British democracy."

As the Home Rule Bill is one of the greatest measures that has ever been enacted by any legislative body, and one of the most far reaching for peace and good will, not only between Great Britain and Ireland, but for the lasting peace of the world, the reader will pardon me if I dwell upon it at some length.

As the Irish and English peoples are scattered all over the globe , and their relations to each other are constantly being embittered by the long standing enmities between the two countries, this measure, if enacted into law, and it looks almost like a certainty just now, will wipe out old scores and bring the two peoples together as friends and fellowworkers for the welfare of all.