FOR ALL IRELAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 308, 29 December 1922, Page 7

FOR ALL IRELAND.

m AN EARLY CERTAINTY. SAYS ARCHBISHOP O'SHEA. <Bj Telegraph. —Special to "Star.") WELLINGTON, this day. Archbishop O'Shea, who returned to-day from a tour which included Ireland, is quite optimistic regarding prospects for a united Ireland, and quite outspoken in his criticism of the Irregulars. Competent judges, he said, held that 95 per cent of the population supported the new Government, which was making courageous efforts to overcome great difficulties. Irregulars are composed of a few sincere, if misguided, men, but their rank and file are made up of people who are not patriots «.t all, but wreckers and looters who did nothing for Ireland in its fight for liberty. "To my mind," he concluded, "there is no doubt but that they are -making war on the people of Ireland, and they deserve neither sympathy nor encouragement. They had said openly that some at least of their destructive work, such as the burning of Cork, the blowing up of bridges and the blocking of roads, was intended to punish people for voting against their people at the last election. The Free State Government, after much patience and forbearance in the beginning, is now determined that the rule of the revolver shall not prevail over the will of the vast majority of the nation, and no believer in the necessity of law and order can blame it. I feel certain that government will triumph, and furthermore, that its victory will bring about very speedily a united Ireland. The counties at present attached to the Belfast Government must throw in their lot with the rest of Ireland for political and economical reasons, and have been assured by prominent northerners, as well as by prominent southerners, that one government for all Ireland is a forgone conclusion in the near future."