Irish National Party.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXXVII, Issue 1987, 7 May 1906, Page 3

Irish National Party.

The partial conversion of Ulster to the National cause, as revealed in the capture of West Belfast, by Mr Joseph Devlin, M.P,, was the subject of rejoicing at the Dolphin Hotel, Dublin, on the night of February 10, when that member was banquetted by his colleagues of the Irish Parliamentary Party. Mr John Redmond, M.P., presided. Mr John Dillon, M.P., in proposing the toast of “ Ireland, a Nation,” said that those of them who belonged to the Parliamentary Party were going into Parliament an independent party. —(Hear, hear). They had no working agreement with the present Government.—(Hear, hear). They were ai independent of the present Government as they were of the party. They had a fighting agreement amongst themselves, and they would have such an arrangement with the Liberal Party from week to week and from month to month as the Liberal Party deserved at their hands by their treatment of Ireland. They had met on that occasion to celebrate an event in the course of the last general election which he thought was full of promise. Mr Devlin’s victory in Belfast was his crowning reward of long years of brave and faithful services to the national cause. That victory was, they might hope,' the beginning of a movement for the uniting of all sections of Irishmen, because they knew that Mr Devlin could not have won Belfast except for the votes of a considerable body of Protestant and Irish workmen.— (Cheers). That was the beginning of a true unity.—(Hear, hear). The Chairman, in proposing the health of Mr Devlin, their guest, said he remembered when, going as a representative of the National Party to Belfast, he found it impossible to gain entrance into the great halls of the city. He found it difficult to hold a meeting without a riot, even in the small halls of Belfast. What a change to-day! They could hold meetings in the largest halls in Belfast, meetings characterised by good order and decorum, with an absence of any risk of riot or trouble, and they found now coming to their meetings representatives of the so-called Unionist party to listen to them v and the moment they got Belfast and Ulster to listen half the battle was won.— (Cheers). Mr Devlin, who was received with the singing of “ For he’s a jolly good fellow,” said that the winning of West Belfast was due to the education of the working classes, to the progress of democratic thought, to the revolt of the working men, who felt that for well-nigh half a century they had allowed themselves to be used as the instruments of capitalists inspired by cupidity, and lawyers inspired by place-hunting proclivities.—(Cheers).