ENEMIES OF IRELAND.

Evening Star, Issue 19410, 19 November 1926, Page 6

ENEMIES OF IRELAND.

Mb Oosgbavb’s Government, probably, has not much to fear at this stag© from the remnant of Republicans who still think that the treaty which gave the Irish Free State self-government as a dominion of the Empire was no more than a crowning injury to Ireland. They are unlikely to upset the Government or convert any large proportion of the people, weary of political extravagances and of civil strife, to their opinions. But they can still do much harm in delaying the return of their country to normal strength and prosperity after all its troubles. The persistence of these malcontents has been shown by the fact that, after all the time during which the country has been now at peace, the Government has Lad to request drastic powers by statute to put down a new conspiracy against law and order. It has done something more than that. By its prompt action iri arresting at one swoop General Bofin, the “ Be Wet of Ireland,” and a number of other leaders, it may be hoped that it has effectually nipped in the bud the latest attempt at disturbances. It is easy to understand why such a fireeater ae Bofin should be restless under the present regime. No scope is afforded by it for his particular talents. He could feeliike a paladin of romance while he posed as the head of a miniature Republic, defending ibis stronghold

in Roscommon a few years ago against all the forces of properly constituted authority. If the Government, when it arrested him last year, had not released him again, in accordance with its general policy towards rebels, ’it might have saved itself 'some subsequent trouble. Not a few of the hotheads to whom clemency was shown after tho civil war have done their best' since to keep large portions of the countryside in a state of ferment and unrest, though their strength has not been sufficient for an insurrection. Their boldness was shown only a few days before President Cosgrave made bis statement to the Dail by a series of raids in Cork City and county. Armed men overpowered the Civic Guard and ransacked the police stations, removing bundles of documents, and one member of the defending force was killed.'* Unsettlement of this kind has had its result in the high rate of Irish emigration which has continued ever since the Free State acquired its self-governing powers. It was thought that that drain upon the strength of the country would cease when Ireland, or even Southern Ireland, became a nation, and that there might even be a return of many of the exiles of an earlier day, but those hopes have not been realised. While there has been a slight increase in the population of Northern Ireland, tho decline in that of the Free State, as shown by the census recently taken, has occasioned much concern to the Irish Frees. The rate of emigration is still 8.8 per thousand. Of persons born in Ireland 1,817,457 are living out of the country, equal to 43 per cent, of the present population. Norway is said to be next in this respect, but its proportion is only 14.8 per cent. An accompaniment of the decline in population has been a steady flow from the country to the towns, though the Free State lives by agriculture, and has few urban industries. And that tendency has been despite a most active policy, on the Government’s part, of farm subdivision, intended to attract more people to the land. The Tuam 1 Herald,’ published not very far from General Bofin’s one-time stronghold in Roscommon, directly ascribes the denudation of the countryside to the activities of such political “die-hards.” “Even at this hour,” it states, “ when all that is politically possible has been gained and won, and when a sensible people should in such circumstances be settling down to minding their own businesses, working out their own salvation by minding their farms and making them as productive as they can by industry be made, we have so-called leaders of revolt and unrest still preaching the old doctrine of division, disturbance, and disaster, and too often see them followed and encouraged by young and thoughtless men who are not seriously considering the realities of life, and many of whom are disappointed that tho spoils of office at the late distribution did not come their way, and hoping that they may at another upsettal. Hence their activities. This feeling of uncertainty and unrest which is abroad is fanned into activity by the persons and causes we have referred to, and it is this unrest which is driving our young men out of the country, for, with an ever-perpetual disturbance at home, they see no prospect before them.”