THE IRISH.

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 35207, 18 May 1918, Page 4

THE IRISH.

WANTED—SOME ONF, TO KICK! WHY IRELAND SHOULD GOVERN HEBSELF. (By Ernest Townley, in the London Express.) Ennis. The. only conclusion any stranger can eonio to with regard to the governnionb of Ireland 15 that Ireland ought to ho conipollotl, at any price, to govern herself . Irishmen would never allow,such a crazy state of things to exist if they had a Government Tionr at hand which they could effectively kick. One cannot imagine, for instance, that oven if TCnghind were, governed from Dublin, the site of the Bank of England or of the "Royal Exchange, or of the whole of the southern side of Trafalgar Square, when: tho C.P.Tt. office stands, would ho allowed to remain unbuilt on for years and years. London would mnkc a noise about it, and tho Imperial Parliament sitting in Dublin would see. that the thing was altered.

These things happen in Ireland, howover, and no one seems to be surprised. Take the case of Emiis. Nearly half a century ago some of the chief business promises in the town, occupying a site opposite the O'Connell Pillar equal to that of the Bank of England in London, or tho south side of Trafalgar Square, wero accidentally burned down. They have never been built again. I am told lhat tho owner of (he silo put so high a ground rent on it that the land went begging, and there it is to-day, an empty plot in the very centre of tho capital of the county of Clare.

If there- were an Irish Government +ho people of Ennis could stir things up, but how enn they stir up a Parliament composer! chiefly of Englishmen sitting in London ami not knowing or oaring whether Ennis is in County Clare or County Down? Tako the enfestion of local rates. Every one will reoollecfc that a few years ago, when the rates of East Ham rose to about eleven shillings in tho riound, the people- of East Ham raised a.. lrallahtilloo and Iho august Imperial Government inside.a special grant in aid of education expenses to East Ham and .similarly overburdened boroughs. In Ennis to-day the rates .are fifteen shillings in tho pound ■and Parliament never stirs a hair. Ermis is too far off. The people are- too quiefc and resigned to niisgovernineirt. If Ennis could swap populations wtih East Ham, the East Hammers would soon let the British Government know all about Enni.s.

I was talking partly by gaslight and partly by lamplight to ono of the leading citizens of Ennis last night. He apologised' for tho limping glimmer of gas. "The worst gas and the dearest gas in the British islands," he exclaimed, almost with pride. "You pay half a crown or 3s per 1000 for gas in England." he said, "and you think it is dear. Yet in Ennis wo pay 10s per 1000 for gas. and what gas it is at that! And all the* while'we have a grand river, the Fergus, racing through the town, waiting to be harnessed so that it can provide us with light and power. If the water-power were used for electricity we could light at a tenth of the cost."

No one will put down the few thousand pounds needed, to harness the water power, It is one of the things any Government sitting in Dublin would soon set about, but the Government at Westminster is not at all excited about Ennis unless the P.mi Feiners chase somebody's cows. .Then they send over battalions of' soMicis and a squad of censors.