IRISH REGIMENTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14006, 10 March 1920, Page 3

IRISH REGIMENTS.

WESTMINSTER CATHEDRAL MEMORIAL CHAPEL. (By Philip Gibbs.) There is one way in which England 'may pay a debt of honor to Ireland without'a-thought on either side of political prejudice or passion, and it seems to m e that, just now, when the situation, is so tragic, it would give us a chance of touching the heart of the Irish people throughout J the world and dispelling some of the ill-feeling that is rising between us. It is a simple thing, due to brave, men who fought by England's side, in' tho great war, and died, in'large, numbers, on all our battlefields. 'Whatever war memorials, are being built on-Eng-lish soil, and there are many now in ■preparation, it seems to me essential to our honor, apart from many other' reasons }hat we should put up a memo-; rial in -Loudon to : the Trish regiments who fought on the Western front, at Gallipoli. and in the East, with a gallantry that never failed, and with a loyalty to the spirit of their own race/; - In Pieardy and Flanders, where I saw them many times, there was no strife between ijisterman and _Ca.th.olic Irish. They fought side by sideV andthey fell side ,by side.! ; It was the Catholic • Irish ■-'who -had the hardest; ii hie, not in hattle. _f or there was -no difference in hardship there, and are egual slaughter of their.manhood, but in spirit. They felt :themselve s lent off ;

j from their own country by a gulf, that ; grew wider as the war went on.- ; At the very beginning John Red- | mond's recruiting plan was rejected hy ■tli {; -War Office, and. Irish sentiment was estranged by a sad lack of tact and generous sentiment. They wanted to tight under the.lrish flag, and that was J refused. They wantrid to be iihited iu Irish brigades, but many of those who enlisted were sent to English and Scottish battalions. Irish gentlemen .wanted to raise and command men of their own counties, but received no encouragement and little courtesy. ! Ail that was bad, but what was good i was the presence of many Irish batta- [ lions in the British Army, not only | from Ulster, in the 36th Division, under General , Nugent, but from the South and West of Ireland, in the 16th Division, under General Hickie. ■Those Catholic Irish of the Dublins, Ministers, Coiuiaughts, Le lusters, and other battalions, were great.lads, and their humor in the trenches, their devil-me-care spirit under simple- faith in places where faith was better than counig'}, and th e patience with whiiih ti oy faced their long sacrifice, are riot to be forgotten by English comrades. '-The troubles in Ireland hurt them and saddened them. Some of them thought they were deserted and forgotten. AIL of .them believed that England was not treating Ireland fairly or generously—for were they not Irish P "'.■:' But they helped to win our victories at Wychtschatc, where Major Redmond died, arid at Ginchy, from which they came back but a poor remnant of those who wenjt in. , * In Flanders, in 'l7, they won rib victory but fought most desperately, and died in heaps'iu the great slaughter of a fearful day, and in March of 'lB were nearly finished when■they fought back in frightful rearguard actions. Again and again General Hickie succeeded, by some, magic of his own, in gextiiig new drafts to fill up his gaping ranks.

While Ireland was in rebellion young Irishmen were still;corning out to" fight in Eraiicp, -not only in their own battalions, but in many English arid Scottish .regiments, and avowed Sinn Feiriers .were not least; gallant. Will England ignore and forget these men? Rather shall we not hold them in special remembrance, arid'pay particular tribute to the greatness of their sacrifice? ' ...

With the Duko of Connaught ;is i-rc-idcnt, and the Earl of Dun raven as chairman, a committee has been formed to e-tahliVh a permanent memorial id London to F>i«h officers, nonronum'saioncd officers and men killed in the war Tt will take the form of a jihapel dedicated .to their memory in Cathedral, and Cardinal Rourne has offered St. Patrick's Chapel for this purpose. Each Jrish regiment will have its nrtii marble tablet and its own,'' Liber Vita?," or Bifok of Life, containing thenames of the fallen. The thapel w'illbe a lasting memorial to those who proved, even to death, the honor of/ the Irish regiments and the heroic spirit of the Irish race in most tragic Tear.-,, and it is hoped to make tlys chapel a beautiful and worthy shrine. So far the apueal of the' Duke of Connaught and his. committe for the, necessary funds' of £IO,OOO has not, been answered "bv the English public i to any great extent, and the memorial I will not be made unless the call is J answered. ' I

It is front English- people rather than from Irish that the answer t-hould come, because, as I have said, it is a debt of honor from us to them. It would be' a beau geste, &■ good and chivalrous act, to complete .that memorial now when there is so, much bitterness against us in the heart nf Ireland, and in Irish strongholds abroad.