DIVIDED IRELAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22356, 1 September 1934, Page 14

DIVIDED IRELAND

It is not difficult to understand the reluctance of the Government of Northern Ireland to permit the Blue Shirts to campaign in their territory. The order prohibiting General O’Duffy, the leader of the Blue Shirts, or Legion of Youth, as the organisation is officially designated, from entering Northern further notice, follows closely upon declarations by both Lord Craigavon and the Minister of Home Affairs, in which they emphasised the dissociation of the north from the troublous south. “We remain contented under the Union Jack, inviolate and indomitable,” Lord Craigavon stated, “ and no desire for change is discernible in any responsible quarter.” The desire of the Government of Northern Ireland, which is shared by the majority of the population, to resist any attempt to drag them into the constant storm which at present is centred south of Ulster, is elucidated in practically every cable message concerning events in the Free State. The most recent disturbances, of what might be termed a “ typically Irish” character, have been caused by the farming community, which has objected to the enforced payment of land annuities which are not devoted to their proper purpose. But this provides only one commentary upon the seething state of unrest, of move and counter-move, in which the Government of the Free State is engaged with the Blue Shirt organisation as its principal opponent. A disturbing message received early this week suggested that some of the leaders of the Irish Republican Army, which, of course, constitutes one of Mr de Valera’s unofficial resources, are contemplating forming a new “ militant citizens’ organisation,” inspired, apparently, by Communistic principles. Their plans, it was stated, visualise “ a final struggle for power with the Blue Shirts.” A development upon the lines so briefly indicated in this message would be productive, undoubtedly, of fui’ther disorders, possibly a repetition of the sanguinary battles which the Free State has witnessed in the not remote past. The success of the Blue Shirts in capturing the support of the youth of the Free State —the section, that is, inimical to the de Valera regime and the I.R.A. — is undoubtedly one of the main reasons for the militant schemes of which mention has been made. Its appeal is strong in the Free State to-day, because General O’Duffy’s policies, however hazy from the economic viewpoint, do not include an interminable continuation of the suicidal economic struggle with Great Britain. .His platform is, however, founded on the conception of a united and independent Ireland, and it is natural that the north, content with its present satisfactory partnership, and intensely loyal to the British connection, is in no haste to become involved in his somewhat indeterminate plans.