TWILIGHT IN IRELAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27039, 25 March 1949, Page 4

TWILIGHT IN IRELAND

The Threat from the South . For the Daily Times by W. J. Ross. Back to power after emerging triumphant from the most significant general election in its history, the Northern Ireland Unionist Government is settling down to watch and counter each move in the campaign for a United Ireland which is now being waged by Church and State in Eire. It is a campaign which aims to dispossess of their hard-won heritage 1,250,000 people whose dominant characteristic is loyalty to the British Crown. Moreover, it is a campaign which threatens to develop into something much more serious than petty squabbles between Nationalist and Unionist, Roman Catholic and Protestant.

The Republicans of Ireland, flushed with recent successes, are now more than ever determined that the age-old ties which bind Northern Ireland to Britain and the Empire must be severed in their lifetime. Nothing must stop the onward march towards an All-Ireland Republic. The Union Jack must be hauled down in Ulster and replaced by the Eire tricolour. One Parliament, and one alone, must guide the destinies of Ireland’s 32 counties. England must abandon her interests in Northern Ireland and cooperate in the task of achieving unity between North and South. In this long-planned, all-out effort to fulfil a dream of centuries, veiled threats are being hurled at Ulster by members of the Aireann Dail.

Will England, bowing to the wishes of the new republic, attempt to influence her to leave the Empire and join with Southern Ireland in an All-Ireland Republic? These are questions which the people of Northern Ireland are asking themselves in these days of uncertainty. They are questions to which a reply will be demanded of the British House of Commons at an early date. In recent weeks the anxiety which the people of Ulster do not seek to hide has been intensified by rumours which have been sweeping the frontier districts, where rival factions came to grips during the recent general election campaign. Here it is claimed that young Eire civilians are meeting each evening in secluded valleys, where they are being trained by Eireann Army officers in preparation lor the impending invasion of Ulster. Rifles and ammunition, say the rumourmongers, are being hidden in carefully concealed caches near the frontier in preparation for the offensive with which it is hoped to end partition. While the use of force to settle the partition question may not be contemplated by the Eireann Government, the outlawed Irish Republican Army, which continues to expand in Southern Ireland, is already threatening to pursue a military campaign in Ulster. Funds are being collected in secret in an effort to place this ruthless organisation on a fighting basis, and an active propaganda department has been set up with its headquarters in Cork City. In County Cork manifestoes are being plastered on walls and hoardings, and a circular issued to prominent Republicans asking for subscriptions and explains, “The Irish Republican Army has one primary object—a successful military campaign against the six counties of Northern Ireland.” “Within Five Years” During the past few weeks I have toured Northern and Southern Ireland in an effort to obtain a clear picture of the situation. But it is difficult to obtain such a picture. In Dublin I encountered a confident attitude that the last stage in the effort to establish an All-Ireland Republic has been reached. “ Within five years,” asserted a Dublin lawyer, “ Ireland will be united, and Britain will have lost yet another corner of her dwindling Empire.” In Belfast, however, the opposite view was taken by the majority of the people with whom I spoke. “ North is North and South is South,” remarked a prominent member of the Ulster Unionist Party, “and never the twain shall meet.” That view, I discovered, is endorsed by 90 per cent, of the people of the Northern Ireland capital. On Easter Monday Eire will become a republic. From thenceforth, and I have this from quarters closely connected with the Dail, she will make even more intensive efforts to abolish partition and establish a republic which will include the six counties of Northern Ireland. Unity may be achieved in Ireland within the lifetime of those who desire it. The Eire tricolour may yet take the place of fhie Union Jack in Ulster. An All-Ire-land Republic may yet become a reality. But it is obivous that Ulster will never freely consent to union. “We sink or swim with England,” says the Northern Ireland Prime Minister. To the close observer of the Irish' scene as it now unfolds it is obvious that only a miracle or a civil war will separate Ulster from Britain And the age of miracles has, unfortunately, passed.

“If constitutional means are not enough to end partition—and my personal opinion is that constitutional means are not enough—then we will have to fight, as did past generations.” This, and similar hints of what the future may hold have been dropped recently in speeches made by respected members of the Eire Government. From talks which I have had with Dublin politicians during the past few weeks, I have gathered that those who desire a United Ireland will now stop at nothing in their efforts to reach that goal. When Eire decided to repeal the External Relations Act and sever the last remaining link with Britain and the Empire, she put the clock back at least 10 years in this unhappy land. She put it back a further 10 when she intervened in the resultant general election in Northern Ireland. That was a bad mistake. It angered Ulster. And Ulster is slow to wrath. Less than a year ago it seemed as if all the old political hatred and sectarian bitterness which had for long been corroding the soul of Ireland was diminishing in intensity. Passions seemed to be spent, and a more broadminded attitude prevailed. But much has happened in the past 12 months. Now the dying embers have been revived, the old wounds reopened, and the work of 20 years undone. Bitterness and distrust are everywhere apparent. Daily the gulf which separates Northern Ireland from Eire is widening. Across it tactless politicians are hurling threats and insults which are fanning the rising flames that threaten to engulf one of the world’s last remaining strongholds of Christianity. Doubtful Countries?

In political circles in Northern Ireland it is believed that Eire, having been successful in focusing the world spotlight on the partition question, will attempt at an early date to gain possession of two Ulster counties— Fermanagh and Tyrone—where a Nationalist majority, it is claimed, is in favour of union with Southern Ireland and a breakaway from Britain. The British Government, however, has given an assurance that no change can be made in the constitutional position of Northern Ireland without the consent of the Ulster Government. And that consent. Ulster politicians assert, will never be given. “ Union with Eire,” says Sir Basil Brooke, the Northern Ireland Premier, “is unthinkable.” In that assertion he has the backing of every Unionist member of his Government and the great majority of the electorate. Passionate in their devotion to the British Crown, the people of Northern Ireland are determined that nothing will separate them from Britain and the Empire. But on this, the eve of the establishment of the Republic of Ireland, Ulster is anxious. The future is uncertain. Will Britain stand by her when the time for a showdown comes, as come it must?