SIR THOMAS GRATTAN ESMONDE, M.P., IN BELFAST.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 13, 26 December 1890, Page 25

SIR THOMAS G RATTAN ESMONDE, M.P., IN BELFAST.

Sih Thomas Esmonds opened the session of the Belfast Young Ireland Society on October 22. In introducing the speaker to a crowded and enthusiastic meeting the President of the Society, who took the chair, spoke as follows, as reported by the Morning News .— . Tbe lecturer of thisevening is undoubtedly one of the best representatives we have of Irish independence and of Young Ireland (applause). Sir Thomas Gratcan Esmonde is & great-grandson of the glorious Henry Grattan — (loud applause) — the Protestant who gained Irish independence for us in 1782, and he gained it very much indeed with the help of the Irish volunteers, most of whom were from Ulster (applause), aid those Irish volunteers considered that "it was illegal, unconstitutional, and a grievance for any body of men to make laws to govern Ireland except the Kin?, the Lords, and the Commons of Ireland" (applause). Sir Thomas Grattan Esmonde is not only a great grandson of Henry Grattan, but he has sprung from a stock that has poured out its blood freely for the cause of Ireland (applause). And every one acquainted with the history of Ireland knows something of what the Esniondea did for Ireland (applause). In the troubled times of '98 his gieit grand* father was hanged for Ireland (applause), and on the maternal side of the Esmonde's family there was another Esmonde handed, I think in Wexford, in '98, and who willingly gave up his life "and heart's blood for the cause of Ireland (applause). But Sir Thomas Esmonde needs no recommendation of the kind. He would have beea as great to-day if these men had never lived (hear, hear). From the earliest years of his life he devoted all bis time end talents to the cause of Ireland. I question if there is a man of his years who has travelled over so much of the world. He has been in America, Australia, and New Zealand, and he has met at least a dozen of kings in some of the smaller islands that he has visited (laughter). And before all these democracies and all these royalties— excuse me for putting the democracies first, but I could not help it — Sir Thomas has never failed to plead the c* use of Ireland, and has sent home right good help to keep the cause going on (bear, hear). Before going out on bis last mission he expressed regret to me that he could not keep his engagement with the Belfast Young Ireland Society before going to the Antipodes. I told him he knew little of the men of Belfast if he thought they would not willingly forego their claim upon him when they knew the mission he was going on, and that they would give him a greater reception when he returned (applause). Ladies and gentlemen, he is here to-night to receive that welcome (renewed applause).

Sir Thomas G. Esmonde, on coming forward, was received with loud and continued applause. When Btlen.ce had been restored, he said : — Mr. Chairman, ladies, and gentlemen, — It will very likely be said to-morrow that he was a very curious manner of man that the Young I eland Society invited to Belfast, and that some of the citizens came to listen to, in that he was introduced to them as deserving of a cordial welcome and a hearty greeting because both his grandfathers had been hanged (laughter). Well, perhaps it is typical of the country in which we live that there are a great many Irishmen living to-day who can boast of a similar episode io their family history, but, like myself, all those Irishmen are not in the lea9t ashamed of the occurrence, but, on the contrary, they very much glory in it (hear, hear), and I think if there ia anything indecent— l don't think there ia much

—it m something, at all events, to be descended from a patriotic strain (applause). My first words to-night must take the shape of an apology. I have to apologise to the Belfast Young Ireland Society for having broken my engagements with them on no fewer than two occasions Twice they invited me to your city, Twice I accepted the invitation, bat was unable to come. If you were disapoointed, I was doubly so, for I bad long looked forward to the pleasure of making your acquaintance. In offline my apology, my contrition for -4>ast failing is quickened and intensified by my high appreciation of the compliment paid me by the Society in inviting me again to lecture here on this the inaugural eight of their seision. Now that I have come let me express my satisfaction at having come. It gives me more pleasure than I can convey to find myself in this great Noithern metropolis, and to meet so many of those who have helped to prove the North of Ireland Irish ; who have brought at least one portion of Belfast into line with Cork and Dublin ; who have given to toe Irish Parliamentary Party its most vigilant and brilliant Parliamentarian (cheers) ; who have so signally overthrown the argument that the North is not in sympathy with tbe South ; that Ulster feels and thinks differently with Munster, and that the cradle one hundred years aeo of the United Irishmen is not in those our days in favour of a United Ireland (cheers;. Whatever outsiders may say, whatever outsiders may ask you to believe, we of the South are proud of you men of the North. We admire your courage. We envy your sturdy patriotism We are grateful for your splendid services to the common cause We look upon you as one of the main factors in helping ' that cause to victory. It is, therefore, as a Southern, a Roman Catholic, and a Nationalist that I am glad and proud to stand upon this platform in Belfast, in the capital of the Protestant North to greet my fellow-countrymen of prosperous Ulster, my comrades and fellow soldiers in the grand and holy cause of Ireland's regeneration (cheere). And now to my text. lam to speak to you to-night about Young Ireland. That name is now an old name. My application of it shall be a new oDe. I do not purpose dealing with the Yonng Irelands nor the Young Irelandera that have gone before ub With reference to them, it is enough to say that we believe in the faith transmitted to us by Mitchel and Martin and Smith O'Brien (cheers). We hold their memory in ever-constant affection. We revere their teachings; we inherit their spirit; we follow their ideals ; we worship at tbe same shrine (cheers) My purpose this evening is to deal with our own Youog Ireland— tbe Ireland of our own time, the Ireland with which are bound up our lives, our loves our hopes, our fortunes, our duty— the Ireland hat is and is to be Would you have my political confession ? lam no cosmopolitan I place my own country foremost in my thoughts and actions, as in mv affections. She is my first concern. Firet-immea-mrably first— [ place her honour, her happiness, her prosperity. What other peoples think, what other peoples do, how other peoples are circumstanced or affected, affects me only in relation to mv own. I am ready to sympathise with other peoples, to work far them if I may to helD them if I can. But lam an Irishman first, and my only real interest is in Ireland (cheers;. My sentiments may be held to savour of narrow mindedness («' No, no "). I care Dotbing if they be— for I can conceive no loftier aim, no more glorious ambition than the pre-emi-nence of od«'s own nation, the pre-eminence of one's own race " As for a community of interest among peoples it never ha* existed, nor ever can exist And as for a universal brotherhood of mankind in practice I don't believe in it. What then is the outlook for this land of ours ? What are her immediate prospects ? We are all believers in the Nationalist creed (hear, hear).* We Uy down as the f uodJSe" tal dogma of our political faith, the distinct Nationality of Ireland (cheers) And we hold as the docir.ne, as the ultimate aim of all our political efforts, the establishment of aa Irish Government in ?n 6a6 a "W ? hee £ }> P? P ° lDt i 8 al «aJy conceded by our friends in Great Britain. Its actual accomplishment is all but won Another year or two of waiting, and of agitating, of suff ring perhaps • of fighting against the evilold regime, now tottering to its fall, and against the desperate despairing effor.B of its supported to uphold their lost cause, and an Irish Parliament will bean accomplished .act (cheers} This is certain This is inevitable. It i 8i 8 useless, therefore, to discuss the probabilities of a foregone conclusion. A conclusion parent «! \ m wv. °<? C TT n ueUßu'u eUß u' But atlerwar ds ! What will happen to « n ' w^t will then be position of the Irish Government, and what the probabilities for the Irish people ? It is questionable if circumstances have erer created a situation of greater delicacy, graver difficulty or of more serious responsibility than will confront the trustees of our nation's destinies, when the portals of the Old House in College Green open again to Ireland's elected representatives lhey will be face to face with utter disorganisation. Disorganisation social— disorganisation political-disorganisation industrial Ihey will find a society shaken to its fouodation 8 by the storms of generations of persecution and repression, a society in which tbe throes of our long onfhet for National existence will still make themselves felt, a society but in the budding of its evolution from an old decrepid order of things to a newer and a b-tter one, and in which tbe young spirit ot a young era will have scarcely yet had time to assert its influence. Id the political domain there will be a still more intricate problem to solve. What will th« case be then ? There will be found .he logical outcome of centuries of foreign intermeddling in Irish matters. An executive whict. has never known the functions nor the duties of a c institutional ex-cu ive, and which has never discharged them even by accident- an admin intrative structure never formed for the people, whose business it administered nor m any fashion stamped with the stamp of tbeir idiosyncracies nor their ejmpathi'S, but made and branded in the shape and with the brand of an engine if exploitation, of plunder, of coercion, ready to the hano* of alien despots, or to tho-e of the place-hunters and renegades, who found it more lucrative to serve the stranger than the people from whom they sprang • a machinery of Government in fine, whose hated memory is likely to survive it in the bias against anything savouring of authority wbich it has given to the Irish mind, in matters industrial and commercial the coming national administration will be met practically with inanition (hear, hear). It will find a country drained and depleted

and bled for ages of money, of material, of men ; a country, which but for the remedial legislation, latterly wrung from the English Parliament, would be to-day in a state of galloping consumption ; a country that will require years of careful nursing, and of vigilant care to be restored to health and vigour. These are facts, unpalatable, it may be, but facts, nevertheless, to wbich those of as, who make Ireland the one aim and object of our being, would be worse than fools to shut our eyes. If anything, I have miooinised the situation of two or three years' hence. Notwithstanding the gloomy picture of the immediate future, I for one look forward to that future with full hope and with perfect confidence. Whatever difficulties or dangers may beset tbe ship of State, once that her helm is in Irish hands I have no fear for her (cheers). And why 1 Firstly, because of my absolute unwavering faith in the patrotism of the Irish people. When our Irish Parliament is regained— that Parliament for which we have struggled and suffered and laboured and sacrificed for so long, so earnestly, and so ungrudgingly— there is not an Irishman within Ireland's shores who will not rally to its support (cheers.) Whatever decision that Parliament may have to make, whatever acts that Parliament may be called to perform, its way will be made easy as far as the nation can make it by the co-operation of Irish public opinion. Next do I rely upon our countrymen's capacity for government. Irishmen seem specially fitted by Providence to that end. The history of continental Europe bears constant testimony to the fact. The history of the United States of America, and of England's great self-governing colonies of South Africa, of Australia, of New Zealand, has proved it time after time ; and wili continue to prove it with ever increasing force as the years roll onward. 'Tis most extraordinary, and typical too, of the honesty of the objections urg^d against the concession of Home Bule to Ireland, that whenever it is necessary to select men, specially competent *n the arduous work of governing, to protect or promote imperial interests in far-off imperial dependencies, our opponents see no objection to the selection of Irishmen for the purpose (cheers). And surely if we can govern other peoples successfully, if we can legislate well and wisely in the interests of other nations, we may reasonably hope for an equal measure of success in the ruling of our own. Thirdly, I rely upon the marvellous recuperative powers of our race. In the history of no other people will you find a parallel for so desperate a struggle for existence, so long maintained, and so tenaciously and so successfully, as by this race of ours. We have kept our grasp of Ireland in spite of wars, of famines, of persecutions, such as have fallen to the lot of no other family of mankind. We have survived every attack. We have ri9en again after every disaster. Were it not indeed for our miraculous vitaliiy, and virility we should long since have been swept from off the face of the earth. But we are here still (cheers). We are still the holders— as we shall soon be the masters— of our native land. To such a lace so tried and proven ia the fire of cycles of calamity, so uuconquerable in the energy of their determination for national existeuce, everything and anything is possible. Bememoer too the land in which we live. I honestly declare, that in ail my travels, and I have traversed now sjme three q larters of the habitable globe, I have never yet found a country more variously blessed by nature, more healthful to inhabit, more advantageously situated ; nor better fitted to support a hardy happy population, than this our " Erin of the silver itreams " (cheers). The three considerations to which I have referred, will prove tue main buttresses of the coming Irish Government, when it sets itself down to its wo k of reconstruction and regeneration. With their aid most of its difficulties will be readily overcome. At the same time we must not expect too much from our Government of the near future. We must remember its position, we must remember us opportunities. Above all we must not forget the immensity of the work it has to do. From the beginning its programme must be a homely, matter of fact, prosaic programme Everything will have to be made anew ; everything will have to be built up from tbe ground. Toe foundations of ihe Irish State nuat be other than those of the administrative edifice it will havd overthrown And of the materials its opponents leave behind them very little will be serviceable or sound or safe for future use. The coming Irish Government must b^gin where no government of Ireland ever yet began. It must found its structure upon the only safe basis of Government— the will and the good wishes of the Irish people ;it must model its institutions and its machinery upon Irish plana Then it will be strong, then will its influence be beneficial and permanent (cheers). But the doing of all tbis will take time We must not grudge the time. Wa must be patient. Wnatever we do, let us do well, that there may be n) undoing. At any rate this much is to be said; that if we begin answ there Is little danger of onr following in old grooves. We shall have the mistakes and the misfortunes of others to guide us. We shall have our own experience gained by long years of cruel suffering. We shall have a keen sense of how a Government should work and should behave inasmuch as we have never yet had reason to be satisfied with the work or the behaviour of any Government. If we do not succeed in ehapine our system of Government to our owo tastes and to our own nee fs we shall only have ourselves to thank, for it will be only our own fault But we shall Bucceed with Heaven's blessing and with courage and patriotism equal to our task (cheers). We shsll have plenty of criticism to face. We shall oave to faca tbe criticism of toe world. hot honest advice wa shall always be grateful , but we shall have to reckon with dishonest criticism as well. We shall have to reckon with tbe unsparing vicmus criticism of those who never will forgive us our success in bursting the shackles of foreign misrule (hear, hear) For tbe=e we nee i care nothing. They will be no friends of ouh nor of our nation's new found dignity. We need heed their carpings no more than the idle wind. For their dearest wish would be to see us fail as tbey failed, when their feet were upon our necks, and they fondly hoped to keep them there for ever, in wbich wiah they are safe to be disappointed. It has sometimes been put to me, in a spirit of honest inquiry, will not tbe Nonh prove a difficulty for Home Bule? Have you not Orangemen in Ulster ? How can you hope to unite such men to the Bouth ? My reply has alwayß been easy— l do not realise the difficulty. The majority of the northern Parliamentary representatives are in favour of Home Bule, therefore, the majority

of northern men art Home Balers. Had we manhood suffrage in Ireland, were even the existing Franchise Laws honestly interpreted, how many northern constituencies would return anti-Home Rulers to Parliament ? But I shall not labour tho point, for my purpose it is beside the question. There are Orangemen in the north of Ireland. What of that ? If one body of Irishmen elect to celebrate annually the winning of tbe battle of tbe Boyne, or if another body of Irishmen choose to celebrate tbe anniversary of the battle of Clontarf , why should they not ? Their doing so is a m itter solely for their private consideration. It is a matter of no concern, as it is a matter of no importance to the community at large, and if, four or five yetrs hesce, some Irishmen choose to wear scarveß of green, while others prefer scarves of yellow, their doing so may effect their own complexions, but will scarcely affect the National Government (laughter and cheers). Tbe toasts men drink and tbe colours they wear will probably be more numerous in Ireland after Home Bale than before it, and they will also be assuredly of far less concern to tbe general Dody of the Irish public. We shall each and all of us be far too busy then wiih the cue of our own business and the advancement of our own interests, to bother our h ads with abtruse controversies as to whether two hundred years aeo James Stewart or William of Orange was or was not the lawful king of Ireland. And in those days oar Home Bule Parliament will have its hands too full of useful work to trouble itself with such details as the direction of banquets or with the passing o f sumptuary laws. In this connection, there is one fact of supreme importance to bear in mmd — viz., that intolerance in any Bhape is not a plant native nor congenial to the Irish soil. It is a noxious weed of foreign import and of foreign cultivation. It is true that there have bee n sectarian disorders in this country. It is true nnfortunatelv also, that they date their origin many years back. But what do they invariably mean ? Their meaning is plainly tbi« — As we all know tbe maxim of our rulers in our regard has ever been "divide and rule." It has ever be m the object of our Engliß'i tyrants to set different sections of Irishmen at each other's throats, that by their fratricidal warrings all might the more easily be enslaved. These sectarian differences are but exemplifications of the working of this infamous principle. Fortunately for us the school of politics from which this system came is dying. It will soon be dead (hear, hear). Ireland will soon have emancipated herself from ontsida influence (cheers). Soon there will be nothing for English political parties to gain by fomenting discord — sectarian or otherwise — among Irishmen. Ireland will soon have ceased to be their tool and plaything, and Irishmen will soon have sense enough to refuse beiDg made the ignorant instruments of dishonest foreign politicans. Should any of these m mntebanks when ont of work, come to this country and make fools of themselves a few years hence nobody will mind them. If anybody goes to hear or see them it will merely be out of curiosity, to learn what manner of men these madmen tae who would try to revive in our common seasa 19th century, the feuds and the bickerings of th-± 17th. N> ; tho-e who can think of Ulster as apart from Ireland know little of Ulster's history. They know little of the O'Donaell's and of tbe O'Neills, of the Volunteers of '82, of the men of '48 (cheers) Tney know nothing of the flame of patriotism which has ever burned brightly in the Norm— U f th« glorious spirit which all through the night of Ireland's bondage has rallied Ulsters sons to tlio flag of Irish nationality. They know nothing of the persecutions your fathers have braved ; of the blood your fathers have Bhed, as generation after genera* ion they have trod the path of hononr to themselves ; of duty to their country (cheers) They know nothing of these things, or else they should hang their heads for shame at the outrage of their suspicion upon a a race of men than whom no men have rendered grander or nobler services in tha age long battle for Ireland's liberty (cheers). To hear some people talk one would almost imagine Ulster more English than England instead of what she is, and was, and ever shall be a stronghold of Irish patriotism. To hear them talk one would almas* imagine too that there was no meaning in the terms common sense or common interest as applied to Irishmen ; and that of all men Ulstermen were deaf to the plainest piomptings of both. Which think you will profit Ulster more ? A foreign Gjvernm^nt by foreign governors, taking all it can from her and ariving her as little as possible in return ; or a home government of which she will ba part and parcel, which will attend to her wants, watch over her welfare, promote her commerce, encourage her industry, employ her talent, educate her population, and cater for her general well-being, which will most surely grow in conjunction with the general prosperity and contentment of a united na ion (cheers). In our Young Ireland we will have none of the sias nor the sorrows of the past. We will have no quarrelling, no fear of one another, no distrust j we shall put our shoulders to the wheel of national progress irrespective of class or of creed (cheers). We shall unite to make our dear old land that which she shall yet become— a pride and an honour to her citiz-ns, and a glory to mankind. We shall Bet ourselves down to labour with the youth, and the genius which is in as for the greatness of the motherland, and God will bless our undertaking. That is my interpietation of my text (loud and prolonged cheers). Mr. Andrew M'ErleAn moved that the bast thanks of that large »Bd represeotative meeting be given to tha learned lecturer for the thoughtful and instructive address which they had just heard ( pplanse).

bey. Profeßsor Tohill, St. Malachy's Coll« ? e, in seconding the vote of thanks, said he thought he was interpreting the feelings of the audience aright when he said that it wts a most thoughtful lecture and a lecture brimful of hope for the future of the Young Ireland which has to be called into existence in the near future. Tue vote of thanks having been passed by acclamation. The chairman conveyed tbe vote to the lectuier, and in doing so said there waß one word he wshed to add, and that was to assure Sir Thomas of the fact, and to emphasise it, that when they got an Irish Parliament they need have no fear of Ulster. He had no doubt, from his experience, that the boldest and most sturdy eu pportersof Home Bule would be the Orangemen of Ulster (applause.) Bit Thomas Esmonde, who was again received with loud applause aid— You tell me, Mr. Chairman, that when Home Bule is granted

there is no fear of Ulster. Well sir, I never for a moment imagined that there was (applause). I never for a moment doubted the fact that there was as much patriotism in Ulster as there is in any other part of Ireland. I never for a moment doubted tbe fact that when the time comes for Ulstermen to show what they can do for Ireland they will be able fully to prove their patriotism and to point to an earnest amount of patriotic work done (applause). And Mr. Chairman, I can speak, perhaps, upon this subject of Ulster and Ulstermen with an authority which may not be known to many of you, because I have had opportunities in the course of my travels abroad of meeting many and many a man from the Black North — and here, standing upon this platform, I am glad to be able to made tbe admission in all sincerity, and in all trutb, that whenever I met Irishmen abroad who came from Ulster, they ware the best Irishmen to he found (applause). It is nothing short of a literal fact that the best men and the sturdiest and the truest men who hold up oar hands today are men who draw their origin from Ulster (applause). And now, sir, that I come to thank you, and to thank this magnificent audience for the vote of thanks wnich they have been good enough to pass to me, I can only say that I appreciate their compliment, and that I accept it in the sp.rit in which it is offered. I deem it no small honour to receive the thanks of an audienca so intelligent and bo patriotic as the one I had the pleasure of addressing to-night. You were good enough to say tbat it might bs possible some day again for me to address an audience in thi9 great city (applause). I can only say that there is no part of Ireland to which I would sooner come ; there is no part of Ireland to which I as a young Irelander look forward to with more hope. I believe that three or four years hence, when our struggle is over, aid when the object which we are now striving for is attained, we shall find that Ulster will stand prominently forward, with energy aud acimty and intelligence in the great struggle for tbe regeneration of our common country. I have great pleasure, ladies and gentlemen, in thanking you all f>r the Kindness with which you have listened to my lecture (applause). The hon. bironet on leaving St. Mary's Hill was loudly cheered on his way to t&e hotel.