The Irish Delegates

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 2, 10 January 1907, Page 23

The Irish Delegates

MR. DONOVAN IN MILTON

(From our Special Reporter.) — Mr." "Devlin's gifted-young colleague, Mr. Donovan, arrived at . lite Bluff on- Tuesday morning, by^the ' Warrimoo '. He was', met on landing by -the Rev. Father O'Malley and at, Invercargill by the Very ReY. Dean Burke. He proceeded ' to . Milton by the secon-d mail train and- ,was accompanied from fcJore .by the Very Rev: Father • O'Donnell t At Milton, the distinv visitpr was the" guest' of the Very Rev. Father O'Neill

In the evening a public meeting of_a. very represent/alive character " was held in~ St. George's Hall.' The hall was well iilled. On the stage there '"were the Mayor (Mr. D. Reid), .Mr. s Donovan, the Very Rev. Father O'Meill, "and the Rev. 11. W. Cleary.' Very Rev. P. O'Donnell and Rev. M. Ryan were among t/he audience. In introducing the gifted young delegate, the Mayor stated, that Mr. Donovan was a delegate of the Irish Parliamentary Party, having been chosen for that purpose hy " the" - unanimous vote.- of the Irish leaders. Mr. Donovan was a - gifted speaker and would be'able to place before fhat audience the object of his mis- - sion and win their sympathy in the struggle that the Irish people are making to win the privileges of selfgovernment which the people of. New Zealand enjoy. ( Applause. ) The granting of - this boon, would not lead to the disruption of the Empire and would not bs conducive to disloyally on the par£ of the Irish people "to the Empire. He (the. speaker) could never understand the objection to the Irish people enjoying the right of self-government. It was, not for lack of intelligence. Irishmen furnished many of the greatest scholars, the pluckiest soldiers, and the most loyal of the King's subjects. (Applause.) . Mr. Donovan had been on tour in Australia, "for eleven months, "addressing hundreds of meetings, some of them attended by two or three thousand persons.. He had met with an " enthusiastic reception and every support from the people of the Commonwealth. He (the speaker) had been - before the people of the district for 33 years, and lie bad never yet known a .Milton audience to refuse any cause a> f air "" heaTittg. He concluded by promising Mr. Donovan a sympathetic and cordial greeting. (Applause.)

Mr. Donovan's Speech.

Mr. Donovan on rising was received with - warm applause. He said that he arid his colleague, - Mr. Devlin, had travelled through every State in the Australian Commonwealth ; they had addressed meetings in large and small centres— meetings that were attended not alone by their kith and kin, but by Australians of all creeds and classes, who wished to see extended to Ireland the, privilege of' self-government which the themselves enjoyed. On that, his (the speaker's) first meeting in New Zealand, he came as an Irish envoy to advocate Ireland for the Irish as they (his hear- . ers) advocated New Zealand for the New Zealanders. (Applause. 7 They were on the eve of success, and he hoped that he and his colleague would win all intelligent and rational r mintijed people in the country inlo sympathy with Ireland. The speaker then contrasted the frequently hostile reception accorded 23 years ago to the Redmonds— who were exponents of the same cause—with the splendid reception accorded to the present Irish envoysr-" During the interregnum of 23 years \ the schoolmaster -had been abroad. Australia- had rallied around them and. accorded them magnificent support, contributing £20,000 as a testimony 'of their sympathy with the struggle of the Irish, people to secure the advantages enjoyed by every' State in' Australia. (Applause.) Continuing Mr. Donovan said that he and Mr. Devlin 1 had* come from one of the great -. Orange centres of the North of Ireland, Belfast, and that m itself -was proof of the great change that had -taken place in the North of Ireland on the Home Rule question. Their policy was one of

Conciliation. They, were employed ..in the Holy work of breaking down the power of sectarianism and prejudice. This new change and tolerant spirit were shown in "a remarkable degree .when his colleague, Mr. Devlin won the seat m West Belfast through the united efforts of CathoI*c1 * cs I . and -Protestants, who fought side by side.- Mr Devlin appealed to the people of his native city to sink their feuds, and held up before them the banner of conciliation and love tor their. | common oountry. (Applause.) Mr. Devlin was put into Parliament by the

votes of the independent Orangemen, and when passing . by xthe great shipbuilding -yards ~of -Belfast, - the Orange workers turned out and- cheered their Catholic member as heartily as even, Thomas Davis, the Protestant poet of ''i$ could wished . them to do when he pleaded so pathetically and so powerfully for a union of Orange and Green in strong and abiding loye for the old storied land of the Celt.- In Antrim also they bore the banner of conciliation, and again Orange and Green, carried the ,day,. and routed the place-biin.ter ignominiously from The - held. They - had done the same for, Mr." Sloan, Jtt.P. By uniting such forces they were lighting the evils of landlordism. Landlordism in its own interests, and in the interests of the Castle "gang of place-hunters who ' had, - vampire-like, sucked and drained away the; life blood of the people, landlordism .hatl raised the sectarian cry and thus succeeded in~ keeping the people divided whilst they were being wronged and robbed by a privileged few. The" new democracy was exorcising th-afr evil spirit of sectarian', strife, and its power to kill it grew greater and stronger as men began more and * more to realise all that the triumph , of that great cause meant for- Irishmen and for. btngli'shrnen of whatever* class or creed. l On reaching inv'ercargili that day he (the speaker)- had been interviewed by a representative of the Dunedin ' Star ' regarding Mr. Sheehan's and - Mr. Crean's remarks,' as reported -by the cable, declaring that there was - - '-- - A Split ' in the Irish Party. - Mr. Donovan "then proceeded to explain the real facts- "of the situation. Mr. Sheehan had by eighty-four of his colleagues in the -Nationalist party been expelled as an undesirable. His .expulsion did not represent anything in the nature of a split among Nationalists, but rather emphasised the ponsolidation of - the party. Mr. Crean had joined Mr. O'Brien in the support of what was ; known as the devolution ■ theory, which was ' a half-way house -to Home Rule. The Irish party woukt never accept any- ~ thing less than a Parliament elected by and responsible to the peopi'e. They were not prepared to accept a co>ng)ro.mise, but required a Pardiarnent elected •on democratic principles, similar to that "of New Zealand, and theic hopes would be realised witiiin the next year or' two. Regarding the allegation that he and Mr. Devlin- were preaching Mr. O'Brien's" policy, they had never preached any other doctrine than conciliation and toleration,, and by this means would secure . the unification of all creeds and classes, while Mr.' O'Brien only wanted to conciliate -a -small group of landlords. . (Applause. Wi he expulsion of an undesirable was not a split. They had -to. uphold their presti^ and were not prepared to tolerate' men. who betray, the principles of the Irish Nationalist' Party. For -20 years they were the / only party in the House who wouM not accept power,, -office, or emolument from the British Government. They stood four-square' to the world, lighting for the right of Ireland to .be governed by its people, as - New Zealand is governed by New Zealanders. (Applause.)- •It . had also been stated by anonymous- writers in the Melbourne and Sydney press that he and Mr. Devlin , had come to Australia misrepresenting the true sikia- ■' tion as it existed in Ireland, 'ami that they were enemies of the English people." These brave slanderers always wait until one's back is turned before they attack 1-Am. If they ha ; d been guilty of misrepresentation: if they had come' before Australian audiences with fables on their lips and malice tpwards the Empire in their hearts, why did not- their critics meet them m the open, Come o'pehly upon their platforms where they were welcome to come, or over their names in the press expose the fables and^ erive nroof of the malice ? .- But they dared not, tor iacts are stubborn tlAngs and cannot -be explained away so they preferred to- lire their shafts untie: the shelter of anonymity and when the backs of those - they attacked were turned and they had no opportunity of reply lie Hung the a cusation back in the teeth of those 'i W a nn K a< ?f r*- The p , eople arc " w <»rking together'in Irelaud, both. Green and Orange, and through this union they had already won -the seats of Antrim, West and South Belfast. Ihe wo tars had come to see through - what channels they could • get reforms, and breaking -away from the old landlord and place-hunting Sf Orangemen had stood shoulder to shoulder with their' .Catholic .brothers in the cause of common democracy P SS?^ A ? d - u a L S^ns man coul* see ioi him- . t\lrt y W^ e done h L*^ party to * -Cause of "Democracy - , . ; and humanity in the. British Empire. Let them takP he statutes which- had been passed by the BritSi ■ House of Commons within the last fifty " years an i they would see the part which the members ol the

llish National party ..had , played" in -getting just and" ' humane ' legislation' passed." Twenty-five' years'' ago, just" as Parnell was beginning^ to become a power in . the British Parliament, Ms .was the vc'lce', that successfully pleaded for the. abolition 'of' flogging in' the army,; --just as to-day the voice, -that has after years of earn-* cst and persistent pleading • succeeded in abolishing theabb.mination from out of the navy, is the voice, of Mr. Swift McNeill, the lribh Home Kule member tor * Donegal. Every measure that made' for the betterment of farmer, -- laborer, and artisan,' every measure that made lor the freedom of peoples, every measure that tended in its policy . -to elevate and upraise and extend the liberties 1 of England, Scotland, Wales, of Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, ,had no more whole hearted, eloquent and --devoted admirers in - the British House of Commons than- the brave unpurchas- - able band of Irish patriots, who occupy the Home Rule benches. There is not a trace of malice towards any living being in any fibre of /their hearts: they arc kindly Irish of the Irish with love and friendship and generous help for the cause of the afflicted • an< the oppressed undei" whatever sky they dwell, or at whatever shrine they worship. (Applause.) The speaker then went on to, say that Mr. Devlin r and he had not come out to Australia to appeal for sympathy on sentimental grounds, but ,by facts and figures to show that theirs was A Just Claim. ' He then quoted the" dictum of the Prime Minister 'of England that even goad government was no substitute for salt-government. He dealt, with the time _in 'Ire- , land's history when it had a Parliament of its own, and the fraudulent manner in which the Parliament was taken away ;~ then came the pathetic, story of the decay of population, and the -disgraceful Gondiuion of the country after over 100 years of Castle rule. He showed how shamefully Ireland had been neglected in every direction. The Parliament of .Westminster mismanaged the affairs of Ireland, and every thinking man must come to the conclusion that in this, the 20th century of civilisation, forming part of the Empire and interested in its welfare, all the {States and colonies have a right to conduct their own domestic affairs 'in a way suited to their circumstances and conditions. Out) here a few were opposed to Home. Rule, - and ' the} based their objections on the following grounds. They said that three great facts had to be taken into account before Homo Kule could be given to the Irisn people :—l.: — 1. "That to give to the Irish people such a Constitution as they enjoyed out here would mean the abruption and ■ dismemberment ' 6f the Empire; 2, that Home Rule meant Rome Kule, and that would mean religious ascendency ; 3, that the Irish people were not competent to govern themselves,. - Take- : first ti. bogey of dismemberment. They had to travel 16,000 miles to hear this argument! 'seriously trotted 6ui>,

Mr. Donovan then showed that the loyalty of the Australasian Colonies and Canada was due to the fact that they had self-government, and reminded • his-audl-ence that no empire' ever rested safe on the dissatisfaction of the people. He dealt -with the calumny that Home Kule would lead to persecution, and other objections to self-government, which he showed to'have no foundation. The majority of members from Ulster were Home Rulers. The few who were not of the Nationalist party were mostly in the pay of the Government and -\\yere drawing fat salaries ranging horn £2000 to £10,000 a year. They talked much of loyalty : of course they .did. ■ They would readily understand how easy it ~is to be loyal for £2000 or £10,000 a year. (Laughter and cheers.) Their cause was a cause of justice. They " wished to establish a policy of international friendship, of amity and concord, between the British and lish peoples'; to-bury past bitterness in a blessed oblivion of forgiveness and peace. He believed the end of this struggle is near, and that they, Mr. Devlin and. himself, were thelas envoys that would come to Australia on such a mission as they had come- on. The triumph of the Irish cause, he believed, was near, ■ and whether it came in two years or in ten the light for. freedom would continue till victory was achieved. (Applause.) The great heart and conscience of the British people had been touched: in" Ireland they had- their "own people banded together in a great, organisation ;~ they had on their si-dc all that is best of , America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. \VTt"K these mighty moral -forces lighting- for tTie right to nationhood of their own historic land, they would go on with their- faces to the dawn, prepared for whatever sacrifices may still be demanded of them, 'but at the same timer confident anc assured that the golden -sun of liberty, with its- blessings of • peace, prosperity, - and happiness, would- in the immediate future burst once more in splendor over the

-green valleys^ and" fair < hills of holy- -Ireland. Mr. Donovan concluded/ -amidst warm applause, by thanking the young New Zealanders, the ladies, the audience t generally, and, all sympathisers \with the "Irish cause.;. {,-; ' - '• .'Resolutions. ""■>' s } S 7^ The- following .-resolution, " moved ~T5y Mr. 'Martin • and seconded by , Mr. ;J. -Tough, ' was .passed unanimously : ' That this meeting of residents of Tokomai- ■ riro, having heard Mr. Donovan, is of opinion that - the Irish -people should get the right to manage -their own affairs,, as enjoyed by New- Zealand and other sec- -~ ' tions of the -British Empire' ' - , '.- < On the motion of .Dr. Sutherland, seconded ."- >by Mr. J. Moroney, a subscription 'was opened. It mi .'with a generous response, ' the sum of -H6O clear being "laised in the smallest centre itf New Zealand in which a meeting has yet ' been ' held. ~ - - . „,, A vote of thanks to the Mayor brought the pro^ " ce'edings to a .close. -> '"■--""_■