Irish Outragesf: XV.'Faking' and Exaggeration (6)

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 43, 24 October 1907, Page 10

Irish Outragesf: XV.'Faking' and Exaggeration (6)

that they can't make out at all. * Compared with the deplorable folly of this pitiful procrastination, one can beam indulgently on "that of the lackwit rustic who sat on the river-bank waiting for' the waters to pass by, so that he might cross to the further side. The upshot of this new delay in ' going to begin ' a system of 4 denominational primary ' will probably be this: that our separated Brethren will (in George Eliot's words), through the pass of "By-and-fty, reach the valley of Never.

The hand that wrote ' Parnellism and Crime '. has lost little of it's cunning. And its feelings towards the Western Isle have mellowed little since the days when, after the Great Famine, it rejoiced that the Irish were ' going with a vengeance',^ and that a Celt would soon be almost as rare in. IreHaind as a red Indian on the shores of Manhattan. Thackeray says in his 'Vanity Fair' that one of the great conditions of anger and hatred is this : that you must believe and tell untruths against the hated object, in order to be consistent.' It takes a long, strong pull on the elastic mantle of charity to make It cover some of the methods to which the x Times ' has, resorted in backing up the campaign of its friends the- • carrion crows' from beyond the Irish Sea. A flagrant case in point is furnished by an unworthy ruse by which,- in its issue of, June 6, 1907, it led its readers to believe that the Dublin ' Freeman's Journal ', the chief organ of ' the Irish Nationalist Party, advocated a regime of violence and outrage. Writing of the abortive Irish Council Bill, the ' Times ' said :— ' From the moment that the Bill failed, it was foretold bF some of those who know Ireland best that the League would seeio to retrieve its^ position", by resort to a violent agitation of the familiar pattern. . . There are difficulties in that course which did not formerly exist, but signs are not wanting that it will be adopted, with or without the assent of the leaders of the Parliamentary Party, and yesterday the' "Freemlaai's Journal," the official organ of the Nationalists, declared that the people would not tamely submit any

longer and that " they are now once again thrown back upon the old weapons ".' The words actually used by the 'Freeman's Journal ', as shown in an editorial article in its issue of June 7, 19TJ7, referred, not to the Irish people, but to the coercionist methods of British statesmen ' in dealing with the sister* isle. The correct" quotation runs as follows :— 'It is a disgrace to British statesmen that they should have allowed the opportunities of the past five years to pass unavailed of, and that they are now once again Thrown back upon Hie old weapons, the plank-bed and the policeman's baton. - ' . By the ungentle art. of garbling-suppressing eleven words hi one sentence, and giving an entirely false apphoatioin to the remainder— the ' Times ' contrived to convey to its readers the notion that ' the official organ of the Nationalists ' was inciting the people to violence and crime. -* ■- Frederick Bayham expresses, in the ' Newcomes ' his convicfaon that there are persons so constituted that, on Ifie whole, they would rather say the thing which is not than the thing which is. To this class belong apparently .sundry writers who, gifted with ' a free tongue ana a bold invention ', furnished stories of Irish outrage ' to the ' Morning Leader ', the ' Daily Graphic ', the ' Globe \ and other English papers which took a prominent and by no means creditable part in the campaign of libelling the Irish people- in 1907 Mopsa says in the ' Winter's Tale ' • ' I love a -ballad in print, a' life, for then we are sure they are true.' The superstition as to the infallibility of the letterpress page is, perhaps, to be found in our day only in the" hinterlands of thought. Its place is largely taken by that of the printed heliogravure or process engraving, •• and despite the extent to which this m; ay be maae to' travesty m details the photographic plate or print there are many who attribute to it the inerrancy which a character in . the ' Octoroon ' gave to the camera, ihis inerrancy is, in popular use, frequently extended even to the descriptive letterpress that accompanies and explains the heliogravure. The outrage-mongers on the staffs of the 'Daily Graphic' and the ' Morning Leader' •■ took advantage of this idea in .order to give an air of proven truth and ' honor-bright ' to their written accounts of Irish lawlessness and crime. The ' Daily Graphic ', for instance, published an engraving of a photograph which represented the judges being escorted through the streets of Cork, for the opening of the summer Assizes in that city in 1907. 'It is a usual occurrence ', says the ' Glasgow Observer ' of August 9 1907, ' not in Ireland only, bat in Britain as well for judges to be escorted by a military cortege while going to Assize Courts in provincial towns '. I n Cork this custom Has come down from time immemorial ' Yet the ' Daily Graphic ' attached this legend in Mold acters to the picture 'of the judicial cortege • ' How Justice Must be Protected in the South of Ireland ' ! Briefly, the letterpress description of this familiar fhcident represented to English readers that this display of force was necessary in order to protect the lives of the judges from the, lawlessness 1 of the people of Cork ! The following, report from the Dublin 'Weekly Freeman ' of July 27, 1907, will show how grievous and unconscionable a wrong the ' Daily Graphic ' romance did to the peaceful and law-abiding city by « the pleasant waters of the River Lee ' :— Grand Jury, said tEat there were only two easel -tn mi? $&. ft--. '•fVfeariarjf aar& £S5 blank— is almost a marvel v nnT «,-+„+ a d solute sarny, m classes of that kind, you must expect to find

some evasion- of the criminal laws. Here, with the two exceptions, there is nothing of the Jcind. I cannot think what has led to this extraordinary immunity from crime. I believe myself it is entirely owing to the hard worjc and honesty and self-denial of "those ladies and men who with a higher i idea of the Christian life, devote their lives, by precept and example, to instruct those whom they teach, and amongst whom they live: iJH k\\ r% v ? em ' The y h °I )e for nothing in this Pm 1 ?? I ,. bel 1 1 eve they impress upon ' the persons whom they teach, and upon the conscience of those amongst whom they live, an example that has led to the almost stainless leaves of the Crown book ".' A still more flagrant abuse of the photographic camera was perpetrated a "few days later by the ' Daily Graphic ', in its issue of July 26, 1907. This outrage on truth and,, journalistic decency was brought under the notice of the AXtox-ney-General for Ireland (Mr. Cherry) by Mr. Arnold Ilerb'ert, M.P. ( an English lawyer), in the House of Commons, on Tuesday, July 30, 19C7 (we q,uote from the 'Weekly Freeman' of August 3, 1-907) :— , ,' Mr - Arnold Herbert asked the Attorney-General for Ireland whether he had seen the statement of a correspondent in the "Daily Graphic?" for Friday, 26tli July that a moonlighting outrage occurred,^ and that owing; to the light being bad he induced the actual perpetrators to pose for a photo, at a more convenient time • whether he was aware that the photo, was so disposed that the faces of the perpetrators were concealed • and would he say whether the names of the perpetrators had been communicated to the police ; and in these " circumstances, seeing that' this correspondent, on his own confession, was an accessory after the fact, would proceedlngS i e al£en in he interes ts of law and order ? ; Mr, Cherry said he had read the statement referred to in the question. The Inspector-General of the RovM Irish Constabulary had no information in regard to T tHe alleged photo., nor had the names of the perpetrators OF the alleged outrage been communicated to the police in the Inspector-General's, opinion it was scarcely credible that a number of persons who had been- engaged in a moonlighting outrage would voluntarily pose for a photo, in the presence of a possible witness against them. He (Mr. Cherry)' was of the same opinion In the circumstances fliere was obviously no evidence nji' which the newspaper correspondent could be prosecuted' . . . Mr. J. Redmond— May I ask the right hon. gentleman whether the.resulfc of his inquiries is that the Government do not believe the outrage ever took place ? •Mr. Cherry— Personally I do not believe it (Irish and Ministerial cheers)".' The same issue of the paper just qmoted gives as follows Mr. Birrell's reply to a question 'on the,, same subject by Mr. John Redmond, M.P.,. in a Thursday sitting of the- House •— ' Mr. Birrcll— l have seen the picture referred to, ' End speaking as Chief Secretary io the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, I must say it is, in my judgment, a scandalous production. _ Events take place in Ireland which, legitimately, give rise to regret, and deserve condemnation, and justify anxiety. These events -are often unnecessarily exaggerated and misreported. This, perhaps, is unavoidable, but when il comes to publishing broadcast throughout the Empire illustrations of absolute invention and trying to pass them ofi as historical pictures of actual occurrences, for the purpose of inflaming the public mind, I feel sure that all fair-minded men ' irrespective of party, will give unqualified condemnation to such a* procedure. The libelling of a nation is an offence not known to the law, and I "Know no way' to afford protection against such libels but by the expression of general disgust.' According to 3, statement made in the House, the 1 Daily Graphic ' management advertised these ' scandalous productions ' on placards, in the following terms : ' Outrages and Intimidation in Ireland : Remarkable Photographs '. The ' Graphic ' subsequently expressed regret, though in no very graceful terms, fer this outrage on a people. But it seemed to the casual reader to be more concerned in impressing upon " its readers its general reputation for accuracy than in making due amends for having published ''broadcast throughout . the Empire illustrations of absolute invention '. In our next issue we will de^t], in detail with a number of typical ' outrages ' concocted and given to the world by the ' carrion crows '.