HOME RULE AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

New Zealand Tablet, 20 March 1913, Page 13

HOME RULE AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

SLANDERS ON IRISH PEOPLE REFUTED GREAT PROTESTANT MEETING IN DUBLIN A great meeting of Protestants from all parts of Ireland was held in the large hail of the Antient Concert Rooms, Dublin, on January 21, to record a public protest against the statement frequently made from political platforms that the majority of the Irish people would use a measure of Home Rule to oppress their fellow-countrymen.’ The audience had begun .to assemble an hour before the time of the meeting, which was fixed for 8 o clock, when the spacious building was packed to overflowing. The meeting was presided over by Colonel Sir Nugent Ever D.L., and on the platform were many of the leading Protestants of Ireland.

The chairman, who on rising received an enthusiastic greeting, said: Before commencing my remarks upon the subject which", has ; brought us together tonight, I think it is only right that I should refer to a letter which appeared in to-day's Irish Times from the pen of Major O'Connor, Ido not propose to comment at any length upon the numerous inaccuracies which occur throughout this letter, but there are two statements that are so glaringly at variance with the facts of the case that I am compelled to notice them. The following is the passage to which I refer: 'As to the composition of the committee, the majority are Protestants. But why a committee claim or desire to speak in the name of Irish Protestants should have as president a Roman Catholic gentleman passes comprehension.' Now, as a matter of fact, there are over 500 members of the committee, all of whom are Protestants. There is . not a single Roman Catholic member of our committee. As to myself, as president of the committee and your chairman to-night, I am described by Major O'Connor as a Roman Catholic. I. am sorry that a personal allusion is necessary, and I will dispose of it by stating that I am a communicant of the Church of Ireland. With that statement I must leave it to the meeting to judge the value of a letter containing such misstatements and of the accuracy and good taste of the gentleman who wrote it. This meeting has been convened for the purpose of giving Irish Protestants, irrespective of party, an opportunity of recording an emphatic protest against the

Reckless Charges of Religious Intolerance levied against our Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen on English and Irish platforms, and also to protest against the introduction of religious differences into politics by either party. If the history of the next generation should prove, as we are confident it will, that Irish Roman Catholics, although in a majority, have exercised their powers with a full measure of toleration and respect for the fights of Irishmen of other creeds, it is safe to say that to-day's crusade of calumny will react to the credit and honor of Irish. Catholics. But what of the honor and credit of Irish Protestants, not only those who have uttered the slanders, but those who by their silence have condoned the crime of'bearing false" witness'? If there were no other reason than the prospect of this reaction, it would furnish ample justification for this meeting, and many similar meetings throughout the country.- I submit, however, that there is a greater and a nobler reason for this meeting. It is the demand of common honesty and truth that we should pay this just debt to those among whom we live, and with whom we hold daily social and commercial intercourse. A whole volume of testimony from Irish Protestants, compiled by Mr. Jeremiah MacVeagh, disproves the accusation of religious intolerance on the part of Roman Catholics. But, even as I look round this meeting, I see evidences of the prosperity and comfort of hundreds of Protestants, * although they form a small minority of our population in different parts of Ireland. We have every justification for saying that

There is no Ground for the Libels

that represent us as a minority downtrodden and oppressed, or that, though tolerated, we are distrusted. We say from our experience—experience obtained from every part of Ireland—that we have received not only the same, but even better, , treatment from our Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen than they frequently extend to each other. But, ladies and gentlemen, these facts and views will be developed by many speakers who will follow me. As chairman of this meetinglet me-say a position I am glad and proud to occupy—my duty is to offer a brief word of explanation of the object of our meeting. We wish it to be clearly understood that this platform is not that of any party organisation; if it Were I would not be here. The name Irish Protest Committee sufficiently describes the object of the movement. To avoid misrepresentation it was decided that the resolutions to be subscribed to at this meeting should be circulated beforehand. One result of this decision is that these resolutions will, as we anticipate, receive the support of this meeting to-night, as they have already received the written endorsement of many hundreds of Protestants from North, South, East, and West of Ireland whom distance and other obstacles have prevented from being here in person to-night. If to these we add the thousands of names which have been sent to us as sympathisers, but whom we have been unable to reach, we are satisfied that a body of Irish Protestants join us in repelling the suggestion that Irish Protestants have anything to fear from their Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen whatever the future political conditions of Ireland may be. One concluding —We are sure to be misrepresented by the same party of extremists who denounced those of us who labored to bring about the Land Conference, a movement which paved the way to the happy settlement of the land war; but let us not be discouraged ; we shall at least have done our duty to our Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen in repudiating the slanders which have disgraced the name of Irish Protestantism.

The Apologies.

A large number of apologies for absence were received from leading Protestants throughout the country, amongst those read being the following: Walter Kavanagh, D.L., of Bonus, wrote: As a Protestant, I join with you all in emphatic protest against the introduction of religion into this controversy, and I may say for myself that I have no fear of religious persecution or intolerance under a Home Rule Government. Such an imputation is a libel and a slander on our Catholic fellow-countrymen. After 20 years of service on the public boards of this country, I may say that I have received nothing but kindness, and consideration from all whom I came in contact with.

_ Rev. J. B. Armour, M.A., Presbyterian minister, Ballymoney, wrote: I regret that I cannot be present at your meeting on the 24th, but I sincerely hope it will be a success. Responsible politicians inside and outside the House of Commons have come to admit that persecution for conscience sake .by law under Home Rule is unlikely, and the fear of it only a bogey. They have abandoned what was but the coinage of diseased brains. Those among Protestants who still harp on that string are a dwindling race of politicians who trade in religious and racial animosities. It is certain that under a Home Rule Government the places of power and trust are not to be enjoyed almost exclusively by the political successors of the ascendancy party. But if these are to be largely disestablished, to call that persecution for the sake of religion, could only mean that persecution for the sake of religious belief has been the order of the day ever since Ireland became part of the British Empire, as the three-fourths of Irishmen have been continuously excluded for generations from a share in the government of their country. '. The section 01 the religious community of which I am a member cannot possioiy, under Home Rule, have a less share in the Government of Ireland than it has had during the centuries that are past. \ .:•-"' The Right Hon. Thos. Shillington, Portadown, wrote: I regret I am unable to attend the.meeting of

Irish Protestants in Dublin on Friday evening. It is sincerely to be hoped, both in the interests oi religion and of enlightened progress, that the ill-judged and sinister efforts that liave been recently made in the country to associate exclusively one side of : political and paity opinion with the name of Protestantism may be abandoned. It is most humiliating to many Protestants to have it to appear to the world that politicians have captuied Protestants churches, and are exploiting them for their party purposes. ° Sir Hugh Mack, Belfast, wrote : X am very sorry indeed that I shall not be able to attend the meeting of the Irish Protest Committee in Dublin on Friday next. I have carefully read the three resolutions to be proposed at the meeting, and thoroughly agree with every word contained in them. Professor R. H. Henry, of Belfast, wrote: I had hoped, by my presence, to fulfil a duty which it seems to me is incumbent upon every Irishman, to endeavour to frustrate an organised and deliberate attempt to poison the springs of our national life. The following also sent letters of apology—Lord Dunraven, London Rev. J. O. Hannay, Westport Mr. Harford Montgomery, Belfast; Col. Sir Hutcheson 1 oc, C. 8.; Lord Rossmore ; Mr., John A. Duncan, J.P. ; Rev. T. Bartley, Presbyterian minister, Ballycary/ Rev. W. E. Vandeleur, Magency; Rev. J. A. Bain, M.A., Presbyterian 'minister, Westport; Maurice Talbot Crosby, Rev. P. O’Sullivan, Co. Antrim ; Jos. Hosford, J.P., High Sheriff of Co. Cork; J .L. Johnston, U.D.C., Thurles; James Pomeroy, R.D.C., Banteer ; Professor C. IT. Oldham, Arthur W. Metcalfe, Belfast ; Tlios. Taggart, Ballymoney; George Ilendeison, Raudalstown; W. Archer Kennedy, Belfast; Stanley Harris Knocklong; Thomas Macalister, Bushmills; Thos. IT. Rutherford, Tipperary; A. W Barnard, Macroom; Ernest Brown, O’Brien’s Bridge j Co. Clare; W. J. Leslie, Cahirciveen; Samuel P. Harris' Knocklong; R. W. Evans, 8.L., Doneraile; R. Walsh Armagh; Frank R. Morrow, Belfast; Wm. C. Carr’ Killyleagh; Stephen O’Mahony, Dublin; Sir .Hugh Lane; The O’Mahony, D.L. ; Mr Thomas Henry Webb Dublin ; Lord Fermoy, Mr. W. Halliday, J.P., High Sheriff, Limerick; Sir Anthony Weldon, D. 5.0., Athy ; Rev. S. L. Maxwell, Ardcanny Rectory, Limerick; Sir F. W. Barrett, John A. Duncan, J.P.; Rev. T. W. Rudd, The Rectory, Castleblayney, Rt. Hon. Lord Headley, Miss McCutcheon, Rev. Canon Courtney Moore, Mitchelstown. OTHER SPEECHES. Dr. Douglas Hyde proposed —‘ That this meeting earnestly protests against the suggestion that Irish Protestants would suffer any curtailment of their civil and religious freedom by reason of the ■ granting of SelfGovernment to Ireland.’ He said he had long wished to see such a representative assembly of his . coreligionists so that they might expressly disassociate taemserves from the lurid and blood-curdling pictures that had been drawn of their ‘ plight ’ — drawn by men whose advocacy he, for one, would gladly do without, ‘I have,’ declared Dr. Hyde, an unshakeable belief, founded upon experience, in the sense' of fair play, in the justice, in the spacious toleration, and in the entire absence of religious bigotry on the part of my fellowcountrymen. I would be blind to the teaching of history, I would be blind to all I had seen around me since I came to the years of discretion, I would also be what is worse, unspeakably ungrateful, if I did not declare that I am convinced that, whatever the merits or demerits of a Parliament in College Green, it will never dream of interfering with my religious freedom, or abating one jot my religious liberty, because I do not happen to be the same creed as the majority of my fellow-countrymen. Finally, he said if the old Irish race were a people of that suspicious, mean, rancorous, narrow, persecuting spirit attributed ' to them, why hadn’t they showed these ugly qualities in the past, because it was always in their power to do so at any moment if they so desired.- They had the power to do it now, and always had it. .How was it, .then, that Protestant shopkeepers and traders grew fat in every town in the South and West? It would have been

easy for the Catholics to have boycotted Protestants, but had they done so? They had not, declared Dr. Hyde, and everyone knows that, and it is not everyone who has the common decency to acknowledge it. It was, he added, a mean, disreputable thing not to fully and gratefully acknowledge it. Rev. A. D. Barbour, Rector, Castledermott, in seconding, said the object was to protest against the calumny heaped upon their Catholic fellow-countrymen that under a measure of Home Rule Protestants would be treated with cruelty. They ought to speak freely on this matter. There were those who stated that under the Local Government Act all the positions in the gift of Nationalists went to Catholics. It seems to me,' declared the rev. gentleman—' even we admit it—we, Protestants, in our past history should look back, and should be the last in the world to condemn Roman Catholics for having followed the bad example we had set them, and I fear there is more justification for them now, because in the old days, when every position was given to a Protestant, it was given to the minority of the people, whereas now, if the Catholics take any positionand I do not say they do—at least, it is given to the majority of the people of this country.' Positions, he said, were given more on political rather than religious grounds, and while they might be sorry for it, they had no right to blame their Catholic friends, for if they looked at other countries they saw that the positions of trust were given to members of the party in power. ' Does this bitter feeling, of which we have heard so much, really exist in the South and West?' he asked. He would be worse than ungrateful if he did not bear testimony to the good feeling which existed between Catholics and Protestants in the County Kildare, where Protestants were elected to public bodies in the county out of proportion to their numerical strength. Was it to be said that under "Homo Rule these people, who had been living on friendly terms, would be turned from Christians into fiends? ~1 do believe it, he added emphatically, and I think experience and history teach us it is not true.' If Home Rule is to be a success all Irishmen must work together for the good of their common country, apart from sectarian or political differences, and I believe that the spirit of sectarian bias will grow less until finally it ceases altogether, and our country will be in the real sense happy and free. Mr. Jonathan Pirn, K.C., in supporting the resolution, said they were there to protest against the circulation, for the purpose of winning elections in England, of the statements that isolated Protestants in Ireland would be maltreated, harassed, persecuted, and driven out of the country under Home Rule. We should, said he, be real cowards if we didn't come forward and deny these statements. The Catholics of Ireland had at times had strong feelings, but why? Because the Protestants stood for the man who was against what the people demanded. There were, however, always a large number of Protestants who saw the way clear. Proceeding, he said that Mr. Talbot Crosbie issued a challenge in his own County of Kerry to anyone to show the case of a Protestant who had been persecuted because he was a Protestant, and no such a case was forthcoming. He might have issued the same challenge in every county in Ireland, and the same result would have occurred. These statements circulated as to persecution were mere reckless and unfounded prophecies without evidence in the past to support them and with nothing in the present to give them a glare of life. What was it that Protestants looked back to with the greatest pride It was the seventeen years when the Protestants first made Ireland a nation. Ireland might pass through many vicissitudes, but her nationhood would remain. Did they think Catholics would persecute the men who gave them Grattan and Sheil, Lord Edward Fitzgerald "acd Wolfe Tone? Were they going to destroy people who might again give them a Burke or a Goldsmith or a Swift, and would they destroy the great Church which led them in 1798? He would send out the message to their Catholic fellow-countrymen—' We don't fear you, we never feared you. All we want is' fair ground and no favor, and we will enter the lists with you any-

where. We ask no more, and we are determined to take no less. •We believe you. have the same sense of justice, the same kindly feelings, the same toleration, and the same sanity as we have, and believing that, we trust you both socially and politically.' ft Mr. Tilson, High Sheriff-elect of Cork, said he was . glad to have an opportunity of vindicating the Christian spirit, the tolerant spirit, of the Catholics of Ireland amongst whom they lived, and from whom they had no fears. That meeting was called for the purpose of spreading the light and discounting the slanders against their Catholic fellow-countrymen. The time had come when Irishmen could not afford to sit on the ditch; and it was the duty of every man to say whether he was with his country or against her. He came there as a young Irishman, proud of his country, and as strongly imbued with the spirit of Irish nationality as he believed any good Irishman could be. As. a business man, he paid a.warm tribute to the. Catholics of Cork and the Catholic Corporation of the city, for having on the previous day elected him High Sheriff of the city. _■' :

The resolution was passed by acclamation. Rev. Wm. Crawford, M.A., proposed a resolution entering a strong protest against the association of the Protestant Churches with politics. What right, he asked, had Protestant Churches to allay themselves on the side opposed to the national aspirations of the people? He asked Catholics to remember that there were in Ireland two classes of Protestants—the generous and patriotic Protestantism and the Protestantism engaged in bitter sectarianism.

Mr. Saxon J. Payne, manager of the Queen's Island, in seconding, said he thoroughly agreed with the protest. It would, he said, be lamentable in any country, but in Ireland, after all these years of strife and tragedy, it was especially sad that the old hateful spirit of religious rancour should be revived in the twentieth century. Ireland had suffered sufficiently in the past for her religion. Truly she had reaped a strange reward for her early piety and her incalculable service to Christendom in ancient days when from this Isle of Saints and Scholars the messengers of culture* peace, and love emerged carrying the blessed evangel to the neighbouring isle, to Europe, and even to Iceland. ' Where there is no vision the people perish,' said Mr. Payne, amidst applause. . The faith of the Irish people has been a priceless possession; it has been the saviour of the country. Tried in the furnace of affliction, it has come out at pure gold. Bereft of everything else, here was something which could not be taken away from the Irish patriot faith in the future of his country and the approval of his God, a faith to which through every vicissitude he clung with the passionate devotion of the purest patriotism and tho most hallowed piety. We are told there are two Irelands. It is a misconception of political and religious bigots, who confuse nationality with the system of unIrish agitation and aggression with which also the fair name of Protestantism was so long besmirched in this country. I trust that to-night we enter a protest and inaugurate a movement whose result shall be that the bogey of religious persecutions, with its twin brother, Protestant Ascendancy, shall be buried beyond all hope of resurrection.' Ireland has ever been regarded as one and indivisible by all her true sons, Catholic and Protestant alike, who, as Thomas Davis so well reminds us, worship the same God, though at different shrines*. It is incumbent upon Irish Protestants to banish from their churches all unholy associations and from their, creed all unworthy prejudice, and to study in the light of history and common sense the questions that are pressing for solution in the community. We are at the dawn, and shall soon reach the full noontide glory of a beneficent policy of constructive statesmanship acclaimed throughout the Empire and in every community over the globe. Let not' Irish Protestants stand aloof. Let not our Protestant churches pursue an ignoble path. lam assured they will not. ~ Mr. George Wolfe, J.P., Naas, also supported the resolution, declaring himself an ancient Nationalist, and said that with Home Rule would come a blessed spirit of peace and contentment over this land.

The resolution was passed. Mr. W. B. Yeats proposed the third resolution—- ‘ That this meeting subscribes to the view that the clear verdict of the history of civilised nations in modern times is that the responsibilities of self-government and the growth of political freedom are the most powerful solvents for sectarian animosities.’ He said that with self-government and the growth of political freedom there would, in his opinion, come instead of persecution a new and great liberal nationhood, but if he was wrong, and if there was persecution, what then He would tell them what he had told an old friend of his who said they would be persecuted — ‘ It will do them all the good in the world.’ Mr. Alec Wilson, Belfast, recalled the fact that Sir Nugent Everard presided at a meeting held in Dublin two years ago approving of the change in the King’s Oath. Proceeding, he said they were expected to believe that the Catholics of the South were going to begin an outrageous system of intolerance, and also that the respectable and sensible people of Belfast were going to rise in civil war before anybody had laid a finger on them. The civil war in Ireland is over, declared Mr. Wilson, amidst applause. Civil war began more or less in the year of the famine, and more or less ended with the settlement of the Land Question. It had been said that Home Rule would bring not peace, but a sword. It seemed to him a terrible thing for anyone to make such use of a sentiment which the Founder of Christianity used for his own ministers in this world. Mr. Wm, Doran, J.P., Ardee, also spoke, and the resolution was passed by acclamation. Right Hon. Edward Archdale, P.C., took the second chair, and the Right Hon. T. W. Russell, M.P., in moving a vote of thanks to the chairman, said the fight was over, and nothing but a miracle could prevent the re-opening of the Irish Parliament. Lord Fermcjy seconded the motion, which was passed, and the proceedings terminated.