THE SITUATION IN ULSTER

New Zealand Tablet, 11 September 1913, Page 19

THE SITUATION IN ULSTER

- Mr. John Dillon, M.P., was the chief speaker at a Home; Rule" demonstration held in Birkenhead on July 18. In the course of his remarkable address, Mr. Dillon said that a great deal was heard to-day about the dangers of the Empire and of the necessity of a great and physically-fit army, yet the Government of this country had for years devoted i;heir energies to exterminate in Scotland and Ireland the greatest fighting population the world had ever seen. He would like to know how many physically unfit men would be found in Tipperary. Yet he knew no record of the horrors of war to equal the records of peace in Tipperary., Never, he went on, .was a country so cursed. by her garrison in another country as England was. It had cost her tens of millions. It had cost her not only money, but the friendship and affection' of a loyal\ people. In spite of Sir Edward Carson; the speaker continued, Mr. Birrell, the • present Chief Secretary for Ireland,- had tried the experiment of ruling Ireland : . without coercion, and because the people felt they were being treated like civilised human beings, they had loyally responded to him. They had been told, Mi*. Dillon proceeded, that the Union would put an end to \ ■ -" The Curse of Religious Dissension which was peculiar to Ireland, which, unfortunately, to a certain extent, had been imported into Liverpool, and which was a crying scandal to the civilised world. Now they were told by the champions of Ulster that this dissension was to be perpetuated, and that it could never be eradicated; that there were two separate nations in Ireland. 'That was their ideal of the future. Nationalists utterly repudiated that ideal. It was now . said by their opponents that if Ireland could agree on a measure of Home Rule the Tory party would enthusiastically receive it and pass it into law, so that the whole objection had come' down to Ulster, and the question of danger to the Empire was eliminated. And what of Ulster The chief characteristic of the late celebrations of the 12th of July was the assurance > that under no circumstances would the King's soldiers fire or use the bayonet. That was a very comfortable way of carrying out a rebellion. (Loud laughter.) He .confessed he did not think there was much reality about the rebellion. He did not mean to insinuate that Ulstermen were cowards. They were a brave and fighting race, as all Irishmen were, and, undoubtedly, if any one of the things they professed to fear were done' to them, or really threatened, they would fight, and it would take a big army to put them down. But there would be no civil war, because none of those things would be done, and he said there would be no fighting, not because he regarded Ulstermen as cowards, but because he did not regard them as lunatics. The Essence of the Trouble was that a minority had enjoyed for generations ascendancy and a monoply of political power which they would not give up without a struggle. If Ulster had ■. her own way, what were they going to do with the rest of Ireland ? Did they expect the descendants of a" fighting race to be down and submit to be trampled on by a minority who were not ashamed to declare that they hated as much as they despised them No, they would not submit to such insolent tyranny. The mission of the Nationalists for thirty years had been to bring the Irish people to believe that they could win liberty by constitutional means. They had won them to that belief, and now they were told that because they were not importing arms wholesale, abusing the King, and threatening to shoot his soldiers, they were not in earnest; and the Ulster gentlemen had taken over the business of rebellion.