LECTURE ON IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, 25 September 1913, Page 43

LECTURE ON IRELAND

(From our Christchurch correspondent.) Lecturing on Ireland in the Hibernian Hall on last Monday evening, the Rev. Father O’Boyle, chaplain of the St. Patrick’s branch of the H.A.C.B. Society, made the following reference to Home Rule; Ireland should have Home Rule because she wanted it, and because she has constantly and persistently agitated for it ever since the Act of Union was passed. At one period of her history Ireland enjoyed the blessings of a Home Rule Parliament. When England returned home from her American wars, beaten and broken, -she was confronted by the Irish Volunteers who marched on Dublin with printed labels on the mouths of their cannon: ‘ An Irish Parliament or else —’ She had to submit and guarantee the independence of a native Parliament. That Grattan, or Home Rule Parliament lasted from 1782 to 1800, and those eighteen years marked the era of Ireland’s great-

est happiness and prosperity. Mr, Lecky, the historian, writing of that period, says:— ‘ The years between 1779 and 1798 were probably the most prosperous in Irish history, and the generation which followed the Union was one of the most miserable. The sacrifice of nationwas extorted by the most enormous corruption In the history of representative institutions.’ The Act of Union was carried in 1800 by unexampled bribery and corruption, about two and a-quarter million pounds being spent in bribes/ and this amount actually charged up to Ireland. Repeal of the Union was O’Connell’s great watch-word; Home Rule has been the cry since. But all the great parliamentary leaders from O’Connell down to modern time made one great blunder, they all seemed to think that nationality began and ended with an Act of Parliament; - and made little account of the great elements of nationality— namely, national character, culture, language, and traditions. Were Britain to say to Ireland to-morrow, c You shall have Home Rule if you throw away your national inheritance, your language, music, games, pastimes, everything that marks you off as a distinct nation,’ Ireland would firmly reply, ‘ Keep Home Rule in your pocket. I’ll never sell my birth-right for a mess of potage ’ T , u What has the Act of Union done for Ireland? j has crushed out Irish trade and industries, weighed down the country with intolerable taxation, brought discontent and disaffection to the Irish people, and dispersed the race ail the world over. No sooner was the Union carried than England, Jealous of Ireland’s flourishing industries, by Acts of Parliament and by the imposition of heavy duties on every Irish manufacture crushed out the great woollen industry of the country. By the terms of the Union Ireland is admittedly over-taxed _to the extent of £3,000,000, and this has gone on for half a century. In 1841, when the population was eight millions, the taxation of Ireland stood at Oh,ooo, whereas to-day, when the population has 4 diminished by one-half, the taxation has reached the sum of £8,254,000. One of the strongest arguments for Home Rule is that Ireland has at present Urn most expensive system of government in the world. It costs £7,500,000 to run the country, and this sum is handed over to 100,000 officials who are employed in sixty-seven boards and departments. The Irish people have not the slightest voice in the management of any of these boards. Belgium, with four times the trade of Ireland and a much larger population, is governed at about half the cost. As an example of ternble extravagance, there is the fact that the salary of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland is double that of the President of the United States. Neither England noi Ireland profited by the present system of government; the only people who did profit being a horde of officials I will not dilate at length on the Imperial aspect, how Home Rule would relieve congestion of business in the House of Commons, how it would placate the Irish race in America, and thus pave, the way lor any treaty or alliance between England and that country and how every colony in the Empire is in favor of Irish self-government; but let us examine the Orange opposition. The real reason of the-Orange-men s opposition to Home Rule is not because of their excessive loyalty to the King, but because their ascendancy was endangered. Sir Edward Carson is threaten- 7 mg rebellion, and his audacity is shown in the claim that he has all Ulster at his back. Of the nine counties of Ulster in only three—namely, Antrim, Down, and Armagh are the Orangemen in a majority, and of the thirty-three parliamentary seats in Ulster seventeen are at present held by Nationalists and sixteen by Unionists. What, then, is the meaning of that bogey bo 7 right ’ StCr 111 arms: Ulster will fight and Ulster will