IRELAND’S DAY OF TRIUMPH

New Zealand Tablet, 23 July 1914, Page 22

IRELAND’S DAY OF TRIUMPH

INTERVIEW WITH THE IRISH LEADER. nr l° r a .representative of the Fro man's Journal on May Jj, Mr. John Redmond, M.P., made the following statement with reference to the Third Reading of the Home Rule Rill:- to To-day's division marks the death, after an inglorious history of 114 years, of the Union of Pitt and Uastlcreagh. That Union, the cause of Ireland’s pover 3, nuseiy, depopulation, and demoralisation—the cause of famine, insurrection, and bloodshed, and of the disloyalty of the Irish people throughout the world - is dead, and its place is to bo taken by a new union, founded on mutual respect and goodwill, between the two islands, and to be followed, 1 firmly believe, by the history of peace, prosperity,‘and loyalty. The Union, as we have known it, is dead. That, at any rate is beyond doubt or question after to-day’s division. What the Division Means. I am not quite sure that everybody quite understands that to-day’s division is equivalent to the passage of the Home Rule Rill into law. Yet this is strictly true. There arc only two eventualitiesand both of them are impossible—which could possibly prevent the Home Rule Rill actually becoming a statute in a few weeks’ time. The first is that the present session of Parliament should come to an abrupt end before one month from this date—an utterly unthinkable proposition— and the other is that the House of Commons should suddenly go mad and pass a resolution to the effect that the Rill should not be presented for tho Royal Assent. In the absence of these two absurd contingencies the Rill must automatically become law. I lie House ol Lords have no power to stop —-and even the Government have no power to prevent—it going in the ordinary course for the Royal Assent to the Throne. The Parliament Act provides that the Bill shall bo presented for tho Royal Assent. Tho Royal Assent. At one time there were people idiotic and irresponsible enough to suggest that the King could or would withhold his Royal Assent, but everyone now admits that is an absolutely absurd and impossible suggestion. Therefore to-night s division, for all practical purposes, passed the Home Rule Bill into law, and the Union of Pitt and Castlercagh is dead. Tho Prophets of Evil. It is scarcely worth while, perhaps, to pause to recall all the prophecies of evil which have attended the efforts of the Irish Party to carry Home Rule during the last three years. We were told that it would bo as easy to throw Galtecniore into the sea as to pass tho Parliament Act. After that Act was passed wo were told that the Liberal Government would not deal with Home Rule at all, or if they did that they would introduce an utterly unsatisfactory Bill which would be repudiated by Ireland. In the same breath we were told that the Government would introduce a Bill so favorable to Ireland that they would split their own Party. When these prophecies were falsified we were told that tho Bill would never become law, and the Government from month to month was threatened with destruction. To-day how silly all these prophecies look ! Patience and discipline and mutual, confidence between the members of the Irish Party and their British allies have carried the day ; and I think there is not an Irishman in tho world to-day who must not rejoice to think that ho has lived to witness the end of the Union of Pitt and Castlereagh. Threats and Conspiracies. Nor were prophecies of evil the only ones put forward to alarm and deceive our people during tho last few years. It is impossible to forget the threats repeatedly made, not only in the English newspapers but by Parliamentary leaders—notably by Mr. Bonar Law—that if an attempt were made to carry the Home

Rule Bill a third time in the House of Commons the Parliamentary machine would be smashed. All these threats have vanished into thin air, and the Bill has passed. It is also impossible to forget the extraordinary odds against which we have been fighting for tho last two years, and especially for the last six months. We have had the entire power and wealth and secret influence of the aristocracy of this country opposed to us. We have had many hundreds of thousands of pounds of money spent in the opposition to Homo Rule. We have had tho action of a section of the Army, which the Morning Post declared had ‘ killed the Home Rule Bill.’ Wo have had the entire Conservative press devoting itself without stint to magnifying every supposed obstacle to Home Rule and to misrepresenting our cause. Wo have had to submit without reply to gross misrepresentation, not only in Great Britain, but, 1 am sorry to say, in Ireland. Notwithstanding all these things, we have won out. The Amending Bill. It is true we are faced with the prospect of what is called, or rather miscalled an ‘ Amending Bill.’ Let there be no mistake about this. No amendment in the Bill is called for, either by the Government themselves, or by the Irish Party. Wo believe that the Bill is a good workable Bill, and that it is a charter of liberty for the Irish people. But we are practical politicians, and, I hope, men of sense, and we all recognise that it is worth paying a great price to ensure that Home Rule will come into operation amidst universal goodwill, and to prevent its being heralded by civil commotion of any sort, I take this opportunity, on the third and final passage of the Home Rule Bill, to express the most earnest hope that now when everybody in Ulster, as elsewhere in Ireland, has to, face the indisputable fact of Home Rule and a Home Rule Parliament, those of our fellow-countrymen, who are nervous as to their position, will abandon unreasonable demands and enter into a conciliatory discussion with their fellow-country-men upon points of the Bill upon which they would desire further safeguards. I say on behalf of the Nationalists of Ireland that wo desire their co-operation and friendship, and 1 appeal to them in all parts of Ireland to join hands with us in making the Homo Rule settlement one that will ensure the prosperity and the freedom of all classes in the country. If the Amending Bill contains the terms of an agreement whereby some of our, fellow-countrymen in the North, who are to-day dissatisfied and nervous about the future, may be conciliated, and does not outrage the fundamental principles of the Home Rule settlement, I am convinced that every Nationalist in Ireland will rejoice. If the ‘ Amending Bill ’ does not contain an agreement I can see no prospect of it becoming law, and in any case, failing agreement, the Irish Party have made it plain that their hands are quite free to deal with any proposals that may bo made. The Great Thing to Remember. The great thing for us to remember is that, ‘ Amending Bill or no Amending Bill,’ tho Home Ride Bill is now practically an Act of Parliament. People talk of , the possibility of a general election before the Bill actually comes into operation. Portions of the Bill will come into operation the day it receives the Royal Assent. Other portions of the Bill, must necessarily come into operation gradually, and, at the best, months must elapse before it can possibly bo in full working order, with a Parliament actually sitting in Dublin. I see no likelihood whatever of an early general election. But general election or no general election —"the return once more of the Liberal Party to power or the return ,-most unlikelyof the Tory Party to power — ( Union of Pitt and Castlereagh can never be again set upon its feet, and the assembling of an Irish Parliament under the provisions of tho Home Rule Bill is as certain as the rising of to-morrow’s sun.