Irish News

New Zealand Tablet, 12 October 1916, Page 41

Irish News

RELIEF WORK IN DUBLIN. At the quarterly meeting of the London Conferences of the SL- Vincent de Paul Society the Brother Chairman made an interesting statement regarding negotiations which had taken place between the Society in Dublin and the Local Government Board concerning relief given during the recent trouble in Dublin. The total number of tickets actually issued to families was 41,020, representing £5618 2s 6d. Sir H. A. Robinson, of the Dublin Local Government Board, in a letter to the President of the Society, stated that he had guaranteed to recoup the organisation to the extent of £4500. He had submitted the estimate of expenditure to the Prince of Wales’s Fund Committee, and he had, he said, great difficulty in getting them to sanction it, or indeed to admit that their funds were applicable to any of the distress caused by the rebellion. The difficulty had, however, been overcome, and after consulting with the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and with his concurrence,, he had increased a promised contribution of £4500 by £SOO : and he now forwarded a cheque to the society for £SOOO. The letter added: —‘l must take this opportunity of expressing the Local Government Board’s great indebtedness to you and to the society for your invaluable assistance in this emergency, and also for the very careful and judicious administration of the funds. I am bound to say that the complete and efficient manner in which the enquiries of the society were carried out, and the arrangements for the distribution, and the elasticity of the society’s administration when faced with an overwhelming crisis, have been far beyond anything I could have expected.’ THE ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN AND IRISH POLICY. The following letter from the Archbishop of Dublin was published in the Freeman ’s Journal a few weeks ago:—‘For years past I have never had a moment’s doubt that the Irish Home Rule cause in Parliament was being led along a line that could only bring it to disaster. But it was impossible to shut one’s eyes to the lamentable fact that Nationalist Ireland—or, to speak with accuracy, the preponderating majority of those of our people who still retained faith in the efficacy of Constitutional agitation become hopelessly possessed of the disastrous idea that “the Party,” or to use the new-fangled term, its “leaders,” could do no wrong. Fair criticism was at an end, and anyone, thoroughgoing Nationalist though he might be, who ventured to express an opinion at variance with them became at once a fair mark for every political adventurer in the country to assail with the easily handled epithets of “ factionist,” “wrecker,” or “traitor.” Having, then, a duty to discharge to the ecclesiastical position that I have the honor to hold, I felt that I could best indicate my strong view of the lamentable position of the Home Rule cause by what seemed to me a sufficiently striking indication of it, absolute abstention from everything that could be regarded _ as expressing concurrence in the course that was/being pursued. The country seemed to be satisfied with that course: —The Home Rule Act was on the Statute Book it could not be displaced or modified without “our” consent; the end of the war would automatically bring with it the reopening of our old Irish Parliament in College Green, and so on. As the necessary result of the abandonment of the policy of Independent Oppositionthe only policy that can be followed with safety by Irish representatives in the British House of Commons—our country is now face to face with a truly awful prospect. The Home Rule Act is still on the Statute Book. Will Irish Nationalists be any longer befooled by a repetition of the party cries that this fact makes them masters of the situation that the Act cannot be modified without Nationalist consent; and that Ireland awaits only the

- end of the war to find the portals of the Old House in College Green automatically opened for the entry of the members of a Parliament greater than Grattan’s ? P.S. —I cannot close this letter without expressing my amazement that the country has so long allowed its attention to be distracted with all sorts of side issues regarding the Irish Parliament that is to be, whilst an effective bar is kept up — this is what it comes to —against all real consideration of the question whether the Parliament that is to come to us is to be a Parliament in any sense worthy of the name.’ THE REVIVAL OF ANTI-IRISH ANIMUS. Sir Thomas Grattan Esmonde, M.P., in a letter to the press condemns and bewails the recrudescence of anti-Irish feeling as recently manifested in various parts of Great Britain, notably in Lincolnshire and the Lothians, as regards Irish harvesters, and at Motherwell with casual Irish migrants engaged on munitions. Sir Thomas says he has grown sick and tired of the abuse of Ireland in connection with the war, and wonders whether any sense of fair play is left in England so far as Ireland is concerned. He cites all that Ireland has done (and is doing) in the war, and asks what is she getting in return for such sacrifices. ‘Nothing but abusegross, cowardly abuse,’ —is his answer. Then he writes;—‘When I think of our glorious Irish regiments and their unacknowledged deeds of unsurpassed heroism; of our gallant Irish sailors, who, for two terrible years, have guarded the Empire, in stress and storm and danger, from the Arctic to the Antarctic; when I think of Flanders and France, and Gallipoli, and Servia, and Mesopotamia, and Egypt; of the landing at the Dardanelles, with its awful toll of Irish lives; of our splendid 10th Irish Division recklessly thrown away by British incompetency ; of the hundreds of Irish sailors who perished in the Jutland battle, 300 of them in two ships alone; when I think of our desolate Irish homes, of the unnumbered' Irish fathers and mothers and sons and daughters who have bravely and uncomplainingly given what they loved best on earth to the service of the Empire ask myself “What spirit possesses the anti-Irish when not even our children’s sacrifice will propitiate them?’ Sir Thomas has some title to complain (says the Edinburgh Catholic Herald). His eldest son, a bright, brave, promising officer, went down with his ship at Jutland, one of the tens of thousands of his race who have died gallantly in defence of Empire since the war began. And yet the ‘ Tougals ’ and the ‘ Tonals ’ of the Lanarkshire Constabulary have nothing better to do than pounce on some stray Irish migrant engaged in producing munitions and gaol him as if he were a felon. Why aren’t they fighting themselves? Their workof this kind—is by no means of Imperial importance. It is an Imperial disservice, souring, as Sir Grattan Esmonde’s letter shows, the feelings of Irishmen who have sacrificed their dearest interests and hopes in this life in the defence of a country which now shows so widely a disposition to renew and revive the old racial feud which w y e thought Irish bravery in this war had killed for ever. THE NATIONAL DIRECTORY. The meeting of the National Directory on Monday was the largest ever assembled (says the Freeman’s Journal of recent date). ( It was also one of the most enthusiastic. The gathering was thoroughly representative of the fighting forces of the Constitutional Movement upon which the cause of self-government, peace, and reconciliation depends in Ireland. The elected delegates of the various executives came together, not on an emergency call, but after long notice, to consider the question that had been thoroughly discussed in all its bearings, and to examine a policy that had been subjected to many weeks of incessant criticism and misi epresentation. , Yet with practical unanimity, with but two dissentientsone the representative of South Fermanagh and the other of East Tyrone the - Directory • endorsed the policy recommended by the - - f

Irish Leader and his colleagues and accepted by the Nationalists of Ulster, Upon the motion of the representative of Cork, supported by the representative of West Donegal, the Venerable Canon MacFadden, the following resolution was passed ‘ That this meeting of the National Directory, representing the supreme National authority in Ireland, having carefully considered the proposals of Mr. Lloyd George for the temporary and provisional settlement of the Irish difficulty, is of opinion that the proposals should be accepted, because, under present circumstances, they offer the best means of carrying on the fight for a united, self-governed Ireland ; and we desire to place on record that in coming to this conclusion we have been largely influenced by the wise and statesman-like decision come to by the delegates at the Belfast conference on the 23rd ultimo.’ There is no longer any doubt that this represents the considered judgment of the great ma jority of the Nationalists of Ireland. The stampede campaign of misrepresentation has definitely failed.