IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLVI, Issue 18, 1 May 1919, Page 31

IRISH NEWS

- '*;> - •«'- ; GENERAL. f '"* '" ' : \" ;■ A series of important meetings have been held in Ireland to invite Mr. Wilson to visit the country. The bishops have everywhere identified themselves with-the invitation; The President/ however, in response to the invitations says his engagements are so pressing that a visit to Ireland is impossible. , ; What is left of. the Irish Party, will, according to the London correspondent of the Yorkshire Post, vote under Labor Party leadership, arranging by means of a consultative committee for Labor support of Home Rule, and a "toeing of the line" whenever there is the slightest chance of embarrassing the Government. Sir Thomas W. .Russell has ceased to be vicepresident of the Irish Department of Agriculture. Speaking to his officials, he said the first intimation he received of his removal was through a paragraph in the newspapers. When on a former occasion a change of government necessitated his removal from office, he had a charming letter of regret from Mr. Arthur Balfour. Other times, other manners. Sir T. W. Russell is succeeded by Mr. Hugh T. Barrie, M.P. The London Daily .News says: "No comment is necessary beyond the statement that Mr. Barrie is an Orangeman of the narrowest sect whose chief title to lame is that he ensured the sterility of the Irish Convention by his irreconcilable attitude as leader of the Northern Unionists: The department is the only one in which Nationalist Ireland takes much interest." AN IRISH CENTRE PARTY. (By an Occasional Contributor.) A dozen years ago, when people living in Ireland still believed that the Irish Party were prepared to act up to the professions they made regarding the powers to be entrusted to the proposed Irish Parliament, there arose a party in the country which believed that though self-government was essential to the future peace and prosperity of the country, yet the demands of Mr. Redmond and his followers were too extreme to be granted by any English Government. This party was very small, and indeed was mainly composed of converts from Unionism such as Lord Dunraven, Lord Pirrie, Lord Castledown, Sir John Keane, Sir T. O'Brien, and others. They believed that, the form of Home Rule to which there would be least objection was the Federal form, and they began a mild agitation in favor of it. That these men should have become Home Rulers in any form was a distinct-gain to the National forces if the official party could only see it, but they bade it no welcome. * Instead of encouraging it they poured ridicule and abuse on the-leaders. They did not see that a man who had changed his moorings on this question might, as a result of further education and experience, be induced to join up with the main body. The principal objection to the new Home Rulers was, it must be confessed, founded on very 1 ignoble -reasons. The new men were all men of standing and education and might in time oust some of the old futiles of the party from the parliamentary representation;, and these representatives, hoping to be victors in the constitutional campaign, had their eyes on the spoils. It was a common saying—" These men want ' to come in now and take our places after we have borne the burden and the heat of the day." For a whole year there was nothing but abuse —low, vulgar abuse at times—of Lord Dunraven who was regarded as the leader, as he certainly was one of the ablest men in Ireland. The federal movement ceased, but it must * be said the federalists were never driven into the Unionists' camp again. , $ j?i Since then there has been no attempt to form *i a new Centre Party till quite recently, and this time f Captain Stephen Gwynn;, has placed , himself at the head of a movement which occupies a central position between Sinn Fein and Carsonism. ' ,-._>.....

Early, in ) January last the . Daily News, which seems in touch’ with all Irish parties, informed its readers that Captain Gwynn, with the indomitable spirit ** that ' served ' him well in the? conduct of such forlorn hopes as recruiting and the Party candidature for Trinity College, Dublin, had embarked upon yet another campaign, this time for securing a Federal system of government within Ireland. Promises of support from prominent public men, Catholic and Protestant, who had so far taken no great share in politics, were very encouraging. Captain Gwynn’s idea, as he explained it to the correspondent, of how to get over Ulster’s objection to Home Rule and at the same time avoid partition, was to set up two (or perhaps three) State Governments within the island to be federated under a central government in Dublin, which would again be a unit of the Empire. He frankly admitted Ireland would not look at his plan so long as there was a possibility of a wider success being won at the Peace Conference, but if that failed he thought it would be well to have something to fall back upon besides partition. He concluded by telling the correspondent that the Sinn Fein Party had no objection to Ulster getting State rights on the condition that Ulster accepted the principle of an independent Irish nation. The most notable supporter of Captain Gwynn’s proposal so far is General Sir Hubert Gough, who has joined the committee of the new party. 1 Rightly or wrongly, General Gough has for long been regarded by the public as having secured, in a considerable measure, the triumph of Sir E. Carson’s movement in Ulster. His adhesion to the new Nationalist-cum-Southern

Unionist movement is regarded as a good and “picturesque” omen by his associates. In a letter to Captain Gwynn he writes; “Like other Irishmen I have felt that something must be done, and -that the policy of drift is only leading the country to moral, if not material ruin. . . . The main object we require to arrive at, in my mind, among Irishmen and in Ireland, is the feeling of brotherhood, comradeship, and respect for each other. Many of us, Irishmen, have learned that comradeship can exist and what brotherhood means in this war.”

A largely - tended meeting of the Southern Unionists was held in Dublin on January 24 to consider the new ■ situation. It is believed that a considerable number of this body under the ■ leadership of Lord Midleton will '-break away from the Unionist Party and join the new Central Party,, and moreover that as Lord French seems to have definitely taken his stand on the side of Home Rule for the whole of Ireland, all the wiser heads outside Ulster, will be driven to accept the inevitable.

The special correspondent' of the Daily News, commenting on the facts of this situation says—"l foresee during the next few months a gradual regrouping of the political forces within 1 Iceland, that may have a very marked effect upon the forces at work outside. It is by no means certain that even North-east Ulster is nearly so recalcitrant as she would like to appear to the outside world. Barring an explosion here, we may look, I think, for the appearance of an entirely new Government in the early summer which two-thirds of the country would be willing to work." I am afraid the correspondent is unduly optimistic. The dominant fact in Ireland is that Sinn Fein rules the situation. ■' Some form of government must be established in the near future, for the present state of affairs is a menace to the peace of the world. From all sources it is apparent that America is expressing itself strongly in favor of self-determination for Irelaud—the recent vote in Congress shows how strongly. How far America will go, how much the Peace Conference will do, whether Sinn Fein will compromiseall these are questions which nobody can answer. For information as to the future government of Ireland—whether it is to be a republic, a sovereign state within the empire, or a , subordinate^ state in a system of imperial federation—-we must await the event', but I do not think that a subordinate parliament will ever satisfy the. aspirations of the new Ireland that came into, being after Easter, .1916. "'''-'? -}'•':*?-'?r :