The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, JULY 3, 1919. LIMERICK AND TREATIES

New Zealand Tablet, 3 July 1919, Page 25

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, JULY 3, 1919. LIMERICK AND TREATIES

fOR hundreds of years Irishmen and women have gone miles to see a ; block of stone on which the Treaty was signed after the Siege of Limerick. The sight of that rude mass, standing on a pedestal, immovable beside the hurrying waters of the Shannon, *s s scsg has been an inspiration. The stone itself is symbolical of the strength and the fixity of the spirit of Irish nationality, just as it is a reminder of the fact that it is criminal for Irishmen to trust the oath of any English politician. Limerick, famous as the City of the Broken Treaty, Limerick whose name was on the hot lips of the Brigade that smashed the English ranks at Fontenoy, Limerick which to Irishmen all over the world has long been associated with that stanza of Davis's The treaty broken ere the ink wherewith 'twas writ was dry, Their plundered homes, their ruined shrines, their ; women's 'parting cry, ~ , ' ...... ■■■:■■■ ■■ .-•-.. Their priesthood hunted Sown like wolves, their country . overthrown —• ~ ... .. . \ - has sprung to the front in Irish Ireland in a new way, and has become interesting to us all on account of the developments that have taken place there in the course of a small nation's fight for freedom against the champion of small nations. The Continental press, the honest papers of England and Scotland, are , sympathetic; and no doubt the King who ignored the protest of the Irish -officers, as he responded fulsomely to the address of the '■■ Orange gang who plotted with the Kaiser, once more prays for the mere Irish, as he did for the Sinn Feiners. ciriesai -v* ■• .. '■>■ : l j-+~ **■'**-_■* #.' • ■ ■ . .:.'.. The story of events in y Limerick .is . this. A man named Byrne was sentenced by I the champions of small nations (who never took away their - arms from the Orange rebels) ,to 12 months in gaol because a rusty pistol was found in his home. He became ill—as many

tf^^st-J 1 -,. i ..,*. s '."■'--•■ .':•- -•.'<■•'.:. . ; - ""■. oii-mmpa r m:ii --v. 10!. . " BY' : jprisdners do in British He was removed to-the'hospital. Knowing the effect a cheerful s environment has on a patient, the Huns sent a policeman and : a warder to sit by his sick bed in the -hospital J Ther -Sinn Feiners thought he would,, have ' 5 a better chalice of; recovering : in * other surroundings.W They cariie'io rescue him, A policeman shot the sick ; man 1 th# policeman was shot himself; * the prisoner made a dying';-' statement that £ it was the i policeman ■■ that was shot who shot him. Limerick was placed under martial law by MacPherson. The Labor leaders in Limerick took the Government at' its word. -Britain declared war on them; they practically declared war on Britain, and ignoring 'British: law and British military 1 force, they set about governing themselves. % MacPherson did the only sort of things that could occur to a'MacPherson. He sent down tanks and"' armored cars and airplanes to. add solemnity to the funeral of the prisoner whom the policeman had shot. Nobody took, any notice of;his expressions, of condolence. "In a week," says the Glasgow Observer, "by the mere device of ignoring British law arid British proclamation, British power in ; Eifnefick had been brought to nought." Commenting on the situation, the- New Witness says: "The general strike in Limerick as a protest against the proclaiming of the district as a military district and the threat to institute a general strike throughout Ireland must riot be : treated lightly. For this would not be the strike of a class, but of a nation. The effect would be to deprive England of a necessary part of her food supply, . . .Now,,apart from naval protection, there is no doubt that we need Ireland far more than Ireland needs us, and the drastic Sinn Fein action is the strongest stroke yet in the battle for Irish freedom. . . It is quite logical to say, 'We may deal together as freemen with freemen; you shall not deal with us as master with man.' What is the answer? To flood Ireland with bayonets and present a dead body instead of a free partner to, the Peace Conference ? The only other answer is to give Ireland her freedom. It is no use trying- to bribe her." Instead of being' reasonable - , arid recognising that America has made up its mind now that the ! hypocrisy of Great Britain is the outstanding fact of the war, the Orange and Jewish Government of the Empire goes oh with the same old game, and in ' the Tory press the old arguments of the forgers : and the crime-manufacturers are repeated. Here they are, in the words of the New Witness: '.'Since*"English rule induces disorder in Ireland, let "us have more and more English rule. Since the military occupation 1 of Ireland has turned many moderate men into -revolutionaries, let us send more troops across the Irish- -Sea. Since the British placemen have been the ruin of Ireland, let us have the incarnate placeman— Mr. MacPherson—as Chief. Secretary. Most comic of all is the expression of. fear that the Irish would not be ; able to govern themselves, when it is plain that we cannot govern them. Most dishonest of all is the argument that the murder of a policeman by X.Y-.Z. stamps the: whole movement for Irish self-government with the brand of crime. But every student of history knows that this has been the stock argument of all tyrants.. It. is an argument that will look rather silly at the Peace Conference, and, make no mistake about it, before the Peace Conference is over Ireland will be heard?":.^-^''';^' ?; ';';. j ■■■■f'.":'-' : '■_' . - ■ ' "■ * The Sinn Feiners were told that they were dreamers 1 . 'ln Limerick ', they retorted , by setting up a provisional Government, - just as Carson. did when he was. earning a seat ; in the British Cabinet. ' Limerick .has. made.its practical protest against the exercise of British law/founded on force arid . usurpation. The : first step in passive resistance has been taken. .''ln the course' of time we shall hear with what result: ,'■ In the. meantime*'we "must''.; 1 remember ; that ',;' 'the British.,.Empire. .'tyranny in : any shape or form," and that it' has fougliit: for "the right of small nations to determine th'&r form of government," What puzzles us is that tfee English are 1 amazed that Irish people' should DS,_sji„j.o.Qiian._as.. to...tjuink % they.,, meant, what—they-- said.

when in that "mariner. Which all Brings us back again to'the stone beside the i Shannon, which is the; lasting warning that it is s madness to take a treaty seriously. Ring your bells, discharge your 1 rockets, make your speeches. We have ii made peace! So, at any rate, say Messrs. Mond, Isaacs, Rothschild, Eckstein, Speyer, Beit, and Wenkher. But does anybody say that we v "have made ; the ; world safe for democracy " or woofer small nations the right of a people 5 to choose their own form of government? And : will the German nonentities," who alone would n sign, 7 be any more likely to keep faith than were the people who once signed a treaty on a stone beside' the Shannon« For more reasons than one we hear to-day, across the bloodstained, years, the cry, "Remember Limerick I"