TERENCE MACSAVEENEY’S HEROIC LOVE OF COUNTRY.

New Zealand Tablet, 18 November 1920, Page 32

TERENCE MACSAVEENEY’S HEROIC LOVE OF COUNTRY.

It was truly a heroic love of country that actuated Lord Mayor Terence Mac Sweeney, the great Irishman who died the slow death of a hunger-striking patriot-martyr in a foreign' prison at Brixton, England. His “creed for Ireland” was formulated when he was elected Lord Mayor of Cork. His inauguration speech was: “I come here more as a soldier stepping into the breach than as an administrator to fill my post on the municipality. We see in the manner in which the late Lord Mayor was murdered an attempt to terrify ns all. Our first duty is to answer that threat in the only fitting manner; to show ourselves unterrified, cool and inflexible for the fulfilment of our chief purpose -the establishment of the independence and the integrity of our country and the peace and happiness of the Irish Republic. To that end 1 am here. “I was more closely associated than any one hero with my late murdered friend and colleague, both before and since the opening of the Irish war for independence, in prison and out, in the common work and love for Ireland, down to the day of his death. “That is the reason I take his place. It is, 1 think, a fitting answer to those who struck him down. “We discussed what ought to be done and what could be done, keeping in mind as duty bound not only the ideal line of action, but the line practicable at the moment as well. It will be my duty and steady purpose here to follow that line as faithfully as it lies in my power to do so. ■ Contest of Endurance. “This contest on our side is not one of rivalry and vengeance, but of endurance. It is not those- who can inflict the most, but those who can suffer the most, who will conquer, though we do not abrogate our function to demand that murderers and evil-doers be punished for their crimes. It is, conceivable that the army of occupation could stop our functioning for a time. Then it becomes simply a question of endurance. Those whose faith is strong will endure to the end in triumph. “The liberty for which we strive to-day is a sacred thing, inseparably entwined with that spiritual liberty for which the Saviour of Alan died and which is the foundation for all just government. "Takes Bravest and Best. “Because it is sacred and death for it is akin to the sacrifice on Calvary, following far off but constant to that divine example, in every generation our best and bravest have died. Sometimes in our grief we cry out the foolish and unthinking words, 'The sacrifice is too great.’ “But it is because they were our best and bravest that they had to die. No lesser sacrifice would save us. Because of it our struggle is holy. Our battle is sanctified by their blood. Our victory is assured by their martyrdom. “It isn't we who take innocent blood, but we offer it. sustained by the example of our immortal dead and that divine example which inspires us all for the redemption of our country. “Facing our enemy, we must declare our attitude simply. We set' in their regime a thing of evil incarnate. "With it there can be no parley any more than there can be a truce with the powers of hell. 1 Asks No Mercy. “This is our simple resolution. We ask no mercy, and wo will accept no compromise. But to the Divine Author of Mercy we appeal for strength to sustain us in our battle, whatever the persecution, that wo may bring our people to victory in the end. “The civilised world dares not look on indifferent while new tortures are being prepared for our country or they will see undermined the pillars of their own governments and the world involved in unimaginable anarchy. “But if the rulers of the earth fail ns we still have refuge in the Ruler of Heaven, and though to some the judgments of. God seem slow, they never fail and when they fall they arc overwhelming.”