FATHER DAY, S.J., ON IRISH FABRICATIONS

New Zealand Tablet, 24 February 1921, Page 35

FATHER DAY, S.J., ON IRISH FABRICATIONS

(By Shane Leslie, in the London Catholic Times.)

* At this moment, | when there is prospect of a truce and honorable negotiations taking place between England and Ireland, it behoves Catholics and Protestants, Irish and English, to moderate their sentiments and, if possible, 'while making clear their own witness and principles, to respect that of others and to seek only justice, bare justice for themselves and justice for their opponents in the controversy. .This cannot be done by wholesale generalisations. Father Henry Day, S.J., bears' witness to the justice and chivalry of the English troops in France, where he witnessed them personally for five years. But he obviously has not the qualifications of a witness in regard to what he calls “a most critical and dangerous defence of our Empire in Ireland.” Most Englishmen, if they saw what has happened in Ireland, would, to their credit, prefer to have no Empire at all than one maintained by some of the terrorisms which uniformed men have carried out on innocent people. While making exception of any acts of courtesy and chivalry which individual soldiers have attempted in the spirit of General Abgrcromby, who was dismissed the Irish Command because he said “I will never draw the sword on Paddy,” it is now obvious that a special force have had to be recruited to carry out in Ireland what ordinary regiments would refuse to do or only do with deep disgust. Granting that there may have been great exaggerations of what the “Black-and-Tans”,. have committed and I hope to Heaven that the most laid to their charge may be proved untrue for everybody’s sake, — yet if one deed, such as is recorded of Croke Park or Ardee, is true (I mention these as the only ones on which I have been sent personal witness) than it is an equal exaggeration on the other side when Father Day calls “on this country to reject neck and crop the whole brood of vile fabrications.” ; • Why Not Call for Investigation? It would be far wiser to call for. an impartial inquiry as to what is fabricated by both sides in Ireland-and what is not. Truth cannot be served until it is investigated and the world discovers which are the crimes and which are the reprisals. Reprisals are not necessarily without crime whether they are committed by uniformed troops or by a maddened peasantry. Murder is murder. The supreme law of God, before which the British Empire has to bow as -well as the Irish people, does not justify a single one of the violent deaths which have taken •place, in Ireland during the past two years, whether on the British or the Irish side. “Murder is murder,” as Lord Buckmaster said jxt the Albert Hall, and added that in his recent investigations into the Ten Commandments (grim laughter) he had found no exception to the Commandment against murder in favor of the Coalition Government (loud applause from an English audience). • • Moral Theology, which interprets the mercy, of the Church, can distinguish between different provocations to murder. The soldiers, who shot at the crowd at Croke ? rk, shot under orders. Their act lies on the commanding officers and more certainly on the Government, whose general instructions they were carrying out. On the other hand Moral Theology would not wholly condemn Irishmen, .who killed the troops who set their houses on fire and thereby exposed their women and children to the danger of winter exposure. I make these exceptions to show how important it is to make exceptions whatever one’s own views are.

If the Position were Reversed.

..-i-i I .wonder what. English newspapers would say supposing .Welsh or Scotch troops -were - quartered on English towns and performed the same actions that mixed troops have performed in Ireland. ' "' Father Day has; the right to his opinions and free speech to express them, -but when he refers to "the whole brood of vile fabrications" without making exceptions, he is making one of those sweeping generalisations, which, whether uttered on the British or the Irish side, stand in the way of historic truth and evidence being sifted. I do not wish to meet exaggeration with exaggeration. Mv witness may be second-hand, but I will refer Father Day to: the Irish. Bishops and especially to Cardinal Cogue's nntS AT, tioned Ardee and Croke Parka places on which I had been sent personal evidence. Ardee is the last place I stayed in in Ireland and with the parish priest. There is no quieter little Catholic town in Cardinal Logue's tTT\ H° T trSge , ° f a 7. Sort has been committed there and yet the rl shop 1 of my friend,. Mr. Dolan, a local anti- ? T Mm b . ee m looted by. troops called - whmS^ s ** Then last Tuesday week two men. were SfSf ?t? hj - men - a r ivin £ in lorries an <* s«ot without trial, t and ? all inquiry i S hushed up. I enclose the

printed account which is sent to V! me by my . friends -in » Ardee. (The Dunclalk Democrat, December 4, contains full particulars of the tragedies.)

What Happened at Croke Park.

As to Croke Park, I subjoin the letter of a priest to myself. “My brother was at the football match in Croke Park on Sunday; the incident is being almost hushed in the English press. The enclosure has concrete walls, with a stand and embankments inside. Without a word of warning the walls were scaled with ladders and shots poured in among the people, the two gates being held. My brother was through it all. . A man was killed beside him ; a child of ten was shot dead. My cousin was shot dead in his football jersey on the field, while all the time an officer shouted through a- megaphone “Let the murder gang come forth !’’. All were searched, and 30 revolvers among 15,0b0 people wasn’t a large amount. You may be sure that in a crowd like that nobody thought of firing one at an approaching crowd of armed .military and “Black-and-Tans.” Beside -my cousin’s dead body in the mortuary I saw that f dead;bdy; of 14, a street gamin, who had . boohed the Black-and-Tans,” while they were raiding in Capel Street, As my cousin lay dead on the field a girlj came in'-..from outside with a basin of water and a sponge. She had been looking at the match and was bleeding from a grazing bullet wound in the chin.” • , True and Justifiable or Fabrication? do stories like this one may add one of three comments. Either they are “vile fabrications,” or they are true and unjustifiable acts, or they are true and justifiable acts. Father Day would seem to cut the Gordian knot and sweep all aside as “vile fabrications.” An Englishman jealous for his country’s honor may be excused, if he does in the heat of. the moment. But his Government is less jealous for British honor, for it takes the line that such things as reprisals are true and justified. The bulk of English opinion, when faced by the facts, takes the second line that these things are true but unjustifiable, and therein lies the hope, of a truce and peace ; between the English and Irish peoples. The Government calls English Liberals, who attack reprisals, sham Gladstones, but who would not rather be a sham Gladstone than a sham Prussian, foi the acts of terrorism which uniformed men have performed in Ireland on innocent people have been the same''as the Prussians performed in Belgium and for the same reason. In the end the result will also be the same, for the same two influences, which condemned the German acts in Belgium, to-day condemn the British acts in ‘ Ireland, Catholic principle and world opinion. % The Peace Negotiations. I would not say more, for we are on the verge of peace negotiations and nobody, Irish- or English, has the right, whatever he feels, to add by sweeping generalisations to the confusion. Let each - condemn whatever proved crimes are committed for his cause, and try to make it possible for the leaders to conclude a Truce of God pending a final if honorable settlement.,