The Story of Ireland

New Zealand Tablet, 24 November 1921, Page 7

The Story of Ireland

(By A. M. Sullivan.) CHAPTER LXXXIV.- (Continued.) In three years-the movement for national autonomy swelled into a magnitude that startled the world. Never did a nation so strikingly manifest its will. About three million of, associates paid yearly towards the repeal association funds. As. many more were allied to the cause by'sympathy. Meetings to petition against the Union were at several places attended by six hundred thousand persons; by eight hundred thousand at two places; and by nearly a million at —Tara hill. All these gigantic demonstrations, about forty in number, were held without the slightest accident, or the slightest infringement of the peace. Order, sobriety, respect for the laws, were the watchword of the millions. .England was stripped of the slightest chance of deceiving! the world as to the,nature of her relations with Ireland. The people of Israel, with one voice, besought Pharaoh to let them go free; but the heart of Pharaoh was hard as stone.

O'Connell was not prepared for the obduracy of tyrannic strength which lie encountered. So completely was he impressed .with’ the conviction that the ministry must yield to the array of an almost unanimous people, that in 1843 lie committed himself to a specific promise and .solemn undertaking that “within six months” repeal would be an accomplished fact.

This fatal promise the /.gigantic error of his life suggested to the minister the sure means to effect the overthrow of O’Connell and his movement. To break the spell of his..-magic influence over the people—to destroy their hitherto' unshaken confidence in him—to publicly discredit is most solemn and formal covenant with them — (that if they would but keep the peace and obey his instructions, he would as surely as the sun shone on them, obtain repeal within six months) — was now necessary merely to hold out for six or twelve months longer, and by some bold stroke, even at the risk of a civil war, to fall upon O’Connell and his colleagues' with all the rigors of the law, and publicly degrade them.

This daring-and dangerous scheine Peel carried out. First he garrisoned the country with an overwhelming force, and thou, so far from yielding repeal, trampled ,on the constitution, challenged the people to war, prepared for a. massacre at Cloutarf—averted only .by - the : utmost - exertions of the popular leaders—and, finally, he had O’Connell and his colleagues publicly arraigned, tried, and convicted as conspirators, . and dragged to jail as criminals.

O'Connell's promise was defeated. His spell was broken from that hour. All the worse for England., . ' v '! ]MI All the worse for England, as crime is always, even where it wins present advantage, all the worse for those, who avail of it. For, what had England '."done?: Here was a man, the cornerstones of whose, policy, the first principles of whose 1. public teaching, were—loyalty*,- firm and fervent,,to the throne respect,' strict ; arid scrupulous, for the laws confidence 'in . the prevalence of ' reasoning force; ; reliance, complete arid exclusive, upon the efficacy: of peaceful, legal, and constitutional action. ,' 1 \ Yet this Avas the man whom -England prosecuted as a' conspirator! ■- These were the teachings she punished with fine and imprisonment! „ . - ~- , • ,'-,, v The Irish people, through O'Connell, had said, to Eng-

land “Let us reason this question. ; Let there be an end of resort to, force.” . England answered by a ;flourish' of the mailed hand. , She would have no reasoning on the subject!, She pointed to her armies and fleets, her arsenals and dockyards, her shotted gun and whetted sabre. w- .v.-: In that hour a silent revolution was wrought in the

popular mind’ of Ireland; Up to that moment 1 a peaceable, an amicable, a friendly settlement of the question between the two, countries, was easy enough. But now ! - ’ ‘ ’

The law lords in the British house of peers, by three votes to two, decided that the conviction of O’Connell and his colleagues was wrongful; Every one knew that. There was what the minister judged’ to be a- necessity” for showing that the Government could and would publicly defy arid degrade O’Connell by conviction and imprisonmeht, innocent, or guilty; and as this had been triumphantly accomplished, Peel cared not a jot that the full term of; punishment was thus cut short. O’Connell loft his prison cell a broken man. Overwhelming demonstrations of- unchanged affection and personal attachment poured in upon Him from his countrymen. Their faith in - his. devotion to Ireland was increased a hundred fold, but their faith in the efficacy of his policy, or the surety of his promises was gone.

He himself saw and felt it, and, marking the effect the government course had wrought Upon the new generation of Irishmen, he was troubled in soul. England had dared them to grapple with her power. .He trembled at thought of what the result might be in years to come. Already the young crop of Irish manhood had become recognisable as a distinct political elementa distinct school of thought and action: At the head of this party blazed a galaxy of genius-Poets, Orators, Scholars, Writers, and Organisers. It was the party of youth with its generous. impulses, its roseate hopes, its classic,models; its glorious daring, ;ts pure devotion.- The old man feared the issue between tin. hot blood and ;the cold stern tyranny that had shown its disregard for 1 law and conscience. Age was now heavily upon him, and moreover . there were those around him fill of jealousy against the young leaders of the Irish Gironde -r-f of envy of their brilliant genius, their public fame, their popular influence. The gloomiest forebodings arose to the old man’s mind; or were sedulously conjured up before it by those who surrounded-him, . i.

Soon a darker shade came to deepen the gloom that was settling on the horizon; of his future. Famineterrible and. merciless—fell upon the land. Or rather, one crop, out of the many grown on Irish soil —that one on which the masses of the people fed—perished; ' and it became plain .. the Government would' let. the -people, perish too. In 1846 the : long : spell of conservative rule,came to a close, ami the whigs came into office. . Place was once more to be had by facile. Catholic agitators; and now the Castle backstairs . was literally thronged with the old hacks of Irish agitation, filled with a fine glowing indignation against those "purists" of the new school who denied that it was a good thing to have friends": in: office. .7 Here was a new source of. division ; between the old;and new elements in Irish popular politics. O'Connell himself ; was' as far as ever from bending to the ' acceptance of personal. favor from the Government; but ; some of his near-relatives and long-time colleagues or subordinates in agitation, were one by one being "placed" by : . the Viceroy, amidst fierce invectives from the "Young ■ Ireland" party, as they were called. - • :> All these troubles seemed to be shaking from its foundations the mind of the old Tribune, who every day sunk more * and more into the hands of his personal adherents. He % became at length fully persuaded of the necessity of fettering the : young party. He framed a test declaration for'., members of the -association, repudiating, l disclaiming, der nouncing, and abhorring the use of physical force under any possible circumstances or in any \ age .or. country. ;• This monstrous absurdity showed' that the once glorious 'intellect; of O'Connell Was 7 gone. 'S: In his constant brooding over the r dangers -of an insurrection in which the people would be slaughtered like sheep, he struck upon this resort, ap- '■■■, % patently unable to see ; that it was opposed to all his own past teaching and practicenay, opposed to all law, human % and divine, that it frould f conserve and enthrone the most ; iniquitous tyrannies, 1 and render -4^ man the abject slave of y«poWe?.. -."'';, '- " The young party offered to take this test as far as

related to the present or the future ! of Ireland; . but they refused to stigmatise the : patriot ■ brave of ■: all history, who had bled and died for. liberty. This would not suffice, and the painful fact became clear enough that tho monstrous test resolutions 'were meant to drive them from the as- 1 sociation. On the 27th of July, 1846, the loung Ireland leaders, refusing a test which was a treason against truth, justice, arid liberty,, quitted Conciliation-Hall, and Irish Ireland was rent.into bitterly hostile parties. 7 r; 7' .' > '7:'--7 ; Not long afterwards the insidious disease, the approach of -which was proclaimed : clearly enough in O'Connell's recent proceedings—softening of the brain—laid the old chieftain low. He had felt the approach of dissolution, and set out on a pilgrimage that had been his lifelong : dream—a y visit to Rome. And assuredly a splendid welcome awaited him there; the first Catholic Layman in Europe, the -Emancipator', of seven millions of Catholics, the most illustrous Christian patriot of his age. But heaven decreed otherwise. A brighter welcome in a better land awaited the toil-worn soldier of faith and fatherland. At Marseilles, on his way to Rome, it became clear that a. crisis was at hand; yet he would fain push onward for the Eternal City. In Genoa the. Superb he breathed his last; bequeathing, with his dying breath, his body to Ire-, land, his heart to Pome, his soul, to God. All Christendom was plunged into mourning. The world poured its homage ;of respect above his bier. Ireland, the land for which he had lived and labored, nave him a. funeral nobly befitting his title of Uncrowned Mon<v*" , h. But nure honoring than funeral pageant, more worthy of his memory, was the abiding grief that fell upon the people who had loved him with such a deep devotion.

(To be continued.)