IRISH NEWS

New Zealand Tablet, 8 December 1921, Page 35

IRISH NEWS

REVIEW OF EVENTS IN IRELAND. The following is a brief review of events in Ireland from Sunday, September 18, to Saturday midnight, September 24, 1921, as given in the Irish Bulletin : Peace Correspondence.—No progress was made in the period under review towards finding a basis for a Conference between the British and Irish peoples. Two further communications were added to the Peace correspondence. On Sunday, the 18th, Mr. Lloyd Geirge telegraphed to President de Valera that he was prepared to meet him as the “chosen spokesman” for the Irish people “to discuss the association of Ireland with the British Commonwealth.” He repeated that he could not meet the Irish delegates as the representatives of a Sovereign State. Unless the paragraph in President de Valera’s letter of September 12, asserting Ireland’s sovereignity were withdrawn, “conference between us is impossible.” To this telegram President de Valera replied on September 19 stating that at no time had he thought of asking the British Government to accept conditions precedent to a conference. It was as unreasonable for the Irish people to expect a preliminary recognition of the Republic as it was for the British Government to expect from the Irish people a preliminary recognition of British Authority. “A treaty of accommodation and association properly concluded between the peoples of these two islands and between Ireland and the group of States in the British Commonwealth, would, we believe, end the dispute forever,” To conclude such a treaty the representatives of the two peoples would have to meet. Such a meeting would be impossible if preliminary conditions involving a surrender of Ireland’s whole position were imposed. In view of the fact that a continuance'of the correspondence was merely confusing the issue, President de Valera asked for a definite statement as to whether the Premier’s letter of September 7 was an invitation to a conference “free on both sides and without prejudice should agreement not be reached,” or a demand for a surrender. If it was an invitation to a free conference “we,” said the President, “readily confirm our acceptance of the invitation.” This telegram was not replied to during the period under review. Message from American Bishops. —The Catholic Hierarchy of the United States of America sent a cablegram to Cardinal Logue on September 23 expressing sympathy with Ireland in her struggle, and good wishes for the result; and declaring that their hearts “were filled with pride when they saw the representatives of their race conduct themselves with a statesmanship that has challenged the admiration of the world.” Breaches of the Truce. —Some infringements of the terms of the Truce occurred during the week, the most flagrant being at Cork City, where on the night of Saturday 24, citizens were molested in Mac Curtain Street and subjected to rough treatment by a party of constabulary; and some hours later an I.R.A. police patrol, numbering five, were accosted near Patrick’s Bridge by a force of about 24 constables, called insulting names and beaten with revolvers and batons. One of the Republican police was stabbed in the arm with a bayonet and was removed for treatment to one of the city hospitals. An effort was made to throw another of the I.R.A. police into the river but he effected his escape. Reports of provocative conduct on the part of the British forces were received from Limerick City, Ballyneety and Rathkeale (Co. Limerick), Thurles (Co. Tipperary), and from Miltown-Malbay and Lisdoonvarna (Co. Clare). In Dublin on Thursday, 22nd, Auxiliary Police and “Black-and-Tan” Constabulary, raided and searched several ships in the port, and on the 23rd held up and searched passengers arriving from, England by mailboat, both at Dunlaoghaire and North Wall. An attempt to search one of the cargo ships at the Dublin jetties resulted in the dockers engaged in unloading the ship ceasing work, and refusing to resume it while the British forces remained on board. The latter were thereupon withdrawn! A similar incident

occurred at the North Wall, porters removing passengers’ ' luggage refusing to obey the directions of the searching party. At Belfast during the period under review the persecution of the Catholic minority continued, the appearance of British troops upon the streets being, it is feared, nothing more than a pretence at impartiality. No real effort was made to interfere with the British policy of engendering religious hatreds in Ireland. In spite of drastic curfew restrictions and stern proclamations by British Generals, the pogroms go on as merrily as ever, and the Catholic minority is left unprotected. A PROTESTANT VIEW. A noted English clergyman of the English Established Church, Rev. E. Judson Page, of Exeter, a man who has been a worker for world peace, has written to President de Valera a letter that is featured by the newspapers of the three kingdoms. He advises de Valera to establish Provincial Councils and he deplores the fact that the British Government has tried to stir up religious rancor in one corner of Ireland by dividing the country upon religious lines. “It says much for the Catholic South of Ireland,” writes this Protestant divine, “that previous to the disastrous condition into which coercion has driven the land, Protestants were accorded a share in local administration out of all proportion to their numbers. Instead of carrying this sound principle forward to the solution of the problems of the larger life of the land, the Government deliberately take the course of cutting right athwart it by falling back upon the discredited principle of sectarian division and strife.” AMERICA AND IRELAND. The American Hierarchy have sent a long cablegram to Cardinal Logue on Friday last couched in the following terms (writes the London correspondent of the Catholic Herald, of India, under date September 29): “Eminence, at this solemn hour of Irish history, We, the bishops of the United States assembled in Annual Conference, feel that it is our duty to testify to your Eminence and to your brothers of the Irish Episcopate, the assurance of our sympathy, our prayers and our wishes for a happy result from the consultations of the heads of your people. Now', less than ever, we cannot forget the immense debt the Church of this country owes to Ireland and her people. For more than a century millions of our race have come here, and by their strong faith and their generous and loyal aid they have edified the American Church of which all Christians are proud and which is the glory of our country, and though they became American citizens faithful to their flag, they have never permitted the love of the country of their fathers to bo extinguished in their hearts, although those fathers had departed from it never to return. During these later years also with disquietened hearts they have followed events with the hope that God in His wisdom would decree that Ireland should at length take her place amongst the Nations of the world, and during the last few weeks their hearts have been filled with pride to see the representatives of their race conduct themselves in a manner which has evoked the admiration of the entire world. At this critical hour when the whole future of Ireland is at stake, we would not compromise by a single word the result of the deliberations which the world has followed with so much interest. We pray, with all our people of all races and of all classes, that God in His wisdom will at length terminate the history of seven hundred years of persecution. We trust that this race, the most apostolic of all the people of God, may receive the recompense of all that she has done for the Church of America and obtain full satisfaction of her National aspirations. Finally, we pray that God will accord to you and your colleagues to see the golden age of Ireland and to find the Irish even more faithful in the enjoyment of the liberty which they have won in years of exile and waiting.” The cablegram is signed by Cardinal O’Connell and Dr. O’Connell, secretary of the Conference, -on behalf of the American Hierarchy. Cardinal Logue, in replying says that the magnanimous message of the Cardinals, Archbishops and Bishops of America profoundly touches the hearts of the Irish people, following as it does on the other splendid proofs of sympathy which America has sent to Ireland.