The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1922. IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, 12 January 1922, Page 25

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1922. IRELAND

fA S® ■" 0 doubt it was with a sense of relief that most 9 of us learned that Dail Eireann had ratified * the treaty. The terms were not all that could be desired, but they were a wonderP ful advance on anything ever before offered to Ireland. To us it still seems that the flaw is the partition of the country on lines ■'Vp 6 that in the past were specially devised for the enslavement of the nation. However, as Dr. Mcßory, the Bishop of Down and Connor, seems to consider that acceptance was the wisest course, other people ought to be'satisfied also. It is quite true that the voting of the Dail did not represent the views of the h people. We have been assured by a cable from Dr. Fogarty that the people of Ireland were united in favor of acceptance. So that what has been done has been done by the will of the people. * Stir git (dijii.id. While we have every reason to regard the terms of the settlement as a victory, it is sad to have ..to admit that the peace divided those who stood so manfully together during the years of terror ■ since 1916. The cables that, making all due allowance for exaggeration, inform us that the debates were marked by Bitterness and personalities have been pain-, . ful reading. De Valera’s fight to the end for his principles was to our mind one of the finest things in history, / and we trust that future generations of Irishmen will appreciate his noble stand. He rose to a higher plane than any leader ,of whom we have read, and possibly , if the people had been able to follow him all that he hoped for might have been won. But a nation is made ' up of men and women who are not de Valeras, and the wives who have endured separation from their husbands for years, and the mothers whose boys have been hunted like wild animals on the hills, were weary and sick of the strife. Recent letters from friends in Ireland assured us of this fact, and we can well understand that the settlement brought great relief to the whole Irish people. •' * All things considered we have great reason to rejoice, and to look forward to a new era of prosperity for, Ireland. For the first, time since Grattan’s Parlia-

meat, Irishmen have the control of their own country, and we hope and pray that the differences and disputes ct the past few weeks will all be forgotten, and that they who worked so bravely for the past five years will unite and carry on the march of the nation to its fullest development.