The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1922. IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 39, 5 October 1922, Page 25

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1922. IRELAND

#ECENT cables inform us that the Bail Eireami is carrying on in a determined and self-reliant manner. A large majority supports the Constitution and in Mr. Cosgrove a firm and clear-sighted leader has been found to succeed Arthur Griffith. R. Mulcahy, as head of the army, is a success as far as may be judged at this distance from the field of operation. No notable stand was anywhere made by the Irregulars against the National forces, and the excesses and violence of the former are more likely to bring about their defeat than the attacks of the Free State soldiers who have no heart in a war against Irishmen. As an example of the effect of such violence we here quote the opinion of one of the bid 1916 Republicans: “The damage to our national prestige and to the moral of Young Ireland will take long years to repair. The fanatical doctrine that fidelity to principles of Freedom puts one above all law, civil and ecclesiastical, is responsible for and alone makes intelligible the attitude of the Republican soldiers. . . Idealism is giving* place to Militarism and its consequent moral deterioration. , . I at times feel a sense of remorse for having been so prominently associated with a movement that ended so ingloriously. I can say from my heart: D online ad odjuvandum nos festiva !” * . From independent sources we learn that the vast majority of the people have become hardened by the senseless policy of destroying roads and public buildings, for the repair of which the Irish people must pay • and frequently old Republicans of the stamp of the one whom we have just quoted abandon the cause which has become identified with such madness. They clung to their ideal as long as they could, but like true Irishmen they put virtue and honor even before their highest notion of duty to their country. From many officers of the Republican army, and from various parts of the country letters have been written to the press pleading .for peace and for an end of a campaign which strikes directly at the Irish Nation. Indeed, the rank and file on both sides are sick of the fighting and from them peace may come any day. The civil war, so far as it can be called war, has gone in favor of the Free State forces, and although their guerilla tactics might enable the opposition to hold out for a long time, with the

country behind the Government the end can only be victory for its army. We place no great amount of confidence in the reports in the Dublin daily papers, but when such a sound and even severe critic as the . Leader admits at length that the situation has turned the corner and is promising well we must accept its verdict. From first to last, as during its entire existence of some twenty-five years, it has put the country before parties and Irish Ireland and the Irish people before leaders and their ideals and since the Treaty was signed its frank advice has been more wholesome than acceptable to those • most concerned in the domestic squabbling of the past half-year. Its view at present is that quite enough harm has been done to the country, and the sooner the Government gets on with the work of educational and economical reconstruction the better. Of . course Ireland is by no means out of the wood even now, and wo must have patience and no little hope for months to come. When we hear critics who say; “I told you so!” we must not forget to remind them that if there is demoralisation and trouble it is largely the result of the British misrule and of the refusal to give willingly five or ten, or twenty years ago what was finally wrung from England by force. In this connection we commend the following editorial opinion of the Manchester Guardian as worthy of study by supercilious scoffers at the Irish people: This last tragedy brings home only more poignantly the desperate follv and wickedness of the whole enterprise of which it is the latest outcome. These are' no blows inlicted by an outside power. It is Irishmen who are guilty of the blood of Irishmen, and it is Ireland’s own sons who are spreading ruin over the land. Well may Mr. Bernard Shaw, most profound of Nationalists, declare “this people is mad.” There will not be wanting those who will find in these things the fulfilment of all, and more than all, the evil they had foretold from the establishment of Irish self-govern-ment, and the justification of their own opposition. Those who have stood most strongly for the policy of Irish self-government and whose hopes for the fruits of emancipation had been highest need not therefore be abashed. Disappointment there well may be, but behind it should still stand faith and hope. What Ireland is suffering now, what we are suffering in sympathy with her, is in part at least our own doing. Emancipation any time since it was first proposed thirty-six years ago would, until the last six of them, have brought to Ireland, if freely accorded order and peace. We waited too long. We did more; two years ago we let murder loose in Ireland ,and murder once let loose is not easily chained up again. Thus before finding a solution for the Irish problem we contributed to it every element ' of exasperation. That may, in part at least, account for present evils ; it may also. give ground for believing that they are not destined to endure. Every movement is in some degree at the mercy of its leading men, and in this respect Ireland, as represented by the present leaders of revolt, could hardlv have been more unfortunate. But no folly, no recklessness on the part of a few men or of a faction can for long overbear the settled resolution of the community. Ireland .may have much trouble yet to go through, and perhaps we along with her, but there is no reason to doubt that in the end the judgment and the interests of the mass of her people will bring her to safety. * Finally let us recall that revolutions always bring turmoil in their train, and that it is not surprising that Ireland is no exception. Depending on the good sense of the mass of the people and on the prayers for their welfare offered up all over the world, we face the future with hop., and still believe in the truth of the fine old * motto; “There is no telling the destiny that God has in store for the family of the Gael.” 1 .

■ In, the .home, the spirit of unity and harmony 'must prevail. Let the members of the household be affectionate toward one another, having only one heart ' and one soul, not " saying or doing anything that may pain any one of them. A ■