Constitution of the Irish Free State ARTICLES OF AGREEMENT

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 50, 28 December 1922, Page 18

Constitution of the Irish Free State ARTICLES OF AGREEMENT

In the agreement, which* ,is entitled “The Treaty between Great,Britain and Ireland,” signed on December 6, the first article states: Ireland shall have the same constitutional . status in the comity of nations known as the British Empire, as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, with a Parliament having powers to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of Ireland, and an executive' responsible to that Parliament, and shall be styled the Irish Free State.

The second article states: Subject to the provisions hereinafter stated, the position of the Irish Free State in relation to the Imperial Parliament shall be that of Canada.

Article three states; The representative of the Crown in Ireland shall be appointed in like manner to the Gov-ernor-General of Canada.

The fourth article gives the text of the oath as follows : ' .

I do solemnly swear my true faith and allegiance to

the constitution of the Irish Free State ,as by law established, and that I will be faithful to George V., his Heirs and successors, in virtue of the common citizenship of Ireland with Great Britain and her adherence to the membership of the group of nations forming the British Commonwealth of

nations.

The fifth article states: The Irish Free State shall asmerits liability in the public debt to the United Kingdom to the present" date, and the payment of war pensions in such proportion as may be fair and equitable, the amount being determined in default of an agreement by arbitration by independent citizens of the Empire.

Article six: Until an arrangement is made between the British and Irish Governments, by which the Free State undertakes its own coastal defence, the sea defence of Great Britain and Ireland shall be undertaken by his Majesty’s'imperial forces. This does not prevent Ireland from maintaining vessels which are necessary for the protection of its revenue and fisheries. This article to be reviewed five years hence with a view to Ireland undertaking a share in her own coastal defence.

Article seven: The Irish Government shall afford his Majesty’s Imperial forces in time of peace harbor and other facilities, and in time of Avar or strained relations with a foreign Power such harbor and other facilities as Great Britain may require for purposes of defence.

Article eight: With a .view to securing the observance of the principle of the international , limitation of armaments, if the Irish Government establishes a .military defence force, the establishments thereof shall not exceed such proportion of the British establishments as that which the population of Ireland bears to the population of Great Britain. . ’" , --

Article nine; The ports of Britain and the Irish Free State shall be freely open to the ships of- other countries on payment of the customary port dues. ' ,

■ ' Article 10: The Irish Government agrees to pay fair compensation, not .Jess, favorable than the Act of 1920, to judges, ..officials,*'police, and other public servants who are discharged or are retiring in consequence of the change of Government. This agreement does not* apply to members of the auxiliary police force or persons recruited in Great Britain fpr the ; Irish Constabulary during the last two years.. The British Government assumes the responsibility for such compensation. .

Article II: Until the expiration of a month from the passing of .the Act Snd Parliament, ratifying the treaty, the • powers of the Irish Free ’State shall not be exercisable in respect to northern Ireland, and the provisions of the 1920 Act relating to Northern Ireland , shall remain in full; force. No election shall * be held for the return of members to serve in the Parliament of the Free State for

the constituencies of Northern Ireland unless both Houses in Northern Ireland pass a resolution in favor of holding such elections before the end of the said month. V 1

Article 12 : If before the expiration of the said month both Houses of the Northern Parliament present an address to his Majesty, the powers of Parliament and the government of the Free State shall no longer extend to Northern Ireland, and the provisions of the Act of 1920, including those relating to the Council of Ireland, shall' so far as they ..relate tosNorthern Ireland, continue in full force, provided, if such address is presented, a commission of three people, one Appointed by the Free State, another by. Northern Ireland, and the third' (the chairman) appointed by the i British Government, shall determine in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants, so far as they may be compatible with the economic and geographical conditions, the boundaries between Northern and the rest of Ireland, such boundary to apply for the purposes of the 1920 Act, as well as this instrument. Article 13: -For the purposes of the foregoing article, the powers of the Parliament of Southern Ireland, under the Act of 1920, to elect the members of the Council of Ireland, shall be exercised by the Parliament of the Free State.

Article 14: If no address is presented in a month, the Parliament and the Government of Northern Ireland shall continue to exercise the powers conferred by the 1920 Act, but the Parliament and the Government of the Free State shall, in Northern Ireland, have, in relation to matters in respect whereof the Parliament of Northern Ireland has not power to make laws, the same powers as in ,the rest of Ireland, including matters which, under the 1920 Act, are within the jurisdiction of the Council of Ireland.

Article 15: Any time hereinafter the Government of Northern Ireland and the Provincial Government of Southern Ireland, hereinafter constituted, may meet for the purposes of discussing the provisions, including the following: (a) Safeguards regarding . patronage in Northern Ireland (b) safeguards regarding revenue of Northern Ireland; (c) safeguards regarding the import and export duties affecting trade and industry in Northern Ireland; (d) safeguards for the minorities in Northern Ireland; (e) the settlement of financial relations between Northern Ireland and the Free State; (f) the establishment : of the poAvers 7 of a local militia in Northern Ireland and the relation of the defence forces of the Free State and of northern eland respectively. 'lf at any such meeting the provisions are agreed on they shall have effect as if they were included among the provisions set out in Article 14. ’ ‘ ,

Article 16: Neither the Parliament of the Free State nor of Northern Ireland shall make any law, directly or indirectly, endorsing any religion or- prohibition, restricting the free exercise thereof, or give any preference or impose any disability on account of religious belief or religious status, or affect prejudicially the right of any child to attend a school receiving public,, money without attending religious instruction at the school. The shall not make any discrimination respecting State * aid between schools under, the management of the different religious denominations,, or divert from any religious denomination or educational institution any of its property except for public utility purposes, and after the payment of compensation. -7" ’ -:v ~: : :

'Article 17: As provisional arrangement for the administration of Southern Ireland during the interval between.the present time and the constitution of the Parliament, and Government ; of - the Free State, steps shall be taken forthwith to. summon a meeting of members of the Parliament elected for the constituencies of Southern Ireland since the ; 1920 Act, .and constituting a Provisional

Government. The British Government shall take the steps necessary v to -transfer to such Provisional Government the powers and machinery requisite to discharge its duties, provided every member of the Provisional Government shall signify in writing his or her acceptance of this instrument. This arrangement shall not continue in force longer than one year. x • 0 ' •, \

Article 18: This instrument shall be submitted forthwith for approval by the British Parliament and by the Irish signatories to a meeting of the members elected to sit in the House of Commons in Southern Ireland and if approved it shall be ratified by the necessary legislation.

The treaty was signed by Mr. Lloyd George, Lord Birkenhead, Mr. Churchill; Sir L. Worthington Evans, Sir Hamar Greenwood, Sir Gordon Hgwagt, Mr. Arthur Griffith, Mr. Michael Collins, Mr. R. 6. Barton, and . Mr,... Gavan Duffy. \ *

losagan

(Translated from the Irish of ,P. H. Pearse, by Rev. A. T. .Fitzgerald, O.F.M.) V -~.

. Old Mathias was sitting by his door. Anybody going the road would think* that it was an image of, stone or marble that was in it—(fiat of a corpse — he wouldn’t believe that a living man could stay so motionless, so quiet. He had his head bent and he was listening. It’s many , a musical sound was to be heard by anyone who would heed it. , Old Mathias heard the moaning of the waves on the rocks.and the murmuring of the brook over the stones. E(e heajjdi the cry of the heron from the beach and the lowing of the cows from the booley and the merry laughter of the children from the green. Yet to none of these was he listening so intentlysweet though they all were to himbut to the clear liquid voice of the Mass-bell coming to him with the wind in the stillness of the morning. " The people had all gone' to Mass. Old Mathias had seen them go by him, one by one or in groups. The little lads were running and jumping. The girleens were engaged in lively chatter. The women conversing in subdued tones. The men were silent. Like that they went the .road every Sunday. Like that old Mathias would,sit in ]his chair looking at them till they went out of sight.

They went by him this particular morning as usual. 'The old man kept looking at them till the last batch had (cleared the churchyard • rise, till there was nothing to be •.seen but a long straight road stretching out white, till there was not a soul left in* the village but an odd old bedridden 'person, the children playing on the green, and ihimself sitting at his door. /

: . Old Mathias used not to go to the chapel. -He had mot heard the “sweet Mass” for three score years and more. He was a young - stripling, swift and strong, the last time he blessed himself in the presence of the people, ;and now he was a withered, wasted old man, his hair grey, wrinkles' on his forehead, and his shoulders stooped. He. Ihad never bent a knee before God during all those three score years; never offered up a prayer to his Creator; never given thanks to his Saviour. A man apart was old Mathias. - / - "''7 ‘

_ Nobody , y kneAV why he . did not go to Mass. People said he did not believe there was a God at all. Others said he had done some awful sin in the beginning of his life, and when tho - priest wouldn’t give him absolution in con- - fession a fit of anger came on him and he swore that while he lived he would never have anything to do with priest or chapel again. Some others —but this only in a whisper at the fireside, when the old people would be con- ■' vversing among themselves, after the children had gone to bed—that he had sold his soul to a certain Big Man whom he had met one day on the top of Knockadhav, and that this One wouldn’t suffer him to attend Mass.

I don’t know whether these reports were true or false, but what I do know is that in the memory of the oldest person.,in the village old Mathias had never been seen'at the Mass of God. Cumari O’Nee, an old man who had

- * “losagan,” pronounced “Eesagaun,” is a title of •endearment and means little Jesus. It is the diminutive •of losa (Eesa), as the German Jesuleih and the Italian 'Gesulino. - " • ... . <• :

died a couple of years before : that at the age of ninety, said that he himself saw him there when he was a lad. '

Let it not be thought that old Mathias was a bad man. * He was as decent and-guileless and good-hearted a ; man as you’d meet in a day’s walk. You’d never hear anything-' but the good word from his mouth. He wasn’t given to drink, nor was. he fond of company or gold or gear. He was poor, but it’s ,often he shared with those who were poorer than himself. He had sympathy for the sickly, and mercy for the unfortunate. Other men had both regard and esteem for him. Women and children and even animals loved him, and he them, and everything that was lovable and clean-hearted.

Old Mathias would rather be conversing with women than Ayith men. But he’d rather be conversing with little boys and girls' than with either a man or a woman. He used to say that women have more understanding than men and children more understanding than either. It’s in the company of little folk he’d pass the most of his spare' time. He’d sit down with them in a corner of the house telling them stories or getting stories out of them. It’s wonderful the stories he had. He had the adventures of the Grey Garron the nicest in the world. He was the only old person in the village that had the story of the Kite and the Wren right. Isn’t it himself would put’ fear into the children when he’d imitate the fu fa feasog of the twoheaded giant, and ’tis he would knock peals of laughter out of them telling them the Adventure of the Piper in the Snail’s Castle. And the songs he had I' He could lull a, sick child to sleep with his

Shoneen sho and sleep, my pet. The fairy host is walking the glen.

Or he could put the full of the house of children in stitches of laughter with his . .

Hy diddle dum, the cat- and his mother 0 That went off to Galway astride on a drake 0 I

And isn’t it himself had the funny old rhymes, and the hard puzzles, and the lovely riddles. And as for games—where was the person, man, woman, or child, that could keep up Lurabog, Larabog, or the Buidhean Balbh with him

In the fine weather it’s on the hillside or walking the bog you d see old Mathias and his little comradeshe explaining to them how the ,ants and the wise woodlice lived, or making up stories about the hedgehog and the red squirrel. Another time it’s boating they’d be, the old man with one oar and some little boy with another, and maybe a little girl steering. It’s often the people who would be at work near would hear the joyous shouts of the children wafted to them from the mouth of the bay, or perhaps the voice of old Mathias, and he singing an air— ■

Oro my curragheen, 01 And oro my boateen —

or something else like that.

Some of the mothers began to fear now and then, and they’d say to each other that it wasn’t right for them to be letting the children pass so much time with old Mathias, “a man that cared nothing for priest 1 ", or Mass.” On one occasion a woman of them confided these thoughts to Father John. And it’s what the priest said \ “Don’t mind the poor children,” says he. ■: “They couldn’t be in better company.” “But I’m told that he doesn’t believe in God, Father.” “It’s many the saint is in heaven to-day that didn’t believe in God at one time of his life. And whisper. If old Mathias has no love for God—a thing that you or I don’t know- it’s wonderful the love he has for the purest and most beautiful thing created by God— .. bright, shining .soul of a child. Our Saviour Himself ." had the same love for them, and so had the highest saints in Heaven, y How do we know that it won’t be children who ill draw old Mathias to the knee of Our Saviour ?” And ’tAvas left at that. - - On this Sunday the old man stayed, listening until .the bell for Mass stopped ringing. - When it had finished he gave - a sigh like a person who. would be 1 tired and lonely, a , n( h ace d -up to a group of children who .were . playing for themselves on the , patch of grass—the. green; old Math-

for themselves on ' the patch of grass — green, old Mathias would- call it—at the cross-roads. Old Mathias. knew every curly-headed, barefooted one of them. He wouldn’t ask for finer pastime than to be sitting there looking on at them and listening to them. He was counting them, seeing what friends of his were there and what ' ones of them had gone to Mass with the grown-up people, when he noticed a child in their midst whom he had never seen before. A little brown-haired fellow with a white- dress on him like was on every other child of them, and he without boot or hat, as is customary with the children of the West. The face of the child was as bright as the sun, and it seemed to old Mathias as if there were rays of light coming from his head—the sun shining on his hair, maybe. .

On seeing this child old Mathias wondered, for he hadn’t heard that_any strangers were after coming to the village. He was just going over to ask one of the little lads about him when he heard the buzz and clatter of the people coming home from Mass. He hadn’t felt the time slipping by, he was so taken up with the children’s sport. Some of the people bid him good-day as they went- by, and he bid good-day to them. When he turned his eyes on the group of children again the little strange child wasn’t with them. " -• ’

The Sunday after that old Mathias was .sitting at the door as usual. The people had gone over to Mass. The little folk were running and leaping on the green. And the little strange child was running and leaping with them. Old Mathias sat looking at him for a long time, for he gave the love of his heart to him on account of the beauty of his person and the brightness of his countenance. At last he called down to one of the little boys:

“Who’s that child I see with you for the last fortnight, Coleen?” said he, “that one with the brown head of hair — maybe it’s white-red it —I don’t know whether it’s dark or fair with the way the sun is shining on it. Do you see him now — that is running up to us?” “That’s losagan,” says the little fellow.

“losagan ?”

“That’s the name he calls himself.”

“Who do ye think he is?”

“I don’t know, but he says that his father is a king.”

“Where does he live?”

“He didn’t ever tell us that, *but he says that his house isn’t far from us.”

“Does he be along with ye often?”

“He does, when we do be at pastimes like this. But he goes away from us when any grown-up people come among us. Look, he’s gone already.” ...

The old man looked, but there was no one there but the children he knew. The child whom the little boy called losagan was missing. ' The same moment the hum and bustle of the people-coming from Mass were heard.

The next Sunday everything . happened as on the Sunday before. The people had gathered as usual, and the old man and the children were left to themselves in the village. Old Mathias’s heart gave a jump in his breast when he saw the holy child in their midst again. He arose. He went over and stood near him. After standing there a little while he stretched out his hands towards him and said in a low voice:

“losagan.”

The child heard him and came running over to him. “Come here and sit on my knee a little while, losagan.” The child put his hand in the thin, knotty hand of the old man, and they went side by side across the road. Old Mathias sat in his chair, and drew losagan to his breast. ... “Where do you live, losagan?” said he, still speaking in a low voice. v

“My house isn’t far from here. Why don’t you come to visit me?”

i “I’d be afraid in a king’s house. I’m told your father is a king.” ,7; - .

“He is. the High-King of the world. But there’s no need for you to be afraid of him. He is full of mercy and love.” . .- -

“I’m afraid that I haven’t kept His law, , Vr-- “Ask 0 pardon from Him. Myself and my Mother will make intercession for you. 7 * - ’ - /I m sorry I haven’t seen you before this, losagan. Where were you from me?” ’-•‘7 7 ..7.--"--.. 7■ 7 ■; 7 - “I was here always. Igo the roads, and walk the hills’, and glide over the waves. I am among the people when

they are gathered together in my House. I am among the children they leave behind (playing on the road.”

77’ “I was too timid —or maybe too proudto go into your House, losagan; but I found you among the children.”

“There’s no time, nor place where the children are playing for themselves, that I don’t be with them. Sometimes they see me and other times they do not.”

“I didn’t see you till lately.” : “Grown-up people are blind.” “And for all that I was let see you, losagan?” “My Father has given me leave to reveal myself to

you, because you love little children.”

The voices of the people returning from Mass were heard, ■ - 7 '

“I must be going from you now.”

“Let me kiss the hem of your robe, losagan.” “Do.” ■

“Will I see you again?” “You will.”

“When?”

“To-night.”

At that word he was gone.

“I will see him to-night,” said old Mathias, and he going into his house.

The night came on wet and stormy. The big breakers were heard booming on the shore. The trees around the chapel were waving and bending with the violence of the wind. (The chapel is on a height which slopes down to the sea.) Father John was about to shut his book to say his rosary when he heard a sound as if some one ere knocking at the door. He listened for a while., He heard the sound again. He got up from the fire, he went to the door and opened it.. There was-a little boy standing on the threshold of the doora little boy the priest never remembered to have seen before. There was a little white dress. on him, and he without boots or hat. It seemed to the priest as if there were rays of coming from his face and playing around his —the moon shining on his comely brown head, maybe.

“Whom have I here?” said the priest.

“Get ready as quickly as you can, Father, and hurry down to old Mathias’s house. He is at death’s door.”

The priest did not wait for the second word.

“Sit in here till I’m ready, said he. But when he came back the little messenger was gone.

Father John faced down the road, and he wasn’t long putting it past him, although the wind was against him, and it raining heavily. There was light in old Mathias’s house before him. He -lifted the latch of the door and went in. -

“Who is that coming to me?” said the voice from the old man’s bed.

“The priest,”

“I would like to speak to you, father. Sit here, near me.” -

The voice was weak and the words came slowly.

The priest sat down and heard the old man’s story from first to last. Whatever secret was in the old man’s heart was told to God’s servant there in the middle of the night. When the confession was over, old Mathias received the Body of Christ, and he was anointed.

- “Who told you that I wanted yoh, father?” said he in a low, weak voice, when everything was done. “I was praying to God that you’d come, but I had no messenger to send for you.”

“But you did send a messenger to me, didn’t you?” said the priest, and great wonder on him.

“I did hot.”

“You did not? But'a little boy came and knocked at my door and said that you wanted my help?”

The old man stretched forward in his bed. There was a brightness in his eyes.

“What sort of a little boy was he, father?”

“A gentle little lad with a white dress on him.” “Did you notice as if there was a circle of light round

his head?” . 77. . / i. ,7. '7 “I did, and it put great wonder, on me.”

Old Mathias looked up, a smile came to his lips, and he put out his two hands 7-. . J

“losagan,” said he. : . ■,- ' - “ With, that word he fell back in the bed. The priest

stretched gently towards him and closed his esf&.