The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1923. IRELAND

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 1, 4 January 1923, Page 29

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, JANUARY 4, 1923. IRELAND

HERE is" lamentable confusion in Ireland t WllllSu o\ting to the civil strife still raging, and mLJ|P . there is also, at home and abroad, lamentable confusion of thought concerning the issues and their bearings. We Irish people are not particularly amenable to calm V reason when our sympathies are engaged " gP* and we are more- prone to follow the heart than the head even in grave problems. Recently we met a good man who refused to read a Home paper lest, as he admitted, he might find something in it to make him change his views. There are not many like him, but there are numbers whom logic and reason are unable to change once they have made their minds up, wrong or right, about a thing. Hence, . although we are going to attempt to make the facts of ' the situation clearer we have but little hope that whatever we say will convince against their wills those who prefer not to bo convinced. * ' . Let us begin by saying that many lose sight of the fact that many »nembers of the Free State Government, many of the Irish Bishops, and vast number? of the people are Republicans. Again, it must be kept clearly in mind that the bishops never did condemn the Republic. Hence, not only is advocacy of the Republic lawful but it is something that finds favor with probably the majority of the bishops, priests, and people of Ireland. Had de Valera made his protest and then, put himself at the head of a constitutional party, either within or out of the Bail, in a short time he would have had most of the people and practically all the' Bail supporting him. There would have been no murdering and looting and senseless destruction of the property, of the people of Ireland, but, on the other hand, there would have been steady progress and constantly increasing vigor throughout the whole Irish Nation. And, in five years, Ireland ■ would have had an army and equipment and stores which would have enabled her to call herself a Republic, or whatever else the majority preferred, with perfect impunity. Had that way been followed, there would have been no heed for protests from the Hierarchy, ■there would have been no civil strife, and no alienation -of the sympathy of the mass of the Irish' people in America . and -elsewhere. . That way would have been'; ■: .in accordance with the will of the people, and hence •it would have been ;,the 7^ lawful way ’as well' as the * secure ;way. 1 Now the men who knew best, that is 'men Ijke Collins and.Mulcahy and McKeown who . had

.been through all the - fighting,-, confessed that it ? was the only way. In all frankness both Collins and _ Mulcahy admitted^that they had . failed-, to drive , out \ the English, and we now know that-they had out nn a huge bluff for mqnths before the Treaty was signed. y Hence, although these men did not like it, they took the Treaty as .the. best thing obtainable' under the s.- circumstances and they determined to make the best of Bo not forget-—as is too often ‘ forgotten nowadays —that Collins, while urging the people to support the Treaty as he had promised to do—and it was, all he did promise— told the people that it' was their business to take or leave what he and / Griffith had brought them, and that if they did refuse to take it he would be with them as he was before. Like Griffith and Collins, the majority of the Bail took the Treaty and their choice was endorsed by the will of th% people. From that onwards.the Provisional Govern- - ment became, on established Christian ethical principles, the lawful Government of Ireland. It was still open for all who did not like it to fight it by constitutional means, but it was no longer lawful to use violence against these who were carrying out the will of the people. Instead of choosing* the lawful and constitutional way de Valera chose the unlawful; instead of the sure way he took the hopeless. He threatened that he would deluge Ireland in blood and would force the people to accept his views. ..We all know what followed and what ruin and sorrow it has brought on Ireland. Now, be it clearly noted, it was this armed tyranny of de Valera and, not his ideals that the Catholic Church condemned. •* ' * That is the position: nobody condemns advocacy of a Republic; but, as the custodians of the Law of God and as the divinely appointed guides of the people, the bishops condemn the violence and the crimes which have been the weapons of the men who neglected their chance and refused to follow the sane and lawful course which would have brought success. If we examine the conduct of the leaders at the time of the split, we find that Griffith and Collins and Mulcahy faced the situation honestly and candidly and did the best they could do for Ireland. It needed great and super? human courage to take the stand they took, but they had the courage to do it. There is nothing more ■ dishonorable than to accuse them of breaking their oath to the Republic when the people who make the accusation know perfectly well that de Valera -explained that in his view the oath only meant an oath to do the best that could be done for Ireland, which was exactly what they did. Collins said little to offend anybody, even when bitterly attacked but, once in a flash of anger Griffith flung at de Valera; “You begged me to get you out of the strait-jacket of the Republic.” De Valera in a passion denied this. But, on the evidence, it seems to us very : likely that Griffith told the truth. We know for one thing that de, Valera, sent us word from America to advocate Self-determina-tion. rather than the Republic; he was several times asked if he would take Dominion Home Rule, and he never once said that it was against his principles to do so; time and again he pretested that he was not wedded to the Republic; in Enniscorthy he said he did not like the idea of , a Republic;’ and, according to the Bishop of Sale, de Valera’s secretary said, shortly before the signing, of the Treaty, that they were willing, to accept much less than the Republic. A Add to all S this his constantly shifting and equivocation since last December, and the undeniable fact that many of the „ most unbending Republicans ' consider that he failed miserably and proved a broken reed in the crisis. . Set against all that the life-long devotion and honesty of Griffith and Mac Neill, not to speak of the others, and consider how the bishops who. Ifelned Sinn Fein in its. darkest days have thrown in their lot with the latter leaders; consider the fact ~ that de ’ Valera has ■A rejected the sound principle of Self-determination on . .. which , he built his entire case for , Ireland; remember ;'that there ‘ is no doubt that the; will of.'the people and M the ; voice of the Church are against his present tactics, and there you have all the premises needed for arriving ,-; at the only conclusion warranted by reason and true

patriotism. Personally, judging them on their record, we put Griffith and Mac Neill far 1 before de Valera; but beyond them all wo put Ireland, and apart from them ail we hold -that the best thing for Ireland at present is to support - the Free and make the best of it. The Treaty does not give Ireland, all her rights : that is certainly true. But it gives all she can get at present and a sure hope of building up her strength and healing her wounds. We believe that a string Free State is more desirable than a dead Nation, and the majority of the Bail and the vast majority of' the people thought so too. With those who hold (at a safe distance) that the Irish people ought to prefer extermination to the Free State we have no leisure for argument.