"IS ULSTER RIGHT ?"

Press, Volume L, Issue 14889, 31 January 1914, Page 9

"IS ULSTER RIGHT ?"

Nearly all that can be said for or against the Home Rule Bill has already been said, and even the latest and most important contributions fo the subject —Lord Loreburn's letter to "The Times," the pamphlet of "Pacificus" (Mr F. S. Oliver), Mr Balfour's pamphlet and Mr Redmond's reply to it leaves tho situation, in respect of the Bill, much where it was. We would not waste our space, therefore, on any notice N of a new contribution to the discussion of "the Irish question" which merely dealt with tho present Bill and the present situation. But a book has been issued by Murray ("Is Ulster Right?": By An Irishman) which deserves the attention of everyone who wants to know something of the fundamentals of "the Home. Rule problem," and there are stdl a good many peoplo who do care about foundations and backgrounds. The author sets out to remind the public of Britain that there is nothing whatever in the claim of the Home Rulers that Ireland is "an ancient nation," that the Nationalists of to-day are the representatives of the party that fought against Ireland's one Parliament, and that the Nationalist case rests on a perversion or sunpression of a multitude of indisputable facts. Ireland never was really a nation, eithor ethnologically or politically. The Celts were immigrants, who conquered and enslaved the Firbolgs; the Danes invaded and possessed the land later; and then wave after wave of immigration came from Ireland and Scotland, so that Sir J. Davies, writing before the Cromwellian settlement and tho infusion of French refugees from the persecutions by the Catholics, said that tho people of English descent outnumbered the Celts. Celtic Ireland was merely a welter of savagery. in which tho Celtic chieftains fought 'amongst themselves only moro violently than they fought when sacking, the* churches and slaughtering the clergy. The so-called "conquest" of Ireland by Henry 11. was no conquest at all, and the only state of society which the Normans found was a miserable barbarism which tho Normans strove to bring to a state of order. No good purpose can be served to-day by recalling, and contrasting, the religious persecutions by the ' Catholics in Europe, and the attempts made at various .times to punish and oppress Catholics in Ireland, but since Nationalist writers and speakers often suggest that the Catholics were ill-treatt-_. the author of the book is fully entitled to point out that all the Cromwellian barbarities put together did not equal a single one of the thousands of those in the lons wars on the "heretics" in Europe: that no one in Ireland was put to death for believing in transubstantiation. while in one diocese of Portugal alone 20,000 were sent to the stake for denying it; anu that during

the horrible dragonnades in Languedoo i_mis XlV.'_ Irish brigade .mo&tiy composed ot retugees jrotn tne penal laws at home) joined engeny in thc butchery of old men, women, und children, and tne burning ol wiiolo villages. These sad memories are of importance in tliat they are remembered by the Unionists in ulster, and give a lively colour to the prcscnt-dav zeal of the Nationalists to boycott those who will not support, the Nationalist movoment. It is not much over twenty-five years ago since John Bright, the "life-long ally of Gladstone, declared that he could not trust tho i»eace and interests of Ireland to tho Irish Parliamentary Party. "My six years' experience of them," he said, "of their language in the House of Commons, and their deeds in Ireland, makes it impossible for mo to consent to hand over to them the property and tlio right* of five millions of the Queen's subjects, our fellow-countrymen, in Ireland." The Nationalists havo not for some time used dynamite, but outrages are still committed, and, what is as effective as outrage, tho policy of boycotting still flourishes, and flourishes in the local government of Ireland. In 1893, when the County and District Councils -wore formed, Air Redmond indignantly protested that political and sectarian bitterness did not exist, and that under the new scheme of local government, "no man's politics or religion will be allowed to be a bar to him if ho desires to serre his country on ono of the new bodies." These assurances were soon shown to be worthless. The County Councils were nearly all liko that of Mayo, which formally passed a resolution congratulating the Boers on their defeats of "the troops of the pirate Saxon," and expressing the hope that Britain would fall "a s Babylon fell." In IDO2 tho "Freeman's Journal" (the principal Nationalist organ) advised that no landlord should be elected. Mr Redmond referred to the now system of elected Councils as a powerful "weapon" to carry on the Nationalist cause, by taking care, as a Nationalist M.P. said, to exclude the opponents of the Nationalist Party from any share in local government. But, indeed, no attempt is. made to conceal tho fact that the pre-sent-day representatives of the Fenians are as keen as ever they wero on running Ireland in tho interests only of themselves and their supporters. Just as the local Syndicalists threatened that if they could obtain control of tho country's affairs they would deal with their enemies, so Mr Dillon has formally stated the same thing on behalf of tho Nationalists. The conclusion of "an Irishman" is that the Unionists of ulster, and of tho rest of Ireland, have reason to fear that Home Rulo will mean tho pemecution of thoso who have opposed tho Home Rule movement. This, indeed, has been admitted by members of tho British Government, who, after all, cannot ignore the history of the movement during the past thirty years. • _"A_ £ nshma v's" volume is one which should bo studied by everyone who desires to understand the feelings of ulster. Tho writer has been indefatig-. able in his search for pertinent facts, and he presents them with much clearness and force. What gives special value to his book is his imnartialitv in condemning, irrespective of the party, every act of lnisgovernment. treachery outrage, and dishonesty in Ireland's history, and the judicial tone from which one would infer that tho author has had a long professional training in the weighing and examination of evidence. • (London: John Murray, Albermarle street, W.)