THE IRISH SPLIT.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 824, 24 May 1910, Page 5

THE IRISH SPLIT.

REDMONDITES AT O'BRIENITES' CENTRE. CLUBS ARE BEING PLAYED AT CORK. . AN M.P. INJURED. By TeleGrap'h—Press Association-Copyright London, ilay 22. A largo gathering of Redmondito Nationalists (members of the party of /X that follow Mr. John Redmond) is being held in Cork (the headquarters of the 11 Independent Nationalists, whoso leader, Mr. William O'Brien, topped the poll for Cork City). A crowd of 5000 people mot Mr. John .Redmond, Leader of tho party, and escorted him to his hotel. Thore was no disturbance at this stage of the proceedings. Mr. Redmond, in the course of a speech, said that tho solution of the constitutional crisis between the Commons and the Lords could not be indefinitely postponed. When tho Irish were granted Homo Rule the country would be as loyal as South Africa is under Homo Kulo. lie paid a tribute to the memory of tho- lafe King Edward. At a later stage there was a fierce free fight between members of tho rival Redmondito and O'Brienite factions. Clubs wero used. Mr. Daniel D. Sheehan, Independent Nationalist M.P. for Mid-Cork, was badly assaulted. [Mr. Sheehan is a journalist, a land reformer, and an advocate of the grievances of Irish rural labourers. In 1906 he defied tho authority of Mr. Redmond and resigned his seat (Mid-Cork), but i was re-elected, the Redmondites not caring to oppose. They opposed him in January, but he was returned by 825 votes.] STICKS, STONES, BOTTLES. THE INFIRMARIES VERY. BUST. (Rec. May 23, 10.40 p.m.) London, May 23. During the disturbances at Cork, sticks, stones, . and bottles wero freely used, i A hundred persons had to be treated in the infirmaries. COUNTERBLAST TO O'BRIENITE DEMONSTRATION. DIFFERENCE ,IN PROGRAMMES. A cablegram received earlier in tlje month stated that special police precautions were being taken to prevent disturbances at tho Redmondite gathering at Cork, because many farmers in sympathy with the Independent Nationalists intended visiting the city, in. the interest _ of the "All-for-Ireland" League, of which Mr. O'Brien is the moving spirit. At the January election Cork Citv (two seats) returned Mr. O'Brien and Jir. A. Kocke, . the latter being classed as a Redmondite. Of the seven Cork County seats, Independent Nationalists secured five, t and the Nationalists (Redmondite) retained the remaining two. The League's Objects. This Redmondite gathering in CoTk is evidently a counterblast to the O'Brienlite gathering there on March 31 last, when tho All-for-Irelan<l League was j inaugurated. lord Castletown attended i tho inaugural meeting of.' tho league, and Lord Dunraven (of Irish land reform and Devolution fame) wrote expressing his ' sympathy. The following resolution was i earned, on the motion of Mr. O'Brien, secondrf by Lord Castletown:— That, inasmuch as we regard self-gov-srnment in purely. Irish affairs, tho transfer of tho soil of Ireland to the cultivators upon just terms, and the relief }f Ireland from intolerable over-taxation is conditions of happiness and prosperity in our country, and further inasmuch as we believe the surest means of objects to be a combination pf all the elements of the Irish population of mutual tolerance and patriotic goodwill such as will guarantee to the Protestant minority of our fellowMuntrymen inviolable security for all their rights and liberties, and win tho Friendship- of the entire people of Great Britain, this representative meeting of the city and county of Cork hereby establishes an association to be called the All-For-Ireland League, whose primary object shall be tho union and active co-opera-tion m onr national life of all Irish men uid women who believe in the principle jf domestic self-government for Ireland." Equality with Protestants. In the course of his remarks, Mr. D'Brien said that "their opponents" (the Redmondites) proposed to wring Home Rule from England by making pariahs and eternal enemies of their Protestant fellow-countrymen, while they (tho O'Brienites) proposed to win it by ivelcoming them on a footing of perfect lemocratic equality to carcers of power ind distinction in the government of ■heir native land. (Cheers.) These were :he differences between their two programmes, and they need entertain no 'ear as to which would command success. Unionist Approval. Apropos this gathering of tho AU-for-Ireland O'Brienites, tho Dublin correspondent of a London Unionist paper writes:— "The occasion is ono that may havo a jreat bearing upon Irish and Imperial politics. land purchase has been put into operation and the agrarian lifnculty between i landlord and tenant iias ceased to embitter politics, a conciliatory spirit ha? manifested itself in the relations between Unionists and Nationalists. It is in tho -county of Fui' largest of tho Irish counties, that land purchase, partly owing to tho co-operation of representative men on sides, like Lord Dunraven and Mr. \\ illiain O'Brien, has been .most extensively and boneficontly carried out Consequently it is in tho county of Cork that tho conciliatory effects of the purchase scheme have been most largely manifested. The political result has been seen m the return as Parliamentary representatives in this part of Ireland of Independent Nationalists associated with Mr. O'Brien. : "The object of the' All-for-Ireland Leaguo is to extend throughout Ireland tho now political spirit and to brin" together men of all parties and religions 1 whose chief grounds of difference havo been removed, by land purchase, into common endeavour for Ireland's good Tho Leaguo recognises tho interests of the 30,000 enfranchised tenants. Loni D„ n _ raven and Mr. William O'Brien, Lord Castletown arid Mr. T. M. Healy, Colonel Hutchison Poo, and Mr. Maurico Healv many prominent Unionists, and most of Mr. O'Brien's Independent Parliamentary associates mil meet upon a common platform. Land Purchase, Not Socialism. "The organisation resigns nothing of tho Nationalist aspiration, but it differs from Mr. Redmond's party chiefly in that it is nioro concerned to promote tho interests of the Irish farmers than to agitato Irish political hostility towards England. Tho O'Brienites believe that land purchase will not only conduco to tho material advantage of the country, but will tend to tho unification of Irish opinion in favour of self-grvcrnmont, whereas the Nationalists fear that tho agrarian pacification may result in the weakening of the authority of their party organisation. "The meeting sees tho commencement of a struggle between the conservativo instincts of tho. Irish farmer who has become tho owner of tho land ho tills and tho Socialistic alliance to which tho Irish Nationalist leaders have committed their