RE-MAKING OF IRELAND

Hokitika Guardian, 22 May 1928, Page 1

RE-MAKING OF IRELAND

Al OTOR -OMNIBUSES E YER YWII ERE DUBLIN. March 1. Every visit to Ireland since the treaty, which was signed six years ago, has confirmed my conviction that the tilings which Irishmen arc really capable of producing are infinite varieties of surprises. AYith an international reputation for its dear dirt until a few years ago, Dublin to-day is one of best-paved, cleanest, and ost efficiently managed cities in Europe. Three young men acting as City Commissioners for- the Government have tackled the tenement slum problem with amazing vigour and effect. They have covered hundreds of acres surrounding the city with modern picturesque workers’ dwellings and miles of suburban roads at a cost exceeding £2,000,000. ELEGANT DUBLIN. New hotels, restaurants, cinemapalaces, and dance-balls equal to anything in England have sprung up with surprising rapidity. Three years ago men gathered for passionate wordy battles as to the politics of Cosgrave and Do Valera. Now, if one wants to raise the old fire the challenge must be about the Shannon electricity scheme, or sugar beet, or the relative merits of tramway-cars and omnibuses.

Ireland is faced with a steadily rising tide of European ideas which relentlessly invades even the agricultural areas of the Atlantic seaboard in terms of gramophones, silk stockings, and wireless sets.

JEALOUS BELFAST. In Northern Ireland changes are different but not less dramatic. Belfast, growing jealous of Dublin’s civic advance, has forgotten about the Pope, and reserves its imprecations for those who muddle its municipal affairs. The development of road transport is the most striking of the recent departures. I have covered some hundreds of miles in vehicles which are at least as comfortable as any I have used in England. Not only in the more thickly populated areas, but also through the remotest parts of the South and West, thousands of miles of rapidly improving roads daily accommodate omnibus services which bring hitherto isolated farms into direct touch with Dublin. Belfast, Cork, and other large towns. REVOLUTION OF MIND.

AVhat this means in a country which lias suffered from lack of railroads and from infrequent and costly train services is impossible to estimate. It is not merely a transport revolution, but it is also the beginnings of a far-reach-ing revolution in the habits of mind mid the whole outlook of a country which consists, as to four-fifths of it« population, of small-farmers and agricultural labourers.

I have seen enough to convince me that road transport is destined to play a mucli more important part in the remaking of Ireland than Sbannno schemes, licet factories, or other Gov-' ernment-aided undertakings.