The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 1927. THE NEW IRELAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 135, 29 August 1927, Page 8

The Sun 42 Wyndham Street, Auckland, N.Z. MONDAY, AUGUST 29, 1927. THE NEW IRELAND

OBSERVANT visitors to Ireland, including Home with keen political discernment, have' declared that they have seen, the country on the verge of a happier era, that out of the welter of the fierce factional disturbances which followed the restoration of nationhood, on the stamping ground of political discord, and amid all the turmoil of a people who have for centuries been groping their way out of a maze, there is being fashioned a new and a better Erin. To the countless thousands of Irishmen, and the descendants of Irishmen, abroad, this news is as balm to old wounds still stinging, for there are no people on earth who enshrine their native land so sacredly in their hearts as those from “the most distressful country.” Ireland’s most recent political sensation shows that the Government of thg Free State, infant though it he, is by no means deficient in political expedient. A few days ago, Mr. Cosgrave’s Government was in jctyiardy. It had the smallest margin of iireponderance in the Dail, and the loss of the seat it held in the imminent by-elections would have lost it the reins. However, the Government not only retained its seat, but it won that which had been held by one 'of the most bitter of its irreconcilable opponents, the Countess Marlcievicz. And it won both seats by astonishingly large majorities. In County Dublin the Government candidate was returned with nearly 40,000 votes, as against 16,000 polled by the candidate of Fiamia Fail, and in South Dublin the other Government man polled 24,169 votes against the 18,847 recorded for his principal opponent. Here was a double victory surpassing the most sanguine expectations. It revealed in a flash that the mass of public opinion had swung in the direction of law and order, stable government, and continued alliance with the Empire. Mr Cosgrave’s realisation was instantaneous, and his action was as thunder following the lightning. Cabinet dissolved the Dail, and is forcing upon De Valera and his allies the judgment of the country in a general election. If the County Dublin and South Dublin results are any criterion, the Government will return to power with a strong majority 7 ,, and tlie disturbing elements in Irish political life will be impotent to impede the peaceful progress that is tlie aim of the sane rulers of the new Ireland. * If, as the friends of Erin earnestly hope, this happy issue comes to pass, the figure of the late Kevin O’Higgins will stand still higher in his country’s regard. For the part which his cowardly assassination has played in opening the eyes of Irishmen to the tactics of some of the Government’s opponents and in causing a revulsion of feeling, cannot too lightly be estimated, and the murdered statesman will not have given his life in t am if its giving has helped in the making of the better Ireland.