Home Rule Meeting at Sydney.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 27, 3 July 1902, Page 15

Home Rule Meeting at Sydney.

Ok Monday evening, June 16, what was intended to be merely a preliminary meeting to consider the project of a Home Rule movement for the purpose of rendering practical aid to the Irish Parliamentary Party was held in the vestibule of the Town Hall, Sydney. There was a crowded attendance long before the time appointed for beginning the proceedings, and when Senator O'Connor, K.C., Vioepresident of the Federal Executive Council, mounted the platform, followed by a host of prominent citizens, there were almost as many people outside as inside the chamber An agreeable feature of tne gathering was that it included many ladies. For the rest, enthusiasm , genuine and unbounded enthusiasm, was the keynote of the demonstration. The high note struck by the chairman in an eloquent, powerful, common-sense appeal to the Empire for justice to Ireland was sustained right throughout the meeting by subsequent speakers. Almost every sentiment uttered on the platform oarried with it an aooompaniment of ringing oheers. - The outcome of the meeting (says the Freeman* Journal) was a unanimous resolve to render material and moral aid to Ireland at this critical juncture in her history, and a beginning was made by spontaneous offers of pecuniary aid, although the appeal for money was deferred till the oooasion of the mass meeting whioh follows in a few weeks, Senator O'Connor was supported in the chair by a strong body of leading Irishmen. Among others, there were the Hon. E. W. O'Sullivan (State Minister for Works), Hon. T. M. Slattery, M.L.C., Hon. John Meagher, M.L.C., Messrs D. O'Connor, J. G.Carroll, P. E. Quinn, R. D. Meagher, A. J. Kelly, and P. J. Clara, Ms.L.A., Thomas Curran and T. B. Curran, B.L. (late members of the Irish Parliamentary Party), John Flood, Major Freehill, Dr. 0. W. MaoCarthy, B. Gaffney, T. J. McCabe, etc. There was also a large number of the Catholic clergy present. The Chairman, in the course of an eloquent and patriotic) speech, said : We have now in Ireland a Parliamentary Party absolutely united, under the leadership of an eloquent, wise, and experienced Parliamentarian — John Redmond. There is in the ranks of that party absolute loyalty to his leadership, because Ireland has learned from bitter experience that it is only by absolute loyalty to leadership that the cause of Home Rule can be won. As we all know, Irishman can only succeed by getting the ear of England in the English Parliament, and by getting the force of English publio opinion in its aid. And now, at a time when the strain and stress of a great war leaves the English Parliament free to consider other affairs — now is the time when we in Australia, whose voice has been heard and whose aid has been sought and felt in the building np of the Empire, should be heard and felt when we seek to remove one of the plague-spots in the internal administration of the Empire. The course is clear, and the road is open for the only way by which Ireland oan achieve nationality, and that is by the processes of Parliamentary and constitutional warfare. We are ready to help in that. We are ready to send that material aid which is so much wanted by the party of noble and selfsacrificing men who give up their time month after month, and year after year, in a labour which some of us know and some here, like Mr. Curran, have felt that is unflinching and selfsacrificing to a degree beyond ordinary belief. Unfortunately, perhaps, the representatives of Ireland are not drawn from that class which oan support itself. They must have some material aid, and how better can we show our love for the old land, and our admiration for the work of the Irish Parliamentary Party, than by Bending some of that material aid, which generous hearts have always to give, to enable them to carry on their fight consistently and continuously, and successfully ? Ido not wish to trench upon the province of speakers whom you will hear thiß evening, but I would like to say two other words. In the first place, it is in the power of Irishmen in Australia and of Irish-Australians in Australia, and of that great body of democratic and fair-minded men who wish well to Ireland, to make the great body of publio opinion at this end of the Empire felt in England itself. One of your objects should be that it shall make itself felt. The other word I wish to say is this : Let us have no narrow platform here. Let us have no platform upon whioh Irishmen only oan stand. We have all through Australia sympathising friends and enthusiastic supporters of the cause of Home Rule, not only from the feeling which lies deep down in the hearts of Irishmen — the undying aspiration for nationality — but because they realise that it is right that every man should have a voice in framing the laws by whioh he is governed, and that no one has a right to deprive any man of that right unless for some very good reason. In Ireland the reason has always been the other way. Why is Ireland to-day, alongside her prosperous Bister island, in a condition which alternates between military occupation, coercion, and the ' letting-alone ' policy ? It is because English statesmen have too frequently failed to recognise that there is an undying spirit of nationality in the Irish people, which can only be satisfied by Home Rule — that kind of Home Rule which Australia has to-day. Let us help to give Home Rule to the people of Ireland, and let us, out of the abundance and generosity of our patriotism, be generous in material and moral force. Let us embrace every man who thinks with us, and let us embrace the thousands of Englishmen, Irishmen, Scotchmen, and Australians who want to see this a great and contented Empire, and feel that it can never be so, bo long as Ireland remains in her present position. At the concluaion of the chairman's address the secretary read a number of apologies from gentlemen who were unable to be preBent, among these being Sir William Manning, Mr T.Waddell (Colonial Treasurer), and Mr John Toohey, M.L.C., who was absent through illness, but sent a cheque for £25. His Grace Archbishop Kelly, who had a prior engagement, wrote in pan as follows :— 4 The banner of Ireland upheld by a faithful and disciplined body in Westminster or College Green will rally the forces of her ohil-

dren and of her friends all the world over, and the f oroes must go on increasing till every rightful claim for oreed and country be vindicated. The triumph of Ireland will be the triumph of the United Kingdom, unless it be delayed too long and arrive too late. While I do not identify myself with any political party or political organisation, I wish your meeting the fullest measure of sucoeas, and I assure it of my profound sympathy and willing support.' .-."W^t/P 6*6 ** 61 " 8 were MaJ 0 * Freehill, Rev. Father Pitegerald, 0.F.M., Messrs E. W. O'Sullivan (Minister for Works), P. B. Quinn, M.L.A., Hon. John Meagher, M.L.C., Hon. T. M. Slattery, M.L.C., Mr R. D. Meagher, M.L.A., Mr D. O'Connor, M.L.A., T. B. Curran, and Dr. MoOarthy. The following resolution was passed with acclamation, and an Executive Committee appointpd to give effeot to it by calling a public meeting later on : ' That this meeting is of opinion that the time has arrived when an appeal should be made to the people of New South Wales to render material and moral support to the constitution^ Pfforta of the Irish people to obtain self-government. 1 The subscriptions received at the meeting amounted to £120.