'Irish Outrages '

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVII, Issue 13, 1 April 1909, Page 489

' Irish Outrages '

Russell Lowell's ' pious editor ' believed 'in humbug generally,' ' Fer it's a thing that I believe To hey a solid vally ' (that is, value). In .other countries 'humbug' may ' hey a solid vally ' ; but Ireland is, perhaps, the only country in the world where an ' agrarian outrage ' is a great political asset, and where , a politi-

cal faction (termed by Chief Secretary Mr. Birrell 'the carrion crows ') are busily engaged in the manufacture of bogus or exaggerated tales of 'outrage' of this.^ort and mailing and cabling- them to the ends of the earth. Earl Dudley — now Governor-General of the Australian Commonwealth — has ' bin thar ' ; he was ■ Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, he knew the country, and he knew the ways and works of the 'carrion crows.' All this gives a special interest and value to the outspoken .pronouncement which he made upon the subject in a spirited discourse at the St. Patrick's Day celebration in Melbourne. We quote from the Melbourne .Advocate of March 20. 'It is unfortunately quite true,' said his Excellency, ' that acts of disloyalty occur in Ireland, and that most regrettable incidents take place, but anyone who • has taken the trouble to study the Irish conditions knows, I think, perfectly well that those acts are but part of a political campaign, and that they spring, not from any inherent or deep-seated sentiment of disloyalty to "the* British Throne, but from very acute feelings of discontent with the present system of government. — (Applause.) No one deprecates more strongly than I do the expression of political feelings in such a manner ; it is, to my mind, a method as foolish and mistaken as it is wrong; but I have always maintained, and I see no reason to change my opinion, that if once the political discontent in Ireland could be removed, there is nothing to prevent "the people of that country from being as loyal=- outwardly and inwardly, as those of any other part of the British possessions. — (Cheers.) That has always been the basis of my opinions on Irish affairs. — (Renewed cheers.) '

The New Zealand Tablet publication, An Impeached Nation, is a special study of this whole subject.