The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 1919. THE ULSTER BOGEY

New Zealand Tablet, 17 April 1919, Page 25

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 1919. THE ULSTER BOGEY

« CAMEL can get through the eye of a needle provided the camel be small enough and the needle big enough;"but camels will pass through ordinary needles in processions and rich men will storm the gates of Heaven long before our old friend “Civis” ceases his anti-Irish and NoPopery howling in the Otago Daily Times. Considering the absolute absurdity of what he says at times, and the notorious bigotry of the sources from which he quotes we. have long since begun to suspect that “Civis,” who is by no means a fool in other matters, writes, with his tongue in his cheek, for the benefit of the numerous class that will accept even a forged passage from Lecky as history. Apropos of St. Patrick’s Day he falls back on the Irish demand for independence once more. As calmly as. the unspeakable Orange rag would appeal to-' Maria Monk

or to Chiniquy "Civis" appeals to that organ of sweetness and light, the Spectator, which as everybody knows is incapable of a sane judgment on any Catholic or Irish question. From that dust-bin he rakes up the old idiotic plea that the Irish people and the Irish Bishops, by refusing the right of self-determination to a corner of Ulster, are really the opponents of the rights they demand for themselves. ». As we all know, Ulster is Nationalist, as far as majority votes go. Therefore the Tories would never consent to allow Ulster as a whole the right of selfdetermination. What they want is ' self-determination for certain selected parts of Ulster. But then no matter what parts they select a number of Nationalists will be found there. For instance, Derry and Belfast have elected Nationalist members. Therefore, supposing the Orange argument were valid, the Nationalist minority in Derry and Belfast would also be entitled to self-determination. On the same principle the minority against the popular will in every country would have a right to dominate and to disturb the unity of the commonwealth. Chinatown in London would have a right to its own government; the discordant elements in Poland and Belgium would have a right to oppose the self-determination of their countries. If a minority in the whole of Ulster has a right to special terms, a minority of Nationalists in any given county of Ulster has logically the same right. On the principle so stupidly urged by the Spectator and by Tories gener-ally,-no country could be united under one government as long as a minority of its inhabitants were opposed to that,government. And as there is no country in which such a minority is not found there could be no such thing as union anywhere. The contention is so absurd that nobody but Orangemen would dream of basing an argument on it, and no Government in the world would be so undemocratic and so false as to support it except the Government that rules Ireland by force in violation of a solemn pledge. From another point of view the argument is equally ridiculous. The Orange element in Ireland is a foreign element. The Protestant ascendancy there is based on the unjust title of plunder which time of itself can never make sound. 'A foreign army has maintained the Protestant domination of a Catholic country by force, just as it has supported the annexation and robbery by which Catholics are still deprived of churches which they built in the heart of Catholic Ireland. Only downright injustice, prevailing over justice could, enable such conditions to obtain; only a Government that has respect neither for honor nor for justice could lend itself to such a policy. And it is in the selfish interests of those who still hold the plunder that the same Government persists in outraging the rights of a small nation and supporting a system of despotism which is directly contrary to the alleged British war aims. * The plea that the Ulsterites are afraid of the Catholics has no foundation whatever, if it be not that a bad conscience is behind it. It is a fact, testified to by Protestant Unionists in the Catholic provinces, that they suffer no wrong and no interference from the Catholic majority among which they live. On the other hand the Catholics of Ulster are persecuted and there is no fair play for them. For instance, while the Belfast Board of Guardians paid out in salaries in 1911 the sum of £16,790 6s sd, only £6BO of it went to Catholics. Of this small sum £447 was given to two Catholic chaplains and to the Catholic schoolmaster and schoolmistress whom they could not help paying. Of twelve dispensary doctors receiving in 1911 £3473 8s sd, not one was a Catholic. The Ulsterites in Belfast refused to provide for Catholic workhouse inmates a decent place of worship. One thousand five hundred souls are cabined and. confined in a schoolroom wholly inadequate for their accommodation. Analogical circumstances obtain in the Harbor Office, in the Water Office, and in the Corporation. On the other hand, in Catholic communities Protestants get far more than

their proportionate share of representation. Protestant Members of Parliament are elected by Catholics; Protestant Lord Mayors are chosen in Dublin; the most responsible posts in the Dublin Corporation are filled by Protestants; in the South Dublin Union eight out of sixteen medical officers were Protestants. As “George Birmingham’ had the courage to declare at a Protestant Synod a few years ago, religious intolerance is almost unknown in the Catholic provinces, and it thrives in the north-east of Ulster where Protestants are strongest. There is the secret of the whole problem. The Protestant foreign domination, inspired by selfish motives and by anti-Catholic bigotry, refuses to support a government for Ireland under which all would have equal rights.