The Partition of Ireland

New Zealand Tablet, 17 November 1921, Page 17

The Partition of Ireland

TYRONE AND FERMANAGH DECLARE ALLEGIANCE EO DAIL EIREANN. In the British proposals of July 20 it was stipulated that "Ulster" must never be coerced (says the Irish Bulletin for If the people.of the six' counties did not desire to come in under a National Parliament no force must be used to compel them. There is no intention on the part of the Republican Government to use force against North-east Ulster, but the right of that manufactured area to destroy the national unity can never be admitted. North-east Ulster consists of the six counties of Armagh, Antrim, Down, Derry, Tyrone, and Fermanagh. Ulster itself consists of nine counties, but the British Government could not partition these nine counties from the rest of Ireland because the majority in Ulster as a province is in favor of national independence and vehemently opposed to partition. For this reason three of the Ulster counties were thrown in with "Southern Ireland," and a purely artificial boundary was drawn round the other six and this area was named "Northern Ireland." But two of these six counties are Republican and have by a majority returned representatives to Dail Eireann. These two counties, Tyrone and Fermanagh, cover more than a third of the area of "Northern Ireland" and were probably included for this very reason, for otherwise, Northern Ireland would have consisted of four of the smallest of the 32 counties in Ireland, and its size would itself be proof that the minority who oppose freedom in Ireland is proportionately insignificant. But if Lloyd George and through him the British Cabinet declare that there must be no coercion of Ulster, Tyrone and Fermanagh have determined to apply the same principle in their case and yesterday they placed their case before the Cabinet of Dail Eireann. We give below some of the statements made by the deputation. The deputation consisted of the following: Co. Fermanagh—John McHugh, chairman of the county council; Cahir Healy, county councillor, and Rev. Lorcan O'Ciaran, P.P. Co. Tyrone—A. E. Donnelly, chairman of the county council; M. Lynch, county councillor, chairman of Omagh U. 0.; John Doris, vice-chairman of the county council and chairman of Dungannon Board of Guardians. The deputation was introduced by John O'Mahoney, Dail Eireann deputy for Co. Fermanagh; Sean Milroy, deputy for Co. Tyrone; and Dr. Eoin Mac Neill, deputy for Derry. Fiction of "Civil War" Dr. Mac Neill, in opening the proceedings, dealt with the fiction that if the British armed forces were withdrawn from "Ulster" "civil war" would follow. He drew attention to certain words in a speech that Lloyd George made the other day: "If you had severance, it would lead in Ireland itself 1 to the most cruel and terrible civil war that that island has ever seen. . . We cannot witness civil war at our own door." "In this utterance," said Dr. Mac Neill, "the British Premier wished it to be believed that he and his political associates are saving Ireland from civil war. But the fact is that he and his political associates are the plotters of what he calls civil war in Ireland, in order that they might be provided with this very plea, and that they might weaken Ireland by fostering and encouraging a fanaticism they despise. "When British policy arms and lets loose fanatical disorder, we no more see civil war in the outcome than we have seen civil war in the campaign of the "Black-and-Tans." We see in it one more evidence of the blessings bestowed upon Ireland by the British connection. Not even Oriental fanaticism presents at this day a spectacle as degraded as the condition to.which Belfast has been brought by British political contrivance—a state of things as deliberately planned and as deliberately set in movement as the building and launching of a battleship. "In Belfast and a few neighboring towns, in pursuit of the British policy of 'civil war,' thousands upon thousands of workers have been driven from their work and

deprived for many months of the right to work, have been cast upon the generosity of the world and especially upon the generosity of America. Their houses, where they were unable to defend them, have been sacked and burned, their women and children driven forth. Whole streets inhabited by them have been destroyed. All this and more has-been brought about with the knowledge and approval—l should say with the foreknowledge and foreapproval—of the. British Premier and his Government. It is all as much a factor in their Irish policy as the "Black-and-Tan" campaign of outrage and ravage in the rest of Ireland. The policy is as old as Pitt and Castlereagh, but the present Premier and his Government have been the first to crystallize it under a local regime. The Degradation of Belfast "I have said that the degradation of Belfast has the approval of Lloyd George and his colleagues. They have the fullest cognisance of the whole state of things in the Belfast area, and have never once—to do them justicehad the hypocrisy to deplore or- to overrule it, though Lloyd George now pretends to be the saviour of Ireland from civil war. "We do not deny that this disgraceful policy has had a wonderful success. In a few generations Republican Belfast, liberty-loving Belfast, Belfast of the United Irishmen, the Protestant Belfast that championed at once the cause of the - oppressed Catholics and the cause of Irish independence, has been transformed by that policy into a city the most reactionary, the most lawless, the most disorderly, the most intolerant, that is inhabited anywhere by white men—a. degradation that we lay to the charge not of an unreasoning mob but of the calculating rulers of the British Empire. "The menace of so-called civil war in Ulster," Dr. Mac Neill continued, "is the menace of British interference, and will cease with the cessation of British interference.'' Cahir Healy, spokesman for Co. Fermanagh, read a "Memorial From the People of Fermanagh to An Dail": "Fermanagh," it said, "by a large majority, recorded twice at Parliamentary elections in the past two years, resolved that it would not submit to the partition of Ulster. "Geographically, the county has no associations with any of the other partition areas, save Tyrone, which has also shown its unwillingness to be divided from the Parliament of the Nation. It is bounded by Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, and Cavan, all of which are included in the Parliament of An Dail. "Fermanagh consists of 457,375 acres, and with Tyrone forms more than a third (36 per cent.) of the entire area of the six counties. The elected members of its county council are nine Unionists and 11 Three of the five rural district councils have substantial majorities ivho are in favor of union with Ireland, and of the two remaining- Unionist councils, Enniskillen has only an elected majority of one member. The Urban Council of the Capital Town is in Nationalists' hands, as indeed are the capitals of the counties of Derry, Tyrone, Armagh, and Down, five of the six partition counties. x ln the recent (1021) elections, fought under every disadvantage to us, ' the anti-partition majority in the Tyrone-Fermanagh group was 7831. The Catholic population, all of whom are . opposed to partition, number 34,740, or 56 per cent, of j the whole. It will thus be seen that Fermanagh is strongly opposed to inclusion in the Parliament of the sis-county area. Its fears for the safety and security of the majority of its people are amply borne out by the recent treatment meted out to them since the idea of partition became real. Effects of Partition "If Fermanagh be included, the . important maritime "county of Donegal will be absolutely cut off from any rail communication with any of the counties of its own Parliamentary area—one of the many unfortunate results of the attempted mutilation of the nation. "The government of a.. six-county Parliament, if we are to judge, by the speeches and acts of its members, would be one.hostile to the majority of the people in Tyrone and Fermanagh, and the depopulation that has gone on since 1841 would be. likely to continue a*d be accentuated." .. , ■

The memorial then cited the effects of British Government in the county. The population in 70 years had decreased by 60.5 per cent. This decay affected both the urban and rural areas and the Protestant equally with the Catholic section of the population. The memorial continued : "Outside of Ireland there is no parallel for this in any civilised country. Tyrone and Fermanagh, in common * with tho rest of Ireland, have suffered relatively greater loss through their enforced dependence on the British Empire than Belgium has suffered from the German invasion and occupation. It is the best commentary upon the effects of government without the consent of the governed, a condition wo are likely to have perpetuated were a Belfast Parliament to function. The people of Fermanagh are unable to see on what principle their county could be put under tho rule of a Parliament that they have so many reasons for distrusting. They will never consent to be bartered and sold in this summary manner, but will do everything they can to assert their rights to self-deter-mination. For centuries the men of Fermanagh have taken a noble part in the fight, for Irish freedom, and their descendants of to-day are determined, with God's help, to resist by every means at their disposal the attempt to cut them off from tho Irish nation." Acting as spokesman for the County Tyrone deputation, Alex. E. Donnelly declared the inclusion of the county in the area of the Northern Parliament to be coercion in its worst form. "The people of England," he said "have como to speak of the six counties allocated to tho Parliament of Northern Ireland as ' Ulster,' forgetting conveniently tho. other three counties of that province, viz.— Donegal, Monaghan, and Cavan, and have adopted tho formula that 'there must not be any coercion of Ulster.' Tyrone, a Nationalist County - "Now the County Tyrone at all elections has emphatically declared in favor of tho national demand, and against a Parliament for any area in the North, and, notwithstanding this, the British Parliament proposes the coercion of the people of Tyrone by forcing them under the government of tho ' six counties.' "Prior to the redistribution of Parliamentary constituencies in the year 1918 Co. Tyrone returned four members to Parliament, and only one out of the four was a Unionist. In 1918 the constituencies were reduced to three and so arranged that by disregarding all natural boundaries one Unionist seat was secured. "In tho local elections, although the constituencies were also arranged in favor of the Unionists, they secured only nine seats out of 20 before proportional representation came into force and 11 out of 28 afterwards. Unionists have a majority in one only of the six urban district councils. At the last parliamentary elections for this county and Fermanagh the votes recorded were 37,93-5 Unionists and 45,766 for a free and undivided Ireland." Mr. Lynch pointed out that three Southern counties of tho partition areaArmagh, Tyrone, and Fermanagh, taken together, gave a clear majority of 3000 votes against \ partition. Mr. Doris supported this statement and pledged Co. Tyrone to sland in absolutely with the rest of Ireland. . <X*>— .—. He made our offences His offences, that He might make His righteousness our righteousness.—St. Augustine.