Evening Memories

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 40, 12 October 1922, Page 5

Evening Memories

(By William O’Brien.)

CHAPTER XIV.—THE FIRST THUNDERCLAPS. , To those for whom the invasion of Canada was the adI venture of a mad Knight of La Mancha, one or two answers have to be given. It was a reprisal for Mr, Balfour’s Quixotic invasion of Ireland, and results, as it happens, prove that his was the more madcap adventure of the two. The Luggacurran ..evictions were his first battleground. Success for his battering rams and coercion warrants there would mean convincing Britain that the Irish tenants’ combination was an organised swindle, and that the back of Ireland’s resistance was broken/ Which of the two -was to go down — master of many legions, or we? ; In one strange respect his plan and ours coincided. For him it seemed obviously good policy, with, perhaps, a spice of cynical good fun as well, to single out the leaders for. his first blows, and beat them mercilessly down by frightfulness, ridicule, or what not,’.- With ourselves, the first condition on . which we could- hope to keepcautious peasants up to the pitch of self-sacrifice required to /quit their homes and cast away their last shred of legal property as against the; embattled power of. Landlordism i and of England, was by making them feel that their leaders would be the first to lead the way of suffering arid self-

.sacrifice, and the last to flinch before the force of their; For myself,: as it happened,) the last condition was so easy of fulfilment that I had constantly to question myself closely whether my indifference to personal consequences' was not the sheer recklessness of one for whom the - world had become an empty place rather than the fortitude of a responsible leader of men. . For many years all home ties had been tragically cut off, and no new ones formed, or even dreamt of. My mood was due not to any morose .quarrel with the world, which? indeed, had shown a hundred kindly faces to me in a self-willed solitude. It was a settled view of human life as a place of; immeasurable loneliness and all but predestined oppression for the poor and weak, and for the under-dog— legacy, and also the , vindication of a religion which adjourned all higher hope •and happiness to other spheres. .. To find that this disregard of; personal comfort or craving of* any",sort might . actually grow into a patriotic virtue* *Snd become an instrument of not inconsiderable achievements for ennobling the lives and ,whirring the blood of millions v of men was the most delight-.■ ful of surprises and made me the least promising of subjects for Mr. Balfour’s policy of striking at the tall pop-' ; pies. Hence a negation of danger, rather than a temperate contemplation of it, which will account for many a . passage of seeming- foolhardiness. . . And then the contest was not so unequal as it appeared. Let pedants bandy their distinguos as they liked, Sir Redvers Buller and the Royal Commission had attested the essential justice of- the tenants’ combination, and the'Government'were about to enact their demands by law. The splenetic outburst of Coercion was but a paltry vengeance upon those who had forced them to be just. \Here was an issue on which the judgment of the world might safely ■be challenged, with crushing effect both as against Landlordism and against the enemies of Home Rule. And, happily, Mr. Balfour had dared the issue and poised his lance under the flag of- mere brute force in its most offensive colors. We had already ranked steadfastly on our side an English leader and an English party who represented all the rich promise of progress and of the future. Mr. Morley’s prognostication that the Liberal Party would shy at the Plan of Campaign was rendered a little silly by the discovery that the Unionist Government themselves were coerced to steal its thunders. Nearly all the potent Liberal members of Parliament and newspaper men were flocking over to Ireland with ardent proffers of assistance. If tho Orangemen of Ontario should prove as bloodthirsty as they promised to be, for madly irrelevant sectarian motives of their own, so much the better for the purpose of making Lord Lansdowne’s evicting crowbar, and Mr. Balfour’s ferocious Coercion- code, odious in the eyes of the liberating democracy of free America. . Finally, there comes the ex . post facto consideration that /.as a matter of fact, the Canadian expedition succeeded. When the accounts were closed, the homes .of Luggacurran were re-tenanted, and Mr. Balfour was brought to reconsider the wisdom of his Irish “flutter,” as Earl Spencer by sore experience, and the Earl of Carnarvon %iy mane intuition, had been before him, and as 1 the Earl of Dudley and George Wyndham were brought after him in the fulness of days. • And so we sailed away from Cork Harbor on May 1, in a. mingled whirlwind of blessings and curses. As we passed Thurles by the American Mail to Queenstown, I received a parting message from Archbishop Croke, which had for me the sacredness of the Bomhnach Airgid (the Silver Shrine) with which the Tirconaill clans used to go'out to battle: . V .‘ Saturday Night, i •' . . Private. April 30. ' . .■■■-. i. ■ \ The Palace, _ -3 Thurles. - My Dear William, :■ • I cannot tell you how disappointed I feel at not seeing you before you leave for Canada. '•-.//' . ■ But, I suppose it must be so. I can. imagine'easily < how many things you will -hav^zto attend • to, .and set mborder,, before starting,on your :trip. Being under the impression that the American Mail; was ; to arrive • here at 10 o’clock, * I had made, up my mind to go to the Station House at that hour and give you (a true friend’s \U

.greeting on your way, and a Bishop’s blessing on your undertaking. But, I have, just learned that the train gets here about 9.10. and as I always say the first- Mass at Cathedral on-. Sunday, which Mass is at 8 o’clock,) it will now be impossible for me to see you, and shake your hand and-wish you God speed. But/ I’ll pray for you—that the God of our I fathers may watch • over you on the deep, crown your patriotic mission with success, and bring you back to us, soon, in health and triumph. ; \ '“■* Father Arthur Ryan will have a word with you andhand you this line from My dear William, . \ : •/. Your very faithful friend, L * T. W. CROKE. Wm. O’Brien, Esq. A frantic crowd was in possession of the landingstage from , which the tender left with the mails for the Cunard liner Umbria. Hence, the , first rumble of the wrath of the Commander (Mr. McMickan) which was destined to make our voyage- the overture, .as it were, to the" demon -music,. of our Canadian Tannhauser. It was the time when a, fast record was to an Atlantic liner what office is to'a hungry statesman glory, ecstasy, and money—and the Umbria was the favorite “Atlantic greyhound” of the moment. Duo allowance must, therefore, be made for the profane fury of the sea-dog on the bridge, as he saw, at the outset of his trip, a golden hour or more was lost ere the tender dared start, while the Lord Mayor and Corporation, and the brass bands, were pouring forth their eloquence, and this deponent striving to edge in a word of reply to a national farewell, which had much of the blare of a battle, and something of the wailfulness of a wake. When Mr. Kilbride and I stepped on board - the liner, we were already the two most unpopular men on board,; both with the fuming captain and with the population of the saloon smokingroom whose passion in life was betting on the day’s record, in the intervals of the game of poker— say nothing of our reputation as sons' of Lucifer in the eyes of the lady-politicians of the music room. Their temper was not improved by the demonstrations that saluted us as we coasted all along the magnificent headlands of West Cork. It was a wonderous summer day, and from one bay or creek after another, the i people sailed or rowed out to wave their flags, and shout their blessings, while from mountain to mountain bonfires shot up -'from the glowing purple distances in a series of better than royal illuminations.- , « (To be continued.)