The Irish standard. [volume], December 06, 1919, Image 1

About The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920

Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

                
3^
Those Terrible Irish Are Nullifying
English Propaganda in America,
Wails a British Correspondent
"A year ago I believed that the
Irish question was dead and buried so
far as Che United States was con
cerned, and I thanked God for it. To
day I am forced to recognize that it
Is more alive than ever before, and
that, for large numbers of our people,
it is the leading issue before us," says
P. A. McKenzie, New York- corre-
spondent London Daily Mail.
The speaker was a well known New
York financier, himself of Irish de-'
scent and a proved friend of England.
What he said is supported by what I
hear and see in every part of the
United States. Everywhere it is Ire
land, Ireland, Ireland!
Large-numbers of people here who
were the staunch friends of England
during the war are today England's
severest critics. The Irish issue has
made them so.
And it is not enough to say that
they are ill-informed or that they have
been prejudiced by Sinn Fein mis
statements. The Sinn Fein party here
has, it is true, pushed its propaganda
with a number of misrepresentations.
But the American attitude does not
rest on these alone. It goes deeper.
New York's Greatest
Denounces England.
Not long ago I attended what many
men described as the largest public
meeting ever held in New York. Eigh
teen thousand people were packed un
der one roof another ten thousand,
unable to obtain admission, had gath
ered in neighboring halls, or were
standing in great throngs in the
streets, waiting for the speakers to
say a few words to them. They had
come as the friends of Ireland to de
nounce Britain.
I studied the people around me. It
would be foolish to describe them as
of no account. A representative of
the Roman'Catholic Archbishop was
on the platform near by him was the
most popular of war chaplains a dis
tinguished judge spoke. The enthusi
astic audience contained many thou
sands of charfhing and winsome wom
en, whom I should be proud to have
support any cause that I advocated.
There were fiery young men present
in plenty—some of them threatened
to throw me out because of what they
called my "English accent"—but
there were still more solid and re
sponsible citizens, men of affairs.
Doubtless most of them were of Irish
descent.
These very folk ought to be our
warmest supporters in the United
States. They are kith and kin to
as I want to see these girls of
Irish descent, with their fair complex
ions and light hair and merry blue
eyes, on our side. And they would be
but for our mistakes.
Financial Support.
'When I was In Boston I found my
morning paper devoting a column and
a each day to the routine news
of the Friends of Ireland movement
there. That very night a monster
anti-British demonstration was held
In a large suburban hall.
In Philadelphia the movement
while not so dominant, is remarkably
active. "The Home Rulers of yester
day are the Independence men of to
day," one Philadelphia newspaper man
told me.
One need only attend any public
meeting in Chicago where Britain is
mentioned to-see how this issue has
poisoned the springs of public good
will there. The more extreme the
Irish speaker the greater the enthu
siasm with which he is heard.
Anglo-American
3'-
Irish Question More
Alive Than Ever
Future Relations.
This news may be summed up as:
1. Statements by the Prime Minis
ter of other members of the govern
ment telling that the ministry is not
yet prepared to deal with Irish self
government.
2. Details of coercion, of placing
further sections of the country under
martial law, and of the despatch of
more soldiers to Ireland.
S. Accounts of the shooting of Brit
ish soldiers or policemen.
To these must be added a fourth—
indignant protest by Unionist leaders,
Sir Edward Carson in particular,
against the United States daring to
interfere. These last do the most
harm of all. "Mind your own busi
ness!" is the worst kind of answer
to the campaign proceeding here. It
arouses anger and contempt.
If Sir Edward Carson were to come
to New York and Boston and state
his case on public platforms he might
do some real good. Otherwise, let me
beg him, for the sake of Anglo-Amerl-
A an, tutur*
At
least'
Meeting
rfaUons to keep silent,
let hlm refraln from taunting
IIIA TTnitAil Qta^Aa mlflt tian
the United States with her interest
in Ireland. It would be an extraor
dinary thing if a nation which has
drawn many of her greatest states-1
men and orators and public workers
from Ireland should not express and
feel interest in Ireland's well-being.
Opposition to the League.
The Irish influence is today the
most dangerous factor President
Wilson has to face. It is the driving
force behind much of the opposition
to the League of Nations.
The opinion of the average Ameri
can, as I have gathered it by conver
sation with men of all classes, may
be summed up as follows:
"We do not know, and we do not
pretend to know, all the details of
the Irish problem. But it seems to
us untrue to democracy to compel a
nation to live permanently under a
system of government that can only
be maintained by force of arms.
Government by the People.
'It is not a question whether the
British administration in Ireland is
good or bad. If it is the best in the
world, but the Irish people consistently
and for a long period refuse to ac
cept it, it is bad. The only real gov
ernment that can endure is govern
ment accepted by the people them
selves.
"Leave the Irish to manage their
own Internal business. They will, no
doubt make lots of mistakes. Then
it will be up to them to pay the price.
The worst government carried out by
a people themselves is better than
the best government imposed on them
from outside. Under the one they can
learn what to do. Under the other
every incentive to Improvement is re
moved. Let the Irish make their own
beds and lie on them!"
The "Uglier Factors."
Every day strengthens the feeling
against the present British policy.
Every day, too, sees the development
of uglier factors. No one who does
not go about with his eyes shut can
fail to be aware that part of the con
siderable sum of money being gath
ered here go for fighting purposes.
Arms are being sold in unusually large
quantities in certain parts, and are ap
parently disappearing. Where are they
going?
The big arms companies would not
lend themselves knowingly to an
illegal traffic, and they keep a careful
check, so far as they can. But there
are a hundred ways that weapons can
be obtained in spite of them, and in
spite of the work of the Secret Ser
vice. The weapons that are being
purchased are intended to kill Eng
lish soldiers—and not in open war.
The Old Fenian Movement
The old Fenian movement which
brought about the attempt of an in
vasion of Canada nearly forty years
age was scotched but not killed,
There are still many men here of
Irish descent willing to adopt any
measure against the hated Saxon. For
a long time they could do nothing.
Now they have lifted up their heads
again.
Propaganda, newspaper defences,
personal pleas will do little. The only
thing that can change public opinion
here is the prompt and effective tack
ling of this issue by the British gov
ernment. Above all—Prompt! For
every day is inflicting farther harm,
not alone on Ireland, bat also on
'T "V".»
Soldiers With Metal Helmets, Aero
planes, Tanks, Etc., Make lt\
Look Like Flanders.
Admission that Ireland resembles a
battleground is contained in a dis
patch sent to the London Daily Ex
press by its correspondent, and quot
ed in a London cablegram of Novem
ber 23. In the dispatch the corre
spondent endeavors to make it ap
pear that there is good reason for the
British military operations, by telling
a story of "midnight drilling," etc.
The cablegram reads as follows:
London, Nov. 23.—"All Ireland is
organized and under arms," says the
Daily Express in commenting editori
ally on the disclosures of a special
English correspondent, who says in a
dispatch from Dublin:
"It was like old times in Flandqrs
landing in Ireland. I saw the familiar
figures with tin hats and fixed bay
onets guarding the battery of King
ston harbor. A military airplane
droned overhead and a train full of
officers was just coming in.
"In Dublin I met tanks waddling
from the Castle I found a steel 'pill
box' on the railway bridge command
ing Liberty Hall guards in full rig
were marching the streets. It might
have been Arras in 1917.
"From Dublin I got nearer the front
line. Military precautions became
more complete. At the railway sta
tion soldiers entrained. Only one at
a time was allowed to leave the
ranks, and no man is allowed to let
go his rifle.
Do people pause as often as they
should to- reflect that the Holy Sacri
fice of the Mass is being offered in
some part of the world every hour
of their lives? When it is midnight
in New York, Masses are beginning
in the churches of Italy. Their an
cient altars, at which saints have
knelt, are lit up with tapers, and the
Vicar of Christ and thousands of
priests are lifting holy hands up to
heaven. A little later and the bells
of a thousand towers in France be
gin to sprinkle the air with holy
sounds, and in every city, town and
hamlet, kneeling crowds adore the
chastening hand of God and pray for
sinners who despite His ordinances.
Chivalric and religious Spain
catches the echoes, and when it is one
o'clock in New York offers the great
Sacrifice of the Mass in countless
splendid churches. And then Catho
lic Ireland, the Isle of Saints, which
has during many centuries suffered
for the faith, rallies anew around the
altars it would never forsake. At
islands of the Atlantic—perhaps the
Cape Verde—priests, white-robed and
stoled and wearing the great cross
on their shoulders, bend before the
tabernacle. An hour later a courage
ous missionary lifts up the chalice of
salvation on the ice-bound coast of
Greenland.
At 4:30 the sacred lamps twinkle
through the fogs of Newfoundland,
and at five Nova Scotia's industri
ous population begins the day by at
tending Mass. And now all the Cana
dian churches and chapels grow radi
ant as the faithful—the habitant of
the country, the devout citizen, the
consecrated nun, and the innocent
children hasten to unite their prayers
around them.
At six o'clock many souls are flock
ing to the churches of New York
eager to begin the day of labor with
the. holiest act of religion. Many
young people, too, gather around the
altar at a later hour, as the fresh
flowers open with the morning, and
offer their dewy fragrance to heaven.
An hour later the bells of Missouri
and Louisiana are ringing and at
eight, Mexico, true to her faith, bends
before the glittering altars. At nine
the devout tribes of Oregon follow
their beloved black gowns to their
gay chapels and California awhile
loosens Its grasp on Its gold to think
of the treason that rust doth not
corrupt.
Vol. XXXVI. No. 6 Minneapolis, Minn., Saturday, December 6, 1919 5c the Copy
Ireland Like Battle
field Says Britton
"There is a piling up of arms in
Ireland. The soldiery knowns what
that means. If a girl speaks to a sol
dier she is put in Coventry by her
friends. In the moving picture houses
no native will sit beside a soldier. He
is ostracized. Civilians shadowed me
and thoroughly searched my luggage
and bedroom to see if I had arms.
"Fifty mounted men, whose horses
wore special shoes to muffle the
sound of galloping hoofs, took me out
to the country after midnight, pick
ing up recruits as they went along,
and I saw a secret drill guarded by
armed sentries. Hundreds upon hun
dreds of disciplined men are picket
ing the country, reporting the move
ments of the police and military.
"The houses where the police live
look like block houses, surrounded by
barbed wire and sandbags, with sig
nal rockets ready for S. O. S. calls.
In County Clare the police have had
to evacuate their barracks to save
the lives of the occupants, and the
county is practically unpoliced.
"Inasmuch as the Republican gov
ernment rules supreme over vast
areas, the legitimate authority having
effaced itself, the people actually be
lieve a republic is established. Repub
lican law courts have been established
taking all the business from the legal
tribunals. Republican police are mak
ing their appearance, there is a Re
publican- mail service, and soon there
will be Republican money and Re
publican tax
(collectors.
problem has solved itself."
Never Ending Sacrifice
The Irish
And when the Angelus bell is ring
ing at noon in New York, the un
bloody Sacrifice is being offered up in
the islands of the Pacific, where there
are generous souls laboring for our
dear Lord. And so the bells are ring
ing on, on over the waters, and one
taper after another catches the light
of faith, making glad all the isles of
the sea.
At two the zealous missionaries of
Australia are murmuring with piety,
eager for the coining of our Lord.
"Introibo ad altare Dei." And all the
spicy islands of the East catch the
sweet sounds one after another, until
at four in the afternoon China proves
there are many souls who are worthy
of the name of celestial by their rapt
devotion at the early rite. Then in
Thibet there is many a modest chapel
where the missionary distributes the
Bread of Life to a crowd of hungry
souls.
At six the altars of Hindustan,
where St. Francis ministered, are ar
rayed with their flowers and lamps
and the sacred vessels, and unwearied
priests are hastening to fortify their
souls before Him Who is their life
and their strength. At nine in Siberia
many a poor Catholic exile from
Poland seeks solace from his woes
at the foot of the altar and in the
Bread of Heaven. During the hour
when New York is gay with partieB
and balls and with theatrical amuse
ments, the holiest of rites is going on
in the Indian ocean and among the
sable tribes of Africa, whose souls are
so dear to the Savior, Who once died
for all. At eleven in Jerusalem, the
Holy City over which Jesus wept,
where He wrought so many miracles,
and where He suffered and offered
Himself a sacrifice for the whole
world, beholds the unbloody Sacrifice
of the Mass.
When midnight sounds again in
New York, the silver bells are ting
ling again in every chancel in Rome.
And so it goes on the Divine Host
is constantly rising like the son in
its course around the earth. Thus are
fulfilled the words of the Prophet
Malachias:
"From the rising of the son even
to the going down thereof, My
name is great among the Gentiles,
and In every place there is sacri
fice and there Is- offered In
My Name a clean oblation for
My Name is great among the Gen
said the Lord of hosts."
a
Very Rev. Msgr. Rogers of 8an Fran
cisco, Lately Returned From Ire*
land, Tells of Splendid 8pirit Ani
mating Irish People—Denounces
British Militarism.
"I am firmly convinced," says the
Very Rev. Msgr. Rogers, pastor of St.
Patrick's Church, in a statement ap
pearing in the San Francisco Leader
of November 22, "that before the win
ter is over, and probably before snow
flies, startling news of evil and glori
ous deeds will come out of Ireland.
The hour of freedom is at hand. The
people, animated by a wondrous spirit
of unity, and of self-abnegation, that
deems the supreme sacrifice for their
country's liberty a privilege their
patience exhausted by the pitiless and
unending persecutions, cannot longer
be restrained from striking the blow
that they are confident will win them
the freedom they so ardently desire."
A Remarkable Spirit.
"No one," continued Father Rogers,
"not even native-born Irishmen, who
has not recently visited the green
little isle, can have any but the faint
est conception of the situation there,
nor of the unparalleled spirit that ani
mates its people. As devoted as were
the patriots of earlier times, they were
never so fortunate as the champions
of Ireland today, who have a united
populace at their back, and whose
plans have been prepared with an in
telligence, a dellberateness of purpose,
and withal, a courage that will not be
denied.
"I spent the better part of five
months there, and visited all of the
Provinces, and my observations of a
Republic in the making were most in
teresting. When I arrived there in
May the country was bathed in. sun
shine the countryside was brilliant,
with a Californian brilliance. When
1 left in late summer the country was
golden a bumper crop was being har
vested, and the fields were piled high
with bountiful yields of oats, of wheat,
of barley. Truly, a land of Arcadian
splendor! Truly, a land which Na
ture's God had thrice blessed for a
contented, prosperous people.
The Foreign Invader.
"But, alas, there were signs on
every hand that something evil had
descended on the island. Squads of
heavily armed mounted soldiery gal
loped along the lanes the modern
Not a Discovery, But a Contrivance of
Statesmen, Says Reviewer in
British Paper.
In a review of "Ulster and Ireland,"
a work by James Winder Good, the
J»ondon Nation of October 11 says:
it would be an exaggeration to say
that Ulster does not exist. But it
would only be a slight exaggeration.
Ulster is undoubtedly to be found on
the map. It is a province which, If
you leave out the city of Belfast, is
inhabited by a mixed population, the
majority of whom are Nationalists.
Even if you take the four counties (in
cluding Belfast), in which there Is a
majority of Unionists, the local Na
tionalists amount to about 30 per cent
of the population. Thus the Nation
alist minority in Unionist Ulster is
much greater in proportion than the
Ulster Unionist minority In Ireland
as a whole.
All the Ulster Unionists taken to
gether form about 20 per cent of the
population of Ireland. And yet the
average British statesman, who will
not allow that Ireland Is a homo
geneous nation, Is constantly acting
on the assumption that Ulster Is a
homogeneous province, or at' least a
homogeneous part of a province. He
is deeply concerned for the rights of
the 20 per cent of Carsonites In Ire
land. He is apparently less perturbed
as to the rights of the 30 per cent of
Nationalists In the Carsonlte "four
counties." The troth Is he Is not
anxious to know the facts about
Ulster. Ulster is his traditional argu
ment against the freedom of Ireland.
His predecessors did not discover Ul
ster, they invented it.
Voltaire said*"Df the Deity that if He
had not existed it would have been
Priest Forecasts
Grave Events
"Ulster" Invented as
Excuse For Britain
7^
Juggernauts, the tanks, thundered
through the city streets machine
guns paraded menacingly. In the
towns business was stagnant the
British work of stifling Ireland's in
dustry has been thoroughly carried
out young men and women, throngs
of them, made up a melancholy and
unwilling army of unemployed. Where
there should be plenty, poverty stalks
where there should be bustling indus
try, idleness prevails.
"In May, the people looked on with
amused interest at the demonstrations
of the soldiers and constabulary, and
laughed at the martial display that
met them everywhere in September,
all signs of mirth had departed, and
were succeeded by a sullen determin
ation that left its stamp on their
countenances, and that bodes ill for
their oppressors.
Pitiless Persecution.
"Never has a nation been harassed
more pitilessly by foreign invaders.
No petty persecution conceivable
necessary to invent Him.Britlsl
statesmen, looking round for some jus
tification for the continuance of Eng
lish rule in Ireland, bowed to necces
sity and invented Ulster. The British
statesman, in bis attitude to Ireland,
makes one think of the benignant Mr.
Spenlow whose generous Intentions
are invariably thwarted by his fero
cious partner,- Mr. Jorkins. Like Mr.
Jorkins, Ulster, while apparently the
master. Is really the servant.
Even Its ferocity is not so much a
natural as an Imputed ferocity. Many
Liberals have In recent years been
through the Jorkins bluff. Very few,
however, have as yet grasped the fact
that It is really a Spenlow bluff. Bat
until we realize that the Ulster ques
tion Is mainly a British convenience
Instead of being, as Is so often pre
tended, an embarrassment, it is not
likely that we shall advance far
toward a settlement of the Irish diffi
culty.
One thing at least Mr. Good makes
clear in his lively and fair-minded
book. British statesmen never cared
twopence about Ulster Protestants un
til they found they could make use
of them against Ireland. The Ulster
Presbyterians suffered almost as bit
terly in the eighteenth century as their
Catholic
fellow-countrymen.
*U2T.
vjS
,V&
$
vi
haB
been neglected in a futile attempt to
break their spirit and their temper
four men accidentally walking in step
can be arrested for 'illegal drilling
a small group Binging their native
songs or conversing in their native
Gaelic can be jailed for 'seditious
speaking,' and sentenced to six
monthB' imprisonment in the cold,
stone jails, with hard labor. These
prisoners show remarkable fortitude
they at once go on hunger strikes, and,
being released mere ghosts of their
former Belves, they are greeted as the
heroes they are on returning home,
and are met by processions, headed
by bands and carrying the green and
white and gold banner of their new
State.
"Because the war prevented their
emigrating, the Sinn Feiners have as
their nucleus 100,000 stalwart young
people, the flower of the movement.
But al classes are loyal and out
spoken in their fealty to the Repub
lic and are imbued with that remark
able spirit called Sinn Fein. Especially
would 1 emphasize the splendid, forth
right attitude of the Irish hierarchy.
The resolution passed at Maynooth
last summer showed clearly, in the
words of one of the prelates, 'the Irish
episcopacy had at last marched bag
and baggage Into the Sinn Fein
camp.'"
It was
in order to escape from oppression
that Ulstermen fled to America and
fought in the ranks of Washington's
army against British rule.
Ulstermen Suffered From Military.
General Lake frankly regarded the
Ulstermaa as a villain. He marched
up and down the province on a cam
paign of floggings, half-hangings,
house-burnings, and pitchcaps. Pttch-