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Vol. I. No. 21.
NOTES.
THE “ MERCILESS”* PARLIAMENT
The ‘* Wild Irish’? of England’s
King, Richard II., in the year 1395,
have become to-day, in Mr. Cos-
grave’s phrase, ‘‘ mad Irishmen and
mad © Irishwomen.” there is
more than similarity of word and
phrase between Mr. Cosgrave and
King Richard. Richard’s Parlia-
ment. lives in English history as
“the Merciless Parliament.’? How
future ages will term Mr. Cos-
grave’s Parliament is well under-
stood. The parallel goes even
farther. Richard’s Parliament won
its title ‘‘ merciless ’’ by impeach-
ing of the King’s friends who had
fought for him against Gloucester’s
intrigues and armed rising, Richard
—basely signed the Commission to
bring to trial those who had fought
with him and for him.
* * *
DRIVE INVADERS INTO THE SEA.
Richard then made war on Ireland
and came himself to this country to
»secute it. . Ulster was recovered
the O'Neills and -O’Donnells.
‘The O’Connors of Connacht held
that province, and the O'Briens and
MacMurrough maintained in Mun-
ster and Southern Leinster the
cause of, Irish Independence. ‘Had
the natives united, in one common
efiort they might have driven the
invaders into the ocean,’”
Lingard;. ‘* but they: lost. the glo-
rious opportunity by their own dis-
sension and folly; their arms were
as eften turned against their own
countrymen as against their national
enemies; and several septs received
annual pensions from the English
Government as the price of their
services in. protecting the border:
from the inroads of the more hostile
says
* *
“ AFTER 528 YEARS.”
And now, after 528 years, Ire-
Jand is in the same position as in
Richard’s day.’ Lord Birkenhead
has said the ‘ Treaty ’’ made it
known that England was beaten,
ard ‘‘that the only alternative to
the Treaty" was defeated by the
signing of a ‘‘ Treaty,’ and if we
may quote Lingard’s apt words for
4397 as applicable to-day, Ireland
“might have driven the invaders
into the ocean.’ he infamous
“Statute of ‘Kilkenny ’?) followed
on our armed dissension. Richard
wrote to his Privy Council in Eng-
land ‘describing the ‘ Wild Irish.”
Mr. Cosgrave to-day goes one better
with the expression ‘* mad Irishmen
and mad Irishwomen,’’ spoken to
an audience so devotedly Irish that
it includes Mr. David Barry, who
w for a supercharge on “Trish
foreign trade; and Mr. AVilliam
Hewat, Sir Nugent Everard and
other props of anti-nationalism.
* * *
VICTORY IN ENDURANCE, _
Has this fact that Ireland stands
to-day precisely where she stood five
avd a half centuries ago no. lesson
for those who usc English guns
against their countrymen? The
Spirit, that King Richard failed to
extinguish in 1395; and-that has sur-
vived ‘all the’ persecution cf faith
in Ireland and faith in God, is alive
to-ct
Mr.
and England, reinforced by
ugly and. repulsive
boorishness, ,will not lower it one-
onth part of an inch. | The
situation then and now gives force
oOsy
SATURDAY, 22nd SEPTEMBER, 1923.
MOST DEMOCRATIC OF POPES
ON THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE.
“Supposing that authority to rule comes formally
from the consent of the multitude and not from God, the
supreme and eternal source of all power, it loses its most
august character in the eyes of subjects, and degenerates
into an artificial sovereignty resting on a shaky, changeable
foundation such as is the will of men. And are not the
effects of it seen in the public laws which too often, instead
of being written reason (ratio scripta, the doctrines of
reason expressed in writing) represent only a numerical
force, and the prevailing will of political
power?
Accordingly the licentious appetites of the multitude are
flattered, the rein on political passions is slackened, whilst
it fills cities with disturbers of enforced tranquility,
reserving to itself the right of having recourse in extreme
cases to violent and sanguinary repressions.’’
. Pore Leo XIII. in Encyclical Vigesimum.
te ‘Terence MacSwiney’s immortal
words-——* Victory will come not to
him who can inflict most but to him
who can endure most.”
* * *
WHERE IS DE VALERA?
The highest proportion of votes
in. any constituency went to Presi-
dent de Valera in Clare. | He re-
corded 45 per cent. of the valid
votes cast.. The man who emerges
from the elections with the highest
imprimatur of the electorate is in
prison. The letter of Mrs. de
Valera shows the mystery srround-
ing his detention. She is refused
any information. This is by in-
struction of Gearoid O’Sullivan..In
a civilised land the country would
be informed every day about. one
who filled so large a space in his
country’s history. Silence | can
cause only doubt and: anxiety.
Anxiety begets tension. Is it the
design to create this national ten-
sion?
*
BREAK THEIR WORD.
The breach of undertaking | to
Mrs. de Valera is clear. She thad
been promised that her. husband
would be allowed to write her a
letter 'every week. © She has had
only one letier, Not receiving a
second letter, she calls for informa-
tion and is’ met with distressing
silence.
This bears a very sinister com-
plexion. © Why has ‘the Free State
broken its undertaking? We sup-
pose that it has not abandoned cf
its own free » will. its — original
not’ unkindly arrangement. What
influence has forced it from its
own free will? | Did it come as a
suggestion’ or as a direction or in
the form of a positive order?
* * *
DUBLIN RALLY.
Dublin has quintupled its Sinn
Tein representation at the elections.
Tt was an axiom of the old davs
that what Dublin thinks to-day Ire-
Jand. will think to-morrow. Dublin
has moved rapidl It had done its
thinking for a year. When the time
came for action. it began doing.
Dublin is not alone, however. Other
electoral areas had also thought out
the question and were prepared to
give expression to their thinking.
Kerry elected ali the Sinn Fein can-
didates that were presented. Clare
gave its high percentage to Sinn Fein,
whose vote was eighty
over that of thé Free Sta
spite .cajolery, intimidation _ and
trickery and other influences, . that
one would rather avoid discussing,
the people proved their right to be
called Irishmen. Dublin’s recovery,
despite the influences always found
at the seat of Government, is a
happy augury for the future.
* * *
PRESS OFFICIALLY EXPOSED.
he Dublin daily newspapers
invented a half column interview for
Mr. Hugh Kennedy, K.C._ It
ascribed to him, in what were pub-
lished as his own words, projects of
judicial reforms stupendously great
grotesquely small, intermingled with
wild abuse of many customs of
Bench and Bar. It put it all into
words alleged to be spoken by Mr.
Kennedy in which was plentiful use
ef the pronoun, I. The whole
thing is a fabrication. Mr. Ken-
nedy writes to say: ‘I have given
uo interview since leaving Ireland
to any person whatever,’’ he de-
clares. ‘‘ Moreover, I should be
loth as head of the Irish Bar to
expose myself to the accusation of
using words of intemperate rude-
ness describing the costume of our
brethren of the English Bar.”” This
is what the Irish ‘* Press ‘* has be-
come. Tt is an agency of invention,
of falsehood and of concealment.
* * *
A FRANKENSTEIN.
The victims of this cunning and
unworthy policy hitherto bave pro-
tested in vain. Even the ‘‘ Free
State’? must realise at Jast when, its
chief law officer is made the victim
that it has called a Frankenstein
up. Mr. Kennedy, more fortunate
than the other victims, has gct his
contradiction published. | Liars are
always cowards, and these liars bow
their heads before the ire of the law
cficer of the “ Free State? “with
nis backing’ of. British bayonets.
¥* * &
OTHER INVENTIONS.
The same .papers. describe the
immense crowds «that they. allege
met Mr. Cosgrave in Dun Laoghaire
and Dublin on’ Priday night. ‘It is
less responsible, and therefore
PRICE 24.
safer, to invent crowds than to
invent interviews for an Attorney-
General. A crowd is a nebulous
thing in regard to its dimensions.
Those in it are in like position to
the man who cannot see the wood
for the trees. Those not there
won’t know. When perfervid sen-
tences would allure you in future
to believe the daily press, take for
corrective a dose of the Kennedy
interview.
* *
KILLING PEACE.
The Acting President has let the
light in on the machinations of the
enemies of peace. England wants
no peace in Ireland. It is to her in-
terests that Irishmen will slay each
other. She will have the fewer
opponents of her policy in Ireland to
deal with when she steps in at the
end after the present controllers of
the ‘‘ Free State ’’ have brought the
country to the ruin that is inevitable
under their control.. Hence under
orders from England they impose the
barrier of the oath that they are
ashamed of. The continued raids
and arrests, the violation of the
homes of the people and the provo-
cative military displays, and inside
the prisons assaults and shootings at
prisoners continue. ‘‘ My Ministers,’
as His Most Gracious Majesty’s Re-
presentative styled them, have proved
the willing tools of England in all
their doings.
ee ¥
THE SURGEON'S KNIFE,
What prospect is there of peace
while these things are being done?
In 1916 the Zrish. Times called for
“the surgeon’s knife.’’ Tt spoke. for
England then with no surer blow
than Ministers struck for England to-
day. England has never had an:
other policy in Ireland but violence
and death. The abolition of tithes,
the disestablishment of the minority
church, the land acts had all to be
won through blood, and concessions
when forced came only in miserable
instalments. Now Irishmen are play-
ing England’s centuries old game and
by some are hailed like ‘ dark
Thomas the Roman,” of the last of
the Henrys time, as champions of
country and creed, Ormond’s ravages
failed to kill the spirit of nationhood
sanctified from the first in Irish
breasts. ‘‘ My Ministers ”’ to-day will
be more lamentable failures. But not
till much Irish blood is spilled and
many of the best of our race laid low.
What can members of the Dail who
support this no-peace policy hope for
for Ireland, from. this - policy of
bl
FOUL HYPOCRITES,
An_ outcry is raised about im-
morality in and around Dublin. That
has been evident for a long time.
What else was to be expected? When
armed men are made arbiters of life
and death with no responsibility for
any crimes they commit in the name
of the Government that commissions
them, what restraint could there be on
their passions? The hypocrites! «
sowed the whirlwind are now alarmed
that the’ harvest threatens to be bad
for themselves. President Cosgrave
has been ' dinning into evil ears the
expression ‘‘mad women,” applied to
ladies of position, benefactors of the
Church, angels of charity.’ Others
whom considerations of religion ought
to have restrained have gone further
than the ministerial head line . set
them and used another than the pohi-
tical forum to utter vile things. Can
they be surprised if vile things have
happened ? s
