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diff --git a/34108-8.txt b/34108-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..91d33b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/34108-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1473 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Sacred Egoism of Sinn Fein, by Gnathai Gan Iarraidh + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Sacred Egoism of Sinn Fein + +Author: Gnathai Gan Iarraidh + +Release Date: October 20, 2010 [EBook #34108] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SACRED EGOISM OF SINN FEIN *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + THE SACRED EGOISM OF SINN FÉIN + + + BY GNATHAÍ GAN IARRAIDH + + + MAUNSEL & COMPANY, LIMITED + DUBLIN AND LONDON. 1918 + + _As passed by Censor_ + + + + Printed by George Roberts, Dublin + Irish Paper + + + + +THE SACRED EGOISM OF SINN FÉIN + + + + +I + +THE CULT OF ALTRUISM + + +In this age of sacred egoisms and oppressed nationalities the drama--or +melodrama--of international politics has been enriched by a variety of +distressed heroines, in the shape of small nations, whose salvation has +inspired professions of altruism slightly incompatible with the previous +records of the rescuers as revealed to the impartial observer. The +shortage of paper and man-power notwithstanding, the printing presses of +the Latin and Anglo-Saxon worlds have poured forth an undiminished stream +of most enheartening and uplifting sentiment relating to the rights and +virtues of subject races. Prior to August 1914 small nations were happy if +they succeeded in escaping the attention of their powerful neighbours, but +they have now been raised from the relatively obscure fame conferred upon +the more unfortunate by those sympathetic or patronizing friends of +liberty who have flourished characteristically in the English-speaking +countries. What was once the hobby of select groups of forward-looking +Liberals has become the prerogative of their erstwhile opponents, the +orthodox imperialists and upholders of predatory patriotism. Indeed, in +many instances, the professional gladiators of freedom find themselves +deprived of their occupation, since their philosophy of domestic and +international politics conflicts seriously with the current official +dogmas. The rescuing of small nations has become a "controlled industry," +and appropriate literature is issued in the shape of Blue Books and White +Papers, or in the less ostentatious, if equally suspicious, form of +inspired press propaganda. + +Ireland had long been a subject of melancholy reflection in those quarters +devoted to international altruism of a not too personal kind. Even the +British Liberal found an occasional tremor in his voice as he contemplated +the state of Irish affairs, and remembered his own virtuous conduct of the +case for self-government in Ireland. That voice, however, broke into sobs +of indignation only when uttering judgments upon the iniquities of men +further from home, and his enthusiasm for so proximate a victim of +imperialism was checked by the tangible and daily proofs of his own +futility, less evident where his plea concerned a more remote +beneficiary. Distance lends enchantment to the Liberal view of +international politics. For that reason it is natural to find the +strongest expressions of commiseration for Ireland outside the precincts +of the Island Race, and, in fact, the Irish people have been accustomed to +derive considerable satisfaction from the manifestations of good-will +which they have received from Continental countries. The sympathetic +foreigner, when not an Englishman, is spared the suspicions which his +ignorance of the actual facts might have earned for him, for both parties +are likely to be at a mutual disadvantage in this respect. Moreover, the +claim of a Frenchman, for example, is overwhelmingly reinforced by the +knowledge of material assistance rendered, none being so introspective as +to question the motive of those historic replies of the French nation to +the call of Ireland. In return, did not Ireland alone distinguish herself +in 1870 by a far-sighted rejection of Prussianism, at a time when the Hun +fought for the recovery of Alsace amidst the plaudits of the politicians, +statesmen, and, above all, the moralists of Anglo-Saxondom? When the Irish +organized a brigade to assist France against Prussia, the obstructionist +and condemnatory attitude of the British Government seemed only further +proof that Ireland's real friends must not be sought in England. These +reciprocal manifestations of international appreciation are the definite +crystallization of a sentiment confirmed in Ireland by the fact that +British and West British scholars have singularized themselves by an +indifference and hostility respectively towards the language and +civilization of the Irish nation. Continental scholars, on the other hand, +have displayed an interest in Gaelic studies which cannot but induce in +the Irish people a comforting sense of their own dignity and importance. + +Everything, therefore, has combined to give Ireland a belief in her own +international identity, and, recollecting her ancient grandeur, she has +felt entitled to the sympathy which her subsequent misfortunes have earned +amongst all disinterested students of a history by no means negligible in +the evolution of European civilization. When the great Allied crusade for +the liberation of small nationalities began, and the world resounded to +the cries of protest against the tyrants of subject races, the Irish +people were touched by this dramatic vindication of their age-long +contention. For a brief period the scepticism of centuries made way for a +degree of faith sufficient to bring a number of distinguished Nationalists +into the ranks of England, and under their impulse Ireland--as distinct +from the West Britons--contributed what has remained her military share in +the conflict. The "loyalists," of course, were relieved at the opportunity +of exchanging the dubious pleasures of mutiny and gun-running for the more +sonorous activities of a war for freedom. Having scotched political +self-determination at home, they became seized of a praiseworthy ambition +to confer that denied benefit upon the unenlightened foreigner. As for the +mere Irish, they gradually realized the symbolism of this loyal gesture, +the Ulsterior motive became apparent: the war was on behalf of the small +nations, but one had been forgotten. What is one amongst so many, it may +be asked? But the Irish could not rise to that level of almost divine +impartiality which is the natural sphere of the Britisher when he has +decided to right a wrong. The relative importance of Ireland could not be +as apparent to an Irishman as to his benevolent conqueror. + +It was difficult for Ireland to reconcile herself to the thought that she, +who had engaged so much sympathetic attention, was now being overlooked. +Rather than risk the danger of a loyalist rebellion in the midst of +England's great war, the British Government decided to put the strain on +nationalist Ireland, rather than test the insistent love of the +professional patriots. No doubt it would have been disconcerting to the +imperialist illusion, had Ulster proceeded to stab its "mother country" in +the back, when asked to accept the measure of autonomy constitutionally +and democratically conferred upon the Irish people. England preferred to +rely upon the good-will of her political adversaries, mistrusting the +capacity for sacrifice of her vociferous friends. Even then, Ireland might +have been disposed to fight for those "larger aspects" of freedom so dear +to the progressive philosophers of English politics, who have never yet +been thus commanded: that the charity of political democracy begins +abroad. Omniscient bureaucracy, in rapid process of becoming omnipotent, +so met the efforts of those Irish who would have the national character of +the military alliance preserved, that the alliance did not take place. +Rebuffed in her natural demand for some tokens of national recognition as +a fighting unit amongst the Allies, Ireland began to realize the +importance of establishing an identity which was ignored, and was in +danger of being forgotten. + +Naturally resentment fixed upon the authors and mediators of the "sacred +union" which had failed to fulfil itself, and its weapon was that +originally forged for the defence of the conquest of a measure of autonomy +abandoned under the terms of the political truce. The armed forces which +had been brought into existence by the threat of a loyalist rebellion were +turned to the task of asserting the existence of a forgotten small +nationality. In due course the Easter Rising took place, and by a +blood-sacrifice Ireland once more claimed the rights which, she had been +assured, were being enforced on the battlefields of Europe. Death having +become more valuable than life, as a result of the new belligerent +philosophy of a world at arms, Irishmen determined to demonstrate that +there are more ways than one of dying for freedom. The hopelessness of the +enterprise proved its ultimate strength, for desperate courage has a +peculiar influence upon the pacific civilian, to which category the vast +majority of the Sinn Féin public belonged. Just as the militarist is +enraged by the spectacle of defiant courage over which he has no control, +so the non-combatant patriot is effected by what impresses him as mystic +valour. Even official testimony now records the triumph of that +insurrectionary failure, in so far as the stiffening of the national +purpose is concerned. + +Unfortunately for Ireland, sentimentalism has become so fashionable in +international politics, that realism, whether in thought or action, is +abhorrent to minds soothed with sonorous phrases, and but dimly conscious +of the facts behind the words. The mirage of glory not only obscures the +material horror of war, but it conduces to a certain impatience of ideas +which are not coloured by the prevalent megalomania of idealism. The +Irishman who dares to bring forward the case of his own country in +discussion with belligerents is regarded as an inferior egotist, whose +vision is so warped and limited that he cannot realize the great issues at +stake. Otherwise intelligent men talk to him of the German hegemony of +Europe and, by extension, of the world, with a seriousness differing from +that of the Pan-German League only in its abhorrence of that incredible +ambition. The rhetorical exuberances of Teutonic chauvinists are accepted +as plain statements of policy by those who would not listen to their own +Jingoes. The actual, or contemplated, depredations of one imperialism are +not contrasted with those of another, but are used as a foil to the +liberal and progressive aspirations of outraged political virtue. An +inability to take either party at their own estimate is nevertheless +comprehensible in a people whose scepticism of Liberalism is equalled by a +corresponding doubt as to the possible differentiation of two +imperialisms. + +Acute and not wholly orthodox exponents of the British international point +of view have expended much ingenuity in finding a formula expressing the +conscious or sub-conscious sense of rectitude which pervades the +Englishman in this debate with Ireland. Britain is depicted by these +critical friends as a well-meaning, if blundering, commercialist, whose +imperial adventures, like the amorous adventures of races unblessed by +puritan _Kultur_, must be regarded as venial sins. British imperialism, +they say, is not deliberate and systematic; it aims at no hegemony, and is +thereby innocent of those evils which the "free peoples of the world" are +invited to destroy. As we have the testimony of several hundred years of +Anglo-Irish history in refutation of this comfortable illusion, it is +enough to say, for the present, that the matter presents itself with no +such simplification to the Irish mind. Consequently, viewed in the light +of this _Herrenmoral_, so natural in an imperial race, international +events take on a significance wholly incomprehensible to the unfortunate +victims of a transfigured and transcendental commercialism. Ireland, +therefore, can neither understand nor make herself understood, so long as +discussion is confined to the unrealities of international politics. She +is obliged to grasp with pathetic gratitude at the straws of comfort blown +in her direction by the winds of the European debate, wherein she serves +the purposes of _tu quoque_ repartee. + +In politics, as in literature and art, realism is abhorrent to the +Anglo-Saxon temperament. Wherever the English language is spoken there is +implanted the tradition of moral and intellectual compromise. Revolutions +are blanketed with reforms, unless, as happened in 1641, they can assume +the dignity of a religious crusade. Social problems are discreetly shelved +by Acts of Parliament, and the facts of life delicately obscured by a +literature unique in its emasculation. Thus America condemns as +unpleasantly improper the only honest record of actual warfare in the +trivial mass of Bairnsfatherly war books, _Le Feu_, by Henri Barbusse, a +Frenchman unspoiled by the cult of anæmia. Sanctimonious reflections upon +the superiority of Anglo-Saxon morals are the response to the urgent +question of venereal diseases as a by-product of war. The sexual problems +arising out of militarism are the commonplaces of all literature dealing +with the subject, but when the English-speaking world becomes for the +first time conscripted, and is faced with the military system on a broad +scale, the characteristic stampede to fact-proof shelters takes place. The +half-world is not to be made safe for democracy, but must be declared +taboo. So man becomes chaste by prohibition. + +That the present war is at bottom a struggle between two cultures, the +Anglo-Saxon and the German, is indicated by the remarkable way in which +the ideals of the former have permeated the Allied world, strengthening +the natural preponderance, linguistic and material, of the element +represented by the United States and the British Empire. The hands that +are fighting may be the hands of France, Belgium, Italy, Roumania, Serbia, +Japan, China, America, and San Marino, but the voice is the voice of +Britain, whose most admirable mouthpiece is Dr. Woodrow Wilson. The result +is the reaction of the world to the stimuli of recent history in the +perfect British manner. When the Russian Revolution occurred there was but +little response to the revolutionary contagion, which had, nevertheless, +affected Europe on the previous occasions of similar social upheavals. +England, of course, was the great buttress of reaction against the French +Revolution, which could not recommend itself on religious and moral +grounds to the great Empire of respectability. Yet, France did succeed in +infecting Europe with revolutionary ideas. Russia, on the other hand, has +evoked only the response of the strikes in Germany and Austria. Elsewhere +the reception of this dramatic transition from official words of freedom +to popular action has been mixed and lukewarm. Nobody who understood the +fundamental abhorrence of real liberty in the English-speaking countries +could have been surprised at England's unconcealed chagrin, and the +subsequent hostility of all but a handful of the people to the progress of +revolutionary government and diplomacy. What a relief when Germany finally +imposed silence--and her terms--on Russia! + +The prevailing tone of sentimental idealism in international affairs is, +therefore, unpropitious to those who, like the Russians and the Irish, +insist upon interpreting _au pied de la lettre_, the pious phrases which +adorn the discourses of altruistic statesmen. Be the victims of oppression +only far enough away from immediate Allied control, then their wrongs +bedim the eyes of the professors of Liberty, whose vision becomes too +blurred to distinguish the close presence of political phenomena which +demand attention. In consequence, Ireland's movement of self-assertion +did not receive the good press which the occasion might normally have +warranted. America, though neutral at the time, denounced the "disloyalty" +of Sinn Féin in the best Colonial style, leaving to the American-Irish the +hyphenated distinction, shared with their American-German fellow-citizens, +of displaying a very natural sympathy with their kin in "the old country." +The racial ties of these two sections of Americans were, until +intervention replaced benevolent neutrality, the only evidence of +resistance to that anglicization of Allied opinion which has already been +noted. Once, however, Dr. Wilson had declared his intention of making the +world safe for democracy, repressive measures soon eliminated those +manifestations of opinion. They had been denounced, but tolerated, only so +long as it was legally impossible to suppress freedom of speech without +injuring the interests of the highly articulate Allies and their friends. + +The unsophisticated Irishman in the United States had to reconcile himself +to the paradox of the American denunciation of the Easter Week Rising, as +if the analogous revolt of the founders of that great plutocratic Republic +had not differed only in so far as it was successful. The American +separatists were alike untroubled by the representations of the +unionistic minority, and the preoccupation of England with the war against +her commercial rival of the period. But the Irish separatists made not +even a romantic appeal to a people whose appetite for uplifting sentiment +may be gauged by their profound conviction that the "moral leadership of +the world" had been thrust upon them, after the outbreak of war, by an +appreciative Destiny. It is true that, during the two years when this +particular megalomania possessed the soul of America, her energies were +exclusively concentrated upon the supply of munitions of war, with +occasional humanitarian homilies, addressed to the Hun, and emphatic +protests against the Allied blockade, which was denounced as illegal and +unjust, but has become much more stringent under Wilsonian auspices. It is +hard to decide which of these two not wholly unrelated phenomena is the +greater tribute to the triumph of Anglo-Saxon culture; America's +condemnation of the Irish Republicans as "traitors," or her reinforcement, +when a belligerent, of blockade measures previously described as +indefensible. + + + + +II + +REALISM IN IRISH POLITICS + + +In this most intellectually belligerent of neutral countries the political +mind has become realistic and critical, just when the combatant nations +have taken refuge in an uncritical and remote idealism from the sordid and +dreadful realities of war. Amongst the belligerents, it is true, there is +talk of imposing ideals which, if ill-defined, have nevertheless called +forth generous sacrifices from the inarticulate, plain people, who accept +the formulæ officially or officiously provided for their guidance. But the +mere fact of mobilization tends to emphasize the abstract quality of the +formulæ in which the combatants have summed up, in almost identical words, +their allegedly conflicting purposes. The individual is obscured by the +anonymity of the device emblazoned upon the banner under which he is +engaged. The mind is mobilized no less than the body, so that it is +difficult to discern the personal emotion which must lie behind the +self-immolation of so much bravery. Indeed, when collectively expressed +in official utterances, the motives seem so abstract that President Wilson +once confessed his inability to distinguish between them. It was not until +he ceased to be a spectator of the conflict that he himself coined a +phrase almost cynical in its bland inhumanity, coming from a country where +the rudiments of real democracy are scarcely perceptible. + +In so far, however, as it is possible to read any intelligible meaning +into the word "democracy," as currently employed, it must be prefixed by +"political." The world must be made safe for the political democracies, +that is to say, those countries which have provided themselves with the +"democratic institution" of parliamentary government. A couple of +centuries ago the blessings of political freedom preoccupied the minds of +those countries which have ever since accepted the attainment of that end +as a substitute for the liberty of which it seemed the simulacrum. Those +were the happy days when the discovery had not yet been made that +political power is determined and conditioned by economic power, the +former being useless without the latter. The gradual realization of this +has been accompanied by a widespread disillusionment with party politics, +popularly summed up by Mr. Belloc in his book, _The Party System_, which +put before the general reader criticisms heretofore confined to Socialist +literature. The domination of politics by capitalism became an accepted +truism, and it was no longer possible for intelligent men to consider +their "representative assemblies" with that seriousness so necessary to +the dignity and comfort of the political mountebanks. In short, without +prejudice to the theoretical virtues of parliamentary government, the +conviction was established that, under the régime of profiteering +industrialism, political democracy is an impolite fiction, and that the +politics of capitalism must be party politics, with all its inherent +corruption and dishonesty. + +This process of disillusionment was not without its counterpart in +Ireland, since Irish politicians were part of precisely that political +machinery whose workings were being exposed in England. Moreover, within +the past quarter of a century Irishmen had begun to perceive that, by +relying upon themselves rather than upon their representatives at +Westminster, they could get things done instead of being talked about. +They also observed that the most flourishing industrial and intellectual +movement in the country advanced amidst the indifference, when so +fortunate as not to arouse the active hostility, of the politicians. It +required very little, then, to arouse the suspicion that nothing more +could be obtained for Ireland by political action in England, and the +ignominious fate of the Home Rule Bill came as the final confirmation of a +slowly accumulated scepticism. There was, of course, much of the +inevitable ingratitude of the mob in this revulsion of feeling against a +system which had been accepted by the Irish people, and had, within its +limits, procured them undeniable advantages. Ireland, being eighteenth +century in its retarded political mentality, believed, and still believes, +in the marvels of political liberty, so that the Parliamentary Party was +naturally outraged by the ficklessness of the anti-parliamentarian +campaign. Electors and elected equally believed in party politics, and the +Irish Party could show, with reasonable pride, a record of definite +parliamentary achievement, unequalled by any other minority party in the +British House of Commons. + +The truth is, the Nationalist Party was accused of the vices inseparable +from the parliamentary system by those who very humanly imagined that such +vices were not inherent in the system itself, but were peculiar to +British parliamentarianism. In all criticism there was lacking any +suggestion of the possibility of similar defects in a purely Irish +parliament. That is natural for two reasons. First, because the political +development of Ireland makes it as premature for her to doubt the wisdom +of her own elected assemblies, as it would have been for revolutionary +France to question the practical value of the Declaration of the Rights of +Man. Second, because the immediate cause of dissatisfaction with +constitutional nationalism was the evident impossibility of its ever +realizing the true aims of nationalism. Consequently, it is in vain that +the Nationalist Party appeals for recognition of its actual services. A +generation has arisen which accepts as a matter of course the fruits of a +hard struggle, and insists upon the one vital and essential fact, namely, +that the Irish members at Westminster have not brought Ireland a step +nearer independence, and in the very nature of things, they cannot do so. +Meanwhile, the burdens of over-taxation and misgovernment press every year +more heavily on the country. Party achievements are dismissed as of slight +importance by impatient and perhaps ungenerous critics, who assert--and +rightly--that the Nationalist Party did not represent merely a section of +public opinion in the House of Commons, but represented the Irish nation. +Therefore, the test of party politics cannot be allowed. To which it is +open to the apologist of constitutionalism to reply: you cannot +participate in the game of party politics and then refuse to recognize the +rules of that game. It is no more reasonable to believe that the Irish +nation can be represented in the British Parliament, than to believe that +the British nation is represented there. In both cases the elected persons +vaguely correspond to actual phases of popular opinion, elicited, as a +rule, under conditions which would make it difficult for a crowd of +philosophers to express their judgment, not to mention a semi-educated, +newspaper-fed mob. + +We can observe over the same period a gradual disintegration of confidence +in elected representatives both in England and Ireland, though the +operative causes have not been the same, to the superficial glance. +Intelligent Englishmen have been driven to doubt the efficacy of +parliamentary government by the exposure of party corruption, and by the +realization of the fact that political power is the shadow of which +economic power is the substance. Irishmen, on the other hand, having being +baulked of the opportunity of arriving at the same conclusion as a result +of actual political experience in Ireland, found themselves, by force of +national circumstances, confronted with evidence of the futility of +Westminster politics. They have reached the stage of disillusion, but are +unable to see clearly the intervening stages, owing to the thwarted and +abnormal political evolution of the country. If it seems a paradox to +claim that a country which has demanded a parliament of its own is +dissatisfied with the parliamentary system, it should be recalled that +there is no necessary obligation upon the Irish people to set up in Dublin +a legislature upon the English model. The national political institutions +of Ireland, as competent authorities have pointed out, are susceptible of +meeting the needs of a community, whose social and intellectual conditions +are quite unlike those of England. Moreover, as our national economists, +Molyneux, Berkeley, Swift, Lalor, and Connolly have shown, the Irish case +against government from Westminster has been based, from the beginning of +modern history, upon this fundamental necessity for a combination of +political and economic power, without which there can be no freedom. If +one aspect of the question has been over-emphasized, the fault is common +to more countries than Ireland, and is peculiarly comprehensible in a +people whose political development has been interrupted and delayed. + +The perversity of the fate which governs the relations of England and +Ireland obtrudes itself once more in this connection. It might be thought +that the simultaneous movement of revolt against the sham of politics +would lead to sympathetic understanding of the Sinn Féin point of view. It +is true, to some extent, that during the pre-war years of constant Sinn +Féin activity, friendly references were made in certain English quarters +to the regenerate nationalism which was manifesting itself in literature +and industry. Under less ominous names the Sinn Féin spirit had developed +and spread until, at the outbreak of the war, the country was apparently +absorbed in various enterprises which had received the benediction of +benevolent commentators, relieved to find Ireland at last in a practical +mood. But the war has changed all that. Not only have these innocent +undertakings been revealed as part of the malign machinations of Sinn +Féin, but the term itself has become associated with an event undreamt of +in the essential pacific and economic philosophy of those who expressed +some twelve years ago the growing tendencies in the direction of national +self-help. Sinn Féin did not repudiate the task which destiny thrust upon +it in Easter 1916, but accepted the hitherto rejected theory of physical +force, at the cost of the platonic affection of many who had previously +smiled approvingly at the programme of social reconstruction contemplated +by the founders of the Sinn Féin movement. + +It is doubtful, however, if the Sinn Féin policy could have continued, +after the war had broken out, to escape the hostile attention of England. +Political realists ceased to recommend themselves to the favourable notice +of a people embarking upon a crusade for the Good, the True, and the +Beautiful, and whose minds were glamoured by the idealisms so prodigally +proclaimed since August 1914. In a burst of enthusiasm the "free peoples +of the world" undertook to restore the right of small nations, and since +they knew of only one transgressor, they could not wait to consider their +own possible sins against the spirit of nationality. At the same time, the +discredit and futility of the parliamentary system became more and more +obvious as it failed to meet the exigencies of the crisis which had come +in the history of the political democracies. From the moment when the +latter undertook to vindicate their superiority they were obliged to +compromise hastily, when not to abandon entirely, the principles upon +which they rested. Normally one might have thought that this would give +the final blow to a fiction previously weakened, but the seriousness of +national peril, coupled with the mobilization of thought, has helped to +obscure that conclusion. Once the system had become a gage of battle, and +a challenge to the enemy, it was endeared to its defenders, who clung to +it all the more desperately, the more elusive and illusory it appeared. + +So it happened that Irishmen were invited to share the enthusiasm for an +ideal about which they entertained no more illusions, except the one which +experience had not had a chance to confirm or dispel. Pseudo-democracy +they knew and rejected, as revealed in the light of a spurious political +liberty under the control of English Capitalism, but they had not yet been +allowed to make the experiment of politico-economic freedom on their own +account. Meanwhile, by an amazing inconsequence, the imposition of these +pseudo-democratic conditions became the ambition of precisely the most +restive and acute critics of the political system upon which those +conditions repose. The complete demoralization of the intellectuals by the +present war will supply some future critic material for sceptical +reflection. In the past, both remote and immediate, the educated have +succeeded in differentiating themselves from the mob by refusing, in times +of crisis, to be stampeded by appeals to ignorance. But gradually the +_Intelligentsia_ had been learning the expediency of attaching themselves +to some social or political propaganda until, when the war broke out, they +found themselves everywhere imprisoned by the new status they had assumed. +They were no longer free to serve their real master, but had sold their +intellectual birthright for a mess of official pottage. Their conscripted +minds have definitely lowered their prestige, since they have set +themselves to bluster and shout across their respective frontiers, in a +manner indistinguishable from that of the plain people, without +pretensions to mental discipline and rational speech. Though financially +strengthened the intellectuals have been bankrupted, as a class, by the +war for liberty. + +Without postulating the incompatibility of reason and mob patriotism, +although the divergence of the two has been recorded in prominent +examples, one may legitimately ask: Why this religious enthusiasm for an +ideal whose discredit and disintegration were the chief preoccupation of +intelligent men during the years leading up to the war? The greatest +iconoclasts, so far as the idols of political democracy are concerned, +have become the most fervent advocates of such "democratization," seized +with a malign altruism which would share its ills with those untroubled by +them. Benefits, which would be extravagant if claimed for a Utopia, are +promised on behalf of a social organization whose human imperfections were +never more indecently exposed than during the crisis when it was exalted +as the panacea of civilization. But, in inverse ratio to their own hasty +abandonment of the fictions tenable only in the uncritical times of peace, +the pseudo-democrats urge the adoption of methods which even they find +useless in the stress of national crisis. The foxes having lost the +ornament of intellectual and economic freedom in the trap of capitalist +politics are convinced that the whole world should be handicapped in like +manner. The new gospel of equality of sacrifice, internationally +interpreted, means the equality of weakness. + +It is natural that the great resources of the English-speaking world +should be pledged to the defence of the form of democracy which is the +special creation of Anglo-Saxon culture, and that Britishers and +Americans, rather than Frenchmen and Italians, should be most insistent +upon the blessings of "democratization." That peculiar conception of +liberty which has fostered the ignoble individualism of mediocrity, at +the expense of intellectual independence and social strength, has evolved, +under the ægis of England to her own satisfaction and advantage, until, at +last, she came to be admired by foreigners unblessed by so unique a +possession. Hence the fiction of British freedom, hymned by harassed +outlaws or academic critics, concerned only for the more obvious +advantages of a system which offered a refuge to the one and a guarantee +of respectable stability to the other. When England was the safe haven for +continental refugees, the admiring gratitude of the latter was untroubled +by the reflection that it is one thing to harbour persons likely to cause +trouble with an immediate neighbour, whose frontier is invitingly near, +and quite another to give them the shelter of insular isolation. Moreover, +the governments of more inflammable peoples, susceptible to the contagion +of revolutionary ideas, cannot afford to take risks, which have no reality +in the case of a people protected from that contagion by semi-education +and an innate servility. Perhaps the greatest illusion of the last century +has been the innocent admiration of other nations for the security of a +system which postulates a race inhibited by ignorance, snobbishness, and +mal-nutrition, from all revolutionary desires. They envy the impunity +with which scandals, whose publication would elsewhere inspire +assassination, if not revolution, may be revealed in the reports of Royal +Commissions, without provoking more than a few columns of newspaper +summary and comment. But these benighted foreigners know the temper of +their own populations too well not to pay them at least the compliment of +being afraid to provoke popular fury. Blue Books and parliamentary +questions are not yet universally accepted substitutes for democratic +control. + +The Irish people have more wisely adopted the ancient device, _oderint, +dum metuant_, as the more intelligent attitude of a people towards its +rulers, who have essayed in vain the process of demoralization so +effective elsewhere. In Ireland alone the familiar ostentatious displays +of Blue Book liberty fail in their purpose of disarming criticism, and +consigning vital questions to an oblivion of official words. The capacious +and retentive Irish memory actually feeds on those indigestible slices of +British freedom, whose price and mode of distribution render them +inaccessible to the vast majority of taxpayers at whose expense these +sepulchres of truth are constructed. The effect of such serious attention +to utterances designed as soporifics is a profound contempt for precisely +that democratic virtue which has excited the admiration of certain +foreigners, so consoling to the Anglo-Saxon sense of superiority. When the +Irish-Irelander learns of England's claim to be the leader of democratic +progress in Europe, and finds that claim endorsed by apparently +disinterested critics, his instinctive movement is one of revulsion from +all implied in the laudation. If English rule involves the acceptance of +the democratic ideal, then he rejects the ideal, for he knows that its +irradiations have not lightened his political darkness, and its practical +workings have effected the ruin of his country. If democratization be +synonymous with anglicization, Ireland begs to be excused. She is, +therefore, thrown back upon herself, brooding and indifferent to the +issues which convulse the peoples for whom the problems of the war have a +definite meaning. This scepticism, however, does not bring Ireland into +contact with any current of internationalism, based upon a conviction of +economic evil existing in all capitalistic countries alike. The egoism of +Sinn Féin determines the Irish attitude towards the war. "Ourselves +alone," not German gold, determines Ireland's foreign policy. + + + + +III + +THE SPLENDID ISOLATION OF SINN FÉIN + + +The prevalence of the illusion of British liberty has been an obstacle to +the understanding of Ireland's problem for many years, and correspondingly +the Sinn Féin foreign policy is not a recent phenomenon, since its +objective has been the same for centuries as it is to-day. The French +critic, Emile Montégut, writing in 1855 of Mitchel's _Jail Journal_, +admitted the difficulty when he said: "If the oppressor of Ireland were +Austria or Russia, no invective, no anger, would suffice to denounce the +injustice and cruelty of the tyrant. Unhappily, the oppressor of Ireland +is England, Protestant England, constitutional, liberal, industrial, and +trading England, the most accomplished type of the modern nation, the +model of nineteenth century civilization." In recent times circumstances +have tended to correct and modify the enthusiasm of an opinion which has +been fortified, nevertheless, by the current identification of British +commercial democracy with an ideal condition of society which must be +protected at all costs. The neutral world is blandly assured of the +necessity for accepting every humiliation, in view of the precious +heritage at stake. The tacit, and often avowed, assumption is that the +human race is deeply indebted to the noble altruism of the belligerents, +who have brought devastation and famine upon the world for the greater +glory of civilization. + +As a consequence of this Sinn Féin view of foreign affairs, the Irish +themselves are at a disadvantage in presenting their case, for again, it +is a question of an unauthorized egoism, an egoism not upon the official +schedule of edifying war-aims. Montégut became aware of this when he tried +to diagnose John Mitchel as a revolutionary, who might expect the sympathy +of Europe. "The most anarchical Irishman," he wrote, "the most fiery +partisan of physical force is, in fact, less versed in liberal ideas than +the most obstinate monarchist on the Continent." As for John Mitchel, his +French critic estimated him in terms which are as true of his disciples +to-day as of the Young Ireland Movement and its predecessors. "He is +revolutionary on the surface, in his accent and expression, but not in +spirit or in principle"; such was the judgment of the first impartial +admirer who was attracted to Mitchel by the purely literary qualities of +that masterpiece of passion and irony, _The Jail Journal_. The most +learned of the leaders of Sinn Féin, with a carelessness incredible in a +professional historian, has tried to dismiss Emile Montégut as a hack +journalist of the _Entente_! This sixty year old essay on John Mitchel +contains, nevertheless, a classic description of the Irish rebel, as he +exists, and has always existed, to the discomfiture of those who do not +appreciate the "splendid isolation" of the Sinn Féin idea. Summing up the +Young Ireland leader's attitude in foreign affairs, Montégut says: + + "Do not ask the author if he is Catholic, Liberal, or Republican, do + not ask what government he would give to Ireland. He hardly knows. He + does know that he hates England with all the forces of his soul, and + that he is ready to rebel against her on every occasion, and that + there is no party of which he is not prepared to declare himself the + defender, provided that England perish: French _sans-culottes_, + Austrian aristocrats, Russian despotism please him in turn. The + revolution of February drove him to revolt; but do not think that he + was consistent with himself, and that he was much afflicted by the + death of the Republic! Of all succeeding events he asks but one + thing; will they or will they not hurt England? Do they contain an + occasion for the humiliation of Carthage? He applauds Mazzini, the + enemy of Catholicism; likewise he would applaud an Ultramontane + Bishop of Ireland blessing the standards of a Celtic insurrection. + He salutes the French Republic with hope; but when on the pontoons of + Bermuda he learns of Louis Napoleon's election to the Presidency, he + gives a great shout of joy; on his arrival in America he learns the + news from the east, and he echoes the warlike trumpets of the Tsar + which resound on the Danube. In each of these events he hears the + good news: England's agony!" + +European history moves on, but Ireland's hymn of hate is still unaltered, +and to its accompaniment Sinn Féin adapts the incidents, great and +trivial, which mark the progress of a conflict that is changing the world. +Cut off from the war by intellectual and geographical barriers, Ireland +is, therefore, not exactly the most fruitful ground in which to sow the +ideas which have aroused to a frenzy all but a few disillusioned neutrals. +The pathetic dreams of Liberal forward-lookers, the pious platitudes of +Dr. Woodrow Wilson, and the prize-fighting rhetoric of embattled +bureaucrats and newspapermen fall alike upon deaf Irish ears, which listen +only for the rending and cracking of an abhorred political system. To +speak of the sufferings of Belgians, Poles, and Serbians is merely to +suggest analogies from Irish history; the reaction to the stimulus of +atrocity-mongering is unexpected. Even the Russian revolution aroused only +a passive, almost academic interest, until Lenin and Trotsky referred +specifically to the question of Irish freedom. Then messages of +congratulation to the Bolsheviki were sent from those who had been openly +supporting Count Czernin in his amazing debate with the representatives of +the first Social Democracy to engage in diplomatic _pourparlers_ with a +foreign power. But the capitalist press had scarcely published its +execration of Irish "Bolshevism," when the Ukrainian peace was joyously +greeted by Sinn Féin spokesmen, who were unperturbed in their unholy +innocence of international capitalism, by the discreditable circumstances +of that event, and its subsequently disintegrating effect upon Russia. +These patriots, as Montégut said of their forerunner, Mitchel, "would +unhesitatingly sacrifice modern civilization if there were no other means +of striking England to the dust." Unfortunately, on this occasion, their +ignorance of the solidarity of the capitalist Internationalism betrayed +them into an easy acceptance of a situation by no means repugnant to the +aims of their adversaries. The defeat of Bolshevism was the first great +Allied victory of the war, tempered only by the melancholy reflection that +Germany would be the immediate beneficiary of this restoration of "Law and +Order"--that marvellous euphemism which covers a multitude of sins. + +If the isolation of Ireland from European politics has stultified her +erratic excursions into foreign affairs, it has even more seriously +affected the political relations of England and Ireland during the past +four years. The Britisher, sympathetic or otherwise, is apparently quite +incapable of realizing the fathomless indifference of the vast majority of +the Irish nation towards the issues of the present conflict in Europe. +Naive Liberals have been heard inquiring with plaintive optimism: "But +surely you Irish can appreciate the seriousness of a German victory, even +if you are not willing to fight for England"? And a look of incredulous +despair follows, when the composure of the Irishman is evidently +undisturbed by the lurid tableau of the victorious super-Hun, composed for +sceptics on such occasions. He usually is polite enough to convey to his +interlocutor his belief that no such triumph is possible for any of the +belligerents. This perfectly intelligible and essentially neutral attitude +has never failed to exasperate even more profoundly than pro-Germanism, +the legendary malady of all neutrals who fail to accept the Allies and +their policies unreservedly. As it is those who themselves denounce the +Treaties in which the real aims of the Allied "democracies" were secretly +formulated who also insist with the greatest unction upon the moral +superiority of the Allies, the embarrassment of the impartial is not +diminished by this demand upon their credulity. + +While one may expect the average man to put faith in his country "right or +wrong," he has exceeded the bounds of patriotic gregariousness when he +asks foreigners to display an identical devotion. The imposition is all +the more intolerable when made, not by the plain man in the street, but by +intellectuals, professing the use of reason. It is positively revolting to +the Irishman who, not being a citizen of those small nations happily +outside the dominion of the belligerents, is prohibited from detailed +neutral argument in defence of his own position. Denmark can speak through +a Georg Brandes, but Ireland may not even quote the Allied press in +support of her contentions. The Irish case for neutrality is expurgated of +necessity--of military necessity! The possibilities of arriving at any +understanding with the Allied countries have, therefore, been seriously +hampered, apart altogether from the inherent obstacles to an admission on +the part of Anglo-Saxondom that its statecraft is not an admirable +combination of the choicest maxims of Holy Writ. Naturally, such +conditions have in no wise modified the splendid isolation of Sinn Féin, +since they have rendered free intercommunication between Ireland and the +outside world impossible. + +The ultimate issue of this unequal debate, between a gagged nation and one +in free possession of innumerable voices, was reached when those who +transcended mere discussion interposed with their policy of "shoot: don't +argue." The conscription of Irishmen is the logical conclusion to the +secular denial by England of the claims of Irish nationality, a denial +which has ceased even to be expressed in specific words, so comfortably +has it sunk into the English sub-consciousness. This is the negation which +underlies all political discussion between English and Irish, and has not +a little to say in that futile debate already described. Since the +Irishman's premises are not accepted, all his conclusions seem +unreasonable to his opponent. Similarly the arguments of the latter; for +they rest upon a denial, or, at best, an academic recognition of the fact +that Ireland is a nation, with religious, social and cultural traditions +as unlike those of England as the economic conditions of the two +countries are dissimilar. No agreement is likely when discussion is +vitiated by so vital a misunderstanding. Hence the logic of the +Imperialists who shoot but don't argue. They know that Ireland is not a +colony, and thinking imperially, they are unwilling to concede rights +which they grant to their colonial fellow-citizens. + +This differentiation between colonials, who are Britishers, and Irishmen +who are not, does not lead to its corollary that Ireland is a nation, for +it is not the Anglo-Saxon habit to admit unpleasant truths, unpleasant +here, because the admission would weaken the "moral" case for +conscription, so dear to the British heart. The brutal Hun may dispense +with moral sanctions, he may admit his wrong-doing, when military +necessity involves the invasion of neutral territory. The German +sheep--for we are assured of his docility--may masquerade in the wolf's +clothing of intellectual honesty, his adversaries must have some law (of +"angary"), or preferably, some text of Scripture, enjoining them to act as +they have decided. Their wisdom is justified by the universal execration +of Prussianism which, under other names, smells quite sweet. +Unfortunately, Ireland, like other small neutrals, has failed to be +impressed by the ingenious variety of the Imperialist technique, whose +results are monotonously the same. In the particular instance of the +proposal to apply conscription to Ireland, it is hard to say which +attitude in the Englishman is the more preposterous from the Irish point +of view: that of the virtuosi of Imperialism, who insist upon their moral +"right" to conscript, or that of the soothsayers of liberalism, who think +it "inexpedient" to impose upon the Irish colony a claim which they dared +not impose on Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Canada. Both are +obnoxious in so far as they rest upon the "great refusal," the negation of +Irish nationality. + +It happens, however, that a corresponding divergence of opinion has +expressed itself in Ireland to meet the conditions of British politics. +Constitutional Nationalists and not wholly degraded Unionists have met the +argument of inexpediency by adopting it, obeying the law of their +parliamentary being, which demands cohesion with political friends in +England. This section protests, therefore, against the attempt to enforce +a theoretical right which was not exercised in the case of the British +colonies. If logic were any part of a politician's equipment this position +would be untenable, since only the Unionists profess to regard themselves +as Colonials. The Nationalists assert that Ireland is a nation, but they +act as if she were a colony, thereby adding to the incongruity of their +revolt against participation in a war which they have supported and +declared to be just. But happily only their illogical opponents insist +upon the logical weakness of the position, as is the practice in politics, +where the beam in the eye of one party never interferes with its +perception of the mote in the eye of the other. Their respective +constituents are quite satisfied. + +Sinn Féin, on the other hand, rejects contemptuously the theory of +inexpediency (while admitting the fact), and prefers to deal with the +Britisher _in excelsis_, whose proposal is felt to be a declaration of war +by one nation against another. The failure of England to regard the +Republican army of 1916 as military prisoners of war is not felt to be a +weak link in the logic of this reasoning--a very human exhibition of that +political blindness to which reference has been made. The Sinn Féin +contention is that Ireland is under no obligation to take part in the +European conflict, and that even a measure of Colonial Home Rule should +not involve a departure from this attitude of neutrality. It is argued, +simultaneously, that the war is no concern of the Irish people, and that +Ireland is one of the most important strategic factors of the +Anglo-German struggle, owing to her geographical position. In short, the +destiny of Ireland is to be largely determined by the outcome of the +present hostilities, but the country itself is to remain outside and above +the battle--a sort of ideal war aim, suspended _in vacuo_, and knowing +none of the evils which normally befall small countries when they lie +across the path of great empires. The ingenuous egoism of this viewpoint +is, of course, obvious, and perhaps irritating, to the unsympathetic +outsider, but it is neither better nor worse than the logic of the various +Powers, great and small, whose national egoisms have been touched by the +war. Every country affected is convinced that its particular existence and +ambitions must be assured, if the true purpose of the war is to be +achieved. All see in the satisfaction of their respective aspirations a +guarantee of the millenium, and the triumph of Freedom, Justice and +Humanity. + +The absurdity of appeals to reason, addressed to nations unbalanced by +fear and desire, has never been more apparent than to-day. With the tissue +of patriotic idealism worn threadbare, exposing ugly national greeds, +self-complacent incompetence, and shameless commercialism, it would seem +incredible that even the mob mind should not revolt. Yet, it is just at +this supreme moment of disillusion, when the showing up of all +belligerents is complete, that voices are heard clamouring for more +soldiers to fight for Liberty, and the more incurable professors of +Democracy--that blessed word--actually suggest that the true significance +of the war should be explained to an ignorant Ireland. Once our darkness +was lightened by the lords of propaganda we would take our places, not in +the rear as become late-comers, but in the forefront of the great crusade, +which is to restore to France her frontier of 1814, to allocate the Balkan +States to various masters, to partition Turkey, and rearrange the economic +and geographical map, to the greater glory of the Allied God. To say the +least, the moment is not quite propitious to the cultivation of the +necessary faith in people living, politically, _in partibus infidelium_. +It is no wonder that the Irish nation, without introspection of motive, +has united in opposition to the application of a law which could never +have established itself, if it had been born into a world as sceptical as +that of to-day. Illusion or panic must urge the duty of compulsory +military service. + +The ruthless Sinn Féin policy of the English in Ireland called forth an +equivalent Irish retort. Sinn Féin with its programme of national +economics, has its roots in the history of the commercial relations +between the two countries. From 1663, when the Cattle and Navigation Acts +laid the first avowed restrictions on Irish industry and commerce, down to +the present, the destruction of the economic, in addition to the national, +freedom of Ireland, has been the deliberate policy of Britain. The +programme of industrial revival, the plea for industrial autonomy, which +was the point of departure for Sinn Féin many years ago, what is it, after +all, but the crystallization of ideas common to three centuries of Irish +economic literature? From the beginning of the seventeenth century a vast +library of protest against English commercial jealousy has grown up, and +is still growing. Obscure pamphleteers and writers of the highest fame +stand side by side in this indictment of a country which dares now to +assert that its crimes have not been deliberate. Swift's _Proposal for the +Universal Use of Irish Manufactures_, his _Short View of the State of +Ireland_, his _Modest Proposal_; the _Querist_ of Bishop Berkeley; Hely +Hutchinson's _Commercial Restraints of Ireland_;--these are only some of +the most prominent documents in the history of the economic revolt, +subsequently known as the Sinn Féin movement. A sharp corrective of the +lazy ignorance of the fiction which describes the Irish case against +England as one of retrospective sentimentality is provided by the economic +writings of Irishmen for the past three hundred years. + +Sinn Féin succeeds Sinn Féin; one egoism has aroused another, and England +now faces in Ireland the projection of her own spirit. Just as British +policy has served only England's interests, so Ireland has learnt to think +first of herself, having never seen her enemy give one thought even to +fair play, as between country and country. Whatever claims the British +Empire may have upon the gratitude or self-interest of other peoples, it +has none on Ireland, which has not yet been allowed, as the phrase goes, +to be just before she is generous. The sacred egoism of nations, so +commendable when urging them to fight for their national existence--and +even aggrandisement--against the Hun, is unfavourably regarded in all +other circumstances. Neither Russia nor Greece has been pardoned a natural +impulse towards self-preservation. Only great Powers are allowed to think +of their own welfare; small nations are denied the luxury, except on +specified conditions. Yet, in spite of brute force, and perhaps because of +it, the smaller nationalities persist in a tenacious selfishness, without +which they must abandon the struggle for life. Editors of military age, +who are too proud of their verbiage to fight, may lament the shame of a +people incapable of the noble altruism which fights for the Sacred +Treaties. Even if a miracle of democracy in the Allied ranks had not come +to give us those shreds of the truth behind the war, Ireland would still +remain unconscious of her shameless soullessness. Strong in the sacred +egoism of Sinn Féin, the Irish nation is convinced that only in his own +country can an Irishman usefully engage in the struggle for freedom. +Flanders, Gallipoli, and Mesopotamia are not milestones on the road which +leads to the liberation of at least one forgotten small nationality. + +If the anti-conscription movement had not asserted itself pious Liberal +phrase-makers would never have believed--British fashion--that any +community could actually stand by principles whose statement in England +has invariably been a preliminary to their ignominious abandonment. Once +again our political realism impinged unpleasantly upon the Anglo-Saxon +consciousness, confronting the impotent mourners of theories they were too +feeble to defend with the spectacle of a people aroused to fight against +the supreme sacrifice demanded by the State of its citizens. The sacred +egoism of the individual and of the nation was challenged, and a sacred +union was the result, in which Ireland asserted, with uncompromising +unanimity, her separate national identity. Characteristically, the +professional Protestants kept aloof from this manifestation of liberty, to +the bewilderment and shame of certain continental observers, proud of +their Calvinistic origins, and surprised to find that, in Ireland, +Protestantism is, by definition, antagonistic to the libertarian impulses +with which it is associated on the continent of Europe. An aftermath of +tragi-comedy followed the religious tension of the anti-conscription +demonstrations, when a number of Protestant Irishwomen were contemptuously +excluded from the church in which they had intended to associate their +prayers with those of their Catholic countrywomen. They discovered that +the Church of "Ireland" denied them the elementary right of every +Protestant to direct communication with God. The Dean who interposed +between heaven and the prayers of the faithful was not, strange to say, +invited to enter the communion which teaches the necessity for priestly +intercession between man and his Maker. On the contrary, some of the +victims of his ecclesiastical and political insolence were more concerned +to absolve him from the blame of such an insult than to assert the +principle for which Irish Protestants were alleged to be fighting. Such is +the dilemma, and such is the quality, of the religion implanted by England +in this country, and fostered, like the weakling that it is, in all the +peevish selfishness of the spoilt child, eternally exerting the petty +tyrannies it imputes to others. + +The reaction of Anglo-Saxondom to this Irish experiment in the teaching of +the Allies has been somewhat similar to that described in the case of +Russia, on the analogous occasion of the revolutionary realization of +theories reserved for the academic leisure of the English upper classes. +Mr. Lloyd George, that distinguished Liberal, was most insistent upon the +"moral right" to impose military service upon subject races, his +contention was echoed by all "responsible" statesmen, and the lofty +example of Austria was cited as a model. This was a daring instance of +associating with enemy ideas, only permissible to the chemically pure in +heart. + +If only the Hun had served the Bible as he served Bernhardi, the Lord +would not have deserted him in his hour of need. In Ireland, however, the +devil of imperialism quoted the Scriptures to no purpose, for this is an +island, not only of Saints and Scholars, but also of theologians and +politicians, who proved equal to this ingenious conflict of moralities. +This alliance was particularly obnoxious to those who had engineered the +politico-religious Carsonade of North-East Ulster. Just as the Allied +governments have standardized the business of rescuing small +nationalities, so the dominant British statesmen have the exclusive right +to combine religion and politics. A Covenant of "loyalists," in full +Protestant regalia, organizing treason to the King and Parliament +recognized by them, is but an incident on the path to political preferment +and the honours of public life. A national pledge to resist the greatest +infamy one nation can inflict upon another becomes a Papist plot. An Irish +bishop is a sinister intruder only when he does not wear the shovel-hat +and apron of the Episcopalian minority. + +In the greater Anglo-Saxondom across the seas, particularly in the +Wilsonian Republic, the spectacle of Irish freedom was most offensive. An +American critic once summed up the different characteristics of North and +South in the Civil War by saying: "The Southerner was an imitation of an +English gentleman, the Northerner was an imitation of an English cad." In +other words, society in the South was a shadowy reflection of the British +landed aristocracy, in the North, it followed the example of the +capitalist class. In terms of present day America this definition must be +modified to meet the change effected by the triumph of the North, and the +general disappearance of the old South. An American to-day is an English +Liberal ... only more so. He combines the anti-social commercialism of the +industrial early nineteenth century with the empty, verbal radicalism of +the Cocoa Press tear-squeezers. Needless to say he has shown, on the +whole, a more ferocious intolerance of minorities and individuals than any +other belligerent in the present war. His hatred is more bestial; his +patriotic zeal more inquisitorial. The slowly mounting tide of perverted +Puritan legislation has broken over America, swollen by the tributaries of +war lust, until the country is a vast wilderness of freak prohibitions +aimed at the destruction of freedom. In these circumstances it is not +surprising to find American journals occasionally protesting against the +excessive zeal of the Administration in suppressing opinions and harassing +individuals, because of pro-Irish sympathies which have been granted +expression even in England. The New York _Nation_, a respectable and +orthodox journal, written by and for intellectually anæmic college +professors, sighs in vain for such toleration in Irish affairs as that of +the _Manchester Guardian_. A striking tribute to the decadent +anglicization of the Benighted States! + +At no time remarkable for the suppression of the national ego, America has +now abandoned all pretence of respecting the egoism of other nations which +have dared to display the instinct of self-preservation, in opposition to +the ukases of absolutists of international virtue. Thus, we find the great +minds of the Anglo-Saxon world with but a single thought, although +forward-lookers in England still comfort their depressed followers with +gallant attempts to extract hope from the rhetorical felicities of +President Wilson, whose verbal harmonies are contrasted with the +discordant defiance of ministerial utterances at home. Just as in America, +progressive Radicals compare the autocracy of Washington with the +democracy of London, and complain that Americans are deprived of the +blessings of liberty and efficiency which the English enjoy. The great +advantage of a numerous Alliance may be appreciated by all who observe the +reciprocal illusions of the Allied peoples, of whom each believes that all +is well with the others. An idea, or a reputation, exploded in London, +will linger peacefully in more distant regions, until the circuit of +disillusionment has been completed. By that time it may start afresh in +some new guise, on the principle that you can pass as a statesman of +genius with all the Allies some of the time, if not with some of them all +the time, as certain idols of the market place would seem to indicate. + +When the collapsible German "plot" was landed in Ireland, and a number of +arrests was made in the better-organized ranks of the +anti-conscriptionists, it was doubtless the intention to prove Irish +Nationalism synonymous with pro-Germanism, but the result has been to make +it so, rather than to prove that it was so. This unexpected achievement +has been pointed out--the Censor permitting--in various journals, and +there has been a consequent recrudescence of activity to persuade Ireland +that she is isolating herself from the world by turning towards Germany. +With a tranquility in accepting the possibility as strange as the +disinclination to remove its motives, Englishmen have set themselves to +argue against the desirability of an Irish-German alliance. That being a +highly conjectural and theoretical matter, it at once appeals to the +Liberal British mind as a more suitable theme for discussion than the +actual question at issue between England and Ireland. The Celt, whose +preference for the dream over the reality is proverbial in non-Celtic +circles, has been superseded by the theorists of freedom, who would much +sooner argue academic points than face real political problems. They enjoy +the task of setting forth the dire consequences of a Central European +combination, with Ireland annexed, and contrasting this with the +federation of free peoples, in which everyone is happy. + +Unfortunately, the future does not present itself to the Irish mind in any +such simplified terms, and some Irishmen, too, offer the will for the deed +of participation, but their reception is the most unfavourable. They are +accused of supporting a war in which they refuse to fight. There is to be +no reciprocity in this exchange. The pro-Ally Irishman is to give his life +at once, but no instalment is forthcoming of the common ideal he has been +invited to achieve. The democratic millenium to which the Milners, +Curzons, and Carsons are leading, under the special patronage of Lord +Northcliffe, is apparently so certain, that only the rudeness of parochial +and provincial minds could prompt a demand for the commonplace +realizations of here and now. So it comes, as the war progresses, that +the number of Ireland's grievances is increased simultaneously with the +demands upon her honour, her credulity and her patience. Consequently, as +is the way of human nature, her egoism is exasperated, and becomes more +firmly concentrated upon her own welfare. Precisely at that moment of +exasperation an appeal is made for the voluntary surrender of that which +was witheld even under threat of force. Since it is only the tactless Hun +who is lacking in psychological subtlety, this strange phenomenon must be +otherwise explicable. + +The truth is that our sacred egoism, strong and exacerbated as it is, has +not yet touched the sublime heights of British selfishness and +self-complacency. England refuses absolutely to be convinced, by the +painful and reiterated facts of our history, that this country is not +merely a turbulent province! Therefore, it ought to be possible to break +our resistance, or to cajole us, as was done in England when the various +Military Service Acts were passed. The men of the country were split up +into antagonistic groups; the married against the single, the middle-aged +against the young, trade against trade. Each wanted to escape at the cost +of the other. In Ireland, of course, no such division can be created, for +the simple reason that we have never refused to fight for our own +country. Our detestation of pacifists equals even that of the English +gutter-press, and our incredible indifference to personal, as distinct +from national, convictions makes Ireland a paradise for militarists. But +they must be militarists of our own creation. Sinn Féin fosters the +development of native industries, and supports home products, often with +an embarrassing disregard for the consequences. The Irish anti-militarist +is, therefore, rarely a pacifist, and his objections are of a very +different order from those which are surmounted or crushed by the +advocates of military service in Great Britain. But it does not seem as if +this elementary fact will be recognized, for to recognize it would be for +England to admit that Ireland is a nation. To the denial and obscuration +of that enduring truth centuries of English policy have gone, and in +Ireland everything has been sacrificed to its assertion and reiteration. +It lies at the back of the whole Anglo-Irish controversy, and sums up the +essence of innumerable volumes which have attempted to state the case for +Irish freedom. Until the fact of Irish Nationality is accepted by England, +and acted upon, it will be the task of Sinn Féin to proclaim the sacred +egoism of a nation that will not die. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Sacred Egoism of Sinn Fein, by +Gnathai Gan Iarraidh + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SACRED EGOISM OF SINN FEIN *** + +***** This file should be named 34108-8.txt or 34108-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/1/0/34108/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian +Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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