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diff --git a/79022-0.txt b/79022-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e6c9d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/79022-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6504 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79022 *** + + + + + COLLECTED WORKS OF + PADRAIC H. PEARSE + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + +[Illustration: Padraic Pearse.] + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + COLLECTED WORKS OF + PADRAIC H. PEARSE + + + POLITICAL WRITINGS + AND SPEECHES + + + MAUNSEL & ROBERTS LIMITED + DUBLIN AND LONDON 1922 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + Printed by Maunsel & Roberts Ltd., Dublin + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + CONTENTS + + + DATE OF + PUBLICATION PAGE + + THE MURDER MACHINE 1912 5 + HOW DOES SHE STAND-- + I. ORATION ON WOLFE TONE 1913 53 + II. ORATION ON ROBERT EMMET 1914 64 + III. SECOND ORATION ON EMMET 1914 76 + THE COMING REVOLUTION Nov., 1913 89 + THE PSYCHOLOGY OF A VOLUNTEER Jan., 1914 101 + TO THE BOYS OF IRELAND Feb., 1914 110 + WHY WE WANT RECRUITS May, 1915 117 + O’DONOVAN ROSSA--CHARACTER SKETCH Aug., 1915 125 + O’DONOVAN ROSSA--GRAVESIDE ORATION Aug., 1915 133 + FROM A HERMITAGE Re-Issued 1915 139 + PEACE AND THE GAEL Dec., 1915 213 + GHOSTS Xmas, 1915 219 + THE SEPARATIST IDEA 1st Feb., 1916 251 + THE SPIRITUAL NATION 13th Feb., 1916 295 + THE SOVEREIGN PEOPLE 31st Mar., 1916 331 + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + THE MURDER MACHINE + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + PREFACE + + +This pamphlet is not, as its name might seem to import, a penny +dreadful, at least in the ordinary sense. It consists of a series of +studies of the English education system in Ireland. The article entitled +“The Murder Machine” embodies an article which appeared in the _Irish +Review_ for February 1913. The article called “An Ideal in Education” +was printed in the _Irish Review_ for June 1914. The rest of the +pamphlet is a collation of notes made for a lecture which I delivered in +the Dublin Mansion House in December 1912. + + P. H. PEARSE. + +ST. ENDA’S COLLEGE, + RATHFARNHAM, + 1st January 1916. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + THE MURDER MACHINE + + + I + + THE BROAD-ARROW + +A French writer has paid the English a very well-deserved compliment. He +says that they never commit a useless crime. When they hire a man to +assassinate an Irish patriot, when they blow a Sepoy from the mouth of a +cannon, when they produce a famine in one of their dependencies, they +have always an ulterior motive. They do not do it for fun. Humorous as +these crimes are, it is not the humour of them, but their utility, that +appeals to the English. Unlike Gilbert’s Mikado, they would see nothing +humorous in boiling oil. If they retained boiling oil in their penal +code, they would retain it, as they retain flogging before execution in +Egypt, strictly because it has been found useful. + +This observation will help one to an understanding of some portions of +the English administration of Ireland. The English administration of +Ireland has not been marked by any unnecessary cruelty. Every crime that +the English have planned and carried out in Ireland has had a definite +end. Every absurdity that they have set up has had a grave purpose. The +Famine was not enacted merely from a love of horror. The Boards that +rule Ireland were not contrived in order to add to the gaiety of +nations. The Famine and the Boards are alike parts of a profound polity. + +I have spent the greater part of my life in immediate contemplation of +the most grotesque and horrible of the English inventions for the +debasement of Ireland. I mean their education system. The English once +proposed in their Dublin Parliament a measure for the castration of all +Irish priests who refused to quit Ireland. The proposal was so filthy +that, although it duly passed the House and was transmitted to England +with the warm recommendation of the Viceroy, it was not eventually +adopted. But the English have actually carried out an even filthier +thing. They have planned and established an education system which more +wickedly does violence to the elementary human rights of Irish children +than would an edict for the general castration of Irish males. The +system has aimed at the substitution for men and women of mere Things. +It has not been an entire success. There are still a great many thousand +men and women in Ireland. But a great many thousand of what, by way of +courtesy, we call men and women, are simply Things. Men and women, +however depraved, have kindly human allegiances. But these Things have +no allegiance. Like other Things, they are for sale. + +When one uses the term education system as the name of the system of +schools, colleges, universities, and what not which the English have +established in Ireland, one uses it as a convenient label, just as one +uses the term government as a convenient label for the system of +administration by police which obtains in Ireland instead of a +government. There is no education system in Ireland. The English have +established the simulacrum of an education system, but its object is the +precise contrary of the object of an education system. Education should +foster; this education is meant to repress. Education should inspire; +this education is meant to tame. Education should harden; this education +is meant to enervate. The English are too wise a people to attempt to +educate the Irish, in any worthy sense. As well expect them to arm us. + +Professor Eoin MacNeill has compared the English education system in +Ireland to the systems of slave education which existed in the ancient +pagan republics side by side with the systems intended for the education +of freemen. To the children of the free were taught all noble and goodly +things which would tend to make them strong and proud and valiant; from +the children of the slaves all such dangerous knowledge was hidden. They +were taught not to be strong and proud and valiant, but to be sleek, to +be obsequious, to be dexterous: the object was not to make them good +men, but to make them good slaves. And so in Ireland. The education +system here was designed by our masters in order to make us willing or +at least manageable slaves. It has made of some Irishmen not slaves +merely, but very eunuchs, with the indifference and cruelty of eunuchs; +kinless beings, who serve for pay a master that they neither love nor +hate. + +Ireland is not merely in servitude, but in a kind of penal servitude. +Certain of the slaves among us are appointed jailors over the common +herd of slaves. And they are trained from their youth for this degrading +office. The ordinary slaves are trained for their lowly tasks in dingy +places called schools; the buildings in which the higher slaves are +trained are called colleges and universities. If one may regard Ireland +as a nation in penal servitude, the schools and colleges and +universities may be looked upon as the symbol of her penal servitude. +They are, so to speak, the broad-arrow upon the back of Ireland. + + + II + + THE MURDER MACHINE + +A few years ago, when people still believed in the imminence of Home +Rule, there were numerous discussions as to the tasks awaiting a Home +Rule Parliament and the order in which they should be taken up. Mr. John +Dillon declared that one of the first of those tasks was the recasting +of the Irish education system, by which he meant the English education +system in Ireland. The declaration alarmed the Bishop of Limerick, +always suspicious of Mr. Dillon, and he told that statesman in effect +that the Irish education system did not need recasting--that all was +well there. + +The positions seemed irreconcilable. Yet in the _Irish Review_ I +quixotically attempted to find common ground between the disputants, and +to state in such a way as to command the assent of both the duty of a +hypothetical Irish Parliament with regard to education. I put it that +what education in Ireland needed was less a reconstruction of its +machinery than a regeneration in spirit. The machinery, I said, has +doubtless its defects, but what is chiefly wrong with it is that it is +mere machinery, a lifeless thing without a soul. Dr. O’Dwyer was +probably concerned for the maintenance of a portion of the machinery, +valued by him as a Catholic Bishop, and not without reason; and I for +one was (and am) willing to leave that particular portion untouched, or +practically so. But the machine as a whole is no more capable of +fulfilling the function for which it is needed than would an automaton +be capable of fulfilling the function of a living teacher in a school. A +soulless thing cannot teach; but it can destroy. A machine cannot make +men; but it can break men. + +One of the most terrible things about the English education system in +Ireland is its ruthlessness. I know no image for that ruthlessness in +the natural order. The ruthlessness of a wild beast has in it a certain +mercy--it slays. It has in it a certain grandeur of animal force. But +this ruthlessness is literally without pity and without passion. It is +cold and mechanical, like the ruthlessness of an immensely powerful +engine. A machine vast, complicated, with a multitude of far-reaching +arms, with many ponderous presses, carrying out mysterious and +long-drawn processes of shaping and moulding, is the true image of the +Irish education system. It grinds night and day; it obeys immutable and +predetermined laws; it is as devoid of understanding, of sympathy, of +imagination, as is any other piece of machinery that performs an +appointed task. Into it is fed all the raw human material in Ireland; it +seizes upon it inexorably and rends and compresses and re-moulds; and +what it cannot refashion after the regulation pattern it ejects with all +likeness of its former self crushed from it, a bruised and shapeless +thing, thereafter accounted waste. + +Our common parlance has become impressed with the conception of +education as some sort of manufacturing process. Our children are the +“raw material”; we desiderate for their education “modern methods” which +must be “efficient” but “cheap”; we send them to Clongowes to be +“finished”; when “finished” they are “turned out”; specialists “grind” +them for the English Civil Service and the so-called liberal +professions; in each of our great colleges there is a department known +as the “scrap-heap,” though officially called the Fourth +Preparatory--the limbo to which the _débris_ ejected by the machine is +relegated. The stuff there is either too hard or too soft to be moulded +to the pattern required by the Civil Service Commissioners or the +Incorporated Law Society. + +In our adoption of the standpoint here indicated there is involved a +primary blunder as to the nature and functions of education. For +education has not to do with the manufacture of things, but with +fostering the growth of things. And the conditions we should strive to +bring about in our education system are not the conditions favourable to +the rapid and cheap manufacture of readymades, but the conditions +favourable to the growth of living organisms--the liberty and the light +and the gladness of a ploughed field under the spring sunshine. + +In particular I would urge that the Irish school system of the future +should give freedom--freedom to the individual school, freedom to the +individual teacher, freedom as far as may be to the individual pupil. +Without freedom there can be no right growth; and education is properly +the fostering of the right growth of a personality. Our school system +must bring, too, some gallant inspiration. And with the inspiration it +must bring a certain hardening. One scarcely knows whether modern +sentimentalism or modern utilitarianism is the more sure sign of modern +decadence. I would boldly preach the antique faith that fighting is the +only noble thing, and that he only is at peace with God who is at war +with the powers of evil. + +In a true education system, religion, patriotism, literature, art and +science would be brought in such a way into the daily lives of boys and +girls as to affect their character and conduct. We may assume that +religion is a vital thing in Irish schools, but I know that the other +things, speaking broadly, do not exist. There are no ideas there, no +love of beauty, no love of books, no love of knowledge, no heroic +inspiration. And there is no room for such things either on the earth or +in the heavens, for the earth is cumbered and the heavens are darkened +by the monstrous bulk of the programme. Most of the educators detest the +programme. They are like the adherents of a dead creed who continue to +mumble formulas and to make obeisance before an idol which they have +found out to be a spurious divinity. + +Mr. Dillon was to be sympathised with, even though pathetically +premature, in looking to the then anticipated advent of Home Rule for a +chance to make education what it should be. But I doubt if he and the +others who would have had power in a Home Rule Parliament realised that +what is needed here is not reform, not even a revolution, but a vastly +bigger thing--a creation. It is not a question of pulling machinery +asunder and piecing it together again; it is a question of breathing +into a dead thing a living soul. + + + III + + “I DENY” + +I postulate that there is no education in Ireland apart from the +voluntary efforts of a few people, mostly mad. Let us therefore not talk +of reform, or of reconstruction. You cannot reform that which is not; +you cannot by any process of reconstruction give organic life to a +negation. In a literal sense the work of the first Minister of Education +in a free Ireland will be a work of creation; for out of chaos he will +have to evolve order and into a dead mass he will have to breathe the +breath of life. + +The English thing that is called education in Ireland is founded on a +denial of the Irish nation. No education can start with a Nego, any more +than a religion can. Everything that even pretends to be true begins +with its Credo. It is obvious that the savage who says “I believe in +Mumbo Jumbo” is nearer to true religion than the philosopher who says “I +deny God and the spiritual in man.” Now, to teach a child to deny is the +greatest crime a man or a State can commit. Certain schools in Ireland +teach children to deny their religion; nearly all the schools in Ireland +teach children to deny their nation. “I deny the spirituality of my +nation; I deny the lineage of my blood; I deny my rights and +responsibilities.” This Nego is their Credo, this evil their good. + +To invent such a system of teaching and to persuade us that it is an +education system, an Irish education system to be defended by Irishmen +against attack, is the most wonderful thing the English have +accomplished in Ireland; and the most wicked. + + + IV + + AGAINST MODERNISM + +All the speculations one saw a few years ago as to the probable effect +of Home Rule on education in Ireland showed one how inadequately the +problem was grasped. To some the expected advent of Home Rule seemed to +promise as its main fruition in the field of education the raising of +their salaries; to others the supreme thing it was to bring in its train +was the abolition of Dr. Starkie; to some again it held out the +delightful prospect of Orange boys and Orange girls being forced to +learn Irish; to others it meant the dawn of an era of commonsense, the +ushering in of the reign of “a sound modern education,” suitable to the +needs of a progressive modern people. + +I scandalised many people at the time by saying that the last was the +view that irritated me most. The first view was not so selfish as it +might appear, for between the salary offered to teachers and the +excellence of a country’s education system there is a vital connection. +And the second and third forecasts at any rate opened up picturesque +vistas. The passing of Dr. Starkie would have had something of the +pageantry of the banishment of Napoleon to St. Helena (an effect which +would have been heightened had he been accompanied into exile by Mr. +Bonaparte Wyse), and the prospect of the children of Sandy Row being +taught to curse the Pope in Irish was rich and soul-satisfying. These +things we might or might not have seen had Home Rule come. But I +expressed the hope that even Home Rule would not commit Ireland to an +ideal so low as the ideal underlying the phrase “a sound modern +education.” + +It is a vile phrase, one of the vilest I know. Yet we find it in nearly +every school prospectus, and it comes pat to the lips of nearly everyone +that writes or talks about schools. + +Now, there can be no such thing as “a sound modern education”--as well +talk about a “lively modern faith” or a “serviceable modern religion.” +It should be obvious that the more “modern” an education is the less +“sound,” for in education “modernism” is as much a heresy as in +religion. In both mediaevalism were a truer standard. We are too fond of +clapping ourselves upon the back because we live in modern times, and we +preen ourselves quite ridiculously (and unnecessarily) on our modern +progress. There is, of course, such a thing as modern progress, but it +has been won at how great a cost! How many precious things have we flung +from us to lighten ourselves for that race! + +And in some directions we have progressed not at all, or we have +progressed in a circle; perhaps, indeed, all progress on this planet, +and on every planet, is in a circle, just as every line you draw on a +globe is a circle or part of one. Modern speculation is often a mere +groping where ancient men saw clearly. All the problems with which we +strive (I mean all the really important problems) were long ago solved +by our ancestors, only their solutions have been forgotten. There have +been States in which the rich did not grind the poor, although there are +no such States now; there have been free self-governing democracies, +although there are few such democracies now; there have been rich and +beautiful social organisations, with an art and a culture and a religion +in every man’s house, though for such a thing to-day we have to search +out some sequestered people living by a desolate sea-shore or in a high +forgotten valley among lonely hills--a hamlet of Iar-Connacht or a +village in the Austrian Alps. Mankind, I repeat, or some section of +mankind, has solved all its main problems somewhere and at some time. I +suppose no universal and permanent solution is possible as long as the +old Adam remains in us, the Adam that makes each one of us, and each +tribe of us, something of the rebel, of the freethinker, of the +adventurer, of the egoist. But the solutions are there, and it is +because we fail in clearness of vision or in boldness of heart or in +singleness of purpose that we cannot find them. + + + V + + AN IDEAL IN EDUCATION + +The words and phrases of a language are always to some extent +revelations of the mind of the race that has moulded the language. How +often does an Irish vocable light up as with a lantern some immemorial +Irish attitude, some whole phase of Irish thought! Thus, the words which +the old Irish employed when they spoke of education show that they had +gripped the very heart of that problem. To the old Irish the teacher was +_aite_, “fosterer,” the pupil was _dalta_, “foster-child,” the system +was _aiteachas_, “fosterage”; words which we still retain as _oide_, +_dalta_, _oideachas_. + +And is it not the precise aim of education to “foster”? Not to inform, +to indoctrinate, to conduct through a course of studies (though these be +the dictionary meanings of the word), but, first and last, to “foster” +the elements of character native to a soul, to help to bring these to +their full perfection rather than to implant exotic excellences. + +Fosterage implies a foster-father or foster-mother--a person--as its +centre and inspiration rather than a code of rules. Modern education +systems are elaborate pieces of machinery devised by highly-salaried +officials for the purpose of turning out citizens according to certain +approved patterns. The modern school is a State-controlled institution +designed to produce workers for the State, and is in the same category +with a dockyard or any other State-controlled institution which produces +articles necessary to the progress, well-being, and defence of the +State. We speak of the “efficiency,” the “cheapness,” and the +“up-to-dateness” of an education system just as we speak of the +“efficiency,” the “cheapness,” and the “up-to-dateness” of a system of +manufacturing coal-gas. We shall soon reach a stage when we shall speak +of the “efficiency,” the “cheapness,” and the “up-to-dateness” of our +systems of soul-saving. We shall hear it said “Salvation is very cheap +in England,” or “The Germans are wonderfully efficient in prayer,” or +“Gee, it takes a New York parson to hustle ginks into heaven.” + +Now, education is as much concerned with souls as religion is. Religion +is a Way of Life, and education is a preparation of the soul to live its +life here and hereafter; to live it nobly and fully. And as we cannot +think of religion without a Person as its centre, as we cannot think of +a church without its Teacher, so we cannot think of a school without its +Master. A school, in fact, according to the conception of our wise +ancestors, was less a place than a little group of persons, a teacher +and his pupils. Its place might be poor, nay, it might have no local +habitation at all, it might be peripatetic: where the master went the +disciples followed. One may think of Our Lord and His friends as a sort +of school: was He not the Master, and were not they His disciples? That +gracious conception was not only the conception of the old Gael, pagan +and Christian, but it was the conception of Europe all through the +Middle Ages. Philosophy was not crammed out of text-books, but was +learned at the knee of some great philosopher; art was learned in the +studio of some master-artist, a craft in the workshop of some +master-craftsman. Always it was the personality of the master that made +the school, never the State that built it of brick and mortar, drew up a +code of rules to govern it, and sent hirelings into it to carry out its +decrees. + +I do not know how far it is possible to revive the old ideal of fosterer +and foster-child. I know it were very desirable. One sees too clearly +that the modern system, under which the teacher tends more and more to +become a mere civil servant, is making for the degradation of education, +and will end in irreligion and anarchy. The modern child is coming to +regard his teacher as an official paid by the State to render him +certain services; services which it is in his interest to avail of, +since by doing so he will increase his earning capacity later on; but +services the rendering and acceptance of which no more imply a sacred +relationship than do the rendering and acceptance of the services of a +dentist or a chiropodist. There is thus coming about a complete reversal +of the relative positions of master and disciple, a tendency which is +increased by every statute that is placed on the statute book, by every +rule that is added to the education code of modern countries. + +Against this trend I would oppose the ideal of those who shaped the +Gaelic polity nearly two thousand years ago. It is not merely that the +old Irish had a good education system; they had the best and noblest +that has ever been known among men. There has never been any human +institution more adequate to its purpose than that which, in pagan +times, produced Cuchulainn and the Boy-Corps of Eamhain Macha and, in +Christian times, produced Enda and the companions of his solitude in +Aran. The old Irish system, pagan and Christian, possessed in +pre-eminent degree the thing most needful in education: an adequate +inspiration. Colmcille suggested what that inspiration was when he said, +“If I die it shall be from the excess of the love that I bear the Gael.” +A love and a service so excessive as to annihilate all thought of self, +a recognition that one must give all, must be willing always to make the +ultimate sacrifice--this is the inspiration alike of the story of +Cuchulainn and of the story of Colmcille, the inspiration that made the +one a hero and the other a saint. + + + VI + + MASTER AND DISCIPLES + +In the Middle Ages there were everywhere little groups of persons +clustering round some beloved teacher, and thus it was that men learned +not only the humanities but all gracious and useful crafts. There were +no State art schools, no State technical schools: as I have said, men +became artists in the studio of some master-artist, men learned crafts +in the workshop of some master-craftsman. It was always the individual +inspiring, guiding, fostering other individuals; never the State +usurping the place of father or fosterer, dispensing education like a +universal provider of readymades, aiming at turning out all men and +women according to regulation patterns. + +In Ireland the older and truer conception was never lost sight of. It +persisted into Christian times when a Kieran or an Enda or a Colmcille +gathered his little group of foster-children (the old word was still +used) around him; they were collectively his family, his household, his +_clann_--many sweet and endearing words were used to mark the intimacy +of that relationship. It seems to me that there has been nothing nobler +in the history of education than this development of the old Irish plan +of fosterage under a Christian rule, when to the pagan ideals of +strength and truth there were added the Christian ideals of love and +humility. And this, remember, was not the education system of an +aristocracy, but the education system of a people. It was more +democratic than any education system in the world to-day. Our very +divisions into primary, secondary, and university crystallize a +snobbishness partly intellectual and partly social. At Clonard Kieran, +the son of a carpenter, sat in the same class as Colmcille, the son of a +king. To Clonard or to Aran or to Clonmacnois went every man, rich or +poor, prince or peasant, who wanted to sit at Finnian’s or at Enda’s or +at Kieran’s feet and to learn of his wisdom. + +Always it was the personality of the teacher that drew them there. And +so it was all through Irish history. A great poet or a great scholar had +his foster-children who lived at his house or fared with him through the +country. Even long after Kinsale the Munster poets had their little +groups of pupils; and the hedge schoolmasters of the nineteenth century +were the last repositories of a high tradition. + +I dwell on the importance of the personal element in education. I would +have every child not merely a unit in a school attendance, but in some +intimate personal way the pupil of a teacher, or, to use more expressive +words, the disciple of a master. And here I nowise contradict another +position of mine, that the main object in education is to help the child +to be his own true and best self. What the teacher should bring to his +pupil is not a set of readymade opinions, or a stock of cut-and-dry +information, but an inspiration and an example; and his main +qualification should be, not such an overmastering will as shall impose +itself at all hazards upon all weaker wills that come under its +influence, but rather so infectious an enthusiasm as shall kindle new +enthusiasm. The Montessori system, so admirable in many ways, would seem +at first sight to attach insufficient importance to the function of the +teacher in the schoolroom. But this is not really so. True, it would +make the spontaneous efforts of the children the main motive power, as +against the dominating will of the teacher which is the main motive +power in the ordinary schoolroom. But the teacher must be there always +to inspire, to foster. If you would realise how true this is, how +important the personality of the teacher, even in a Montessori school, +try to imagine a Montessori school conducted by the average teacher of +your acquaintance, or try to imagine a Montessori school conducted by +yourself! + + + VII + + OF FREEDOM IN EDUCATION + +I have claimed elsewhere that the native Irish education system +possessed pre-eminently two characteristics: first, freedom for the +individual, and, secondly, an adequate inspiration. Without these two +things you cannot have education, no matter how you may elaborate +educational machinery, no matter how you may multiply educational +programmes. And because those two things are pre-eminently lacking in +what passes for education in Ireland, we have in Ireland strictly no +education system at all; nothing that by any extension of the meaning of +words can be called an education system. We have an elaborate machinery +for teaching persons certain subjects, and the teaching is done more or +less efficiently; more efficiently, I imagine, than such teaching is +done in England or in America. We have three universities and four +boards of education. We have some thousands of buildings, large and +small. We have an army of inspectors, mostly overpaid. We have a host of +teachers, mostly underpaid. We have a Compulsory Education Act. We have +the grave and bulky code of the Commissioners of National Education, and +the slim impertinent pamphlet which enshrines the wisdom of the +Commissioners of Intermediate Education. We have a vast deal more in the +shape of educational machinery and stage properties. But we have, I +repeat, no education system; and only in isolated places have we any +education. The essentials are lacking. + +And first of freedom. The word freedom is no longer understood in +Ireland. We have no experience of the thing, and we have almost lost our +conception of the idea. So completely is this true that the very +organisations which exist in Ireland to champion freedom show no +disposition themselves to accord freedom: they challenge a great +tyranny, but they erect their little tyrannies. “Thou shalt not” is half +the law of Ireland, and the other half is “Thou must.” + +Now, nowhere has the law of “Thou shalt not” and “Thou must” been so +rigorous as in the schoolroom. Surely the first essential of healthy +life there was freedom. But there has been and there is no freedom in +Irish education; no freedom for the child, no freedom for the teacher, +no freedom for the school. Where young souls, young minds, young bodies, +demanded the largest measure of individual freedom consistent with the +common good, freedom to move and grow on their natural lines, freedom to +live their own lives--for what is natural life but natural +growth?--freedom to bring themselves, as I have put it elsewhere, to +their own perfection, there was a sheer denial of the right of the +individual to grow in his own natural way, that is, in God’s way. He had +to develop not in God’s way, but in the Board’s way. The Board, National +or Intermediate as the case might be, bound him hand and foot, chained +him mind and soul, constricted him morally, mentally, and physically +with the involuted folds of its rules and regulations, its programmes, +its minutes, its reports and special reports, its pains and penalties. I +have often thought that the type of English education in Ireland was the +Laocoon: that agonising father and his sons seem to me like the teacher +and the pupils of an Irish school, the strong limbs of the man and the +slender limbs of the boys caught together and crushed together in the +grip of an awful fate. And English education in Ireland has seemed to +some like the bed of Procustes, the bed on which all men that passed +that way must lie, be it never so big for them, be it never so small for +them: the traveller for whom it was too large had his limbs stretched +until he filled it; the traveller for whom it was too small had his +limbs chopped off until he fitted into it--comfortably. It was a grim +jest to play upon travellers. The English have done it to Irish children +not by way of jest, but with a purpose. Our English-Irish systems took, +and take, absolutely no cognisance of the differences between +individuals, of the differences between localities, of the differences +between urban and rural communities, of the differences springing from a +different ancestry, Gaelic or Anglo-Saxon. Every school must conform to +a type--and what a type! Every individual must conform to a type--and +what a type! The teacher has not been at liberty, and in practice is not +yet at liberty, to seek to discover the individual bents of his pupils, +the hidden talent that is in every normal soul, to discover which and to +cherish which, that it may in the fullness of time be put to some +precious use, is the primary duty of the teacher. I knew one boy who +passed through several schools a dunce and a laughing-stock; the +National Board and the Intermediate Board had sat in judgment upon him +and had damned him as a failure before men and angels. Yet a friend and +fellow-worker of mine discovered that he was gifted with a wondrous +sympathy for nature, that he loved and understood the ways of plants, +that he had a strange minuteness and subtlety of observation--that, in +short, he was the sort of boy likely to become an accomplished botanist. +I knew another boy of whom his father said to me: “He is no good at +books, he is no good at work; he is good at nothing but playing a tin +whistle. What am I to do with him?” I shocked the worthy man by replying +(though really it was the obvious thing to reply): “Buy a tin whistle +for him.” Once a colleague of mine summed up the whole philosophy of +education in a maxim which startled a sober group of visitors: “If a boy +shows an aptitude for doing anything better than most people, he should +be encouraged to do that, and to do it as well as possible; I don’t care +what it is--scotch-hop, if you like.” + +The idea of a compulsory programme imposed by an external authority upon +every child in every school in a country is the direct contrary of the +root idea involved in education. Yet this is what we have in Ireland. In +theory the primary schools have a certain amount of freedom; in practice +they have none. Neither in theory nor in practice is such a thing as +freedom dreamt of in the gloomy limbo whose presiding demon is the Board +of Intermediate Education for Ireland. Education, indeed, reaches its +nadir in the Irish Intermediate system. At the present moment there are +15,000 boys and girls pounding at a programme drawn up for them by +certain persons sitting round a table in Hume Street. Precisely the same +text-books are being read to-night in every secondary school and college +in Ireland. Two of Hawthorne’s _Tanglewood Tales_, with a few poems in +English, will constitute the whole literary pabulum of three-quarters of +the pupils of the Irish secondary schools during this twelvemonths.[1] +The teacher who seeks to give his pupils a wider horizon in literature +does so at his peril. He will, no doubt, benefit his pupils, but he will +infallibly reduce his results fees. As an intermediate teacher said to +me, “Culture is all very well in its way, but if you don’t stick to your +programme your boys won’t pass.” “Stick to your programme” is the +strange device on the banner of the Irish Intermediate system; and the +programme bulks so large that there is no room for education. + +The first thing I plead for, therefore, is freedom: freedom for each +school to shape its own programme in conformity with the circumstances +of the school as to place, size, personnel, and so on; freedom again for +the individual teacher to impart something of his own personality to his +work, to bring his own peculiar gifts to the service of his pupils, to +be, in short, a teacher, a master, one having an intimate and permanent +relationship with his pupils, and not a mere part of the educational +machine, a mere cog in the wheel; freedom finally for the individual +pupil and scope for his development within the school and within the +system. And I would promote this idea of freedom by the very +organisation of the school itself, giving a certain autonomy not only to +the school, but to the particular parts of the school: to the staff, of +course, but also to the pupils, and, in a large school, to the various +sub-divisions of the pupils. I do not plead for anarchy. I plead for +freedom within the law, for liberty, not licence, for that true freedom +which can exist only where there is discipline, which exists in fact +because each, valuing his own freedom, respects also the freedom of +others. + + + VIII + + BACK TO THE SAGAS + +That freedom may be availed of to the noble ends of education there must +be, within the school system and within the school, an adequate +inspiration. The school must make such an appeal to the pupil as shall +resound throughout his after life, urging him always to be his best +self, never his second-best self. Such an inspiration will come most +adequately of all from religion. I do not think that there can be any +education of which spiritual religion does not form an integral part; as +it is the most important part of life, so it should be the most +important part of education, which some have defined as a preparation +for complete life. And inspiration will come also from the hero-stories +of the world, and especially of our own people; from science and art if +taught by people who are really scientists and artists, and not merely +persons with certificates from Mr. T. W. Russell; from literature +enjoyed as literature and not studied as “texts”; from the associations +of the school place; finally and chiefly from the humanity and +great-heartedness of the teacher. + +A heroic tale is more essentially a factor in education than a +proposition in Euclid. The story of Joan of Arc or the story of the +young Napoleon means more for boys and girls than all the algebra in all +the books. What the modern world wants more than anything else, what +Ireland wants beyond all other modern countries, is a new birth of the +heroic spirit. If our schools would set themselves that task, the task +of fostering once again knightly courage and strength and truth--that +type of efficiency rather than the peculiar type of efficiency demanded +by the English Civil Service--we should have at least the beginning of +an educational system. And what an appeal an Irish school system might +have! What a rallying cry an Irish Minister of Education might give to +young Ireland! When we were starting St. Enda’s I said to my boys: “We +must re-create and perpetuate in Ireland the knightly tradition of +Cuchulainn, ‘better is short life with honour than long life with +dishonour’; ‘I care not though I were to live but one day and one night, +if only my fame and my deeds live after me’; the noble tradition of the +Fianna, ‘we, the Fianna, never told a lie, falsehood was never imputed +to us’; ‘strength in our hands, truth on our lips, and cleanness in our +hearts’; the Christ-like tradition of Colmcille, ‘if I die it shall be +from the excess of the love I bear the Gael.’” And to that antique +evangel should be added the evangels of later days: the stories of Red +Hugh and Wolfe Tone and Robert Emmet and John Mitchel and O’Donovan +Rossa and Eoghan O’Growney. I have seen Irish boys and girls moved +inexpressibly by the story of Emmet or the story of Anne Devlin, and I +have always felt it to be legitimate to make use for educational +purposes of an exaltation so produced. + +The value of the national factor in education would appear to rest +chiefly in this, that it addresses itself to the most generous side of +the child’s nature, urging him to live up to his finest self. If the +true work of the teacher be, as I have said, to help the child to +realise himself at his best and worthiest, the factor of nationality is +of prime importance, apart from any ulterior propagandist views the +teacher may cherish. The school system which neglects it commits, even +from the purely pedagogic point of view, a primary blunder. It neglects +one of the most powerful of educational resources. + +It is because the English education system in Ireland has deliberately +eliminated the national factor that it has so terrifically succeeded. +For it has succeeded--succeeded in making slaves of us. And it has +succeeded so well that we no longer realise that we are slaves. Some of +us even think our chains ornamental, and are a little doubtful as to +whether we shall be quite as comfortable and quite as respectable when +they are hacked off. + +It remains the crowning achievement of the “National” and Intermediate +systems that they have wrought such a change in this people that once +loved freedom so passionately. Three-quarters of a century ago there +still remained in Ireland a stubborn Irish thing which Cromwell had not +trampled out, which the Penal Laws had not crushed, which the horrors of +’98 had not daunted, which Pitt had not purchased: a national +consciousness enshrined mainly in a national language. After +three-quarters of a century’s education that thing is nearly lost. + +A new education system in Ireland has to do more than restore a national +culture. It has to restore manhood to a race that has been deprived of +it. Along with its inspiration it must, therefore, bring a certain +hardening. It must lead Ireland back to her sagas. + +Finally, I say, inspiration must come from the teacher. If we can no +longer send the children to the heroes and seers and scholars to be +fostered, we can at least bring some of the heroes and seers and +scholars to the schools. We can rise up against the system which +tolerates as teachers the rejected of all other professions rather than +demanding for so priest-like an office the highest souls and noblest +intellects of the race. I remember once going into a schoolroom in +Belgium and finding an old man talking quietly and beautifully about +literature to a silent class of boys; I was told that he was one of the +most distinguished of contemporary Flemish poets. Here was the sort of +personality, the sort of influence, one ought to see in a schoolroom. +Not, indeed, that every poet would make a good schoolmaster, or every +schoolmaster a good poet. But how seldom here has the teacher any +interest in literature at all; how seldom has he any horizon above his +time-table, any soul larger than his results fees! + +The fact is that, with rare exceptions, the men and women who are +willing to work under the conditions as to personal dignity, freedom, +tenure, and emolument which obtain in Irish schools are not the sort of +men and women likely to make good educators. This part of the subject +has been so much discussed in public that one need not dwell upon it. We +are all alive to the truth that a teacher ought to be paid better than a +policeman, and to the scandal of the fact that many an able and cultured +man is working in Irish secondary schools at a salary less than that of +the Viceroy’s chauffeur. + + + IX + + WHEN WE ARE FREE + +In these chapters I have sufficiently indicated the general spirit in +which I would have Irish education re-created. I say little of +organisation, of mere machinery. That is the least important part of the +subject. We can all foresee that the first task of a free Ireland must +be destructive: that the lusty strokes of Gael and Gall, Ulster taking +its manful part, will hew away and cast adrift the rotten and worm-eaten +boards which support the grotesque fabric of the English education +system. We can all see that, when an Irish Government is constituted, +there will be an Irish Minister of Education responsible to the Irish +Parliament; that under him Irish education will be drawn into a +homogeneous whole--an organic unity will replace a composite freak in +which the various members are not only not directed by a single +intelligence but are often mutually antagonistic, and sometimes engaged +in open warfare one with the other, like the preposterous donkey in the +pantomime whose head is in perpetual strife with his heels because they +belong to different individuals. The individual entities that compose +the English-Irish educational donkey are four: the Commissioners of +National Education, the Commissioners of Intermediate Education, the +Commissioners of Education for certain Endowed Schools, and last, but +not least, the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction--the +modern Ioldanach which in this realm protects science, art, fishery, +needlework, poultry, foods and drugs, horse-breeding, etc., etc., etc., +etc., and whose versatile chiefs can at a moment’s notice switch off +their attention from archæology in the Nile Valley to the Foot and Mouth +Disease in Mullingar. I must admit that the educational work of the +Department as far as it affects secondary schools is done efficiently; +but one will naturally expect this branch of its activity to be brought +into the general education scheme under the Minister of Education. In +addition to the four Boards I have enumerated I need hardly say that +Dublin Castle has its finger in the pie, as it has in every unsavoury +pie in Ireland. And behind Dublin Castle looms the master of Dublin +Castle, and the master of all the Boards, and the master of everything +in Ireland--the British Treasury--arrogating claims over the veriest +details of education in Ireland for which there is no parallel in any +other administration in the world and no sanction even in the British +Constitution. My scheme, of course, presupposes the getting rid not only +of the British Treasury, but of the British connection. + +One perceives the need, too, of linking up the whole system and giving +it a common impulse. Under the Minister there might well be chiefs of +the various sub-divisions, elementary, secondary, higher, and technical; +but these should not be independent potentates, each entrenched in a +different stronghold in a different part of the city. I do not see why +they could not all occupy offices in the same corridor of the same +building. The whole government of the free kingdom of Belgium was +carried on in one small building. A Council of some sort, with +sub-committees, would doubtless be associated with the Minister, but I +think its function should be advisory rather than executive: that all +acts should be the acts of the Minister. As to the local organisation of +elementary schools, there will always be need of a local manager, and +personally I see no reason why the local management should be given to a +district council rather than left as it is at present to some individual +in the locality interested in education, but a thousand reasons why it +should not. I would, however, make the teachers, both primary and +secondary, a national service, guaranteeing an adequate salary, adequate +security of tenure, adequate promotion, and adequate pension: and all +this means adequate endowment, and freedom from the control of +parsimonious officials. + +In the matter of language I would order things bilingually. But I would +not apply the Belgian system exactly as I have described it in _An +Claidheamh Soluis_. The _status quo_ in Ireland is different from that +in Belgium; the ideal to be aimed at in Ireland is different from that +in Belgium. Ireland is six-sevenths English-speaking with an +Irish-speaking seventh. Belgium is divided into two nearly equal halves, +one Flemish, the other French. Irish Nationalists would restore Irish as +a vernacular to the English-speaking six-sevenths, and would establish +Irish as the national language of a free Ireland: Belgian Nationalists +would simply preserve their “two national languages,” according them +equal rights and privileges. What then? Irish should be made the +language of instruction in districts where it is the home language, and +English the “second language,” taught as a school subject: I would not +at any stage use English as a medium of instruction in such districts, +anything that I have elsewhere said as to Belgian practice +notwithstanding. Where English is the home language it must of necessity +be the “first language” in the schools, but I would have a compulsory +“second language,” satisfied that this “second language” in five-sixths +of the schools would be Irish. And I would see that the “second +language” be utilised as a medium of instruction from the earliest +stages. In this way, and in no other way that I can imagine, can Irish +be restored as a vernacular to English-speaking Ireland. + +But in all the details of their programmes the schools should have +autonomy. The function of the central authority should be to +co-ordinate, to maintain a standard, to advise, to inspire, to keep the +teachers in touch with educational thought in other lands. I would +transfer the centre of gravity of the system from the education office +to the teachers; the teachers in fact would be the system. Teachers, and +not clerks, would henceforth conduct the education of the country. + +The inspectors, again, would be selected from the teachers, and the +chiefs of departments from the inspectors. And promoted teachers would +man the staffs of the training colleges, which, for the rest, would work +in close touch with the universities. + +I need hardly say that the present Intermediate system must be +abolished. Good men will curse it in its passing. It is the most evil +thing that Ireland has ever known. Dr. Hyde once finely described the +National and Intermediate Boards as + + “Death and the nightmare Death-in-Life + That thicks men’s blood with cold.” + +Of the two Death-in-Life is the more hideous. It is sleeker than, but +equally as obscene as, its fellow-fiend. The thing has damned more souls +than the Drink Traffic or the White Slave Traffic. Down with it--down +among the dead men! Let it promote competitive examinations in the +under-world, if it will. + +Well-trained and well-paid teachers, well-equipped and beautiful +schools, and a fund at the disposal of each school to enable it to award +prizes on its own tests based on its own programme--these would be among +the characteristics of a new secondary system. Manual work, both indoor +and outdoor, would, I hope, be part of the programme of every school. +And the internal organisation might well follow the models of the little +child-republics I have elsewhere described, with their own laws and +leaders, their fostering of individualities yet never at the expense of +the common wealth, their care for the body as well as for the mind, +their nobly-ordered games, their spacious outdoor life, their +intercourse with the wild things of the woods and wastes, their daily +adventure face to face with elemental Life and Force, with its moral +discipline, with its physical hardening. + +And then, vivifying the whole, we need the divine breath that moves +through free peoples, the breath that no man of Ireland has felt in his +nostrils for so many centuries, the breath that once blew through the +streets of Athens and that kindled, as wine kindles, the hearts of those +who taught and learned in Clonmacnois. + +----- + +Footnote 1: + + 1912-13. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + HOW DOES SHE STAND? + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + HOW DOES SHE STAND? + + THREE ADDRESSES + + + I + + THEOBALD WOLFE TONE[2] + +We have come to the holiest place in Ireland; holier to us even than the +place where Patrick sleeps in Down. Patrick brought us life, but this +man died for us. And though many before him and some since have died in +testimony of the truth of Ireland’s claim to nationhood, Wolfe Tone was +the greatest of all that have made that testimony, the greatest of all +that have died for Ireland whether in old time or in new. He was the +greatest of Irish Nationalists; I believe he was the greatest of Irish +men. And if I am right in this I am right in saying that we stand in the +holiest place in Ireland, for it must be that the holiest sod of a +nation’s soil is the sod where the greatest of her dead lies buried. + +I feel it difficult to speak to you to-day; difficult to speak in this +place. It is as if one had to speak by the graveside of some dear +friend, a brother in blood or a well-tried comrade in arms, and to say +aloud the things one would rather keep to oneself. But I am helped by +the knowledge that you who listen to me partake in my emotion: we are +none of us strangers, being all in a sense own brothers to Tone, sharing +in his faith, sharing in his hope, still unrealised, sharing in his +great love. I have, then, only to find expression for the thoughts and +emotions common to us all, and you will understand even if the +expression be a halting one. + +We have come here not merely to salute this noble dust and to pay our +homage to the noble spirit of Tone. We have come to renew our adhesion +to the faith of Tone; to express once more our full acceptance of the +gospel of Irish Nationalism which he was the first to formulate in +worthy terms, giving clear definition and plenary meaning to all that +had been thought and taught before him by Irish-speaking and +English-speaking men; uttered half articulately by a Shane O’Neill in +some defiance flung at the Englishry, expressed under some passionate +metaphor by a Geoffrey Keating, hinted at by a Swift in some biting +gibe, but clearly and greatly stated by Wolfe Tone, and not needing now +ever to be stated anew for any new generation. He has spoken for all +time, and his voice resounds throughout Ireland, calling to us from this +grave when we wander astray following other voices that ring less true. + +This, then, is the first part of Wolfe Tone’s achievement--he made +articulate the dumb voices of the centuries, he gave Ireland a clear and +precise and worthy concept of Nationality. But he did more than this: +not only did he define Irish Nationalism, but he armed his generation in +defence of it. Thinker and doer, dreamer of the immortal dream and doer +of the immortal deed--we owe to this dead man more than we can ever +repay him by making pilgrimages to his grave or by rearing to him the +stateliest monument in the streets of his city. To his teaching we owe +it that there is such a thing as Irish Nationalism, and to the memory of +the deed he nerved his generation to do, to the memory of ’98, we owe it +that there is any manhood left in Ireland. + +I have called him the greatest of our dead. In mind he was great above +all the men of his time or of the after time; and he was greater still +in spirit. It was to that nobly-dowered mind of his that Kickham, +himself the most nobly-dowered of a later generation, paid reverence +when he said: + + “Oh, knowledge is a wondrous power; + ’Tis stronger than the wind. + + * * * * * + + And would to the kind heavens + That Wolfe Tone were here to-day.” + +But greater than that full-orbed intelligence, that wide, gracious, +richly stored mind, was the mighty spirit of Tone. This man’s soul was a +burning flame, a flame so ardent, so generous, so pure, that to come +into communion with it is to come unto a new baptism, unto a new +regeneration and cleansing. If we who stand by this graveside could make +ourselves at one with the heroic spirit that once inbreathed this clay, +could in some way come into loving contact with it, possessing ourselves +of something of its ardour, its valour, its purity, its tenderness, its +gaiety, how good a thing it would be for us, how good a thing for +Ireland; with what joyousness and strength should we set our faces +towards the path that lies before us, bringing with us fresh life from +this place of death, a new resurrection of patriotic grace in our souls! + +Try to get near the spirit of Tone, the gallant soldier spirit, the +spirit that dared and soared, the spirit that loved and served, the +spirit that laughed and sang with the gladness of a boy. I do not ask +you to venerate him as a saint; I ask you to love him as a man. For +myself, I would rather have known this man than any man of whom I have +ever heard or ever read. I have not read or heard of any who had more of +heroic stuff in him than he, any that went so gaily and so gallantly +about a great deed, any who loved so well, any who was so beloved. To +have been this man’s friend, what a privilege that would have been! To +have known him as Thomas Russell knew him! I have always loved the very +name of Thomas Russell because Tone so loved him. + +I do not think there has ever been a more true and loyal man than Tone. +He had for his friends an immense tenderness and charity; and now and +then there breaks into what he is writing or saying a gust of passionate +love for his wife, for his children. “O my babies, my babies!” he +exclaims.... Yes, this man could love well; and it was from such love as +this he exiled himself; with such love as this crushed in his faithful +heart that he became a weary but indomitable ambassador to courts and +camps; with the memory of such love as this, with the little hands of +his children plucking at his heart-strings, that he lay down to die in +that cell on Arbour Hill. + +Such is the high and sorrowful destiny of the heroes: to turn their +backs to the pleasant paths and their faces to the hard paths, to blind +their eyes to the fair things of life, to stifle all sweet music in the +heart, the low voices of women and the laughter of little children, and +to follow only the far, faint call that leads them into the battle or to +the harder death at the foot of a gibbet. + +Think of Tone. Think of his boyhood and young manhood in Dublin and +Kildare, his adventurous spirit and plans, his early love and marriage, +his glorious failure at the bar, his healthy contempt for what he called +“a foolish wig and gown,” and then--the call of Ireland. Think of how he +put virility into the Catholic movement, how this heretic toiled to make +free men of Catholic helots, how, as he worked among them, he grew to +know and to love the real, the historic Irish people, and the great, +clear, sane conception came to him that in Ireland there must be, not +two nations or three nations, but one nation, that Protestant and +Dissenter must be brought into amity with Catholic, and that Catholic, +Protestant, and Dissenter must unite to achieve freedom for all. + +Then came the United Irishmen, and those journeys through Ireland--to +Ulster and to Connacht--which, as described by him, read like epics +infused with a kindly human humour. Soon the Government realises that +this is the most dangerous man in Ireland--this man who preaches peace +among brother Irishmen. It does not suit the Government that peace and +goodwill between Catholic and Protestant should be preached in Ireland. +So Tone goes into exile, having first pledged himself to the cause of +Irish freedom on the Cave Hill above Belfast. From America to France: +one of the great implacable exiles of Irish history, a second and a +greater Fitzmaurice, one might say to him as the poet said to Sarsfield: + + “Ag déanamh do ghearáin leis na ríghthibh + Is gur fhág tú Eire ’s Gaedhil bhocht’ claoidhte, + Och, ochón!” + +But it was no “complaint” that Tone made to foreign rulers and foreign +senates, but wise and bold counsel that he gave them; wise because bold. +A French fleet ploughs the waves and enters Bantry Bay--Tone on board. +We know the sequel: how the fleet tossed about for days on the broad +bosom of the Bay, how the craven in command refused to make a landing +because his commander-in-chief had not come up, how Tone’s heart was +torn with impatience and yearning--he saw his beloved Ireland, could see +the houses and the people on shore--how the fleet set sail, that deed +undone that would have freed Ireland. + +It is the supreme tribute to the greatness of this man that after that +cruel disappointment he set to work again, indomitable. Two more +expeditions, a French and a Dutch, were fitted out for Ireland, but +never reached Ireland. Then at last came Tone himself; he had said he +would come, if need be, with only a corporal’s guard: he came with very +little more. + +Three small ships enter Lough Swilly. The English follow them. Tone’s +vessel fights: Tone commands one of the guns. For six hours she stood +alone against the whole English fleet. What a glorious six hours for +Tone! A battered hulk, the vessel struck; Tone, betrayed by a friend, +was dragged to Dublin and condemned to a traitor’s death. Then the last +scene in the Provost Prison, and Tone lies dead, the greatest of the men +of ’98. To this spot they bore him, and here he awaits the judgment; and +we stand at his graveside and remember that his work is still +unaccomplished after more than a hundred years. + +When men come to a graveside they pray; and each of us prays here in his +heart. But we do not pray for Tone--men who die that their people may be +free “have no need of prayer.” We pray for Ireland that she may be free, +and for ourselves that we may free her. My brothers, were it not an +unspeakable privilege if to our generation it should be granted to +accomplish that which Tone’s generation, so much worthier than ours, +failed to accomplish! To complete the work of Tone!... + +And let us make no mistake as to what Tone sought to do, what it remains +for us to do. We need not re-state our programme; Tone has stated it for +us: + + “To break the connection with England, the never-failing source + of all our political evils, and to assert the independence of my + country--these were my objects. To unite the whole people of + Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to + substitute the common name of Irishmen in place of the + denominations of Protestant, Catholic, and Dissenter--these were + my means.” + +I find here implicit all the philosophy of Irish Nationalism, all the +teaching of the Gaelic League and the later prophets. Ireland one and +Ireland free--is not this the definition of Ireland a Nation? To that +definition and to that programme we declare our adhesion anew; pledging +ourselves as Tone pledged himself--and in this sacred place, by this +graveside, let us not pledge ourselves unless we mean to keep our +pledge--we pledge ourselves to follow in the steps of Tone, never to +rest, either by day or by night, until his work be accomplished, deeming +it the proudest of all privileges to fight for freedom, to fight, not in +despondency, but in great joy, hoping for the victory in our day, but +fighting on whether victory seem near or far, never lowering our ideal, +never bartering one jot or tittle of our birthright, holding faith to +the memory and the inspiration of Tone, and accounting ourselves base as +long as we endure the evil thing against which he testified with his +blood. + +----- + +Footnote 2: + + An Address delivered at the Grave of Wolfe Tone in Bodenstown + Churchyard, 22nd June, 1913. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + II + + ROBERT EMMET AND THE IRELAND OF TO-DAY + + I[3] + +You ask me to speak of the Ireland of to-day. What can I tell you of it +that is worthy of commemoration where we commemorate heroic faith and +the splendour of death? In that Ireland whose spokesmen have, in return +for the promise of a poor simulacrum of liberty, pledged to our ancient +enemy our loyalty and the loyalty of our children, is there, even though +that pledge has been spoken, any group of true men, any right striving, +any hope still cherished in virtue of which, lifting up our hearts, we +can cry across the years to him whom we remember to-night, “Brother, we +have kept the faith; comrade, we, too, stand ready to serve”? + +For patriotism is at once a faith and a service. A faith which in some +of us has been in our flesh and bone since we were moulded in our +mothers’ wombs, and which in others of us has at some definite moment of +our later lives been kindled flaming as if by the miraculous word of +God; a faith which is of the same nature as religious faith and is one +of the eternal witnesses in the heart of man to the truth that we are of +divine kindred; a faith which, like religious faith, when true and +vital, is wonder-working, but, like religious faith, is dead without +good works even as the body without the spirit. So that patriotism needs +service as the condition of its authenticity, and it is not sufficient +to say “I believe” unless one can say also “I serve.” + +And our patriotism is measured, not by the formula in which we declare +it, but by the service which we render. We owe to our country all fealty +and she asks always for our service; and there are times when she asks +of us not ordinary but some supreme service. There are in every +generation those who shrink from the ultimate sacrifice, but there are +in every generation those who make it with joy and laughter, and these +are the salt of the generations, the heroes who stand midway between God +and men. Patriotism is in large part a memory of heroic dead men and a +striving to accomplish some task left unfinished by them. Had they not +gone before, made their attempts and suffered the sorrow of their +failures, we should long ago have lost the tradition of faith and +service, having no memory in the heart nor any unaccomplished dream. + +The generation that is now growing old in Ireland had almost forgotten +our heroes. We had learned the great art of parleying with our enemy and +achieving nationhood by negotiation. The heroes had trodden hard and +bloody ways: we should tread soft and flowering ways. The heroes had +given up all things: we had learned a way of gaining all things, land +and good living and the friendship of our foe. But the soil of Ireland, +yea, the very stones of our cities have cried out against an infidelity +that would barter an old tradition of nationhood even for a thing so +precious as peace. This the heroes have done for us; for their spirits +indwell in the place where they lived, and the hills of Ireland must be +rent and her cities levelled with the ground and all her children driven +out upon the seas of the world before those voices are silenced that bid +us be faithful still and to make no peace with England until Ireland is +ours. + +I live in a place that is very full of heroic memories. In the room in +which I work at St. Enda’s College Robert Emmet is said often to have +sat; in our garden is a vine which they call Emmet’s Vine and from which +he is said to have plucked grapes; through our wood runs a path which is +called Emmet’s Walk--they say that he and Sarah Curran walked there; at +an angle of our boundary wall there is a little fortified lodge called +Emmet’s Fort. Across the road from us is a thatched cottage whose tenant +in 1803 was in Green Street Courthouse all the long day that Emmet stood +on trial, with a horse saddled without that he might bring news of the +end to Sarah Curran. Half a mile from us across the fields is +Butterfield House, where Emmet lived during the days preceding the +rising. It is easy to imagine his figure coming out along the Harold’s +Cross Road to Rathfarnham, tapping the ground with his cane, as they say +was his habit; a young, slight figure, with how noble a head bent a +little upon the breast, with how high a heroism sleeping underneath that +quietness and gravity! One thinks of his anxious nights in Butterfield +House; of his busy days in Marshalsea Lane or Patrick Street; of his +careful plans--the best plans that have yet been made for the capture of +Dublin; his inventions and devices, the jointed pikes, the rockets and +explosives upon which he counted so much; his ceaseless conferences, his +troubles with his associates, his disappointments, his disillusionments, +borne with such sweetness and serenity of temper, such a trust in human +nature, such a trust in Ireland! Then the hurried rising, the sally into +the streets, the failure at the Castle gates, the catastrophe in Thomas +Street, the retreat along the familiar Harold’s Cross Road to +Rathfarnham. At Butterfield House Anne Devlin, the faithful, keeps +watch. You remember her greeting to Emmet in the first pain of her +disappointment: “Musha, bad welcome to you! Is Ireland lost by you, +cowards that you are, to lead the people to destruction and then to +leave them?” And poor Emmet’s reply--no word of blame for the traitors +that had sold him, for the cravens that had abandoned him, for the fools +that had bungled; just a halting, heartbroken exculpation, the only one +he was to make for himself--“Don’t blame me, Anne; the fault is not +mine.” And her woman’s heart went out to him and she took him in and +cherished him; but the soldiery were on his track, and that was his last +night in Butterfield House. The bracken was his bed thenceforth, or a +precarious pillow in his old quarters at Harold’s Cross, until he lay +down in Kilmainham to await the summons of the executioner. + +No failure, judged as the world judges these things, was ever more +complete, more pathetic than Emmet’s. And yet he has left us a prouder +memory than the memory of Brian victorious at Clontarf or of Owen Roe +victorious at Benburb. It is the memory of a sacrifice Christ-like in +its perfection. Dowered with all things splendid and sweet, he left all +things and elected to die. Face to face with England in the dock at +Green Street he uttered the most memorable words ever uttered by an +Irish man: words which, ringing clear above a century’s tumults, forbid +us ever to waver or grow weary until our country takes her place among +the nations of the earth. And his death was august. In the great space +of Thomas Street an immense silent crowd; in front of Saint Catherine’s +Church a gallows upon a platform; a young man climbs to it, quiet, +serene, almost smiling, they say--ah, he was very brave; there is no +cheer from the crowd, no groan; this man is to die for them, but no man +dares to say aloud “God bless you, Robert Emmet.” Dublin must one day +wash out in blood the shameful memory of that quiescence. Would Michael +Dwyer come from the Wicklow Hills? Up to the last moment Emmet seems to +have expected him. He was saying “Not yet” when the hangman kicked aside +the plank and his body was launched into the air. They say it swung for +half-an-hour, with terrible contortions, before he died. When he was +dead the comely head was severed from the body. A friend of mine knew an +old woman who told him how the blood flowed down upon the pavement, and +how she sickened with horror as she saw the dogs of the street lap up +that noble blood. Then the hangman showed the pale head to the people +and announced: “This is the head of a traitor, Robert Emmet.” A traitor? +No, but a true man. O my brothers, this was one of the truest men that +ever lived. This was one of the bravest spirits that Ireland has ever +nurtured. This man was faithful even unto the ignominy of the gallows, +dying that his people might live, even as Christ died. + +Be assured that such a death always means a redemption. Emmet redeemed +Ireland from acquiescence in the Union. His attempt was not a failure, +but a triumph for that deathless thing we call Irish Nationality. It was +by Emmet that men remembered Ireland until Davis and Mitchel took up his +work again, and ’48 handed on the tradition to ’67, and from ’67 we +receive the tradition unbroken. + +You ask me to speak of the Ireland of to-day. What need I say but that +to-day Ireland is turning her face once more to the old path? Nothing +seems more definitely to emerge when one looks at the movements that are +stirring both above the surface and beneath the surface in men’s minds +at home than the fact that the new generation is reaffirming the Fenian +faith, the faith of Emmet. It is because we know that this is so that we +can suffer in patience the things that are said and done in the name of +Irish Nationality by some of our leaders. What one may call the +Westminster phase is passing: the National movement is swinging back +again into its proper channel. A new junction has been made with the +past: into the movement that has never wholly died since ’67 have come +the young men of the Gaelic League. Having renewed communion with its +origins, Irish Nationalism is to-day a more virile thing than ever +before in our time. Of that be sure. + +I have said again and again that when the Gaelic League was founded in +1893 the Irish Revolution began. The Gaelic League brought it a certain +distance upon its way; but the Gaelic League could not accomplish the +Revolution. For five or six years a new phase has been due, and lo! it +is with us now. To-day Ireland is once more organising, once more +learning the noble trade of arms. In our towns and country places +Volunteer companies are springing up. Dublin pointed the way, Galway has +followed Dublin, Cork has followed Galway, Wexford has followed Cork, +Limerick has followed Wexford, Monaghan has followed Limerick, Sligo has +followed Monaghan, Donegal has followed Sligo. There is again in Ireland +the murmur of a marching, and talk of guns and tactics. What this +movement may mean for our country no man can say. But it is plain to all +that the existence on Irish soil of an Irish army is the most portentous +fact that has appeared in Ireland for over a hundred years: a fact which +marks definitely the beginning of the second stage of the Revolution +which was commenced when the Gaelic League was founded. The inner +significance of the movement lies in this, that men of every rank and +class, of every section of Nationalist opinion, of every shade of +religious belief, have discovered that they share a common patriotism, +that their faith is one and that there is one service in which they can +come together at last: the service of their country in arms. We are +realising now how proud a thing it is to serve, and in the comradeship +and joy of the new service we are forgetting many ancient +misunderstandings. In the light of a re-discovered citizenship things +are plain to us that were before obscure: + + “Lo, a clearness of vision has followed, lo, a purification of + sight; + Lo, the friend is discerned from the foeman, the wrong recognised + from the right.” + +After all, there are in Ireland but two parties: those who stand for the +English connection and those who stand against it. On what side, think +you, stand the Irish Volunteers? I cannot speak for the Volunteers; I am +not authorised to say when they will use their arms or where or how. I +can speak only for myself; and it is strictly a personal perception that +I am recording, but a perception that to me is very clear, when I say +that before this generation has passed the Volunteers will draw the +sword of Ireland. There is no truth but the old truth and no way but the +old way. Home Rule may come or may not come, but under Home Rule or in +its absence there remains for the Volunteers and for Ireland the +substantial business of achieving Irish nationhood. And I do not know +how nationhood is achieved except by armed men; I do not know how +nationhood is guarded except by armed men. + +I ask you, then, to salute with me the Irish Volunteers. I ask you to +mark their advent as an augury that, no matter what pledges may be given +by men who do not know Ireland--the stubborn soul of Ireland--that +nation of ancient faith will never sell her birthright of freedom for a +mess of pottage; a mess of dubious pottage, at that. Ireland has been +guilty of many meannesses, of many shrinkings back when she should have +marched forward; but she will never be guilty of that immense +infidelity. + +----- + +Footnote 3: + + An Address delivered at the Emmet Commemoration in the Academy of + Music, Brooklyn, New York, 2nd March, 1914. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + III + + ROBERT EMMET AND THE IRELAND OF TO-DAY + + II[4] + +We who speak here to-night are the voice of one of the ancient +indestructible things of the world. We are the voice of an idea which is +older than any empire and will outlast every empire. We and ours, the +inheritors of that idea, have been at age-long war with one of the most +powerful empires that have ever been built up upon the earth; and that +empire will pass before we pass. We are older than England and we are +stronger than England. In every generation we have renewed the struggle, +and so it shall be unto the end. When England thinks she has trampled +out our battle in blood, some brave man rises and rallies us again; when +England thinks she has purchased us with a bribe, some good man redeems +us by a sacrifice. Wherever England goes on her mission of empire we +meet her and we strike at her; yesterday it was on the South African +veldt, to-day it is in the Senate House at Washington, to-morrow it may +be in the streets of Dublin. We pursue her like a sleuth-hound; we lie +in wait for her and come upon her like a thief in the night; and some +day we will overwhelm her with the wrath of God. + +It is not that we are apostles of hate. Who like us has carried Christ’s +word of charity about the earth? But the Christ that said “My peace I +leave you, My peace I give you,” is the same Christ that said “I bring +not peace, but a sword.” There can be no peace between right and wrong, +between truth and falsehood, between justice and oppression, between +freedom and tyranny. Between them it is eternal war until the wrong is +righted, until the true thing is established, until justice is +accomplished, until freedom is won. + +So when England talks of peace we know our answer: “Peace with you? +Peace while your one hand is at our throat and your other hand is in our +pocket? Peace with a footpad? Peace with a pickpocket? Peace with the +leech that is sucking our body dry of blood? Peace with the many-armed +monster whose tentacles envelop us while its system emits an inky fluid +that shrouds its work of murder from the eyes of men? The time has not +yet come to talk of peace.” + +But England, we are told, offers us terms. She holds out to us the hand +of friendship. She gives us a Parliament with an Executive responsible +to it. Within two years the Home Rule Senate meets in College Green and +King George comes to Dublin to declare its sessions open. In +anticipation of that happy event our leaders have proffered England our +loyalty. Mr. Redmond accepts Home Rule as a “final settlement between +the two nations”; Mr. O’Brien in the fulness of his heart cries “God +Save the King”; Colonel Lynch offers England his sword in case she is +attacked by a foreign power. + +And so this settlement is to be a final settlement. Would Wolfe Tone +have accepted it as a final settlement? Would Robert Emmet have accepted +it as a final settlement? Either we are heirs to their principles or we +are not. If we are, we can accept no settlement as final which does not +“_break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our +political evils_”; if we are not, how dare we go in annual pilgrimage to +Bodenstown, how dare we gather here or anywhere to commemorate the faith +and sacrifice of Emmet? Did, then, these dead heroic men live in vain? +Has Ireland learned a truer philosophy than the philosophy of ’98, and a +nobler way of salvation than the way of 1803? Is Wolfe Tone’s definition +superseded, and do we discharge our duty to Emmet’s memory by according +him annually our pity? + +To do the English justice, I do not think they are satisfied that +Ireland will accept Home Rule as a final settlement. I think they are a +little anxious to-day. If their minds were tranquil on the subject of +Irish loyalty they would hardly have proclaimed the importation of arms +into Ireland the moment the Irish Volunteers had begun to organise +themselves. They had given the Ulster faction which is used as a catspaw +by one of the English parties two years to organise and arm against that +Home Rule Bill which they profess themselves so anxious to pass: to the +Nationalists of Ireland they did not give two weeks. Of course, we can +arm in spite of them: to-day we are organising and training the men and +we have ways and means of getting arms when the men are ready for the +arms. The contention I make now, and I ask you to note it well, is that +England does not trust Ireland with guns; that under Home Rule or in the +absence of Home Rule England declares that we Irish must remain an +unarmed people; and England is right. + +England is right in suspecting Irish loyalty, and those Irishmen who +promise Irish loyalty to England are wrong. I believe them honest; but +they have spent so much of their lives parleying with the English, they +have sat so often and so long at English feasts, that they have lost +communion with the ancient unpurchaseable faith of Ireland, the ancient +stubborn thing that forbids, as if with the voice of fate, any loyalty +from Ireland to England, any union between us and them, any surrender of +one jot or shred of our claim to freedom even in return for all the +blessings of the British peace. + +I have called that old faith an indestructible thing. I have said that +it is more powerful than empires. If you would understand its might you +must consider how it has made all the generations of Ireland heroic. +Having its root in all gentleness, in a man’s love for the place where +his mother bore him, for the breast that gave him suck, for the voices +of children that sounded in a house now silent, for the faces that +glowed around a fireside now cold, for the story told by lips that will +not speak again, having its root, I say, in all gentleness, it is yet a +terrible thing urging the generations to perilous bloody attempts, +nerving men to give up life for the death-in-life of dungeons, teaching +little boys to die with laughing lips, giving courage to young girls to +bare their backs to the lashes of a soldiery. + +It is easy to imagine how the spirit of Irish patriotism called to the +gallant and adventurous spirit of Tone or moved the wrathful spirit of +Mitchel. In them deep called unto deep: heroic effort claimed the heroic +man. But consider how the call was made to a spirit of different, yet +not less noble mould; and how it was answered. In Emmet it called to a +dreamer and he awoke a man of action; it called to a student and a +recluse and he stood forth a leader of men; it called to one who loved +the ways of peace and he became a revolutionary. I wish I could help you +to realise, I wish I could myself adequately realise, the humanity, the +gentle and grave humanity, of Emmet. We are so dominated by the memory +of that splendid death of his, by the memory of that young figure, +serene and smiling, climbing to the gallows above that sea of silent men +in Thomas Street, that we forget the life of which that death was only +the necessary completion; and the life has a nearer meaning for us than +the death. For Emmet, finely gifted though he was, was just a young man +with the same limitations, the same self-questionings, the same +falterings, the same kindly human emotions surging up sometimes in such +strength as almost to drown a heroic purpose, as many a young man we +have known. And his task was just such a task as many of us have +undertaken: he had to go through the same repellant routine of work, to +deal with the hard, uncongenial details of correspondence and committee +meetings; he had the same sordid difficulties that we have, yea, even +the vulgar difficulty of want of funds. And he had the same poor human +material to work with, men who misunderstood, men who bungled, men who +talked too much, men who failed at the last moment.... + +Yes, the task we take up again is just Emmet’s task of silent +unattractive work, the routine of correspondence and committees and +organising. We must face it as bravely and as quietly as he faced it, +working on in patience as he worked on, hoping as he hoped; cherishing +in our secret hearts the mighty hope that to us, though so unworthy, it +may be given to bring to accomplishment the thing he left +unaccomplished, but working on even when that hope dies within us. + +I would ask you to consider now how the call I have spoken of was made +to the spirit of a woman, and how, equally, it was responded to. +Wherever Emmet is commemorated let Anne Devlin not be forgotten. Bryan +Devlin had a dairy farm in Butterfield Lane; his fields are still green +there. Five sons of his fought in ’98. Anne was his daughter, and she +went to keep house for Emmet when he moved into Butterfield House. You +know how she kept vigil there on the night of the rising. When all was +lost and Emmet came out in his hurried retreat through Rathfarnham to +the mountains, her greeting was--according to tradition it was spoken in +Irish, and Emmet must have replied in Irish--“Musha, bad welcome to you! +Is Ireland lost by you, cowards that you are, to lead the people to +destruction and then to leave them?” “Don’t blame me, Anne; the fault is +not mine,” said Emmet. And she was sorry for the pain her words had +inflicted, spoken in the pain of her own disappointment. She would have +tended him like a mother could he have tarried there, but his path lay +to Kilmashogue, and hers was to be a harder duty. When Sirr came out +with his soldiery she was still keeping her vigil. “Where is Emmet?” “I +have nothing to tell you.” To all their questions she had but one +answer: “I have nothing to say; I have nothing to tell you.” They swung +her up to a cart and half-hanged her several times; after each +half-hanging she was revived and questioned: still the same answer. They +pricked her breast with bayonets until the blood spurted out in their +faces. They dragged her to prison and tortured her for days. Not one +word did they extract from that steadfast woman. And when Emmet was +sold, he was sold, not by a woman, but by a man--by the friend that he +had trusted--by the counsel who, having sold him, was to go through the +ghastly mockery of defending him at the bar. + +The fathers and mothers of Ireland should often tell their children that +story of Robert Emmet and that story of Anne Devlin. To the Irish +mothers who hear me I would say that when at night you kiss your +children and in your hearts call down a benediction, you could wish for +your boys no higher thing than that, should the need come, they may be +given the strength to make Emmet’s sacrifice, and for your girls no +greater gift from God than such fidelity as Anne Devlin’s. + +It is more than a hundred years since these things were suffered; and +they were suffered in vain if nothing of the spirit of Emmet and Anne +Devlin survives in the young men and young women of Ireland. Does +anything of that spirit survive? I think I can speak for my own +generation. I think I can speak for my contemporaries in the Gaelic +League, an organisation which has not yet concerned itself with +politics, but whose younger spirits are accepting the full national idea +and are bringing into the national struggle the passion and the +practicalness which marked the early stages of the language movement. I +think I can speak for the young men of the Volunteers. So far, they have +no programme beyond learning the trade of arms: a trade which no man of +Ireland could learn for over a hundred years past unless he took the +English shilling. It is a good programme; and we may almost commit the +future of Ireland to the keeping of the Volunteers. I think I can speak +for a younger generation still: for some of the young men that are +entering the National University, for my own pupils at St. Enda’s +College, for the boys of Fianna Eireann. To the grey-haired men whom I +see on this platform, to John Devoy and Richard Burke, I bring, then, +this message from Ireland: that their seed-sowing of forty years ago has +not been without its harvest, that there are young men and little boys +in Ireland to-day who remember what they taught and who, with God’s +blessing, will one day take--or make--an opportunity of putting their +teaching into practice. + +----- + +Footnote 4: + + An Address delivered at the Emmet Commemoration in the Aeolian Hall, + New York, 9th March, 1914. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + AN ADDENDUM + + (AUGUST 1914) + +Since I spoke the words here reprinted there has been a quick movement +of events in Ireland. The young men of the nation stand organised and +disciplined, and are rapidly arming themselves; blood has flowed in +Dublin Streets, and the cause of the Volunteers has been consecrated by +a holocaust. A European war has brought about a crisis which may +contain, as yet hidden within it, the moment for which the generations +have been waiting. It remains to be seen whether, if that moment reveals +itself, we shall have the sight to see and the courage to do, or whether +it shall be written of this generation, alone of all the generations of +Ireland, that it had none among it who dared to make the ultimate +sacrifice. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + THE COMING REVOLUTION + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + THE COMING REVOLUTION + + (NOVEMBER 1913) + + +I have come to the conclusion that the Gaelic League, as the Gaelic +League, is a spent force; and I am glad of it. I do not mean that no +work remains for the Gaelic League, or that the Gaelic League is no +longer equal to work; I mean that the vital work to be done in the new +Ireland will be done not so much by the Gaelic League itself as by men +and movements that have sprung from the Gaelic League or have received +from the Gaelic League a new baptism and a new life of grace. The Gaelic +League was no reed shaken by the wind, no mere _vox clamantis_: it was a +prophet and more than a prophet. But it was not the Messiah. I do not +know if the Messiah has yet come, and I am not sure that there will be +any visible and personal Messiah in this redemption: the people itself +will perhaps be its own Messiah, the people labouring, scourged, crowned +with thorns, agonising and dying, to rise again immortal and impassible. +For peoples are divine and are the only things that can properly be +spoken of under figures drawn from the divine epos. + +If we do not believe in the divinity of our people we have had no +business, or very little, all these years in the Gaelic League. In fact, +if we had not believed in the divinity of our people, we should in all +probability not have gone into the Gaelic League at all. We should have +made our peace with the devil, and perhaps might have found him a very +decent sort; for he liberally rewards with attorney-generalships, bank +balances, villa residences, and so forth, the great and the little who +serve him well. Now, we did not turn our backs upon all these desirable +things for the sake of _is_ and _tá_. We did it for the sake of Ireland. +In other words, we had one and all of us (at least, I had, and I hope +that all you had) an ulterior motive in joining the Gaelic League. We +never meant to be Gaelic Leaguers and nothing more than Gaelic Leaguers. +We meant to do something for Ireland, each in his own way. Our Gaelic +League time was to be our tutelage: we had first to learn to know +Ireland, to read the lineaments of her face, to understand the accents +of her voice; to re-possess ourselves, disinherited as we were, of her +spirit and mind, re-enter into our mystical birthright. For this we went +to school to the Gaelic League. It was a good school, and we love its +name and will champion its fame throughout all the days of our later +fighting and striving. But we do not propose to remain schoolboys for +ever. + +I have often said (quoting, I think, Herbert Spencer) that education +should be a preparation for complete living; and I say now that our +Gaelic League education ought to have been a preparation for our +complete living as Irish Nationalists. In proportion as we have been +faithful and diligent Gaelic Leaguers, our work as Irish Nationalists +(by which term I mean people who accept the ideal of, and work for, the +realisation of an Irish Nation, by whatever means) will be earnest and +thorough, a valiant and worthy fighting, not the mere carrying out of a +ritual. As to what your work as an Irish Nationalist is to be, I cannot +conjecture; I know what mine is to be, and would have you know yours and +buckle yourself to it. And it may be (nay, it is) that yours and mine +will lead us to a common meeting-place, and that on a certain day we +shall stand together, with many more beside us, ready for a greater +adventure than any of us has yet had, a trial and a triumph to be +endured and achieved in common. + +This is what I meant when I said that our work henceforward must be done +less and less through the Gaelic League and more and more through the +groups and the individuals that have arisen, or are arising, out of the +Gaelic League. There will be in the Ireland of the next few years a +multitudinous activity of Freedom Clubs, Young Republican Parties, +Labour Organisations, Socialist Groups, and what not; bewildering +enterprises undertaken by sane persons and insane persons, by good men +and bad men, many of them seemingly contradictory, some mutually +destructive, yet all tending towards a common objective, and that +objective: the Irish Revolution. + +For if there is one thing that has become plainer than another it is +that when the seven men met in O’Connell Street to found the Gaelic +League, they were commencing, had there been a Liancourt there to make +the epigram, not a revolt, but a revolution. The work of the Gaelic +League, its appointed work, was that: and the work is done. To every +generation its deed. The deed of the generation that has now reached +middle life was the Gaelic League: the beginning of the Irish +Revolution. Let our generation not shirk _its_ deed, which is to +accomplish the revolution. + +I believe that the national movement of which the Gaelic League has been +the soul has reached the point which O’Connell’s movement had reached at +the close of the series of monster meetings. Indeed, I believe that our +movement reached that point a few years ago--say, at the conclusion of +the fight for Essential Irish; and I said so at the time. The moment was +ripe then for a new Young Ireland Party, with a forward policy; and we +have lost much by our hesitation. I propose in all seriousness that we +hesitate no longer--that we push on. I propose that we leave +Conciliation Hall behind us and go into the Irish Confederation. + +Whenever Dr. Hyde, at a meeting at which I have had a chance of speaking +after him, has produced his dove of peace, I have always been careful to +produce my sword; and to tantalise him by saying that the Gaelic League +has brought into Ireland “Not Peace, but a Sword.” But this does not +show any fundamental difference of outlook between my leader and me; for +while he is thinking of peace between brother-Irishmen, I am thinking of +the sword-point between banded Irishmen and the foreign force that +occupies Ireland: and his peace is necessary to my war. It is evident +that there can be no peace between the body politic and a foreign +substance that has intruded itself into its system: between them war +only until the foreign substance is expelled or assimilated. + +Whether Home Rule means a loosening or a tightening of England’s grip +upon Ireland remains yet to be seen. But the coming of Home Rule, if +come it does, will make no material difference in the nature of the work +that lies before us: it will affect only the means we are to employ, our +plan of campaign. There remains, under Home Rule as in its absence, the +substantial task of achieving the Irish Nation. I do not think it is +going to be achieved without stress and trial, without suffering and +bloodshed; at any rate, it is not going to be achieved without _work_. +Our business here and now is to get ourselves into harness for such work +as has to be done. + +I hold that before we can do any work, any _men’s_ work, we must first +realise ourselves as men. Whatever comes to Ireland she needs men. And +we of this generation are not in any real sense men, for we suffer +things that men do not suffer, and we seek to redress grievances by +means which men do not employ. We have, for instance, allowed ourselves +to be disarmed; and, now that we have the chance of re-arming, we are +not seizing it. Professor Eoin Mac Neill pointed out last week that we +have at this moment an opportunity of rectifying the capital error we +made when we allowed ourselves to be disarmed; and such opportunities, +he reminds us, do not always come back to nations. + +A thing that stands demonstrable is that nationhood is not achieved +otherwise than in arms: in one or two instances there may have been no +actual bloodshed, but the arms were there and the ability to use them. +Ireland unarmed will attain just as much freedom as it is convenient for +England to give her; Ireland armed will attain ultimately just as much +freedom as she wants. These are matters which may not concern the Gaelic +League, as a body; but they concern every member of the Gaelic League, +and every man and woman of Ireland. I urged much of this five or six +years ago in addresses to the Ard-Chraobh: but the League was too busy +with resolutions to think of revolution, and the only resolution that a +member of the League could not come to was the resolution to be a man. +My fellow-Leaguers had not (and have not) apprehended that the thing +which cannot defend itself, even though it may wear trousers, is no man. + +I am glad, then, that the North has “begun.” I am glad that the +Orangemen have armed, for it is a goodly thing to see arms in Irish +hands. I should like to see the A. O. H. armed. I should like to see the +Transport Workers armed. I should like to see any and every body of +Irish citizens armed. We must accustom ourselves to the thought of arms, +to the sight of arms, to the use of arms. We may make mistakes in the +beginning and shoot the wrong people; but bloodshed is a cleansing and a +sanctifying thing, and the nation which regards it as the final horror +has lost its manhood. There are many things more horrible than +bloodshed; and slavery is one of them. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + THE PSYCHOLOGY OF A VOLUNTEER + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + THE PSYCHOLOGY OF A VOLUNTEER. + + (JANUARY 1914) + + +“Mughdhorn” has challenged my psychology as un-Irish. At least, he has +challenged as un-Irish the psychology of any man that holds the view +that it has not been merely for the sake of saving the Irish language we +Leaguers have been working all these years. That is a view which I hold +and have promulgated. Hence I take it there is question here of my +psychology. It is a little embarrassing to a shy person to have his +psychology discussed in public. One feels inclined to protest +indignantly with the old lady whom the doctor suspected of appendicitis, +explaining to her that it meant inflammation of the appendix. “Why, I +haven’t _got_ such a thing!” She thought he meant a kind of tail. I +really shrink from a public investigation into my psychology. Let me see +how “Mughdhorn” will like a very tender examination of _his_. + +I formally challenge as not only un-Irish, but as diseased, the +psychology of the man who holds that Parnell’s declaration to the people +of Connacht “that he would not have taken off his coat to the land +question but that he saw in it a means to rouse the people of Ireland to +assert their right to self-government,” betrayed the “Palesman +addressing the mere Gael,” and that it was “supercilious” at that. The +declaration in question was one of those four or five illuminating and +unforgettable sentences of Parnell’s which prove him to have been the +one really great Nationalist of his time: the true successor of Tone and +Mitchel, though working with such different means. The sentence betrays +not the Palesman (whatever that may mean) but the Irish Nationalist. I +hold its Nationalism to be authentic, and, further, that there is no +other Nationalism than the Nationalism therein implied, _i.e._, that the +nation is more important than any part of the nation. A national leader +in a struggle for self-government could not have turned aside from the +main issue in order to take up even temporarily any other issue, however +important, than the national one, except with the object of +strengthening his forces for the main fight--the fight for nationhood. +Parnell, as leader of the Irish in their struggle for nationhood, would +not have been justified in devoting one hour of his time or one penny of +his funds to the land war except as a means to an end. Had Parnell had +his way the land war would not have been fought out until the national +war had been won; and it is a pity that Parnell had not his way, as we +and our children may realise full soon. + +I challenge again the Irish psychology of the man who sets up the Gael +and the Palesman as opposing forces, with conflicting outlooks. We are +all Irish, Leinster-reared or Connacht-reared; your native Irish speaker +of Iveragh or Erris is more fully in touch with the spiritual past of +Ireland than your Wexfordman or your Kildareman, but your Wexfordman or +your Kildareman has other Irish traditions which your Iveraghman or your +Errisman has lost. It is a great thing to have heard in childhood the +songs of a Tadhg Gaedhealach or to have seen a Raftery or a Colm +Wallace; it is an equally great thing to have known old men who fought +in Wexford in ’98, or to have been nursed by a woman who made bullets +for the Fenians. All such memories, old and new, are part of Irish +history, and he who would segregate Irish history and Irish men into two +sections--Irish-speaking and English-speaking--is not helping toward +achieving Ireland a Nation. + +Am I a Palesman and is Lord O’Brien of Kilfenora a Gael? I propose that +in future we reserve the term Palesman for those who uphold the +domination of the English in Ireland. I propose also that we substitute +for the denominations Gael, Gall, and Gall-Gael the common name of +Irishman. + +I do not know who among the Gaelic Leaguers that have joined the +Volunteers has been foolish enough to suggest that he “cares for the +language merely as a sort of stimulant in the fight for nationhood.” +Certainly not I: I have spent the best fifteen years of my life teaching +and working for the idea that the language is an essential part of the +nation. I have not modified my attitude in anything that I have recently +said or written; I have only confessed (and not for the first time) that +in the Gaelic League I have all along been working not for the language +merely, but for the nation. I now go further, and say that anyone who +has been working for the language merely (if there be any such) has +never had the true Gaelic League spirit at all, and though in the Gaelic +League has never really been of it. I protest that it was not philology, +not folklore, not literature, we went into the Gaelic League to serve, +but: Ireland a Nation. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + TO THE BOYS OF IRELAND + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + TO THE BOYS OF IRELAND + + (FEBRUARY 1914) + + +We of Na Fianna Eireann, at the beginning of this year 1914, a year +which is likely to be momentous in the history of our country, address +ourselves to the boys of Ireland and invite them to band themselves with +us in a knightly service. We believe that the highest thing anyone can +do is to SERVE well and truly, and we purpose to serve Ireland with all +our fealty and with all our strength. Two occasions are spoken of in +ancient Irish story upon which Irish boys marched to the rescue of their +country when it was sore beset--once when Cuchulainn and the boy-troop +of Ulster held the frontier until the Ulster heroes rose, and again when +the boys of Ireland kept the foreign invaders in check on the shores of +Ventry until Fionn had rallied the Fianna: it may be that a similar tale +shall be told of us, and that when men come to write the history of the +freeing of Ireland they shall have to record that the boys of Na Fianna +Eireann stood in the battle-gap until the Volunteers armed. + +We believe, as every Irish boy whose heart has not been corrupted by +foreign influence must believe, that our country ought to be free. We do +not see why Ireland should allow England to govern her, either through +Englishmen, as at present, or through Irishmen under an appearance of +self-government. We believe that England has no business in this country +at all--that Ireland, from the centre to the zenith, belongs to the +Irish. Our forefathers believed this and fought for it: Hugh O’Donnell +and Hugh O’Neill and Rory O’More and Owen Roe O’Neill: Tone and Emmet +and Davis and Mitchel. What was true in their time is still true. +Nothing that has happened or that can ever happen can alter the truth of +it. Ireland belongs to the Irish. We believe, then, that it is the duty +of Irishmen to struggle always, never giving in or growing weary, until +they have won back their country again. + +The object of Na Fianna Eireann is to train the boys of Ireland to fight +Ireland’s battle when they are men. In the past the Irish, heroically +though they have struggled, have always lost, for want of discipline, +for want of military knowledge, for want of plans, for want of leaders. +The brave Irish who rose in ’98, in ’48, and in ’67, went down because +they were not SOLDIERS: we hope to train Irish boys from their earliest +years to be soldiers, not only to know the trade of a soldier--drilling, +marching, camping, signalling, scouting, and (when they are old enough) +shooting--but also, what is far more important, to understand and prize +military discipline and to have a MILITARY SPIRIT. Centuries of +oppression and of unsuccessful effort have almost extinguished the +military spirit of Ireland: if that were once gone--if Ireland were to +become a land of contented slaves--it would be very hard, perhaps +impossible, ever to arouse her again. We believe that Na Fianna Eireann +have kept the military spirit alive in Ireland during the past four +years, and that if the Fianna had not been founded in 1909, the +Volunteers of 1913 would never have arisen. In a sense, then, the Fianna +have been the pioneers of the Volunteers; and it is from the ranks of +the Fianna that the Volunteers must be recruited. This is a special +reason why we should be active during 1914. The Fianna will constitute +what the old Irish called the MACRADH, or boy-troop, of the Volunteers, +and will correspond to what is called in France an Ecole Polytechnique +or Military School. As the man who was to lead the armies of France to +such glorious victories came forth from the Military School of Brienne, +so may the man who shall lead the Irish Volunteers to victory come forth +from Na Fianna Eireann. + +Our programme includes every element of a military training. We are not +mere “Boy Scouts,” although we teach and practise the art of scouting. +Physical culture, infantry drill, marching, the routine of camp life, +semaphore and Morse signalling, scouting in all its branches, elementary +tactics, ambulance and first aid, swimming, hurling, and football, are +all included in our scheme of training; and opportunity is given to the +older boys for bayonet and rifle practice. This does not exhaust our +programme, for we believe that mental culture should go hand in hand +with physical culture, and we provide instruction in Irish and in Irish +history, lectures on historical and literary subjects, and musical and +social entertainments as opportunities permit. + +Finally, we believe with Thomas Davis that “RIGHTEOUS men” must “make +our land a Nation Once Again.” Hence we endeavour to train our boys to +be pure, truthful, honest, sober, kindly; clean in heart as well as in +body; generous in their service to their parents and companions now as +we would have them generous in their service to their country hereafter. +We bear a very noble name and inherit very noble traditions, for we are +called after the Fianna of Fionn, that heroic companionship which, +according to legend, flourished in Ireland in the second and third +centuries of the Christian era. + + “We, the Fianna, never told a lie, + Falsehood was never imputed to us,” + +said Oisín to Saint Patrick; and again when Patrick asked Caoilte Mac +Ronain how it came that the Fianna won all their battles, Caoilte +replied: “Strength that was in our hands, truth that was on our lips, +and purity that was in our hearts.” + +Is it too much to hope that after so many centuries the old ideals are +still quick in the heart of Irish youth, and that this year we shall get +many hundred Irish boys to come forward and help us to build up a +brotherhood of young Irishmen strong of limb, true and pure in tongue +and heart, chivalrous, cultured in a really Irish sense, and ready to +spend themselves in the service of their country? + + SINNE, + NA FIANNA EIREANN. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + WHY WE WANT RECRUITS + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + WHY WE WANT RECRUITS + + (MAY 1915) + + +We want recruits because we have undertaken a service which we believe +to be of vital importance to our country, and because that service needs +whatever there is of manly stuff in Ireland in order to its effective +rendering. + +We want recruits because we have a standard to rally them to. It is not +a new standard raised for the first time by the men of a new generation. +It is an old standard which has been borne by many generations of Irish +men, which has gone into many battles, which has looked down upon much +glory and upon much sorrow; which has been a sign to be contradicted, +but which shall yet shine as a star. There is no other standard in the +world so august as the standard we bear; and it is the only standard +which the men of Ireland may bear without abandoning their ancient +allegiance. Individual Irishmen have sometimes fought under other +standards: Ireland as a whole has never fought under any other. + +We want recruits because we have a faith to give them and a hope with +which to inspire them. They are a faith and a hope which have been +handed down from generation to generation of Irish men and women unto +this last. The faith is that Ireland is one, that Ireland is inviolate, +that Ireland is worthy of all love and all homage and all service that +may lawfully be paid to any earthly thing; and the hope is that Ireland +may be free. In a human sense, we have no desire, no ambition but the +integrity, the honour, and the freedom of our native land. + +We want recruits because we are sure of the rightness of our cause. We +have no misgivings, no self-questionings. While others have been +doubting, timorous, ill at ease, we have been serenely at peace with our +consciences. The recent time of soul-searching had no terrors for us. We +saw our path with absolute clearness; we took it with absolute +deliberateness. “We could no other.” We called upon the names of the +great confessors of our national faith, and all was well with us. +Whatever soul-searchings there may be among Irish political parties now +or hereafter, we go on in the calm certitude of having done the clear, +clean, sheer thing. We have the strength and the peace of mind of those +who never compromise. + +We want recruits because we believe that events are about to place the +destinies of Ireland definitely in our hands, and because we want as +much help as possible to enable us to bear the burden. The political +leadership of Ireland is passing to us--not, perhaps, to us as +individuals, for none of us are ambitious for leadership and few of us +fit for leadership; but to our party, to men of our way of thinking: +that is, to the party and to the men that stand _by Ireland only_, to +the party and to the men that stand by the nation, to the party and to +the men of one allegiance. + +We want recruits because we have work for them to do. We do not propose +to keep our men idle. We propose to give them work--hard work, plenty of +work. We would band together all men capable of working for Ireland and +give them men’s work. + +We want recruits because we are able to train them. The great majority +of our officers are now fully competent to undertake the training of +Irish Volunteers for active service under the conditions imposed by the +natural and military facts of the map of Ireland. Those officers who are +not so competent will be made competent in our training camps during the +next few months. + +We want recruits because we are able to arm them. In a rough way of +speaking, we have succeeded already in placing a gun and ammunition +therefor in the hands of every Irish Volunteer that has undertaken to +endeavour to pay for them. We are in a position to do as much for every +man that joins us. We may not always have the popular pattern of gun, +but we undertake to produce a gun of some sort for every genuine Irish +Volunteer; with some ammunition to boot. Finally: + +We want recruits because we are absolutely determined to take action the +moment action becomes a duty. If a moment comes--as a moment seemed on +the point of coming at least twice during the past eighteen months--when +the Irish Volunteers will be justified to their consciences in taking +definite military action, such action will be taken. We do not +anticipate such a moment in the very near future; but we live at a time +when it may come swiftly and terribly. What if Conscription be forced +upon Ireland? What if a Unionist or a Coalition British Ministry +repudiate the Home Rule Act? What if it be determined to dismember +Ireland? What if it be attempted to disarm Ireland? The future is big +with these and other possibilities. + +And these are among the reasons why we want recruits. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + O’DONOVAN ROSSA + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + O’DONOVAN ROSSA + + A CHARACTER STUDY + + +O’Donovan Rossa was not the greatest man of the Fenian generation, but +he was its most typical man. He was the man that to the masses of his +countrymen then and since stood most starkly and plainly for the Fenian +idea. More lovable and understandable than the cold and enigmatic +Stephens, better known than the shy and sensitive Kickham, more human +than the scholarly and chivalrous O’Leary, more picturesque than the +able and urbane Luby, older and more prominent than the man who, when +the time comes to write his biography, will be recognised as the +greatest of the Fenians--John Devoy--Rossa held a unique place in the +hearts of Irish men and Irish women. They made songs about him, his very +name passed into a proverb. To avow oneself a friend of O’Donovan Rossa +meant in the days of our fathers to avow oneself a friend of Ireland; it +meant more: it meant to avow oneself a “mere” Irishman, an “Irish +enemy,” an “Irish savage,” if you will, naked and unashamed. Rossa was +not only “extreme,” but he represented the left wing of the +“extremists.” Not only would he have Ireland free, but he would have +Ireland Gaelic. + +And here we have the secret of Rossa’s magic, of Rossa’s power: he came +out of the Gaelic tradition. He was of the Gael; he thought in a Gaelic +way; he spoke in Gaelic accents. He was the spiritual and intellectual +descendant of Colm Cille and of Seán an Díomais. With Colm Cille he +might have said, “If I die it shall be from the love I bear the Gael”; +with Shane O’Neill he held it debasing to “twist his mouth with +English.” To him the Gael and the Gaelic ways were splendid and holy, +worthy of all homage and all service; for the English he had a hatred +that was tinctured with contempt. He looked upon them as an inferior +race, morally and intellectually; he despised their civilisation; he +mocked at their institutions and made them look ridiculous. + +And this again explains why the English hated him above all the Fenians. +They hated him as they hated Shane O’Neill, and as they hated Parnell; +but more. For the same “crime” against English law as his associates he +was sentenced to a more terrible penalty; and they pursued him into his +prison and tried to break his spirit by mean and petty cruelty. He stood +up to them and fought them: he made their whole penal system odious and +despicable in the eyes of Europe and America. So the English found Rossa +in prison a more terrible foe than Rossa at large; and they were glad at +last when they had to let him go. Without any literary pretensions, his +story of his prison life remains one of the sombre epics of the earthly +inferno. + +O’Donovan Rossa was not intellectually broad, but he had great +intellectual intensity. His mind was like a hot flame. It seared and +burned what was base and mean; it bored its way through falsehoods and +conventions; it shot upwards, unerringly, to truth and principle. And +this man had one of the toughest and most stubborn souls that have ever +been. No man, no government, could either break or bend him. Literally +he was incapable of compromise. He could not even parley with +compromisers. Nay, he could not act, even for the furtherance of objects +held in common, with those who did not hold and avow all his objects. It +was characteristic of him that he refused to associate himself with the +“new departure” by which John Devoy threw the support of the Fenians +into the land struggle behind Parnell and Davitt; even though the +Fenians compromised nothing and even though their support were to mean +(and did mean) the winning of the land war. Parnell and Davitt he +distrusted; Home Rulers he always regarded as either foolish or +dishonest. He knew only one way; and suspected all those who thought +there might be two. + +And while Rossa was thus unbending, unbending to the point of +impracticability, there was no acerbity in his nature. He was full of a +kindly Gaelic glee. The olden life of Munster, in which the +_seanchaidhe_ told tales in the firelight and songs were made at the +autumn harvesting and at the winter spinning, was very dear to him. He +saw that life crushed out, or nearly crushed out, in squalor and famine +during ’47 and ’48; but it always lived in his heart. In English prisons +and in American cities he remembered the humour and the lore of Carbery. +He jested when he was before his judges; he jested when he was tortured +by his jailors; sometimes he startled the silence of the prison +corridors by laughing aloud and by singing Irish songs in his cell: they +thought he was going mad, but he was only trying to keep himself sane. + +I have heard from John Devoy the story of his first meeting with Rossa +in prison. Rossa was being marched into the governor’s office as Devoy +was being marched out. In the gaunt man that passed him Devoy did not +recognise at first the splendid Rossa he had known. Rossa stopped and +said, “John.” “Who are you?” said Devoy: “I don’t know you.” “I’m +Rossa.” Then the warders came between them. Devoy has described another +meeting with Rossa, and this time it was Rossa who did not know Devoy. +One of the last issues of _The Gaelic American_ that the British +Government allowed to enter Ireland contained Devoy’s account of a +recent visit to Rossa in a hospital in Staten Island. It took a little +time to make him realise who it was that stood beside his bed. “And are +you John Devoy?” he said at last. During his long illness he constantly +imagined that he was still in an English prison; and there was +difficulty in preventing him from trying to make his escape through the +window. I have not yet seen any account of his last hours: the cabling +of such things would imperil the Defence of the Realm. + +Enough to know that that valiant soldier of Ireland is dead; that that +unconquered spirit is free. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + GRAVESIDE PANEGYRIC + + +A GHAEDHEALA, + +Do hiarradh orm-sa labhairt indiu ar son a bhfuil cruinnighthe ar an +láthair so agus ar son a bhfuil beo de Chlannaibh Gaedheal, ag moladh an +leomhain do leagamar i gcré annso agus ag gríosadh meanman na gcarad atá +go brónach ina dhiaidh. + +A cháirde, ná bíodh brón ar éinne atá ina sheasamh ag an uaigh so, acht +bíodh buidheachas againn inar gcroidhthibh do Dhia na ngrás do +chruthuigh anam uasal áluinn Dhiarmuda Uí Dhonnabháin Rosa agus thug ré +fhada dhó ar an saoghal so. + +Ba chalma an fear thu, a Dhiarmuid. Is tréan d’fhearais cath ar son cirt +do chine, is ní beag ar fhuilingis; agus ní dhéanfaidh Gaedhil dearmad +ort go bráth na breithe. + +Acht, a cháirde, ná bíodh brón orainn, acht bíodh misneach inar +gcroidhthibh agus bíodh neart inar gcuisleannaibh, óir cuimhnighimís +nach mbíonn aon bhás ann nach mbíonn aiséirghe ina dhiaidh, agus gurab +as an uaigh so agus as na huaghannaibh atá inar dtimcheall éireochas +saoirse Ghaedheal. + +It has seemed right, before we turn away from this place in which we +have laid the mortal remains of O’Donovan Rossa, that one among us +should, in the name of all, speak the praise of that valiant man, and +endeavour to formulate the thought and the hope that are in us as we +stand around his grave. And if there is anything that makes it fitting +that I, rather than some other, I rather than one of the grey-haired men +who were young with him and shared in his labour and in his suffering, +should speak here, it is perhaps that I may be taken as speaking on +behalf of a new generation that has been re-baptised in the Fenian +faith, and that has accepted the responsibility of carrying out the +Fenian programme. I propose to you then that, here by the grave of this +unrepentant Fenian, we renew our baptismal vows; that, here by the grave +of this unconquered and unconquerable man, we ask of God, each one for +himself, such unshakable purpose, such high and gallant courage, such +unbreakable strength of soul as belonged to O’Donovan Rossa. + +Deliberately here we avow ourselves, as he avowed himself in the dock, +Irishmen of one allegiance only. We of the Irish Volunteers, and you +others who are associated with us in to-day’s task and duty, are bound +together and must stand together henceforth in brotherly union for the +achievement of the freedom of Ireland. And we know only one definition +of freedom: it is Tone’s definition, it is Mitchel’s definition, it is +Rossa’s definition. Let no man blaspheme the cause that the dead +generations of Ireland served by giving it any other name and definition +than their name and their definition. + +We stand at Rossa’s grave not in sadness but rather in exaltation of +spirit that it has been given to us to come thus into so close a +communion with that brave and splendid Gael. Splendid and holy causes +are served by men who are themselves splendid and holy. O’Donovan Rossa +was splendid in the proud manhood of him, splendid in the heroic grace +of him, splendid in the Gaelic strength and clarity and truth of him. +And all that splendour and pride and strength was compatible with a +humility and a simplicity of devotion to Ireland, to all that was olden +and beautiful and Gaelic in Ireland, the holiness and simplicity of +patriotism of a Michael O’Clery or of an Eoghan O’Growney. The clear +true eyes of this man almost alone in his day visioned Ireland as we of +to-day would surely have her: not free merely, but Gaelic as well; not +Gaelic merely, but free as well. + +In a closer spiritual communion with him now than ever before or perhaps +ever again, in a spiritual communion with those of his day, living and +dead, who suffered with him in English prisons, in communion of spirit +too with our own dear comrades who suffer in English prisons to-day, and +speaking on their behalf as well as our own, we pledge to Ireland our +love, and we pledge to English rule in Ireland our hate. This is a place +of peace, sacred to the dead, where men should speak with all charity +and with all restraint; but I hold it a Christian thing, as O’Donovan +Rossa held it, to hate evil, to hate untruth, to hate oppression, and, +hating them, to strive to overthrow them. Our foes are strong and wise +and wary; but, strong and wise and wary as they are, they cannot undo +the miracles of God who ripens in the hearts of young men the seeds sown +by the young men of a former generation. And the seeds sown by the young +men of ’65 and ’67 are coming to their miraculous ripening to-day. +Rulers and Defenders of Realms had need to be wary if they would guard +against such processes. Life springs from death; and from the graves of +patriot men and women spring living nations. The Defenders of this Realm +have worked well in secret and in the open. They think that they have +pacified Ireland. They think that they have purchased half of us and +intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen +everything, think that they have provided against everything; but the +fools, the fools, the fools!--they have left us our Fenian dead, and +while Ireland holds these graves, Ireland unfree shall never be at +peace. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + FROM A HERMITAGE + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + PREFACE + + +The articles which follow were contributed by me to _Irish Freedom_ +during the eight months extending from June 1913 to January 1914. They +thus form a contemporary commentary on the period immediately preceding +and covering the rise of the Irish Volunteers: a period which, when +things assume their proper perspective, will probably be regarded as the +most important in recent Irish history. I commenced the series with the +deliberate intention, by argument, invective, and satire, of goading +those who shared my political views to commit themselves definitely to +an armed movement. I felt quite sure that the hour was ripe for such a +movement, but did not in the beginning foresee the precise form it was +to assume. When I wrote the article for November 1913 a group of +Nationalists with whom I was in touch had decided to found the Irish +Volunteers, and we were looking about for a leader who would command the +adhesion of men less “advanced” than we were known to be: of our own +followers we were sure. When I wrote the article for December 1913, Eoin +MacNeill had (quite unexpectedly) published his article “The North +Began” in _An Claidheamh Soluis_, and we had agreed to invite him to put +himself at our head. The rest is a part of Irish history. + +In the article for August 1913, I have omitted part of the Open Letter +to Douglas Hyde; and I have made one or two verbal changes in a few of +the other articles. + + P. H. PEARSE. + +ST. ENDA’S COLLEGE, + THE HERMITAGE, RATHFARNHAM, + 1st June, 1915. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + FROM A HERMITAGE + + + I + + (JUNE 1913) + +Not everyone that lives in a hermitage is a hermit. And not every hermit +is hermit-hearted. As for me, I have only two qualities in common with +the real (or imaginary) hermit who once lived (or did not live) in this +place: I am poor and I am merry. Now, all hermits are poor, and all +hermits, unless they are frauds, are merry. I am visibly poor, but am +merry only in an esoteric or secret sense, exhibiting to the outer world +an austerity of look and speech more befitting my habitation than my +heart. Understand that, however harshly I may express myself in the +comments and proposals I shall from time to time make here, I am in +reality a genial and large-hearted person, and that if I chasten my +fellows it is only because I love them. + + * * * * * + +I have, as I have suggested, some proposals to make. The first is that +we who are determined to rehabilitate this nation should commence +working towards that end instead of arguing. The Nationalist movement in +Ireland has degenerated into a debating society. In all our national or +quasi-national organs we argue as to what a nation is, what nationality, +what a Nationalist. As if definitions mattered! Our love of disputation +sometimes makes us indecent, as when we argue over a dead man’s coffin +as to whether he was a Nationalist or not, and sometimes makes us +ridiculous, as when we prove by a mathematical formula that the poet who +has most finely voiced Irish nationalism in our time is no Nationalist. +As if a man’s opinions were more important than his work! I propose that +we take _service_ as our touchstone, and reject all other touchstones; +and that, without bothering our heads about sorting out, segregating, +and labelling Irishmen and Irishwomen according to their opinions, we +agree to accept as fellow-Nationalists all who specifically or virtually +recognise this Irish nation as an entity and, being part of it, owe it +and give it their service. This will save endless discussion, and make +it wholly unnecessary to inquire, before giving a fellow-Irishman one’s +hand, what is his attitude towards bimetallism or what his opinion of +“The Playboy of the Western World.” + + * * * * * + +This thing of service merits to be dwelt upon. Ireland, in our day as in +the past, has excommunicated some of those who have served her best, and +has canonised some of those who have served her worst. We damn a man for +an unpopular phrase; we deify a man who does a mean thing gracefully. +The word to us is ever more significant than the deed. When a man like +Synge, a man in whose sad heart there glowed a true love of Ireland, one +of the two or three men who have in our time made Ireland considerable +in the eyes of the world, uses strange symbols which we do not +understand, we cry out that he has blasphemed and we proceed to crucify +him. When a sleek lawyer, rising step by step through the most ignoble +of all professions, attains to a Lord Chancellorship or to an +Attorney-Generalship, we confer upon him the freedom of our cities. This +is really a very terrible symptom in contemporary Ireland. It is not for +me to judge the Redmond Barrys and the Ignatius O’Briens and the Thomas +F. Moloneys, and I say no word in condemnation of them here: I merely +point out that they have not in any way served Ireland--they have served +themselves and they have served England; and when England rewards them +for their service there is absolutely no reason why Ireland should +rejoice. A bargain has been completed. Servants of England have done +their day’s work and been paid their price. It is a commercial +transaction, not a matter of public rejoicing. It is a business between +England and these men. Ireland has nothing to do with it. + + * * * * * + +When such commercial transactions are concluded I think the less said +about them the better. I would not pursue these men as traitors, for I +do not think they were ever with us. But I do think that an effort +should be made to prevent “rebel” cities like Cork from honouring their +mean success. Is it too late, even now, to expunge their names from the +roll of freemen? Let someone in Cork look to it. + + * * * * * + +This generation of Irishmen will be called upon in the near future to +make a very passionate assertion of nationality. The form in which that +assertion shall be made must depend upon many things, more especially +upon the passage or non-passage of the present Home Rule Bill. In the +meantime there is need to be vigilant. Yet, every day we allow insults +to the nation to pass, forgetting that every fresh stripe endured by a +slave makes him so much more a slave. There comes to a slave, as there +comes to a tortured child or to a tortured animal, a time when stripes +seem normal and it is easier to endure than to protest. Any underling of +British government can now lay hands on Ireland with impunity; only now +it is no longer necessary to deal heavy stripes--a delicate and +facetious slap in the face is a sufficient symbol of over-lordship. One +Mr. Justice Boyd sneered at the Irish language from the Bench in Belfast +a few weeks ago; one would have thought that there were enough Gaels in +Belfast to prevent the fellow from being heard in his own court the next +day until he had apologised. The National Council of Sinn Féin recently +sent an anti-enlisting car through the streets of Dublin. It was seized +by the police and the posters defaced. Afterwards the excuse was +tendered that the cart exceeded the size allowed by the Corporation for +advertisement vans. The National Council promptly sent another +anti-enlisting car, of regulation size, into the streets, and at present +it parades unmolested. But there should have been enough spirit in +Dublin to enable the National Council to send a whole procession of +anti-enlisting cars into the streets. And, had these been seized, a +hundred sandwich men should have appeared with anti-enlisting posters. +And, had these been interfered with, Nationalist citizens should have +set out for business the next morning with anti-enlisting badges in +their buttonholes. Should the police have disliked the aesthetic effect +of this decoration, neat anti-enlisting flags might have appeared in +citizens’ hat-bands. Should all sartorial eccentricities have been +objected to, Nationalist Dublin could have started whistling some tune +agreed upon and recognised to mean “anti-enlisting.” There are countless +ways in which such an agitation might be carried on, for the glory of +God and the honour of Ireland. Once for all, if there is to be an +anti-enlisting movement, let there be an anti-enlisting movement. +Opinions may differ as to the advisability of such a movement, but there +can be no two opinions as to the inadvisability of playing at such a +movement. + + * * * * * + +I am aware that some of the courses I recommend are open to the +objection that they would land some people in gaol. But gaol would do +some people good. + + + II + + (JULY 1913) + +Symbols are very important. The symbol of a true thing, of a beneficent +thing, is worthy of all homage; the symbol of a false thing, of a cruel +thing, is worthy of all reprobation. A gibbet has come to be the noblest +symbol in the world, because it symbolises the noblest thing that has +ever been done among men. The red coat of a soldier, a gallant thing in +itself, has come to be a symbol of unspeakably evil import, because such +unspeakable things have been done by the empire for which the red-coated +soldiers fight, such murders perpetrated, such tyrannies upheld for +centuries. Thus, a shameful thing may come to have a glorious +significance, a ridiculous thing may achieve venerability, while a +goodly thing may become so degraded that the stomach of a strong man +heaves when he looks upon it. Consider this: if a man were to walk down +O’Connell Street wearing a double-pointed conical hat a full foot high +and of a glaring yellow colour, we should laugh; yet when a man mounts +the steps of an altar with a hat of that precise pattern on his head we +are dumb and reverent, for we see in the preposterous headgear the awful +symbol of apostolic succession. This matter of symbols came into my mind +to-day as I watched a Bishop administer Confirmation. The Church to +which I belong, the wise Church that has called into her service all the +arts, knows better than any other institution, human or divine, the +immense potency of symbols: with symbols she exorcises evil spirits, +with symbols she calls into play for beneficent purposes the infinite +powers of omnipotence. And those of her children who honour not her +symbols she pronounces anathema. + + * * * * * + +A nation should exact similar respect for its symbols. Free nations do. +They salute their flags with bared heads; they hail with thundering +cannon the nincompoops that happen to be their kings. A man with whom +you would not sit at meat if he were a private individual, whom you +would cut every time you saw him approaching you in the street, receives +your homage, and justly receives your homage, when he symbolises the +majesty of your nation. A man whom, as an individual, you would consider +too insignificant to be an object of your dislike, becomes an object of +holy hatred when he symbolises some evil thing that oppresses you or +yours. No one in Ireland either likes or dislikes George Wettin; yet +every true man of Ireland hates, or should hate, to see his not very +intellectual features on a coin or on a stamp, for they symbolise there +the foreign tyranny that holds us. A good Irishman should blush every +time he sees a penny. A good Irishman should tingle with shame every +time he sees a red coat. + + * * * * * + +I know an old woman who never passes a soldier without railing at him. +As a girl she made bullets for the Fenians, moulding them out of the +leaden lining of tea cases. During the half century that has gone by, +while our fathers and we have been parleying with the English, she has +cherished in her heart an enduring hate. I saw her a few weeks ago as +she went by the Wellington Barracks on her way to the Wolfe Tone +Aeridheacht, and as she passed the sentry at the gate she paused and +said something bitter to him. I would not have done that. I could not +even if I would. Neither could you. A strong man would regard it as +futile; a man with a sense of humour would regard it as ridiculous, just +as most men regard the demonstrations of the Suffragettes. Yet I think +the women are right and not we. At the root of that old woman’s +demonstration against the stolid sentry was an instinct profoundly true. +She is in revolt against the evil thing that holds her country, and of +that evil thing the sentry is the symbol. She is an unconquered soul, +one of the few unconquered souls in Ireland. She has not made peace, and +will never make peace. She has never even parleyed. It were wrong to +laugh at her little feeble demonstration against the soldier. I do not +call for demonstrations against soldiers until we are able to do more +than demonstrate; but the fact that we pass them by every day, every +hour, without grinding our teeth is symptomatic of our loss of manhood. +We no longer feel their presence here a reproach. + + * * * * * + +Of the nation’s symbols the most august is her language, and it is a +measure of Ireland’s degradation that she can endure to see her language +derided by a Mr. Justice Boyd and that she can discuss the propriety of +selling it for £10,000 a year to a Mr. Secretary Birrell. Ireland has +lost the sense of shame. Her inner sanctities are no longer sacred to +her. Keating (whom I take to be the greatest of Irish Nationalist poets) +used a terrific phrase of the Ireland of his day: he called her “the +harlot of England.” Yet Keating’s Ireland was the magnificent Ireland in +which Rory O’More planned and Owen Roe battled. What would he say of +this Ireland? His phrase if used to-day would no longer be a terrible +metaphor, but would be a more terrible truth; a truth literal and exact. +For is not Ireland’s body given up to the pleasure of another, and is +not Ireland’s honour for sale in the market-places? + + * * * * * + +As long as Ireland is unfree the only honourable attitude for Irishmen +and Irishwomen is an attitude of revolt. It is base of us to be +quiescent. It is base not only for the nation, but for each individual +in the nation: each of us is guilty of a personal baseness, each of us +suffers a personal stigma, as long as this thing endures. When we go to +Wolfe Tone’s grave next Sunday we should remember with bitterness that +we suffer the ignominy which he died rather than endure. If we mean to +go on suffering it, we have no business going in pilgrimage to that dead +man’s grave. If we do not really mean to carry on his work, why disturb +the quiet of Bodenstown with protestations? + + * * * * * + +I said last month that this generation of Irishmen will be called upon +in the near future to make a very passionate assertion of nationality, +and that the form which that assertion shall take must depend largely +upon the passage or non-passage of the present Home Rule Bill. If the +Home Rule Bill passes I imagine that the assertion I speak of will be +made by the creation of what we may call a Gaelic party within the Home +Rule Parliament, with a strong following behind it in the country; a +party which shall determinedly set about the rehabilitation of this +nation, resting not until it has eliminated every vestige of foreign +interference with its concerns. If the Home Rule Bill does not pass (and +those who are offering an instalment of liberty to Ireland are proving +such bad guardians of liberty in their own country that it is doubtful +whether their own countrymen will retain them in office sufficiently +long to allow them to pass Home Rule), the assertion must be made in +other ways: I believe that if we who hold the full national faith have +but the courage to step forward we shall succeed more easily than most +people suppose in gaining the people’s adhesion to our ideals and our +methods--lesser ideals having proved unattainable and wiser methods more +foolish. + + + III + + (AUGUST 1913) + +Once I knew a Bishop who used to devote the greater part of his spare +time to writing Limericks in competition for prizes offered by +newspapers. You will find it difficult to imagine a Bishop writing +Limericks. One imagines a Bishop in his spare hours writing biblical +commentaries or cultivating a neat garden in which the characteristic +flower is lily-of-the-valley. And yet my Bishop was a saint. The not +very apostolic occupation of his leisure had its origin in an apostolic +simplicity and charity. The Bishop had a little niece of whom he was +very fond, and the ambition of the little niece’s life was to win one of +the large prizes offered by London newspapers for clever Limericks. The +good Bishop sent in a vast number of Limericks in his niece’s name, and +if he or she won a prize (which, I am sorry to say, neither of them ever +did), half the money was to be spent in sending the little niece on a +pilgrimage to Lourdes and the other half to be given to the Society of +St. Vincent de Paul. If I had not learned all this from a friend of the +little niece’s I might have set down the Limerick writing (for some of +the Limericks were very bad) as a reprehensible eccentricity on the part +of an otherwise excellently behaved Bishop. + + * * * * * + +At that time I was not a hermit, and was not versed in the wise +foolishness of saints. From the Bishop’s and from other instances I have +since elaborated this piece of wisdom: when a good man does an +inexplicable thing there is always a motive creditable to his goodness. +Men’s follies are often more symptomatic of their virtues than of their +vices. Apply this to those round about you, in your home, in your +office, in your organisation: apply it to the busy-bodies and the fools +who appear to be making a mess of everything you are interested in, from +your breakfast to your country, and you will come to respect them for +their very blunders, to love them for their lunacy. You prefer your eggs +well boiled. Your wife insists on serving them to you half raw. This is +not perverseness on her part: she knows that the albumen of eggs when +solidified is highly indigestible and when swallowed hastily every +morning, and washed down with tea, will assuredly induce appendicitis. +You hate to sit in a draught. The man whose stool is next you in your +office insists on keeping a window open from which an atmospheric stream +constantly impinges upon your thinly-thatched cranium. This is not +cruelty on his part: he knows (being a reader of Lady Aberdeen’s +_Slainte_) that you are tubercular, and that fresh air is the only thing +that will kill the germs. You are a member of the Gaelic League. A +friend and colleague writes to the press to point out that you are +selling the League to the Liberals and that your reward will be a title. +This is not a damned lie: it is his way of hinting that you ought to be +a little more strenuous, to smite a little harder and a little oftener, +to keep up perpetually a sort of Berserker rage or _riastral_ in the way +of the old heroes. It is his crude, inartistic, modern notion of playing +Laegh to your Cuchulainn. The bravest hero of the Gael had to endure +being called “a little fairy phantom” by his charioteer. Were he +fighting at the Ford to-day he would be called a “Do-Nothing.” When +Cuchulainn was reviled by Laegh he did not turn round and fell him. He +fought on the harder against the foe of his country. + + * * * * * + +I love and honour Douglas Hyde. I have served under him since I was a +boy. I am willing to serve under him until he can lead and I can serve +no longer. I have never failed him. He has never failed me. I am only +one of many who could write thus, who at this moment are thinking thus. +But probably my service has been longer than that of most, for it began +when I was only sixteen; and perhaps it has been more intimate than that +of all but a very few, for I have been in posts that required constant +communication with him for fifteen years. It has, too, been my privilege +to be the first fosterer of many who are now serving under him--pupils +of mine, now pupils of his in the National University or young workers +in the Gaelic League; and these form a new bond between him and me. Thus +by service given and service received I have earned the right to say +here the things I am about to say. I can speak to him at once as friend +to friend and as loyal soldier to loyal captain. + + * * * * * + +Or rather, since it has become the fashion to write Open Letters to +Douglas Hyde, I will write him an Open Letter. I will commence: “My dear +Hyde,--Among God’s gracious gifts to you, perhaps the most gracious, at +any rate the most useful, is your gift of humour. You have always had a +great Homeric laugh. I call upon you to laugh it now. I could show you +much matter for laughter in these noises and irrelevancies that disturb +you.... Laugh, my dear Craoibhin. Laugh your great genial laugh. It will +ease the situation. Bulfin used to say that O’Daly’s smile would split +the ceiling at 24 Upper O’Connell Street. Let your laughter shake the +Clock Tower in Earlsfort Terrace.”[5] + + * * * * * + +To be quite serious, laughter is what is required just now. A shout of +laughter that will roll out from the Ard-Fheis at Galway till it +re-echoes from the cliffs of Aran and reverberates through the stony +solitudes of Burren. Why all this passion of invective when laughter +will solve the difficulty? Let us laugh. Laughter is the one gift that +God has given to men but denied to brutes and angels. Laughter is the +crowning grace of the heroes. The epic tells how the dying Cuchulainn +noticed that a raven which had stooped to drink his blood, becoming +entangled in the clotted gore, was ludicrously upset. “Then Cuchulainn, +knowing that it was his last laugh, laughed aloud.” I think that Emmet, +I am quite sure that Tone, would have laughed in similar circumstances. + + * * * * * + +For my own part, I have found the need of laughter in order to preserve +my sanity. And you, Craoibhin, have counselled sanity. There is one +piece of sanity that I have learned from being a schoolmaster. Always +remember that in a school you have to deal with boys, not cherubim. An +enthusiastic teacher often makes the mistake of forming an ideal picture +of schoolboy virtue, and is shocked and disheartened when he finds that +his actual pupils fall far below his ideal. You have, for instance, a +little pupil with a virginal face. You say to yourself, “This boy will +surely never buy cigarettes in the forbidden shop at the corner, or +steal into the garden when the apples are ripe.” You come upon him some +day in the walk through the wood, and as you approach he hastily +conceals a cigarette; you enter the garden in autumn time, and you +notice a slight figure with the face of a saint making a dash from the +place where the apple-trees are. You are angry with the boy, but it is +with yourself you should be angry, or rather you should laugh at +yourself for a blunderer. The boy has only proved himself a boy, whereas +you have proved yourself a goose. Instead of taking down the boy’s +trousers, you ought to take down the impossible image you had so +foolishly erected. + + * * * * * + +I wonder whether this schoolmaster’s wisdom might not be of service to +Dr. Hyde. He must try to remember that those around him are men, not +archangels. They are men with all the little lovable and unlovable +weaknesses of men, and without any of the vision and strength of angels. +And he must try to forgive them and to imagine that they mean well even +when they act badly; that sometimes at the bottom of their blundering +there may be a grain of sense; and that often their fury is only a +slightly diseased love of the cause we all serve. And perhaps human +causes are best served by men with human strength and human weaknesses. +Archangels are fitted to go upon the mighty embassies of God, not to do +the little paltry tasks of human life. Archangels are at home in the +shining spaces of heaven, not in the habitations and committee rooms of +earth. Curious as it seems, we ridiculous men, with all our faults and +all our follies, are very capable where angels might fail. Angelic +attributes might hinder us in our humble and humdrum but necessary +little careers. The inconveniences of being angels on earth would be +dreadful. As we sat on our office stools, as we gathered round the table +of our committee room, where, for instance, should we tuck in our wings? +The buildings would have to be enlarged. In point of fact, a heaven +would be necessary to our comfort. But this is earth. And so we are back +at our first position that we must put up with our human world and with +the human material we have got, until we are all translated and become +members of the eternal committee and delegates to the Ard-Fheis of God. + + * * * * * + +Thus much to Dr. Hyde. To those on whose behalf I appeal to his +magnanimity I say only this: O ye of little sense, know ye not when ye +have got a good captain for a good cause? And know ye not that it is the +duty of the soldier to follow his captain, unfaltering, unquestioning, +“seeing obedience in the bond of rule”? If ye know not this, ye know not +the first thing that a fighting man should know. + +----- + +Footnote 5: + + The Clock Tower, I observe, has since collapsed. + + + IV + + (SEPTEMBER 1913) + +I have been considering the ways of chafers and dragon-flies. During the +long summer they are my only entertainment in this wilderness. The +dragon-flies make a pageant for me in the noontide splendour: the +chafers are my orchestra in the dusky evening. Marbhén before me was +similarly attended: + + “Swarms of bees and chafers, the little musicians of the world, + A gentle chorus.” + +Your beetle has in him many of the contradictions of the artist. In +seemly black, he appeals to you as shy and retiring; suddenly, while you +are sympathetically examining him, he splits up the middle, shocking you +at first with the indecency of the act, but soon displays hidden wings +as though he were an angel in disguise, and then, waving wild arms (like +a Yeats making a speech), whirls into ecstasies, and is gone with +multitudinous and iridescent whirr of wings and wing-cases. This is +nature’s symbolling forth of the _divina insania_ of the poets. It were +perhaps too curious to assign certain beetles to certain poets and +dramatists as their types and figures, associating for instance the +_Necydalis Major_, long and graceful, with Mr. Yeats, the familiar +_Coccinella_, pleasant and comfortable-looking, with Lady Gregory, the +_Creophilus Maxillosus_, a creature which haunts drains and feeds on +garbage (and which I take to be the beetle celebrated in a well-known +passage of Keating), with Mr. George Moore. + + * * * * * + +Upon the dragon-fly a literature might be written. The dragon-fly is one +of the most beautiful and terrible things in nature. It flashes by you +like a winged emerald or ruby or turquoise. Scrutinise it at close +quarters and you will find yourself comparing its bulky little round +head, with its wonderful eyes and cruel jaws, to the beautiful, cruel +head of a tiger. The dragon-fly among insects is in fact as the tiger +among beasts, as the hawk among birds, as the shark among fish, as the +lawyer among men, as England among the nations. It is the destroyer, the +eater-up, the cannibal. Two dragon-flies will fight until nothing +remains but two heads. So ferocious an eater-up is the dragon-fly that +it is said that, in the absence of other bodies to eat up, it will eat +up its own body until nothing is left but the head, and it would +doubtless eat its own head if it could; a feat which would be as +remarkable as the feat of the saint, recorded by Carlyle and recalled by +Mitchel, who swam across the Channel carrying his decapitated head in +his teeth. The dragon-fly is the type of greedy ascendancy--a sinister +head preying upon its own vitals. The largest and most wonderful +dragon-flies I have seen in Ireland haunt the lovely woods that fringe +the shore of Lough Corrib, near Cong. And at Cong, I remember, there is +a great lord who has pulled down many homes in order that no ascending +smoke may mar the sylvan beauty of his landscape. + + * * * * * + +Of the doings of men only rumours reach me in this solitude. I have +heard faint echoes of laughter at Galway, and am pleased to think that +the Gael has not entirely lost his sense of humour: a catastrophe which +I had feared, for Dr. Hyde had been talking about his aunt’s will and +Mr. Griffith had been advising Dr. Hyde as to how to conduct a movement +to success. The Irish-speaking crowd surging around the brake in Galway +square recalls one to the realities of the movement, and to the field +that is lying fallow. I want a missionary, a herald, an Irish-speaking +John the Baptist, one who would go through the Irish West and speak +trumpet-toned of nationality to the people in the villages. I would not +have him speak of Gaelic Leagues, or of Fees for Irish, or of Bilingual +Programmes, or of Essential Irish in Universities: I would have him +speak of Tone and Mitchel and the Hawk of the Hill and of men dead or in +exile for love of the Gael; all in Irish. In the meantime I welcome +Eamonn Ceannt and “Bean an Fhir Ruaidh.” + + * * * * * + +Books sometimes find their way to this remote place, and fortunately +books, even very profane books, are not forbidden by my rule. This month +I have received a good book and a bad book. The good book is indeed one +of the holy books of Ireland: no other than John Mitchel’s _Jail +Journal_, the last gospel of the New Testament of Irish Nationality, as +Wolfe Tone’s Autobiography is the first; John Mitchel’s _Jail Journal_ +nobly presented, supplemented by an additional chapter of his _Out of +Jail Journal_, enriched with good notes and portraits, and introduced by +Arthur Griffith in a finely-written preface. Mr. Griffith speaks of the +“haughty manhood” of Mitchel. A Man is so rare a phenomenon in Ireland +that the appearance of one takes his generation by surprise and he dies +broken-hearted or is hanged or transported before his people have made +up their minds whether to crown him or to stone him--or simply to ignore +him. Mitchel brought reality into a national movement busy with +discussions as our own movement is busy with discussions to-day. He +admits that he miscalculated: underestimating both “the vigour and zeal” +of the enemy and “the much-enduring patience and perseverance” of the +Irish. It comes to this: a Man cannot save his people unless the people +themselves have some manhood. A Man, even if he be a Man-God, will live +and die in vain for all who are voluntary slaves. Christ cannot save you +if you want to be damned: much less can any earthly hero. + + * * * * * + +I agree with one who holds that John Mitchel is Ireland’s greatest +literary figure--that is, of those who have written in English. But I +place Tone above him both as a man and as a leader of men. Tone’s was a +broader humanity with as intense a nationality; Tone’s was a sunnier +nature with as stubborn a soul. But Mitchel stands next to Tone: and +these two shall teach you and lead you, O Ireland, if you hearken unto +them, and not otherwise than as they teach and lead shall you come unto +the path of national salvation. For this I will answer on the Judgment +Day. + + * * * * * + +I was wrong in speaking of my second book as a bad book. It is a good +book, lovingly written, but it is spoiled by a profane preface. I am +speaking of Maurice Moore’s life of his father and of George Moore’s +preface thereto. The soldier has told the facts of his father’s life (I +wish he had not called him “an Irish Gentleman”) simply and well, and +the novelist has tried to suggest that his father was not an “Irish +gentleman” but an Irish blackguard. Many Irish gentlemen have indeed +been blackguards, but I do not think George Henry Moore was one. In a +mean and difficult time he worked manfully for Ireland; and towards the +end of his life he was willing to become a Fenian. Blackguards do not +generally work manfully for their country or become Fenians. But it is +absurd and unnecessary to defend George Henry Moore, even against his +son. A man’s life really speaks for itself, and requires only such +faithful record as George Henry Moore’s has received here from Maurice +Moore. No man’s life needs a _Defensio_ or an _Apologia_, and I am often +sorry to see men really great and simple go to such pains to explain +themselves: as if your explanation could make your deeds more eloquent! +George Henry Moore was no wrathful and haughty Mitchel, no gay and +heroic Tone; but he was a very worthy and gallant figure in his time, +and might have served Ireland well if he had learned to know her sooner. + + + V + + (OCTOBER 1913) + +It is not amusing to be hungry; at least (for I desire to be moderate in +my language), it is not very amusing. Though hunger be proverbially good +sauce, one may have too much of it, as of most good things; and, while +meat without sauce is tolerable, sauce without meat is apt to pall. +Yorkshire Relish (I am told) is delicious, but one would not care to +dine upon it. Hunger Sauce must be still less sustaining. Indeed, the +only advantage that Hunger Sauce seems to possess over other brands is +its extreme cheapness. The very poorest can enjoy it, and it is one of +the few luxuries that the rich will not grudge them. But, as far as +nutritious properties are concerned, the cakes recommended by Marie +Antoinette to the starving peasants of France, in lieu of bread, were +preferable. “Why are the people crying?” “Your Majesty, they have no +bread.” “But why not eat cake?” asked the Queen. + + * * * * * + +Poor Marie Antoinette did not quite grasp the situation in France. In +the end they grasped her and hurried her to the guillotine. If Marie +Antoinette could have got at the peasant’s point of view there might +have been no French Revolution. There are only two ways of righting +wrongs: reform and revolution. Reform is possible when those who inflict +the wrong can be got to see things from the point of view of those who +suffer the wrong. Some men can see from other men’s points of view by +sympathy; most men cannot until you actually put them in the other men’s +shoes. I would like to put some of our well-fed citizens in the shoes of +our hungry citizens, just for an experiment. I would try the hunger cure +upon them. It is known that hunger is a good sauce; it is also known +that what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. It is further +known that a pound a week is sufficient to sustain a Dublin family in +honest hunger--at least very rich men tell us so, and very rich men know +all about everything, from art galleries to the domestic economy of the +tenement room. I would ask those who know that a man can live and +thrive, can house, feed, clothe, and educate a large family on a pound a +week to try the experiment themselves. Let them show us how the thing is +done. We will allow them a pound a week for the sustenance of themselves +and their families, and will require them to hand over their surplus +income, over and above a pound a week, to some benevolent object. I am +quite certain that they will enjoy their poverty and their hunger. They +will go about with beaming faces; they will wear spruce and well-brushed +clothes; they will drink their black tea with gusto and masticate their +dry bread scientifically (Lady Aberdeen will tell them the proper number +of bites per slice); they will write books on “How to be Happy though +Hungry”; when their children cry for more food they will smile; when +their landlord calls for the rent they will embrace him; when their +house falls upon them they will thank God; when policemen smash in their +skulls they will kiss the chastening baton. They will do all these +things--perhaps; in the alternative they may come to see that there is +something to be said for the hungry man’s hazy idea that there is +something wrong somewhere. + + * * * * * + +It is, of course, easy for me, a well-fed hermit, to write with +detachment about hunger. It is always easy for well-fed persons to take +detached views of such things; indeed, sometimes the views of the +well-fed on these matters are so detached from their subject as to have +no relation to it at all. If I were hungry, I should probably write with +a little more passion than I am displaying. Indeed, if I were as hungry +at this moment as many equally good men of Ireland undoubtedly are, it +is probable that I should not be sitting here wielding this pen; +possibly I should be in the streets wielding a paving-stone. I frankly +admit that I am well-fed; but you must not imagine me a sybarite. Being +a hermit, I limit myself to four square meals a day, except on +feast-days when, for the greater glory of God, I allow myself five. If I +were not thus explicit my views on economic questions might be +discounted; I should be described as belonging to the “lowest stratum” +of society, and therefore not in any real sense a member of society, or +indeed of the human race, at all; it would be hinted that I am a +“loafer,” that I frequent “street corners,” that I am a “socialist,” a +“syndicalist,” and other weird things. I once took a modest part in +breaking up a meeting in the Antient Concert Rooms. The next day the +_Independent_ called me an “unwashed youth.” A youth I certainly was, +but I had washed myself with scrupulous care that blessed morning; +indeed, it is my habit to wash myself in the mornings. A distinguished +scholar (now a Professor of the National University) and a distinguished +woman of letters (now prominent in the counsels of the United +Irishwomen) were beside me on that occasion, and they, too, were +described as “unwashed youths”: the words “of both sexes” were added, +lest it might be left open to inference that even the ladies who +disagree with the _Independent_ are so virtuous as to wash themselves. +When, therefore, you differ in opinion from a newspaper it is always +well to let it be known that you wash yourself regularly, that you take +the normal number of meals, that you pay your rent and taxes, that you +go to church or chapel, and that, in short, you conform in all +particulars to the lofty standard of conduct set up by such an eminent +fellow-citizen of yours as Mr. William M. Murphy. + + * * * * * + +Personally, I am in a position to protest my respectability. I do all +the orthodox things. My wild oats were sown and reaped years ago. I am +nothing so new-fangled as a socialist or a syndicalist. I am +old-fashioned enough to be both a Catholic and a Nationalist. I am not +smarting under any burning personal wrong--except the personal wrong I +endure in being a member of an enslaved nation. I am at peace with all +the men of Ireland. It becomes both my character and my profession to be +at peace with my fellow-slaves, whether capitalist or worker, whether +rich or poor, whether fed or hungry. God knows that we, poor remnant of +a gallant nation, endure enough shame in common to make us brothers. And +yet here is a matter in which I cannot rest neutral. My instinct is with +the landless man against the lord of lands, and with the breadless man +against the master of millions. I may be wrong, but I do hold it a most +terrible sin that there should be landless men in this island of waste +yet fertile valleys, and that there should be breadless men in this city +where great fortunes are made and enjoyed. + + * * * * * + +I calculate that one-third of the people of Dublin are underfed; that +half the children attending Irish primary schools are ill-nourished. +Inspectors of the National Board will tell you that there is no use in +visiting primary schools in Ireland after one or two in the afternoon: +the children are too weak and drowsy with hunger to be capable of +answering intelligently. I suppose there are twenty thousand families in +Dublin in whose domestic economy milk and butter are all but unknown: +black tea and dry bread are their staple articles of diet. There are +many thousand fireless hearth-places in Dublin on the bitterest days of +winter; there would be many thousand more only for such bodies as the +Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Twenty thousand Dublin families live in +one-room tenements. It is common to find two or three families occupying +the same room; and sometimes one of the families will have a lodger! +There are tenement rooms in Dublin in which over a dozen persons live, +eat, and sleep. High rents are paid for these rooms, rents which in +cities like Birmingham would command neat four-roomed cottages with +gardens. The tenement houses of Dublin are so rotten that they +periodically collapse upon their inhabitants, and if the inhabitants +collect in the streets to discuss matters the police baton them to +death. + + * * * * * + +These are among the grievances against which men in Dublin are beginning +to protest. Can you wonder that protest is at last made? Can you wonder +that the protest is crude and bloody? I do not know whether the methods +of Mr. James Larkin are wise methods or unwise methods (unwise, I think, +in some respects), but this I know, that here is a most hideous wrong to +be righted, and that the man who attempts honestly to right it is a good +man and a brave man. + + * * * * * + +Poverty, starvation, social unrest, crime, are incidental to the +civilisation of such states as England and America, where immense masses +of people are herded into great Christless cities and the bodies and +souls of men are exploited in the interests of wealth. But these +conditions do not to any extent exist in Ireland. We have not great +cities; we have not dense industrial populations; we have hardly any +ruthless capitalists exploiting immense masses of men. Yet in Ireland we +have dire and desperate poverty; we have starvation; we have social +unrest. Ireland is capable of feeding twenty million people; we are +barely four million. Why do so many of us starve? + + * * * * * + +Before God, I believe that the root of the matter lies in foreign +domination. A free Ireland would not, and could not, have hunger in her +fertile vales and squalor in her cities. Ireland has resources to feed +five times her population: a free Ireland would make those resources +available. A free Ireland would drain the bogs, would harness the +rivers, would plant the wastes, would nationalise the railways and +waterways, would improve agriculture, would protect fisheries, would +foster industries, would promote commerce, would diminish extravagant +expenditure (as on needless judges and policemen), would beautify the +cities, would educate the workers (and also the non-workers, who stand +in direr need of it), would, in short, govern herself as no external +power--nay, not even a government of angels and archangels--could govern +her. For freedom is the condition of sane life, and in slavery, if we +have not death, we have the more evil thing which the poet has named +Death-in-Life. The most awful wars are the wars that take place in dead +or quasi-dead bodies when the fearsome things that death breeds go forth +to prey upon one another and upon the body that is their parent. + + + VI + + (NOVEMBER 1913) + +There are incongruities which are humorous, and there are incongruities +which are disgusting. All humour has its source in incongruity, but so +has all sin. Sometimes the humour of an incongruity is so great that we +overlook the fact of its wickedness; sometimes the wickedness of an +incongruity is so apparent that only a saint can laugh at its humour +(for your saint laughs at things whereat your man of less sanctity, +which means of less charity and less humility, is scandalised). There +are obvious incongruities at which everyone, from a saint to a +solicitor, will at least smile. Thus, when one hears a noble air of +Gounod’s sung to such words as “My wife stole a hell of a lump of beef”; +when one meets an archbishop in gaiters wheeling a perambulator +containing his offspring, when one comes upon a bull in a china shop or +upon a member of the Chamber of Commerce in an art gallery, one smiles +no matter how respectable one is. No question of ethics enters into +these cases. It is a pity that a Gounod march should be sung to profane +words; but Gounod would suffer no diminution of just fame if all the +kleptomaniac exploits of all the wives of the world were chanted to his +music. One may have rigid ideas as to the impropriety of archbishops +wheeling their offspring in perambulators--and it is certainly going too +far to wear gaiters while doing so unarchiepiscopal a thing; but it is +not a very serious sin, if sin at all. A bull in a china shop may break +a good deal of crockery, but he can hardly break any of the +Commandments; and a member of the Chamber of Commerce in an art gallery +will not do the pictures any harm, nor, unless he be as sensitive as +some Gaelic Leaguers I have known (and that is impossible), will the +pictures do him any harm. In these instances nothing suffers but the Law +of Congruity; and laws have made so many people suffer that one can well +tolerate the notion of a law suffering once in a way. + + * * * * * + +But there are incongruities which disgust, or at any rate ought to +disgust. A millionaire promoting Universal Peace is such an incongruity; +an employer who accepts the aid of foreign bayonets to enforce a +lock-out of his workmen and accuses the workmen of national dereliction +because they accept foreign alms for their starving wives and children, +is such an incongruity; a public body in an enslaved country which +passes a resolution congratulating a citizen upon selling himself to the +enemies of that country, and upon making a good bargain of it, is such +an incongruity; an Irish Nationalist, unable to pull the trigger of a +gun himself, who sneers at the drillings and rifle-practices of +Orangemen, is such an incongruity. The Eastern and the Western Worlds +are indeed full of incongruities of this sort; each of them matter for a +play by a Synge. + + * * * * * + +To dilate a little on one of them. It is now the creed of Irish +nationalism (or at least of that Irish nationalism which is vocal on +platforms and in the press) that the possession of arms and a knowledge +of the use of arms is a fit subject for satire. To have a rifle is as +ridiculous as to have a pimple at the end of your nose, or a bailiff +waiting for you round the corner. To be able to use a rifle is an +accomplishment as futile as to be able to stand on your head to be able +to wag your ears. This is not the creed of any other nationalism that +exists or has ever existed in any community, civilised or uncivilised, +that has ever inhabited the globe. It has never been the creed of Irish +nationalism until this our day. Mitchel and the great confessors of +Irish nationalism would have laughed it to scorn. Mitchel, indeed, did +laugh to scorn a similar but much less foolish doctrine of O’Connell’s; +and the generation that came after O’Connell rejected his doctrine and +accepted Mitchel’s. The present generation of Irish Nationalists is not +only unfamiliar with arms but despises all who are familiar with arms. +Irish Nationalists share with certain millionaires the distinction of +being the only people who believe in Universal Peace--here and now. Even +the Socialists who want Universal Peace propose to reach it by Universal +War; and so far they are sensible. + + * * * * * + +It is symptomatic of the attitude of the Irish Nationalist that when he +ridicules the Orangeman he ridicules him not for his numerous foolish +beliefs, but for his readiness to fight in defence of those beliefs. But +this is exactly wrong. The Orangeman is ridiculous in so far as he +believes incredible things; he is estimable in so far as he is willing +and able to fight in defence of what he believes. It is foolish of an +Orangeman to believe that his personal liberty is threatened by Home +Rule; but, granting that he believes that, it is not only in the highest +degree common sense but it is his clear duty to arm in defence of his +threatened liberty. Personally, I think the Orangeman with a rifle a +much less ridiculous figure than the Nationalist without a rifle; and +the Orangeman who can fire a gun will certainly count for more in the +end than the Nationalist who can do nothing cleverer than make a pun. +The superseded Italian rifles which the Orangemen have imported may not +be very dangerous weapons; but at least they are more dangerous than +epigrams. When the Orangemen “line the last ditch” they may make a very +sorry show; but we shall make an even sorrier show, for we shall have to +get Gordon Highlanders to line the ditch for us. + + * * * * * + +I am not defending the Orangeman; I am only showing that his +condemnation does not lie in the mouth of an unarmed Nationalist. The +Orangeman is a sufficiently funny person; and he is funny mainly because +he is so serious. He has no sense of incongruity; in his mind’s eye he +sees without smiling Cardinal Logue sending Protestant worthies to the +stake and Sir Edward Carson undergoing the fatigues of a +campaign--things which will never be. At least, I think not; for +Cardinal Logue is kindly and humorous, and Sir Edward Carson is a lawyer +with a price. The Orangeman’s lack of a sense of the incongruous is +sometimes painful. In Belfast they are selling chair cushions with Sir +Edward Carson’s head embroidered upon them; which is pretty much as if a +man were to emblazon the arms of his country upon the seat of his +trousers. One should not put a sacred emblem where it is certain to be +sat upon and liable to be kicked; and only Orangemen would think of +honouring their chief by sitting on his head. + + * * * * * + +But the rifles of the Orangemen give dignity even to their folly. The +rifles are bound to be useful some day. At the worst they may hasten Sir +Edward Carson’s final exit from Ulster; at the best they may crack +outside Dublin Castle. The Editor of _Sinn Féin_ wrote the other day +that when the Orangemen fire upon the King of England’s troops it will +become the duty of every Nationalist in Ireland to join them: there is a +deal of wisdom in the thought as well as a deal of humour. Or +negotiations might be opened with the Orangemen on these lines: You are +erecting a Provisional Government of Ulster--make it a Provisional +Government of Ireland and we will recognise and obey it. O’Connell said +long ago that he would rather be ruled by the old Protestant Ascendancy +Irish Parliament than by the Union Parliament; “and O’Connell was +right,” said Mitchel. He certainly was. It is unquestionable that Sir +Edward Carson’s Provisional Government would govern Ireland better than +she has been governed by the English Cabinet; at any rate, it could not +well govern her worse. Any six Irishmen would be a better Government of +Ireland than the English Cabinet has been: any six criminals from +Mountjoy Prison, any six lunatics from the Richmond Asylum, any six +Orangemen from Portadown. The Irishmen would at least try to govern +Ireland in the interests of Irish criminals, lunatics, or Orangemen, as +the case might be: the English have governed her in the interests of +England. Better exploit Ireland for the benefit of Belfast than exploit +her for the benefit of Westminster. Better wipe out Ireland in one +year’s civil war than let England slowly bleed her to death. + + * * * * * + +A rapprochement between Orangemen and Nationalists would be difficult. +The chief obstacles are the Orangeman’s lack of humour and the +Nationalist’s lack of guns: each would be at a disadvantage in a +conference. But a sense of humour can be cultivated, and guns can be +purchased. One great source of misunderstanding has now disappeared: it +has become clear within the last few years that the Orangeman is no more +loyal to England than we are. He wants the Union because he imagines +that it secures his prosperity; but he is ready to fire on the Union +flag the moment it threatens his prosperity. The position is perfectly +plain and understandable. Foolish notions of loyalty to England being +eliminated, it is a matter for business-like negotiation. A Nationalist +mission to North-East Ulster would possibly effect some good. The case +might be put thus: Hitherto England has governed Ireland through the +Orange Lodges; she now proposes to govern Ireland through the A. O. H. +You object: so do we. Why not unite and get rid of the English? They are +the real difficulty; their presence here the real incongruity. + + + VII + + (DECEMBER 1913) + +I was once stranded on a desert island with a single companion. When two +people are stranded on a desert island they naturally converse. We +conversed. We sat on a stony beach and talked for hours. When we had +exhausted all the unimportant subjects either of us could think of, we +commenced to talk about important subjects. (I have observed that even +on a desert island it is not considered good form to talk of important +things while unimportant things remain to be discussed.) We had very +different points of views, and very different temperaments. I was a boy; +my companion was an old man. I was about to enter the most wicked of all +professions; my companion was a priest. Being young, I was serious and +conceited; being old, my companion was gay and humble. In some respects +I was more learned than he: he was trying to spell his way through +Keating’s _Trí Bior-Ghaoithe an Bháis_, and I was able to help him. But +in every respect he was wiser beyond telling than I, for his life had +been stormy and sorrowful, and withal very saintly, so that he had +garnered much of the wisdom both of heaven and of earth; and I had +garnered only the wisdom of the Board of Intermediate Education. We were +thus as singularly ill-assorted a pair as ever sat down together on the +beach of a desert island. + + * * * * * + +Yet we had one interest in common. There was at the bottom of my heart a +memory which a course of Intermediate education (by some miracle of +God’s) had not altogether obliterated. I had heard in childhood of the +Fenians from one who, although a woman, had shared their hopes and +disappointment. The names of Stephens and O’Donovan Rossa were familiar +to me, and they seemed to me the most gallant of all names: names which +should be put into songs and sung proudly to tramping music. Indeed, my +mother (although she was not old enough to remember the Fenians) used to +sing of them in words learned, I daresay, from that other who had known +them; one of her songs had the lines-- + + “Because I was O’Donovan Rossa, + And a son of Gráinne Mhaol”; + +and although I did not quite know who O’Donovan Rossa was or what his +deed had been, I felt that he must have been a gallant and kingly man +and his deed a man’s deed. Alice Milligan had not yet made the ballad of +“Owen Who Died,” which was to give these heroic names a place in +literature-- + + “You have heard of O’Donovan Rossa + From nigh Skibbereen; + + You have heard o’ the Hawk o’ the Hill-top, + If you have not seen; + + You have heard of the Reaper whose reaping + Was of grain half green: + + Such were the men among us + In the days that have been.” + +None of my school-fellows had ever heard of those names; and if our +masters had heard them they never mentioned them. O’Connell we heard +about; and one day that stands out in my memory, Parnell’s name was +mentioned, for a master came into the room and said: “Well, boys, they +say Parnell is dead--the dirty fellow.” We all grew very still, for we +were all Parnellites; and we wondered why he should be called a dirty +fellow, and thought it a cruel thing. That was before the Juggernaut car +of the Intermediate had rolled over us, and we still retained most of +the decent kindly instincts with which we had been born. Had it happened +four years later we should probably have applauded the master’s +announcement as rather neatly put. + + * * * * * + +But behold me on the beach of my desert island with my priest beside me. +And my priest, as I found out when we began to talk about serious +things, had known the Fenians, had made something of a stir in Fenian +times, had even been called the Fenian priest! I do not know whether he +had ever been a Fenian; but I know that all the Fenians of a countryside +used to go to confession to him in preference to their own parish +priests; and it was said that he had a Sodality of the Sacred Heart +composed to a man of sworn Fenians: probably an exaggeration. But this I +can vouch for, that he loved the name and fame of the Fenians, and he +spoke to me, till his voice grew husky and his eyes filled with tears, +of their courage, of their loyalty, of their enthusiasm, of their hope, +of their failure. “Stephens should have given the word,” he said; “we’ll +never be as ready as we were the night he escaped from Richmond Prison. +We’ve lost our manhood since.” It was the first year of the Boer War. +“Look at the chance we have now,” he exclaimed: “the British army at the +other end of the earth, and one blow would give us Ireland; but we’ve +neither men nor guns. GOD ALMIGHTY WON’T GO ON GIVING US CHANCES if we +let every chance slip. You can’t expect He’ll give us more chances than +He gave the Jews. He’ll turn His back on us.... And why,” he added, +“should a lot of old women be free, anyhow?” The worthy man had not +considered the Suffragist claim; or perhaps he would have allowed +freedom to _bona fide_ old women and denied it to old-womanlike young +men--in which he would have been right. + + * * * * * + +For, after all, may it not be said with entire truth that the reason why +Ireland is not free is that Ireland has not deserved to be free? Men who +have ceased to be men cannot claim the rights of men; and men who have +suffered themselves to be deprived of their manhood have suffered the +greatest of all indignities and deserved the most shameful of all +penalties. It has been sung in savage and exultant verse of a fierce +Western clan that its men allowed themselves to be deprived of their +sight by a triumphant foe rather than be deprived of their manhood; and +it was a man’s choice. But modern Irishmen with eyes open have allowed +themselves to be deprived of their manhood; and many of them have +reached the terrible depth of degradation in which a man will boast of +his unmanliness. For in suffering ourselves to be disarmed, in +acquiescing in a perpetual disarmament, in neglecting every chance of +arming, in sneering (as all Nationalists do now) at those who have taken +arms, we in effect abnegate our manhood. Unable to exercise men’s +rights, we do not deserve men’s privileges. We are, in a strict sense, +not fit for freedom; and freedom we shall never attain. + + * * * * * + +It is not reasonable to expect that the Almighty will repeal all the +laws of His universe in our behalf. The condition on which freedom is +given to men is that they are able to make good their claim to it; and +unarmed men cannot make good their claim to anything which armed men +choose to deny them. One of the sins against faith is presumption, which +is defined as a foolish expectation of salvation without making use of +the necessary means to obtain it: surely it is a sin against national +faith to expect national freedom without adopting the necessary means to +win and keep it. And I know of no other way than the way of the sword: +history records no other, reason and experience suggest no other. When I +say the sword I do not mean necessarily the actual use of the sword: I +mean readiness and ability to use the sword. Which, translated into +terms of modern life, means readiness and ability to shoot. + + * * * * * + +I regard the armed Orangemen of North-East Ulster as potentially the +most useful body of citizens Ireland possesses. In fact, they are the +only citizens Ireland does possess at this moment: the rest of us for +the most part do not count. A citizen who cannot vindicate his +citizenship is a contradiction in terms. A citizen without arms is like +a priest without religion, like a woman without chastity, like a man +without manhood. The very conception of an unarmed citizen is a purely +modern one, and even in modern times it is chiefly confined to the +populations of the (so-called) British Islands. Most other peoples, +civilised and uncivilised, are armed. This is a truth which we of +Ireland must grasp. We must try to realise that we are collectively and +individually living in a state of degradation as long as we remain +unarmed. I do not content myself with saying in general terms that the +Irish should arm. I say to each one of you who read this that it is YOUR +duty to arm. Until you have armed yourself and made yourself skilful in +the use of your arms you have no right to a voice in any concern of the +Irish Nation, no right to consider yourself a member of the Irish Nation +or of any nation; no right to raise your head among any body of decent +men. Arm. If you cannot arm otherwise than by joining Carson’s +Volunteers, join Carson’s Volunteers. But you can, for instance, start +Volunteers of your own. + + * * * * * + +My priest on my desert island spoke to me glowingly about the Three who +died at Manchester. He spoke to me, too, of the rescue of Kelly and +Deasy from the prison van and of the ring of armed Fenians keeping the +Englishry at bay. I have often thought that that was the most memorable +moment in recent Irish history: and that that ring of Irishmen spitting +fire from revolver barrels, while an English mob cowered out of range, +might well serve as a symbol of the Ireland that should be; of the +Ireland that shall be. Next Sunday we shall pay homage to them and to +their deed; were it not a fitting day for each of us to resolve that we, +too, will be men. + + + VIII + + (JANUARY 1914) + +It has penetrated to this quiet place that some of the young men of +Ireland have banded themselves together under the noble name of Irish +Volunteers with intent to arm in their country’s service. I am inclined +to doubt the rumour. It has an air of inherent improbability. I could +have believed such a report of any generation of young Irishmen of which +I have read; but of the generation that I have known I hesitate to +believe it. It is not like what they would do. Previous generations of +young Irishmen (if what our fathers have told us be true) were foolish +and hot-headed, not to say wicked and irreligious. Of course, they had +not been properly instructed. Intermediate Boards and National +Universities were yet in the womb of the British Government. The +expansive power of gunpowder and the immense momentum which can be +acquired by a bullet discharged from a gun were not generally known +until Natural Philosophy became a subject for Matriculation, and Kennedy +published a one-and-sixpenny text-book on the subject: hence our +forefathers did not realise how dangerous it is to let off firearms--how +could they be expected to? This fact, not hitherto adverted to by +historians, goes far to explain the otherwise inexplicable action of the +Volunteers of 1778, of the insurgents of 1798, of the Fenians of 1867; +men, apparently sane, who expended quite a lot of money on buying or +manufacturing deadly arms. Had they realised that the weapons might kill +the poor soldiers who were guarding their country, it is unquestionable +that they would not have been so inhumane as to procure them. Again, +former generations of young Irishmen had no sound notions as to what is +proper and gentlemanly. They always failed to recognise that it is not +respectable to get yourself hanged, and could never be got to see that +prison clothes, no matter how well-made, are not becoming. Robert Emmet +was actually guilty of the impropriety of smiling on the scaffold; and +surely it was very near blasphemy for three Irish murderers, with +manacled hands uplifted from an English dock, to call upon God to “save +Ireland”--as if that were not the job of the British Government. + + * * * * * + +Fortunately, we live in a more cultured as well as in a more religious +age. We have studied Dynamics and know that firearms are dangerous; we +have studied Political Economy and know that it is bad economy to expend +money upon a national armament, seeing that we already pay the British +Army to fight for us; we have studied Ethics and know that it is +unlawful to rise against an established government. We have also +cultivated a sense of decorum and a sense of humour. We see that +militarism is not only wrong but, what is worse, ridiculous; and we +should (very properly) hesitate to go out drilling lest they might put a +caricature of us in _Punch_. + + * * * * * + +My knowledge that all this is so makes me doubt the rumour that a +considerable number of young Irishmen have resolved to take arms and to +train themselves in the use of arms. The improbability is increased when +I come to examine the details of the report. Thus, a Provisional +Committee including university professors, schoolmasters, solicitors, +barristers, journalists, aldermen, public servants, commercial men, and +gentlemen of leisure, is spoken of. I have never known persons of that +sort to do anything more exciting than talk over tea and scones in the +D. B. C. There are among those classes in Dublin many who are quite +fearless--in debate; many who are extraordinarily prompt--in retort; a +few who are really able and vigorous--in smashing their opponents’ +arguments. That such men would turn aside from the realities of +dialectics to the theatricalities of military preparation seems highly +improbable. When it is added that the Provisional Committee includes +United Irish Leaguers, Hibernians, Sinn Féiners, Gaelic Leaguers, and +even a few who call themselves simply Separatists, the untruth of the +whole story becomes almost manifest; for it is well known that there +never has been and that there never can be anything like cordial +co-operation between such widely-differing sections of politicians and +non-politicians in Ireland. I dismiss therefore the tale of a huge +tumultuous meeting of seven or eight thousand people in the largest hall +in Dublin, with immense overflow meetings in neighbouring buildings and +gardens; the detailed accounts of nightly drillings in various halls; +the absurd rumour that Galway (well known to have no other interest than +racing, fishing, and British tourists) and Cork (which is prepared to +fight all Ireland on the question of conciliation) have flung themselves +into the movement; and finally the grotesque fable that young men who +are eating their way to the bar or preparing to purchase dispensary +appointments from Boards of Guardians have paused in their honourable +careers in order to learn how to shoot. These things have happened in +other countries and in other times; but surely not in our own country +and in our own time. + + * * * * * + +Consider the dislocating effect of such a movement. In the first place, +it would make Home Rule, now about to be abandoned in deference to armed +Ulster, almost a certainty; in a second place, should Home Rule +miscarry, it would give us a policy to fall back upon. Again, it would +make men and citizens of us, whereas we are quite comfortable as old +women and slaves. Furthermore, it would unite us in one all-Ireland +movement of brotherly co-operation, whereas we derive infinite pleasure +from quarrelling with one another. The comfortable feeling that we are +safe behind the guns of the British Army, like an infant in its mother’s +arms, the precious liberty of confuting one another before the British +public and thus gaining empire-wide reputations for caustic Celtic +humour and brilliant Celtic repartee--these are things that we will not +lightly sacrifice. For these privileges have we not cheerfully allowed +our population to be halved and our taxation to be quadrupled? Enough +said. Volunteering is undesirable. Volunteering is impossible. +Volunteering is dangerous. + + + IX + + (JANUARY 1914) + +It would appear that the impossible has happened (as, indeed, when one +comes to think of the matter, it nearly always does), and that the young +men of Ireland are learning again the noble trade of arms. They had +almost forgotten that it _was_ a noble trade; and when the young men of +a nation have reached so terrible a depth as to be unconscious of the +dignity of arms, one will naturally doubt their capacity for any virile +thought, let alone any virile action. Hence my scepticism of last month. +I who am as a babe, believing all things and hoping all things, felt it +difficult to believe this. One is disillusioned so often. Once when I +was a boy a ballad-singer came to the farmhouse in which I was living +for a time in a glen of the Dublin hills. He had ballads of “Bold Robert +Emmet” and “Here’s a Song for Young Wolfe Tone”; and he told me that in +secret places of the hills Fenians had drilled and, for all he knew, +were drilling still. So I fared forth in quest of them, trudging along +mountain roads at night, full of the faith that in some moonlit glen I +should come upon the Fenians drilling. But I never found them. Nowhere +beneath the moon were there armed men wheeling and marching. The +mountains were lonely. When I came home I said to my grandfather (who +had himself been a Fenian, albeit I knew it not), “The Fenians are all +dead.” “Oh, be the!” said he (his oaths never got further than “be +the”), “how do you know that?” “I have gone through all the glens,” I +answered, “and there were none drilling: they must be dead.” + + * * * * * + +And my naive deduction was very nearly right. If the Fenians were not +all dead, the Fenian spirit was dead, or almost dead. By the Fenian +spirit I mean not so much the spirit of a particular generation as that +virile fighting faith which has been the salt of all the generations in +Ireland unto this last. And is it here even in this last? Yea, its seeds +are here, and behold they are kindling: it is for you and me to fan them +into such a flame as shall consume everything that is mean and +compromising and insincere in Ireland and in each man of Ireland--for in +every one of us there is much that is mean and compromising and +insincere, much that were better burned out. When we stand armed as +Volunteers we shall at least be men, and so shall be able to come into +communion of thought and action with the virile generations of Ireland: +to our betterment, be sure. + + * * * * * + +The only question that need trouble us now is this: Will the young men +of Ireland rise to the opportunity that is given them? They have a year +before them: the momentous year of 1914. The fate of the Irish movement +in our time will very likely be determined during the coming twelve +months, and it will be determined largely by the way in which the +Volunteer movement develops. In other words, it will depend upon the +young men who have volunteered, for they have the making of the movement +in their hands. This is a problem in which the British Government is not +a factor; in which the Irish leaders--Parliamentarian, Sinn Féin, +Separatist, Gaelic League--are not factors; the young men of the towns +and countrysides are the only factors; they and whatever manly stuff is +in them. It is a great opportunity for the young men of a people to get. +A year is theirs in which to make history. + + * * * * * + +A former generation of Irishmen got such a year and used it well. An +army of 100,000 drilled and equipped men was its glorious fruit. Can we +of the twentieth century work to similar purpose and with similar result +during the year that has been given to us? I believe we can. There are +circumstances which seem to me to make our task easier than theirs. + + * * * * * + +In the first place, we are poorer than they were. Therefore we shall be +more generous. There were many men of money among the Volunteers of +1778-83: it was one of the weaknesses of the movement. Those who have +are always inclined to hold; always afraid to risk. No good cause in +Ireland appeals for help in vain, provided those to whom it appeals are +sufficiently poor. The young men who, I imagine, are volunteering to-day +are for the most part poor: being poor, they will know how to save and +pinch and scrape until each man of them has a rifle and a uniform. There +are those among them who will give up tobacco for a spell, or at any +rate reduce their consumption of tobacco; who will become total +abstainers for a while; who will renounce betting; who will go less +frequently to theatres, to music-halls, to picture-houses; who will +dispense with all their little luxuries and rise above all their little +follies, to the sole end that they may have, each man of them, before +the year is out, a Volunteer rifle on his shoulder and a Volunteer coat +on his back. Note well the companies: I prophesy that it is not the +companies which draw their recruits from the most prosperous quarters +that will be soonest equipped; not the sleekest-looking men that will +first shoulder rifles. When you are starting upon any noble enterprise, +it is a great thing to start poor. Wolfe Tone, reaching France with a +hundred guineas in his pocket, sent three fleets against England. James +Stephens with ninety pounds in hand embarked upon the organisation of +the Fenians. + + * * * * * + +In the second place, this is a movement of the people, not of the +“leaders.” The leaders in Ireland have nearly always left the people at +the critical moment; have sometimes sold them. The former Volunteer +movement was abandoned by its leaders; hence its ultimate failure. +Grattan “led the van” of the Volunteers, but he also led the retreat of +the leaders; O’Connell recoiled before the cannon at Clontarf; twice the +hour of the Irish Revolution struck during Young Ireland days, and twice +it struck in vain, for Meagher hesitated in Waterford, Duffy and McGee +hesitated in Dublin. Stephens refused to “give the word” in ’65; he +never came in ’66 or ’67. I do not blame these men: you or I might have +done the same. It is a terrible responsibility to be cast upon a man, +that of bidding the cannon speak and the grapeshot pour. But in this +Volunteer movement, as I understand it, the people are to be master; and +it will be for the people to say when and against whom the Volunteers +shall draw the sword and point the rifle. Now, my reading of Irish +history is that, however the leaders may have failed, _the instinct of +the people has always been unerring_. The Volunteers themselves, the +people themselves, must keep control of this movement. Any man or any +group of men that seeks to establish an ascendancy should be dealt with +summarily: such traitors to the Volunteer spirit would deserve to be +shot, but it will be sufficient if they be shot _out_. + + * * * * * + +In the third place, the young men of Ireland have been to school to the +Gaelic League. Herein it seems to me lies the fact which chiefly +distinguishes this generation from the other revolutionary generations +of the last century and a half: from the Volunteer generation of 1778, +from the United Irish generation of 1798, from the Young Ireland +generation of 1848, from the Fenian generation of 1867. We have known +the Gaelic League, and + + “Lo, a clearness of vision has followed, lo, a purification of + sight.” + +I do not think we shall be as liable to make blunders, to pursue side +issues, to mistake shadows for substance, to overlook essentials, to +neglect details on the one hand or to get lost in them on the other, as +were previous generations of perhaps better men. It is not merely (or at +all) that we have now a theory of nationality by which to correct our +instinct: indeed, I doubt if a theory of nationality be a very great +gain, and plainly the instinct of the Fenian artisan was a finer thing +than the soundest theory of the Gaelic League professor. It is rather +that we have got into a fuller communion with what is most racy in our +past: our ancestors have spoken to us anew. In a deeper sense than +before we realise that Ireland is ours and that we are Ireland’s. Our +country wears to us a new aspect, and yet she is her most ancient self. +We are as men who, having wandered long through the devious ways of a +forest, see again the familiar hills and fields bathed in the light of +heaven, ancient yet ever-new. And we rejoice in our hearts, and bless +the goodly sun. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + PEACE AND THE GAEL + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + PEACE AND THE GAEL + + (DECEMBER 1915) + + +When we are old (those of us who live to be old) we shall tell our +grandchildren of the Christmas of 1915 as the second Christmas which saw +the nations at war for the freedom of the seas; as the last Christmas, +it may be, which saw Ireland, the gate of the seas, in the keeping of +the English. For that is the thing for which men are bleeding to-day in +France and Serbia, in Poland and Mesopotamia. The many fight to uphold a +tyranny three centuries old, the most arrogant tyranny that there has +ever been in the world; and the few fight to break that tyranny. Always +it is the many who fight for the evil thing, and the few who fight for +the good thing; and always it is the few who win. For God fights with +the small battalions. If sometimes it has seemed otherwise, it is +because the few who have fought for the good cause have been guilty of +some secret faltering, some infidelity to their best selves, some +shrinking back in the face of a tremendous duty. + +The last sixteen months have been the most glorious in the history of +Europe. Heroism has come back to the earth. On whichever side the men +who rule the peoples have marshalled them, whether with England to +uphold her tyranny of the seas, or with Germany to break that tyranny, +the people themselves have gone into battle because to each the old +voice that speaks out of the soil of a nation has spoken anew. Each +fights for the fatherland. It is policy that moves the governments; it +is patriotism that stirs the peoples. Belgium defending her soil is +heroic, and so is Turkey fighting with her back to Constantinople. + +It is good for the world that such things should be done. The old heart +of the earth needed to be warmed with the red wine of the battlefields. +Such august homage was never before offered to God as this, the homage +of millions of lives given gladly for love of country. + +War is a terrible thing, and this is the most terrible of wars. But this +war is not more terrible than the evils which it will end or help to +end. It is not more terrible than the exploitation of the English masses +by cruel plutocrats; it is not more terrible than the infidelity of the +French masses to their old spiritual ideals; it is not more terrible +than the enslavement of the Poles by Russia, than the enslavement of the +Irish by England. What if the war kindles in the slow breasts of English +toilers a wrath like the wrath of the French in 1789? What if the war +brings France back to her altars, as sorrow brings back broken men and +women to God? What if the war sets Poland and Ireland free? If the war +does these things, will not the war have been worth while? + +War is a terrible thing, but war is not an evil thing. It is the things +that make war necessary that are evil. The tyrannies that wars break, +the lying formulae that wars overthrow, the hypocrisies that wars strip +naked, are evil. Many people in Ireland dread war because they do not +know it. Ireland has not known the exhilaration of war for over a +hundred years. Yet who will say that she has known the blessings of +peace? When war comes to Ireland, she must welcome it as she would +welcome the Angel of God. And she will. + +It is because peace is so precious a boon that war is so sacred a duty. +Ireland will not find Christ’s peace until she has taken Christ’s sword. +What peace she has known in these latter days has been the devil’s +peace, peace with sin, peace with dishonour. It is a foul thing, dear +only to men of foul breeds. Christ’s peace is lovely in its coming, +beautiful are its feet on the mountains. But it is heralded by terrific +messengers; seraphim and cherubim blow trumpets of war before it. We +must not flinch when we are passing through that uproar; we must not +faint at the sight of blood. Winning through it, we (or those of us who +survive) shall come unto great joy. We and our fathers have known the +Pax Britannica. To our sons we must bequeath the Peace of the Gael. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + GHOSTS + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + PREFACE + + +Here be ghosts that I have raised this Christmastide, ghosts of dead men +that have bequeathed a trust to us living men. Ghosts are troublesome +things in a house or in a family, as we knew even before Ibsen taught +us. There is only one way to appease a ghost. You must do the thing it +asks you. The ghosts of a nation sometimes ask very big things; and they +must be appeased, whatever the cost. + +Of the shade of the Norwegian dramatist I beg forgiveness for a +plagiaristic, but inevitable title. + + P. H. PEARSE. + +ST. ENDA’S COLLEGE, + RATHFARNHAM, + Christmas Day, 1915. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + GHOSTS + + + I + +There has been nothing more terrible in Irish history than the failure +of the last generation. Other generations have failed in Ireland, but +they have failed nobly; or, failing ignobly, some man among them has +redeemed them from infamy by the splendour of his protest. But the +failure of the last generation has been mean and shameful, and no man +has arisen from it to say or do a splendid thing in virtue of which it +shall be forgiven. The whole episode is squalid. It will remain the one +sickening chapter in a story which, gallant or sorrowful, has everywhere +else some exaltation of pride. + +“Is mairg do ghní go holc agus bhíos bocht ina dhiaidh,” says the Irish +proverb. “Woe to him that doeth evil and is poor after it.” The men who +have led Ireland for twenty-five years have done evil, and they are +bankrupt. They are bankrupt in policy, bankrupt in credit, bankrupt now +even in words. They have nothing to propose to Ireland, no way of +wisdom, no counsel of courage. When they speak they speak only untruth +and blasphemy. Their utterances are no longer the utterances of men. +They are the mumblings and the gibberings of lost souls. + +One finds oneself wondering what sin these men have been guilty of that +so great a shame should come upon them. Is it that they are punished +with loss of manhood because in their youth they committed a crime +against manhood?... Does the ghost of Parnell hunt them to their +damnation? + +Even had the men themselves been less base, their failure would have +been inevitable. When one thinks over the matter for a little one sees +that they have built upon an untruth. They have conceived of nationality +as a material thing, whereas it is a spiritual thing. They have made the +same mistake that a man would make if he were to forget that he has an +immortal soul. They have not recognised in their people the image and +likeness of God. Hence, the nation to them is not all holy, a thing +inviolate and inviolable, a thing that a man dare not sell or dishonour +on pain of eternal perdition. They have thought of nationality as a +thing to be negotiated about as men negotiate about a tariff or about a +trade route, rather than as an immediate jewel to be preserved at all +peril, a thing so sacred that it may not be brought into the market +places at all or spoken of where men traffic. + +He who builds on lies rears only lies. The untruth that nationality is +corporeal, a thing defined by statutes and guaranteed by mutual +interests, is at the base of the untruth that freedom, which is the +condition of a hale nationality, is a status to be conceded rather than +a glory to be achieved; and of the other untruth that it can ever be +lawful in the interest of empire, in the interest of wealth, in the +interest of quiet living, to forego the right to freedom. The contrary +is the truth. Freedom, being a spiritual necessity, transcends all +corporeal necessities, and when freedom is being considered interests +should not be spoken of. Or, if the terms of the countinghouse be the +ones that are best understood, let us put it that it is the highest +interest of a nation to be free. + +Like a divine religion, national freedom bears the marks of unity, of +sanctity, of catholicity, of apostolic succession. Of unity, for it +contemplates the nation as one; of sanctity, for it is holy in itself +and in those who serve it; of catholicity, for it embraces all the men +and women of the nation; of apostolic succession, for it, or the +aspiration after it, passes down from generation to generation from the +nation’s fathers. A nation’s fundamental idea of freedom is not affected +by the accidents of time and circumstance. It does not vary with the +centuries, or with the comings and goings of men or of empires. The +substance of truth does not change, nor does the substance of freedom. +Yesterday’s definition of both the one and the other is to-day’s +definition and will be to-morrow’s. As the body of truth which a true +church teaches can neither be increased nor diminished--though truths +implicit in the first definition may be made explicit in later +definitions--so a true definition of freedom remains constant; it cannot +be added to or subtracted from or varied in its essentials, though +things implicit in it may be made explicit by a later definition. If the +definition can be varied in its essentials, or added to, or subtracted +from, it was not a true definition in the first instance. + +To be concrete, if we to-day are fighting for something either greater +than or less than the thing our fathers fought for, either our fathers +did not fight for freedom at all, or we are not fighting for freedom. If +I do not hold the faith of Tone, and if Tone was not a heretic, then I +am. If Tone said “BREAK the connection with England,” and if I say +“MAINTAIN the connection with England,” I may be preaching a saner (as I +am certainly preaching a safer) gospel than his, but I am obviously not +preaching the same gospel. + +Now what Tone taught, and the fathers of our national faith before and +after Tone, is ascertainable. It stands recorded. It has fulness, it has +clarity, the sufficiency and the definiteness of dogma. It lives in +great and memorable phrases, a grandiose national faith. They, too, have +left us their Credo. + +The Irish mind is the clearest mind that has ever applied itself to the +consideration of nationality and of national freedom. A chance phrase of +Keating’s might almost stand as a definition. He spoke of Ireland as +“domhan beag innti féin,” a little world in herself. It was +characteristic of Irish-speaking men that when they thought of the Irish +nation they thought less of its outer forms and pomps than of the inner +thing which was its soul. They recognised that the Irish life was the +thing that mattered, and that, the Irish life dead, the Irish nation was +dead. But they recognised that freedom was the essential condition of a +vigorous Irish life. And for freedom they raised their ranns; for +freedom they stood in battle through five bloody centuries. + + + II + +Irish nationality is an ancient spiritual tradition, one of the oldest +and most august traditions in the world. Politically, Ireland’s claim +has been for freedom in order to the full and perpetual life of that +tradition. The generations of Ireland have gone into battle for no other +thing. To the Irish mind for more than a thousand years freedom has had +but one definition. It has meant not a limited freedom, a freedom +conditioned by the interests of another nation, a freedom compatible +with the suzerain authority of a foreign parliament, but absolute +freedom, the sovereign control of Irish destinies. It has meant not the +freedom of a class, but the freedom of a people. It has meant not the +freedom of a geographical fragment of Ireland, but the freedom of all +Ireland, of every sod of Ireland. + +And the freedom thus defined has seemed to the Irish the most desirable +of all earthly things. They have valued it more than land, more than +wealth, more than ease, more than empire. + + “Fearr bheith i mbarraibh fuairbheann + I bhfeitheamh shuainghearr ghrinnmhear, + Ag seilg troda ar fhéinn eachtrann + ’Gá bhfuil fearann bhur sinnsear,” + +said Angus Mac Daighre O’Daly. “Better to be on the tops of the old bens +keeping watch, short of sleep yet gladsome, urging fight against the +foreign soldiery that hold your fathers’ land.” And Fearflatha O’Gnive +spoke for the generations that preferred exile to slavery: + + “Má thug an deonughadh dhi + Sacsa nua darbh’ ainm Eire + Bheith re a linn-si i láimh bíodhbhadh, + Do’n inse is cáir ceileabhradh.” + +“If thou hast consented (O God) that there be a new England named +Ireland, to be ever in the grip of a foe then to this isle we must bid +farewell.” + +I make the contention that the national demand of Ireland is fixed and +determined; that that demand has been made by every generation; that we +of this generation receive it as a trust from our fathers; that we are +bound by it; that we have not the right to alter it or to abate it by +one jot or tittle; and that any undertaking made in the name of Ireland +to accept in full satisfaction of Ireland’s claim anything less than the +generations of Ireland have stood for is null and void, binding on +Ireland neither by the law of God nor by the law of nations. + +A nation can bind itself by treaty to do or to forego specific things, +as a man can bind himself by contract; but no treaty which places a +nation’s body and soul in the power of another nation, no treaty which +abnegates a nation’s nationhood, is binding on that nation, any more +than a contract of perpetual slavery is binding on an individual. If in +a drunken frolic or in mere abject unmanliness I sell myself and my +posterity to a slaveholder to have and to hold as a chattel property to +himself and his heirs, am I bound by the contract? Are my children bound +by it? Can any legal contract make a wrong thing binding? And if not, +can a contract executed in my name, but without my express or implied +authority, make a wrong thing binding on me and on my children’s +children? + +Ireland’s historic claim is for Separation. Ireland has authorised no +man to abate that claim. The man who, in the name of Ireland, accepts as +“a final settlement” anything less by one fraction of an iota than +Separation from England will be repudiated by the new generation as +surely as O’Connell was repudiated by the generation that came after +him. The man who, in return for the promise of a thing which is not +merely less than Separation, but which denies Separation and proclaims +the Union perpetual, the man who, in return for this, declares peace +between Ireland and England and sacrifices to England as a +peace-holocaust the blood of fifty thousand Irishmen, is guilty of so +immense an infidelity, so immense a crime against the Irish nation, that +one can only say of him that it were better for that man (as it were +certainly better for his country) that he had not been born. + +I have proved this terrible infidelity against a living Irishman, +against all who have supported him, against the majority of Irishmen who +are now past middle life, if I can establish that the historic claim of +Ireland has been for Separation. And I proceed to establish this. + + + III + +It will be conceded to me that the Irish who opposed the landing of the +English in 1169 were Separatists. Else why oppose those who came to +annex? It will be conceded that the twelve generations of the Irish +nation, the “mere Irish” of the English state-papers, who maintained a +winning fight against English domination in Ireland from 1169 to 1509 +(roughly speaking), were Separatist generations. The Irish princes who +brought over Edward Bruce and made him King of Ireland were plainly +Separatists. The Mac Murrough who hammered the English for fifty years +and twice out-generalled and out-fought an English king was obviously a +Separatist. The turbulence of Shane O’Neill becomes understandable when +it is realised that he was a Separatist; Separatists are apt, from of +old, to be cranky and sore-headed. The Fitzmaurice who brought the +Spaniards to Smerwick Harbour was a mere Separatist: he was one of the +pro-Spaniards of those days--Separatists are always pro-Something of +which the English disapprove. That proud dissembling O’Neill and that +fiery O’Donnell who banded the Irish and the Anglo-Irish against the +English, who brought the Spaniards to Kinsale, who fought the war that, +but for a guide losing his way, would have been known as the Irish War +of Separation, were, it will be granted, Separatists. Rory O’More was +uncommonly like a Separatist. Owen Roe O’Neill was admittedly a +Separatist, the leader of the Separatist Party in the Confederation of +Kilkenny. When O’Neill sent his veterans into the battle-gap at Benburb +with the words “In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, charge +for Ireland!” the word “Ireland” had for him a very definite meaning. If +Sarsfield fought technically for an English king, the popular literature +of the day leaves no doubt that in the people’s mind he stood for +Separation, and that it was not an English faction but the Irish nation +that rallied behind the walls of Limerick. So, up to 1691 Ireland was +Separatist. + + + IV + +During the first three-quarters of the eighteenth century a miracle +wrought itself. So does the germ of Separation inhere in the soil of +Ireland that the very Cromwellians and Williamites were infected with +it. The Palesmen began to realise themselves as part of the Irish +nation, and in the fulness of time they declared themselves Separatists. +While this process was slowly accomplishing itself, the authentic voice +of Ireland is to be sought in her literature. And that literature is a +Separatist literature. The “secret songs” of the dispossessed Irish are +the most fiercely Separatist utterances in any literature. Not until +Mitchel did Anglo-Irish literature catch up that Irish vehemence. The +poet of the “Roman Vision” sang of the Ireland that was to be: + + “No man shall be bound unto England + Nor hold friendship with dour Scotsmen, + There shall be no place in Ireland for outlanders, + Nor any recognition for the English speech.” + +The prophetic voice of Mitchel seems to ring in this: + + “The world hath conquered, the wind hath scattered like dust + Alexander, Cæsar, and all that shared their sway, + Tara is grass, and behold how Troy lieth low,-- + And even the English, perchance their hour will come!” + +An unknown poet, seeing the corpse of an Englishman hanging on a tree, +sings: + + “Good is thy fruit, O tree! + The luck of thy fruit on every bough! + Would that the trees of Inisfail + Were full of thy fruit every day!” + +The poet of the “Druimfhionn Donn Dílis” cries: + + “The English I’d rend as I’d rend an old brogue, + And that’s how I’d win me the Druimfhionn Donn Og!” + +I do not defend this blood-thirstiness any more than I apologise for it. +I simply point it out as the note of a literature. + +Finally, when the poet of the “Róisín Dubh” declares that + + “The Erne shall rise in rude torrents, hills shall be rent, + The sea shall roll in red waves, and blood be poured out, + Every mountain glen in Ireland, and the bogs shall quake,” + +is it to be supposed that these apocalyptic disturbances are to usher in +merely a statutory legislation subordinate to the imperial parliament at +Westminster whose supreme authority over Ireland shall remain unimpaired +“anything in this Act notwithstanding”? + +The student of Irish affairs who does not know Irish literature is +ignorant of the awful intensity of the Irish desire for Separation as he +is ignorant of one of the chief forces which make Separation inevitable. + + + V + +The first man who spoke, or seemed to speak, for Ireland and who was not +a Separatist was Henry Grattan. And it was against Henry Grattan’s +Constitution that Wolfe Tone and the United Irishmen rose. Thus the Pale +made common cause with the Gael and declared itself Separatist. It will +be conceded that Wolfe Tone was a Separatist: he is _The_ Separatist. It +will be conceded that Robert Emmet was a Separatist. O’Connell was not a +Separatist: but, as the United Irishmen revolted against Grattan, Young +Ireland revolted against O’Connell. And Young Ireland, in its final +development, was Separatist. To Young Ireland belong three of the great +Separatist voices. After Young Ireland the Fenians; and it will be +admitted that the Fenians were Separatists. They guarded themselves +against future misrepresentation by calling themselves the Irish +Republican Brotherhood. + +It thus appears that Ireland has been Separatist up to the beginning of +the generation that is now growing old. Separatism, in fact, is the +national position. Whenever an Irish leader has taken up a position +different from the national position he has been repudiated by the next +generation. The United Irishmen repudiated Grattan. The Young Irelanders +repudiated O’Connell. The Irish Volunteers have repudiated Mr. Redmond. + +The chain of the Separatist tradition has never once snapped during the +centuries. Veterans of Kinsale were in the ’41; veterans of Benburb +followed Sarsfield. The poets kept the fires of the nation burning from +Limerick to Dungannon. Napper Tandy of the Volunteers was Napper Tandy +of the United Irishmen. The Russell of 1803 was the Russell of 1798. The +Robert Holmes of ’98 and 1803 lived to be a Young Irelander. Three Young +Irelanders were the founders of Fenianism. The veterans of Fenianism +stand to-day with the Irish Volunteers. So the end of the Separatist +tradition is not yet. + + + VI + +It would be very instructive to examine in its breadth and depth, in its +connotations as well as in its denotations, the Irish definition of +freedom; and I propose to do this in a sequel to the present essay. For +my immediate purpose it is sufficient to state that definition merely as +a principle involving essentially the idea of Independence, Separation, +a distinct and unfettered national existence. + +The conception of an Irish nation has been developed in modern times +chiefly by four great minds. On a little reflection one comes to see +that what has been contributed by other minds has been almost entirely +by way of explanation and illustration of what has been laid down by the +four master minds; that the four have been the Fathers, and that the +others are just their commentarists. Accordingly, when I have named the +four names, there will be hardly any need to name any other names. +Indeed, it will be difficult to think of names that can be named in the +same breath with these, difficult to think of men who have reached +anything like the same stature or who have stretched out even half as +far. + +The names are those of Theobald Wolfe Tone, Thomas Davis, James Fintan +Lalor, and John Mitchel. + +It is a question here of political teachers, not of mere political +leaders. O’Connell was a more effective political leader than either +Lalor or Mitchel, but no one gives O’Connell a place in the history of +political thought. He did not propound, he did not even attempt to +propound, any body of political truths. He was a political strategist of +extraordinary ability, a rhetorician of almost superhuman power. But we +owe no political doctrine to O’Connell except the obviously untrue +doctrine that liberty is too dearly purchased at the price of a single +drop of blood. The political position of O’Connell--his falling back on +the treaty of 1782-3--was not the statement of any national principle, +the embodiment of any political truth--it was an able, though as it +happened unsuccessful, strategical move. + +Parnell must be considered. If one had to add a fifth to the four I have +named, the fifth would inevitably be Parnell. Now, Parnell was less a +political thinker than an embodied conviction; a flame that seared, a +sword that stabbed. He deliberately disclaimed political theories, +deliberately confined himself to political action. He did the thing that +lay nearest to his hand, struck at the English with such weapons as were +available. His instinct was a Separatist instinct; and, far from being +prepared to accept Home Rule as a “final settlement between the two +nations,” he was always careful to make it clear that, whether Home Rule +came or did not come, the way must be left open for the achievement of +the greater thing. In 1885 he said: + + “It is given to none of us to forecast the future, and just as + it is impossible for us to say in what way or by what means the + national question may be settled--in what way full justice may + be done to Ireland--so it is impossible for us to say to what + extent that justice should be done. We cannot ask for less than + the restitution of Grattan’s Parliament, with its important + privileges and wide and far-reaching constitution. We cannot, + under the British constitution, ask for more than the + restitution of Grattan’s Parliament, but no man has a right to + fix the boundary of the march of a nation. No man has a right to + say ‘Thus far shalt thou go, and no further’; and we have never + attempted to fix the _ne plus ultra_ to the progress of + Ireland’s nationhood, and we never shall. But, gentlemen, while + we leave these things to time, circumstances, and the future, we + must each one of us resolve in our own hearts that we shall at + all times do everything that within us lies to obtain for + Ireland the fullest measure of her rights. In this way we shall + avoid difficulties and contentions amongst each other. In this + way we shall not give up anything which the future may put in + favour of our country; and while we struggle to-day for that + which may seem possible for us without combination, we must + struggle for it with the proud consciousness that we shall not + do anything to hinder or prevent better men who may come after + us from gaining better things than those for which we now + contend.” + +And again, in the same year: + + “Ireland a nation! Ireland has been a nation: she is a nation; + and she shall be a nation.... England will respect you in + proportion as you and we respect ourselves. They will not give + anything to Ireland out of justice or righteousness. They will + concede you your liberties and your rights when they must and no + sooner.... We can none of us do more than strive for that which + may seem attainable to-day; but we ought at the same time to + recollect that we should not impede or hamper the march of our + nation; and although our programme may be limited and small, it + should be such a one as shall not prevent hereafter the fullest + realisation of the hopes of Ireland; and we shall, at least if + we keep this principle in mind, have this consolation that, + while we may have done something to enable Ireland in some + measure to retain her position as a nation, to strengthen her + position as a nation, we shall have done nothing to hinder + others who may come after us from taking up the work with + perhaps greater strength, ability, power, and advantages than we + possess, and from pushing to that glorious and happy conclusion + which is embodied in the words of the toast which I now ask you + to drink--‘Ireland a nation’!” + +These words justify me in summoning the pale and angry ghost of Parnell +to stand beside the ghosts of Tone and Davis and Lalor and Mitchel. If +words mean anything, these mean that to Parnell the final and inevitable +and infinitely desirable goal of Ireland was Separation; and that those +who thought it prudent and feasible, as he did, to proceed to Separation +by Home Rule must above all things do nothing that might impair the +Separatist position or render the future task of the Separatists more +difficult. Of Parnell it may be said with absolute truth that he never +surrendered the national position. His successors have surrendered it. +They have written on his monument in Dublin those noble words of his, +that no man has a right to fix the boundary of the march of a nation; +and then they have accepted the Home Rule Act as a “final settlement” +between Ireland and England. It is as if a man were to write on a +monument “I believe in God and in Life Everlasting” and then to sell his +chance of Heaven to the Evil One for a purse, not of gold, but of +I.O.U.’s. + +If I could think of any other name that, with due regard for proportion, +could be named with the great names, I should name it and proceed to +examine its claims. But I can think of no other name. I can think of +heroic leaders like Emmet; I can think of brilliant rhetoricians like +Meagher; I can think of able and powerful publicists like Duffy; I can +think of secret organisers like Stephens: and all these were Separatist. +But I cannot think of anyone who has left behind him a _body of +teaching_ that requires to be examined. Emmet’s mind was as great as any +of the four minds except Tone’s, but we have not its fruits; only an +indication of its riches in his speech from the dock, and of its +strength and sanity in the draft proclamation for his Provisional +Government. + +I can think, again, of three great political thinkers of Anglo-Ireland +before Tone: Berkeley, Swift, and Burke. And from the writings of these +three I could construct the case for Irish Separatism. But this would be +irrelevant to my purpose. I am seeking to find, not those who have +thought most wisely about Ireland, but those who have thought most +authentically for Ireland, the voices that have come out of the Irish +struggle itself. And those voices, subject to what I have said as to +Parnell, are the voices of Tone, of Davis, of Lalor, of Mitchel. + +Let us see what they have said. + + + VII + +First, Tone. Of 1790: + + “I made speedily what was to me a great discovery, though I + might have found it in Swift and Molyneux, that the influence of + England was the radical vice of our Government, and consequently + that Ireland would never be either free, prosperous, or happy + until she was independent, and that independence was + unattainable whilst the connection with England lasted.” + +Of 1791: + + “It [a communication from Russell] immediately set me thinking + more seriously than I had yet done upon the state of Ireland. I + soon formed my theory, and on that theory I have invariably + acted ever since. + + “To subvert the tyranny of our execrable Government, to break + the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our + political evils, and to assert the independence of my + country--these were my objects. To unite the whole people of + Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to + substitute the common name of Irishman in the place of the + denominations of Protestant, Catholic, and Dissenter--these were + my means.” + +I hold all Irish nationalism to be implicit in these words. Davis was to +make explicit certain things here implicit, Lalor certain other things; +Mitchel was to thunder the whole in words of apocalyptic wrath and +splendour. But the Credo is here: “I believe in One Irish Nation and +that Free.” + +And before his judges Tone thus testified: + + “I mean not to give you the trouble of bringing judicial proof + to convict me, legally, of having acted in hostility to the + Government of his Britannic Majesty in Ireland. I admit the + fact. From my earliest youth I have regarded the connection + between Ireland and Great Britain as the curse of the Irish + nation, and felt convinced that, while it lasted, this country + could never be free nor happy. My mind has been confirmed in + this opinion by the experience of every succeeding year, and the + conclusions which I have drawn from every fact before my eyes. + In consequence, I determined to apply all the powers which my + individual efforts could move in order to separate the two + countries.” + +Next, Davis: + + “... Will she [England] allow us, for good or ill, to govern + ourselves, and see if we cannot redress our own griefs. ‘No, + never, never,’ she says, ‘though all Ireland cried for + it--never! Her fields shall be manured with the shattered limbs + of her sons, and her hearths quenched in their blood; but never, + while England has a ship or a soldier, shall Ireland be free.’ + + “And this is your answer? We shall see--we shall see! + + “And now, Englishmen, listen to us! Though you were to-morrow to + give us the best tenures on earth--though you were to equalise + Presbyterian, Catholic, and Episcopalian--though you were to + give us the amplest representation in your Senate--though you + were to restore our absentees, disencumber us of your debt, and + redress every one of our fiscal wrongs--and though, in addition + to all this, you plundered the treasuries of the world to lay + gold at our feet, and exhausted the resources of your genius to + do us worship and honour--still we tell you--we tell you, in the + names of liberty and country--we tell you, in the name of + enthusiastic hearts, thoughtful souls, and fearless spirits--we + tell you, by the past, the present, and the future, we would + spurn your gifts, if the condition were that Ireland should + remain a province. We tell you, and all whom it may concern, + come what may--bribery or deceit, justice, policy, or war--we + tell you, in the name of Ireland, that Ireland shall be a + Nation!” + +Lest it may be pretended (as it has been pretended) that the nationhood +thus claimed in the name of Ireland by this passionate nationalist was a +mere statutory “nationhood,” federalism or something less, I quote a +passage which makes it clear that Davis (loyally though he supported the +official policy of the _Nation_, which at that stage did not go beyond +Repeal) was thinking all the time of a sovereign independent Ireland. +Urging the need of foreign alliances for Ireland, he writes (the italics +are Davis’s): + + “When Ireland is a nation she will not, with her vast + population[6] and her military character, require such alliances + as a _security_ against an English _re-conquest_; but they will + be useful in banishing any _dreams of invasion_ which might + _otherwise_ haunt the brain of our old enemy.” + +Elsewhere Davis sums up the national position in a sentence worthy of +Tone: + + “Ireland’s aspiration is for unbounded nationality.” + +Next, Lalor: + + “Repeal, in its vulgar meaning, I look on as utterly + impracticable by any mode of action whatever; and the + constitution of ’82 was absurd, worthless, and worse than + worthless. The English Government will never concede or + surrender to any species of moral force whatsoever; and the + country-peasantry will never arm and fight for it--neither will + I. If I am to stake life and fame it must assuredly be for + something better and greater, more likely to last, more likely + to succeed, and better worth success. And a stronger passion, a + higher purpose, a nobler and more needful enterprise is + fermenting in the hearts of the people. A mightier question + moves Ireland to-day than that of merely repealing the Act of + Union. Not the constitution that Wolfe Tone died to abolish, but + the constitution that Tone died to obtain--independence; full + and absolute independence for this island, and for every man + within this island. Into no movement that would leave an enemy’s + garrison in possession of all our lands, masters of our + liberties, our lives, and all our means of life and + happiness--into no such movement will a single man of the + greycoats enter with an armed hand, whatever the town population + may do. On a wider fighting field, with stronger positions and + greater resources than are afforded by the paltry question of + Repeal, must we close for our final struggle with England, or + sink and surrender. + + “Ireland her own--Ireland her own, and all therein, from the sod + to the sky. The soil of Ireland for the people of Ireland, to + have and hold from God alone who gave it--to have and to hold to + them and to their heirs for ever, without suit or service, faith + or fealty, rent or render, to any power under Heaven.” + +And again: + + “Not to repeal the Union, then, but the conquest--not to disturb + or dismantle the Empire, but to abolish it utterly for ever--not + to fall back on ’82, but to act up to ’48--not to resume or + restore an old constitution, but to found a new nation and raise + up a free people, and strong as well as free, and secure as well + as strong, based on a peasantry rooted like rocks in the soil of + the land--this is my object, as I hope it is yours; and this, + you may be assured, is the easier as it is the nobler and more + pressing enterprise.” + +And yet again: + + “In the case of Ireland now there is but _one fact_ to deal + with, and _one question_ to be considered. The fact is + this--that there are at present in occupation of our country + some 40,000 armed men, in the livery and service of England; and + the _question_ is--how best and soonest to kill and capture + those 40,000 men.” + +Lastly Mitchel takes up his hymn of hate against the Empire: + + “_The Ego._--And do you read Ireland’s mind in the canting of + O’Connell’s son? or in the sullen silence of a gagged and + disarmed people? Tell me not of O’Connell’s son. His father + begat him in moral force, and in patience and perseverance did + his mother conceive him. I swear to you there are blood and + brain in Ireland yet, as the world one day shall know. God! let + me live to see it. On that great day of the Lord, when the + kindreds and tongues and nations of the old earth shall give + their banners to the wind, let this poor carcase have but breath + and strength enough to stand under Ireland’s immortal Green! + + “_Doppelganger._--Do you allude to the battle of Armageddon? I + know you have been reading the Old Testament of late. + + “_The Ego._--Yes. ‘Who is this that cometh from Edom; with dyed + garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in his apparel + travelling in the garments of his strength? Wherefore art thou + red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in + the wine vat? I have trodden the wine press alone, and of the + people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine + anger and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be + sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment. For + the day of vengeance is in my heart.’ Also an aspiration of King + David haunts my memory when I think on Ireland and her wrongs: + ‘_That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and + that the tongue of thy dogs may be red through the same._’” + +Thus Tone, thus Davis, thus Lalor, thus Mitchel, thus Parnell. Methinks +I have raised some ghosts that will take a little laying. + +----- + +Footnote 6: + + Nearly 9,000,000 then. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + THE SEPARATIST IDEA + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + PREFACE + + +This is the first of three pamphlets in which I propose to develop the +contention put forward in “Ghosts,” the whole forming a continuous +argument. The further pamphlets of the series will be entitled “The +Spiritual Nation” and “The Sovereign People,” respectively. + + P. H. PEARSE. + +ST. ENDA’S COLLEGE, + RATHFARNHAM, + 1st February, 1916. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + THE SEPARATIST IDEA + + + I + +In stating a little while ago the Irish definition of freedom, I said +that it would be well worth while to examine that definition in its +breadth and depth, in its connotations as well as in its denotations, +contenting myself for the moment with making clear its essential idea of +Independence, Separation, a distinct and unfettered national existence. +And I said that I proposed to do this in a sequel. Such a sequel is +necessary, for, while the statement that national freedom means a +distinct and unfettered national existence is a true and complete +statement of the nature of national freedom, it is not a sufficient +revelation of the minds that have developed the conception of freedom +among us Irish, not sufficiently quick with their thought nor +sufficiently passionate with their desire. Freedom is so splendid a +thing that one cannot worthily state it in the terms of a definition; +one has to write it in some flaming symbol or to sing it in music +riotous with the uproar of heaven. A Danton and a Mitchel can speak more +adequately of freedom than a Voltaire and a Burke, for they have drunk +more deeply of that wine with which God inebriates the votaries of +vision. But even the sublimest things, the Trinity and the Incarnation, +can be stated in terms of philosophy, and it is needful to do this now +and then, though such a statement in no wise affects the spiritual fact +which one either feels or does not feel. So, it is sometimes necessary +to state what nationality is, what freedom, though one’s statement may +not reveal the awful beauty of his nation’s soul to a single man or move +a single village to put up its barricade. + +The purpose, then, of such statements? At least they define the truth, +and enable men to see who holds the truth and who hugs the falsehood. +For there is an absolute truth in such matters, and the truth is +ascertainable. The truth is old, and it has been handed down to us by +our fathers. It is not a new thing, devised to meet the exigencies of a +situation. That is the definition of an expedient. + +Now, the truth as to what a nation’s nationality is, what a nation’s +freedom, is not to be found in the statute-book of the nation’s enemy. +It is to be found in the books of the nation’s fathers. + + + II + +I have named Tone and Davis and Lalor and Mitchel as the four among us +moderns who have chiefly developed the conception of an Irish nation. +Others, I have said, have for the most part only interpreted and +illustrated what has been taught by these; these are the Fathers and the +rest are just their commentarists. And I need not repeat here my reasons +for naming no other with these unless the other be Parnell, whom I name +tentatively as the man who saw most deeply and who spoke most splendidly +for the Irish nation since the great seers and speakers. I go on to +examine what these have taught of Irish freedom. And first as to Tone. +He stands first in point of time, and first in point of greatness. +Indeed, he is, as I believe, the greatest man of our nation; the +greatest-hearted and the greatest-minded. + +We have to consider here Tone the thinker rather than Tone the man of +action. The greatest of our men of action since Hugh O’Neill, he is the +greatest of all our political thinkers. His greatness, both as a man and +as a thinker, consists in his sheer reality. There is no froth of +rhetoric, no dilution of sentimentality in Tone; he has none even of the +noble oratoric quality of a Mitchel. A man of extraordinarily deep +emotion, he nevertheless thought with relentless logic, and his +expression in exposition or argument is always the due and inevitable +garb of his thought. He was a great visionary; but, like all the great +visionaries, he had a firm grip upon realities, he was fundamentally +sane. + +It is necessary at times to insist on Tone’s intellectual austerity, +because the man’s humanity was so gracious that his human side +constantly overshadows, for us as for his contemporaries, his grave +intellectual side. Most men of his greatness are loved at best by a few, +feared or disliked or mistrusted by the many. Tone was one of the +extremely rare great men whose greatness is crowned by those gifts of +humility and sweetness that compel affection. Some men are misunderstood +because they are disliked; a few men are in danger of being +misunderstood because they are loved. If the greatest thing in Tone was +his heroic soul, the soul that was gay in death and defeat, the second +greatest thing was his austere and piercing intellect. That intellect +has dominated Irish political thought for over a century. It has given +us our political definitions and values. Constantly we refer doctrines +and leaders and policies to its standards, measuring them by the mind of +Tone as an American measures men and policies by the minds that shaped +the Declaration of Independence. Tone’s mind was in a very true sense a +revolutionary mind. The spokesmen of the French Revolution itself did +not base things more fundamentally on essential right and justice than +Tone did, did not pierce through outer strata to a firmer bedrock than +he found. And it was an original mind. Influenced no doubt by +contemporary minds, and responsive to every thought-wave that vibrated +in either hemisphere, Tone for the most part worked out his own +political system in his own way. He did not inherit or merely accept his +principles; he thought himself into them. + +Tone’s first political utterance was a pamphlet in defence of the Whig +Club, entitled “A Review of the last Session of Parliament” (1790). Of +this pamphlet he writes in his Autobiography: + + “... Though I was very far from entirely approving the system of + the Whig Club, and much less their principles and motives, yet, + seeing them at the time the best constituted political body + which the country afforded, and agreeing with most of their + positions, though my own private opinions went infinitely + farther, I thought I could venture on their defence without + violating my consistency.” + +The pamphlet contains no definitely Separatist teaching. Before the end +of the year, however, Tone had found his voice. It is a Separatist that +speaks in “The Spanish War” (1790), but a cautious Separatist, one who +is feeling his way. Tone himself describes the expansion of his views +which had taken place between the publication of his first and his +second pamphlets: + + “A closer examination into the history of my native country had + very considerably extended my views, and, as I was sincerely and + honestly attached to her interests, I soon found reason not to + regret that the Whigs had not thought me an object worthy of + their cultivation. I made speedily what was to me a great + discovery, though I might have found it in Swift and Molyneux, + that the influence of England was the radical vice of our + Government, and consequently that Ireland would never be either + free, prosperous, or happy until she was independent, and that + independence was unattainable whilst the connection with England + existed.” + +Accordingly: + + “On the appearance of a rupture with Spain, I wrote a pamphlet + to prove that Ireland was not bound by the declaration of war, + but might, and ought, as an independent nation, to stipulate for + a neutrality. In examining this question, I advanced the + question of separation, with scarcely any reserve, much less + disguise; but the public mind was by no means so far advanced as + I was, and my pamphlet made not the slightest impression.” + +The pamphlet, in fact, tended to prove the impossibility of Grattan’s +constitution, _i.e._, of the co-existence of a British connection with a +sovereign Irish Parliament. It did not propound this in so many words, +but the logical conclusion from its extraordinarily able and subtle +argument is that no “half-way house” is possible as a permanent solution +of the issue between Ireland and England. There were and are only two +alternatives: an enslaved Ireland and a free Ireland. A “dual monarchy” +is, in the nature of things, only a temporary expedient. + +In 1790 Tone met Thomas Russell. Theirs was the most memorable of Irish +friendships. It was in conversations and correspondence with Russell +that Tone’s political ideas reached their maturity. When he next speaks +it is with plenary meaning and clear definition. Towards the end of 1790 +he made his first attempt in political organisation. He founded a club +of seven or eight members “eminent for their talents and patriotism and +who had already more or less distinguished themselves by their literary +productions.” It was a failure, and the failure satisfied Tone that “men +of genius, to be of use, must not be collected in numbers.” In 1791 +Russell went to Belfast. An attempt of Russell’s to induce the Belfast +Volunteers to adopt a declaration in favour of Catholic emancipation, +which Tone had prepared at his request, was unsuccessful. Russell wrote +to Tone an account of the discussion, and, says Tone: + + “It immediately set me thinking more seriously than I had yet + done upon the state of Ireland. I soon formed my theory, and on + that theory I have invariably acted ever since. + + “To subvert the tyranny of our execrable Government, to break + the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our + political evils, and to assert the independence of my + country--these were my objects. To unite the whole people of + Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to + substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the + denominations of Protestant, Catholic, and Dissenter--these were + my means.” + +I have said that I hold all Irish nationalism to be implicit in these +words. Davis was to make explicit certain things here implicit, Lalor +certain other things. But the Credo is here: “I believe in One Irish +Nation and that Free.” + +Tone had convinced himself as to the end and the means. And now for +work: + + “I sat down accordingly, and wrote a pamphlet addressed to the + Dissenters, and which I entitled ‘An Argument on behalf of the + Catholics of Ireland,’ the object of which was to convince them + that they and the Catholics had but one common interest and one + common enemy; that the depression and slavery of Ireland was + produced and perpetuated by the divisions existing between them, + and that, consequently, to assert the independence of their + country, and their own individual liberties, it was necessary to + forget all former feuds, to consolidate the entire strength of + the whole nation, and to form for the future but one people.” + +This pamphlet, signed “A Northern Whig,” gave Tone his place in Irish +politics. The Catholic leaders approached him and commenced the +connection which led ultimately to his selection as their agent; the +Volunteers of Belfast elected him an honorary member of their corps. He +was soon afterwards invited to Belfast, where he founded, with Russell, +Neilson, the Simmses, Sinclair, and MacCabe, the first club of United +Irishmen. Tone wrote for the United Irishmen the following declaration: + + “In the present great era of reform when unjust governments are + falling in every quarter of Europe; when religious persecution + is compelled to abjure her tyranny over conscience; when the + Rights of Man are ascertained in Theory and that Theory + substantiated by Practice; when antiquity can no longer defend + absurd and oppressive forms against the common sense and common + interests of mankind; when all government is acknowledged to + originate from the people, and to be so far only obligatory as + it protects their rights and promotes their welfare; we think it + our duty as Irishmen to come forward and state what we feel to + be our heavy grievance, and what we know to be its effectual + remedy. + + “We have no National Government; we are ruled by Englishmen and + the servants of Englishmen, whose object is the interest of + another country; whose instrument is corruption; whose strength + is the weakness of Ireland; and these men have the whole of the + power and patronage of the country as means to seduce and subdue + the honesty and the spirit of her representatives in the + legislature. Such an extrinsic power, acting with uniform force + in a direction too frequently opposite to the true line of our + obvious interests, can be resisted with effect solely by + unanimity, decision, and spirit in the people, qualities which + may be exerted most legally, constitutionally, and efficaciously + by that great measure essential to the prosperity and freedom of + Ireland--an equal Representation of all the People in + Parliament....” + +The declaration was not openly Separatist. Tone, however, avows that, +while not yet definitely a republican, his ultimate goal even as early +as 1791 was Separation: the union of Irishmen was to be but a means to +an end. Commenting on the foundation (9th November, 1791) of the Dublin +Club of United Irishmen, in which the republican Tandy co-operated with +him, Tone writes: + + “For my own part, I think it right to mention that, at this time + the establishment of a Republic was not the immediate object of + my speculations. My object was to secure the independence of my + country under any form of government, to which I was led by a + hatred of England so deeply rooted in my nature that it was + rather an instinct than a principle. I left to others, better + qualified for the inquiry, the investigation and merits of the + different forms of government, and I contented myself with + labouring on my own system, which was luckily in perfect + coincidence as to its operation with that of those men who + viewed the question on a broader and juster scale than I did at + the time I mention.” + +Thus, Tone in November 1791 had not yet settled his views on abstract +theories of government, but on the practical business of separating +Ireland from England his resolve was fixed and unshakable. + +In June 1791 there had been issued a secret Manifesto to the Friends of +Freedom in Ireland which is attributed to Tone in collaboration with +Neilson and others. Tone himself makes no reference to this document in +his Autobiography. If it is really his it is the nearest approach to a +formulation of the theory of freedom which we have from the mind of this +essentially practical statesman. Whether it be Tone’s or another’s, it +is one of the noblest utterances of the age and it is a document of +primary importance in the history of Ireland. It may be described as the +first manifesto of modern Irish democracy. It bases the Irish claim to +freedom on the bedrock foundation of human rights: + + “This society is likely to be a means the most powerful for the + promotion of a great end. What end? _The Rights of Man in + Ireland._ The greatest happiness of the greatest numbers in this + island, the inherent and indefeasible claims of every free + nation to rest in this nation--the will and the power to be + happy, to pursue the common weal as an individual pursues his + private welfare, and to stand in insulated independence, an + imperatorial people. + + “The greatest happiness of the Greatest Number.--On the rock of + this principle let this society rest; by this let it judge and + determine every political question, and whatever is necessary + for this end let it not be accounted hazardous, but rather our + interest, our duty, our glory, and our common religion: The + Rights of Man are the Rights of God, and to vindicate the one is + to maintain the other. We must be free in order to serve Him + whose service is perfect freedom.... + + “‘Dieu et mon Droit’ (God and my right) is the motto of kings. + ‘Dieu et la liberté’ (God and liberty), exclaimed Voltaire when + he beheld Franklin, his fellow-citizen of the world. ‘Dieu et + nos Droits’ (God and our rights)--let every Irishman cry aloud + to each other the cry of mercy, of justice, and of victory.” + +_The Rights of Man in Ireland_ is almost an adequate definition of Irish +freedom. And the historic claim of Ireland has never been more worthily +stated than in these words: “_The inherent and indefeasible claims of +every free nation to rest in this nation--the will and the power to be +happy, to pursue the common weal as an individual pursues his private +welfare, and to stand in insulated independence, an imperatorial +people._” + +The deep and radical nature of Tone’s revolutionary work, the subtlety +and power of the man himself, cannot be grasped unless it is clearly +remembered that _this_ is the secret manifesto of the movement of which +the carefully constitutional declaration of the United Irishmen is the +public manifesto. Tone himself, in a letter to Russell at the beginning +of 1792, admits his ulterior designs while at the same time laying +stress on the necessity of caution in public utterances. Referring to +the declaration of the United Irishmen, he says: + + “The foregoing contains my true and sincere opinion of the state + of this country, _so far as in the present juncture it may be + advisable to publish it_. They certainly fall short of the + truth, but truth itself must sometimes condescend to temporise. + My unalterable opinion is that the bane of Irish prosperity is + in the influence of England: I believe that influence will ever + be extended while the connection between the countries + continues; nevertheless, as I know that opinion is, _for the + present_, too hardy, though a very little time may establish it + universally, I have not made it a part of the resolutions, I + have only proposed to set up a reformed parliament, as a barrier + against that mischief which every honest man that will open his + eyes must see in every instance overbears the interest of + Ireland: I have not said one word that looks like a wish for + _separation_, though I give it to you and your friends as my + most decided opinion that such an event would be a regeneration + to this country.” + +In 1792 Tone became agent to the General Committee of the Catholics. +Before the end of the year his dream of a union between the Catholics +and the Dissenters was an accomplished fact. In December the Catholic +Convention met. Catching Tone’s spirit, it demanded complete +emancipation. The Government proposed a compromise to the leaders. Tone +was against any compromise, but the Catholic leaders yielded. +“Merchants, I see, make bad revolutionists,” commented Tone. The Act of +1793, admitting Catholics to the Parliamentary franchise, marks the end +of Tone’s “constitutional” period. He pressed on towards Separation, +adopting revolutionary methods. The United Irishmen were reorganised as +a secret association, with “a Republican Government and Separation from +England” as its aims. In 1795 Tone, compromised by his relations with +Jackson, left Ireland for America. It was out of settled policy that at +this stage he chose exile rather than a contest with the Government. He +had already conceived the idea of appealing for help to the French +Republic. Shortly before he left Dublin he went out with Russell to +Rathfarnham, to see Thomas Addis Emmet. + + “As we walked together into town I opened my plan to them both. + I told them that I considered my compromise with Government to + extend no further than the banks of the Delaware, and that the + moment I landed I was free to follow any plan which might + suggest itself to me, for the emancipation of my country.... I + then proceeded to tell them that my intention was, immediately + on my arrival in Philadelphia, to wait on the French Minister, + to detail to him, fully, the situation of affairs in Ireland, to + endeavour to obtain a recommendation to the French Government, + and, if I succeeded so far, to leave my family in America, and + to set off instantly for Paris, and apply, in the name of my + country, for the assistance of France to enable us to assert our + independence.” + +To the fulfilment of this purpose Tone devoted the three years of life +that remained to him. He landed in France in 1796. The notes in his +Journal of his conferences with the representatives of the French +Government and the two masterly memorials which he submitted to the +Executive Directory remain the fullest and most practical statement, not +only of the necessity of Separation, but of the means by which +Separation is to be attained, that has been made by any Irishman. In the +concluding passage of his second memorial Tone sums up as follows: + + “I submit to the wisdom of the French Government that England is + the implacable, inveterate, irreconcilable enemy of the + Republic, which never can be in perfect security while that + nation retains the dominion of the sea; that, in consequence, + every possible effort should be made to humble her pride and to + reduce her power; that it is in Ireland, _and in Ireland only_, + that she is vulnerable--a fact of the truth of which the French + Government cannot be too strongly impressed; that by + establishing a free Republic in Ireland they attach to France a + grateful ally whose cordial assistance, in peace and war, she + might command, and who, from situation and produce, could most + essentially serve her: that at the same time they cut off from + England her most firm support, in losing which she is laid under + insuperable difficulties in recruiting her army, and especially + in equipping, victualling, and manning her navy, which, unless + for the resources she drew from Ireland, she would be absolutely + unable to do; that by these means--and, suffer me to add, _by + these means only_--her arrogance can be effectually humbled, and + her enormous and increasing power at sea reduced within due + bounds--an object essential, not only to France, but to all + Europe; that it is at least possible, by the measures mentioned, + that not only her future resources, as to her navy, may be + intercepted and cut off at the fountain head, but that a part of + her fleet may be actually transferred to the Republic of + Ireland; that the Irish people are united and prepared, and want + but the means to begin: that, not to speak of the policy or the + pleasure of revenge in humbling a haughty and implacable rival, + it is in itself a great and splendid act of generosity, worthy + of the Republic, to rescue a whole nation from a slavery under + which they have groaned for six hundred years; that it is for + the glory of France, after emancipating Holland and receiving + Belgium into her bosom, to establish one more free Republic in + Europe; that it is for her interest to cut off for ever, as she + now may do, one-half of the resources of England, and lay her + under extreme difficulties in the employment of the other. For + all these reasons, in the name of justice, of humanity, of + freedom, of my own country, and of France herself, I supplicate + the Directory to take into consideration the state of Ireland; + and by granting her the powerful aid and protection of the + Republic, to enable her at once to vindicate her liberty, to + humble her tyrant, and to assume that independent station among + the nations of the earth for which her soil, her productions and + her position, her population and her spirit have designed her.” + +Finally--after Bantry Bay, the Texel, and Lough Swilly--Tone before his +judges thus testified to his faith as a Separatist: + + “I mean not to give you the trouble of bringing judicial proof + to convict me, legally, of having acted in hostility to the + Government of his Britannic Majesty in Ireland. I admit the + fact. From my earliest youth I have regarded the connection + between Ireland and Great Britain as the curse of the Irish + nation, and felt convinced that, whilst it lasted, this country + could never be free nor happy. My mind has been confirmed in + this opinion by the experience of every succeeding year, and the + conclusions which I have drawn from every fact before my eyes. + In consequence, I determined to apply all the powers which my + individual efforts could move in order to separate the two + countries. + + “That Ireland was not able, of herself, to throw off the yoke, I + knew. I therefore sought for aid wherever it was to be found. In + honourable poverty I rejected offers which, to a man in my + circumstances, might be considered highly advantageous. I + remained faithful to what I thought the cause of my country, and + sought in the French Republic an ally to rescue three millions + of my countrymen from....” + +Here the prisoner was interrupted by the President of the Court-Martial. + + + III + +In order to complete this brief study of Tone’s teaching it is necessary +to consider him as a democrat. And Tone, the greatest of modern Irish +Separatists, is the first and greatest of modern Irish democrats. It was +Tone that said: + + “Our independence must be had at all hazards. If the men of + property will not support us, they must fall: we can support + ourselves by the aid of that numerous and respectable class of + the community--_the men of no property_.” + +In this glorious appeal to Cæsar modern Irish democracy has its origin. + +I have already quoted the secret Manifesto to the Friends of Freedom, +attributed to Tone, in which the right to national freedom is made to +rest on its true basis, the right to individual freedom. The abstract +theory of freedom was not further developed by Tone, who devoted his +life to the pursuit of a practical object rather than to the working out +of a philosophy. When, however, any question arose which involved the +relations of a democracy and an aristocracy, of the people and the +gentry (“as they affect to call themselves”), of the “men of no +property” and the “men of property,” Tone’s decision was instant and +unerring. The people must rule; if the aristocracy make common cause +with the people, so much the better; if not, woe to the aristocracy. One +passage from his Journal, under date April 27th, 1798, says all that +need be said as to the practical question of dealing with a hostile +aristocracy in a national revolution: + + “What miserable slaves are the gentry of Ireland! The only + accusation brought against the United Irishmen by their enemies, + is that they wish to break the connection with England, or, in + other words, to establish the independence of their country--an + object in which surely the men of property are most interested. + Yet the very sound of independence seems to have terrified them + out of all sense, spirit, or honesty. If they had one drop of + Irish blood in their veins, one grain of true courage or genuine + patriotism in their hearts, they should have been the first to + support this great object; the People would have supported them; + the English government would never have dared to attempt the + measures they have since triumphantly pursued, and continue to + pursue; our Revolution would have been accomplished without a + shock, or perhaps one drop of blood spilled; which now can + succeed, if it does succeed, only by all the calamities of a + most furious and sanguinary contest: for the war in Ireland, + whenever it does take place, will not be an ordinary one. The + armies will regard each other not as soldiers, but as deadly + enemies. Who, then, are to blame for this? The United Irishmen, + who set the question afloat, or the English government and their + partisans, the Irish gentry, who resist it? If independence be + good for a country as liberty for an individual, the question + will be soon decided. Why does England so pertinaciously resist + our independence? Is it for love of us--is it because _she_ + thinks _we_ are better as we are? That single argument, if it + stood alone, should determine every honest Irishman. + + “But, it will be said, the United Irishmen extend their views + farther; they go now to a distribution of property, and an + agrarian law. I know not whether they do or no. I am sure in + June 1795 when I was forced to leave the country, they + entertained no such ideas. If they have since taken root among + them, the Irish gentry may accuse themselves. Even then they + made themselves parties to the business: not content with + disdaining to hold communications with the United Irishmen, they + were among the foremost of their persecutors; even those who + were pleased to denominate themselves patriots were more eager + to vilify, and, if they could, to degrade them, than the most + devoted and submissive slaves of the English Government. What + wonder if the leaders of the United Irishmen, finding themselves + not only deserted, but attacked by those who, for every reason, + should have been their supporters and fellow-labourers, felt + themselves no longer called upon to observe any measures with + men only distinguished by the superior virulence of their + persecuting spirit? If such men, in the issue, lose their + property, they are themselves alone to blame, by deserting the + first and most sacred of duties--the duty to their country. They + have incurred a wilful forfeiture by disdaining to occupy the + station they might have held among the People, and which the + People would have been glad to see them fill; they left a + vacancy to be seized by those who had more courage, more sense, + and more honesty; and not only so, but by this base and + interested desertion they furnished their enemies with every + argument of justice, policy, and interest, to enforce the system + of confiscation. + + * * * * * + + “The best that can be said in palliation of the conduct of the + English party, is that they are content to sacrifice the liberty + and independence of their country to the pleasure of revenge, + and their own personal security. They see Ireland only in their + rent rolls, their places, their patronage, and their pensions. + There is not a man among them who, in the bottom of his soul, + does not feel that he is a degraded being in comparison of those + whom he brands with the names of incendiaries and traitors. It + is this stinging reflection which, among other powerful motives, + is one of the most active in spurring them on to revenge. Their + dearest interests, their warmest passions, are equally engaged. + Who can forgive the man that forces him to confess that he is a + voluntary slave, and that he has sold for money everything that + should be most precious to an honourable heart? that he has + trafficked in the liberties of his children and his own, and + that he is hired and paid to commit a daily parricide on his + country? Yet these are the charges which not a man of that + infamous caste can deny to himself before the sacred tribunal of + his own conscience. At least the United Irishmen, as I have + already said, have a grand, a sublime object in view. Their + enemies have not as yet ventured, in the long catalogue of their + accusations, to insert the charge of interested motives. Whilst + that is the case they may be feared and abhorred, but they can + never be despised; and I believe there are few men who do not + look upon contempt as the most insufferable of all human evils. + Can the English faction say as much? In vain do they crowd + together, and think by their numbers to disguise or lessen their + infamy. The public sentiment, the secret voice of their own + corrupt hearts, has already condemned them. They see their + destruction rapidly approaching, and they have the consciousness + that when they fall no honest man will pity them. _They shall + perish like their own dung; those who have seen them shall say, + Where are they?_” + +Tone did not propose any general confiscation of private property other +than the property of Englishmen in Ireland, and this only after +proclamation to the English people, as distinct from the English +Government, stating the grounds of the action of the Irish nation and +declaring their earnest desire to avoid the effusion of blood; if, after +such proclamation, the English people supported the English Government +in war upon Ireland, Tone held that the confiscation of English property +“would then be an act of strict justice, as the English people would +have made themselves parties to the war.” Emmet’s proposals in 1803 are +a fuller and more detailed expression of the mind of revolutionary +Ireland on the subject of property. The first decree drafted by Emmet +for his Provisional Government was that “tithes are forever abolished, +and church lands are the property of the nation”; the second laid down +that “from this date all transfers of landed property are prohibited, +each person paying his rent until the National Government is +established, the national will declared, and the courts of justice be +organised”; the third made a like provision with regard to the transfer +of bonds and securities; and the fifth decreed the confiscation of the +property of Irishmen in the Militia, Yeomanry, or Volunteer corps who, +after fourteen days, should be found in arms against the Republic. When +we speak of men like Tone and Emmet as “visionaries” and “idealists” we +regard only one side of their minds. Both were extraordinarily able men +of affairs, masters of all the details of the national, social, and +economic positions in their day; and both would have been ruthless in +revolution, shedding exactly as much blood as would have been necessary +to their purpose. Both, however, were Nationalists first, and +revolutionists only in so far as revolution was essential to the +establishment of the nation. “We war not against property,” said Emmet +in his proclamation, “we war against no religious sect, we war not +against past opinions or prejudices--we war against English dominion.” + +One is now in a position to sum up Tone’s teaching in a series of +propositions: + + 1. The Irish Nation is One. + + 2. The Irish Nation, like all Nations, has an indefeasible right + to Freedom. + + 3. Freedom denotes Separation and Sovereignty. + + 4. The right to National Freedom rests upon the right to Personal + Freedom, and true National Freedom guarantees true Personal + Freedom. + + 5. The object of Freedom is the pursuit of the happiness of the + Nation and of the individuals that compose the Nation. + + 6. Freedom is necessary to the happiness and prosperity of the + Nation. In the particular case of Ireland, Separation from + England is necessary not only to the happiness and prosperity + but almost to the continued existence of Ireland, inasmuch as + the interests of Ireland and England are fundamentally at + variance, and while the two nations are connected England must + necessarily predominate. + + 7. The National Sovereignty implied in National Freedom holds good + both externally and internally, _i.e._, the sovereign rights of + the Nation are good as against all other nations and good as + against all parts of the Nation. Hence-- + + 8. The Nation has jurisdiction over lives and property within the + Nation. + + 9. The People are the Nation. + +All this Tone taught, not in the dull pages of a treatise, but in the +living phrases that dropped from him in his conversation, in his +correspondence, in his diaries, in his impassioned pleas for his nation +to the Executive Directory of France. Some of the greatest teachers have +been literary men only incidentally; but their teaching has none the +less the splendour of great literary utterance. The masters of +literature do not always label themselves. When a great soul utters a +great truth have we not always great literature? That is why the true +gospels of the world are always true literature. Those who have preached +the divine worth of faith and justice and charity and freedom have done +so in glorious and imperishable words: and the reason is that God speaks +through them. + +That God spoke to Ireland through Tone and through those who, after +Tone, have taken up his testimony, that Tone’s teaching and theirs is +true and great and that no other teaching as to Ireland has any truth or +worthiness at all, is a thing upon which I stake all my mortal and all +my immortal hopes. And I ask the men and women of my generation to stake +their mortal and immortal hopes with me. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + THE SPIRITUAL NATION + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + PREFACE + + +This Tract continues and develops the argument commenced in “Ghosts,” +and pursued in “The Separatist Idea,” and should be read in connection +with those Tracts (which form Nos. 10 and 11 of this series). It is not +to be taken as an attempt to represent the whole of Davis’s mind or to +summarise the whole of his teaching. I consider him here chiefly as one +of the Separatist voices. + + P. H. PEARSE. + +ST. ENDA’S COLLEGE, + RATHFARNHAM, + 13th February, 1916. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + THE SPIRITUAL NATION + + + I + +I have said that all Irish nationality is implicit in the definition of +Tone, and that later teachers have simply made one or other of its +truths explicit. It was characteristic of Tone that he stated his case +in terms of practical politics. But the statement was none the less a +complete statement. To claim independence as the indefeasible right of +Ireland is to claim everything for Ireland, all spiritual exaltation and +all worldly pomp to which she is entitled. Independence one must +understand to include spiritual and intellectual independence as well as +political independence; or rather, true political independence requires +spiritual and intellectual independence as its basis, or it tends to +become unstable, a thing resting merely on interests which change with +time and circumstance. + +I make a distinction between spiritual and intellectual independence +corresponding to the distinction which exists between the spiritual and +the intellectual parts in man. The distinction is not easy to express, +but it is a real distinction. The soul is not the mind, though it acts +by way of the mind, and it is through the mind one gets such glimpses of +the soul as are possible. Obviously, a great and beautiful soul may +sometimes have to express itself through a very ordinary mind, and a +mean or a wicked soul may sometimes express itself through a regal mind; +and these possibilities are full of confusion for us, so that when we +think we know a man, it is sometimes only his intellect we know, the +dialectician or the rhetorician or the idiot in him, and not the strange +immortal thing behind. We can learn to know a man’s mind, but we can +rarely be quite sure that we know his soul. That is a book which only +God reads plainly. + +Now I think that one may speak of a national soul and of a national +mind, and distinguish one from the other, and that this is not merely +figurative speaking. When I was a child I believed that there was +actually a woman called Erin, and had Mr. Yeats’ “Kathleen Ni Houlihan” +been then written and had I seen it, I should have taken it not as an +allegory, but as a representation of a thing that might happen any day +in any house. This I no longer believe as a physical possibility, nor +can I convince myself that a friend of mine is right in thinking that +there is actually a mystical entity which is the soul of Ireland, and +which expresses itself through the mind of Ireland. But I believe that +there is really a spiritual tradition which is the soul of Ireland, the +thing which makes Ireland a living nation, and that there is such a +spiritual tradition corresponding to every true nationality. This +spiritual thing is distinct from the intellectual facts in which chiefly +it makes its revelation, and it is distinct from them in a way analogous +to that in which a man’s soul is distinct from his mind. Like other +spiritual things, it is independent of the material, whereas the mind is +to a large extent dependent upon the material. + +I have sometimes thought (but I do not put this forward as a settled +belief which I am prepared to defend) that spiritually England and the +United States are one nation, while intellectually they are apart. I am +sure that spiritually the Walloons of Belgium are one nation with the +French, and that spiritually the Austrians are one nation with the +Germans. The spiritual thing which is the essential thing in nationality +would seem to reside chiefly in language (if by language we understand +literature and folklore as well as sounds and idioms), and to be +preserved chiefly by language; but it reveals itself in all the arts, +all the institutions, all the inner life, all the actions and goings +forth of the nation. It expresses itself fully and magnificently in a +great free nation like ancient Greece or modern Germany; it expresses +itself only partially and unworthily in an enslaved nation like Ireland. +But the soul of the enslaved and broken nation may conceivably be a more +splendid thing than the soul of the great free nation; and that is one +reason why the enslavements of old and glorious nations that have taken +place so often in history are the most terrible things that have ever +happened in the world. + +If nationality be regarded as the sum of the facts, spiritual and +intellectual, which mark off one nation from another, and freedom as the +condition which allows those facts full scope and development, it will +be seen that both the spiritual and intellectual fact, nationality, and +the physical condition, freedom, enter into a proper definition of +independence or nationhood. Freedom is a condition which can be lost and +won and lost again; nationality is a life which, if once lost, can never +be recovered. A nation is a stubborn thing, very hard to kill; but a +dead nation does not come back to life, any more than a dead man. There +will never again be a Ligurian nation, nor an Aztec nation, nor a +Cornish nation. + +Irish nationality is an ancient spiritual tradition, and the Irish +nation could not die as long as that tradition lived in the heart of one +faithful man or woman. But had the last repositor of the Gaelic +tradition, the last unconquered Gael, died, the Irish nation was no +more. Any free state that might thereafter be erected in Ireland, +whatever it might call itself, would certainly not be the historic Irish +nation. + +Davis was the first of modern Irishmen to make explicit the truth that a +nationality is a spirituality. Tone had postulated the great primal +truth that Ireland must be free. Davis, accepting that and developing +it, stated the truth in its spiritual aspect, that Ireland must be +herself; not merely a free self-governing state, but authentically the +Irish nation, bearing all the majestic marks of her nationhood. That the +nation may live, the Irish life, both the inner life and the outer life, +must be conserved. Hence the language, which is the main repository of +the Irish life, the folklore, the literature, the music, the art, the +social customs, must be conserved. Davis fully realised, with the Gaelic +poets, that a nationality connotes a civilisation, and that a +civilisation is a body of traditions. He is thus the lineal ancestor of +the spiritual movement embodied in our day in the Gaelic League. Tone +had set the feet of Ireland on a steep; Davis bade her in her journey +remember her old honour and her old sanctity, the fame of Tara and of +Clonmacnois. Tone is the Irish nation in action, gay and heroic and +terrible; Davis stands by the nation’s hearthside, a faithful sentinel. + +Ireland is one. Tone had insisted upon the political unity of Ireland. +Davis thought of Ireland as a spiritual unity. He recognised that the +thing which makes her one is her history, that all her men and women are +the heirs of a common past, a past full of spiritual, emotional, and +intellectual experiences, which knits them together indissolubly. The +nation is thus not a mere agglomeration of individuals, but a living, +organic thing, with a body and a soul; twofold in nature, like man, yet +one. + +Davis’s teaching on this head is resumed thus in one of his most lyric +paragraphs: + + “This country of ours is no sand bank, thrown up by some recent + caprice of earth. It is an ancient land, honoured in the + archives of civilisation, traceable into antiquity by its piety, + its valour, and its sufferings. Every great European race has + sent its stream to the river of Irish mind. Long wars, vast + organisations, subtle codes, beacon crimes, leading virtues, and + self-mighty men were here. If we live influenced by wind and sun + and tree, and not by the passions and deeds of the past, we are + a thriftless and a hopeless people.” + +And in another passage he gives the Gaelic League its watchwords: + + “Men are ever valued most for peculiar and original qualities. A + man who can only talk commonplace, and act according to routine, + has little weight. To speak, look, and do what your own soul + from its depths orders you are credentials of greatness which + all men understand and acknowledge. Such a man’s dictum has more + influence than the reasoning of an imitative or common-place + man. He fills his circle with confidence. He is self-possessed, + firm, accurate, and daring. Such men are the pioneers of + civilisation and the rulers of the human heart. + + “Why should not nations be judged thus? Is not a full indulgence + of its natural tendencies essential to a _people’s_ + greatness?... + + “The language which grows up with a people is conformed to their + organs, descriptive of their climate, constitution, and manners, + mingled inseparably with their history and their soil, fitted + beyond any other language to express their prevalent thoughts in + the most natural and efficient way. + + “To impose another language on such a people is to send their + history adrift among the accidents of translation--’tis to tear + their identity from all places--’tis to substitute arbitrary + signs for picturesque and suggestive names--’tis to cut off the + entail of feeling, and separate the people from their + forefathers by a deep gulf--’tis to corrupt their very organs, + and abridge their power of expression. + + “The language of a nation’s youth is the only easy and full + speech for its manhood and for its age. And when the language of + its cradle goes, itself craves a tomb.... + + “A people without a language of its own is only half a nation. A + nation should guard its language more than its territories--’tis + a surer barrier, and more important frontier, than fortress or + river.” + +The insistence on the spiritual fact of nationality is Davis’s +distinctive contribution to political thought in Ireland, but it is not +the whole of Davis. It has become common to regard him as the type of +the “intellectual Nationalist,” who is distinguished from that other and +more troublesome person, the political irreconcilable. And there is a +passage of Gavan Duffy’s which lends countenance to this. But the view +is a false one as regards Davis and a false one as regards the +irreconcilables. Davis accepts the political doctrine of the +irreconcilables, and the irreconcilables accept the spiritual teaching +of Davis. The two teachings are facets of one truth. And Davis saw the +whole truth. He saw that Ireland must be independent of England. It is +necessary for me to prove this. + + + II + +First to brush away a cobweb. It has been maintained that Davis would +have been satisfied with what is called a Federal settlement. The only +authority for this view seems to be the following passage in Gavan +Duffy’s _Young Ireland_: “Some of them [the “moderate men” who are +always with us] came to the conclusion that an Irish Legislature for +purely Irish purposes, as a sort of chapel of ease to the Imperial +Parliament, ought to be demanded. Mr. Sharman Crawford, on behalf of +himself and others unnamed, but understood to include members of both +Houses, announced that he desired the establishment of a Federal Union +between England and Ireland. He wished to see a ‘local body for the +purpose of local legislation, combined with an Imperial representation +for Imperial purposes’; and he considered that no ‘Act of the Imperial +Parliament having a separate action as regards Ireland should be a law +in Ireland unless passed or confirmed by her own legislative body.’ It +is a fact worthy to be pondered on that Davis was favourable to this +experiment. He desired and would have fought for independence, but he +was so little of what in later times has been called ‘an +irreconcilable,’ that such an alternative was not the first, but the +last, resource he contemplated. He desired to unite and elevate the +whole nation, and he would have accepted Federation as the scheme most +likely to accustom and reconcile Protestants to self-government, and as +a sure step towards legislative independence in the end.” + +Thus Duffy on Davis. In a moment we shall let Davis speak for himself. + +When Davis, in 1842, leaped into his place in Irish politics as the +chief influence on the staff of the _Nation_, all Ireland was organised +in the greatest constitutional movement and under the greatest +constitutional leader known to history. The demand of that movement was +for Repeal of the Union. Separatism was only an inarticulate faith of +the common people, remembered for the rest by a few noble old men like +Robert Holmes, by a few fiery exiles like Miles Byrne. The _Nation_ +ranged itself under O’Connell’s banner, though from the beginning its +writers descried a wider horizon than O’Connell ever did or could. In +1843 O’Connell made what Duffy calls the “portentous” announcement that +he felt “a preference for the Federative plan, as tending more to the +utility of Ireland and the maintenance of the connection with England +than the proposal of simple Repeal.” Davis was away from Dublin, but +Duffy, in a personal letter to O’Connell, which he printed as a leading +article in the _Nation_, objected to the change of policy foreshadowed, +and insisted that “the Repeal Association had no more right to alter the +constitution on which its members were recruited than the Irish +Parliament had to surrender its functions without consulting its +constituents.” When Davis returned to town he “cordially accepted,” says +Duffy, the policy of resistance. + +Davis soon spoke in the _Nation_. He welcomed the overtures of the +Federalists, but as to his own position and the _Nation’s_ position he +had no doubt. He settled it in one sentence: + + “Let the Federalists be an independent and respected party, the + repealers an unbroken league--our stand is with the latter.” + +So that, as between Federalism and Repeal, Davis defined himself a +Repealer. But was he not something more? + +Davis died before Young Ireland had reached its full political stature +or found its full political voice. Just as the United Irishmen spoke +first the language of constitutionalism, so did the Young Irelanders. +Davis, as their spokesman, spoke their official language, but he hinted, +and more than hinted, at a fuller utterance. Mitchel, who took up +Davis’s post in 1845, spoke the fuller utterance, but at his fullest he +said nothing that had not been just as fully implied by Davis. For Davis +was a Separatist. + +Davis wrote of Tone that he was “the wisest ... of our last generation.” +And he applied the adjective “wise” to Tone in contradistinction to +Grattan, whom in the same sentence he called “the most sublime” of the +last generation. Now, Tone was the Separatist and Grattan was the +British-Connectionist. When Davis wrote of Tone that he was wiser than +Grattan he did not mean that he was more worldly-wise, that he was an +abler business man; for Tone died a pauper and Grattan died wealthy; +Tone died in a dungeon and his body with difficulty obtained Christian +burial, Grattan was buried with pomp in Westminster Abbey. Davis meant +that Tone was a wiser statesman than Grattan, that Separation was a +wiser policy for Ireland than British-Connectionism. And he meant that +he, Davis, was a disciple of Tone. + +In the light of this recognition such a passage as the following, which +were otherwise mere froth and foam, becomes full of substance: + + “This is the history of two years never surpassed in importance + and honour. This is a history which our sons shall pant over and + envy. This is a history which pledges us to perseverance. This + is a history which guarantees success. + + “Energy, patience, generosity, skill, tolerance, enthusiasm, + created and decked the agitation. The world attended us with its + thoughts and prayers. The graceful genius of Italy and the + profound intellect of Germany paused to wish us well. The fiery + heart of France tolerated our unarmed effort, and proferred its + aid. America sent us money, thought, love--she made herself a + part of Ireland in her passions and her organisations. From + London to the wildest settlement which throbs in the tropics or + shivers nigh the Pole, the empire of our mis-ruler was shaken by + our effort. To all earth we proclaimed our wrongs. To man and + God we made oath that we would never cease to strive till an + Irish nation stood supreme on this island. The genius which had + organised us, the energy which laboured, the wisdom that taught, + the manhood which rose up, the patience which obeyed, the faith + which swore, and the valour that strained for action, are here + still, experienced, recruited, resolute. + + “The future shall realise the promise of the past.” + +This is Davis’s passionate appeal to his own; and here is how he talks +to the enemy: + + “And if England will do none of these things, will she allow us, + for good or ill, to govern ourselves, and see if we cannot + redress our own griefs? ‘No, never, never,’ she says, ‘though + all Ireland cried for it--never! Her fields shall be manured + with the shattered limbs of her sons, and her hearths quenched + in their blood; but never, while England has a ship or a + soldier, shall Ireland be free.’ + + “And this is your answer? We shall see--we shall see! + + “And now, Englishmen, listen to us! Though you were to-morrow to + give us the best tenures on earth--though you were to equalise + Presbyterian, Catholic, and Episcopalian--though you were to + give us the amplest representation in your Senate--though you + were to restore our absentees, disencumber us of your debt, and + redress every one of our fiscal wrongs--and though, in addition + to all this, you plundered the treasuries of the world to lay + gold at our feet, and exhausted the resources of your genius to + do us worship and honour--still we tell you--we tell you, in the + names liberty and country--we tell you, in the name of + enthusiastic hearts, thoughtful souls, and fearless spirits--we + tell you, by the past, the present, and the future, we would + spurn your gifts, if the condition were that Ireland should + remain a province. We tell you, and all whom it may concern, + come what may--bribery or deceit, justice, policy, or war--we + tell you, in the name of Ireland, that Ireland shall be a + nation!” + +Now, when Davis told England that, come bribery or deceit, justice, +policy, or war, _Ireland shall be a nation_; when Davis reminded the men +of Ireland that they had sworn “never to cease to strive until ‘_an +Irish nation stood supreme on this island_,’” he meant what he said. By +an Irish nation “standing supreme” he did really mean a Sovereign Irish +State living her own life, mistress of her own destinies, defending her +own shores, with her ambassadors in foreign capitals and her flag on the +seas. He tells us that he meant this. The most important of Davis’s +political articles are those in which he develops a foreign policy for +Ireland. And the most significant passage in all Davis’s political +writings is this (the italics are his own): + + “Again, it is peculiarly needful for _Ireland_ to have a Foreign + Policy. Intimacy with the great powers will guard us from + English interference. Many of the minor German States were too + deficient in numbers, boundaries, and wealth to have outstood + the despotic ages of Europe, but for those foreign alliances, + which, whether resting on friendship or a desire to preserve the + balance of power, secured them against their rapacious + neighbours. And now time has given its sanction to their + continuance, and the progress of localisation guarantees their + future safety. When Ireland is a nation she will not, with her + vast population and her military character, require such + alliances as a _security_ against English _re-conquest_; but + they will be useful in banishing any _dreams of invasion_ which + might _otherwise_ haunt the brain of our old enemy.” + +As a Separatist utterance this is as plenary as anything in Tone. The +“Irish nation” contemplated by Davis pre-supposed the breaking of the +English connection, for it was to have military resources sufficient to +guard against “an English _re-conquest_,” and was to seek foreign +alliances in order to banish any “_dreams of invasion_” cherished by +“our old enemy.” + +To Davis, as to Tone, England was “the enemy.” Davis was as anti-English +as Tone, and, for all his gentleness and charity, more bitter in the +expression of his anti-Englishism than Tone was. To him the English +language was “a mongrel of a thousand breeds.” Modern English literature +was “surpassed” by French literature. + + “France is an apostle of liberty--England the turnkey of the + world. France is the old friend, England the old foe, of + Ireland. From one we may judge all. England has defamed _all + other countries_ in order to make us and her other slaves + content in our fetters.” + +Davis saw as clearly as Tone saw that the English connection is the +never-failing source of Ireland’s political evils, and he stated his +perception as clearly as Tone did. + + “He who fancies some intrinsic objection to our nationality to + lie in the co-existence of two languages, three or four great + sects, and a dozen different races in Ireland, will learn that + in Hungary, Switzerland, Belgium, and America, different + languages, creeds, and races flourish kindly side by side, and + he will seek in English intrigues the real well of the bitter + woes of Ireland.” + +Again: + + “Germany, France, and America teach us that English economics + are not fit for a nation beginning to establish a trade, though + they may be for an old and plethoric trader; and, therefore, + that English and Irish trading interests are directly opposed.” + +Yet again: + + “The land tenures of France, Norway and Prussia are the reverse + of England’s. They resemble our own old tenures; they better + suit our character and our wants than the loose holdings and + servile wages system of modern England.” + +And finally: + + “We must believe and act up to the lesson taught by reason and + history, that England is our interested and implacable enemy--a + tyrant to her dependants--a calumniator of her neighbours, and + both the despot and the defamer of Ireland for near seven + centuries.” + +It has thus been established, and established by his own words, first, +that as between Federalism and Repeal Davis was a Repealer: but, +secondly, that as between Repeal and Separation Davis was a Separatist. +In other words, he held the national position which Tone held, which +Lalor and Mitchel held, which the Fenians held, which the Irish +Volunteers hold. The fact that he would have accepted and worked on with +Repeal in no wise derogates from his status as a Separatist, any more +than the fact that many of us would have accepted Home Rule (or even +Devolution) and worked on with it derogates from our status as +Separatists. Home Rule to us would have been a means to an end: Repeal +to Davis would have been a means to an end. + +In one of the phrases in which such men as he give watchwords to the +generations, a phrase which strangely anticipates the most famous of +Parnell’s phrases, Davis tells us what that end was: + + “Ireland’s aspiration is for unbounded nationality.” + +I have shown what he meant by “unbounded nationality”; he meant +sovereign nationhood, he meant spiritual, intellectual, and political +independence. The word “nationality” I have used here and elsewhere for +the inner thing which is a nation’s soul, and the word “nationhood” I +have made to include both that inner thing and the outer status, +political independence. It is obvious that Davis uses the term +“nationality” in the sense in which I use the term “nationhood,” for if +he meant only the inner spiritual thing his phrase would be meaningless. + +In order to the proper adjustment of values we may now usefully set +down: + +First, that the Federalism with which O’Connell dallied for a moment, +but which Davis and Young Ireland protested against and O’Connell +promptly disowned, abandoning it, indeed, with the contemptuous phrase: +“federalism is not worth _that_” (snapping his fingers), contemplated a +domestic Irish legislature to deal with domestic Irish affairs, adequate +Irish representation in an Imperial Parliament, and _power of veto in +the Irish Parliament over acts of the Imperial Parliament having a +separate action as regards Ireland_. It was thus a vastly bigger thing +than modern Home Rule, which reserves everything of real importance from +the jurisdiction of the Irish Parliament, which, far from giving the +Irish Parliament a veto over the acts of the Imperial Parliament +regarding Ireland, gives the Imperial Parliament a veto over all acts of +the Irish Parliament, and which preserves intact the power of the +Imperial Parliament to pass all sorts of laws binding Ireland and to +impose all sorts of taxation on Ireland, the Irish representation in the +Imperial Parliament to be a negligible quantity. + +Secondly, that the Repeal of the Union, which, apart from his momentary +aberration into Federalism, was O’Connell’s life-long demand, +contemplated a Sovereign Irish Parliament co-ordinate with the English +Parliament and with absolute control of Irish taxation; and while there +was to be a common king, army, navy, and foreign policy, not a penny was +to be raised from Ireland for the financing of those concerns except by +the vote of the Irish Parliament. It will be seen that Repeal was as +much a bigger thing than the Home Rule of 1914 as O’Connell was a +greater man than Mr. Redmond. Repeal contemplated a sovereign +co-ordinate Parliament; Home Rule specifically contemplated a +subordinate Parliament. Under Repeal the Imperial Parliament would have +had no jurisdiction over any man of Ireland, over any sod of Ireland’s +soil, over any shilling of Ireland’s money; under Home Rule the +jurisdiction of the Imperial Parliament over these things and all other +things in Ireland was to have been absolute, for the Act laid down +(Clause One) that “the supreme power and authority of the Parliament of +the United Kingdom shall remain unaffected and undiminished over all +persons, matters and things in Ireland, and every part thereof.” + +Thirdly, that even the noble and semi-independent status which would +have been secured to Ireland by Repeal was not sufficient for Tone, who +rose against the very constitution which Repeal sought to restore; for +Davis, who aspired to “unbounded nationality”; for Lalor, whose object +was “not to repeal the Union but the conquest,” and who “for Repeal had +never gone into agitation and would never go into insurrection”; for +Mitchel, who, far from accepting that partnership in the British Empire +on which Repeal was founded, avowed it as his aim in life to utterly +destroy the British Empire. What was it that these men wanted? They +wanted Separation; they wanted “to BREAK the connection with England, +the never-failing source of all our political evils.” Davis’s +principles, then, were Tone’s; and as to methods. That Davis would have +achieved Irish nationhood by peaceful means if he could, is undoubted. +Let it not be a reproach against Davis. Obviously, if a nation can +obtain its freedom without bloodshed, it is its duty so to obtain it. +Those of us who believe that, in the circumstances of Ireland, it is not +possible to obtain our freedom without bloodshed will admit thus much. +If England, after due pressure, were to say to us, “Here, take Ireland,” +no one would be so foolish as to answer, “No, we’d rather fight you for +it.” But things like that do not happen. One must fight, or at least be +ready to fight. And Davis knew this: + + “The tribune’s tongue and poet’s pen + May sow the seed in slavish men; + But ’tis the soldier’s sword alone + Can reap the harvest when ’tis grown.” + +And Davis was ready to fight. No one knew better than he that England +would yield only to force or the threat of force; and that England, +having once yielded, could be held to her bargain only by force. The +nation that he visioned was to be an armed nation; and armed for the +precise purpose of preventing any “reconquest” by England. No one saw +more clearly than Davis that Ireland made her mistake of mistakes when +her Volunteers abdicated their arms. Referring to Madden’s defence of +Grattan against Flood on the question of Simple Repeal, Davis writes: + + “This is unanswerable, but Grattan should have gone further. The + revolution was effected mainly by the Volunteers, whom he had + inspired; arms could alone have preserved the constitution. + Flood was wrong in setting value on one form--Grattan in relying + on any; but before and after ’82 Flood seems to have had + glimpses that the question was one of might, as well as of + right, and that national laws could not last under such an alien + army. + + “Taken as military representatives, the Convention at the + Rotunda was even more valuable than as a civic display. Mr. + Madden censures Grattan for having been an elaborate neutral + during these Reform dissensions; but that the result of _such_ + neutrality ruined the Convention proves the comparative want of + power in Flood, who could have governed that Convention in spite + of the rascally English and the feeble Irish Whigs. Oh, had Tone + been in that council!” + +The astonishing thing about Davis is that, writing in the still +constitutional _Nation_ of 1842-5, he was able to express his Separatist +faith so clearly, and to avow so openly his readiness to fight for that +faith. It took Duffy three years longer to reach the point which had +been reached in 1845 by his dead friend. + + + III + +If we accept the definition of Irish freedom as “the Rights of Man in +Ireland” we shall find it difficult to imagine an apostle of Irish +freedom who is not a democrat. One loves the freedom of men because one +loves men. There is therefore a deep humanism in every true Nationalist. +There was a deep humanism in Tone; and there was a deep humanism in +Davis. The sorrow of the people affected Davis like a personal sorrow. +He had more respect for aristocracy than Tone had (Tone had none), and +would have been less ruthless in a revolution than Tone would have been. +But he was a democrat in this truest sense, that he loved the people, +and his love of the people was an essential part of the man and of his +Nationalism. Even his rhetoric (for Davis, unlike Tone, was a little +rhetorical) cannot disguise the sincerity of such passages as this: + + “Think of the long, long patience of the people--their toils + supporting you--their virtues shaming you--their huts, their + hunger, their disease. + + “To whosoever God hath given a heart less cold than stone, these + truths must cry day and night. Oh! how they cross us like + Banshees when we would range free on the mountain--how, as we + walk in the evening light amid flowers, they startle us from + rest of mind! Ye nobles! whose houses are as gorgeous as the + mote’s (which dwelleth in the sunbeam)--ye strong and haughty + squires--ye dames exuberant with tingling blood--ye maidens whom + no splendour has yet spoiled, will ye not think of the poor?...” + +The real Davis must have been a greater man even than the Davis of the +essays, or the Davis of the songs. In literary expression Davis was +immature; in mind he was ripe beyond all his contemporaries. I cannot +call him a very great prose writer; I am not sure that I can call him a +poet at all. But I can call him a very great man, one of our greatest +men. None of his contemporaries had any doubt about his greatness. He +was the greatest influence among them, and the noblest influence; and he +has been the greatest and noblest influence in Irish history since Tone. +He was not Young Ireland’s most powerful prose writer: Mitchel was that. +He was not Young Ireland’s truest poet: Mangan was that, or, if not +Mangan, Ferguson. He was not Young Ireland’s ablest man of affairs: +Duffy was that. He was not Young Ireland’s most brilliant orator: +Meagher was that. Nevertheless, “Davis was our true leader,” said Duffy; +and when Davis died--the phrase is again Duffy’s--“it seemed as if the +sun had gone out of the heavens.” “The loss of this rare and noble +Irishman,” said Mitchel, “has never been repaired, neither to his +country nor to his friends.” What was it that made Davis so great in the +eyes of two such men, and two such different men, as Duffy and Mitchel? +It must have been the man’s immortal soul. The highest form of genius is +the genius for sanctity, the genius for noble life and thought. That +genius was Davis’s. Character is the greatest thing in a man; and +Davis’s character was such as the Apollo Belvidere is said to be in the +physical order--in his presence all men stood more erect. The Romans had +a noble word which summed up all moral beauty and all private and civic +valour: the word _virtus_. If English had as noble a word as that it +would be the word to apply to the thing which made Thomas Davis so great +a man. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + THE SOVEREIGN PEOPLE + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + PREFACE + + +This pamphlet concludes the examination of the Irish definition of +freedom which I promised in “Ghosts.” For my part, I have no more to +say. + + P. H. PEARSE. + +ST. ENDA’S COLLEGE, + RATHFARNHAM, + 31st March, 1916. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + THE SOVEREIGN PEOPLE + + + I + +National independence involves national sovereignty. National +sovereignty is twofold in its nature. It is both internal and external. +It implies the sovereignty of the nation over all its parts, over all +men and things within the nation; and it implies the sovereignty of the +nation as against all other nations. Nationality is a spiritual fact; +but nationhood includes physical freedom, and physical power in order to +the maintenance of physical freedom, as well as the spiritual fact of +nationality. This physical freedom is necessary to the healthy life, and +may even be necessary to the continued existence of the nation. Without +it the nation droops, withers, ultimately perhaps dies; only a very +steadfast nation, a nation of great spiritual and intellectual strength +like Ireland, can live for more than a few generations in its absence, +and without it even so stubborn a nation as Ireland would doubtless +ultimately perish. Physical freedom, in brief, is necessary to sane and +vigorous life; for physical freedom means precisely control of the +conditions that are necessary to sane and vigorous life. It is obvious +that these things are partly material, and that therefore national +freedom involves control of the material things which are essential to +the continued physical life and freedom of the nation. So that the +nation’s sovereignty extends not only to all the material possessions of +the nation, the nation’s soil and all its resources, all wealth and all +wealth-producing processes within the nation. In other words, no private +right to property is good as against the public right of the nation. But +the nation is under a moral obligation so to exercise its public right +as to secure strictly equal rights and liberties to every man and woman +within the nation. The whole is entitled to pursue the happiness and +prosperity of the whole, but this is to be pursued exactly for the end +that each of the individuals composing the whole may enjoy happiness and +prosperity, the maximum amount of happiness and prosperity consistent +with the happiness and prosperity of all the rest. + +One may reduce all this to a few simple propositions: + + 1. The end of freedom is human happiness. + + 2. The end of national freedom is individual freedom; therefore, + individual happiness. + + 3. National freedom implies national sovereignty. + + 4. National sovereignty implies control of all the moral and + material resources of the nation. + +I have insisted upon the spiritual fact of nationality; I have insisted +upon the necessity of physical freedom in order to the continued +preservation of that spiritual fact in a living people; I now insist +upon the necessity of complete control of the material resources of the +nation in order to the completeness of that physical freedom. And here I +think I give what has been called “the material basis of freedom” its +proper place and importance. A nation’s material resources are not the +nation, any more than a man’s food is the man; but the material +resources are as necessary to the nation’s life as the man’s food to the +man’s life. + +And I claim that the nation’s sovereignty over the nation’s material +resources is absolute; but that obviously such sovereignty must be +exercised for the good of the nation and without prejudice to the rights +of other nations, since national sovereignty, like everything else on +earth, is subject to the laws of morality. + +Now, the good of the nation means ultimately the good of the individual +men and women who compose the nation. Physically considered, what does a +nation consist of? It consists of its men and women; of all its men and +women, without any exceptions. Every man and every woman within the +nation has normally equal rights, but a man or a woman may forfeit his +or her rights by turning recreant to the nation. No class in the nation +has rights superior to those of any other class. No class in the nation +is entitled to privileges beyond any other class except with the consent +of the nation. The right and privilege to make laws or to administer +laws does not reside in any class within the nation; it resides in the +whole nation, that is, in the whole people, and can be lawfully +exercised only by those to whom it is delegated by the whole people. The +right to the control of the material resources of a nation does not +reside in any individual or in any class of individuals; it resides in +the whole people and can be lawfully exercised only by those to whom it +is delegated by the whole people, and in the manner in which the whole +people ordains. Once more, no individual right is good as against the +right of the whole people; but the people, in exercising its sovereign +rights, is morally bound to consider individual rights, to do equity +between itself and each of the individuals that compose it as well as to +see that equity is done between individual and individual. + +To insist upon the sovereign control of the nation over all the property +within the nation is not to disallow the right to private property. It +is for the nation to determine to what extent private property may be +held by its members, and in what items of the nation’s material +resources private property shall be allowed. A nation may, for instance, +determine, as the free Irish nation determined and enforced for many +centuries, that private ownership shall not exist in land; that the +whole of a nation’s soil is the public property of the nation. A nation +may determine, as many modern nations have determined, that all the +means of transport within a nation, all its railways and waterways, are +the public property of the nation to be administered by the nation for +the general benefit. A nation may go further and determine that all +sources of wealth whatsoever are the property of the nation, that each +individual shall give his service for the nation’s good, and shall be +adequately provided for by the nation, and that all surplus wealth shall +go to the national treasury to be expended on national purposes, rather +than be accumulated by private persons. There is nothing divine or +sacrosanct in any of these arrangements; they are matters of purely +human concern, matters for discussion and adjustment between the members +of a nation, matters to be decided upon finally by the nation as a +whole; and matters in which the nation as a whole can revise or reverse +its decision whenever it seems good in the common interests to do so. I +do not disallow the right to private property; but I insist that all +property is held subject to the national sanction. + +And I come back again to this: that the people are the nation; the whole +people, all its men and women; and that laws made or acts done by +anybody purporting to represent the people but not really authorised by +the people, either expressly or impliedly, to represent them and to act +for them do not bind the people; are a usurpation, an impertinence, a +nullity. For instance, a Government of capitalists, or a Government of +clerics, or a Government of lawyers, or a Government of tinkers, or a +Government of red-headed men, or a Government of men born on a Tuesday, +does not represent the people, and cannot bind the people, unless it is +expressly or impliedly chosen and accepted by the people to represent +and act for them; and in that case it becomes the lawful government of +the people, and continues such until the people withdraw their mandate. +Now, the people, if wise, will not choose the makers and administrators +of their laws on such arbitrary and fantastic grounds as the possession +of capital, or the possession of red heads, or the having been born on a +Tuesday; a Government chosen in such a manner, or preponderatingly +representing (even if not so deliberately chosen) capitalists, +red-headed men, or men born on a Tuesday will inevitably legislate and +govern in the interests of capitalists, red-headed men, or men born on a +Tuesday, as the case may be. The people, if wise, will choose as the +makers and administrators of their laws men and women actually and fully +representative of all the men and women of the nation, the men and women +of no property equally with the men and women of property; they will +regard such an accident as the possession of “property,” “capital,” +“wealth” in any shape, the possession of what is called “a stake in the +country,” as conferring no more right to represent the people than would +the accident of possessing a red head or the accident of having been +born on a Tuesday. And in order that the people may be able to choose as +a legislation and as a government men and women really and fully +representative of themselves, they will keep the choice actually or +virtually in the hands of the whole people; in other words, while, in +the exercise of their sovereign rights they may, if they will, delegate +the actual choice to some body among them, _i.e._, adopt a “restricted +franchise,” they will, if wise, adopt the widest possible +franchise--give a vote to every adult man and woman of sound mind. To +restrict the franchise in any respect is to prepare the way for some +future usurpation of the rights of the sovereign people. The people, +that is, the whole people, must remain sovereign not only in theory, but +in fact. + +I assert, then, the divine right of the people, “God’s grant to Adam and +his poor children for ever,” to have and to hold this good green earth. +And I assert the sovereignty and the sanctity of the nations, which are +the people embodied and organised. The nation is a natural division, as +natural as the family, and as inevitable. That is one reason why a +nation is holy and why an empire is not holy. A nation is knit together +by natural ties, ties mystic and spiritual, and ties human and kindly; +an empire is at best held together by ties of mutual interest, and at +worst by brute force. The nation is the family in large; an empire is a +commercial corporation in large. The nation is of God; the empire is of +man--if it be not of the devil. + + + II + +The democratic truths that I have just stated are implicit in Tone and +in Davis, though there was this difference between the two men, that +Tone had a manly contempt for “the gentry (as they affect to call +themselves),” while Davis had a little sentimental regard for them. But +Davis loved the people, as every Nationalist must love the people, +seeing that the people are the nation; his nationalism was not mere +devotion to an abstract idea, it was a devotion to the actual men and +women who make up this nation of Ireland, a belief in their rights, and +a resolve to establish them as the owners of Ireland and the masters of +all her destinies. There is no other sort of nationalism than this, the +nationalism which believes in and seeks to enthrone the sovereign +people. Tone had appealed to “that numerous and respectable class, the +men of no property,” and in that gallant and characteristic phrase he +had revealed his perception of a great historic truth, namely, that in +Ireland “the gentry (as they affect to call themselves)” have uniformly +been corrupted by England, and the merchants and middle-class +capitalists have, when not corrupted, been uniformly intimidated, +whereas the common people have for the most part remained unbought and +unterrified. It is, in fact, true that the repositories of the Irish +tradition, as well the spiritual tradition of nationality as the kindred +tradition of stubborn physical resistance to England, have been the +great, splendid, faithful, common people--that dumb multitudinous throng +which sorrowed during the penal night, which bled in ’98, which starved +in the Famine; and which is here still--what is left of it--unbought and +unterrified. Let no man be mistaken as to who will be lord in Ireland +when Ireland is free. The people will be lord and master. The people who +wept in Gethsemane, who trod the sorrowful way, who died naked on a +cross, who went down into hell, will rise again glorious and immortal, +will sit on the right hand of God, and will come in the end to give +judgment, a judge just and terrible. + +Tone sounded the gallant _reveillé_ of democracy in Ireland. The man who +gave it its battle-cries was James Fintan Lalor. Lalor was a fiery +spirit, as of some angelic missionary, imprisoned for a few years in a +very frail tenement, drawing his earthly breath in pain; but strong with +a great spiritual strength and gifted with a mind which had the +trenchant beauty of steel. What he had to say for his people (and for +all mankind) was said in a very few words. This gospel of the Sovereign +People that Fintan Lalor delivered is the shortest of the gospels; but +so precious is it, so pregnant with meaning in its every word, that to +express its sense one would have to quote it almost as it stands; which +indeed one could do in a tract a very little longer than this. No one +who wrote as little as Lalor has ever written so well. In his first +letter he laments that he has never learned the art of literary +expression; in “The Faith of a Felon” he says that he has all his life +been destitute of books. Commonly, it is by reading and writing that a +man learns to write greatly. Lalor, who had read little and written +nothing, wrote greatly from the moment he began to write. The Lord God +must have inspired the poor crippled recluse, for no mortal man could of +himself have uttered the things he uttered. + +James Fintan Lalor, in Duffy’s phrase, “announced himself” in Irish +politics in 1847, and he announced himself “with a voice of assured +confidence and authority.” In a letter to Duffy, which startled all the +Young Irelanders and which set Mitchel’s heart on fire, he declared +himself one of the people, one who therefore knew the people: and he +told the young men that there was neither strength nor even a +disposition among the people to carry on O’Connell’s Repeal, but that +there was strength in the people to carry national independence if +national independence were associated with something else. + + “A mightier question is in the land--one beside which Repeal + dwarfs down to a petty parish question; one on which Ireland may + not alone try her own right but try the right of the world; on + which she would be not merely an asserter of old principles, + often asserted, and better asserted before her, an humble and + feeble imitator and follower of other countries--but an original + inventor, propounder, and propagandist, in the van of the earth, + and heading the nations; on which her success or her failure + alike would never be forgotten by man, but would make her for + ever a lodestar of history; on which Ulster would be not ‘on her + flank’ but at her side, and on which, better and best of all, + she need not plead in humble petitions her beggarly wrongs and + how beggarly she bore them, nor plead any right save the right + of her MIGHT.... + + “Repeal may perish with all who support it sooner than I will + consent to be fettered on this question, or to connect myself + with any organised body that would ban or merge, in favour of + Repeal or any other measure, that greatest of all our rights on + this side of heaven--God’s grant to Adam and his poor children + for ever, when He sent them from Eden in His wrath and bid them + go work for their bread. Why should I name it?” + +His proposals as to means thrilled the young orators and debaters as the +ringing voice of an angel might thrill them: + + “As regards the use of none but legal means, any means and all + means might be made illegal by Act of Parliament, and such + pledge, therefore, is passive obedience. As to the pledge of + abstaining from the use of any but moral force, I am quite + willing to take such pledge, if, and provided, the English + Government agree to take it also; but ‘if not, not.’ Let England + pledge not to argue the question by the prison, the + convict-ship, or the halter; and I will readily pledge not to + argue it in any form of physical logic. But dogs tied and stones + loose are no bargain. Let the stones be given up; or unmuzzle + the wolf-dog....” + +At Duffy’s invitation Lalor developed his doctrines in two letters to +the _Nation_, one addressed to the landlords and one to the people. To +the landlords he spoke this ominous warning: + + “Refuse it [to be Irishmen], and you commit yourself to the + position of paupers, to the mercy of English Ministers and + English members; you throw your very existence on English + support, which England soon may find too costly to afford; you + lie at the feet of events; you lie in the way of a people and + the movement of events and the march of a people shall be over + you.” + +The essence of Lalor’s teaching is that the right to the material +ownership of a nation’s soil co-exists with the right to make laws for +the nation and that both are inherent in the same authority, the +Sovereign People. He held in substance that Separation from England +would be valueless unless it put the people--the actual people and not +merely certain rich men--of Ireland in effectual ownership and +possession of the soil of Ireland; as for a return to the _status quo_ +before 1800, it was to him impossible and unthinkable. When Mitchel’s +_United Irishman_ was suppressed in 1848, Martin’s _Irish Felon_, with +Lalor as its standard-bearer and spokesman, stepped into the breach; and +in an article entitled “The Rights of Ireland” in the first issue of +that paper (June 24, 1848) Lalor delivered the new gospel. A long +passage must be quoted in full; but it can be quoted without any +comment, for it is self-luminous: + + “Without agreement as to our objects we cannot agree on the + course we should follow. It is requisite the paper should have + but one purpose; and the public should understand what that + purpose is. Mine is not to repeal the Union, or restore + Eighty-two. This is not the year ’82, this is the year ’48. For + repeal I never went into ‘Agitation,’ and will not go into + insurrection. On that question, I refuse to arm, or to act in + any mode; and the country refuses. O’Connell made no mistake + when he pronounced it not worth the price of one drop of blood; + and for myself, I regret it was not left in the hands of + Conciliation Hall, whose lawful property it was, and is. Moral + force and repeal, the means and the purpose, were just fitted to + each other--_Arcades ambo_, balmy Arcadians both. When the means + were limited, it was only proper and necessary to limit the + purpose. When the means were enlarged, that purpose ought to + have been enlarged also. Repeal, in its vulgar meaning, I look + on as utterly impracticable by any mode of action whatever; and + the constitution of ’82 was absurd, worthless, and worse than + worthless. The English Government will never concede or + surrender to any species of moral force whatsoever; and the + country-peasantry will never arm and fight for it--neither will + I. If I am to stake life and fame, it must assuredly be for + something better and greater, more likely to last, more likely + to succeed, and better worth success. And a stronger passion, a + higher purpose, a nobler and more needful enterprise is + fermenting in the hearts of the people. A mightier question + moves Ireland to-day than that of merely repealing the Act of + Union. Not the constitution that Wolfe Tone died to abolish, but + the constitution that Tone died to obtain--independence; full + and absolute independence for this island, and for every man + within this island. Into no movement that would leave an enemy’s + garrison in possession of all our lands, masters of our + liberties, our lives, and all our means of life and + happiness--into no such movement will a single man of the + greycoats enter with an armed hand, whatever the town population + may do. On a wider fighting field, with stronger positions and + greater resources than are afforded by the paltry question of + Repeal, must we close for our final struggle with England, or + sink and surrender. + + “Ireland her own--Ireland her own, and all therein, from the sod + to the sky. The soil of Ireland for the people of Ireland, to + have and hold from God alone who gave it--to have and to hold to + them and their heirs for ever, without suit or service, faith or + fealty, rent or render, to any power under Heaven.... When a + greater and more ennobling enterprise is on foot, every inferior + and feebler project or proceeding will soon be left in the hands + of old women, of dastards, imposters, swindlers, and imbeciles. + All the strength and manhood of the island--all the courage, + energies, and ambition--all the passion, heroism, and + chivalry--all the strong men and strong minds--all those that + make revolutions will quickly desert it, and throw themselves + into the greater movement, throng into the larger and loftier + undertaking, and flock round the banner that flies nearest the + sky. There go the young, the gallant, the gifted, the daring; + and there, too, go the wise. For wisdom knows that in national + action _littleness_ is more fatal than the wildest rashness; + that greatness of object is essential to greatness of effort, + strength, and success; that a revolution ought never to take its + stand on low or narrow ground, but seize on the broadest and + highest ground it can lay hands on; and that a petty enterprise + seldom succeeds. Had America aimed or declared for less than + independence, she would, probably, have failed, and been a + fettered slave to-day. + + “Not to repeal the Union, then, but the conquest--not to disturb + or dismantle the empire, but to abolish it utterly for ever--not + to fall back on ’82, but act up to ’48--not to resume or restore + an old constitution, but found a new nation and raise up a free + people, and strong as well as free, and secure as well as + strong, based on a peasantry rooted like rocks in the soil of + the land--this is my object, as I hope it is yours; and this, + you may rest assured, is the easier, as it is the nobler and + more pressing enterprise.” + +Lalor proceeds to develop his teaching as to the ownership of the soil +of Ireland by its people: + + “The principle I state, and mean to stand upon, is this: that + the entire ownership of Ireland, moral and material, up to the + sun and down to the centre, is vested of right in the people of + Ireland; that they, and none but they, are the land-owners and + law-makers of this island; that all laws are null and void not + made by them, and all titles to land invalid not conferred or + confirmed by them; and that this full right of ownership may and + ought to be asserted by any and all means which God has put in + the power of man. In other, if not plainer words, I hold and + maintain that the entire soil of a country belongs of right to + the entire people of that country, and is the rightful property, + not of any one class, but of the nation at large, in full + effective possession, to let to whom they will, on whatever + tenures, terms, rents, services, and conditions they will; one + condition, however, being unavoidable and essential, the + condition that the tenant shall bear full, true, and undivided + fealty and allegiance to the nation, and the laws of the nation + whose lands he holds, and own no allegiance whatsoever to any + other prince, power, or people, or any obligation of obedience + or respect to their will, orders, or laws. I hold, further, and + firmly believe, that the enjoyment by the people of this right + of first ownership of the soil is essential to the vigour and + vitality of all other rights, to their validity, efficacy, and + value; to their secure possession and safe exercise. For let no + people deceive themselves, or be deceived by the words, and + colours, and phrases, and forms of a mock freedom, by + constitutions, and charters, and articles, and franchise. These + things are paper and parchment, waste and worthless. Let laws + and institutions say what they will, this fact will be stronger + than all laws, and prevail against them--the fact that those who + own your lands will make your laws, and command your liberties + and your lives. But this is tyranny and slavery; tyranny in its + widest scope and worst shape; slavery of body and soul, from the + cradle to the coffin--slavery with all its horrors, and with + none of its physical comforts and security; even as it is in + Ireland, where the whole community is made up of tyrants, + slaves, and slave-drivers....” + +As to the question of dealing with land-owners, Lalor re-echoes Tone and +Davis: + + “There are, however, many landlords, perhaps, and certainly a + few, not fairly chargeable with the crimes of their order; and + you may think it hard they should lose their lands. But + recollect the principle I assert would make Ireland, _in fact_, + as she is _of right_, mistress and queen of all those lands; + that she, poor lady, had ever a soft heart and grateful + disposition; and that she may, if she please, in reward of + allegiance, confer new titles or confirm the old. Let us crown + her a queen; and then--let her do with her lands as a queen may + do. + + “In the case of any existing interest, of what nature soever, I + feel assured that no question but one would need to be answered. + Does the owner of that interest assent to swear allegiance to + the people of Ireland, and to hold in fee from the Irish nation? + If he assent he may be assured he will suffer no loss. No + eventual or permanent loss I mean; for some temporary loss he + must assuredly suffer. But such loss would be incidental and + inevitable to any armed insurrection whatever, no matter on what + principle the right of resistance should be resorted to. If he + refuses, then I say--away with him--out of this land with + him--himself and all his robber rights and all the things + himself and his rights have brought into our island--blood and + tears, and famine, and the fever that goes with famine.” + +In the issue of the _Irish Felon_ for July 8, Lalor, expecting +suppression and arrest, wrote “The Faith of a Felon”--a statement which, +ill-framed and ill-connected though he knew it to be, he firmly believed +to “carry the fortunes of Ireland,” and sent “forth to its fate, to +conquer or be conquered.” It was conquered for the time, but, like such +immortal things, it was destined to rise again. In it Lalor re-affirmed +his principles and re-stated his programme. The idea of the ownership of +the soil by the whole people, which is his essential contribution to +modern political thought, was in this statement put more clearly even +than before: + + “What forms the right of property in land? I have never read in + the direction of that question. I have all my life been + destitute of books. But from the first chapter of Blackstone’s + second book, the only page I ever read on the subject, I know + that jurists are unanimously agreed in considering ‘first + occupancy’ to be the only true original foundation on the right + of property and possession of land. + + “Now, I am prepared to prove that ‘occupancy’ wants every + character and quality that could give it moral efficacy as a + foundation of right. I am prepared to prove this, when + ‘occupancy’ has first been _defined_. If no definition can be + given, I am relieved from the necessity of showing any claim + founded on occupancy to be weak and worthless. + + “To any plain understanding the right of private property is + very simple. It is the right of man to possess, enjoy, and + transfer the substance and use of whatever HE HAS HIMSELF + CREATED. This title is good against the world; and it is the + _sole_ and _only_ title by which a valid right of absolute + private property can possibly vest. + + “But no man can plead any such title to a right of property in + the substance of the soil. + + “The earth, together with all it _spontaneously_ produces, is + the free and common property of all mankind, of natural right, + and by the grant of God--and all men being equal, no man, + therefore, has a right, to appropriate exclusively to himself + any part or portion thereof, except with and by the _common + consent_ and _agreement_ of all other men. + + “The sole original right of property in land which I acknowledge + to be morally valid, is this right of common consent and + agreement. Every other I hold to be fabricated and fictitious, + null, void, and of no effect.” + +As for Lalor’s programme of action, it was in brief: + + 1. To refuse all rent and arrears beyond the value of the overplus + of harvest remaining after due provision for the tenants’ + subsistence for twelve months. + + 2. To resist eviction under the English law of ejection. + + 3. To refuse all rent to the usurping proprietors, until the + people, the true proprietors, had decided in national congress + what rents were to be paid, and to whom. + + 4. That the people should decide that rents should “be paid to + _themselves_, the people, for public purposes, and for behoof + and benefit of them, the entire general people.” + +Lalor saw clearly that this programme might, and almost certainly would, +lead to armed revolution. If so-- + + “Welcome be the will of God. We must only try to keep our + harvest, to offer a peaceful, passive resistance, to barricade + the island, to break up the roads, to break down the + bridges--and, should need be, and favourable occasions offer, + surely we may venture to try the steel.... + + “It has been said to me that such a war, on the principles I + propose, would be looked on with detestation by Europe. I assert + the contrary. I say such a war would propagate itself throughout + Europe. Mark the words of this prophecy:--The principle I + propound goes to the foundations of Europe, and, sooner or + later, will cause Europe to outrise. Mankind will yet be masters + of the earth. The rights of the people to make the laws--this + produced the first great modern earthquake, whose latest shocks, + even now, are heaving in the heart of the world. The right of + the people to own the land--this will produce the next. Train + your hands, and your son’s hands, gentlemen of earth, for you + and they will yet have to use them. I want to put Ireland + foremost, in the van of the world, at the head of the + nations--to set her aloft in the blaze of the sun, and to make + her for ages the lodestar of history. Will she take the path I + point out--the path to be free, and famed, and feared, and + followed--the path that goes sunward?...” + +A fortnight later, in the _Irish Felon_ for July 22, Lalor wrote the +article “Clearing the Decks,” which was intended to declare the +revolution. It was worthy of a braver response than it received: + + “If Ireland be conquered now--or what would be worse--if she + fails to fight, it will certainly not be the fault of the people + at large, of those who form the rank and file of the nation. The + failure and fault will be that of those who have assumed to take + the office of commanding and conducting the march of a people + for liberty without, perhaps, having any commission from nature + to do so, or natural right, or acquired requisite. The general + population of this island are ready to find and furnish + everything which can be demanded from the mass of a people--the + members, the physical strength, the animal daring, the health, + hardihood, and endurance. No population on earth of equal amount + would furnish a more effective military conscription. We want + only competent leaders--men of courage and capacity--men whom + nature meant and made for leaders.... These leaders are yet to + be found. Can Ireland furnish them? It would be a sheer and + absurd blasphemy against nature to doubt it. The first blow will + bring them out.... + + “In the case of Ireland now there is but _one fact_ to deal + with, and _one question_ to be considered. The _fact_ is + this--that there are at present in occupation of our country + some 40,000 armed men, in the livery and service of England; and + the _question_ is--how best and soonest to kill and capture + these 40,000?... + + “Meanwhile, however, remember this--that somewhere, and somehow, + and by somebody, a beginning must be made. Who strikes the first + blow for Ireland? Who wins a wreath that will be green for + ever?” + +That was Lalor’s last word. The issue containing the article was seized, +the _Irish Felon_ suppressed, and Martin and Lalor arrested. In a few +months Lalor was released from prison a dying man. From his sick bed he +tried to rally the beaten forces; he actually went down into North +Munster and endeavoured to lead the people. This effort--the almost +forgotten rising of 1849--failed. Lalor died in Dublin a few weeks +after. But his word has marched on, conquering. + + + III + +The doctrine and proposals of Fintan Lalor stirred John Mitchel +profoundly. Mitchel was not a democrat by instinct, as Tone and Lalor +were; he was not a revolutionary by process of thought, as Tone and +Lalor were; he was not from the beginning of his public life a believer +in the possibility and desirability of physical force, as Tone and Lalor +were. He became all these things; and he became all these things +suddenly. It was as if revolutionary Ireland, speaking through Lalor, +had said to Mitchel, “Follow me,” and Mitchel, leaving all things, +followed. Duffy and others were amazed that the most conservative of the +Young Irelanders should become the most revolutionary. They ought not to +have been amazed. That deep and passionate man could not have been +anything by halves. As well expect a Paul or a Teresa or an Ignatius +Loyola to be a “moderate” Christian as John Mitchel, once that “Follow +me” had been spoken, to be a “moderate” Nationalist. Mitchel was of the +stuff of which the great prophets and ecstatics have been made. He did +really hold converse with God; he did really deliver God’s word to man, +delivered it fiery-tongued. + +Mitchel’s is the last of the four gospels of the new testament of Irish +nationality, the last and the fieriest and the most sublime. It flames +with apocalyptic wrath, such wrath as there is nowhere else in +literature. And it is because the man loved so well that his wrath was +so terrible. It is foolish to say of Mitchel, as it has been said, that +his is a gospel of hate, that hate is barren, that a nation cannot feed +itself on hate without peril to its soul, or at least to the sanity and +sweetness of its mind, that Davis, who preached love, is a truer leader +and guide for Ireland than Mitchel, who preached hate. The answer to +this is--first, that love and hate are not mutually antagonistic but +mutually complementary; that love connotes hate, hate of the thing that +denies or destroys or threatens the thing beloved: that love of good +connotes hate of evil, love of truth hate of falsehood, love of freedom +hate of oppression; that hate may be as pure and good a thing as love, +just as love may be as impure and evil a thing as hate; that hate is no +more ineffective and barren than love, both being as necessary to moral +sanity and growth as sun and storm are to physical life and growth. And, +secondly, that Mitchel, the least apologetic of men, was at pains to +explain that his hate was not of English men and women, but of the +English thing which called itself a government in Ireland, of the +English Empire, of English commercialism supported by English +militarism, a thing wholly evil, perhaps the most evil thing that there +has ever been in the world. To talk of such hate as unholy, unchristian, +barren, is to talk folly or hypocrisy. Such hate is not only a good +thing, but is a duty. + +When Mitchel’s critics (or his own Doppelganger, who was his severest +critic) objected that his glorious wrath was merely destructive, a thing +splendid in slaying, but without any fecundity or life-giving principle +within it, Mitchel’s answer was adequate and conclusive: + + “... Can you dare to pronounce that the winds, and the + lightnings, which tear down, degrade, destroy, execute a more + ignoble office than the volcanoes and subterranean deeps that + upheave, renew, recreate? Are the nether fires holier than the + upper fires? The waters that are above the firmament, do they + hold of Ahriman, and the waters that are below the firmament, of + Ormuzd? Do you take up a reproach against the lightnings for + that they only shatter and shiver, but never construct? Or have + you a quarrel with the winds because they fight against the + churches, and build them not? In all nature, spiritual and + physical, do you not see that some powers and agents have it for + their function to abolish and demolish and derange--other some + to construct and set in order? But is not the destruction, then, + as natural, as needful, as the construction?--Rather tell me, I + pray you, which is construction--which destruction? This + destruction _is_ creation: Death is Birth and + + ‘The quick spring like weeds out of the dead.’ + + Go to--the revolutionary Leveller is your only architect. + Therefore, take courage, all you that Jacobins be, and stand + upon your rights, and do your appointed work with all your + strength, let the canting fed classes rave and shriek as they + will--where you see a respectable, fair-spoken Lie sitting in + high places, feeding itself fat on human sacrifices--down with + it, strip it naked, and pitch it to the demons; whenever you see + a greedy tyranny (constitutional or other) grinding the faces of + the poor, join battle with it on the spot--conspire, + confederate, and combine against it, resting never till the huge + mischief come down, though the whole ‘structure of society’ come + down along with it. Never you mind funds and stocks; if the + price of the things called _Consols_ depend on lies and fraud, + down with them, too. Take no heed of ‘social disorganisation’; + you cannot bring back chaos--never fear; no disorganisation in + the world can be so complete but there will be a germ of new + order in it; sans-culottism, when she hath conceived, will bring + forth venerable institutions. Never spare; work joyfully, + according to your nature and function; and when your work is + effectually done, and it is time for the counter operations to + begin, why, then, you can fall a-constructing, if you have a + gift that way; if not, let others do _their_ work, and take your + rest, having discharged your duty. Courage, Jacobins! for ye, + too, are ministers of heaven.... + + “I do believe myself incapable of desiring private vengeance; at + least, I have never yet suffered any private wrong atrocious + enough to stir up that sleeping passion. The vengeance I seek is + the righting of my country’s wrong, which includes my own. + Ireland, indeed, needs vengeance; but this is public + vengeance--public justice. Herein England is truly a great + public criminal. England! all England, operating through her + Government; through all her organised and effectual public + opinion, press, platform, pulpit, Parliament, has done, is + doing, and means to do, grievous wrong to Ireland. She must be + punished; that punishment will, as I believe, come upon her by + and through Ireland; and so will Ireland be _avenged_.” + +This denunciation of woe against the enemy of Irish freedom is as +necessary a part of the religion of Irish nationality as are Davis’s +pleas for love and concord between brother Irishmen. The Church that +preaches peace and goodwill launches her anathemas against the enemies +of peace and goodwill. Mitchel’s gospel is part of the testament, even +as Davis’s is; it but reveals a different facet of the truth. A man must +accept the whole testament; but a man may prefer Davis to Mitchel, just +as a man may prefer the gospel according to St. Luke, the kindliest and +most human of the gospels, to the gospel of St. John. + +Mitchel’s teaching contains nothing that is definitely new and his. He +accepted Tone; he accepted Davis; he accepted in particular Lalor; and +he summed up and expressed all their teaching in a language transfigured +by wrath and vision. Tone is the intellectual ancestor of the whole +modern movement of Irish nationalism, of Davis, and Lalor, and Mitchel, +and all their followers; Davis is the immediate ancestor of the +spiritual and imaginative part of that movement, embodied in our day in +the Gaelic League; Lalor is the immediate ancestor of the specifically +democratic part of that movement, embodied to-day in the more virile +labour organisations; Mitchel is the immediate ancestor of Fenianism, +the noblest and most terrible manifestation of this unconquered nation. + +And just as all the four have reached, in different terms, the same +gospel, making plain in turn different facets of the same truth, so the +movements I have indicated are but facets of a whole, different +expressions, and each one a necessary expression, of the august, though +denied, truth of Irish Nationhood; nationhood in virtue of an old +spiritual tradition of nationality, nationhood involving Separation and +Sovereignty, nationhood resting on and guaranteeing the freedom of all +the men and women of the nation and placing them in effective possession +of the physical conditions necessary to the reality and to the +perpetuation of their freedom, nationhood declaring and establishing and +defending itself by the good smiting sword. I who have been in and of +each of these movements make here the necessary synthesis, and in the +name of all of them I assert the forgotten truth, and ask all who accept +it to testify to it with me, here in our day and, if need be, with our +blood. + +At the end of a former essay I set that prophecy of Mitchel’s as to the +coming of a time when the kindred and tongues and nations of the earth +should give their banners to the wind; and his prayer that he, John +Mitchel, might live to see it, and that on that great day of the Lord he +might have breath and strength enough to stand under Ireland’s immortal +Green. John Mitchel did not live to see it. He died, an old man, forty +years before its dawning. But the day of the Lord is here, and you and I +have lived to see it. + +And we are young. And God has given us strength and courage and counsel. +May He give us victory. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + Transcriber’s Notes + + +This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text. + +In some cases, Irish words appear to be printed with grave accents +rather than the acute síneadh fada. In this edition all Irish words use +only the modern standard fada. + +In the Graveside Panegyric for O’Donovan Rossa, the Irish language +passage was printed in cló Gaelach, Irish script with lenition dots. It +is given here in Roman script, with lenition indicated with the letter h +as in modern Irish. + +New original cover art included with this ebook is granted to the public +domain. + +The following changes and corrections have been made: + + • p. 10: Added “a” to phrase “the maintenance of a portion of the + machinery.” + • p. 23: Added period after phrase “where the master went the disciples + followed.” + • p. 32: Replaced “I I” with “I” in phrase “I have often thought that + the type of English education in Ireland was the Laocoon.” + • p. 55: Replaced “definace” with “defiance” in phrase “some defiance + flung at the Englishry.” + • p. 142: Replaced “atricle” with “article” in phrase “When I wrote the + article for December 1913.” + • p. 147: Replaced “Sinn Fein” with “Sinn Féin” in phrase “The National + Council of Sinn Féin recently sent an anti-enlisting car through the + streets of Dublin.” + • p. 171: Replaced “it it” with “it is” in phrase “it is not very + amusing.” + • p. 179: Replaced “do no” with “do not” in phrase “But these + conditions do not to any extent exist in Ireland.” + • p. 190: Replaced “Keatings” with “Keating’s” in phrase “he was trying + to spell his way through Keating’s _Trí Bior-Ghaoithe an Bháis_.” + • p. 192: Replaced “’o” with “o’” in phrase “You have heard o’ the Hawk + o’ the Hill-top.” + • p. 192: Added period after phrase “they say Parnell is dead--the + dirty fellow.” + • p. 246: Replaced “irrelevent” with “irrelevant” in phrase “But this + would be irrelevant to my purpose.” + • p. 313: Replaced “as” with “us” in phrase “This is a history which + pledges us to perseverance.” + • p. 321: Added closing double quote after phrase “federalism is not + worth _that_.” + • p. 325: Added word “that” in phrase “Flood, who could have governed + that Convention in spite of the rascally English.” + • p. 350: Added period after phrase “we cannot agree on the course we + should follow.” + • p. 364: Moved comma from after to before space in phrase “leaving all + things, followed.” + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79022 *** |