il mt ^:- THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GIFT OF Vacs, Ben B. Lindsey Sett ^jJlinii^t^ " THE HILLS OF HOLY IRELAND" ON THE EVE OF HOME RULE Snapshots of Ireland in the momentous summer of 1914. BY ANNA LOUISE STRONG ^ PUBLISHED BY THE O CONNELL PRESS AUSTIN, CHICAGO CONTENTS On the West Coast In the Contested Ulster Counties The "Armed Camps" In Kerry after the Dublin Shooting Out of the Past The Declaring of War ILLUSTRATIONS Page "The Hills of Holy Ireland" Frontispiece "In a Jaunting Car One Rides High in Air" 11 The Turf Fire of His Cottage 15 Piling Turf 16 Without the Convenient Turf for Fuel, the Irish Tenant Would Be Even More Poverty-Srick- en Than He is 17 A Drive Across Ireland 23 In Nationalist Ulster. The Majority Even of Ulster Counties Voted for Home Rule 30 "This Year We Have With Us 4,U(J0 Irish Volun- teers" - 34 A Route ^larch to Killiney 43 Men Who have Worked All Day for Two Shil- lings, Pay Three Pence to be Allowed to Drill 43 A Spinner of Donegal 45 All Dublin Came to the Funeral that Followed t!ie Shooting 51 A Wild Mountainous Country 52 A Villager Contirmc-d thf Statement 56 Island of Dreams 66 1106141 FOREWORD "You surely are one of the lucky people of the world," wrote a friend as I was leaving Ireland. "You have hit Ireland in the middle of the most exciting bit of history that has ever been made in this island. For the first time in seven centuries, Ireland and England are acting side by side, in an armed friendship. For the first time, England is trusting Ireland with her own defense. More changes will come about as the result of Redmond's speech and Asquith's statement about arming the Irish Volunteers, than have come since the two islands came into the relationshi]) that has lasted, in one form or another, since 1171." Such was the sentiment of Nationalist Ireland at the outI)reak of the great war. But among the Irish in America. I found the feeling widely different on my return. Bitterness against Redmond as betrayer of his people, coupled with hope of German suc- cess, was very widespread. It would seem that the Irish of the second generation, reared on tales of the grievous wrongs of their parents, have come to feel that loyalty to Ireland is great in proportion to hatred of England, while the Irish in Ireland have watched the growth of mutual understanding between the two islands, have seen both democra- cies vote together three times for Home Rule, and now are found, a little to their surpise, on the side of their ancient foes. The fact that England now tights as an ally of their old friend, France, and in defense of little, FORE W (j R D lilierty-loving Belgium, has perhaps contributed much to this result, but deeper reasons would seem to lie in the slow but real change of British policy toward Ireland in the past few years. Just before the signing of the Home Rule Bill almost the only pro-Germans I could iind in Ireland were a few disgruntled Orangemen, angry at the turn events had taken. Whether the Irish in Ireland are right in believ- ing a new day has dawned, or whether the Irish in America are right in thinking that England will again I)etray their confidence, only time will show. In either event, I have indeed, in the past few months, watched at close hand the making of his- tory, and a picture of Ireland in the summer of 1914 seems worth preserving, even though seen by a stranger, who confesses with shame to no previ- ous knowledge of Irish politics or history. Perhaps even that very fact may make the experi- ences more worth recording. Coming to Ireland without political bias, or indeed political knowledge, a Protestant, and as such it might seem predisposed to the Unionist cause, I became, during the events covered by these chapters, a lover of Erin, and an ardent Nationalist, with a strong desire to convey to others, not arguments or serious presentation of history, but the Hashing pictures of life which gave me my own convictions and made me find in ''the fair hills of holy Ireland" almost a second home, a second motherland. In all pictures of this momentous summer in Ire- land, the Irish Nationalist Volunteers must figure largely. Nor must it be supposed that with the coming of war and the passing of the Home Rule Bill, their significance ceased in August. 1914. A similar supposition led to the loss of the Irish Par- FOREWORD liament more than a hundred years ago, and Ireland has no wish to repeat tliat history. Xo Irishman, I imagine, will suppose that the situation shown in these chapters can yet be re- garded as ancient history. There is still the Amend- ing Bill to come, still the exasperating delay. Four Ulster counties are still determined that not only they, hut iive other counties shall be excluded. \\'hen the war is over, discussion must again arise, though the common sympathies aroused by common sorrow may make it less bitter. The time "on the eve of Home Rule" is a time nut yet passed. One critic told me. while in Ireland, that the Vol- unteers had "no military significance." Reading the last phrase in the sound of the crashing civiliza- tions of Europe, 1 am glad to believe it true. Ire- land has given me again a vision of a patriotism which has "no military significance,'' no desire for conquest, no tendency even in words to belittle other nations, no wish to rule those who do not wish to be ruled. Even at the risk of cutting in two her "holy" island, Nationalist Ireland sadly agreed to allow any county to exclude itself by popular vote. .\n(l that Ireland should wish to extend her sway to include other islands, in the common way of nations, could hardly enter the mind of man. It is significant that while to other peoples the land that bore them is a fatherland, male, aggressive, masterful, Ireland is the "little old woman." the beloved Rosaleen, most of all the mother whose sorrows are holy, whose heartli-fire is home to all her wandering sons. The real significance of the Volunteer movement may indeed prove to be not military, but political, marking the rebirth of a nation and the welding together of many factions by a common si)irit. Such -y— FOREWORD political significance would mean an influence which will extend, not only to the securing and defending of Home Rule, but to that greater and more deli- cate task, the building of a nation that shall be worthy the name given by her poet sons, "Holy Ireland." Thanks are due to the Westminster Gazette for permission to repuljlish these articles. I must also express deep gratitude to Her Excellency, the Countess of Aberdeen, for making my visit to Ire- land possible, both as a whole and in detail; and to all those many others of high and low degree, through whose courtesy, kindness and hospitality I have come to know this Island of Dreams as a land blessed above other lands by three simple, primitive sentiments, which in one form or other, however changed, must underly all sound society: love of country, love of the stranger-guest, love of God. -10- On the West Coast "Sure" it's the fine time for ye to be coniin' to Ireland now, with the Home Rule and all soon upon us. And is it from America ye are, new? It's the best half of County Mayo is in America. Sure, I had an uncle of mesilf that was a senator from Philadelphia, and I never got a ha'penny out of him." •'IX .^ T.M'XTING CKR OXE RIDES HICH IX AIR' It was our driver who spoke. We had come down from Dublin, to visit one of the old county families, with the intention of seeing the life of the West Coast, and the Irish Volunteers who were organizing in force to match Sir Edward Carson's Ulster Volunteers. We found at the village station a jaunting car, and a ln(|nacinus driver. In a jaunt- —11— ox THE E \^ E OF H O AI E RULE ing car one rides high in air near the driver, and speech is easy. "But you haven't Home Rule yet." I remarked. "Sure, 'tis only the signin' of the bill be the king now, and I'm thinkin" 'tis not the king will be re- fusin' us, with the Irish Volunteers and all." "Are you one of the Irish Volunteers?" "I am that, miss. We do be drillin' every night over Murphy's shop." "What are you drilling for?" "Drillin', is it? What are we drillin' for?" He sent me a glance that just escaped l^eing a wink. "It's drillin' to fight the Gairmans we are, miss. Sure, we'll all go down to the say-shore, and divil a Gairman will set foot on it whatever." (This was two months before the war with Ger- many. "I suppose it's a jest," I said to my hostess. "Not entirely." she replied. "The real hope of the Volunteers is to become the national army of home defense, and they know the Germans are the most dangerous possibility.") Another understanding twinkle before he resumed. "They do say they're going to cross swords with Ulster. But they will not. It's a fine thing for the young" men, miss. They are getting that straight and healthy. But there's them in it that are over sixty, and Jamesie O'Sullivan. he's five foot six, and he weighs nineteen stone, and he's that stiff he can't tie his own shoes whatever. I do be thinkin' 'twill be a fine thing for reducin' him, if his, heart holds out." "What do you think of Redmond's idea?" I asked. "Is it about the Volunteers ye're meaning?" he asked, and I assented. Redmond, the leader of the Irish Party in Parliament, had declared that the comiuittce which was organizing the Volunteers —12— ON THE WEST COAST should, instead of consisting of twenty-five men of Dublin, he enlarged to twice that number with the additional members appointed by the Irish Party. A storm of comment had arisen in the papers that very morning, and I was anxious to know how much the lri>h \illaner understood of the situation. "Well, somebody's got to be under somebody, miss." he answered. " 'Tis under our own Parlia- ment we'll be next year. But I'm thinkin' now 'tis Ijetter to be under the Irish Party than under twenty-five men of Du!)lin that's ilicted themsilves to run the Irish Volunteers. I'll be thinkin' Red- mond will put some men from the counties on." We turned through a gate up a long lane over- hung' with trees, which led at the end to a beautiful English garden and an old-fashioned country-house. The old estates are fast breaking up. Law after law has taken away the power of the landlord, and in many of the old families the feeling is bitter. But the two ladies with whom we were to stay were the type of good landlord, who kept close to the intimate life of their tenants, nursing them in sickness, sitting beside their death-beds, stimulat- ing the growing of new vegetal)les and the develop- ment (if new resources. One of them was a district organizer of the Women's National Health Associ- ation of Ireland, a society which, more than any other, has brought to the women in distant villages the light of new knowledge and tlie joy of mutual effort. The other was a prominent member of the Gaelic League, which has revived the Irish national pride, stimulated Irish industries, and is attempting to maintain the Irish language. Both felt that they were called upon to lulp, through their knowledge, their local prestige, and the giving up of their lands, in the rebuilding of a nation. -13- ON THE EVE OF HOME RULE This spirit is wide-spread along the West Coast and in other parts of Ireland. Under the light- hearted chaff of farmers and drivers runs a deep feeling that Ireland is coming to her own again, and that they, each and all, are making history. Nowhere, except in joke, did there seem to ])e that bitterness toward Ulster, which Ulster felt toward the South. They laughed about Ulster; they jested about the chances of war with "them Carson- ites," but no one admitted the possibility. "Sure, and Sir Edward Carson should have been in jail two years ago, miss, for breakin' of the English law. But 'tis a good thing now that he wasn't, miss. For if there'd licen no Ulster Volun- teers, there'd have l)een no Irish Volunteers, and 'tis the Irish Volunteers that are the hope of the country, miss." And from another: "Begurra, them Orangemen was thinkin' to frighten the deuce out of us, till we got our own Volunteers. But I see as none of those Belfast .shopkeepers went out to fight the Boers. The Connaught Rangers, they were the fighters, miss. And I'm thinkin' if any of them shopkeepers come up against a bayonet, they'll be quite con- tinted to retire and make money behind their coun- ters again." "Will there really be fighting with Ulster?" "There will not. And for why? There's Irish Volunteers in the North now, and in every county. There's more of them in Derry than there is Car- sonites. .\nd they do be salutin' each other as they pass. Them Northerners hate to come in with the likes of us, miss, that they've been rulin' all these years, but sure they'll do it in the end, and we'll be all one Irish army. There's 150,000 Irish Volunteers now, and more are joinin' every day." —14— ON THE EVE OF HOME RULE A countryman spoke from beside the turf fire of his cottage, in the possession of which he at last felt secure, since the Congested Districts Board had bought up tlie land, and was selling it to him and his heirs in installments covering fifty years. "What good is there in a country if it cannot difind itself, miss? Sure, the standing army of America is an army of \olunteers, and one volun- I'llJXC, TURF teer, sure, is worth two hired men. It's the Irish are the fighters, miss, and 'tis glad they be to have a chance at an army of their own." He turned the talk to Michael Davitt, a rebellious thinker and organizer of the land agitation. "It's glad he'd be to see the day. It's a great pathriot he was, sure, and he spint ten years in jail, and he died for Ireland." More frequently the humorous side of the drilling was discussed. They had marched six miles and back one evening. "And they only gave us fifteen —16— ON THE EVE OF HOME RULE minutes to rest, miss, and when they were over there wasn't a drop of lieer in either of the two public houses. We were that dry. And we marched back singing 'God Save Ireland.'" " 'God Save Ireland," what song is that?" "Sure, every man had an air of his own, but 'tis the grand song whatever." In place after place, among Catholics and Protest- ants, I raised the question of the priests. "The priests are against our Volunteers," said one, "but the priests in some of the counties are for them. It's not one way at all whatever." "But they say in the North that if Home Rule is allowed, the priests will govern Ireland." "Between you and me and the side of the wall, now." said a weather-beaten farmer, "they'll have less power than they have now. And 'tis them- selves are afraid 'twill be France and Italy over again." "Sure, if the country was to be without religion," said another, " 'twould he destroyed entirely. But we do not be running to priests any more, miss, for to ask if we can wash our faces in the morning." Our Protestant hostess held the same view. "There are 900 householders in this district," she said, "and only three of them are Protestants. But the question of religion never arises in our dealings with our neighbors. They are the most tolerant people in the world, the Irish of the West and South. And most Southern and Western Protest- ants will tell you the same." "How do you account for the ]:)itter religious feel- ing in the North?" "It's the last kick of the Ascendancy Party.'' she said. "For two hundred years they have ruled Ire- land. They hate and distrust the South as masters —18— ON THE WEST COAST always hate and distrust slaves wlio are gaining freedom. During tiu- time of Cromwell, the north of Ireland came into the possession of English and Scotch settlers, who were given the lands. The historic race of Ireland was driven into the mountains and bogs. Even the South of Ireland, while remaining Irish and Catholic, had English Protestant land- lords. The Protestant North, with England at their backs, ruled Ireland. Catholics had no civil rights. They could own no horse worth more than $25. Family dissensions were encouraged by a law that if a son turned Protestant, his father's posses- sions belonged to him. "In 1829 Catholic Emancipation was secured. Even yet Catholics could not be magistrates, and they had to pay tithes to support Protestant churches. Then came the 'Tithe War,' ending when the tithes were placed upon the Protestant land- lords, who promptly raised the rent and took it out of the tenants again. Then followed the bitter Land Agitation. Landlords were shot, bailiffs were shot, scjuires were shot. The condition of the peas- ants was frightful. They dared attempt no improve- ment, lest the improxcd land be taken from them without notice. "Now a series of Land Acts has mbbed the land- lord of arbitrary power. The last act empowered a government board to buy u]) the lands tilled by ten- ants and sell them to their tenant proprietors on the installment plan. The chan.ge is wonderful. Men whose only hope is that their grimdcliildren may at last Ovvn the land in fee simple are ])ulting in im- provements of every sort. "During the Land Agitation, th.e priests were liie champions of the people. Here and there an old —19— ON THE EVE OF HOME RULE priest of this type still survives, and his word is law to his people. But the younger priests have no such political power. They lead in religion; the Irish Party leads in politics. "We of the South and West feel that the big business interests of the North, backed up by tre- mendous sums of money from England, are in- flaming ignorant men of the shopkeeper class with this bogy of the Pope. We think it's the dying gasp of the Ascendancy Party, a party which, when the present Viceroy's predecessor declared that Ireland should be governed according to Irish ideas, raised a great turmoil and forced him back into line; a party which hates and maligns the present Viceroy and the Countess of Aberdeen, because they are the lirst to go out among the people. 'Way out here in County Mayo, where we never had a civil v/ord even from a clerk in Dublin Castle, think what it meant when Her Excellency sent telegram after telegram at the forming of the Women's National Health Branch, and came out to visit us, and to talk with our women, and remembered a year later to inquire about the health of a sick boy she had seen. But Dul)lin Society and the Ascendancy Party hate her for the 'rabble she encourages.' "We of the South and West believe that our peo- ple — well, tell us! You have been among them. Poor, half-starved, with the best of them gone to America, even yet did you find a single cottage where they did not know what they wanted in the way of government and why they wanted it?" It was quite true. The sanity, good nature, and political intelligence of the Irish countryman had seemed to us little short of marvelous. Over and over again we had said: "They are a wonderful people." As much as any nation in history, they —20— ON THE WEST COAST have suffered for freedom. They have won and deserve the best they can get. Whatever the Nortli expected, the South ex- pected Home Rule with peace. In the words of the Irish porter, who helped us at the station (who criticised the versification of the latest Volunteer song, averring that he had written better ones in the Land Agitation days) : "Sure, I went up to Ulster. And I was gifted with sobriety, and with honesty, and with kapin' the 1)all of me eye rollin.' The Ulstermen is de- termined, miss, but 'tis not themselves will be figlitin' the rest of Ireland whatever. 'Tis fighters they are, sure, because they're Irish, but be the same token, tlic}- have sinse." — :i- In One of the Contested Ulster Counties "Why am I an Ulster Volunteer?" said the driver of our car as we trotted across one of the hotly- contested counties in the middle of Ulster. "Well, now, I'll tell you, miss. It's not that I care a ha'penny who runs the government; it's a matter of bread and butter with me. "I've a wife and three children, and I've got to keep the bread in their mouths, and the rest of the country can go hang as it pleases. But, say I've been paying 26s. taxes, and the Dublin Parliament comes up and says I'm to pay 36s., why then I'll not pay it, and then we'll fight them, for we'll none of us pay it." "But why should the Dublin Parliament mean higher rates?" I asked. "It would seem to me that an English Parliament, that's not responsible to the people of Ireland, might tax you without fear, but the Irish Parliament wouldn't dare, because they will hold their jobs at the will of the people." Up spoke the lady from Kerry, a cheery, healthy, white-haired individual of some sixty years. "Sure, an' ye don't aither of ye know what ye're talking about. 'Tis the British Parliament that's going to keep on taxin' us. Home Rule or no!" "But they say as how taxes'll be higher v.-ith Home Rule," said the driver. "And I'm for believ- ing them. Here's the towns of S — and 'E — . Look at them. S — is run by the Catholics and E — is run by the Protestants, and the taxes in S — is twice X ON THE EVE OF HOME RULE what they are in E — . Js that fair or is it not? And S — is a seaport, witli plenty of mills and a lot of railways." "I don't know how it is Iktc," I answered, "but in America it often happens tliat a seaport town with mills and railroads charges more taxes than little country towns. Rut there's more money to pay with." "Ah. there might i)e something in that, but I know a man that makes umbrellas, and he has shops in Dublin, Belfast and London, and he says his taxes in Dublin are more than in the other two places together." "I wonder the poor man should keep his shop there at all," said the lady from Kerry, in tones of such extreme sympathy that the driver bridled. ''We've got property all over the North," he said. "We can manage ourselves with decency. But the South — they can't hold a common Board of Guard- ians' meeting in the South without calling in the police to keep order.'' "Ah, now," said the Kerry lady, in her most dulcet brogue. "Sure Em from the county that's farthest south and worst of all. And Ell not be denyin' that they take what ye might call a strong inthrest in discussin' things now and again. Sure, we know we want the common sinse of the North to balance us," she added with a smile. "That's why we want you in with us instid of outside." It was a bit unfair to leave the driver at the mercy of a lady from a county so near the Blarney- stone, but he stood his ground. "There's 100,000 men of us," he said, "all armed and drilled, pledged to fight the Irish Parliament to the death." "I know that," said I, "])Ut I'm trying to discover —24— ] X A C O N T EST E I) U L S T E R C O U N T Y the reason. All you tell nie is that you're afraid of the higher taxes." "We're fighting," he said, "because we don't want to be driven out of the country by those Catholics that never made any money themselves and never could make it." "Ah, go easy on us," said the Kerry lady, "and tell us the truth. Sure we'll think none the less of you for owning to it. Ve're wanting to kape the jobs ye've been havin'. Sure England's been pam- perin' the Xorth all these years. You've had the best of it and want to keep it. Don't think we're angry with ye for it. We know we'd be doin' the same in yer place. That's why we love ye, because ye're so full of human nature." "Pampered, not at all, not at all! ll w >^ H I— I O < C/3 H CO 2: ox THE EVE OF HOME RULE At last [ ;40t a straight statement from a business man. "Wliat do you mean by 'Ulster' when you tell me that Ulster wants exclusion? Do you mean the majority of the citizens of Ulster?" He hesitated, then answered frankly; "I mean the rich men of Ulster, the rich industries of Ulster, the people who have made the prosperity of the country. They need credit in order to carry on their industries. They — or perhaps I should say we — can get better credit when we have the English Parliament behind us than we could with an Irish Parliament. That's the whole point; wc think busi- ness will prosper l)ettcr under the Union than under Home Rule." That seemed, in fact, to be the final argument of the Orangeman. Opposed to the glowing sentiment of the south and west, sentiment that has been giithering volume for more than a century, that sings its heroes and crowns its martyrs, sentiment that had perhaps not worked out in great detail the changes it desired, beyond the one heart-cry; "Give us a Government that shall be our own, and we shall rebuild a nation out of tiic dust;" opposed to this came no equally glowing sentiment for a Union, but a careful business caution, full of questionings, fears, and with one firmly bitter determination, that none of its possessions should be taken from it. "They'll tax us more." "'i'liey want our jolis." "Home Rule will destroy our credit." "Home Rule will bankrupt the country.'' "The business we have created shall not be ruled l)y law made by the im- provident, the unsuccessful populace." "Why have they upset things when everything was going to suit us?" "What Catholic country has prospered financially?" These are the arguments one heard. But as far as the Volunteers are concerned, the — :i— IX A CONTESTED ULSTER CO C X T V general feelint; tliat tlie discipline under wliicli they were held had served rather to prevent riots than to encourage them, was expressed by the county inspector of police in a much disputed county. "You'll l)e having your hands full," I said, "be- tween Ulster Volunteers and the Xational Volun- teers." "Xot at all, not at all." he rejoined cheerfully. "Sure, the more they drill, the less they tight." —32— The "Armed Camps" "Going to Belfast for the twelfth, are you? I hope you'll return alive." It was an echo of the fear I had heard expressed before leaving America. "Going to Ireland for the summer? Aren't y(Ui afraid of the war?" It was also an echo of the four letters received from Eng- land l)y my companion imploring her not to risk her life in tlie dangerous Xorth. The newspapers on lioth sides of the Atlantic seemed Idled with the idea that Ireland consisted of "two armed camps," dangerous even to the harndess traveler. "Sure, and it's their job to furnish exciting news," as an Irish friend remarked. "I'm going," 1 answered, "to sec four tliousand Irisii Volunteers on Sunday, the CJrange procession in Belfast on Monday, and the battle of Scarva on Tuesday. By that time 1 ought to l)e full of news from the seat of war!" "You musn't wear that blouse on Sunday," said a cautious friend, indicating a harmless red and brown garment. "It's too near orange. You'll be in the midst of a Nationalist celebration." Thus began my visit to the I'irst of the "armed camps." Sunday afternoon found me at the leading Xatiduaiist humc in a village awaiting the arrival of the- pipiTs who were to lead the jjrocession to tlie "feis." Down the long avenue they came, bear- ing above them a white banner with a red hand upon it — the famous "red hand of Ulster," And in their costumes, mingUd with green and blue, were colors tar nearer to the "dangerous orange" than my un- offending blouse would ha\e been. —33— ON THE EVE OF HOME RULE "It's an Ulster hand," 1 was told, "down from Monaghan to help with the celebration." In a large field were gathered some ten thou- sand people to join in tlic "feis," the name given to a large popular festival. Babies tumbled in the grass, mothers spread out the picnic lunch for their families, vendors of soda-pop and sweets cried their wares, and on a platform in a corner an ancient ballad singer was chanting to an interested crowd. "TlilS YEAR WE HAVE WITH US 4,000 H^ISH VOLUNTEERS" But the ballad itself was not ancient — it was a song of "Home ivule": "Arise, you gallant young Irishmen, and Ring the land with cheers. Hurrah! Hurrah! at last we have formed The Irish Volunteers." The main platform in the center of the field was surrounded by a larger crowd. Upon it groups of children were engaging in contests of national dances and songs. —34— THE " A R I^I E D CAMPS" At last tlic speaker of the day arose. He spoke of ancient Ireland and the irisli language; of national feeling and patriotism, and he warned his hearers that they were only at the heginning of the building of their nation, that Home Rule was a necessary tirst step which would go for nought un- less it was followed by years of patient, self-deny- ing, constructive statesmanship by Irishmen. He concluded: "Last year we expressed our national feelings through competitions in the Irish language. This year we have with us 4,000 Irish Volunteers." .\ deafening cheer split the air, answered by the round of drums, and the review began. Down the iield they marched, one hundred abreast, tall, straight, well-formed, strong men. 1 had seen the review of the Regulars on the King's birthday; they had marched no better than many of the lines of Volunteers. "They have been drill- ing only a few weeks," marveled a military man be- side me, "rnd they do work wh-ch the Regulars barely equal in a year. I can only account for it by the fact that they have behind them a tremen- dous wave of national feeling which stinuilates their jiowers of attention to the last degree. It is a thing any land might In- proud of, the spirit that has formed the Volunteers." They marched, wheeled, marched back, and lined vp to hear an address on the value of discipline. Then they dispersed, and there began a friendly hurling match between two county tt'ams, one of them from I'lster. .And the children went on play- ing, the ballad singer went on singing, the coun'y gentry departed for tea. This was tlie lirst of the two "armed camps," The following day 1 reached Belfast, and motored out towards I)ruml)eg. Surely here there would be —35- ON THE EVE OF HOME RULE signs of civil war, here in the "black north," at the famous procession of the Orangemen, addressed by Sir Edward Carson. "Cover up that green belt," said a friend, "if you don't want to be pelted with stones." Mile after mile stretched the procession; hour after hour it passed. I noticed especially the num- ber of green sweaters among the women who fol- lowed it. And held aloft were banners of orange and red and blue and green — yes, numberless ban- ners of green. "Ah, well, green is one of the prin- cipal Orange colors I" said an Ulsterman. The majority of the banners bore inscriptions with the words "Total Al)stinence" or "Temperance" Loyal Order Lodge. I might have believed myself watching a temperance procession instead of the beginning of war, if tlie newspapers had not warned me to the contrary. My host was one of those people especially sin- gled out for Orange hatred, a Protestant National- ist, and he was known and recognized by many in the procession, yet he dodged his motor through the crowd, slipped into a gap in the parade, and followed the bands and banners for a mile or two, unmolested save for the men who carried contribu- tion boxes for "Orange widows and orphans." Through ennrmous crov.ds, acros.s ditches, hedges and fields, and under wire ferccs, we fought our N^ay after leaving the motor, till we came to the lield where Sir Edward Carson was speaking. A volley of blank cartridges saluted him from scattered spots in the crowd. A throng of thou- sands pressed near to hear him speak. I'ut on tlu^ outskirts of the crowd were children asleep in the sun, young men and maidens making love by the hedges, and mothers laying out lunch. THE ARMED CAMPS" An aiiihulance wagon of the Ulster Volunteers, who. while not marching officially in the Orange proces- sion, furnished a large iiun]l)er of the individual marchers, stood on a little rise of ground. I glanced inside; it was full of soda-pop for the tem- perate and loyal Orange Lodges. And tliis was the second "armed camp." On the following day we motored to Scarva, the scene of the famous drumming contests and the sham l)attle of tlie Boyne — mile after mile of peace- ful country roads. ■'I read in tlie papers." I remarked, "tiiat one can't go anywhere in the country districts of I'lster with- out hearing riHe-i)racticc." "Motoring all over the north for the past two years," was the answer, "1 have only twice seen or heard Ulster Volunteers i)y accident. Of course, if you go looking for them you can find tliem." .\t Scarva we saw tlic wild ( )rangeman at home. .'\iid very much at home he seemed, with his wife, his sons and daughters, and his drumming. The Orange drum is larger and lighter than the ordi- nary drum, and is beaten by the fiat of a long cane, manipulated by a wrist motion, wliicli cuts the wrists on the edge of tiie drum, so that they l)leed, .\ continous wall of sound arose from the field all day as the drumming contests progressed. Tliree policemen sat on a stone wall to watch. "Sure. there's one thin^L; that would mean civil war," said orie, 'if the Dublin Parliament should make a law against drumming." King William and King janus, clad resi)ectively in red and green, marched forth with twenty men ap;ece, and were duly photograplud ln'fore pro- ct ((ling to the field. "I'd like,'' 1 said, "to send a picture of them to -i7- ON THE EVE OF HOME RULE an English paper, and call it 'Civil War in Ireland— the Battle of the Boyne.' " "Ah. and they'd think it was true," said the po- liceman. "It's too easy — fooling an Englishman." And this was the third "armed camp." "Not that I'd he doubting the courage of any Irishman," as a lady from the South remarked, even while declaring that there would l^e no war. Nor would I appear to doubt the courage, the sincerity, or the seriousness that tilled both Ulster and Irish Volunteers. They were, and arc still, strong men with strong convictions. In spite of the signing of the Home Rule Bill and the cessation of conflict in view of a world calamity, a real con- test still lies ahead. Softened it may be by a com- mon peril and still more by a common sorrow, as word comes bsck from the continent to make deso- late homes of North and South alike with the death of Ulstermen, Munstermen, Leinstermcn, Con- naughtmen, in common trenches, facing a common foe. But when the war is over, and the Amending Bill cDmes up for action, let no one suppose it will l)e without conflict and bitterness. But human nature is contradictory, and the Irish are more human than most. Even at the height of the bitterness one found a strange primitive sanity. And between the two Volunteer forces, when the tension was greatest, were gleams of mutual under- standing and appreciation what would seem in- credible to an Englishman. To an Englishman both the Volunteer forces were illegal armies, and their very existence a dan- ger to law and order. Logically the Englishman was correct, but humanly he was very far astraj'. Practically every Irishman I have met. on either side, was absolutely sure of certain points: T H E " A R AI E D CAMPS" 1. Tliat I)<)tli Volunteer forces were good for the men and were reducing drunkenness and even the normal Saturday night rows. 2. That hoth were the expression, as far as rank and I'lle are concerned, of the same fundamental feeling, a determination not to l)e dictated to hy England, nor made the football lietween English parties. "If the lirilish Army should attack Ulstermen, the Irish Volunteers would help Ulster." I was told hy no less than tliree prominent organizers among the Irish Volunteers. If this seems a bit bewilder- ing to the logical Briton, let him call to mind what happens when husband and wife are fighting and an outsider dares interfere. "I am told that tiie Nationalist farmers loaned motors for the Lister gun-running at I.arne," I said to a N'orthern Nationalist. "And would again," he retorted. "Tliey were proud cf tlie national feel- ing displayed by the Ulstermen in daring to outwit the English. The gun-running was a wonderful lark, a battle of Irish wits against luiglish wits." "Were you one of them?" I asked. "No, but I should have been if I'd known how much good it would do." "Good?" I inquired. "It helped to call the Irish Volunteers into being," he explaiiu'd, in tones which assumed that that must be considered by all an uncjuestioned good. It is not in such tones that one deprecates "an illegal army." .'Xn Irishman from a northern village told me that the Ulster and Irish Volunteers there, neither having a full battalion, had joined forces on special occasions for battalion drill. "In at least three towns," said a lielfast dcjctor, "1 know of nurses' —39— ON THE EVE OF HOME RULE corps in which lioth sides liave comhincd to divide the expense of an instructor." These were but gleams, of course. There was much traditional religious bitterness. Vile songs of a quite unprintal)le character were being sold in Belfast — -songs which would provoke riot in any city with their nasty allusions to priests and nuns. (T have found no ol)jectiona1)le literature in Na- tionalist Ireland.) And the bitterness was fanned into rtanie and carefully encouraged l)y leaders like a man pointed out to me by a friend: "There goes Lord ; he hasn't lived in Ireland long, and I happen to know alisolutely that he has no belief at all in this Roman bogy. And he's leading in the stirring up of Protestant ill-feeling." Yet across the bitterness came gleams of human sanity and of mutual admiration and tolerance. "Of course we wouldn't think of parading near the twelfth," .'aid some Irish Volunteers. "The Orangemen wouldn't like it; they'd think we meant to insult them. .But when the twelfth has all blown over, we're thinking they won't mind our march- ing down the road to Belfast, as they've done l)e- fore us." And a prominent Belfast man remarked: "In all my life in Belfast there's never been a time when the relations between North and South seemed to me so hopeful as in tlie past si.x months, since the forming of the Irish Volunteers. The North re- spects the South, for the first time in generations. The North even feels flattered that the rest of Ire- land has followed its lead in organizing for its rights. And the South admires the North for show- ing it the way. When such respect and admiration exist the end may be far off and hard to attain, but it is in sight." —10— T H F. " A R :\I E D CAMPS" An amusing event, wc found, occurred on the road to Scarva, an event typically Irish, ([uite illogical and uncon\ entionai, hut liunian and sensil^le, an event which augurs well for the simple and direct way in which the Irishman, left to himself, may set- tle his own disputes. The main way from the Xorth passes over some rising ground owned by the Catholics, and for gen- erations it has been the tradition that the Orange procession should not come that way. Individual Orangemen may go, but they must make no demon- stration. On this occasion, Lord , an Orange leader, was motoring down from Belfast, flying a Union Jack (now arrogated by Unionists to the uses of a party emblem) above his car. He came to the Catholic hill. ■■.\nd what do you think happened?" said my informant. "The Nationalists tore it down," guessed one, "and then he posed as a martyr." "The Nationalists cheered it and saluted," guessed another, "and then he thought he had beaten them." "Wrong," he replied, "the police stopped him and removed it." -41- Out of the Past "If you can give me a single reason for having Home Rule, I'd be glad to consider it. I'm perfect- ly open-minded," said my Dublin host at dinner, in tones that belied his words. "Will taxes be less? Will the government be more economically managed? I've found no one yet who has a reason." One does not like to argue with one's host when he speaks in tones of such determination. Yet, as his words were going quite unchallenged, I ven- tured slowly, "You should have heard the country people on the West Coast talk. Or you should have watched the Volunteers last Sunday on the route march to Killiney. I'm told they pay three- pence to be allowed to drill, — men who have worked all day for a couple of shillings. They must have reasons." "No logical ones," he answered. "This Home Rule enthusiasm is all sentiment, popular sentiment. Even the advocates of the bill aren't satisfied with it. except as an opening wedge. But something must be done to still the popular clamor." My thoughts raced back to the tenant farmers and the Volunteers. I knew little of high finance, or economy in government. And then I remembered the words of a Limerick man: "I may be very fond of a friend, and a great admirer of his business methods, but I don't want him to run my household. Let me be master in my own home." After all, it was sentiment. Practical sense there must have been, also; sound financiers and adminis- A KOLTE .MAK( II In klLLlAhV MKN WHO HAN-K \V(JRKED ALL \).\\ I'OK TWO SIllL- LINCS I'AV THREE PENCE TO BE ALLOWED TO nRH.L ON THE EVE OF HOAIE RULE trators were on both sides of the question. Ex- perts disagreed — it's the way with experts. But the real reason was not a penny in the tax-rate. The real reason — I faced it proudly — was sentiment, the sentiment that causes all individuals and all na- tions, when they deem themselves full-grown, to say: "Hands off, we manage our own affairs." "Give me liberty or give me death," these were the words of an Irishman. Out of the past has grown this sentiment; its roots are deep in history. Few lands are so steeped in tradition as Ireland. The Cromwellian planta- tions, the cruel jest, "Drive them to hell or Con- naught," the Battle of the Boyne, the Act of Union, — these are spoken of as if they had occurred yes- terday. Present political convictions in Ireland are the heritage of the past. "My conversion to Nationalism," said a promi- nent otiicial in the Volunteers, "dates from the Land Agitation. I was a North of Ireland man, a strong L^nionist. During my Oxford vacation I traveled in Donegal with my tutor. I was greatly impressed Ijy the peasants, their soundness, good cheer and intelligence. "One evening the word came that several evictions would take place on the following day. We went to see them. Of course, we could do noth- ing to help; we were law-abiding citizens. But the scenes were heart-rending. Women and children weeping, sick people lying by the roadside, more than a dozen families turned out of the homes of their ancestors that the landlord might have a large pasture-field. "Then overnight the peasants went back to their homes, and, acting on legal advice, closed doors and windows and refused to answer. This made —44— St" W«f!\^''; I W. -» ■ ON THE EVE OF HOME RULE the swearing out of warrants necessary, and for some reason the authorities hesitated. But they placed sentries before each cottage, with instruc- tion to take possession as soon as the place was opened. "It was a pitiful situation. Men, women and chil- dren, sick and well, confined almost without food in their own homes, fearing to open the door lest they lose their dwelling-place forever. On the sec- ond day I could stand it no longer. I got a bag, filled it with bread, meat and potatoes, and went from house to house, thrusting the food through doors which I liastily opened and shut. " 'You are defying the law,' a sentry warned me. I didn't believe it, and didn't care. I came that evening with a jaunting car full of provisions, and was arrested on the charge of 'breaking and en- tering' without owner's consent. This was too ironical to stand, and was changed next day to the charge of encouraging law-breaking. I refused to pay the fine imposed and was sent to jail. I have been a violent Nationalist ever since.'' Sentiment again! Logic might easily have shown that land laws may be improved and have been im- proved without Home Rule. But the facts remain tliat the men who formed the Land League were also the men who worked for Home Rule. The present can be rightly seen only in the shadow of the past. More ancient still was the history tliat haunted my hostess in old Limerick, — "Limerick famed of all, for its well-defended wall." She showed me the treaty-stone on which was signed the treaty, won through the great courage and heroism of a city al)andoned by its French allies. The treaty was broken before the ink was dry. She led me to OUT OF THE PAST old St. Mary's, once a castle, then a Catholic church, then taken over by Protestant conquerors. There are very few Protestants in Limerick, but the hand- some historic churches are reserved for their use, while the many descendants of the race who built and dedicated them are shut out. "I don't mind their having fine new buildings," said my hostess, "but the old ones were sacred to our faith. And the old altar-stone, rough-hewn, on which mass was first said in our ancient city, is only a curio in their halls, instead of being used as we should use it." Later in the evening my host took me to his study and brought out statistics and records. "I want to show you," he said, "what we mean by the Protestant Ascendancy. This is a directory of County Limerick ofiicials. I'll check ofif the religion of each man. And bear in mind that the common people of Limerick are so exclusively Catholic that there are 22,037 children in Catholic National schools and 802 in Protestant National schools." We went through the list. The Lord Lieutenant (it the County was a Protestant ; the high sheriff and county inspector of police were Protestants. The county court judge was a Catholic. Only one-fifth of the members of the latest grand jury were Cath- olics. Of 163 magistrates, 86 were Catliolics, slight- ly more than half. "Until within the last few years," said my host, "tlie majority of magistrates in every Catholic coun- ty in Ireland has been Protestant. There is a rea- son for this. Through the centuries the Catholic gentry were oppressed, dispossessed and driven out so effectually that most people of social position, even in tlie Catliolic counties, are Protestant. And -AT— ox THE EVE OF HOME RULE ofiicials are appointed chiefly from th's class. But tliere is an increasing nunif)cr of Catholics, who have given creditable service in County Councils, who should now be eligiljle for official appoint- ments. "I am far from asking,"' he went on, "that re- ligion should be made cither a qualification or a disciualilication. I have known Catholic County Councils who appointed a man as county surveyor on the pulilished reason that he was a Protestant, and they wished to give due place to their Protes- tant ncighliors. I have no patience with such an attitude. A man should be appointed for efficiency, not for religion. But when the people of a county are of one religion, and their officials are uniformly cf another, it leads to a bad situation. I am com- plaining against no one, merely pointing out the danger. '■\\'hen a small group of gentry going to their own chr.rch every Sunday, drive through the wdiole Catholic population going to another church, the stage is set for a revolution. Barriers of race and class breed misunderstandings enough; when you add the barrier of religion there is no common ground left. Yet some common ground must be found; the alternative is too horrible. I pray that under Home Rule, working side by side, we may hnd that common ground in the service of a com- mon country." I marveled at his conclusion. Xo resentment, though resentment would have been excusable; no desire for a Catholic ascendancy to take the place of the Protestant one. Merely a prayer for brother- hood, a desire to heal the breach. Wherever I went in Ireland it was the same. I searched carefully for signs of Catholic intolerance in the South and \^'est O U T O F THE P A S T and East, expecting it as only liunian, luit iiever finding it. In cMie C()nnt\" a Unionist land-agent, a Protestant, was elected for t\\ elve successive years to the Coun- ty Council ])y a Catholic Xationalist tenantry. "He was the l)est man running," they f-aid, when asked why they were represented Ijy a man wlio differed with them on three points. In the twelfth year, when Unionist papers were nuiking liitter charges of Catholic intolerance, he was asked by his con- stituents to write a letter to the papers giving his own experience. He refused. He was not re-elect- ed. After that his case was cited as a sad example of Catholics throwing out a Protestant, fkit who cast the hrst stone. He had allowed statements to go unchallenged wdiich injured, not only the reputa- tion of his constituents, hut the cause of Home Rule, on which tluy had set their hearts. It was the Xorthern Protestant, not the Southern Catholic, wIto insisted upon mixing religion and politics. A hot-headed Kerryman was telling me of a priest who had been ri'moved to a distant cinui- ty. In the discussion the fact came out that he had been making re\'olutionary speeches to the Volun- teers, criticising the Irish Party and advocating physical force, "May the devil tly away with him to (/ape Horn or farther," said the Kerryman. "Ccme now," said I, "it's a i)riest you're talking about." "Pxe noihing to say to an\- man. jiriest or no," he replied, "who ])re1ends to be for the people of Ireland and works against the Irish Party. Let him kei']) to his own business; I'll follow him there. Hut it's Uednioud I follow for llome Rule." This man was a de\-out Catholic. In no iiart of -49- ON THE E\'E OF HOME RULE the world, in fact, have I seen such religious devo- tion as in the South of Ireland. Hour after hour on Sunday the churches are crowded; I have seen even the aisles filled with kneeling men and boys. On weekdays I have noticed two hundred people at an ordinary "early mass." Religious faith enters deeply into the life of the people. When the wife of a popular county gentleman was dangerously ill, every household for miles around said rosaries for her, "storming heaven" for her recovery. But — • let not the priest interfere with the Irish Party. "That's not his business," said the Kerryman. Over against this I set another anecdote of re- ligion and politics, showing the typically northern point of view. Some years ago, Lord E , a Catholic peer, took in to dinner at the Castle a lady from Belfast. Accustomed to meeting only Protestants at the Viceregal table, she momentarily forgot the religion of her escort. "I hear the Catholics down your way have been getting quite decent lately, really quite tolerant," she said. "How so?" "I'm told tlicy've elected one of us as mayor of Limerick." "Ah, A^es," lie replied, "we have a Protestant mayor in Limerick. I suppose liefore long you'll be electing a Catholic mayor in Belfast." The lady's face went white with anger. She brought down two clenched firsts on the Viceregal table. "Never, never," she said. -50- In Kerry after the Dublin Disaster I was sitting in a jaunting car in Kerry (the wild mountainous southern county of warm-hearted, tiery people who boast of being "next door to America") when the news first reached me. My hostess came out of a little shop in the streets of Tralec. and flung the words at me. ALT, DUBLIN CAME To "IHE FLXKKAI. I HAT 1<( )L- I.OWKI) IIIK SH()()TIN(, "Hct work in Dr.lilin." she said grimly. "The soldiers have been shooting civilians, three dead, one hundred wounded." ()( the next few hours I have no coherent mem- ories. A b.ard search for newspaiJers. which were —51— ^imftw.^:': IN KERRY AFTER THE DUBLIN DISASTER all sold out; confused incredulous questions meeting confused unsatisfying answers, a stunned sense that the next moment might bring the end of the world. For the entire afternoon my work took me out of Tralee to a distant fishing village, where we were the first to bring the news. Each person who heard it seemed shocked into silence. "Bad, had," was almost the only comment. Then, after a time, when the first daze had passed, instead of rancour or desire for vengence, one persistent Isafifling cjues- tion began to arise in dififerent formes in each mind: "What will it mean for Home Rule?" "It will put the fear of God into Carson," said a man, in low tones. "The Government will go out," said another. "Ah. but 'twill stiffen up the Government," said a woman. "Sure there'll be no half measures, now, no exclusion, no amending bill. They'll see we mean business." " 'Tis fearin' I am that 'twill be bad for Home Rule," said another. "Them Unionists will say we're a mob unfit to rule." Toward the close of the day wild rumors 1)egan to fly about. The tension that had ])een gathering for a week had reached its climax. First had been the time of the King's Conference, with the daily fear that some concession would be made that might defeat Home Rule. Then had come on Sat- urday the report that the War Office had forbidden soldiers or pensioners to help with the Volunteers — a very serious blow in some quarters to the hope of effective drill. "Sure 'tis England that is drivin' us into opposin' her, whether we will (ir no," said a car driver who was also a Volunteer. Official England has seemed to be drifting into a position more and more opposed to the spirit stir- -53- ON THE EVE OF HOME RULE ring in Ireland. Tlien had come the Dublin Dis- aster. The news had passed all day around Tralee. But there was as yet no second news, no word of Birrell's statement, of Redmond's speech, of the Lord Mayor's demand for the removal of the Scot- tish Borderers. No official utterance of any kind l.ad been heard, and no one knew what of conflict the next hour would bring. What wonder that in court that day the Resident Magistrate's hands trembled with the strain! What wonder that the lack of official utterance was filled by wild conjectures and rumors of terror! ■'All the Metropolitan Police have gone out, God bless 'em, because they wouldn't charge the Volun- teers." "Dublin is under martial law." "The Irish Guards are confined to their barracks in London with the Artillery trained on them." "No, 'tis the Irish Lancers in Dublin, for refusing to fight the Volunteers." In the midst of rumors like these. T found Tralee on my return. Groups of men gathered along the streets talking in tones so low that they interfered not at all with the air of strained, expectant silence that hung over the town. Then from a side street sounded the steady beat of a drum, and the Irish Volunteers appeared, a long column of several hun- dred, preceded by Boy Scouts in fours. They marched with stern, set faces, between the silent, staring crowds. Irish faces are even more ex- pressive than Irish tongues. These Volunteers looked as if they were gazing into the eyes of death. They were unarmed and half-drilled, and they knew not whether the next hour would call them to die, even perhaps to die in vain, for a country again enslaved. If so, there was no disputing the will of —5;— IX KERRY AFTER THE DUBLIN DISASTER God. All this one read in the tense faces of the men who passed. By Tuesday noon the tension was broken. News of Harrell's suspension, of the speeches in Parlia- ment, and of the Lord Mayor's demand concerning the Scottish Borderers, brought reassurance. "God bless him." they said of the Mayor, "but he's the grand character altogether." With the reaction came hope, praise of the Volun- teers for their courage and discipline at Howth, and the belief that the Dublin affair might even be turned to good uses. "Sure, but bloodshed of anyone is always a ter- rible thing," said a small shopkeeper, "but 'tis the mercy of the Almighty it happened in Dublin in- stead of Belfast. For then they'd all have been sympathizin' with the Carsonites instead of with the Nationalists. And 'twill mean a hundred thou- sand recruits for the Volunteers." A villager several miles from Tralee confirmed this statement. "Our Volunteers was gettin' dis- couraged like, with nothing happening, and their drillmaster leaving because he was a pensioner and couldn't afford to lose his pension. But on Monday night two hundred recruits came to join, and now that they have a few rifles, they're doin' fine." For on Tuesday night rifles came into Kerry. Many were the gleeful tales of hoodwinking of police. In one small village twenty men appeared blind drunk in front of the village inn. They fought each other ami insulted passersby. It took the four village policemen two hours to convey them to the place of detenlinn; by that time arms were in. In the county scat a double cordon of Volunteers surrounded tlu' police liarracks for two hours. The Head Constable commented later on the perfection of the manocuvers. .\. prominent Unionist ofiicial -55- W H Q W Pi t-H o uj J ? ». IN KERRY AFTER THE DUBLIN DISASTER was surrounded l)y fifty men, all in perfect order, and asked to go liome. He went, and to his sur- prise was given a rousing cheer. "Why should we be hissing anyone," they explained later, "when we had things going our way." All Tuesday 1 had spent in the country on a drive between a small village where a market was in progress, and a fishing village of incredibly poor houses, recently bought by the Congested Districts Board for improvement. Kerry life had resumed its wonted course; my driver, a village shopkeeper, acquainted witn every oeasant and fisherman, ven- tured to grow light-hearted. "Good morning to ye ser.geant," he called as we met a policeman: "and is it many nfles ye've been takin' this mornin'?" "Ah, it might be a dozen or two," said the ser- geant. " 'Tis to Cromane I'll lie goin' now for guns." "Sure, the yacht is up at the pier, and the rifles will all be ofi," said the driver. "It's too late I am. is it? Likely then I'll be meetin' them on the road. " And he went on. ".\h. the police is dififercnt now to what they were altogether." said the driver. "Sleuth hounds like they used to be, and dirty beu.gars, but now there's some very dacint men amongst them. 'Twas a friend of myself was tellin' me yesterday how destroyed they are with marching nut to Cromane every night to look for gun-running, and a good four mile it is. 'I'll have nothing to saj- to the Volunteers,' says lie; 'a line lot of boys altogether, but 'tis murdered iur sleep we are with those damned guns.' " We stood ln'side the coast guard station at Cro- mane. a large, nia>>i\c Iniilding set in a village of —57— ON THE EVE OF HOME RULE hovels. He indicated it with a gesture. "See how- grand are the strongholds of England," he said, and was silent. " 'Tis not that I'd not be proud to be a British subject, but I want to see my land free," he contin- ued in a tone of yearning affectionate patriotism that I thought had died out of the world. "And 'tis not that we've so much of a quarrel with the gov- ernment of England, but we think we might be let rule ourselves a bit." I turned the talk to the present Govenrment. "The poor Liberal Government." he said, and com- mented on the rumors of foreign war, which were just then beginning- to shift dangerously from Servia and Austria, to Austria and Russia. "If it isn't hav- ing the hardest career that any government for the next hundred years will be again through." "Do you Irish Volunteers like the present Gov- ernment, or do you think they've been weak about Ireland?" "They could have l)een stiffer with the army." he said, but immediately added: "And why shouldn't we love the Liberal Government! Sure 'tis no mean treatment they're givin' us. I've seen the time when a man might have had two months in jail for a-whistlin' of 'Harvey Duff,' and if he was seen drillin' once, 'twould have been two years. Ah, 'tis the grand thing that we should be goin' out to drill, and no man to hinder. It's fools we'd be not to love the Liberals for givin' us the fine liberty." Then I began to perceive that free drilling is to the Irishman, so long deprived of the chance of soldiering for his own hearth, the same kind of symbol that free speech is to an Englishman, a thing beautiful and good m itself, not as a prepara- tion for war, but as the badge of a free people. —58— IN KERRY AFTER THE DUBLIN DISASTER The Volunteers mean to the Irishman, no mere military movement, but the awakening of national spirit and national pride. That is why in a little village of 800 souls, all peasants and fishermen, the collections at the church gate for the arms fund amounted to thirty pounds. The North was armed by donations of wealthy men. "Let them pay for it who'll make money from it,' said an Ulster Vol- unteer in my hearing. But the South is armed by the pittances of the poor and by the children of the poor who went to America. "The Irish Volunteers, it's the God-send to the country, miss," said a farm laborer. "For why?' Ve get a bit of brotherhood into a hundred men when they're drilling together, and they'll stick to each other after.'" "Sure Ireland has too much politics and too much factions altogether. There's Redmondites and Car- sonites and O'Brienites and more. .And when we get a little progress, is it, out of one set, another set comes along and stops it, and the spirit is quenched out of us altogether." Perhaps half a dozen times he complained that the spirit was ([uenchcd. Yet we were passing a \illage of some fifty houses in wliich were a hundred Volunteers, and another village of a thousand souls with a hundred and twenty Volunteers, and he him- self was one of sevc-nty farm laborers who, spon- taneously, witli no leader, had contributed to hire a (Irillmaster for three drills a week. If this was "the spirit quenched." what will the awakening be? Three memories of Kerry will rcm.ain longest, as most typical of the si)irit that lives in tiie Irishman of the southwest. The first is in tlie evening scene in the streets of Tralee when the first news of Dub- lin was still hot from the wires. Those files and -59— ON THE, EVE OF HOME RULE flies of Volunteers, with Boy Scouts in front, and the look of men who faced death on their faces! Unarmed men, in the midst of assailing rumors, con- fronting they knew not what, tense yet in perfect control, ready to go forward to whatever future God might decree. The second is of a beautiful day at Killarney in an old Irish festival, when on a green field in the midst of wonderful mountains, rank on rank of Vol- unteers passed the reviewing stand before a tall man in ancient Irish costume, and a green flag with the Uncrowned Harp. Fingall pipers in the black and white kilts of that old Danish settlement led the way. Scattered among the thousands of spec- tators were men in green or saffron kilts and women in the graceful embroidered draperies of old Ireland. Thus Ireland links her latest hope of nationhood with the glories of her dim past. There were Vol- unteers from Limerick with wooden practice guns, and Volunteers with bandoliers, and, last of all, to a deafening shout, came Volunteers with rifles, brought in the ni.ght before. A woman turned to me in the crowd, "Sure, 'twas the Almighty sent them to us, for to l^uck us up a bit." More intimate than either is the third memory. The villager who drove my jaunting car from Kil- lorglin to Cromane, who introduced me to police- men, volunteers, fishermen and schoolmaster, who bought me postcards and commandeered for me all the posters and pamphlets which attracted my attention, and refused to accept pay uecause I had been sent by friends, led me at last to the village chapel. We stood in the aisle for a moment, while he pointed out the beauties of altar and windows. Then he dropped on his knees and said quite sim- ply, "We'll say our prayers now, for Ireland." --60- IN KERRY AFTER THE DUBLIN DISASTER "Nowhere, I think, but in Ireland could it have happened. To an acquaintance of an hour, from a foreign land, he had offered freely and without em- barrassment the hospitality of village, of market and of pleasant talk; now he added to these quite naturally a hospitable share in the best he had — his faith. We knelt in the village chapel and, with dif- ferent forms but to the same God, prayed — for Ire- land, for the speedy coming of Home Rule, and for peace. -«1- The Declaration of War "As an Irishman of the most extreme kind," said a fellow traveler on the road to Dublin. "I'd like to see every German ship sunk. It's aisy I'd slape in my bed tonight if it was done. Faith, 'tis little love I have for English interference in our local afifairs, but in the imperial matters now, 'tis for England to command. And this war, we went into it, not light-heartedly, as you might say, but with heart and conscience, and 'tis mesilf would put rifle to shoulder for any foot of English soil." "We went into it." "We,"' not "they." These words were significant of a revolution which four days wrought in Ireland, a revolution which seemed sudden and overwhelming, but which had its be- ginnings in the subtle changes of thought and atti- tude which, in the past few 3'ears, have brought a better understanding between the two democracies. Only so can I explain the fact that this revolution was not duplicated among the Irish in America. To them, children of the second generation, the ancient wrongs were more real than recent attempts to right them. To them love of Ireland was an exact synonym for hatred of England. But even before the European war, the ranks of the Irish Volunteers contained many men whose loyalt_\ to the Empire was beyond question, and many more to whom England seemed no longer an intentional enemy, but a blundering, misunderstanding friend. Even the most radical preferred "the devil they knew to the unknown devil" l)eyond the North Sea. When the shock of war lirought all these sentiments into clear THE DECLARATION OF WAR consciousness, events moved so fast that each day the facts and spirit of the day before seemed ancient history. On Sunday, August 2, I addressed a group of Irish Volunteers in a held five miles from Limerick. Three hundred and fifty men were there, farm laborers from the countryside. Some had had two months' training and marched well, more than a hundred had joined since the Dublin shooting. The English government was not popular among them, still less the English army. "Them Scottish Borderers, "tis assassinated they'd be if 'twas shooting in County Limerick they were." The Volunteers were still an illegal body and they resented it. Organized for home defense, desiring only the Home Rule already lawfully theirs, thcv felt that they had been wrongfully regarded as revolutionists, and were ];)eing forced by events into undesired violation of law. "The Dublin shooting has led me to offer my services to the Provisional Committee, for gun- running." wrote a friend, a j^romincnt citizen who had previously remained neutral. After my address on Sunday, a i)olice sergeant took my name and general history. "He was be- hind you all the time you spoke," said my host. "I think he's trying to connect you with the gun- running in Kerry." So far apart on Sunday were official England and the Volunteers. On Monday the naval reserves were mobilizing. T saw a group of them at a station in Clare. Mothers, wives, sweethearts, children, clung to them weeping. 'i'herc was sullenne>s (Ui the faces of some of the men. They were leaving, with their country's fate still undecided, to join an armed force which had just shot chiwn their cnuntrymen. —63— ON THE EVE OF HOME RULE "I wish to God 'twas fighting for Ireland we were," I heard a man say. That night came Redmond's speech, and the face of the world changed. Yet it was not his words which surprised and put heart into the Nationalists; it was the Tory and Unionist acceptance of them. The version of Redmond's speecli which I have seen in America contains a suggestion of lo.valty "to the king." I remembej no such words when I saw it hot from the wires in Limerick. In common with all Ireland, I was watching Redmond closely. An offer of allegiance to George, a gift of the Volun- teers to the British War Office, would, I felt then and still feel, have been repudiated by the Irish people, still bitter with the Dublin shooting. But all Ireland cheered his statesmanship when, in the form of a magnanimous offer, accepted as a real help by the people of England, though somewhat tardily by the government, he uttered the strongest Nationalist demand made for a generation. "Withdraw all your soldiers, and Ireland will be defended by her own armed sons." It was for this the Volunteers had come into being. What the Home Rule Bill denied them, Redmond asked for and secured. "An army of Irishmen defending Ireland's shores" — the wildest revolutionist had no more glowing vision. "In conjunction with our brothers of the North," it was what they had long prayed for and been denied. hVom the beginnmg of the Volunteer movement they had cherished one dear dream, that they might become an Irish army of Home Defense. And now that dream was ap- plauded by their traditional opponents. They felt that at last they were trusted and vmderstood. On Tuesday, when the Unionist enthusiasm had not yet come, the Nationalist acceptance of Red- T H E D E C L A R .V T -I O N OF W A R niond's speech was still slightly tinged with distrust of England. •'Hc"ll have had i)rivate assurance that the Home Rule I! ill will be signed," said a man. "Faith, he'll not be turning us over to England to do with as England plazes, not with England denying us our rights. 'Ti> our own shores we'll Tight for, but let them make the shores our own, if they want to put the heart into us. And 'tis under our own com- mittee we'll fight, not under the British War Office. along with Scottish Borderers." ■'Is is wantin' our help they are," said another, "or is it wantin' to desthroy the drillin' altogether, with all our drillmasters gone away as reservists?" But as each successive newspaper contained more evidence of Unionist appreciation, and of the ac- ceptance of their help, if not yet officially, at least informally by hundreds of their old opponents, their spirits rose. All their gentry, so long estranged by race, religion, politics and unwillingness to un- derstand, were joining them at last. "Glory be to God, but Lord M — is with us, and the Earl of B — will be joinin' the Volunteers, and the Protestants of Athlone are all comin' in." "It seems to me they are a bit late about it." said 1. ■■\\ liat matter for that? 'Tis open arms we have for them, whenever they come," said a woman who had suffered long ostracism from Protestant neigh- bors as almost the only Catholic member of the country gentry. The new enthusiasm overflowed into song. "The nation that takes a song to war has the cause that wins," says a prominent writer. Few nations ex- cept the Irish have been stirred bj^ recent events to good singing. One of the best was printed in the Irish Times, that old Unionist organ, under the title of "The iri-^h \'iiluiUeer>." by C. B. Armstrh Volun- teers than have come about since the two islands came into the relationship that has lasted in one form or other since 1171. For the first time Eng- land is trusting Ireland witli her own defense. And —67— ON THE EVE OF HOME RULE Carson's game is up; he missed his chance of doing the right and great thing rightly and greatly; and there is just one more moment when he may re- trieve the blunder. When the bill is actually signed, he may say something which will be written in the history books as John Redmond's five-minute speech will be written. And if he does not, then he is the biggest failure of this astonishing revolu- tion. He can't set up his provisional government; he can't even talk about civil war without being- hounded out of public life, if not actually impeached for high treason. The only thing he can do is to help Ireland, or else clear out. It is all wonderful past imagining. One is glad to be alive and see it all — what the generations have dreamed in vain." Thus it happened that when the army reservists left Limerick they were taken to the station amid scenes of excited rejoicing. Bands met them as the train passed town after town, bands, waving of handkerchiefs, and gay cheers. For they were go- ing now, not to fight for an alien, misunderstand- ing ally, but for a United Kingdom. And the en- thusiasm for the protection of Ireland began to grow into a devotion to England herself, until the only open expression of sympathy for the Germans' cause came from a few extreme Orangemen of the North, angry at the sudden popularity of the Nation- alists among the Tories of the South and of Eng- land. " 'Tis an extreme Home Ruler I am, and worse than that, an extreme raypublican," said a Kerry- man, ''but if a foreign force should land at Liver- pool, or any spot in England, I'd be the first to fight. For why? Sure ye can go to any spot in the British Isles and say: 'Down with the king. Hurrah for a Raypublic!' and 'tis nothin' they do THE DECLARATION OF WAR to ye, beyond maybe the takin' of yer name be the police. But if ye was to go to Gairmany and say 'Down with the Kaiser,' 'tis gettin' two years or worse ye would be. Ah, Gairmany's a despotism, and 'tis the tine liberty the English laws do be givin' us." " 'Tis the Gairmans have already been oppressin' us," said a shrewd workman. "There's ten million pound put into the British navy that should have gone to build up the country and to help the work- ing people. Whose fault was that: 'Twas Gair- many's. Sure, England asked for a naval holiday, and the other powers were willing, but the Gair- mans, they said: 'To hell with your agreement; what business is it of yours what we do?' And we had to spend the money. (Again I noticed the "we" on the lips of the radical.) And I'm thinkin' if this war puts a stop to the Gairnian armament competition, 'twill have something good to say for itself." "Sure. English laws are the finest in the world." said another, "though 'tis in Ireland they're enforced with partiality, and not fairly as in England. And 'tis stupid for an Imperial Parliament to decide the drainage of Cork. Sure they had a bit of drainage to be done at 1,100 pounds, and it cost them 3,000 pounds legal expenses and took them three years to get it through Parliament. What sinse is there in that? Sure, 'tis our own local affairs we'd be runnin' as they've voted us the right. "But could Ireland afford an aruiy or navy by itself? Ye look on the map, and Ireland's just one little spot, and England's another, and if they don't stick together, where are they? Ireland must be givin' her fair share of taxes to the Imperial Gov- —69— ox THE EVE OF HOME RULE ernment for to protect the whole of the British Isles and the Empire as well." The quotations I have been giving were the words, not of Unionists, nor even of moderate Na- tionalists, but in many cases of uiembers of the extreme wing of "republican" Nationalists. As such they are significant, for they were given ungrudg- ingly, with no conditions attached, largely as the result of gratitude for the way in which southern Unionists and English were receiving Redmond's offer. But while given without condition, there was none the less present in the heart of each man a perfect trust that the new good-wifl meant Home Rule. "As sure as the sun is in the sky, Ireland gets Home Rule," said a villager. " 'Tis then we'll be lightin' the candles in the cottage windows and set- ting fires on the hills. I had four candles mesilf in every window at the first readin' of the bill, and 'tis six I'll burn when the king do be signin' it, God bless him, if it costs me the price of a day's food. 'Tis all the hills of Ireland will be alight to cele- brate the day, if there be any candles left be the war at all." Were the candles lit at the signing of the bill? Or were hearts discouraged by the year's postpone- ment and the knowledge that the old fight must be fought again when the Amending Bill comes up? I have no way of knowing. For while Ireland was still impatiently awaiting the word of the exact status to be given the Volunteers, I was hurried from her shores with lights out and under forced draught to the only continent at peace. No adequate news crosses the ovean; the thick clouds of a world catastrophe hide from me the fair hills of holy Ire- land. l!ut this I know, that the lights will indeed —70- THE DECLARATION OF WAR be lit and the sorrows forgotten, not only of this great war, but of the well-remembered seven hun- dred years, when the day comes which is now, to all human calculations, certain, and the Irish Parlia- ment takes its place again in the old buildings on College Green. ^ UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Form L9-75ni-7,'61 (Cl437s4)444 3 1158 00574 7414 DA S92o UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 394 437 8 ^' ';M:itl^%^.^«v,;,^^^