The Irish republic. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1867-18??, 1868-01-25
TIT IRfSH REPUBiIG
CHICAGO, ILL, JANUARY 25, 1868.
The Curse of Disunion.

sections OF the Fenan Brotherhood have lately INDUCED
n and the almost general belief that for once the Irish
would show an unbroken front to the enemy we
compelled to the sad tdings that the fair
form of Unity, that looming up beautifully,
but mirage of the DESERT and has melted away leaving
ragged and helpless Faction in its stead We have
been severely criticized by many patriotic and we'll
meaning for indulgng in fears that union would
result from the deliberations of the leaders of both
branches of our Organization. We knew what we were
saying then and we said tive now reiterate it-that
unless the people force it will have union.
We have often asked ourselves whether our tendency
people to fly apart and leave ourselves at the
mercy of united but inferior enemy was the result of
slaveryhe schooling of hundred years of faction
Or whether it was foreigners asserted the character
stic of racer From the earliest records of Irish
history up to the English invasion there but few
CLEANS of united Ireland But we can look abroad,
and find the other nations of Europe during these dark
ages UNNECESSARILY worse in point of happiness and
divided and distracted by eud and faction as much as
Ireland and say the result of the imperfect
civilization of the time and characteristic of
any one race From the landing of Strongbow to the
present. there has never been united effort of the
chiefs and Clans and provinces and countless that
rose up and fought with herosm unparalleled against the
foreign enemy; but others, whose clannish enmty was
vicious enough to destroy their national duty looked on
while their local rivals persisted beneath the force of the
national enemy In many cases of the Irish
chiefs sided with the English in order to be revenged
their counrymen. 1t is needless to enter into
details this unfortunate phase of national history
readers must have often wept the criminal
cannishness of our forether that has left us without
a nation government of our own
"Hither and thither for sport
Blown like the salt foam
Known in ev'ry bay and port,
And strangers only at home"
Here, then, when we wish to indulge in the most
gloomy forebodngs for the future, we turn and look
back over the level of three thousand years without
finding united Ireland On the other hand we know
how hard it is for dsorganized people to unite in the
face of a consolidated and powerful government
England fights with our own people, as well as with
hers Every shot fired at any of our race and every
galows erected to strange Them must be paid for by
the victims. There are place and power, honors and
god for those who betray their country and only dun
geons and graves, poorhouses and emigrant ships for
those who love her.
1t is easy to understand how the oOisdom of the world
turns from the forsaken and the owly to pay homage
to Lord Mammon the wheels of whose chariot roll in
golden dust What say, then, when we turn to
Ireland, and find nationality questionable? The same
would happen in any land under the train of cir
cumstances The affairs of the world gold and man.
kind has its idols to-day of DID, though under different
names.
IF country taken from the highways, clothed
in scarlet and set upon throne, where she could rain