The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-12-16
The ireland Of pr. pouaIas HYDE.

Though there IS no politics in the
Irish movement so ably led by DIR.
Douglas Hyde, ii cannot fail to be rec
ognized that a great deal that is in it
points and tends directly to the con-
summation OF national freedom for
which all patriotic Irishmen hope and
labor. DR.. Hyde proclaims that the
aim Of his Gaelic League is to make an
Irish Ireland" Surely this is Irish
nationality. An Irish Ireland" must
mean, plainly means, everything in
Ireland to be Irish, including, OF course.
the government of the country. for how
could it be called or regarded as an
Irish Ireland If the most important in
stitution in 1t, namely, the government.
should be composed of aliens? Could
America be American if its government
were British or French or German?
But Dr.. Hyde does not leave TO be
merely guessed or presumed what he
means by an Irish Ireland. He declares
and emphasizes and reiterates that he
means IAN Ireland that shall be Irish
all out, an Ireland speaking It's own
language, thinking It's own thoughts,
writing its own books, singing its own
songs, sporting with its own games,
and an Ireland Supplying itself with its
own manufactures
Could there be such an Ireland with
bic. An Ireland OF the kind described
in the words quoted should necessarily
and inevitably be an Ireland ruled by
Irishmen. And as 10 the indispensable
need of self-government for Ireland, no
better proof could be pointed to than
the picture of the present condition of
the country given by DR.. Hyde in his
admirable address in New York on
Sunday evening, in which. after refre-
ring to the material progress of Eng
land, he went on to say:
But there exists at her very doors
country whose deserted streets re-
sound ever less and less to the roar OF
traffic, whose minds are silent, whose
factories are fallen. whose priceless
harbors are deserted. whose very fields
are studded with ruined gables, memo
ries of the past
What is the explanation of all that In
a country blessed by Providence with
an incalculahle, inestimable wealth of
natural resources? OF course the eX-'
pfanation and the only explanation is
bad government, government by for
eigners, and under such government no
country could be or has ever yet heen
prosperous. John Redmond. in one of
his recent speeches in Scotland, con-
demned the government of Ireland as a.
government of fore gners," to which
fact he attributed it's utter failure
supposing 1t TO have at any time been
prompted by good intentions. It's com
plete failure was and is due to its being
un-lrish in constitution (as well as
anti-lrish1-"to that jnexorable fact. E"
Mr.. Redmond continued to say. (which
is proved by the whole history of the
world, namely, that the people of one
country find it an impossible task to
govern the people of another country
against their will"
England and her parliament have
been doing this in Ireland for hun
dred years, and the result is. as DIR
Hyde tells it-deserted streets. mills
silent, factories fallen. fields studded
with ruined gables. If during those
hundred years Ireland had been gov
erned by 1rishmen how different the
situation would have been. How vastly
different it was during the few years
OF what is known as "Grattan's Par
liament'-the parliament that for
eighteen years preceded the Union. Ii
must wait for the supernatural to
Stoop and open its eyes to the light
that shines beyond. The supernatural
God must manifest Himself in some
manner of revelation or intuition before
He can become the subject of human
Il.
The supernatural must give to rea-
son, by revelation or intuition, the data
of the supernatural before reason can
act on them, just as the senses must
give it the data of the natural before
1t can act on the natural. Between
the mind and the realities of either
order there must be a mediator. a
something between, that brings the
mind and the realities into that rela-
tion with each other which we call
knowledge. This mediator is authori-
~, in both orders. In the natural or
der it is the authority of the senses.
IN the supernatural order il is the au-
thority of intuition, or revelation. To
doubt the authority of either mediator
in its order is to commit intellectual
suicide. is absolute scepticisIn. In both
orders, you will observe, we came in
the last analysis to point where rea-
son itself must depend on authority for
all its data, data without which it must
remain forever inert
You can now see the real difference
between you and uSs : on with, your
private Judgment theory make i3.divi-
dual reason the sole and independent
judge of whatever comes before 1t. We
hold that without some authority ex-
ternal to reason. nothing can come be-
fore it to be subject to it's action. With
out something on which to act, some
premises, reason is mute. As there is
no way for IT to get something TO act