The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1907-08-03
He Assures the Friends of Ireland That the
Irish People are Loyal to the Par
]:amentary Party.
The Sim Fem Association is Charged With
Attempting to Create Dissension
Among 1rishrnen.

present political situation in Ireland.
Why. reading the English newspapers
--the London and provincial news
pa apers-one would imagine that .hs
Irish National movement had come to
an abrupt end; that it had heen split
up into fragments: that the Irish
Party had been repudiated by The
| Irish people and that it was powerless
| and hopeless for the future
Well. I need not say to YOU vino
| know Ireland and know Irish senti-
nent and Irish feeling. that there
never was Il more ridiculous misrepre-
sentation of the situation, and that
| there never was a more ridiculous
| travesty of the state of things at this
moment 1t is true that all the
| Cranks, all the soreheHds all the po-
litical outcasts have been very much
in evidence for the last few weeks.
AS All lrishman, ! am ashamed to az
init here in England that we in Ire-
land have our Roseberys and our
croaking ravens, and our history
shows that in all times cf danger and
difficulty and of doubt these men are
largely in evidence.
1t is very remarka bile. when you
come to think Of it. how these men
who. when the National movement is
going smoothly at full steam ahead. we
hear nothing of. and who have taken
no share in the labors. the conflicts.
| and the risks of this movement-it is
very interesting to find how they sud-
denly spring into activity, and sud-
denly rise to importance in the eyes OF
the English people. whenever cloud
/! comes over the Irish horizon, and
| whenever we meet with any check in
the onward march of our movement
But let no man here or elsewhere.
friend or foe, deceive himself on this
/, matter. These men don't represent
Ireland. They represent Ireland as lit
tie as Rosebery represents the Liberal
Party. The great bulk of Irish Ma
|
selves to- be turned back into the coun-
| sells of despair. or to allow themselves
by the hysterical vaporing of cranks
to- be turned from the steadfast and
logged pursuit of their movement by
those methods and those weapons
which all experience has proved to be
the best.
There has been on the part of some
of those gentlemen loud cry for what
they call a. new policy. Now I have
given great attention, and I have
looked everywhere for any indication
of what this new policy is. and I find
after careful study that the only new
| policy that these gentlemen advocate
is what is really not for them a new
policy at all, but an old one, namely.
to discredit and. if they can, to de-
stroy the Irish National Party. Why,
they have been at this policy all along,
and there is nothing new in it. The
only thing new about it is that they
have given it new name, and by the
most extraordinary confusion OF
thought they have called a policy
which means the throwing away of one
of Ireland's greatest weapons, a policy
of Sim Fein.
They maintain that the only way to
gain Irish reforms is by withdrawing
Irish members from Westminster. They
give the teaching of history the go-bv
in face of the fact that it was the
secession of :Grattan and the Patriot
Party from the Irish Parliament in
1897 that .smoothed the way for the
passage of the Act of Union. In the
words of the most remarkable historian
of that time: The advocates. Of tho
Constitution in 1897 withdrew from
Parliament. and. they left the country
to- the executioner and the. conspira-
tor" They brush aside as. absolutely
worthless the policy of o'connell, the
i policy Of Smith o'Brien. who, in 1857,