Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1914-12-05
Different Even From His Own
Countrymen in Great
Britain.
War Office Bungling and Deley
Help Swell England's
Regiments.
THOUSANDS LOST TO IRELAND

T. P. O'Connor, M. p, in his
weekly letter refers to the moment
of crisis that confronts England and
thus portrays the Newcastle-on-Tyne
Irish:
/ was present at meeting Of
Irishmen the other day at New
castle-on-Tyne which was typical Of
the Jrishmen In Great Britain at
this moment of crisis. The Tyneside
Irishman is different even from his
own countrymen in Great Britain.
He swarms all over the place,
largely because this is one of the
great mining centers Of England,
and the Irishmen who we're driven
out of Ireland in the days OF the
great famine gladly adopted mining
because it did not at first require
any great skill, was well paid, and
the hardships were not such as to
alright men who had rushed in
flight from famine and from plague.
In the first invasion by the Irish the
Tynesiders did not receive them
kindly. There are old Irishmen in
Newcastle who can recall days when
their countrymen were hunted
through the streets. But that is
more than half century ago, and
today the two races have mingled,
intermarried, fought together for
the elevation of the miners lot, one
of the greatest social Improvements
of the last half century of reform in
England.
Today the whole labor movement
in this portion, as in other districts
of England and Scotland, is largely
run by Irishmen. The Tyneside
Irishman shows this extraordinary
intermingling of races by speaking
the Northumbrian dialect, one OF
the hardest in England to under
stand Sometimes i have found 1t
difficult to follow conversation
between Tyneside Irishmen. He
also has adopted some of the char
acteristics of the people among
whom he lives. He Ia slow of
speech; he is resolute and evNn a
little obstinate; he forms his opin-
ions with perfect individual inde-
pendence
In that region there was not a
moments hesitation as to the at
titude Irishmen should adopt to-
ward the present war. 1t was not
that these Irishmen were less ex-
treme in their day than the Irish
men in the other portions of Great
Britain. On the contrary, there was
no district in the country where
their patriotism was fiercer. 1t was
on the Tyneside that Michael
Davitt and the other leaders of the
Fenian moveemnt in the '60s found
their largest number of recruits and
their most daring spirits. This
Irish spirit, though transformed, has
remained strong enough to keep the
race still enthusiastic. The Irishmen
have their own club, their own en-
tertainments, their own lectures on
the Tyneside; and the United Irish
League has there some of its most
prosperous branches.
When this war came they made
up their minds with the same
promptitude, and they acted with
the same decision. They at once
applied to the War Office for the
privilege of raising Irish regiments
on the Tyneside. There was some
bungling and some delay at the War
Office and for the moment the
project had to be abandoned. How
ever, the effect was that OF the
1000 new recruits who were raised
in Newcastle, 1000 were Irishmen.
They had to go into English reg
iments, and thus they were to a
certain extent lost to Ireland. The
project of an Irish regiment did not
die out though. Joseph Cowan, son
of once celebrated English demo-
cratic leader, owner Of the chief
newspaper in Newcastle, and a
wealthy man as a brickmaker, re-
tanned the same affection for the
Irish which always had been shown
by his father, who was one of the
first English home rulers, and i'm
mediately offered $4,000 to help
Newcastle to raise an English,
Scotch and an Irish regiment. The
lists were opened for the Irish
regiment again. In eight days 500
men Joined, and in few days from
now the regiment will have its full
complement.
A good Wexford man, Col. Byrne,
has been appointed commander; all
the other officers will be 1rishmen,
and soon those men will be on their
way TO the headquarters in ireland.
where the new Irish brigade will be
formed.