The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1914-09-19

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IRISH STANDPOINT
This extract is from the editori-
al page of the Dublin Leader, a rep
resentative Nationalist PERIODICAL
We in Ireland are in way in a
position to take to some extent a
rather detached view of this Euro
pean flare up. We had nothing to
do with Though the Carson bust
ness probably Influenced the German
calculations-we had no voice in the
matter, we are an enslaved country
that all through the past one hun
dred years dared not even as much
as form tours" in public until the
English government, having turned
the blind eye to Carson's prepara-
lions for rebellion against the King
and Constitution, could not shoot
our Volunteers down for coming out
on parade. They very nearly did
shoot them down when they dared
to attempt to march into Dublin with
unloaded rifles on their shoulders.
What does 1t Mean for Ireland?
We have got to be selfish this
time, selfish in the national sense,
the object of our selfishness being
Ireland, a nation. Let the Freeman's
Journal turn itself into a recruiting
service for Great Britain, and let
Arnott's Times be as trickey as it
may, it is for the people here to
think of Ireland first, last and all the
time.
If we won Frances battles in
years gone by, what did we get for
it? If we won England's battles
time and again, we are not long
emerged out of twenty years of res
olute government" and it was only
a few Sundays ago that British sold
iers fired a cowardly volley into an
unarmed crowd of Dublin citizens.
The Germans contain many mill
lions of the finest Catholics in the
world; the French are largely an ir-
religious and infidel nation, not only
priest-hunters but nun-hunters; the
Russians-well we don't know if
Russia is half as bad as she is paint
ed, but we have all heard of Siberia
and of her treatment of Poland.
Little Catholic Belgium that ought,
by all the arguments of the class of
anti-Catholic people who attribute all
the woes of Ireland to its Catholicity,
be doing "hands up" has discov-
cred itself with a martial glory, and
has put up fight that has won the
admiration Of the world. We are
not at the moment the Poland of
England, only more so-and there
are reports that Poland is to get
Home Rule? We are outcasts in our
own land, and in the constitutional
way have no country to fight for.
Germans Never Hurt Us.
We have never had quarrel with
Germany; indeed, in the U. S. A. we
understand that the Germans and
Irish get on exceptionally we'll and
largely intermarry, partly, we sup
pose, because so many of the Ger
mans are Catholics. If men of our
race saved England in Wellington
time and later, what did she ever get
in addition to few isolated soft
words of praise? The great tide of
SANDER and hate against Ireland did
not cease to flow. and coercion acts
still stormed the British statute
book.
Consider the matter from what
point you will, and the sensible man
will see that Ireland needs to be
shrewd and selfish in this emergency,
to get away from old traditional
catch-cries. whether they concern
France or England or any other
country, to guard against emotional
ism, and getting sucked into the
whirlpool of English jingoism. If
England wants recruits for foreign
service, why not call the valiant fell
lows out of Workman and Clarke
Belfast shipyard to join the army? If
these fellows would fight half as val
iantly against the Germans as. when
about a hundred to one. they fell on
an isolated Papist during the Belfast
atrocities. they might be Of some
service on the continent.