The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1915-01-09
ENGLAND WILL REMAIN ENEMY Of IRELAND
Ancient Enemy Of Ireland Viii Not |me Her Own Commercial Position by
Granting Freedom to ireland, Writes James K Mcclure
In the Fatherand.

England will always remain the sole
enemy of Ireland. Economic and in
dustrial pressure make her the nat
ural and logical destroyer of Irish in
dustry and commerce. If l was an
English manufacturer or trader /, too,
would help to crush any movement to
make Ireland free. We would not
want a rival in our own line, at our
shoulder, cutting down our profits and
interfering with our commercial sue
cess. Self-preservation is the first law
of nations as we'll as individuals. Eng
land has fixed the limits in the shape
of an Irish truck garden which will
furnish food for the English factory
workers. This was my thought one
day early in the fall of this year,
walking over the green hills of Irish
owen, overlooking the wonderful har.
Dor of Tough Swiftly, County Donegal,
deserted then, at present holding the
great British feet. Twenty miles from
this spot the superdreadnaught Au.
dacious sank to the bottom of the sea
at the hands of deadly torpedo
launched by German submarine. No
where in the world are there so many
great natural harbors as on the west
coast of Ireland-Donegal Bay, Sligo,
Killala, Clew, Galway Bays, the mouth
of the Shannon, and Dingle Bay could
hold the fleets of the world.
One afternoon was In small boat
on Sligo Bay, place visited by few
tourists. Scarcely a sail was visible
in the great harbor provided by ma
ture, neglected by man. We were
rowed up the Garvogne river by q
very old man to Tough Gill. No lake
or mountain scenery in Switzerland
or Colorado is more beautiful. And
yet there was no hotel or sign of hab-
itation or boat on that lake or near it.
Six miles distant was the dying city
of Sligo. 10000 inhabitants, old and
poor, the remnants of a stricken race.
Sligo has nothing to show at the end
of 900 years but the melancholy ruins
of once flourishing town, her aged
men and women and their rags. Long
since the most of the stalwart youth
departed for foreign shores. In the
long twilight we saw the Irish volun-
teers drilling on the green turf, grim
and silent. They speak low in Sligo,
almost like whisper, the faces seem
to have read into them the lines of the
woes of centuries, and in the silence
of the day, they eye the great harbor.
unlocked by the white sails of their
childhood; and they seem to look
across the seas to their children in
America. There was a day when the
cattle ships for the continent stopped
at Sligo. When the cattle is sold now
it must be first shipped on "a small
steamer to Glasgow or Liverpool. The
English middleman must have his
profit. Iron is abundant in Sligo but
no captains of industry to mine It,
An Irish-American dredging contractor
who stood near said that with men
and money he could make that harbor
one of the worlds best located ship
ping ports.
AS race the Irish do not excel in
finance, in bartering or trading. AL
though in the last three decades they
have shown considerable advancement
in those lines of commercial effort
But in the enterprise of huge construc-
ton projects they are foremost. AS
railroad and tunnel builders, penetrat.
ing mountains, damming rivers, sea
dredging, building skyscrapers, har.
Messing the forces of nature, the sons
of the Irish bog and ditch diggers,
the children of the emigrant laborers
are the great engineering contractors
of the world. They are daring and
fearless. no physical difficulty seems
to awe them and they tackle the most
dangerous operations which involve
the loss Of life and money under
ground. In a syndicate of Is men
who offered the United States govern
ment to build the Panama Canal, 10
bore Irish names. These are the prac-
tical men Of affairs, badly needed in
ireland, who could lead the way for
the industrial development of the coun.
try If her English letters were re-
moved.
That her sons can succeed in keen
commercial struggle is admitted
throughout the world. The only two
Irish parliamentary leaders known to
the present generation are the late
Charles Stewart Parnell and the pres
ent Mr.. Redmond. Both men are of
the land-owning class and view Ire.
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