The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-07-01
true inwardness of the instruction
must begin by taking note of it.


leader of the Irish race at home and
abroad, voice their protest against this
latest instance of British brutality
Why, rather, did he give it his tacit ap.
prevail. and beg clemency when he
should have demanded Justice? To
answer this question let us go back
to the events before the opening of
the world war. After thirty years of
constitutional agitation a Home Rule
Act was placed on the English Statute
book. Now, no thinking Irishman re.
CARDS this bill as satisfactory. 1t ex.
plicitly withholds full authority over
those departments of Irish political
and economic life which are essential
to the rehabilitation Of the nation.
The land question is still far from be.
ing settled. OF industrial enterprises
there are practically none. Those that
do exist may be traced rather to the
initiative of the Gaelic League and
Sim Fein than to parliamentary eff.
fort. Irish fisheries-that veritable
gold mine if properly exploited-are
still in the antediluvian stage. De,
spite Congested Districts Boards, and
Boards of Agriculture and Technology,
the fishers from Tory to the Baskets
still launch their frail coracles on the
teeming tide, and still harvest the deep
after the manner of their fathers in the
days of st. Brendan, voyageur of God
The rich salmon-breeding rivers flow
down to the sea unreaped by aught
save the rod and line of the leisured
Saxon, who preserves them for his own
recreation against the depredations OF
the mere Celt whose forefathers owned
them for a thousand years. AS the
lakes are lonely, so are the harbors-
some of them the finest in Europe
silent. Ashort time ago Mr.. Redmond
was making recruiting-speech in Gal.
way, when he was interrupted by a
man in the audience, who asked !:
How do you explain this?" (sweeping
his arm in the direction of the noble
bay which stretched away to the hori.
zon glistening yet empty. The crowd
caught the point and applauded; but
Mr.. Redmond went on with his speech
without deigning a reply. Had the
Home Rule Bill provided remedy for
this and other deep.seated grievances,
he would doubtless have appealed to
it. But he knew we'll that the British
Parliament had tied his hands. The
only radical cure for these economic
ills is Merchant Marine such as that
now being talked of for the United
States, and also an Irish Customs
House. Against such contingencies as
these, however, the Imperial Parlia.
ment has taken care to forearm itself:
and this it has done by resuscitating
Poyning's Law. This famous Act,
passed in the reign OF Henry the Sew.
enth, gave the British Parliament the
power of veto over all Irish legisla
ton. For three hundred years the ma
ton groaned under this sitting disa
bility; but it was finally repealed by
England under the pressure of Graf
tan and the Volunteers in 1888. The
Act repeating Poyning's Law reads as
follows: "Be it enacted that the right
claimed by the people of Ireland to be
bound only by laws enacted by his Ma.
jesty and the Parliament of that king.
dom, in all cases whatever; and to
have all actions and suits at law, or in
equity, which may be instituted in that
kingdom, decided in his Majesty s
courts therein, finally and without ap
peal from thence, shall be, and is here
by declared to be established and as
certained forever, and shall at no time
hereafter be questioned or question
able. (23 Geo. III, c. 2e.)
This Act. released Ireland absolute
ly from British rule. and made her an
independent nation. To this day il
stands in its original form on the Stat
ute book, having never been legally
erased by the Imperial Parliament
Nor did the Act of Union invalidate
it; for that foul transaction has never
had any moral sanction in the eyes OF
the Irish people. O'Connelrs agita
tion for Repeal of the Union meant
simply the restoration of this complete
legislative independence as it existed
In Grattans day. When, therefore
Mr.. Redmond proclaims himself-as
he has done repeatedly at home and
in the United States-the heir OF
O'Connells policy, he shows scant re
gard for historical truth. And herein
lies one of the keenest grudges against
the Sim Feiners. These men are stu
dents of history. They take their
stand on this Act of George the Third
and they deny that the British Parlia
ment has any right legal or otherwise
to bind the conscience of the Irish ma
ton. Yet the new paltry Home Rule
measure. so clipped and pared, SC
weighted with the ancient milestone
is what John Redmond has recognized
publicly and accepted formally as a
final settlement" of the historic de.
bate between the two nations 1t is
the fashion just at present to decry
the Sim Feiners as dreamers, minor
poets and rahid enthuiasts With all