Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1916-03-17
Enlisted Orangemen Have Never
Been Sent to the Front
in War.
England Has Never Done Any
thing For. Ireland From
Sense of Justice.
REPLY TO new YORK TRIBUNE


the Irish race convention held in
New York, calling the Irish and
Irish-Americans who comprised the
delegates "Ireland's betrayers,"
saying it were a better policy for
Irishmen to still go to the front
and fight John Bulls battles for the
sake OF the shallow promises of
home rule that England still holds
out. The Tribune editorial drew
the following scorching letter from
Brendan ]. Murphy, of New York
city. and gives sane and logical
reasons why the Irish people and
their descendants can expect moth
ing from England. The card is as
follows:
A reading of your editorial on
the above subjects suggests certain
comments which you may see fit to
print, even though they do not coin
eide with your views. Mr. Red
mond's loudly expressed desire for
wholehearted Irish participation in
the war was undoubtedly based on
a line of reasoning similar to your
own. II may be supposed to have
run thus: Whatever the outcome of
the war, England is likely to be
left in the end in continued control
sf the sea--in position to dictate
freland's future, as she has con-
trolled her past. Hence the prudent
and statesmanlike course is to sup
port England regardless of the IS
sues involved, so that she may have
no excuse for resembling the very
slender modicum of self-government
which the aborted home rule bill
contained.
AS a matter of diplomacy this
left little to be desired, but when 1t
came down to individual cases It did
not work. Would you have APP
proved the Belgians, after conquest,
Joining the German army against
the Allies in order to invoke the
elemency of the victor when the
anal settlement should come?
should the Alsatians have followed
like course? Germany has lately
been talking of giving them an
sutinomy scarcely less complete
than Ireland's. Is it in human flesh
and blood to fight in the armies OF
foreign nation which all your
folklore, your literature and your
history teach you to have been your
country's chief and sole oppressor!
can centuries of racial hatred be
obliterated by a mere promise (sub-
sequently withheld) of a seanty
measure of tardy justice?
You refer to the small enlist
ment figures. ! hope sincerely that
they are true. They show that III
the decimated and Impoverished
people who still inhabit Ireland the
old fires of patriotism burn ana
that If they have been driven 10
beggary they can not be bought by
bribery or terrorized by threat.
Your figures do not show what per-
centage of the Ulster levies have
been drawn upon. Even as late as
last November l read in a Belfast
paper. which shows its colors by
nrfnting its headline in orange, the
admission that there had been un-
expected delays in getting the Or
angemen to the front-due, as was
explained. to lack of equipment.
Bus the MINISTER'S and the Dublins
and the Corks found no such diff
nculty in getting to Gallipol. was
II wonderful that the impression
prew that loyal Orange enlistment
was based on a gentlemen's agree
ment that they would constitute the
nome guard? Consider for mo-
ment how this would have affected
the post-bellum situation. Had the
Nationalist Irish enlisted and gone
10 the front and been given the
post OF honor, which they nearly
ALWAYS got. there would have been
far fever to contest the issue with
the loyal Orange home guard after
the war. II Liberal British GOV
eminent before the war could be
bluffed by Carson out of doing an
act of partial restitution, what po-
sition would Unionist Government
take after the war? Better for
freshmen. If they must lose their
lives. to lose them for Ireland, and
in Ireland. than as the victims OF
numbering British butchery.
In all the long relations of the
two countries England has done
nothing for Ireland from sense OF
iustice. The same motives tnat
nrompted her to offer the apology
for home rule which she calls
home rule bill, will be operative
after the war and will be more Ell
fective the more living lrisnmen
there are to insist upon them
IN the men who are urging lrlsh-
men to stay out OF the war are
her betrayers. then O'Neili ana
O'Donnell Emmett and Parnell were
traitors to their country's cause. III
home rule is to be won only by the
conversion Of the Irish people TO
British ideals. better that sne
should struggle yet little longer
as she has done for centuries tnan
that she should sell her soul Tor
pinchbeck Independence, when
would signify that she had at
length given up the struggle for ner