The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-07-22
MR.. GlNNELL, M. p, TELLS PAR
~ LlAMENT SOME PLAIN TRUTHS
NV REGARDING EXISTING cONDl-
NH TloNS- SPEECH SUPPRESSED
BY CENSOR.

BY Mr.. Dillon, protesting against
wholesale executions in Ireland, Mr..
Ginnell delivered remarkable speech
In which he tlayed the English gov
eminent, the English people and the
Irish party. 1t was suppressed in the
press, except one Irish paper, and 1t
was more than month later before
copy of it reached America.
It was the boldest and manifest
speech ever made by an Irishman in
the British parliament. Mr.. Ginnell
spoke as follows:
what l have to say on this occa-
sion must necessarily differ from that
to which you have listened, address
ing, as am, an assembly stained with
the blood of some of my dearest
friends, for no crime but that of at
tempting to do for Ireland what you
urge the Belgians to do for Belgium.
II have to begin with correction Of
phraseology. In all the preceding
speeches this house has been bonn
barded with the expression Sim
Feiners.' There are no such people
in Ireland, and never have been, as
Sim Fein Volunteers. The Sim Fein
movement is purely a political, eco
nomic and non-military movement.
There have not been in the Irish Vol
unteer body one per cent of the mem
bers of the Sim Fein body. The Sim
Fem body was and remains an eco
nomic and non-military body. The
name was adopted and applied solely
for the purpose of opprobrium, solely
for a purpose corresponding to that
which impels the people and the press
of this country to call the Germans
Huns.
THE expression Sim Fem is nc
more correct than it would be for me
to call you, Mr.. Speaker, and all the
English members of this house English
Huns; and if you allowed that ex
preston to be used, l shall reclaim
my right to use and apply in this
house the corresponding epithet. The
name was transferred as a term OF
Opprobrium by political parties and
leaders and their press, and they
alone had access to this country, and
hence extended the name here into
this house. The name was applied on
the same principle as that on which
the so-called Irish government has
been guided for some years past. 1t
was applied by and under the au-
thority of the honorable member for
Waterford (Mr. John Redmond), the
honorable member for East Mayo (Mr.
Dillon), the honorable member for
West Belfast (Mr. Devlin), and the
honorable member for the Scotland
Division for Liverpool (Mr. T. P. o.
Connor); all pressmen and controllers
of the press, and what has taken place
in Ireland is unquestionably the ad
vice and guidance of those four men
who have left their seats rather than
wait to hear the truth spoken to their
faces in this house.
I'm pursuance of that l desire to call
the attention of the house, or so much
of 1t as remains, to the fact that the
shooting of those men in cold blood in
Dublin was suggested publicly so long
ago as last October by the honorable
member for Waterford. On him and
on his colleagues is the guilt of those
innocent lives, in conjunction with the
occupants of the Treasury Bench who
fled when l rose. The murder of my
friends is not becoming subject for
the speaker Of the house of commons
to smile at. QHonorable members
'Order!' and 'Withdraw!D In the New
York World of last October appears an
Interview given to a representative of
that journal in this city by the honor
able member for Waterford, who ex-
pressly, in this paper which l hold in
my hand, suggests that the leaders of
the Irish Volunteers ought to be shot.
Here have it in black and white, and
where is the member for Waterford to
support or deny it? (Honorable men,
bers-'Read it!) This is what he said:
Three or four men have been i'm.
prisoned for short terms for open pro.
German declarations'-which is a lie
Mr.. Speaker-'for which in similar
cases they would have been shot in
Germany The narrowness of this
motion, or this resolution, now before
the house was specially conceived and
designed to prevent any useful or thor.
ough examination Of what has oc
Cured in Ireland. This debate, in
effect, is a whitewashing debate-a
embarrassing of the four members OF
the house l have named; but l can
assure you, Mr.. Speaker, and the
house, and those four members, that
they are too late for their whitewash
ing.
Besides, the Irish people have been
told within the last two years that il
LOCALITIES such as have been Just in.
Obliged In at Dublin are not crimes
They have been told that by the right
honorable and learned gentleman, the
member for Trinity College (Sir Ed.
ward CARSON. But the Irish Volun.
teers who put that opinion to the test
have been shot in cold blood in order