The Irish standard., 1916-02-19
Irish Race Convention Called. National Gathering Of
Men and Women Of Irish Blood to Be Held in New
York City on March and S, 1916. Appeal Made to
Men and Women Of Irish Race in America.

For many months past appeals have
come from Ireland and from all parts
of the United States asking that a
national gathering Of men and women
of the blood should be held in Amer
lea to voice the real sentiments of
the race, and to make known clearly
and definitely to the world the fact
that Ireland has not been and cannot
be absorbed into England.
In this way only-deprived as Ire
land is by the Defense of the Realm
Act of the right to express any ma
tional opinion-can the fact be made
clear, that, in spite of the pressure
and influence of England and of the
weakness and bartering Of some of
our own people the heart of Ireland
has not changed.
Every possible effort has been made
since the outbreak of the war to show
that ireland had suddenly reversed
her position; had thrown in her lot
with England and had prepared to
sacrifice all her sons that England
might continue to live. But the truth
is now revealed and Ireland-with
wrongs unredressed and rights with
held-looks forward with hope and
of British misrule as the certain out
come of the present war.
Nor can this view seem too opti-
mistic to those who have clearly
studied the present international sit
uation.
England, with ner allies, in spite Of
her boasted supremacy in numbers, in
wealth and in territory, has been de-
feated in every contest where skill
and courage and strength have been
the weapons, and has kept her cause
afloat with the neutral world only
because of the censorship and cable
control, through which her favorite
weapons of calumny and falsehood
have been welded with the dexterity
and success which ripe experience
and inherited tendency have given to
her.
With an ingenuity developed through
the centuries, she has cajoled or hired
other peoples to fight her battles, mis-
represented and maligned her foes
and with false battle-cries and stolen
banners has been calling upon the
neutral nations to witness that in the
great war, provoked by her for the
most sOrdid of motives, she is fighting
to defend liberty, civilization and hu.
manity.
Under the pledges of her parliament
tary spokesman, the statements of a
press openly subsidized by England
and the stress of martial law, ireland
seemed for a time to have been swept
from her feet, but the clarion voice of
the Bishop Of Limerick has shown
that she has awakened and that her
people have realized that this is Eng
lands and not Ireland's war. They
see now that success for England
would mean only additional heavy
burdens for Ireland and renewal of
strength of her age-long oppressor and
tyrant. It would mean that the so.
called Home Rule Bill with which the
English government had fooled Ire.
land, would never be put into opera.
tion, and Irishmen in Ireland are
opening their eyes to the old truth
that "England's difficulty is Irelands 3
opportunity They now see that only
when England has been compelled to
leave Ireland may lrishmen hope for
liberty and for chance to deyelop
In their own country the racial attri
butes which have distinguished them
In other lands.
Here IN this republic, which the
blood and sacrifices Of our race have
done so much to establish and to de.
velop, the same demoralizing English
influences are increasingly at work
Every possible means which England
can command, from the open advocacy
OF her cause to the malignant abuse
and Misrepresentation of those who
cannot be induced to help her, is used
to serve her ends, and we are assailed
on all sides by critics who would apol.
ogize for the Revolution and make us
to all intents and purposes again a
component part of the British En-.
pire.
The rules of war, so far as contra.
band is concerned, have been changed
by England whenever it seemed to
suit her interests; our commerce with
neutral countries has been crippled
or destroyed; our cargoes have been
seized and held for months in British
harbors; our mails have been stopped
and censored, and the protests of our
government have been flouted or ie.
nored by England and openly assailed
IN the columns of our daily press.
Against these influences and these
actions, Americans of Irish blood with
their inherited love of liberty and their
knowledge of English guile and cant.
should unflinchingly stand, and we
therefore invite you to assemble in
convention in the City of New York.
at the Hotel Astor, on the 4th and 9Th
- 1nS 30