The Irish standard., 1916-07-22
HOME RULE BILL A SHAM-PUTS
BURDENS ON POOR, DECLARES
J. X. MCGUIRE.
Former Syracuse Mayor and Promi
nent Irishman, Says Patriots Who
Give Up Lives Are Left Out of
Englands Scheme.
(ey James X. Mccuire.)


For almost the entire history of the
United States, the bulk of the Ameri
can people have evinced a curious and
sympathetic interest in the welfare OF
Ireland.
George Washington was a member
of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick
the first Irish society introduced into
the United States. He was friend
and supporter of Wolfe Tone, the Irish
revolutionist of 1898, with whom he
corresponded in hearty sympathy, as
his letters show.
The Irish rebels who gathered on
the plaza of Dublin Cathedral last Sun
day and sang who Fears to Speak OF
1892 garnered their deathless princi
pies and uncomfortable spirit from
the memories of Tone and Washington
-compatriots in the same cause.
"Who fears to speak of '9S?
Who bushes at the name
When towards mock the patriots fate
Who hangs his head for shame?"
Went to His Death.
Wolfe Tone went to his death, the
leader of quickly suppressed revolu
ton, but the grass had not grown high
above his grave before an Irish parlia
ment was established in Dublin
though short lived it proved to be.
Patrick H. Pearse, shot down as a
prisoner of war-foully murdered will
be the word of history-lies in a silent
barracks grave.
From the river of blood in Dublin
on Easter week terminates the life OF
the body assembled last week in Bel.
fast, ordered by the British govern.
ment to give some semblance of Home
Rule to distraught Ireland.
The dead martyrs wrought for Ire
land in the week they held the Irish
capital city more than all the politi.
clans have been able to accomplish in
seventy years toward establishing an
Irish government.
Fear Sent Over Channel.
In the blood, chains, and cells of the
Irish Republicans was born Fear,
which winged its way across the mar.
row channel and taught the stolid
rulers that they must give modicum
of liberty to portions of Ireland and
give it now.
England trembled when she saw the
veil OF hypocrisy, worn safely for two
years, torn from her face. by America
and the neutral nations, indignant and
Mortified over the cruel executions of
the Irish prisoners of war who had
lain down their arms and surrendered,
after a gallant struggle, against over.
whelming odds, which had moved all
true hearts.
The American public, in great part,
Borrowing for the fate of Belgium. be.
lieved that England, despite the rec.
ords of history, had actually been
called to war as the saviour of Bel.
GUM, Serbia and Montenegro and the
other small nations.
The conscience of the American peo.
pie has been deeply affected by this
strange faith in the professions of
Great Britain, and so prevalent and
fixed were these opinions that most
Americans, descended from the old
revolutionary stock, forgot their his.
tory and could not be induced to con.
slider the claims of the Germans and
Austrians in any other than a hostile
and prejudiced spirit.
Many Ready for War.
Many of our citizens were ready to
embark our country into a perilous
and sanguinary war with GERMANY
And their warlike views were sus.
tanned by considerable section of the
American press.
But suddenly few thousand pa.
triots rose in Dublin and challenged
the British Empire to combat right at
the door of the worlds great power
All America watched that heroic strug.
gle for a week with mingled feelings
of admiration, sorrow, amazement and
sympathy.
10 an American mind an Irish hero
marching straight into the jaws of
death in the name of Liberty, was AZ
heroic figure as the brave Belgium
dying to save his nationality.
A thrill of horror swept over the
United States when the Irish pris.
oners OF war were shot like wolves.
the bullets that pierced their hearts
and struck the barracks wall, against
which they were stood in a wounded
state, echoed wherever American hear.
ers were found
Favoritism Doomed.
Favorttism for England was doomed
IN this country from that hour.
A Cabinet officer at Washington
said to the writer that the barbarous
executions at Dublin brought him
lack to his schoolboy history tales of
the savage Indians employed by Eng.
land to kill the American farmers in
the dark days of 1776.
The neutral world aghast over the
executions and life sentences of ideal.
lists, poets, college professors and fine