The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-06-10

The visit of Judge ONe1ll Ryan last
week to the Twin Cities was notable
event. The Judge himself is distin-
guished personality. Born in Missouri
of Irish parents-the one from the
North of Ireland, the other from the
South-he reconciles in himself the
apparently conflicting tendencies of
the Orange and Green. Since early
manhood he has devoted himself to
the Irish cause, and has brought to
it that sympathetic insight, breadth
of view, and practical sagacity which
are among the best traditions of the
American bench. He is too, keenly
alive to contemporary theories in the
sphere Of government. From his place
on the supreme bench Of his native
state he has watched the shifting cur
rents of American political opinion,
and like a good citizen, he has not
failed to sound note of warning
whenever he felt that the ship of
state, steered by clumsy hands, was
in danger of being driven upon the
rocks.
One can scarcely blame the Irish in
this state. Without leaders, or with
leaders who used them for their own
selfish ends, without leisure or oppor-
tunity to study the more recent Irish
movements for themselves, how could
they be expected to distinguish be-
tween politics and nationality? How
could they realize that Home Rule is
not National Independence? And yet
it is for national independence, and
for nothing else, that the race all over
the world yearns. If the scattered
children of Ireland have followed the
fortunes Of the Parliamentary Party
with intense eagerness, if they have
again and again opened their hearts
and emptied their pockets to their en-
voys, if Mr.. John Redmond was the
most successful mendicant that ever
shouldered the bag on behalf of an
impoverished people, was it not be-
cause they felt, or at least believed,
that Home Rule was step to Nation
al Independence? To them it was
merely means, not an end in itself,
an instrument of uplift, not the final
stage of nations development. This
is what Parnell taught; and it was the
imagination of our people that him
RI loo 10
seeing in Mr. Redmond's words and
actions during the past decade the
elements of a great betrayal. The
cloak of Elias fell indeed on Ellissus;
but the great prophet himself had dis
appeared.
For there can be no doubt that, if
words and acts mean anything, Mr..
Redmond, for many years, if not dur
ing his whole public life, has been an
imperialist. To him the fortunes of
Ireland are inextricably bound up in
those of the British Empire. OF
course one cannot expect mere poll,
tician to have any philosophic breadth
VI view. u0 SdAAO VI poAASASo UoS1
not lend itself to philosophy. But at
least he could read and interpret
Alright the lessons of history. And if
there is one lesson that stands out in
letters of blood and flame from the
pages of Anglo-Irish history it is that
Ireland-the Irish Nation as distinct
from the Pale-has never consented to
throw in her lot with the step-sister
isle. From the days of Shane the
Proud to the days of Sim Fein she
has protested against union and pro
tested unto the shedding of blood. She
cannot consent to become limb, a
fraction, or a province of any empire
whatsoever. Being a nation with all
the attributes of nationhood, she can
not agree to sell her birthright for a
mess of pottage.
When the Volunteers rose out in
Dublin it was the soul of the old
Gaelic nation that spoke. The soul
of the Gael it was, silent for more
than century, that invoked Liberty's
name in the language of Hugh Roe
O'Donnell. 1t is well-known fact that
all the leaders of the instruction were
fluent speakers of Irish. How refresh