The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-05-20

this demand been met by Redmond
and the parliamentary party the ris.
ing never would have been. MacNeil
could have, as the recognized leader
of Ireland, kept even the hottest young
Sim Feins in leash, so profound was
their respect for the man and SO firm
their faith in his Irish vision. The
Irish party, like all other political ma
chimes from all time, will yield to re.
volt within the machine If need be,
but never to demands from without.
1t did not now.
Affairs remained outwardly as be-
fore; but from that time on the fates
carried the ball of Ireland's destiny
as gingerly as a soldier would handle
a bomb.
The threat of CONSUMPTION came and
was overcome by the knowledge that
the volunteers of Ireland would die at
home rather than in France. There
followed in the early months of this
year the warning that arms might
presently be taken-the arms that
were their one safeguard against con-
scription or a Carson made home rule
bill.
Then came days when Ireland was
ripe for anything. Even for-with a
little outside encouragement-for that
reckless, futile rising of Easter.
But from this period of instruction
and bitterness revert to more nor
NAL Ireland. In the last three years
l have had occasion to study the peo-
pie of Ireland and other European
countries in connection with some
literary work. found there, as did
another student from the other side
of the world, japanese scholar of
note, what each of us agreed was the
most remarkable national and literary
movement in Europe today-a renais-
sance of Irish Gaelic thought and
spirit and customs which caused the
English thinker, Gilbert Chesterton, to
exclaim to me: ireland is going to
be the salvation of western Europe"
The flower of this movement of re-
birth-the Gaelic ahyyoainth (the new
life)-is not the Abbey theater, nor
the Russell or Yeats groups, nor Sir
Horace Plunkett's worthy efforts to
help the farmer help himself, but the
Gaelic league, which combines in it.
self the essence of all these with the
revival of the race spirit and the an
cient language.
The man who conceived the idea
of the Gaelic league and has been for
two decades the unadvertised dynamo
generating the first forces of this ma
tional revival is quiet, detached uni
versity professor, an Ulster Irishman,
with cold and aloof manner, but
with a steady Gaelic fire of soul be-
meath.
For more than quarter of CEN
fury this man has been content to de-
vote his years to the Gaelic move
ment. He has held himself apart
from all political parties, doing his
duty as he sees it and asking neither
favor nor praise from any. He joined
neither the Sim Fein party of Dublin
nor the parliamentary forces of Lon
don. Neither Sim Fein nor Redmond
ite-he has been just plain patriot, and
as such commanded the respect of all
Of them-has Eoin MacNeil, or, as he
is frequently called, "the new Parnell
of Ireland"
Three years ago, when the Anglo
Irish Carson threatened to invade the
south with his volunteers opposed to
Irish nationalism-this Irish professor
organized the Irish volunteers. They
are computed to number now over
100000 men. MacNeil's idea was to
make them a force for defense, not
an instrument Of attack. Broken into
after the war by the Irish leaders in
London Complaint, the Sim Feins
cried, to their English colleagues), the
volunteers divided, then came togeth.
er again stronger than ever.
Ever since the war the volunteers
and the majority Of Irish people, in
fact, held it as their gospel that Ire
land could send no more recruits to
die in France. Ireland, they argued,
had undergone economic conscription
ever since the famine Of 1847. She
had been bled of her young and fit for
seventy years; she had In 1914 less
than 100000 men of military age fit
for service. r.
They reminded the sergeants that
of all the civilized countries Of Eu.
rope, Ireland alone had seen her pop
ulation in seventy years reduced from
100000 to 100000.
The mothers of the race were fruit
full as ever. but there were slim
chances Of livelihood at home and
America beckoned. So In all the four
provinces old Irish mothers bereft
after their travail and early privations
have perforce to SIT or walk alone
with eyes and heart turned to Amer
lea.
Knowing these things and much
more. it was gospel to MacNeil's vol