The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-10-14
Fact, Grim Logic
Written in Dublin

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Uprising in Irish Capital a Sequel to
Rebellion in UIster-Loyalty or
Treason.-Very Rev. Vincent Nc,
Nabb, o. p, Addresses an Open Let.
ter to Premier Asquith on the situa.
ton in ireland.
The Very Rev. Vincent McNabb,
o. P, has addressed an open letter to
Premier Asquith on the Example O;
Ireland" Prior McNabb writes:
The events of the past few months
laid upon your shoulders a burden
which it is the duty of loyal subjects
of these islands to share. AS our suf-
frage has given you the charge which
you are honorably fulfilling, we should
not be doing our duty towards our
democratic forms of government and
towards you if we did not venture to
offer you the help of facts and points
of view which the present crisis may
obscure.
In the confused thought almost
necessarily begotten by this crisis it
may easily be concluded that the peo-
pie of Ireland are so prone to revolu-
ton that they are not enamoured or
capable of the stable forms of govern
ment.
Therefore, it behooves you to remem-
Der that the Irish Catholic people-to
speak of those with whom by birth and
faith l am allied-far from being o.
this revolutionary and uncivilized
character, have shown the 10th cen
fury an example OF law-abiding agita.
ton perhaps unparalleled in the his
tory of the century.
The first example of this arose at
the time of the Fenian Movement. A
body of Irishmen goaded to madness
by the callousness that had led to the
crime of the Famine, formed them
selves into a secret society. Every.
where the society was joined by active
members or passive well-wishers. So
strong did it become that England's
danger would have been Fenian Ire.
lands opportunity. Now, although CO.
ercion was used with an unsparing
hand by the governing authorities, it
was not coercion, but the Catholic
Church that Killed Fenianism. You
will remember that the Church and all
loyal subjects of the Church con-
demned Fenianism as being a society
with q secret oath which no Catholic
could take. Irishmen who became
Fenians found themselves cut off by
the stern justice-dealing hand of the
Church from Absolution and Commun.
ion. To the men and women whom
their country's woes had driven to
Fenianism the Church said with almost
callous peremptoriness: IF you join
a Fenian society you will be outlawed
from Gods Sacraments. You must try
to right your country's wrongs through
the lawful channels which God has
given you;. and these are Parliamen-
tary agitation"
1t was hard command either to
give or obey. But the spiritual lead
ers of the people gave it, and their
loyal flock nobly obeyed it.
Many years after the death of
Fenianism, when Parliamentary agita-
tion had done little or nothing and
the country's manhood was still bleed
ing to death by emigration, the people
clutched for time the social weapon
of "Boycotting.' 1t was a less glaring-
ly criminal expedient than Fenianis1a.
Moreover, Judged from the purely po.
litical standpoint it was evidently al
lowable, since the belligerents on both
sides of this war are already plan.
ming an after-war boycott of their
But what the nations seemed to con.
slider lawful the Church of God con-
sidered unlawful. Boycotting was con-
demned by the Catholic Church, and
boycotting ceased to exist. In issuing
this condemnation to their flocks the
Catholic Bishops and clergy of Ire
land reminded them that whilst there
were means of Parliamentary action
the Irish people must not fly to other
means for their political ends. 1t was
not this end, but the adopted means
to this end, which fell under the
Church's condemnation.
Once again it was hard matter
for those that commanded and those
that obeyed; but both alike gave Eu-
rope an example of abiding by law.
Some few years had passed when
a third, and, we may hope, last,
outbreak of indiscreet political zeal
prompted the Irish people and the Ma
tional Party to the Plan of Campaign.
Judge by mere canons of political
ethics, the Plan Of Campaign, like boy.
cotting, was a lawful, If extreme, p0.
litical device. But the authorities in
Home, urged, it is said, by the party
then in power at Westminster, con.
demned the Plan Of Campaign. The
blow was all the more unbearable be.
cause the men and women of ireland
were told that it was struck in oppo.