New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-13
To the Editor Of The Tribune.

To the Editor Of The Tribune.
Sir: am Protestant from the County
Down. Every 18th of July go back in
thought TO my old home and in thought hear
again on all sides the Orange drum. kno"
the fisherman perfectly well; he is fighting
man and is hard-headed, quite ready 20 use
his head as a battering ram or for thinking
about things He will fight against Home Ruie
I'D till the last moment, and then if he finds the
opposition too strong for him he will drop
the fight and show himself ready TO be the
born Home Ruler he is.
When Parliament disestablished the irish
Protestant Church the 0rangeman fought 10
the last moment, declaring that if such
measure was carried he would kick the
Queens crown into the Boyne. Gladstone
was neither an Asquith nor Lloyd George
so he Just smiled and went ahead, and the
Orangeman. as hard-headed in thinking as ne
4 in fighting. gave in on the instant. If
Home Rule we're enforced in Ireland, there
might be some broken heads, just for diver
sion's sake; there would be no civil war, and
the. Belfast man would become the finest
Home Ruler of them all. 1t is ne who would
see that the Home Rule government got ex-
tension of its powers and that it would not
be left to be the mere smulacrum that is
now offered.
As Protestant and an fisherman, long
for Home Rule, especially to see the Ulster
man at work. radical and progressive as he
is. periodically at work and looking for allies
among his old Catholic opponents. The men
of progress are natural brothers. Ii is the
joint work of the English government and
the Catholic bishops that keeps them apart
Parliament meeting in Dublin and It's
speeches in all the Irish papers nothing
would stop their determination.
Every Protestant FISHERMAN is progress
sive man, and in the ranks of the Catholics, IN
spite of the bishops, are many, and these, un-
der Home Rule, would very quickly hnd each
other out.
To any one who knows Ireland or the Home
Rule bill as presented it is folly to talk OF
Ulster being coerced, and every FISHERMAN
knows that as we'll as | do. For one thing
you cannot coerce an FISHERMAN. II is not
the habit of the species. don't think he
has any real relgion-except the best of all
which is a passion for freedom of opinion.
laugh when | think of an fisherman beaten
and at the end Of his resources under any
Irish Home Rule government that could be
devsed-least of all under the present bill.
The agitation against Home Rule was en-
gineered for Tory purposes by Sir Edward
Carson and his fellow factonists, who at that
time wanted to destroy the Asquth govern
ment, and especially Lloyd George, who was
getting dangerous TO the great land holders
in England. And it is always easy in Belfast
TO raise a row. Life is dull and sordid in
that factoried city and the game of breaking
heads makes a welcome change Besides, is
not Belfast jealous of Dublin? Let the Home
Rulers make it part of their plan that the
Irish Parliament should have all its sessions
in Belfast and Home Rule would become
delicious bonnie bouche. Like all men fond
of fighting, the fisherman has a naive vanity
Dublin gives itself airs; it is where all the
officials live and the courts are there, and
the government and Trinity College. And it
considers Belfast rich but vulgar and
it's inhabitants only partly civilized. The
Ulster Protestant won't agree to Home Rule
in order to best the Catholics, and Belfast
likes to spite" Dublin. 1t amuses ME 20
see Ulster taken so seriously by the enllght-
ened Tribune and others in America.
]. b. YEATS.
New York, March 10, 1917.