The Irish standard., 1917-01-20

.~s.-.4-E.-a4a..--..-s
But feel that his soul goes march
ing on, although his body lies mould.
ering in the grave. His last words,
as reported, to his guard at Portobel-
10, when he was taken prisoner, typi-
fled the creed of the man. He was
asked, Are you a Sim Feiner?' at a
time when to acknowledge an acquaint-
ance with the Sim Fem was to court
instant extinction. And he replied, i
am in sympathy with the movement,
but against militarism.' Again, in his
paper once in an open letter to Thorn
as McDonagh, one of the Republican
leaders, he wrote: I am prepared to
die for a cause, but not to kill for it,
Elm 1915-for want to show you
now what course of action led up to
his death-he received for his anti
militaristic meetings and speeches a
sentence of one years hard labor; and
on that occahion he defended himself,
and in his speech from the dock, which
l heard, he said: Had lived in Eng
land should still deem it my duty to
insist on propaganda to stop the war by
stopping the food for powder; but
whatever may be said about the Eng
fish people, the Irish people never
gave the slightest mandate for the
LOT
and from her Impoverished, requires
peace more than any other nation on
the earth
"On that occasion George Bernard
Shaw wrote me as follows: If Mr..
Skeffington deserves six months for
his speech, Lord Northcliffe must de-
serve about sixty years. But the de-
tense of the realm act however, abol-
ishes all liberty in Great Britain and
Ireland. You therefore have no rem
edy, and if for any reason they decide
to hang your husband you will have
no practical redress The words were
prophetic.
"a fortnight before the rising, after
his return last Christmas, my husband
sent a warning to the British press,
which was ignored until after his
death land then they quoted it as a
remarkable instance of prophecy. He
wrote: Things in Ireland are very
grave. Thanks to the silence of the
daily press, the military authorities
are pursuing their plans, and when the
explosion comes, they will endeavOr
to delude the British Government as
to where the responsibility lies.' His
view was that of the military in Ire
land were planning to provoke an out
burst in order to have the excuse for
an organized massacre. His death
showed that the military party had in.
deed made the rising a cloak and a
lretext for wiping out their enemies.
ION the outbreak of the revolt on
Easter Monday my little boy and I
were out of town in the country, spend
ing the day. My husband happened
to be in the city, and he saw the as
sault on that great fortress-shall we
say Of freedom?-Dublin Castle; and
when the assault was made he heard
that British officer named Captain
Pinfield was bleeding to death outside
the castle gates. He induced chem
list to go with him to the spot under
hail of fire in order to rescue the
dying man. When he came he found
but pool of blood, for his brother
officers had succeeded in dragging
Captain Pinfield out of the way. When
I demonstrated with my husband that
night as to the terrible risk he had
been running he replied quite simply:
I could not let anyone bleed to death
while l was able to help The words
were characteristic Of his simple hero
ism. Yet before another thirty-six
hours had passed. this gentle pacifst
was himself to lie in anguish in Porto
bello barracks while the British Off
GERS looked on indifferently until a
second volley had to be fired into his
PROSTATE body. 1t does not look as
If in Ireland at any rate pacifism pays.
1t is not safe thing for us to be pa
cifists. And He who said Blessed are
the peacemakers for they shall have
peace would, think, today in our
land find himself prisoner under the
Defense of the Realm Act.
"Portobello is one of the many bar
racks with which our town is blessed.
AS Mr.. Healy said at the inquiry, we
are one of the most heavily garrisoned
towns in Christendom. We have IL
barracks, and Portobello was one of
the most important. 1t was practical
ly town in itself, holding about a
thousand men; the number of soldiers
to rebels was in the proportion of